Reader’s Links for January 23, 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

117 Replies to “Reader’s Links for January 23, 2020”

  1. https://www.jewishpress.com/review/in-print-review/every-year-this-auschwitz-survivor-marks-the-holocaust-by-eating-a-falafel/2020/01/22/ but then I heard nothing at all until the voice of my mother called out to me in a dream and brought me back to life, urging me: “David, David, don’t stop now. Don’t you want to eat the little round bread rolls in Zion? The round bilklech rolls are waiting. Eretz Yisrael is waiting. Get up, my son and live.”

  2. ‘Raining Glass’: Latest Blast in Swedish Residential Area Linked to Gang War (sputniknews, Jan 23, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/202001231078110368-raining-glass-latest-blast-in-swedish-residential-area-linked-to-gang-war/

    “In 2019, a record 257 blasts occurred in Sweden, a worrying tendency that appears to have continued into 2020.

    An explosion in a residential building in the city of Norrköping, 160 kilometres from Stockholm, has left several people wounded, prompting the evacuation of another eleven.

    The bomb was placed on the second floor of a multi-storey house, shattering several windows in what witnesses described as “raining glass” when recounting the event to Aftonbladet daily. A fire also broke out, but was subsequently extinguished.

    Sweden’s national bomb protection squad was summoned to the scene, and the incident is being investigated as an attempt at murder or an act of general destruction. Police spokeswoman Åsa Willsund said that the explosive charge detonated in the stairwell.

    A suspect was subsequently arrested near the crime scene with injuries that were believed to have been caused in connection with the explosion.

    The blast occurred in the district of Hageby; the neighbourhood was included in Sweden’s list of vulnerable areas (aka no-go zones, whose existence the Swedish government denies), but was removed in the summer of 2019.

    National broadcaster SVT linked the bombing to an ongoing gang war between No Surrender MC and the Bandidos Sphere; a shootout between the two rivals occurred outside a nightclub on 5 December, leaving two dead. One of the shootout victims had a strong connection to the site of the explosion.

    SVT also surmised that the double murder and the Norrköping bombing are linked to last summer’s blasts in the cities of Linköping and Örebro.

    “And then it is clearly a continuation of the ongoing gang war. Explosives are not used by the criminals for fun. According to the experience, mainly from last year’s over 250 bombings across the country, the bombs are used to threaten, intimidate, punish. And of course to take revenge”, investigative journalist Joakim Palmkvist said, calling the development “dangerous” as third parties, such as innocent neighbours and others have their lives endangered as well.
    According to Aftonbladet, a high-profile member of No Surrender was targeted by the blast.

    “I think it’s terrible, but hardly surprising. Explosives are being used throughout the country in a new way, but it is tragic that this is happening here”, opposition councillor Sofia Jarl of the Moderate Party told SVT, stressing that the Social Democratic government has totally failed in the security of the country.

    This week alone, Stockholm was hit by major twin blast in the districts of Husby and Kista, which miraculously claimed no lives. Just over a week ago, one of the most powerful explosions ever happened in Stockholm’s Östermalm neighbourhood – again resulting in no injuries but causing extensive material damage.

    The number of reported explosions in Sweden increased sharply last year compared to the previous years. In 2018, 162 explosions occurred throughout Sweden. In 2019, 257 were recorded, according to the nation’s Crime Prevention Council.”

  4. Red China quarantines the equivalent of one-third of the population of Dystopia as the latest deadly bug spreads. “Thank goodness for the power of authoritarianism,” Dystopia’s Dear Leader was quoted saying. “I believe we should all sit back and admire how our Red Chinese friends are able to grab an economy, or a dissident, or a disease by the throat and choke that dang chicken right out! ”

    When asked what steps Dystopia was taking to defend against the spread of the virus Dear Leader then waved his hand dismissively at Davos reporters saying, “I’ve said enough, now. There’s caviar with my name on it down the hallway, so run along…”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/coronavirus-infections-climb-473-china-hong-kong-confirms-first-case

    • zero hedge – Snakes, Bats, Badgers & Rats: Scientists Suspect New Coronavirus Originated In Animals

      As the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases nears 650, scientists inside and outside China have speculated that the Wuhan coronavirus was first passed to humans via snakes, badgers, bats or rats.

      Some preliminary research that has been picked up by the Western press, including CNN, claims the virus may have been passed to humans by snakes, with the Chinese krait and the Chinese cobra the primary suspects. The many-banded krait, also known as the Taiwanese krait, and the Chinese krait, is a highly venomous species that dwells across central and southern China, and across Southeast Asia more broadly.

      It’s also apparently among the species of snakes that are sometimes consumed by humans.

      Moreover, scientists have now studied the genetic code of the virus using samples gleaned from patients. Using microscopes and photographs, they determined that the pathogen responsible for this pandemic has been confirmed to be in the same family of viruses that caused SARS and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) – the coronavirus family. Viruses in this family have killed hundreds of people across Asia in the past 17 years. Though it hasn’t yet ruled on whether the virus is a global pandemic, the WHO has an official name for the new coronavirus: 2019-nCoV.

      And most of those viruses have been traced back to animals in a process known as ‘Zoonotic transmission’. This happens when viruses undergo a series of mutations while inside their animal hosts, allowing them to infect humans, and then travel from person to person.

      Some ‘Zoonotic’ viruses, like AIDS, are relatively difficult to transmit. Others, like the coronaviruses, are known for spreading easily through the air – though airborne transmission of 2019-nCoV has yet to be confirmed.

      Snakes aren’t the only suspects. A team of scientists who recently published a paper in the China Science Bulletin hypothesized that the virus may have been transmitted to humans via bats. After this revelation, the Daily Star, a British tabloid, claimed that the “unknown link” between bats and humans may have been the Chinese delicacy ‘bat soup’.

      As evidence, the tabloid reported that footage of Wuhan residents eating the strange soup had emerged on social media over the past week. In on clip, a girl can be seen eating a bat with a pair of chopsticks during a dinner with friends.

      It’s unclear exactly how reliable this is, but it’s worth mentioning that a grocery store identified as the source of the virus sold many strange animal products, including snakes and possibly bats.

      It’s also possible that the virus may have originated in the bats before being transferred to snakes, and then on to humans. A reading of the protein codes favored by the new coronavirus found that it was similar to viruses found in birds, snakes, marmots, hedgehogs, manis, bats and humans. Snakes often hunt for bats in the wild, and it’s possible that a snake sold in the local seafood market in Wuhan had acquired the virus from its prey, before passing it on to a hungry human.

      But those aren’t the only theories. According to Reuters, Chinese government medical adviser Zhong Nanshan has also identified badgers and rats as possible culprits.

      Symptoms of the pneumonia-like illness include fever, cough and difficulty breathing. So far, there is no vaccine.

      Regardless of where it came from, it’s becoming increasingly clear that it will be impossible for Chinese health authorities to stop its spread, especially as millions of Chinese are determined to travel during the Lunar New Year holiday.

      It’s the largest regular human migration, dwarfing the Haff in the number of people who travel every year.

      Despite China’s attempts to literally seal off the biggest cities in the province where the Wuhan virus was first detected, Global health authorities fear the rate of transmission will explode as millions of Chinese travel at home and abroad during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which is set to begin on Saturday.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/snakes-bats-badgers-rats-scientists-suspect-new-coronavirus-originated-animals

    • zero hedge – The Real Umbrella Corp: Wuhan Ultra Biohazard Lab Was Studying “The World’s Most Dangerous Pathogens”

      Now that not one but seven Chinese cities – including Wuhan, ground zero of the coronavirus epidemic – and collectively housing some 23 million people, are under quarantine… comparisons to the infamous Raccoon City from Resident Evil are coming in hot and heavy. And, since reality often tends to imitate if not art then certainly Hollywood, earlier today we jokingly asked if the Medical Research Institute at Wuhan University would end up being China’s version of Umbrella Corp.

      more :

      https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/real-umbrella-corp-wuhan-ultra-biohazard-lab-was-studying-worlds-most-dangerous-pathogens

      ======================================================
      FEB 2017 – Nature -Inside the Chinese lab poised to study world’s most dangerous pathogens

      Maximum-security biolab is part of plan to build network of BSL-4 facilities across China.

      A laboratory in Wuhan is on the cusp of being cleared to work with the world’s most dangerous pathogens. The move is part of a plan to build between five and seven biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) labs across the Chinese mainland by 2025, and has generated much excitement, as well as some concerns.

      Some scientists outside China worry about pathogens escaping, and the addition of a biological dimension to geopolitical tensions between China and other nations.

      more :

      https://www.nature.com/news/inside-the-chinese-lab-poised-to-study-world-s-most-dangerous-pathogens-1.21487

  7. WATCH: The German Islamist Mehmet K. threatens Jews and gays – “If you ever insult the Prophet again, I’ll squash your monkey face!”

    Our Tweet of the day originates from a Twitter account called “AntiExtremist”.The user of the account presents once again a video of the Islamist Mehmet K.: The dangerous Islamist Mehmet K. from Stuttgart now threatens his enemies, the ‘fags’ and their leaders, the ‘Jews’, who insult the Prophet.If it weren’t so sad and had a very real background, not everyone would wonder why he is still at large.
    More:
    https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2020/01/watch-german-islamist-mehmet-k.html

  8. It feels like the end of the world’: THIRD Chinese city is put in lockdown and Wuhan is turned into ‘ground zero’ as experts warn the coronavirus outbreak is MUTATING and could spread at levels not seen since SARS crisis

    A third city in China is going into lockdown as officials battle to stop the spread of the deadly new coronavirus that has killed 17, left hundreds seriously ill and potentially infected thousands.

    Authorities in Ezhou have shut train stations, while Huanggang has announced it will suspend public buses and trains as well as ordering cinemas and internet cafes to close their doors.

    The development comes as Wuhan – the city at the centre of the outbreak – remains in lockdown, with all flights in and outbound cancelled, residents banned from leaving and scenes of chaos as desperate families fight for food supplies.

    Official figures show almost 600 patients have been struck down by the disease – but scientists yesterday warned as many as 10,000 people could have been infected in Wuhan alone. Experts said they couldn’t rule out the SARS-like virus already being in the UK. Others have said no virus has spread this far this quickly since SARS in 2003.

    Chinese officials are disinfecting whole streets and parks with clouds of gas and chilling footage has emerged of roadside quarantine tents, hastily erected to isolate suspected cases. One resident told the BBC the atmosphere in the city felt like ‘the end of the world’.

    Travellers have spread the coronavirus to seven countries already, including the US. European health officials fear the never-before-seen virus will reach the continent, with the UK and other nations already on high alert.

    It was revealed today that an American man infected with the deadly virus came into close contact with at least 16 people before he was put in isolation.

    According to health officials, the unnamed man from Washington state, who is in his 30s, wasn’t diagnosed until Monday, January 20 – five days after he returned from China.

    The World Health Organization is facing increasing pressure to declare the crisis a public health emergency, like it has done for Ebola and Zika in the past. Health chiefs will meet again later today to make a final verdict.

    Wuhan’s Health Commission said the city is ‘witnessing a fast growing trend of fever patients’ and hospitals are facing bed shortages because of the virus, which has still yet to be named. …
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7919847/Shocking-footage-shows-chaos-Wuhans-streets-Chinese-city-lockdown.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline

  9. US Warns New Quds Force Commander Could ‘Meet Same Fate’ as Slain Predecessor (sputniknews, Jan 23, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/world/202001231078114587-us-warns-new-quds-force-commander-could-meet-same-fate-as-slain-predecessor-/

    “Earlier this month, Esmail Ghaani, who succeeded long-time Revolutionary Guards commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani after he was assassinated in a US drone strike, pledged to continue the course pursued by his predecessor.

    The US will assassinate Quds Force Commander Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghaani if he targets Americans, US special representative for Iran Brian Hook has warned.

    “If Ghaani follows the same path of killing Americans then he will meet the same fate,” Hook said, speaking to Asharq al-Awsat, a London-based Arabic newspaper, in an interview published Thursday.

    According to the US diplomat, President Trump has made it very “clear that any attack on Americans or American interests will be met with a decisive response, which the president demonstrated on January 2”.

    Hook also said he believed that “the Iranian regime” now “understands that they cannot attack America and get away with it”.

    Ghaani, who has been appointed to head the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, an elite military formation charged with carrying out Iran’s extraterritorial military and intelligence operations, warned of harsh consequences for Americans in the immediate aftermath of Soleimani’s assassination, urging “patience” and saying that the world would soon “see the bodies of Americans all over the Middle East”.

    Promising “to continue Martyr Soleimani’s path with the same force,” Ghaani also said that “the only compensation” for his predecessor’s killing “would be to remove America from the region”…”

  10. French border force catch 11 migrants in dinghy after engine failed at 1.45am – bringing total to 96 making bid to cross Channel in just three days (dailymail, Jan 23, 2020)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7920471/French-border-force-catch-11-migrants-dinghy-engine-failed-1-45am.html

    “Eleven migrants have been picked up by French authorities while attempting to cross the English Channel – bringing the total trying to make the crossing to 96 in just three days.

    A boat was detected about four and a half miles north of Calais at about 1.45am on Thursday morning, carrying the 11 migrants.

    The patrol boat Aramis was dispatched to rescued the migrant vessel, which had suffered engine failure, French authorities confirmed.

    The migrants had contacted French emergency services after they drifted in the sea in pitch darkness.

    Air temperatures in the region were thought to be as low as 5C and ten of the migrants on board had mild hypothermia, while the other was reported to be in a worse condition.

    They were taken aboard the Aramis at 2.47am and brought to the port of Calais.

    All are now safe following the rescue, and French authorities reiterated their warnings about crossing the dangerous shipping lanes.

    It comes after 50 migrants were intercepted by UK and French authorities on Wednesday as they attempted to cross the channel.

    The Home Office said that at 7.39am yesterday Border Force were alerted to a small boat near Dover, Kent.

    A Cutter picked up 13 migrants, all men, who were taken on board and brought ashore.

    One of the men was taken to hospital for medical assessment…”

  12. EU Army: President Says EU Has ‘Building Blocks’ of a Defence Union (breitbart, Jan 23, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/23/eu-army-president-says-eu-has-building-blocks-of-a-defence-union/

    “Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU needs “credible military capabilities”, remarking a European army would be “complementary” to the NATO alliance with America.

    At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the President of the European Commission said that the EU has “set up the building blocks of a European defence union” in the latest signal that the bloc intends to create a full-fledged European army.

    “It is complementary to NATO and it is different. There is a European way to foreign policy and foreign security policy where hard power is an important tool… but it is never the only one”, von der Leyen said per DW.

    In her speech at the globalist meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the EU chief said that Europe needs “credible military capabilities” in order to combat crises in the future…”

  14. AP Explains: Why US troop cuts in Africa would cause alarm (abcnews, Jan 23, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ap-explains-us-troop-cuts-africa-alarm-68472903

    “Even as destroyed U.S. military aircraft smoldered from an al-Shabab attack that killed three Americans this month in Kenya, the al-Qaida-linked group issued a taunting message to African troops: The U.S. will abandon you just as it did the Kurds.

    Islamic extremists are already exploiting possible U.S. military cuts in Africa that have caused a rare bipartisan outcry in Washington, with lawmakers stressing the need to counter China and Russia and contain a growing threat from Islamic State group affiliates.

    Here’s a look at the issue that has caused alarm among some U.S. security allies, while the U.S. probes the deadliest attack against its military in Africa since 2017.

    WHAT’S AT STAKE?

    Worried U.S. partners have pointed out the poor timing of reducing the U.S. military presence: Africa’s extremist groups “set a record pace of activity in 2019” with more than 10,400 killings, a doubling of activity since 2013, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies says in a new report.

    The U.S. Africa Command, signaling concern over the Pentagon’s potential cuts, has emphasized the Somalia-based al-Shabab as a threat after its leader in November made an unprecedented call to attack Americans wherever they are.

    Neither China nor Russia is doing much to counter Africa’s extremist groups, U.S. Africa Command officials added in a briefing last week.

    The Pentagon’s possible reduction of U.S. troops in Africa is part of a worldwide review by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is looking for ways to tighten the focus on China and Russia. It is not known when a decision will be announced, but officials say Esper has made clear the U.S. will not withdraw from Africa entirely.

    France, which held a counterterror summit with West African leaders this month, has been blunt about the need for U.S. military support in the Sahel, the region just below the Sahara Desert, as groups linked to al-Qaida and IS move closer to well-populated coastal cities in countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast.

    The French are increasing their presence in West Africa against what is now Africa’s most serious extremist threat, this month announcing additional troops for its 4,500-strong operation in the Sahel and last month carrying out its first armed drone strike there.

    “If the Americans were to decide to withdraw from Africa, it would be bad news for us. I confirm it,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the summit. “I hope I can convince President Trump that the fight against terrorism, in which he is deeply engaged, is also at stake in this region.”

    The U.S., in turn, calls the French presence critical in the Sahel, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has suggested as the next focus for the global anti-IS coalition.

    “The French have more in the Sahel than we have U.S. service members on the entire (African) continent,” Maj. Gen. William Gayler, the U.S. Africa Command director of operations, acknowledged last week. He called for a larger European contribution to support them.

    The U.S. has about 5,200 Africa Command personnel, troops and others, on the continent, plus about 800 other Department of Defense personnel.

    WHY ARE U.S. LAWMAKERS SPEAKING OUT?

    High-profile Republicans and Democrats have warned the Trump administration that cutting the U.S. military presence in Africa would hand over influence on the youthful, booming continent of 1.2 billion people to an assertive China and Russia.

    That goes directly against national security strategy, the lawmakers say.

    “Both countries view Africa as a critical battlefield to fulfill their global ambitions and challenge U.S. interests” including along critical maritime routes, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Jim Inhofe, said Friday. “Significant” U.S. troop cuts are being considered, he said.

    Other lawmakers pointed out the recent establishment of China’s first overseas military base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti — a short distance from the U.S. military’s only permanent base in Africa — as well as growing Russian activity via mercenaries and military cooperation deals.

    The presence in Africa of about a dozen extremist groups linked to al-Qaida or IS, including an IS-linked offshoot of Boko Haram in Nigeria, also has raised concern.

    “Any withdrawal or reduction would likely result in a surge in violent extremist attacks on the continent and beyond,” senators Lindsey Graham and Chris Coons wrote to the defense secretary last week.

    WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT AMERICANS KILLED IN KENYA?

    The al-Shabab attack in Kenya slipped largely under the global radar as the U.S. and Iran faced off over the U.S. killing of Iran’s top military commander. But the Jan. 5 attack was notable as al-Shabab’s first against U.S. forces in Kenya, East Africa’s economic hub.

    According to internal Kenyan police reports seen by The Associated Press and U.S. Africa Command statements, the al-Shabab fighters killed a U.S. service member and two Defense Department contractors, wounded two other Defense Department members and destroyed several U.S. aircraft and vehicles at an airfield used for counterterror activities.

    A “very small U.S. force … absolutely repelled the al-Shabab attackers away from the airfield. They did that under fire,” Gayler with the U.S. Africa Command told reporters. But the extremist group blared its attack as a propaganda win, releasing images of masked fighters posing next to aircraft in flames.

    The U.S. has increasingly targeted al-Shabab in Somalia under Trump, saying it carried out 63 airstrikes against the group last year and killed more than 320 fighters.

    But even U.S. officials have expressed concern about another looming military withdrawal that could jolt security in East Africa — the planned pullout of nearly 20,000 African Union forces from Somalia by next year. Somali forces are meant to take over security but are widely seen as not ready.

    ———

    Bob Burns in Washington and Abdi Guled in Nairobi, Kenya contributed.”

  15. Burkina Faso to arm civilians in fight against extremists (abcnews, Jan 23, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/burkina-faso-arm-civilians-fight-extremists-68476721

    “Burkina Faso’s parliament has approved legislation allowing the military to use civilian volunteers in the fight against Islamic extremism, a decision that underscores how outnumbered soldiers are amid rising attacks across the West African country.

    The tactic is not without risk. Burkina Faso’s military has been criticized for killings carried out during its crackdown on extremism, and placing arms in the hands of minimally trained civilians could lead to more allegations of human rights abuses, observers warn.

    Defense Minister Cheriff Sy said this week that all recruits would undergo two weeks of training, with topics ranging from how to use weapons to matters of discipline.

    “It is not a question of making cannon fodder,” he said. “We want to prevent these volunteers from becoming militias.”

    Volunteers must be 18 years old and will undergo a “moral investigation” before being allowed to serve, he said. Demobilization bonuses will be provided to each volunteer in an effort to reintegrate them in the future. Health benefits will be paid to those who are wounded while on duty, he added.

    Burkina Faso’s military, despite training and assistance from France and the United States, has struggled to contain the spread of extremism.

    Sy said the use of civilian volunteers would allow the military to cast a wider net, acknowledging that “Yes, we are understaffed.”

    For years, Burkina Faso was spared the kind of Islamic extremism that affected neighboring Niger and Mali, where it took a 2013 French-led military intervention to dislodge jihadists from power in several major towns.

    Militants staged a January 2016 attack in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, that killed at least 30 people at a cafe popular with foreigners. The following year, 18 people were killed at a Turkish restaurant in the capital.

    Deaths from attacks have risen dramatically in the last few years, from about 80 in 2016 to over 1,800 in 2019, according to the United Nations.

    Burkina Faso’s military has been criticized for committing abuses in the ensuing crackdown. Human Rights Watch said last year that more than 150 men — mostly ethnic Peuhl herdsmen — had been killed by Burkinabe security forces after being accused of supporting or harboring extremists.

    Such killings by security forces have only increased the ranks of the jihadists, according to activists.”

  16. Wuhan virus: WHO holds on decision to declare global health emergency
    5,847 views
    •Jan 22, 2020

  17. Afghan officials: Taliban kill officer; bomb kills 2 troops (abcnews, Jan 23, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-official-taliban-killed-intel-officer-helmand-68471854

    “The Taliban ambushed and killed an Afghan intelligence official in southern Helmand province as he was walking home from work while a roadside bombing in the country’s north killed a military commander and his bodyguard, officials said Thursday.

    The attacks were the latest violence in Afghanistan even as the Taliban hold peace talks with a U.S. envoy tasked with finding a resolution to the 18-year war, America’s longest conflict.

    In the Helmand attack, the officer, who headed the intelligence department’s press office for the province, was ambushed late on Wednesday, according to the provincial police chief’s spokesman Zaman Hamdard. Another member of the intelligence department was wounded in the attack, the spokesman said.

    An investigation was underway to find the perpetrators, Hamdard added. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack…”

  18. uhan virus: China reveals plan to combat virus spread | THE BIG STORY | The Straits Times

  22. Singapore’s first confirmed case of Wuhan virus: Health minister on measures being taken

    • Millions on virus lockdown in China as WHO weighs response

      BEIJING (Reuters) – China put millions of people on lock down on Thursday in two cities at the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 17 people and infected more than 630, as authorities around the world worked to prevent a global pandemic.

      Health officials fear the transmission rate will accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel at home and abroad during week-long holidays for the Lunar New Year, which begins on Saturday.

      https://www.oann.com/china-locks-down-epicenter-of-virus-outbreak-nearly-600-infected/

  24. Radicalisation?: « Les frères musulmans sont aux portes du pouvoir » assure Zineb El Rhazoui

    • The theory of the cycles is interesting and if true the last time (the 1930s) FDR was elected as President 4 times and served over 12 years. The voting during those 12 years was crooked as hell and it is unlikely that he actually won many of the elections. Now the Dems are once more trying to steal the elections and are trying to take our rights from us. FYI it was during this time that the Gun Control movement started in the US.

    • Remember the process was set up back in the bad old days when the Dems controlled the either South and prevented the Blacks from voting. The Dems are now trying to turn back the clock to that time and it is up to the Patriots to prevent this.

  31. MOROCCO – The country in shock after the gang rape of a teenage girl for twenty-five days

    Morocco. Oumaima, a 17-year-old Moroccan teenager was abducted, raped and kidnapped by around 20 individuals, according to the news site Yabiladi

    In great distress, the young woman is hospitalized at the Ibn Rochd Hospital Center in Casablanca. Her ordeal lasted nearly twenty-five days. While her mother had gone for a run, the teenager was abducted from her Casablanca neighborhood before being taken to the neighboring town of Lahraouine. There she was repeatedly raped, tortured and forced “to ingest toxic substances that would kill her,” according to her mother.

    She managed to escape after twenty-five days of ordeal with the help of a man who had come to rape her: “This individual had come to the scene to rape her too, but he finally gave in to her pleas and helped her to flee ”, according to Walid Bensalima, president of the Moroccan Sayidati association. Still according to Yabiladi, “she is suffering from an acute psychological crisis and her family is not allowed to see her.”

    https://www.yabiladi.com/articles/details/88175/maroc-casablanca-sous-choc-apres.html

    The story of Oumaima sparked a wave of support, with the creation of a Facebook group “We are all Oumaima”, to make this news item “a matter of public opinion”.

    https://www.archyde.com/the-country-in-shock-after-the-gang-rape-of-a-teenage-girl-for-twenty-five-days/

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

    Netizens show solidarity with Oumaima, 17, following her abduction and gang-rape

    Last December, Oumaima, a 17-year-old teenager from Casablanca, was kidnapped and subjected to repeated rape by 20 people. On Facebook, Internet users are mobilizing on the group “Nous sommes tous Oumaima” (We are all Oumaima), as a sign of solidarity with the teenager, and for justice to be done.

    On “Nous sommes tous Oumaima”, a public group which has just been created on Facebook, as a sign of solidarity with this 17-year-old girl, kidnapped and gang-raped by 20 people in Casablanca, the administrators of this page offer to pay her a visit, while she is still hospitalized at Ibn Rochd Hospital, in the city center of the economic metropolis.

    Oumaima was kidnapped near her home, in the Moulay Rachid district, during the last week of December 2019, and was taken by her kidnapper to a hut, in the Chichane district, in Lahraouiyine, a southeast suburb in Casablanca. Sequestered in this place, Oumaima was subjected to repeated rapes there, for 25 days, by around twenty people. A member of this gang reportedly released her after being begged by the girl.

    Following this sequestration, and these repeated rapes, Oumaima is suffering from very serious lesions. She is currently treated by the medical team which took charge of her at Ibn Rochd.

    This case serves as a reminder of that of Khadija, kidnapped, raped and martyred by a group of men in 2018 in the same region. Her story had aroused a significant mobilization on social networks and a very great emotion in Moroccan society and worldwide.

    http://moroccanladies.com/breaking-news/netizens-show-solidarity-oumaima-17-following-abduction-gang-rape-31126

  32. A Tale of Two Whistleblowers: One Protected, One Not

    By Susan Crabtree – RCP Staff
    January 17, 2020
    A Tale of Two Whistleblowers: One Protected, One Not
    AP Photo/J. David Ake, File

    A Trump political appointee who reported allegations of rampant government waste, fraud and abuse has experienced none of the protections granted the whistleblower who filed the Ukrainian aid complaint against President Trump, which has culminated in Trump’s Senate impeachment trial set to begin in earnest next week.

    Last summer and into the fall, the whistleblower who reported, second-hand, Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was shrouded in protections from the intelligence community’s inspector general – protections touted by Democrats on Capitol Hill as sacrosanct.

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/01/17/a_tale_of_two_whistleblowers_one_protected_one_not_142183.html

  35. Top UN court orders Myanmar to prevent Rohingya genocide

    The UN’s highest court orders Myanmar to do everything in its power to prevent the alleged genocide of Rohingya Muslims, as international justice stepped into the crisis for the first time.

  36. Adam Schiff warns Senate Alan Dershowitz is not a ‘reputable constitutional law expert’
    By Ben Bowles January 23, 2020

    Maybe he’d prefer Barack Obama? No, definitely he’d prefer Barack Obama, whose mastery of the Constitution was such that during one of his patented tearful disquisitions on gun violence, he misused the term peaceful assembly, which appears in the First Amendment.

    Regardless, Adam Schiff, who is himself an attorney (you can tell by the many cheap lawyer tricks he has used in his two-hour disquisitions on the Senate floor in the past two days), fancies he knows he a good constitutional law expert when he sees one. And he doesn’t see one in Alan Dershowitz, who has joined Donald Trump’s legal team as a pro bono adviser.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/01/23/schiff-warns-senate-that-alan-dershowitz-is-not-a-reputable-constitutional-law-expert/

  37. Trump DID provide witnesses and evidence: Democrats just don’t remember
    By LU Staff January 23, 2020

    If the Democrats’ have a mantra these day it is “witnesses and evidence.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claims that if the impeachment trial doesn’t inlcude witnesses, “it will make the value of an acquittal zero.” Never mind that during the Clinton impeachment, he took precisely the opposite tack, saying, “This idea that they didn’t have to call witnesses in the House so they should call them in the Senate doesn’t make sense.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/01/23/trump-did-provide-witnesses-and-evidence-democrats-just-dont-remember/

    • Bernie Saunders is calling for witnesses, I am not sure why since he is being held in the Senate and isn’t out campaigning. Holding Bernie and other Senators captive during the trial is one of the reasons the Dems want witnesses since it gives Biden a big advantage. The problem is what will happen when the Republicans call Joe and Hunter Biden as witnesses and prove corruption? This may be why Bernie wants witnesses, to get the information about Bidens crooked dealings out in the ope.

  40. FRANCE – Lawyers perform Haka dance against Macron’s pension reform

    Lawyers perform Maori ceremonial dance, the Haka, at the Bobigny court in Paris to protest against Macron’s pension reform plans.

  42. BREAKING: Bernie Sanders Campaign Calls The Police On Project Veritas Action Journalists

  43. The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez School of Economics

    On Monday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., sat for a discussion with author Ta-Nehisi Coates. She dropped a number of shocking statements — statements that elicited nothing but murmurs of agreement from Coates. AOC claimed: “No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars.” How, pray tell, are American billionaires responsible for such massive theft? According to AOC, the very mechanisms of capitalism mandate such theft. In her view, successful businesspeople simply exploit their workers while maximizing their profits. Hypothetically speaking about billionaires making widgets, she said: “You didn’t make those widgets! You sat on a couch while thousands of people were paid modern-day slave wages and, in some cases, real modern-day slavery … You made that money off the backs of undocumented people.”

    This, of course, is nonsense. Voluntary exchange of labor for wages is, as stated, voluntary, and the fact that there are many people willing and able to labor in the manufacture of widgets is presumably responsible for lower wages. Companies that refuse to pay their workers market wages will soon watch those workers migrate to other businesses or other industries. It is a patent violation of free market principles to utilize force in order to compel someone to work for you; blaming the free market for coercion is like blaming free speech for censorship. Exploitation in labor markets is typically accompanied by government subsidies, regulation and interventionism.

    https://insidescooppolitics.com/archives/1162

  45. Voters in the King Conservation District, which includes 1.2 million people in the Greater Seattle area, will soon be able to vote via smartphone in a first for U.S. elections. One professor specializing in election technology called the entire concept of voting via smartphone “a very stupid idea.”

    NPR reports that the King Conservation District, a state environmental district that encompasses Seattle and 30 other cities, will detail a new plan this week which will allow voters in the Greater Seattle area to vote via their smartphones. This means a total of around 1.2 million eligible voters can place their votes on an election over the Internet.

    Bradley Tusk, the founder and CEO of Tusk Philanthropies, a nonprofit group that aims to expand mobile voting and is funding the King County pilot program stated: “This is the most fundamentally transformative reform you can do in democracy.”

    NPR notes that the move likely to cause much debate as those that worry about election security push back at those attempting to increase voting access. NPR notes that the United States lags behind most developed democracies in terms of election turnout rate, and local elections lag far behind November presidential elections.

    The election of the board of supervisors in the King Conservation District in past years has had a voter turnout rate of less than 1 percent of the eligible population. Turk has argued that low turnout rates force politicians to craft positions that represent the entire population leading to dysfunction in government.

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/01/23/seattle-residents-can-cast-vote-via-smartphone-in-local-election/

  47. French Intelligence Services Have Expelled 16 Radicalised Agents Since 2014 (breitbart, Jan 23, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/23/french-intelligence-services-expelled-16-radicalised-agents-since-2014/

    “Since 2014, the French intelligence services have dismissed 16 agents suspected of being radicalised, with a new report demanding even stricter measures be implemented.

    The report commissioned by French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe saw the Inspectorate of Intelligence Services draw up a list of issues regarding the possible vulnerability of French intelligence officials and police to Islamic radicalisation, Le Parisien reports.

    According to the newspaper, the report deemed the current processes for identifying radicalised individuals to be sufficient but noted that they also had other areas that could be improved upon.

    The report has also recommended that the national domestic intelligence agency, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), vet agents of the Intelligence Department of the Paris Police Prefecture (DRPP) for signs of radicalisation.

    Along with the development of a common doctrine for spotting radicalisation across the various agencies, recruitment of new officers and agents will see candidates interviewed by a security officer and a psychologist.

    The report comes just months after Islamic convert Mickaël Harpon, an IT professional working for Paris police, killed four people at the Paris headquarters in September before being fatally shot.

    Harpon is said to have shown prior signs of radicalisation, including refusing to deal with female colleagues.

    Shortly after the attack, a report claimed that French police may have been afraid to speak up about colleagues showing signs of radicalisation because they did not want to be branded as Islamophobic by their superiors.

    Police are not the only public service that some fear is being infiltrated by radical Islamists.

    MPs Éric Diard of the conservative Republicans and Éric Poulliat of President Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche! (LREM/Republic on the Move), interviewed public workers and officials and found cases of radicalised employees across several public services.”

  48. The Trump administration on Thursday formally issued a rule allowing customs officials to deny entry to travelers whom they suspect are headed to the U.S. for the sole purpose of giving birth on American soil.

    A rule issued by the State Department marks the administration’s first formal effort to cut down on the practice known as “birth tourism,” which President Trump has heavily criticized and suggested should be a reason for ending birthright citizenship.

    “This rule establishes that travel to the United States with the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the United States is an impermissible basis for the issuance of a B nonimmigrant visa,” the statute reads.

    “Consequently, a consular officer shall deny a B nonimmigrant visa to an alien who he or she has reason to believe intends to travel for this primary purpose,” it continues.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/479540-trump-administration-releases-rule-to-restrict-birth-tourism

  49. France, U.S. agree to push global ‘digital tax’ talks forward
    Luke Baker
    3 MIN READ

    DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – France and the United States agreed on Thursday how to press ahead with a global rewrite of cross-border tax rules for the digital era, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-davos-meeting-digitaltax/france-u-s-agree-to-push-global-digital-tax-talks-forward-idUSKBN1ZM1LT?utm_source=reddit.com