Reader’s Links for March 10, 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

91 Replies to “Reader’s Links for March 10, 2020”

  1. “Undercover agent: Michigan mosques promoting child marriage, openly campaigning for Bernie Sanders” Leo Hohmann – March 9, 2020
    https://leohohmann.com/2020/03/09/undercover-agent-michigan-mosques-promoting-child-marriage-openly-campaigning-for-bernie-sanders/

    America’s Civil War Rising – 2 video playlist
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM7_iNmaRUfHlOVCVtr6bmQwqjvf8EaPm

    America’s Civil War Rising – ACWR
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQC1769aCw_Y7Aunse6WtoQ/videos

  6. Bracing calculations by an engineer on Wuhan. No joking matter at all. Exponential expansion. This is from a website devoted to understanding the meaning of gold in our world economy. More particularly something called Freegold. This is a likely-coming paradigm where gold is used for saving, and fiat as an efficient medium of exchange. I urge all to go back to the beginning and give a read. It will take considerable time to digest, perhaps months, but it will change your outlook on the meaning of money, and it does describe the rumble under foot:

    http://fofoa.blogspot.com/?m=1

  10. If you want to make yourself sick read the comments
    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/sex-slavery-an-islamic-state-or-just-an-islamic-institution/

    Sex Slavery: An Islamic State—or Just an Islamic—Institution?
    BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM MARCH 9, 2020CHAT COMMENTS

    19th-century engraving depicting a Muslim slave-trading caravan transporting black African slaves across the Sahara. (Public Domain)
    Is the sexual enslavement of non-Muslim women an Islamic State idea or merely an Islamic idea?

    First, lest there is any doubt that ISIS members were not only convinced that it was their Islamic right to sexually enslave “infidels,” but that doing so was pious, consider this account from 2015: “In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old [non-Muslim] girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin. Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted.” “He said that by raping me,” recalled the 12-year-old, “he is drawing closer to God.”

    “Every time that he came to rape me, he would pray,” explained another girl, aged 15. “He said that raping me is his prayer to God. I said to him, ‘What you’re doing to me is wrong, and it will not bring you closer to God.’ And he said, ‘No, it’s allowed. It’s halal.’”

    Such claims are of course consistent with a Q&A pamphlet on the topic published by the Islamic State in 2015:

    Question 1: What is al-sabi?
    Al-Sabi is a woman from among ahl al-harb [the “people of war,” meaning un-subjugated non-Muslims] who has been captured by Muslims.

    Question 2: What makes al-sabi permissible?

    What makes al-sabi permissible [i.e., what makes it permissible to take such a woman captive] is [her] unbelief. Unbelieving [women] who were captured and brought into the abode of Islam are permissible to us, after the imam distributes them [among us].

    Question 3: Can all unbelieving women be taken captive?

    There is no dispute among the scholars that it is permissible to capture unbelieving women [who are characterized by] original unbelief [kufr asli], such as the kitabiyat [women from among the People of the Book, i.e., Jews and Christians] and polytheists. However, [the scholars] are disputed over [the issue of] capturing apostate women. The consensus leans toward forbidding it, though some people of knowledge think it permissible. We [ISIS] lean toward accepting the consensus….

    Question 4: Is it permissible to have intercourse with a female captive?

    It is permissible to have sexual intercourse with the female captive. Allah the almighty said: “[Successful are the believers] who guard their chastity, except from their wives or (the captives and slaves) that their right hands possess, for then they are free from blame [Koran 23:5–6].”

    Question 5: Is it permissible to have intercourse with a female captive immediately after taking possession [of her]?

    If she is a virgin, he [her master] can have intercourse with her immediately after taking possession of her. However, if she isn’t, her uterus must be purified [first]….

    An important question arises at this juncture: Are these beliefs based on ISIS’s own interpretation of Islam—as we are repeatedly told by the “experts”—or are they based on standard Islamic teachings?

    Evidence clearly indicates the latter. Most recently, for instance, on February 2, 2020, Reuters reported that “The man shot dead by police after wounding two people in a stabbing spree on a busy London street… described Yazidi women as slaves and said the Koran made it permissible to rape them.” A few weeks earlier, in late December, African migrants in Paris “repeatedly cited Allah, the Koran, and Mecca,” while raping a minor girl in Paris (original). One can go on and on; consider just the following quotes limited to the ongoing sex-grooming scandals in the UK:

    “Muslim abusers quoted Qur’an as they beat me,” said one of countless rape victims.
    “The men who did this to me have no remorse,” said another victim of her Muslim rapists. “They would tell me that what they were doing was OK in their culture.”
    A Muslim convicted of rape confessed that sharing non-Muslim girls for sex was “a religious requirement.”
    None of these men were ISIS members; they were just Muslims. If they shared the same outlook concerning the sexual bondage of non-Muslim women, that is because Islam—not the Islamic State, a byproduct—promotes it.

    Here, for example, is how the late American professor Majid Khadduri (1909-2007), “internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on Islamic law and jurisprudence,” politely touched on the topic—and only in the past tense, as if to say this is how Muslims once behaved but no longer. From his War and Peace in the Law of Islam:

    The term spoil ( ghanima) is applied specifically to property acquired by force from non-Muslims. It includes, however, not only property (movable and immovable) but also persons, whether in the capacity of asra (prisoners of war) or sabi (women and children). … If the slave were a woman, the master was permitted to have sexual connection with her as a concubine.
    “Spoils of war” is certainly correct. As one human rights activist said while discussing a Muslim man’s rape of a 9-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan: “Such incidents occur frequently. Christian girls are considered goods to be damaged at leisure. Abusing them is a right. According to the community’s mentality it is not even a crime. Muslims regard them as spoils of war.”

    Moreover, seeing and treating non-Muslim women as “spoils of war” is not just limited to the words of old religious texts or “extremist” groups. It was a primary feature of—and often motivation for—over a millennium of war on the non-Muslim world (15 million Europeans alone were enslaved, many—including men and boys—for sexual purposes).

    All this is also a reminder that ISIS should not be instantly rejected—as it always is by the Western establishment—as an authority on Islamic topics. Indeed, and as the rest of its Q&A pamphlet on sex slavery makes clear, ISIS so meticulously follows the arcane minutia of sharia as to maintain an odd veneer of “morality”—there are a number of restrictions—and even goes so far as to indicate that freeing slaves is a virtuous act (Q&A 27).

    The real difference between ISIS and other Muslims is that the former is, refreshingly, very forthright concerning the teachings of Islam (as when they made clear that their hate for the Western world is based on sharia, not grievances, even though the latter paradigm has long worked as a cover for Islamic terror groups, as al-Qaeda well knew).

    I am reminded of an old Arabic language program, where the hostess asked two prominent Muslim clerics: “According to sharia, is slave-sex still applicable?” The two ulema refused to give a clear answer — dissembling here, going off on tangents there. When she pressed the issue, one of the clerics stormed off the set. He eventually returned, and the hostess politely explained her incessant questioning: “Ninety percent of Muslims, including myself, do not understand the issue of sex slavery in Islam and are having a hard time swallowing it,” she implored, to which the sheikh closed the matter by replying, “You don’t need to understand!”

    At any rate, from here it becomes clear why so many Muslim men—above and beyond ISIS card-carrying members—see and treat “infidel” women in Europe and elsewhere as “pieces of meat.” As the all-important answer to the third question in the ISIS pamphlet correctly states: “There is no dispute among the scholars that it is permissible to capture unbelieving women [who are characterized by] original unbelief [kufr asli, meaning they were born as non-Muslims], such as the kitabiyat [women from among the People of the Book, i.e., Jews and Christians] and polytheists.”

    Such is the impact of the Islamic “sacrament” captured in Koran (4:3; 23: 5-6, etc.): all non-Muslim women—be they atheists, Christians, Jews, polytheists, Wiccans et al.—are free game for abducting and enslaving. They exist, quite simply, for the “pleasure of Muslim men,” as a would-be rapist once told a reluctant Christian girl before murdering her.

    • Any time a Muslim says that this is not ‘real Islam’, point out that there are many sects of Christianity.

      Each Christian sect has a very different interpretation of the Christian scriptures and doctrines – but that does not make them any less Christian than any other sects.

      The same goes for Islam: different sects may have doctrinal interpretation differences, but that does not make them any less Muslim than any other sects.

      Prefacing it with the Christian bit is essential for this factual statement to sink in.

  14. Many Singapore COVID-19 cases due to ‘socially irresponsible’ behaviour of a few: Health Minister

  16. S. Korea’s US$ 10 bil. extra budget to fight COVID-19 to pick up country’s overall growth rate

  17. All of Italy on lockdown; New study examines possibility of aerosol transmission of coronavirus

  18. Are WHO Findings Trustworthy? Widespread Lab Animal Sale in China? Who is Patient Zero?

    • Finally the conservative media are starting to push back against the propaganda about how Biden, the Clintons and the Obama’s are moderates. They aren’t moderate about anything they are as radical as Bernie and his followers are, they just believe in the Long March Through The System instead of one big violent push. The people who believe in the stealth approach have lost and the violent side of Marxism have won, When the voters reject the agenda of the Dems the violent groups are going to turn to open violence and try to take over the US by force.

  21. Russian parliament vote to let Putin rule for life

    The Russian president told parliament he’d be open for running again if the Constitution Court approves

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/10/russian-parliament-vote-letting-putin-rule-life/

    ====================================================
    Putin could rule Russia until 2036 under proposed constitutional reforms

    https://www.axios.com/vladimir-putin-russia-president-2036-constitutional-reform-0c43e800-3ac6-45e2-a87e-3835149e1280.html

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

    NYT -Putin Endorses Legislation Enabling Him to Run for President Again

    Citing the need for stability, the Russian leader said he should be allowed to seek two more terms, if the Constitutional Court agrees.

    […]The president is the guarantor “of the security of our state, of its internal stability — its internal, evolutionary stability,” Mr. Putin said. “And I mean evolutionary. We’ve had enough revolutions.”

    […]At the end of his speech, Mr. Putin addressed the Russian people, saying: “I’m sure that together, we will do many more great things, at least until 2024. Then, we will see.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/world/europe/putin-president-russia.html

  22. Stocks savaged, Italy on lockdown, Trump seeks to reassure as coronavirus spreads

    ROME (Reuters) – All of Italy under lockdown, reeling financial markets and rioting prisoners made clear on Monday how the global coronavirus epidemic was extending its reach into all aspects of social and economic life.

    Major European stock markets dived more than 7%, Japanese indexes fell over 5% and U.S. markets sank over 7% after Saudi Arabia launched an oil price war with Russia that sent investors already spooked by the coronavirus epidemic running for the exits.

    https://www.oann.com/europe-told-to-act-now-as-coronavirus-locks-down-north-italy-and-markets-plunge/

  23. Bernie’s newest campaign adviser wants to abolish prisons, floated 9/11 conspiracy theory
    By Daily Caller News Foundation March 9, 2020

    Democratic 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has hired Phillip Agnew as a campaign adviser, promoting an individual who supports the abolishment of prisons and has a history of making inflammatory comments.

    The Sanders campaign announced on Saturday that Agnew — who was already serving as a top campaign surrogate — has been hired on as a senior adviser. Agnew notably works as a co-director for Dream Defenders, a far-left group that advocates for the abolishment of prisons and police, the end of capitalism, and supports open borders.

    “I am excited to welcome Phillip to our team,” Sanders said in a Saturday press release. “He is a gifted organizer and one of his generation’s most critical voices on issues of race and inequity.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/03/09/bernies-newest-campaign-adviser-wants-to-abolish-prisons-floated-9-11-conspiracy-theory/

  24. Large Number of North Africans Among Migrants on Greek Border (breitbart, Mar 10, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/10/large-number-north-africans-among-migrants-greek-border/

    “While some of the migrants gathered on the Greek border are from Syria, a French broadcaster has revealed that many are actually from countries in North Africa which are not in a state of war at all.

    Migrants from countries like Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria are said to be numerous among the other nationalities gathered at the border after the Turkish government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the gates to Europe.

    French broadcaster BFMTV spoke to a group of Moroccan migrants at the border in Edirne who claimed they were not seeking asylum but rather were looking for money and better job prospects in Europe.

    “We saw on Whatsapp and Facebook messages that say the doors are open between Turkey and Greece,” one of the Moroccans said and added: “So we came to try to go to France, or to Germany. We have nothing in Morocco, no work, no money, I don’t want to stay at home doing nothing.”

    Another Moroccan, named Samir, said that he had been injured by Greek border guards but said that he would try and storm the border again saying: “Even if it costs my life.”

    The reportage from the French publication comes as the Greek government claimed that just four per cent of the ‘refugees’ that had breached the border so far were Syrians, with Afghans being the largest group at 64 per cent. Even Turks fleeing Turkey were a larger group than Syrians at 5 per cent.

    During the height of the migrant crisis in 2015 many of those coming into Europe, particularly to Germany, were revealed to be North Africans.

    While most North Africans have their asylum claims rejected, as most come from countries that are already deemed to be safe, few who are rejected in Germany are actually deported.

    A 2017 report from the German government claimed that of the 8,363 migrants from North Africa who were rejected for asylum claims, just 368 were actually deported in 2016.

    North African asylum seekers have also been overrepresented in crime in many countries such as the Netherlands where one in five is recently suspected of participation in crime, according to a 2018 report.”

  25. Greek Government: Only Four Per Cent of ‘Refugees’ Breaching Border Are Syrian (breitbart, Mar 10, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/10/greek-government-only-four-per-cent-of-refugees-breaching-border-are-syrian/

    “Just four per cent of the supposed refugees who have breached the Greek border in recent days are Syrians, according to the Greek government.

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Islamist president of Turkey, claimed he was opening his borders to Europe in response to the threat of a fresh wave of refugees from Syria — despite the fact his reason for invading the north of the country was, ostensibly, to carve out a safe zone for Syrian refugees to be settled in.

    However, the Greek government reports that only a small minority of the migrants who have breached their border defences since Erdogan “opened the gates” are Syrian — and even then many are said to be people long-established in Turkey, not new migrants fleeing the fighting between Turkey, its jihadist rebel clients, and the Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian government.

    The vast majority of the migrants detained in Greece, the government claims, are actually Afghans, comprising 64 per cent of the total.

    Migrants from Pakistan account for almost a fifth of detainees, at 19 per cent, with migrants from Turkey itself in third place, at 5 per cent.

    Syrians are said to be in a distant fourth place, at just four per cent, followed by Somali migrants at 2.6 per cent, with migrants from countries across Asia and Africa including Iraq, Iran, Ethiopia, Morocco, Bangladesh, and Egypt accounting collectively for 5.4 per cent.

    The Turkish government disputes the Greek government’s numbers, however, suggesting that well over a hundred thousand migrants have reached Europe, and not only a few hundred as the Greeks suggest.

    Erdogan’s decision to “open the gates” to Europe is widely regarded as a form of punishment for European governments’ lack of sufficient report, as he sees it, for the Turkish invasion of Syria, and was taken after a number of Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike mounted by either the Syrian government or its Russian allies.

    Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has insisted that “Europe is not going to be blackmailed by Turkey” and that his government has “every right to protect our sovereign borders”, which is also part of the common external border of the European Union’s frontierless Schengen Area.

    Officially, the European Union is backing Greece — although the rhetoric from some of the bloc’s more left-liberal members has not always been helpful, with the millennial feminist-led Finnish government having branded Greece’s decision to suspend asylum applications while the crisis is ongoing “wrong”.”

  26. EXCLUSIVE: Wet’suwet’en Chief Frank Alec beats wife, negotiates with feds

  27. Gates-funded program will soon offer home-testing kits for new coronavirus

    Testing for the novel coronavirus in the Seattle area will get a huge boost in the coming weeks as a project funded by Bill Gates and his foundation begins offering home-testing kits that will allow people who fear they may be infected to swab their noses and send the samples back for analysis.

    Results, which should be available in one to two days, will be shared with local health officials who will notify those who test positive. Via online forms, infected people can answer questions about their movements and contacts, making it easier for health officials to locate others who may need to be tested or quarantined, as well as to track the virus’ spread and identify possible hot spots.

    The goal is to eventually be able to process thousands of tests a day, said Scott Dowell, leader of coronavirus response at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project is ramping up as quickly as possible, but it’s not clear exactly when it will launch, he added. Among other things, software needs to be upgraded to handle the expected crush of requests, and a detailed questionnaire finalized for people who request tests.

    “Although there’s a lot to be worked out, this has enormous potential to turn the tide of the epidemic,” Dowell said.

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/gates-funded-program-will-soon-offer-home-testing-kits-for-new-coronavirus/

  28. Iran: ‘Zionists Developed the Coronavirus’ (breitbart, Mar 10, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/03/09/iran-zionists-developed-the-coronavirus/

    “Having already speculated that the coronavirus is an American-made biological weapon, the Iranian regime took the next natural step over the weekend and claimed the disease was created by “Zionists” who want to start a war with Iran.

    The Jerusalem Post noted that Iran’s state-run PressTV “has been pushing antisemitic conspiracies about the coronavirus to distract from the mullah regime’s mishandling of the pandemic.”

    The conspiracies are coming straight from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization and one of the most powerful forces in Iranian economics, politics, and foreign policy:

    On March 5, Press TV claimed that “Zionist elements developed a deadlier strain of coronavirus against Iran.” Although the report claimed to reference a foreign “academic,” it fits the pattern of Iran using foreign experts to give the regime’s own views a patina of authority. The agenda of Tehran has been three-fold since the coronavirus outbreak began to affect Iran in mid-February. Iran initially denied that there was a virus outbreak so that it could increase voter turnout for the February 21 election.

    …

    In late February, it turned out that some of Iran’s leading politicians and key insiders were infected because the virus had spread from the holy city of Qom to Tehran. To make up for the initial cover-up, the regime shifted its narrative to blaming US sanctions for its inability to control the virus. Already regime leaders were beginning to compare the virus to sanctions.

    Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had first downplayed the virus, claiming that like sanctions, it looked worse than it was. Then on March 7, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif argued that the sanctions had “drained Iran’s resources needed in the fight against” the virus. He called it “medical terrorism.”

    However, the IRGC had other ideas. Its leader, Hossein Salami, began telling people the virus was “biological warfare” derived from the US. “We are now dealing with a biological war,” he said on March 5. He argued it “may be the product of American biological warfare.”

    The IRGC’s narrative quickly became Press TV’s talking point. An article on the homepage on March 8 links to the claim that the US is waging “biological warfare” and also cites an article that argues Israel is behind the virus. According to this article, a “former CIA officer” has argued that “the US and Israel are working together.”

    The Iranian regime has a great deal to distract its people from. As the Jerusalem Post mentioned, the regime’s determination to plow ahead with questionable elections in the crucial early days of the outbreak is certainly one of the reasons it spread so quickly through Iran.

    The Atlantic on Monday was one of many outside observers to assume Iran is lying about how many coronavirus cases it has, in the hope of containing public fear and anger. Both the number of mortalities and the number of highly visible public figures who have contracted the virus in Iran are much too high for the roughly 7,000 cases it has admitted to:

    If COVID-19 is so rare—fewer than 400 cases had been reported in Iran by the day she announced her diagnosis—what are the chances that one of the afflicted would be a famous politician? Soon we learned of three other senior officials who not only contracted the virus but were killed by it: Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of a senior advisory council to Iran’s supreme leader, and Hossein Sheikholeslam and Hadi Khosrowshahi, both former high-level diplomats. Mohammad Sadr, another member of the council, announced his infection last week, as did Ebtekar’s fellow cabinet member Reza Rahmani. Recently, the speaker of parliament said 23 of his fellow members of parliament had tested positive. Two of them, Mohammad Ali Ramezani (February 29) and Fatemeh Rehber (March 7), have died.

    That’s a lot of tainted apples, statistically speaking. Why would Iran lie? On February 21, Iran conducted the latest in a series of sham elections in which only government-selected candidates could run for office. To show disapproval, many Iranians refuse to vote, and as participation has dropped, the appearance of electoral legitimacy has dropped as well. Iran’s government told its people that the United States had hyped COVID-19 to suppress turnout, and Tehran vowed to punish anyone spreading rumors about a serious epidemic. Forty-three percent of Iranians voted, unaware that the outbreak had already begun. Quick action could have allowed quarantines to be put in place. Instead Iran greased its own path toward the most catastrophic outbreak in modern history.

    Other indicators that the Iranian regime is concealing a large number of coronavirus cases are the rates of infection noted in travelers from Iran, the high number of Iranian hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients, and the number of responses to an online survey conducted by the government. All of those indicators suggest nearly ten times as many cases as Iran has admitted to.

    The situation depicted on Iranian social media looks much worse than the government’s estimates as well, with correspondents describing overflowing hospital wards and frightened villagers throwing up roadblocks to halt refugees from the major outbreak cities.

    The Hill ran an op-ed by former CIA operations officer Charles Faddis on Saturday that charged Iran with being just as “deceitful” as the Chinese, but with far less “capacity to take real action”:

    The Iranian government was aware many weeks ago that it had a problem on its hands, but paranoid and determined at all times to project a false image of invincibility, it did what it typically does. It lied. It covered up. It avoided taking any action that might suggest that it was anything less than infallible.

    Flights to and from China continued unabated. Pilgrims to Shia shrines were allowed to move freely as if their piety would protect them from illness. The holy city of Qom, epicenter of the virus in Iran, remains crowded with worshippers. They are jammed into crowded, unsanitary conditions, coughing, sneezing and exchanging germs by licking holy shrines in hope the epidemic will spare them.

    “Mismanagement, religious fanaticism and terror are a lethal combination,” Faddis observed.

    Sunday was Iran’s deadliest day since the outbreak began, with 49 deaths reported, assuming the government figures can be trusted. Iran’s biggest holiday, Nowruz or Persian New Year, is approaching, raising concerns about public depression or anger if celebrations are canceled.

    Israel’s Haaretz on Monday sardonically suggested the Iranian regime can at least be thankful that its subjects are too sick and frightened to hit the streets for more mass protests. A few hardy souls have demonstrated against the “Mullahs’ virus” and the “guilt of the Iranian regime” despite the panic.”

  29. Aid Groups Sound Alarm on Potential Chinese Coronavirus Outbreak in Syria (breitbart, Mar 10, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/03/10/aid-groups-sound-alarm-on-potential-chinese-coronavirus-outbreak-in-syria/

    “Aid agencies in war-torn northwestern Syria began moving to contain the outbreak of the Chinese coronavirus across the region Monday amid growing fears that the large numbers of people and the ravaged health infrastructure make prevention an effectively impossible task.

    Syria has yet to confirm any cases of the coronavirus, although the risk of an epidemic remains extremely high, particularly in the country’s northwest, where there are at least three million displaced people. Around one million of those people have arrived since December after the Russian-backed regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad launched its offensive on Idlib, leading to further displacement.

    This risk was confirmed by World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman Hedinn Halldorsson, who pointed out that Syria’s “fragile health systems may not have the capacity to detect and respond” to an outbreak. Part of the collapse of the region’s health system is because medical facilities are regularly targeted by the regime as a way of undermining the living conditions of the entire region.

    Halldorsson told the AFP that as the WHO is unable to provide assistance from Assad-controlled parts of Syria, they are instead providing cross-border assistance to rebel-held Idlib through Turkey. She added that they are training health personnel while “laboratories in both Idlib and Ankara are being prepared and stocked to safely test and diagnose the virus.”

    Misty Buswell of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) shared the view that the situation in Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in the country, was “especially ripe for a spread” of coronavirus.

    “An outbreak would be devastating for thousands whose health status is already compromised due to lack of sufficient food, clean water and exposure to cold weather,” she said, adding that the IRC would work with “local health actors” to respond to any potential outbreak.

    Last week, U.S. representative to the United Nations Kelly Craft and U.S. Special Envoy James Jeffrey visited Idlib and pledged $108 million in aid for Syrian civilians. Craft said the money was reserved for “the people of Syria in response to the ongoing crisis caused by Assad regime, Russian, and Iranian forces,” and it is currently unclear as to whether it will be employed for anti-coronavirus efforts, given many of the detection tools are very expensive.

    Amid a rising number of cases across the Middle East, the Assad regime in Damascus also announced a one-month suspension in air and land travels with neighboring countries Jordan and Iraq, including visits intended religious tourism. A further two-month suspension has also been imposed on countries that have declared a coronavirus epidemic on their territory.

    Medical experts have reported 114,220 coronavirus cases across 112 countries. The majority of cases are in China followed by South Korea, Italy, and Iran. At least 62,834 individuals have allegedly made a full recovery, while a further 4,005 have died as a result.”

  30. Paris: Fake Police Using Anti-Burqa Laws to ‘Fine’ Chinese Students Wearing Masks (breitbart, Mar 10, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/10/paris-fake-police-using-anti-burqa-laws-to-fine-chinese-students-wearing-masks/

    “The Chinese embassy in Paris has lodged complaints, stating that Chinese nationals have been scammed with fake fines by fraudsters pretending to be enforcing Islamic veil laws on those wearing masks.

    The embassy claimed that Chinese students wearing medical masks were asked to hand over 150 euros by “police” who they later confirmed with officials in the Paris police were criminals pretending to be officers.

    “After checking with the French police and justice, these are criminals posing as police. Wearing a mask for health reasons is absolutely not illegal,” the embassy said in an official statement, Le Parisien reports…”

  31. Democrat civility: Biden loses it, tells factory worker ‘you’re full of s–t’ when questioned about gun control

    Video shared by reporters on Biden’s tour of the Detroit auto plant shows the former vice president surrounded by workers as he argues face to face with a man in a hard hat and an orange high-visibility vest.

    The worker accuses Biden of “actively trying to end our Second Amendment right.”

    Biden immediately responds: “You’re full of s—.” Later on he calls the worker a ‘horse’s ass.’

    https://www.gopusa.com/?p=85901?omhide=true

  32. Europe Under Siege

    Barbarians are storming the gates, but Europeans still won’t pull in the welcome mat.
    March 10, 2020
    Bruce Bawer

    In 1683 a massive army of the Ottoman Empire laid siege to the Christian city of Vienna. After two months, an allied force that consisted of men from all over the Holy Roman Empire and from other central European states, including Hungary, and that was led by John III Sobieski, the King of Poland and Lithuania, turned the Ottoman soldiers back, preventing the potential Islamization of the continent.

    In recent days, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of the Ottoman Empire’s successor state, Turkey, has unleashed thousands of Muslims, mostly young males of military age, upon the European Union, today’s not-so-holy but increasingly imperial reincarnation of the Holy Roman Empire. More specifically, Erdogan, in violation of an agreement with the EU that netted him billions, has allowed – and encouraged – these people, who have been routinely described in the Western media as “refugees” and “migrants,” to storm the border separating his country from the EU’s southeasternmost satrapy, Greece. Indeed, he’s lent them active support, providing many of them with free transport to the border, which they’ve attacked with rocks, “makeshift battering rams,” and tear-gas canisters (supplied by Ergodan) while setting fires and shouting “Allahu akbar!” Photos taken at the border underscore just how perverse it is to call these thugs “refugees” or “migrants.”

    https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/europe-under-siege-bruce-bawer-0

  33. The U.S. Census, Illegals – and Counting Congressional Seats

    The real reason a state like California treats its illegal immigrants with so much respect.
    March 10, 2020
    Bruce Hendry

    Editors’ note: Below is Part 5 of a new essay written by Bruce Hendry: Democrats, Progressives and Socialists. Stay tuned for the ensuing chapters. [See links to previous chapters below this article].

    10. The U.S. Census.

    The U.S. census is held every 10 years in order to count people, not citizens, and to then allocate congressional seats based on the count.

    There are at least 22 million legal non-citizens and 12 million illegal immigrants in our country or 10.4% of our population of 330 million. They are all non-citizens who will be counted in the census for the purpose of reallocating the 435 U.S. House seats. This means that 34 U.S. congressional seats will be attributed to non-citizens. Minnesota, by comparison, gets just eight congressional seats.

    This system of counting helps sanctuary states like California gain more congressional seats than if only citizens were counted because of their large illegal alien populations. No wonder California treats their illegal immigrants with such respect, as those illegals get them additional congressional house seats and all of the power and Federal money that comes along with those seats.

    At different times in our past, a question on citizenship has been included on the census, but when the Commerce Department announced plans to ask that question on the 2020 census it brought a storm of left-wing protests and lawsuits from New York State and California to stop that question from being asked.

    https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/us-census-illegals-and-counting-congressional-bruce-hendry

  34. FACT CHECK: Hillary Clinton Falsely Claims Credit for Defeating SARS Epidemic

    On CNN, where an apple is always a banana, and vice versa, Hillary Clinton falsely claimed credit for defeating the SARS outbreak.

    “The SARS epidemic, which happened at the very beginning of the Obama administration, because I was secretary of state at the time, really was a full-court press by the administration to be sure that at every level, not only national, state, and local, but globally, the United States was part of the response,” Hillary Clinton falsely told CNN.

    The SARS epidemic took place between 2002 and 2004. Not only wasn’t Hillary Clinton serving as Secretary of State, but the Bush administration was actually responding to the SARS epidemic.

    This false claim was one of a series made by Hillary Clinton, who had previously falsely claimed that she tried to join the Marines and NASA, that she had come under fire at an airport in the former Yugoslavia, and that she had been instrumental in negotiating peace in Northern Ireland.

    https://cms.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/03/fact-check-hillary-clinton-falsely-claims-credit-daniel-greenfield

  35. Iran: The Mullahs’ Coronavirus Lies
    Majid Rafizadeh

    After China, the Islamic Republic of Iran has emerged as the second focal point of coronavirus, and thanks to the ruling mullahs’ lies and cover-ups, Tehran is spreading it to the rest of the planet. Pictured: A sanitary worker disinfects Qom’s Masumeh shrine on February 25, 2020. (Photo by Mehdi Marizad/Fars News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)

    Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently called the coronavirus a “blessing.” After China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, its ally, has emerged as the second focal point of coronavirus, and thanks to the ruling mullahs’ lies and cover-ups, Tehran is spreading it to the rest of the planet.

    The Iranian authorities at first claimed that the country was not experiencing a crisis regarding the coronavirus: that no one in Iran had contracted the disease. Soon, however, leaked information disclosed that top Iranian officials were aware of the coronavirus in Iran but had decided to conceal the truth.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15698/iran-coronavirus-lies

  36. Obama-era DHS official indicted for identity theft, fraud

    March 8, 2020

    A man who worked as acting inspector general in President Barack Obama’s U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was indicted along with a subordinate Friday over a plot to steal government databases and records and use them for his own private business, according to a Justice Department press release.

    Charles Edwards was acting inspector general (IG) at the DHS from 2011 to 2013. He and subordinate Murali Yamazula Venkata are facing conspiracy to commit theft of government property and to defraud the United States, theft of government property, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft charges, the release noted.

    https://www.conservativeinstitute.org/conservative-news/obama-official-indicted-fraud.htm?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=obama-official-indicted-fraud

  41. Texas AG Ken Paxton on the Google Antitrust Probe & Combating Human Trafficking, Opioids [CPAC 2020]

  44. “Coronavirus ‘worse than a bomb’ on Italy, says doctor coordinating response”
    Channel 4 News – March 10, 2020

  45. Washington, DC universities are closing in areas with less than 10 covid cases — is speed related to incidence? Would this have happened so fast if Trump had been found guilty?

    Can’t both be right — is there a basis or not in self-quarantining AIPAC conference attendees? Either the risk is like the measles airplane scenario (aerosol) or it’s like the flu sneeze-on-me (droplet) one. Why don’t we know by now?
    https://campusadvisories.gwu.edu/update-no-identified-risk-conference-attendees 30 students
    http://thetowerlight.com/tu-student-in-self-quarantine-from-potential-coronavirus-exposure/ something like 9 students and staff
    On the plus side, I’ve noticed that all ladies are now washing their hands after using the loo.

    • The synagogue at the center of #COVID19 #coronavirus #WestchesterCoronavirus
      https://twitter.com/RaySin49835625/status/1237518040868274178

      Gov. Cuomo figures he needs the Nat’l Guard to “contain” the Young Israel community (responsible for the plague).

      But the NYC index-case patient – yes, from the New Rochelle YI – spent FOUR DAYS at NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, N.Y. before he was tested. He came in diagnosed with pneumonia.
      ……duh……

      Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker Declares State Of Emergency Due To Coronavirus

      BOSTON (CBS) – Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker declared a State of Emergency on Tuesday due to the ongoing concerns about coronavirus. Baker made the announcement during a press conference at the State House.
      https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/03/10/coronavirus-latest-massachusetts-governor-charlie-baker-state-of-emergency/
      …..
      This is a good move. It would be better if we had sufficient test kits, accurate ones.

      • NY governor sends National Guard to virus ‘containment area’ around synagogue

        Schools, houses of worship and large gathering places will be shuttered for two weeks in a “containment area” centered in suburban New Rochelle, the heart of what appears to be the nation’s biggest cluster of cases of the coronavirus…

        The state will send National Guard troops to help clean surfaces and deliver food in the area, a 1-mile-radius (1.6 km) around a point near a synagogue connected to some existing cases, Cuomo said….

        New Rochelle is at the center of an outbreak of 108 cases in Westchester County, out of 173 statewide as of Tuesday. New York City has 36 cases, while its population is more than 100 times that of New Rochelle.

        The rabbi of the New Rochelle Young Israel Synagogue, who also teaches two undergraduate classes at Yeshiva University’s Washington Heights campus, detailed his experience after testing positive for the coronavirus.…

        [A Yeshiva University] student and his family were confirmed to carry COVID-19. The student’s father was in intensive care due to the disease, according to local news reports, becoming the first to be hospitalized in the state.

        Hundreds of members of the stricken family’s synagogue, Young Israel of New Rochelle, were ordered into quarantine after his diagnosis.…
        https://www.timesofisrael.com/ny-governor-sends-national-guard-to-virus-containment-area-around-synagogue/

  49. PM: Algeria Faces ‘Unprecedented’ Multi-Dimensional Crisis
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2173281/pm-algeria-faces-unprecedented-multi-dimensional-crisis

    “Algeria’s prime minister said on Tuesday the country faced an unprecedented “multi-dimensional crisis” and urged people to make fewer demands of the government and reduce their street presence.

    The comments by Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad were an apparent reference to a year of weekly mass protests, which are continuing even though they have already led to many changes at the top of the ruling hierarchy.

    The demonstrators are demanding wholesale changes in the power structure and the army’s withdrawal from politics.

    An oil market crash has followed years of growing economic strain in Algeria as lower energy prices since 2014 and falling hydrocarbons output have hit state coffers.

    “It would be wiser to reduce the tendency to make demands and the overblown occupation of public roads, which only aggravate the current situation more,” Djerad told state news agency APS.

    The Algerian authorities have in public mostly praised the mass protests as a national revival, while simultaneously putting pressure on the demonstrators through a heavy police presence and arrests.

    In addition to the mass protests that take place each Friday, there have been smaller demonstrations demanding better living standards and public services.

    “Given the seriousness of the current economic and social situation, all parties are expected to be mobilized to get out of this multi-dimensional crisis,” Djerad told state news agency APS.

    Elected in December last year in a vote largely rejected by demonstrators, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has said repeatedly he will meet the protest movement’s demands with changes to the constitution.

    He has also pledged steps to improve living standards, build more schools and construct better transport infrastructure around the country.

    The government has approved a 9.2% cut in public spending for this year compared with 2019 but kept subsidy policy unchanged in a bid to avoid social unrest.

    Algeria subsidies almost everything from basic foodstuffs to fuel, housing and medicine.”

  50. Fitch Downgrades Lebanon, Moody’s Warns Private Creditors Face Major Losses
    https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2173151/fitch-downgrades-lebanon-moodys-warns-private-creditors-face-major-losses

    “Moody’s Investors Service warned on Tuesday that private creditors faced significant losses as a result of the government’s decision to defer payment of the March 2020 Eurobond.

    Lebanon announced on Saturday it could not meet upcoming debt payments, saying critically low foreign currency reserves were needed to cover essential imports and calling for “fair” restructuring talks.

    Earlier on Monday, Fitch Ratings downgraded the country’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to ‘C’ from ‘CC’.

    Fitch said a failure by Lebanon to make the principal payment during the seven day grace period will put the sovereign into ‘restricted default’ and the bond into ‘default’.

    “A sovereign default would have a significant negative impact on banks’ financial health, and further undermine the economy and the sustainability of the peg,” said Elisa Parisi-Capone, a Moody’s vice president – senior analyst and the report’s author.

    Lebanon’s announcement involved the halting of a payment of $1.2 billion on a Eurobond maturing on March 9, Reuters reported.

    The situation worsened in the country with the outbreak of public protests against the ruling elite in October last year that led to a change in the government earlier this year.

    Usable foreign exchange reserves have dwindled to between $5 billion and $10 billion, Moody’s estimated. That compared with foreign currency debt service requirements of $4.7 billion in 2020 and $4 billion in 2021, it added.

    The very low level of foreign exchange reserves meant the pressure on the Lebanese pound is acute, Moody’s noted, adding that it pointed to a possible abrupt and very large change in the exchange rate.

    Lebanon’s pound has lost around 40% of its value on a parallel market since October, though the official peg remains at 1,507.5 pounds to the US dollar.”