Reader’s Links, Aug. 21, 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

142 Replies to “Reader’s Links, Aug. 21, 2018”

  1. Abbas’s Responsibility for Gaza Crisis

    by Bassam Tawil
    August 21, 2018 at 6:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12898/gaza-crisis-mahmoud-abbas

    The Palestinian Authority (PA) is continuing to pursue a policy of double-dealing regarding the Gaza Strip.

    On the one hand, President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA leadership continue inciting against Israel by holding it solely responsible for the humanitarian and economic crisis in the Gaza Strip. On the other hand, Abbas and his Ramallah-based government continue to impose strict economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip.

    Now, Abbas is bending over backwards to foil a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip. Abbas says he is worried that such a deal would pave the way for the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East.

    Although they have never seen the Trump plan, Abbas and the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah claim that it envisages the establishment of a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. They also argue that the Trump plan seeks to transform the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from a political and national conflict into one that is related only to humanitarian and economic issues. Abbas says he fears that the humanitarian and economic aid that the international community is promising to the Gaza Strip, as part of a cease-fire deal, is aimed at extracting concessions from the Palestinians, especially on issues related to Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

  2. Did Brennan Admit to Using Reverse Targeting to Spy on the Trump Campaign?

    Comments made by former CIA Director John Brennan in an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow suggest that the CIA may have used a tactic known as “reverse targeting” to collect data on members of the Trump campaign.

    In the Aug. 17 interview, Brennan discussed concerns about Russian contacts with U.S. citizens during the 2016 presidential election.

    “I was very concerned and aware that the Russians were trying to leverage U.S. citizens in order to achieve their objectives in the presidential election,” Brennan said.

    Despite Brennan’s apparent concerns, he admitted that these contacts may have been completely innocent—there was no proof that these same U.S. citizens had been successfully leveraged by Russian efforts. But that surveillance moved forward anyway, and may have occurred before and after the election.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/did-brennan-admit-to-using-reverse-targeting-to-spy-on-the-trump-campaign_2628435.html

  3. Man Accused Of Threatening To Assassinate President Trump Currently On The Loose, FBI Is Actively Searching For Him

    The FBI, U.S. Secret Service, and U.S. Marshals are currently searching for a man who is accused of making threats to assassinate President Trump.

    Shawn Richard Christy, 27, from McAdoo, Pennsylvania was last seen Sunday night in a stolen vehicle in Cumberland, Maryland, according to CNN.
    According to officials, Christy posted on Facebook, “Keep it up [Northampton County District Attorney John] Morganelli, I promise I’ll put a bullet in your head as soon as I put one in the head of President Donald J. Trump.”

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/20/assassinate-trump-fbi-arrest/

  4. James O’Keefe Hints At October Surprise That Should Have Democrats Trembling With Fear

    The Democrats are already walking a tightrope with less than three months until the critical midterm elections and have just received some very bad news.

    With an announcement that will give many on the left nightmares, conservative journalist James O’Keefe of Project Veritas is promising to spring an “October Surprise” on the blue party and their winged monkeys in the media.

    According to O’Keefe, a new project is being launched under the name “Veritas Leaks” in order to provide Deep State whistleblowers with a safe source for documents now that WikiLeaks has been decapitated after founder Julian Assange had his internet access revoked.

    That would be enough bad news but O’Keefe is also mocking the fake news media that is obsessed with Omarosa’s secret tapes teasing the release of his own series of recordings that will be arriving with the ghosts, ghouls, and goblins before Halloween.

    https://ilovemyfreedom.org/james-okeefe-hints-at-october-surprise-that-should-have-democrats-trembling-with-fear/?utm_source=patriots&utm_medium=facebook

    • I find James O’Keefe irritating.

      He does great work, but he comes off as an obnoxious jerk. Half of each video is preening and gloating. Unprofessional kid’s stuff. Not that I’m not grateful for his revelations; it’s his personality that gets in the way. He needs an editor who’s not a narcissist’s mirror.

      A better model is the team at Judicial Watch. They do serious work without entering into a competitive snark-fest with their targets.

      Right now O’Keefe’s so cute, he’s begging for a timely Arkancide.

  5. Muslims GANG-RAPE Christian teen girl, ‘you are a Christian women and its your punishment to be a Christian”

    The victims had tears in the vaginal tissue, perineal skin, and perineal muscles that extends into the anal sphincter (the muscle that surrounds your anus). She required repair of the vagina fornix,

    he as raped her all night and told, ‘you are a Christian women and its your punishment to be a Christian.’ Muslims continue to exact vicious, unfathomable punishment on non-Muslims because they get away with it.
    Rape and sex slavery is sanctioned under Islam. As I have explained numerous times,it is sanctioned and rewarded under Islam. Muslim clerics all over the world confirm the right to have sex slaves. It is in the Qur’an — the word of Allah.

    https://gellerreport.com/2018/08/muslim-gang-rape-christian-teen.html/

  6. Details of Ocasio-Cortez’s Ties To George Soros Revealed

    New details have emerged revealing that George Soros helped prop-up democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s political career in an attempt to put 400 Bernie Sanders-like politicians in Congress.
    By Kyle Pirisic, The Daily Caller News Foundation, August 19, 2018

    A former organizer for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s under-dog win in the democratic primary was undoubtedly helped by far-left organizations linked George Soros — specifically, online media which played a crucial role in her campaign.

    Members linked to Soros-funded digital media asked Ocasio-Cortez to run for office which guaranteed she would get favorable coverage by a media network that reaches almost 300 million people monthly.

    https://gellerreport.com/2018/08/ocasio-cortez-soros.html/

  7. Comey DELETED Obama’s Name From Hillary Hacked Emails Report

    WASHINGTON — Former FBI director James Comey is vulnerable to a possible obstruction of justice charge for his conduct in the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Comey deleted Barack Obama’s name from the Bureau’s report to conceal Obama’s knowledge of the illegal server, and also deleted evidence that Clinton’s emails were hacked by foreign adversaries.

    Comey’s firing by President Donald Trump in 2017 is at the center of Comey’s friend Robert Mueller’s attempt to charge President Trump for obstruction of justice. Mueller previously announced that he would try to wrap up an obstruction case by September 11, having found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. Mueller will try to argue that Trump fired Comey because Comey was investigating General Flynn and the Russia case.

    But Comey’s own deletion of important records to protect Obama and Clinton — not to mention his leaking of classified information to the press and his own statement under oath that he does not believe Trump obstructed justice — could be the final nail in the coffin of Mueller’s case.

    https://bigleaguepolitics.com/comey-deleted-obamas-name-from-hillary-hacked-emails-report/

  8. Just enjoyed John Wick: Chapter 2.

    The perfect Mafia. Honor Among Thieves.

    At the end he becomes An Apostate. Everyone had the right to kill him.

    Islam.

    Muhammad: A Pirate and Murderer. Fake Religion, Fake Politic and Fake News.

    I look forward to John Wick Chapter 3: The Gates of Vienna (that no Socialists under the control of Marxists open).
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wick:_Chapter_2

  9. channel 4 Spike Lee interview on Trump, BlacKKKlansman and Charlottesville

    Some directors mellow as they get older, but not Spike Lee. After 40 years in the business, he is, if anything, angrier than ever and still determined to do the right thing.

    Much of his rage is directed against President Trump, who he won’t mention by name but will call plenty of names.

    Lee’s latest film, Black Klansman, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, is a searing portrait of the toxic legacy of racism in America. It tells the true story of Ron Stallworth, a black Colorado Springs police officer who went undercover in the late 1970s to infiltrate the Klan.

  10. Black Lives: Struggle. Dreaming of racial justice in St. Louis’ black neighborhoods (Ep.1)
    ( 25 min )

    Fifty years after Martin Luther King’s death, some American cities are still divided along racial lines. The legacy of legalised segregation persists and shapes urban areas like St. Louis

    Episode one follows St. Louis activists who are fighting battles old and new: against inequality, poverty, bias, lack of prospects, police abuse, and extrajudicial killings, all problems the African-American community faces every day.

    We meet activist rapper, T-Dubb-O, Ferguson protester, Dhoruba Shakur, and local protest organiser, Tory Russell.

    They all describe the bleak reality of living in black enclaves

    We also hear from Gina Torres, whose son, Isaiah Hammett, was killed in a raid on their home by a SWAT team. Some say the young white man received, “the treatment of black people” and died because he hung around black people.

  11. Durban Deputy Mayor Fawzia Peer in a BDS Event: Apartheid Israel Will Tumble into Dust

    Fawzia Peer, deputy mayor of Durban, South Africa, said that the “collective power of ordinary people” would “bring apartheid Israel… tumbling into dust.”

    Calling U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley a “shameless woman,” she said that “if there is no two-state solution, the only solution is a one-state solution.”

    Councilor Peer made the remarks at the June 2 Durban’s Palestine March, organized by a coalition of organizations under the banner of “People Against Oppression.” Her address was posted on YouTube by BDS South Africa on June 2.

  12. Facebook Use Connected With Anti-Refugee Violence in Germany – Study (sputniknews, Aug 21, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/society/201808211067372791-facebook-use-connected-with-anti-refugee-violence-germany/

    “A new study by researchers at the University of Warwick in England found that German towns with higher rates of Facebook use by their residents also had higher incidences of violent attacks against refugees.

    According to the study, which was published in February, the link between violence against refugees and Facebook use even held true when other factors, including wealth, demographic factors such as age and voting preferences, previous support for far-right ideologies, newspaper sales, refugee populations and hate crime history, were controlled for.

    The data, which was collected by researchers Karsten Müller and Carlo Schwarz and involved 3,335 cases of violence against refugees, revealed that whenever per-person Facebook use increased by one standard deviation above the national average, anti-refugee attacks during a two-year span also increased by approximately 50 percent.

    The study also found that when long-term internet outages occurred, the violence against refugees decreased. There were no links between violence and the amount of time spent on general internet use, indicating that the use of Facebook, specifically, is linked to anti-refugee violence.

    However, according to the researchers, although the study suggests that Facebook may be correlated with increased violence against refugees, there are other underlying factors driving brutality.

    “We do not claim that social media itself causes crimes against refugees out of thin air. In fact, hate crimes are likely to have many fundamental drivers; local differences in xenophobic ideology or a higher salience of immigrants are only two obvious examples,” the researchers wrote in the study.

    “Rather, our argument is that social media can act as a propagating mechanism for the flare-up of hateful sentiments,” they added.

    The link between violence and Facebook use could be due to Facebook’s algorithms, which boost the visibility of popular, high-engagement content portraying refugees negatively.

    According to the New York Times, which interviewed people in Altena, Germany, one of the towns in the study, residents said the researchers’ findings are unsurprising.

    “You can get this impression [from using Facebook] that there is widespread community support for violence,” Dr. Paluck, an Altena resident, told the outlet. “And that changes your idea of whether, if you acted, you wouldn’t be acting alone.””

  13. MEMRI TV -Tunisian Hizb ut-Tahrir Member Calls to Conquer U.S., Britain, Russia, France, Italy, after Israel

    Said Khecharem, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Tunisia, said that restoring the rule of the Muslims worldwide “requires the conquest of America, Britain, Russia, France, and Italy,” and other infidel lands.

    Khecharem, who was speaking at the International Caliphate Conference, held in Tunisia, said that this would happen “after the elimination of the filthy Jewish entity, and after liberation of the lands that are being directly colonized, like Kashmir and others.”

    The conference was posted on the YouTube channel of Hizb ut-Tahrir Tunisia on May 19, 2018.

  14. CNBC – Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleads guilty, admits to making illegal payments at direction of candidate to influence election

    Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for President Donald Trump, has struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

    Cohen came under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York City earlier this year. They had received a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

    Prosecutors had been eyeing Cohen’s business dealings. The New York Times reported that federal authorities were looking into $20 million in loans for taxi businesses linked to Cohen.

    Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to eight counts related to tax fraud, excessive campaign contributions, making false statements to a financial institution, and unlawful corporate contributions at a court hearing in New York on Tuesday.

    Two of those counts appear to relate to Trump directly. Cohen admitted on Tuesday to making payments to two women at the direction of an unidentified candidate for political office who appears to be the president. Those payments, Cohen said, were made to influence the outcome of the election.

    Cohen pleaded guilty to one count of causing an illegal corporate contribution in 2016 by working with the CEO of a media company, at the direction of a federal candidate for federal election, to keep information from the public. Cohen said he paid a woman $150,000 “for the principal purpose of influencing the election.”

    Cohen also pleaded guilty to a count of making an excessive campaign contribution. He said he used a company under his control to pay $130,000 to a woman at the direction of the same candidate.

    When the judge asked Cohen whether he knew what he was doing was illegal, he said “yes,” according to NBC News.

    Cohen could face more than five years in prison, according to his plea agreement.

    News of Cohen’s plea deal comes as the president’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight criminal counts by a jury in Virginia. Manafort’s trial was the first to come as a result of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

    Cohen came under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York City earlier this year after they received a referral from Mueller, who is leading the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

    Prosecutors had been eyeing Cohen’s business dealings for months, and in April seized thousands of items from Cohen’s New York office and hotel room. The New York Times reported Sunday that federal authorities were looking into $20 million in loans for taxi businesses owned by Cohen and his family.

    Experts have said that any deal could have dramatic implications for the president, who has worked closely with Cohen for more than a decade. The deal Cohen reached, however, does not appear to include cooperation with investigators, The New York Times reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. Cohen could still choose to cooperate.

    Prosecutors have an incentive to seek plea bargains — even without a cooperation agreement — because they conserve substantial resources by striking deals, said Nick Gravante, a partner of New York-based law firm Boies Schiller.

    “If a defendant is willing to admit guilt, why bother taking him to trial and proving it?” Gravante said in an email.

    On the flip side, Gravante said, Cohen’s plea has no real effect on Trump’s legal situation if he doesn’t cooperate — aside from the bad optics it creates.

    A spokesperson for Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis declined a request for comment from CNBC.

    Cohen, a longtime friend and advisor to the president, once said he would take a bullet for Trump. But in recent months, Cohen began to signal that he could cooperate with investigators. In an interview with ABC News in July, Cohen said he put “family and country” before Trump.

    Cohen was released on Tuesday on $500,000 bail. Sentencing is scheduled for December 12.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/21/trumps-ex-lawyer-michael-cohen-strikes-plea-deal-nbc-news.html

  15. London bloodbath: Armed police swarm as ‘two shot’ at tube station – 2nd shooting in 24hrs (express, Aug 21, 2018)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1006491/london-news-rayners-lane-tube-station-shooting-latest-met-police

    “POLICE have launched an investigation after a double shooting in broad daylight on Rayners Lane, in northwest London outside the Tube station in broad daylight.

    Two males, aged 18 and 25, have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and have been taken to a West London police station and remain in custody at this time.

    Police believe that a male fired shots at another group of males before fleeing the scene with an accomplice on a moped.

    Two males, aged 18 and 24, who had fled the scene were located in a fenced area nearby suffering from gunshot wounds. They were both taken to hospital and neither are believed to be in a life-threatening condition.

    A cordon is in place close to a Chicken Cottage restaurant as a helicopter was seen circling above near Rayners Lane Tube station.

    Witnesses said two suspects were seen fleeing the scene on a moped with their faces covered..”

  16. Spain knife attacker was gay and suicidal: probe source

    Barcelona (AFP) – A man shot dead as he attacked a Spanish police station had come out as gay and wanted to commit suicide, a source close to the probe said Tuesday based on testimony of the assailant’s ex-wife.

    Abdel Wahab Taib, a 29-year-old Algerian man, invoked the name of Allah during the assault early Monday in the town of Cornella de Llobregat near Barcelona.

    Authorities are treating the incident as a “terrorist attack” although the source, who refused to be named, said “there don’t appear to be any signs of jihadism.”

    According to the source, Taib’s ex-wife, a Spaniard who reportedly converted to Islam after meeting him, told police he had recently told her he was homosexual.

    “She said they had separated, that he had revealed his homosexuality and that he was disturbed about how that fit in with the Muslim religion,” the source said.

    “We’re putting this down to confusion, a suicide attempt. There are some who do it throwing themselves off a bridge, he opted for this method.

    “We’re basing ourselves on his wife’s testimony, who says he had not veered towards extremism.”

    – Large knife –

    David Martinez, the ex-wife’s lawyer, told reporters the couple had signed divorce papers last Tuesday and ruled out a terror-related motivation for the attack.

    Speaking to Spanish radio on Tuesday, however, Catalonia’s regional interior minister Miquel Buch made clear that “for now, it’s a terrorist attack according to the information we have.”

    Taib arrived at the police station in Cornella de Llobregat at 5:45 am (0345 GMT) on Monday and repeatedly pressed the buzzer to be let in, Rafel Comes, a commissioner with the Catalan regional police told reporters.

    After police let him in, the man pulled out a “large knife” and lunged at officers in “a clearly premeditated desire to kill,” Comes said on Monday.

    “The officer used her gun to save her own life,” he said, indicating the attacker had shouted “Allah” along with other words the police did not understand.

    “These are enough indication to treat the events being investigated as a terrorist attack,” he said.

    4 reactions

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/spain-knife-attacker-gay-suicidal-says-wife-reports-084232575.html
    ===============================================
    To die a Martyr

    To die a martyr in the Islamic faith is one of the greatest honors. The rewards granted to the martyr are so sublime and are superior to the rewards for performing almost any other righteous act.

    Once the first drop of his blood is shed, all of his sins are forgiven.

    […]There are so many ways that a believing Muslim can be granted the honor of dying a martyr.

    http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/529534/Life/Faith/To-die-a-Martyr
    ============================================
    El atacante de Cornellà se quería suicidar, según su exmujer

  17. 11 migrants deported after Turin centre revolt (ansamed, Aug 21, 2018)
    http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2018/08/21/11-migrants-deported-after-turin-centre-revolt_e9c0e418-aae7-4ee5-becb-3c1449a11ac4.html

    “Italy on Tuesday deported 11 migrants after a revolt at the start of August in a Permanent Centre for Repatriation (CPR) in Turin.

    The eight Tunisians and three Moroccans were among the leaders of the riot, police said.
    Police are still viewing footage of the riot.

    A Tunisian man has been cited and a Senegalese man has been arrested for violence and resisting a public officer.”

  18. Calls for Zurich police to get bodycams after hooligans attack officers (thelocal, Aug 21, 2018)
    https://www.thelocal.ch/20180821/calls-for-zurich-police-to-get-bodycams-after-hooligans-attack-officers

    “Authorities in Zurich have called for police to be equipped with bodycams after officers and medics treating an injured man were attacked by a mob of up to 300 people on Saturday night.

    “Shocking,” “incomprehensible” and “sad”: That is how Zurich security chief Karin Rykart described the attack near the Zurich Opera House by a group of some 200 to 300 masked individuals wearing FC Zürich football club fan gear.

    The group threw stones and bottles at police and medics treating a man injured in a knife fight between two groups who were not associated with the football hooligan scene, said city police chief Daniel Blumer at a press conference on Monday.

    The mob formed spontaneously when emergency services arrived on the scene, explained Blumer. He said the FCZ football fans had arrived back in the city from a game in Basel and had split up at the main train station before meeting up again near the opera house.

    “Perhaps we underestimated the situation,” he said…”

  19. VICE News – France’s Quietest Migration Crisis Is Crushing This Island Off East Africa

    As France just toughened up its asylum policy, mass arrivals of undocumented migrants are not only overpowering European shores, but a tiny French island off East Africa.

    Since it voted to become part of France in 2009, Mayotte has been flooded with people from neighboring islands; now, more than half of its residents were born somewhere else, mostly in the nearby Comoros, whose government claims Mayotte is theirs.

    But Mahorais disagree; they blame migrants for leeching off social services and crowding the only hospital on the island, while Mayotte already struggles to operate on par with other French regions.

  20. SWEDEN – Around 100 cars damaged after further suspected arson attacks

    Around 100 cars have been damaged after two cars were set alight in a suspected arson attack in the Uppsala area, north of Stockholm.

    The fire was started in a garage in Gränby, in the north of the city, shortly before 2am on Monday morning. Firefighters extinguished the flames around two hours later.

    “It was two cars that were burning, but the garage contained around 100 cars which have been damaged to a greater or lesser extent by the heat. The fire was contained in the garage the whole time,” Bosse Eriksson from Uppsala’s emergency services told the TT newswire.

    Eriksson added that the fire was “probably” caused deliberately, but police have not yet made any arrests.

    It comes after a spate of similar attacks last week, mostly across Gothenburg and the west of the country with around 80 cars set on fire in the region. Police said those attacks may have been coordinated.

    On Saturday night, there were eight new car burnings across western Sweden, Göteborgs Posten reported, with between one and three vehicles affected in each incident. Police said they suspected the fires to have been started deliberately, but had not identified the suspects.

    A police press officer said that they didn’t believe Saturday’s car burnings were connected to each other or to the arson incidents last week. Instead, she told the newspaper they were likely isolated incidents which typically occur shortly before the start of the school year.

    https://www.thelocal.se/20180820/around-100-cars-damaged-after-suspected-arson-attacks