Contributor’s links post for April 11, 2019

Daily Links Post graphic

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We muse use it while we can.

About Eeyore

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

126 Replies to “Contributor’s links post for April 11, 2019”

  1. London stabbing: Teenager fighting for life after horror stabbing in Hackney (express, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1112682/London-stabbing-hackney-uk-knife-crime-latest-news-areola-street-metropolitan-police

    “A STABBED teenager is in a critical condition after sustaining life-threatening injuries in a horrific knife attack in Hackney.

    Police and ambulance crews rushed to Areola Street where the 18-year-old was found with knife wounds on his body. According to the Evening Standard, Scotland Yard confirmed the teen was taken to hospital where he remained in a critical condition. Following the attack, two men were arrested on suspicion of assault.

    The men, aged in their 20s, are in custody.

    In footage shared on Twitter, a heavy police presence was seen on the road, which was sealed off by police at around 7.20pm.

    The Metropolitan Police said: “A police cordon is in place in Hackney following a stabbing this evening.

    “Two males in their mid-20s have been arrested on suspicion of assault and remain in police custody…”

      • So true, Governments have to be very scared of the people when they outlaw self defense,

        • So true, Governments have to be very scared of the people when they outlaw self defense,

          Outlaw self-defense and you’ve illegalized Law and Order. What kind of moron needs a history book to teach them that kindergarten lesson?

          No self-defense? Say helloooo to vigilantism.

            • Guns, schmuns. Philadelphians did such a total workaround on that town’s strict gun control laws that they finally had to outlaw having a baseball bat in your car without a corresponding ball and glove.

              Humans are astonishingly adept at inflicting harm upon each other. When corrupt elements of society (on either side of the law) drown surrounding populations in filth, it’s sink or swim.

              Some lead sinkers in a sock, for instance…

  2. US Top Envoy to Iraq Warns Militias Against Collaborating With IRGC (sputniknews, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201904111074017280-usa-warns-iraq-against-iran/

    “People can have relations with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps or with the US and “its financial system,” not both, top US envoy in Baghdad said.

    Joey Hood, the US charge d’affaires in Iraq, warned Iraqi militia groups Wednesday against receiving support and otherwise collaborating with Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, which the US recently designated as foreign terrorist organization, Kurdistan 24 reported.

    “This designation makes it clearer and clearer that people can have a relationship with the problematic parts of the Iranian government, like the IRGC, or they can have a relationship with the United States and our financial system, but they cannot do both at the same time,” Joey Hood said in an interview.

    He underscored that the US has no issue with Iraqis having “normal relationship with the Iranian government and the Iranian people.”

    “But it is not normal for a Revolutionary Guard to be coming into another country and doing things without coordination with that government and trying to destabilize it, and weaken the sovereignty of that government,” the envoy said.

    He urged Iraqi groups — alluding to militias, according to Kurdistan 24 — to put “Iraq first and not interests of another country.”

    “If they put the interests of the Revolutionary Guard before the interests of Iraq, they could be caught by these designations,” Hood warned, referring to White House’s recent designation of IRGC as terrorist.

    Hood also noted that US presence in Iraq is based on Iraq’s invitation.

    “We are here at the invitation of the Iraqi government. And if the Iraqi government requests us to leave we will leave. We are partners; we’re not occupiers,” he said.

    He warned, however, that, should the US leave Iraq entirely, this will have economic repercussions for Baghdad.

    “Investor confidence would plummet,” Hood claimed. “We don’t want to see those things happen. And I don’t think most Iraqi politicians want to see that happen either.”

    Following Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman’s departure on 31 January, charge d’affaires Joey Hood has become the top diplomat in US Embassy in Baghdad. On Monday, Washington declared the IRGC a terrorist organization, issuing such designation on a foreign nation’s military body for the first time in US history. In retaliation, Iran designated US Military’s Central Command as a terrorist organization as well.”

  3. Communists, strive for more equal.
    Muslims, one peck above.
    ‘Sexuals, to be in the sequel.
    Glory, for lack of love.

    • Animality

      Islamist, are the bastards who kill me.
      Socialists, the bitches who cage me.
      Sexuals, my beastial Identity.
      This, their Humanity.

  4. Red China strategy:

    1. Extend non-viable massive fiat loans to under-capitalized militarily-strategic regions.
    2. Allow the baked-in flaws to the deal to take their natural course (the initially least viable financial arrangement the better).
    3. Wait for debt trap to realize into default.
    4. Assume full control of strategic property.
    5. Turn into military base.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14050/china-caribbean-sea

    The solution?

    I don’t think the bastards would lend their gold out so freely. Gold Standard needed sooner rather than later.

    • I agree.

      What struck me is the way they are rushing to complete their encircling of the US, India and the South China Sea while they are watching their economy collapse. This might be based on ignoring reality and living in a fantasy world, believing their own propaganda about the livability of a communist victory, or thinking that the western politicians they have bought will keep them afloat long enough to win the coming war.

      • I think they know their own economy well enough to know they have to grab as much gold as possible before the Reset. Weaponized debt is a weapon of opportunism before it’s no longer available post-reset.

        • What I am wondering is how much the people doing the economic planning believe in the Marxist dialectic? If they believe enough they will ignore economic realities.

          Don’t forget Xi seems to be slowly moving towards another cultural revolution. He may stop short of that occurrence but as he wants to return (at least partially) to Maoism he may screw up.

    • It may be necessary to simply stand aside (weapons at hand) and let Red China gut itself on the OBOR initiative. Beijing is clearly operating at totally unsustainable economic levels. Space exploration, pacifying its Uighurs, bloating its military, raping out the planet’s manufacturing base, raping out its own environment, raping out America’s economy, raping out the Chinese genome, raping out intellectual property, patents, copyrights, and making copies of knocked off imitations, all are taking their financial toll.

      At some point, internal domestic market and employment constrictions are going to choke off any ability to support this ill-concealed military adventurism.

      Yes, a gold standard would throw a spanner into the works but no-£ü¢kïñg-body in any government (not even America, sigh) wants that sort of financial accountability. Global complicity in the derivatives atrocity (there is no other word for this crime against humanity’s life product) proves that there isn’t any demand for genuine monetary legitimacy.

      Once again, we find ourselves tight-roping over the Cold War void without a net, trying to outmaneuver a new, better-financed and less-drunken foe. Like back then, true innovation—with the “think-on-one’s-feet” nimbleness that it simultaneously demands and fosters—may have to see us through.

      Thank goodness Trump has had the wits to nudge Beijing rather indelicately (i.e., dead nuts center) to start some domino-like ripples under it’s own roof. Apple moving elite iPhone production to India is just the latest in a string of manufacturing flights from the Mainland.

      Much like Islam, Communist China has made too many enemies, too fast. The wryly hilarious fence-mending of MbS—frantic to alter his Magic Kingdom’s reputation as a four-star, full service, sociological toilet—is testimony to Muslim awareness (if only in the uppermost tiers) that it’s coming time to pay the Western piper, or bend over and be tag-teamed by the Dragon and Bear.

      And so, geography again defends fortress America against overt PRC aggression that less fortunate Asian satellites must endure. It’s entertaining curious to watch ancient ethnic divisions well up beneath supposedly unbreakable ideological bonds. Vietnam’s less-than-cuddly relations with the Communist creche up north being exhibit A.

      • As you said China has made too many enemies too fast, while Obama was in office Japan stepped up and was the center of the resist China movement. We know Japan is still resisting China and is still modernizing their Navy, what else are they doing? What financial moves against China are they making? What moves are South Korea making? (I know their current President is worse then Obama and Carter combined so probably not many.)

        • We know Japan is still resisting China and is still modernizing their Navy, what else are they doing?

          A bomb in the basement? Or twelve?

          One hundred words or not, it’s time for the Trowel of Cosmic Irony…

          Even as 0bama and his anti-nuclear Socialist cronies weakened America’s two-front military capability, it was their fickleness and limp-wristed East Asian policy that would be most likely to drive Japan towards having a dozen nukes at the “insert tab A into slot B” stage (to avoid violating international nonuclearization agreements).

          Anti-nuclear proponents driving WMD proliferation? How odd. We all know £ü¢kïñg well that these same no-nukes types would have been cheering at the “rebalancing of power” had Iran lit off an A-test (shudder).

  5. “The Deep State: An Expose”
    Camp Constitution – Published on September 4, 2018
    Joe Biden @ 17:00

      • “Julian Assange Arrested, Setting Stage for Attacks on The Press Worldwide”
        Styxh – Published on April 11, 2019

        • “LIVE: Julian Assange’s lawyers make statement after his arrest”
          USA Today – Started streaming 19 minutes ago

    • ‘Assange has tried to escape justice for a very long time. That’s why he’s no hero’ – UK FM Hunt

      British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked Ecuador president Lenin Moreno for breaking the impasse over Julian Assange’s asylum, saying the Wikileaks founder had tried to escape justice and was ‘no hero’.

      Assange was arrested a day after WikiLeaks accused Ecuador’s government of an ‘extensive spying operation” against him.’

    • U.S. Attorneys » Eastern District of Virginia » News

      WikiLeaks Founder Charged in Computer Hacking Conspiracy

      ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Julian P. Assange, 47, the founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested today in the United Kingdom pursuant to the U.S./UK Extradition Treaty, in connection with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.

      According to court documents unsealed today, the charge relates to Assange’s alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.

      The indictment alleges that in March 2010, Assange engaged in a conspiracy with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications. Manning, who had access to the computers in connection with her duties as an intelligence analyst, was using the computers to download classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks. Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log on to the computers under a username that did not belong to her. Such a deceptive measure would have made it more difficult for investigators to determine the source of the illegal disclosures.

      During the conspiracy, Manning and Assange engaged in real-time discussions regarding Manning’s transmission of classified records to Assange. The discussions also reflect Assange actively encouraging Manning to provide more information. During an exchange, Manning told Assange that “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left.” To which Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience.”

      Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

      G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after the charges were unsealed. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kellen S. Dwyer, Thomas W. Traxler and Gordon D. Kromberg, and Trial Attorneys Matthew R. Walczewski and Nicholas O. Hunter of the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting the case.

      The extradition will be handled by the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.

      A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:18-cr-111.

      An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

      https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-computer-hacking-conspiracy

    • Glenn Greenwald Rages Against Assange Arrest, Battles Journos: ‘It’s the Criminalization of Journalism’

      Glenn Greenwald went on the warpath Thursday morning following the arrest of Julian Assange in London.

      In a lengthy Twitter rant, Greenwald — founder of The Intercept — blasted those in the media who are not speaking out against the arrest, arguing it is a direct attack on press freedom.

      “If you’re a US media star who has spent 2 years claiming to be so concerned about press freedoms over Trump’s mean tweets about your friends, but don’t raise your voice in protest over this grave attack on press freedom, take a hard look in the mirror,” Greenwald wrote.

      Some journalists on Twitter issued similar warnings as Greenwald — but backed off their criticism of the arrest after the Department of Justice formally announced its charge, one count of conspiracy of hacking by helping Chelsea Manning break into a Department of Defense computer. Greenwald, though, maintained that the DOJ was still out of bounds.

      “The DOJ says part of what Assange did to justify his prosecution – beyond allegedly helping Manning get the documents – is he encouraged Manning to get more docs for him to publish,” Greenwald wrote. “Journalists do this with sources constantly: it’s the criminalization of journalism.”

      more :

      https://www.mediaite.com/online/glenn-greenwald-rages-against-assange-arrest-battles-journos-its-the-criminalization-of-journalism/

    • Sajid Javid gives statement on Julian Assange’s arrest

      Home Secretary Sajid Javid gives a statement on the arrest of Julian Assange where he praises the Ecuadorian government.

  6. LIVE UPDATES: Unrest in Sudan Amid Reports of Military Coup Attempt (sputniknews, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/africa/201904111074019470-sudan-military-president-bashir-coup/

    “Over the weekend, thousands of people participated in protests in Khartoum and across the country, calling for Bashir’s resignation and urging the army to side with the people. The rallies have continued this week, resulting in civilian casualties due to clashes between protesters and security forces.

    According to the Lebanese TV channel Al Mayadeen, Sudanese army members have declared that President Omar Bashir has been removed from all positions amid reports of a coup in the African country following weeks of anti-government protests.

    The media outlet cited sources as saying that the military personnel planned to announce the creation of a military council to govern the country during a transition period that might last for up to one year.

    All of Bashir’s assistants and deputies have also been allegedly sacked, with no official confirmation following so far. The TV channel also reported about an intensified military presence in Khartoum.

    Earlier in the day, the newspaper Sudan Tribune reported that an emergency meeting of the Sudanese Armed Forces’ General Staff took place in Khartoum without Bashir. The newspaper noted that military personnel had entered the building of a national TV broadcaster and promised to make an important statement.

    Since December, protests triggered by the rise in consumer goods prices have engulfed Sudan. Mass rallies have prompted President Omar Bashir, who has been in power for 30 years, to dissolve the cabinet and declare a year-long state of national emergency…”

  7. British children have returned to UK from Syria, Home Office minister admits (telegraph, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/04/10/british-children-have-returned-uk-syria-home-office-minister/

    “British children have returned to the UK from Syria, the Home Office has admitted, as lawyers for Isil bride Shamima Begum attempt to bring back more survivors.

    Home Office minister Baroness Williams disclosed yesterday that a “small number” of British children had left Syria and returned to Britain via third countries.

    It follows the death of Ms Begum’s newborn baby son. He was a British national even though she had been stripped of her citizenship and banned from the UK. He could have come to Britain if he had been taken to a British consul in a third country, according to the Home Office.

    Baroness Williams made clear Britain would not risk the lives of British officials in Syria trying to…”

    • How “small” is that number?The fact that you will not give accurate figures shows that you are lying.

      • The fact that you will not give accurate figures shows that you are lying.

        No need of watching her numerical prestidigitation to know if she’s lying. Just check to see if her lips are moving.

  8. Man Attacks French Police Calling Them ‘Dirty Whites’ (breitbart, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/11/man-attacks-french-police-calling-them-dirty-whites/

    “A 37-year-old man was convicted of assault and uttering threats after he verbally and physically attacked French police, labelling them “dirty whites” as he did so.

    The incident took place on a bus early Saturday morning in Limoges after the suspect who boarded the bus with a severe eye injury while heavily intoxicated, was confronted by three police officers, local newspaper Le Populaire du Centre reports.

    The man explained to the officers that he had been assaulted the previous night by nightclub bouncers and wanted to go immediately to his doctor’s office.

    He then refused to exit the bus when asked and spat at the officers who were then forced to physically remove him.

    After being placed in the police’s vehicle, the man then started uttering death threats to the officers, saying he was going to kill them and called them “dirty French” and “dirty whites.”

    Even after arriving at the police station, the 37-year-old continued to resist and refused to identify himself.

    On Monday, he was brought in front of a judge at the Limoges Criminal Court and tried to explain that he thought the police were the bouncers who had beaten him earlier.

    The judge, apparently unmoved by his testimony, sentenced him to five months in prison with three months suspended, a fine of 200 euros, and an obligation to seek treatment for his alcohol problem.

    The incident comes less than a month after a man, wearing what was alleged to be a jihadi armband, entered a police station in Bordeaux and attacked and issued death threats to police officers.

    The case is part of a growing trend of anti-white sentiment in France, with rapper Nick Conrad being taken to court over a song in which he advocated for the hanging of white people and the killing of white babies in 2018.”

  9. Pakistan court lets converted Hindu girls live with husbands (abcnews, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistan-court-lets-converted-hindu-girls-live-husbands-62325517

    “A Pakistani court is allowing two teenage sisters from the minority Hindu community to live with their Muslim husbands after a government probe concluded they’re both adults and hadn’t been forced to convert and marry the men.

    Thursday’s decision says medical checks found the girls, from southern Sindh province, to be 18 and 19 years old. It says they converted and married of their own free will.

    The girls’ parents, who were in the court for the decision, expressed shock at the ruling and said they’d speak later. Earlier, they had said their daughters are underage and were abducted and forced to convert.

    Last month, the court placed the girls and their husbands in separate protective shelters.

    Underage marriage and forced conversions are controversial issues in this predominantly Muslim country.”

  10. HSBC Turkey chief acquitted of insulting Erdogan (abcnews, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hsbc-turkey-chief-acquitted-insulting-erdogan-62324815

    “Turkey’s state-run news agency says a court has acquitted HSBC bank’s Turkey chief of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan through Twitter.

    Selim Kervanci was charged with insulting a state employee for reposting a video in 2013 deemed to be insulting to Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time.

    Kervanci told the court on Thursday that he had no intention of insulting anyone and that he had retweeted the video before watching it with the sole intention of viewing it at a later time.

    Anadolu said the court ruled there was no criminal intent and acquitted Kervanci. The bank chief faced up to two years in prison.

    Human rights groups say thousands of people have been prosecuted in Turkey for insulting Erdogan.”

  11. Afghan official says Taliban attack kills 7 policemen (abcnews, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-official-taliban-attack-kills-policemen-62324781

    “A Taliban attack on a security outpost early Thursday set off an hours-long gunbattle that killed seven policemen in central Ghazni province, said Arif Noor, the provincial governor’s spokesman.

    Two policemen were also wounded in the fighting in Waghaz district of Ghazni province, a region heavily controlled by the Taliban, who later claimed responsibility for the attack.

    The insurgent group continues its daily onslaught against Afghanistan’s security forces even as the militants continue to talk peace with the United States…”

    • Step through the Looking Glass. Remember how “hurt feelings” have become the equivalent of physical assault all over the Left? Otherwise, why all the legal protections from exposure to (Constitutionally protected) “hate speech”, right?

      So, how is it that Leo Terrell can get away with tearing into someone’s character on primetime television and no voices from his side rise up in opposition to such mean-spiritedness and poor manners? Or, are Conservatives so obligatorily courteous that they can be presumed upon to turn the other cheek when verbally assaulted? And wouldn’t that represent the exact sort of stereotyping PoMo Prog crybullies throw endless tantrums over?

      Ad hominem attacks are supposed to be devastating because they hurt people’s feelings [gasp!] Notice how someone of intelligence, like Ms. Owens, instantly shrugs off such immature antics (and later calls them just that!) then cogently points out—something that really infuriates those who rely on such a logical fallacy—Leo Terrell’s lack of factual basis.

      Far more telling is Terrell’s personal discombobulation and flat-out rudeness as he interrupts Owens with constant repetitions of his one talking point without providing substantive rebuttal to her larger body of (fact-based) assertions.

      One might be led to think that, somewhere in Terrell’s subconscious, the charming Ms. Owens landed a keen barb about the Cult of Self-Entitled Illegitimate Fratricidal Fatherless Victimhood™. It’s almost as if Leo took some sort of personal umbrage and felt a need to defend the usual atrocious Black male behavioral modifications that Democrats have cemented in place.

      One simple statistic tells the entire story:

      An incarcerated Black male has a longer life expectancy than his free-roaming counterpart.

      Blaming this longstanding criminological data point on White Supremacism, White Privilege, White Racism, or a White Christmas all makes equal sense. Another glaringly inconvenient truth:

      A typical poverty-line American Black adult lives in a degree of comfort (i.e., car, code dwelling, TV, A/C, indoor plumbing, telephone, food security, etc.) that almost all other Black people on planet Earth can only dream about.

      Any more of this and my pet Trowel of Cosmic Irony will need walkies.

  12. “It’s More Than Just Ilhan Omar. The Problem is the Whole Party.” Marc Lotter with Sebastian Gorka

  13. “Jim Comey and Kirstjen Nielsen are Connected.” Lara Logan with Sebastian Gorka

  14. Tommy Robinson Interview, Jared Holt Can’t Meme & Candace Goes to Congress! | PSI #13

  15. Amazon Workers Are Listening to What You Tell Alexa

    Read more at: https://www.bloombergquint.com/technology/is-anyone-listening-to-you-on-alexa-a-global-team-reviews-audio
    Copyright © BloombergQuint

    (Bloomberg) — Tens of millions of people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia. Millions more are reluctant to invite the devices and their powerful microphones into their homes out of concern that someone might be listening.

    Read more at: https://www.bloombergquint.com/technology/is-anyone-listening-to-you-on-alexa-a-global-team-reviews-audio
    Copyright © BloombergQuint

  16. SPY IN THE HOUSE Amazon is listening to YOUR Alexa device and workers have recorded a woman singing in the shower and a sex assault

    As many as 1,000 clips are reportedly analysed by full-time and contracted Amazon workers every shift – with some recording intimate moments and harrowing crimes
    By Neal Baker

    AMAZON is listening to customers through Alexa devices – with employees recording thousands of clips including a woman singing in the shower and a sex assault, it emerged last night.

    Full-time workers and contractors at the online retail giant reportedly sift through as many as 1,000 recordings per shift – and even share “amusing” clips between themselves.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/8837948/amazon-listening-alexa-echo-clips-record-woman-shower-sex-assault/

  17. Exclusive: Jeff Bezos to meet with federal prosecutors on extortion and hacking claims

    CNN)Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is scheduled to meet with federal prosecutors in New York as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter. The meeting signals that the US attorney’s office is escalating its inquiry connected to Bezos’s suggestion that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was behind a National Enquirer story that exposed his extramarital affair and his claim that the tabloid attempted to extort him.
    Plans for that meeting come as prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are seeking to obtain access to Bezos’s electronic devices, these people said. They are attempting to examine Bezos’s private investigators’ allegation that the Saudis “gained private information” from his phone, and that such information wound up in the hands of American Media Inc. tabloid the National Enquirer, which published Bezos’s texts.

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/10/politics/jeff-bezos-prosecutors-meeting-saudi-hacking/index.html

  18. China selling high-tech tyranny to Latin America, stoking US concern

    China is distributing intrusive tools of surveillance and social control throughout Latin America to “surround the United States” with potential threats, warns a top senator.

    “China’s goal is to displace the United States, and they can do that by wreaking havoc in the Western Hemisphere,” Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner told the Washington Examiner.

    That’s the strategy behind China’s decision to support Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, who is clinging to power almost three months after President Trump and other leaders of Western democracies recognized opposition lawmaker Juan Guaidó as the country’s interim president, the Republican said. China has exported technology that helps the South American socialist simultaneously monitor and strong-arm the Venezuelan people, according to U.S. and regional officials.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/china-selling-high-tech-tyranny-to-latin-america-stoking-us-concern

  19. Your car is watching you. Who owns the data?
    Computers on wheels raise thorny questions about data privacy

    If you’re driving a late model car or truck, chances are that the vehicle is mostly computers on wheels, collecting and wirelessly transmitting vast quantities of data to the car manufacturer not just on vehicle performance but personal information, too, such as your weight, the restaurants you visit, your music tastes and places you go.

    A car can generate about 25 gigabytes of data every hour and as much as 4,000 gigabytes a day, according to some estimates. The data trove in the hands of car makers could be worth as much as $750 billion by 2030, the consulting firm McKinsey has estimated. But consumer groups, aftermarket repair shops and privacy advocates say the data belongs to the car’s owners and the information should be subject to data privacy laws.

    Yet Congress has yet to pass comprehensive federal data privacy legislation. And although Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, has said he would like to see federal privacy legislation passed by the end of the year, it is unclear if that goal can be met.

    https://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/cars-data-privacy

    • You own the car. You own the data (unless by prior agreement). So, let me guess, data surrender is part of leasing or purchasing the vehicle. Who reads the mouse print these days, anyway?

      Carmakers extracting your information from your car is theft.

      I smell a massive invasion-of-privacy class action lawsuit, at least.

  20. US looks for options as embattled Venezuelan leader hangs on
    By MATTHEW LEEyesterday

    https://www.apnews.com/77b0ded62c8a4db99a34890722f23fe0

    WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials have been predicting for months that embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro would soon give up power in the face of economic sanctions and a coalition of more than 50 nations calling for him to step down.

    But it hasn’t worked out that way.

    Despite the sanctions, Maduro clings to power with help from Russia, China and Cuba. The international coalition that supports the opposition stands at 54 nations, although some longtime U.S. allies have refused to join the Trump administration in recognizing the head of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as interim president.

  21. Mysterious safety-tampering malware infects a second critical infrastructure site
    Use of game-changing Triton malware to target safety systems isn’t an isolated incident.

    Dan Goodin – 4/9/2019, 11:01 PM

    Sixteen months ago, researchers reported an unsettling escalation in hacks targeting power plants, gas refineries, and other types of critical infrastructure. Attackers who may have been working on behalf of a nation caused an operational outage at a critical-infrastructure site after deliberately targeting a system that prevented health- and life-threatening accidents.

    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/04/mysterious-safety-tampering-malware-infects-a-2nd-critical-infrastructure-site/

  22. Suspect in custody in connection with 3 church fires in La.

    OAN Newsroom
    UPDATED 7:27 AM PT — Thursday, April 11, 2019

    Authorities have arrested a suspect in connection with three church fires in Louisiana. 21-year-old Holden Matthews was taken into custody Wednesday for allegedly setting fire to three historically black churches west of Baton Rouge over the last two-weeks.

    Authorities have not released a possible motive for the arson, but members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) say it was likely “racially motivated.”

    https://www.oann.com/suspect-in-custody-in-connection-with-3-church-fires-in-la/

  23. How brilliant was it to make Maxine Waters chair of the House Financial Services Committee?
    By Ben Bowles April 11, 2019

    What on earth were Democrats thinking when they nominated Maxine Waters to chair the House Financial Services Committee after gaining control of the House last November? Did they think that Waters, who in 2009 had exploited her position to bail out a black-owned bank that her husband held stock in, was the right person to investigate financial abuses? Did they think that a loose cannon who in 2018 incited mob violence against members of the Trump administration had the right temperament to preside over a committee? Did they think that a woman who in 2013 claimed that sequestration could cost the nation 170 million jobs was suddenly going to sprout a brain?

    Whatever Democrats were thinking, on Wednesday they got a double dose of “Auntie” Maxine, beginning with a morning hearing where she attempted to blame bank executives for the student debt crisis. One by one, she grilled the CEOs, trying to determine, in the memorable words of a previous president, “whose ass to kick.” She began with Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, whose name she mispronounced as “Monahan.” He explained that his bank had “stopped making student loans in 2007 or so.” Ditto down the line until Jamie Dimon, of JPMorgan Chase, shared with her the embarrassing reality that student loans had been nationalized nearly a decade earlier under former President Barack Obama.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/04/11/how-brilliant-was-it-to-make-maxine-waters-chair-of-the-house-financial-services-committee/

  24. King of ‘fake news’: Macron manipulates social media for his own gain – research

  25. Richard: Read the entire article.
    Barr probe, Nunes indictments on right track, but won’t be enough
    By J.E. Dyer April 11, 2019

    Many Americans have been justifiably relieved in the last 24 hours to hear Attorney General Bill Barr’s statement on Capitol Hill that he thinks, yes, there was some spying done on the Trump campaign.

    His comments to a Senate panel on Wednesday appear to indicate acknowledgment that the various forms of surveillance used against the Trump campaign are subject to question and critical review, at the very least. Barr has formed a team to review the actions of the FBI and Justice Department in going after the Trump campaign in 2016. And with a few short words – “I think spying did occur” – he has clarified that the internal probe will be a critical one. It won’t take for granted what Democrats and the mainstream media want to be simply assumed: that whatever was done was justified.

    That’s a breath of fresh air after more than two years of seeing flimsy, often incoherent, evaporating “evidence” incessantly flogged as if it justified a list of investigative irregularities so lengthy that no one person can even remember, at this point, what they all are.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/04/11/barr-probe-nunes-indictments-on-right-track-but-wont-be-enough/

    Richard: She is right, this is too big for the Ag and the DOJ to be able to find everything, it will requite Congressional hearings and an honest DOJ to act on the criminal referral that they will make. Ideally it will be done on a bipartisan basis with both parties interested in cleaning up the Government.

    The get an idea about how it will really be take a good hard look at the House of Representatives and the people they have put on and in charge of committees. Maxine Waters in charge of the committee that regulates Banks! Talk about putting the Fox to guard the Hen House (See my earlier post of the article on this stupidity). There are many more appointments just as stupid including putting Shiff in charge of the Judiciary Committee.

    Once the hearings start things are going to go South very fast.

  26. All House Dems but 1 — and 2 Republicans — co-sponsor bill forcing schools to let males compete in female sports
    By Daily Caller News Foundation April 10, 2019

    Every House Democrat but one has co-sponsored a bill requiring schools to allow male athletes who identify as transgender girls to compete on female sports teams.

    Democrats’ Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make “sexual orientation and gender identity” protected characteristics under federal anti-discrimination law. Among other things, the bill would force public schools to expand female athletic teams to include biological males who identify as transgender girls.

    Sarah Warbelow, director of the left-wing Human Rights Campaign, praised the bill’s impact on high school sports in written testimony submitted to a House subcommittee on Tuesday.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/04/10/all-house-dems-but-1-and-2-republicans-co-sponsor-bill-forcing-schools-to-let-males-compete-in-female-sports/

  27. Nigeria evacuates whole town to screen for Boko Haram members (theguardian, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/11/nigeria-evacuates-whole-town-jakana-borno-to-check-for-boko-haram-members

    “Nigerian soldiers have evacuated the entire population of a town in the north-eastern insurgency-hit state of Borno without warning.

    The military said people were evacuated ahead of operations, but residents of Jakana said they were taken to a camp this week in the state capital Maiduguri to check whether they were members of the extremist group Boko Haram. Jakana is home to about 10,000 people.

    The UN said residents were not allowed to collect any belongings, with some even arriving without shoes. It called for them to be given humanitarian aid immediately.

    Nana Sanda, who lives in Maiduguri, was in Jakana visiting family. On Monday night, the military came and ordered everyone into their vehicles…”

  28. MEMRI – NY Cleric Muhammad Ibn Muneer: Muslims Should Hate Non-Muslims

    In a Q&A session uploaded to the Hadith Disciple YouTube channel on January 31, 2018, New York cleric Mufti Muhammad Ibn Muneer said that there are different ways of dealing with different types of Jews.

    He cited the Islamic principle of Al-Bara Wal-Wala (disavowal and loyalty), which he says is, as “explained by Ibn Al-Qayyim and many others… simply summed up as loving the Muslims and hating the non-Muslims… Buddhist, Hindu, this, that, so on and so forth.”

    He underlined that if his Jewish neighbor is “trying to do me physical harm… I have the right to defend myself.”

    He continued: “Look at history” when Jews and Muslims lived together and “the Muslims ran the country [and] the Jews were the minority…. The moment there is oppression” – that’s “a whole different story.”

    In a Q&A session uploaded a year later, on January 31, 2019, he expanded on the subject, saying that a Muslim cannot maintain a close relationship with infidels with whom he had been friends prior to accepting Islam and that Muslims cannot treat non-Muslim as friends.

    They may be treated with respect and friendliness in order to invite them to Islam, he said, but only a pious Muslim is worthy of a close, trusting friendship.

    He added that it may be Islamically impermissible to wear soccer jerseys that have the names of non-Muslims or that contain symbols of something other than Islam, and that buying designer clothing might be supporting homosexuals or people who are bombing Muslims in Palestine.

  29. CBC – Pravda – Fighting hate with friendship: The unlikely bond of a Sikh man and a former white supremacist

    A Sikh man becomes the unlikely friend of a former white supremacist in the wake of a cold-blooded attack in Wisconsin in 2012.

    Now they travel the world trying to stop hate.

    Welcome to The National, the flagship nightly newscast of CBC News

    • How exactly do they “stop hate”? does one not first have to define it?ludicrous nonsense.

  30. Hungarian Opera Asked Singers to Identify as Black to Meet ‘Absurd’ Casting Requirements (breitbart, apr 11, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/11/hungarian-opera-asks-singers-identify-black-fulfil-absurd-casting-requirements/

    “The Hungarian State Opera asked its white singers to sign a letter declaring they identify as black in reaction to casting requirements of Gershwin’s African-American 1935 folk opera Porgy and Bess.

    The letter, reportedly signed by half of the cast, was claimed to have been sent by the general director of the Hungarian State Opera Szilveszter Okovacs.

    Signatories signed the document which allegedly declared “African-American origin and consciousness are an integral part of my identity,” according to Hungarian news website Index which had sight of the letter.

    Sargent Aborn, of Tams-Witmark, the agency that represents the Gershwin Estate, told The New York Times on Tuesday that the Hungarian State Opera had previously confirmed “in writing that they understood the need to cast black singers to present the work dramatically, [and] a licence was issued for the 2018 production” but that this licence has now expired.

    “It subsequently came to our attention that the production was in clear breach,” Mr Aborn said, adding that the Gershwin Estate and Tams-Witmark would be considering whether to take legal action.

    Speaking to Euronews, Mr Okovacs confirmed there are no black operatic singers in the Hungarian State Opera and branded the casting specifications as “racist,” saying he was opposed to the concept of allowing “the presence of people in a production to be determined by skin colour or ethnicity.”

    “It’s just not possible to do this [an all-black cast], you cannot decide who performs in a show based on the colour of the skin or their origin,” he said.

    He told the news outlet that cast were under no obligation to sign the declaration, and alluding to the fact that the document was not written with serious intent said of the agent’s stipulation: “If we have to play on absurd grounds… we can’t do anything but join the field in absurd outfits.”

    The opera house was accused of racism when it performed the musical in 2018 with an all-white cast, but Mr Okovacs defended the decision at the time saying the casting stipulation made no sense as Hungary is “a country where virtually no black people live.”

    The founder of Grange Park Opera, in Surrey, England, expressed difficulty in casting for her own licensed performance of Porgy and Bess in the more ethnically-diverse UK.

    Wasfi Kani told London’s Times in January that she could not operate a “colour blind” casting for the major roles as it was necessary for the performance to “faithfully preserve and express the story, plot, characters, characterisations, situations, climaxes of the work as written.”

    “It does not say the singers have to be black but in effect you can not have white people playing the main roles or the chorus,” Ms Kani said.

    “It is the only work in the canon where you have to sign up for this. We are fishing in a very small pool because there are not that many black opera singers,” she added.”

    • Lol. What politically correct bullshit.

      “…if we have to play on absurd grounds…we can’t do anything but join the field in absurd outfits…”

      Exactly.

      • What politically correct bullshit.

        This is what happens when life is a (Zero Sum) game.

        Even as “leave-nothing-to-chance” Socialists prop up economy after dysfunctional Command Economy, they deal themselves a Reality Wildcard. Which is it, floor wax or dessert topping? Objective or subjective? Comatose or just braindead?

        As I mentioned in the Candace Owens thread (or at least one of them), this antebellum cotton-field yodeling audition is a perfect opperatunity [giggle] for an unreassigned, paraplegic, Black, lesbian, single mother currently experiencing life fulfillment as a gay menstruating male whale spirit to take the hook in this “very small pool”, even if “she” just happens to be … a White man merely identifying as such. Reality Wildcard, you say?

        Dearie me, I hope that wasn’t too confusing. Goodness knows the folks in Surrey will have it sorted out in a tick (or by the next legal hearing).

  31. Paris Police Foil Potential Attack, Arrest Armed Man at Railway Station (breitbart, Apr 11, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/11/paris-police-foil-potential-attack-arrested-armed-man-train-station/

    “French police arrested an armed man and two others at the Austerlitz train station in Paris this week, with all three coming from migrant backgrounds.

    The police operation took place on Tuesday at around 4 pm and saw officers from the specialist anti-gang Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) secure the area after railway police had arrested a man armed with a pistol around an hour before, Le Parisien reports.

    At first, police feared the armed man may have been plotting a terrorist attack as two other men attempted to flee from the police and hide in the station toilets.

    “Given the situation and the profile of the type arrested, we decided to play it with caution,” a source close to the investigation told Le Parisien.

    The source added that investigators were still looking into potential links between the armed man and the other two saying that it was a possibility they merely hid from police for other reasons.

    The three men, aged 16, 17, and 22 years old, were taken into custody and were all from North African migrant backgrounds, according to the source, who said they came from Morocco or Algeria originally and may be illegal immigrants. One of the three is said to be well-known to police.

    France has seen a number of terror attacks in recent years, particularly in Paris where the Gare du Nord train station was the target of a plot by Islamic State sympathisers in May 2017.

    Last year, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced that five major terror attacks had been foiled by police, including one linked to the government of Iran.

    Castaner noted at the time that the prospect of returning Islamic State jihadists kept the terror alert level high saying, “Some must be followed as a priority: those with psychological vulnerabilities, those who could have firearms, the ‘ghosts’ of Iraq or Syria – which represents 261 adults identified in France.”

    The country is also expecting more Islamic radicals on the streets of the country by the end of this year as 450 are expected to be released from French prisons.”

  32. NR: THIS IS WHY I loathe Alex Jones and his 9-11 Atrocity conspiracy theories. A relatively large Social Media celebrity like him made it politically acceptable for slime mold like Omar to obfuscate about modern history’s most ghastly example of Islamic terrorism.

    Little does she bother to concern herself or fellow believers about how: Continued barbarism of this sort will utterly guarantee that the 9-11 Atrocity will be Islam’s last major attack, EVER!

    What’s more, Ilhan is precisely the sort of needlessly provoking, taqiyya spewing, genocidal Muslim that will make everybody HATE Islam. Need I remind people that I would defend to the death (as with Alex Jones) the Constitutional right for this scumbag to hold such private, individual views?

    Must I go on further to say that this bescarved, ambulatory excrement has no place in American politics and, most certainly, NOT ON THE HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE???

    Crenshaw calls out Omar for describing 9/11 attacks as ‘some people did something’

    Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar is facing backlash after her speech at a Muslim rights group’s event in which she described the September 11, 2001 terror attacks as “some people did something.”

    Omar spoke at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fundraiser last month, where she called upon other Muslim Americans to “make people uncomfortable” with their activism and presence in the society and criticized the Jewish state.

    NR: Her precise words in context —

    But another part of the speech surfaced on social media earlier this week, in which Omar described the terror attacks perpetrated by al Qaeda.

    “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” Omar said at the event.

    Any narrative other than Islam being the direct cause of the 9-11 Atrocity is an insult to the three thousand who perished that bright September morning.

    Well, that’s it. This has gone on just long enough to where my pet Trowel of Cosmic Irony is scratching at the door, so here goes…

    Never accept anyone saying, “It wasn’t three thousand. It was 2,996.” Because we all know damn well that somewhere around the world on 9-11 Islam killed at least another four, forty, or four hundred innocents that we’ll probably never know about.

  33. New Zealand imam calls terror attack second 9/11

    Imam of attacked mosque says terrorism has no religion

    The imam of one of the mosques that came under a terror attack in New Zealand last month described the incident as a second 9/11.

    Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Gamal Fouda of Al Noor mosque said: “I call the attacks in Christchurch second Sept. 11 It is going to be a turning point to change the world.”

    At least 50 Muslim worshippers were massacred, with as many injured, in a terror attack on two mosques in Christchurch on March 15.

    Referring to state visits from Turkey in the wake of the attacks, Fouda said: “The first person, who came to [New Zealand] from overseas to show kindness and support and gave condolences to the community was Vice President of Turkey [Fuat Oktay] and Foreign Minister [Mevlut Cavusoglu].”

    “And next day, I met with them at the hotel, next morning they came to families and they offered condolences and they called President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and President Erdogan talked to people and offered condolences. That was something people needed,” he said.

    Fouda added that children would remember this tragedy forever.

    “It was a big tragedy but I said the heart is broken but mind is not broken; we came back again quickly because we know this is not New Zealand.”

    ‘Terror has no religion’

    With regards to an egg thrown at Australian Senator Fraser Anning after his anti-immigrant comments, Fouda said: “It was a blessed egg.”

    “Majority of Australians are very kind people,” he added.

    Praising New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s stance after the attacks, he said: “Jacinda Ardern, PM of New Zealand gave a lesson and love to the world. She set a good example to the world, good example to nations and good example to people that this is leader.”

    Fouda termed Ardern as “mother of the world, mother of peace, mother of love, mother of humanity, mother of kindness and mother of compassion”.

    He criticized those who did not call the man who carried out the attacks as “terrorist.”

    “If he was a Muslim, believe it or not, even Muslim people would say he is a terrorist but when it happened by a non-Muslim person, some people tend not to say, terrorist. It is not proper for them because of political power and political agenda but in their hearts, we know that they know it is a terrorist attack.”

    Following the attacks, he said people across the country supported the community.

    “Some people leave the wallet, car key, bank cards. Community, restaurants offer free food to Muslims. I could not walk on the street like this, with my imam clothes. Everyone hugged me and everyone said ‘we are with you’,” Fouda said.

    He recalled that terrorism has no religion, faith, language, and race, underlining the importance of media in resolving the problem.

    “We have actually stop and think. Terrorism has no religion, no faith, has no language, has no color, has no race, has no God. So, we actually have to stop and think about it. A criminal should be labeled as a criminal. That’s it,” Fouda said.

    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/new-zealand-imam-calls-terror-attack-second-9-11/1444662

    • I’d like to think there were other potentially more volatile geopolitical situations … I just can’t think of any, right now.

      As one reply at the thread noted:

      I don’t know why Julian Assange didn’t just die in a single-vehicle automobile crash in Hancock Park at 4am, or get himself shot in the back in D.C. at 4am – that seems to be how these things are usually handled.

      If Assange is still fogging mirrors a week from now it will be a miracle only be due to him having the goods on everybody (and their adopted mother’s twice removed step-nephew). After all, that time-honored strategy seemed to have worked rather well for J. Edgar Bumchum.

      My own read? A sedated bull is stirring in the political China shop.

      • Shortly after he went into the Embassy word was put out that he has several different caches of info set up to be released if ordered or by a dead man switch if he doesn’t tell it he is still alive.

  34. DAILY MAIL PRAVDA – Muslims have the highest life satisfaction: They have a feeling of ‘oneness’ that trumps Christians, Buddhists and yogis, study suggests

    Previous research suggests ‘very religious’ and spiritual people fell more satisfied with their lives
    A feeling of ‘oneness’ is thought to be the common thread between different religions and is also linked to better overall happiness
    Muslim people believe more strongly in ‘oneness’ than those of any other religion – and are more satisfied with their lives for it, a new German study found

    […]Muslim people feel the most satisfied with their lives because they feel more ‘oneness,’ or connection than people of other faiths, a new study suggests.

    Measuring life satisfaction is about as close to quantifying ‘happiness’ as we’ve been able to get thus far, and a German psychologist’s new study suggests that a feeling of ‘oneness’ predicts overall contentment.

    […]Researchers at the University of Mannheim in Germany wanted to parse out how oneness affected life satisfaction across religions.

    […]Buddhism’s goal is Nirvana – which is, in fact, reached by dispelling suffering, which the religion considers to have its roots in the craving for attachment.

    Hinduism’s core belief is in truth.

    But the single most important tenet in Islam is that of ‘Tawhid,’ the belief in the ‘invisible oneness concept of monotheism,’ or of one unifying god.

    So, it’s perhaps no surprise that Muslims feel greatest sense of oneness. […]

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6908769/Muslims-highest-life-satisfaction-thanks-feeling-oneness.html

  35. Conservative candidate David Abbott is suspended over Islam posts

    A Conservative council candidate has been suspended after The Times presented the party with Facebook posts he made about Islam.

    Posts by David Abbott, 64, who was announced last week as a candidate for Houghton Regis town council in Bedfordshire, were highlighted by the “MatesJacob” Twitter account.

    They were made in a Facebook group entitled Jacob Rees-Mogg: Supporters’ Group. In one post Mr Abbott wrote: “Moslems are commanded to do everything in their power, including killing, to rid the world of every person who does not follow Islam.”

    In another exchange he was told that Muslims “hate” being called “Mohammedans”. Mr Abbott replied: “I’ll have to remember that” before using the term in other posts himself,

    […]

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/conservative-candidate-david-abbott-is-suspended-over-islam-posts-dmw7r07rj
    =========================================================
    Conservative council candidate David Abbott is latest party member suspended over Islamophobic posts

    His posts allegedly referred to British Muslims as ‘Mohammedans’ and said they were ‘breeding for Islam’

    […]He was suspended by the party after it was alerted to a series of posts, highlighted by MatesJacob – a Twitter campaign dedicated to calling out “institutional racism, Islamophobia and cover-ups” in the party.

    Comments on Facebook groups
    The comments were posted in Facebook groups containing a lot of people describing themselves as Conservative party members. Mr Abbott allegedly referred to British Muslims as “Mohammedans” and said they were “breeding for Islam”.

    The Conservative press office said the party was dealing with all such complaints “swiftly”.

    One of the posts that appears to have been written by Mr Abbott said: “Moslems are commanded to do everything in their power, including killing, to rid the world of every person who does not follow Islam.”

    In another Jacob Rees-Mogg Supporters Group page, which is not officially affiliated with Mr Rees-Mogg, Mr Abbott posted: “The philosophy seems to be ‘breed for Islam’, thus the percentage of the population who follow the ‘religion of peace’ will significantly increase”.

    Blamed Facebook
    He was told in one comment that Muslims do not like being referred to as “Mohammedans”, prompting him to repeatedly use the term.

    Mr Abbott was also an administrator of the Boris Johnson Supporters’ Group on Facebook, which is rife with Islamophobic and racist comments. He has since stepped down from the page, but told the Dunstable Gazette that the posts did not reflect his views and blamed Facebook’s filters.

    “As Facebook does not provide the tools to help group admins block offensive comments on an automatic basis, it is clear that being an admin of any group is high risk due to the potential of being tainted by association should any comments be missed,” he said.

    […]Islamophobia row
    The row over Islamophobia in the party has been growing in recent weeks but senior Conservatives, including party chairman Brandon Lewis have insisted that any issues were being dealt with efficiently.

    A Hope Not Hate report, published in February, said the party was allowing Islamophobia to fester and signalling that the hate is acceptable.

    […]

    https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/conservative-council-candidate-david-abbott-is-latest-party-member-suspended-over-islamophobic-posts/

    =======================================================
    Tories engulfed in Islamophobia scandal

  36. With Italy on Board, China’s BRI Gets a Major Boost

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: China’s grand Belt and Road Initiative, which is intended to connect the Asia-Pacific with the European market, had a major boost in March when Italy – the first of the G7 states – effectively signed onto the project. This event illustrates how difficult it is becoming for European countries to resist Chinese investment at a time of economic troubles in the EU.

    On March 23, in Rome, a ceremony was held at which Italian PM Giuseppe Conte and Chinese president Xi Jinping signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU). The MOU will most likely lead to Italy’s participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

    To date, about a dozen EU countries, including Greece, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Portugal, and Slovakia, have signed formal agreements with Beijing on the BRI. Rome’s signature is particularly important, however, as Italy is the first of the G7 countries to join the Chinese project, which seeks cross-continental connectivity and integration between China and Europe. None of the other EU countries that have signed on to the BRI rival Italy’s economic weight or political significance within the EU.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/china-belt-road-italy/