Reader’s Links for the first day of 2020

Posted on by

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 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

97 Replies to “Reader’s Links for the first day of 2020”

    • The Great War wrecked Australia’s future as well, a whole generation of men disappeared permanently just as we needed them, so many dreams shattered.

      • A large part of the blame for the massive lose of life in WWI was the long period when there was very little change in armaments and then a massive jump in technology. The Generals had grown up during the time when the centuries old tactics were still valid and couldn’t adapt to the reality of the new weapons.

        To an extent our current mess was caused by a similar situation in the long cold war caused the world to get frozen in a particular mindset and the leaders are having a hard time breaking out of the molds that were used to fight the Soviet Union. The new enemies have new weapons and we have to adjust our thinking and tactics to survive the new paradigm. To a very large extent the weapons being used determine the tactics but people get stuck in the old mindset and refuse to change tactics.

        • Don’t forget the MASSIVE mortality of the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919.

          Killed 50 MILLION [*] within 24 weeks. Three times as many as WWI, faster and deadlier than any disease in recorded history.

          [*] That’s not even including places we weren’t counting directly in those days. Modern historians figure worldwide death tolls reach 100 million.

    • “Days Gone By” Van Morrison

      Well, go walkin’, walkin’, walkin’, walkin’ up the hillside now
      Where there heather, where there heather, where there heather’s growing so wild
      Then I’m gonna carry my child, carry my child on my shoulders ‘cross the river
      ‘Cross the river for the sake, for the sake of the days gone by

      https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/vanmorrison/daysgoneby.html

      Days Gone By – Van Morrison

      • Thanks for this. I’m letting the whole series of songs (sidebar) play and my two budgies just love the music. I’m at the Caledonian Soul Music – 17 minutes.

  4. Two Indian Army Soldiers Killed in Gunfight with Suspected Infiltrators from Pakistan (sputniknews, Jan 1, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/asia/202001011077913896-two-indian-army-soldiers-killed-in-gunfight-with-suspected-infiltrators-from-pakistan/

    “The intruders were reportedly intercepted in the Khari Thrayat forest area as they were attempting to enter India from Pakistan’s side of Kashmir. The counter-offensive against the suspected infiltrators is said to still be on, media reports quoted official sources as saying.

    A day after new Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane warned Pakistan of a “resolute punitive response” to terror strikes from across the border, two Indian soldiers were killed on Wednesday.

    The incident reportedly occurred during a security operation against heavily armed suspected Pakistani infiltrators along the Line of Control (LoC) that separates both countries in the Jammu and Kashmir region.

    The gunfight with the suspected infiltrators took place in the Nowshera Sector of Rajouri district.

    “Two army soldiers martyred during cordon and search operation in Nowshera sector. The operation is still in progress and further details are awaited”, Lt. Col. Devender Anand, the Indian Army’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), stated in Jammu city.

    Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the forest area after being tipped off about the movement of suspected terrorists. In the fierce gunfight that ensued, two soldiers were killed, the army official said.

    The encounter with the infiltrators came a day after General Naravane said India retains the right to give an effective counter response to Pakistan’s repeated attempts to cross the border to create an atmosphere of instability.

    “If Pakistan does not stop its policy of state-sponsored terrorism, we reserve the right to pre-emptively strike at the sources of terror threat and this intent has adequately been demonstrated in our response during surgical strikes and the Balakot operation. A new normal in our response mechanism has been emphatically underlined”, said the army chief…”

    • Siege at the US embassy: Pro-Iran militia storm Baghdad compound for a second day as Marines fire tear gas and video reveals how bloodthirsty Hezbollah fighter vowed to kill every American inside (dailymail, Jan 1, 2019)
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7842299/Siege-embassy-Pro-Iran-militia-storm-Baghdad-compound-second-day.html

      “Pro-Iran militia have stormed the US embassy in Baghdad for a second day, with US marines firing tear gas on the militants this morning following demands for American blood in retaliation for airstrikes on Iraq.

      Yesterday thousands of demonstrators – many of them Iran-backed militants – rushed through the heavily fortified Green Zone after US air strikes killed 25 members of the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah in air strikes Sunday night.

      One furious militant said: ‘God willing if this fire reaches inside the embassy, we will not spare a single employee.’

      President Donald Trump’s reinforcements were engaged early Wednesday when tear gas was fired to disperse those who had spent the night outside the main gates. Several ambulances arrived to ferry those stricken by the gas.

      Yesterday’s riot, which included smashing through the embassy’s security area, setting fires around the complex and hurling rocks, ended in a camp being set up outside the consulate.

      Some 50 tents, portable toilets and cooking pots were shipped in as hundreds of the furious mob prepared a sit-in at the embassy’s gates, demanding that the US withdraw from Iraq.

      This morning, the crowds drew closer to the single wall separating them and the larger diplomatic compound, setting US flags on fire and eventually the wall of the compound itself…

      One furious militant said yesterday: ‘God willing if this fire reaches inside the embassy, we will not spare a single employee.’…”

    • Imagine if the Japanese had done this during WWII. The manufacturing plants or supply lines would now be dust.
      “Some 50 tents, portable toilets and cooking pots were shipped in as hundreds of the furious mob prepared a sit-in at the embassy’s gates, demanding that the US withdraw from Iraq.”

      • They’re using “protestors” and “demonstrators” to confuse us deliberately.

        Genuine protests started in October. Young Iraqis protesting Iranian domination, corruption, and their own grim prospects.

        Shitte militias shot hundreds dead, injured thousands. Snipers from rooftops, others on the ground at point-blank range. They were directed to do so by Iran. Families of the dead had to pay ransom before the bodies were released for burial.

        These same murderous militias are now described as “protestors”. An innocence halo over soldiers paid to attack the USA.

        Spontaneous-sounding… like stirred to anger by an Islamophobic video.

    • Live Updates: All Iraqi Protesters Leave US Embassy in Baghdad Amid Tensions (sputniknews, Jan 1, 2019)
      https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202001011077915886-us-embassys-security-guards-use-tear-gas-against-protesters-in-baghdad/

      “The US embassy security personnel have deployed tear gas to disperse demonstrators off its territory in Baghdad, Lebanese Al Mayadeen broadcaster reported.

      Protesters angered by a deadly US strike on a Shiite militia in Iraq were seen ebbing from the American embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday night, the Alsumaria channel said.

      Protesters left after an umbrella organization encompassing many Iraqi paramilitary groups asked demonstrators to heed calls from the national government to withdraw, according to the Alsumaria channel.

      Iraqi Interior Minister Yaseen Yasiri reportedly showed up outside the embassy to make sure that no more protesting was going on…”

    • Iraq: Protesters begin to withdraw from US “embassy of evil” in Baghdad

      Protesters who have been surrounding the US Embassy in Baghdad began to withdraw on Wednesday, a day after they stormed the premises in response to US airstrikes carried out against Kataib Hezbollah militia position in Iraq.

      Footage shows protesters burning tire fires and waving Iraqi flags, while others began to pack up stalls that had been set up nearby.

      Muhammad Muhi, Official Spokesman for Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, spoke to the protesters there, praising their efforts and called the US Embassy “the embassy of evil”

      According to reports, troops stationed at the US embassy fired tear gas early on Wednesday, attempting to disperse protesters who spent the night outside the embassy.

      On Tuesday, protesters angry about US air strikes on the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia in Iraq and Syria managed to storm the building and set parts of the premises ablaze.

      The Pentagon said that about 750 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division would be sent to the Middle East and that additional troops could be deployed over the coming days.

        • They’re using enemy talking points.
          All of them repeating “protesters” and “demonstrations”. Distorts a military operation that’s meant to scare us away or (more likely) lure us into a major deployment. Boots. Body-bags.

          They entered the Green Zone not by “assault” – despite the clip of fake battery-ramming. The gate was OPENED for them: a Twisted Raghead cast a ceremonial stone at the gate. And that was it.

  6. Iran’s Supreme Leader: ‘If Anyone Threatens Us, We Will Unhesitatingly Confront and Strike Them’ (sputniknews, Jan 1, 2019)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202001011077915586-irans-supreme-leader-if-anyone-threatens-us-we-will-confront-them/

    “Iraqi protesters on 31 December stormed the US Embassy in Baghdad and torched its outer fence in protest against recent US airstrikes targeting Kata’ib Hezbollah Shiite militants in Iraq and Syria.

    Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has condemned US airstrikes on a militant group in Iraq.

    “The Iranian govt & nation & I strongly condemn the US’s malice”, Khamenei said on his official Twitter account.

    He continued on by saying that if anyone threatens Iran, “we will unhesitatingly confront & strike them”.

    The statement comes a day after Iraqi protesters stormed the US Embassy in the capital Baghdad in response to American airstrikes against Iraqi Shia Kata’ib Hezbollah militants…”

    • Officials: Taliban target Afghan security forces, killing 26 (abcnews, Jan 1, 2019)
      https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/officials-taliban-target-afghan-security-forces-killing-26-68015826

      “The Taliban unleashed a new wave of attacks in northern Afghanistan, targeting members of the country’s security forces and killing at least 26, local officials said Wednesday.

      The insurgents quickly claimed responsibility for all the attack. The Taliban today hold sway over practically half of Afghanistan, staging near-daily attacks that target soldiers, security forces and government officials but also kill scores of civilians.

      In northern Kunduz province, at least 10 Afghan forces were killed and four others were wounded in an attack on a police checkpoint in the district of Dashti Archi late on Tuesday night, according to Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, the head of provincial council.

      And in Balkh province, the Taliban killed nine police officers in an attack on their checkpoint. The fate of four other policemen who were at the checkpoint was unknown, said Mohammad Afzel Hadid, head of the provincial council.

      Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed that the insurgents in the Balkh attack had infiltrated police ranks from a while ago, waiting for a chance to strike. Though the Taliban often exaggerate their claims, the insurgents also on occasion disguise themselves in Afghan uniforms to get easier access to their targets.

      In a third attack on Tuesday night, a gunbattle with the Taliban killed seven members of the security forces in Takhar province, according to Jawad Hajri, the provincial governor’s spokesman. He said 10 Taliban fighters were also killed.

      The shootout took place in Darqad district after the security forces had successfully cleared out the Taliban from several other districts in the past week, said Hajri. Fighting was still underway there on Wednesday, he added,

      The Taliban have intensified their attacks in northern Afghanistan in recent days.

      They struck a pro-government militia compound in Jawzjan province before dawn on Monday, killing 14 members of the Afghan security forces. A similar militia compound was targeted in Takhar on Sunday, when at least 17 militiamen were killed. On Friday, at least 10 Afghan soldiers died in a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in southern Helmand province.

      The latest Taliban attacks underscore that the insurgents are at their strongest in the 18-year war, America’s longest conflict, even as their leadership, based in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar, has been negotiating with a U.S. envoy. Washington has demanded that a cease-fire take place before any peace agreement could be signed.

      The fighting has shown no signs of abating. U.S. airstrikes and operations by Afghan security forces over the past two days killed 35 Taliban fighters in offensives across the country, including an airstrike in Kandahar province that killed 11 Taliban insurgents, the U.S. military said. Several Taliban were also detained, the U.S. military added.”

  8. Britons condemn ‘farce’ of paying foreign aid to wealthy countries – ‘Stop the madness!’ (express, Jan 1, 2020)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1222801/british-foreign-aid-budget-uk-government-spending-latest-china-news

    “BRITONS have hit out at the Government for sending billions of pounds of foreign aid to countries such as China and India.

    The UK Government spent a whopping £14.6 billion in foreign aid in 2018 and Express readers have condemned MPs for sending such vast sums of taxpayers’ money abroad. In an exclusive poll carried out from 5pm December 31, 2019 to 9.30am January 1, 2020 Express.co.uk asked: “Should Britain continue to pay foreign aid to rich countries?” Just under 25,000 people (24,588) participated, with a landslide number of people responding “no”.

    97 percent (23,722 people) responded “no”, with just three percent (689 people) in favour of sending aid to foreign countries.

    Less than one percent (177 people) responded “don’t know”.

    2018 saw Britain’s foreign aid budget rise by £493million, to an astonishing £14.6billion, according to official figures reported in the Daily Mail.

    Between China and India, the two nations received a huge £151m of taxpayers’ money – an increase of 12 percent.

    Foreign aid sent to China rose by £11.7m to £55.6m, in India the number went up by £4.9m to £95m.

    China boasts the second largest economy on the planet and is almost four times bigger than the UK economy.

    Meanwhile India is one of the world’s most emerging economies.

    The figures also revealed Pakistan was the biggest recipient of UK foreign aid in 2018, and received £331million, Ethiopia came second with £301million and Nigeria third with £297million.

    The UK has a legally-binding commitment to spend 0.7 percent of national output on overseas aid, such expenditure is governed by a strict international Overseas Development Aid definition.

    But Express readers were furious that such vast sums of money was sent to wealthy foreign countries, with many describing the policy as “madness”…”

  14. HKFP Live Replay: Pro-democracy ‘yellow economy’ is sustainable, says democrat Claudia Mo

  16. “Pope Francis apologises and admits he ‘lost patience’ after slapping a female worshipper when she grabbed his hand as he uses Vatican speech to call for an end to violence against women”.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

    Slapping the hand of a woman when performing a vanity tour.

    “She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?”” (Said Jesus as he punched her in the face…)
    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+8%3A44-48&version=NIV

    The New Year starts with removing the veil once again. 🙂

    • No, if you watch the video, she grabbed his hand and jerked his shoulder and pulled him off balance. Pope Francis walks with a limp. I wondered if he has arthritis in his hand and shoulder. It can be very painful when someone grabs your hand like that. Recently he pulled his hand away from someone trying to kiss his ring. I think there’s more to it.

      • Why would she do that? Grab his hand and jerk his shoulder and pull him off balance? In rage.. or in desiring some magic sugar by association?

        His audience was cultivate.

        If a Rock Star had reacted to a Fan who pulled them towards her, I would have identified the same.

        Thank you for bringing this meaning out, EW.

        • If you look at his face as he turns away, he looks like he’s in pain, and she hung onto his hand and wouldn’t let go.
          She is talking while she does it but doesn’t seem to be in a rage.
          Who knows why she did it?
          Jesus was around 30 years old and in good health, the Pope is over eighty and not, give him a break.

  19. Obama Met With One of the Iran-Backed Militia Leaders in Baghdad Embassy Attack

    On Tuesday, members of the Iran-backed militia Kata’ib Hezbollah and their supporters stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Hadi al-Amiri, a member of the Iraqi parliament and former head of the Badr Organization with close ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, took part in the embassy attack. In 2011, Amiri visited the White House and met with then-President Barack Obama.

    “Did you know Badr Corps chief Hadi Ameri, who led today’s raid on the US Embassy in Iraq, was once invited to the [White House] by [Barack Obama]?” asked Iranian news editor M. Hanif Jazayeri. “FYI: Ameri & the Badr Corps get their salary & orders from Iran’s dictator Ali Khamenei.”

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/obama-met-with-one-of-the-iran-backed-militia-leaders-in-baghdad-embassy-attack/

  21. I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied: “Put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

    Quoted by King George Vl in his Christmas speech, 1939

  22. From Iran and Iraq to the politics of leadership: Old problems, new conditions, and perhaps a constant America usher in the 2020s
    By J.E. Dyer January 1, 2020

    Best wishes for the New Year, 2020.

    A new decade dawns, while old problems recur. One problem has gotten the most mention in the last several days: Iranian proxies attacking Americans in Iraq. Although this has been going on for some time, the activity has become concentrated and overt in the past week, with Iraqi “popular militia” forces – backed and armed by radical Iran – launching rockets at Americans in Kirkuk, and attackers from the same Iran-backed forces besieging the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The PMF attackers, waving the flag of Kataib Hezbollah and shouting “Death to America,” broke down an embassy security gate and did damage to the embassy, while Americans took refuge in secure facilities inside.

    President Trump has vowed that “Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE!”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/01/01/from-iran-and-iraq-to-the-politics-of-leadership-old-problems-new-conditions-and-perhaps-a-constant-america-usher-in-the-2020s/

    • Read the entire article, the targets we hit were very valuable to Iran and were not chosen at random. Iran and our enemies in the Middle East expected us to hit the positions the missiles were launched from. Instead of reacting the way Iran expect4ed Trump stepped back and struck a heavy blow against Iranian assets that are very valuable to Iran themselves and not to the Iranian proxies that attacked us. This move has thrown our enemies off balance and is forcing them to react to our actions instead of our reacting to their actions.

      Remember to fight your fight/war and not your enemies fight/war, make them react to you not you react to them. The side doing the reacting is the side loosening the fight/war. The more unexpected the attack the more damage it does to the enemy, the Iranians were expecting us to react like Obama would have and instead of throwing out a lot of hot air and at best destroying a couple of mobile missile launchers we hit strategic targets on the Iranian Land Bridge to the Med. They now have to rethink their entire campaign and Erdogan is now wondering about the cost of cutting the Eastern Med off from world access through exclusive economic zones.

      • Of COURSE we chose targets for retaliation that mean something!

        I’ve read commentary arguing that the strikes weren’t really “defensive” because they were far from Kirkuk, that PT’s fallen victim to “warmongering” Pompeo, et al. I figured Col. Douglas Macgregor couldn’t read a map when his mouth was moving on Fox. Only libertarian-styled appeasers fail to understand defensive deterrence.

        It’s no secret. We’ve got a list of targets, responses we choose, that may be tit-4-tat in timing, but in effect are tit-4-bim, bam, boom.

        https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/t_Article2016_ControlFaceDetect/440661

        Those bases on the Syrian-Iraqi border are a big deal. They get blown up periodically by someone or other…
        This is a maintenance chore. It’s dicey, a wrong move could detonate the region. But there are also built-in breakers, so a chain-reaction to the apocalypse isn’t preordained. Certainly not on devil-worshippers’ schedule.
        ……..
        Jennifer is dynamite, isn’t she?
        Let’s keep pace with the attitude adjustments, positive and grounded in reality.

        • She is very good, I like to wait for her comments because she knows the region and players a lot better then I do. She also has an excellent understand of the use of economic weapons in “soft war” against out foes. Plus her background in intel keeps her from telling too much so what we are doing won’t be damaged by the warnings the press usually gives the enemy.

      • Notice how J.E. sees the global antisemitism flare in a dimension beyond race/class/religion/style.
        It’s a data point in the timeline of historic political changes. It’s a pattern that goes back millennia, like a punctuation mark.

        • One of the first conversations we had was on the subject of a massive increase in Jew Hatred just before all major wars.

  24. Jonathan Spyer in yesterday’s WSJ, blocked by paywall.
    But ~ !! I found it lurking in StartPage!! ~

    <The U.S.-Iran Showdown Begins in Iraq
    America hits Ktaib Hezbollah, one of Tehran’s most effective militias.

    By Jonathan Spyer, WSJ Dec 31, 2019
    The US killed at least 25 Ktaib Hezbollah fighters on Sunday night in its first counterstrike in a decade against an Iran-aligned Iraqi Shia militia. US F-15E aircraft struck three sites in Iraq and two in Syria in retaliation for Ktaib’s Friday rocket attack, which killed an American contractor and wounded four US service personnel.
    The war against Islamic State in Iraq looks likely to be overshadowed by a growing confrontation between Iranian proxies and the roughly 5,200 US troops in the country.
    Ktaib Hezbollah is one of the best-organized and most effective of the Shia militia forces that form Tehran’s main political and military instrument in Iraq. I embedded with the Ktaib in Anbar Province during Iraq’s war with Islamic State in June 2015, spent time with its fighters and commanders, and interviewed its leader, Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, who uses the nom de guerre Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, “The Engineer.”
    [cont.]

    • [cont.]
      Ktaib, which claims to have 30,000 fighters, is unambiguously an Iranian proxy group, modeled after Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps created it in 2007 to fight the US presence in Iraq and advance Iranian interests.

      Mr. Ibrahimi, 65, is a half-Iranian native of Basra, in Shia southern Iraq. He is wanted by the US for the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Kuwait. A Kuwaiti court sentenced him to death for this act in 2007. Some Iraqis refer to him as the country’s de facto prime minister.

      Mr. Ibrahimi fought on the Iranian side in the Iran-Iraq war. He then became an adviser to the Quds Force, the external operations wing of the IRGC. He helped smuggle explosively formed projectiles during the Shia insurgency in Iraq a decade ago. He has the blood of many Western soldiers on his hands.

      After the US departure in 2011, Mr. Ibrahimi helped establish the Popular Mobilization Units, the Shia militias that battled ISIS. As field commander of the PMU, he remained the archetype of the IRGC-affiliated Shia Islamist professional revolutionary. That is, the type of man who has been the main instrument for the advance of Iran’s power across the Middle East over the last decade.
      [end]

    • [sorry, that wasn’t the end. More follows.]

      Ktaib, which claims to have 30,000 fighters, is unambiguously an Iranian proxy group, modeled after Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps created it in 2007 to fight the US presence in Iraq and advance Iranian interests.

      Mr. Ibrahimi, 65, is a half-Iranian native of Basra, in Shia southern Iraq. He is wanted by the US for the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Kuwait. A Kuwaiti court sentenced him to death for this act in 2007. Some Iraqis refer to him as the country’s de facto prime minister.

      Mr. Ibrahimi fought on the Iranian side in the Iran-Iraq war. He then became an adviser to the Quds Force, the external operations wing of the IRGC. He helped smuggle explosively formed projectiles during the Shia insurgency in Iraq a decade ago. He has the blood of many Western soldiers on his hands.

      After the US departure in 2011, Mr. Ibrahimi helped establish the Popular Mobilization Units, the Shia militias that battled ISIS. As field commander of the PMU, he remained the archetype of the IRGC-affiliated Shia Islamist professional revolutionary. That is, the type of man who has been the main instrument for the advance of Iran’s power across the Middle East over the last decade.

      Even at the height of the ISIS war, Mr. Ibrahimi and his men made no secret of their affiliations, or of whom they regarded as the real enemy. I met and interviewed him outside the town of Baiji in the summer of 2015. I asked about the sources of his movement’s support. “We rely,” he told me bluntly, “on capacity and capabilities provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

      The Ktaib fighters with whom I embedded in the town of Husseibeh al-Sharqiyeh, east of Ramadi City, were younger, keener and better equipped than either the Iraqi Army soldiers or the representatives of other militias I met at the time.

      They were also the most vividly anti-American. At the height of the struggle with ISIS, rumors of ISIS-U.S. cooperation were taken as obvious truth in their ranks. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes!” one fighter, his face burned by a recent wound, told me. “They parachute aid, weapons and clothing, and they drop it to ISIS.”

      Alongside their military activities, Ktaib were engaged in unabashed criminality. In Baghdad in June 2015, I interviewed Hikmat Guwood, leader of the Albu Nimr Bedouin tribe. Mr. Guwood worked with the U.S. during the Anbar Awakening of 2006-07, when Sunni sheikhs in that province allied with the U.S. against al Qaeda. Ktaib members visited Mr. Guwood’s house, where they told him his association with the Americans meant he either had to leave the city or be killed. I met him as he was making for Erbil, in the Kurdish north, where the Ktaib’s influence did not extend.

      Throughout this period and today, Ktaib Hezbollah wasn’t an underground or fringe group. It was and is deeply embedded in both the political and security structures of the official Iraqi state.

      I witnessed Mr. Ibrahimi giving a briefing to security forces outside Baiji in 2015. Senior Iraqi army commanders, such as Maj. Gen. Juma’a Enad, commander of the Iraqi Security Forces in Salah al-Din Province, were present. Mr. Ibrahimi was the acknowledged senior man in the room.

      Ktaib and Baghdad are still entwined today. Ktaib and other militias are closely involved in the bloody, IRGC-organized repression of demonstrations, confirmed and reported extensively by Iraqi journalists on the ground. Ktaib is also part of the Fatah alliance, the second-largest bloc in the Iraqi Parliament and an integral part of the current government. In this capacity, Ktaib works in close cooperation with larger and more-established pro-Iranian groups.

      This militia edifice is the most potent enemy of the U.S. and its allies in Iraq today. Mr. Ibrahimi promised a “harsh response” to the U.S. strikes. Experience suggests he should be taken at his word.

        • I worry about Jonathan – All. The. Time.-
          He goes behind the lines where he really shouldn’t…
          Seth Frantzman does too. Not quite so bad, with the Kurdish forces mainly, not like Jonathan who embeds with shitte militias, for heaven’s sake!

          They are a unique breed. Both Ph.Ds, protégés of the all-time greats. They brief govts and write for the general public. Seth flew to Wash D.C. right after that Oct 6 phone call between PT and the filthy Turk.

    • Remember China is making these moves while Iran is trying to carry out a proxy war with the US. Yes I know China is going bankrupt but will that come fast enough to prevent them getting enough power to seize enough territory that they can sell minerals and food enough to get out of their economic trouble.

      • I’m channeling my Japanese roommate here. (Though she’s such a paradigm of understatement, you’d never sense a worry if you didn’t know her well.)

        We can’t comfort ourselves with their impending bankruptcy. I remember Norse Radish counting the days till they collapse.

        They will cut back, murder as many millions of their own people as necessary, but their trajectory isn’t going to change.
        Even if Xi loses the Mandate of Heaven, his successor/s will follow the course described in this video. Their imperial destiny.

        The people of Hong Kong don’t fit the ChiCom mold. The mainlanders despise these “spoiled brats”. There are pockets of dissidents, Christians and others, but they’re exceptional. Most are products of an imperial system; we can’t project our sense of self onto Han Chinese.

  27. SAVE THE REBEL: Trudeau’s lawyers are investigating me for writing a book about him! | Ezra Levant

  29. Iran President: US Sanctions Cost Country $200 Billion
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2061761/iran-president-us-sanctions-cost-country-200-billion

    “Iran has lost about $200 billion in revenues after the United States reimposed economic sanctions following its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, announced Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of a railway project in Golshahr near Tehran, he said: “Iran would have earned $200 billion surplus income…if the country were not involved in an economic war.”

    The president questioned the argument of hardliners who say the sanctions have not affected Iran and criticized them for calling for the strengthening of sanction management as a way out of the dire situation without making any political concessions.

    “What should we do? When there is no food and water, you are still in danger no matter how strong you are,” he said.

    Nevertheless, he acknowledged the difficulties confronting the country due the “worst” sanctions, but he saw that the people have “managed to stand firmly against the enemy everywhere.”

    Rouhani noted that had it not been for the sanctions, Iran’s “oil revenues in the last two years would have been $100 billion more than they are today,” adding that with that much money, “we could have initiated a lot of projects.”

    Iran’s financial crisis was exacerbated after US President Donald Trump signed a resumption of US sanctions in 2018.

    In the first year of the withdrawal, the US administration imposed severe sanctions in two stages, which led to the withdrawal of foreign companies from commercial contracts with Iran.

    Days before the first anniversary of the signing of the withdrawal decree, the US administration froze exemptions for eight countries importing Iranian oil in order to prevent Iran’s exports entirely and force Tehran to accept an agreement that includes new restrictions on its nuclear program.

    Iran had exported about two and a half million barrels per day (bpd) before the US sanctions, and the country’s crude oil exports shrunk more than 80 percent after the resumption of sanctions.

    Last month, Rouhani presented a draft government budget worth about $39 billion to parliament, indicating that it was prepared to resist US sanctions by reducing oil dependency.

    Initial reports from local news agencies stated that the budget appeared to depend on oil sales ranging from 500,000 to one million bpd. Analysts estimate that Iran’s exports have tumbled to around 400,000 bpd or less.

    In November, head of Iran’s Budget and Planning Organization Mohammad Baqer Nobakht announced that the government expects to generate $10 billion-$12 billion from direct sale of oil in 2020.

    Iran would need oil priced at $194.6 a barrel to balance its budget, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

    The Fund expected Iran to have a fiscal deficit of 4.5 percent in the year 2019-2020 and 5.1 percent in 2020-2021.

    Analysts say Iran may have been forced to sell crude at a level lower than normal as it seeks to attract buyers worried about violating the US sanctions.

    Iran’s oil exports in November dropped to 213 barrels per day and the country is currently exporting 100-300,000 bpd, according to data Kpler oil tanker tracking and intelligence firm.”

  30. Libya accuses Arab League of double standards
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200101-libya-accuses-arab-league-of-double-standards/

    “The envoy of Libya’s UN-recognized government to the Arab League on Tuesday accused the bloc of “double standards” on the conflict in Libya, Anadolu reports.

    Saleh Shammakhi, who represents the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), decried what he called the “worst exploitation” by the Arab League of a maritime agreement between Libya and Turkey.

    Speaking at a meeting of permanent representatives of the pan-Arab organization, he said that Libya had called upon the Arab League to review its “aggression” against Tripoli through military chief Khalifa Haftar, but that the bloc had not responded.

    “The Arab League is applying a double standard policy where it did nothing when we [the GNA] called for an emergency meeting at the start of Haftar’s aggression,” Shammakhi said at the meeting held at the request of Egypt in Cairo…”

  31. Muslim fast food worker in US sent home for wearing hijab
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/1/1/muslim-fast-food-worker-sent-home-for-wearing-hijab

    “A Muslim fastfood worker shared a clip on Twitter Monday which shows her boss sending her home, for coming to work at Chicken Express in Fort Worth, Dallas wearing a hijab.

    Folake Adebola shared a short video which shows a confrontation with her boss, where she pleads, “It’s part of my religion… I felt like if I work here y’all could be able to (accomodate) my religion”.

    But her boss sees matters differently. According to him, the traditional Muslim headress is “a different thing” and part of her “personal life out there”.

    The hijab, he believes, has “nothing to do with religion”.

    Adebola and her boss remain at a deadlock on the issue by the end of the clip, but the fastfood worker resolutely affirms that she will continue to wear the head covering.

    In a follow-up thread on Twitter, she shared another clip, where a man is heard insisting that the hijab is “not part of the uniform” and that as she, as a paid emloyee, ‘cannot wear it’.

    The videos have ammased almost 8,000 retweets and over 22,000 ‘likes’.

    Describing the events, Adebola wrote on Twitter, “This is discrimination at its finest! I will not tolerate this at all.”

    Many on the platform have shown sympathy and support for Adebola’s defence of her values.

    One user lauded her decision to share the videos as inspiring others in similar situations to find to the “courage for themselves to stand up”.

    Other users urged her to “stay strong” in the face of discrimation.

    “Definitely trying, I cried all day yesterday because I just couldn’t believe it happened to me it’s like 2019 almost 2020 this needs to stop.”

    Chicken Express refused to speak to the Metro when reached for comment.”

  33. Spanish Police Arrest Two Moroccans With Child in Shopping Trolley
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/01/290249/spanish-police-moroccans-child-shopping-trolley/

    “Spanish police have arrested two Moroccans, a man and a woman, after they attempted to cross the Moroccan-Spanish border in Melilla with a 10-year-old Palestinian child hiding in their shopping trolley.

    The arrest took place on Tuesday, December 31, at around 1 pm, according to Spanish newspaper El Periodico.

    Spanish border patrol officers inspected the trolley after noticing its unusual weight. After removing bags of vegetables and fruit, the officers discovered the child.

    The child was in good health, according to Spanish police, and was carrying identity documents proving his Palestinian nationality and his age.

    Police found out that the child’s mother was staying in a Center of Temporary Immigrants in Melilla and took him there.

    The Moroccans, however, will face prosecution for crimes against a foreign citizen.

    The woman, 38, and the man, 34, will remain in custody until their trial at a Spanish court.”

  34. More Than 400,000 Moroccan Students Dropped Out of School in 2018
    http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/01/290288/moroccan-students-drop-out-school/

    “The reasons behind Morocco’s worryingly high school dropout rate continue to affect students across the country.

    A recent report from the Higher Council for Education, Training , and Scientific Research (CSEFRS) published alarming figures exposing the rate of school drop out in the country.

    The report, “Atlas Territorial School Drop Out,” said that 431,876 students dropped out of public schools in 2018 “without obtaining school certificates.”

    The number represents 78% of students who had studied at primary and secondary schools.

    Several factors are behind the shocking rate including poverty, and quality of access to education establishments in rural areas.

    The report emphasized that dropouts from the public school system amounted to 505,300 students in 2015. The number represents a rate of 8.8% at the national level.

    The number of dropouts, however, decreased significantly in 2016. The document indicates that only 407,674 dropped out in 2016 (7.1% of all students enrolled).

    A year later, the number of dropouts increased again in 2018 to reach 431,876 students, representing 7.4% of all students.

    The majority of these dropouts happen at the level of statutory education, with 78.3% of total dropouts, or about 338,000 dropouts in both the primary and secondary school.

    The report also listed a certain regions where the phenomenon is most prevalent.

    The regions of Marrakech-Safi, Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima, Beni Mellal-Khenifra, Rabat-Sale-Kenitra and Eastern Morocco are the most affected by the dropout.

    The dropout rate affects 5.6% of girls in primary school compared to 4% of boys. Boys are more affected by dropping out of middle and high schools in rural areas.”

  35. PM Imran vows to make Pakistan welfare state
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2128677/1-pm-imran-addresses-event-islamabad/

    “Prime Minister Imran Khan reiterated on Wednesday to take steps in 2020 to make Pakistan a true welfare state.

    “My life experience tells me humans have been given the power to turn into reality whatever they can picture,” he said in his address at the groundbreaking ceremony of Air University’s new campus in Islamabad. “In my vision, I dreamed of making Pakistan a welfare state like Medina.”

    “Pensions were started first in the state of Medina,” he said, adding that the rule of law, humanitarian principles and education were the basis of the welfare state…”

  36. MTN has bribed Taliban to safeguard their ‘transmission towers’ in Afghanistan
    https://www.khaama.com/mtn-has-bribed-taliban-to-safeguard-their-transmission-towers-in-afghanistan-78732/

    “MTN Afghanistan, a child company to the global MTN, the largest telecommunication firm in South Africa has bribed Taliban, to safeguard their ‘transmission towers’ in Afghanistan, BBC reported.

    Serious complaints have been filed against MTN for bribing Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

    The allegations, made in a legal complaint filed in a US federal court on Friday, said the firm violated US anti-terrorism laws.

    It was filed on behalf of families of US citizens killed in attacks in Afghanistan.

    Five other companies were also named in the filing.

    The complaint alleges MTN paid bribes to al-Qaida and the Taliban to avoid having to invest in in expensive security for their transmission towers.

    The alleged payments helped finance a Taliban-led insurgency that led to the attacks in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017, the accusations say.

    It is alleged that the money helped to provide “material support to known terrorist organisations,” thus violating the anti-terrorism legislation.

    MTN says it is reviewing allegations that it paid protection money to militant Islamist groups in Afghanistan.

    “It remains of the view that it conducts its business in a “responsible and compliant manner in all its territories”. MTN has said.

    MTN is Africa’s largest mobile operator and the eighth largest in the world, with more than 240 million subscribers.”

  37. Turkey becomes major East-West energy corridor: VP
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-becomes-major-east-west-energy-corridor-vp-150493

    “The natural gas pipelines stretching from the reserves in Azerbaijan and Russia to the European markets have turned Turkey into a major energy corridor from East to West, a senior Turkish official has said, days before the inauguration of the TurkStream project with the attendance of the Turkish and Russian presidents.

    “We have made a huge leap forward toward becoming a major energy corridor,” Vice President Fuat Oktay told state-run Anadolu Agency in an interview on Jan. 1.

    Oktay cited the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline carrying the natural gas from the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan to Europe and the TurkStream project from Russia to the European markets via Turkey as two major and key projects for the energy security of the European continent.

    “This does not just make an energy corridor but a peace corridor,” he said. Oktay recalled that President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the inauguration of the TurkStream project to be held near Istanbul on Jan. 8. Putin will be Turkey’s first highest ranking foreign guest of 2020 along with other representatives from regional countries.

    Turkey has long been working to become an energy hub in the region as it links the source countries with the consumers. The TurkStream is believed to contribute to Turkey’s efforts to become an energy hub as the pipeline will supply 31.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year to the Turkish and European markets…”

    • I hate to tell him this but his dream of killing Socialism for good isn’t going to happen, the idea of socialism has been around since the time of Plato. Since then it has been tried many thousands of times on both large and small scale, it never works no matter what scale it is tried on. It always leads to dictatorship and massive oppression.

      The Ancient Greeks said that government goes in a circle, Monarchy to Democracy to Dictatorship to Monarchy, rinse and repeat. In Russia we may be seeing Dictatorship turn into a Monarchy and it is p;ossible that the same thing is gonig to happen in China and Nam. It is unlikely this will happen in Venezuela but it might.

      The US Constitution was written to break the cycle of government and we are now fighting to see if we can stop the incipient Dictatorship of the left and restore the Republic to what the Founders intended. If there are enough people (I believe there are) in the US who still believe in the principles our nation was founded on and who believe in American exceptionalism we will pull it off.

        • If you want to add publicly executed I won’t object, what they did was make an attack that came close to destroying vital sections of the Constitution. I can’t think of a more treasonous action the entire world needs to see how traitors are treated.

  39. Mehrjährige Haftstrafen für tödliche Bahngleis-Stöße

    Im Prozess gegen die sogenannten S-Bahnschubser von Nürnberg hat das Landgericht mehrjährige Jugendstrafen verhängt. Wegen Körperverletzung mit Todesfolge müssen die beiden 17-Jährigen für mehr als drei Jahre ins Jugendgefängnis.

    https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article204430674/Nuernberg-Mehrjaehrige-Haftstrafen-fuer-toedliche-Bahngleis-Stoesse.html

    =================================================

    Neue Runde im Prozess um S-Bahn-Schubser – Ermittlungen gegen weiteren Jugendlichen laufen

    […]Am Mittwochnachmittag (18.12.2019) war das Urteil gegen die beiden Nürnberger S-Bahn-Schubser gesprochen worden. Die beiden Angeklagten wurden schuldig gesprochen und zu dreieinhalb Jahren beziehungsweise drei Jahren und drei Monaten Haft verurteilt. Wegen ihnen hatten die zwei 16-Jährigen ihr Leben verloren.

    […]Am vierten Verhandlungstag habe auch der Angeklagte Mehmet K. den Tatvorwurf “Körperverletzung mit Todesfolge” zugegeben, sagte Sprecher Weitner. Er ist als Zuschauer bei der nicht-öffentlichen Verhandlung zugelassen. Während sich der Angeklagte Kirian D. bereits am ersten Prozesstag persönlich bei den Opferfamilien entschuldigt und den Tatvorwurf eingeräumt hatte, war K.s Erklärung am Mittwoch

    […]

    https://www.infranken.de/regional/nuernberg/nuernberg-neue-runde-im-prozess-um-s-bahn-schubser-ermittlungen-gegen-weiteren-jugendlichen-laufen;art88523,4528800
    ===============================================

  40. Sweden To Offer Migrant Women Free Arabic-Language Driving Lessons (breitbart, Jan 1, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/01/sweden-to-offer-migrant-women-free-arabic-language-driving-lessons/

    “Newly arrived immigrant women in the Swedish municipality of Oskarshamn are set to receive free driving lessons in Arabic in a bid to help make it easier for them to enter the labour force.

    So far, twelve women have been enrolled in the new programme, entitled “Now We Drive,” and the programme covers driving lessons as well as other supplemental lessons in Arabic on how the labour market in Sweden works, broadcaster SVT reports.

    Pamela Campusano, who works as a supervisor for the municipalities labour market unit, said that newly arrived women lacked driving licenses which pushed them away from labour market integration.

    So far the local government has put forward 378,000 Swedish krona (£30,885/$40,537) for the project and according to Campusano, the project has already begun to show results.

    “It has exceeded expectations, I would say. It is a group that is committed, motivated and they really take responsibility for acquiring the knowledge. According to the traffic school, it will be very good for these girls,” Campusano said.

    High unemployment numbers among foreign-born nationals have been an issue that has plagued Sweden for years, with reports often showing the migrant unemployment rate as being several times higher than that of native Swedes.

    Figures regarding recent migrants, particularly those who have come to Sweden since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, are even more severe. A report from October claimed that as many as 90 per cent of migrants with permanent residency status are unemployed.

    In recent months, many municipal governments have also begun to feel significant financial pressures due to the lack of labour market integration of migrants combined with other factors such as an ageing population.

    In the municipality of Filipstad, local politicians have complained that not only have recent migrants failed to get jobs in the area but many locals are leaving, creating a crisis in the already strained local tax base.”

  41. GERMANY – LEIPZIG – Windows smashed at renowned Bach church in Leipzig

    Police are investigating after 25 panes of glass were smashed at a world-famous church in the eastern German city of Leipzig. Police are looking for a suspect, and the church pastor has her own suspicions.

    Police launched an investigation after windows were smashed at St Thomas Church in Leipzig, the burial place of composer Johann Sebastian Bach, on New Year’s Eve.

    Two stained-glass panels and more than 20 Art Nouveau panes were destroyed.

    While it was unclear what the financial cost would be to the church, pastor Britta Taddiken said act of vandalism had caused “immense damage” because the panes were special productions.

    During the attack, heavy stones were thrown into the building. “If there had been people inside, it would have been very dangerous,” said Taddiken.

    Police secured loose stones in the vicinity immediately afterwards, but no arrests were made near the scene.

    Repeat attack?

    “At first, we didn’t consider him to be aggressive,” Taddiken told the Leipziger Volkszeitung local newspaper. Police are still not believed to have apprehended the man in question.

    The church said the damaged stained-glass windows dated back to the 19th century, while the Art Nouveau ones were made at the start of the 20th century.

    Bach was the cantor at Leipzig’s St Thomas School — which still has a world famous boys’ choir — in the 18th century.

    However, Taddiken raised the possibility that a man who had already smashed two panes of glass at the church in the run-up to Christmas had returned. The individual had reported the damage he did to the police, having appeared a week earlier at the pastor’s office. At that time, he had described himself as the “son of God.”

    https://www.dw.com/en/windows-smashed-at-renowned-bach-church-in-leipzig/a-51853584

    ======================================

    TOCCATA (WIDOR) – THOMASORGANIST ULLRICH BÖHME AT THOMASKIRCHE’S SAUER ORGAN

    Charles-Marie Widor: Toccata from the 5th Organ Symphony. Thomasorganist Ullrich Böhme plays live on the great Sauer Organ of Bach’s Thomaskirche in Leipzig, on the 333rd birthday of J. S. Bach.