Reader’s Links for January 2, 2021

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

62 Replies to “Reader’s Links for January 2, 2021”

    • The exact same leftists who justify removing all our rights and liberties indefinitely over what more and more appears to be a bad seasonal flu season, would say no. The ends do not justify the means ever for torture. This is because the left never care about any single issue outside of its destructive potential to Western civilization.

  1. Three Iraqi Servicemen Killed in Blast in Northern Kirkuk Province – Source (sputniknews, Jan 2, 2021)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202101011081629734-three-iraqi-servicemen-killed-in-blast-in-northern-kirkuk-province—source/

    “Three Iraqi servicemen were killed by an explosive device in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, a source in the country’s security service told Sputnik on Friday.

    “An explosive device has detonated in the way of Hummer vehicle of the 45th brigade of the 11th division […] in the south of Kirkuk province. One officer and two soldiers have been killed in the explosion, with another one injured,” the source said.

    The Iraqi government declared victory over the Islamic State (a terrorist organization, banned in Russia) at the end of 2017 after three years of fighting against the group, although pockets of militants remain in certain areas of the country…”

  2. Sweden Took in Three Times As Many Asylum Seekers as Scandi Neighbours Combined in 2020 (breitbart, Jan 2, 2021)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/01/sweden-took-in-three-times-as-many-asylum-seekers-as-scandi-neighbours-combined-in-2020/

    “In the first eleven months of 2020, Sweden took nearly three times as many asylum seekers as its Scandinavian neighbours Norway, Finland and Denmark combined.

    Asylum claims have generally decreased compared to previous years due to the restrictions imposed by many countries on travel to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, but Sweden has still taken a greater number of asylum seekers than its Scandinavian neighbours.

    Finland took 1,886 asylum seekers in the first eleven months of 2020, while Norway had taken 1,051, and Denmark only received 531 individuals. Sweden, meanwhile, has seen 9,621 arrivals of asylum seekers, a figure nearly three times as large as all of the other Scandinavian countries, Nyheter Idag reports.

    On the other end of the spectrum among EU member states, anti-mass migration state Hungary has seen just over a hundred asylum seekers over the whole year.

    In total, Sweden granted 82,200 residency permits in 2020 from January through to November, only a slight decrease from 2019’s 117,776, a high figure despite the coronavirus pandemic’s restrictions on movement.

    Between 2010 and 2020 Sweden granted 1.2 million residency permits and since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, the country has taken in tens of thousands of asylum seekers per year as well as many migrants coming to the country as part of family reunification, which is also known as chain migration.

    Mass migration has also been the main driver of Sweden’s population growth, which was the second-highest in the European Union in 2016 and now means that around one-fifth of the current Swedish population was born overseas.

    Migrants in Sweden have also been revealed to have been more impacted by the Wuhan coronavirus than native Swedes, with a report claiming that nearly half of those in intensive care units (ICU) were from migrant backgrounds.”

  3. Antifa ‘ideology’ tags Pelosi home in San Francisco with graffiti, pig’s head
    By LU Staff January 1, 2021

    Back in September, FBI Director Christopher Wray advised Congress that the radical-left group Antifa is “not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology.”

    News outlets at the time were quick to note that this assertion put Wray at odds with President Trump, who tweeted that he looked “at them [Antifa] as a bunch of well funded ANARCHISTS & THUGS who are protected because the Comey/Mueller inspired FBI is simply unable, or unwilling, to find their funding source, and allows them to get away with ‘murder’. LAW & ORDER!”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/01/01/antifa-ideology-tags-pelosi-home-in-san-francisco-with-graffiti-pigs-head/

    • About 20 minutes in he starts talking about the Portland shooting and how Antifa is going after people who are reporting vote fraud. He is also predicting more violence in the future.

    • Brad Johnson talks about the full video that shows the Antifa murder squad setting up to murder the Patriot Prayer member. If it is possible it would be helpful to both the new and old views if this full video could be posted again.

  4. 5 killed, 14 wounded in suicide attack in Somali capital (abcnews, Jan 2, 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/killed-14-wounded-suicide-attack-somali-capital-75012243

    “A suicide bombing in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Saturday killed five people including two Turks, the Turkish health minister said.

    The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack in a post from its Shahada News Agency. The Somalia-based group often targets Mogadishu with suicide bombings and other attacks, and it has exploded bombs against the Turkish military and other targets there in the past.

    Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that 14 people, including three Turks, were wounded and are being treated in a Mogadishu hospital named after Turkey’s president. He did not give the nationalities of the other three people who died.

    “We strongly condemn this heinous attack targeting the employees of a Turkish company that undertook the Mogadishu-Afgoye road construction and contributes to the development and prosperity of Somalia,” a foreign ministry statement said.

    Turkish security sources said the suicide attacker used a motorcycle. They said the attack took place 15 kilometers (8 miles) away from a Turkish military base, which was not affected. The base is Turkey’s largest military installation abroad.

    Turkey is active in Somalia in the military, development, health and education fields.”

  5. Pakistan arrests key militant on terror financing charges (abcnews, Jan 2. 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistan-arrests-key-militant-terror-financing-charges-75011662

    “Pakistan’s security forces arrested Saturday an alleged leader of the militant group that was behind the bloody 2008 Mumbai attacks in India.

    An official with the Pakistani counterterrorism police, Shakil Ahmed, said that Zaikur Rehman Lakhvi was seized in the eastern city of Lahore, on terrorism financing charges.

    Lakhvi is alleged to be a leader of the Lashker-e-Taiba group that organized the Mumbai attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people. Lakhvi was detained days after the Mumbai attacks but released in 2015 by Pakistani courts.

    Pakitani authorities allege that Lakhvi was running a dispensary in Lahore as a front for financing militant activities.

    Lakhvi was a prominent figure in Hafiz Saeed’s charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is believed to be a front for Lashker-e-Taiba.

    Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department and has a $10 million bounty on his head, is presently serving multiple jail terms in Pakistan after being convicted in several cases in recent months. The Pakistani government has seized Saeed’s extensive network of mosques, schools, seminaries and charities and other assets in the country.

    Relations between Pakistan and India were strained after the attack on India’s financial hub in 2008. The rival South Asian powers have fought two wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.”

  6. 2021 will mark the beginning of a docile China wanting good relations with the world

  7. Thousands rally in Hong Kong New Year protest near lai chi kok detention center | WION News

  8. New survey ranks Congress, journos among least honest and ethical professions
    By Rusty Weiss January 2, 2021

    A new Gallup poll asking Americans to rank the honesty and ethics of different professions placed journalists and members of Congress low among groups such as car salesmen.

    Congressional members actually tied car salesmen, with a mere 8% rating them highly, while advertisers came in slightly better at 10%. Rounding out low-ranking groups were business executives at 17%, lawyers at 21%, and journalists at 28%.

    The top two professions should come as no surprise in a normal year, let alone in the midst of a historic pandemic – nurses at 89% and doctors at 77%.

    Police officers finished at number five, with 52%. With police officers being the subject of defunding pushes by the Left and the media, one has to wonder why there isn’t a larger outcry to defund or abolish far more detestable institutions such as the media and Congress.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/01/02/new-survey-ranks-congress-journos-among-least-honest-and-ethical-professions/

  9. Rep. Kinzinger predicts over 100 Republicans will challenge Electoral College results

    Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said Wednesday he believes more than 100 members of the GOP could challenge the Electoral College results when Congress certifies the electoral votes on Jan. 6.

    During an interview with Charlie Sykes on “The Bulwark Podcast,” Kinzinger said he thinks “upwards of 100” GOP lawmakers could challenge the Nov. 3 election results.

    https://saraacarter.com/rep-kinzinger-predicts-over-100-republicans-will-challenge-electoral-college-results/

  10. China: Paying US Media to Publish Propaganda
    Judith Bergman
    9-11 minutes

    The Chinese government-controlled English language newspaper, China Daily, in 2020 paid a variety of US media outlets nearly $2 million for publishing propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party, according to a disclosure that China Daily filed with the US Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Pictured: The entrance to the offices of China Daily in Beijing, on January 18, 2007. (Photo by Voishmel/AFP via Getty Images)

    The Chinese government-controlled English language newspaper, China Daily, in 2020 paid a variety of US media outlets nearly $2 million for publishing propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a disclosure that China Daily filed in late November with the US Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), according to Daily Caller.

    China Daily has reportedly been registered as a foreign agent under FARA since 1983, which means it is required to report its activities and financial transactions to the Justice Department.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16865/china-propaganda-us-media

  11. Gohmert on Lawsuit Dismissal: ‘If I Don’t Have Standing to Do That, Nobody Does’
    Planning appeal to late Jan. 1 ruling
    By Zachary Stieber
    January 2, 2021 Updated: January 2, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said late Friday, after a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit he and others filed against Vice President Mike Pence, that the ruling was wrong, and that he plans to appeal.

    District Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump nominee, alleged Gohmert didn’t have sufficient standing to bring the legal action.

    Gohmert “alleges at most an institutional injury to the House of Representatives,” Kernodle wrote. “Under well-settled Supreme Court authority, that is insufficient to support standing.”

    Reacting during a virtual appearance on Newsmax, Gohmert said, “If I don’t have standing to do that, nobody does.”

    Gohmert is one of roughly 40 Republicans who plan to object to electors during the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, asserting some states’ electors are illegitimate because of alleged election fraud.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/gohmert-on-lawsuit-dismissal-if-i-dont-have-standing-to-do-that-nobody-does_3640883.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-01-02-1

  12. 24 Louisiana State Reps Urge GOP Congressional Delegation to Reject Biden-Harris Electors
    By Mimi Nguyen Ly
    January 2, 2021 Updated: January 2, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    Twenty-four Louisiana House Republicans are calling on the state’s Republican congressional delegation to reject the electors for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) for six swing states on Jan. 6, “due to fraud in the presidential election.”

    Lawmakers will gather on Jan. 6 for a joint session of Congress to formally certify states’ electoral votes for the president of the United States.

    The 24 Louisiana House Republicans told Republican members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation in a letter why they believed that Biden-Harris electors from six states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—were chosen in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the states’ respective laws.

    In the six states, “unelected, unaccountable judges and other unauthorized persons set about to revoke election integrity laws thereby endorsing, enabling, and encouraging election fraud,” the 24 Republicans wrote in a Dec. 28 letter, released on Jan. 1.

    “Every fake vote cast by, or on behalf of, an unqualified or non-existent voter for Biden/Harris robs an actual legitimate Trump/Pence voter and cancels out his or her vote,” their letter reads.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/24-louisiana-state-reps-urge-gop-congressional-delegation-to-reject-biden-harris-electors_3640760.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-01-02-1

  13. Sex abuse Aid workers who fathered children abroad are tracked down with DNA – including World Bank worker who has TWO children in their twenties in Haiti (dailymail, Jan 2, 2021)
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9106197/Researchers-uncover-British-foreign-aid-workers-fathered-children-abroad.html

    “Researchers are uncovering British foreign aid workers who fathered children abroad by using publicly available DNA databases.

    Six test cases have already been completed in the Philippines by researchers from King’s College London, finding men in Australia, Canada, the United States and Britain to have fathered children in the country.

    They did so either through sex tourism or in relation to foreign aid work, The Telegraph reported.

    The research – that uses genealogy technology – comes in the wake of the 2011 Oxfam scandal that rocked the aid sector after allegations said that staff had engaged in sexual misconduct with victims of the 2010 Haitian earthquake.

    One of the men – a British man and former aid worker for the World Bank – was found to have fathered two children in the Philippines 20 years ago.

    Now in his 70s, the man was tracked down in the UK by the team using public data. He has now accepted the children.

    The project is being led by Andrew MacLeod, a lawyer at Griffin Law, visiting professor at King’s College and the co-founder of Hear Their Cries, an anti-child abuse charity in Switerland,

    It has been awarded around £44,000 in funding by the university to expand its work into central and Western Africa.

    Mr MacLeod told The Telegraph that the small amount of funding will allow the project to ‘take a second go at the proof of concent’.

    ‘We’re now identifying partners, women and children to repeat the programme we did in the Philippines… in those parts of central and West Africa where almost certainly the fathers will be aid workers,’ he said.

    The lawyer added that some of the funding will also go towards hiring an academic at the university to conduct research into the ‘underreported nature’ of sexual abuse in the aid industry.

    He hopes that the project can become a ‘permanent international institution’ which ‘does nothing but to seek out and find victims of abuse,’ he told the newspaper.

    Once a suspected victim of aid worker abuse is identified, the field team will take a DNA sample that will be returned to London…”

    • The Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau (SPVG) arrested an individual Thursday night during the dismantling of an illegal rally.

      According to Lieutenant Éric Simard of the SPVG, police officers went to a residence in the Le Baron sector of Gatineau on Thursday evening after receiving an anonymous call to report an illegal rally, under the sanitary measures to limit the transmission of COVID-19.

      “On site, the officers reported the fact that they had received a complaint, advised people of the regulations and asked that they dismantle the gathering. The people in attendance told them no,” says Simard.

      “One thing led to another, the situation deteriorated and led to the arrest of an individual,” adds Lieutenant Éric Simard.

      Fines for unlawful assembly will be distributed. Criminal charges are expected to be laid against the arrested individual, according to Lieutenant Simard.

      On Facebook, the man who shared a video of the intervention complains about the force used by police officers Friday night. He says he intervened after hearing his mother screaming as she was being pulled out of the house by her arm.

      https://www.ledroit.com/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/rassemblement-illegal-une-arrestation-a-gatineau-7f906488929e9ae703555826464dd5bc

      Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

    • Exclusive: FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat

      https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGoWdhLDEmtbsR29LX-w-d7KWWXHmWIN397N6jm86aNYvTMPiq0yGr0Fscw_chn55z4PBo7fK9xMdyJhECpPch9hf6gRL6GyIo49gPv0VUdb0jRURXy0iW1gaDnaAgN1BpcwoTKe5RE-mPegdG3_3e8Sadjxe-NuejKdhA2nuIEB

      “The new category is different in that it focuses not on racial motivations, but on violence based specifically on beliefs that, in the words of the FBI document, “attempt to explain events or circumstances as the result of a group of actors working in secret to benefit themselves at the expense of others” and are “usually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.”

      The FBI acknowledges conspiracy theory-driven violence is not new, but says it’s gotten worse with advances in technology combined with an increasingly partisan political landscape in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. “The advent of the Internet and social media has enabled promoters of conspiracy theories to produce and share greater volumes of material via online platforms that larger audiences of consumers can quickly and easily access,” the document says.

      The bulletin says it is intended to provide guidance and “inform discussions within law enforcement as they relate to potentially harmful conspiracy theories and domestic extremism.””

      “Though the FBI document focuses on ideological motivations, FBI Director Wray, in his testimony last week, asserted that the FBI is concerned only with violence, not people’s beliefs. The FBI doesn’t “investigate ideology, no matter how repugnant,” he told lawmakers. “We investigate violence. And any extremist ideology, when it turns to violence, we are all over it. … In the first three quarters of this year, we’ve had more domestic terrorism arrests than the prior year, and it’s about the same number of arrests as we have on the international terrorism side.”

      Yet the proliferation of the extremist categories concerns Michael German, a former FBI agent and now a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security program. “It’s part of the radicalization theory the FBI has promoted despite empirical studies that show it’s bogus,” he said.

      German says this new category is a continuing part of FBI overreach. “They like the radicalization theory because it justifies mass surveillance,” he said. “If we know everyone who will do harm is coming from this particular community, mass surveillance is important. We keep broadening the number of communities we include in extremist categories.””

      • True Bible-Believers Denounced At Papal Conference

        http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/papal2.html

        Angry at Christian Bible-believers and others who refuse to acknowledge his spiritual leadership, Pope John Paul II and
        Vatican cronies have called for an all-out war.

        As reported in the Associated Press, with the Tibetan god-man, the Dalai Lama, sitting at his right side, this October in
        Rome the Pope presided at a special council of some 200 religious leaders of various faiths, sects, and cults.

        All present were in accord on two key points: (1) Pope John Paul II was endorsed by consensus as the planet’s chief
        spiritual guide and overseer; and (2) Religious fundamentalists who refuse to go along with the global ecumenical movement are
        to be silenced. They must also be denounced as “dangerous extremists” full of hate.

        That leaves only the Bible-believing Protestants and the old-line Catholics. These rigid, dogmatic people are hard cases.
        The elite realize these two types cannot be bought off. So, they must be killed off. The sooner the better, once conditions are
        right.

    • Exclusive: FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat
      Jana WinterJana Winter·Contributor
      August 1, 2019

      https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGoWdhLDEmtbsR29LX-w-d7KWWXHmWIN397N6jm86aNYvTMPiq0yGr0Fscw_chn55z4PBo7fK9xMdyJhECpPch9hf6gRL6GyIo49gPv0VUdb0jRURXy0iW1gaDnaAgN1BpcwoTKe5RE-mPegdG3_3e8Sadjxe-NuejKdhA2nuIEB

      The new focus on conspiracy theorists appears to fall under the broader category of anti-government extremism. “This is the first FBI product examining the threat from conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists and provides a baseline for future intelligence products,” the document states.

      The new category is different in that it focuses not on racial motivations, but on violence based specifically on beliefs that, in the words of the FBI document, “attempt to explain events or circumstances as the result of a group of actors working in secret to benefit themselves at the expense of others” and are “usually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.”

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      Exclusive: FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat
      Jana WinterJana Winter·Contributor
      August 1, 2019
      The FBI for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News. (Read the document below.)

      The FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019, describes “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists,” as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven’t been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs.

      The document specifically mentions QAnon, a shadowy network that believes in a deep state conspiracy against President Trump, and Pizzagate, the theory that a pedophile ring including Clinton associates was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant (which didn’t actually have a basement).

      “The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts,” the document states. It also goes on to say the FBI believes conspiracy theory-driven extremists are likely to increase during the 2020 presidential election cycle.

      FBI designates Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy-based theories as domestic threats. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Michael E. Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images, Matt Rourke/AP, AP)
      FBI designates Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy-based theories as domestic threats. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Michael E. Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images, Matt Rourke/AP, AP)
      The FBI said another factor driving the intensity of this threat is “the uncovering of real conspiracies or cover-ups involving illegal, harmful, or unconstitutional activities by government officials or leading political figures.” The FBI does not specify which political leaders or which cover-ups it was referring to.

      President Trump is mentioned by name briefly in the latest FBI document, which notes that the origins of QAnon is the conspiratorial belief that “Q,” allegedly a government official, “posts classified information online to reveal a covert effort, led by President Trump, to dismantle a conspiracy involving ‘deep state’ actors and global elites allegedly engaged in an international child sex trafficking ring.”

      This recent intelligence bulletin comes as the FBI is facing pressure to explain who it considers an extremist, and how the government prosecutes domestic terrorists. In recent weeks the FBI director has addressed domestic terrorism multiple times but did not publicly mention this new conspiracy theorist threat.

      The FBI is already under fire for its approach to domestic extremism. In a contentious hearing last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray faced criticism from Democrats who said the bureau was not focusing enough on white supremacist violence. “The term ‘white supremacist,’ ‘white nationalist’ is not included in your statement to the committee when you talk about threats to America,” Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said. “There is a reference to racism, which I think probably was meant to include that, but nothing more specific.”

      Wray told lawmakers the FBI had done away with separate categories for black identity extremists and white supremacists, and said the bureau was instead now focusing on “racially motivated” violence. But he added, “I will say that a majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we’ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.”

      The FBI had faced mounting criticism for the term “black identity extremists,” after its use was revealed by Foreign Policy magazine in 2017. Critics pointed out that the term was an FBI invention based solely on race, since no group or even any specific individuals actually identify as black identity extremists.

      In May, Michael C. McGarrity, the FBI’s assistant director of the counterterrorism division, told Congress the bureau now “classifies domestic terrorism threats into four main categories: racially motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority extremism, animal rights/environmental extremism, and abortion extremism,” a term the bureau uses to classify both pro-choice and anti-abortion extremists.

      The new focus on conspiracy theorists appears to fall under the broader category of anti-government extremism. “This is the first FBI product examining the threat from conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists and provides a baseline for future intelligence products,” the document states.

      FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation" on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on July 23, 2019. (Photo: Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty)
      FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. (Photo: Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty)
      The new category is different in that it focuses not on racial motivations, but on violence based specifically on beliefs that, in the words of the FBI document, “attempt to explain events or circumstances as the result of a group of actors working in secret to benefit themselves at the expense of others” and are “usually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.”

      The FBI acknowledges conspiracy theory-driven violence is not new, but says it’s gotten worse with advances in technology combined with an increasingly partisan political landscape in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. “The advent of the Internet and social media has enabled promoters of conspiracy theories to produce and share greater volumes of material via online platforms that larger audiences of consumers can quickly and easily access,” the document says.

      The bulletin says it is intended to provide guidance and “inform discussions within law enforcement as they relate to potentially harmful conspiracy theories and domestic extremism.”

      The FBI Phoenix field office referred Yahoo News to the bureau’s national press office, which provided a written statement.

      “While our standard practice is to not comment on specific intelligence products, the FBI routinely shares information with our law enforcement partners in order to assist in protecting the communities they serve,” the FBI said.

      In its statement, the FBI also said it can “never initiate an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity. As with all of our investigations, the FBI can never monitor a website or a social media platform without probable cause.”

      The Department of Homeland Security, which has also been involved in monitoring domestic extremism, did not return or acknowledge emails and phone requests for comment.

      While not all conspiracy theories are deadly, those identified in the FBI’s 15-page report led to either attempted or successfully carried-out violent attacks. For example, the Pizzagate conspiracy led a 28-year-old man to invade a Washington, D.C., restaurant to rescue the children he believed were being kept there, and fire an assault-style weapon inside.

      Edgar Maddison Welch, 28 of Salisbury, N.C., surrenders to police in Washington in 2016. Welch, a man who police said was inspired by false internet rumors dubbed ‘pizzagate’ to fire an assault weapon inside a Washington pizzeria pleaded guilty in, 2017, to two charges. (Photo: Sathi Soma via AP)
      Edgar Maddison Welch, 28 of Salisbury, N.C., surrenders to police in Washington in 2016. Welch, a man who police said was inspired by false internet rumors dubbed Pizzagate to fire an assault weapon inside a Washington pizzeria, pleaded guilty in 2017 to two charges. (Photo: Sathi Soma via AP)
      More
      The FBI document also cites an unnamed California man who was arrested on Dec. 19, 2018, after being found with what appeared to be bomb-making materials in his car. The man allegedly was planning “blow up a satanic temple monument” in the Capitol rotunda in Springfield, Ill., to “make Americans aware of Pizzagate and the New World Order, who were dismantling society,” the document says.

      Historian David Garrow, the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Martin Luther King Jr. who has worked extensively with FBI archives, raised doubts to Yahoo News about the memo. He says the FBI’s default assumption is that violence is motivated by ideological beliefs rather than mental illness. “The guy who shot up the pizza place in D.C.: Do we think of him as a right-wing activist, or insane?” Garrow asked.

      Garrow was similarly critical of the FBI’s use of the term “black identity extremists” and related attempts to ascribe incidents like the 2016 shooting of six police officers in Baton Rouge, La., to black radicalism. He said the shooter, Gavin Long, had a history of mental health problems. “The bureau’s presumption — the mindset — is to see ideological motives where most of the rest of us see individual nuttiness,” he said.

      Identifying conspiracy theories as a threat could be a political lightning rod, since President Trump has been accused of promulgating some of them, with his frequent references to a deep state and his praise in 2015 for Alex Jones, who runs the conspiracy site InfoWars. While the FBI intelligence bulletin does not mention Jones or InfoWars by name, it does mention some of the conspiracy theories frequently associated with the far-right radio host, in particular the concept of the New World Order.

      Jones claimed the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which 26 children were killed, was a hoax, a false flag operation intended as a pretext for the government to seize or outlaw firearms. The families of a number of victims have sued Jones for defamation, saying his conspiracy-mongering contributed to death threats and online abuse they have received.

      While Trump has never endorsed Sandy Hook denialism, he was almost up until the 2016 election the most high-profile promoter of the birther conspiracy that claimed former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He later dropped his claim, and deflected criticism by pointing the finger at Hillary Clinton. He said her campaign had given birth to the conspiracy, and Trump “finished it.”

      There is no evidence that Clinton started the birther conspiracy.

      Then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump states that he believes President Obama was born in the United States during a campaign event with veterans at the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Ave., NW, September 16, 2016. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
      Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump states that he believes President Barack Obama was born in the United States. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
      Joe Uscinski, an associate professor of political science at the University of Miami, whose work on conspiracy theories is cited in the intelligence bulletin, said there’s no data suggesting conspiracy theories are any more widespread now than in the past. “There is absolutely no evidence that people are more conspiratorial now,” says Uscinski, after Yahoo News described the bulletin to him. “They may be, but there is not strong evidence showing this.”

      It’s not that people are becoming more conspiratorial, says Uscinski, but conspiracies are simply getting more media attention.

      “We are looking back at the past with very rosy hindsight to forget our beliefs, pre-internet, in JFK [assassination] conspiracy theories and Red scares. My gosh, we have conspiracy theories about the king [of England] written into the Declaration of Independence,” he said, referencing claims that the king was planning to establish tyranny over the American colonies.

      It’s not that conspiracy theorists are growing in number, Uscinski argues, but that media coverage of those conspiracies has grown. “For most of the last 50 years, 60 to 80 percent of the country believe in some form of JFK conspiracy theory,” he said. “They’re obviously not all extremist.”

      • True Bible-Believers Denounced At Papal Conference

        http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/papal2.html

        Angry at Christian Bible-believers and others who refuse to acknowledge his spiritual leadership, Pope John Paul II and
        Vatican cronies have called for an all-out war.

        As reported in the Associated Press, with the Tibetan god-man, the Dalai Lama, sitting at his right side, this October in
        Rome the Pope presided at a special council of some 200 religious leaders of various faiths, sects, and cults.

        The Pontiff told the assembled Buddhist monks, Zoroastrian priests, Catholic cardinals, Hindu gurus, American Indian
        shamen, Jewish rabbis, and ecumenical clergy that all must join in condemning the Christian fundamentalists who “abuse
        speech” and whose efforts at converting others “incite hatred and violence.”

        All present were in accord on two key points: (1) Pope John Paul II was endorsed by consensus as the planet’s chief
        spiritual guide and overseer; and (2) Religious fundamentalists who refuse to go along with the global ecumenical movement are
        to be silenced. They must also be denounced as “dangerous extremists” full of hate.

        The global ecumenical movement is rapidly entering its final form. However, four groups are despised and excluded: (1)
        Protestant Bible-believers; (2) Old-line, traditional Catholics; (3) Shiite Moslems; and (4) Ultra-Orthodox Jews.

        The thinking at the Vatican and in Illuminati circles is that the Shiite Moslems and Ultra-Orthodox Jews can be bought off.
        A combination of political power and money–that is, filthy lucre–can win over the leadership of these two groups and
        encourage them to get their followers into sync with the goals of the elite.

        That leaves only the Bible-believing Protestants and the old-line Catholics. These rigid, dogmatic people are hard cases.
        The elite realize these two types cannot be bought off. So, they must be killed off. The sooner the better, once conditions are right.

  14. At least 70 killed in suspected militant attacks in Niger – security sources
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-niger-security-idUSKBN2970M0

    “At least 70 civilians were killed in simultaneous attacks on two villages by suspected Islamist militants in Niger, near the border zone with Mali, security sources said on Saturday.

    About 49 villagers were killed and 17 people wounded in the village of Tchombangou, said one of the security sources, who requested anonymity.

    A second source, a senior official in Niger’s interior ministry who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that around 30 other villagers had been killed in the village of Zaroumdareye.

    Niger’s government was not immediately available to comment.

    The West African nation has previously suffered attacks by Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State. Attacks near the western border with Mali and Burkina Faso, and the southeastern border with Nigeria, killed hundreds of people last year.”

  15. No Difference between US Bases, Regional Host States in War: IRGC General
    https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2021/01/02/2423507/no-difference-between-us-bases-regional-host-states-in-war-irgc-general

    “Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace Force warned regional Arab countries that Iran would make no distinction between American military bases and the countries hosting those sites if a war broke out.

    In an interview with Al-Manar, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh advised the regional countries working with the US and Israel to rectify their policies.

    “The US and the Zionist regime have not created security anywhere, and if something happens in here and a war breaks out, we will make no distinction between the US base and its host country. Naturally, the very same Arab countries of the region will bear the brunt,” he warned.

    General Hajizadeh reasserted that the IRGC’s missile power would never be subject to negotiations, saying, “No (Iranian) official is allowed to negotiate about the missile power, and this is our red line.”

    He also noted that Iran has independently decided to restrict the range of its missiles to 2,000 kilometers, but such limitation on the range of missile is not eternal.

    Reaffirming Iran’s support for whoever fighting against the Zionist regime, the commander said Gaza and Lebanon are at the forefront of the battle and all of their missile capabilities have been supported by the Islamic Republic.

    “Instead of giving a fish or teaching to catch a fish, we taught our allies and friends how to make a hook,” he said, adding that they are now in possession of advanced missile technologies…”

  16. Bahrain Accuses Future Bank, Iranian Banks of Money Laundering
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2714826/bahrain-accuses-future-bank-iranian-banks-money-laundering

    “The high criminal court of Bahrain accused on Thursday the Iran-owned Future Bank, five of its officials and several Iranian banks of money laundering.

    The bank officials were sentenced to five years in prison and fined 1 million dinars each, report the Bahrain news agency (BNA).

    The other involved banks were fined 1 million dinars each and the financial sums at the heart of the case were seized. They are estimated at around 43 million dollars.

    Earlier this year, the Public Prosecution said that the Future Bank, which operated under the supervision of Bank Melli Iran and Bank Saderat Iran, carried out thousands of international financial transactions while providing cover for Iranian entities by concealing and deliberately removing basic information when transferring funds via the SWIFT network.

    Bahraini authorities suspended activities of the bank in 2012 due to UN sanctions on Iran. Manama has been accusing the bank of being a terrorism financing channel since Feb. 14, 2011.”

  17. Report Reveals Where Erdogan Hides his Secret Wealth
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2717226/report-reveals-where-erdogan-hides-his-secret-wealth

    “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stashed some of his wealth in cash and gold in multiple walk-in vaults he had custom made for the basement of a villa in his family compound in Istanbul, two witnesses told Nordic Monitor.

    One witness saw the vaults after the were being newly installed in the basement of the luxury villa while he was a guest at a private event held by Erdogan in 2011.

    “I was being ushered to a place to perform an evening prayer, and we went through a basement hall where I saw room-size vaults whose doors were still covered in protective plastic sheeting,” he told the Monitor on condition of anonymity for safety reasons during a phone interview.

    He described the steel doors of the safes as similar to bank vaults that can be opened by turning a locked wheel from the outside. “I saw wheels on the doors that resembled the steering wheel of a ship,” he said.

    “I think maids made a mistake when they were guiding me to a place where I could pray and accidentally took me through the basement, because when the guards noticed, I was immediately rushed out of there,” he added.

    The witness fled Turkey to escape a crackdown on government critics but still has family members residing in Turkey.

    The first-hand account of the vaults built to hide Erdogan’s wealth was actually corroborated with a 2013 voice recording during which he was heard instructing his son in a panic to get rid of the cash in his house amid sweeping detentions as part of investigations into corruption, reported the Monitor.

    Another witness who came forward to confirm the existence of the vaults, also speaking anonymously, said the vaults were manufactured and delivered by multiple firms.

    “The vaults were designed in such a way that a forklift can be operated inside in and outside of it,” the second witness explained, describing the basement as having access to the driveway on which cars or trucks can be parked for loading and unloading cash transported on pallets.

    The witness noted that only a handful of guards, totally loyal to Erdogan, were allowed near the villa where the safes were installed.

    An audio recording leaked in February 2014 to YouTube showed that Erdogan also had large sums of money — as much as $1 billion — in his houses, including the villa in Istanbul.”

  18. (Richard: It looks like the counter revolution is gaining some new recruits.)

    11 More GOP Senators to Object to Electoral College Votes
    By Zachary Stieber
    January 2, 2021 Updated: January 2, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    A group of 11 senators on Saturday announced they’re going to challenge electoral votes during the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress.

    “America is a Republic whose leaders are chosen in democratic elections. Those elections, in turn, must comply with the Constitution and with federal and state law,” the group wrote in a joint statement.

    “When the voters fairly decide an election, pursuant to the rule of law, the losing candidate should acknowledge and respect the legitimacy of that election. And, if the voters choose to elect a new office-holder, our Nation should have a peaceful transfer of power. The election of 2020, like the election of 2016, was hard fought and, in many swing states, narrowly decided. The 2020 election, however, featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations, and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.”

    The allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election “exceed any in our lifetime,” the group added, noting courts, including the Supreme Court, have repeatedly declined to hear evidence of alleged fraud.

    The senators said Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of election returns in disputed states. Once completed, the states would evaluate the commission’s findings and convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/11-more-gop-senators-to-object-to-electoral-college-votes_3641087.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-01-02-2

  19. Over 260 held in New Year’s terror operations
    https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/over-260-held-in-new-years-terror-operations-161332

    “Over 260 suspects were detained across Turkey in a crackdown to avert possible terror attacks on New Year’s Eve, the Interior Ministry said on Jan. 2.

    A statement said 267 individuals suspected of “supporting terrorist organizations abusing religion” were held in operations in 33 provinces between Dec. 20 and Dec. 31.

    The suspects include 106 Turkish citizens and 161 foreign nationals, according to the ministry.

    Of the foreign nationals, 69 were handed over to provincial immigration authorities for “necessary administrative procedures against foreign terrorists determined to be linked to conflict zones,” read the statement.

    Three rifles, three pistols, 776 cartridges, about two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of ammonium nitrate, and a large number of digital materials and documents were seized in the operations.”

  20. Liberal journo wants to find a f*cking Christian antimasker and ‘beat him to death’
    By LU Staff January 2, 2021

    Ever since New York Times op-ed writer took the nation aside and patiently explained that there two major political parties in America — those who are civil and those who are Republican — the party of civility has gone out of its way to prove Krugman wrong. In 2017, a Bernie Sanders supporter named James Hodgkinson opened fire on a congressional baseball game for charity, seriously wounding then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. In January of that same year an engineering manager at Twitter expressed his hope that Donald Trump would “die in a fire,” while another employee reviled Trump as “a f*cking idiot” and denounced voters who elected him as “hysterically f*cking stupid people.”

    The latest member of the Fraternity of the Preternaturally Civil to make his presence felt bigly is is left-wing journalist and New York Times bestselling author Kurt Eichenwald, who on New Year’s Eve wished “pain & misery” on Republicans. His fury, however, was directed not at those who had voted for Trump but at antimaskers, one of whom he hoped to “beat to death.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/01/02/liberal-journo-wants-to-find-a-fcking-christian-antimasker-and-beat-him-to-death/

  21. Turkey neutralizes 3 YPG/PKK terrorists in N.Syria
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/turkey-neutralizes-3-ypg-pkk-terrorists-in-nsyria/2096126

    “Turkish security forces neutralized three YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria, the country’s National Defense Ministry announced on Saturday.

    The ministry said on Twitter the terrorists were trying to infiltrate the Operation Peace Spring zone, south of Turkey’s border.

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

    Since 2016, Turkey has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor, and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).

    In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU — has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.”

  22. 14 asylum seekers held in NW Turkey
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/14-asylum-seekers-held-in-nw-turkey/2096057

    “Fourteen asylum seekers were held by Turkish gendarmerie forces in Turkey’s northwestern province of Kirklareli, which borders Bulgaria, the security sources said on Saturday.

    The asylum seekers — Afghan, Egyptian, and Syrian nationals — were held as they entered the country through illegal means.

    Following health checks at a local state hospital, they were referred to the provincial Gendarmerie Command, and later transferred to the local repatriation center.

    Turkey has been a key transit point for asylum seekers who want to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

    The country hosts nearly 4 million refugees, including over 3.6 million Syrians, more than any other country in the world.”

  23. Bomb kills two French soldiers in Mali
    https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210102-bomb-kills-two-french-soldiers-in-mali

    “Two French soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in northeastern Mali on Saturday, just days after three others died in similar fashion, the French presidency announced.

    President Emmanuel Macron “learnt with great sadness” of the deaths of Sergeant Yvonne Huynh and Brigadier Loic Risser in the Menaka region, his office said in a statement.

    Huynh, aged 33, was the first woman soldier sent to the Sahel region since the French operation began.

    Risser was 24. Both were members of a regiment specialising in intelligence work…”

  24. Italian court: Migrants facing COVID-19 risks back in their home country can stay in Europe
    https://rmx.news/article/article/coronavirus-to-become-a-factor-in-accepting-migrants-in-italy

    “A court in the Italian city of Milan ruled that the coronavirus situation in a migrant’s country of origin will be taken into account when deciding which migrant can stay in the country. According to the ruling, migrants could be endangered by a lack of medical staff, equipment, or intensive care beds if they are returned to their country of origin.

    As the Italian ANSA news agency branch focused on the Mediterranean area reported, a court in Milan ruled that the risk of COVID-19 infection could be used as a reason for granting humanitarian protection.

    This so-called humanitarian protection status is given to those who do not obtain refugee status but would be at risk if they would return to their country of origin. However, each case would be reportedly assessed individually and migrants will not receive automatic protection.

    In the decision process, authorities will take into account whether COVID-19 negatively affects the health care and economy of the migrant’s country of origin, i.e. whether he or she would be at risk of lack of health care or hunger as a result of the pandemic.

    The Italian media reported that the court’s decision concerns applications submitted before the changes introduced by the then Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini in 2018.

    According to Italian judges, the pandemic must be considered a risk factor in deciding whether a migrant is entitled to humanitarian protection as he or she could face issues in the country of origin due to the lack of intensive care beds, the lack of lung ventilators, or the lack of hospital staff.

    With Italy’s left-wing government relaxing rules at the border, the country has seen a massive surge in migrants entering the country in the last year. “

  25. Pence Welcomes Efforts by Lawmakers to Object to Electoral College Votes on Jan. 6: Report
    By Janita Kan
    January 2, 2021 Updated: January 2, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    Vice President Mike Pence said he welcomes efforts by lawmakers to challenge Electoral College results in the upcoming congressional joint session on Jan. 6, when the votes are formally counted, according to a statement sent by his chief of staff to reporters.

    Vice President Chief of Staff Marc Short issued the statement on Saturday saying that Pence, who will be presiding over the Jan. 6 session as president of the senate, is open to considering planned objections by Republican House members and senators to Electoral College votes cast for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

    Short added that the vice president also welcomes efforts by lawmakers to present evidence of election irregularities and alleged voter fraud before Congress during that session.

    “Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election,” Short said in the statement sent to media outlets.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/pence-welcomes-efforts-by-lawmakers-to-object-to-electoral-college-votes-on-jan-6-report_3641319.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-01-02-5

  26. STUFF YOU CAN’T BELIEVE but is true.

    TORONTO — A company has developed a burp-catching device for cows in hopes that the invention will help curb greenhouse gas emissions.

    The U.K.-based startup ZELP — or Zero Emission Livestock Project — claims that its burp-catching masks will help slow the spread of greenhouse gas emissions, a key component in the force of climate change.

    The mask is a muzzle-like contraption that monitors the percentage of methane being released by a cow. When the monitor detects an excessive amount of gas, it then converts the methane gas into water and CO2 and releases it from the device.

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/masks-for-cows-aim-to-filter-burps-to-curb-greenhouse-gas-emissions