Reader’s Links for January 13, 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

83 Replies to “Reader’s Links for January 13, 2021”

  1. New alliances push Pakistan, Turkey to deepen defence and economic ties
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2279856/new-alliances-push-pakistan-turkey-to-deepen-defence-and-economic-ties

    “At a time when the region is undergoing transformation with new alliances, Pakistan and Turkey on Wednesday agreed to deepen their defence cooperation and stressed the need for the early implementation of “Pakistan-Turkey Strategic Economic Framework”.

    The agreement was the main highlight of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s full range of engagements in Islamabad, where he held formal talks with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi, called on Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Arif Alvi. He also attended a trilateral meeting with Foreign Minister Qureshi and Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov highlighting the close cooperation among the three countries, which backed each other on their respective core issues…”

    • Turkey, Pakistan, Azerbaijan agree to stem Islamophobia
      https://www.aa.com.tr/en/politics/turkey-pakistan-azerbaijan-agree-to-stem-islamophobia/2108957

      “Turkey, Pakistan, and Azerbaijan have agreed to formulate a joint strategy to stem the rising wave of Islamophobia in the world, mainly in the West, and curb terrorism, including its state-sponsored form.

      The agreement was reached at the Second Trilateral Meeting between the three countries, attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and his Pakistani and Azerbaijani counterparts, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Jeyhun Bayramov, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

      The three sides discussed a variety of issues, including trilateral cooperation in the areas of peace and security, trade and investment, science and technology, education, and cultural cooperation.

      Expressing concern over “grave” human rights violations in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir, and rising Islamophobia, they agreed to launch joint efforts to defend the Islamic values.

      The three foreign ministers, the statement said, also discussed the ongoing Afghan peace process, which aims to bring an end to a 19-year conflict in the war-torn country. Throwing their weight behind the fragile process, the meeting hailed Pakistan’s role to facilitate the talks.

      The meeting, it added, decided to work out plans to cope with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic…”

  2. The Dons Behind Biden

    Why Biden thinks the Chinese Communists are “not bad folks” and “not competition for us.”
    Wed Jan 13, 2021 Lloyd Billingsley
    90
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    “Biden Gets China,” headlined the January 2, 2012 report in The Atlantic. As author Steve Clemons explained, “Vice President Joe Biden will take the lead on the administrations next phase China policy.” This marked a shift to a “strategy of engagement with Biden at the top,” that allows the US to deal with China’s likely next president from a Vice President to a Vice President/Next President status — and to continue both the Departments of State’s and Treasury’s ongoing engagement with other designated key Chinese leaders.”

    As Clemons explained, the move to put Biden at the top was “orchestrated” by Thomas Donilon, once described by James Mann in Foreign Policy as “Obama’s Gray Man” and seldom mentioned in the press. So Americans have cause to wonder what, exactly, Thomas Donilon is about.

    According to AllGov.com, Donilon worked in the Carter White House and four years later served as campaign coordinator for Walter Mondale. In 1985, the University of Virginia law grad served with the Democratic National Committee and the next year joined the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee but “he remained interested in helping get Democrats elected to the White House.”

    In 1988, “Donilon first advised Sen. Joseph Biden” then went on to serve as senior counsel on President Bill Clinton’s 1992 transition team, and

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/dons-behind-biden-lloyd-billingsley/

  3. Former Ethiopian FM, 3 others killed in shootout
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/former-ethiopian-fm-3-others-killed-in-shootout/2109151

    “Former Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, was killed in a shootout Wednesday, according to a local news agency.

    Defunct Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) members Asmelash Woldeselassie, Abbay Tsehaye and Col. Kiros Hagos were also killed when the four men defied commands to surrender, state-run Ethiopian News Agency quoted Brig. Gen. Tesfaye Ayalew in a statement.

    The four were killed, along with their guards, as they opened fire on an Ethiopian National Defense Forces and Federal Police search team on the banks of Tekezze River in Western Tigray.

    Seyoum led and organized an insurrection attempt by TPLF “junta” members against the administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who came to power in 2018.

    The dead leaders were from a group who organized an attack Nov. 3 perpetrated by TPLF forces against the Northern Command of the federal army, according to Tesfaye, who is the head of the deployment department with the Ethiopian National Defense Forces,

    An operation to apprehend TPLF militants and operatives is underway as more fighters are hiding in the northernmost region of Tigray that is being governed by an interim administration.

    Tesfaye reiterated demands for those in hiding to peacefully surrender.

    He said colonels Gebremeskel Gebrekidan, Fisseha Birhane and Zerabiruk Tadesse were captured during the search operation, along with Commander Gebrekidan Asgedom and Mebrahtom Kinde Hailu.”

  4. Turkey: 41 FETO suspects arrested in past week
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/turkey-41-feto-suspects-arrested-in-past-week/2108737

    “At least 41 suspects have been arrested in southern Turkey in the past week over alleged links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in the country.

    Local security officials in the Mediterranean province Antalya said the suspects were arrested amid operations conducted in the city center and surrounding districts.

    Among the suspects were two fugitives for whom arrest warrants had been issued for alleged “membership in a terrorist organization.”

    One of the suspects was remanded in custody, while two others were released by the court and seven were transferred to other provinces where they were under investigation.

    Procedures at the police department are ongoing for the other 31 suspects.

    FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

    Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.”

  5. Drop Yemen’s Houthi terrorist label, UN chief to urge US – reports
    https://www.dw.com/en/drop-yemens-houthi-terrorist-label-un-chief-to-urge-us-reports/a-56218898

    “US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced plans to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a foreign terror group, days ago. Aid groups fear the badge could hamper their work in the war-torn country.

    United Nations aid chief Mark Lowcock will urge the United States to reverse its plan to designate Yemen’s Houthi group as a foreign terrorist organization, in a planned Thursday briefing to the UN Security Council, seen by news agency Reuters.

    The move would push the country into a “famine on a scale that we have not seen for nearly forty years,” Lowcock will warn the US.

    A US plan to issue licenses and exemptions to aid agencies will not prevent a famine in Yemen, the aid chief will add.

    US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday 11 that he intended to designate the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

    The designation would provide additional tools to confront terrorist activity and terrorism by the Houthi movement, Pompeo said…”

  6. More than 80 civilians killed in new attacks in western Ethiopia, rights group says
    https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20210113-more-than-80-civilians-killed-in-new-attacks-in-western-ethiopia-rights-group-says

    “More than 80 civilians died in the latest attack in an area of western Ethiopia that has seen recurring grisly violence in recent months, the national human rights commission said Wednesday.

    “We’ve received information that over 80 civilians were killed on January 12 in an area called Daletti” in Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region, Aaron Maasho, an advisor and spokesman for the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), told AFP.

    The village of Daletti is located in the Metekel area, where hundreds of civilians have been killed by assailants using guns, knives and other weapons in attacks going back to at least September.

    Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has struggled to impose order in Metekel or explain what is driving the violence, despite visiting the area in December and empowering a command post to take charge of security there.

    There is no known link between the violence and military operations in Ethiopia’s northernmost Tigray region, where Abiy sent in troops in November to detain and disarm leaders of the dissident regional ruling party.

    Tuesday’s attack in Metekel occurred between 5 and 7 am, with victims ranging in age from two to 45, Aaron said.

    The EHRC, a government-affiliated but independent body, is “still chasing further details about the perpetrators” and how the victims were killed, he said.

    Opposition politicians have described the violence in Metekel as ethnically motivated, alleging a targeted campaign by ethnic Gumuz militias against members of other ethnic groups in the area, including the Amhara, Ethiopia’s second-largest group.

    One survivor of Tuesday’s attack, Ahmed Yimam, told AFP Wednesday he had counted 82 bodies and said 22 people were injured.

    “The attack was carried out mostly using knives, although arrows and firearms were also used,” he said.

    “I fear more attacks as the perpetrators aren’t receiving punishment, and there is no functioning government at local and regional level,” he said.

    On Monday, state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported that “relative peace has been restored in Metekel” because of the government’s response to the violence, but the EHRC’s Aaron said Wednesday that more needed to be done.

    “These civilians have barely had a respite from such grim attacks for months. We once again call on federal and regional authorities to enhance their coordination when responding to such incidents to prevent the loss of life in Benishangul-Gumuz,” he said.

    “We remind the authorities that the protection of civilians is the primary duty of the government.””

  7. French police detain seven over beheading of teacher Samuel Paty
    https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210113-french-police-detain-7-over-beheading-of-teacher-samuel-paty

    “French anti-terrorism police on Tuesday detained seven people suspected of having communicated via social media with the killer of schoolteacher Samuel Paty whose beheading last year reopened debate about France’s cherished rights of expression, a judicial official said.

    Paty, 47, was killed October 16 outside his Paris-region school after showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed during a class debate on free expression.

    His killer, identified by authorities as Abdoullakh Anzorov, was later shot dead by police. Anzorov, an 18-year-old refugee of Chechen origin who had become radicalised, according to authorities, claimed responsibility for the murder in a text found on his phone that was accompanied by a photograph of the teacher.

    The seven people detained Tuesday in the Paris region, as well as in western France and in the cities of Lyon and Toulouse, are suspected contacts of Anzorov, said the judicial official. The official wasn’t authorised to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The suspects can be held for initial questioning by anti-terrorism investigators for up to 96 hours.

    A total of 14 people were already being formally investigated and face preliminary terrorism- and murder-related charges in the investigation. Of those, seven have not been granted bail…”

  8. Prestigious French university faces accusations of racism against Whites
    https://rmx.news/article/article/prestigious-french-university-faces-accusations-of-racism-against-whites

    “The elite Paris Institute of Political Studies, also known as Sciences Po Paris, is experiencing a growing rise in racist, de-colonial, and anti-White ideologies. Many conferences, research papers, and courses are under the influence and supervision of small but aggressive ideological militant groups. Although discussions on this topic are mostly on the edge of the French media mainstream, the traditional Le Figaro daily now warns of the situation.

    Science Po Paris is a prestigious university with several branches in other cities where the future French political and economic elite studies.

    “In recent months, we have crossed a very worrying milestone,” said one of the Sciences Po students, who does not hide his concerns but prefers anonymity for fear of retaliation.

    Like many of his friends, he sees the growing rise of racist and anti-White ideologies.

    “At the time of the coronavirus pandemic, the only connection we have with our school is via the internet. And almost every two weeks, we encounter a new controversy created by one of these small groups,” the young man told Le Figaro.

    According to him, there is a risk that various organizations promoting one of the mentioned ideologies will use the lockdown to increase their control over the famous Paris school. They repeatedly provoke controversy, sometimes through an approved reading list, sometimes by calling for compulsory courses on “critical race theory” and White privileges. The declared goal is to make young “non-racial” (White) students, who, according to ultra-left groups, “maintain racism at school, aware of their racist attitude.”

    “We want to inspire a real change in the way the school deals with racial issues. We would also like to call for a critical reflection on the problems of racism rooted in French society given the country’s colonial history and the social construct of the race that emerged from it,” said students from one such ideological group to Le Figaro.

    Although this activism is not new, “more and more students and teachers have been advocating this kind of ideas in recent years,” said Antonin Ferreira, Republican Party general secretary at Sciences Po and a student official at the university.

    Many students complain about the cancellation or disruption of lectures due to the actions of these ultra-left activists. In 2019, for example, the conference of well-known philosopher Alain Finkielkraut was interrupted by the association “Sciences Po en Lutte – Institut Clément Méric,” which even required the intervention of the police.

    The power of these small ultra-left groups is so enormous that the National Union of Students of France (UNEF), which is traditionally left-wing, has started dealing with this issue.

    “We have tried to work with them in the past, but that is not possible,” Thomas Le Corre, UNEF president at Science Po, told Le Figaro.

    “How can you work with people who tell you that you’re White, so you can’t participate in a discussion?” he added.”

  9. Polish PM Morawiecki: Social media owners cannot be above the law
    https://rmx.news/article/article/polish-pm-morawiecki-social-media-owners-cannot-be-above-the-law

    “Following the ban of US President Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Twitter, discussion concerning regulating social media platforms has broken out throughout the world. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also referred to the issue in a Facebook post where he compared the modern wave of censorship to the communist-era controls of free thought and speech that Poland lived under for decades.

    Morawiecki emphasized that Polish society is deeply connected to freedom and liberty after the country dealt with censorship for 50 years during the communist era.

    “We lived in a country in which the Big Brother told us how we’re meant to live, what we’re meant to think and feel, and what we’re forbidden to think, say and write. This is why we look at any attempts to limit freedom with such worry. One of the synonyms of freedom for us has always been the internet – the most democratic medium in history, a forum where anyone can say anything,” he wrote.

    The prime minister explained that the freedom associated with the lack of regulations of the internet has had many positive effects, but that the negatives have been the gradual domination of massive, transnational companies which are richer and more powerful than many states.

    He added that these companies have started treating internet activity only as a source of income and increasing their global domination as well as a method to control political correctness according to their own wishes. Those who raise their voices in opposition are censored.

    Morawiecki believes that there have been increasingly more cases of censoring free speech on the internet.

    “The domain of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes has returned in the form of a new commercial mechanism of fighting those who think differently. Debate is based on the exchange of views and not the gagging of the mouths of others. We do not have to agree with what our opponents write, but we cannot forbid anyone from expressing their views,” he noted.

    The prime minister declared that there will be no permission for censorship in the internet — either state-imposed or from private companies. Freedom of speech is the salt of democracy, which is why it must be protected.

    The head of Polish government announced a proposal to regulate social media activity in the EU.

    “The owners of social media cannot act above the law, which is why we will do everything to define the framework of the functioning of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other similar platforms,” he wrote.

    Morawiecki pointed out that Poland regulates social media with state laws and that Poland will propose for similar regulations to be introduced in the EU.

    “Social media must serve us, society, and not the interests of their powerful owners. Everyone has a right to freedom of speech,” he declared.

    In mid-December 2020 the European Commission presented a regulations project which entailed that American tech companies will risk fines equal to 10 percent of their annual income and may be broken up if they will not respect EU regulations.”

  10. 8 Capitol Police Officers Under Federal Investigation for “Being Trump Supporters”
    2 minutes

    Several officers stationed at the Capitol during last week’s protest have been suspended. More than a dozen more Capitol officers are under investigation for what the liberals call inappropriate support for the “Rioters to suspected involvement with the “insurrection”. The security response time has been been questioned by many during the events that took place. The front line Capitol Police were undermanned and the federal response to reinforce security and defend the legislature took “hours” appear.

    Other investigations revolve around officers are built around online post about the rally outside of the White House that preceded the riot, as well as support for Trumps efforts to expose the fraud in the election. “The Department also has been actively reviewing video and other open source materials of some USCP officers and officials that appear to be in “violation” of Department regulations and policies”. Acting Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman said. “Our Office of Professional Responsibility”

    Basically Pittman is saying If you are a Trump supporter and you post or talk about your support for Trump you will be targeted.

    https://www.tacticalshit.com/8-capitol-police-officers-under-federal-investigation-for-being-trump-supporters/?utm_source=TSM-News&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:18149893&utm_campaign=TS%201/12%20News%20Master%20%23Sucide

  11. Erase and Criminalize
    Chris Farrell
    5-6 minutes

    (Image source: iStock)

    Welcome to America’s Cultural Revolution.

    China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-76) sought to purge remnants of impure non-Maoist thoughts from Chinese society and economy. It was a radical period of persecution.

    We are witnessing and experiencing a perverse and dangerous effort to purge America of all things Trumpian — but more importantly — the conservative, traditional values of millions of Americans. It is not only about erasure, but criminalization. Ordinary Americans who support President Trump — and at least 75 million that voted for him — are being targeted with a barrage of efforts to sensationalize and marginalize their beliefs. The professional political and media classes of America’s East and West Coasts are striking hard and fast to eliminate Trump. There is a concerted effort to tar every Trump supporter with the brush of Capitol mob protester. That is a lie. It is deliberate and malicious. It is a plan to intimidate and silence.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16950/erase-and-criminalize

  12. I can still only see out of one eye Richard, however I do not wish I were 18 again. Keep on the sunny side dear man.