Reader’s Links on February 10th, 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

98 Replies to “Reader’s Links on February 10th, 2021”

  1. https://theothermccain.com/2021/02/07/catch-and-release-how-liberals-destroyed-law-and-order-in-california/
    Apologies for the length but this is IMO important as such political prostitution of the law is coming to all areas of the west.

    Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Adam Gibson, 31, was killed last month in a shootout with Robert Calderon, 46, a lifelong criminal:

    He had a combined nine felony and misdemeanour cases out of Sacramento County dating to 1993, Superior Court records show. The cases generally involve drugs and stolen vehicles. His most recent local case, a felony, came in 2012. He was sentenced to 16 months in state prison for vehicle theft.
    Calderon reported a history of mental illness and said he had been treated by a Sacramento doctor in 2013 for drug-induced psychosis, according to court papers filed in 2016 in Oklahoma.
    He also has a decades-long criminal history that includes vehicle thefts in Sacramento and near Lake Tahoe, according to records. Calderon also reportedly fled law enforcement at one point.
    In June 2016, he pleaded guilty in Custer County, Oklahoma for methamphetamine possession and felony destruction of property after he ransacked a Hampton Inn hotel room and destroyed a microwave cart.
    He was sentenced to four years in prison. On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections told The Bee that Calderon had completed his sentence and was no longer on parole. Online records say he was discharged in November, 2017.

    Calderon was killed in the shootout that killed Deputy Gibson, one of three such incidents in the same county during a span of four days.

    After writing Saturday about a car thief who killed a man in San Francisco (“Catch-and-Release: Career Criminal Arrested in Deadly San Francisco Crash”), I began to wonder why this is happening.

    Something has gone terribly wrong in California over the past decade, but I hadn’t followed the news closely enough to understand exactly what explained the rampant lawlessness in the state. However, for the past few months, to relax and take my mind off politics, I’ve gotten in the habit of watching police videos — car chases and bodycam video from shootings — on YouTube. Anyone familiar with this topic knows that Los Angeles is the car-chase capital of the world. At least once a week, it seems, TV news viewers in Southern California watch helicopter camera footage with the guy in the chopper narrating while the cops pursue suspects.

    Usually, it’s a stolen car, or robbery suspects, or someone wanted on an arrest warrant. Why are these chases are so frequent? What is going on in California that so many criminals are out on the street? Curiosity eventually led me to the answer, after I researched the background on one notorious chase a couple of years ago. Police got a report that a man in a car was beating a woman in the passenger seat:

    A domestic violence suspect with a woman in the passenger seat of a sedan led law enforcement officers on a three-hour chase Wednesday [April 24, 2019] through Los Angeles and Orange counties before he pulled into a shopping center and ran into a 99 Cents Only store, where he was taken into custody at gunpoint.
    The passenger in the Honda Accord was later seen being helped into an ambulance after the chase, which began about 5:15 p.m. in the area of Firestone Boulevard and California Avenue in South Gate. A witness flagged down an officer in the area to report a man striking a woman in a car.
    The driver took off when an officer spotted and approached the vehicle, South Gate Police Department Capt. Darren Arakawa said. During the chase, the woman was seen struggling with the suspect, who was reported to be a parolee at large, and a few times opened the passenger-side door, but did not get out as the car kept moving.
    On Thursday, South Gate police identified the suspect as Alexis Leondardo Avinai, a 29-year-old felon on post release community supervision.

    What is “post release community supervision”? If this explains one car chase, it might explain a lot more, so I kept Googling and found this:

    Since 2008, Avina has served three prison terms for three separate felony convictions for weapons violations, and in the first incident, assault with a firearm, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Two years ago, after completing his most recent term, he was placed on Post release community supervision (PRCS) by the Probation Department for Orange County, where he was living. Under the AB 109 realignment passed in 2011, felons convicted of certain crimes are eligible for PRCS, instead of supervision by state Parole.
    Since 2017, Avina has been cited in Los Angeles Country for a misdemeanor drug violation, and also for driving under the influence. The cases became more serious when he failed to appear as scheduled in court for both cases, and bench warrants were issued, according to Superior Court records reviewed by NBC4.
    As it happened, Avina resolved both of those cases — without jail time — with a plea bargain when he finally appeared in court in West Covina on Wednesday — only hours before the pursuit.

    There is a word for this: insanity.

    California has always been kind of crazy, but now they’ve completely lost touch with reality, when a guy with three felony convictions for weapons violations, who then violates parole and skips court for two years, is turned loose after a plea bargain. The denouement of the Alexis Avinai story came last September, when he was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison, but what is this about “AB 109 realignment”?

    After a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that California’s overcrowded prison system needed reform, the passage of former Governor Jerry Brown’s AB 109 in 2011 transferred responsibility of future “non-violent, non-serious, and non-sex” offenders to county jails, not state prisons. Those who were released were supervised by county parole.
    California Proposition 47, which passed in 2014, reduced a host of felonies to misdemeanors, including personal use of illegal drugs, forgery, writing a bad check, and other thefts under $950 (even for repeat offenders); a felony conviction was allowed “if [the] person has [a] previous conviction for crimes such as rape, murder, or child molestation or is [a] registered sex offender.”
    California Proposition 57, passed in 2016, gave early release for non-violent offenders, but the initiative failed to define who qualified as a “non-violent” offender. Hundreds of thousands of drug-addicted offenders on the streets are failing to receive mental health or drug treatment, and many are violent and merit incarceration.

    Now do you see why thousands of dangerous criminals like Alexis Avinai and Robert Calderon are roaming the streets of California? Is it any wonder that car thieves are leading police on pursuits through L.A. on a weekly basis? Is anyone surprised that people are being killed by lifelong criminals who never should have been let out of prison? One politician in California who understands this is Assemblyman Jim Cooper:

    Cooper released a statement Tuesday condemning the state’s “soft on crime laws” and blaming these recent incidents on the premature release of convicted felons.
    “Under the PCRS Act of 2011, felons who commit crimes as egregious as assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence are released into our communities with little to no monitoring due to the lack of resources at the county level,” Cooper said. “I’ve said this before, California’s decade of soft on crime laws are endangering the public and our first responders. Victims’ rights groups and legal experts have all warned that California’s criminal justice reform laws such as AB 109 and Proposition 57 would lead to increased crime and risks to the public’s safety, as well as to our law enforcement officers.”
    Cooper continued, “Felons that have been convicted of serious violent crimes such as assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence should never be released under minimal supervision under parole. These parolees should be heavily supervised by the CDCR. Counties were never equipped to supervise violent felons. The families of the officers injured and killed in two separate incidents in just four days deserve better, our communities deserve better.”
    Cooper said that lawmakers need to prioritize the safety of the public.
    “California continues to release violent criminals onto our streets that have no regard for our laws because they know they will face little to no consequences,” Cooper said. “California lawmakers must stop prioritizing the release of violent criminals and instead prioritize protecting the public’s safety.”

    You may be surprised to learn that Assemblyman Cooper is a Democrat and a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus. However, he spent 30 years as a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy, and he understands that “soft on crime laws” are destroying California.

    • This is SO good, and SO infuriating, that I have to take breaks watching it.

      Thanks for posting it Marcus.

  2. Arab Coalition Destroys 2 Houthi Armed Drones Fired at Saudi Arabia (aawsat, Feb 10, 2021)
    https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2796626/arab-coalition-destroys-2-houthi-armed-drones-fired-saudi-arabia

    “The Saudi-led Arab coalition said on Wednesday it had intercepted and destroyed two armed drones launched by the Iran-aligned Houthi militias towards the Kingdom.

    Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki accused the terrorist Houthis of deliberately firing the aircraft at civilian locations in southern Saudi Arabia.”

  3. What is sexual assault? What is a pedophile? What is a normal childhood in Canada? What is being said in Canadian mosques?

    The temporary marriage nikah muta, is an ancient Islamic practice that unites a man and a woman as husband and wife for a limited time. Historically it was used so, that a man could have a wife for a short time while travelling a long distance. At the Jaffari Mosque in Thornhill, ONTARIO, Maulana Sayyid Rizvi advocates sex with 9 year old girls is acceptable as long as it occurs within Munda time (temporary) marriage or da’im marriage (permanent). Lunar years / 8 years and 9 months.

    Mosque 9000 Bathurst Street
    Imam states “Marriage with a 9 year old is moral in a temporary or permanent marriage..”

    So-called Islamic scholar, Mazin Abdul-Adhim, living in London, Ontario, “Girls who reach puberty can be mature enough to commit to a marriage and having children with the protection and support of good families and healthy communities.”

  4. Arsenal of Military-Grade Firearms Found in Paris Suburbs (breibart, Feb 10, 2021)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/02/10/arsenal-of-military-grade-firearms-found-in-paris-suburbs

    “Investigators found an arsenal of so-called military-grade weapons including explosives and detonators in the Paris suburbs of Val-de-Marne after raiding a local drug trafficking network.

    The French anti-drug office OFAST came across the weapons in the commune of Limeil-Brévannes after dismantling the ten-man drug network, including Kalashnikov-type rifles, Heckler & Koch G3 rifles, M16 rifles, along with tripod stands and laser sighting equipment for the rifles.

    16 magazines for the M16s were found along with 500 rounds of ammunition and a total of 1,300 cartridges of various calibres were found in the raid, French magazine Le Point reports. Such weapons are not generally held in civilian hands in France, where firearms laws

    Samir Ider, the head of the trafficking network, who was said to not only be violent but also radicalised, had hidden 600 grams (1lb 5oz) of TNT explosive and 600 grams of pentaerythritol tetranitrate, which is used to make the explosive semtex, a preferred weapon of Islamist terrorists. He also had in his possession four detonators and three firing systems.

    According to Le Point, French authorities had been investigating the network, which operated in the no-go Paris suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis, for at least two years prior to dismantling it and said that 42-year-old Ider had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for cocaine importation in 2011.

    Ider, along with his brother and eight others were brought before a court last week but despite the dismantling of the heavily armed network, it is unlikely drug dealing will disappear.

    The commune of Saint-Ouen, where the network primarily operated and supplied drugs, would see at least 10-12,000 euros worth of drug deals per day.

    The raid is not the first time military-grade weapons have been found in Paris’ no-go suburbs in recent years. In 2017, police found a cache of weapons that included an anti-tank bazooka along with sawn-off shotguns.

    Later that year, investigators found another large arsenal of weapons in a garage outside the city of Chartres.

    “The investigators seized seven weapons of war, including two loaded and ready-to-run M80 rocket launchers capable of destroying a tank, two Kalashnikovs, one Spanish assault rifle, two machine guns,” Republic of Chartres prosecutor Rémi Coutin said at the time.”

    • Did the CBC cover this story? If not its telling. If they did and spun it to make CSIS appear racist its even more telling.

  5. Video at site

    ‘Extremely dangerous’ precedent will be set if Trump is acquitted, Dem rep says – Liberty Unyielding
    Daily Caller News Foundation
    3 minutes

    ‘Extremely dangerous’ precedent will be set if Trump is acquitted, Dem rep says

    Dems walk the articles of impeachment to the Senate in an inane attempt at pomp. (Image: YouTube screen grab)

    By Mary Rose Corkery

    Democratic Colorado Rep. Jason Crow said Tuesday that “an extremely dangerous precedent” would be set if former President Donald Trump is acquitted in his second impeachment trial.

    Crow said on MSNBC that he doesn’t know the number of Republican senators who will be open-minded to convicting the former president.

    “We just have to make the best case that we can and we have to say that you have an obligation to the American people, to our democracy, to the Constitution to convict here, because if you don’t it sets a precedent that’s extremely dangerous for our country,” Crow said.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/09/extremely-dangerous-precedent-will-be-set-if-trump-is-acquitted-dem-rep-says/

    • The Democrat told one of the reasons for this impeachment, they are trying to turn us into a European Parliament where the party out of power can get a vote of no confidence to change the government. The Founding Fathers rejected this system because of the potential for abusing the system.

      Trump will be acquitted but the Dems will scream that the fact that over 50% voted for conviction (a super majority) is needed for conviction) is reason to proceed with other attacks to prevent DJT from running for President in 2024. They will also use this as an attack on his efforts to get the State Legislatures to act to pass the election laws that will prevent future elections from being stolen.

      • He remains fixed in their brains, where they burn gray matter they can’t spare. They won’t survive the hate that’s devouring them.

  6. US Carriers hold drills in South China Sea | China denounces US for ‘damaging peace & stability’

    • China is waging an economic war on Australia. It has slowly increased the level of this and yet appeasers still pop out of the woodwork. No one sane wants a war but appeasing an aggressor has never stopped one.
      Even Russia is increasing its border security with China.
      I wonder if this is simple Stalinist expansionism at work, or delusional imperial Chinese arrogance being reborn or whether China wants a “limited” external war to stop internal dissension? Whatever, it direly needs a slap.

      • China is in the middle of a slow motion economic collapse, they are pushing foreign adventures to try and keep the Chinese peoples minds off the internal trouble. If the succeed in grabbing something that will give them an infusion of capital so much the better.

        Do they want a war, not really but they know that with Biden in the White House there is a good chance that he won’t fight if they get into a fight with the other nations in the Far East.

        Will the current tension turn into a shooting war? I don’t know that is up to China, they can back off at any time, the nations they are pushing on can’t, if they back off they become client states of China waiting for the time when China decides to absorb you.

  7. Short Sentences for Two Paedophiles Hunting for Girls as Young as 10 (breitbart, Feb 10, 2021)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/02/10/short-sentences-asian-paedophiles-hunting-girls-young-as-10/

    “Two paedophiles have received short prison sentences after hunting for girls as young as ten in Birmingham, England.

    64-year-old Abdi Shire, 64, of Small Heath, and 24-year-old Adean Ahmed, of Edgbaston, were snared by West Midlands Police officers who are “active on social media, instant messaging apps and other online platforms looking for people seeking to groom children online”.

    The paedophiles had travelled to try and meet underage girls for sex, according to a West Midlands Police news bulletin, with Ahmed having asked “do you have any 12” and “is there anything like 10” as he attempted to pay for a victim.

    Birmingham Crown Court saw fit to impose a sentence of just three years and two months on Shire, and three years on Ahmed — with the likelihood being that they will be automatically released on licence much earlier than that, as most criminal sentenced to non-“life” sentences are entitled to early release halfway or, more rarely, two-thirds of the way through their terms under Labour era legislation the governing Conservatives have left largely unchanged.

    “We’ve delivered swift justice against these two men,” said Detective Inspector Lewis Cook, for the West Midlands Police Force Priorities and Vulnerabilities Team, claiming their short custodial terms were “significant prison sentences”.

    “Both men had clear intentions to meet and abuse girls – and in Ahmed’s case he enquired about girls as young as 10,” the officer continued.

    “Vigilante ‘paedophile hunter’ groups have emerged in recent times and there seems to be a perception police are not doing this work ? but that’s absolutely not the case,” he added defensively, referring to groups such as the Guardians of the North which work to catch paedophiles trying to groom children online.

    Well over half of the prosecutions against people attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming used evidence gathered by such groups in 2018, according to the BBC — but the police, who have been widely criticised for systemic failures on child grooming, are often resentful of them, accusing them of “acting in their own interests”.”

  8. Cambridge University, BBC Took Cash From Chinese Communist Party Backed Tech Giant: Reports (breitbart, Feb 10, 2021)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/02/10/cambridge-university-bbc-took-cash-chinese-communist-party-backed-tech-giant-report/

    “Cambridge University and the BBC have become the latest British establishment institutions to have been accused of working in step with the dictatorship in Beijing, after signing deals with a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tied tech giant.

    The University of Cambridge reportedly received a “generous gift” from Tencent Holdings, one of the largest technology firms in China, to fund engineering research.

    The university received money from Tencent to fund a quantum computing research project under Cambridge’s Dowling postdoctoral research fellowship, The Times reported on Wednesday.

    Tencent is one of the world’s most valuable companies, serving as the largest vendor of video games in the world. The Chinese tech giant also owns one of the country’s largest social media platforms, WeChat, through which the company enforces the strict censorship regime of the communist government.

    In December, a former senior CIA official told Foreign Policy magazine that the American intelligence agency had concluded with a “high-confidence reporting” that Tencent was initially funded by the CCP’s Ministry of State Security, the top civilian security agency in China.

    The CIA official said that Tencent received “seed investment” from the communist spy agency “when they were trying to build out the Great Firewall and the monitoring technology”.

    In 2019, Cambridge announced that the “technology giant Tencent has made a generous gift to fund a new five-year postdoctoral research fellowship in the department of engineering”. The funding was said to enable researchers “to bring their ideas from the lab to reality… in areas from smart city infrastructure to radical new medical treatments enabled with bioengineering for drug delivery”.

    Cambridge Univerity’s Jesus College is also linked with the Chinese tech firm, having hosted three times the ‘Yidan Prize Conference: Europe’, which is put on by Tencent’s co-founder Chen Yidan.

    Cambridge University claimed that they have a “robust” system in place for reviewing donations, saying: “Academic freedom is a fundamental principle, and no donor directs research.”

    Breitbart London had previously reported on Jesus College, when it was revealed to have received £155,000 from Communist Party linked Huawei for a research collaboration and £200,000 from China’s State Council for the establishment of a “UK-China Global Issues Dialogue Centre”.

    Britain’s publicly-funded broadcaster, the BBC, has also been swept up in the flurry of reports on Chinese influence.

    On Wednesday, The Telegraph reported that Tencent had signed a series of deals with the BBC to co-produce some of the broadcaster’s top programmes, including Sir David Attenborough’s climate change alarmist Blue Planet II wildlife series.

    The report claimed that in 2018, the BBC inked a three-year production deal with Tencent to make “content-rich documentaries”.

    Chinese expert at The Henry Jackson Society think tank, Sam Armstrong, said: “This is an appalling misjudgment by the BBC. Tencent is intricately connected to the Chinese State.”

    Armstrong went on to say that the move is not only a “PR disaster for the BBC”, but that it also puts into question the “moral judgement” of Director-General of the BBC Tim Davie for “so thoroughly” embracing the CCP-tied firm.

    A BBC Studios spokesman said: “As a major exporter of British content to the world, and consistent with Sino-British trade policy and initiatives, BBC Studios has had relationships in place with Chinese media companies for many years to bring high-quality British television programmes to audiences in China.”

    The revelations come after Oxford University was reported on Monday to have renamed its 120-year-old Wykeham professorship after Tencent in exchange for £700,000 from the Chinese tech firm.

    Professor of politics and international relations at the University of Kent Matthew Goodwin said that a review should be carried out on the growing influence of the CCP on British universities.

    “Most members of the public would question why we’re letting universities take that amount of money to sponsor internal chairs,” he said, adding that the move from Oxford would “give [Tencent] serious credibility”.

    Oxford University defended the move, saying: “Tencent has been approved as an appropriate donor by our independent committee… Our donors have no say in setting research and teaching programmes.”

    British universities have come under increasing scrutiny for ties to the Chinese state. On Monday, Breitbart London reported that MI6 is currently investigating “some of the most prestigious universities in the country” for working with Chinese weapons producers.

    The probe has reportedly expanded to British academics themselves, with The Times reporting that some 200 academics are under investigation for transferring technology, including cyberweapons, missile designs, and aircraft technology, to the Chinese state.”

    • Who could have guessed?
      Mind you , we are yet to hear about those bastions of honesty: the Grauniard, the Indy and the Times. Any guesses?

  9. Afghan officials: Kabul bombs kill police chief, bodyguard (abcnews, Feb 10, 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/officials-explosions-kabul-kill-wound-75796009

    “A chain of bomb explosions targeting Kabul police on Wednesday killed a district police chief and his bodyguard, and also wounded five people, officials said.

    No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, which were all caused by so-called sticky bombs, explosive devices attached to vehicles that are remotely detonated or set off by timers.

    The largest of the attacks struck a police car in a western Kabul neighborhood; the force of the blast was so strong that the car flipped upside down, killing the city’s District 5 police chief, Mohammadzai Kochi, and his bodyguard. The driver of the car was wounded, according to two Afghan officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

    Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said an hour before that blast, two other sticky bomb explosions took place. One of them, about 500 meters (yards) away from where the police car was targeted, wounded four civilians. There were no casualties in the other blast, which took place elsewhere in Kabul.

    Afghanistan has seen a nationwide spike in bombings, targeted killings, and violence on the battlefield as peace negotiations in Qatar between the Taliban and the Afghan government have stalled.

    The Islamic State group’s local affiliate has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, but many go unclaimed, with the government putting the blame on the Taliban. The insurgents have denied responsibility for most of the attacks.

    In eastern Ghazni province, the provincial governor’s spokesman, Wahidullah Jumazada, said an airstrike called in during fighting with the Taliban killed at least 22 insurgents, including foreign fighters in the group.

    Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid immediately tweeted a denial, saying Afghan government forces were defeated in the fighting in Ghazni. He also claimed the Taliban have no foreign fighters in their ranks.”

  10. Saudi TV: Yemen rebel attack on airport sets plane on fire (abcnews, Feb 10, 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-tv-yemen-rebel-attack-airport-sets-plane-75798274

    “Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday targeted an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia with bomb-laden drones, causing a civilian plane on the tarmac to catch fire, the kingdom’s state television reported, an attack that threatened to escalate Yemen’s grinding war.

    No one was hurt in the assault, but the damaged passenger plane at Abha airport served as a powerful reminder of the danger that Houthi rebels pose to Saudi Arabia, which nearly six years ago launched a bombing campaign that has devastated the Arab world’s poorest country.

    The Iran-aligned Houthis soon claimed responsibility for the assault, with military spokesman Yehia Sarea stressing that the Houthis consider Abha airport to be a military, not civilian, target.

    “This targeting comes in response to the continued aerial bombardment and the brutal siege of our country,” Sarea said, adding the group attacked with four bomb-laden drones.

    Col. Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen, said forces earlier intercepted and destroyed two drones launched by Houthis toward the country’s south. He condemned the assault as a “systematic and deliberate attempt to target civilians.”…”

  11. 20 UN peacekeepers injured in an attack in central Mali (abcnews, Feb 10, 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/20-peacekeepers-injured-attack-central-mali-75802521

    “An attack on a United Nations base in central Mali has injured at least 20 peacekeepers, the U.N. mission spokesman said Wednesday.

    The temporary U.N. base in Kerena, near Douentza, was the target of direct and indirect fire early Wednesday morning, Olivier Salgado said in a statement on Twitter.

    Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Mali and head of the mission there, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, “strongly condemns this cowardly attack on the peacekeepers and has ensured that all measures are taken to ensure that the wounded receive appropriate treatment,” Salgado said.

    No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group stage regular attacks on U.N. peacekeepers and soldiers.

    Attacks by jihadists in northern Mali this year have also killed at least five U.N. peacekeepers.

    The peacekeeping mission has been in Mali since 2013, after Islamic extremists took control of major towns in the north. A French-led military operation dislodged them, but the jihadists have since regrouped in rural areas and expanded their reach.

    The U.N. says more than 231 peacekeepers in Mali have been killed due to hostile incidents, in what has become known as its most dangerous mission.”

  12. 8 sentenced to death in Bangladesh for killing publisher (abcnews, Feb 10, 2021)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/sentenced-death-bangladesh-killing-publisher-75796931

    “A special tribunal in Bangladesh’s capital on Wednesday sentenced to death eight Islamic militants for the 2015 killing of a publisher of books on secularism and atheism.

    Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal Judge Majibur Rahman announced the verdicts in a packed courtroom in the presence of six defendants. Another two, including sacked military official Sayed Ziaul Haque Zia, remain at large.

    The judge had earlier issued arrest warrants for them. The prosecution said they belonged to the banned militant outfit Ansar al Islam.

    In October 2015, suspected militants hacked to death Faisal Abedin Deepan of the Jagriti Prokashoni publishing house in a market near the Dhaka University. On the same day, another publisher, Ahmed Rashid Tutul, survived a near simultaneous attack also in Dhaka.

    Both victims were publishers of Bangladeshi-American writer and blogger Avijit Roy, who also was hacked to death in February 2015 when he was returning from an annual book fair in Dhaka.

    The judge said prosecutors were able to prove the charges against all the eight accused. He said they acted against free thinkers with a larger aim to destabilize the country.

    Razia Rahman, Deepan’s wife, expressed satisfaction with the verdict. The defense said they would appeal.

    Tutul, who was severely wounded, flew to Nepal and ended up taking asylum in Norway with his family.

    “Yes, I just heard the news of the verdict. I wish we will one day come to know who is this former army officer Zia. Why he masterminded the attack and how he was patronized,” Tutul told The Associated Press in a message from Norway. “I think Bangladesh will seriously deal with the radical forces and get rid of them.”

    In 2015, several atheists, bloggers and foreigners were killed by suspected militants. A Dhaka bomb attack on Oct. 24, 2015, aimed at minority Shiite Muslims killed a teenager and injured more than 100 people.

    Authorities say the broke the network of militants in a massive crackdown following a 2016 attack on a cafe in Dhaka in which 22 people, including 17 foreigners, died together with five assailants.

    The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for that and other attacks, but Bangladesh’s government said that domestic groups were behind them and insisted that IS has no presence in the country.”

  13. “The most radical of a movement always wins the game.”

    Helmut Schelsky examined structural change in the context of “rule through publicity.” He used this term to describe the exercise of power qua the production of publicity. Its importance has grown dramatically as a result of the rise of the modern media, displacing or replacing traditional forms of rule. At the same time, however, the increase in importance led to the actual tasks of publicity losing their significance: “information” and “integration”.

    The consequences of this can be clearly seen in the way the media operate today. In Schelsky’s sense, they have a “conflict-increasing” effect, because those responsible have replaced the commitment to the goal of internal peace in favor of the possibility of marking and eliminating meta-political enemies.

    • “rule through publicity”
      Media having displaced/replaced traditional forms of rule, burning off competion by stoking ever more consuming conflict.

      Interesting way of describing it.

      The media is the face of the corporate oligarchy that owns it. CNN can lose money, the Superbowl can lose viewers. They’re no longer competing in a market economy.

  14. China: WHO experts depart from hotel in Wuhan following investigation on origins of coronavirus

    The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) team of experts were departing their hotel in Wuhan on Wednesday, following their 2-week visit to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.

    During the visit, WHO experts visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the market where it is believed the virus started spreading late 2019.

    According to one of the members of the team, the Chinese government granted full access to all the requested locations and personnel and raised no objections.

    • China suggests WHO Covid-19 probe on American soil

      After the WHO mission in China ended without a breakthrough discovery on the possible origins of the coronavirus pandemic, Beijing says it hope the US will invite the WHO to carry out research and studies on American soil.

      A member of the WHO mission has said US intelligence on the supposed origin of the coronavirus pandemic was not reliable, after Washington cast doubt on the transparency of the probe.

    • AstraZeneca Covid jabs can be used for over-65s: WHO expert

      The chair of the Strategic Advisory Group of WHO Experts (SAGE) on Immunization, Alejandro Cravioto, says that the AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine can be used for people over the age of 65.

      • sky news UK – Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine recommended for adults of all ages

        Scientists advising the World Health Organisation have recommended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in adults of all ages.

    • Annual COVID-19 vaccine shots may be needed: Johnson and Johnson CEO

      Johnson and Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky says COVID-19 vaccines may be needed annually.

    • CBC – Manitoba First Nations leaders aim to build trust with COVID-19 vaccine clinics

      First Nations leaders in southern Manitoba are hoping to build trust in the COVID-19 vaccines through pop-up clinics in larger communities, while the Canadian Forces help remote communities manage outbreaks.

    • Deutsche Pravda – WHO presents first Wuhan coronavirus investigation results

      Investigators on Tuesday said they were still trying to find the animal vector through which the COVID-19 virus was transmitted to humans.

      Scientists think the disease originated in bats, but the World Health Organization (WHO) team visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan is looking into how it could have made the jump to humans via another mammal.

      The WHO presented its findings so far alongside Chinese experts at a joint study news conference.

      WHO virus expert Peter Ben Embarek told the briefing that work to identify the origins of the coronavirus pointed to a natural reservoir in bats. However, he said the absence of bat environments in Wuhan indicated that it had been transmitted to humans through another animal. Widespread testing for the virus had been carried out across animal species in many Chinese provinces, but this had failed to yield a result. “Through these studies, it has not been possible to pinpoint any animal species as a potential reservoir for this disease,” Embarek said. The possibility remains that the virus was directly transmitted to humans from bats, or that it had somehow been transmitted through food — particularly frozen products.

      The team remains hopeful that the animal source can still be identified. Team member Marion Koopmans said it was important to trace back all animal species and products that were on the market. This had already shown that there were some animals confirmed as susceptible, like rabbits, or suspected of being susceptible, such as ferrets, badgers or bamboo rats.

      Lab leak eliminated as explanation

      The WHO expert essentially ruled out a fourth theory that the novel coronavirus had somehow leaked from a Chinese lab. “The laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population,” said Embarek. “Therefore it is not in the hypothesis that we will suggest for future studies.” He agreed with a Chinese assessment that there was “no indication” the disease was circulating in the city before December 2019, when the first official cases were recorded.

      + comments on the YT page

      • Hmmm So the 2 people that I read about on November 6th, 2019, in Wuhan that were sick with a strange virus and were in isolation had China flu perhaps. Oh my, may the best liar win this crazy game. How Damn stupid do the WHO “officials” think the little people are?

        Reminders on every highway CHINA VIRUS, CHINA VIRUS, CHINA VIRUS, STAY HOME, STAY SAFE, STAY STUPID.

        Trucks on Hwy. 17 69, 400, 407, and the 401 are NOT social distancing. I hope my car does not get sick.

    • CNN: WHO investigator reveals what he found in Wuhan, China

      Dr. Peter Dazak, one of the World Health Organization investigators looking into the origin of the Covid-19 coronavirus, talks to CNN’s Becky Anderson about the team’s findings.

    • sky news australia – There is ‘every signal’ China’s government ‘isn’t cooperating’

      There is “every signal” that the Chinese government is not willingly cooperating as questions over the origins of COVID-19 remain, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Michael Shoebridge.

      The WHO has declared it is “extremely unlikely” the virus which causes COVID-19 escaped from a Chinese laboratory following an independent investigation into the origins of the pandemic.

      The scientists delivered their report after an international team joined Chinese scientists to study the coronavirus in Wuhan where cases were first identified.

      Mr Shoebridge told Sky News host Chris Kenny that a “forensic, scientific data assessment has to happen”.

      “The kind of data they’re handing over about the lab, about the virus, about their own actions, it’s all stage-managed and very carefully crafted to support their story”.

      “That’s not what this kind of forensic assessment should be about”.

    • sky news australia – Question marks around China’s ‘involvement’ with WHO

      Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says there will always be scepticism around whether or not COVID-19 escaped from a lab.

      The World Health Organisation team of scientists investigating the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” it escaped a Chinese lab in late 2019.

      “There’s always question marks about China’s involvement in the WHO,” Mr Clennell said.

      • Australia is getting beat up, but they’re still speaking up. Tough people, a great country. I sure hope we’re giving them the support they deserve.

    • FEB 10th 2021 – CDC Recommends Double Masking

      The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday began recommending that Americans wear a cloth mask over a medical mask to slow the spread of Covid-19, along with other options to improve mask fit.

      The guidance followed the release of an agency study that found double masking can boost protection from aerosolized particles. Government officials have previously said the CDC was waiting to gather evidence on double masking.

      Americans should ensure that masks fit tightly on their face and have layers, both of which improve protection, the agency’s guidance says.

      There are several routes to do that, including wearing a disposable mask beneath a cloth mask or choosing a mask with multiple layers of fabric, according to the recommendation. Double-masking with two disposable masks, or with a KN95, isn’t recommended.

      “The bottom line is this: Masks work and they work best when they have a good fit and are worn correctly,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing on Wednesday.

      The new study, part of the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also examined the efficacy of modifications made to improve the fit of a medical mask.

      Either double masking or tightening a mask’s fit reduced exposure to aerosols that could be infectious by about 95%, the research concluded.

      “These experiments highlight the importance of good fit to maximize mask performance,” the authors wrote. “There are multiple simple ways to achieve better fit of masks to more effectively slow the spread of Covid-19.”

      The findings came from experiments done by the agency last month, which tested how double masking and changes to improve mask fit worked amid coughing, which the researchers simulated.

      Knotting the loops of a surgical mask and tucking in extra fabric near the face was found to reduce exposure, as was wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask.

      Surgical masks are designed to ensure a surgical field stays sterile and have became widely worn outside of hospitals during the pandemic. Their protection, however, can be limited by a loose fit like gaps around the sides of the face, the CDC study said.

      The authors noted that the findings don’t necessarily translate to a real-world setting. Another key caveat is that the experiments didn’t test other double-masking combinations, such as two cloth masks worn together, they said.

  15. Lawyer can’t turn off KITTEN filter in Zoom hearing, ‘I’m not a cat’
    The Sun – February 10, 2021

  16. India, China begin disengagement at Pangong Tso in Ladakh: Sources | LAC | India-China |English News

  17. Biden’s Press Secretary Who Tweeted Take Guns & Yes to Gun Registration, Says Gun Control is Coming

  18. HR 127 Killer! “The Second Amendment Preservation Act” Is A Step In The Right Direction #HR127

  19. A closer look at the Democrats’ ‘damning’ incitement video – Liberty Unyielding
    LU Staff
    4-5 minutes

    A closer look at the Democrats’ ‘damning’ incitement video

    Never mind that Donald Trump’s right of due process under the Constitution were never honored. Never mind that the trial is being presided over by a Democratic senator who will also function as a “juror.” And never mind that the Democrats’ need to impeach a former president arises out of an itch that will go unscratched after this entire fiasco ends.

    What took place on the floor of the Senate yesterday was a low point in the history of American government and made a mockery of the so-called “citadel of democracy.”

    There were crocodile tears and pained expressions as the managers attempted to justify re-impeaching Trump after he had already left office. But the party now in power hit rock bottom when they ran a 14-minute mix tape meant to capture the events on Jan. 6. As Trump team attorney David Schoen remarked both during the trial and later as a guest on the Sean Hannity show:

    two videos at site

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/10/a-closer-look-at-the-democrats-damning-incitement-video/

  20. Biden’s CIA pick, William Burns, leads a think tank with close ties to China – Liberty Unyielding
    Daily Caller News Foundation
    10-13 minutes

    Biden’s CIA pick, William Burns, leads a think tank with close ties to China

    William J Burns (Image: YouTube screen grab)

    By Chuck Ross

    William J. Burns, who is President Joe Biden’s nominee for director of the CIA, is president of a think tank that has received up to $2 million from a Chinese businessman as well as from a think tank with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

    As president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Burns also invited nearly a dozen congressional staffers to attend a junket to China, where they met with a communist party operative and a president of a Chinese front group.

    Burns, who was paid $540,580 last year as president of Carnegie, will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for a confirmation hearing likely to be held this month. He has been president of Carnegie since March 2015.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/10/bidens-cia-pick-william-burns-leads-a-think-tank-with-close-ties-to-china/

  21. Iran: Thousands join Tehran motorcade to celebrate 42nd anniv of Iranian Revolution

    Thousands of Iranians paraded with bikes and motorcycles to celebrate the 42d anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, which ended the House of Pahlavi’s monarchical rule in 1979, in Tehran on Wednesday.

    Celebrators could be seen waving Iranian flags and hold banners reading ‘Down with the USA,’ while others burned the flags of the US, UK, and Israel.

    Locals could also be seen treading on portrait of new US President Joe Biden, with one man warning the president, “watch this population, see this nation. If sanctions continue, the same nation, this honourable nation that has dedicated martyrs will support the system, the revolution, and the country.”

    While previous anniversary celebrations were held with thousands of pedestrians flooding the streets, only bikers and motorcyclists were allowed to participate in the event around the Azadi Tower due to fears of spreading the coronavirus,

  22. At impeachment Dem prosecutors misquote law prof Jonathan Turley, who puts them on blast – Liberty Unyielding
    Guest Post
    4 minutes

    At impeachment Dem prosecutors misquote law prof Jonathan Turley, who puts them on blast

    Jonathan Turley (Image: YouTube screen grab)

    By Wes Walker

    How’s it going for the Dem prosecution so far at Donald Trump’s re-impeachment? An expert they cited fact-checked them on social media in real-time. And that was just Day One.

    If you buy the media hype and are the type of person who gets excited when foregone conclusions play out exactly how everyone predicted they would, you might believe this was a big day for the Dems. They put out a long propaganda piece, long on schmaltz, short on facts, manipulating the evidence and trying to exploit emotions surrounding events during the January 6 riot.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/10/at-impeachment-dem-prosecutors-misquote-law-prof-jonathan-turley-who-puts-them-on-blast/

  23. Newt Gingrich trashes Trump’s defense team: ‘No idea’ what they’re doing

    Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich doesn’t hold back on the performance of Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team on ‘The Faulkner Focus,’ saying he’s surprised they weren’t fired.

    • Dems argue Trump ‘built’ mob that attacked Capitol

      In their opening statements Wednesday, House impeachment managers set out to prove that former President Donald Trump’s conduct leading up to the Jan. 6th riot was part of a “deliberate and premeditated” attempt to “steal the election.”

    • PTrump has a pattern of poor appts. The rambling garbage representing him now is a disgrace.

      His celebrity picks at the beginning weren’t much better. Flashy, telegenic, unprofessional.
      – Lin Wood: over-the-top, a circus barker playing lawyer.
      – Sidney Powell: “kraken” and “biblical”. The approach wasn’t working, she didn’t revise her strategy. Failed.

      PT selects a cast for Apprentice-2 or TV Miss Universe. No matter how much we like them, they aren’t serious players for the highest stakes in the land.

      Anthony Codevilla supported PT, but his tough assessment is pretty much dead-on. A worthy read:
      https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/19/clarity-in-trumps-wake/

  24. POILIEVRE, the only guy in the Conservative Party of Canada with a backbone, expertise, courage, and a strong voice: REMOVED.

    From Spencer Fernando – two links. One, announcing his removal, aka demotion to a shadow post that doesn’t exist. The other link would be the reason behind the removal aka he is the most popular among the Conservative Party of Canada.

    Poilievre Removed From Finance Critic Role – https://spencerfernando.com/2021/02/10/poilievre-removed-from-finance-critic-role/

    Poilievre’s Removal From Finance Critic Role Makes It Seem That O’Toole Is Intimidated By His Popularity Among Party Base – https://spencerfernando.com/2021/02/10/poilievres-removal-from-finance-critic-role-makes-it-seem-that-otoole-is-intimidated-by-his-popularity-among-party-base/

  25. Biden withdraws Trump rule on schools disclosing ties to Chinese state-run Confucius Institutes
    by Jerry Dunleavy, Justice Department Reporter |
    7-8 minutes

    The Biden administration quietly tossed a proposed rule that would have required U.S. universities and K-12 schools with foreign exchange programs to disclose any financial ties or other connections to Chinese state-run Confucius Institutes.

    The decision was met with swift backlash from Republicans, who, along with the FBI, State Department, and Education Department during the Trump administration, expressed concern about the potential for Chinese influence operations inside the United States with Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms. Democrats, so far, have yet to react to the change.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/news/biden-trump-rule-schools-disclosing-chinese-state-run-confucius-institutes

  26. MyPillow’s Lindell Says Sales Remain Strong Amid ‘Cancel Culture’
    By Zachary Stieber
    February 10, 2021 Updated: February 10, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said on Feb. 9 that sales of the company’s signature product remain strong after several retailers recently stopped stocking the pillows.

    “We’ve actually increased in sales. We’re actually up in sales. Our shipping’s behind,” he told The Epoch Times.

    Wayfair and Bed Bath & Beyond, among other retailers, stopped selling MyPillow last month. The companies faced pressure from activists who dislike Lindell’s involvement in pursuing election fraud claims.

    “Those were bots and trolls they were afraid of,” Lindell said, asserting what transpired was an example of so-called cancel culture.

    But he also said that the companies are facing negative impacts.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/mypillows-lindell-says-sales-remain-strong-amid-cancel-culture_3691923.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-02-10-1

  27. Trump Jr.: Impeachment Push Is a Waste of Time and Reflects a Double Standard
    By Tom Ozimek
    February 10, 2021 Updated: February 10, 2021
    biggersmaller Print

    Donald Trump Jr.. said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday that the push to impeach former President Donald Trump is both a waste of time and a partisan effort that reflects a double standard.

    Trump Jr. said that the urgency of the pandemic suggests other legislative priorities should take precedence over a second push to impeach his father.

    “Aren’t we in the middle of a pandemic?” Trump Jr. said. “I thought that these senators would maybe have something better to do. Maybe they would actually fight for the American people, for a change. Maybe they would actually get to the business of helping us through this pandemic.”

    Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have publicly stated that they want a speedy trial, as the Senate cannot move forward with its legislative priorities until the trial is complete.

    The trial will kick off on Wednesday at around 1 p.m., with six Republicans on Tuesday voting to go ahead with the trial, joining all members of the Democrats caucus in saying it is constitutional.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-jr-impeachment-push-is-a-waste-of-time-and-reflects-a-double-standard_3691986.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-02-10-1