Reader’s Links for December 20, 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

75 Replies to “Reader’s Links for December 20, 2019”

  1. Anthony Brian Logan breaks down the case where a man was sentenced to almost 16 years in prison for burning an LGBTQ flag:

  2. The Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement Goes National
    BY DAN ZIMMERMAN |DEC 20, 2019 |157 COMMENTS
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    By Terrorist96 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

    “I did not think it would be that high of a number,” said sanctuary advocate and Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins.

    “It’s an organic thing that just took off after Election Day. Elections have consequences, and this is the result. This has truly rocked the conservative, libertarian group’s core. It has really shook a lot of them awake. They are fully awake,” he told Secrets.

    Remarkably, the effort has not seen a big push from the National Rifle Association. Local groups, notably the Virginia Citizens Defense League, have led the campaign that has brought thousands of gun-rights advocates to county board meetings.

    It has also become the national model for the movement that has now reached Illinois, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, New Jersey, Florida, and Tennessee. Illinois is credited with starting the movement.

    https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/the-second-amendment-sanctuary-movement-goes-national/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=agora&utm_term=wo&utm_campaign=wo&fbclid=IwAR0ozOX3WHROnUsAjbt9iPP-t17l76anqgEi786o4Vd8TkHu-DqVnDs3gUM

  3. Cleric Warns of US Plots against Iran’s Culture, Economy
    https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/12/20/2164233/cleric-warns-of-us-plots-against-iran-s-culture-economy

    “Tehran’s Provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani called on the Iranian nation to stay vigilant against plots hatched by the US and the Zionist regime of Israel against the Islamic Republic’s culture, economy, and politics.

    Addressing a gathering of worshippers in Tehran on Friday, Ayatollah Emami Kashani deplored the continued crimes of the US against the Iranian nation and said Washington has always sought to dominate Iran and the Muslim world.

    Today, the global arrogance (the US) and the Zionist regime have hatched numerous plots against Islamic countries, including Iran, the cleric stated.

    “They are plotting against the economy, culture, and politics of Iran and the Islamic Ummah,” he said, adding, “Are we awake or asleep in the face of enemies’ plots?”

    Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on various occasions has rejected the US and Zionist officials’ claim that they are opposed only to the Islamic Republic’s establishment, saying that their enmity is targeted at the Iranian nation because the Islamic Republic is based upon people.

    The remarks come against the backdrop of increased tensions between Iran and the US with Washington imposing new sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

    The US has ratcheted up pressure on Iran since last year after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

    Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has been trying to reduce Iran’s oil exports to “zero,” and has sent an aircraft carrier strike group, a bomber squad, an amphibious assault ship, and a Patriot missile battery to the Middle East to try to stack up pressure on Tehran.

    Iranian officials, however, have dismissed such moves as psychological warfare, saying the country has its own ways of circumventing the American bans.”

  5. Cyprus Rallies Neighbors to Shun Turkey-GNA Maritime Deal
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2044976/cyprus-rallies-neighbors-shun-turkey-gna-maritime-deal

    “The president of Cyprus said Friday that he’s in touch with the leaders of Egypt, Israel, Greece and Lebanon to formulate joint diplomatic action aimed at countering a maritime border deal between Turkey and Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) that they say flouts international law and ratchets up regional tensions.

    President Nicos Anastasiades said joint action doesn’t include a military option, but rather a concerted effort on a diplomatic level to negate the aims of the “unlawful” agreement.

    Anastasiades said the agreement has also been condemned by Arab nations, European Union member states and other countries he didn’t specify, adding that announcements on specific actions could be expected shortly.

    Turkey says its deal with the GNA grants it economic rights to a large swath of the eastern Mediterranean.

    But other countries in the region, including Greece and Cyprus, say the deal unlawfully truncates their own economic zones and impedes their rights to offshore exploration for hydrocarbons.

    Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said the agreement means that no oil and gas exploration or any other “projects” can proceed in the area without Ankara’s permission.

    One such project Erdogan may have been alluding to is an envisioned gas pipeline conveying gas from Israeli and Cypriot offshore deposits to mainland Europe via Greece.

    The results of a feasibility study on the pipeline dubbed East Med are still pending.

    Cyprus’ government spokesman, Kyriakos Koushios, said Friday that in a telephone conversation with Anastasiades, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recommended that his country, Cyprus and Greece immediately sign an agreement to get work started on the East Med pipeline.

    Turkey doesn’t recognize EU-member Cyprus as a state and claims 44 percent of its exclusive economic zone. It has dispatched drill ships to search for hydrocarbons off Cyprus, including in an area where the Cyprus government has licensed a consortium made up of Italian energy company Eni and French Total to carry out exploratory drilling.

    Turkey says it’s acting to protect its interests and those of Turkish Cypriots in the breakaway northern third of ethnically split Cyprus to the area’s energy resources.

    The EU has called Turkey’s actions illegal and has imposed sanctions against the country.”

  6. Montenegro to deploy troops to stem migrant flows
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191220-montenegro-to-deploy-troops-to-stem-migrant-flows/

    “Montenegro will deploy troops to its borders in response to a rise in the number of migrants passing through the country on a new Balkan route to the European Union, Reuters reports.

    Nearly 8,000 migrants from the Middle East and North Africa transited Montenegro in 2019 en route to wealthier EU countries, nearly double the previous year’s total, according to the International Organization for Migration.

    “The army will be engaged to protect the state borders and assist law-enforcement agencies,” the State Defence and Security Council said in a statement on Friday.

    The deployment was expect to start by the end of the year…”

  7. Iraq boy found walking on UK motorway
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191220-iraq-boy-found-walking-on-uk-motorway/

    “An Iraqi boy thought to be around 15 years old has been found on the M6 after entering the UK on Wednesday night.

    The child was found wandering down the central reservation near junction 7 before being picked up and taken into emergency care.

    In a tweet, the Central Motorway Police Group said he had been split up from his family several days ago, didn’t know which country he was in and did not speak English.

    He also does not know which country his parents are in…”

  9. The Iraq Report: Mass graves of Sunnis found as mass protests rage on
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2019/12/20/the-iraq-report-mass-graves-of-sunnis-found

    “A harrowing discovery has unearthed more than 600 corpses from a Sunni Arab tribe that went missing in 2016 after being detained by formations of Iraq-sanctioned but Iran-backed Shia militias.

    The gruesome discovery in Iraq’s western Anbar governorate has once again highlighted how the Iraqi state either condones or turns a blind eye to atrocities in order to maintain its control, allowing sectarian groups who act as proxies to foreign powers to act with impunity.

    Those same militant groups have also been implicated in human rights abuses, with rights groups charging the Iraqi government of complicity in their violence.

    Protesters have been hurled off from buildings, stabbed, beaten, and shot, with many others subjected to forced disappearances with no record of where they are being held.

    A lack of international action as well as a drawdown of the United States’ footprint in the country may mean that the authorities will feel emboldened to intensify their deadly crackdown.

    Mass grave of Sunni Arabs found near Fallujah

    A mass grave containing the remains of 643 Sunni Arab civilians has reportedly been discovered near the city of Fallujah, just west of the capital Baghdad.

    The corpses are believed to belong to the Al Muhamdah tribe who vanished in 2016 after their ancestral lands were taken over by Shia militants fighting under the banner of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a conglomerate of pro-Iran militants who enjoy official recognition as being part of the Iraqi armed forces.

    The grisly finding was confirmed by Iraqi officials who stated that the bodies were found five kilometres north of Fallujah.

    At the time of their disappearance from Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Amnesty International reported that the 643 men and young boys were abducted by PMF fighters who had waylaid civilian refugees fleeing the violence between Islamic State militants and forces aligned with the Iraqi government.

    Around 1,300 men and boys deemed to be of fighting age – though no verification process took place – were taken away by the Shia militants and separated from their families.

    They were then tortured in a place called the “yellow house”, enduring severe beatings with metal cables, steel rods, shovels, and wooden sticks.

    Protesters have been hurled off from buildings, stabbed, beaten, and shot, with many others subjected to forced disappearances with no record of where they are being held
    Witnesses described to Amnesty how they saw other detainees being tortured to death in front of them. Reports also indicate how they were deprived of water and either died of thirst or were forced to drink their own urine to survive, creating both deadly and degrading conditions without any hope of due process.

    Despite the sheer amount of evidence put forward by international human rights groups and journalists, the Iraqi government under then-Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi promised to investigate and to bring any perpetrators to justice. However, nothing was ever done, no one was indicted, and there were no convictions…”

  10. Europeans to toughen up Iran stance but shy away from sanctions – diplomats
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-europe/europeans-to-toughen-up-iran-stance-but-shy-away-from-sanctions-diplomats-idUSKBN1YO1AO

    “European parties to the Iran nuclear deal are likely to trigger a dispute resolution process in January to force Tehran to rollback violations, but would stop short of rushing to restore U.N. sanctions that would kill off the accord, diplomats said…”

  11. EU Grants €389 Million to Morocco for Border, Reforms, Development
    http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/12/289440/eu-morocco-development-migration/

    “The European Commission granted Morocco €389 million as part of its support for Moroccan reforms, inclusive development, and border management, on Friday, December 20.

    The financial support will contribute to the development of the “Euro-Moroccan Partnership for Shared Prosperity” announced at the end of the 14th meeting of the Morocco-EU Association Council held in Brussels on June 27.

    “Morocco has long been a privileged partner of the European Union with which we share our borders and aspirations”, stressed the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell.

    A European Commission statement quoted Borell, who said: “Under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, Morocco has made important modernization steps and has made rapprochement with Europe a strategic choice.”

    He affirmed that “faced with common challenges, the time has come to give new impetus to our relations with deeper and more diversified cooperation, including Africa, to connect our futures and bring our people closer together.”…”

  13. MS-13 arrests deal blow to gang leadership in NY

    Authorities said Friday they have dealt an unprecedented blow to the violent MS-13 street gang, announcing charges against nearly 100 of the group’s members and associates on Long Island.