Reader’s Links, March 27, 2018

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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

152 Replies to “Reader’s Links, March 27, 2018”

  1. This is a very old Football chant from Millwall!

    It reminds one of the “Hurely” daze.

  2. EU empire may reach Balkans by 2025 DESPITE NONE of the countries meeting standards (express, Mar 27, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/937517/EU-Balkans-European-Union-Jean-Claude-Juncker-empire-latest-news

    “THE EU is planning on engulfing Balkan countries to its empire by 2025 in one of its most controversial expansions to date even though the states are currently behind admission standards, it has been revealed.

    Enlargement of the EU is a hugely divisive issue and played a part in the 2016 Brexit referendum as well as the national elections in France, Austria and elsewhere.

    But the bloc is moving ahead with the plans as it plots to absorb Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina by 2025.

    In February a report said the countries “show clear elements of state capture, including links with organised crime and corruption at all levels of government and administration”.

    They all rank at the bottom for perceptions of corruption in Europe.

    The EU paper adds none of the countries “can currently be considered a functioning market economy”.

    Geographical disputes remain an unresolved issue as a legacy of the region’s past which was torn apart by war in the 1990s.

    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the annual Munich Security Conference: “There are many border disputes in the west Balkans and they must be resolved before we can go a step further.”

    Serbia is the region’s biggest economy and has a GDP larger than EU members Croatia and Lithuania.

    But with this exception, the region’s economies are not particularly large.

    Their output is the equivalent of one per cent of EU GDP.

    At present levels the region would be among the smallest EU economies.

    However, the region already has strong ties with the EU as according to a recent blog post by Marek Dabrowski and Yana Myachenk of the Bruegel think-tank, the western Balkan countries were came a long way to converging with the rest of the EU in the years before the 2007-08 financial crisis.

    The improvements made a difference to some of the poorest people in the region, but the convergence lost steam with the financial crisis and has slowed down over the past decade.

    Around 70 per cent of the region’s goods exports go to the EU on average.

    Investment by EU companies has created nearly 240,000 jobs in the western Balkans since 2003, which is 60 per cent of all jobs created by foreign investment.

    The region also already receives EU money and is scheduled to get €1.07billion (£870million) in “pre-accession” funds this year.

    This is on top of the €9billion (£7.8billion) it has received over the past 10 years.

    The accession of the Balkans would be the biggest EU enlargement in terms of the number of countries since 2004 when it took 10 mainly ex-communist states.”

      • It is economic colonialism, look at what China is doing in Africa, Pakistan and Greece. You get the small nation to owe you more then they can pay and the next thing they know you own them. In the long run it is about as expensive as military conquest but doesn’t have as much baggage of bad publicity. That is what will come from China’s colonizing Africa and the EU’s colonizing the Balkans.

      • I forgot to add that this places the EU in Turkey’s path as they seek to reconquer the Balkans. This will give the residents of the Balkans an interesting question, do they want to be subjects of the New Ottoman Empire or of the EU Empire?

        It also ask the question is how will Erdogan react? Will he wait until 2025 before he moves? Also when they move on Serbia they face the question of what will Putin do? Big Serb backs little Serb, not every time but usually.

              • Agreed. Good work, Richard.

                This will give the residents of the Balkans an interesting question, do they want to be subjects of the New Ottoman Empire or of the EU Empire?

                Not much of a choice, in all respects.

                It also ask the question is how will Erdogan react? Will he wait until 2025 before he moves?

                All of this reflects the same sort of time squeeze that America is experiencing with Red China and North Korea. Getting timelines to synchronize (even a little bit) is a major challenge.

                How long can the EU wait for these old Iron Curtain countries to shed the bad habits of their Soviet eras? When will Erdogan make his move? The clock is ticking on this one just like North Korea.

                While being less-versed on Eastern Europe, it seems as though the region is not quite ready for prime time.

                Especially disturbing is the original article’s mention of “state capture”. This is where the state simply begins taking over all legitimate (and illegitimate) enterprises.

                The same thing is happening in America. However, over here it is economic capture of the judiciary and legislative process that has been perpetrated by the financial 1%.

        • Putin will have to step on the Turk.
          Eventually.
          We’ll have to kiss and make-up with Uncle Vlad first, though.
          Hopefully not over the dead bodies of too many Kurds.

      • If they are so corrupt why give them money?

        I see it as a high stakes version of, “Hey, kid, the first one’s free.”

        Get these vulnerable countries on the teat, STAT. This is to minimize the likelihood of them switching horses downstream. The USA did a lot of this during the Cold War to keep fence-sitters on the fence and out of the Soviet camp.

        Admittedly, it’s difficult to imagine anyone in Brussels having sufficient vision to understand that buying these nations—and making sure they stay bought—is one of the only palatable countermeasures for the war-averse EU (in terms of thwarting Erdogan).

  3. In Niger’s desert, Europe’s migration crackdown pinches wallets (reuters, Mar 27, 2018)
    http://news.trust.org/item/20180327003253-3wunx/

    “AGADEZ, Niger, March 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – For this ancient town on the southern edge of the Sahara, the flow of desperate migrants trying to reach Europe used to be a boon, not a burden.

    Abdoul Ahmed, a 31-year-old mechanic in Agadez, measured the good years in customers. When arrivals in Europe peaked in 2015, dozens of cars came to his workshop each day to get their tyres changed before setting off across the desert.

    But since the European Union cracked down on migration a year later, his daily clientele has dropped to one or two. That earns him about $4, to be shared with five skinny teenage apprentices.

    “Times are bad. There’s no activity,” he said, sitting along one of the few paved roads in Agadez, a mud-brick town where beat-up motorcycles outnumber cars.

    For years, the old trading post in Niger has been a key stop for West Africans travelling north – mostly young men fleeing poverty in search of better opportunities abroad.

    It is the place where migrants find smugglers to arrange their trip across the desert. Those ferrying the travellers earn hundreds of dollars for each person they cram into the back of a Toyota Hilux.

    But smugglers have not been the only ones to benefit from the migrant boom, said Sadou Soloke, the governor of Agadez.

    Cash from feeding, housing and transporting migrants fed thousands of people in the area and helped develop the impoverished region, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

    That activity began to slow when Niger, under EU pressure, started arresting smugglers and posted soldiers across the desert in 2016. By late last year, the life had been sucked out of the once-bustling town, several residents said.

    Now corners once crowded with merchants are quiet, and wide streets are empty even at midday. Men on motorcycles gather in patches of shade, waiting hours for someone to request a ride.

    “We worry for the people who used to provide services to the migrants,” Soloke told humanitarian workers last month.

    “Now they’ve been put in a risky situation too.”

    As more people move around the world – spurred by climate extremes, conflict and poverty – migration has developed an economy of its own, one many people rely on for an income.

    That reality can make efforts to brake or shift migration harder – and riskier – to achieve, as they affect everything from powerful criminal networks to vulnerable people just trying to get by.

    In Agadez, about 6,000 people who were directly employed in the migrant economy are now jobless, the governor said, while countless others – shopkeepers, phone sellers, mechanics – have also seen their earnings fall.

    While aid agencies have swooped in to help migrants still stranded in the town, local people feel increasingly marginalised, said Ottilia Maunganidze, a migration analyst at the Africa-based Institute for Security Studies.

    “The primary question they ask is … why is the aid going to people who just got here, when in fact we are suffering just as much but we’ve chosen to remain at home?” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.”

    • OH
      Boo-fucking-hoo
      Abdoul, my heart bleeds for you,
      and no,
      I’m not taking the piss,
      Honest!

  4. Deported Asylum Seeker Illegally Returned to UK and Raped Teenager (breitbart, Mar 27, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/03/27/deported-asylum-seeker-illegally-returned-to-uk-and-raped-teenager/

    “A failed asylum seeker who was deported to Afghanistan in 2010 and returned to the UK last year via Italy has been jailed for raping an 18-year-old, treating her as “a disposable sexual commodity”.

    Masud Wakili, 27, tried to apply for asylum in Italy – considered a “back door” to the EU for failed asylum seekers – nine months ago. But according to his defence, the Afghan was told by Italian authorities that because he was already on the UK’s system he needed to apply from Britain.

    Warwick Crown Court heard that on the night of September 9th, 2017, just a few months after illegally returning to the UK, Wakili approached his victim in Coventry city centre and began to engage her in conversation.

    Despite the young woman being visibly intoxicated, he bought her a double vodka and coke before taking her to a block of flats and raping her in the stairwell…”

  5. Danish Minister to Migrants: Learn the Language or Pay for Your Own Interpreter (sputniknews, Mar 27, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201803271062934735-denmark-migrants-language-integration/

    “Following the crackdown on ghettos announced earlier this month, the Danish government is taking further steps towards tightening demands on immigrants. Denmark’s hardline Integration Minister Inger Støjberg called on the “newcomers” to learn Danish – or fork out for interpreting services.

    Danish Integration Minister Inger Støjberg has penned an article in the daily newspaper BT calling on immigrants to intensify their efforts to assimilate and immerse themselves in Danish society.

    In her article, Støjberg identified a combination of laziness and direct reluctance as among the reasons for poor assimilation among the “new arrivals,” who are often unable to master the Danish language despite having lived in Denmark for several years. However, she also placed part of the blame on the Danes themselves, who, she claimed, weren’t demanding enough when it came to the new arrivals, leading to the rise of parallel societies.

    Støjberg called interpretation assistance to foreigners who have lived in Denmark for years “one of the consequences of decades of failed integration policy.” In the rest of the world, there is an expectation that you learn a country’s language provided that you have lived there for more than three years. The lack of such expectations in Denmark when it comes to immigrants, is a big mistake and a uniquely Danish one at that, Støjberg argued.

    “In Denmark, so far, it has been the complete opposite. In our naivety, we have willingly provided a lifelong publicly paid interpreter. And in doing so, we keep wondering why it is that that people don’t learn the language,” Støjberg wrote.

    Therefore, the Danish government will change the rules for the sake of integration. Immigrants who have lived in the country for over three years will therefore pay for a translator’s services when, say, visiting a doctor or consulting the authorities, out of their own pockets. According to Støjberg, this principle should be applicable “wherever relevant.”

    In the article, Støjberg dismissed potential counterarguments involving “ten-year-old boys acting as interpreters for their mothers having their cancer diagnoses announced” as “sloppy” and “careless.”

    Unless we dare to make demands on foreigners, we will fail to address the serious problem of parallel societies on Denmark, where people neither work, nor speak the language, nor share Danish values,” Støjberg ventured. “A good place to start is to give back responsibility to foreigners who have come here: learn the language or pay for your own interpreter,” the Danish minister wrote in conclusion.

    In a poll carried out by BT, 93 percent of respondents argued that publicly funded interpreters were “not okay.”

    According to Statistics Denmark, over 500,000 of the total population of 5.7 million were immigrants. As of 2018, Poland, Syria, Turkey, Germany, Iraq and Romania were the most common countries of origin among immigrants in Denmark.”

      • We had a number of Russians settle in my neighborhood some years ago. The agency responded by slowly cutting back on interpreters.

        It seemed pretty cruel, the wait-times were miserable.
        But managers of the agency figured Russians were too adept at working bureaucracy, a little push would help them.

        So their kids – who were learning everything fast at school – started to fill in. That’s what got the men serious about learning English. They wanted privacy from their kids. Everything financial or medical.

  6. White British Children converted to Islam and love going to the Mosque
    (check out the comment @Utube)

  7. BREAKING NEWS: Cambridge Analytica whistleblower tells MPs his predecessor was found dead in a hotel room in Kenya and may have been poisoned after a deal went ‘sour’

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5548919/Christopher-Wylie-says-predecessor-killed.html#ixzz5AxC3GQ2G
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    Cambridge Analytica Christopher Wylie has today revealed his predecessor died mysteriously in a Kenyan hotel room – and may have been poisoned.

    The tech specialist said Dan Muresan was found dead in 2012 amid reports that a deal he was working on went ‘sour’.

    Giving evidence to the culture select committee of MPs, Mr Wylie told how rumours that Mr Muresan had been killed circulated around the controversial data firm.

    And he heard talk the Kenyan police had been bribed not to enter the hotel room for 24 hours in a bid to cover up the possible murder.

    He made the explosive comments to a committee of MPs investigating the spread of fake news.

    Rumours that the death could have been murdered will fuel concerns about Cambridge Analytica and the shady world it operated in.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5548919/Christopher-Wylie-says-predecessor-killed.html#ixzz5AxCC3Ao5
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

  8. UK MPs demand Zuckerberg testify on data row after he offers deputy

    London (AFP) – British MPs renewed a demand on Tuesday to interview Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg over a data privacy row that has rocked the social media giant, after he responded to an earlier request by offering to send one of his deputies.

    Damian Collins, the chairman of the House of Commons digital, culture and media committee, said the seriousness of the allegations meant it was “appropriate” for Zuckerberg to offer an explanation himself, whether in person or via video-link.

    His comments came amid renewed pressure from the European Union to disclose more details about how up to 50 million users’ data are alleged to have been taken from Facebook and used in political campaigns.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/uk-mps-demand-zuckerberg-testify-data-row-offers-103555247.html

  9. Anti-‘sanctuary state’ movement picks up steam in Orange County

    Just more than a week after tiny Los Alamitos voted to defy California’s law protecting immigrants in the country illegally, Orange County is poised to become a counterpoint against the state’s resistance to the Trump administration’s policies.

    On Tuesday, Orange County supervisors may consider whether to take up a resolution to condemn and possibly take legal action against the state’s “sanctuary” laws.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-anti-sanctuary-movement-in-oc-20180327-story.html

  10. Speculation on Kim visit to China rife as train departs

    Beijing (AFP) – Speculation that Kim Jong Un visited Beijing on his first-ever foreign trip as North Korea’s leader was rife Tuesday after Japanese media reported the arrival and departure of a special train met by an honour guard.

    Heightened security at possible venues for a high-level meeting, motorcades driven under police escort, and a non-denial from Chinese authorities also fuelled the belief that Kim had come to pay his respects to President Xi Jinping.

    If confirmed, it would mark Kim’s first trip abroad since coming to power in 2011 and signal an intriguing twist in a rapid diplomatic thaw that has opened the door to separate summits between Kim and the presidents of South Korea and the United States.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/speculation-rife-over-surprise-kim-jong-un-visit-013745739.html

    • Something tells me Fat Boy won’t going through Ryongchon on his way out of town.

  11. FCC wants Chinese tech out of US phones, routers

    U.S. officials are discouraging U.S. telephone and internet companies from purchasing Chinese technology that could be used for surveillance, Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai announced Monday.

    “Threats to national security posed by certain communications equipment providers are a matter of bipartisan concern,” Pai said. “Hidden ‘back doors’ to our networks in routers, switches — and virtually any other type of telecommunications equipment — can provide an avenue for hostile governments to inject viruses, launch denial-of-service attacks, steal data, and more.”

    Pai plans for the FCC to vote next month on a rule that would bar U.S. companies from using a federal subsidy program to purchase equipment from companies entangled with foreign intelligence agencies. The proposed rule is being considered in light of congressional concern that AT&T and Verizon might purchase phones or other hardware from Huawei, a company that the U.S. intelligence community believes is in cooperation with Chinese spies.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/fcc-wants-chinese-tech-out-of-us-phones-routers

    • “Threats to national security posed by certain communications equipment providers are a matter of bipartisan concern,” Pai said. “Hidden ‘back doors’ to our networks in routers, switches — and virtually any other type of telecommunications equipment — can provide an avenue for hostile governments to inject viruses, launch denial-of-service attacks, steal data, and more.”

      This would be a great place for Trump to start his trade war. Use the grounds of a threat to National Security to simply block all further importation of Communist Chinese IT hardware or software to America. Then methodically begin to exchange all mission critical components to eliminate any possibility of infection or interruption originating from these Chicom devices.

  12. Murder of elderly woman in Paris probed as anti-Semitic

    FOX5NY – French authorities say the killing of an elderly Jewish woman in Paris is being investigated as an anti-Semitic murder. The woman, identified in French media as Mireille Knoll, was stabbed at least 11 times and her body was set on fire.

    The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday two suspects have been put in custody. It said it is asking investigating judges to charge the pair with premeditated murder of a vulnerable person for anti-Semitic motives.

    The office also asked for the suspects to be jailed pending trial.

    http://www.fox5ny.com/news/murder-in-paris-probed-as-anti-semitic

  13. Malaysia proposes jail for up to 10 years, fines for ‘fake news’

    KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government tabled a bill in parliament on Monday outlawing “fake news”, with hefty fines and up to 10 years in jail, raising more concern about media freedom in the wake of a multi-billion dollar graft scandal.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-politics/malaysia-proposes-jail-for-up-to-10-years-fines-for-fake-news-idUSKBN1H20FM

    According to the talking heads on FOX this applies to anyone anywhere if the news impacts Malaysia.

  14. In response to California sanctuary law, Orange County Sheriff makes public inmates’ release dates

    The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, whose leadership opposes the new California sanctuary law that limits cooperation with federal immigration officials, announced Monday that it is now providing public information on when inmates are released from custody.

    As of Monday, March 26, an existing “Who’s in Jail” online database includes the date and time of inmates’ release – a move agency officials say will enhance communication with its law enforcement partners.

    The release date information applies to all inmates, not just those who are suspected of being in the country illegally. But the goal is to assist agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

    “This is in response to SB-54 limiting our ability to communicate with federal authorities and our concern that criminals are being released to the street when there’s another avenue to safeguard the community by handing them over (to ICE for potential deportation),” Orange County Undersheriff Don Barnes said.

    https://www.ocregister.com/2018/03/26/in-response-to-california-sanctuary-law-orange-county-sheriff-makes-public-inmates-release-dates/

  15. Turkey daily portrays Merkel as Hitler, decries ‘Nazi mentality’

    Istanbul (AFP) – A Turkish daily strongly supportive of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday portrayed German Chancellor Angela Merkel on its front cover as Adolf Hitler, accusing her of having a “Nazi mentality”.

    The Yeni Akit daily, known for its hardline views on Turkish foreign policy, printed a photo-shopped picture of Merkel with a Hitler moustache, swastika arm band and belt diagonally across her chest in the style of Nazi militia.

    “We are very worried by this mentality,” it said.

    Its front page came as European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker were to meet Erdogan at the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna in a bid to mend ties with Turkey and the EU.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-daily-portrays-merkel-hitler-decries-nazi-mentality-143920251.html

  16. Teachers can’t afford Miami rents. The county has a plan: Let them live at school.

    Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article206839799.html#storylink=cpy

    Amid a wide gap between modest teacher salaries and Miami’s high housing prices, the county has a new plan: build apartments on school property and let faculty live there.

    A preliminary proposal includes constructing a new mid-rise middle school in the luxe Brickell area for Southside Elementary, with a floor devoted to residential units, and several more reserved for parking and the classrooms on top. If that goes well, Miami-Dade wants a full-fledged housing complex next to Phillis Wheatley Elementary, with as many as 300 apartments going up on the campus just north of downtown.

    “It’s an exciting idea,” said Michael Liu, Miami-Dade’s housing director. “Land is at a premium in Miami-Dade County. It’s difficult to come by, especially in the urban core.”

    Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article206839799.html#storylink=cpy

  17. Suspicious Packages Found at Several Military Installations in D.C. Area
    FBI is examining the packages
    By NBC Washington Staff

    The FBI is investigating suspicious packages with apparent explosive components at several U.S. military installations and intelligence facilities in the Washington, D.C., area Monday, a law enforcement official said.

    The National Defense University at Fort McNair in D.C. received a suspicious package about 8:30 a.m., and the building was evacuated.

    The package tested positive for black powder, which can be used to make explosives, according to Fort McNair. An X-ray showed what appeared to be GPS and a fuse. It was rendered safe and the building was cleared about 1:15 p.m. The components are being investigated.

    Suspicious packages were sent to two sites at Fort Belvoir in Virginia Monday afternoon: The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and another defense university. One contained liquid in a vial and a circuit board, the law enforcement official said. It also was rendered safe.

    https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Suspicious-Packages-Found-at-Several-Military-Installations-in-DC-Area-477970913.html

  18. CDC warns of a second wave of flu virus, happening now
    The CDC says that B-viruses are being reported more frequently than the A-strain, which had been more dominant recently

    ALBANY, NY (WTNH/WTEN) – Flu season is winding down, but the Centers for Disease Control is warning of a second wave, Flu Virus B, which is happening right now.

    The CDC says that B-viruses are being reported more frequently than the A-strain, which had been more dominant recently. A CDC spokesperson says B-strain viruses tend to be more severe for younger children.

    Experts say it’s possible for those who have already been sick with the flu to fall ill again with a different strain later in the season.

    http://wkbn.com/2018/03/26/cdc-warns-of-a-second-wave-of-flu-virus-happening-now/

  19. NYC sees largest increase in tuberculosis cases in 26 years

    The number of tuberculosis cases in New York City suddenly jumped by 10 percent last year — the largest increase since 1992, according to the Health Department.

    TB is a highly infectious bacterial disease that largely attacks the lungs, but can also infect and spread to other organs, including the kidneys, spine or brain.

    There were 613 reported cases in 2017, compared to 556 in 2016.

    TB has been on the decline in the city since peaking at 3,811 cases in 1992.

    In an alert to medical professionals Monday, the Health Department offered no explanation for the surge.

    https://nypost.com/2018/03/26/nyc-tuberculosis-cases-soar-seeing-largest-increase-in-26-years/

    • The number of tuberculosis cases in New York City suddenly jumped by 10 percent last year — the largest increase since 1992, according to the Health Department.

      Say, “thank you, immigrants”.

      What the article neglects to mention is how many of these new cases were MDR-TB (Multi-drug-resistant Tuberculosis). This is quite significant due to ease of communication, frequency of initial misdiagnosis, and the extreme expense of ensuring that a rigorous course of medications are available.

      For those who want to learn more, I cannot suggest better than, “Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World”, by Tracy Kidder—recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for his, “The Soul of a New Machine”, about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation.

      Kidder details both the virulence of MBR-TB, its difficulty to treat, and the Herculean efforts of Dr. Paul Farmer to obtain funding, materials, and the insanely expensive medicines it takes to treat this disease. The book is inspirational and provides a revealing glimpse of Big Pharma’s reluctance to pursue cures for “poor man’s diseases”.

  20. Did Facebook’s ‘favors’ for the Obama campaign constitute a violation of federal law?

    Controversy continues to swirl around how the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica obtained personal data from over 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge and used it to target ads to individuals in an effort to help Donald Trump be elected president in 2016.

    But a more serious case of apparent misconduct involves Facebook data going to a different presidential campaign – this time in 2012. In this case, which is getting far less attention, Facebook reportedly voluntarily provided data on millions of its users to the re-election campaign of President Obama.

    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/03/26/did-facebook-s-favors-for-obama-campaign-constitute-violation-federal-law.html

  21. Top Trump Admin. Officials Meet with Mexican Gov’t to Discuss Trade, Security

    OAN Newsroom
    UPDATED 6:16 AM PT — Tues. March 27, 2018

    Several top Trump administration officials are in Mexico negotiating trade and security deals with the government.

    Kicking off a two day surprise trip, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan arrived in Mexico City early Monday.

    The bilateral meetings with top Mexican officials focused on 20 agreements, including those on border security, agriculture issues and preventing the fraudulent shipment of goods.

    Both sides hope the trip will improve relations between the U.S. and Mexico.

    The heads of the DHS and border protection will meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto sometime Tuesday to further discuss the issues at hand.

    http://www.oann.com/top-trump-admin-officials-meet-with-mexican-govt-to-discuss-trade-security/

  22. Exclusive: Satellite images reveal show of force by Chinese navy in South China Sea

    HANOI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Dozens of Chinese naval vessels are exercising this week with an aircraft carrier in a large show of force off Hainan island in the South China Sea, satellite images obtained by Reuters show.

    The images, provided by Planet Labs Inc, confirm a Chinese carrier group has entered the vital trade waterway as part of what the Chinese navy earlier described as combat drills that were part of routine annual exercises.

    The Liaoning carrier group last week traversed the Taiwan Strait, according to the Taiwanese defense ministry.

    The photos, taken on Monday, show what appear to be at least 40 ships and submarines flanking the carrier Liaoning in what some analysts described as an unusually large display of the Chinese military’s growing naval might.

    Sailing in a line formation more suited to visual propaganda than hard military maneuvers, the flotilla was headed by what appeared to be submarines, with aircraft above.

    http://d2pggiv3o55wnc.cloudfront.net/oann/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2018-03-27T092032Z_1_LYNXMPEE2Q0P8_RTROPTP_0_CHINA-DEFENCE_1.jpg

    http://www.oann.com/exclusive-satellite-images-reveal-show-of-force-by-chinese-navy-in-south-china-sea/

    • Are they showing their Naval strength to save face in the negotiations with the US on trade?

  23. U.N. chief ‘shocked’ by top Myanmar general’s comments on Rohingya

    YANGON (Reuters) – United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed “shock” at comments by Myanmar’s military chief in which he said the Rohingya minority shared nothing in common with the rest of the population and that their demand for citizenship had stoked recent violence.

    Nearly 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh since the military launched a crackdown in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state in response to insurgent attacks on security forces in August, according to U.N. estimates. The United States and U.N. have described the operation as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, which Myanmar denies.

    Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech to military personnel and their families last week in northern Kachin State that Rohingya “do not have any characteristics or culture in common with the ethnicities of Myanmar”, according to his website.

    The military chief also said the tensions in Rakhine were “fueled because the Bengalis demanded citizenship”, using a term that Rohingya activists reject as implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

    http://www.oann.com/u-n-chief-shocked-by-top-myanmar-generals-comments-on-rohingya/

  24. This detail from the day of the shooting shows David Hogg exploited the tragedy
    By Howard Portnoy March 27, 2018

    “Telegenic and media-savvy is one way to describe David Hogg.” So drooled The Denver Post’s Margaret Sullivan days after the shooting deaths of 17 of Hogg’s classmates catapulted him into the media limelight.

    Since that flattering thumbnail was penned, young Hogg has demonstrated that he is anything but media-savvy. A week or so after the deadly shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Hogg demonstrated the kind of journalist he aspires to be by seeking out career advice from Godfather of Fake News Dan Rather!

    His proposals for reducing gun violence, always grounded in myth and misconceptions picked up from the liberal adult echo chamber, have grown increasingly shrill and profanity-laced. His attack on Sen. Marco Rubio at Saturday’s “March for Our Lives” were so ugly and mean-spirited that even CNN’s reliably left-leaning Alisyn Camerota thought he crossed a line:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/03/27/detail-day-shooting-provides-evidence-david-hogg-exploiting-tragedy/

    • If this is what passes for intelligence in today’s schools civilization is indeed dead, someone with this level of intelligence and knowledge should not be in High School not praised as a mental giant who is going to lead the nation out of a crisis.

  25. Police investigating after Ontario woman rips Qur’an, puts pages on cars outside of Islamic centre

    Peel Regional Police say they are investigating an incident as “hate-motivated” after a woman can be seen on video at a Mississauga Islamic centre appearing to tear the pages of a Qur’an and putting the pages on cars while calling the religious text “Satanic.”

    The incident happened at the Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre, near Highways 403 and 401, just after 5 p.m. on Thursday.

    In a 10-minute video obtained by Global News, after it was posted and subsequently deleted on the Never Again Canada website,
    a woman who identifies herself as Sandra Solomon said she is visiting mosques “to educate as many as we can people about the true face of Islam.” She said she wants to see the Qur’an designated as “hate literature.”

    She said she has been going to mosques for more than a year and contacting Imams.

    Rabia Khedr, executive director of the Muslim Council of Peel (MCP), told Global News on Sunday that Solomon is a known “Islamophobe and anti-Muslim activist” who has been travelling across the country and has disrupted a “handful” of mosques in the Peel region.

    https://globalnews.ca/news/4103314/peel-police-investigating-hate-motivated-incident-islamic-centre/

  26. A ‘Duty to Hate Britain’

    by Douglas Murray
    March 27, 2018 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12096/britain-ahmed-hassan

    Last week, Ahmed Hassan was sentenced to a minimum term of 34 years in prison. The previous September, he had stepped onto the District line of the London Underground and left a homemade bomb on the train. At Parson’s Green tube station, the device detonated. Fortunately for the commuters, which included many children on their way to school, only the detonator of the bomb went off. On its own, it created a fireball which ran along the roof of the carriage, singeing the hair of many passengers and causing an immediate stampede away from the blast and a number of injuries. The main explosive material the of bomb, however, which was packed with shrapnel, including bolts, nails and knives, failed to detonate. Had it done so, the United Kingdom would have seen — for the fourth time in a few months — dozens more dead victims, including school children, carried out in body bags.

  27. Italy detains Egyptian imam accused of preaching violence (wapo, Mar 27, 2018)
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italy-detains-egyptian-imam-accused-of-preaching-violence/2018/03/27/685e82a4-31c9-11e8-b6bd-0084a1666987_story.html

    “Police in southern Italy have detained an Egyptian imam who ran a cultural center where he allegedly preached extremist and violent interpretations of Islam to children.

    Financial police in Foggia say Mohy Eldin Mostafa Omer Abdel Rahman is accused of criminal association with the aim of terrorism and instigation to violence. During a raid Tuesday, police seized his Al Dawa cultural center.

    A police statement said the seizure was part of a larger investigation that resulted in the arrest in July of a Chechen man, Eli Bombataliev, accused of fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria and participating in a deadly attack on foreign and Russian journalists in Chechnya.

    Italy has been spared an Islamic extremist attack, thanks in part to widespread wiretapping and expulsions of suspected extremists.”

  28. ISIS: Surging Again in Syria?

    by Sirwan Kajjo
    March 27, 2018 at 4:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12097/isis-surging-syria

    Two days after the Turkish military and allied jihadist forces took control of the Kurdish city of Afrin in northwestern Syria, Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists launched a major attack on Syrian regime forces in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. The ISIS terrorists killed at least 25 soldiers and seized a large oil field. Around the same time, ISIS militants captured a strategic district in the suburb of Syria’s capital, Damascus, where they killed more than 60 government troops.

    These two recent advances signal a possible return by the extremist group that only months ago was thought to be largely defeated.

    Since Turkey, a NATO ally, launched its Afrin offensive against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — a main U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS — U.S. officials have been warning that the fighting between two U.S. allies is distracting from the main mission, which is defeating ISIS.

    “We are very concerned about the effect fighting there has had on our defeat ISIS efforts and would like to see an end to the hostilities before ISIS has the opportunity to regroup in eastern Syria,” said Pentagon spokesman U.S. Army Colonel Rob Manning, referring to the Turkish offensive against Kurds in Afrin.

  29. 41 Swedish Citizen Islamic State Fighters Arrested in Syria (breitbart, Mar 27, 2018)
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/03/27/41-swedish-islamic-state-fighters-arrested-syria/

    Kurdish forces have arrested 41 Swedish citizens in Syria who left Sweden to fight for the Islamic State with five being described as high-level members of the terror organisation.

    “Kurdish authorities fighting in Northern Syria revealed that they had captured Swedish citizens or permanent residents, telling Swedish media over the weekend: “Five of them have had key positions within IS. One of them has been responsible for propaganda,” Expressen reports.

    “We treat well those who we capture, even though they are terrorists who have murdered innocent people,” the Kurdish source told the newspaper.

    One of the most famous Swedish Islamic radicals to travel to Syria was former Islamophobia expert Michael Skråmos. A convert to Islam, Skråmos had participated in propaganda for the Islamic State and called on fellow jihadists to carry out attacks in Sweden. His last known location was the former Islamic State capital of Raqqa.

    Magnus Ranstorp, one of Sweden’s leading terrorism experts, slammed the government’s slow response in dealing with radical Islamic jihadists who have travelled to the Middle East to fight for Islamic radical groups like the Islamic State…”

    • Buchanan, like Ann Coulter – is a pos.
      Gets just enough of it sorta right to pass as sage analyst.

      Jeff Dunetz, one of the editors of Liberty Unyielding, comments on this article toward the end of a rambling reflection on blood libels and Passover.

      Why the days around Passover are dangerous for Jews
      http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/21900
      ……
      Buchanan’s mention of Mattis reminds me of the next personnel change for the WH. Pack off that loser and the rest of the gang devoted to ARMING the enemy instead of fighting him.

  30. MSNBC – Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Christopher Wylie: Trump’s Election Showed Wider Impact

    • Vote Leave ‘cheating’ may well have swayed referendum result, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower says

    • Vote Leave whistleblower Shahmir Sanni breaks down in tears – Daily Mail

      Vote Leave whistleblower Shahmir Sanni breaks down in tears as he tells how Theresa May’s aide outed him as gay during a press club event with Christopher Wylie in London.

    • Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Tells U.K. Lawmakers His Predecessor Was Poisoned

      Christopher Wylie, the former employee of Cambridge Analytica who alleged that the data firm had harvested data from 50 million Facebook users, told Members of Parliament in the U.K. that he believes his predecessor at the firm was poisoned in a Kenyan hotel room after a deal went wrong.

    • Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie gives evidence to MPs

      ( 58 min )

      Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie gives evidence to DCMS select committee.

  31. Pakistan’s minority Ahmadiyya community, who are shunned by staunch followers of Islam, face more persecution after a ruling on March 9 by a High Court judge.

    A judge at the Islamabad High Court has ordered that applicants for jobs in the public service declare their faith before being considered for any positions. The court urged state institutions to ensure that citizens are “easily identifiable” by faith.

    The verdict was handed down by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, who last year declared blasphemers “terrorists” and worse than jihadists.

    The verdict was delivered after hearings on amendments to the controversial Khatm-e-Nabuwwat, or finality of prophethood, clause in the Election Reforms Act, 2017, which would have eliminated a separate voters’ list for Ahmadis, an Islamic sect declared heretics in Pakistan.

    The Second Amendment to the Constitution excommunicated the Ahmadiyya Muslims in 1974, enshrining belief that Khatm-e-Nabuwwat was integral to the Islamic faith.

    Islamist military dictator Zia-ul Haq then added Ordinance XX to Pakistan’s Penal Code a decade later in 1984, barring Ahmadis from “posing as Muslims,” a “crime” that still carries prison sentences for members of the community if they use Islamic titles, greetings, scriptures or calls to prayer.

    http://www.atimes.com/article/pakistan-high-court-judge-calls-termination-ahmaddiyas/

    • The verdict was handed down by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, who last year declared blasphemers “terrorists” and worse than jihadists.

      These scum-suckers will do or say anything to downplay the evil of terrorism. Just a century or two ago this sort of hidebound mentality would merely be pathetic, instead of the grave danger that Islam continues to pose all other Civilizations now and in the future.

      Any sort of further nuclear proliferation in Muslim majority nations must be prohibited at all costs, up to and including nuclear intervention. Here’s why:

      Beyond a certain (as yet) unspecified number of nuclear devices possessed by Islamic agencies, there emerges a non-zero probability that one or more of them will fall into the hands of jihadists.

      This simple fact justifies stripping Pakistan (and partner in crime, North Korea) of their existing nuclear inventories and resources, plus any scale of intervention that is required to prevent Iran and other aspiring Islamic tyrannies from obtaining nuclear weapons.

      Islam shows no sign of pacifying, ever. Full stop. This represents an irreconcilable incompatibility with Western Enlightenment Values that nothing in the Koran remedies in any way (or even wants to, for that matter).

      Plan accordingly.

    • USH: I want you to hear a couple sound bites from 2015. There was an event called the Personal Democracy Forum, and a woman named Carol Davidsen spoke. She was a high-ranking Obama campaign official in 2012. She was at Rentrak [Corporation], the Vice President of Political Technology. I want you to just listen to this. She is describing what we talked about yesterday.

      When Obama and the Democrats were basically Hoovering every bit of data Facebook had, they were praised! The New York Times… We had a great caller reminded me of this yesterday. In June of 2013, the New York Times praising Obama and his team as a bunch of geniuses for using social media data to their advantage. It was such a wonderful thing, and they were so smart. Listen to her talk about this…

      https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/03/20/flashback-obama-campaign-bragged-about-ingesting-facebook-data/

  32. Rev. Al Sharpton’s half-brother was charged with murder in a Sunday shooting death in Alabama after participating in Saturday’s anti-gun “March For Our Lives,” according to a report.

    Kenneth Glasgow, 52, was arrested along with another man after Breunia Jennings, 23,was shot in the head in Dothan, Ala. Authorities said Glasgow, an ex-convict, was the driver of the car linked to Jennings death. The passenger of the car Jamie Townes, 26, was also arrested and is reportedly the alleged shooter, the Dothan Eagle reported.

    Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish said that Glasgow and Townes were reportedly searching for Jennings because they thought she had stolen Townes’ car. When they spotted her, Townes allegedly fired several shots into the vehicle Jennings drove, leaving her dead.

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/27/al-sharpton-half-brother-charged-with-murder/?utm_source=site-share

  33. The expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the US, along with dozens of others from various other countries, should be a sobering moment for all of mankind. It’s a sign of how close to the brink of a major war the world is coming.
    To start with, this current episode is not comparable to the 55 Soviets expelled by Ronald Reagan in 1986 or the 50 or so thrown out by George W. Bush in 2001. Those actions were directly related to spying activities – which all governments engage in, directed against their friends as well as enemies. The Russians do it, the Americans do it, everybody does it. There’s nothing remarkable about cutting the numbers down now and then, particularly after a major embarrassment like the 2001 Robert Hanssen scandal.

    But these latest expulsions have nothing to do with how many of the Russians might be actual spies. Nor with the nonsensical accusations of Russian election interference to “sow discord” and “discredit democracy.”

    In fact, they have almost nothing to do with the US State Department’s unsupported claim that “Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury.” The absence of evidence that the Russians were behind the attack is no more relevant than repeated, equally evidence-free accusations of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government. Whatever happened to the Skripals and whoever is behind it, Salisbury is a mere pretext.

    https://www.rt.com/op-ed/422455-us-russia-diplomat-expulsion/

  34. The founder of a reported sex cult whose top executives donated money to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has been arrested in Mexico on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy.
    Keith Raniere, the founder of the NXIVM cult that allegedly branded women, is being extradited to Texas to face charges filed against him in Brooklyn, New York.
    Charles Hurt reported that in the spring of 2007, “executives and top associates…along with their family members” donated $29,900 to the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign.
    Kirsten Gillibrand has also taken money from the group’s high-profile socialite member, and her father actually worked for the cult.

    http://archive.is/DMRHh#selection-1603.0-1633.132

  35. ISIS-obsessed teacher who trained pupils to become London terror attack ‘death squad’ is dragged from dock denouncing the West on his way to begin life sentence
    Umar Haque, 25, attempted to raise an ‘army of children’ by brainwashing them
    Fanatic made them re-enact knife attacks on police during role play exercises
    Haque planned to strike 30 high-profile targets, ‘definitely’ including gay clubs
    But the hypocrite had also been trawling the internet for transsexual prostitutes
    Judge said Haque wanted to do ‘something big’ and his ambition was ‘extreme’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5549995/Self-styled-teacher-Umar-Haque-jailed-25-years.html

  36. Migrants have reportedly set fire to a reception centre in Greece to protest the fact they’ve been moved there instead of being put up in hotel rooms.

    The Oinofyta reception centre, near Attica, was apparently set ablaze yesterday.

    It was previously closed but has now reopened to accommodate some of the 1,500 migrants in the region, local media reports.

    Some of the migrants from the islands have been put up in rented homes subsidised by the United Nations refugee agency.

    But the underlying story here is that there’s a big homelessness problem in Athens, 71% of the Greek capital’s homeless population have been living on the streets in the last 5 years – so since the migrant crisis began.

    https://www.westmonster.com/migrants-set-fire-to-greek-reception-centre-in-protest-at-being-moved-out-of-hotel/

  37. Jogger, 24, claims she was brutally assaulted by two African women who attacked her ‘because she is white’
    Kimberly Smith, 24, was out on her evening jog when she was brutally attacked
    She says her attackers who bashed her, were two women of African appearance
    She has said that she is not racist but the area has escalating racial tensions

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5549093/Queensland-woman-attacked-jog-says-incident-racially-motivated.html

  38. A few days ago, immigrants from Pakistan tried to hide in the truck of a 37-year-old Greek, in order to get to Italy. Unfortunately for them, the driver found out what they were planning and tried to stop them.

    All of a sudden, one of the immigrants managed to stab the Greek driver with a knife, injuring his hand. Although injured, the driver managed to reach the local hospital where first aid was applied.

    https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/03/pakistani-migrants-stab-greek-truck-driver-as-they-try-to-hijack-his-vehicle-to-travel-to-italy/

  39. A judge holds that YouTube isn’t a “public forum” run by a “state actor.”
    Google has prevailed in a lawsuit that alleged YouTube has been violating the First Amendment by censoring conservative viewpoints. On Monday, a California federal judge agreed to dismiss a complaint from Prager University, run by radio talk-show host Dennis Prager.

    The plaintiff produces videos with titles like “Why Don’t Feminists Fight for Muslim Women?” and “The Most Important Question About Abortion.” In the lawsuit, Prager’s company asserted that YouTube professes viewpoint neutrality but censors conservatives by putting age restrictions on certain videos. The decision-making is far from even-handed, Prager contends, pointing to, among others, a restricted video titled “Are 1 in 5 women in college raped?” compared to better treatment for a Real Time with Bill Maher video about The Hunting Ground.

    Prager sought an injunction.

    Since the First Amendment free speech guarantee guards against abridgment by a government, the big question for U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh is whether YouTube has become the functional equivalent of a “public forum” run by a “state actor” requiring legal intervention over a constitutional violation.

    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/google-beats-lawsuit-accusing-youtube-censoring-conservatives-1097631

      • It had to start somewhere. For all the damage they are capable of doing, California has some of the finest consumer protection laws in the world.

        The judge is correct in wanting to make a clear legal distinction about whether this (along with several other Internet giants) constitutes some sort of public utility that is obliged to operate within the boundaries of a legal trust or are they sole private enterprise that is not even obliged to explain or fully reveal what they really are doing.

        Ever since 2016, the degree of explicit media bias against all Conservative values has skyrocketed. The more “disinfecting sunlight” that can be shed upon this phenomenon the better off the public will be.

        This is going to be a very ugly “root-and-branch” eradication effort that will need to “march back through the institutions” and choke off a central vector (or three) of Postmodernism.

        I will freely admit to previously underestimating how interconnected Postmodernism is with respect to this site’s main Islamic focus, especially when it comes to Root Cause analysis of Liberal behavior.

        This is going to be a rough ride.