Reader’s Links, May 17, 2018

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About Eeyore

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

153 Replies to “Reader’s Links, May 17, 2018”

  1. “Financial Discrimination”: NRA Files Suit Against the State of New York

    The National Rifle Association has filed a financial discrimination lawsuit against the state of New York, claiming that government officials in Albany threatened banks with fines and political punishment unless they cut ties with the gun-rights organization. According to the lawsuit, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York’s Department of Financial Services implemented a “blacklisting campaign” against any financial companies who did business with the NRA. The lobbying group alleges that Cuomo and the Democrats infringed the NRA’s right to “speak freely about gun-related issues and defend the Second Amendment.”

    “Directed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, this campaign involves selective prosecution, backroom exhortations, and public threats with a singular goal—to deprive the NRA and its constituents of their First Amendment right to speak freely about gun-related issues and defend the Second Amendment,” the lawsuit states. “Simply put, Defendants made it clear to banks and insurers that it is bad business in New York to do business with the NRA.”

    In a statement, Cuomo said the lawsuit was without merit, blasting the NRA for a “futile and desperate attempt to advance its dangerous agenda to sell more guns.”

    “In New York,” the governor said, “we won’t be intimidated by frivolous court actions from a group of lobbyists bent on chipping away at commonsense gun safety laws that many responsible gun owners actually support. We have an obligation to protect New Yorkers, and this sham suit will do nothing to stop that.”

    http://patriotnewsdaily.com/financial-discrimination-nra-files-suit-against-the-state-of-new-york/

  2. Traitorous Obama Aides: Europe Should Kick Out Trump’s Diplomats

    Liberal pundits scoff and accuse conservatives of hysterical exaggeration when a Limbaugh or a Levin says that Democrats love our European allies more than they love America itself, but there’s never been greater proof of this dichotomy than a new op-ed in The New York Times. In the piece, authored by two former advisers to the Obama administration, the Democrats are so upset about President Trump’s decision to yank us out of the Iran nuclear agreement that they actually encourage Europe to KICK U.S. DIPLOMATS OUT OF THEIR COUNTRIES. Like, we knew the #Resistance was deranged and we knew the left was outraged about the fall of Obama’s misbegotten legacy, but this brings the insanity to a whole new level.

    On Friday, Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson (both former members of Obama’s National Security Council) wrote in The New York Times that “Europe doesn’t have to be Trump’s doormat.” In the piece, Simon and Stevenson actively encourage our European allies to break away from Trump when it comes to the Iran nuclear deal, despite the fact that Trump has warned these countries not to violate newly-reinforced sanctions on Iranian businesses. As far as these two Obama goons are concerned, Europe should not only defy the U.S. when it comes to those sanctions, they should go a step further and punish America for walking away from the deal.

    “Notwithstanding an abundance of kvetching, European powers have not yet shown Mr. Trump that he has anything to fear from ignoring their wishes,” they wrote. “Since taking office, Mr. Trump has treated Europe like a doormat, questioning the value of NATO, ridiculing the mission of the European Union and dismissing European exhortations on policy matters.”

    http://patriotnewsdaily.com/traitorous-obama-aides-europe-should-kick-out-trumps-diplomats/

    • … the Democrats are so upset about President Trump’s decision to yank us out of the Iran nuclear agreement that they actually encourage Europe to KICK U.S. DIPLOMATS OUT OF THEIR COUNTRIES.

      Aren’t there sedition laws that address this sort of misconduct? Seriously…

      Perhaps we need federal laws prohibiting former administration participants from attempting to interfere with a new president’s foreign policy. I’m not a fan of new laws (to say the least), but this uninterrupted sabotage and constant undermining of Trump—or any other sitting American President, for that matter—is as unacceptable as it is intolerable.

      Let’s dry-lab* this entire shooting match with a single, simple, binary (i.e., yes or no) question:

      Did 0bama experience even a slight percentage of the outright harassment and disruption of policy—particularly, through concerted, overt efforts by the Fifth Estate—that Trump has during his brief tenure in office?

      * To “dry-lab” a problem is to construct a solution–scenario whose introduction, examination, and review doesn’t get manage to get any of the laboratory’s glassware wet.

      0bama certainly experienced some (often justifiable) political opposition by Conservative elements during his chair-warming time in the Oval Office. Regardless, the incandescent hostility, instant resort to violence, immediate reduction to name-calling, and ready abandonment of all personal ethics or journalistic credo currently being directed at Trump and his “deplorables” (in some eighteen short months) goes light years beyond whatever resistance or disagreement that 0bama ever encountered in all eight years of his ghastly executive malfeasancepresidency“.

      When history’s ledger is filled out at its bottom line, the Left will have hell to pay for this Islamo–Liberal wrecking ball that they’ve unleashed to the West.

  3. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: NRA ‘Just Shy of a Terrorist Organization

    The former DNC Chair said, “People … are dying as a result of the infection that is the spread of assault weapons thanks to the NRA…”

    Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told the Huffington Post Tuesday that the NRA is “just shy of a terrorist organization.”

    Her statement came in response to newly-chosen NRA president Oliver North’s comments about gun control proponents who emerged following the February 14 Parkland attack.

    The Washington Times quoted North talking about threats which some have directed toward the NRA, including splashing blood “on the Virginia home of a top NRA official.” He said, “They call them activists. That’s what they’re calling themselves. They’re not activists — this is civil terrorism. This is the kind of thing that’s never been seen against a civil rights organization in America.”

    Schultz responded, telling the HuffPo, “The NRA is kind of just shy of a terrorist organization. They have done everything they can to perpetuate the culture of violence that we have in our country with the spread of assault weapons across the nation.”

    She added, “People that are dying as a result of the infection that is the spread of assault weapons thanks to the NRA are being murdered in cold blood without any cessation or interest on the part of the NRA to do anything about it.”

    Breitbart News reported FBI crime stats for 2016 showing over four times as many people were stabbed to death than were killed with rifles of any kind. According to FBI Uniform Crime Report Table 12, there were approximately 374 people shot and killed with rifles of any kind in 2016. A fraction of these 374 fatalities would have been due to “assault weapons.” At the same time, 1,604 people killed with “knives or cutting instruments.”

    AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at aw********@br*******.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/05/16/debbie-wasserman-schultz-nra-just-shy-of-a-terrorist-organization/

    • Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told the Huffington Post Tuesday that the NRA is “just shy of a terrorist organization.

      And the treasonous actions of this National Security-violating Liberal Narrative Whore™ aren’t “terrorist” in nature when a Congressional Code Dump© ends up in jihadist hands?

      Who’s farking kidding whom?

      Debbie “Ramen Hair” Wasserman Schultz is a principal front-bench player of the Deep State’s current first-string lineup. She’s here so someone of blue-blood Liberal credentials can primly step into Nancy Pelosi’s still-warm shoes when that lunatic hag links arms with (fellow lunatic hag), Hillary, and tiptoes off to the harp farm. (Entrance thereto dubious, at best.)

    • Buses with garlands …

      What! No Teddy bears, candles or massive waves of floral bouquets?!? Can the EU possibly be [gasp!] out in front of Gaza’s weak-tea (‘peaceful’ [vomit]) “intifada”?

      Typical “Palestinian” slackers! Unlike their far-less-endearing terrorist ancestors—who (incidentally) could milk dry MSM rubes with the deftness of a Jersey Isle farmgirl—instead, we’re stuck with almost-naïvely transparent taqiyya artistes flagrantly choreographing elaborate tire-burning escapades, “media events” that would shame rival North Korea … if only there was sufficient budget.

      SIDEBAR: After all of this Syrian tommyrot, increased Gulfie (look it up) meddling can only be the day’s order. With growing American primacy in the petroleum markets, inflicting some pain on these piss-ant Royals might get them over their (perceived) addiction to always farting through silk – 24/7/365.

      The question then arises, what kind of parents would voluntarily expose their children to the dangers of a riot?

      As I have repeatedly noted here and elsewhere, second to none, the “Palestinians” devour their young! There can be few more damning indictments of a culture, faith or ethnicity than this one. Such voluntary acceptance of a genetic box canyon—much like that which has been created through homosexuality and abortion—is the doom any race or creed stupid enough to regularly practice it.

      That these cruel Gazan thugs have gained celebrity for strapping bomb vests to retarded adolescents and throwing homosexuals from rooftops scarcely alters Islam’s already fatal trajectory (perceived or otherwise). It is solely a matter of increased (non-Muslim) public awareness and a matter of time that is required to determine this morbid outcome. Let it officially be known that I’m not betting on the Muslims.

      Islam is on a drastic collision course with reality. The sooner that this impact takes place, the better for all involved. Ironically; quite possibly best of all for Islam and Muslims as a whole. The longer that this kenisis is denied or delayed (there is a difference), the more devastating whatever end results will be, especially for Islam.

      There is no way around this. Being less militarily and industrially developed overall, Muslim majority nations, like so many other supremacist, quasi-monolithic, ideological, socio-geographic constructs (throughout all of human history), will suffer the same fate, or worse, as Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Evidently, Muslims just haven’t yet gotten the memo.

      SIDEBAR: That all levels of apparatchiks in Communist Russia, East Germany, and numerous other post-Cold War Soviet Bloc governments skirted the same retribution which richly greeted WWII Berlin and Tokyo remains a festering, grievous injustice in this modern world.

  4. The First Pro-Israel Administration
    Why Trump can be pro-Israel when no one else could.
    May 17, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    After Hamas terrorists kidnapped and murdered three Israel teens (one of them Israeli-American), Barack Obama urged Israel not to “destabilize the situation.”

    Secretary of State John Kerry warned that, “The perpetrators must be brought to justice… without destabilizing the situation.” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psak told, “Both sides to exercise restraint and avoid the types of steps that could destabilize the situation.”

    When Hezbollah terrorists opened fire on Israeli villages and took two the bodies of two Israeli soldiers as hostages, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted, “All sides must act with restraint to resolve this incident peacefully.” When Hamas kidnapped Gilad Shalit, another soldier, she urged Israel to “Calm the situation, not to let the situation escalate and give diplomacy a chance to work.”

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270206/first-pro-israel-administration-daniel-greenfield

  5. North Korea Threatens to Cancel Trump-Kim Summit
    Now is the time to “speak softly and carry a big stick.”
    May 17, 2018
    Joseph Klein

    The nuclear summit between North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump, scheduled to take place on June 12th in Singapore, may not happen after all. The North Korean regime has objected to the ongoing ‘Max Thunder’ joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. Its state-run news agency KCNA stated, “The United States will also have to undertake careful deliberations about the fate of the planned North Korea-U.S. summit in light of this provocative military ruckus jointly conducted with the South Korean authorities.” North Korea showed that it meant business by cancelling a separate high-level meeting with South Korea. However, North Korea had not made the discontinuance of the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises a precondition to holding the summit meeting in the first place. Moreover, in an apparent response to North Korea’s complaint, the United States and South Korea decided to downscale the exercises, excluding B-52 strategic bombers and eight F-22 Raptors from the drill. Still North Korea is balking. Raising the exercises now as a reason for cancelling the summit is just a pretext to further justify the real reason that the North Korean regime is growing uneasy about moving forward with the summit. The North Korean regime is pushing back on the U.S.’s definition of complete denuclearization, which the regime claims amounts to a demand for “unilateral nuclear abandonment.”

    What appears to have spooked the North Koreans was National Security Adviser John Bolton’s invocation of the “Libyan model” to describe what the Trump administration is expecting the North Korean regime to do with all its nuclear weapons. The late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi had accepted the U.S. proposal to completely dismantle his nuclear program, which was then in its preliminary stages, in return for sanctions relief. Qaddafi’s regime was toppled, and he was killed in a bloody fashion by NATO backed rebels in 2011. Kim Jong-un will not yield to U.S. pressure to give up his entire arsenal of nuclear weapons, which he views as a necessary insurance for his regime’s survival and his own personal safety.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270207/north-korea-threatens-cancel-trump-kim-summit-joseph-klein

  6. The Democrats’ Kanye Problem
    The electoral disaster the Left sees on the horizon.
    May 17, 2018
    Walter Williams

    In the aftermath of the Kanye West dust-up, my heart goes out to the white people who control the Democratic Party. My pity stems from the hip-hop megastar’s November announcement to his packed concert audience that he did not vote in the presidential election but if he had, he would have voted for Donald Trump. Then, on April 21, West took to his Twitter account, which has 28 million followers, to announce, “I love the way Candace Owens thinks.” Owens is Turning Point USA’s director of urban engagement and has said that former President Barack Obama caused “damage” to race relations in the United States during his two terms in office.

    West’s support for Trump, along with his criticism of the “plantation” mentality of the Democratic Party, has been met with vicious backlash from the left. In one song, West raps, “See, that’s the problem with this damn nation. All blacks gotta be Democrats. Man, we ain’t made it off the plantation.” Rep. Maxine Waters said West “talks out of turn” and advised, “He should think twice about politics — and maybe not have so much to say.” The bottom-line sin that West has committed is questioning the hegemony of the Democratic Party among black Americans. The backlash has been so bad that West had to hire personal security to protect him against threats made against his life. Fortunately, the police are investigating those threats.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270208/democrats-kanye-problem-walter-williams

    • Rep. Maxine Waters said West “talks out of turn” and advised, “He should think twice about politics — and maybe not have so much to say.

      Sounds like a not-so-veiled threat to me. Maybe Kayne West should consider diverting some of those millions he has over to unseating Maxine Waters.

      After all, it couldn’t happen to a nicer person…

  7. On “Leaking” the Financial Documents of Private Citizens
    May 17, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    The New Yorker has a story in which it describes, what it claims, is a law-enforcement official, a broad category that includes plenty of Obama people embedded in the government, “leaking” Michael Cohen’s financial records to the media.

    1. The grotesque abuse of the term “leak” has been going for some time. But when you pass along the private financial records of a person you don’t like, that’s not a leak. Just as if the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office had succeeded, that would not have been a leak. It would have been a criminal act.

    You can argue that releasing government records is a leak. Stealing and distributing the records of people in the political opposition whom you don’t like, isn’t a leak. It’s doxxing. Call it what it is.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/270210/leaking-financial-documents-private-citizens-daniel-greenfield

  8. Disgraced Coward Cop Gets Mind-Blowing Pension

    Disgraced Florida massacre cop now gets $8K-a-month pensionScot Peterson, a former deputy with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, has reportedly started to receive a hefty pension — three months after he retired amid the aftermath of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

    Peterson, a 33-year law enforcement veteran, was the resource deputy stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 when 17 people were killed by gunfire.

    As one of the largest mass shootings in modern US history unfolded, Peterson never entered the building where alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz was opening fire and instead took up a position outside the building that was under attack.

    Peterson, 55, was widely criticized for his actions, and Broward Sheriff Scott Israel opened an internal investigation. The deputy resigned and retired on Feb. 23 “rather than face possible terminatio

    https://nypost.com/2018/05/15/disgraced-florida-massacre-cop-now-gets-8k-a-month-pension/

    • Disgraced Florida massacre cop now gets $8K-a-month pension…

      Please let me know when I can dodge my own oath-of-office duties and cash in on over $250 per day in retirement gravy. Holy crap, this SOB must be drowning in the pan drippings alone.

  9. China Offered Trump $200 Billion Cut in U.S. Trade Deficit, Official Says

    China has offered President Donald Trump a $200 billion reduction in its annual trade surplus with the U.S. by increasing imports of American products and other steps, said a Trump administration official.

    China made the offer during talks in Washington this week as Chinese Vice Premier Liu He visited to try to resolve a trade dispute, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Liu met with Trump Thursday afternoon at the White House.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-17/china-said-to-offer-trump-200-billion-cut-in-u-s-trade-deficit

    • China Offered Trump $200 Billion Cut in U.S. Trade Deficit, Official Says

      Sounds like somebody’s running scared…

      Last question: Why weren’t Bush, Clinton, Bush 2.0 or 0bama able to do in multiple administrations what Trump has achieved in eighteen months?

  10. NATIONAL REVIEW – Spinning a Crossfire Hurricane: The Times on the FBI’s Trump Investigation ANDREW C. MCCARTHY

    The paper buries more than one lede.

    If you’re a fading Baby Boomer, you’re faintly amused that the FBI code-named its Trump-Russia investigation “Crossfire Hurricane.” It’s an homage to the Rolling Stones golden oldie “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” — which, come to think of it, might just be a perfect handle for John Brennan, the former Obama CIA director whose specter hovers over each critical juncture of the case.

    The young’uns may not believe it, but back before it was known as “classic rock,” you couldn’t just play your crossfire hurricane on Spotify. You had to spin it. Fittingly, that is exactly what the New York Times has done in Wednesday’s blockbuster report on the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

    The quick take on the 4,100-word opus is that the Gray Lady “buried the lede.” Fair enough: You have to dig pretty deep to find that the FBI ran “at least one government informant” against the Trump campaign — and to note that the Times learned this because “current and former officials” leaked to reporters the same classified information about which, just days ago, the Justice Department shrieked “Extortion!” when Congress asked about it.

    But that’s not even the most important of the buried ledes. What the Times story makes explicit, with studious understatement, is that the Obama administration used its counterintelligence powers to investigate the opposition party’s presidential campaign.

    That is, there was no criminal predicate to justify an investigation of any Trump-campaign official. So, the FBI did not open a criminal investigation. Instead, the bureau opened a counterintelligence investigation and hoped that evidence of crimes committed by Trump officials would emerge. But it is an abuse of power to use counterintelligence powers, including spying and electronic surveillance, to conduct what is actually a criminal investigation.

    The Times barely mentions the word counterintelligence in its saga. That’s not an accident. The paper is crafting the media-Democrat narrative. Here is how things are to be spun: The FBI was very public about the Clinton-emails investigation, even making disclosures about it on the eve of the election. Yet it kept the Trump-Russia investigation tightly under wraps, despite intelligence showing that the Kremlin was sabotaging the election for Trump’s benefit. This effectively destroyed Clinton’s candidacy and handed the presidency to Trump.

    It’s a gas, gas, gas!

    It’s also bunk. Just because the two FBI cases are both referred to as “investigations” does not make them the same kind of thing.

    The Clinton case was a criminal investigation that was predicated on a mountain of incriminating evidence. Mrs. Clinton does have one legitimate beef against the FBI: Then-director James Comey went public with some (but by no means all) of the proof against her. It is not proper for law-enforcement officials to publicize evidence from a criminal investigation unless formal charges are brought.

    In the scheme of things, though, this was a minor infraction. The scandal here is that Mrs. Clinton was not charged. She likes to blame Comey for her defeat; but she had a chance to win only because the Obama Justice Department and the FBI tanked the case against her — in exactly the manner President Obama encouraged them to do in public commentary.

    By contast, the Trump case is a counterintelligence investigation. Unlike criminal cases, counterintelligence matters are classified. If agents had made public disclosures about them, they would have been committing crimes and violating solemn agreements with foreign intelligence services — agreements without which those services would not share information that U.S. national-security officials need in order to protect our country.

    In the scheme of things, though, the problem is not that the FBI honored its confidentiality obligations in the Trump case while violating them in the Clinton case. The scandal is that the FBI, lacking the incriminating evidence needed to justify opening a criminal investigation of the Trump campaign, decided to open a counterintelligence investigation. With the blessing of the Obama White House, they took the powers that enable our government to spy on foreign adversaries and used them to spy on Americans — Americans who just happened to be their political adversaries.

    The Times averts its eyes from this point — although if a Republican administration tried this sort of thing on a Democratic candidate, it would be the only point.

    Like the Justice Department and the FBI, the paper is banking on Russia to muddy the waters. Obviously, Russia was trying to meddle in the election, mainly through cyber-espionage — hacking. There would, then, have been nothing inappropriate about the FBI’s opening up a counterintelligence investigation against Russia. Indeed, it would have been irresponsible not to do so. That’s what counterintelligence powers are for.

    But opening up a counterintelligence investigation against Russia is not the same thing as opening up a counterintelligence investigation against the Trump campaign.

    The media-Democrat complex has tried from the start to conflate these two things. That explains the desperation to convince the public that Putin wanted Trump to win. It explains the stress on contacts, no matter how slight, between Trump campaign figures and Russians. They are trying to fill a gaping void they hope you don’t notice: Even if Putin did want Trump to win, and even if Trump-campaign advisers did have contacts with Kremlin-tied figures, there is no evidence of participation by the Trump campaign in Russia’s espionage.

    That is the proof that would have been needed to justify investigating Americans. Under federal law, to establish that an American is acting as an agent of a foreign power, the government must show that the American is purposefully engaging in clandestine activities on behalf of a foreign power, and that it is probable that these activities violate federal criminal law. (See FISA, Title 50, U.S. Code, Section 1801(b)(2), further explained in the last six paragraphs of my Dec. 17 column.)

    But of course, if the FBI had had that kind of evidence, they would not have had to open a counterintelligence investigation. They would not have had to use the Clinton campaign’s opposition research — the Steele dossier — to get FISA-court warrants. They would instead have opened a criminal investigation, just as they did on Clinton when there was evidence that she committed felonies.

    To the contrary, the bureau opened a counterintelligence investigation in the absence of any (a) incriminating evidence, or (b) evidence implicating the Trump campaign in Russian espionage. At the height of the 2016 presidential race, the FBI collaborated with the CIA to probe an American political campaign. They used foreign-intelligence surveillance and informants.

    That’s your crossfire hurricane.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/crossfire-hurricane-new-york-times-report-buries-lede/

  11. Exclusive: Manafort’s former son-in-law cuts plea deal, to cooperate with government – sources
    Nathan Layne
    4 MIN READ

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – The former son-in-law of Paul Manafort, the one-time chairman of President Donald Trump’s campaign, has cut a plea deal with the Justice Department that requires him to cooperate with other criminal probes, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort-exclusive/exclusive-manaforts-former-son-in-law-cuts-plea-deal-to-cooperate-with-government-sources-idUSKCN1II2YM

  12. ‘The ground will be filled with your blood’: ISIS fanatics threaten to BEHEAD Messi and Ronaldo in posters warning of attacks at the World Cup
    Mocked-up image shows Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo pinned to ground
    Two knife-wielding jihadists shown hacking at their necks in a packed stadium
    Comes along with chilling message: ‘The ground will be filled with your blood’
    Second poster shows jihadist in a stadium with the caption: ‘Victory will be ours’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5739273/ISIS-fanatics-threaten-BEHEAD-Messi-Ronaldo.html

    • ISIS fanatics threaten to BEHEAD Messi and Ronaldo in posters warning of attacks at the World Cup

      PERFECT!

      Seriously, folks. It just doesn’t get any better than this. And we’re not talkin’ about Old Milwaukee beer, here.

      Watching Putin tail-chase to put out all of the terrorist fires he’s started or fanned in the past twenty years almost inspires me to purchase (more) popcorn stock certificates.

      As I’ve constantly asserted here and elsewhere, it will be most instructive to watch how KGB thugs like Putin deal with his terrorist counterparts. There will be much amusement to be had seeing which outrageous legal or judicial abuses will be allowed to slide under radar as Russia puts lipstick on its latest anti-terrorist pig.

      Even more critical will be watching which particularly heinous Russian abuses Western MSM outlets give the pass to.

  13. TEL AVIV – Footage released by the IDF Wednesday shows a Hamas terrorist who was arrested when he breached the border into Israel explaining how the terror group cynically exploits the ongoing riots to prevent an uprising in the Gaza Strip, and women and children are instructed to advance to the front row of the bloody protests with the promise that the “army doesn’t kill women or children.”
    “Hamas organizes these riots so the people won’t revolt,” said the Gazan.

    “They’re the ones controlling the Strip, ruling it. Everything that happens goes through them,” he added.

    This is in stark contrast to claims made by both the Palestinians and elements of the western media that the so-called March of Return protests are peaceful and civilian-led.

    http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/05/17/hamas-terrorist-confession-civilians-forced-to-join-riots-to-prevent-uprising/

    Note: sounds like Hamas is copying Gandhi’s methodology – put women and children in harm’s way and tell them they are safe, capitalize on their deaths. Worked for Gandhi!!!

    • Note: sounds like Hamas is copying Gandhi’s methodology – put women and children in harm’s way and tell them they are safe, capitalize on their deaths. Worked for Gandhi!!!

      The only minor difference being that Ghandi wasn’t seeking genocide against the British.

  14. Dozens of migrants die after being expelled from Algeria (memo, May 17, 2018)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180517-dozens-of-migrants-die-after-being-expelled-from-algeria/

    “Dozens of migrants have died from dehydration from the Sahara Desert’s scorching heat and thousands more remain stranded following a wave of deportations by Algeria.

    Last year Algeria launched a crackdown on illegal immigration as well as stringent border controls across its southern frontier, with Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel labelling migrants as “a threat to national security”.

    In response to the crisis, the United Nations migration agency (IOM) said it is providing shelter for 3,500 expelled migrants in neighbouring Niger.

    According to Giuseppe Loprete, IOM chief of mission in Niger, 1,500 arrived at the remote border village of Assamakka on a single day last month and IOM estimates state that at least 7,000 are expected to pass through in the year to June.

    Migrants dropped there by Algerian authorities face a 250-mile journey to the nearest town. Many give up seeking transport and are forced to walk in extreme temperatures of up to 48 degrees Celsius.

    “Most of them have no money or identity documents, food or water,” Loprete said.

    “The territory makes it difficult to verify numbers but most groups we find have reported deaths along the way,” Loprete said. “Recently we found a group that started out as 50 but only six remained alive. The total number of deaths must be in the dozens in this current crisis and definitely in the thousands since 2015.”

    The area has witnessed large migration flows as Niger’s border with war-torn Libya is formally closed and heavily militarised, diverting the stream of migrants towards the Algerian border. Unofficial estimates put the total number of undocumented migrants in Algeria at 100,000…”

      • Infiltration seems very easy but exfiltration very difficult.

        Please rest assured that (temporary) “exfiltration” works just fine.

        Invade Europe by any means necessary. Hang around for a sufficient length of time to accumulate enough social benefits and, Hey Presto!, an all-expenses-paid “Old Home” week or two back in your native country—that you’re absolutely, positively, indisputably, abjectly, hysterically, terrified of returning to—courtesy of the mouth-breathing EU morons in Brussels.

    • Last year Algeria launched a crackdown on illegal immigration as well as stringent border controls across its southern frontier, with Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel labelling migrants as “a threat to national security”.

      Which is perfectly acceptable for some African country to say, but the instant any EU nation says the exact same thing, it’s 120dB howls of “waaaaaycist!!!”

  15. UAE issues mosques with list of dos and don’ts (alaraby, May 17, 2018)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/5/17/uae-issues-mosques-with-list-of-dos-and-donts

    “UAE mosques were issued with a list of new dos and don’ts this week, in the latest attempt by authorities to control public life.

    The new stipulations cover all mosques in the UAE and range from orders requiring licenses for bringing food into places of worship, to staff recruitment.

    President Sheikh Khalifa al-Nahyan’s orders include efforts to ensure that all mosque staff are Emiratis, but does state that in the absense of UAE nationals foreigners can be recruited.

    Anyone giving a sermon, talk, holding workshops or organising Quran study groups in a mosque will also first need a license from authorities.

    This also applies to religious, cultural or social events in mosques.

    Worshippers will also need a license from the government to bring in or consume food in mosque premises.

    “The law prohibits those working in mosques from belonging to any illegal group or from carrying out any political or organisational activity,” the official WAM news agency reported.

    “The law also prohibits employees from preaching and recitation, teaching religious lessons and running Quran memorisation activities outside mosques or involvement in entities authorised to participate in any media activities without prior permission from the competent authority.”

    A draft law banning unauthorised religious meetings and sermons was passed last November.

    The UAE has pushed forward other tough laws limiting free association in public places and the emergence of potential civil society platforms.

    Laws banning most forms of discrimination have been put in place, although critics believe these laws are being enforced to punish government critics rather than to encourage religious tolerance.”

    • The law also prohibits employees from preaching and recitation, teaching religious lessons and running Quran memorisation activities outside mosques or involvement in entities authorised to participate in any media activities without prior permission from the competent authority.

      Priceless.

      Outlaw one of the grandest pastimes that there is in all of Islam.

      Be still my beating heart.

  16. Egypt’s army kills 19 ‘takfiris’ in Sinai anti-terror operations: Armed Forces spokesman (ahram, May 17, 2018)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/299664/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-army-kills–takfiris-in-Sinai-antiterror-op.aspx

    “Egypt’s military and police forces have killed 19 “takfiris” and arrested 20 criminal suspects over the past few days as part of an offensive to crush terrorism in the northern and central Sinai Peninsula, the Armed Forces spokesperson said on Thursday.

    Ten takfiris were killed in an exchange of fire with army forces during raids in northern and central Sinai, the spokesman said in a video showing footage and photos of the operation, which was published on his official Facebook page.

    Police forces killed another nine takfiris in the North Sinai capital city of El-Arish, Colonel Tamer El-Refaie added.

    Twenty criminal fugitives and suspects have also been arrested…”

  17. Islamic Feminist Asma Lamrabet Publishes ‘Women and Men in the Qur’an’ in the US (moroccoworldnews, May 17, 2018)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/05/246511/asma-lamrabet-women-and-men-in-the-quran-us/

    “Moroccan biologist, author, and prominent Islamic feminist Asma Lamrabet has chosen to publish her latest book, “Women and Men in the Qur’an,” in the United States.

    In her book, Lamrabet defies preconceived Islamophobic ideas about subjects like the treatment of Muslim women, as she frames Islam as an egalitarian spiritual ethic.

    The 195-page book has been published by Palgrave Macmillan and is translated from its original French version by Muneera Salem-Murdock, the former resident director of the Millennium Challenge Corporation in Morocco.

    The book distinguishes the spiritual message message of Islam from the socio-political context at the time of its revelation, challenging notions of oppression and patriarchy commonly held in the West.

    “Stuck between a Western rhetoric that portrays them as obedient figures in search of an impossible freedom, the majority of Muslim women find themselves stuck in this eternal duality,” Asma Lamrabet noted while presenting her book.

    Moreover, Lamrabet advocates for “a deep reconsideration of the spiritual message of Islam toward human relations as expressed in innumerable verses in the Quran that highlight the importance of shared responsibility, and mutual respect and support between men and women.”

    “Asma Lamrabet’s book makes a convincing argument through two essential points: first, the non-existence of the notion of the universal Muslim woman, and second, the fact that the patriarchal interpretation on the status of women in Islam is not supported by the Quran,” explained Peter Mandaville, professor in George Mason University.

    Born in 1961, Lamrabet is the founder of a working group for women’s issues and intercultural dialogue, and a major contributor to “Third Way” feminism, a movement that questions religious patriarchy and fights sexism in Islam.

    In March, Lamrabet resigned from her position as director in the Mohammadian League of Scholars, “Rabita Mohammadia of Oulemas,” due to disagreements over equality of inheritance between men and women.”

  18. Five) suicide bombers killed as brazen attack on FC Quetta centre foiled (tribune, May 17, 2018)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1712710/1-explosions-firing-heard-quetta/

    “Quetta was saved from a major disaster after security forces foiled a major terrorist attack on Thursday night, killing all five suicide bombers who tried to storm a Frontier Corps (FC) compound in the city.

    The terrorists mounted the attack on FC’s Madadgar Centre, presumably in retaliation for the killing of the Balochistan LeJ chief, Salman Badeni, a day earlier, in one of the city’s most secure neighbourhoods near Quetta cantonment.

    The first suicide bomber detonated an explosive-laden vehicle outside the centre’s gate.
    Subsequently, four more terrorists wearing suicide vests tried to enter the Help Centre, but were challenged by security personnel manning the gate.

    At least eight security personnel were injured in the attack and were being treated at the Combined Military Hospital. One of them was in a critical condition, according to medics.

    The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the brazen attack…”

    • Quetta was saved from a major disaster after security forces foiled a major terrorist attack on Thursday night, killing all five suicide bombers who tried to storm a Frontier Corps (FC) compound in the city.

      I sincerely do not know whether to weep or cheer…

      All of this would have been so easier, had it been in Lahore.

      (The name says it all!)

  19. At least one dead, 11 injured in Nowshera suicide attack (tribune, May 17, 2018)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1712490/1-least-one-dead-five-injured-nowshera-suicide-blast/

    “At least one person was killed and 11 others were injured in a suicide attack on a convoy of security forces on Thursday in the Kachehri Chowk area of Nowshera city.

    The suicide bomber was reportedly the one killed. Five Frontier Corps (FC) officials and six civilians are among the injured, according to police.

    Investigators from the intelligence agencies revealed that six people were travelling in the vehicle which was targeted…”

    • The UN agency for Palestinian refugees is fuelling “unrealistic” hopes of return after 70 years of exodus and is therefore helping keep the Mideast conflict alive, Switzerland’s foreign minister has said

      Yet another wearied EU diplo finally takes a glimpse of the elephant in the parlor.

  20. String of homophobic attacks in Berlin’s Neukölln worries LGBT community (thelocal, May 17, 2018)
    https://www.thelocal.de/20180517/string-of-homophobic-attacks-in-berlins-neuklln-worries-lgbt-community

    “In each of the previous four months people have been violently assaulted in Berlin’s Neukölln district because of their sexuality. The queer community is now trying to raise awareness of the issue.

    Neukölln is a district that has become synonymous in Berlin with its liberal and open lifestyle. But on four recent occasions, brutal attacks on members of the LGBT community have seriously damaged that reputation.

    In the early hours of a February morning, a young gay man was singing and dancing in the underground station in Hermannplatz, the district’s central square. Suddenly a group of young men aggressively confronted him, claiming they felt insulted by his extravagant behaviour. An argument ensued that resulted in the man being pushed against the wall and repeatedly punched in the face.

    At the beginning of March, a 24-year-old was walking with his boyfriend down Mainzer Straße, a street a few hundred metres from Hermannplatz, when he was attacked by two men. The couple had ignored the men’s request for a cigarette, leading to one of them punching the 24-year-old and eventually stabbing him in the upper leg.

    Last month, a gay man was attacked by a group of 15 youths on the nearby Sonnenallee. The group hurled homophobic insults at the man, before three of them surrounded him and attacked him with knives and tear gas. As he lay on the ground, they stole his money and phone.

    The last in the series of attacks came on May 4th when a transexual woman was attacked while waiting at a bus stop in Sonnenallee. The attacker punched her in the head, kicked her in the throat and then fled the scene.

    “We have been astonished and shocked at the severity of the violence,” Sebastian Stipp, Berlin Police’s contact person on LGBT issues, told The Local.

    Stipp said that attacks on members of the queer community have happened before in Neukölln, but “the severity is something new.”

    According to Tagesspiegel, hate crime against the queer community has been rising in recent years in Berlin. Between 2015 and 2016 the number of reported attacks in the capital grew by 12 percent, the newspaper reports.

    Stipp notes that there are no recent numbers for hate crime in Neukölln. But police statistics for the whole of Berlin show an increase in attacks on LGBT people between 2012 and 2015. The numbers have stayed stable though in the past two years.

    Members of the LGBT community is now organizing a series of events to raise awareness of the issue. On May 26th, a local bar and gallery in northern Neukölln is organizing a “flamboyant walk” through the neighbourhood…”

  21. Wilders plans Mohammed cartoon contest as he fights discrimination conviction (RT, May 17, 2018)
    https://www.rt.com/news/427045-geert-wilders-court-appeal-cartoon/

    “Firebrand Dutch MP Geert Wilders is to run a Mohammed ‘cartoon-drawing’ contest while he appeals a 2016 conviction for anti-Moroccan comments. The right-wing veteran is perhaps best known for his attacks on Islam.

    Wilders, the founder and current leader of the biggest opposition party in the Dutch parliament, the Party for Freedom (PPV), will return to court on Thursday to appeal a conviction for making “demeaning and insulting” comments against people of Moroccan origin.

    During a 2014 rally, Wilders asked supporters whether they wanted “fewer or more” Moroccans living in the Netherlands. The crowd shouted back: “Fewer! Fewer!” Wilders answered: “We’re going to organize that.”

    Some 6,400 people, many of them Moroccan immigrants, complained about his comments. However, the appeal judges have ordered the prosecution to provide details about how these complaints were handled…”

  22. Paris migrant crisis could spiral out of control, warn charities after two drownings and a stabbing (telegraph, May 17, 2018)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/17/paris-heading-migrant-tragedy-warn-charities-two-drownings-stabbing/

    “A tense migrant crisis in Paris risks spiralling out of control unless the French state intervenes, a group of charities including the Red Cross warned on Thursday, days after two refugees drowned in canals and a third was stabbed.

    Their plea came as daggers are drawn between Paris’ Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo and President Emmanuel Macron’s government, with each claiming the other has failed to deal with the increasingly desperate plight of migrants in the French capital ahead of the 2020 municipal elections.

    Nearly 3,000 of them, many from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Nigeria, are now crammed into tents in three insalubrious camps in Paris, with charities estimating that 80 more are arriving every day.

    More than half are based around the Millénaire supermarket on the banks of the Saint-Denis canal on the outskirts of the 19th arrondissement. French media have already dubbed the growing shanty town “the new Calais” after the notorious “jungle” camp in the northern French port, which was razed late 2016.

    The bulk of the remainder, mainly Afghans, have set up camp even closer to the city centre by the trendy canal Saint-Martin.

    On Thursday, migrant aid charities along with medical and homeless help groups and unions, warned that without “urgent” state intervention, “tragedies are inevitable” due to “tensions” and “a climate of extreme precariousness”.

    On Sunday, a Sudanese migrant was seriously wounded after being stabbed during a fight at the Millénaire camp at the Porte de la Villette, where last week an Afghan migrant accidentally drowned in the Saint-Martin canal after falling in.

    A second, unidentified, body was found in the Saint-Denis canal earlier this month. The signatories warned of a “very serious deterioration in the health and psychological state” of the migrants.

    For weeks, aid workers have demanded police assistance due to fears for their security as tensions flare in the cramped and dirty conditions. Millénaire has only a handful of sanitary cabins and taps.

    Last week, Paris’ mayor sent an angry letter to the prime minister, Edouard Philippe, accusing the government of “abandoning the City of Paris”….”

  23. Armed police seize hand grenades, guns and ammunition as bomb squad descends on lorry in Sussex business park (dailymail, May 17, 2018)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5742477/Bomb-squad-surrounds-Sussex-business-park-suspicion-importing-explosives.html

    “Explosives were discovered attached to the underneath of a lorry in Sussex on Thursday.

    Two plastic cases containing guns, grenades and ammunition were found underneath the HGV, held on by magnets, at Rosier Business Park in Sussex.

    Armed police and military bomb disposal teams swooped on the area in dramatic scenes.

    The area was surrounded by officers and a 100metre exclusion zone was set up as buildings were hurriedly evacuated.

    The National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed they were investigating the driver for importing explosives.

    The driver, a man in his 40s, was arrested at the scene.

    The huge bust comes as police have been put on high alert around Windsor, for the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle.

    Anti-terror barriers have been erected around the town centre and on the route leading to the castle.

    Britain is currently on high alert with the security services warning the threat level for international terrorism is ‘severe’. According to MI5, this means an attack is ‘highly likely’.

    NCA Branch Commander David Norris said: ‘This was a significant seizure of weaponry which, in criminal hands, could have caused untold damage.

    ‘Criminal gangs use these types of weapons to bring fear and violence to our streets. ‘We’re committed to doing all we can to stop them, and in seizing these deadly items we have made the public safer.

    ‘I’d like to pay tribute to our colleagues from Sussex Police and the army who played such a crucial role in today’s operation.

    ‘I’d also like to thank businesses in the vicinity of the Rosier Business Park for their patience in the face of considerable disruption.

    ‘NCA officers remain on the scene and we expect them to be there much of the night. Our investigation into the source and end destination for these weapons continues.’

    Armed officers from Sussex police were also involved…”