Reader’s Links for February 24, 2020

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Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

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

126 Replies to “Reader’s Links for February 24, 2020”

  1. Shipping lines face troubled waters as oil tankers, container carriers and cruise lines stop calling on China for fear of catching the coronavirus

    Port calls to China are becoming less frequent, as fear of catching the coronavirus and a slowdown in the Chinese economy have deterred cruise liners, container ships, oil tankers and bulk carriers alike from stopping at the country’s harbours.

    Commercial vessels have stopped arriving, with port calls falling by an estimated 30 per cent in February, and container throughput estimated to decline by between 20 and 30 per cent, according to Clarksons – a shipping research company.

    https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/3051784/shipping-lines-face-troubled-waters-oil-tankers-container

    • This means that the Chinese are going hungry, Swine Flu and Bird Flu have caused large percentages of the pork and poultry crops to be slaughtered and burned. Now is when things are going to start getting nasty, the people are going to have trouble getting food as well as medicine and medical care, the CCP is about to discover just how loyal the PLA is, and I wouldn’t put money in either direction on this question.

      • The Chinese have just confiscated and slaughtered pet dogs, apparently to prevent the spreading of the virus. Or did those poor dogs go straight into the freezer to reappear as food later on?

    • The companies that have already moved out of China are the ones who stand the best chance to survive if this turns into a real nasty pandemic. Reality has shown the companies that the danger of having a single source for anything. The left has managed to force way too many companies and nations into that position.

      • I don’t think that Chinese will go hungry, even in Wuhan people have enough to eat. Although the products are very pricey particularly for the people who are in quarantine.
        The majority of Chinese provinces are not as bad as Hubei, in fact, majority are not under quarantine.
        On the other hand majority of factories do not have workers, even though CCP ordered to open factories. Majority of factory workers are internal migrants and the outset of epidemic cached them in their birthday villages/towns. So now they are either under quarantine in their villages or the town where the factory is, is under quarantine.
        Btw in Korea some of the factories are closed, for example Samsung factory is closed, in Italy, some fashion shows had been cancelled..

        • China has had to destroy well over half of their domestic meat production, that has to be replaced with imports. Add in the Wheat and other food that is imported from Australia and New Zealand that is no longer coming into the nation and you have a future that is easy to see. 1st the food becomes semi scarce and the prices raise, 2nd the food becomes scarce and the prices raise, 3rd the food is almost impossible to find and the prices go through the roof. This is a pattern that has occurred many time sin history, the government will counter by nationalizing all food and ration the food for a fixed price. The amount of food provided will be at or slightly below the 2000 calories a day that is needed. The people then bribe the local officials to give them more food. The officials get rich if they aren’t caught and shot and the people remain semi hungry.

          This is an old pattern that has played out many times and if the shortage gets bad enough pets will disappear and at times cannibalism may occur. The latter is usually in places that have a history of cannibalism.

  3. Post-crisis China will focus on public health and welfare. Business should be prepared for a sea change

    In the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic, China will want to radically improve its public health system and better integrate it into its smart networks, even as society explores new ways of remote working Businesses can expect many radical new opportunities, especially in health care and distributed working technologies

    …The coronavirus crisis has created challenges and opportunities. [Hey, that’s my cliche!] In the near term, businesses operating in and with China will face more uncertainty on the manufacturing, supply chain and consumer fronts. In the medium to longer term, China is poised to reinvent itself and prioritise social welfare in its national agenda.

    Governments and companies – whether state-owned, private or foreign – will collaborate across sectors to foster synergies, especially in areas such as smart cities and infrastructure. New consumer patterns, technological progress and commercial innovations will come along, further transforming the business landscape.
    https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3051918/post-crisis-china-will-focus-public-health-and-welfare-business
    ….
    That’s jarabe del pico in Ladino, “beak syrup”.

      • My thoughts exactly, Richard. Nicely-worded commie lies. Maybe if they had spent a little less on surveillance drones, cameras and facial recognition and a little more on health care they wouldn’t be in this mess, and neither would we.

        • Reality is slapping people to wake them up, with luck enough will wake up to restore the world to reality.

    • China: Officials downplay long-term impact of coronavirus on economy

      Chinese government officials said the economy was on track to meet the planned goals in 2020 despite the outbreak of coronavirus. They were speaking at a news conference in Beijing on Monday.

      Cong Liang, the secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, admitted that the epidemic has had a large impact on small and medium businesses.

      “Relevant authorities and departments have introduced a series of policies to maintain stability in six areas. Strong measures are introduced including orderly resumption of work, tax cuts, financial services, rent cuts and so on. In this case, we believe that the difficulties in the economic performance will be addressed,” said the official.

      China’s Assistant Minister of Commerce Ren Hongbin called on the WTO to remove the unnecessary restrictions and return to a fair international trade environment.

    • I figure that Brad Johnson’s rule of putting a zero behind all of the official numbers is as good for Iran as for China.

        • If it is double zero already the virus has spread to Iraq, Saudi, Pakistan, Afghanistan and probably Turkey. Think how it will spread over the next two to three months of the normal flu season, and I am hearing comments about how this virus isn’t acting normal. This probably means it was a bioweapon that was accidentally released. One of the videos I posted had an expert who said that the Doctors (and others at the lab) had a habit of taking the animals that survived the tests to the Wet Market and selling them. This could be how the virus got out of the lab.

    • Iran: Authorities confirm 12 deaths from coronavirus; highest death toll outside China

      Authorities in Iran said the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has infected approximately 47 Iranians and left 12 people dead so far in the country, the largest death toll outside of China.

      Parliament Spokesperson Asadollah Abbasi told the press in Tehran on Monday that every single family in Qom, the first Iranian city to be hit by the virus, “has been provided with packages including masks, antibacterial products and information.”

      He went on to say that most people who have tested positive for the coronavirus came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China, “some of them entered illegally.”

      *BUG AT SOURCE*

      SOT, Asadollah Abbasi, Iranian parliament presiding board spokesperson (Farsi): “Approximately 47 cases have been confirmed positive across the country. Unfortunately, 12 people have died. Two people who travelled from Qom also tested positive. In Qom every single family has been provided with packages including masks, antibacterial products and information in this regard. Most of them are people coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China. Some of them entered illegally.” Authorities in Iran said the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has infected approximately 47 Iranians and left 12 people dead so far in the country, the largest death toll outside of China.

      Parliament Spokesperson Asadollah Abbasi told the press in Tehran on Monday that every single family in Qom, the first Iranian city to be hit by the virus, “has been provided with packages including masks, antibacterial products and information.”

      He went on to say that most people who have tested positive for the coronavirus came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China, “some of them entered illegally.”

      The Iranian government has already ordered all schools, universities and several cultural places to remain closed for 10 days in several provinces to prevent further spread of the novel coronavirus.

      According to the latest report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), nearly 80,000 people have been infected by the COVID-19 so far and over 2,600 people have died.

      The Iranian government has already ordered all schools, universities and several cultural places to remain closed for 10 days in several provinces to prevent further spread of the novel coronavirus.

      According to the latest report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), nearly 80,000 people have been infected by the COVID-19 so far and over 2,600 people have died.

      • Interesting.
        Qom is one of the most important places in theocratic Iran.
        ” The city is the largest center for Shi?a scholarship in the world, and is a significant destination of pilgrimage, with around twenty million pilgrims visiting the city every year, the majority being Iranians but also other Shi’a Muslims from all around the world.”
        I guess the people who introduced infection to Iran may have been pilgrims from China/Afghanistan. And I am pretty sure that Iranian government is now in state of panic, as a lot of their high government bureaucrats often visit Qom.

  5. The coronavirus is picking up steam outside China, narrowing chances of eliminating it

    There are worrying signs the coronavirus outbreak is entering a new phase, with spread outside of China – until recently at low levels – beginning to rapidly pick up steam.

    Experts point to the sharp rise of the number of cases in South Korea, which went from 30 on Monday to 204 by Friday, and in Italy, which had no cases at the start of Friday and 16 at the end of it. Five of the infected people in Italy are health workers.

    Iran – which began the week with no confirmed cases and ended it with 18, four of whom have already died – is a particular source of concern, having exported two cases within 36 hours of announcing it had found two patients infected with the virus. A traveler from Canada and another from Lebanon tested positive for the virus after returning home from Iran.

    The fact that Iran is already exporting cases suggests transmission there is far more widespread than the official numbers would indicate, said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy.

    “I think people are missing the importance of a case like the Canadian traveler to Iran,” he said, referring to a case reported by health officials in British Columbia on Thursday. “This tells us that there has to be a much larger number of people infected in Iran and we’re literally just detecting the tip of the iceberg.”
    https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/21/coronavirus-picking-up-steam-outside-china/

      • A show case of arrogance and ineptitude in the age of idiocracy.

        Reminds me of our current Idiocrats who think they handle islam better than their predecessors in places like Bosnia and Constantinople.

        • The bureaucrats ability to fool themselves and others depends on maintaining control of the flow of information. With the Wuhan Flu when it goes bad the information being given doesn’t meet what people see and the bureaucrats loose control. Once they loose control it takes a long time for them to return to power.

    • As Iran is literally ruled by an apocalyptic death cult, having a 12 Monkeys doomsday scenario handed to them has to feel like some kind of Islamic kismet.

  6. Mark Steyn EPIC rant on the two-tiered U.S. justice system. Feb 23, 2020 10 minutes and 42 seconds
    Includes references to Roger Stones railroading.

  7. I think coronavirus will soon be commonly declared a black swan:

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-sink-on-growing-concern-of-outbreaks-economic-impact-2020-02-23?mod=home-page

    The Baltic Dry Index (a gauge of shipping and therefore economic volume) was dropping even before corona. This will accelerate the repatriation of supply chains, but will cause many shortages. Business will respond to the opportunities as quickly as possible as long as government red tape doesn’t slow it down too much. Trade unions, where applicable, will have allow room for non-member hires if they can’t keep up with demand.

    • Things are shifting and people are about to discover which groups/individuals are working to help everyone survive and which are taking advantage of the mess to gain power.

  8. In fact, a good argument can be made that coronavirus has a distinct silver lining in that it is bringing globalism to a fast halt and making national borders more important than ever. Soros’ Open Borders scheme, along with the UN’s 2030 scheme, can now be rightly seen as anathema to public health.

    • And yet, Yesterday I saw whole busloads of Chinese tourists walking around Ottawa without a mask.

      • It takes time and direct threat to change the attitudes of the vast majority of the people. Their attitude and actions will increase the butchers bill for this virus, hopefully it will break the authoritarian governments and return control to the people.

  9. https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-isis-plot-in-kansas-city-you-heard-nothing-about/

    The ISIS Plot in Kansas City You Heard Nothing About
    BY ROBERT SPENCER FEBRUARY 23, 2020CHAT COMMENTS

    Mugshot of Robert Lorenzo Hester Jr. from October 3, 2016. (Credit: Boone County Sheriff)
    A few years ago, Robert Lorenzo Hester, Jr. of Columbia, Missouri met “several young men who suggested that Islam was a religion that valued men like him.” That was when his troubles began: prosecutors announced Wednesday that they want Hester to serve twenty years in prison and be under supervision for the rest of his life for plotted a jihad massacre in Kansas City. His case shows yet again how politically correct willful ignorance regarding the motivating ideology and magnitude of the jihad threat renders us all vulnerable.

    True to form, federal prosecutors are already busily ignoring the possibility that Hester was inspired to try to kill non-Muslims by Qur’anic exhortations such as “kill them wherever you find them” (2:191, 4:89; cf. 9:5). According to the Columbia Tribune, they claim that “mental health issues combined with a mockery of his race and intellect by fellow soldiers led him to extremists ideologies.” Federal public defender Troy Stabenow also notes that Hester suffered from an “abusive childhood” and engaged in “drug use at an early age.” He “wanted to feel accepted and do something to make others proud, so he joined the Armed Forces,” but he didn’t stick.

    And so, apparently, he got the idea that committing mass murder for ISIS in Kansas City would be just the thing.

    All that may be, but the “extremists ideologies” to which he fell prey were ready to hand in his new religion. Where did this convert to Islam (who has also called himself Ali Talib Muhammad and Rami Talib) learn about his new religion? From whom? How many other American converts were taught by the same people? Where are they now? Generally media reports about jihad plotters tell us that they were “radicalized on the Internet.” These reports never explain why the supposedly peaceful Islam that these Muslims presumably learned at the local mosque was unable to withstand the appeal of the allegedly twisted and hijacked online version.

    According to prosecutors, Hester “repeatedly glorified violence, and proclaimed his excitement to help ISIS carry out a terrorist attack. Hester thought he was assisting in a plan to cause widespread deaths, doing everything he could to help. Hester did not act in a vacuum. His conduct was part of a larger movement of growing support for ISIS in the United States and abroad.”

    And of course he was, we are to believe, motivated by humanitarian concerns, as Stabenow hastens to tell us: “As a new father himself, he was heartbroken and infuriated when he watched carefully edited footage of Western forces engaging in violence that resulted in the deaths of women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. In the videos, he was consistently told that the American military had been corrupted and that the United States government had adopted a policy of actively trying to hurt young Muslim families. Robert expressed his anger about the violence he saw online, and began to parrot some of what he saw.”

    And so in response, according to prosecutors, Hester “wanted to hurt the economy ‘by hitting oil pipelines’ or ‘computer systems.’” He plotted a jihad attack for Presidents Day 2017 in Kansas City, hitting buses, trains and a train station. He bought ingredients to make bombs. He said that the day of the massacre was “going to be a good day for Muslims worldwide” and that he wanted a “global jihad” that would target installations not just in Kansas City, but also “military bases,” “federal places,” “government officials” and “Wall Street.” “Any government building in D.C. would get attention of everyone,” he added hopefully.

    Someone converted Robert Hester to Islam. That person or group was unable or unwilling to convince him that his new religion did not command him to commit treason and mass murder. That person or group was unable or unwilling to convince young Ali Talib Muhammad of the truth of the peaceful version of Islam that virtually every non-Muslim politician in the Western world assures us is as plain as day in the pages of the Qur’an. The implications of that are serious. No one dares contemplate them.

    Thus Hester becomes yet another convert to Islam who has gotten the idea that his new religion mandates that he become violent toward unbelievers. This is a frequently recurring phenomenon. But authorities remain completely indifferent to it; even if any had a mind to start studying this phenomenon, they would be deterred by fears of appearing “Islamophobic.” And so nothing is more certain than that there will be many more Robert Lorenzo Hesters.

  10. Libyan National Army Claims Turkish Arms Making Their Way Into Terrorist Hands Via Misrata Port (sputniknews, Feb 24, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/africa/202002241078394088-libyan-national-army-claims-turkish-arms-making-their-way-into-terrorist-hands-via-misrata-port/

    “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed Saturday that “several” Turkish servicemen had been killed fighting Libyan National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar’s forces. On Sunday, regional media said that as any as 16 Turkish troops and over 100 mercenaries transported to Libya from Syria had died in fighting for Tripoli.

    Turkey is transferring weapons and military equipment to Libya through the Misrata port, Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari has alleged.

    “Reconnaissance and intelligence units confirm the arrival of weapons and military equipment from Turkey to the Misrata seaport to support terrorist organizations and armed groups in the western region,” al-Mismari said in a statement published on his Facebook page. “This support is made publicly before the international community. It is a breach of the declared truce in the region,” he added.

    According to the spokesman, the LNA has not yet responded to the deliveries, but was monitoring the situation, with updates said to be provided on an hourly basis.

    Misrata, situated about 200 km east of Tripoli along the Mediterranean coast, is home to the powerful Government of National Accord (GNA)-allied Misrata Brigades, an Islamic fundamentalist militia force which emerged in 2012 following the overthrow and murder of long-time Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

    Misratan forces have been fighting the LNA for much of the post-Gaddafi period, including during the ongoing LNA offensive to take the GNA capital of Tripoli which began last April.

    The LNA accused Turkey of smuggling battle-hardened Syrian militants Libya through Misrata in December, claiming that the mercenaries included Daesh (ISIS)* and Al-Nusra Front* fighters.

    The long-running conflict in Libya escalated last month after Turkish troops and mercenaries began arriving in the country to shore up the GNA on Tripoli’s request. On Saturday, President Erdogan confirmed that “several” Turkish troops had been killed in recent fighting, but added that “losses in Haftar’s ranks reached almost a hundred mercenaries.”

    Erdogan did not specify the number of Turkish troops killed, but Sky News Arabia reported Sunday that the losses included up to 16 soldiers and over 100 Syrian mercenaries.

    Fighting between the GNA and the LNA continues despite a ceasefire pledge approved by both sides in Berlin in January. On Thursday, Commander Haftar accused the GNA and Turkey of violating the ceasefire, warning that Libyans had the right to confront Turkish aggression. Last week, the foreign minister of the LNA-supporting Tobruk-based parliament accused Turkey of attempting to “conquer” Libya.

    On Saturday, a senior GNA official told Bloomberg that Tripoli “wouldn’t mind” if the US asked to set up a base in the country to keep the Russians out. The US evacuated its remaining forces from Misrata last year, immediately after Haftar’s troops began the Tripoli operation.”

  11. U.N. Chief Guterres Demands Action on Gender Inequality, Persecution, Climate, and… ‘Killer Robots’ (breitbart, Feb 24, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/02/24/u-n-chief-guterres-demands-action-on-gender-inequality-persecution-climate-and-killer-robots/

    “U.N. chief Antonio Guterres launched a “call to action” Monday, lamenting rising attacks on human rights, the persecution of minorities, “alarming levels of femicide” and a lack of support for climate action as evidence the world must look more closely to the globalist “family” for leadership and guidance.

    “I have come to the Human Rights Council — the fulcrum for international dialogue and cooperation to advance all human rights — to launch a Call to Action,” Guterres said, speaking in broad terms while refusing to name any individual countries’ rights records.

    “Human rights are under assault … People are being left behind. Fears are growing,” he said. “A perverse political arithmetic has taken hold: divide people to multiply votes,” he said, warning that “the rule of law is being eroded”.

    Guterres said civilians were being “trapped in war-torn enclaves, starved and bombarded in clear violation of international law” as well as “human trafficking, affecting every region in the world, preying on vulnerability and despair”.

    He lamented women and girls were being “enslaved, exploited and abused”, “activists jailed, and religious and ethnic minorities groups persecuted.”

    Guterres also spoke out against what he called rising white supremacy, racism and extremism, and cautioned violence against women and girls “as the world’s most pervasive human rights abuse.”

    In an allusion to what are popularly known as “killer robots,” he reiterated his previously stated stance that machines should never be given “lethal capacity outside human judgment or control.”

    “People across the world want to know we are on their side,” Guterres said. “Whether robbed of their dignity by war, repression or poverty, or simply dreaming of a better future, they rely on their irreducible rights – and they look to us to help uphold them.”

    “Human rights — civil, cultural, economic, political and social — are both the goal and the path,” he said.

    This is not the first time Guterres has lamented the state of the world.

    As Breitbart News reported, last June he warned climate-related devastation is striking the planet on a weekly basis and global action must be undertaken immediately with U.N. agencies in the lead or else the earth is doomed.

    “We are here because the world is facing a grave climate emergency,” Guterres told a two-day Abu Dhabi climate meeting ahead of a Climate Action Summit in New York in September.

    “Climate disruption is happening now… It is progressing even faster than the world’s top scientists have predicted,” the U.N. secretary general said. “It is outpacing our efforts to address it. Climate change is running faster than we are.

    “Every week brings new climate-related devastation… floods, drought, heatwaves, wildfires and super storms.””

  12. BBC: Having a Family with Children Supports Slavery (breitbart, Feb 24, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/24/bbc-starting-a-family-first-world-supports-slavery/

    “Deciding to have children in the First World supports slavery, according to a BBC Three segment pushed on social media.

    In a segment for the ‘Blindboy Undestroys the World’ programme on BBC Three, the publicly-funded broadcaster’s youth-oriented channel, the eponymous “Blindboy” tells the viewer: “You think slavery is a thing of the past, but you own slaves”.

    To demonstrate the point, the alleged satirist throws to “A fellow at the Africa department of SOAS [The School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London], Visual sociology researcher at Goldsmiths [University of London], and author of the book Don’t Touch My Hair, and a bleedin’ legend from Dublin, Ireland, Miss Emma Dabiri!”

    Dabiri, who does appear to be a legitimate academic — at least insofar as she does hold posts at SOAS and Goldsmiths — is cast in the role of a host on the mock ‘Modern Slavery Gameshow’, with fictional upper-middle-class social justice warriors Atticus and Jemima going head to head in a battle to see who owns the most slaves.

    The show is at pains to stress that the pair’s very deliberate attempts to live ethical, virtue-signalling lives do not free them of responsibility for slavery.

    Atticus’s woke ‘THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST’ looks like t-shirt earns slavery points for the use of child and forced labour in the production of cheap cotton, as does recycling his rubbish — as a London recycling centre was once found to be employing workers in poor physical condition for £1 an hour illegally.

    Jemima earns by far the most opprobrium, however, when it is revealed that she has a child — which triggers a disapproving foghorn klaxon.

    “You said the magic word: kids!” announces Dabiri, cueing a long harangue from the Irish narrator.

    “Bringing a child into the First World guarantees a beautiful future for people forced into slavery to meet little Quintin’s needs,” he says sarcastically.

    “Toys. Fireworks. Christmas decorations. School uniforms. All have involved modern and child slavery.

    “And if he eats his five [servings of fruit and/or vegetables] a day, Tesco and Asda have accidentally bought vegetables from a firm that had slaves on one of their farms, but we can’t see those people, so who cares?”

    Having children anywhere else in the world was not described as problematic in the skit, however, despite significant differences in birthrates between less developed and more developed nations, where not even hitting replacement-levels of births is now the norm.”

  13. Iran rejects reported Qom death toll of 50 from new virus (abcnews, Feb 24, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-died-virus-total-death-toll-12-69170688

    “A staggering 50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom from the new coronavirus this month, a lawmaker was quoted as saying on Monday, even as the Health Ministry insisted only 12 deaths have been recorded nationwide.

    The new death toll reported by the Qom representative, Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, is significantly higher than the 47 total cases of infections state TV had reported just hours earlier. Iran’s health ministry now says total infections have risen to 61, but a spokesman said deaths remained at 12.

    Still, questions of transparency are being raised as the number of deaths compared to the number of confirmed infections from the virus is higher in Iran than in any other country, including China and South Korea, where the outbreak is far more widespread.

    There are concerns that clusters of the new coronavirus in Iran, as well as in Italy and South Korea, could signal a serious new stage in its global spread…”

  14. Greek island protesters vow to stop new migrant camps (abcnews, Feb 24, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/greek-island-protesters-vow-stop-migrant-camps-69173748

    “Protest groups on three eastern Greek islands have begun setting up blockades aimed at stopping the government from building new migrant detention centers.

    The groups on Lesbos, Chios, and Samos have received broad support on the islands including from municipal authorities and farming associations.

    The government says it is determined to build detention centers on recently appropriated land to replace overcrowded camps on the island — announcing that construction would resume Monday after a brief break for consultation.

    But many islanders fear that new facilities will only increase the number of migrants and refugees after the government failed to deliver on a pledge to ease overcrowding over the winter months.

    “We are guarding the (appropriated) area, and if they start building, everyone here and from the surrounding villages will join the protest — because we don’t want this,” Stephanos Apostolou, a protest organizer and municipal council member from the village of Mandamos on Lesbos, told The Associated Press.”

    • She is a far right libertarian who thinks all taxes are theft, some are but others, most are to pay for the police, fire department and other necessary government agencies.

      She is right about the minimum wage.

  16. Chinese Authorities Seal Entrances to People’s Houses and Forcibly Quarantine Them | #Coronavirus

  18. Car Rams Into Crowd in Kassel, Germany, Injuries Reported (sputniknews, Feb 24, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/202002241078394908-car-rams-into-crowd-in-kassel-germany-injuries-reported/

    “Between 10 and 15 people have been injured in German’s Kassel after a car rammed into a carnival parade, German’s media reported on Monday.

    The driver of a silver Mercedes wagon drove into a crowd on Monday afternoon in the small town of Volkmarsen as the procession moved along Steinweg road.

    According to police, they’ve managed to arrest the driver. Though no official information on casualties has been provided yet, German media reports, citing eyewitnesses that between 10 and 15 people, including small children, have been injured.

    Dozens of ambulances, police and fire services have been dispatched to the scene of the incident.

    As police are conducting an investigation into the incident, it remains unknown whether the driver deliberately drove into the crowd.

    At the same time, German media says, citing witnesses that the driver primarily targeted children and drove some 30 metres into the crowd.

    DETAILS TO FOLLOW”

    • DAILY MAIL – Car ploughs into families at German carnival parade leaving dozens injured: Driver is arrested and taken away by police as crowd try to attack him

      Silver Mercedes drove into crowds celebrating carnival in Volkmarsen, Germany, around 2.30pm Monday
      Dozens of people were left injured, including children, after the car drove into the crowd ‘at full throttle’
      Police said the driver was arrested at the scene but would not say if they believe the incident was deliberate
      Witnesses said the vehicle swerved around safety barriers and appeared to be deliberately targeting children

      […]Witnesses told news site HNA that the car had swerved around safety barriers before driving ‘full throttle’ into the crowd and appeared to be targeting children.

      […]The car drove about 100ft into the crowd and the driver was still accelerating when police pulled him from the vehicle, public broadcaster Hessenschau reported.

      […]Witnesses told Bild that angry locals surrounded the car as the driver was pulled out, and that police had to protect him, as he was arrested.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8038305/12-people-hurt-car-drives-crowd-German-carnival.html

    • BBC _ Car drives into carnival crowd in German town

      A car has been driven into a crowd at a carnival parade in the western German town of Volkmarsen.

      Bild newspaper reports that more than 30 people were injured, though there has been no official confirmation on casualties.

      A police spokesman said the driver had been detained. The motive and nature of the incident remain unclear.

      Eyewitnesses quoted in the German media say the driver accelerated toward the crowd and appeared to target children.

      Local reports say a silver Mercedes drove through plastic barricades set up for the parade and into a group of people at about 14:30 local time (13:30 GMT).

      Images on social media show a car matching that description surrounded by emergency vehicles.

      In a Twitter post, police called on anyone with pictures or videos of the incident to send them to officers, and urged people not to speculate about a motive.

      The incident took place during celebrations for Rosenmontag, or Rose Monday – a carnival day celebrated in some parts of Germany, as well as parts of Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.

      Schools are often closed on the day, although it is not a national holiday in Germany. Authorities have cancelled all carnival parades in Hesse “as a precaution”, police tweeted.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51619353

    • Car Rams Into Crowd in Kassel, Germany, Injuries Reported (sputniknews, Feb 24, 2020)
      https://sputniknews.com/europe/202002241078394908-car-rams-into-crowd-in-kassel-germany-injuries-reported/

      “…Law enforcement officials have also urged eyewitnesses not to publish photos and videos from the scene on social media. Instead, they are advised to transfer the images to the police via official channels. Regional police in North Hesse have asked all parties to refrain from speculation as to the causes of the incident…”

  29. (Richard: The problem is I don’t trust WHO anymore then I trust China.)

    Coronavirus cases spread outside China, but WHO reports turning point in Wuhan

    BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) – Italy, South Korea and Iran reported sharp rises in coronavirus cases on Monday, but China eased curbs as the rate of infection there slowed and a visiting World Health Organization team said a turning point had been reached in the epicenter, Wuhan.

    The virus has put Chinese cities into lockdown in recent weeks, disrupted air traffic to the workshop of the world and blocked global supply chains for everything from cars and car parts to smartphones.
    Report Ad

    But China’s actions, especially in Wuhan, have probably prevented hundreds of thousands of cases, said the head of the WHO delegation in China, Bruce Aylward, urging the rest of the world to learn the lesson of acting fast.

    “The world is in your debt,” Aylward, speaking in Beijing, told the people of Wuhan. “The people of that city have gone through an extraordinary period and they’re still going through it.”

    The surge of cases outside mainland China triggered sharp falls in global share markets and Wall Street stock futures as investors fled to safe havens. European share markets suffered their biggest slump since mid-2016, gold soared to a seven-year high, oil tumbled nearly 4% and the Korean won fell to its lowest level since August.

    https://www.oann.com/global-spread-of-coronavirus-raises-pandemic-fears/

  30. How about that? Chinese study finds coronavirus did not begin in Wuhan seafood market
    By Ben Bowles February 24, 2020

    n case you haven’t checked your investment portfolio this morning, you should. The Dow is down 779 points, or 2.7%, as of this writing, and the S&P and Nasdaq aren’t faring much better. So what’s the culprit for the sharp sell-off implicit in these numbers? As in recent weeks, it is once again fears of the dreaded COVID-19 virus, which over the weekend spread to northern Italy and Austria. Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at BMO Wealth Management, is quoted by MarketWatch as acknowledging that “the [coronavirus spread] definitely injects an element of uncertainty into markets for the near term and for the longer term as well.”

    The good (well, better) news is the report of a new study by Chinese researchers that indicates that the coronavirus may not have originated at a seafood market in Wuhan, as long maintained by the Chinese government. Via the Global Times:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/02/24/how-about-that-chinese-study-finds-coronavirus-did-not-begin-in-wuhan-seafood-market/

    • If Singapore had followed that ChiCom-puppet WHO director’s recommendations, the country would’ve been devastated. Now it seems they’ve turned the corner. (I’m jealous.)
      The CDC is just another political bureaucracy. They, like the WHO, just want money. No accountability. All-around Orange Man Bad.

  31. Liberal Islam or Western Influence? Female Imam Leads Prayer in Paris’ First Mixed Mosque

    Photos of the first female Muslim imam to lead Friday prayer in Paris’ first mixed-gender mosque prompted many angry responses across social media, especially among Arabic-speaking users who argued that her unprecedented prayer “goes against Islamic rules”.

    Kahina Bahloul, the founder of the Fatima Mosque, was born to a Muslim Algerian father and a French mother with Christian and Jewish backgrounds and grew up in Algeria where she studied law before moving back to France where she earned her doctorate in Islamic Studies from the École Pratique des Hautes Études.

    According to Bahloul, the main premise of her mosque that she named after prophet Mohammad’s daughter, is to be an example of liberal Islam.

    At the Fatima mosque, men and women will be able to pray in the same room, unlike other mosques where they pray in separate rooms. Moreover, all sermons will be delivered in French by one of two imams: herself and Faker Korchane. Women will have the option of whether to wear the headscarf or not.

    But news of Bahloul’s first Friday sermon received strong backlash from social media commentators who condemned it and considered it “an un-Islamic prayer,” saying that “only men are allowed to lead prayers in Islam.”

    Meanwhile, many users praised the idea of the mosque and its attempt to create a more equal version of Islamic religious practices so it matches the culture and the values of modern-day societies. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    The Fatima co-ed mosque is the first one in France, but not in Europe. A mosque in Belgium was the first to have a female Imam in 2008 and a liberal mosque was opened in Germany in 2017 with female Imams and preacher

    https://www.albawaba.com/amp/node/liberal-islam-or-western-influence-female-imam-leads-prayer-paris-first-mixed-mosque

  33. Democrats Trying To De-legitimize Trump Reelection

    Posted by Ryan James | Feb 21, 2020 | Politics
    Democrats Trying To De-legitimize Trump Reelection

    The Democrats can’t let the Russia hoax story go. They have spent three years trying to tie President Trump and his campaign to Russian efforts to interfere in our election. The country had to endure two years of non-stop stories about the Mueller investigation and subsequent fallout from the conclusions of his report.

    In all that time, nothing stuck to the president.

    Mueller and his team found no evidence that anyone on the Trump campaign worked with Russia in 2016. However, that conclusion wasn’t sufficient for the Democrats, so as they head into the 2020 election, they are trying to dredge up the fossil of Russian Collusion once again.

    The Democrats and their allies in the media are losing their minds over reports that the Russians actively hope to see Trump reelected…and that the president knows about it. If these reports are to be believed, President Trump supposedly blew up at his Director of National Intelligence for briefing Congress—particularly Adam Schiff—about the Russians’ intention to interfere in the election again to bolster the Trump campaign. Alleged intelligence reports suggest that the Russians want him in office for another four years.

    The Hill reported that the “Feb. 13 briefing by top election security officials at the Office of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to the House Intelligence Committee reportedly prompted Trump to berate now-former acting DNI Joseph Maguire, accusing him of disloyalty for allowing the briefing…

    https://freedomwire.com/democrats-trying-to-delegitimize-trumps-reelection/?utm_source=FRW-Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Daily-Article-Traffic

  36. ICE Should Deport George Soros as a Nazi Collaborator

    It’s time for the Shadow Party’s Godfather to face justice.
    February 24, 2020
    Daniel Greenfield

    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

    The deportation of a Nazi death camp guard from his residence in Queens, New York, in 2018 by ICE was described as the removal of the “last known Nazi collaborator from the United States.”

    That’s not quite true.

    There’s another Nazi collaborator living on Fifth Avenue. He’s a billionaire and untouchable because his dubious fortune has been used to finance the Democrat Party, radical leftists, assorted anti-Semites, and opponents of ICE: the agency that should step in to remove the aged Hungarian from the United States.

    The legal basis for removing Soros is quite clear.

    The Holtzman Amendment states that “Any alien… under the direction of, or in association with… (II) any government in any area occupied by the military forces of the Nazi government of Germany, (III) any government established with the assistance or cooperation of the Nazi government of Germany, or (IV) any government which was an ally of the Nazi government of Germany, ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person because of race, religion, national origin, or political opinion is inadmissible.” It provides grounds for deportation even retroactively.

    https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/ice-should-deport-george-soros-nazi-collaborator-daniel-greenfield

  38. Three Years Ago a FISA Report Confirmed Obama Admin Was Sending FISA Obtained Information on Americans to Non Government Entities We Still Don’t Know Whose Data Was Sent to What Companies

    A stunning April 2017 report from the FISA Court received no publicity until nearly a year after it was released to the public. The report covered results of an investigation or audit into FISA searches made by Obama’s NSA, FBI and DOJ during Obama’s time in office.

    On April 26, 2017, an unsealed FISA Court Ruling unveiled a number of criminal activities that Barack Obama’s FBI, NSA and DOJ participated in during his time in office. The report was actually completed before the 2016 election.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/three-years-ago-a-fisa-report-confirmed-obama-admin-was-sending-fisa-obtained-information-on-americans-to-non-government-entities-we-still-dont-know-whose-data-was-sent-to-what-companies/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily

  39. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/canada-a-dead-country-walking/

    Canada: A Dead Country Walking
    BY DAVID SOLWAY FEBRUARY 24, 2020CHAT COMMENTS

    (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
    Canada is presently in the throes of social and political disintegration. A left-leaning electorate has once again empowered a socialist government promoting all the lunatic ideological shibboleths of the day: global warming or “climate change,” radical feminism, indigenous sovereignty, expansionary government, environmental strangulation of energy production, and the presumed efficiency of totalitarian legislation. Industry and manufacturing are abandoning the country in droves and heading south.

    Canada is now reaping the whirlwind. The Red-Green Axis consisting of social justice warriors, hereditary band chiefs, renewable energy cronies, cultural Marxists, and their political and media enablers have effectively shut down the country. The economy is at a standstill, legislatures and City Halls have been barricaded, blockades dot the landscape, roads and bridges have been sabotaged, trains have been derailed (three crude-by-rail spillages in the last two months), goods are rotting in warehouses, heating supplies remain undelivered, violent protests and demonstrations continue to wreak havoc—and the hapless Prime Minister, who spent a week swanning around Africa as the crisis unfolded, is clearly out of his depth and has no idea how to control the mayhem. No surprise here. A wock pupper politico in thrall to the Marxist project and corporate financial interests, Justin Trudeau is generally baffed out when it comes to any serious or demanding concerns involving the welfare of the people and the economic vitality of the nation. Little is to be expected of him in the current emergency apart from boilerplate clichés and vague exhalations of roseate sentiment.

    Still, Trudeau may have been right about one thing when he told The New York Times that Canada had no core identity—although this is not what a Prime Minister should say in public. Canada was always two “nations,” based on two founding peoples, the French and the English, which novelist Hugh MacLennan famously described as “two solitudes” in his book of that title. But it may be closer to the truth to portray Canada as an imaginary nation which comprises three territories and ten provinces, two of which, Quebec and Newfoundland, cherish a near-majoritarian conception of themselves as independent countries in their own right. Newfoundland narrowly joined Confederation only in 1949 and Quebec held two successive sovereignty referenda that came a hair’s breadth from breaking up the country.

    The latest entry in the exit sweepstakes is oil-rich but hard-done-by Alberta, a province which suffered under the National Energy Program introduced in 1980 by the current PM’s father Pierre Trudeau, and is currently struggling under a concerted left-wing campaign, sponsored by Green-progressivist foundations (American consortiums masking via proxies as Canadian coalitions), clueless Nobel laureates at their virtue-signaling best, and a Liberal government ideologically aligned with the NDP (New Democratic Party) and the Greens, to prevent the development of its vast oil reserves. Alberta has always resented the indifference to and domination of the Canadian West by the so-called Laurentian Elite comprising “the political, academic, cultural, media and business elites” of central Canada. There is now a Wexit movement gathering momentum.

    It might just as plausibly be argued that Canada is composed of a veritable congeries of competing, self-identified mini-nations—English, French, Islamic, Chinese, Sikh, native tribes with multiple patrimonies and unpronounceable names, and sundry political constituencies affiliated with the global left. Contributing factors like indiscriminate immigration from dysfunctional countries, metastasizing socialist doctrine verging on nascent totalitarianism, a state-funded national broadcaster and a deeply compromised print media subsidized by the Liberal government added to the destabilizing brew. Meanwhile, to quote lawyer and former philosophy professor Grant Brown, “the education system invites Extinction Rebellion kooks into the classroom to terrify the children” (personal communication). An army of little Gretas will carry the country-killing revolution even further.

    George Grant’s 1965 Lament for a Nation argued that Canada had ceased to be a nation, having surrendered its identity to the continental thrust of American dynamism and to the historical progress of the “universalist and homogeneous state [as] the pinnacle of political striving.” He goes on to argue that the “impossibility of conservatism in our era is the impossibility of Canada,” especially as the country falls ever more under the sway of “the Canadian establishment and its political instrument, the Liberals.” The book has been extremely controversial and may appear a little dated, shrouded in the mists of nostalgia for “the narrow provincialism and our backwoods culture”—although, no doubt tongue in cheek, suggesting that “Perhaps we should rejoice in the disappearance of Canada.” Lamenting or rejoicing, we are looking at a fait accompli.

    It is often noted that America is a nation evenly divided between progressivist and conservative populations, a civil dilemma not easily resolved. But Canada is divided approximately 65-35 by these constituencies, and if one considers that the federal Conservative Party in its present manifestation can fairly be described as Liberal Lite, the breakdown is more like 95-5. This means there is no chance of reconciliation between our political disparities, such as they are, and Canada is doomed to plummet down the esker of every failed socialist experiment that preceded it and, indeed, that is presently on display in various foundering nations around the globe—North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and counting.
    Trudeau père invoked the War Measures Act in 1970 to quell the Quebec separatist movement, the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ), after a series of bombings and murders. It is obvious that the son has neither the political smarts nor the strength of character to act decisively against those who are busy reducing an already patchwork country into a heap of shards and rubble. And there we find the proof that, whatever Canada may once have been and whatever the talking heads may incessantly proclaim, Canada is no longer a viable political construct. It is a dead country walking.

    ——————————

    David Solway’s latest book is Notes from a Derelict Culture, Black House Publishing, 2019, London. A CD of his original songs, Partial to Cain, appeared in 2019.

  40. The Next Coup Against Trump Has Begun
    As the intelligence agencies for all intents renew Operation Crossfire, it’ll take more than Richard Grenell to ward them off.

    It was inevitable. After the Democrats failed to evict Donald Trump from office through the Mueller investigation and then the ridiculous impeachment over the Zelensky telephone call, they would have to try something else to ruin him before the November election. Rush Limbaugh was the first to predict that they’d go back to the “Russia collusion” narrative, and they have.

    It began with a briefing by then-acting Director of National Intelligence Joe Maguire and one of his aides to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). The briefing, given to both Democrats and Republicans, reportedly informed them that the Russians are interfering in the 2020 election to help President Trump get reelected. In reaction, Trump gave Maguire hell and then removed him, naming one of Trump’s staunchest supporters — U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell — to serve as acting director of national intelligence while remaining in his ambassadorial post.

    Grenell is a bad choice for DNI for reasons we’ll get to in a minute. The important question is what intelligence information and analysis justified this politically explosive and possibly destabilizing briefing.

    When some of the HPSCI members pressed the briefers for evidence to support the claim, there was none to be had. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said he has not been informed of any intelligence that justified the claim.

    https://spectator.org/the-next-coup-against-trump-has-begun/?utm_source=American%20Spectator%20Emails&utm_campaign=016469e4c1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_02_24_04_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_797a38d487-016469e4c1-104523669

  42. Fighting in northwest Syria close to ‘bloodbath’: UN (alarabiya, Feb 24, 2020)
    https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/02/24/Fighting-in-northwest-Syria-close-to-bloodbath-UN-.html

    “Fighting in northwest Syria is coming “dangerously close” to encampments with around a million displaced people, risking an imminent “bloodbath,” the UN said on Monday.

    Mark Cutts, the UN’s Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, also said the UN was trying to double aid deliveries across a border crossing from Turkey from 50 to 100 trucks a day.

    “The fighting is now coming dangerously close to an area where more than a million are living in tents and makeshift shelters,” Cutts told reporters in Geneva.

    Cutts warned there was a risk of “a real bloodbath”….”

  43. Eastern Libyan Lawmakers Will Not Join Geneva Talks (aawsat, Feb 24, 2020)
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2147576/eastern-libyan-lawmakers-will-not-join-geneva-talks

    “Lawmakers based in areas of eastern Libya controlled by Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar said on Monday they would not participate for now in peace talks with politicians allied to the Government of National Accord (GNA).

    The eastern politicians said the United Nations, which is brokering the talks in Geneva, had not approved all the members of their proposed delegation.

    The United Nations had planned to bring together lawmakers from both sides of Libya’s conflict on Wednesday to end the fighting over Tripoli as part of a dialogue encompassing military, political and economic strands, reported Reuters.

    GNA chief Fayez al-Sarraj meanwhile described Haftar as a “war criminal” and demanded that he withdraw his forces threatening the capital.

    “Children have lost their right to education due to the shelling and the closure of schools because of the attacker and those who fund the attacker and provide weapons, these must be held accountable,” Sarraj said at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

    The GNA, which nearly walked out of the Geneva talks last week, blamed Haftar’s forces for shelling Tripoli’s port shortly after the negotiations got underway.

    Senior military figures on both sides on Sunday agreed to submit a draft ceasefire agreement to their leaderships before meeting again next month, the UN Libya mission, UNSMIL, said in a statement.

    The eastern lawmakers refused to take part in Wednesday’s talks as UNSMIL had approved only eight of their 13 delegates, Ahmaida Erouhma, head of the Geneva committee at the eastern parliament, told reporters in the eastern city of Benghazi.

    UNSMIL spokesman Jean El Alam said the talks would go ahead as scheduled but declined to comment specifically on the participation of either side.

    “Many participants have already arrived in Geneva and we hope all invited participants follow suit,” he said.

    The two sides have so far been seated in separate rooms, with UN envoy Ghassan Salame shuttling between them.”