Reader’s Links, July 12, 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

120 Replies to “Reader’s Links, July 12, 2018”

    • Quote:”Russia made a decision after Europe imposed economic sanctions on Russia: ‘Let’s create problems for them.”

      IMHO the EU is getting exactly what it deserves.
      My family had a discussion about where would you be safe as a white in 50 years time and we all agreed that Russia was the only place. As I am in the middle of a Stalin history splurge, the irony I felt was obvious.

      • Russia is not a safe place for anybody, exept those who are super-rich and well-connected.
        The place is full of drunken thugs and knife-toting neo-nazis. They hunt muslim immigrants (of which there are plenty), homosexuals and gypsies. But a westerner would be a trophy kill for them.

        • In 50 years time that may well be acceptable if true as opposed to being a dhimmi in what was once your own country but that comment is rather stereotypical and at odds with my family’s own experiences.

          • Things in the US are reversing, granted the left is about to start a long term civil war. Even with the coming war in 50 years if the US isn’t save for Whites no place on earth will be safe for them.

    • Unfortunately, a comedic genius like Cleese no longer seems solely famous for just silly walks. Senescence is suggested.

      • Nope! Have you actually listened to him recently? His style really annoys most Americans as he is an acquired taste and soooo very British but while senescence gets everyone in the end I doubt that senility has caught him yet.

  1. Oldest Tools Outside Africa Found, Rewriting Human Story
    New evidence suggests that our ancient cousins left the continent much earlier than thought.

    Modern humans’ distant relatives left Africa earlier than previously thought—rewriting a key chapter in humankind’s epic prequel, according to a discovery unveiled on Wednesday in Nature.

    Nearly a hundred stone tools found at the Shangchen site in central China may push back the spread of our ancient cousins—hominins—out of Africa by more than a quarter million years.

    The toolmakers lived at Shangchen on and off for 800,000 years between 2.1 and 1.3 million years ago, leaving behind tools that are unprecedented outside of Africa. The site’s oldest tools are roughly 300,000 years older than Dmanisi, a 1.8-million-year-old site in the Republic of Georgia with the oldest known fossils of our extinct cousin Homo erectus.

    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/07/news-china-human-tools-africa-shangchen-hominin-paleoanthropology/

    • As part of my university lectures on additive and subtractive processes, “From Atoms to Architecture”, I show students images of Konso hand axes dated at 300,000 years-old. Then I trot out pictures of replica spears from the Ethiopian Gademotta Formation whose artifacts have been dated at 280,000 years-old.

      Some 20,000 years it took to finally attach one of these stone points to a shaft of (preferably, fire-hardened) wood.

      Most of the pupils are just about insensate to this sort of timeline. In their short lives, the acceleration of technological advances has become nothing short of unbelievable. They are relatively unable to comprehend that their own grandparents grew up in a time when all that flew in the skies were birds, insects, and the occasional kite.

      Less than a hundred years later come nuclear weapons, lunar landings, the ISS space station, and thousands of other developments that too few of them fully understand.

      It probably doesn’t help that my talk starts with big bang and a supernova to walk them through the very oldest additive and subtractive processes.

      • When I was a child if we saw an airplane we ran inside to get the adults because they were rare, execpt the test craft from McDonald Doublas that buzzed my grandparents farm on a regular bases. No the constant low altitude sonic booms didn’t stop the hens laying, that is some BS that lawyers came up with to get money from air transport companies.

  2. Stone tools 2.1 million years old unearthed in China suggest human kin left Africa earlier than thought

    NEW YORK – Stone tools recovered from an excavation in China suggest that our evolutionary forerunners trekked out of Africa earlier than we had thought.

    Until now, the oldest evidence of human-like creatures outside Africa came from 1.8-million-year-old artifacts and skulls found in the Georgian town of Dmanisi. The new find pushes that back by at least 250,000 years. There have been other claims of even older fossil discoveries, the study authors said, but those remain unproven.

    “There may be older evidence in places like India and Pakistan, but so far … the evidence is not strong enough to convince most of the research community,” said study co-author Robin Dennell of Exeter University in England. “With this type of claim, for an early human presence in a region, the evidence has to be absolutely water-tight and bomb-proof.”

    “It’s absolutely a new story,” said archaeologist Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, who did not participate in the study. “It means that early humans were getting out of Africa way earlier than we ever realized.”

    That exit came long before our own species, Homo sapiens, even appeared. The researchers believe the tools were made by another member of the Homo evolutionary group. “Our discovery means that it is necessary now to reconsider the timing of when early humans left Africa,” Dennell said.

    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/07/12/asia-pacific/science-health-asia-pacific/tools-2-1-million-years-old-china-dig-suggest-human-relatives-left-africa-earlier/#.W0dU5bhOmM8

  3. Chinese citizens urged to ‘eat a bug and save a tree’ as summer cicada glut threatens greenery

    An official is hoping to start a trend for chomping on chirpy insects in a bid to stop them devastating willow and cherry blossom trees

    Eat a bug and save a tree: that is the message being sent to the residents of an east China city where an annual explosion in cicada numbers is having a devastating effect on the local greenery.

    • Chinese citizens urged to ‘eat a bug and save a tree’ as summer cicada glut threatens greenery

      Is it permissible to make a reference to “flied lice”?

      • If you want to.

        When was it that some people tried to make chocolate60s covered ants a snack food in the states? 60s 70s?

  4. Riding migration backlash, Sweden’s political pariah looks to end isolation

    STOCKHOLM/VISBY, Sweden – Once denounced as neo-fascists, Jimmie Akesson’s Sweden Democrats look poised to translate more voter-friendly nationalist policies into big electoral gains in a country long famed for liberal tolerance.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sweden-election-swedendemocrats-newsm/riding-migration-backlash-swedens-political-pariah-looks-to-end-isolation-idUSKBN1K20HJ

  5. Amnesty Condemns Iran’s Flogging Of Man For Drinking Alcohol As Teenager (radiofarda, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-amnesty-teenager-flogging-alcohol/29359290.html

    “Amnesty International is denouncing Iran for the public flogging of a young man whose alleged crime was having consumed alcohol at a wedding when he was 14 or 15 years old.

    Amnesty in a statement issued late on July 11 called the flogging “horrific” and “absolutely shocking,” and said it violated international law as well as international conventions on civil and children’s rights.

    The public flogging took place on July 10 in Niazmand Square in Kashmar in Iran’s Razavi Khorasan Province, where the man, who was identified only as M. R., was flogged 80 times on his back for having consumed alcohol at a wedding 10 years ago when he was a teenager.

    The Amnesty statement included an image showing a young man tied to a tree as he was being flogged by a masked man with a crowd of people watching at a distance.

    When contacted on July 12, Amnesty could not independently verify that the image was of the flogging in Kashmar, and said that photo attached to its report was from Iranian news coverage of the incident…”

  6. Yemenis who fled battle for Hodeidah struggle to survive (reuters, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-displaced/yemenis-who-fled-battle-for-hodeidah-struggle-to-survive-idUSKBN1K21VY

    “The United Nations fears the offensive on Hodeidah, whose port is a lifeline for millions of Yemenis, risks exacerbating a humanitarian crisis in which 8.4 million people are believed to be on the verge of starvation.

    Many Yemenis who have fled their homes and farms in and around Hodeidah to head north to the Houthi-held capital Sanaa or to safer areas along the western coast and the southern port city of Aden say they are struggling to survive…”

  7. Pakistan Ex-PM’s Party: Police Arresting Sharif’s Supporters (radiofarda, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://en.radiofarda.com/a/pakistan-ex-pm-s-party-police-arresting-sharif-s-supporters/29359426.html

    “Pakistani police were detaining scores of supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his party said Thursday, claiming it was an attempt to prevent them from staging a welcome-home rally upon the ousted leader’s return from London.

    The Pakistan Muslim League said scores of its members were nabbed in the sweep in eastern Punjab province. The police meanwhile said about 100 were detained “to avoid violence.”…”

  8. Amnesty urges ‘war crimes’ investigation into UAE-run prisons in Yemen (trtworld, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/amnesty-urges-war-crimes-investigation-into-uae-run-prisons-in-yemen-18859

    “An international rights group has called for an investigation into alleged disappearances, torture and possible deaths in detention facilities run by the United Arab Emirates and its allied militias in southern Yemen as potential war crimes.

    Amnesty International’s call comes months after The Associated Press reported that the UAE and allied militias were running a network of secret detention facilities where torture and abuses were widespread, outside the control of Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government.

    ‘Only God knows if he is alive’

    In a report titled “God only knows if he’s alive,” Amnesty said it documented “egregious violations going unchecked, including systemic enforced disappearance and torture and other ill-treatment amounting to war crimes.”

    The UAE issued a statement on Thursday promptly rejecting Amnesty’s report, describing it as “politically motivated to undermine” Emirati efforts as part of the Saudi-led coalition in support of the Yemeni government.

    In Yemen’s three-year-old civil war, the UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, who have taken over most of the country’s north. Ostensibly, the Emiratis and Hadi’s government are allies in the fight, but tensions between them have been high…”

  9. Trump at NATO: ‘Immigration Is Taking Over Europe’ (breitbart, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/12/trump-nato-immigration-is-taking-over-europe/

    “U.S. President Donald J. Trump has told press at the NATO summit on Thursday that he warned the defence union that “immigration is taking over Europe”.

    “I told them today that the EU better be careful because immigration is taking over Europe and I said that loud and clear,” President Trump told a press conference in Brussels, Belgium.

    “You see what’s going on throughout the world with immigration. I probably — if not partially — won an election because of immigration,” President Trump said, observing that the issue of mass, uncontrolled migration is inspiring voters in Europe — and the United States — to elect leaders who are tough on border control.

    Remarking on the formation of the anti-mass migration Five-Star Movement (M5S) and the League (Lega) coalition in Italy, President Trump said: “If you look at Italy, [Prime Minister] Giuseppe [Conte] won his election on his strong immigration policies.”

    The President also observed that Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU) because of uncontrolled immigration…”

  10. Aid workers raped homeless children while working in stricken countries, MPs told (telegraph, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/07/12/aid-workers-raped-homeless-children-working-stricken-countries/

    “Charity workers raped homeless children while working in stricken countries, MPs have been told.

    Corinna Csaky, a development consultant who previously worked for Save the Children, revealed girls as young as 14 were being abused by groups of men at peacekeeping camps, with some filming them on their mobile phones.

    The children are often “on the edge of society”, said Ms Csaky, whose research has suggested significant levels of abuse of boys and girls by aid workers and peacekeepers occurred in emergencies.

    “These children are often alone. They are separated from their families. They are living in extreme poverty. Without the protection and support from families, many are using transaction sex…”

    • ‘The people raping us are those in the office’: Shocking accounts of aid workers abusing children a DECADE ago are set out to MPs probing charity exploitation in wake of Haiti scandal (dailymail, Jul 12, 2018)
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5942397/Shocking-accounts-aid-workers-abusing-children-set-MPs-wake-Haiti-scandal.html

      “Horrific accounts of rape and abuse at the hands of trusted charity workers have been given to British MPs as they investigate exploitation in the charity sector.

      Shocking stories include a girl being given one dollar – before being raped by an aid worker.

      Young boys and girls revealed a decade ago that they were being abused and their families told how they were powerless to act, the International Development Committee heard.

      Corinna Csaky set out evidence from an investigation she carried out in 2008 into the abuse of children by humanitarian staff and peacekeepers.

      Shockingly, Mrs Csaky said an advance copy was sent to the CEO of Oxfam and all major international (non-governmental organisations) NGOs, in 2008, years before the earthquake abuse.

      However, it is now claimed authorities did not do enough to act after 23 organisations were implicated.

      In the report it was claimed the majority of abuse allegations were made against troops associated with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) ‘particularly in Haiti and Côte d’Ivoire’.

      A 14-year-old boy in Cote D’Ivoire quoted in the report said workers at a peacekeeping camp would sometimes ask for girls his age.

      ‘Often it will be between eight and 10 men who will share two or three girls. They also use their mobile phones to film the girls.’

      Children and parents said they were unable to report the abuse.

      ‘The people who are raping us and the people in the office are the same people,’ according to a young girl in Haiti.

      Allegations of attacks by charity sector employees have been exposed since a scandal involving Oxfam in Haiti emerged…”

    • ITALY – Matteo Salvini discusses human trafficking, mafia, biased media + economy in classic live stream

    • Italy: Police detain 35 undocumented migrants at camp in Rome

      Close to 400 migrants residing in Baobab Camp in Rome had their documents checked by police on Thursday morning and 35, all said to be without documents, were detained.

      According to a volunteer at the camp, the “identification operation” is normal.

      “We were afraid they would evict us, but we were assured it is just a control,” she said.

      The migrants’ life is far from easy as they struggle with lack of facilities at the camp.

      “Institutions stay silent about the camp necessities as usual,” said the volunteer.

  11. Former Ambassador to the U.S. Viciously Beaten in Khan’s London (breitbart, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/12/former-ambassador-us-viciously-beaten-london-station/

    “Former British ambassador to the U.S. Sir Christopher Meyer was brutally beaten in one of London’s major railway stations.

    Sir Christopher, 74, was taking the London Underground home when he was attacked on Wednesday afternoon by two youths at Victoria Station, Westminster, who left him with injuries to his left eye, nose, and lip, reports The Times.

    His wife, Baroness Meyer, said that her husband was taken to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, and had been beaten so badly he could not remember the attack.

    “He looks terrible. His left eye is like a golf ball and bleeding, the nose looks like it could be broken,” Baroness Meyer told the newspaper.

    The Times published a picture of Sir Christopher in hospital with a bloodied and swollen face. His wife remarked: “I’m absolutely shocked by the level of the brutality. They really beat him. It’s appalling — like something you would see in a war zone.

    “At first I thought that the attack was politically motivated. He is opinionated, and sometimes people have different opinions, but the police told me they believe that it is more likely that they might have wanted to rob him.

    “Nothing was taken, but the Transport Police intervened quickly,” she added…”

  12. U.S. says ready to keep Strait of Hormuz open in face of Iranian threat. It would be a different fight this time
    By J.E. Dyer July 12, 2018

    Time and the march of technology have done their work. As Iran issues a new threat to shipping in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military issues its recurring assurances that the Gulf will be kept open for business. But the landscape – and seascape – of warfare are changing, and in the unlikely event of a confrontation, keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and safe for commercial passage won’t look the way it would have 20 years ago, or even 10.

    A report by Fox News on 5 July previewed that reality in a barely-noticeable passage deep in the article.

    The Fox report took note of the elliptical threat from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday, 3 July: an implied threat that if the U.S. shut down Iranian oil exports, Iran would see to it that the other oil producers in the Gulf were unable to export their oil.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/12/u-s-says-ready-to-keep-strait-of-hormuz-open-in-face-of-iranian-threat-it-would-be-a-different-fight-this-time/

    • The Fox report took note of the elliptical threat from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday, 3 July: an implied threat that if the U.S. shut down Iranian oil exports, Iran would see to it that the other oil producers in the Gulf were unable to export their oil.

      Everybody goes home happy. NOT!

      • Notice how she pointed how we would be sinking all Iranian ships where ever they might be and taking down their fighters and fighter bombers when found. What would happen to the Iranian regime if we included taking out Army barracks at night when the troops are asleep?

        • Slash their femoral artery.

          “[Iran has] three existential vulnerabilities. The first is that Iran exports 90% of its oil and gas from one port (essentially an island), Kharg, 160 km. southeast from the tip of the Iraq-Iran border, on the Persian/Arab Gulf.

          The revenues Iran derives from that oil and gas amount to at least 40% of government expenditures and around half of Iran’s foreign reserves.

          Meanwhile, the port of Bandar Abbas (“bandar” is “port” in Farsi) on Iran’s southern tip is responsible for 90% of its container trade. The goods brought in by container represent only 15% to 20% of total trade, but they are the goods that make the difference between the 21st and 19th centuries as far as most Iranians are concerned.

          One can safely assume that the Israeli air force has given much consideration to addressing these two major points of Iranian vulnerability.

          The war, then, will be very destructive and very disruptive not only for Israel and Iran but for neighboring states as well. Israel might feel compelled to attack airports in Lebanon, Syria and even Iraq to prevent the movement of Iranian troops and equipment.

          Israel shares Iran’s vulnerability, due to its small size and dense population, especially in its coastal areas, but it has one advantage – Israel’s citizens will be firmly behind its democratically-elected government.

          This might not be the case for the fundamentalist regime of Iran, whose population has been paying dearly for the regime’s imperialist ambitions and will be paying a hundred times dearer if a war breaks out.…

          https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/What-an-Israel-Iran-war-could-look-like-554743

          • In other words taking out the two ports will probably cause the regime to fall, taking out the air force and army would ensure that Iran would be unable to retaliate in any manner.

  13. Nancy Pelosi announces her position on impeachment in event Democrats take back the House
    By Rusty Weiss July 11, 2018

    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi put a serious damper on left-wing fantasies throughout the nation, announcing that impeaching President Trump is “off the table” should Democrats regain control of the House after the midterm elections.

    Pelosi cited 2006, the year she and her party gained control of Congress amid calls for the impeachment of President George W. Bush to illustrate that she has stood firm against the process unless there’s actually some evidence of wrongdoing.

    What the Democrats have right now isn’t enough, she intimated.

    “Going into the [2006] election, I said it’s off the table. I didn’t mean it’s off the table if you had some goods. If somebody has information, then we can act upon it,” she said in a Rolling Stone interview. “But from what we know now, it’s off the table.”

    “Even with Trump. If you got something, show it,” Pelosi added. “But I’m not going after it.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/11/nancy-pelosi-announces-her-position-on-impeachment-in-event-democrats-take-back-the-house/

  14. USA: Guantanamo inmates to demand trial or release in US court hearing

    A legal team for the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed in a petition on behalf of the eight Guantanamo inmates in a district court in Washington DC on Wednesday, demanding that the prisoners are either tried or released.

    The attorneys are challenging US President Donald Trump’s proclamation that there will be no releases from Guantanamo, regardless of the inmate’s circumstances. The attorneys maintain that decade-long detention is unlawful and unconstitutional.

    “There are very high standards for who can be detained, based on a general threat to the public. We are asking the court to apply those same standards to these Guantanamo detentions, 16 years in,” said Senior Managing Attorney at the Centre for Constitutional Rights Shayana Kadidal.

    “We’re saying that the government would have to prove that these men still pose a danger, a real danger of returning to, quote on quote, “to fight against the United States”, even though we contest whether any of them were actually fighting against the United States to begin with. The government doesn’t want to have to prove that,” he added.

    • They are either POWs or Illegal Combatants, either way they don’t have a right to a trial speedy or otherwise.

    • CHAOS at Peter Strzok House Oversight Hearing as Goodlatte Disagrees with Nadler over

      Partisan shouting match erupts at FBI agent Peter Strzok hearing: House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte to Nadler: the gentleman is not recognized.

      Goodlatte refuses FBI policy for Peter Strzok to answer question as he testifies before Congress over anti-Trump text in Russia probe

    • Louie Gohmert vs Peter Strzok EXPLOSIVE Exchange at House Oversight Hearing about anti-Trump Texts

    • Trey Gowdy and Jim Jordan Tag Team on FBI’s Strzok at Congressional Hearing July 12, 2018

    • FBI’s Peter Strzok is a good liar: Jim Kallstrom

      Former FBI Assistant Director Jim Kallstrom discusses FBI official Peter Strzok’s testimony and why he needs to be fired.

    • Bruce Ohr gave parts of Russia dossier to DOJ, FBI: Rep. Jordan

      Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) discusses FBI official Peter Strzok’s testimony on Capitol Hill and how Justice Department official Bruce Ohr gave parts of the Russia dossier to the FBI and DOJ.

    • Democrats’ behavior during Strzok testimony was disgraceful: Rep. DeSantis

      Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) discusses how Democrats interrupted the questioning of FBI official Peter Strzok during his testimony on Capitol Hill.

  15. Democrats are Actually Terrified of the United States Constitution

    It’s funny how you could have predicted the liberal response to Brett Kavanaugh even before you knew that Trump was going to select Brett Kavanaugh. In fact, at least one feminist organization made the mistake of publishing their statement lambasting Kavanaugh without realizing they had left an “XX” placeholder in the first paragraph where the nominee’s name should have been. In other words, they wrote the entire statement before knowing who Trump was going to pick. This gives you an idea of how superficial and trivial the left’s arguments against Trump’s Supreme Court pick really are; they can be exchanged one for another without changing a word.

    And that’s because Democrats don’t really have a problem with Brett Kavanaugh (or Neil Gorsuch, for that matter). No, their problem comes from a much deeper source: An abject fear of the U.S. Constitution and any judge who proclaims it to be the law of the land.

    The left despises constitutional originalists like Gorsuch, Scalia, and Kavanaugh. To hear that a judge will interpret the Constitution “as written” is a shot of kryptonite to liberals, who think it is a judge’s duty to interpret the Constitution through the lens of modern-day America. Through the lens of “progress.” Through the lens of trends. Through the lens of previous liberal court rulings.

    http://www.conservativefreepress.com/legal-scoops/democrats-are-actually-terrified-of-the-united-states-constitution/

  16. Ivanka Harassed at Roundtable Event in New York

    Verbally assaulting Trump administration officials is the new norm these days. The latest victim is Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, who was attending a roundtable event on workforce development at the Institute of Technology at Central High School reading in Syracuse, New York Monday. Upon her arrival, about 100 protesters started chanting “What about the children!” at her. Others waved signs that read “shame” and “Ivanka! Do you know where their children are?” They were demonstrating against the White House’s zero-tolerance policy of separating illegal immigrant families at the border.

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/07/11/ivanka-confronted-at-roundtable-in-new-york-n2499346

    • Trump UK visit: Protesters getting ready

      Anti-Trump organizations making final preparations for their protests against the US leader as he makes his long-awaited official visit to the UK

  17. Trump and the Iranian Revolution
    A recommendation to the president for a winning strategy.
    July 12, 2018
    Michael Ledeen

    As President Trump heads to Helsinki, the North Koreans call him names, and the Iranian regime leaders run from demonstrators throughout the land. These are elements of the global war against us, and we continue to deal with it as a series of separate challenges rather than a world war, to our ongoing detriment.

    The president loves to talk about winning, but he does not appear to have a winning strategy. He seems to be sticking to his plan to mount pressure on our foes in Iran and North Korea, mostly by hitting them with more and more sanctions. Meanwhile he will try to convince Putin to abandon the mullahs in Syria, perhaps easing sanctions on Russia in return.

    I don’t think that will work. I do not know of any case in which sanctions have compelled an enemy to make a significant policy change. Our enemies are totalitarians or authoritarians who are quite prepared to see their people suffer rather than bend to Trump’s wishes. Indeed, it may well be that tyrants actually want their people to suffer for the greater glory of the regime.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270680/trump-and-iranian-revolution-michael-ledeen

    • I like Michael Ledeen and agree with much of what he says. He knows Syria inside-out, good on Iran, and especially the North Korean connection.

      He's also a little, tiny, bit of a warmonger neocon.

      While we can’t be orchestrating a revolution in Iran, we could be doing a LOT more through VoA, RFL, RL, and other resources. Israel has more broadcasting in Farsi than we do.

      The Kurds are only one of the restive ethnic minorities. Help them talk to each other! Latest figures I read, Persians are -at most- 50% of the pop. The entire periphery is a powder-keg, but we can’t be holding the matches.

      Bolton and Pompeo are FINALLY getting their own people in place. 20 months late!

      We’re still shufflin’ & jivin’ in Mesopotamia with McGurk, et al. Playing paddy-cake with the WRONG people. Lebanon is a scandal. 0’s people continue to arm shitte militias [Afghans and Pakis]. We help them displace Sunni locals – caravans of busloads! HELLO?
      …………
      Bibi saw Putin yesterday.
      It doesn’t look like Putin CAN rein in the mullahs. Not without crossing over altogether, and he can’t do that. At most he can look the other way.

      • Politics including international politics is the art of the possible, we have to accept that we can’t get everything we want. Him looking the other way will help, later on in the war he will probably come over to our side.

  18. #WalkAway’s Threat to Democrats’ Base
    A movement launched just weeks ago is crippling the Left.
    July 12, 2018
    Matthew Vadum

    The grassroots #WalkAway movement aimed at getting disaffected Democrats to publicly and conspicuously abandon their increasingly radical, intolerant party is rapidly gaining steam.

    The movement, founded in late May by gay hairstylist Brandon Straka, encourages Americans to share their personal stories of disillusionment with the Democratic Party and abandon, or “walk away,” from the party. #WalkAway primarily encourages the rejection of Democrat radicalism, as opposed to proselytizing on behalf of the Republican Party or Donald Trump.

    “We want people on the right to use their voices and tell the world the truth about whom they are by making videos telling everyone what it means to be a conservative in America and what your values really are,” states the campaign’s website. “Tell minorities on the left, who have been told their whole lives that they are not welcome on the right because of the bigotry and hatred, that they are welcome. Tell them there is a seat at the table on the right for everybody.”

    “This is a movement of Patriots from all walks of life – men, women, black, brown, white, straight, LGBTQ, religious, and non-believers – who share something very important in common. WE ARE ALL AMERICANS and we will not surrender our country.”

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270706/walkaways-threat-democrats-base-matthew-vadum

  19. Explaining American Leftists: Part I
    Privileged monsters on the march.
    July 12, 2018
    Dennis Prager

    As I watch a great number of my fellow Americans and virtually all of the mainstream media descend further and further into irrational and immoral hysteria — regularly calling the president of the United States and all of his supporters Nazis, white supremacists and the like; harassing Republicans where they eat, shop and live; ending family ties and lifelong friendships with people who support the president; declaring their opposition to Trump and the Republican Party the “Resistance,” as if they were American reincarnations of the French who fought real Nazis in World War II; and so on — I ask myself: What is going on? How does one explain them?

    Here are some answers:

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270712/explaining-american-leftists-part-i-dennis-prager

  20. Paul Joseph Watson Video: What They’re Not Telling You About the Brexit Sellout
    Brexit has been betrayed; Theresa must go.

  21. Syrian troops raise national flag over Daraa

    Syrian state TV says the government has raised the national flag over Daraa, the south Syrian city that was the cradle of the 2011 revolt against President Bashar Assad’s rule.

    The al-Ikhbariya TV station is broadcasting footage of officials raising the government’s two-star flag over the rubble of the city after rebels agreed to give up the town earlier Thursday.

    Daraa has suffered catastrophic damage as one of the cities at the center of Syria’s seven-year-long civil war. At least 400,000 people have been killed and 11 million people displaced in the fighting between the government, rebels, and the Islamic State group.
    ==================================================
    Syrian activists and state media say rebels have agreed to surrender Daraa, the first city to revolt against President Bashar Assad with Arab Spring-inspired protests seven years ago, to government forces.

    Ahmad Masalmeh, a media activist formerly based in the southern city, says fighters have the option of accepting an offer of amnesty from the government, or leaving Daraa with their families to other rebel-held parts of the country. Masalmeh says he left Daraa for Jordan four days ago. He spoke to the Associated Press by Skype.

    Daraa governor Mohamad al-Hanous says government forces are in control of 80 percent of the city, according to the government-linked Central Military Media outlet.

    Syrian state media reported late Tuesday that rebels in Daraa had agreed to surrender their heavy and medium weapons.

    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-syrian-troops-raise-national-flag-daraa-56538028

    =================================================

    Syrian troops raise national flag over Daraa, cradle of 2011 revolt

    Rebels agree to give up stronghold in return for amnesty; those who refuse exiled to other areas under opposition control

    Syria’s army entered rebel-held parts of Daraa city on Thursday, state media said, raising the national flag in the cradle of the uprising that sparked the country’s seven-year war.

    “Syrian army units enter Daraa al-Balad and raise the national flag in the main square,” the official news agency SANA said of the center of the southern city.

    On Wednesday, state media said opposition fighters and the regime had reached a deal for rebels to hand over their heavy weapons in Daraa al-Balad and other opposition-held parts of the city.

    That deal come after a ceasefire announced last week stemmed nearly three weeks of regime bombardment on the symbolic wider province of the same name, which borders Jordan.

    The Damascus regime is bent on retaking the whole of Daraa province, including its symbolic capital where 2011 protests against President Bashar Assad are seen to have started the uprising that spiraled into civil war.

    But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the regime forces entering Daraa al-Balad on Thursday was merely “symbolic.”

    Measures to implement the so-called reconciliation deal for rebel-held parts of the city had not yet been implemented, it said.

    “The rebels are still inside Daraa city,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said, but had not yet handed over their heavy weapons and there were no signs of any evacuations.

    Under the deal, “those [rebels] who want to settle their status with the regime will hand over their heavy weapons, keep their light arms, and remain in the city,” he said.

    “Those who refuse the deal will head out towards the north of Syria.”

    The reconciliation deal for Daraa city is the latest in a string of such agreements that have seen the regime retake large parts of the country since 2015.

    They usually follow blistering military campaigns and sometimes stifling sieges that effectively force the rebels into surrendering.

    Previous such deals have seen thousands of rebels bused up to areas still under opposition control in the north of the country.

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-troops-raise-national-flag-over-daraa-cradle-of-2011-revolt/

    • Russia warns Syrian rebels ‘Idlib will be next’: Report

      Free Syrian Army says it is fortifying its defences in the north after Russian negotiators advise that an offensive is planned for September

      Russian officials warned Free Syrian Army (FSA) negotiators in Daraa that they plan to launch an attack on the northern Syrian province of Idlib in September, an FSA spokesman told the SMART opposition news agency.

      The apparent warning came as Syrian army and allied Russian troops laid siege to remaining FSA-held pockets in Deraa City as they were poised to gain complete control after weeks of fighting.

      The Syrian army was also consolidating its grip over the border area with Jordan to the east of the city on Monday, after taking control of the Nassib border crossing, a key trade route, last week.

      Once backed by the West and Jordan, FSA rebels agreed to a surrender deal on 6 July, handing over much of the area they had held for the past seven years along with their arms to the government.

      According to Ibrahim Jibawi, a spokesman for the FSA’s Southern Front Central Operations Room, the Russians advised rebels during a meeting in the Daraa province town of Busra al-Sham not to continue north after Daraa.

      “There was a warning by the Russians for the Free Army not to go to Idlib….’After Daraa, we’ll go to Idlib’,” Jibawi told SMART.

      An FSA military commander was also quoted as telling the news agency that the rebels are now fortifying their bases in Idlib in anticipation of a new offensive.

      The return of Daraa to Assad’s complete control would deal a psychological blow to the opposition since the city came to epitomise the early peaceful protests against Assad’s rule in 2011 that spread across Syria.

      The protests were violently crushed and paved the way for the civil war.

      The United Nations said on 9 July it would immediately start providing humanitarian assistance to thousands of civilian families affected by the fighting in the Daraa, Sweida and Quneitra areas of southern Syria in response to a Syrian government request.

      Since the Daraa offensive started on 19 June, more than 320,000 Syrians were displaced according to the United Nations, and around 150 civilians were killed.

      Almost 200,000 have since returned to their towns, now areas held by the Syrian army, after Jordan shut its border crossing and declared that it would not host more Syrian refugees.

      http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/Russia-FSA-south-Syria-Idlib-Deraa

      =============================================
      twitter :

      After Russia reportedly tells southern rebels that Idlib offensive coming in September, HTS responds with foreign (Egyptian) leader’s threatening “Russians’ holocaust”: “By God, you don’t know what the mujahideen have prepared for you; it will make your children go grey!”

      https://twitter.com/AbuJamajem/status/1017137674140962818

  22. ‘My life is ruined!’: Migrant campaign group urge UK to let foreign students retake English exam

    2014: 30,000+ test results declared ‘INVALID’
    2016: 36,000+ visas revoked

    • Jens Stoltenberg was PM of the AP [“Workers’ Party”] – socialist/communist. His gang gave 0 the Nobel Prize. Paid $120 to the Clinton Foundation to get the Nato job.

    • Strozk is upset that we don’t believe him when he says he didn’t allow his clear bias to interfere with his job. He is also listing the level of corruption that is current existing in the FBI.

  23. Rod Rosenstein’s Bizarre Request for U.S. Attorneys: Please Help the White House Vet Brett Kavanaugh

    Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has made an unusual request to the nation’s federal prosecutors: help the Department of Justice review Brett Kavanaugh‘s long paper trail of government documents.

    Rosenstein made the request in an email titled, “Personal Message to U.S. Attorneys From the Deputy A.G.”

    Typically, Justice Department attorneys help facilitate document production requests for Supreme Court nominees by themselves, but the use of the nation’s leading criminal prosecutors has many observers perplexed.

    Christopher Hunter, a former federal prosecutor who is running for Congress as a centrist Democrat, told the Times:

    https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/rod-rosensteins-bizarre-request-for-u-s-attorneys-please-help-the-white-house-vet-brett-kavanaugh/

  24. Swedish Cardinal: Pope Francis Has ‘Prophetic Voice’ on Immigration (breitbart, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/07/12/swedish-cardinal-pope-francis-has-prophetic-voice-on-immigration/

    “Cardinal Anders Arborelius said in an interview Thursday that although many world leaders do not follow his advice, Pope Francis has a “prophetic voice” regarding immigration and many people are in fact listening to him.

    Speaking with Crux, a U.S.-based online Catholic website, the bishop of Stockholm said that “not many political partners” follow Francis totally, but “people of all creeds and opinions are listening to him, so there is always a possibility for him to help people open up for a more positive outlook on migration.”

    The pope himself has said that this is indeed his goal, to effect a “change in mindset” regarding immigration.

    “We must move from considering others as threats to our comfort to valuing them as persons whose life experience and values can contribute greatly to the enrichment of our society,” the pontiff said last month.

    “For this to happen, our basic approach must be to encounter the other, to welcome, to know and to acknowledge him or her,” he added.

    Arborelius, who received the cardinal’s hat from Pope Francis last year, said that despite the rise in populism and nationalism he does not think “that the entire European project is in danger,” but lamented the fact that “every nation is eager to follow its own policy in these matters.”

    The cardinal said that he regretted Sweden’s tightening of its immigration policy in response to a sharp increase in violent crimes linked to migrants. Like so many countries, he said, Sweden “has changed its attitude and it is much more difficult for refugees to enter the country. I am sorry that Sweden’s policy is not as positive as Pope Francis thought.”

    Although the political currents in Europe are trending toward curbing mass immigration, Arborelius applauded the pope’s use of soft power, by bringing stories of tragedies and suffering before the public eye.

    “We know that people of different backgrounds still listen to the Holy Father and there are sometimes more open minds than we think,” he said. “Personal witnesses and stories about persecution and suffering can still move the hearts even of politicians opposing immigration.”

    In its interview, Crux described the cardinal as a “long-time champion” of welcoming immigrants and refugees in his work as bishop of Stockholm.”

  25. London stabbing: Girl, 17, dies after being stabbed in Camberwell – man arrested (express, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/988029/london-news-stabbing-camberwell-met-police

    “Scotland Yard confirmed the 17-year-old girl died of her injuries after being stabbed close to her home in Brisbane Street in Southwark at 12.16pm today.

    The London Ambulance Service and the air ambulance were also called but the teenager was pronounced dead at the scene.

    The victim’s next of kin were made aware of her death.

    A 21-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

    He is currently in custody at a south London police station.

    Officers confirmed the man is known to the girl.

    A crime scene cordon is in place but there are no road closures…”

  26. Cairo explosion: Huge explosion near airport as smoke rises above Egypt’s capital (express, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/988070/cairo-explosion-egypt-cairo-international-airport-terror

    “A LARGE explosion has been reported near airport in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, with plumes of smoke billowing from the scene, and photographs of the inciden widely shared on social media.

    One Twitter user, Matthew Keidas, has said: “This guy says a worker at the airport said it was an explosion at the fuel depot in Cairo airport.

    “Hopefully everyone is alright and it’s an accident rather than foul play.”

    Reuter quoted security sources as saying the blast appeared to be at a structure used to store fuel.

    Egypt’s civial aviation minister Younis al-Masry concurred that the blast had occurred at fuel tanks outside the airport’s perimeter.

    He said air movement at the airport had been “unaffected”.

    The blast could be heard across large parts of the city.

    The incident will further heighten tensions in the country, with the airport the scene of a terror attack which claimed the lives of all 224 passengers on board Metrojet Flight 9268 in 2015, which an investigation suggested was the result of a bomb smuggled on board.

    Egyptian state television is reporting that a fire raging as a result of the explosion had been brought under control.

    There is no confirmation so far of any casualties.

    More to follow…”

  27. Morocco to launch Africa’s first high-speed train before end of 2018 (xinhuanet, Jul 12, 2018)
    http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-07/13/c_137320648.htm

    “Morocco will launch the first high-speed train in Africa before the end of 2018, the national rail operator ONCF announced on Thursday.

    ONCF said in a statement that the technical commissioning of this flagship project, which includes a high-speed rail line linking the Mediterranean city of Tangier with Morocco’s financial capital Casablanca, was achieved in June.

    According to ONCF, this train is a “bearer of modernity, progress and innovation” and “the image of our country, resolutely turned towards building a better future”.

    ONCF will launch on Monday a competition for designing the logo of the high-speed train by anyone “desiring to make his/her mark on a project made by and for Moroccans.”

    The new train, which exceeded a speed of 220 miles (352 km) per hour in the tests, will reduce the journey time between Tangier and Casablanca from five hours to about two hours.

    The 2-billion-dollar project has been in development for a decade, financed by numerous partners, including Morocco, France, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.”

  28. Italy forces new standoff, refuses to let migrants disembark (abcnews, Jul 12, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/european-security-officials-talk-tough-migration-56531499

    “Italy’s hard-line interior minister refused Thursday to let 67 migrants disembark from an Italian coast guard ship until an investigation determines whether any of them had violently threatened their rescuers to prevent being returned to Libya.

    The Diciotti ship pulled into the port of Trapani after taking on board the migrants from an Italian-flagged oil rig supply tug that rescued them Sunday in off the coast of Libya. The dispute over what transpired next has turned into the latest standoff since Italy’s anti-migrant government took power last month.

    Italy’s transport minister says the tug reported that some of the migrants made “death threats” against the crew.

    “As soon as our ship turned south, to be able to meet up with a Libyan coast guard ship to transfer the migrants, they started to threaten the crew,” Christopher Savoye, legal affairs official of the Vroon Offshore Service that owns the Vos Thalassa tug, told the shipping news site The Meditelegraph. “They encircled them, pushed them, making the gesture of cutting their throats.”

    The tug requested assistance, and the migrants were transferred to the Italian coast guard’s Diciotti. By late Thursday, it was still docked at Trapani’s port, with no authorization to let its passengers ashore.

    Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said he wouldn’t give the OK until prosecutors determine whether the migrants actually did make the threats, or if the crew of the Vos Thalassa “exaggerated” the danger.

    “Someone is lying,” he told reporters in Innsbruck, Austria. “Until I have clarity, I personally as interior minister, as vice premier and as a father, won’t let them get off.”

    Humanitarian organizations, including UNICEF, the U.N. refugee agency, Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children, demanded that the migrants be allowed to disembark to receive care.

    “The refugees and migrants, among them women, children and adolescents, have been at sea for at least four days,” the aid groups said. “(We) request the urgent activation of primary health care, the authorization for everyone to disembark starting with minors and vulnerable people, and the supply of first aid to all those on board.”

    On the docks, activists protested Italy’s hard-line position. Many protesters wore the red T-shirts that have become a symbol of those favoring a broader welcome for migrants, who often dress their children in red to make them easier to spot at sea if their smuggling boats capsize.

    Salvini spoke after meeting in Austria with his European Union counterparts, including the Austrian and German interior ministers who along with Italy have agreed to press the EU to take a tougher line on migration.

    Austria’s Herbert Kickl said the new “axis” wants “to send a clear message to the world, and especially to the traffickers, that it won’t be possible anymore in the future, shouldn’t be possible anymore to step on European soil if you don’t have a right to protection.”

    Salvini said he hoped Italy’s hard-line position becomes the European position. He wants to reduce the number of migrants leaving North Africa to reduce the arrivals in Europe and deaths in the Mediterranean along the way. He says that will reduce tensions among European nations over their internal borders.

    “Obviously, if you drastically reduce the departures and arrivals, the problems inside the EU among individual countries will also be reduced,” he said.

    He said he hoped Europe as a whole will continue to recognize the “minority” of people who deserve asylum because they are fleeing war, but not the others.

    “We hope that finally the European Union resumes defending its borders and the right to security of 500 million European citizens who in recent years have been put at risk,” Salvini said.”

  29. Mexico’s president-elect announces ‘specialized’ border police force to combat illegal immigration
    Jul 10, 2018 3:27 pm
    Mexico’s president-elect announces ‘specialized’ border police force to combat illegal immigration

    Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador plans to establish a border police force to combat illegal immigration and the problems associated with it, such as drug and weapons smuggling and human trafficking.

    The announcement comes at a time when President Donald Trump is facing intense criticism for his policies addressing illegal immigration.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/07/10/mexicos-president-elect-announces-specialized-border-police-force-to-combat-illegal-immigration