Reader’s Links for February 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

88 Replies to “Reader’s Links for February 2, 2021”

  1. (Richard: The professional investors have gotten hold of an idea that is giving them a reason to request that the Feds Step in and stop the continued squeeze on the Hedge Funds. They are saying that the small investors who are driving the stock prices up are go to loose money, in some cases a lot of money when the Stock Prices gets too high. They are also implying and in cases saying that the small investors are too stupid to realize the consequences of their action.

    I doubt that many of the people who jumped on the Bandwagon to make money still own any Game Stop stock. the ones with profit as a goal wouldn’t stay in this long and drive the prices this high. The people who are still in all know they are going to lose money but have revenge as a motive not revenge. The Big Boys are being hurt and in some cases hurt to the point they may go bankrupt and are begging the Feds to step in and stop the little people from lynching. them.)

    Establishment Players Strike Back Against Gamestop Investors
    By Petr Svab
    February 1, 2021 Updated: February 2, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    After small investors organized online to squeeze billions of dollars from Wall Street hedge funds, some establishment actors have come out against the investors.

    The investors, mainly organized on the online Reddit forum “r/wallstreetbets,” have been buying en masse stocks of the video game retailer GameStop in the hope that hedge funds that have apparently borrowed large quantities of the stock to “short” it will be forced to buy it back at exorbitant prices in what’s dubbed a “short squeeze.” Some media, pundits, politicians, and financiers have decried the GameStop rush as irresponsible market distortion and argued that authorities need to step in for the small investors’ own good.

    “What is dangerous, amid this trading frenzy, is that retail investors have been chasing prices so far above any sane valuation and that many will end up nursing losses,” said Jack Inglis, head of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), a hedge fund association, in a letter to members who have managed $3.7 trillion as of the third quarter of 2020.

    He said the organization will help regulators with investigations.

    And for the hedge funds, “those exposed will have taken it on the chin and will have executed steps to contain losses for their clients, whose savings they manage,” he said.

    William Galvin, Massachusetts top financial regulator, also advised an intervention.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/establishment-players-strike-back-against-gamestop-investors_3680725.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-02-02

  2. Biden Admin Halts Trumps Rule on Fair Access to Financial Services
    2 minutes

    According to Firearm Chronicles

    One of the last rules adopted by the Trump administration was a provision from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency called Fair Access to Financial Services. The rule was meant to ensure large financial institutions couldn’t deny any financial services to companies in disfavored sectors of the economy like the firearms industry, and was set to take effect on April 1st.

    The financial discrimination against the firearms industry will be allowed to continue, however, now that the Biden administration has put the new rule on hold, which is the first step towards killing it completely. From Guns.com:

    Republicans on Capitol Hill immediately called foul.

    https://www.tacticalshit.com/biden-admin-halts-trumps-rule-on-fair-access-to-financial-services/?utm_source=TSM-News&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:18149893&utm_campaign=TS%202/2%20%23Gitmo

  3. GOP lawmakers demand UPenn Biden Center release foreign donation records
    By Ophelie Jacobson
    5-6 minutes
    Three House Republicans sent a letter to the University of Pennsylvania, asking that they reveal the source of anonymous foreign donations from China.
    The lawmakers referenced concern over links between China and President Joe Biden.

    Article image

    Sunday, January 31, 2021 5:43 PM

    Several House Republicans sent a letter to the University of Pennsylvania, urging the Ivy League school to reveal the source of anonymous foreign donations from Chinese sources.

    As Campus Reform previously reported, the Ivy League school has been the subject of criticism for refusing to disclose the source of more than $22 million in anonymous donations from China. According to the National Legal and Policy Center — a nonprofit watchdog group — federal law “requires the disclosure of the source of all donations over $250,000.”

    https://campusreform.org/article?id=16739

  4. Former Business Partner of Hunter Biden’s Criminal Defense Attorney Is Picked for a Top Justice Department Position
    Joe Hoft
    4-5 minutes

    The former business partner of Hunter Biden’s attorney has been picked as a top Justice Department official by the Biden Administration.

    The news came out last week:

    Fox News host Tucker Carlson reported a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s criminal defense attorney has been picked as a top Justice Department official in President Biden’s new administration.

    It has already been revealed that Nicholas McQuaid, a former federal prosecutor, was picked as acting chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division. Hunter Biden confirmed in early December, after his father won the 2020 election, that he was under federal investigation.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/ex-business-partner-hunter-bidens-criminal-defense-attorney-picked-top-justice-department-position/

  5. White House asks reporters to submit questions ahead of daily press briefings: ‘Not really a free press’
    Chris Enloe
    3-4 minutes

    President Joe Biden’s administration apparently does not want to be caught off guard with tough questions by the media during its press briefings.
    What’s going on?

    According to the Daily Beast, Biden’s communications department has requested that reporters submit their questions to the White House staff in advance of press secretary Jen Psaki’s daily briefings, presumably to avoid being scrutinized by reporters with difficult questions.

    The issue was reportedly discussed during a White House Correspondents Association meeting last Friday.

    Reporters are allegedly upset over the White House’s request, fearing it plays into the perception of coordi

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/white-house-reporters-questions-ahead-of-time?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210202Trending-WHPressQuestions&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Breaking%20News

    • It is a fine idea and the Washington Post should also publish them in advance along with the answers.

  6. Beijing Tells Biden Administration to Play by the CCP’s Rules
    By Frank Fang
    February 2, 2021 Updated: February 2, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi warned the Biden administration not to cross Beijing’s “red line” in a half-hour speech on the evening of Feb. 1.

    “The United States should stop interference in the affairs of Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang,” Yang said, calling the issues regarding the three regions China’s “internal affairs.” He made the remarks while speaking at a virtual event hosted by New York-based nonprofit the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

    Yang added: “They constitute a red line that must not be crossed. Any trespassing would end up undermining China-U.S. relations and the United States’ own interests.”

    He also told the United States that it should “strictly abide by the One China principle” with regards to Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims is part of its territory.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/beijing-tells-biden-administration-to-play-by-ccps-rules_3681191.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-02-02-2

  7. Trump Lawyer Labels Impeachment a Weapon; Zuckerberg Praises Biden in Vid; GOP’s v Biden’s Proposal

  8. North Nigeria City in Dark for Week After ISWAP Sabotages Supply Lines
    https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/02/02/nigeria-city-dark-iswap/

    “Residents of the northeastern Nigerian city Maiduguri have been struggling with a power blackout for a week after jihadists blew up supply lines, causing water shortages and disrupting businesses and daily life.

    The attack was the third time in a month that the IS-linked Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group have plunged the city of three million into darkness for days by blowing up transmission lines.

    Maiduguri’s latest troubles came as President Muhammadu Buhari replaced his top four military commanders, in a sudden overhaul after months of criticism over the handling of the country’s decade-long insurgency.

    Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, has been without power since January 26 after the jihadists blew up a power grid just outside the city, according to residents and sources at the power company.

    Bukar Musa, a welder, has seen his business crippled by the power outage, forcing him to look for menial jobs to feed his wife and three children.

    “It has been a whole week without a light in the city which has grounded my welding job,” the 27-year-old told AFP. “I have now turned to a laborer, assisting a bricklayer for a fraction of what I make as a welder, which is inadequate to feed my family,” Musa said.

    He would usually earn the equivalent of around $6.60 (about 5.5 euros) per day at his workshop. Now, though, he makes around $4 working on building sites, spending a good part of the daily wage on medication for body pains from the labor, he said.

    Grema Umar’s ice-block vending business has also crumbled, forcing him to contemplate begging to feed himself. “I have nothing left, even if power is restored I will have to raise another capital and I don’t know how,” Umar said.

    Water Lines
    Even water has become scarce in the city, which relies heavily on motorized boreholes that require electric power to operate. Many households have shut down their boreholes which supply them and their neighbors due to the high cost of diesel to power them, several residents said.

    Long queues have appeared at the few boreholes supplying water, as residents line up with pails and jerry cans.

    “The major problem is water scarcity which has hit the city, making it expensive,” said Hajara Abdulkarim. The price of a 25-liter (6.6-gallon) jerry can of water has more than tripled, to 25 naira up from seven naira previously, said Abdulkarim, a mother of five.

    Maiduguri is also home to several internally displaced persons (IDP) camps for people forced to flee their homes by military operations against the jihadists.

    For now, the outage has not affected the camps, which are lit by solar power installed by charities.

    The power company said in a statement that it was working “to fix the faulty line and transmit bulk power to our network for onward distribution to end-users.”

    ISWAP and rival Boko Haram jihadist group often target infrastructure, blowing up telecom and power lines in the northeast.

    Militants also often target army patrols, making the roads in the northeast of the country risky for civilians as well as repair crews from the power company.

    Nigeria’s jihadist insurgency began in 2009. The conflict has since killed around 36,000 people and displaced around two million from their homes.”

  9. Iran Deepens Breach of Nuclear Deal at Underground Enrichment Site
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2781111/iran-deepens-breach-nuclear-deal-underground-enrichment-site

    “Iran has deepened a key breach of its 2015 nuclear deal, enriching uranium with a larger number of advanced centrifuge machines in an underground plant as it faces off with the new US administration on salvaging the accord.

    Tehran has recently accelerated its breaches of the deal, raising pressure on US President Joe Biden as both sides say they are willing to come back into compliance with the badly eroded agreement if the other side moves first.

    Iran began its breaches in 2019 in response to Washington’s withdrawal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump and the reimposition of US economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the deal.

    The accord says Iran can refine uranium only at its main enrichment site – an underground plant at Natanz – with first-generation IR-1 centrifuges. Last year Iran began enriching there with a cascade, or cluster, of much more efficient IR-2m machines and in December said it would install three more.

    “Iran has completed the installation of one of these three cascades, containing 174 IR-2m centrifuges, and, on 30 January 2021, Iran began feeding the cascade with UF6,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, referring to uranium hexafluoride feedstock.

    The IAEA later confirmed that Tehran had started enriching with the second cascade.

    Tehran is also pressing ahead with the installation of more advanced centrifuges, the report indicated. Of the remaining two cascades of IR-2m machines, installation of one had begun while the other’s installation was “nearing completion”, it said.

    Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, said on Twitter Tehran had also started installing IR-6 centrifuges at Fordow, a site dug into a mountain where Iran has begun enriching uranium to the 20% purity it last achieved before the 2015 deal. The IAEA report made no mention of that.

    Earlier on Tuesday Israel’s energy minister said it would now take Iran about six months to produce enough fissile material for one nuclear weapon, a timeline almost twice as long as that anticipated by a senior Biden administration official.

    Iran denies any intent to weaponize enrichment. The nuclear deal sets a limit of 3.67% enrichment purity, suitable for producing civilian nuclear energy and far below the 90% that is weapons-grade.”

  10. European Court of Human Rights Pressures Turkey to Release Demirta?
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2780126/european-court-human-rights-pressures-turkey-release-demirta%C5%9F

    “The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) continues to call on Turkey to release Selahattin Demirta?.

    The court, which previously ruled for Demirta?’s immediate release, asked whether the imprisonment is based on reasonable doubt, grounds and time, as well as whether it violates the right to freedom of expression.

    In other questions, the rights court asked Turkey whether his arrest was politically motivated and whether Article 18 of the European Convention of Human Rights was violated through his arrest.

    The ECHR also questioned whether Turkey’s top court is an effective legal means in Demirta?’s case.

    Ramazan Demir, one of Demirta?’s lawyers, said that the defense request came due to the Constitutional Court’s delay in issuing a ruling on Demirta?’s imprisonment.

    “These questions are asked for the first time in this case and it’s very significant,” Demir tweeted on Feb. 1.

    Another lawyer, Benan Molu, said that the ECHR asked whether Turkey’s top court looked into the politician’s appeal that was submitted on Nov. 7, 2019.

    According to the ECHR’s Grand Chamber, Demirta?’s pre-trial detention since Nov. 4, 2016 had sent “a dangerous message to the entire population” that sharply narrowed free democratic debate.

    Demirta? faces a sentence of up to 142 years in prison if convicted of being the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) over his actions during the Kobane protests in 2014.”

  11. Al-Shabab ambush kills 8 in Somalia
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210202-al-shabab-ambush-kills-8-in-somalia/

    “At least eight people, including soldiers, were killed and several others wounded when terrorists ambushed military personnel in Lower Shabelle region of Somalia on Tuesday, an official said, reports Anadolu Agency.

    The ambush took place in the vicinity of Doonka, 40 kilometers (24 miles) southwest of Mogadishu. The Al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility.

    Abshir Mohamed, a police official in the region, told Anadolu Agency by phone that the military personnel was targeted while escorting vehicles carrying goods to the capital.

    He said six soldiers and two drivers were killed in the attack, adding that the injured were taken to Afoye, a nearby town, for treatment.

    The Al-Qaeda affiliated group also claimed attacking Ethiopian forces serving under African Union Mission in the country’s southwestern region of Bakol, killing at least four soldiers.”

  12. Turkey pledges to prepare annual reports on rising Islamophobia
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210202-turkey-pledges-to-prepare-annual-reports-on-rising-islamophobia/

    “Turkey will prepare annual reports on Islamophobia in its ongoing effort to combat anti-Muslim hatred. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced Ankara’s pledge yesterday while speaking at the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) seventh congress in Antalya province.

    Cavusoglu is reported saying that until today, the European Union and the United States have been publishing reports on Turkey and other countries, but from now on, Turkey will also produce its own reports “for the good of humanity”,

    Declaring that Turkey will take greater interest in monitoring Islamophobia, Cavusoglu went on to say that Ankara will no longer play the game by others’ rules in matters that concern itself. “Diplomacy is always our priority, but we also teach those who do not believe in diplomacy to come back to the table.”

    Yesterday’s announcement comes on the back of rising anti-Muslim racism in Europe and a bitter row between Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the French president’s deeply controversial statement at the end of last year on dealing with what he called “Muslim separatism” and claiming that “Islam is in crises.”

    The speech sparked outrage. French goods were boycotted in a number of countries, while human rights groups accused Macron of using “divisive” language and opting for policies towards Arabs and Muslims that were in line with the extreme right-wing, which calls for the closure of mosques and the imposition of strict controls on Muslims. Tukey also accused Macron of “encouraging Islamophobia.”

    “Making Islam and Muslims a scapegoat for the failures of the French Republic is a far cry from rational policy,” Ankara’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin wrote on Twitter in October.

    President Erdogan was one of the few Muslim leaders to openly denounce Macron following his speech. He expressed his hope that France would rid itself of Macron, saying that he is a burden on France and its politics.

    In 2019 Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia agreed to jointly fight the rising global trend of Islamophobia, mainly in the West. The agreement was reached at a trilateral meeting on the side-lines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.”

  13. Illegal migrants detained at Polish-Slovakian border
    https://rmx.news/article/article/illegal-migrants-detained-at-polish-slovakian-border

    “Sergeant Major Piotr Zakielarz of the Bieszczady unit of the Polish Border Guard said that the incident with illegal migrants occurred on Sunday in Glinik Charzewski in the Podkarpackie Voivodship (southern Poland).

    The men tried to reach Western Europe through Poland by hiding in the semitrailer of a delivery truck.

    Sergeant Zakielarz explained that the 42-year-old Turkish truck driver informed the police that he had heard human voices coming from the semitrailer. Border guard officers then found four men in the semitrailer after opening it: two Afghans and two Pakistanis.

    The men were well-prepared for their journey; they had sleeping bags, warm clothes and food. They had entered the semitrailer without the driver’s knowledge in Romania.

    The migrants had applied for refugee status in Romania in January 2021. This was proven by documents issued by the Romanian authorities, which the men still had with them.

    “Despite the initiated refugee process, they had decided to travel further to Western Europe, to France and Germany, and settle there. They explained that they had paid smugglers around €8,000-9,000 to help them in their journey from their home countries to the West,” Zakielarz said.

    He added that they are now taking the necessary steps to transfer the foreigners back to Romania per the so-called Dublin procedure.”

  14. Newsmax Compromised Suppresses Mike Lindell Speech MyPillow Guy | Election Results | Banned Twitter