Links - 5th January 2020 (2)

Ilhan Omar Refuses to Back Turkey Armenian Genocide Vote, Demands Slave Trade and Slaughter of Native Americans Also Be Acknowledged - "Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar has come under fire for refusing to back Tuesday's House vote on recognizing the early 20th-century Armenian Genocide, which passed the chamber by 405 to 11 votes with overwhelming bipartisan support. Responding to the criticism, Omar released a statement explaining her stance and suggesting that votes to acknowledge historic human rights abuses should not be a political weapon, used as a stick against America's opponents... The Turkish government has consistently denied that the genocide occurred, claiming instead that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed during in fighting with the Ottoman government.However, before the Ottoman Empire was abolished and replaced with the new Turkish Republic, the government did execute several top officials for their role in Armenian massacres."
Is this peak "whataboutism"?

Armenian genocide and the theater of US politics | Spectator USA - "she seems to have ‘All Lives Mattered’ the Armenian genocide by implying that only when we take stock of other historical transgressions can we acknowledge the injustice of the systematic decimation of the Armenian population that began in late April 1915. While some American officials such as Gavin Newsom have used the word ‘genocide’ in reference to the mass slaughter of Native Americans, both the treatment of indigenous peoples and the Atlantic slave trade are widely considered grave moral perversions whose evil shadows continue to taint America’s legacy, a perspective with which hardly anyone disagrees outside white supremacist circles. Compare this with what would happen if Turkish citizens openly discussed the crimes of their government or the Armenian genocide under draconian speech laws (see Article 301) that prohibit denigration of the Turkish nation. Putting aside the ‘hundreds of millions’ figure that Omar casually throws out (the 1870 census shows the US population at just under 40 million) and any moral qualms she might have about, say, the East-African slave trade over the Indian Ocean (perpetrated by Arabs), her explanation proves that she is a faux champion of minorities who only cares about victims of oppression when they don’t interfere with her rigid anti-West views... The Armenian community in Los Angeles County represents a major voting bloc for Adam Schiff, one of the genocide bill’s co-sponsors. He delivered a tearful statement on the floor of the House that was the perfect response to Omar’s views: ‘We cannot pick and choose which crimes against humanity are convenient to speak about. We cannot cloak our support for human rights in euphemisms. We cannot be cowed into silence by a foreign power.’"

Erdogan Ally Donated $1,500 to Ilhan Omar Last Month - "The co-chairman of a Turkish-American advocacy group with close ties to Ankara contributed $1,500 last month to the campaign for Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is under fire this week over votes she cast supporting Turkish government positions... Omar and the activist, Halil Mutlu, were also photographed together at an event for the Turkish American Steering Committee (TASC), a U.S.-based nonprofit that has for years waged public relations campaigns in support of Turkish government policies and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Mutlu, who Turkish media outlets have reported is Erdogan’s cousin, is co-chairman of TASC... She also said that she was withholding judgment on the genocide question until an “academic consensus” had been formed... Mutlu and other TASC officials were present at the May 16, 2017, attacks outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C. against a group of Kurdish protesters"

Imam Tawhidi: Ilhan Omar Is Focused on Serving Kashmiri Rebels, Not Minnesota - "Mrs. Omar has been focusing on the conflicts in Kashmir and appears to be siding with the Pakistani-sponsored rebels that are fighting the Indian government. She claims to be concerned about Kashmiri Muslims and the ‘Oppression of a Hindutva Government’, whereby she willfully chooses to ignore the thousands of Muslims that voted for PM Modi in the last Indian elections. Indian areas with over 40% Muslim voters have voted for the BJP, yet Ilhan Omar rallied against the entire voting base, because in her books, those are not the right type of Muslims. Her latest attack was on one of India’s most prominent journalists, Aarti Singh... Ilhan Omar set to destroy this woman’s reputation and have it put on public record. That’s because Rep. Omar clearly felt threatened by Aarti’s caliber, and the fact that she too is a woman of color that primarily identifies as a dispassionate journalist... Little did Aarti know that she was about to touch a raw nerve with Ms. Omar when mentioning Pakistan’s sponsored Jihadists. She went on to say: “So who are the victims of human rights violations in Kashmir? The victims are those 15000 Kashmiri Muslims who have been killed by Pakistan sponsored militants in the last 30 years, but no press and no human rights activist in the world thinks that it is their moral obligation to talk or write about them.” Singh states that: According to former Pakistani Ambassador Mr. Husain Haqqani, the Pakistan-sponsored insurgency sought to cleanse Kashmir of non-Muslims to make the state entirely free of minorities. Many terror groups active in Kashmir today, such as Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hizbu-ul-Mujahideen (HM) have rightfully been labelled Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the European Union, United States, and other countries. Yet these terrorists continue to receive safe harbor, medical care, and financial support in Pakistan–exactly like Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin-Laden who was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan by US Special Forces in 2011. These groups have launched terror attacks throughout India, including the November 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed over 165 people, and the September 2016 attack on an Indian army base, which lead to an escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan. Yet, instead of Ilhan Omar addressing the subject of the hearing or expressing disgust at the crimes of these terrorist organizations, she decided to justify the agenda of Kashmir’s Islamist rebels by attacking the credentials of Aarti Singh.That’s right, Ilhan Omar didn’t launch an attack on the Jihadists, but on the senior journalist invited to congress to testify against terrorism in her own homeland"

Lucas Lynch - A great day for America, when the House of... - "A great day for America, when the House of Representatives recognizes the horrors of the Armenian Genocide.Or as Ilhan Omar, one of two Democrats not to vote for the resolution calls it, "Some Ottomons did Something" ."

Students left a pineapple in the middle of an exhibition and people mistook it for art - "Students claim they managed to pass off a pineapple they bought for £1 at a supermarket as a work of art, after leaving it in the middle of an exhibition at their university,Ruairi Gray, a business information technology student at Robert Gordon University in Scotland, and his friend Lloyd Jack, reportedly left the fruit at the Look Again exhibition at RGU's Sir Ian Wood building, hoping that it might be mistaken for art.When they returned four days later he found that the pineapple had been put inside its own glass display case at the event... The incident recalls a similar prank last year when a 17-year-old placed a pair of glasses on the floor at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.Apparently unimpressed with some of the work on display and wanting to test the theory that people will try to interpret any object provided it is in a gallery setting, TJ Khayatan placed the glasses on the floor and walked away.Soon after, visitors to the gallery surrounded them and began taking pictures."

Tyler Zed on Twitter - "Former CA Governor Jerry Brown has blamed the CA wildfires on Trump & Republicans saying “the blood is on your soil. This is the same Jerry Brown that vetoed a wildfire management bill to clear dead brush away from power lines. Some people wonder why California is a disaster."

The Worst of Twitter - Posts - "I hate when people without STDs call themselves clean. Like, you have guns in your house, a Confederate flag on your wall, a bible by your bed, and you think you're "cleaner" than me magically? How about you go fuck yourself?"
Incidentally, this is a good example of the hostility towards Christianity that is common in liberal culture

Instagram influencer says World War II isn't as important as climate change - "British Reality star Freddie Bentley, 22, appeared on Good Morning Britain today, and gave his opinion, even though he didn’t necessarily have to because no one really asked.The situation stemmed from an episode of The Apprentice when contestants on the show couldn’t name the years that World War II started or ended."

Politically Incorrect D.Va II: Gamers Never Die - Posts - "NFL when players kneel during the national anthem disrespecting the entire country: "This is perfectly fine"
NFL when players wear Joker shoes: "INCONCEIVABLE TaKe ThOsE ShOeS off oR FaCe SuSpEnSiON!!!""

Qatar Airways chief, who accuses Jewel Changi Airport of being a copycat, has a penchant for bizarre sound bites - "In July 2017, Mr Al Baker said that American airlines were “crap” and their passengers were "always being served by grandmothers", in a speech at a gala dinner to celebrate the launch of a Dublin-Doha route in Ireland. According to a BBC report, he also boasted that the average age of his cabin crew was “only 26"...
At a widely-reported press conference in June last year following his election as chairman of the International Air Transport Association, Mr Al Baker caused a furore when asked about gender diversity among Middle Eastern airlines, and whether his job could be done by a woman. He reportedly answered: “Of course it has to be led by a man, because it is a very challenging position.”...
Mr Al Baker said that Mr Anderson’s [of Delta] criticisms of Gulf carriers as "governments" were "nonsense”, with the goal of stifling the competition "so he can swindle American passengers even more”. The agency also reported that Mr Al Baker said of Mr Anderson: "Let him come face to face with me in any forum... I will hang him on a wall.”...
Mr Al Baker said backpackers were not welcome in Qatar because they “just lie on the beach and don’t spend money” and the country wanted to “attract people of higher standard”. He went on to explain that, unlike neighbouring Dubai, Qatar did not want backpackers as it would give the country a bad look."

'He stripped us of our dignity,' Western University student says of prof who used N-word in class - ""He was explaining that during pre-emancipation, there were house slaves and there were field slaves. Then he said house slaves were referred to as 'House N--ger. He said the full derogatory term," said Oriuwa, one of four black students in attendance... "I instantly felt like my presence as a black student, who sat in the front-row seat, was overlooked," she said. "I felt devalued. I felt deeply humiliated and angered that he said something like this.""
If your dignity can be undermined by a professor teaching history...

Miss S’pore International mocked by Filipino netizens for rinsing mouth at shrine in Japan - "This short video seemed to conjure a wave of laughter and mockery from many Filipino netizens who wondered why Chia rinsed her mouth with the water at the temizusha instead of washing her hands with it... One netizen even mocked Chia’s intelligence... one Filipino netizen stepped up to defend Chia by stating that what she had done was not wrong, and was simply the next step in the cleansing ritual after washing her hands...
'To those laughing at what she did, please do your research first because your ignorance of other cultures is saddening'
A quick check on Yutoku Inari shrine’s website will also confirm that Chia was indeed observing proper temple etiquette"

Photographer Spent Days Waiting For Museum Visitors To Match The Artworks They Observe, And it Was Worth It

Thin blue line flag: Maryland Gov. Hogan “disgusted” by decision not to display flag gifted to police department. - "A flag gifted to a police department in Montgomery County, Maryland, has set off a dispute over symbols and race that that has caused several state officials, including the governor, to express outrage and “disgust.”The debate centered around a donated “thin blue line” flag, which, according to those who defended the flag, serves a symbol of support for police and an acknowledgment of the sacrifices of law enforcement. The homemade flag was given to a police station in Germantown last week. After the police department said it would display the flag, it faced immediate backlash from many who claimed it sent a signal of defiance and even antagonism to the black members of the community it is meant to protect. On Friday, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said that the homemade flag at the center of the debate would not be displayed in a public space after all because of its “divisive” nature."
People who hate the police won't change their minds even if the flag isn't displayed, so

The far right is far from a threat - "Take a recent piece in the Guardian. It cites a report by the UK’s Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE), and warns that the far right is ‘swooping on towns to exploit tensions.’But the actual report, Challenging Hateful Extremism, says nothing about such vulture-like acts by far-right groups. In fact, the one case in Sunderland, which is referenced by the Guardian, is covered in just a few paragraphs on page 72 of the 140-page report. It actually concludes that ‘tensions and the far right’s external influence have been reduced’ in Sunderland. Not one line of this makes it into the Guardian story, which instead asserts that ‘[far-right] activists turn residents against Muslims and [the] government fails to tackle them’. It claims Sara Khan, who leads CCE, concluded that ‘the government’s response to extremism has been “inadequate”, “unfocused” and urgently needed a complete overhaul’. Khan actually just says that ‘the current response is insufficient and too broad’. The report itself does somewhat exaggerate the far-right threat. It asserts that ‘far-right terrorism has become more prominent’, but then admits that only seven out of the 22 foiled terrorist plots in the UK between March 2017 and September 2019 were ‘inspired’ by far-right ideologies. Which means, of course, that the majority of terror attacks are not associated with the far right...
‘Salafi-Islamist speakers and organisations in the UK have publicly promoted sectarian, bigoted and misogynistic views – including denigrating non-Muslims – while being given mainstream platforms by elements of civil society and the charitable sector, political support and charitable funding.’
Despite this, the report notes that only one-in-10 respondents have ‘very strong, negative views’ about Muslims. The absence of so-called Islamophobia among the vast majority of the UK populace shows how ingrained tolerance is within British society. If further proof of the tolerance of UK citizens was needed, the report notes that hate crimes are actually declining...
‘People used the word “extremism” to describe many things – most of them hateful or harmful, but sometimes… [simply] “things I don’t like”. Creating an inclusive culture in our country means accepting that things we don’t like can have the same rights as the things we do. This is the heart of our democracy, and the democratic debate that accompanies it.’"
Presumably criticising the Guardian for misrepresenting the report and making up quotes is a dangerous attack on the media and a prelude to fascism
This is good up-to-date data confirming what we know from previous reports that "far right" attacks are a minority