Reader’s Links for March 28, 2020

Daily Links Post graphic

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

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

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

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

About Eeyore

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

84 Replies to “Reader’s Links for March 28, 2020”

  1. Turkey and Russia: Not Friends After All

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: After a three-and-a-half-year marriage of convenience, Turkey and Russia have come to realize that they are fighting on opposite sides of two proxy wars: one in Syria and the other in Libya. This comes after Russia sold Turkey $2.5 billion worth of S-400 air defense systems, won a multibillion-dollar nuclear plant contract, signed up for a lucrative natural gas pipeline, and widened the gap between NATO and its part-time member Turkey.

    “The Presidency’s Communications Office has launched a new online portal that will announce a daily list of friends and foes of Turkey for the use of pro-government journalists,” read the lead paragraph of a “news story” in Zaytung, a Turkish online humor publication. Zaytung was poking fun at Turkey’s perpetual zigzagging between real and imaginary friends and foes and the difficulty this poses to pro-government media as they struggle to keep up with yearly, monthly, or even weekly changes.

    Zaytung is only slightly exaggerating. At the end of 2015, Turkish columnists were busy tearing Russia apart. By mid-2016, they had gone in exactly the opposite direction, expressing exaggerated praise for President Vladimir Putin and his purportedly Turkey-friendly Russia while lacing furiously into the US. They were temporarily thrown when, last November, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an visited Washington and won much praise from President Donald Trump, but they found a way to make sense out of it: Trump is good but America is evil. Our real friend, the Turkish journalists wrote, is Russia.

    Until recently.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/turkey-and-russia-not-friends-after-all/

  2. Tucker Carlson Predicts Democrats Will Replace Joe Biden With Someone Else To Be 2020 Nominee

    He has low energy, many people are questioning his mental functions, and there is not a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in his campaign.

    Tucker Carlson is now predicting that the Democrats will ultimately replace Biden with someone else.

    The Daily Caller reports:

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/tucker-carlson-predicts-democrats-will-replace-joe-biden-with-someone-else-to-be-2020-nominee/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=weekend

  3. Covid-19 could kill millions in Africa without immediate action: UN chief

    United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he fears “millions and millions” of coronavirus cases in Africa, where the youth will not be spared. He called on wealthy countries to help the developing world, for their own sake.

    […]Guterres says at least three trillion US dollars, around 10 percent of the world’s GDP, is needed to slow the spread of the coronavirus for vulnerable countries in the Global South.

    He backed French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for the international community to make the African continent its top priority.

    […]He added that the G20 could coordinate aid towards Africa, in terms of health supplies, medical treatments and financial packages.

    http://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20200328-covid-19-could-kill-millions-in-africa-without-immediate-action-help-wealthy-nations-un-chief-guterres-coronavirus

  4. EU grants Morocco US$500 million for COVID-19 fight

    The European Union announced on Friday a 450-million-euro (500 million U.S. dollars) aid package for Morocco to cope with COVID-19 pandemic.

    A joint statement of Morocco and the EU published in Rabat said 150 million euros will be immediately allocated to support the Moroccan budget.

    The joint statement was published following a telephone conversation between Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita and Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Oliver Varhelyi.

    The Moroccan Ministry of Health confirmed on Friday 58 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number to 333, with 21 deaths

    https://newsghana.com.gh/eu-grants-morocco-us500-million-for-covid-19-fight/

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

    EU gives Tunisia 250 mln euros to fight coronavirus

    TUNIS, March 28 (Reuters) – The European Union granted Tunisia 250 million euros in aid to help it cope with the economic and social effects of coronavirus, the EU’s ambassador, Patrice Bergamini, said on Saturday in a tweet.

    Tunisia, which suffers from limited health infrastructure, is fighting to contain an outbreak of coronavirus after it announced 227 cases and six deaths so far.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-eu-tunisia/eu-gives-tunisia-250-mln-euros-to-fight-coronavirus-idUSL8N2BL0H1

  5. The West Needs to Wake Up to China’s Duplicity

    The Chinese Communist Party is the “central threat of our times”, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo astutely said in January. Back then, coronavirus was already spreading throughout China and over the world; the Communist Party’s attempt to hide the epidemic proved that Pompeo was more than right. “My concern is that this cover-up, this disinformation that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in, is still denying the world the information it needs so that we can prevent further cases or something like this from recurring again”, Pompeo added this week.

    Had China responded to the outbreak three weeks earlier than it did, cases of coronavirus could have been reduced by 95%, according to a study by the University of Southampton. In those three weeks, China was busy hiding the truth. According to Steve Tsang, director of the University of London’s SOAS China Institute, “It is the cover-up of the Communist Party for the first two months or so which created conditions to generate a global pandemic”.

    Chinese leaders, however, seemed obsessed only with the sustainability of their totalitarian regime, and as eager to silence any criticism as they have been in the past. Since January, the evidence of China’s deliberate cover-up of the coronavirus in Wuhan has become a matter of public record. The Chinese government censored and detained brave doctors and whistleblowers who attempted to sound the alarm. One of China’s richest entrepreneurs, Jack Ma, recently disclosed that China hid at least one-third of the coronavirus cases.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15804/china-duplicity

  6. The finance minister for the federal state of Hessen if Germany committed suicide:

    Hessischer Finanzminister Thomas Schäfer tot – Suizid
    Der hessische Finanzminister Thomas Schäfer ist tot. Er soll nach Angaben von Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft am Samstag Suizid begangen haben.

  7. Urn Deliveries In Wuhan Raise Questions About China’s Real Coronavirus Death Toll
    Avatar by Eric A. Blair March 28, 2020 71 Comments

    No one really knows the true severity of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in China.
    Read more
    2/6

    In fact, no one even knows exactly when it begin. The secretive Chinese government says the fist case of the virus was officially diagnosed on Dec. 1, 2019. Some experts say it could have been weeks earlier.

    And now, even the reported number of deaths from China — especially Wuhan, which was ground zero for the virus — are in question.

    China has 81,999 confirmed cases, at least according to John Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering. Of those cases, there were 3,299 deaths.

    In the Hubei province, home to Wuhan, a city of about 8 million, there were reportedly 3,177 deaths. But massive deliveries of cremation urns to Wuhan have raised new questions about the communist country’s reporting.

    “One funeral home received two shipments of 5,000 urns over the course of two days, according to the Chinese media outlet Caixin,” Fox News reported.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/urn-deliveries-in-wuhan-raise-questions-about-chinas-real-coronavirus-death-toll/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=weekend

  8. Coronavirus: The European Union Unravels

    by Soeren Kern
    March 27, 2020 at 5:00 am

    As the coronavirus pandemic rages through Europe — where more than 250,000 people have now been diagnosed with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 15,000 have died — the foundational pillars of the European Union are crumbling one by one.

    Faced with an existential threat, EU member states, far from joining together to confront the pandemic as a unified bloc, instinctively are returning to pursuing the national interest. After years of criticizing U.S. President Donald J. Trump for pushing an “America First” policy, European leaders are reverting to the very nationalism they have publicly claimed to despise.

    Ever since the threat posed by coronavirus came into focus, Europeans have displayed precious little of the high-minded multilateral solidarity that for decades has been sold to the rest of the world as a bedrock of European unity. The EU’s unique brand of soft power, said to be a model for a post-national world order, has been shown to be an empty fiction.

    In recent weeks, EU member states have closed their borders, banned exports of critical supplies and withheld humanitarian aid. The European Central Bank, the guarantor of the European single currency, has treated with unparalleled disdain the eurozone’s third-largest economy, Italy, in its singular hour of need. The member states worst affected by the pandemic — Italy and Spain — have been left by the other member states to fend for themselves.

    The seeds of the European Union were planted in the ashes of the Second World War. In May 1949, Robert Schuman, one of the EU’s founding fathers, boldly announced the creation of new world system:

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15803/coronavirus-european-union-unravels

  9. Missiles intercepted over Saudi cities, reports say
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/missiles-intercepted-over-saudi-cities-reports-say

    “Two rockets were intercepted on Saturday above the Saudi capital Riyadh and the southern city Jazan, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported, citing its correspondents and sources.

    Residents in Riyadh reported multiple blasts, followed by sirens in northern districts, Reuters said. AFP reporters said they heard three explosions in the capital.

    “A ballistic missile was intercepted and destroyed over Riyadh,” state-run Al-Ekhbariya television said, as cited by AFP.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have previously launched missiles, rockets and drones on the Saudi capital and other cities.

    The assault comes after all parties in Yemen’s long conflict offered support on Thursday for the United Nations’ call for a ceasefire to protect civilians from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

    Saudi Arabia, the Yemeni government and the rebels all welcomed an appeal from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for an “immediate global ceasefire” to help avert disaster for vulnerable people in conflict zones.

    The call coincided with the fifth anniversary of regional power Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen’s civil war, at the helm of a military coalition supporting the internationally recognised government against the Houthi rebels.

    Yemen’s broken health-care system has not so far recorded a case of the Covid-19 illness, but aid groups have warned that when it does hit, the impact will be catastrophic in a country already regarded as facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”

  10. US lawmakers: Saudi Arabia threatens US domination over oil markets
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200328-us-lawmakers-saudi-arabia-threatens-us-domination-over-oil-markets/

    “Half a dozen US lawmakers accused Saudi Arabia of waging “warfare” against US dominance over the global energy market.

    In a letter that was signed and sent to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the lawmakers wrote: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Russian Federation have embarked upon economic warfare against the United States.”

    They added: “During this time of pandemic and global economic crisis, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has chosen to settle scores in the oil market.”

    The US lawmakers confirmed that: “Riyadh’s motivation may be multi-faceted – to punish the Russians, to capture near-term market share, to destabilise long-term investment in American energy – but the end result is the same.”

    “Our nation’s energy dominance, which President Trump has carefully nurtured over the past three years, is now under direct threat from a country that professes to be our ally.”

    Saudi Arabia saturated the market with oil after Russia had refused to reduce its output in order to stabilise the prices after the low demand, due to the global outbreak of the coronavirus.”

  11. Iraq blocks 25 Iranian trucks from entering the country illegally
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200328-iraq-blocks-25-iranian-trucks-from-entering-the-country-illegally/

    “Iraqi authorities have blocked 25 Iranian trucks and detained their drivers after entering the country illegally, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.

    The High Judicial Council in Iraq announced in a statement that an Iraqi court decided to block the trucks loaded with vegetables and fruits, and to detain their drivers.

    Iran has not yet commented on the issue.

    On 8 March, Iraq announced the closure of all of its ground crossings with Iran, as a step to curb the outbreak of the coronavirus.

    Iraq has taken several measures to combat the coronavirus, including imposing a curfew, closing schools, universities, public parks, cinemas, cafes and mosques, as well as suspending flights.

    As of Saturday afternoon, 458 cases were confirmed as contracting the coronavirus in Iraq, with 40 deaths.”

  12. Iraqi panel warns of ‘famine’ over coronavirus curfew
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200328-iraqi-panel-warns-of-famine-over-coronavirus-curfew/

    “An Iraqi parliamentary committee on Saturday warned of a “famine” in the country over curfews imposed in several provinces as part of the fight against coronavirus, Anadolu reports.

    In a statement, Arshad al-Salhi, head of the Human Rights Committee, said Iraqis are left with insufficient daily sustenance due to the absence of salaries.

    “The government is required to draft a strategy to immediately distribute foodstuffs immediately, otherwise we will be heading to a famine,” he warned.

    The Iraqi authorities have extended the curfew till April 11, as a measure to curb the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

    An Iraqi officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said military and security forces closed five marketplaces in Baghdad on Saturday.

    Iraq has confirmed 42 people had died from the virus and 506 infections.

    After first appearing in Wuhan, China, last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 177 countries and territories.

    The data shows over 614,800 cases have been reported worldwide since last December, with the death toll above 28,600 and over 135,600 recoveries.”

  13. Saudi Arabia arrests four over claims coronavirus is ‘punishment from God’
    https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/3/28/riyadh-arrests-four-over-claims-coronavirus-is-gods-punishment

    “Saudi Arabia has ordered the arrest of four people for claiming the spread of novel coronavirus is a “punishment from Allah (God)”.

    The public prosecution said it ordered the arrest of “three people who exploited social media to interpret God’s will amid the #coronavirus”, in a statement shared on Twitter.

    The prosecution said it also ordered “the arrest of a person who appeared in a video mocking the #coronacrisis and giving misleading information about the current situation”.

    The Saudi public prosecution did not name those who were arrested, but Saudi social media was arife with speculations as to their identities.

    Among those arrested is believed to be famous Qu’ran reciter Khaled al-Shahri, who posted a video of himself in which he said disasters and epidemics are a punishment from God.

    His defenders claim the clip is from two years ago and is not related to coronavirus…”

  14. Turkey ‘neutralizes’ 8 PKK terrorists in northern Iraq
    https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-neutralizes-8-pkk-terrorists-in-northern-iraq-153357

    “Turkish jets “neutralized” eight PKK terrorists in northern Iraq, the Defense Ministry announced on March 28.

    The terrorists were neutralized in the Metina region in an air strike, the ministry said on Twitter, adding that operations would continue.

    Turkish authorities often use the term “neutralized” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

    YPG/PKK terrorists often seek shelter in northern Iraq, just across the Turkish border, to plan terrorist attacks in Turkey.

    The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

    It has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

    The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.”

  15. Over 800 attacks on Muslims in Germany in 2019: media
    https://www.dw.com/en/over-800-attacks-on-muslims-in-germany-in-2019-media/a-52947761

    “The latest German government figures give an indication of the scale of violent Islamophobia in the country. While the numbers have remained steady, one Bundestag MP called the situation “a ticking time bomb.”

    Last year, a total of 871 attacks aimed at Muslims or their institutions took place in Germany, media reported Saturday.

    German regional daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung reported the information, citing the government’s response to an inquiry submitted by a member of the opposition socialist Left party.

    Ulla Jelpke, the Left’s spokesperson on domestic affairs, said that based on experience she expected up to another 90 cases to be added to the list.

    The report also showed that 33 Muslims had been injured in such Islamophobic attacks over the past year.

    The overall numbers have been steady since 2017.

    Ticking time bomb

    “The hatred of Muslims continues to erupt in violent attacks, threats and insults,” Jelpke told the newspaper.

    She added that it was too early to give the all-clear, despite police stepping up action against extreme right-wing groups in the aftermath of recent attacks.

    “Unfortunately, we have to expect that there are more similar ticking time bombs.”…”