Reader’s Links for May 28, 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

84 Replies to “Reader’s Links for May 28, 2021”

  1. I heard a radio ad for this and looked it up “a punk-rock story about four Muslim women”
    I see it’s been out for a while but only heard of it today

    https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/may/18/we-are-lady-parts-muslim-punk-sitcom-channel-4

    musical comedy, a six-part series following the exploits of an anarchic all-female, all-Muslim punk band

    tongue-in-cheek earworms performed by the cast. (“I’m gonna kill my sister / She stole my eyeliner,” starts one track, before descending into the worryingly catchy chorus of: “It’s an honour killing / It’s an honour killing.”)
    …..
    Lucie Shorthouse, as their veiled and vaping, foul-mouthed manager, Momtaz. The series is loosely based on screenwriter Nida Manzoor’s own life navigating the diverse creative collectives of London.

    ..

    Will the series explore racism or Islamophobia at all? The cast are keen not to give away any spoilers

  2. https://youtu.be/byb3ffrBYgU

    The psychology of the midwit… Had not heard this term until yesterday, it goes a long way to explain and illustrate how seemingly intelligent people are broken and unable to think through and get out of ideology, it applies to the left mostly, hope you enjoy

    • Excellent!
      OT Although he misses one major point as do almost all academic psychologists now. IQ has NOTHING to do with creativity which is totally independent of it. IQ supposedly measures the efficiency of the machinery or the supposed intelligence of that person but in actual fact only measures ability to do well at IQ tests (hence MENSA the most sterile group of posers on the planet).
      But is gives a rough idea and is a useful tool but only.
      High creativity and lesser intelligence is the realm of criminals and painters/sculptors. To be a genius at anything you need to be trained young in that field (to be fluent)and to have a native ability in that field. Extreme intelligence is necessary for music and maths/physics etc. but it is creativity that produces the genius output, NOT Intelligence. Intelligence merely facilitates the ease of the output.
      All meritocratic exam systems select for problem solvers. They select against questions askers or those who disagree with a lecturer and say so in exams.
      It is the question askers who are the potential geniuses and the current system eliminates them.
      ?Edward de Bono called it “lateral thinking” but it is inborn and while it can be improved if low cannot reach great heights unless natural.
      Ever wonder why there are so few geniuses in science and music in the last century compared to the incredible flowering of the 19th century? Mass education is the culprit as while the education of the masses improves it smothers the fragile orchids of genius. Genius is specific to a field and unless you have the thorough grounding in that field and are not drowned in educational trivia as most schools push nowadays, you wont have a chance. Beethoven learnt to multiply and divide on his deathbed, taught by a child. Had he learnt as a child we would not know his name.

  3. Federal appeals court bars Biden administration from handing out COVID relief based on race – Liberty Unyielding
    Hans Bader
    7-8 minutes

    Federal appeals court bars Biden administration from handing out COVID relief based on race

    World’s largest gavel, outside courthouse in Columbus, Ohio

    On Thursday, a federal appeals court issued an injunction against prioritizing COVID relief to restaurants based on their owners’ race and sex, finding that was unconstitutionally discriminatory. The ruling involved the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a $28.6 billion program in the COVID relief law President Biden signed in March. The law requires the Small Business Administration to give priority to restaurants owned by certain minorities and women, while bumping white males and other minorities to the back of the line, for funds that will soon run out.

    The ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty on behalf of Antonio Vitolo, a Tennessee restaurant owner, whose application for relief was not being processed until minority and female applications are fulfilled. After a trial judge denied his request for an injunction, he appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which granted him an injunction in a 2-to-1 vote.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/05/27/federal-appeals-court-bars-biden-administration-from-handing-out-covid-relief-based-on-race/

  4. After seeing what the Modi government did to Twitter, Google kneels before India

  5. Australia has destroyed the Chinese company that took over the Darwin Port in 2015

  6. https://globalnews.ca/news/7898178/covid-19-western-university-mandatory-vaccination/

    Students of Western University and its affiliated colleges living in residence will be required to have had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as part of the university’s plans to return to full in-person classes.

    On Thursday, the university announced that students will be asked to get vaccinated before they arrive. Failing that, they “will have 14 days following their move-in date to get vaccinated on campus.”

  7. 9+
    Here’s Why the Left Directs Its Bigotry Against Jews, Whites, and Asian-Americans

    • The Belief in Black Inferiority is the Core of Leftist Racial Thinking
      5,719 views
      •Premiered 19 hours ago

  8. Kyle Bass: Communist China Controls 200 Sq Miles in Texas Next to Major Air Force Base

    • I’m floored…
      However I cannot share or save link…
      Can you please provide where this was viewable?

  9. The CANADIAN leader of Hibz ut-Tharir, the global terrorist group, Mazin Abdul-Adhim who spews hate on his Facebook page, the man from Iraq living in London, Ontario, who seems not to know about Canada’s M-103 / hate speech motion, the man who says Muslims owe Canada nothing, Canadian soldiers are war criminals, brags about the Muslims helping Hitler, capitalism is bad, Kafirs……Jews…..he should know how Canadians feel.

    You came here from there because supposedly you didn’t like it there, and now you want to change here to be like there. We are NOT racists, phobic or anti whatever-you-are, we simply like here the way it is and most of us actually at some point in time came here because it is not like there, wherever there was.

    You were welcomed here, but please stop trying to make here like there. If you want to here to be like there, you should have not left there to come here, and you are INVITED TO LEAVE HERE and go back there at your earliest convenience.

    • I like Brad a lot but he is wrong about the term limits of the President, the 22nd Amendment says that one person can serve a total of 10 years as President. 10 years not 2 terms.

  10. Former President Donald Trump released a statement as it was discovered that voting machines in a New Hamphshire city may have only counted 28% of votes marked for GOP candidates in a legislative contest.

    The latest irregularity was uncovered as a result of a recount that was requested by Democrat candidate Kristi St. Laurent, and was granted since she lost by only 24 votes in a contest where Republicans won all four seats.

    According to The Epoch Times:

    “During a hand recount, it was revealed that [Kristi St. Laurent] didn’t lose by 24 votes. Instead, the effort revealed that the GOP candidates had actually received 300 additional votes, while St. Laurent lost 99 votes.

    “An audit was carried out to determine why there was a discrepancy in the initial results and the recount tally. Now, the auditors involved in the process have said that they may have discovered the reason why.

    “‘We now have experimental confirmation that if the contest is undervoted, a fold through a vote target can create a vote. None of the 65 ballots [were] marked for St. Laurent, but the machines interpreted 25 of the folds as votes for her,’ wrote the Twitter account, WindhamNHAuditors, which is operated by auditors Harri Hursti, Mark Lindeman, and Phillip Stark. It later clarified that it was 75 votes, not 65 votes.”

    https://www.thefreedomtimes.com/2021/05/25/trump-reacts-as-nh-audit-indicates-only-28-of-gop-test-ballots-were-counted-by-voting-machines/

  11. Sen. Kennedy: Biden shows America can be ‘bought like a sack of potatoes’

  12. HONG KONG: Hong Kong residents reluctant to get the coronavirus jab have been given a million-dollar reason to roll up their sleeves after property tycoons donated a brand new flat to a vaccine lottery.

    Worth HK$10.8 million (US$1.4 million), the one-bedroom apartment will be the lucky draw’s grand prize, the property developers announced on Friday (May 28).

    They will also offer 20 other prizes worth HK$100,000 each.

    Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world to have secured more than enough doses to inoculate all 7.5 million people.

    But rampant distrust of the government combined with a lack of urgency in a comparatively virus-free city has led to hesitancy and a dismally lagging inoculation drive.

    https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/hong-kong-tycoons-1-million-flat-lottery-covid-19-vaccine-14905022

  13. FRANCE – Man killed after stabbing, shooting 3 French police officers

    After stabbing the first police officer in her station in the Nantes suburb of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, the assailant took her gun and fled

    When he was located, he fired on officers trying to arrest him and was gravely wounded in an ensuing shootout, dying Friday afternoon of his injuries

    PARIS: An unidentified assailant stabbed a police officer at her station Friday in western France then shot two other officers before being killed in a shootout with police, authorities said. The motive for the violence is unclear.

    The slain suspect’s identity is being verified, France’s national gendarme service told The Associated Press.

    The three officers were wounded but none is in life-threatening condition, the gendarmes said.

    After stabbing the first police officer in her station in the Nantes suburb of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, the assailant took her gun and fled, according to the gendarme service.

    French police deployed helicopters, search dogs and more than 200 officers to find the suspect, and closed nearby schools and stores. When he was located, he fired on officers trying to arrest him, the gendarme service said.

    He was gravely wounded in an ensuing shootout, and died Friday afternoon of his injuries, according to a police official.

    Police and ambulances blocked roads in the normally quiet, residential area after the stabbing.
    Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and the Nantes prosecutor headed to the scene of the attack. Domestic security and attacks on police are a big political issue ahead of regional elections next month and France’s presidential election next year.

    Two police employees have been killed in France in recent weeks. One was an administrative official stabbed to death inside her police station near Paris in what authorities are investigating as an extremist attack. The other was a drug squad officer shot to death in the southern city of Avignon.

    https://www.arabnews.com/node/1866371/world

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

    DAILY MAIL – Knifeman radicalised in prison is shot dead in gun battle with French police after stabbing female officer and wounding two other gendarmes

    Knifeman, named locally as Ndiaga Dieye, aged 39, repeatedly stabbed a female cop inside a police station near the city of Nantes, France

    Dieye then stole her handgun and went on the run, before attacking gendarmes

    Two officers were hurt in the shootout before shooting Dieye, who was arrested in serious condition but later died of his injuries

    Interior minister said Dieye converted to Islam in jail in 2016 and was later reported to a radicalisation programme, before being released in March this year

    ———————————————

    A radicalised Islamist knifeman who stabbed a policewoman and then went on the run with her handgun has been shot dead by police in France.

    The man, named by Le Figaro as Ndiaga Dieye, aged 39, launched the attack inside a police station in La Chappelle-sur-Erdre, near the city of Nantes, around 10am – leaving her with life-threatening wounds though she is expected to survive.

    He then fled on foot before launching a second attack on gendarmes several hours later, shooting one in the hand and another in the arm before also being shot.

    Dieye was arrested in a serious condition but later died of his injuries. Interior minister Gerard Darmanin confirmed that he had converted to Islam inside jail in 2016 and was reported to a radicalisation programme before his release this year.

    Mr Darmanin added that Dieye – who was born in France – also had psychiatric issues, and had previously been ‘diagnosed with severe schizophrenia’.

    Darmanin added that Dieye had been convicted of several ‘common law’ offences, and had never previously been convicted of a terrorist offence.

    According to BFMTV, Dieye had been jailed in 2013 on an unknown charge and served his full eight-year sentence which ended in March.

    He was released but ordered to undergo treatment for his schizophrenia, and was placed in an assisted living facility so probation services could monitor his care.

    It is unclear how he ended up in the police station on the day of the attack, but Le Parisien says he had presented himself to police claiming to suffer ‘a car problem.’

    It follows a series of similar attacks across France, including a female police worker who was killed by an Islamist knifeman in the Paris suburb of Rambouillet last month.

    Friday’s attacks saw the man ‘slash the woman officer several times with a knife inside the police headquarters,’ according to a local police spokesman.

    ‘The man then grabbed the officer’s pistol and fled the scene,’ the spokesman said.

    240 officers, including members of the elite GIGN armed response unit, have since been mobilised to search for the attacker.

    Local residents have been told not to leave their homes, and students have been locked down inside schools.

    The wounded officer, who has not been named, was rushed to hospital with a ‘very serious thigh injury which could be life threatening,’ said the source.

    Witnesses said they saw the attacker get into a VW Golf after the attack, but then crashed the car, got out and fled on foot.

    ‘He was brandishing the pistol taken from the police officer he stabbed,’ said the town hall spokesman.

    Heavily armed GIGN officers were leading the manhunt, along with police and gendarmes, and a helicopter had been deployed, the spokesman added.

    French far-right leader Marine Le Pen tweeted after the attack that ‘I refuse to accept this is our daily life’, adding: ‘We must finally fight this barbarism and never, absolutely never get used to it.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9629253/Knifeman-run-stabbing-female-cop-France.html

  14. Oh dear, the Liberal member of Parliament William Amos, who appeared nude in a virtual meeting has now been caught peeing on a camera during another meeting.
    Apparently he did not know the camera was on!

    In a statement post to Twitter the sick twit said he will be stepping down from his Parliamentary role and committee duties to seek assistance.

    This might be a hard one for Justine to get around since an awful lot of Canadians are sick of Justine and company pissing on us. Fire him Justine, and then step down, you are a disgrace, not fit to be the Prime Minister of Canada.

  15. China threat ‘increasing’ as Xi Jinping’s army ‘is preparing for war’ says Taiwan minister.

  16. Sri Lanka mounted a staunch defence of China’s treatment of a Muslim minority in the Xinjiang province at the Human Rights Council on Thursday (4), slamming a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom and casting doubt on the credibility of sources.

    The intervention by Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador C.A. Chandraprema was made during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Ahmed Shaheed on his report on Countering Islamophobia/Anti-Muslim Hatred that was presented to the Council during the 46th Session.

    Problems facing the Muslims community in Sri Lanka received a brief reference in Shaheed’s report, specifically referring to mob attacks against Muslims communities in which Police appeared to be complicit.

    After brief remarks about the Sri Lankan Constitution upholding the right to freedom of religion and denying violence and discrimination against Muslims in the island following the Easter Sunday bombings, Ambassador Chandraprema used the remainder of his time to criticise the UN Special Rapporteur’s findings on the treatment of the Uighurs in China’s Xingjiang province.

    Ambassador Chandraprema said Shaheed’s report had quoted “various Western media outlets” that had made “various sensational claims” about issues encountered by the Muslims in China.

    “We have serious concerns about the credibility of these sources. We note that the policy of freedom of religion has been fully implemented in the Xinxiang province,” Ambassador Chandraprema said.

    https://www.ft.lk/news/Lanka-defends-China-s-treatment-of-Muslims-in-Xinjiang-at-UN-Human-Rights-Council/56-714376

  17. 9+
    #SuezCanal #EverGiven #ContainerShip
    Suez Canal blames Ever Given container ship’s grounding on speed, rudder size | English World News

    • Interesting, when ships enter a Canal they take on a Canal Pilot who is in charge of the speed and steering, the Ever Given had to Canal pilots on board so their attempt to shift the blame to the Shipping Company isn’t going to fly.

  18. RT – Pfizer jab deadlier than AstraZeneca across Europe – leaked study

    A leaked AstraZeneca study found that the number of people who died after getting the Pfizer COVID vaccine in several European countries was higher than the fatalities linked to its own jab, although the opposite applied in the UK.

    • global news – Video shows NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh breaking COVID-19 rules

      NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is apologizing for breaking COVID-19 restrictions, after a video went viral of the politician hugging someone, unmasked, who he’d just been in the same car with.

      As Mike Le Couteur reports, those double standards are frustrating Canadians, who are desperate to hug their loved ones.

    • global news – Toronto company’s alleged mishandling of COVID-19 testing at borders

      Switch Health, a Toronto startup company tasked with testing international travellers arriving in Canada for COVID-19, is about to testify over how it is managing the federal contract.

      + comments on the YT page

      • For over a year now people have been repeatedly to told to stay home, stay safe, shut up. People in remote areas have been repeatedly told if COVID comes our way, we will be in one hell of a mess, we lack all the tools, medical facilities to protect us if COVID arrives. We have had no COVID in many areas. Recently 3 old people in a retirement home in the Ottawa area, were vaccinated, all ended up with COVID and died. Now people in the remote areas are getting vaccinated. does this really makes sense to anyone? Ban the damn vaccines.

    • WHO’s Science in 5 on COVID-19: Transmission indoors and outdoors

      How can you keep yourself safe indoors and outdoors? WHO’s Dr Oliver Morgan explains

    • Deutsche Pravda – What’s behind the resurgence of the Wuhan lab theory?

      … Some Biden administration officials have harbored strong doubts about the lab leak theory. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, said Wednesday that he and other scientists “believe that the most likely scenario is that this was a natural occurrence, but no one knows that 100% for sure.”

      ….China wholly rejects the theory that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab, and the Chinese Embassy in the US called the idea a “conspiracy theory”

      + comments on the YT page

    • China denounces U.S. ‘political hype’ on origin tracing of COVID-19

      China condemned the U.S.’s new attempts to politicize the origins of COVID-19 on Thursday, reiterating that experts from the World Health Organization had concluded that a “lab leak” was “extremely unlikely.”

    • UK – LONDON – Thousands descend on London’s Chinatown after ‘vaccine bus’ promises jabs without appointments

      THOUSANDS of people flooded London’s Chinatown after a “vaccine bus” promised a Covid jab without an appointment on Thursday.

      Shock footage shows a crowd of people tightly-packed in the central London square hoping to get vaccinated.

      Two people wearing face masks appear to be in charge of the operation and can be seen speaking to the group.

      More people then make their way around a corner to line up outside a barbershop.

      The advert for the vaccine was posted on the Chinese Information and Advice Centre website.

      It read: “A Vaccine Bus is available in London Chinatown to offer free vaccine jab to the Community without appointment. Date: 27 May 2021 (Thursday) Time: 12 – 5pm.

      “You DO NOT need to have: NHS number any proof of address personal identification Undocumented migrants also welcomed Stay safe! Get vaccinated!”

      It is not clear if the Covid vaccine is one of the three government-approved jabs in circulation in the UK at present.

      But the jab should only be booked through the NHS website or a GP surgery when people have been invited.

      Unlike various Covid tests that are available for a cost at pharmacies and other health companies across the UK, there is no private vaccine.

      Patients have also been warned not to fall for scam artists who claim to have doses of the vaccine available.

      It was previously reported fraudsters are taking advantage of the rollout by sending text messages to scam financial information.

    • city news Toronto – Toronto woman develops Bell’s palsy after COVID vaccine

      Jennifer Gibson says she knew there might be side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but wasn’t prepared when two weeks later, she developed Bell’s palsy.

      + comments on the YT page

    • Netherlands: EMA approves Pfizer-BioNTech COVID jab for use in kids over 12

    • CBC – Vaccines don’t reduce the worry, risk for immunocompromised people

      Even after vaccination, people with compromised immune systems still live with worry because COVID-19 vaccines don’t seem to offer much protection.

    • Volunteers Spread Word About Vaccine Incentives In Downtown Los Angeles

      Community volunteers educating downtown residents and workers about why getting the COVID-19 vaccine is important, as well as spreading the word on incentives, like a potential cash prize, for receiving the vaccine.

    • AFP -Pandemic Won’t Be Over Until 70 Per Cent Are Vaccinated: WHO

      The World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said countries and their populations must not become complacent about the pandemic.

      Copenhagen: The WHO’s European director warned Friday that he Covid-19 pandemic won’t end until at least 70 percent of people are vaccinated, and criticized Europe’s vaccine rollout as “too slow”.

      The World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said countries and their populations must not become complacent about the pandemic.

      “Don’t think the COVID-19 pandemic is over,” Kluge told AFP in an interview, while adding that vaccination rates needed to increase.

      “The pandemic will be over once we reach 70 percent minimum coverage in vaccination,” the regional director said.

      In the 53 countries and territories that make up the WHO’s European region — including several in Central Asia — 26 percent of the population has received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

      In the European Union, 36.6 percent of the population has received at least one dose and 16.9 percent have been fully vaccinated, according to a count by AFP.

      Kluge said one of his main concerns was the increased contagiousness of new variants.

      “We know for example that the B.1617 (India-dominant variant) is more transmissible than the B.117 (British variant), which already was more transmissible than the previous strain,” Kluge noted.

      Cases of the India-dominant variant have been recorded in 27 of the region’s 53 countries , while the number of new cases, and deaths, has fallen for five consecutive weeks, reaching their lowest levels since mid-October.

      Speed essential

      Worldwide, new cases have dropped for four weeks in a row, according to an AFP tally.

      But while vaccines have proven effective against coronavirus mutations, people must still be vigilant, Kluge emphasised.

      The Belgian doctor said a major concern was that “people drop their guards that they become complacent,” especially going into the summer months.

      In addition, large gatherings are on the horizon in conjunction with the European football championship.

      “Let’s finally give COVID-19 the red card, don’t allow extra time for Covid-19,” Kluge quipped, repeating advice to maintain social distances and wear face masks.

      He also underscored that speed is “of essence” during the pandemic.

      “Our best friend is speed, time is working against us, (and) the vaccination roll-out still goes too slow,” Kluge said.

      “We need to accelerate, we need to enlarge the number of vaccines,”and European countries needed to show more solidarity.

      “It is not acceptable that some countries start to vaccinate the younger, healthy part of the population, while other countries in our region still did not cover all the health care workers and the most vulnerable people,” Kluge said.

      https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pandemic-wont-be-over-until-70-per-cent-are-vaccinated-who-2451482

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

      NYT – 70 Percent Covid Vaccination Rate May Be in Reach, New Poll Suggests

      The survey found big increases over last month in Latinos getting the shot and in unvaccinated people who say they have made an appointment.

      A new poll suggests the United States could be on track to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the adult population against Covid-19 by this summer.

      In the latest survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 62 percent of respondents said they had received at least one dose of a vaccine, up from 56 percent in April. At the same time, about a third of those categorized as “wait and see” reported that they had already made vaccine appointments or planned to do so imminently.

      Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a vaccine expert, found the results encouraging.

      “I think there are many people who were on the fence who were worried about things moving too rapidly and about possible side effects, but those concerns are being allayed as they see more of their friends and acquaintances celebrating getting vaccinated,” said Dr. Schaffner, who was not involved in the monthly survey, the Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor.

      “They’re getting that growing sense of comfort and reassurance that ‘people like me’ are getting vaccinated,” which, he said, was essential to instilling confidence in the vaccines.

      The two demographic groups reporting the greatest increase in vaccination rates from April to May were Latino adults (from 47 percent to 57 percent) and adults without college degrees (from 48 percent to 55 percent).

      The telephone survey of 1,526 adults was conducted in English and Spanish from May 18 through May 25.

      On May 10, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech for children ages 12 and older. The survey found that 40 percent of parents said that either their child had already gotten at least one dose or would be getting one soon.

      But parents of younger children were notably more guarded, with only about a quarter expressing a willingness to get their children vaccinated as soon as the shots become authorized for them.

      The finding suggests that efforts to protect as many young students as possible from Covid-19 by the start of the school year could face barriers.

      While public health experts welcomed the continuing improvement in vaccination rates, they noted that it meant the pool of the most willing adults was shrinking.

      “At this point, there’s almost no low-hanging fruit, but there’s a path toward a slow-but-steady increase in vaccination rates through improved access, information, persuasion and incentives,” said Drew Altman, the president and chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

      President Biden set a goal of 70 percent vaccine coverage for adults by July 4. Dr. Schaffner said he thought the goal was possible. “We have to work harder,” he said.

      The authors of the survey said the goal was realistic, because in addition to 62 percent of adults who had received at least one dose, another 4 percent said they wanted the shot as soon as possible, and still another 4 percent — representing a third of the “wait-and-see” group — said they had scheduled an appointment or intended to do so within three months.

      But despite the positive news, vaccination rates among adults who have previously reported significant hesitancy (7 percent) or outright refusal (13 percent) have remained static for several months. And a third of the “wait-and-see” group said they would wait at least a year before getting the shots.

      The survey also looked at attitudes about vaccination incentives as well as the impact of government messaging about the shots. Financial enticements, such as Ohio’s million-dollar lottery for the newly vaccinated, are receiving some derisive pushback.

      But the survey found that such rewards can be successful motivators for people to get the shots. Fifteen percent of unvaccinated adults in the survey said that being offered $100 by their state might make them reconsider, as would free transportation and free tickets to a sporting event or concert.

      Earlier this month, people who showed up to be vaccinated at an event at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama could take two victory laps around the track. (Cars and trucks, yes; motorcycles, no.) Similar incentives are being offered around the country.

      About 20 percent of the unvaccinated workers said they would be more likely to get the shots if their employer gave them paid time off for the appointments and for any time needed to recover from side effects.

      The report also showed that the public has some confidence in government health-related messages, though many were confused by the announcement this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying that vaccinated people could largely eschew face masks and social distancing. Over half said that the C.D.C.’s guidance was generally clear and accessible, but about 40 percent found it confusing and murky.

      Strikingly, 85 percent of unvaccinated people said that the C.D.C.’s new guidance did not make them more willing to get vaccinated.

      But another cohort looked to government approval as a potential starting gun. The survey found that a third of unvaccinated adults, including 44 percent in the “wait-and-see” group, said they would be more likely to get a vaccine once it received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The makers of the Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have recently said that they are making progress toward that goal.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/health/us-vaccine-rate.html

    • NEW YORK POST _ Scientists at Wuhan lab in COVID probe admitted being bitten by bats: reports

      Scientists at the Chinese lab eyed as a possible source of the coronavirus pandemic were previously filmed getting bitten and spattered with blood while handling bats without protection, according to reports.

      The state-run TV footage showed researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) disregarding gloves, masks and other PPE while handling bats and collecting feces in the field, Taiwan News first noted.

      In one section, virus expert Cui Jie related how a bat’s fangs once went right through his glove, describing it as feeling “like being jabbed with a needle,” the outlet noted.

      The video — first broadcast in China on Dec. 29, 2017 — then cut to a person’s limb badly swollen from an apparent bat bite. Scientists also admitted getting spattered with blood during the research, according to the Sun.

      As one scientist was shown handling samples with bare hands, the narrator noted how the risk of injury “still exists,” and that team members got a rabies vaccine before each field sampling, the Taiwan report said.

      However, the lab’s now-notorious “bat woman” leader, Shi Zhengli, dismissed the fears in a since-deleted article, claiming that “this job is not as dangerous as everyone thinks,” Taiwan News noted.

      “The odds of directly infecting humans is very small,” she reportedly wrote before her lab become the focus of worldwide attention because of the coronavirus pandemic that as of Thursday has killed more than 3.5 million people worldwide.

      “In most cases, only ordinary protection will be utilized,” she admitted at the time of their risky research, the outlet said.

      The video was aired by Chinese TV to showcase the lab’s work as well as celebrate its “bat woman” director, Taiwan News has said.

      But it has resurfaced now that world leaders are increasingly concerned about possible ties to the pandemic — with President Biden this week ordering US spy agencies to carry out a 90-day investigation.

      Former President Donald Trump and his administration long raised suspicions over the coincidence of the bat research lab being in the epicenter of the pandemic’s outbreak, with its research including similar viruses.

      Biden finally focused on the lab after it emerged that a US intelligence report had raised concerns over three of the lab’s researchers getting sick from a mystery illness in November 2019, just before the first COVID-19 cases were officially noted.

      The renewed focus even encouraged Facebook to reverse its ban on stories linking the lab to the outbreak.

      https://nypost.com/2021/05/28/scientists-at-wuhan-lab-filmed-being-bitten-by-bats-report/

  19. What I Lost by Leaving the Left & Why So Few Stand Up | David Horowitz | POLITICS | Rubin Report
    57,473 views
    •May 22, 2021

  20. The Richest Homeless in the World – Frontpagemag
    Daniel Greenfield
    7-9 minutes

    $2,600 tents, $100,000 shacks, and $300,000 toilets.

    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

    Last year, Davon Brown, a former fashion model turned homeless activist, conned his way into an LA Ritz-Carlton luxury suite alongside Jed Parriot, the son of a producer on Grey’s Anatomy.

    It was May Day, Brown was wearing a blazer and sunglasses. The former fashion model and son of a wealthy producer were there to ‘occupy’ a luxury suite for the homeless. And demand that the city take over hotel rooms and hand them out to the population of junkie vagrants.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/richest-homeless-world-daniel-greenfield/

  21. St. Louis Mayor Guts the Police – Frontpagemag
    Matthew Vadum
    6-7 minutes

    Tishaura Jones faithfully fulfills the leftist agenda.

    The newly arrived radical leftist mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, the city with the worst murder rate in America, is committed to leaving her constituents at the mercy of violent criminals by defunding the local police department and shutting down one of the city’s two jails.

    St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, a woke black Democrat, was sworn in in April after narrowly defeating Cara Spencer, a similarly woke leftist white woman.

    Jones’s campaign, which focused on “progressive” criminal justice reforms, was unabashedly racist. She said during a debate that Spencer wouldn’t be a good mayor because her skin was the wrong color.

    A “white person doesn’t have to worry about their children getting hit by a stray bullet when he’s outside,” Jones said. “While I appreciate the role of white allies in this movement of progress, I don’t believe that they have the lived experiences to lead a majority-minority city.”

    Her victory speech was weighted down with platitudes.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/st-louis-mayor-guts-police-matthew-vadum/

  22. Criminal heyday: Chicago Police Dept. ends foot chases for low-level offenses
    Phil Shiver
    3-4 minutes

    After only about two months of serious deliberation, the Chicago Police Department on Wednesday unveiled a new policy that largely ends the practice of officers pursuing suspects on foot.

    Under the new policy, set in motion following the recent police shootings of 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez, officers are not permitted to chase individuals suspected of committing a minor traffic offense or low-level misdemeanor unless that individual poses an “obvious threat” to the community.

    The policy also urges officers to seek ways to avoid foot chases altogether, directing them to perhaps set up a perimeter, conduct surveillance, or consider whether the suspect could be apprehended at another time or place.

    Ultimately, officers will be forced — in the heat of the moment — to weigh the potential risk to public safety against the need for immediate apprehension.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/chicago-police-ends-foot-chases?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210528Trending-AutoTrendAM&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Breaking%20News

  23. Popeyes store under criminal investigation after posting sign saying, ‘Will reserve the right to refuse service to white people’
    Sarah Taylor
    2-3 minutes

    Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

    Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox.

    Authorities have launched a criminal investigation into a sign that was reportedly posted at a Popeyes restaurant in Lake Saint Louis, Missouri, announcing that the fast-food restaurant reserved the “right to refuse service to white people.”
    What are the details?

    A photo of the sign — which was reportedly affixed to an area in the restaurant’s drive-thru — was widely circulated across social media platforms Wednesday, and said, “Effective 6-1-21 This restaurant is under new management and will reserve the right to refuse service to white people. We apologize for any inconvenience. Signed, General Manager, Mason.”

    The restaurant was forced to close on Wednesday over the outcry.

    According to KTVI-TV, Lake Saint Louis police said that they believe someone may have erected the sign “unbeknownst to the business” and added that the sign could be related to an act of vandalism that took place at the store earlier in May. The vandalism, according to Lt. Pat Doering of the Lake Saint Louis Police Department, said that the vandalism included shattered glass and obscene messages painted on the restaurant’s drive-thru menu.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/popeyes-criminal-investigation-white-people-sign?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210528Trending-AutoTrendAM&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Breaking%20News

  24. University Chancellor, Provost Apologize After Condemning Uptick In Anti-Semitic Attacks
    Greg Price
    4-5 minutes

    The chancellor of Rutgers University-New Brunswick apologized Thursday after sending a university-wide announcement condemning the recent spike in anti-Semitic attacks around the country.

    Dr. Christopher J. Molloy, chancellor of the university, and Dr. Francine Conway, provost and executive vice chancellor for research and academic affairs, originally sent a message to their students on Wednesday that spoke out against the widely reported increase in hate crimes against Jews.

    “Recent incidents of hate directed toward Jewish members of our community again remind us of what history has to teach us. Tragically, in the last century alone, acts of prejudice and hatred left unaddressed have served as the foundation for many atrocities against targeted groups around the world,” the email said.

    https://dailycaller.com/2021/05/27/rutgers-chancellor-apologizes-antisemitism-email/

  25. Facebook Insider Morgan Kahmann joins Tucker Carlson to discuss leaked ‘Vaccine Hesitancy’ documents

  26. Syria: Drone footage shows thousands celebrating Assad’s victory in Tartus

    Thousands of people gathered in the main square of the Syrian coastal city of Tartus, on Thursday, to celebrate the victory of Bashar al-Assad in the presidential elections.

    Assad supporters could be seen dancing and waving Syrian flags. Drone footage also captured the celebrations continuing into the night.

    On Thursday, the Syrian parliament announced that the re-elected president had won 95.1 percent of the votes, giving him seven more years in power.

    The three candidates to run were current Assad, former cabinet member Abdullah Salloum Abdullah, and opposition party member Mahmoud Ahmad Marai. Forty-eight other candidates had their applications refused by the Syrian Supreme Constitutional Court.

  27. CBC – Ontario poet laureate Randell Adjei on George Floyd’s legacy

    Randell Adjei performs his first public piece as Ontario’s new poet laureate, reflecting on the legacy of George Floyd…

    • CBC – Canada commits $25 million in aid to Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank

      The federal government is sending $25 million in aid to Palestinians affected by recent violence in Gaza and the West Bank.

      International Development Minister Karina Gould says Ottawa will use its longstanding partnerships on the ground to ensure its support goes to vulnerable Palestinians, ‘and it does not in any way support the work of Hamas.’

  28. Deutsche Pravda – German police shoot dead knife-wielding man in Hamburg

    A man who threatened drivers in Hamburg after apparently yelling “Allahu Akbar” was shot and killed by the police, German authorities have said.

    German police were investigating an apparent attack after killing a knife-wielding man who damaged cars and threatened motorists in the country’s second largest city, Hamburg, on Friday.

    Several witnesses reported the attacker yelling “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is greatest!” in Arabic), according to the police.

    Officers deployed to the scene, backed by a special unit that “happened to be nearby,” police said in a statement.

    The man then started approaching the police with a knife in his hand, said police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrün. The officers used pepper spray and fired a taser in an effort to subdue him, but the attacker did not appear to be affected.

    Eventually, police used their firearms. The attacker died a short time later.

    “It is still unclear exactly how many times and by whom shots were fired,” Levgrün was quoted as saying by the DPA news agency.

    Attacker’s identity still unknown

    The man’s identity was not immediately clear.

    State investigators were working to determine if the attack was motivated by religious extremism.

    The incident in northern Germany comes just hours after reports of a similar attack in western France.

    Authorities said a man was killed in a shootout with the French police in the western town of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre.

    The man had attacked and seriously wounded a police officer with a knife. Neither Germany nor France speculated on a possible link between the attacks.

    https://www.dw.com/en/german-police-shoot-dead-knife-wielding-man-in-hamburg/a-57709203

    GERMANY _ HAMBURG – “Allahu Akbar”: Polizei erschießt Messer-Mann in Hamburg-Winterhude

    Der Mann rief “Allahu Akbar”, bedrohte mehrere Autofahrer mit einem Messer und griff Polizisten an: Am Freitagnachmittag haben Beamte an der Hebebrandstraße in Hamburg-Winterhude einen bewaffneten Angreifer durch Schüsse gestoppt und getötet. Das teilte Polizeisprecherin Sandra Levgrün mit.

    • Tödlicher Polizeieinsatz: Beamter erschießt bewaffneten Mann

      Die Bilder sind schrecklich. In Hamburg gab es einen tödlichen Polizeieinsatz. Retter haben noch um das Leben des Mannes gekämpft. Am blutverschmierten Tatort liegen noch die Handschuhe und Verbandsmaterial.

  29. Coming Soon: China’s Navy Patrolling Off New York
    Gordon G. Chang
    7-9 minutes

    China is scouting for a naval base on the west coast of Africa. In the near future, therefore, Chinese ships could be regularly patrolling off America’s East Coast. China is also eyeing islands in the Atlantic, specifically Terceira, one of the Azores, where there is a port and, of even greater interest, Air Base No. 4. Better known as Lajes Field, the facility is jointly operated by the U.S. Air Force and its Portuguese counterpart. Pictured: A US Air Force C-130 prepares for takeoff from Lajes Field on March 4, 2003. (Photo by Michelle Michaud/U.S. Air Force/Getty Images)

    China is scouting for a naval base on the west coast of Africa. In the near future, therefore, Chinese ships could be regularly patrolling off America’s East Coast.

    In recent testimony before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, General Stephen Townsend, commander of U.S. Africa Command, has been sounding the alarm.

    At the moment, China’s only offshore military base is in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. The facility is near some of the world’s busiest shipping routes, including those going through the Suez Canal.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17414/china-navy-patrol-new-york

  30. Murder rate in Sweden higher than most other European countries: ‘No other country has experienced such an increase’
    https://netherlandsnewslive.com/murder-rate-in-sweden-higher-than-most-other-european-countries-no-other-country-has-experienced-such-an-increase/163451/
    The report, which compares Sweden with 22 European countries, reaffirms the image of recent years that deadly gun violence is getting out of hand. The highest police chief Anders Thornberg even warned six months ago that gang violence is a threat to Swedish democracy.

    Long known for its low crime rate, Sweden has skyrocketed to the top of European murder statistics in a relatively short period of time, say the investigators.

    While the number of murders in Europe fell between 2000 and 2019, it rose sharply in Sweden. Partly due to the countless liquidations, settlements and other fatal violence by drug gangs in Malmö, Stockholm and Gothenburg, there were an average of eleven murders per 1 million inhabitants in 2017.

    Last year, the average number of murders had even risen to twelve. The average in Europe was eight murders. Sweden is also quite out of step when it comes to the number of murders committed with weapons: an average of four per year. In European countries this is an average of 1.6 deaths. “No other country has experienced such an increase,” said Brå researcher Klara Hradilova Selin of the increase in the number of victims of fatal gun violence.
    The increase in the number of victims occurs mainly among people between the ages of 20 and 29. The difference with the rest of Europe is remarkable. Every year an average of four people per 1 million inhabitants in this age group were murdered with a weapon, in Sweden this involved eighteen victims.

    In comparison: in the Netherlands there were an average of six fatalities. Croatia is the only other European country that has seen an increase in the number of people in their twenties killed with a gun since 2000.

    Especially since 2013, the number of murders committed with a weapon in Sweden has increased significantly. The perpetrators are mainly young men from the criminal background living in the deprived areas of the big cities. In recent years, the country has also been shaken by extreme violence from criminal gangs with explosives. For example, in 2018, according to the police, 162 bombs were used in the fight between gangs that mainly deal in drugs.
    The researchers do not want to get burned by the background of the perpetrators. From a survey of the largest newspaper Dagens Nyheter In 2017, after 100 murders and attempted murders, it turned out that 90 percent of the suspects had a migrant background. The right-wing populist party Sweden Democrats, which is now at 19 percent in the polls, constantly points to the involvement of migrants in violent crimes, among other things.

    The researchers do note that ‘risk factors’ may have led to the sharp rise in the number of murders, such as the emergence of rival gangs and little confidence in the work of the police. They also argue that gun violence can easily escalate, with one shooting quickly leading to another. “It becomes easier and easier to resort to weapons,” said Hradilova Selin. “Gun violence is then used both offensively and in self-defense.”

    Police say that when it comes to violence, there are 60 ‘vulnerable areas’ across the country, the majority of which have a migrant background. Thornberg called the emergence of these neighborhoods “a failure of Swedish society”. “Failing schools, feelings of exclusion, unemployment, a lack of adult role models – it’s a failure,” the police chief said. Financial Times. “It is very important that we succeed with the integration in Sweden. These young men need help. But if they don’t integrate, they have to face the consequences. Sometimes we are too soft. ”

    Also see
    https://www.bra.se/bra-in-english/home/news-from-bra/archive/news/2021-05-26-gun-homicide-has-increased-in-sweden-but-not-in-the-rest-of-europe.html
    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/social-contagion-sweden-sees-surge-deadly-shootings-2021-05-26/
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/05/27/report-sweden-top-in-europe-for-deadly-gun-violence/
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/31/prison-works-police-link-decline-in-malmo-murders-to-gang-members-being-jailed/

  31. The End of Kim Jong-Un: Massive Anti-regime Leaflets Spreading in Pyongyang

  32. Police To Probe Finland Prime Minister’s Breakfast Bill

    Prime Minister Sanna Marin found herself in hot water on Tuesday when the tabloid Iltalehti reported that she has been claiming back about 300 euros ($365) per month for her family’s breakfasts while living at her official residence, Kesaranta.

    Helsinki: Finland’s police announced on Friday that they will investigate whether the prime minister’s breakfasts have been illegally subsidised using taxpayers’ money.

    Prime Minister Sanna Marin found herself in hot water on Tuesday when the tabloid Iltalehti reported that she has been claiming back about 300 euros ($365) per month for her family’s breakfasts while living at her official residence, Kesaranta.

    While opposition figures accused the PM of being left with egg on her face, the 35-year-old head of government insisted that the perk was also given to her predecessors.

    “As prime minister I have not asked for this benefit nor been involved in deciding on it,” Marin said on Twitter.

    Legal experts consulted by the media subsequently suggested that using taxpayers’ money to pay for the prime minister’s morning meal may in fact contravene Finnish legislation.

    On Friday, police announced a pre-trial investigation into a possible public-office offence, after receiving a request to probe the issue.

    “The prime minister has been reimbursed for some meals, even though the wording of the law on ministerial remuneration does not appear to permit this,” police said in a statement.

    In the statement, detective superintendent Teemu Jokinen said the investigation will focus on the decisions of officials inside the prime minister’s office, and “in no way relates to the prime minister or her official activities.”

    Marin said Friday on Twitter that she welcomes the investigation and will cease claiming the benefit while it is looked into.

    The Social Democrat politician has enjoyed relatively high levels of public support since coming to office in December 2019, and her centre-left coalition has been credited with helping Finland maintain some of Europe’s lowest coronavirus infection rates.

    However, as the Nordic nation gears up for local elections on 13 June, her party lags in the polls behind the opposition, while the far-right Finns Party has been predicted to make record gains.

    https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/police-to-probe-finland-prime-minister-sanna-marins-breakfast-bill-2451387

    =========================================================
    Police to investigate payments with public money for Marin’s meals

    The police decided that “at least” a preliminary investigation should be carried out.

    The scandal over the alleged payments for Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s breakfasts with public money climbed several notches on Friday.

    The Helsinki Police Department issued a press release after 11:00 am reporting the opening of a preliminary investigation into the case.

    According to the police statement, the police have received “a request for an investigation into the matter”, based on information known through the Finnish press, which reported an alleged misuse of public funds to pay meals to the prime minister.

    The Finnish newspaper Iltalehti unveiled last Tuesday payments of 300 euros a month with taxpayers’ money for the breakfast of Marin and her family at the official residence of Kesäranta. The Finnish tax administration considers meal payments or benefits as payments in kind that should be subject to taxation.

    “The police decided that at least a preliminary investigation should be carried out on the matter,” the police statement read.

    This preliminary investigation will try to clarify whether there is reason to suspect that someone has committed a crime in the event that said payments did indeed occur.

    Sanna Marin not investigated
    The police also say in its statement that the Act on Ministers’ Salaries and Allowances, in principle, does not seem to contemplate food payments, at least in its literal wording.

    The police officer in charge of the preliminary investigation, Teemu Jokinen, “emphasizes” in the statement that the subject of the investigation is not the Prime Minister herself, but the procedures of other officials in the Prime Minister’s Office.

    Shortly after the news hit the front pages of digital media, Marin defended herself on Twitter saying that as prime minister she never asked for any food benefits or participated in the decisions.

    In a tweet thread, the prime minister said that she never made the purchases, but that they were all made by workers from the Prime Minister’s Office.

    She also said that she has ordered that such proceedings be suspended until the matter is clarified.

    https://www.foreigner.fi/articulo/national/police-open-preliminary-investigation-into-sanna-marins-meal-payments/20210528114323011721.html

  33. Public Health Agency violated federal rules by awarding $618M in cash advances: auditor general

    The Public Health Agency of Canada violated federal rules when it gave companies $618 million in cash advances to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies.

    First reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, Canada’s auditor general determined in a recent report that the Public Health Agency did not conduct the required risk assessments before giving firms cash advancements.

    “We found the department could not always demonstrate it conducted specific assessments for contracts subject to advance payment, to ensure for example the suppliers’ financial viability,” the report read.

    “Advance payment was made in 36% of the contracts we examined. These contracts are considered riskier since the government might pay for goods it does not receive. We found the value of the advanced payments made in the contracts we examined ranged from 20 to 80% of the original value.”

    Auditor General Karen Hogan said she was not able to determine exactly how many firms failed to fulfill the terms of their contracts.

    In one instance, the Public Health Agency gave Spartan Bioscience Inc. a $16.6 million cash advancement to produce test kits, only for the firm to go bankrupt before any goods were delivered.

    “There’s about $618 million out of the contracts that we looked at that were prepayments,” she said.

    “I do not have a dollar figure where contracts were awarded with prepayment and goods not received.”

    Since the beginning of the pandemic, the federal government has scrambled to source PPE and medical supplies, often by subpar products at ridiculous markups in the process.

    It was not until after the pandemic hit that Canadians learned the government’s emergency supply of PPE was dangerously low.

    https://tnc.news/2021/05/27/public-health-agency-violated-federal-rules-by-awarding-618m-in-cash-advances-auditor-general/