Reader’s Links, July 24, 2018

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

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

About Eeyore

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

170 Replies to “Reader’s Links, July 24, 2018”

    • Seth J. Frantzman is becoming a favorite:
      ANALYSIS: SOVIET-MADE SUKHOI DOWNED BY IAF EXPOSES SYRIA’S AGING AIR FORCE

      Armed with rockets and bombs, the Sukhoi has been used widely by the regime against Syrian rebels. One of them was downed by the US in 2017.

      The Syrian fighter jet Israel shot down over the Golan Tuesday is an old Soviet-era aircraft that has formed the backbone of Syria’s air force as attrition has taken its toll over seven long years of war.

      It took off from the T4 Air base more than 200km from the Golan and was on a mission to bomb ISIS targets near the 1974 ceasefire line. Initially thought to be either an SU-22 or SU-24, it was flying towards Israeli airspace at high speed, the IDF said. What do we know about the SU-22 and its capabilities?

      According to the website Janes 360 there is a squadron of SU-22 M4 aircrafts at the T4 base. Nicknamed the ‘Fitter’, the aircraft has a range of 2,200 km and is one of seven types of war planes the Syrian army has in its arsenal.

      It can be armed with the AA-2 ‘Atoll’, AA-8 ‘Aphid’ and AA-11 ‘Archer’ air to air missiles and other ordinance.

      The SU-22 is based on a model that has been flying since the 1960’s. It can fly 1,400 km an hour. Syria got an earlier version of the aircraft, an SU-20 in 1973, and they fought in the Yom Kippur war, also flying from T4 airbase.
      https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Analysis-Soviet-made-Sukhoi-downed-by-IAF-exposes-Syrias-aging-air-force-563297

    • … one of the pilots reported killed.

      More range time is definitely indicated, Gunnery sergeant.

      Two Patriot missiles were fired at a Syrian Sukhoi-model fighter jet,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement..

      I so very-much wanted to snip in the ‘It’s only a model…’, quip from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, but this bit of ridiculosity was too irreplaceable…

      • The Israelis tried to warn him before shooting him down:
        Syrian fighter jet: A navigational error with no hidden agenda

        Even in its best days in the 1990s, the Syrian air force was not the sharpest pencil in the Arab military box. All signs indicate that the Syrian plane was to attack an ISIS enclave, but a navigational mistake brought him into Israeli territory.

        https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5316206,00.html

        • … a navigational mistake brought him into Israeli territory.

          Tough noogies. Cavort with the IDF at your own risk… idjits!

  1. World Bank Compares Chile and Venezuela

    July 24, 2018 by Dan Mitchell

    I’m in China this week, giving various lectures at Northeastern University in Shenyang. My topic today was “Real-World Examples,” which gave me an opportunity to share many of the charts I’ve developed showing how market-oriented nations enjoy much more long-run success.

    One of the charts shows how Chile has enjoyed strong growth since it shifted to free markets, especially compared to Venezuela, which is burdened by a vicious form of statism.

    But I noticed that I created that chart back in 2011 and it only shows data for the years between 1980 and 2008. And I thought that might lead students to think I was deliberately omitting recent years because the data somehow contradicts my message about free markets and small government.

    https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2018/07/24/world-bank-compares-chile-and-venezuela/

  2. LEAKED: Trump Sent Plane To Bring Home Otto Warmbier Without Asking North Korea’s Permission

    When President Donald Trump learned of American college student and North Korean prisoner Otto Warmbier’s dire medical condition, he immediately sent a plane to land in Pyongyang and bring home the 22-year-old without asking North Korea’s permission first, says a report from GQ.

    In early June of 2017, Trump-appointed U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Joseph Yun learned that Warmbier was unconscious. “I was completely shocked,” said Yun of learning the news. “I came back immediately, and I told Secretary Tillerson … and we determined at the time that we needed to get him and the other prisoners out as soon as possible, and I should contact Pyongyang and say I wanted to come right away.”

    “When Trump learned of Otto’s condition, he doubled down on the order for Yun to rush to Pyongyang and bring Otto home,” says the report. “The North Koreans were unilaterally informed that an American plane would soon land in Pyongyang and that United States diplomats and doctors would get off.”

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/33474/leaked-trump-sent-plane-bring-home-otto-warmbier-amanda-prestigiacomo?utm_medium=email&utm_content=072418-news&utm_campaign=position2

  3. After Deadly Shooting, Toronto Mayor Asks, ‘Why Does Anyone In This City Need To Have A Gun At All?’

    On Monday, Toronto Mayor John Tory addressed the City Council in the wake of a deadly shooting in a popular Toronto neighborhood on Sunday night in which a shooter murdered an 18 year-old-girl and a 10 year-old girl while wounding 13 others. Tory called for stricter gun control, asking, “Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all?”

    Tory stated:

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/33450/after-deadly-shooting-toronto-mayor-asks-why-does-hank-berrien?utm_medium=email&utm_content=072418-news&utm_campaign=position6

    Richard: Question 1) because gun control doesn’t stop evil men and women getting guns. Question 2) Canada is suppose to be a free nations if they are free what does need have to do with anything.

    • After Deadly Shooting, Toronto Mayor Asks, ‘Why Does Anyone In This City Need To Have A Gun At All?’

      It’s like having a fox ask, “Why does the hen house need this irritating door latch?!?”

  4. Top Dem candidate gave millions to groups advocating for taxing families ‘to the hilt’ for ‘irresponsible breeding’

    Scott Wallace, a liberal millionaire candidate running for Congress in Pennsylvania, has given millions of dollars to so-called population control groups.

    Such groups have advocated for taxing parents “to the hilt” for having more than two children, calling it “irresponsible breeding,” and said abortion is “a highly effective weapon” to combat overpopulation.

    Wallace, grandson of a former vice president who’s running as a Democrat in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District against Republican incumbent Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, has been in charge of the the Wallace Global Fund “for the last two decades” that gave out nearly $7 million to population control groups since 1997.

    Zero Population Growth (ZPG) was among the organizations that received the money from the fund. According to public records, it received $420,000 between 1997 and 2003.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/20/top-dem-candidate-gave-millions-to-groups-advocating-for-taxing-families-to-hilt-for-irresponsible-breeding.html

  5. Harvard scholar is wrong: Leviticus never approved of gay sex

    It has become so important to LGBT activists to pretend that God actually approves of their behavior that they will distort and mangle the Scripture in an effort to do it. But it is so difficult to twist the Scripture to manufacture divine support for sodomy that not even a scholar from Harvard can do it.

    “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
    (Leviticus 18:22)

    The New York Times reached a new low in biblical scholarship this weekend by even publishing an article by a Harvard pseudo-scholar on what Leviticus teaches about gay sex.

    The first thing to note is how many times the author, one Idan Dershowitz, includes qualifiers that immediately raise serious questions about what kind of actual evidence he has that his chief assertion – that the original version of Leviticus permitted rather than condemned gay sex – is true.

    http://www.gopusa.com/?p=50901?omhide=true

  6. The US in Eurasia: New Challenges

    BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 903, July 24, 2018

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the US the sole indisputable world power with almost unlimited resources. However, over the past decade, it has become clear that US resources are not limitless. The Eurasian landmass now contains many competitors with strategies opposed to those of Washington. In a sense, the monolithic Soviet Union was easier to contain than the simultaneous challenges of a rising China, a revanchist Russia, and an ambitious Iran. There are further serious problems to be dealt with, such as terrorism and cyber security. Containment of post-Cold War Eurasia will be no easy task for the US.

    From WWII through the breakup of the Soviet Union, the US shared world dominance with its major competitor in Moscow. Despite the numerous local conflicts that took place during those 40 or so years, the two powers’ relatively equal strength gave the world geopolitical stability. Washington spent enormous amounts in terms of both finances and military strength to contain the Sino-Soviet bloc, as much of Eurasia was under communist control.

    The fundamental principle of American strategy at that time was military and economic containment. Washington was unable to defeat the Soviet Union militarily, and that fact compelled the Americans to develop a new strategy to check it. Thence came the spread of US influence to parts of Europe, Iran, and the Asia-Pacific. The Soviet strategy was to outmaneuver US containment by instigating insurgencies in the US neighborhood.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/us-eurasia-new-challenges/

    • The Eurasian landmass now contains many competitors with strategies opposed to those of Washington. In a sense, the monolithic Soviet Union was easier to contain than the simultaneous challenges of a rising China, a revanchist Russia, and an ambitious Iran. There are further serious problems to be dealt with, such as terrorism and cyber security. Containment of post-Cold War Eurasia will be no easy task for the US.

      All of which nudges things further into the coffin-corner of unconventional weapons.

        • Unconventional tactics and if they fail unconventional weapons.

          Exactol!

          When will these over-confident, anti-Western maroons ever fully comprehend the ancient, historic aphorism about, “Being very careful about what you wish for…”?

  7. The excellent analysis makes one real big mistake, while it is based on the US surviving the current mess it assumes that most of the current state of the world is also going to exist through the future. This steady state ignores the reality of the weak Chinese Economy (as it ignores the very real possibility maybe even the certainty that the various Third World Marxist economies will create an economic crisis that causes the Marxist economies of Europe to collapse.) this is something all the central planning in the world can’t prevent and if the US continues its move back to a Free Market economy one that we will easily survive. Having said that one thing that the US must avoid doing is becoming a real Empire and taking over governing the Third World nations that we want to keep out of Chinese hands and out of the hands of Russia and Iran.

    In the long run (if the left doesn’t once again gain enough power to really damage the US) we are going to move back to a bipolar world with either Russia or China being our main and possibly only competitor.

    • This steady state ignores the reality of the weak Chinese Economy (as it ignores the very real possibility maybe even the certainty that the various Third World Marxist economies will create an economic crisis that causes the Marxist economies of Europe to collapse.) this is something all the central planning in the world can’t prevent and if the US continues its move back to a Free Market economy one that we will easily survive.

      Outstanding epilogue, Richard.

      Much as with Einstein’s initial folly of attempting to place the universe in a static configuration, it is is dim-witted to presume that our planet will maintain its current political constellation whilst undergoing this soon-to-arrive turmoil.

      … the US must avoid doing is becoming a real Empire and taking over governing the Third World nations that we want to keep out of Chinese hands and out of the hands of Russia and Iran“.

      This (not-so) little balancing act wasn’t properly learned in Afghanistan or Iraq (much less Syria) so, it’s difficult to expect anything more than the usual dog’s breakfast when it comes to keeping the puck out of Russia’s or Communist China’s net.

      • I know and when the politicians screw up it will be up to hard men doing nasty things to save the US one more time.

        • I know and when the politicians screw up it will be up to hard men doing nasty things to save the US one more time.

          All pronouns aside, I only can hope that you are right, Richard.

          Personally, I remain in a near-continual state of incredulity about what this worthy nation would have experienced without such an honorable history of hard-fighting soldiers. The mind boggles…

    • Trump Supporter Brutally Beaten

      As with any disaster, “women and minorities are hit hardest!

      All of which means that things are going to get rather gruesome when the EBT cards run out jaws of hell open up beneath Oaktown. Merely possessing a firearm does not automatically mean that you’ve put in a sufficient amount of range time.

      After these past several decades of inner city predation, rape, and murder, the paybacks have been piling up like yellowing newspapers in a packrat’s house.

      It is so surreal to watch overt, self-identified antagonists line themselves up to get penciled in on America’s “dance card”. Even then some, like Red China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, are so impatient for this nation’s special attentions that they’ve, literally, demanded to be placed on our collective “Christmas List”, as well. So be it…

      Fortunately, we’ve got hard-points, silos, and launch tubes to spare.

      Remember: Before things get worse, they’re going to have to get a whole lot more worse.

      • Why do you think I like it out in a small town (trying to get a place outside of town) in fly over country? Things get that nasty there are a lot of armed people that will defend the area out here. Given 2 hours he could raise 2 to 5 thousand armed men with about half or more of them being vets. Given 10 hours he could raise 20 thousand to 50 thousand armed men. And there are something like 50 military vets who were snipers when they were on active. With a lot of Rangers to do the sneak and peek missions.

        • Why do you think I like it out in a small town (trying to get a place outside of town) in fly over country?

          Since you so kindly inquire …mayhaps because you’ve a lot better chance of living next to “neighbors” instead of “looters”?!?

          Jist asking … nomesayin’?

          The persistent and nearly unanimous bipartisan neglect of America’s “fly over country” will prove to be one of the most imprudent ideological choices ever made by modern-era carpetbaggers pols OF ANY STRIPE.

          Middle America is the blessed, hardscrabble core of this nation’s most independent (and well-armed demographic) that stubbornly and thankfully refuses to accept beturbaned goat-humpers chanting, “Death to America”, as anything other than an explicit invitation to vaporization.

          I’m even willing to wager that so-called “Red States” have higher NRA enrollment numbers than actively voting Republican Party sign-ups (but that’s yust cynical little ole me).

          Go ahead and prove me wrong…

    • Cruz on revoking clearances of former intel officials

      So, that was the xenon-bright strobe flash I saw in the East just the other day? Just the flash-burns from people opening their emails must have sent dozens to the ER.

  8. MASSIVE INDICTMENS To Be HANDED DOWN!!! DEEPSTATE CRACKDOWN ALL WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

      • I’ll tune in for perp walks – maybe.

        Please pencil me in for bringing the Hot Buttered Popcorn™ (HBP – NYSE, NASDAQ, S&P, CME, NYMEX).

        All of this has become so effing tedious—exactly as planned, I’m sure—that only live coverage of these termites being frog-marched straight to the wall might distract me from plucking nose hairs.

  9. Hungary Offers to Help Secure European External Border (breitbart, Jul 24, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/24/hungary-offers-to-help-secure-european-external-border/

    “Hungary’s anti-immigration prime minister has described stopping a massive influx of migrants through the Balkans as Europe’s only success in dealing with the problem.

    Viktor Orban on Tuesday offered to help small Montenegro guard its borders against migrants, insisting that the Balkans should remain closed for people trying to reach Western Europe.

    Orban says after talks with Montenegrin PM Dusko Markovic that “Europe is still making serious mistakes.” He adds that “the only success has been the closure of the Balkan route, which was thanks to Hungary.”

    Orban’s government has built two rows of razor-wire fence on its southern border with Serbia after hundreds of thousands of migrants passed through in 2015.

    Some migrants recently have turned also to Montenegro and Bosnia for a passage to the West.”

  10. Terror Watchdog Boss Who Wanted Jihadis to ‘Reintegrate’ Is New Chief Prosecutor (breitbart, Jul 24, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/24/terror-watchdog-who-wants-jihadis-reintegrate-new-chief-prosecutor/

    “The counter-terror watchdog chief who has previously said returning jihadist terrorists should not be arrested is to become the UK’s new Director of Public Prosecutions.

    Max Hill QC will head up the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), overseeing hundreds of thousands of cases a year, and replaces Alison Saunders, whose contract was not renewed after a string of scandals blamed on her “politically correct” approach.

    Mr Hill has clashed with the government on tackling extremism and went on record to say it is “fundamentally wrong to attach the word ‘terrorism’ to any of the world religions”, and has previously set up meetings with Islamist apologist groups.

    He has worked as the independent reviewer of terrorism laws since 2017 and will be paid £204,000 a year in his new job at the CPS…”

  11. Third London Stabbing in 24 Hours After Man Knifed in Broad Daylight (breitbart, Jul 24, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/07/24/third-london-stabbing-24-hours-man-knifed-broad-daylight/

    “A 34-year-old man is fighting for his life in hospital after being stabbed in broad daylight in a residential area of south-east London.

    Police and paramedics were called to Middle Park Avenue in Eltham in the London borough of Greenwich at 5 pm on Monday where they found a man suffering from multiple stab wounds, reports the Evening Standard.

    He was taken to hospital and remains in a critical condition…”

  12. Egypt: Security forces kill 13 Islamic militants in Sinai (abcnews, Jul 24, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-security-forces-kill-13-islamic-militants-sinai-56787427

    “Egypt’s official news agency says security forces have killed at least 13 Islamic militants in a shootout in northern Sinai Peninsula.

    Tuesday’s report by MENA says the fighting erupted when forces raided a suspected militant hideout in the city of al-Arish. It says security forces also dismantled three explosive devices and seized weapons during the raid…”

  13. Trump should declassify FISA documents: Tom Fitton

    Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton discusses why President Trump should declassify the FISA documents released by the Department of Justice.

  14. Hillary Clinton should have been charged with multi-count indictment: Gregg Jarrett

    • If all of the criminals from the Clinton and Obama administrations aren’t prosecuted the rule of law is dead in the US, its ghost may drag on for a decade or so but the rule of law including the Constitution will be deal. Future generations may revive them but that is a question for the future generations to decide.

    • Hillary Clinton should have been charged with…

      Right there is the entire question and problem, all at once.

      It’s not so much a matter of, “charged with”, as a matter of being “charged with however-many kilowatts”.

      When arguments over the death penalty finally subside about issues of “humaneness”—as opposed to, let’s just say, volt-amperage—perhaps then there will many more solid windows of opportunity for productive discussions about Western capital punishment.

      Eh?

  15. Should Republicans hold Rosenstein in contempt of Congress?

    Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) discusses how Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) wants to hold Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in contempt of Congress and why President Trump should declassify the recently released FISA documents

  16. Twitter Praises Swedish Woman Who Stopped Afghan Man’s Deportation (sputniknews, Jul 25, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/viral/201807251066658344-Twitter-Praises-Swedish-Woman-Stops-Deportation/

    “A young Swedish woman took matters into her own hands Tuesday and stood up to both the Swedish state and airline authorities in defense of a man being deported to Afghanistan on the same flight as hers.

    Elin Ersson was headed to Istanbul from Gothenburg Tuesday, and as she boarded and prepared for the plane’s takeoff, she noticed a man sitting in the back of the plane. Deducing that this 52-year-old refugee from Afghanistan was being deported from Sweden back to his home country, Ersson objected and leapt into action.

    Since planes cannot take off until everyone is seated and safely buckled into their seats, Ersson halted the deportation in its tracks by taking to the aisle and refusing to sit again until the man was removed from the plane. She filmed the entire episode on her phone.

    “Right now I’m at the airport in the airplane, and there is a person getting deported to Afghanistan, and the people working here are trying to take my phone away from me and try to forcibly move me,” she says in the 14-minute-long video. “In Afghanistan there is war, and this man faces death… I’m just trying to save his life… All I want to do is to stop his deportation. As long as I stand and if hopefully more people get up, the pilot can not take off.”

    As she urged other passengers into action, some ignored her, others derided her — and some joined her. In the video, Ersson is confronted by both passengers and crew members, especially a British man who tries to take the phone from her. However, a Turkish man eventually joins her protest, as does a soccer team.

    “These are the rules of your country,” one passenger yells at her. She replies, “Yes, and I try to change those rules. It’s not okay to send people to hell.”

    By the end of the video, the Afghan man has been removed from the plane, and Ersson has also been escorted off.

    Errson later said that the man’s deportation was cancelled, Freedom News reported.

    As news of the young woman’s audacity has spread, the hashtag #ElinErsson is being used to by people the world over to shower her with praise for her bravery — and to vent their frustrations at her obstinacy…”

    • That is what happens when you have socialism, the poor get poorer, under Socialism there are two standards of living, the Rich and utter poverty.

      • … under Socialism there are two standards of living, the Rich and utter poverty.

        What??? No (well-armed) Middle Class? [gasp!]