Reader’s Links for December 17, 2019

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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.

About Eeyore

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

82 Replies to “Reader’s Links for December 17, 2019”

  1. Lebanese army clashes with supporters of Hezbollah, Amal in Beirut (france24, Dec 17, 2019)
    https://www.france24.com/en/20191217-lebanese-army-clashes-with-supporters-of-hezbollah-amal-in-beirut

    “Lebanese troops lobbed tear gas on Tuesday to disperse supporters of Shi’ite groups Hezbollah and Amal who tried to storm a square in Beirut in response to a video that purportedly offended Shi’ite figures, witnesses and media reports said.

    Hundreds of youths on motorcycles waving their party and religious flags gathered in downtown Beirut chanting “Shi’ites, Shi’ites” and setting fire to tyres. They hurled stones and fireworks at security forces standing nearby, witnesses said.

    Ignoring calls for restraint by politicians, the youths tried to break a security cordon to storm the square where demonstrators have set up tents as part of an anti-government protest that has been going on for weeks.

    In the vicinity of the area close to a main road that links the capital’s eastern and western sections, scores of youths had burnt tyres, smashed office buildings and torched several cars, live coverage by local television stations showed.

    The protesters camped in the square have been targeted by Shi’ite groups in the past angered by chants against their political leaders, although Tuesday’s violence was of an overtly sectarian nature.

    The video, which inflamed passions in a country where sectarian divisions run deep, was purportedly made by an expatriate Lebanese Sunni from the northern city of Tripoli and released on social media.

    In the predominately Sunni populated city of Saida in southern Lebanon, groups of masked youths stormed into a main square where they set ablaze several tents set up by demonstrators who have camped for weeks, local television stations said.

    Lebanon has been gripped by a historic wave of protests since Oct. 17 leading to the resignation of Saad al-Hariri as prime minister, amid anger at the government’s failure to address the country’s worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

    More than seven weeks since Hariri quit, politicians have been unable to agree on a new administration despite the deepening financial crisis.

    The impasse took a violent turn at the weekend when Beirut was clouded in tear gas as security forces clashed with protesters who blame the ruling elite for corruption and bad governance. Dozens were wounded.”

  2. Pervez Musharraf: Pakistan ex-leader sentenced to death for treason (BBC, Dec 17, 2019)
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50819772

    “General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former military leader, has been sentenced to death at a special court hearing in Islamabad.

    The three-member court sentenced him over a high treason charge that has been pending since 2013.

    Gen Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 and served as the country’s president from 2001 to 2008.

    He is currently in Dubai after being allowed to leave the country for medical treatment in 2016.

    The charge relates to Gen Musharraf’s suspension of the constitution in 2007, when he imposed emergency rule in a move intended to extend his tenure.

    He issued a video statement from a hospital bed earlier this month, describing the case against him as “baseless”.

    Gen Musharraf is the first military ruler to ever stand trial in Pakistan for overruling the constitution.

    The verdict was announced Tuesday with a 2-1 majority…”

  3. UK, French Patrol Boats Intercept at Least 20 Migrants Crossing English Channel – Reports (sputniknews, Dec 17, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201912171077595844-uk-french-patrol-boats-intercept-at-least-20-migrants-crossing-english-channel–reports/

    “The intercepted migrants were transported to Dover, a major UK port, and detained for questioning by immigration officials, the Sky News broadcaster reported.

    At least 20 migrants trying to cross the English Channel in boats have been intercepted by UK and French patrol vessels in the early hours of Tuesday, media reported.

    A UK Home Office spokesperson was quoted as saying by the broadcaster that “anyone crossing the Channel in a small boat is taking a huge risk with their life and the lives of their children.”

    According to media reports, there has been a significant increase in the number of migrants attempting to cross from France to the United Kingdom in boats…”

  6. Germany: The videos Ms Merkel would like to ban have now become public

    The German Interior Ministry is in a state of commotion. It is not wanted that there is public publicity about how violently left-wing extremist rioters attack police officers. During an announced anti-police rally in Leipzig, scenes similar to civil war once again took place. Videos of riots in 2015 now appeared on the net. The descriptions on YouTube suggest that the videos were posted online by left-wing extremists. German politicians are always trying to play down the massive problem of violent left-wing extremism. The masked perpetrators of violence from the so-called “black block” have no respect whatsoever for civil servants or human lives in general.They use cobblestones, incendiary devices and all available weapons against the police, without considering that their counterparts are people who perform the job of maintaining public order. The scenes from the video show very impressively how left-wing extremist intensive violence occurs for the police officers deployed. It can be assumed that the video material will not remain online for very long.Very revealing are the recorded police radio messages, which show the seriousness of the incident. In any case, internal investigations were ordered to find and punish the persons within the police who brought these impressive videos to the attention of the public.
    More:
    https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2019/12/germany-videos-ms-merkel-would-like-to.html

  14. King County, Washington Hired a Black Trans Dancer to STRIP At a Taxpayer-Funded Event – Seriously

  16. Sweden: Teen Caught with Large Bomb Claims He Thought It Was Drugs (breitbart, Dec 17, 2019)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/17/sweden-teen-caught-with-large-bomb-claims-he-thought-it-was-drugs/

    “A Swedish court dropped public endangerment charges against a teen who was caught with a large bomb in his backpack which he claimed he had thought were drugs at the time.

    Police arrested the teen, then 18-years-old, in July on a train headed for Stockholm and found a gun and 1.5 kilograms of explosive material in a can in his backpack, roughly the same amount of explosive used in the deadly London 2005 bombings, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.

    According to investigators, the 19-year-old, who lives in the migrant-majority municipality of Södertälje, was sent down to the multicultural southern city of Malmö to collect items as payments for drug debts, stating that he had been threatened.

    The teen told investigators that he thought the backpack had been filled with drugs. Forensic analysis showed that his fingerprints were not on the can containing the explosives, leading to speculation another person packed it into the backpack.

    While the charges against the teen were dropped in the case of the bomb, he was convicted of possessing a gun which was linked to a Malmö shooting three years ago and he was sentenced to nine months in prison.

    The Swedish Armed Forces released a statement on the incident claiming that the bomb was fully armed and functioning when it was found and that it could have easily exploded while being transported by the teen.

    “It was sensitive to impact, shock, friction, and heat. In case of careless handling or an accident it could have detonated,” prosecutor Lotten Paullsson stated.

    Sweden has seen a major increase in explosions linked to gang crime over the past year, with the BBC noting that there were at least 100 explosions by November of 2019.

    Ylva Ehrlin, an analyst at Sweden’s National Bomb Guard, commented on the phenomenon in November saying: “We have ten million people in Sweden, but I have not found any equivalent of this level of explosions in any industrialised country.”

    Malmö has been a major focus for explosions in 2019, with the city seeing no less than three blasts within a span of just 24 hours in June. In October, police disarmed five more explosive devices said to have been placed in thermos-like containers.”

  17. (Richard: Virginians fight back against the unconstitutional actions of the Democrats.)

    Virginia county passes resolution emphasizing ‘right to a militia’
    by Dominick Mastrangelo
    | December 16, 2019 01:23 PM

    Local leaders in a southwest Virginia county have approved a resolution placing emphasis on citizens’ rights to form a militia and disavowing gun control measures expected to pass through the state legislature next year.

    The Board of Supervisors in Tazewell County approved on Dec. 3 two resolutions according to local television station WJHL.

    The first resolution declared the county a “Second Amendment Sanctuary,” mirroring an effort displayed by several other local municipalities fearful of strict gun control measures that could be handed down from the Democratically-controlled state government in Richmond.

    That amended says the county would not devote county funds to “any effort that would infringe upon its citizens’ Second Amendment rights.”

    The second resolution emphasized “the right to a well-funded and regulated militia described in the U.S. Constitution and Commonwealth’s constitution,” the TV station reported.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/virginia-county-passes-resolution-emphasizing-right-to-a-militia

  18. UN urges ‘reboot’ of refugee response as millions uprooted (abcnews, Dec 17, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/urges-reboot-refugee-response-millions-uprooted-67771718

    “he United Nations urged governments, businesses and others on Tuesday to “reboot” the world’s response to refugees as the number of people fleeing their homes rises along with hostility to migrants.

    The first Global Refugee Forum, being hosted in Geneva by the U.N. and Switzerland on Tuesday and Wednesday, is meant to draw pledges to pave the way for a fairer and more coordinated approach to hosting and integrating millions of refugees worldwide.

    But it also underscored international tensions, with Turkey’s president complaining of a lack of support for his country’s plans to resettle up to a million Syrian refugees in Turkey to Turkish-controlled regions of northern Syria. Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, used his appearance to criticize neighbor and archrival India.

    “Our world is in turmoil and 25 million refugees are looking to us for solutions,” Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told the event. He noted that the number is far higher if people displaced within their own countries are added in.

    “As a new decade dawns with some 71 million people uprooted from their homes globally, inside and outside their countries, it’s time to reboot our responses,” Grandi said.

    He called for a “broad alliance” of governments, business, development institutions, the aid community, sports organizations and others. Business executives and the head of the International Olympic Committee were among those attending the forum.

    The forum was “co-convened” by Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Germany, Pakistan and Turkey, most of them among the world’s major refugee hosts. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas noted that nine of the top 10 — all but his own country — have low or medium incomes.

    U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that “developing and middle-income countries admirably host the vast majority of refugees and warrant greater support.”

    In addition, he said, “at a time when the right to asylum is under assault, when so many borders and doors are being closed to refugees, when even child refugees can be divided from their families, we need to reaffirm the human rights of refugees.”

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country’s invasion of northern Syria to drive U.S.-allied Kurdish forces out of a “safe zone” along the border has drawn widespread criticism, said Syrian oil revenues could be used to help relocate Syrians in Turkey. He complained that no one wants to spend the money on the refugees.

    “I say: come let’s take out the oil in the wells together and let’s implement projects in these areas … so that these people can be settled in the houses, schools, hospitals that we build,” Erdogan said. “But they don’t support it because they need the oil more (than refugees).”

    “We need to put into effect formulas that will keep refugees on their own soil and allow those in our country to return,” he said.”

  19. Turkey: opposition mayor, others arrested over ties to coup (abcnews, Dec 17, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkey-arrests-opposition-mayor-alleged-ties-coup-67771194

    ” Turkish authorities have arrested a mayor from Turkey’s main opposition party over his alleged links to a U.S.-based Muslim cleric, the state-run news agency reported Tuesday. Separately, c lose to 200 people were detained in other police operations.

    Anadolu Agency said Burak Oguz, the mayor of the Aegean coastal town of Urla, was arrested late Monday for alleged ties to Fethullah Gulen’s network. Gulen is blamed by Ankara for a failed coup attempt in 2016.

    Oguz, who was elected in local elections in March, is the first mayor from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, to be arrested on terror charges. At least 14 elected mayors belonging to Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party have previously been detained for alleged ties to outlawed Kurdish rebels. The party denies terror charges and says the arrests are politically motivated aimed at weakening its hold in Turkey’s southeast.

    The CHP condemned Oguz’s arrest and denied the accusation of links to Gulen, saying the network had no “chance of surving within the CHP.”

    “We condemn the use of the justice (system) to remove those who were elected,” said CHP provincial head, Deniz Yucel.

    Separately, authorities detained 171 people on suspicion of links to Gulen’s network in simultaneous raids in the capital, Ankara, Anadolu reported. Those detained are suspected of using a messaging app that Turkey says was used by coup plotters to communicate with each other. Meanwhile, prosecutors issued detention warrants for 18 Health Ministry personnel, including 10 doctors, the agency reported. At least 10 of the suspects were detained Tuesday.

    On July 15, 2016, a group of officers attempted a coup to overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Some 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 were injured during the failed attempt.

    Some 77,000 people have been arrested and around 130,000 others, including military personnel, have been dismissed from state jobs in an ongoing government crackdown on Gulen’s network since the coup.

    Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, denies involvement in the coup attempt.”

  20. Pakistani lawyer who fought for unlawfully held is abducted (abcnews, Dec 17, 2019)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistani-lawyer-fought-unlawfully-held-abducted-67771618

    “A Pakistani lawyer known for pursuing cases of those unlawfully detained by the country’s security agencies was abducted overnight from his home in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, his son said Tuesday.

    According to the son, several armed men in plainclothes knocked on the gate of the family’s home on Monday night. When the family opened the door, the men barged in and snatched his father, Inamur Rehman, shoved him into a car and then sped away.

    Rehman, a lawyer and a retired military officer, was never a threat to anyone, said the son, Husnain Inam. He refused to speculate on who was behind the abduction.

    “We are still in a state of shock,” said Inam, adding that the family was too terrified to cry out for help during the abduction.

    Inam, a college teacher, said he’s formally reporting the abduction to the police. No government official could immediately be reached to comment.

    Rehman has been vocal critic of Pakistani security agencies and has also represented several people detained by the country’s military-backed spy agency in recent years. He has previously reported being harassed by security agencies.

    In 2012, he petitioned a court challenging the government’s move to keep outgoing army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in office for another three years.

    Last Tuesday, dozens rallied in the capital, Islamabad, marking the the International Human Rights Day by urging the government to release hundreds of people who they say have been “forcibly disappeared” by security agencies in recent years.

    The government has repeatedly denied the allegations. Although Pakistani law prohibits detentions without court approval, officials privately concede that intelligence agencies are holding an unspecified number of suspects. The officials say the detentions are because of ties to militant groups.”

  21. Retired USAF general warns of ‘great space war,’ says China is building ‘Space Navy’

  22. Secretary of State Pompeo Responds to Congressional Critics on Legality of West Bank Settlements
    (U.S. State Department)

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday responded to a Congressional letter that criticized the administration’s position on the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

    • “The State Department’s determination did not reverse any policy with regard to Israeli settlements. Rather, the State Department reversed a legal determination by Secretary Kerry…allowing UNSCR 2334, whose foundation was the purported illegality of the settlements…to pass the Security Council on December 23, 2016.”

    • “Secretary Kerry’s determination did not enjoy bipartisan consensus. Rather, it received bipartisan condemnation, including from leading Democrats in both chambers of Congress. Indeed, an overwhelming number of Senators and House Members, on both sides of the aisle, supported resolutions objecting to the passage of UNSCR 2334.”
    • “While you are free to fixate on settlements as a barrier to peace, you are simply wrong in referring to that view as being subject to bipartisan agreement. No less a Democratic spokesman than the Senate Minority Leader publicly stated at his AIPAC address on March 5, 2018, that ‘it’s sure not the settlements that are the blockage to peace.'”

    • “You assert that we have ‘blatantly disregarded’ the Fourth Geneva Convention….I commend to you the writings of Eugene Rostow, who left his position as Dean of the Yale Law School to become Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in the Johnson Administration….Rostow stated in 1983 that ‘Israel has an unassailable legal right to establish settlements in the West Bank.'”

    • “U.S. policy with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict largely has been consistent for decades and remains so: we support and seek to facilitate direct negotiations between the parties towards the goal of a just and lasting peace agreement.”

    “Regrettably, as many experts concur, UNSCR 2334 and the related self-justifying remarks by Secretary Kerry have saddled the Trump Administration with a significant handicap in advancing the cause of peace by erroneously injecting into the conflict an incorrect and largely irrelevant legal component. This in turn has led to the hardening of positions, especially on the Palestinian side.”

    (Elder transcribed the full text: Mike Pompeo’s GREAT letter to Democrats on settlements and peace.
    Read it ALL: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2019/12/mike-pompeos-great-letter-to-democrats.html )

  24. Stephen Harper nominated to have a Jerusalem street named after him

    Jerusalem City Council member Dan Illouz (Hitorerut) on Tuesday officially nominated former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (2006-2015) for the honor of having a Jerusalem street named after him.

    Harper was the first Western leader to suspend aid to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas’s electoral victory in 2006. In 2009, he was the first to withdraw from the infamous Durban Review Conference, saying the event would “scapegoat the Jewish people.”

    In a 2014 Knesset speech, Harper committed to support Israel “through fire and water.” He is also known for changing Canada’s voting record in the United Nations in support of the Jewish state, ending funding to UNRWA, opposing Iran’s nuclear program, promoting investment in Israeli security and intelligence and modernizing trade agreements between Israel and Canada to increase trade and business connections.

    https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/12/17/stephen-harper-nominated-to-have-a-jerusalem-street-named-after-him/
    ……
    May Prez Zeman of the Czech Republic live for 120 years. And get his street three years later.

  27. MEMRI – Somali-Canadian Islamic Preacher Said Rageah:

    Non-Muslims Disapprove Of Polygyny Because They Want Muslim Women To Be Cheap Goods Like Non-Muslim Women;

    Muslim Women Who Do Not Want To Share Their Husband Are Not True Believers

    […]Sheikh Rageah said that women who do not want to allow their husband to have another wife are not true believers because Islam expects Muslims to make sacrifices for the sake of Allah, that it is the nature of men to pursue multiple sexual partners and therefore to have multiple wives,

    +video

    https://www.memri.org/reports/somali-canadian-islamic-preacher-said-rageah-non-muslims-disapprove-polygyny-because-they

  28. North Koreans mark the 8th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s death

    North Koreans marked the 8th anniversary of the death of their former leader Kim Jong Il this week. On a cold and wet Monday evening, the eve of the anniversary, crowds clambered up Mansu Hill to lay flowers and bow to the pair of giant statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The statue of Kim Jong Il was erected in 2012 after his death in December 2011.

    Steady streams of people continued to pay their respects on Tuesday morning, as national flags flew lowered on their poles around the capital Pyongyang. North Koreans are expected to make a show of obeisance on all major holidays and anniversaries.

  29. Switzerland: World needs to share refugee burden more fairly says UN”s Guterres

    United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged world leaders to be ambitious and “to build a more equitable response to refugee crises through a sharing of responsibility,” while speaking at the first UN Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on Tuesday.

    “It is a moment to jettison a model of support that too often left refugees for decades with their lives on hold, confined to camps, just scraping by, unable to flourish or contribute,” Guterres said, adding “Humankind came together to address many huge refugee challenges across the 20th century. We should be able to do the same in the 21st.”

    The UN chief added that lower income countries responses to the refugee crisis should “warrant greater support, not just in the humanitarian response, but also in the context of development plans as well as more financial support.”

    The UN Global Refugee Forum is taking place at United Nations complex in Geneva from 16 to 18 December 2019 and the event aims ‘to translate the principle of international responsibility-sharing into concrete action.’

  31. John Solomon: Latvia Flagged Suspicious Payments to Hunter Biden, Urged Ukraine to Investigate

    President Trump’s personal attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani went on with Laura Ingraham in September following Nancy Pelosi’s big impeachment announcement.

    Democrats announced that same week they would open an impeachment investigation on President Trump for speaking to the Ukrainian president on the phone about the Biden Crime Family’s money laundering from the Ukrainian people.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/12/john-solomon-latvia-flagged-suspicious-payments-to-hunter-biden-urged-ukraine-to-investigate/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily

  32. Governor Northam says Second Amendment Sanctuaries won’t stop him from pursuing ‘common sense’ gun l

    • “The conversation was overheard by by Innu Nation member and former Labrador MP Peter Penashue and other passengers.”

      Controlling other people’s speech.

      Dhimmunists.

  35. Katie Hopkins Speaks at Freedom Center’s Restoration Weekend

    The British freedom fighter sounds the alarm.

  36. The Totalitarian Legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution

    The contributors to a new book resist “the great forgetting.”

    Two years ago, on the centennial anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia that ushered in a century of mass murder and misery, the Trump administration declared a National Day for the Victims of Communism. The New York Times, meanwhile, predictably celebrated the blood-soaked milestone with a series of opinion pieces touting the many upsides of Communism, such as better orgasms for women. The series was titled, with stunning tone-deafness, “Red Century.”

    Also on that anniversary in 2017, Bucknell University, a private liberal arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, held a symposium titled “Legacies of the October Revolution,” organized by Bucknell professor of sociology Alexander Riley and associate professor of English Alfred Kentigern Siewers. That symposium spawned an important new book titled The Totalitarian Legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution, edited by Riley and Siewers and featuring essays from three participating scholars. Contrary to the New York Times’ whitewashing, the book’s evaluation of the October Revolution is unequivocally damning.

    “Now, a century later, the historical evidence on the nature and legacy of the Bolsheviks and the regime they established is indisputable,” writes editor Riley in the foreword, “Challenging Bolshevik Myth and the Poetry of Totalitarianism”:

    https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/totalitarian-legacy-bolshevik-revolution-mark-tapson

  37. Bloomberg Shows Reporters are Political Operatives

    And there’s no room for them on Republican campaigns.

    There will never be a President Michael Bloomberg. Not unless some bankrupt African country decides to auction off the privilege to the highest bidder. But while Bloomy is no real threat to the Democrats or Republicans, his campaign is unintentionally telling the obvious truth about the role of the media.

    The billionaire famously banned staff from his eponymous outlet from investigating him or fellow Dems while declaring an open season on President Trump. He responded to criticism by saying that his reporters, “get a paycheck. But with your paycheck comes some restrictions and responsibilities.”

    Those restrictions and responsibilities are to serve the political interests of the guy signing the checks.

    The distinction between Bloomberg’s media outlet and presidential campaign are non-existent. Five staffers from the outlet, an executive editor, news editor, senior editorial page editor, social media editor, and another editorial page editor, have joined the presidential campaign of the same name.

    The name of the guy signing their paychecks.

    https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/12/bloomberg-shows-reporters-are-political-operatives-daniel-greenfield

  38. D.C. Bureaucrats Resign Rather Than Go Live With the Peasants
    December 15, 2019
    Daniel Greenfield

    Life is good in the Imperial City.

    There’s a plethora of exciting eateries. The museums are mostly free. And the money is good, but the post-gov lobbying and consulting gigs are even better. And then this guy wins and his appointees announce that you have to move somewhere where they grow corn. What are they thinking? You didn’t join the Bureau of Land Management to be surrounded by corn, cows, and all that stuff. You’re outta here.

    Opponents of the Trump administration’s plan to break up the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the country’s public lands bureau are warning of a brain drain, saying many staffers who are being reassigned are opting to quit rather than move out West.

    Brain? What brain?

    Just think of the catastrophic brain drain if sufficient Bureau of Land Management personnel leave and then no one will know the exact period to order all the new office chairs.

    https://cms.frontpagemag.com/point/2019/12/dc-bureaucrats-resign-rather-go-live-peasants-daniel-greenfield

  41. NEWSBoris Johnson Orders Investigation Into George Soros Over Anti-Brexit Campaign
    Britain’s Conservative Party government has launched an urgent investigation into liberal billionaire George Soros, over claims the globalist financier funneled millions into a campaign to block Brexit and take down British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

    Soros, known globally as “the man who broke the Bank of England,” is facing a probe into almost £3 million ($3.85m) that his foundation pumped into an anti-Brexit campaign aimed at bringing down PM Johnson.

    The Conservatives have called for an urgent Electoral Commission probe into George Soros’s American organization Open Society Foundation (OSF).The move follows a report by The Mail on Sunday that uncovered a paper trail revealing that OSF funneled vast sums of money into a campaign seeking to block Brexit at the ballot box.

    Soros’ New York-based foundation sent the money to the pro-EU group Best for Britain (BfB)

    The funding was sent to the group via a London outpost, circumventing a ban on foreign donations to political organizations.

    https://massachusettsdaily.com/2019/12/16/boris-johnson-orders-investigation-into-george-soros-over-anti-brexit-campaign/

  42. Terrorist brothers are jailed for decades over chilling plot to kill 400 on an Etihad flight out of Sydney using a bomb hidden inside a meat grinder
    Khaled Khayat, 52, jailed for 40 years and Mahmoud Khayat, 34, for 36 years
    Plot involved a bomb in a meat grinder into luggage of an unsuspecting brother
    Plan failed when luggage was too heavy at the airport and police foiled retry
    The second plot involved poisonous gas made by the older brother at his home
    By NIC WHITE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP

    PUBLISHED: 21:27 EST, 16 December 2019 | UPDATED: 21:40 EST, 16 December 2019

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    Khaled Khayat, 51, was found guilty in May of conspiring, between mid-January and late-July 2017, to prepare or plan a terrorist act
    Khaled Khayat, 51, was found guilty in May of conspiring, between mid-January and late-July 2017, to prepare or plan a terrorist act

    Two terrorist brothers have been jailed for decades over a plot to blow up an Etihad plane with a bomb hidden in a meat grinder.

    Khaled Khayat, 52, and Mahmoud Khayat, 34, were found guilty earlier this year of conspiring between January and July 2017 to prepare or plan a terrorist act.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7799791/Terrorist-brothers-jailed-plot-blow-Etihad-flight-bomb-meat-grinder.html

  43. The Big Hole in the China Trade Agreement

    by Gordon G. Chang
    December 17, 2019 at 5:00 am

    There’s something missing from the “Phase One” trade agreement with China, announced Friday. And it’s something critically important. Yet, Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, appeared not to know about it afterwards.

    “We will see,” said Kudlow in response to Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” her Fox News Channel show, as she asked him about Beijing’s new “cybersecurity” rules. “There’s a large IP chapter in this deal and there’s also a large forced technology transfer chapter in this deal. I don’t think we know enough about these new Chinese rules and we’ll have to look at that and by the way if they do violate them of course we will take action.”

    Bartiromo was referring to two sets of Chinese rules. On December 1, Beijing implemented the Multi-Level Protection Scheme 2.0, issued pursuant to the 2016 Cybersecurity Law. On January 1, China’s Cryptography Law becomes effective.

    These measures prohibit foreign companies from encrypting data so that it cannot be read by the Chinese central government and the Communist Party of China. Businesses will be required to turn over encryption keys. Companies will not be able to employ virtual private networks to keep data secret, and some believe they will no longer be allowed to use private servers.

    Together, these measures allow Beijing to take all the data and communications of foreign companies.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15305/china-trade-agreement-hole

    National Security Threat? Should the US Be Doing Business with China at All?

    by Benjamin Weingarten
    December 17, 2019 at 4:30 am

    As the world awaits the details of the Trump Administration’s reported “phase one” trade deal with China — U.S. officials expect it to be executed in January 2020 — a more fundamental question arises: Should America be doing business with China in strategically significant areas, or even beyond?

    In a December 15th interview with Director of the United States National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo indirectly touched on this question. Bartiromo asked Kudlow if the proposed deal accounted for new Chinese regulations that would seemingly threaten the intellectual property (IP) of American firms transacting with Chinese ones. She was likely alluding to China’s new Encryption Law, set to take effect on January 1, 2020. Some have suggested that the law would enable the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to collect all information that traffics on Chinese networks. To the extent the trade deal does not account for this law, the implication is that its provisions relating to IP protections could be rendered moot. Here is the relevant portion of the exchange:

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15304/china-business-security-threat

  44. (Richard: if the election is illegitimate then anything including revolution is allowed to reverse the election)

    Top Democrats are now trying to de-legitimize the 2020 election, say it has already been ‘corrupted’

    Not a single vote has been cast in the 2020 election, but top House Democrats are already beginning to de-legitimize its outcome.
    Ditch the fake news ==> Click here to get news you can trust sent right to your inbox. It’s free!

    In a joint Sunday morning television show appearance on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) implied that next year’s election may have already been “corrupted” by President Donald Trump and his campaign.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/democrats_delegitimize_election

  49. “Gaetz on impeachment: Dems failed to meet the standards they set” Fox Business – December 17, 2019