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 must use it while we can.
Iran’s Economy to Shrink by 8.7% in 2019/20, Says World Bank (aawsat, Oct 10, 2019)
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1940116/irans-economy-shrink-87-201920-says-world-bank
“Hit by wide-ranging US sanctions, Iran’s economy is expected to contract by 8.7% in the financial year 2019/20 mainly due to constraints on its oil and gas industry, the World Bank said.
Washington’s policy of applying “maximum pressure” on Iran through sanctions has shredded the country’s oil revenues, sent its economy into recession and devalued its national currency.
“The expected deterioration in economic growth would mean that by the end of 2019/20 the economy would be 90% of its previous size compared to just two years earlier,” the World Bank said in a regional economic report, according to Reuters.
Iran’s financial year starts in March.
An Iranian central bank spokesman responded to the report saying that “because of the economic war staged by America against Iran there is economic pressure but we are on the right track and economy is going well and will get better with the solutions we are working on.”
Iran’s Finance Ministry was not available to comment…”
Nasrallah: Anyone bets on America is destined to fail (memo, Oct 10, 2019)
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191010-nasrallah-anyone-bets-on-america-is-destined-to-fail/
“Leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said that the US is untrustworthy.
“The Americans abandoned the Kurds overnight and left them. This is the fate of all who bet on the US,” Nasrallah said during his speech at the weekly Ashura council at Sayyed Al-Shuhada compound, according to Alahed News.
Hezbollah’ Secretary-General pointed out that all experiences confirm that the Americans do not preserve their allies and do not respect the agreements.
Nasrallah called on anyone looking the US for alternative options, pointing out that what is happening in the east of the Euphrates is a message to them…”
UAE to rebuild Iraqi churches destroyed by Daesh (gulfnews, Oct 10, 2019)
https://gulfnews.com/uae/uae-to-rebuild-iraqi-churches-destroyed-by-daesh-1.67042805
“The UAE has joined forces with UNESCO to rebuild two christian churches in Mosul, Iraq, that were destroyed by Daesh in 2014.
The partnership, which was signed at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Thursday to ‘Revive the Spirit of Mosul’, is part of the UAE’s Year of Tolerance initiative and is an extension to an earlier $50.4 million agreement signed in April 2018 to help rebuild the cultural heritage of Mosul, after the city fell to Daesh occupation in June 2014.
Iraqi forces retook the city in July 2017 but not before 28 sites of religious significance had been destroyed by the terrorist organisation.
Among them were the 800-year-old Al Tahera Church of Syriac Catholics in Mosul, considered to be one of the largest and oldest churches in the Midan area of Mosul’s Old City; and the Al Saa’a Church, ‘Church of the Clock’ in Arabic, also known as Our Lady of the Hour, which was built by Dominican fathers between 1866 and 1873, and became a living example of brotherhood between the people of Mosul, who graduated from its educational institution together regardless of their faith.
Noura Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, was at Thursday’s signing in Paris, and said, “Today’s signing is a pioneering partnership that sends a message of light, in seemingly darker times. By rebuilding a fraction of the past, Iraq can shape its future as an inclusive, tolerant and open society which has always found a tangible manifestation in Mosul’s rich historical sites.”
In doing this the UAE had become the first country in the world to help reconstruct christian churches in Iraq, she added…”
Spain Investigations 31 Moroccans for Driver’s License Fraud (mwn, Oct 10, 2019)
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/10/284397/spain-investigations-31-moroccans-for-drivers-license-fraud/
“Spanish security services are investigating 31 Moroccan nationals over driver’s license fraud.
Spanish news outlet Diario de Almeria reported on October 9 that the suspects have been allegedly falsifying Moroccan driver’s licenses for €250 to €3,000, according to Diario de Almeria.
The suspects then use the permits to convince Spanish authorities that they are authorized to drive and swap the falsified Moroccan permit for a Spanish one.
The news outlet added that the investigation started at the beginning of 2018 when the Almeria Province’s Traffic Headquarters noticed a forgery.
All 31 of the suspects live in El Jido and La Majonera in Spain..
The Spanish Criminal Code “defines fraud as obtaining undue profit from the victim using deception.”
If convicted of fraud, the suspects could face up to three years behind bars and a fine.
“The prison sentence can be increased to up to eight years if there have been certain aggravating circumstances,” the Law Reviews reported.”
Europe ‘lacks leverage’ over Turkey amid Erdogan migrant threat (france24, Oct 10, 2019)
https://www.france24.com/en/20191010-europe-lacks-leverage-over-turkey-amid-erdogan-migrant-threat
“As European governments decry Turkey’s offensive on Kurdish forces in Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the EU on Thursday that Ankara will let millions of migrants flow into the continent unless Europe halts its criticism. Analysts say the threat exemplifies the lack of influence European powers have over Turkey.
Turkey’s military assault on Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) provoked a wave of condemnation from European capitals as it entered its second day on Thursday, including French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for Ankara to “put an end to it as quickly as possible”.
But Erdogan is holding a Damoclean sword over Europe: “Hey EU, wake up. I say it again: If you try to frame our operation as an invasion, our task is simple – we will open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants to you,” the Turkish strongman said in a speech to his party the same day.
His country hosts 3.6 million refugees from the Syrian Civil War – and in a 2016 deal with the EU, Ankara agreed to stop these migrants from going to Europe in exchange for €6 billion and visa-free travel for Turks.
“Have you ever kept any promise you gave us so far? No!” Erdogan continued, addressing the EU.
When a reporter asked Macron for his views on Erdogan’s browbeating rhetoric, the French president said that he had “nothing more” to add to his previous comments, with an incensed look on his face.
‘Erdogan saw weakness in European powers’
European countries “need to co-operate with Turkey on key issues, such as managing refugees”, said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the German Marshall Fund’s Ankara bureau. This is a key reason why they “don’t have much leverage” over Ankara.
“It’s likely that Erdogan would make life difficult for Europe if Europe made life difficult for him,” noted Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey specialist at St. Lawrence University and the Project on Middle Eastern Democracy.
“Turkey is committed to its course of action and the die has been cast; even the kind of stringent sanctions contemplated by some US senators wouldn’t be sufficient to change the contours of Turkey’s policy at this stage,” Eissenstat continued.
Erdogan sees the PKK – the Kurdish group linked to the SDF and classified as a terrorist group by both Turkey and the United States – as an “existential threat to Turkish territorial integrity, and he’s not concerned about Western opinion for this reason”, added Reilly Barry, a Turkey researcher at Harvard University.
This is not the first time Erdogan has engaged in ferocious diplomatic disputes with European countries. He accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of using “Nazi measures” when Germany stopped some Turkish ministers from campaigning there for a 2017 referendum, and he barred the Dutch ambassador from returning to the country after the Netherlands enacted similar measures the same year.
“Erdogan saw weakness in European powers when they let such insults slide,” said Simon Waldman, a Turkey specialist at King’s College London and British think-tank the Henry Jackson Society.
“This is the exact opposite of Russia,” he continued. “After Turkey downed a Russian jet flying by the border of Syria in 2015, the ferocious response of [President Vladmir] Putin and the heavy sanctions Russia imposed earned Moscow Erdogan’s respect.”
Turkey ‘forgetting’ priority of IS group
Nevertheless, this time European leaders have made it clear that they see Turkey’s actions as flying in the face of their interests, most notably when it comes to ongoing efforts to eliminate the Islamic State (IS) group.
“Turkey is forgetting that the priority of the international community in Syria is the fight against Daesh and terrorism,” Macron complained, using an Arabic term for the IS group.
Indeed, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces hold thousands of jihadist fighters in prisons across the northeast of the country. The Syrian Kurdish autonomous region said in a statement on Thursday that a Turkish bombardment hit a prison containing captured IS group fighters, which would appear to contradict Ankara’s promises not to compromise the campaign against the terrorist group – although the statement made no mention of any prisoners escaping.
“Turkey wouldn’t consciously do anything that would cause the release of ISIS (another name for the IS group) fighters,” Eissenstat said. However, the concern would be that any “destabilisation” caused by Turkish actions in Syria “might result in their inadvertent release”, he continued.
‘Refugees will be their problem too’
Ankara’s plans to repatriate some of its refugees to so-called “safe zones” in northeastern Syria is another issue that has sparked antagonism with Europe. The Turkish government says it plans to enact this initiative with international funding. However, the EU insisted on Wednesday it will not give a penny of funding for it, prompting Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to echo Erdogan’s migrant threat by saying that if Europe refuses to hand over money, “refugees will be their problem too”.
Such a programme would “clearly violate international law” by “returning refugees against their will”, noted Amy Austin Holmes, a fellow in the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. “The Syrians themselves presumably want to go back to their region of origin – not to a zone in the north occupied by the Turkish military – and I would hope that Europe speaks out strongly on this issue.”
But while European leaders are “no doubt outraged” by Turkey’s actions – including the attendant prospects of forced repatriation to so-called safe zones and the risk of jihadist prisoners escaping – they still “lack the political will” to take “any meaningful action”, Waldman said.
He ascribed this to not only European leaders’ desire to “prevent the influx of additional refugees”, but also to “a lack of ideas as to what Europe can do”.”
Can We Keep Our Republic?
If the Dems win, Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of America will be complete.
October 10, 2019
Bruce Thornton
When asked the type of government the Constitutional Convention had created, Benjamin Franklin famously replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Franklin and the Founders understood that given a flawed human nature and its passion for power, no form of political order can survive if it is not continually maintained and defended against attempts to dismantle it in order to empower one faction at the expense of others, thus diminishing their freedom.
Since the election of Donald Trump, we have been watching one of the most serious assaults on the Constitutional Republic in our history. With the current efforts of the Democrat-controlled House to engineer public support for impeachment, this three-year attack is intensifying. The climactic battle will be fought on November 3, 2020 when America goes to the polls to select the president. On that day will be decided not just which party will take the White House, but which vision of government will rule us: The Constitutional order of popular sovereignty, federalism, and divided powers; or a technocratic oligarchy of centralized and concentrated power.
Or to put it more starkly: Can we keep our nation of free citizens, or will we become one of managed clients?
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/can-we-keep-our-republic-bruce-thornton
Diversity the new improved way:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/city-diversity-meeting-ends-chaos-white-males-banned-speaking
#46 Are Hong Kong Protests Too Violent? | China Unscripted
Behind America’s Opioid Epidemic | America Uncovered
Joe Biden worked with whistleblower when he was vice president, officials reveal
The 2020 Democratic candidate with whom the CIA whistleblower had a “professional” tie is Joe Biden, according to intelligence officers and former White House officials.
Lawyers for the whistleblower said he had worked only “in the executive branch.” The Washington Examiner has established that he is a career CIA analyst who was detailed to the National Security Council at the White House and has since left. On Sept. 26, the New York Times reported that he was a CIA officer. On Oct. 4, the newspaper added that he “was detailed to the National Security Council at one point.”
Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence Community’s inspector general, told members of Congress that the whistleblower had a “professional tie” to a 2020 Democratic candidate. He had written earlier that while the whistleblower’s complaint was credible, he had shown “some indicia of an arguable political bias … in favor of a rival political candidate.”
A retired CIA officer told the Washington Examiner, “From everything we know about the whistleblower and his work in the executive branch then, there is absolutely no doubt he would have been working with Biden when he was vice president.”
As an experienced CIA official on the NSC with the deep knowledge of Ukraine that he demonstrated in his complaint, it is probable that the whistleblower briefed Biden and likely that he accompanied him on Air Force Two during at least one of the six visits the 2020 candidate made to the country.
A former Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said Biden’s work on foreign affairs brought him into close proximity with the whistleblower either at the CIA or when he was detailed to the White House.
“This person, after working with Biden, may feel defensive towards him because he feels [Biden] is being falsely attacked. Maybe he is even talking to Biden’s staff,” the former official said. “Maybe it is innocent, maybe not.”
Last month, the whistleblower accused President Trump of abusing his position by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. His complaint is now at the center of a Democrat-led impeachment inquiry, prompting Trump and his allies to cry foul.
Biden was President Barack Obama’s “point man” on Ukraine, making a half dozen trips there in his eight years as vice president. Those trips involved briefings from senior intelligence officials and NSC officers, some of whom traveled with him to Kyiv and elsewhere.
“The Whistleblower has ties to one of my DEMOCRAT OPPONENTS,” tweeted Trump, after the “professional” link was revealed by the Washington Examiner. “Why does the ICIG allow this scam to continue?”
Trump said Thursday he did not know the identity of the whistleblower.
The connection to Biden has emerged a week after Atkinson, the Intelligence Community’s inspector general, briefed the House Intelligence Committee on the whistleblower’s complaint.
After the report on what Atkinson said, lawyers for the whistleblower immediately insisted their client was not motivated by political considerations, but their cryptic comment fueled speculation about his identity. The careful statement did not rule out that the whistleblower worked with one of the candidates before they started running for president.
“First, our client has never worked for or advised a political candidate, campaign, or party,” said Andrew Bakaj and Mark Zaid. “Second, our client has spent their entire government career in apolitical, civil servant positions in the Executive Branch.”
Glenn Carle, a former CIA officer who himself blew the whistle on George W. Bush administration efforts to collect intelligence on an American citizen, said the distinction was crucial. “The truth is that the whistleblower would have worked with Biden not in some partisan political sense but as a member of the government,” he said. “It is scurrilous to suppose there was a political motivation.”
He added that it was possible that the CIA officer briefed senators or representatives who were now running for president.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/joe-biden-worked-with-whistleblower-when-he-was-vice-president-officials-reveal
Warren And Hillary | What the Mainstream Media ISN’T Telling You
The G-Word
Ep. 1085 Are the Deep State Players Keeping a List? The Dan Bongino Show 10/10/2019.
BAFTA introduces Diversity Requirements For Awards (HONK!)
Florida Man Investigated for Pro-Gun Meme
oensing: Obama admin treated Ukraine like a candy store
Taiwan president rejects ‘one country, two systems’
Hong Kong’s MTR facing shortage of parts after continued vandalism at stations
Beijing urges Washington to stop putting ‘unreasonable pressure’ on Chinese firms
Have you ever wondered why Bloomberg declared that #XiJinping is NOT a dictator? Why is he so blind to all the obvious facts of #Chinazi?
https://twitter.com/HGW45599518/status/1180800021865746432
The poster victory 2020 has the right idea, Dems are CCP.
Hongkongers show solidarity with Taiwanese people in Double Tenth Day event
Fox News – Trump viciously mocks Strzok, Page at Minneapolis rally
WARNING: Graphic Language. President Trump went after former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page at his Thursday night rally in Rep. Ilhan Omar’s district.
Trump mocked Strzok and Page over their past affair and attempts to instill an ‘insurance policy’ ahead of his election.
Fox News – Trump: Biden was a good VP because he would ‘kiss Obama’s a**’
GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING.President Trump sounds off on the Bidens’ overseas business dealings.
Trump Goes There!… Blasts Anti-Semitic Rep. Ilhan Omar for Marrying Her Brother