Reader’s Links, July 16, 2018

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About Eeyore

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

146 Replies to “Reader’s Links, July 16, 2018”

  1. Members of the far-right “Proud Boys” were chased out of a Los Angeles bar on Saturday by a group of democratic socialist protesters.

    Video from the incident shows the left-wing activists shouting “No Proud Boys, no KKK, no fascist USA” at the group at L.A. bar The Griffin.

    The L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) shared video of the incident on Twitter, in which their members and others from anti-gentrification group Defend North East Los Angeles can be heard chanting and yelling “F— you fascist,” “Get out of here, Nazi” and “Facist pigs, squeal — you’re all swine.”

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/397177-proud-boys-group-run-out-of-la-bar-by-democratic-socialists-calling

  2. 8 Times Obama Sold Out America to Russia
    July 16, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    As sure as sunshine in Southern California, the media was just waiting for President Trump to meet with Russia’s Putin to begin shouting, “Traitor.”

    Here’s the voice of the Amazon resistance, the Washington Post, taking up the clamor.

    Greg Sargent / Washington Post: – Trump is now repaying Putin for helping him win the presidency

    And here’s the New York Times.

    Charles M. Blow / New York Times:- Trump, Treasonous Traitor

    Journalism.

    Oddly enough the media had no problem with Obama running on a reset with Russia. The reset blamed the bad relationship on Bush and the Iraq War. That wasn’t treason.

    And here’s what happened when Obama met with Putin.

    “I’m aware of not only the extraordinary work that you’ve done on behalf of the Russian people … as president, but in your current role as prime minister,” Obama said during a breakfast meeting at Putin’s country home on the outskirts of Moscow. “We think there’s an excellent opportunity to put U.S.-Russian relations on a much stronger footing.”

    Where were the same media trolls shrieking now about praising dictators? Or a failure to defend America?

    Obama met with Medvedev at the Kremlin, while Putin received him at Novo-Ogaryovo, where a sumptuous breakfast with caviar was laid out. Trying to make conversation, Obama began by asking rhetorically, “How did we get into this mess [in U.S.-Russian relations]?” In response, Putin gave him an hourlong lecture as to how precisely it had happened. Obama listened without interrupting.

    What did Putin get from Obama?

    1. A free hand in Georgia

    2. A free hand in Syria

    3. The betrayal of Poland vis a vis the missile shield

    4. The betrayal of Ukraine by refusing to provide its governor with useful weapons

    5. A whole bunch of our uranium via Uranium One

    6. A deal allowing Russia’s Iranian allies to go nuclear

    7. Failure to do anything about the same Russian actions that the media is now blaming Trump for. Instead his administration actually issued a stand down order.

    What has Trump given to Putin? Nothing. He’s come to the defense of Poland and Ukraine when Obama wouldn’t.

    If this is the media’s metric for treason, then Obama is a traitor. He not only praised Putin, he promised to make a sweetheart deal with Russia after the election was over.

    That’s number 8.

    President Obama was running for re-election in March 2012, when a live microphone picked up his whispered conversation with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

    Obama told Medvedev it was important for incoming President Vladimir Putin to “give me space” on missile defense and other difficult issues and that after the 2012 presidential election he would have “more flexibility.” Medvedev said he would “transmit” the message to Putin.

    Traitor says what?

    Obama, Treasonous Traitor

    Obama repaid Putin for helping him win the election.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/270758/8-times-obama-sold-out-america-russia-daniel-greenfield

  3. Trump’s Blunt Talk Is Just What NATO Needs
    And what our president’s quarrel with the military alliance really reveals.
    July 16, 2018
    Bruce Thornton

    At last week’s NATO meeting in Brussels, Donald Trump took the European members to the woodshed. Using his customary blunt straight-talk abhorred by diplo-sophists, he accused the “delinquent” allies of treating the U.S. like “schmucks” and America like a “piggy bank” by not paying their fair share of NATO’s costs. And he shocked them further by saying they shouldn’t wait till 2024 to reach the goal of spending 2% of GDP on their militaries, but get it done now. Then he literally doubled-down by saying they should be paying 4%.

    Our free-riding allies need this straight talk. But more important, everybody needs to recognize that the received foreign policy wisdom about the “rules-based international order” built on transnational institutions is a tottering paradigm well past its sell-by date.

    Back at home, Trump’s scolding provoked the same howls that followed his remarks on this subject during the campaign. Forget the hysteria from the Dems. Their over-the-top reactions to Trump’s every syllable are so lunatic and banal that they have become a political dog-bites-man story. But Republican NeverTrumpers need their feet kept to the fire so everybody remembers a pique so incoherent and politically suicidal that they would have preferred a corrupt harpy running our country rather than a president who has delivered a have a booming economy and two originalist Supreme Court Justices.

    Listen to this bit of a Weekly Standard editorial about Trump’s NATO dust-up:

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270749/trumps-blunt-talk-just-what-nato-needs-bruce-thornton

  4. Paging Strzok
    Why won’t the FBI let Lisa Page answer key questions?
    July 16, 2018
    Lloyd Billingsley

    On Friday, one day after marathon testimony from FBI agent Peter Strzok, attorney Lisa Page testified to House members in a closed session. Page is no longer with the FBI, but on Friday the powerful federal agency, formerly headed by Robert Mueller, James Comey, and now by Christopher Wray, was telling the independent woman when to keep her mouth shut.

    “Lisa Page is not an FBI employee,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, told reporters, “but the FBI was here providing counsel and giving her direction as to which questions to answer or not answer and there is a question as to the propriety of that before the House.” Gaetz did not reveal which questions the FBI attorneys instructed Page not to answer, nor how many times the FBI had slapped on the gag order. Gaetz did say “I didn’t agree with her characterization of every text message and every piece of evidence. But we did not see the smug attitude from Lisa Page that we saw from Peter Strzok.”

    Other House members found Page “cooperative” and “credible.” Rep. Mark Meadows, a tough critic of her boyfriend, told the media “she’s been willing to help in the spirit of transparency.”

    Meadows told reporters “there is new information,” that it was “credible,” and that in his view, “She’s doing her best to help us find the truth and I think in ways she’s been falsely accused of not being willing to cooperate.”

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270750/paging-strzok-lloyd-billingsley

  5. Obama, Treasonous Traitor
    July 16, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield
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    In the media’s frantic downhill race to out-rage each other over Trump, there’s no bottom. Charles M. Blow, the Cory Booker of media columnists, desperately tried to justify his job with this ridiculous column aimed right at the nerve center of the resistance’s id.

    Its subtle title is, “Trump, Treasonous Traitor”.

    That’s like a parody of a column like this. In it, Blow declares, “Whether or not Trump himself or anyone in his orbit personally colluded or conspired with the Russians about their interference is something Mueller will no doubt disclose at some point, but there remains one incontrovertible truth: In 2016, Russia, a hostile foreign adversary, attacked the United States of America.”

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/270751/obama-treasonous-traitor-daniel-greenfield

  6. The director of national intelligence on Monday issued a forceful response to President Donald Trump’s remarks during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin that cast doubt on US intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 US election.

    “The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers,” said Dan Coats, the top US intelligence official. “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy.”

    Earlier in the day, during the joint press conference, Putin denied that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election. The Russian leader also said in response to a reporter’s question that the notion that the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin in that regard was “utter nonsense.”

    Trump referred to Coats when discussing the subject.

    “My people came to me — Dan Coats came to me, some others — they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be,” Trump said.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/dan-coats-statement-trump-putin-press-conference-remarks-2018-7?utm_source=reddit.com

  7. zero hedge – US And Allies Planning Evacuation Of White Helmets From Syria

    Perhaps we are about to witness the final chapter to the controversial White Helmets saga?

    As we’ve detailed many times before both the West and the group’s leadership have long claimed it’s nothing but a humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) devoted to rescuing Syrian’s in the midst of war; however, new reports reveal the US and UK are mulling plans to evacuate the group’s members who, far from being a “neutral” NGO, are funded by Western governments which have simultaneously sought the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    US government officials say White Helmets members are in “imminent danger” and face the threat of assassination as pro-government forces advance deeper into southwest Syria.

    CNN reports the following based on diplomatic sources:

    The fate of some 1,000 volunteers and their family members, and the need to plan a possible evacuation for them, has become a focus of discussions of several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France and CANADA , according to a diplomatic source familiar with the subject and two administration officials.

    And CNN reports further that President Trump broached the subject at the NATO summit in Brussels last week:

    In the plans under discussion, the volunteer rescue workers, who are officially named the Syrian Civil Defense, would be resettled in several countries; two diplomatic sources mentioned the possibility of resettling some of the group in CANADA and the United Kingdom, while another two sources said Germany is expected to take some rescuers.

    President Donald Trump discussed the possible need to evacuate members of the group during his meetings at the NATO summit last week, a source confirmed. There were several conversations between the US and UK about the issue during the summit, the source said, adding that Western delegations have convinced the US to help lobby both Israel and Jordan to find escape routes for besieged rescuers.

    Among the consistent criticisms leveled at the group has been that its rescuers only operate in al-Qaeda and anti-Assad insurgent held territory — this while being caught on film multiple times bearing arms alongside insurgents and even assisting in al-Qaeda conducted field executions — and the group has received large sums from Western governments even while presenting itself as a homegrown “first-responder” organization.

    Yet last June this narrative was again exposed as obviously false as President Trump authorized new funding for the White Helmets to the initial tune of $6.6 million to continue what US officials call “the vital, life-saving operations of the Syrian Civil Defense, more commonly known as the White Helmets.”

    Soon after the State Department announced the formal resumption of funding, the Syrian Army began a successful offensive to take back Syria’s southwest provinces with the help of Russian fighter jets. There’s also been a significant uptick in Russian air strikes on al-Qaeda held Idlib province in recent months, which analysts bill as the last significant “opposition-held” territory in the war ravaged country.

    Concerning the potential evacuation of White Helmets members, US planners see Russia as a possible obstacle, according to CNN:

    Western countries hope to find a way to help the group leave Syria without Russia’s aid, the diplomatic source said. They are looking at various possibilities for ground evacuation, but all of them are difficult and negotiations are at a sensitive stage, the source said.

    And CBS reports the following statement issued by Trump administration officials:

    “We are concerned about the humanitarian situation in the southwest since the Syrian regime and Russia violated the ceasefire,”National Security Council spokesperson Garrett Marquis said in a statement to CBS News’ Margaret Brennan.”This includes the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the fighting. Among them are many who fear regime reprisals, including specific groups, such as the White Helmets. We are pushing for Russia and the regime to allow international aid convoys to deliver badly needed assistance to the civilians in the Southwest.”

    Russian officials have accused the White Helmets of helping al-Qaeda groups stage “chemical attack provocations” — such as the latest April 7th suspected chemical attack in Douma — which Western countries and international media as a matter of course blame on the Assad government.

    While evacuation plans are being discussed, it is also possible that the fate of the White Helmets could factor into reported ongoing negotiations between world powers to end the Syrian proxy war.

    * * *

    The White Helmets are a 3,000 member NGO formally known as the Syrian Civil Defense. Established in “late 2012 – early 2013” after a group of 20 Syrians were trained and organized by former British army officer James Le Mesurier. The group then received funding from Le Mesurier’s Netherlands-based non-profit group, Mayday Rescue – which is in turn funded by grants from the Dutch, British, Danish and German governments.

    The US has in the past provided at least $32 million to the group – around 1/3 of their total funding – through a USAID scheme orchestrated by the Obama State Department and funneled to the White Helmets using a Washington D.C. contractor participating in USAID’s Syria regional program, Chemonics.

    According to their website, the White Helmets have been directly funded by Mayday Rescue, and a company called Chemonics, since 2014.

    Yet there’s evidence that both of those organizations started supporting the White Helmets back in early 2013, right around the time the White Helmets claim to have formed as self-organized groups.

    Mayday Rescue, as we said, is funded by the Dutch, British, Danish and German governments. And Chemonics?

    They are a Washington, D.C. based contractor that was awarded $128.5 million in January 2013 to support “a peaceful transition to a democratic and stable Syria” as part of USAID’s Syria regional program. At least $32 million has been given directly to the White Helmets as of February 2018. -TruthInMedia

    So the US, Dutch, British, Danish and German governments have been funding the White Helmets, a non-governmental organization, through proxies for over five years.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-16/us-and-allies-planning-evacuation-white-helmets-syria

  8. John Brennan’s Role
    July 16, 2018 by Jeff Carlson, CFA

    Ultimately, I believe there are two fundamental stories that unveil the entirety of what’s transpired in Washington:

    John Brennan’s dual role – using unofficial intelligence to establish the FBI’s Trump-Russia Counterintelligence Investigation & using the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) to push the Trump-Russia Narrative.
    FISA Abuse committed by the DOJ’s National Security Division and the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division.

    Yesterday, I published a thread on John Brennan (Thread Reader Here). What follows is an experiment of conversion from thread to post.

    I’ve been discussing the role of CIA Director John Brennan for some time now.

    https://themarketswork.com/2018/07/16/john-brennans-role/

  9. Anti-Muslim bigotry linked to radicalisation: Study (mee, Jul 16, 2018)
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/discrimination-and-poverty-linked-radicalisation-study-761491226

    “Militant attacks in the US and Europe often leave authorities wondering about the “radicalisation” of perpetrators, and a new study shows that in the case of first- and second-generation immigrants, failure to integrate into society may be key.

    The study, outlined in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, found that radicalisation correlated with high levels of poverty and ethnic homogeneity. It also found that minority groups were susceptible to it if they were subject to discrimination and isolation.

    The authors – two sociologists from Duke University and a statistician at the University of California, Berkeley – acknowledged that more research was needed in this field, which was difficult to study because would-be extremists do not identify as such, and anti-Muslim bigots are unlikely to verbalise their true sentiments.

    But the internet’s anonymity made for a powerful tool, said the authors, who also used census data and other information to determine the make-up and identify the ethnic backgrounds of the communities they studied.

    By sifting through internet search data provided by Google in more than 3,000 American counties, they found that ethnic, religious and racial discrimination, which resulted in a failure to integrate in communities, was associated with susceptibility to radicalise.

    The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, said that anti-Muslim discrimination incidents and hate crimes were up 83 and 21 percent respectively across the United States, compared to the first quarter of this year.

    During that time, CAIR documented more than 1,000 reports of potential bias incidents. The numbers included incidents involving various government agencies, like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Protection — which have risen by 60 percent during the same time period.

    This is part of “the overall spike in bigotry targeting American Muslims and other minority communities since the election of Donald Trump as president,” said Zainab Arain, coordinator in CAIR’s research and advocacy department.

    “The most prevalent trigger of anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2018 remains the victim’s ethnicity or national origin, accounting for 33 percent of the total.”

    Public policy and radicalisation

    The authors of the study published in Science Advances examined average monthly search data of pro-Islamic State (IS) group and anti-Muslim phrases on Google and other major search engines from August 2014 to July 2016.

    They specifically checked to see if people in the same regional areas searched for phrases like “How to join ISIS” [another acronym for IS] and “Muslims are evil”.

    The findings suggested that anti-Muslim searches were strongly associated with pro-IS searches; and that in communities with high levels of anti-Muslim hate, radicalisation and pro-IS sympathy was prevalent and these areas generally were some of the poorest and least integrated in society.

    The authors said that their study may have important implications for public policy, especially in the realms of counterterrorism and immigration.

    “Although elected officials routinely promote counterterrorism policies that target Muslims more than other groups, our findings indicate that these policies may make communities more vulnerable to radicalisation if they are interpreted as discriminatory or unfair,” said Christopher Bail, the lead researcher and a sociologist at Duke.

    The authors said that the findings may provide insight into some recent domestic terrorist attacks; a case in point is Mohammed Dakhlalla and Jaelyn Young, a Palestinian and African-American, who were arrested as they attempted to travel to Syria in 2016 in a bid to join the ranks of IS.

    “These two individuals hailed from a region of Mississippi with some of the highest levels of ethnic homogeneity and anti-Muslim sentiment in the country, according to our analysis,” said Bail, who wrote the book “Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream.”

    The study’s authors were also able to shed a light on domestic terrorist cases where the attackers did not identify as Muslim. They cited Dylann Roof, who killed nine African-Americans in a South Carolina church in 2015, as an example.

    Roof “was reportedly motivated by his belief that white men were becoming an imperilled minority. Roof was also reportedly raised for much of his life in a community where African-Americans are a majority”, Bail said.

    The study’s authors acknowledge that there are other factors that contribute to and explain radicalisation; financial woes and sexual frustrations can also influence people who turn to violence.

    But they said that their study took researchers a step farther towards understanding violent extremism.”

    • Anti-Muslim bigotry linked to radicalisation

      This is the same pseudo-logic as, “Driver Education Programs cause car wrecks”.

      Puotting cert beffure-a hurse-a zeet ilreedy lefft zee-a bern is puore-a geniuos. Börk Börk Börk!!!

  10. Pakistan election CHAOS amid allegations military FORCING voters to change parties (express, Jul 16, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/989811/pakistan-election-news-aslam-raisani

    “THE PAKISTAN election has been hit by allegations the military is threatening voters in order to force them to switch parties.

    Political leaders in Pakistan have claimed voters are being threatened to change their allegiances as polling day approaches.

    As the country prepares for its forthcoming general election, which takes place on July 25th, several political leaders have revealed concerns.

    They said the military has been intimidating voters into changing their political affiliations by force.

    Tribal chief and political leader Aslam Raisani, from the impoverished southwestern Baluchistan province, alleged the military had been intimidating voters in the Mastung and also offering them bribes in an attempt to persuade them to change loyalties…”

  11. Chris Wallace interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin

    ( 33 min 35 )

    Putin dismisses claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election, says Russia would react negatively to the expansion of NATO, blames terrorists for civilian casualties in Syria.

  12. Rep. Meadows demands answers from DOJ over withheld text messages

    Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) is demanding an explanation from the Department of Justice as to why it didn’t turn over two text messages between FBI official Lisa Page and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

    • Hannity: Moving at the speed of Trump

      The left is freaking out and trying desperately to connect Russian hacking to the Trump presidency

    • Trump: Witch hunt drove a phony wedge between US, Russia

      President Trump addresses nuclear proliferation, European Union and media attacks. On ‘Hannity,’ the president calls Strzok a ‘disgrace’ to the country and FBI.

    • Trump on Putin summit: We came to a lot of good conclusions

      On ‘Hannity,’ President Trump takes Americans inside his meeting with the Russian president. The president says he and Putin are getting very close on Syria and discussed the threat of ISIS.

    • Dr. Gorka on the left’s reaction to the Trump-Putin summit

      On ‘Hannity,’ Fox News national security strategist gives his take on the president’s meeting with Putin.

    • CNN – Jake Tapper: Trump sided with the enemy

      CNN’s Jake Tapper discusses President Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.

  13. Lisa Page will look for an immunity deal: Chris Farrell

    Judicial Watch Director of Investigations Chris Farrell discusses FBI official Lisa Page’s testimony on Capitol Hill and how the DOJ withheld text messages from Congress.

    • Issa: Page tried to reduce her importance in Russia probe

      Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page was back on Capitol Hill Monday testifying before two House committees about the messages she and her lover-colleague Peter Strzok exchanged denigrating President Trump. Rep. Darrell Issa gives insight on her testimony. #Tucker