Reader’s Links, Feb. 9, 2018

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

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Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

108 Replies to “Reader’s Links, Feb. 9, 2018”

  1. Turkish warplanes strike Kurdish militia targets in Syria – media (reuters, Fe 9, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey/turkish-warplanes-strike-kurdish-militia-targets-in-syria-media-idUKKBN1FT0J5?rpc=401&

    “Turkish warplanes resumed strikes on Kurdish YPG militia targets in Syria’s Afrin region on Friday after a five-day lull that followed the shooting down of Russian warplane elsewhere in Syria, the Hurriyet newspaper and other media reported…”

  2. I thought this was funny. You´ll get the idea. Basically it is the Social Democrats after the election in Germany last summer saying they will never consider forming a government with Mama Merkel and now they are doing just that. Merkel even says that she took an oath of office and is doing her best to uphold that oath. *horse laughter*

    • Fecking priceless, Miss Piggy! Thank you so much for a truly major larf.

      I almost laughed myself horse.

      • Eeyore, please consider translating this.

        Us non-Euros desperately need some real entertainment.

      • You’re welcome! Always nice to start your day with a good laugh! Have a great weekend -Helau! Helau!

  3. Islamic Playmobil stories on Utube in German –

    From an early age, children are to be taught with the right language in different situations, in an Islamic correct way.
    “Since we Playmobil® play a little different, we want you to have a part of it. Have fun with our Islamic Playmobil® stories for kids!”

  4. One killed, 37 wounded by twin mosque bombing in Libya’s Benghazi (reuters, Feb 9, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-libya-security/one-killed-37-wounded-by-twin-mosque-bombing-in-libyas-benghazi-idUKKBN1FT1NZ?rpc=401&

    “One person was killed and 37 wounded by a twin bombing inside a mosque in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Friday, medics said.

    The blasts took place during Friday prayers, residents said. The devices appear to have been activated remotely using a mobile phone, one military source said.”

    • Libya: Twin-bombings kill two, injure 75 in Benghazi mosque

      Two people were killed and at least 75 were injured when a twin-bombing struck a mosque in the Majouri district of Benghazi on Friday.

  5. Mad Max violence stalks Venezuela’s lawless roads

    LA GRITA, Venezuela (Reuters) – It’s midnight on one of the most dangerous roads in Latin America and Venezuelan trucker Humberto Aguilar hurtles through the darkness with 20 tons of vegetables freshly harvested from the Andes for sale in the capital Caracas.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-economy-trucks-widerimage/mad-max-violence-stalks-venezuelas-lawless-roads-idUSKBN1FT1G9?il=0

    • Colombia and Brazil clamp down on borders as Venezuela crisis spurs exodus

      Venezuela’s neighbors plan to dispatch more security personnel while Brazil prepares to relocate thousands of refugees to country’s interior

      Colombia and Brazil are tightening their borders in response to Venezuela’s economic crisis and food shortages that have provoked an exodus of desperate migrants.

      Brazil announced on Thursday that it would send more troops to patrol frontier regions and start relocating thousands of Venezuelan refugees, who have overwhelmed social services in frontier areas, to towns and cities in Brazil’s interior.

      “This is a humanitarian drama. The Venezuelans are being expelled from their country by hunger and the lack of jobs and medicine,” Brazil’s defence minister, Raul Jungmann, told reporters during a visit to Boa Vista, which lies on Brazil’s northern border with Venezuela. “We are here to bring help and to strengthen the border.”
      ‘Here there is a chance’: Venezuela crisis triggers exodus to Colombia
      Read more

      During a visit to Cúcuta, which lies on Colombia’s eastern border with Venezuela, the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, announced measures to make it more difficult for Venezuelans to cross the frontier illegally or remain in the country as undocumented migrants. He also dispatched 3,000 more security personnel to border regions.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/08/venezuela-migrants-colombia-brazil-borders

  6. British IS militant was trying to reach Turkey – SDF (reuters, Feb 9, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-britain-sdf/british-is-militant-was-trying-to-reach-turkey-sdf-idUKKBN1FT1RK?rpc=401&

    “One of two British Islamic State (IS) militants known for their role in the torture and killings of Western hostages in Syria was aiming to reach Turkey when he was captured by Kurdish-led forces last month, a Kurdish official said on Friday.

    U.S. officials said on Thursday that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed militia force, had captured Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, two of four militants known as the “Beatles” for their English accents…”

    • Islamic State ‘Beatles’ pair from UK ‘should face trial’ (BBC, Feb 9, 2018)
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43003248

      “Two British fighters believed to have been part of a cell of the Islamic State group that beheaded hostages should face trial, relatives of some of the cell’s alleged victims have said.

      Alexanda Kotey, and El Shafee Elsheikh were captured by Syrian Kurdish forces.

      They were two of the four British IS members widely known as “the Beatles”.

      Bethany Haines – whose father David, a British aid worker, was beheaded by the cell – said “they should be locked up and throw away the key”.

      “My personal opinion is that they should die a long, slow, painful death. But realistically that’s not going to happen,” she said.

      She said that if there is a trial, she will attend and “look them in the eye and let them know I am who I am and they have certainly destroyed a big part of my life”….”

  7. French Muslim singer quits TV show amid row over online posts (BBC, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43002832

    “A Muslim singer who became an internet sensation following her performance on France’s The Voice has quit the TV show after being criticised for comments she had made on social media.

    In one post, Mennel Ibtissem, 22, had expressed doubts about the terrorist nature of the 2016 Nice lorry attack.

    She said the message from the day after the attack was taken out of context…”

  8. Officials: US drone strike kills 7 in Pakistani tribal area (abcnews, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/officials-us-drone-strike-kills-pakistani-tribal-area-52958161

    “Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. drone strike has hit a militant compound in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, killing seven militants from the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network.

    The officials Friday said the strike took place a day earlier in the border village of Gorwak in North Waziristan, once a stronghold of local and foreign militants until the military cleared them out.

    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

    They said the target of Thursday’s strike was the Haqqani network.

    Confirmation of the strike came shortly before Afghanistan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai arrived in Islamabad for talks with Pakistani officials.

    Pakistan opposes drone strikes, saying they violate its sovereignty.”

  9. Egypt launches major assault on militants ahead of election (reuters, Feb 9, 2018)
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-egypt-security/egypt-launches-major-assault-on-militants-ahead-of-election-idUKKBN1FT0R6?rpc=401&

    “Egypt began a major assault against militants on Friday focused on the Sinai peninsula, where Islamic State attacks have killed soldiers, police and civilians, aiming to crush their insurgency by an end of February deadline set by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

    The former general on Nov. 29 ordered the military to defeat militants in North Sinai within three months, after an attack on a mosque which killed some 300 people, the deadliest such incident in the Arab world’s most populous country.

    Residents said they saw warplanes flying above the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, which borders North Sinai to the west. To the northeast of the vast, remote desert region, people in the Gaza Strip said they heard explosions coming from Egyptian territory.

    A military spokesman said the operation would cover large parts of Sinai, but also parts of the Nile Delta and the Western Desert, where other militants have waged attacks, some believed to be staged out of neighbouring Libya.

    The campaign, which involves the army, navy, air force, border patrol and police, takes place ahead of a March election in which Sisi is seeking a second term. He is widely expected to win.

    Sisi posted on his Facebook account on Friday: “I follow with pride the heroic actions of my sons in the armed forces and police to clear Egypt’s territory of terrorist elements.”

    Security sources said on Thursday the operation, which had been in planning for some time, was unprecedented in its scope, coordination and size, involving thousands of troops, but did not provide further details…”

  10. Reuters report on Myanmar massacre brings calls for independent probe

    (Reuters) – A Reuters investigation into the killing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar prompted demands from the U.S. State Department for a credible investigation into the bloodshed there and calls for the release of two journalists who were arrested while working on the report.

    The special report, published overnight, lays out events leading up to the killing of 10 Rohingya men from Inn Din village in Rakhine state who were buried in a mass grave after being hacked to death or shot by Buddhist neighbors and soldiers.

    “As with other, previous reports of mass graves, this report highlights the ongoing and urgent need for Burmese authorities to cooperate with an independent, credible investigation into allegations of atrocities in northern Rakhine,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

    “Such an investigation would help provide a more comprehensive picture of what happened, clarify the identities of the victims, identify those responsible for human rights abuses and violations, and advance efforts for justice and accountability,” she said.

    The Reuters report drew on interviews with Buddhists who confessed to torching Rohingya homes, burying bodies and killing Muslims in what they said was a frenzy of violence triggered when Rohingya insurgents attacked security posts last August.

    http://www.oann.com/reuters-report-on-myanmar-massacre-brings-calls-for-independent-probe/

  11. China says U.S. bill on Taiwan ties threatens stability

    BEIJING (Reuters) – A U.S. bill that encourages reciprocal visits by U.S. and Taiwanese government officials threatens stability in the Taiwan Strait and the United States must withdraw it, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

    The bill passed the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations this week and will now move to the Senate.

    Beijing considers democratic Taiwan to be a wayward province and integral part of “one China”, ineligible for state-to-state relations, and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

    The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island’s main source of arms. China regularly says Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in its ties with Washington.

    Speaking at a daily news briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said though the clauses in the bill are not legally binding they are a serious violation of the “one China” principle.

    http://www.oann.com/china-says-u-s-bill-on-taiwan-ties-threatens-stability/

    • China regularly says Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in its ties with Washington.

      What rubbish! This is just Communist China trying to throw its weight around (like it is doing in the southern seas). The “most sensitive issue” is what happens when Beijing finally pisses off Washington to where we simply default on all of that American debt the Chicoms are holding.

      In this scenario, all others holding US debt would be repaid. Just not the Red Chinese. This farce of them trying to own America and simultaneously undermine its economy has gotten pretty damn stale and that niggling little $375.2 billion trade deficit just keeps getting worse, not better.

      In case readers are unaware, Communist China intentionally buys cheap Hitachi excavators and bulldozers instead getting them from Caterpillar (whose quality is some of the world’s finest). This is specifically done to harm the American economy.

      And here would a good time for everyone to be glad as hell that there is a political outsider occupying the Oval Office. Although The Mainland is forbidden to make campaign contributions in America, none of this stops the companies that do business with Red China from making political donations.

      Walmart alone represents ten percent of the US – China trade deficit and gives generously to both parties in order to keep them bought off. Over the years, Walmart has driven some 400,000 jobs overseas, mostly to Communist China.

      Trump’s commitment to on-shoring manufacturing and reversing the outward flow of American jobs will require facing down Bejing’s Mandarins in ways that would have been impossible for weak-willed negotiators like Bush 2.0 and 0bama.

  12. China says new stealth fighter put into combat service

    BEIJING (Reuters) – China has put into combat service its new generation J-20 stealth fighter, a warplane it hopes will narrow the military gap with the United States, the Chinese air force said on Friday, making it operationally ready.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping is overseeing a sweeping modernization of the country’s armed forces, the largest in the world, including anti-satellite missiles and advanced submarines, seeking to project power far from its shores.

    In a short statement, the air force said the J-20 had been commissioned into combat units.

    The J-20 will further raise the air force’s combat abilities and help the air force better carry out its “sacred mission” to defend the country’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, the air force said.

    State media said early last year that the aircraft had entered service. The aircraft was shown in public for the first time in late 2016 at the Zhuhai airshow and was first glimpsed by Chinese planespotters in 2010.

    http://www.oann.com/china-says-new-stealth-fighter-put-into-combat-service/

  13. Islamic State Flag, Drugs Found at Residences of €140,000 Fake Identity Benefit Fraud Migrants (breitbart, Feb 9, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/02/09/islamic-state-drugs-residences-migrants-defrauded-german-taxpayers/

    “An Islamic State flag and drugs were found at several residences after German police cracked down on a ring of young migrants who had used fake identities to defraud German taxpayers.
    Police raided the residences of 43 families this week on suspicion that they had participated in a scheme to defraud the government using fake identities. They estimate that around 78 suspects, all under 25 years old, were able to steal 141,000 euros in a coordinated and elaborate scheme, Bild reports.

    Investigators found that the suspects had coordinated their scheme through the encrypted messaging app WhatsApp and had used shisha bars to recruit new migrants into the fraud.

    The migrants were able to send applications to the government which stated they were entitled to retroactive benefits by using fake application or employment termination letters from various companies, some of which had been insolvent for years…”

  14. German AfD Party to Set Up Newsroom in Spring to Bypass ‘Fake News’ (sputniknews, Feb 9, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201802091061512689-afd-fake-news-newsroom/

    “The parliamentary group of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is going to redirect its communication to its own newsroom scheduled to be launched in spring in order to avoid any misinterpretations of party’s positions by mainstream media, AfD parliamentary leader Alice Weidel said Thursday…”

  15. Man Accused of Trying to Infiltrate US Army to Commit Terrorism Pleads Guilty (sputniknews, Feb 9, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/us/201802091061510219-us-virginia-terrorism-guilty/

    “A man who allegedly expressed sympathy for terrorist groups is accused of having travelled to China and Jordan and hiding evidence of his movements in order to join the US Armed Forces.

    A 28-year-old man from the US state of Virginia on February 8 entered a guilty plea in response to charges of lying on a US military application as well as passport fraud.? The accused had reportedly confided his desires to undertake acts of terrorism to under-cover law-enforcement agents monitoring his activities.

    Shivam Patel, a Muslim convert from Hinduism was arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in July of 2017 after it was discovered that he deliberately failed to include records of previous trips to China and Jordan in his application to join the US Army and the Airforce.

    According to a court affidavit, Mr. Patel became radicalized while teaching English in China in 2016, becoming increasingly outraged by the Chinese government’s treatment of the largely Muslim Uyghur population in the far western region of Xinjiang.

    He reportedly communicated his feelings to his father and had allegedly searched online for ways of joining Daesh terrorist group (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS, outlawed in Russia), travelling to Jordan from the US after being sent home by his former employer.

    Upon arriving in Jordan, Mr. Patel was arrested and deported back to the United States by the Jordanian authorities.

    In the US, the usual penalty for lying on a military application is imprisonment for fifteen years.

    In his defense, Mr. Patel had claimed he had mistakenly thrown his passport, along with evidence of his travels, away which required him to apply for a new one.

    He is expected to learn his fate at a sentencing hearing on June 4 2018.”

  16. Richard: As you read this very depressing article remember the recent cancelling of a student play in a US High School, cancelled because the “minority” students objected to a white female student to play Esmeralda in the Hunchback of Notre Dame. This shows the massive divisions in the US society and the dangers we are facing as the left works to tear down what is left of Western Civilization.

    At a small Ohio college: The sad little Bolsheviks America is raising
    By J.E. Dyer February 9, 2018

    There is a temptation to take this lightly. But it’s actually heartbreaking that our academic and cultural institutions are doing this to young people. I’m going to get over the initial ground as lightly as I can, and reserve the more serious appeal for the end.

    When I was in college, those many years ago, this article published on 1 February in the Kenyon Collegian would have been satire.

    In fact, it would have been considered something of an over-the-top satire. Nothing like this could actually happen. An article recounting these events would have been fiction, extrapolating, for effect, the worst-case outcome of a radical ideology, over-zealously applied.

    College students didn’t actually think this way. Maybe some did, but they were in a small minority. College professors, for the most part, would have been likely to either ignore such an obvious attempt at satire, or – if it related to something in their discipline and a particular course or forum – guide a short classroom discussion of it. Maybe get the loudmouth College Republican and the speed-talking Young Democrat to launch one of their epic 15-minute rallies, and watch the ball whizz back and forth.

    But at the end of the discussion, everyone would have walked away understanding that the reason America is so great is that this doesn’t happen here.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/02/09/small-ohio-college-sad-little-bolsheviks-america-raising/

  17. Richard: Always read the full document you are signing. Any vet can tell you that, we read because the form may be a reenlistment form.

    Remains of dead Americans being shipped overseas for research, without families’ knowledge
    By LU Staff February 9, 2018

    Exporting companies are using Chinese ships, planes, and trucks to transport dead Americans across the world for research purposes, according to a Thursday report from Reuters.

    A Hong Kong flagged cargo ship departed South Carolina in July carrying 6,000 pounds of human remains valued at $67,204. The container’s temperature was set to 5 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the parts from spoiling. Relatives of the dead, meanwhile, did not realize their loved ones’ remains were being dismembered and sent to Europe and elsewhere, the report notes.

    Body brokers like Oregon-based MedCure rely on lax regulations to export heads, shoulders, knees and toes to Mexico, China, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, among several other countries. Plastic surgeons in Germany use heads to practice new techniques, while thousands of parts are shipped overseas annually.

    “There are people who wouldn’t necessarily mind where the specimens were sent if they were fully informed,” Brandi Schmitt, who directs a body donation system at the University of California, told reporters about the trade, which is still shrouded in mystery. “But clearly there are plenty of donors that do mind and that don’t feel like they’re getting enough information.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/02/09/remains-dead-americans-shipped-overseas-research-without-families-knowledge/

  18. Devin Nunes may summon Chief Justice Roberts to testify on FISA abuses
    By LU Staff February 8, 2018

    GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, may invite Chief Justice John Roberts to testify before the panel on alleged FISA abuses.

    Nunes told radio host and Republican wise man Hugh Hewitt Thursday that committee Republicans have entertained the idea, as Roberts appoints all FISA judges, but cautioned that no decision has yet been made. Hewitt and Nunes discussed the idea in connection with the committee’s memo on the secret intelligence courts, which alleged the FBI sought authorization to surveil President Donald Trump’s campaign aides on the basis of political opposition research.

    “Now the chief justice appoints the FISA judges,” Hewitt said. “Have you had a chance to chat with him or any of the FISA judges about what went on at the FISA court with regard to the [Carter] Page application?”

    “This is something that we’ve been grappling with all through this investigation,” Nunes replied. “We decided that we wanted to complete the FISA abuse portion before we approached the courts. Our next step with the courts is to make them aware, if they’re not aware already, so we will be sending a letter to the court.”

    He added that Roberts may yet be invited to testify.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/02/08/devin-nunes-may-summon-chief-justice-roberts-testify-fisa-abuses/

  19. Is Democrats’ over-the-top rhetoric on DACA spawning a new wave of black-on-Hispanic crime?
    By Ben Bowles February 8, 2018

    As Steven Malanga noted recently in City Journal, black resentment toward illegal immigrants is on the rise:

    Though blacks have long worried that the country’s growing foreign-born population, especially its swelling rolls of illegal immigrants, harmed their economic prospects, they have also followed their political leadership in backing liberal immigration policies. Now, however, as new waves of immigration inundate historically African-American neighborhoods, black opinion is hardening against the influx. “We will not lay down and take this any longer,” says [black radio talk show host Terry] Anderson. If he’s right, it could upend the political calculus on immigration.

    The current debate over DACA has brought this explosive issue front and center. It has caused me to wonder whether a violent attack that occurred in the Bronx last week is just the first of many such crimes to come.

    New York’s Daily News reports that a “man walking with his 1-year-old son … was slashed across the face by a stranger in an apparent bias-fueled attack, authorities said Tuesday.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/02/08/democrats-support-daca-spawning-new-wave-black-hispanic-crime/

  20. Saudi uproar after 11-year-old girl filmed in ‘scandalous’ dance

    A girl wearing a traditional wedding costume and full make-up, but still in hijab, has caused uproar in Saudi Arabia after being filmed in a mixed-gender festival over the weekend in the town of Jizan.

    Making matters worse, the girl, who in the video marches alongside a man in simulation of a zaffa, a traditional wedding dance, was later revealed to be just 11 years old.

    Following outrage on social media in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the tourism board of Jizan province in south-west Saudi Arabia launched an investigation, and banned the event planner from further activities in the Heritage Village, the venue of the dance.

    Saudi press reports suggested the man may have also been detained, but he later appeared on television to defend himself, according to Saudi news outlet Sabq on Monday.

    “The man responsible has been suspended… because it is not acceptable for such appearances to take place in a conservative society,” the chief of Jizan’s tourism board Rustum al-Kobeissy told local television.

    “The girl was only 11, but she is tall and was wearing [adult] clothes, so she appeared older,” he added.

    The video “has angered our religion and morals and Arab traditions, the majority of people,” tweeted Saudi commentator Mohammed al-Yahya.

    Some even suggested Saudi Arabia was sliding towards “immorality”, alluding to the video and another incident where a man was filmed holding hands with his wife in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

    This is not the first time Jizan has sparked controversy in the kingdom. In December, Saudi authorities ordered the closure of a beach resort and temporarily halted cultural events following harsh criticism of a mixed-gender concert.

    The debacle comes as Saudi Arabia has sought to ease social restrictions on women, who in public spaces are segregated from men or have a separate section for families.

    Riyadh in recent months has organised concerts, comedy shows, a Comic-Con pop culture festival and a mixed-gender national day celebration that saw people dancing in the streets to thumping electronic music for the first time.

    In December, Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji performed in the capital in its first female-only music concert.

    But despite these newfound freedoms, Saudi women, particularly rights activists, continue to be silenced, rights groups have warned.

    Saudi women are still subject to a guardianship system, meaning they have to obtain permission from a male family member to study, travel and engage in a host of other activities.

    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/blog/2018/2/5/saudi-uproar-after-11-year-old-girl-filmed-in-scandalous-dance

    • Making matters worse, the girl, who in the video marches alongside a man in simulation of a zaffa, a traditional wedding dance, was later revealed to be just 11 years old.

      I can appreciate the outrage. After all, Mohammad himself wouldn’t have dreamt of being seen anywhere near such a senescent, old hag.

  21. WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has no evidence to confirm reports from aid groups and others that the Syrian government has used the deadly chemical sarin on its citizens, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday.

    “We have other reports from the battlefield from people who claim it’s been used,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon. “We do not have evidence of it.”

    He said he was not rebutting the reports.

    “We’re looking for evidence of it, since clearly we are dealing with the Assad regime that has used denial and deceit to hide their outlaw actions,” Mattis said.

    https://apnews.com/bd533182b7f244a4b771c73a0b601ec5

  22. Former Alabama teacher, 31, argues that it is unconstitutional to prohibit sex with students after she was convicted of sleeping with two 16-year-olds
    Charli Jones Parker, 31, was jailed in August for having sex with two male students, both 16, in Alabama
    She was a gym teacher at Pickens Academy private Christian school in Carrolton
    She was sentenced to 12 years in prison but is only serving three for a plea deal
    Lawyers for the mother-of-one are now appealing her conviction, arguing it is unconstitutional to prohibit sex with students
    Her husband Jamie Franklin Parker was also charged with having sex with a female student six times in his home

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5366189/Ex-teacher-sex-teens-appeals-conviction.html

  23. Saudi Arabia – mount Arafat – Turkish pilgrims in Mecca pray for the military operation in Afrin –

  24. Last Thursday, Sam Brownback was sworn in as the State Department’s new ambassador for religious liberty.

    Today — in his first official speech as ambassador — Brownback openly embraced a hardline Islamic cleric who authorized a fatwa in 2004 justifying the killing of Americans in Iraq, and another fatwa in 2012 calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.

    Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah’s past is no mystery to the State Department. For example, the Obama administration’s State Department had to repeatedly apologize in May 2014 for promoting Bin Bayyah as a moderate. However, the Obama administration then implemented a full-court press with the U.S. media and the D.C. foreign policy “Smart Set” to rehabilitate the image of the Mauritanian cleric.

    https://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/state-dept-embraces-jihadi-cleric/

  25. When Idaho lawmakers scrubbed all mentions of human-caused climate change from the state’s education standards last year, they faced a swift backlash from teachers, parents and students who said that censoring science would leave students disadvantaged, jobs unfilled and the state unprepared for the future.

    On Wednesday, the Idaho House Education Committee approved a revised set of standards that included some discussion of climate change. But the committee cut a section on the environmental impact of nonrenewable sources of energy and removed supporting content for standards that contained multiple references to human-driven warming.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/climate/idaho-climate-change.html

  26. CBC – Suspected ISIS operative wants to come to Canada

    A suspected ISIS operative wants to come to Canada, according to audio recordings and text transcripts obtained by CBC News. Jack Letts, a British-Canadian man dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by the U.K. media, has been in contact with Canadian diplomats, telling them he’s open to being put in prison, as longs as it’s in Canada. Letts allegedly joined ISIS in Syria and is being held by Kurdish authorities on suspicion of being a member of the extremist organization.

  27. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Democratic Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, the head of the Legislative Women’s Caucus and a leading figure in the state’s anti-sexual harassment movement, is accused of groping a male staffer from another lawmaker’s office.

    Daniel Fierro told The Associated Press on Thursday that Garcia stroked his back, squeezed his buttocks and attempted to touch his crotch in a dugout after a legislative softball game in 2014.

    Fierro didn’t report it at the time but in January told his former boss, Democratic Assemblyman Ian Calderon, who reported it to Assembly leaders. The Assembly is now investigating Garcia.

    https://apnews.com/15e2b45352824f67bac43a49efbd7a5a/California-MeToo-leader-accused-of-sexual-misconduct?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=APWestRegion

  28. Somalian rapist who held sharp piece of wood to teenager’s throat and told her ‘you can’t be a virgin because you’re white’ is jailed for 11 years (dailymail. Feb 9, 2018)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5371263/Somalian-raped-girl-threatened-kill-jailed.html

    “A Somalian man has been jailed after he held a sharp piece of wood against a teenage girl’s throat and raping her, saying that the victim could not be a virgin ‘because you are white’.

    Ahmed Abdoule, 33, told his victim ‘my country would love you’ following the brutal attack which has seen him jailed for 11 years.

    The victim, who was known to Abdoule prior to the attack, ‘cried and pleaded’ with the savage rapist to let her go during the ordeal, Hull Crown Court heard.

    The sickening pervert took the victim to his home and locked the door as she begged him to let her go.

    Despite her pleas, Abdoule ‘jabbed a sharp piece of wood into her stomach’ and forced her upstairs. He then began his twisted attack on the teenager, holding the weapon against her throat as he raped her.

    Judge Mark Bury told Abdoule: ‘She told you she was a virgin to try and get you to stop.

    ‘You said to her, “You cannot be, you are white”.’

    The court also heard that Abdoule ordered the girl not to look at him while he raped her and pulled her top over her face during the attack.

    After he had finished raping her, he told his victim that he had ‘liked it’ and that she was ‘not the only girl who was going to get punished’.

    Abdoule, from east Hull, also told her that ‘my country would love you’.

    After he dropped the teenager away from his home, Abdoule gave the victim a new top to wear and told her to ‘cherish it’ and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about his attack.

    Abdoule denied the accusations levelled against him but was found guilty in court and has been sentenced to 11 years behind bars…”

  29. BBC – Ann Coulter and Laurie Penny debate ‘fake news’

    What is ‘fake news’ and how concerned should we be about it? Commentator Ann Coulter and writer Laurie Penny join Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark to discuss.

  30. Racist Color Blind Casting In Disney Musical Leads to Cultural Appropriation
    February 8, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    This story is as dumb as this headline. Thank you lefty identity politics. Your existence has made us all dumber.

    Social justice activists at a New York high school successfully shut down a production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” after a white student landed a lead role.

    Protests of the production began when an African-American student quit Ithaca High School’s musical production due to the role of Esmeralda being given to a white classmate.

    “It shows you that theater wasn’t made for you,” the student told the Ithaca Journal. “And it shows you that, if you can’t get the parts that are written for you, what parts are you going to get?”

    Esmeralda is a gypsy. She was never written for black people. The two groups have nothing in common… except possibly not being white (depending on how you define white). But in identity politics, everyone “brown” is interchangeable. As is everyone who is white.

    And that’s ridiculously racist. But we’re just getting started.

    • To the best of my knowledge Gypsies are Caucasians of varying degrees of darkness or conversely varying shades of white. So are the North Africans, natives of the Arabic peninsula and most of the the people between the Med and India along with a large chunk of the population of India.

      • I cannot verify this at the moment, but I believe that Gypsies are in fact, descendants of two castes from India. The untouchables, and the warrior caste.

        Many Gypsies are the remnants of Indian warriors who fought against the Islamic invasions and conquests of India centuries ago, while others may be descended from the Untouchables, who had, and still have, a very strong tradition of street entertainment in India, often preferring to teach their children music, dance, and other performing arts than European style institutionalized schools.

        This may explain a lot of Gypsy behaviour in Europe and the West but the genetics also bears this out.

  31. CHARLIE HEBDO – ARE WE HEADING FOR A SHORTAGE OF ISLAMOLOGISTS?

    Tariq Ramadan has finally been questioned and imprisoned for rape.
    First there’s a rule, more sacred than a sura or an epistle: the presumption of innocence. Whether they’re called Tariq Ramadan, Jonathann Daval, Abdelkader Merah or Jawad Bendaoud, any defendant is presumed innocent until judged and has the right to defend himself at a fair trial. It’s perhaps difcult to accept, but today Jonathann Daval, Jawad Bendaoud and Tariq Ramadan are presumed to be
    innocent.

    However, Ramadan’s case merits a little digression. Neither Jonathann Daval nor Jawad Bendaoud has been invited to television studios over a period of many years like the celebrated Islamologist. The reasons for Ramadan’s disgrace leave a bad taste in our mouths. Whatever fate the justice system holds for him, his fall will have been due to sordid stories of sex, whereas he had never been caught out as an Islamologist. The many articles, books and portraits about him, which have tried to unmask him, have never managed to shake him. The denunciation of his ideology has counted for less than that of his private life. The wrong he has done to women has been denounced whereas what he has done to thousands of minds would seem to be untouchable. As if the mind is better protected against violence than the body. Violence against the body is a crime whereas violence against the conscience goes unpunished.

    Ramadan knows how to make the most of democracy. He has always invoked the right to debate and to being different in order to assert his retrograde notion of religion and require democracies to adapt to his version of Islam. Ramadan always reversed the burden of proof: his adversaries had to continually
    prove that they were true democrats, whereas he demanded ever more concessions from democracy to accept his intolerant Islam. Only now that a coincidence involving his turbulent private life has led him before an instructing magistrate has there been a sudden breakdown in this authoritarian attitude.
    It’s not very pleasant to change status from television studio guest teaching the West lessons in tolerance to defendant sitting before a magistrate who expects something different from you than the hypocritical answers that Ramadan gave on camera. When an instructing magistrate asks a question, you can’t answer with another question. When you’re dealing with the legal system, that old trick no longer works. Democracy is sometimes weak but if it takes its courage into its hands, it can become a real pain.

    We wonder about the fate of his victims, at least those who accuse him of having physically assaulted them. But that’s forgetting all the others. What’s to become of Tariq Ramadan’s many followers, young and not so young, who considered him as a spiritual leader, listened to him piously and whose minds have also been assaulted by his intolerant religious theories? Since nature abhors a vacuum, they’ll turn to other Tariq Ramadans, to other Islamologists as cunning and opportunist as him. Well aware that the market for lost consciences is huge.

    https://charliehebdo.fr/en/edito/are-we-heading-for-a-shortage-of-islamologists/

  32. DREAMers Threaten To Leave The Country If Congress Doesn’t Reach A DACA Deal

    Speaking to CNN, one of these DREAMers, Alex Velez, said, “I will leave. I will leave America as soon as possible,” claiming that she would prefer to depart the country on her own terms than wait for the United States to collect and deport her.

    The theory appears to be that, if DREAMers suddenly disappear, Americans will notice their absence. Velez and her sister claim they own businesses, pay tuition, and hold jobs, and that America has a duty to keep them here in order to maintain their contributions.

    The problem is, for the Velez sisters, striking against the United States for refusing to accommodate them isn’t a plan with a likely payoff. The pair are undocumented citizens brought over by their parents from Venezuela, and the situation in their home country is less than ideal.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/26907/dreamers-threaten-leave-country-if-congress-doesnt-emily-zanotti

    Richard: The pair are undocumented citizens like hell they are citizens, they are illegal aliens and if they want to self deport more power to them, Goody by and don’ t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

  33. ANOTHER Longtime Comey Confidant Out at FBI

    The longtime head of public affairs at the FBI — who was a confidant of former director James Comey — is planning to retire, Fox News has learned.

    A notice went out this week for a retirement get-together for Michael Kortan scheduled for Feb. 15. Since 2009, Kortan has served as assistant director for public affairs, an influential job that controlled media access. He also served under former director Robert Mueller, now leading the Russia probe.

    The FBI confirmed to Fox News that Kortan is retiring.

    It’s unclear whether the retirement was long-planned or in any way precipitated by recent events. The FBI said he was finishing 33 years of service.

    Read more at http://americanactionnews.com/articles/another-longtime-comey-confidant-out-at-fbi#PV9fEyfF4lCgDO1u.99

  34. (Another thing that I thought was satire, but isn’t)

    I Was Born White but I Prefer Being Black –

    Over the last five years, 29-year-old Martina Big has transformed her body with countless cosmetic procedures and tanning injections. Now, she says she’s the ‘proud owner of black skin’ and identifies herself as a black woman.

  35. Black Skater Boycotts Olympics Opening Ceremony After ‘Dishonorable’ Coin Toss Ruled He Wouldn’t Lead USA Team Into Arena

    Speed skater Shani Davis has boycotted the opening ceremony at the winter Olympics after a coin toss was used to decide who would lead out the U.S. delegation.

    That decision put luge star Erin Hamlin at the front of the pack. On Friday, she beamed a broad smile as she carried the U.S. flag in Pyeongchang, South Korea, to the tune of “Gangnam Style.”

    Hamlin, 31, was chosen in a coin toss with Davis, 35, one of just a few black athletes on Team USA. That coin flip came after the two tied 4-4 in a vote among eight U.S. winter sport federations.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/26960/black-skater-boycotts-olympics-opening-ceremony-joseph-curl?utm_medium=email&utm_content=020918-news&utm_campaign=position5