Reader’s Links, July 26, 2018

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About Eeyore

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

153 Replies to “Reader’s Links, July 26, 2018”

  1. Saudi Arabia WAR THREAT: Oil tankers BOMBED – Saudis BAN exports through Red Sea straits
    IRAN-BACKED Yemeni rebels aligned have launched an attack on two oil tankers passing through the strategically important Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb – prompting Saudi Arabia to announce that was “temporarily halting” all oil shipments along the route.

    n a move which is sure to inflame tensions still further in the region after the recent war of words between US President Donald Trump and Iranian opposite number Hassan Rouhani, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the Houthi movement had attacked two Saudi Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) in the Red Sea on Wednesday morning, one of which sustained minimal damage.

    A statement issued by Mr al-Falih’s ministry said: ”Saudi Arabia is temporarily halting all oil shipments through Bab al-Mandeb Strait immediately until the situation becomes clearer and the maritime transit through Bab al-Mandeb is safe.”

    Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis in a three-year war, lies beside the southern mouth of the Red Sea, one of the most important trade routes in the world for oil tankers. The tankers pass near Yemen’s shores while heading from the Middle East through the Suez Canal to Europe.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/994441/saudi-arabia-news-iran-houthi-movement-oil-tankers-donald-trump-exports-red-sea

  2. Iranian general warns Trump: “War will destroy everything you own”

    BEIRUT, July 26 (Reuters) – Iran’s Quds force chief Qassem Soleimani warned U.S. President Donald Trump against war on Thursday, saying it would “destroy all that you possess”, the website of Iran’s Arabic language Al Alam TV reported.

    “You know that this war will destroy all that you possess. You will start this war but we will be the ones to impose its end. Therefore you have to be careful about insulting the Iranian people and the president of our Republic,” Soleimani said in a speech, as reported by Al Alam in Arabic.

    “You know our power in the region and our capabilities in asymmetric war. We will act and we will work,” he said. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

    http://news.trust.org/item/20180726094015-595zf

  3. Turkey vows to keep buying Iranian oil: ‘We will not obey’
    by Joel Gehrke
    | July 24, 2018 07:32 PM

    Turkey plans to keep purchasing Iranian oil in defiance of American sanctions on the rogue regime, according to the NATO ally’s top diplomat.

    “We buy oil from Iran and we purchase it in proper conditions,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday. “What is the other option?”

    Cavusoglu’s comments raise the specter of yet another clash between the U.S. and Turkey, which is also in the final stages of an arms deal with Russia that could trigger American sanctions. Turkish officials, in both cases, have dismissed the U.S.’ threat of sanctions to constrain the choices of other countries.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/turkey-vows-to-keep-buying-iranian-oil-we-will-not-obey

  4. North Korea making bomb fuel despite denuclearization pledge: Pompeo

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea is continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs in spite of its pledge to denuclearize, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday, even as he argued that the Trump administration was making progress in talks with Pyongyang.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa/north-korea-making-bomb-fuel-despite-denuclearization-pledge-pompeo-idUSKBN1KF2QT

  5. Venezuelan newspaper closures leave coverage in state’s hands

    (Reuters) – Almost three-quarters of Venezuela’s newspapers have closed during five years of recession in the once-prosperous OPEC member country, according to the national journalism association, leaving El Nacional as the last independent national daily.

    Press watchdogs warn that media freedom declined over the past year, which saw President Nicolas Maduro win a fresh six-year term in May at elections boycotted by the opposition.

    Venezuela slid six places in Reporters Without Borders’ index of world press freedom to 143 place from 180 countries surveyed.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-media-coverage/venezuelan-newspaper-closures-leave-coverage-in-states-hands-idUSKBN1KG18G

  6. Small bomb set off outside US Embassy in Beijing

    A man set off a small homemade bomb outside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Thursday, injuring only himself, Chinese police and U.S. officials said.

    Photos posted on Twitter showed a large amount of smoke and what appeared to be police vehicles surrounding the building.

    The Beijing Police Department identified the 26-year-old suspect only by his surname, Jiang, and said he was from Tongliao city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia.

    Jiang was injured on the hand by the device, which was made from fireworks, when it exploded at about 1 p.m. local time, police said.

    The motive isn’t known and the investigation into the incident is continuing.

    “There was one individual who detonated a bomb. Other than the bomber, there were no injuries. The local police responded,” an embassy spokesperson said in a statement carried by CNN.

    It came after reports of an explosion or fire outside the embassy, in the northeast of the Chinese capital.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/07/26/us-embassy-incident-beijing/839835002/

  7. Violence as migrants storm Morocco-Spain border fence

    Some 400 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa reached Spain Thursday after storming a double barrier between Morocco and the Spanish territory of Ceuta, with some attacking security forces with quicklime, police said.

    The scramble over the barrier is the biggest in Ceuta since February 2017, when more than 850 migrants entered the overseas territory over four days.

    It comes as Spain becomes the number one destination for migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat, surpassing Italy with 19,586 arrivals so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.

    A spokesman for the Guardia Civil police force in Ceuta told AFP the migrants managed to climb over the double barrier, which is covered in small blades, early on Thursday morning.

    They scrambled over “all of a sudden, with much violence,” and some attacked police with quicklime they had in tubes and bottles.

    As a result, “more than a dozen police” were injured, four of whom had to go to hospital for burns in the face and arms.

    Isabel Brasero, spokeswoman for the Red Cross, said they had to attend to 30 migrants with injuries, none serious.

    Eleven of them were taken to hospital for stitches and possible fractures, she added.

    She said that after they had climbed over the barrier, they ran to the centre that houses migrants once they arrive in Spanish territory.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-5994709/Violence-migrants-storm-Morocco-Spain-border-fence.html

  8. Rep. Meadows Warns He Could Go Around Speaker Ryan to Impeach Rosenstein

    House Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows warns he could go around House Speaker Paul Ryan if he does not allow a floor vote to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

    On Wednesday, Meadows said he could file a privileged motion to force a vote on the resolution to remove Rosenstein from his position.

    http://www.oann.com/rep-meadows-warns-he-could-go-around-speaker-ryan-to-impeach-deputy-attorney-general-rosenstein/

  9. When to end the war? North Korea, U.S. at odds over path to peace

    SEOUL (Reuters) – Washington’s reluctance to declare an end to the Korean War until after North Korea abandons its nuclear arsenal may put it at odds not only with Pyongyang, but also with allies in South Korea.

    The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the U.S.-led United Nations forces technically still at war with North Korea.

    Friday marks 65th anniversary of the truce, which will be commemorated by the United Nations Command in a ceremony in the fortified demilitarized zone that has divided the two Koreas since the war. North Korean veterans of the war, which left more than 1.2 million dead, will gather in Pyongyang for a conference.

    In their April summit, the leaders of North and South Korea agreed to work this year with the United States and China, which also played a major role in the war, to replace the armistice with a peace agreement.

    In June, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a statement saying they would seek “to establish new U.S.–DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity,” using the initials of the North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

    http://www.oann.com/when-to-end-the-war-north-korea-u-s-at-odds-over-path-to-peace/

  10. Zimbabwe’s first post-Mugabe vote – can it be free and fair?

    HARARE (Reuters) – Whether you’re a foreign investor, a Western diplomat or a Zimbabwean voter, the hope was that after Robert Mugabe was ousted last year there would be a ‘free and fair’ election.

    Monday’s contest between President Emmerson Mnangagwa, for a long time a Mugabe ally, and charismatic preacher, Nelson Chamisa, is too close to call, according to the latest polls, making a runoff on September 8 a real possibility.

    There have been reports of intimidation and coercion, and state media is biased toward the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) but there is consensus that the process has been better than before.

    Mnangagwa, a 75-year-old former intelligence chief known as “the crocodile”, has welcomed in foreign media and international observers from the EU, U.S. and the Commonwealth, while opposition parties have been freely allowed to campaign.

    Observer groups have yet to give any initial assessments. While it may not be judged ‘free and fair’, analysts say it may be classed as ‘good enough’ when measured against the rigging and violent suppression that marred elections under Mugabe.

    http://www.oann.com/zimbabwes-first-post-mugabe-vote-can-it-be-free-and-fair/

  11. House Republican group files impeachment resolution against Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein
    By J.E. Dyer July 25, 2018

    The resolution was filed by 11 House Republicans on Wednesday evening, 25 July 2018. There is no comprehensive list of the sponsors in news reporting yet, but Mark Meadows (NC) and Jim Jordan (OH) are the lead sponsors. Andy Biggs (AZ) has already registered support on Twitter.

    There may be less to this than meets the eye, as the August recess is to start on Thursday (26 July). There is no time for the House to do more than refer the resolution to committee. At the moment, it appears that hasn’t been done yet.

    So Rosenstein is in no danger of being faced with an impeachment vote before the House reconvenes right after Labor Day.

    Fox assumes – as everyone will – that the resolution will go to the House Judiciary Committee. That may well be the case; the impeachment actions for Clinton and Nixon (who, we must note, were presidents, not subordinate appointees) were both handled by the Judiciary Committee. The brief against Rosenstein relates to his failures to respond to the Judiciary Committee. So although there is no prescription on which committee will consider articles of impeachment, the committee that finds fault with Rosenstein’s behavior towards it, which also happens to be the Judiciary Committee, would seem to be the likely suspect. (If Paul Ryan wants it especially slow-rolled, he may find a way to refer it to another committee.)

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/25/house-republican-group-files-impeachment-resolution-against-deputy-ag-rod-rosenstein/

    • I agree with her assessment that they should have done a “Contempt of Congress” action first but given the number of “swamp/sewer rats” in Congress the people who filed the articles may be tired of fighting the Deep State to get Contempt Charges and decided to force the issue. The timing is of course political and no matter what happens in the House this will be a very big talking point in the run up to the election. If the conservatives play this right the may end up gaining seats where the conventional wisdom says they will loose seats. I think that would happen anyway but this move will force people to go on the record of supporting the Constitution or supporting the Deep State.

      All of this is being played out against the backdrop of Iran/North Korea and their nuclear weapons as well as the proxy war in Yemen, a war that with the attack on an oil tanker in the Red Sea has entered a new phase. The Dems are playing with fire and seem to be trying to push us into some shooting war with Russia or Russian Proxy’s. I am not sure if they have a rational reason for their actions or are just so deranged about PT that they are willing to risk the destruction of the US to remove him from office. I know they want the US to collapse but I don’t think they want that collapse to be caused by a nuclear war.

  12. Democratic congressman’s modest proposal: reparations for illegal aliens
    By Howard Portnoy July 26, 2018

    If you know the name Joe Crowley, it may be because the veteran Democrat, who has represented New York’s 14th congressional district since 2013, lost his seat in a June primary to much-in-the-news Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. What made the upset newsworthy is that Ocasio-Cortez is a card-carrying Democratic Socialist.

    Judging from a proposal Crowley made on Capitol Hill this week, Ocasio-Cortez does not have a monopoly on radical thought. In his opening remarks at a press conference, a video of which follows, he recommended that families that have separated at the border “be compensated for what this administration did to them.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/07/26/democratic-congressmans-modest-proposal-reparations-for-illegal-aliens/

  13. Nigeria’s farmer-herder conflict deadlier than Boko Haram (wapo, Jul 26, 2018)
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/nigerias-farmer-herder-conflict-deadlier-than-boko-haram/2018/07/26/5ae6ed2a-90d6-11e8-ae59-01880eac5f1d_story.html

    “A new report says fighting between farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria has killed more people this year than attacks by Boko Haram Islamic extremists.

    The International Crisis Group says the violence threatens to undermine national stability ahead of elections next year.

    Thursday’s report says more than 1,300 Nigerians died from the farmer-herder conflicts in the first half of this year, while the death toll from the Nigeria-based Boko Haram’s insurgency was about 250.

    The herders and farmers are fighting over land and water in Nigeria’s fertile central region.

    The International Crisis Group, however, notes that the conflict “has taken on dangerous religious and ethnic dimensions.”

    The herders are mainly Muslims from the Fulani ethnic group while the farmers are Christians from various minority ethnic groups.”

  14. BREITBART – Mozilla Exec: Google Slows Down YouTube on Non-Chrome Browsers

    Google slows down YouTube for users who don’t use the Silicon Valley giant’s own Chrome browser, according to an executive from Mozilla, which makes the Firefox browser.
    In a series of tweets, the executive claimed Google was intentionally slowing down YouTube on Mozilla’s browser Firefox and Microsoft’s browser Edge.

    “YouTube page load is 5x slower in Firefox and Edge than in Chrome because YouTube’s Polymer redesign relies on the deprecated Shadow DOM v0 API only implemented in Chrome,” claimed Mozilla Technical Program Manager Chris Peterson. […]

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/07/25/mozilla-exec-google-slows-down-youtube-on-non-chrome-browsers/

  15. Iraqi Airways suspends pilots who fought in-flight over food

    BAGHDAD: Iraqi Airways has suspended two of its pilots for getting into a fight – over a food tray – during an international flight with more than 150 passengers on board.

    The row erupted on a flight to the capital Baghdad from the Iranian city of Mashhad, with 157 travellers on board plus crew.

    “Conversation with the pilot became heated because he forbade an air hostess from bringing me a meal tray, under the pretext that I hadn’t asked him for authorisation,” the co-pilot said in a letter addressed to Iraqi Airways management, seen by AFP.

    After the pilot had taken his own meal, he “hit and insulted (the co-pilot), prompting the arrival of a security agent”, according to the letter.

    The duo went on to land the plane safely in Baghdad, only to continue their quarrel after landing.

    “The pilot again hit and insulted” his colleague, the co-pilot said, admitting that he also lashed out: “I had to defend myself.”

    AFP has not seen the pilot’s account of the incident and the airline did not detail when the scuffle took place.

    “The transport ministry has opened an investigation with the two pilots who argued with each other in-flight,” Iraqi Airways said late Wednesday.

    Both have been suspended, the airline said, warning that the two employees “will not escape the toughest sanctions… such as a lifetime flying ban”.

    Iraqis responded with horror and mockery to the incident on social media, with one person likening the duo to the country’s minibus drivers who are renowned for racing around at full throttle.

    Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/iraqi-airways-suspends-pilots-who-fought-in-flight-over-food-10565726

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

    Fight breaks out at 37,000 feet between Iraqi Airways pilots

    Two Iraqi Airways pilots having an argument in mid-flight began physically fighting at 37,000 feet, hours after departing from an Iranian airport on Wednesday.

    The plane, which was carrying 157 passengers at the time, was headed to Iraq from the Mashhad Airport, a city to the northeastern-most province of Iran that borders Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

    Security guards on the plane intervened to break up the altercation which, according to passengers on board, caused damage to the cockpit.

    The Iraqi Ministry of Transportation (MoT) said on its website later that day that it had begun an investigation into the pilot and co-pilot’s actions and had “ordered immediately to restrict them from flying.”

    “They will have no chance of escaping harsh penalties, and will face the worst and most severe punishments, the least of which is the denial of flight for life,” the MoT said.

    Since 2015, Iraqi Airways has been prevented from flying over any European Union airspace because of its non-compliance with public safety standards.

    http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/29934/Fight-breaks-out-at-37-000-feet-between-Iraqi-Airways-pilots

  16. Teenager Dumped & Left to Die As London Mayor Launches Anti-Knife Crime Campaign (sputniknews, Jul 26, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201807261066706172-knife-crime-teenager-dies/

    “As London’s Mayor launches a new campaign to cut knife crime, another teenager dies from multiple stab wounds after being driven on the back of a moped and dumped on the street.

    London’s Metropolitan Police Service has launched its 82nd murder investigation after police found a young man dying from stab injuries in Camberwell, south London, in broad daylight.

    It’s believed the victim was driven to the borough of Lambeth on the back of a moped by someone who left him for dead and drove off…”

  17. Yemeni Houthis Target UAE’s Abu Dhabi Airport With Drone – Reports (sputniknews, Jul 26, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201807261066710739-houthis-yemen-uae-abu-dhabi/

    “The Houthi movement, which strives to oust the country’s President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi has intensified their missile shelling of Saudi territory in recent months after a Saudi-led coalition strike killed a Houthi political leader.

    Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked the airport in UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi with a drone, Al Masirah TV reported. There has been no immediate report on damage or casualties.

    The Emirates has not confirmed the incident yet.

    Earlier in the day, the Abu Dhabi airport reported “an incident involving a supply vehicle in Terminal 1.” However, it is unclear whether this incident is connected with the Houthis’ attack…”

  18. Almost 600 migrants storm border fence and attack security forces with quicklime to make it into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco
    Spanish authorities say hundreds of migrants charged double barrier fences
    Some attacked police with quicklime carried in tubes and bottles
    As a result ‘more than a dozen’ police were injured, with burns to arms and faces
    Emergency crews and police reported that some migrants also threw excrement
    The migrants’ storming of the barrier has added pressure to Spanish authorities
    More than 22,700 migrants have arrived in Spain so far this year, mostly by sea

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5994687/400-migrants-storm-border-fence-Spains-North-African-enclave-Ceuta-Morocco.html

  19. FRANCE – Ex-aide to French President Macron says protest beating was a ‘huge mistake’

    PARIS—The former security aide to President Emmanuel Macron who triggered an uproar after a video showed him beating a protester acknowledged a “huge mistake” in attending the demonstration equipped as a police officer, but described it as a political error that ended up backfiring against the French leader.

    Authorities have opened a judicial investigation into Alexandre Benalla, who was fired last week, and his office was searched on Wednesday. Le Monde newspaper published the interview Thursday with Benalla, who had shaved his beard to be less recognizable.

    Macron’s office has been criticized for not disclosing the accusations weeks ago and the way it handled them. The French leader said Tuesday at a private gathering of his centrist party that he alone was responsible. He has not spoken publicly to lawmakers during a week of televised parliamentary sessions, but when pressed by journalists on Wednesday he downplayed the uproar over Benalla’s actions.

    “He made a real, serious error which I felt was a personal betrayal and told him so. He was punished for this error and then resumed his work. When he made a second error he was more severely punished, as had been expected,” Macron said. “Everyone makes mistakes, the response has to be proportional.”

    France’s parliament has opened up a series of inquiries into Benalla’s role within the Macron administration and his request to carry firearms. The 26-year-old claimed credit for choosing the site where Macron formally claimed the presidency — the Louvre palace — and said his job was to take care of Macron’s private life. He can be seen in dozens of photos, at Macron’s side or just behind him.

    “I don’t have the sense that I betrayed the president; I have the sense that I made a huge mistake, to have committed an error,” Benalla said. “But this error, it’s more from a political point of view: I never should have gone to that protest as an observer and then, perhaps, I should have stayed back.”

    Benalla said targeting him has been a means to hurt Macron. “I am the weak link,” he said.

    Benalla had considered himself a crucial part of Macron’s detail, and has criticized his official security, the equivalent of the American Secret Service. “They aren’t at all involved in organization. They only handle security,” he told Le Monde.

    Earlier this week, speaking to lawmakers, Paris Police Chief Michel Delpuech denounced what he called “unhealthy cronyism” to explain Benalla’s apparent sway within France’s security apparatus. However, both the interior minister and the police chief said Benalla was among some 40 people present in the command room on the night of May 1, watching video screens of the police cleanup operation of the protests.

    https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/07/26/ex-aide-to-french-president-macron-says-protest-beating-was-a-huge-mistake.html

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

    PICS – article on Le Monde

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c57e372bfeac0fdf339b03dca8d14b74ca50ff1b621e30a3f21c6cc173856f9b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19f6b0ebbf737fee4539ac93a1b9a466f50f3596b037a118398dc78b2eabd355.jpg

  20. A long-time friend of Danforth Ave. shooter Faisal Hussain was released on bail after being accused in the largest seizure of carfentanil in Canadian history — along with 33 firearms and ammunition — in his Pickering rental property.

    Court transcripts state 33-year-old Maisum Ansari — who grew up in the same neighbourhood as Fahad Hussain, the brother of Greektown gunman Faisal Hussain — was charged last September with possessing 53 kilograms of carfentanil, an analog of fentanyl and 100 times stronger than the painkiller and notoriously deadly street narcotic.

    Ansari was friends with both Hussain brothers.

    https://torontosun.com/news/national/friend-of-alleged-greektown-assassin-accused-of-possessing-historic-drug-firearm-arsenal?video_autoplay=true

  21. the gateway pundit – Obama’s Russian Ambassador McFaul (Who Putin Wants to Interview) Is Pictured with Russian Attorney Veselnitskaya Who Set up Donald Trump Jr.

    What was President Obama’s former Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul up to?
    As a result of the meeting in Helsinki between President Trump and Russian President Putin the following was reported –

    Russian prosecutors have named the former US ambassador in Moscow as a person of interest in an investigation – and Michael McFaul appears to be quite unnerved. He seems to think Russian President Vladimir Putin is after him. The evidence seems to point to Michael McFaul being the bag-man in Moscow for Clinton and Obama rather than just a Government employee.

    McFaul has a storied past. D. Manny wrote at Politics Central that McFaul was one of the first individuals to discuss the to date never verified Russian hack of the DNC –[…]

    […]Manny goes on to state that soon after McFaul was appointed Ambassador in Russia he was visited by a number of Communist leaders from Russia at the US Embassy.

    Perhaps the most shocking observation of McFaul is related to his invitation in front of Congress at a Foreign Affairs Committee. Pictures of the event are telling, not necessarily because of McFaul, but rather because of the individual he has sitting directly behind him, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/07/obamas-russian-ambassador-mcfaul-who-putin-wants-to-interview-is-pictured-with-russian-attorney-veselnitskaya-who-set-up-donald-trump-jr/

  22. Exclusive: Obama Administration Knowingly Funded a Designated al-Qaeda Affiliate

    The group had been on a list of terrorist funders for a decade when a government agency specifically approved funding for it.

    The Middle East Forum has discovered that the Obama administration approved a grant of $200,000 of taxpayer money to an al-Qaeda affiliate in Sudan — a decade after the U.S. Treasury designated it as a terrorist-financing organization. More stunningly, government officials specifically authorized the release of at least $115,000 of this grant even after learning that it was a designated terror organization.

    The story began in October 2004, when the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Khartoum-based Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), also known as the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), as a terror-financing organization. It did so because of ISRA’s links to Osama bin Laden and his organization Maktab al-Khidamat (MK), the precursor of al-Qaeda.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/obama-administration-al-qaeda-affiliate-knowingly-funded/

  23. Ex-California congressman submits proposal to ban noncitizens from voting in state elections

    A former GOP congressman proposed a new measure on Wednesday that would ban noncitizens from voting in state elections, The Los Angeles Times reported.

    Doug Ose, who represented California’s 3rd District in the U.S. from 1999 to 2005, told the paper he was convinced to submit the proposal after San Francisco passed a law in 2016 that allowed non-U.S. citizens over age 18 to vote in school board elections.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/26/ex-california-congressman-submits-proposal-to-ban-noncitizens-from-voting-in-state-elections.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail&&roi=echo3-52498186301-48548973-fb662c28c13853ae4b8284166c46f121

  24. SOCIALIST ECONOMICS 101: Venezuela Lops Five Zeros Off Currency To Combat Gigantic Inflation

    On Wednesday, President Nicolas Maduro of socialist Venezuela announced an unusual plan for dealing with the gargantuan inflation plaguing his country: lopping five zeros off of the country’s currency, the bolivar. “Five zeroes fewer, so that we may have a new, stable financial and monetary system,” he stated.

    Maduro, whose original plans were to cut only three zeros from the currency, as former president Hugo Chavez did in 2008, plans to link the bolivar to the country’s Petro cryptocurrency on August 20, then call the new currency the Sovereign Bolivar. The problem with linking the currency to the cryptocurrency is that the petro has weak credibility because of a lack of confidence in Maduro’s government. According to the International Monetary Fund, inflation will reach one million percent by the end of 2018.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/33606/socialist-economics-101-venezuela-lops-five-zeros-hank-berrien?roi=echo3-52498186301-48548977-c47e68df3edc375b68c7abc79c76cfdb&

  25. Why Not Just Bomb Our Cities, Senator?

    You know it’s a bad idea when Kamala Harris proposes it, but her Rent Relief Act is one of the craziest proposals to hit Congress.

    Sacramento

    Not long ago, I quoted Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck’s conclusion about the results of rent control. He wrote that in many cases, it “appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing.” Lindbeck, however, seems to have missed an even better way to wreak havoc on major cities. It would be rent control combined with massive subsidies for renters. Rent control dramatically limits the supply of new housing units by discouraging people from building new apartments and punishing landlords for offering them for rent by limiting the price they can charge. But if you throw in government rent credits, the results on the housing stock will be even more extreme.

    This two-pronged approach not only limits supply, but it increases demand at the same time. So you have fewer apartments for rent and more people who want them. Rent control might be as effective as bombing, but this approach is the equivalent of carpet bombing. Naturally, California’s progressive Democrats are now trying to put this scheme into place. The only hope is that the state’s voters reject a coming rent-control initiative and the U.S. Congress will put the kibosh on the new legislation that would give renters a federal tax credit.

    https://spectator.org/why-not-just-bomb-our-cities/?roi=echo3-52498186301-48548983-a253317475406f819cc198d1bb354084

  26. Is Portugal Becoming a Bastion of Neo-Marxism?

    by Tiago S. Freitas
    July 26, 2018 at 4:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12749/portugal-marxism

    Since the dramatic October 4, 2015 legislative election in Portugal, which resulted in the fall of the newly-formed conservative government after less than two weeks, the country has been run by a far-left coalition.

    On one hand, this is not surprising, given Portugal’s long-standing socialist tradition; like many European countries, it has managed to balance a free-market economy with heavy government taxation and powerful labor unions.

    On the other hand, the ruling coalition now has the contribution of a toxic partner — the “Bloco de Esquerda” (“Left Bloc”) — which has been demanding implementation of its extreme social, economic and foreign policy agenda in exchange for political support. Since its formation in 1999, through the convergence of the neo-Marxists, Trotskyists, feminists and environmentalists, this bloc entered the scene like a political Trojan Horse, and gradually took root in academia and other cultural institutions, to the point at which it now wields actual parliamentary power.

    This power has taken the form of an intensification of a neo-Marxist agenda, ranging from a near-successful attempt to legalize euthanasia, disproportional defense of animal rights, gender modification for anyone 16 and older, and a series of draconian anti-private-sector measures. Yet, not a word from Portuguese media platforms.

  27. A Month of Multiculturalism in France: June 2018

    by Soeren Kern
    July 26, 2018 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12765/a-month-of-multiculturalism-in-france-june-2018

    June 1. In an interview with the magazine L’Obs, Marwan Muhammad, one of the leading Muslim activists in France, vowed to oppose President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to reorganize Islam in France: “Macron can do his own thing, we do ours. He can name a great imam, he can even to pray behind him if he wants to. That does not mean that he will receive the approval of the people.”

    June 2. In an interview with the newspaper Le Monde, the chief chaplain of the Muslim faith in the French armed forces, Abdelkader Arbi, called for the establishment of a military seminary to train the next generation of Muslim chaplains. The course of study would be at the undergraduate level and would be full-time for a period of three years.

    June 3. The managers of a Carrefour hypermarket in Chambourcy complied with Muslim demands to remove Israeli dates from the store’s “Ramadan department.” Customers complained that the presence of Israeli products at the store was “an affront to Muslim customers.”

    June 4. Police in Paris evacuated around 1,000 migrants from two makeshift camps in the city, five days after another 1,000 were taken to temporary lodgings. The operation began at dawn at a camp along the Canal St Martin northeast of the city center where an estimated 550 mainly Afghan migrants were staying. Another 450 people were evacuated from a camp to the north at Porte de la Chapelle. The St Martin Canal is near the site of a sprawling former camp by the Stalingrad Metro stop, which was cleared, only to spring up again several times last year.

  28. Media Gaslighting Can’t Hide Fact Trump Campaign Was Spied On

    On Saturday night, heavily redacted copies of the FBI’s application to wiretap Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page were released. The portion of the 412-page document that was not redacted supported the claims of Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), as well as those made by the majority of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

    The senators and the representatives had issued reports alleging that the FBI used an unverified Clinton campaign document to secure a wiretap against an American citizen, that the application for the wiretap used circular reporting and lacked verification for its central claims, and that it made materially false claims related to the source’s credibility.

    http://thefederalist.com/2018/07/26/media-gaslighting-cant-hide-fact-trump-campaign-was-spied-on/

  29. He Fights

    My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.” Here’s my answer:

    We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency. We tried statesmanship. Could there be another human being on this earth who so desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain? We tried propriety – has there been a nicer human being ever than Mitt Romney? And the results were always the same.

    This is because, while we were playing by the rules of dignity, collegiality and propriety, the Left has been, for the past 60 years, engaged in a knife fight where the only rules are those of Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob.

    https://townhall.com/columnists/evansayet/2017/07/13/he-fights-n2354580

    • Very good answer Richard.

      If I was asked about his tweets, I would like to think I would say something like:

      “Yes! How dare the President of the United States communicate directly with the public instead of letting dishonest people who hate him be the intermediary for all he says and does!”

      If you want to see really low class communications, read the tweets to president Trump from leftists.

  30. Racial tension threatens to rip apart Bay Area after ‘white supremacy’ blamed in stabbing death

    An ex-con was charged Wednesday in the brutal murder in Oakland of a black teenage girl, one of three deaths occurring in the last week on Bay Area Rapid Transit, but the only one that has stoked widespread outrage over crime.

    That may be because the suspect in 18-year-old Nia Wilson’s brutal murder is white, while the other two men sought in attacks on BART passengers are black.

    John Lee Cowell, 27, a white ex-con with a lengthy mental-health history, was charged Wednesday in the murder and premeditated attempted murder of 18-year-old Nia Wilson and her 26-year-old sister Letifah Wilson on the MacArthur station BART platform in Oakland, California.

    Nia Wilson’s stabbing death has fueled days of outrage on social media as well as a Monday vigil and protest in Oakland that drew an estimated 1,000 people, backed by groups like the Women’s March, which urged attendees to “show up against white supremacy.”

    Meanwhile, Color of Change alleged that Nia Wilson was “killed by a white supremacist emboldened by the racist rhetoric of this administration,” while Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights camp described the suspect as a “white supremacist/terrorist.”

    http://www.gopusa.com/?p=51138?omhide=true

  31. Trump Skeptical About ‘Official Government Findings’? Who Isn’t?

    President Donald Trump, in Helsinki, expressed skepticism about the intelligence community’s finding that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election. Within 24 hours, the President walked back his skepticism and said he trusts the intel community and believes their finding that Russia interfered with the 2016 election.

    But the Helsinki hysteria continued.

    Some Trump cable critics pronounced him “treasonous.” How dare the President waffle on the intelligence community’s definitive conclusion that Russia meddled? It’s “treasonous” to be guarded about official government conclusions? We’re going to need more prisons to house all the offenders.

    After all, this is the same crowd that believed President George W. Bush “lied us into the Iraq war,” despite Bush’s reliance on the unanimous opinion of our intelligence agencies. A recent Huffington Post/YouGov survey found that 56 percent of Democrats still believe “Bush did … lie about weapons of mass destruction in order to get the U.S. into the Iraq War.” To believe this, Democrats must therefore reject the conclusion of the bipartisan Robb-Silberman commission report, which uncovered deeply flawed intelligence but no intention to deceive.

    http://www.gopusa.com/?p=51096?omhide=true

  32. CNN: Chris Cuomo played Trump tape without realizing Cohen had recorded him too

    One of lawyer Michael Cohen’s surreptitiously recorded tapes was of a conversation with a CNN reporter in which he said paying off Stormy Daniels was an act he did “on my own,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

    Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the newspaper wrote Wednesday evening that Mr. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, recorded a nearly two-hour conversation with CNN anchorman Chris Cuomo.

    In the conversation with Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Cohen discusses the $130,000 paid to Ms. Daniels, the porn actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford and who claimed to have had an affair a decade ago with the future president.

    “I did it on my own,” Mr. Cohen said, “people familiar with the matter” told the Journal about the conversation, which took place after the Journal reported in January 2018 that Mr. Cohen had paid the adult-film star in a non-disclosure agreement.

    Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen, told the Journal it had been “Michael Cohen’s habit for many years to record conversations in lieu of taking notes. He had no intention of ever publicizing such tapes nor any intention to ever deceive anyone.”

    http://www.gopusa.com/?p=51142?omhide=true

  33. Pa. Dem Criticized Ruling to Uphold Laws Protecting Sexually Abused Children
    Scott Wallace was also opposed to efforts to fund police, mandate minimum sentences for sexual harassment

    A far-left candidate running for Congress in Pennsylvania has criticized a Supreme Court ruling that upheld laws meant to protect sexually abused children and opposed efforts to fund police and mandate minimum sentences for sexual harassment while serving as legislative director for a prominent criminal defense attorneys group.

    Scott Wallace, the Democrat who is challenging incumbent Republican Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania’s first congressional district, is the grandson of former vice president Henry Wallace and inherited a fortune after his grandfather’s company was sold in the 1990s.

    Wallace spent years running the Wallace Global Fund, his family’s foundation created in 1995, which has disbursed millions to radical left-wing groups while devoting no funds to organizations or groups located in the district he is seeking to represent, the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.

    Prior to Wallace’s involvement with the fund, which dates back to at least 1995 when he was listed as a “Director” on its board, Wallace was the legislative director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers for seven years from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.

    https://freebeacon.com/politics/pa-dem-criticized-ruling-to-uphold-laws-protecting-sexually-abused-children/

  34. How Hillary Clinton Set Up Mueller to Fail
    46 million reasons Hillary’s “election interference” allegation is a myth.
    July 26, 2018
    Daniel Greenfield

    136,639,786 people voted in the 2016 election. 46 million of those votes were cast in swing states. An estimated $2.65 billion was spent on the presidential race.

    The United States of America has the world’s biggest free and open elections. And also the most expensive elections. It would be easier for a foreign country to invade America than rig an election.

    There’s a reason that Russian activity in 2016 is described as “election interference” rather than a more definitive term. Despite the comparisons to Pearl Harbor and 9/11, there’s no remote evidence that what happened influenced the outcome. But the Japanese didn’t “interfere” in Pearl Harbor. Nor did Muslim terrorists “interfere” with the World Trade Center and the thousands of people in the towers.

    Interference is a weasel word, implying and inferring, rather than defining what really happened.

    Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has announced the release of the Cyber-Digital Task Force Report. The report’s chair is Sujit Raman, an Associate Deputy Attorney General, who was the beneficiary of a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, and a Rosenstein ally.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270817/how-hillary-clinton-set-mueller-fail-daniel-greenfield

  35. Senate Dem Candidate Goes Socialist
    Maine candidate Zak Ringelstein congratulates himself on his “courage.”
    July 26, 2018
    Matthew Vadum

    A declaration by the Democrats’ official candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine is proof that the party’s infiltration by hardline socialists is continuing apace as the off-year congressional elections of November approach.

    And while it is hyperbole to say that Democrats are embroiled in an ideological civil war, it is fair to say that members of the Democratic Party’s old guard are not happy about this leftward ideological drift.

    This new realignment with radicals makes Maine candidate Zak Ringelstein the only major-party Senate candidate –apart, of course from Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate— to admit to being a dues-paying member of the small-c communist group Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Since it was founded in the early 1980s by socialist activist Michael Harrington, the DSA has had little impact on elections, but the popularity of Sanders, whom the group endorsed for president in 2016, is giving the group newfound political clout.

    Ringelstein’s coming out as a revolutionary radical brings the number of DSA-endorsed candidates at the federal, state, and local levels to 42. The Left’s feverish disdain for President Trump has pushed DSA membership across America reportedly to the 45,000-mark.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270845/senate-dem-candidate-goes-socialist-matthew-vadum

  36. LETTER FROM PARIS: The unresolved murder of Sarah Halimi

    ONE NIGHT IN APRIL last year, in the largely working-class neighbourhood of Belleville in Paris, a 27-year old man stole into the apartment of a neighbour, Sarah Halimi, the 65-year old retired director of a Jewish kindergarten, an orthodox Jewish widow with three adult children.

    Malian-born Kobili Traoré brutally attacked the sleeping woman before throwing her from the window of her third-floor apartment. Witnesses heard him cry, “Allahu akbar” as he pushed her body onto the balcony, and then, “I killed the devil” as she fell.

    The police, who had been called earlier by another family in the building, did not attempt to enter the apartment; afraid that this was a terrorist attack they waited outside the building for reinforcements. By the time reinforcements arrived, Halimi was dead. She had been tortured for an hour before she was killed; the living room was covered in blood.

    Almost as shocking as the murder itself was the fact that it went barely mentioned in the media, giving rise to overt speculation that it was being covered up. In June the CRIF, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France put out a furious press release: “The murder of Sarah Halimi was 85 days ago already and the investigation is not advancing. Why this silence? Why this omerta? What is being hidden? Why this denial of anti-Semitism?”

    http://plus61j.net.au/plus61j-voices/letter-paris-unresolved-murder-sarah-halimi/

  37. LA City Attorney Mulls Prosecution of UCLA Anti-Israel Disruptors
    Will the city rectify the university’s failure?
    July 26, 2018
    Edwin Black

    It began as yet another frustrating example of a university refusing to take swift action in a case of aggressive disruption of a pro-Israel event. The belligerent shutdown of a Students Supporting Israel panel discussion occurred at the University of California-Los Angeles on May 17, 2018. That incident has skyrocketed to become the most important potential prosecution of anti-Israel campus disruption in the nation since the Irvine 11. A top Los Angeles City attorney is now actively reviewing the file of evidence and police complaints for possible prosecution under state laws that criminalize the disruption of public meetings, as well as other related statutes.

    In the now well-known case, on May 17, Students Supporting Israel gathered in a UCLA function room for a panel discussion titled Indigenous Peoples Unite. Disruptors–suddenly and loudly–stormed into the room mid-session. One person tore down the students’ flag, demonstratively pulled away a desk placard, and cursed threateningly close to the face of a panelist. With bullhorns, whistles, staged dancing, and slogan shouting, the event was shut down. The disruption and nose-to-nose intimidation of the students attending the SSI event was documented in a video, beginning at minute 41.

    Although the UCLA administration publicly promised a referral to prosecutors, no such action was taken against the various protestors — both students and non-students, because UCLA campus police were awaiting formal complaints by the intimidated students. Only after such a formal police report is filed do police investigate and determine if a referral to prosecutors is called for. Then, prosecutors weigh the evidence and decide if prosecution is warranted. All students contacted by this reporter stated they did not know they were entitled to make a police report.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270839/la-city-attorney-mulls-prosecution-ucla-anti-edwin-black

  38. Londoners least liberal on homosexuality and pre-marital sexLondoners least liberal on homosexuality and pre-marital sex

    ondon is known as a bastion of liberal values. But by some measures the capital city is less progressive than you might think. Findings from the British Social Attitudes survey found that residents were the least likely to say that pre-marital sex and homosexuality were rarely or never wrong.

    Just 73 per cent held this view about sex before marriage and 67 per cent about same-sex relationships.

    The trend is despite London having the largest proportion of gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the country.

    Researchers said the regional variations were down to “religious differences” between different areas of the country and Londoners’ social conservatism was “largely driven by religious factors”.

    “Controlling for religion, a factor significantly correlated with views towards pre-marital sex, differences between London and other regions became statistically non-significant,” the paper said.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/17/londoners-least-liberal-homosexuality-pre-marital-sex/

  39. Iran’s President Rouhani: Part of the Problem, Not Part of the Solution

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The controversy surrounding the US withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) epitomizes the ongoing debate between two contending approaches on the best way to bring about a positive change in Tehran’s Islamist regime and its policies.

    Many, including in Israel, identify the (supposedly) moderate President Hassan Rouhani as the best hope for such a change, warning that the collapse of the nuclear agreement and the reintroduction of international sanctions will play into the hands of the hardliners and weaken Rouhani and the “reformist camp” more generally.

    While intriguing, such views are not only unfounded but detrimental to the efforts to pressure Iran to end its domestic repression and external aggression. For one thing, it is international sanctions, not friendly persuasion, that brought Tehran to the negotiating table in the first place. For another, as shown by the popular protests across Iran since early 2018, sustained economic pressure does not weaken the internal Iranian demand for change but rather reinforces it.

    While Rouhani’s rhetoric may well sound more moderate than that of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his political record, ideological worldview, and actual conduct over the past decades clearly show him to be cut from the same cloth: an unreconstructed revolutionary Islamist. As such, he constitutes a major barrier to real change in both Iran’s domestic situation and its hegemonic foreign policy ambitions.

    https://besacenter.org/mideast-security-and-policy-studies/iran-president-rouhani/

  40. An Ontario woman says she plans to file a human rights complaint against a barber who refused to cut her hair because of her gender.

    But Waterloo, Ont. barber Joe Cignelli says he’s never cut women’s hair and wouldn’t feel confident enough to properly perform the job.

    “I’ve been married 43 years and I’ve never given my wife a haircut because I don’t feel comfortable,” Cignelli told CTV Kitchener.

    PHOTOS
    Erica Croft, a hair stylist from Stratford, Ont.
    Erica Croft, a hair stylist from Stratford, Ont., says she plans to file a human rights complaint against a barber who refused to give her a haircut. The barber says he’s never cut a woman’s hair, and wouldn’t feel comfortable.

    Erica Croft, a hair stylist from Stratford, Ont., wears her hair short and walked into G & T Barbers in hopes of getting a touch-up. That’s when she says a young male employee at the shop told her he couldn’t take her business, citing a company policy.

    “He immediately said ‘No no, we don’t do women’s hair here. We don’t do women’s hair. I can’t cut your hair,’” she said. “I thought it was a bit of a joke.”

    Cignelli’s version of the story is slightly different.

    “In a very polite way I said, ‘I’m sorry, but we’re not confident enough to give haircuts to ladies,” he said.

    Croft often visits barber shops for a clipper cut, a style she describes as “pretty much barber 101.” She says she’s never once been rejected.

    The experience left her feeling “a little bit angry, but more shocked and hurt.”

    “It was scary and it was upsetting,” she said.

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/i-don-t-feel-comfortable-barber-defends-refusing-haircut-to-woman-1.4028473

  41. olitical Islam, Migrant Crime, Terror Cells Challenge Putin Claims of ‘Great White Hope’

    • The elephant in the room.
      Reporters better be careful. Stories like that – similar to those of RT – are NOT the way to stay healthy in Putin’s Russia.

  42. “Planned Parenthood Ditches ‘Freedom to F***’ Campaign After BLP Makes it National News” By Peter D’Abrosca – July 24, 2018
    https://bigleaguepolitics.com/planned-parenthood-ditches-freedom-to-f-campaign-after-blp-makes-it-national-news/

    “SELF mag: Listen to Beyonce songs during your abortion to be empowered” By Claire Chretien – July 26, 2018
    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/self-mag-listen-to-beyonce-songs-during-your-abortion-to-be-empowered