Reader’s Links for May 10, 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

113 Replies to “Reader’s Links for May 10, 2021”

  1. HOT AIR – This argument for taking the lab leak theory more seriously is pretty convincing

    Earlier this week a science reporter named Nicholas Wade, who has worked for both Nature and the NY Times, published a lengthy piece on Medium titled “Origin of Covid — Following the Clues.” The piece can be broken into three parts. The first looks at what could be called the PR push to dismiss the lab leak theory. The second, about the kind of research taking place in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the third part looks at the existing evidence and asks whether it fits more easily with the idea of a natural origin or with a lab leak.

    Let’s start with the PR aspect. Wade argues there were really two statements made by scientists early on that framed the lab leak idea as a kind of easily brushed off conspiracy theory. The first appeared in Lancet:

    “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” a group of virologists and others wrote in the Lancet on February 19, 2020, when it was really far too soon for anyone to be sure what had happened. Scientists “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,” they said, with a stirring rallying call for readers to stand with Chinese colleagues on the frontline of fighting the disease…

    It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Dr. Daszak’s organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Dr. Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet’s readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, “We declare no competing interests.”

    Daszak was one of the scientists sent to Wuhan as part of the WHO trip earlier his year. He has repeatedly dismissed the lab leak theory though both the Biden administration and WHO Director Dr. Tedros have refused to discount it. The second PR push came last March in Nature Medicine. I remember this one because I wrote about it at the time.

    Its authors were a group of virologists led by Kristian G. Andersen of the Scripps Research Institute. “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” the five virologists declared in the second paragraph of their letter.

    Unfortunately this was another case of poor science, in the sense defined above. True, some older methods of cutting and pasting viral genomes retain tell-tale signs of manipulation. But newer methods, called “no-see-um” or “seamless” approaches, leave no defining marks. Nor do other methods for manipulating viruses such as serial passage, the repeated transfer of viruses from one culture of cells to another. If a virus has been manipulated, whether with a seamless method or by serial passage, there is no way of knowing that this is the case. Dr. Andersen and his colleagues were assuring their readers of something they could not know.

    It’s not just that the authors of the letter couldn’t know what they were claiming to know it’s that the two arguments they used to support their claims were full of holes. Here’s Wade’s explanation of just one of those claims:

    The authors’ basic assumption, not spelt out, is that anyone trying to make a bat virus bind to human cells could do so in only one way. First they would calculate the strongest possible fit between the human ACE2 receptor and the spike protein with which the virus latches onto it. They would then design the spike protein accordingly (by selecting the right string of amino acid units that compose it). But since the SARS2 spike protein is not of this calculated best design, the Andersen paper says, therefore it can’t have been manipulated.

    But this ignores the way that virologists do in fact get spike proteins to bind to chosen targets, which is not by calculation but by splicing in spike protein genes from other viruses or by serial passage. With serial passage, each time the virus’s progeny are transferred to new cell cultures or animals, the more successful are selected until one emerges that makes a really tight bind to human cells. Natural selection has done all the heavy lifting.

    Moving on to the second portion of the piece, Wade looks at some of the gain-of-function research that was being carried out in the Wuhan lab.

    Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, led by China’s leading expert on bat viruses, Dr. Shi Zheng-li or “Bat Lady”, mounted frequent expeditions to the bat-infested caves of Yunnan in southern China and collected around a hundred different bat coronaviruses.

    Dr. Shi then teamed up with Ralph S. Baric, an eminent coronavirus researcher at the University of North Carolina. Their work focused on enhancing the ability of bat viruses to attack humans so as to “examine the emergence potential (that is, the potential to infect humans) of circulating bat CoVs [coronaviruses].”

    And by 2018 and 2019, Dr. Daszak was funding new gain-of-function research in the Wuhan lab which sounds like a recipe for creating SARS-CoV-2.

    On 9 December 2019, before the outbreak of the pandemic became generally known, Dr. Daszak gave an interview in which he talked in glowing terms of how researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been reprogramming the spike protein and generating chimeric coronaviruses capable of infecting humanized mice.

    “And we have now found, you know, after 6 or 7 years of doing this, over 100 new sars-related coronaviruses, very close to SARS,” Dr. Daszak says around minute 28 of the interview. “Some of them get into human cells in the lab, some of them can cause SARS disease in humanized mice models and are untreatable with therapeutic monoclonals and you can’t vaccinate against them with a vaccine. So, these are a clear and present danger….

    Finally, Wade turns to the likelihood of the two rival theories. There’s a lot included in this section, some of it pretty technical but here’s a sample that’s easy to understand.

    In the case of SARS1, researchers have documented the successive changes in its spike protein as the virus evolved step by step into a dangerous pathogen. After it had gotten from bats into civets, there were six further changes in its spike protein before it became a mild pathogen in people. After a further 14 changes, the virus was much better adapted to humans, and with a further 4 the epidemic took off.

    But when you look for the fingerprints of a similar transition in SARS2, a strange surprise awaits. The virus has changed hardly at all, at least until recently. From its very first appearance, it was well adapted to human cells. Researchers led by Alina Chan of the Broad Institute compared SARS2 with late stage SARS1, which by then was well adapted to human cells, and found that the two viruses were similarly well adapted. “By the time SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in late 2019, it was already pre-adapted to human transmission to an extent similar to late epidemic SARS-CoV,” they wrote.

    When you add to that the fact that no intermediary host has been identified (all of the samples from the Wuhan wet market apparently were negative) and, even stranger, the fact that SARS2 is apparently not infectious in bats, you have a real mystery on your hands. How did the virus get from point A (infectious in bats) to point B (highly infectious in humans) with no intermediary steps? One possible answer is that it arose in a laboratory where researchers were experimenting with “humanized mice” whose lung tissue had been altered to contain the human ACE2 receptor.

    Again, there is much more to the entire piece, all of which seems to make the natural passage explanation less likely and the lab leak more likely. Does this settle the matter? Of course not. More than a year after this pandemic started we still don’t have conclusive evidence for either possibility. But in his conclusion, Wade faults the media for not taking the lab leak theory seriously enough.

    To my knowledge, no major newspaper or television network has yet provided readers with an in-depth news story of the lab escape scenario, such as the one you have just read, although some have run brief editorials or opinion pieces. One might think that any plausible origin of a virus that has killed three million people would merit a serious investigation. Or that the wisdom of continuing gain-of-function research, regardless of the virus’s origin, would be worth some probing. Or that the funding of gain-of-function research by the NIH and NIAID during a moratorium on such research would bear investigation. What accounts for the media’s apparent lack of curiosity?…

    Because President Trump said the virus had escaped from a Wuhan lab, editors gave the idea little credence. They joined the virologists in regarding lab escape as a dismissible conspiracy theory. During the Trump Administration, they had no trouble in rejecting the position of the intelligence services that lab escape could not be ruled out. But when Avril Haines, President Biden’s director of National Intelligence, said the same thing, she too was largely ignored.

    We’re long past the point where this should have been taken more seriously than it has. Josh Rogin reported yesterday that some Republicans in Congress have started demanding answers from the Biden administration. Frankly, if Wade is right about why this has been ignored thus far, that may be counter-productive. We don’t need this to become more partisan we need people to set aside their preconceived notions about whose ox will be gored by this and simply investigate.

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2021/05/07/this-argument-for-taking-the-lab-leak-theory-more-seriously-is-pretty-convincing-n388518

    ===============================================
    The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?

    By Nicholas Wade | May 5, 2021

    https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/

    • Considering who subsidized the Wuhan lab and with big pharma, the globalists, the democrats and all political overcontrol freaks, including communists, gaining massively from its release, I do not and never will believe that it was an accidental release and the cessation of internal china flights from Wuhan while allowing external flights proves Chicom knowledge and participation.

    • It would be mighty strange, just from a common sense point of view, that of all the places on earth, of all the places in China, the one place where this flu originated happens to be in the one place in China where there’s a lab experimenting on bats carrying the Corona Virus, and that this was mere coincidence.
      According to Steven Mosher (Population Research Institute) in a talk at the Truth over Fear Summit this past weekend, the former director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, has said that he believes the virus came from the Wuhan Lab. He said this after he retired.

      • China’s attack couldn’t have been done without the complicit establishment around the world.

        From the virologists to the funding, the response of major medical centers like Johns Hopkins, decisions by leaders of nations to stfu – not rattle the ChiComs – we’ve been had by an Axis of Evil.

        That’s why I objected to the term “China Flu”.
        Yes, it was a weapon wielded by China, it came from China, China suborned crucial participants in the West for its own objectives.

        But the WEAPON was a product of a corrupt cabal. We’ve got to muck out our own filthy stables. That’s urgent.

    • Thank you much for posting this, I’ve been wanting to see this in its entirety. Powerful stuff. Jordan Peterson, through his well-honed articulation of his experiences and knowledge, focuses me and gives me the ammunition to make my way through the chaos of this life, and the political and social situations of my country and the world. I’m glad Tucker Carlson chose to interview him. Again for me, powerful stuff. Thanks!

  2. https://www.thepiratescove.us/
    M…It appears that idealist westernized youth who have never had it so good and who are totally ignorant of actual history(I wonder why?) are the milch cows of obsolete political theorists who use politics to pretend to write about economics, philosophy and the environment. The book really is a load of garbage but admittedly apparently easier to swallow than Das Kapital.

    Huh: Young Japanese Look Towards Marx On Climate Crisis (scam) And Pandemic
    May 9, 2021 – 6:43 pm
    You would have thought they learned enough about government tyranny during lockdown, but, they now want to apply it to ‘climate change’, because Science

    More young Japanese look to Marx amid pandemic and climate crisis

    As the global challenge of climate change mounts and the coronavirus pandemic magnifies economic inequalities, Karl Marx, who pointed to the contradictions and limitations of capitalism, is gaining new admirers in Japan, particularly among the young.

    The boom was ignited by a 34-year-old associate professor at Osaka City University who re-imagined the theory expounded in the 19th-century German thinker’s seminal “Das Kapital” from the perspective of environmental conservation in a bestselling book published last September.

    In it, Kohei Saito argued that the realization of sustainable development goals set by the United Nations is as impossible as “drawing a round triangle” under modern-day capitalism.

    The success of the book resulted in an invitation from Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, to present a commentary on Marx’s foundational theoretical text, known by its full title in English as “Capital: A Critique of Political Economy,” on a program aired in January.

    The paperback version of his book “Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy” is $27.68, the Kindle version is $15.66, and hardback is $95. And that’s for just the English version. Guess he’s good with capitalism when selling his own book.

    Younger people, who have no memory of the Cold War or the mass student protests of the 1960s, showed a strong interest in the ideas Saito discussed in the program. Letters poured in from those in their 20s and 30s to NHK Publishing Inc., which had released Saito’s simplified textbook version of Marx’s complex work in the lead-up to the broadcast.

    So, wait, he took Marx’s book and simplified it? It’s not his own work? Oh, right, Marxist’s don’t believe in property. Except when they’re profiting off of it. Bet he’d sue if I took it and republished it under my own name, eh?

    Saito presents a theory of “degrowth communism” inspired by Marx, in which he argues that society can stop the perpetual cycles of mass production and mass consumption under capitalism by pursuing a more humanistic path prioritizing social and ecological well-being over economic growth.

    Mass consumption of his book?

    More than 250,000 copies of his Japanese book titled “Capital in the Anthropocene” were published, for which he won the 2021 new book award, selected by editors, bookstore staff and newspaper reporters.

    “Maybe many young people got his book because of the influence of Greta Thunberg, who has accused countries and companies of being involved in environmental destruction,” the book’s editor said.

    Oh, another book? Which climate cultists love? And purchased? It wasn’t free?

    • Japan has been suffering from a clinical depression for the last couple decades. The economic decline may have been a precipitant, but it’s way deeper than that.

      The relatively small cohort described above is a mess. Failure to bond, preference for sex dolls over human partners. Collective suicide.

  3. Family of Israeli soccer star Zahavi robbed at gunpoint in their Amsterdam home
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/family-of-israeli-soccer-star-zahavi-robbed-at-gunpoint-in-their-amsterdam-home/

    What this article doesn’t mention is that the wife’s hair was cut, and that one of the children was beaten. I got that from this tweet (in Dutch), which refers to a newspaper article in Hebrew:
    https://twitter.com/joopsoesan/status/1391449199607230470?s=10

    This home invasion reeks of antisemitism. It wouldn’t be the first such attack in Amsterdam, and these are generally committed by muslims (Moroccans)., There’s at least on case in which the victims stated this explicitly.

    • I know the media is saying this is a ransomware attack but that doesn’t mean it isn’t government backed.

  4. Capitol Hill riot investigation surpasses 9/11 probe as largest in FBI history – Liberty Unyielding
    Ben Bowles Ben Bowles is a freelance writer and regular contributor to “Liberty Unyielding.”
    4-5 minutes

    Capitol Hill riot investigation surpasses 9/11 probe as largest in FBI history

    As J.E. Dyer reported on May 6, House Democrats have introduced a bill to erect a permanent memorial to the Jan. 6 Capitol “insurrection” (i.e., a day that will live in infamy). I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Dems push for making the date a national holiday, akin to Dec. 7, as part of their ongoing efforts to create a federal case out of an uprising that was no worse in practice than any of the “peaceful protests” that broke out in the streets of America’s Democrat-run cities during the summer of 2020.

    The Left of course doesn’t want to push too hard since it’s now been established that the lone non-Trump supporter who died in the melee, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, died of natural causes.

    In the meantime, Democrats received some news yesterday that should give them optimism that their dream of a “Donald Trump Day,” akin to Britain’s Guy Fawkes Day, may become a reality yet. Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, was a guest on MSNBC’s “Alex Witt Reports,” where he informed the host that the Capitol Hill riot investigation has now surpassed the 9/11 probe as largest in FBI history. Watch (a transcript follows):

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/05/09/capitol-hill-riot-investigation-surpasses-9-11-probe-as-largest-in-fbi-history/

    • The Dems are using the Big Lie technique to make a small mini-riot into an insurrection, they are succeeding very well but they will keep trying.

      In their quest for total power in the US, they are destroying the rule of law and the Constitution of the US. It takes time to create a spontaneous insurrection and the Dems are working overtime to shorten the time. God have mercy on them if they succeed because the revolutionaries won’t.

  5. By supporting India, France is giving a cold-shoulder to Germany’s anti-India rhetoric

  6. Bombshell dossier indicates China has been ‘preparing’ for bio-warfare

  7. Report: China discussed weaponising Coronaviruses in 2015 | COVID-19 | Biological Weapon | Wuhan

  8. ‘EU stands with India in challenging time of Covid’: European Commission Chief

  9. China ‘threatens’ Australia with ‘ballistic missile strike’ via Global Times propaganda tool

  10. Available data ‘firmly in favour’ of theory COVID-19 came from a lab in Wuhan

  11. Taiwan prepares for Chinese invasion with virtual ‘tabletop’ military drills

  12. Malaysia imposes nationwide lockdown until June 7 amid third wave of COVID-19 infections
    127 views
    •May 10, 2021

  13. At least four injured in New Zealand supermarket stabbing | Countdown Store | World News | English

    • New Zealand: At least four injured in stabbing attack in Dunedin supermarket

      Four people have been injured, three critically after a man went on a stabbing rampage at a supermarket in Dunedin on Monday.

      Police officers and paramedics could be seen present outside the Countdown supermarket. An injured shopper is also seen being wheeled into an ambulance on a stretcher and driven to a hospital.

      Two supermarket staff were among the injured. Police said a suspect, who one witness described as having a psychotic episode, had been arrested after what seemed to be a random attack and would appear in court on Tuesday.

      Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there was no evidence the attack was a domestic terrorism incident.

  14. China nuclear war threat: Australia has ‘no idea how dangerous situation has become

    • Thank you EB for keeping on top of this threat to humanity, I believe this is the tip of the iceberg.

  15. Israel and South Korea to sign free trade pact | Business and Economy | Latest English News

  16. China to set up a ‘Line of Separation’ at Mount Everest Summit | Coronavirus | Nepal | English News
    1,050 views
    •May 10, 2021

    • Kamala Harris is Full of Utter Nonsense: She’s Blaming Illegal Immigration on Climate Change

  17. Gordon Chang: Communist China’s ‘Trying to Overthrow the U.S. Government’ | American Thought Leaders

  18. China sends letter to Indian BJD leader Sujeet Kumar over Taiwan | Formosa Club| English World News

  19. Macron warned over France’s ‘survival’ by soldiers through an open letter | Islamism | World News

    • This is the second letter in two weeks, that means that the tensions in the French Military are very high and there is a good possibility that they are ready to move. Don’t forget France has a history of political unrest and revolts. This is the Fifth Constitution, or Republic as the French say, it was established by Charles DeGaulle after WWII.

      Will the French Military step in to save the French nation, culture and people from the Islamic Invaders? We will have to wait and see, right now Macron is sweating because he doesn’t know if the military will obey any orders to arrest the personal that signed the letters.

      Are the French Military upset because Macron is make moves to use the French Military against China while leaving and invading army intact in the No Go Zones.

      • Senior officers – positive sign.
        But what proportion of the rank and file are red-green infiltrators? They’d be well-trained for jihad in France.

        Macron has been playing Chocolate Soldiers in the Sahel for quite some time. Like a sport for him, far away from home.

  20. The CCP’s 3 New Warships & Their Messages to the World, Will China Go Back to Mao’s Time?

  21. ISRAEL HAS NO MERCY. Israel strikes Hamas military post after rocket launch from Gaza.

    • twitter @disclosetv

      Hamas military wing issues ultimatum: Israel must withdraw police forces from Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah by 6 pm today.

      Israeli army orders all combat units to get ready and prepare for escalation, according to an Israeli state broadcaster.

      https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1391752964172357636

      ==========================================

      Hamas launches multiple rockets towards central Israel, #Jerusalem minutes after the 6pm ultimatum ended.

      https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1391772825405562882

      ==========================================
      al aqsa mosque

    • France Pr4vd4- Jerusalem clashes: Israel carries out missile strike in northern Gaza

      • She’s a tool.

        Gives a breathless report about periodic, endemic chaos in this place, amongst these people.

        She misses the big picture: IRAN has crafted this moment via proxy Hamas, and Fatah piles on. It’s meant to shame Arab states who’ve deified the Quranic hate mandate. It doesn’t take much to incite a Muslim horde to riot – anywhere, any time.

        The enemy regime in the White House, antisemitic Eurotrash, media lusting for zionist blood, it’s going to be bad.

      • military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad??
        As opposed to the political wing, the Twisted Ragheads of the IRI?
        They’d love to destroy a rival to their “holy site” of Karbala.

      • Seth Frantzman:
        What is Iran’s goal in the Jerusalem crisis?
        Iran has been fanning the flames of the confrontations in Jerusalem.

        Days before the latest clashes developed, Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei and its IRGC head, Hossein Salami, prepared speeches and media engagements in which they pushed messages throughout the region, arguing that Israel is in a “downward spiral” and destined to fall apart….

        This message discipline of Iran and its proxies was clear. Days later, however, as the violence in Jerusalem has grown and western powers have joined the chorus condemning Israel, as well as countries in the Gulf, who have increased concerns. Iran has been more quiet.

        So what happened? Why isn’t Iran’s regime riding the chaos, exploiting it, increasing tensions in Syria?

        While tensions simmer in Jerusalem on Monday, Iran’s Tasnim, which is linked to the IRGC, ran an all-important story about bureaucracy in Iran. “Why should an entrepreneur go to 18 places to get a license?” Good question, but not the usual “Zionism is ending” dogma.…

        There is no doubt that in English, Iran has a different message. At Iran’s Press TV, its propaganda network focused on western audiences in English, it has wall-to-wall coverage of Jerusalem. Iran-backed Hamas says Israel will pay a price for the violence and Iran notes that its foreign ministry cares deeply about Palestinian issues.
        https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/what-is-irans-goal-in-jerusalem-crisis-667739

      • ^^^ MUST SEE ^^^

        Prof. Kedar gets down to the nitty-gritty in the few minutes he’s given. The idiot interviewer wants to pick gnats, reinforce a media-driven narrative that’s entirely beside the point.

        Nonsense small-potato eviction case that’s been going on for decades. If not this, than ANY PRETEXT would do.

        Iran, Hamas, Fatah, bored youth needing an outlet for pent up energy. An enemy regime in the USA that’s determined to precipitate a crisis that harms the Jewish state.

        Something that will strengthen the bonds between Washington and their friends in Europe. Assuring 0’s Nuke Deal is ratified and stuffing the mullahs with hard currency. To kill Jews.

    • Abbas wants more blood

      Following days of intense Palestinian rioting in Jerusalem and a night in which 205 Palestinians and 17 Israeli police officers were injured, instead of calling for calm, Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party yesterday publicized a call for increased rioting and violence.

      ““The Fatah Movement with all its elements and leadership calls to continue this uprising… [Israeli policy] will lead to a comprehensive confrontation in all the Palestinian lands, including a reexamination of the rules of engagement… Fatah calls on everyone to raise the level of confrontation in the coming days and hours in the Palestinian lands, the points of friction, and the settlers’ roads.…”

      Moreover, to turn its attack on Israeli jurisdiction and rule of law in Jerusalem into an Islamic religious war, Fatah opened its statement with a quote from the Quran, and then commented that “Allah’s words are true.”

      https://palwatch.org/page/21752
      …..
      The whole article is alarming. Quranic texts to make any Muslim who deals with Israel into a sinner.

      • Melanie Phillips:
        Accessories to evil
        The US and EU are conniving at murderous violence against Israeli Jews

        During the administration of former US president Donald Trump, Palestinian violence declined as a result of Trump’s refusal to pander to Palestinian blackmail. Not only did Trump move the US embassy to Jersualem, he empowered a rapprochement between the Gulf states and Israel which left the Palestinian cause abandoned. He also cut funding to the Palestinian Authority as a consequence of its continued incitement and support of terrorism against Israeli Jews.

        The Biden administration, which is stuffed full of officials with a baleful record of hostility to Israel, immediately restored funding and diplomatic recognition to the Palestinian Authority, started to try to drive a wedge between Israel and Saudi Arabia and made clear that it would give Israel short shrift and empower its genocidal foe, Iran.

        This US shift in support effectively gave a green light to the Palestinian Arabs to renew their murderous onslaught against the Jews of Israel.

        And so what’s been the response by the Biden administration and the EU and various European states to this co-ordinated campaign of incitement, murder and other attacks on Israeli Jews? Far from condemning these Palestinian aggressors and inciters, the EU and US have instead condemned their victim, Israel.

        They have warned against its planned evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, and repeated their habitual and historically illiterate lie that Israel is in illegal occupation of Jerusalem, the ancient historic capital of the Jewish people – the only people for whom it was ever their capital city.
        https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/accessories-to-evil

  22. Melinda Gates had concerns over Bill’s possible ties to Jeffrey Epstein: report
    Bradford Betz
    3-4 minutes

    Melinda Gates was supposedly concerned with her soon-to-be ex-husband Bill Gates’ relationship with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the years leading up to their high-profile divorce last week, according to a Sunday report.

    People familiar with the couple’s divorce proceedings and a former employee of their charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, told The Wall Street Journal that Melinda’s concerns about Epstein went back as far as 2013.

    https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/melinda-gates-concerns-bills-possible-ties-jeffrey-epstein

  23. al jazeera – Chile pandemic: COVID cases rising despite vaccination campaign

    • ctv news – ‘We’re neighbours’: Alberta and Montana team up to get truckers the jab

    • city news Edmonton -What is the government’s role in encouraging the COVID-19 vaccine?

      There are several members of the UCP who have opposed public health measures, so how does this affect COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy?

      Taylor Braat explores the role of a government in a population’s willingness to get immunized.

    • global news – Some US states cancelling COVID-19 vaccine deliveries as vaccination rates continue to drop

      …the country’s vaccination rate is currently dropping…. creating a major obstacle to the Biden Administration’s plan to achieve herd immunity

      + comments on the YT page

    • CBC – Food couriers take risks so others can stay home during the pandemic

      ….a union would give them the protection and pay they deserve.

    • CBC – Finding a COVID-19 vaccine in Ontario compared to scavenger hunt

      …requiring social media access and the ability to pounce on a hot tip.

    • Meghan Markle calls for vaccine equity

      The Duchess of Sussex says the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately impacted women economically, particularly women of colour.

    • Deutsche Pravda – mRNA vaccine producer BioNTech announces expansion plans

      Vaccine makers are ramping up production.

      Yet, not enough of the product is made to keep everyone safe from COVID.

    • FDA authorizes Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in 12 to 15-year-olds


      • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire:

        There was, however, no simple overriding abuse for the destruction of so great and complex an empire as Rome. Twelve underlying causes of disunity brought about its eventual downfall, among which were the concentration of power in the hands of one ruler for whom there was no constitutional form of election, a widening gap of rich and poor, a pampered soldiery, defence cuts and a run down of military forces in spite of massive taxation and a failure of the army to meet its commitments, suppression of the middle classes while the rich pursued a life of luxury and avoided shouldering the responsibilities of government, the alienation of a bureaucratic central government from the people and a breakdown of law and order.

        It was such internal weakness which reduced Rome’s resistance and and external aggression. While we should not delude ourselves into thinking that any society can exist without some form of internal conflict we must recognize that when these become too marked they undermine the whole fabric of society.
        This is the fate that overtook Rome. Some have drawn parallels with contemporary Western civilization and its potential decline.

  24. NYC’s Top 2 Mayoral Candidates Competing Over Which is More Anti-Police Defunding – Frontpagemag
    Daniel Greenfield
    4-5 minutes

    Societal crazes are curious things. Sometimes they appear out of nowhere and disappear just as rapidly.

    We obviously know where lefty agendas come from, but they appear to go nowhere for decades, then just as suddenly the societal immune system against them collapses, and then, when the damage is bad enough, the immune system seems to reappear.

    A year ago I would have told you that New York City’s mayoral election was hopeless. And now the two leading candidates, Andrew Yang and Eric Adams are competing over which of them is more opposed to police defunding.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/05/nycs-top-2-mayoral-candidates-competing-over-which-daniel-greenfield/

  25. The True Face of Racism – Frontpagemag
    Derek Hunter
    6-7 minutes

    Welcome to the loadbearing wall of the Left’s entire house of cards.

    How liberals live with themselves is something I will never understand. I’m kind of happy about that, actually. While it might be helpful to comprehend your opponent’s way of thinking, the depravity necessary to get a handle on how a collectivist sociopathic psyche functions could only lead to a dark, confusing place from which reemerging would make a David Lynch movie seem coherent. But there is one thing easily discovered, by even a casual observance, about the people who strictly and gleefully adhere to left-wing dogma: racism is the loadbearing wall of their entire house of cards.

    Before we even touch on the racism toward South Carolina Senator Tim Scott from the likes of Jimmy Kimmel and Joy Behar for daring to think for himself, I want to step back and highlight how big the division racket leftists have constructed and, quite frankly, need in order to win political battles.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/true-face-racism-derek-hunter/

  26. Hunter Biden’s close relationship with Chinese-American secretary revealed
    Josh Boswell
    18-23 minutes

    Hunter Biden’s emails reveal his close relationship with the Chinese-American secretary who worked for him when he went into business with the man he called the ‘spy chief of China.’

    The mysterious young assistant wrote the president’s son flirty messages, sent him opposition research for Joe’s White House run and encouraged him to draw funds from the company’s accounts when the joint venture collapsed and even ended up with Hunter’s military dog tags.

    In 2017 Hunter went into business with Patrick Ho, secretary general of Chinese oil giant CEFC.

    Hunter described Ho in a call recording on his abandoned laptop as the ‘spy chief of China’, and the Chinese businessman was later surveilled by US law enforcement as a foreign intelligence threat before he was convicted of bribery in 2018.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9522591/Hunter-Bidens-close-relationship-Chinese-American-secretary-revealed.html?utm_source=RC+Investigations+Today&utm_campaign=8af5e3b52a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_11_11_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d042379c8d-8af5e3b52a-85695671&mc_cid=8af5e3b52a&mc_eid=c4a952ab77

  27. Dem Megadonors, Officials Financially Tied to Electric Bus Company Boosted by Biden – Washington Free Beacon
    Collin Anderson
    5-6 minutes

    Biden Administration

    Dem-linked investment firms pumped millions into Proterra before White House spotlighted green company
    Nicholas and Susan Pritzker in 2013 / Getty Images

    and Matthew Foldi • May 5, 2021 5:00 am

    Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm is not the only prominent Democrat with financial ties to an electric bus company repeatedly boosted by the Biden administration, documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

    Nicholas and Joby Pritzker—members of Illinois Democratic governor J.B. Pritzker’s megadonor family—own nearly 12 million shares of ArcLight through their venture capital fund, Tao Capital. ArcLight in January announced a $1.6 billion merger with Proterra, which will see the electric vehicle manufacturer go public in 2021. Granholm served on Proterra’s board for nearly four years and still holds up to $5 million in company stock.

    https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/dem-megadonors-officials-financially-tied-to-electric-bus-company-boosted-by-biden/

  28. Major China Bill Puts Military in a Crunch – Washington Free Beacon
    Jack Beyrer
    5-7 minutes

    National Security

    Dem’s ‘comprehensive’ China defense bill funds reports, not warships
    This photograph taken on October 16, 2019 shows US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets multirole fighters and an EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft (2nd R) on board USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) aircraft carrier as it sails in South China Sea on its way to Singapore / Getty Images

    • May 8, 2021 4:58 am

    Senate Democrats have billed the Strategic Competition Act as a “comprehensive” check on Chinese aggression, but the legislation fails to deliver on the national security funding necessary to realize its goals, according to former defense officials and Republican critics.

    The $7.7 billion spending proposal will pay for dozens of studies of China’s tactics to gain diplomatic and technological influence worldwide, but it offers little in terms of American national defense. The lion’s share of cash in the bill helps promote global press freedom and increases foreign aid. And its defense-related funding focuses on training, arms sales, and cooperation with allies, with little focus on improving the size and readiness of the U.S. military. Instead, the legislation offers $10 million to build democratic institutions in Hong Kong and millions of dollars dedicated to reforming U.S. engagement at the United Nations to counter China, among many other soft-power initiatives.

    Members of the House Armed Services Committee argue Senate Democrats are asking the Defense Department to do more with less. The legislation’s funding is enough to close the $7 billion funding gap between the 2021 defense budget and the shrinking 2022 budget after inflation. But Rep. Rob Wittman (R., Va.) said the demands for a modern fighting force will not be realized if Democrats do not increase the defense budget.

    https://freebeacon.com/national-security/major-china-bill-puts-military-in-a-crunch/

  29. Shooting at Vancouver Airport, the victim is 28 year old Karman Grewal of the United Nations Gang. They are still looking for others who left the scene, firing at police and later abandoned a burnt out car.

    For many years the United Nations gang and the Brothers Keepers Gang have had violent turf wars.

    Other rival gangs operating in BC are the Red Scorpions, the Wolf Pack and the Hells Angels.