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.
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This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.
The ONE Christian church for which I have time.
https://www.copticsolidarity.org/2021/02/15/new-film-commemorates-21-coptic-martyrs/
Today, on the sixth anniversary of the martyrdom of 21 Coptic Christians at the hands of the Islamic State in Libya, news appeared that a film depicting their story is set to appear later this year in Egypt.
The film commemorates what happened on Feb. 15, 2015. Then, the Islamic State released a video depicting 21 Egyptian Christians being decapitated in Libya. While sitting atop and holding their victims’ bodies down, Islamic State members shoved their fingers in the Christians’ eye sockets, craned their heads back, and sliced away at their throats with knives.
In their last moments, some of the Egyptian Copts were seen in the video praying to Christ. To quote Coptic Bishop Anba Antonios Aziz Mina, who closely analyzed footage of the video:
[I]n that diabolic product of bloodthirsty play-acting and horror, some martyrs can clearly be seen to say at the moment of their barbarous execution ‘Lord, Jesus Christ!’ The name of Jesus was their last word. Like the passion of the early martyrs, they entrusted themselves to He, who moments later, would welcome them into his embrace. This was how they celebrated their victory, a victory of which no executioner could ever rob them. With that name, whispered at the very last, their martyrdom was sealed.
The news of the movie is being received with mixed emotions in Egypt: some Christians look forward to seeing the extolling of their coreligionists and their sacrifice, while others are not eager to be reminded of it; some Muslims also don’t wish to be reminded of it—seeing it as a stain on their religion—while other Muslims are only too happy and proud to be reminded of it, seeing it as a victory for their religion.
A few of the relatives of the martyrs were interviewed after watching the film’s trailer; they expressed approval of the movie, which apparently both extolls the heroism of their slain relatives and the Egyptian government’s response: on the day after the Islamic State video was released (Feb. 16, 2015), the Egyptian air force bombed and killed approximately 40-50 IS members in Libya.
It’s worth recalling that, at the time of their abduction and subsequent butchery, Western media were largely absent. Indeed, before the video appeared, the BBC had falsely reported that the majority of those now slaughtered Copts were “released.” (Such downplaying of Muslim persecution of Christians is not uncommon for the BBC.)
Two months later, when the Islamic State released another video in April, 2015 of 30 more Christians in Libya being massacred, a masked IS spokesman addressed “Christians everywhere”:
We say to Christians everywhere, the Islamic State will expand, with Allah’s permission. And it will reach you even if you are in fortified strongholds. So whoever enters Islam will have security…. But whoever refuses will see nothing from us but the edge of a spear. The men will be killed and the children will be enslaved, and their wealth will be taken as booty. This is the judgment of Allah and His Messenger.
The next scene portrays captive Ethiopian Christians being shot in the back of the head or having their heads carved off.
The new movie is set to complement a memorial for the 21 Coptic Christian martyrs that were inaugurated last February 15, 2020, on the five year anniversary of the tragedy. It consists of 21 kneeling statues, each fashioned after the appearance of one of the martyrs, with a large statue of Christ behind them, his arms open in an embrace of salvation. This memorial stands in the Egyptian village of Al Our, where many of the slain Coptic Christians came from.
“RED ALERT: Food Supply Chain Shutting Down as Blackouts Spread – Grand Solar Minimum”
Ice Age Farmer – Premiered 58 minutes ago
THE WOKE FAMINE: Boycotting Food to “Save the Planet”
Ice Age Farmer – Premiered 11 hours ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtnCdTClm_M
CHRISTIAN WESTBROOK WITH URBAN FARMER CURTIS STONE: TOUGH TALK ON FARMING & THE FUTURE OF FOOD
ice.age.farmer – February 16, 2021
https://www.bitchute.com/video/QxPV3ZPIAwJf/
On the accompanying photo, note the emblem of the Fabians: a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Remind you of any other group????
“On the 20 April 2006 Tony Blair unveiled the Fabian Window, newly installed in the Shaw Library on a long term loan by the Webb Memorial Trust. In 2017 thanks to the generosity of the Webb Memorial Trust, the window became part of the School’s art collections. LSE Archivist, Sue Donnelly, writes about the window’s creation and its chequered history.“ https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2017/09/13/hammering-out-a-new-world-the-fabian-window-at-lse/
Apologies, it is clearer further down the article in a black and white close-up image. Here’s another: https://pilgrimjustpilgrim.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/the-fabians/
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/putin-reportedly-interested-elon-musks-proposal-two-men-speak
Obama shut down the US Space Program thinking that private Industry wouldn’t take up the slack. Musk and others are building better rockets and are about to bring the US back to the head of the Space Exploration. Now Biden has shut down Musk and will shut down the others as they get close to developing a cheaper alternative to the US launch program (that Trump restarted). This is just another example of the Radical Left in the US driving our research and jobs overseas.
13 Feb 2021 30 Taliban killed in own IED explosion
https://www.khaama.com/30-taliban-killed-in-own-ied-explosion-332233/
Security sources say a bomb blast at a mosque in Balkh province has killed at least 30 militants.
The 209th Shaheen Corps said in a statement on Saturday that 30 Taliban fighters including six foreign nationals who were expert mine makers had been killed in a bomb explosion this morning.
According to the statement, bodies of the six Taliban affiliated foreign nationals could not be identified because of the blast.
The incident is reported to have taken place when a group of Taliban militants gathered at a mosque in the village of Qultaq in Dowlatabad district of Balkh province.
Taliban fighters had gathered in the mosque to get instructions and training on making bombs and IEDs.
In another Incident two children were killed in an IED planted by the Taliban in Qotar Blaq village of Imam Sahib district in Kunduz province, security officials reported
This comes as Taliban attacks and violence have raged across the country despite stalled peace talks and efforts for stability.
Taliban on the other sees the reduction and ceasefire conditionally based on full US troops withdrawal.
Maybe that is why churches in Canada are closed, Justine may have some clandestine information about the congregations making bombs.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/anu-urges-staff-to-say-chestfeeding-instead-of-breastfeeding-gestational-parent-instead-of-mother/news-story/bedde8c10621bcf23ab18b8cec7ffb95
Australia’s leading university has encouraged staff to use “parent-inclusive language”, such as “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding” and “human milk” rather than “mother’s milk”.
Similarly, the terms “mother” and “father” should be replaced with “gestational” and “nongestational” parent, according to the Australian National University’s Gender-Inclusive Handbook.
Published last year by the Canberra university’s Gender Institute, the handbook describes itself as a guide intended for “any ANU student or staff member involved” in teaching.
It offers recommendations to “uplift female and gender minority students”.
In a section about student parents, the handbook notes that while “many students will identify as ‘mothers’ and ‘fathers’, using these terms alone to describe parenthood excludes those who do not identify with gender-binaries”.
It cites a 2019 study by researcher Lauren Dinour, who claimed that “heterosexual and woman-focused lactation language … can misgender, isolate, and harm transmasculine parents and non-heteronormative families”.
“It is therefore recommended to use the terms ‘breast/chest feeding’ and ‘human/parent’s milk’, rather than ‘breastfeeding’ and ‘mother’s milk’ to describe lactation,” the handbook states.
“When discussing childbirth, use the terms ‘gestational’ or ‘birthing’ parent rather than ‘mother’, and the terms ‘nongestational’ or ‘nonbirthing’ parent rather than ‘father’.”
The guide says this non-gendered language is “particularly important in clinical or abstract academic discussions of childbirth and parenthood, both to recognise the identities of students in the class, and to model inclusive behaviour for students entering clinical practice”.
“When working with student parents, defer to non-gendered language until the student volunteers their preferred nomenclature,” it says.
A spokeswoman for the ANU distanced the university from the handbook.
“This is a guide produced by a research institute that, among its many areas of focus, examines how to improve gender equity and inclusiveness in our society,” she said in a statement.
“The guide is an academic output produced by experts who are free to research in their field of expertise under our policies on academic freedom. This document is not an official ANU policy, process or official prescription to staff and students. It is a guide developed by expert researchers to assist anyone committed to enhancing inclusiveness and diversity.”
Despite the ANU’s insistence that it was not an “official prescription”, the handbook itself lays out examples of “positive actions” being taken by individual colleges at the university to implement “gender-inclusive teaching”.
The College of Health and Medicine and the College of Science, for example, states that it uses “gender-inclusive language” such as “they/them” rather than “he/him” or “she/her”, and offers “unconscious bias” training to all staff.
Worryingly, the College says staff have “reported issues with students undermining female-identifying tutors” and there are “issues associated with condescending discourse (and/or ‘mansplaining’) by students to other students”.
The College of Law states that feminist scholar Emerita Professor Margaret Thornton is “working to make curated, inclusive curriculum resources”, while the College of Asia and the Pacific highlights a project with Indigenous scholars to “decolonise” academic work.
Asked whether the handbook was supported or encouraged by the university, the spokeswoman confirmed the university was “committed to equity and diversity and ensuring we reflect the broad nature, background and experiences of Australians and our society, as well as a being a safe and welcoming campus for all people”.
“The University has a range of official policies and guidelines in place that support equity and diversity across our campus and community,” she said.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, which first reported on the handbook on Tuesday, University of Sydney sociologist Associate Professor Salvatore Balbones cautioned against trying to dictate language.
He suggested some of the new terms could lead to confusion.
“Most people don‘t know what parent’s milk is and would question what it means,” he said. “If someone said parent’s milk they might be looking for a brand of milk named parent’s milk.”
[..]
Nobody chest feeds. Its either breast or nothing. Bottle feeding has sufficed.
Breast envy – another slight of Marxism.
Good call.
A couple I know we’re having a baby, the woman not caring the baby took hormones so they could both breast feed. They had twin boys, everyone thought it was so precious,
‘Sweet Scheme’: Plan to Poison Prince George With Ice Cream Unveiled by Suspected UK Terrorist (sputniknews, Feb 17, 2021)
https://sputniknews.com/uk/202102171082103912-sweet-scheme-plan-to-poison-prince-george-with-ice-cream-unveiled-by-suspected-uk-terrorist/
“27-year-old Sahayb Abu was arrested in July over accusations that he was planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the UK. The man denies any wrongdoing.
A British man, Sahayb Abu, who is suspected of terrorism, has spoken up about a bizarre plan to target the royal family with poisoned ice cream from a local branch of Sainsbury’s, according to Sky News.
Abu reportedly discussed the “sweet” scheme with an undercover police officer, known as Rachid, during one of their meetings last year, after the two met in a jihadist chat group on Telegram. A recording of the conversation was played at the Old Bailey criminal court where Abu is being tried for alleged terrorist plans.
The transcript of the meeting, cited by the Independent, revealed that apart from other topics, Abu apparently lamented the life sentence handed to pro-Daesh* agitator Husnain Rashid in 2018 over a number of terror-related offences.
According to the Independent, Abu claimed that the man “got 28 years in prison” for planning an “attack on Prince George”.
“They’re trynna make it out as if he was targeting the baby, he was targeting the family, the Royal Family [sic],” Abu reportedly told the undercover agent.
“You know what his plan was? Say like the Royal Family house is there, go to the nearest Sainsbury’s and… put poison in the ice creams so the Royal Family will go and buy the ice creams from there.”
After the Royal Family buys a treat, “then most likely the son will eat it,” Abu unveiled.
The officer apparently responded to him that the plan was “a bit ambitious”.
“That’s why this wasn’t very intelligent,” Abu went on, according to the transcript.
“And then 28 years the kuffars [non-believers] are gonna laugh at you, lock you every day and you’re gonna end up saying ‘oh this aqeeda [creed] brought me this’,” he stated afterwards.
Abu was arrested on 9 July after he was accused of planning terrorist attacks. The officer says that Abu tried to persuade him to smuggle guns into the UK and discussed his intention to target a Shia imam in Buckinghamshire. The next day after the conversation, the 27-year-old apparently bought a gladiator-style sword, two balaclavas, a combat-style hat and a vest, which was regarded as his preparation for a purported attack.
Abu, who is currently on trial, denies preparing any terrorist acts.
*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries.”
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Claims Turkey Boosting Military Presence in Country (sputniknews, Feb 17, 2021)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202102171082105433-syrian-deputy-foreign-minister-claims-turkey-boosting-military-presence-in-country/
“Syria’s Assistant Foreign Minister Ayman Sousan on Wednesday at the Astana-format talks in Russia’s Sochi accused Ankara of strengthening its military presence in the country.
“The Turkish regime has been concealing and strengthening its military presence in Syria as a military power. These steps betray Turkey’s hostile intentions regarding Syria, and all of it reflects on the security in the region,” Sousan said at a press conference after the talks.
The official called the illegal presence of Turkey and the United States “the main factors hindering the restoration of stability across Syria’s territory.”
Damascus has voiced multiple complaints about the Turkish military presence and operations against Kurdish armed groups at the Syrian northern border, calling them illegal and demanding Ankara to withdraw its forces.
The Astana trio, which comprises Russia, Turkey and Iran, has been trying to bring the conflicting sides together to achieve a peaceful settlement in the Syrian conflict since their first meeting in the Kazakh capital of Astana (now Nur Sultan) in January 2017.”
Pentagon to Present Biden With Retaliation Options After Rocket Attack on US Army Base in Iraq (sputniknews, Feb 17, 2021)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202102171082104474-pentagon-to-present-biden-with-retaliation-options-after-rocket-attack-on-us-army-base-in-iraq/
“A barrage of rockets hit the Erbil Air Base in Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday, killing a civilian contractor and injuring nine other people, according to the American coalition in Iraq. A Shiite militant group has reportedly claimed responsibility.
The Pentagon will draw up possible response scenarios for President Joe Biden and his administration in the wake of the rocket attack that struck a US military base in Iraq’s Erbil, killing one civilian contractor and injuring nine others, according to a defence official quoted by Al Arabiya.
“It’s necessary to take into account that the person who was killed was not a US citizen and the previous formula that an American killed would require a response, was not the case in Monday’s attack,” the official said, cited by Al Arabiya.
Washington is maintaining close contact with Iraqi officials as they investigate the attack.
“There will be a US stance based on the results of the investigations. The US seeks to protect its troops and civilians in Iraq…which has invited Americans to be on its land,” the official said.
In the aftermath of the rockets assault, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Iraqi Minister of Defense Jumaah Saadoon on the phone to condemn the attack.
“The Iraqi people deserve a secure and stable Iraq, and the United States remains committed to supporting our Iraqi partners in their efforts to defend Iraq’s sovereignty,” reads a statement from Austin’s office.
Earlier, the US-led coalition said the killed civilian contractor who was not an American citizen.
A little-known Shiite militant group that calls itself Saraya Awliya al-Dam, which translates as “Guardians of Blood Brigade” in Arabic, has claimed responsibility for the attack, and pledged further strikes against “American occupation” forces in Iraq.
According to the US coalition, a total of 14 107 mm rockets were launched on Monday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed America’s support for investigating the attack, as the State Department issued a joint statement together with foreign ministers from France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom to condemn the attack.
“We are united in our view that attacks on US and Coalition personnel and facilities will not be tolerated,” reads the statement.
Several Iraqi officials blamed the rocket strike – the first on a Western military or diplomatic facility in Iraq in nearly two months – on Iran. Tehran has vehemently rejected all accusations.
“Iran not only strongly rejects these rumours, but also flatly condemns suspicious attempts to attribute the attack to Iran,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Tuesday.
The administration of US President Joe Biden is awaiting the results of an investigation to “determine precise attribution for this attack” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday during a news briefing…”
France: Child Prostitution Increased 600 Per Cent from 2014 to 2020 (breitbart, Feb 17, 2021)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/02/17/france-child-prostitution-increased-600-per-cent-2014-2020/
“Between 2014 and 2020, the number of children reported being exploited and sold by sex traffickers in France increased by 600 per cent, according to the country’s human trafficking agency.
The French Central Office for the Suppression of Human Trafficking (OCRTEH) revealed that the number of minors reported as being exploited as child prostitutes was 28 in 2014, but the number rose to 198 in 2020, representing a 600 per cent increase in just six years.
One of the areas in which the number of child prostitution cases has especially multiplied in recent years is Lille, where prosecutor Carole Étienne has said the figures should act as a “wake-up call” for authorities, Actu reports.
Earlier this month, the city saw the latest case involving two young men involved in a sex trafficking network that included children…”
Nail Bomber Who Wanted to Start ‘Racial War’ Converts to Islam in Prison (breitbart, Feb 17, 2021)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/02/17/nail-bomber-who-wanted-start-racial-war-converts-islam-prison/
“A jailed far-right nail bomber who had said he wanted to start a “racial war” has allegedly converted to Islam in prison, reportedly asking to be called “Saddam” in admiration of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
David Copeland, 44, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000 and must serve at least 50 years for his 13-day nail-bombing campaign in 1999, during which in three separate attacks he targetted London’s Bangladeshi, black, and LGBT communities. In total, his devices injured 139 people, and his final bomb, planted at the Admiral Duncan gay bar, killed three people including a pregnant woman.
Fellow former inmate Andy Ross, who has since completed his sentence for armed robbery, told The Sun on Monday that Copeland, who had said he wanted to “set fire to the country and stir up a racial war”, had converted to Islam in the hopes of being “re-born in a different body after death”.
He also allegedly told other prisoners at Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Frankland that he wanted to be called “Saddam”.
“Copeland prays every day and sees practising as a Muslim as a way of getting forgiveness and changing. But he still has a twisted mind,” Mr Ross told the newspaper.
Copeland was also sentenced in 2015 for the brutal attack on another prisoner using a shiv, specifically a toothbrush modified with razer blades, while serving time at HMP Belmarsh in London.
He is now residing at the high-security Frankland prison in Durham, a jail home to other high-profile prisoners, including Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe until his death from coronavirus in November.
The prison had also hosted Islamist terrorist Michael Adebolajo, who along with Michael Adebowale murdered and attempted to behead Fusilier Lee Rigby near Woolwich barracks in May 2014.
Just three years later, sources at Frankland claimed that Adebolajo had groomed other inmates who then converted to Islam and were radicalised under the terrorist’s influence, some swearing allegiance to Islamic State and pledging to commit attacks upon release.
Frankland was also the first prison to have a purpose-build extremists’ unit, to keep Islamists away from the regular prison population and stop them from attracting recruits.
A Ministry of Justice 2019 report revealed that Muslim prison gangs were forcibly converting non-Muslim inmates under the threat of violence. A Christian chaplain claimed the year before that some convert for protection.
While a 2015 Prison Officer’s Association report claimed non-Muslim inmates were being forced to pay a “protection” tax, or “jizya”, if they did not convert.
However, prison officers have claimed some inmates have become “convenience Muslims to play the system”, including to gain access to better food.
Despite three ‘jihadi jails’ opening in recent years, only one — Frankland — remains open, meaning that just three per cent of Islamist extremists have been isolated to stop them influencing or threatening other prisoners.”
UK: Thug Qamran Ali Choked Chicken, Assaulted Woman, Stamped Child’s Face in Crack Rampage (breitbart, Feb 17, 2021)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/02/17/uk-thug-qamran-ali-choked-chicken-assaulted-woman-stamped-childs-face-crack-rampage/
“Violent criminal Qamran Ali may well serve just one and a half years in custody for a crack-fueled rampage in which he tried to choke a chicken to death, split a woman’s lip, repeatedly stamped on an 11-year-old boy’s face, and assaulted another child who tried to intervene.
Ali, a 41-year-old man with previous convictions related to kidnapping, firearms, and breaking a woman’s jaw in two places, first tried to kill a chicken by “wringing its neck” and then launched a savage attack on his first child victim as he lay sleeping, according to a Worcester News court report.
“He rained kicks and punches down upon this innocent little boy. That child describes the defendant as stomping on his face,” said the prosecutor, Olivia-May Appleby.
The boy suffered nerve damage and had four of his adult teeth knocked out during the course of the attack, and may be left with dental issues for the rest of his life. “Significant treatment” including a prescription for painkillers, a course of antibiotics, and a root canal have already been required.
Ali went on to punch a woman in the face and assault a second child in what the prosecutor described as “a complete frenzy”, branding him a “volatile and vicious” criminal who “doesn’t have an ounce of consideration for his vulnerable victims”.
But despite describing the assault on the boy as the most serious case of assault occasioning actual bodily harm he had ever dealt with at sentencing — Ali also plead guilty to two counts of assault related to the woman and the second child — Judge Nicholas Cole decided it was appropriate to sentence him to just three years in prison. Under the present incarnation of British justice standards, typically just half of such sentences are actually be served behind bars before release on licence.
Time Ali spent on remand will also be subtracted from his prison time.
Judge Cole handed down this sentence despite saying that the fact Ali “had taken a significant amount of crack cocaine the day before and had also been smoking cannabis” did not excuse his behaviour, and that he had launched “a frenzied attack on an 11-year-old boy who was utterly defenceless and had been sleeping”.
Ali was also given a restraining order which instructs to not contact his victims.”
Biden’s anti-drilling interior nominee once led company that profited from fossil fuels – Liberty Unyielding
Daily Caller News Foundation
5-7 minutes
Biden’s anti-drilling interior nominee once led company that profited from fossil fuels
Deb Haaland (Image: YouTube screen grab)
By Andrew Kerr
President Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of the interior, who if confirmed will carry out his moratorium on new drilling on public lands, once led a company that profited from the generation of fossil fuels.
The nominee, New Mexico Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland, was a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal in 2019 and pledged to vote against all new fossil fuel infrastructure before her nomination. Before her election to the House in 2018, Haaland served on the board of the Laguna Development Corporation (LDC) from 2010-2015, an organization owned by the Laguna Pueblo Native American tribe that operates a number of casinos, gas stations and other businesses.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/16/bidens-anti-drilling-interior-nominee-once-led-company-that-profited-from-fossil-fuels/
Heavy snowfall, gales as winter storm hits Middle East (abcnews, Feb 17, 2021)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/heavy-snowfall-hits-syria-lebanon-israel-winter-storm-75941810
“Snow blanketed parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel on Wednesday, blocking roads, disrupting traffic and postponing vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 and even exams at some universities.
Large parts of Syria were covered, including the capital of Damascus, which is witnessing this winter’s first snowfall. Snow was as high as 15 cm (6 inches) in the mountains of Sweida province, according to the official state news agency SANA.
Roads in some provinces were blocked. In the central province of Hama, bulldozers shoveled snow to open roads while vehicles skidded on ice, further causing traffic disruption.
The University of Damascus called off mid-term exams scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in all its branches around Syria because of the extreme weather conditions. The country’s ports remained open.
In the opposition-held northwestern Syria, civil defense teams have been building dirt mounds since Tuesday around displaced persons’ camps to prevent the rain from flooding the crowded areas. Nearly 3 million displaced people live in northwestern Syria, mostly in tents and temporary shelters. Heavy rainfall last month damaged over 190 displacement sites, destroying and damaging over 10,000 tents.
In neighboring Lebanon, Storm Joyce hit late Tuesday with gale force winds registering between 85 km/h (52 miles/h) and 100 km/h (62 miles/h). The storm is expected to get stronger Thursday.
Breaking a warm spell, the storm brought heavy rainfall, a sharp drop in temperatures and the heaviest snow fall in Lebanon this year. Snow is expected to cover areas of altitudes as low as 400 meters high, according to the meteorological department. Nearly a dozen roads in eastern and northern Lebanon were closed to traffic because of the snow.
The Israeli Meteorological Service forecast heavy thunderstorms and cold temperatures across much of the country, with snowfall at higher altitudes expected later on Wednesday, including in Jerusalem. Heavy snowfall covered the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria.
In Jordan, the COVID-19 vaccination drive was suspended due to severe weather conditions. Schools and universities also put off classes.
Osama al-Tarifi, director of the operating room of the Arabia Weather site, said snow has reached 20 cm (8 inches) in the mountains of Ajloun in northern Jordan, where snowfall has been non-stop since Tuesday night. Heavy snow is expected in the capital, Amman, on Wednesday.
Wind exceeded 100 km/hour (62 miles/h) in some areas in Jordan.
In Libya, snow blanketed the country’s northeast mountains as snowfall continued since Tuesday, covering forests and roads in some areas in the North African country.
Residents of the Jabal al-Akhdar area in the far northeast part of Libya took their children out for fun, some making snowmen and others starting snowball fights.
“I was surprised, actually, by the number of families who came here to take pictures to remember the snow,” said Ali al-Shairi, an amateur photographer from the eastern city of Bayda, which is known for recurrent snow in Libya but has not seen any for a couple of years.
In neighboring Egypt, heavy rain and windy weather prevailed on Wednesday and was expected to last into Thursday, the country’s meteorological agency said. Authorities in South Sinai province, which includes touristic hubs, canceled touristic activities, including safaris and cruises to weather the storm.”
Biden is punishing Texas for its audaciousness
Texas forced to rely on ‘the hated fossil fuels’ after renewables froze
Gunmen kill 1 pupil, abduct some 40 people in north Nigeria (abcnews, Feb 17, 2021)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/gunmen-kill-pupil-abduct-40-people-north-nigeria-75943052
“Gunmen have attacked a school in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State, killing at least one student and abducting more than 40 people including students and teachers, according to an official, teacher and a prefect.
The gunmen, thought to be bandits, shot dead one student during the incident early Wednesday at the Government Science College, Kagara. Local reports said about 26 students and 16 staff and family members were abducted, while authorities were trying to get exact numbers.
The gunmen chased the students across the school and shot one of them in the head as he tried to escape, the school’s head prefect, Awal Abdulrahman, said.
“They attacked the first two houses (hostels) by the wall … They entered the house and chased students who tried to escape … They followed us shooting and in the process shot one of us in the head,” he said.
A teacher at the school, Aliyu Isah, said the gunmen entered the school premises at about 1:30 a.m. dressed in military camouflage and forced him to lead them to the students’ sleeping quarters where he and some students were tied up in pairs.
“They put me in front to lead them to the school hostel … They told the students not to worry, that they were soldiers,” he said, adding that some wore camouflage, army uniforms, and one wore a black coat.
“They gathered all the students outside but some ran into the bush,” he said. “I was thinking I would not be able to escape but luckily enough, Allah gave me a way to escape from them and I assisted the students that we were tied together … I ran toward the football field and they started shooting.”
In response to the attack, Niger state governor Abubakar Sani Bello closed the state’s schools and called on President Muhammadu Buhari for assistance to improve security.
Buhari said he’d received reports of the attack, adding that the number of those abducted or attacked was not yet known.
Buhari directed the armed forces and police, to ensure the immediate and safe return of all those abducted, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement.
The president has also dispatched a team of security chiefs to coordinate the rescue operation and meet with state officials, community leaders, as well as parents and staff of the college, according to Shehu.
“President Buhari has assured of the support of his administration to the armed forces in their brave struggle against terrorism and banditry and urged them to do all that can be done to bring an end to this saga and avoid such cowardly attacks on schools in the future,” Shehu said.
The incident comes two months after gunmen abducted more than 300 schoolboys from a secondary school in Kankara, Katsina State. The students were later released.
The attack also comes three days after gunmen attacked a bus belonging to the Niger State Transport Authority and abducted at least 21 passengers.
On Tuesday, a statement from the office of the Commissioner of Information in the state, Mohammed Idris said 10 people had been freed from the kidnappers. Ransom was not paid to secure their release, he said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the latest abduction in Kagara but Nigeria’s jihadist rebels, Boko Haram, are opposed to western education and in the past have carried out mass abductions of schoolchildren as part of its violent campaign to establish an Islamic State in Nigeria.
Several highly organized armed groups, locally called bandits, often abduct students for money.”
Iran state TV: 3 intel agents die in operation in southeast (abcnews, Feb 17, 2021)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-state-tv-intel-agents-die-operation-southeast-75943876
“Three members of Iran’s intelligence agency were killed during an operation targeting an organized crime group in southeastern Iran, the country’s state TV reported Wednesday.
The report did not provide further details. This is a high casualty toll for the agency, for a single operation that Iran reported…”
Japan protests China incursions near disputed East China Sea islands
We must be ahead of China and the US! France plots space wars with ‘vision for Europe
Trump launches attack on Mitch McConnell in scathing new statement
Gravitas: Myanmar’s military is now on the streets
Myanmar military opens fire, rolls in armored vehicles amid ongoing coup
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Pakistan police seek arrest of 2 Christians over blasphemy (abcnews, Feb 17, 2021)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pakistan-police-seek-arrest-christians-blasphemy-75939979
“Pakistan’s police said Wednesday they were seeking arrest of two Christian men in the eastern city of Lahore on charges they allegedly used insulting remarks against Islam’s holy book and its Prophet Muhammad.
The case against the two men was registered last Saturday on the complaint of a Muslim local resident Haroon Ahmed, said Muratab Ali, a police investigator, who said the accused persons had yet to be arrested.
He provided no further details and only said they were still investigating to determine whether the two minority Christians made derogatory remarks about the Quran and Islam’s Prophet during a discussion on religion.
Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, anyone accused of insulting Islam or other religious figures can be sentenced to death if found guilty. While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, just the accusation of blasphemy can cause riots in Pakistan.
According to domestic and international human rights groups, blasphemy allegations in Pakistan have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and to settle personal scores. A Punjab governor was killed by his own guard in 2011 after he defended a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy. She was acquitted after spending eight years on death row and left Pakistan for Canada to join her family after receiving threats.”
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121,482 views
•Premiered 12 hours ago
J&K Ground Report: Foreign envoys Reach Srinagar on a two-day visit | WION | Latest English News
Watch: 24 foreign envoys reach J&K’s Srinagar to assess situation
Watch: Indian & Chinese troops disengage from Pangong lake area in Ladakh
Why is China pulling troops out of the mountains?
They are tearing down the bases so they aren’t expecting to replace them soon, why are the pulling out of that region?
Are they moving the troops from the mountains to the coasts so they can organize and carry out an invasion of Taiwan later this year?
Are they going to move the troops to Pakistan or Afghanistan?
Are they pulling them back because their continued deployment was getting too expensive for the Chinese economy?
Is there internal political unrest we don’t know about?
(Richard: If China is rearing down bases and pulling back troops why is India dedicating another 24,000 for deployment in that region. They aren’t moving to that region but they are dedicate to that region and will prepare their equipment for fighting at high altitude as well as train for high altitude mountain fighting.)
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1,410 views
•Feb 17, 2021
Taiwan hints at Chinese pressure behind stalled vaccine deal| Germany | BioNTech | COVID-19 Vaccine
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High costs, lack of charging infrastructure seen as barriers to switching to EVs
US steps up challenges to Chinese-claimed islands in South China Sea.
New ‘action plan’ can help whites overcome systemic racism, become abolitionists (of whiteness) – Liberty Unyielding
Howard Portnoy
3 minutes
New ‘action plan’ can help whites overcome systemic racism, become abolitionists (of whiteness)
Barnor Hesse
Despite having once given the eulogy of Sen. Robert Byrd, a segregationist and KKK member, Joe Biden on day one of his presidency signed an executive order calling for racial equity and an end to systemic racism.
The measure is more aspirational than practical, but not to worry. Barnor Hesse, Associate Professor of African American Studies, Political Science, and Sociology at Northwestern University, has devised an action plan that will enable white Americans to shed their toxic whiteness in eight easy steps. All that’s missing is the “before” and “after” pictures of the same once-morbidly obese man tugging at the waist — now many sizes too big — of a pair of his “fat” pants.
In a tweet, Christopher Rufo of City Journal provides a graphic of the plan, which, he notes, the principal of a New York City public school sent to white parents. Notice the unhealthy behaviors and attitudes (in the weight-loss infomercial these would include photos of binge eating and and impulse food shopping with X’s emblazoned over them) are in red. As the “patient” gradually jettisons his racist tendencies. the colors morph, too — first to orange, then yellow, and finally green. When the white person achieves level 7 — that of “white traitor” — he is within hailing distance of nirvana, i.e., white abolitionism.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/17/new-action-plan-can-help-whites-overcome-systemic-racism-become-abolitionists-of-whiteness/
Branco Carton
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/17/cartoon-of-the-day-frozen-new-deal/
Dem rep files lawsuit against Trump for allegedly conspiring with ‘white supremacists’ in Capitol riot – Liberty Unyielding
Rusty Weiss
4-5 minutes
Dem rep files lawsuit against Trump for allegedly conspiring with ‘white supremacists’ in Capitol riot
Donald Trump, Bennie Thompson (Image via The Mental Recession)
Impeachment 2.0 may have ended with another failure by the Democrats to convict Donald Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors, but that doesn’t mean they won’t continue to dog with criminal actions. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has already cast the first stone. Thompson has filed a federal lawsuit against Trump for his alleged role in inciting a riot at the Capitol on January 6. The Mississippi lawmaker claims Trump conspired with attorney Rudy Giuliani and extremist groups to stop Congress from certifying President Biden’s Electoral College win, which in turn led to violence.
The suit accuses Trump of violating the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act which prohibits the use of violence or intimidation to prevent members of Congress or other federal officials from carrying out their constitutional duties.
“January 6th was one of the most shameful days in our country’s history, and it was instigated by the president himself,” Thompson said in a statement. “His gleeful support of violent white supremacists led to a breach of the Capitol that put my life, and that of my colleagues, in grave danger. It is by the slimmest of luck that the outcome was not deadlier.”
Trending: Capitol riot: Prying out the narrative, bringing in nuggets of reality
Trump Adviser Denies Allegations in Capitol Riot Lawsuit
The Associated Press reports that Thompson’s lawsuit is the first “of an expected wave of litigation over the Jan. 6 riot.”
A clear indication that, even though Donald Trump is no longer in office, the Democratic party has no intention of working to make the lives of the American people better and will continue to instead focus on the former president.
Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, dismissed the allegations made in the lawsuit, pointing out that Trump had no role in organizing the rally. He “did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6th,” Miller succinctly explained. adding, “President Trump has been acquitted in the Democrats’ latest impeachment witch hunt, and the facts are irrefutable.”
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/17/dem-rep-files-lawsuit-against-trump-for-allegedly-conspiring-with-white-supremacists-in-capitol-riot/
EGYPT: Al-Sisi is a brave guy.
– Egypt’s Al-Sisi tells education ministry to delete Qur’an verses, hadiths from curricula: they help spread terrorism –
Al-Sisi can acknowledge this, but no Western leader can. To do so would be “Islamophobic” and get him or her barraged with outrage from the establishment media and from Leftist and Islamic groups. The unanswered question is whether there are any actual Qur’an verses and hadiths that spread terrorism.
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/02/egypts-al-sisi-tells-education-ministry-to-delete-quran-verses-hadiths-from-curricula-they-help-spread-terrorism
Biden’s Keystone Shutdown an ‘Attack on the Rule of Law,’ South Dakota’s Johnson Says
By Bowen Xiao
February 16, 2021 Updated: February 16, 2021
biggersmaller Print
This is part two of a series exploring the effects of President Joe Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
MITCHELL, S.D.—Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) has listened to story after story from local business owners who have been hurt badly as a result of the shutdown of the Keystone XL pipeline.
In addition to the more than 1,000 pipeline workers who were laid off after Biden signed an executive order revoking the presidential permit signed by President Donald Trump, the effects have rippled across the state, hitting smaller rural communities that relied on the economic opportunities the pipeline was to bring.
In an interview at his home in Mitchell, South Dakota, Johnson called the cancellation of the pipeline an “attack on the rule of law.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/bidens-keystone-shutdown-an-attack-on-the-rule-of-law-south-dakotas-johnson-says_3697558.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-02-17