Reader’s Links for October 26, 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

62 Replies to “Reader’s Links for October 26, 2021”

  1. It is common knowledge that the primary obstacle to green energy is electricity storage. Cost-effective batteries of scale don’t exist. But there is a solution and you read it on VTB first!. The problem is solved using old, very basic technology:

    Electricity reservoirs can be created by sitting apostles of the Green religion in a purpose-built, comfy chair wired only to the renewable energy grid. On days when the sun shines and the wind blows, Green politicians and pundits seated in these chairs will be “injected” (forgive the word) with voltages commensurate to their zealotry to the cause. Day after day, country after country, devotees can enjoy a good ol’ fashioned snap, crackle and pop in the name of their beloved sustainable development. Conversely, on days when there is insufficient sunshine or wind, the subject simply sits for the day reading, perhaps, their favourite romance novel, then goes home. And while the storage capacity and duration of these human batteries is spectacularly limited, the delicious, almost poetic irony of this exercise will assuredly solve the problem, over time, of renewable energy storage.

    http://www.cluborlov.com/

    • Sorry the Club Orlov link requires you go to where his new site is then read the first story, I believe, on renewable energy.

    • Which makes you wonder why Trudeau sold off all of Canada’s gold reserves early on. Maybe knowing to who would help a lot. I bet its Soros and China.

  2. When your store shelves are starting to look like something out of 1985 Bucharest, Budapest, Sofia, or Prague, and given the bouquet of lies we’ve been handed over the last two years, and given that the masks and everything else feel more like a Pavlovian training exercise than a health emergency, I wonder if these supply-chain problems are more about lowering expectations to a socialist reality level more than anything else.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/transitory-shortages-inflation-are-actually-your-quality-life-being-stolen-right-your-eyes

  3. Mom Speaks To Contractor

    A federal contractor that booked Margaret Trudeau as a group speaker received $5.8 million in federal funding prior to the election, records show.

    CTV News yesterday said the Prime Minister’s mother refused comment when asked if she charged her usual $20,000 speaking fee: “We are not our fathers and mothers.”

    https://www.blacklocks.ca/mom-speaks-to-contractor/

  4. europravda – Orban vs Le Pen: Why is Hungary’s PM meeting the French far-right leader in Budapest?

  5. ctv news – What is ‘Delta Plus’? New COVID-19 variant strain is being closely monitored

    Epidemiologist Dr. Christopher Labos explains that the ‘Delta Plus’ is similar to the Delta variant but has some genetic differences.

    • city news – Deadline looms for B.C. healthcare worker vaccination

      As the clock runs out for thousands of B.C. healthcare workers refusing COVID-19 vaccines, Premier John Horgan is confident care will continue without skipping a beat.

    • CBC – How Trudeau’s failed vaccine deal with China wasted millions

      ( 44 min )

      What happened to the Canadian government’s deal with a China-based company to produce a made-in-Canada vaccine early in the COVID-19 pandemic?

      The Fifth Estate’s The Vaccine investigates how the controversial deal fell apart without a single dose administered to Canadians.

      And we ask why it was signed despite warnings from Canada’s intelligence officials about China, where the government was holding two Canadians.

    • the gateway pundit – Minnesota Surgeon Fired After Speaking Against Mask Mandates at School Board Meeting

      A surgeon at Lake Region Healthcare in Fergus Falls, Minnesota was fired after speaking against mask mandates at a recent school board meeting.

      Dr. Jeffrey Horak, the hospital’s general surgeon of 16 years, was fired less than two weeks after saying that parent’s should be able to make decisions about masks for their children.

      https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1452861172575784960

      more :

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/minnesota-surgeon-fired-speaking-mask-mandates-school-board-meeting/

      • And please be advised that the underreported, CDC Vaccine Adverse Reaction Events reported as of October 15, 2021 there were 818,044 adverse reactions

        17,128 deaths including a 12 year old girl VARES ID # 1784945, who died of respiratory tract hemorrhage after receiving her first Pfizer shot.

        Serious injuries 122,833 – paralyzed, brain bleeds, blood clots, abnormal skin rashes that won’t go away, Bell’s Palsy, a form of mad cow disease, myocarditis, heart attacks ………
        .

    • ==============================

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

      ====================================
      ctv news – QUEBEC – Legault opens door to another delay for mandatory vaccines among health-care workers

      QUEBEC CITY — Premier François Legault opened the door on Monday to another postponement of the mandatory vaccination of health-care workers.

      In a series of interviews given in the morning, he mentioned the shortage of personnel to justify a possible postponement of the Nov. 15 deadline.

      Originally, all Quebec health-care workers had to be properly vaccinated by Oct. 15 or risk being suspended without pay.

      The Legault government was unable to carry out the threat because it would have deprived the system of approximately 22,000 workers, putting too much pressure on services.

      Health Minister Christian Dubé ended up extending the deadline to Nov. 15.

      According to the government’s most recent report, 19,634 health and social services workers are still not adequately vaccinated, including 13,714 who have not received any doses.

      On Monday, Legault suggested in an interview on 98.5 FM that mandatory vaccination would not be imposed on the entire network, but rather on certain sectors, in certain regions.

      “We hope to be able to apply the decree. We will certainly be able to apply it in certain places,” he said. “In the emergency room, it is certain that it must be applied because there is a very close contact with the patients. There are areas where we will be able to implement it.”

      “What we want is to apply it everywhere,” said Legault went on to point out that only 3 per cent of nurses have refused the vaccination, but “it’s a 3 per cent that we need because we’re already short of 4,000,” he said.

      On QUB radio, the premier said that “it will depend a lot on the recruitment of nurses,” before adding: “There are surely some groups where there will be no carry-over.”

      Quebec is offering bonuses of $12,000 to $18,000, for a total of up to $1 billion, to bring at least 4,000 nurses back into the public health care system in the coming months.

      Dubé recently said 1,756 people had accepted the offer: 58 were retired, 351 were from private agencies and 1,347 were part-time and moved to full-time.

      https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/legault-opens-door-to-another-delay-for-mandatory-vaccines-among-health-care-workers-1.5637510

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

      montreal gazette – COVID-19 updates, Oct. 25: November vaccine deadline may only apply to some health workers, Legault says

      Despite ongoing labour crunch and possible suspensions to come, province admits it’s not sure how close it is to reaching goal of adding equivalent of 4,300 full-time nurses to public system.

      https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/covid-19-updates-montreal-quebec-new-cases-vaccine-passport-vaccination-vax-mandate-health-worker-legault-children-5-11-october-25

    • the “Continuous Need For Boosting” – Moderna Chairman Says Yearly Covid Boosters May be Required (VIDEO)

      There may be a need for endless Covid booster shots according to Moderna Chairman Noubar Afeyan.

      “It may well need an annual booster, potentially varying on a year-to-year or every few years basis as the virus varies,” Afeyan told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.

      “We just don’t know how this virus is going to travel from being a pandemic all the way to potentially an endemic virus we have to get used to living with,” he said.

      “I think if we end up there, there will be a continuous need for boosting,”he added.

      […]

      Americans will be forced to get Covid booster shots every year in order to work and travel.

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/continuous-need-boosting-moderna-chairman-says-yearly-covid-boosters-may-required-video/

      Moderna says COVID booster, like flu vaccine, could be yearly

    • europravda – The couple behind BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine win a Princess of Asturias Award

      You may not know their names, but you definitely know the fruits of their labour.

      Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, the scientists behind BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine join the group of researchers to receive a Princess of Asturias Award for their contribution to the virus’ vaccines.

      “…. mRNA is the most ancient information technology, so to say, invented by Nature, so you can tranport information into cells, you can tell different cells of your body what to do … you can use it universally… it is a tool box “

    • AUSTRALIA – Reports of attempted escape by unvaccinated COVID-19 patient

      There are reports an unvaccinated Uber driver who tested positive for COVID-19 in Queensland last week has allegedly tried to escape his hospital ward.

    • zero hedge- NIH Director Shredded Over Risky Research In Wuhan After CNN Interview Goes Sideways

      While most corporate media outlets are throwing softballs at Dr. Anthony Fauci over revelations that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded risky gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, Fauci’s ‘boss’ – NIH Director Francis Collins – wasn’t so lucky.

      In a blistering Sunday night interview, CNN’s Pamela Brown (credit where it’s due) absolutely grilled Collins over the NIH’s funding of New York-based nonprofit, EcoHealth alliance, which performed textbook Gain of Function research – genetically engineering bat coronaviruses so they can infect humans. Last week the NIH admitted that EcoHealth violated the terms of a grant by failing to report their achievement (which EcoHealth denies), sending both Fauci and Collins into full damage control over the weekend.

      + video

      more :

      https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nih-director-shredded-over-risky-research-wuhan-after-cnn-interview-goes-sideways

  6. global news – Canada’s climate change minister says $100B COP26 climate finance goal will be “overachieved”

    Canada’s minister of environment and climate change, Jonathan Wilkinson, said Monday that the developed world failed to deliver on its commitment to raise $100 billion by 2020, in order to help poorer countries fight climate change.

    However, Wilkinson said a new report jointly drafted by Canada and Germany, indicates that developing countries will achieve or “overachieve” that goal in 2024-25.

    Wilkinson said the money coming in from the private sector was lower than anticipated, which he said was the reason the developing world fell short of its $100-billion goal. He said to compensate heading into 2024-25, they’ve sought increased commitments from governments.

    “To be clear, we do need to see the private sector step up. We do need to see more funds mobilized,” he said.

    The UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

    • Just when you think it can’t get worse, radical, anti-pipeline, anti-free speech, Steven Guilbeault is the new Minister of the Environment and (Climate Change). God help us all.

    • twitter @JunkScience

      India wants $2.5 trillion in hard cold cash from rich countries to do anything on climate.

      No cash. No cuts.

      https://twitter.com/JunkScience/status/1453022133374889995

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

      reuters – India Insight: Climate fight goes way beyond coal

      […]

      https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/india-insight-climate-fight-goes-way-beyond-coal-2021-10-26/

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

      Energy squeeze will trigger social unrest, Blackstone’s Schwarzman says

      His comments were echoed by Larry Fink, who said there’s a high probability of oil soon reaching US$100 a barrel

      Blackstone Inc. co-founder Stephen Schwarzman said the world is facing energy shortages so severe they could cause social unrest.

      “We’re going to end up with a real shortage of energy,” he said at a conference in Saudi Arabia. “And when you have a shortage it’s just going to cost more and it’s probably going to cost a lot more. And when that happens you’re going to get very unhappy people around the world, in the emerging markets in particular.”

      His comments were echoed by Larry Fink, who said there’s a high probability of oil soon reaching US$100 a barrel, especially with many governments and investors pushing back against investments in fossil fuels.

      “Inflation, we are in a new regime,” said Fink, chairman of BlackRock Inc, the world’s biggest asset manager. “There are many structural reasons for that. Short term policy related to environmentalism, in terms of restricting supply of hydrocarbons, has created energy inflation and we are going to be living with that for some time.”

      Commodities such as oil, natural gas and coal have soared this year as economies rebound from the coronavirus pandemic and amid supply disruptions. Brent crude is up 65 per cent to above US$85 a barrel, while gas futures in Asia and Europe reached record highs this month.

      Several analysts have said that European countries could halt gas exports to neighbours if winter’s colder than normal and prices keep rising.

      “We’re not focusing on long-term solutions, we’re not trying to change the world in a granular basis,” said Fink. “We have these visions we could go from a brown world and we could wake up tomorrow there’d be a green world. That is not going to happen.”

      https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/oil-gas/energy-squeeze-will-trigger-unrest-says-blackstones-schwarzman

  7. bioRxiv – SARS-CoV-2 infects human adipose tissue and elicits an inflammatory response consistent with severe COVID-19

    Abstract
    The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the viral pathogen SARS-CoV-2, has taken the lives of millions of individuals around the world. Obesity is associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes, but the underlying mechanism is unknown. In this report, we demonstrate that human adipose tissue from multiple depots is permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection and that infection elicits an inflammatory response, including the secretion of known inflammatory mediators of severe COVID-19. We identify two cellular targets of SARS-CoV-2 infection in adipose tissue: mature adipocytes and adipose tissue macrophages. Adipose tissue macrophage infection is largely restricted to a highly inflammatory subpopulation of macrophages, present at baseline, that is further activated in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Preadipocytes, while not infected, adopt a proinflammatory phenotype. We further demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 RNA is detectable in adipocytes in COVID-19 autopsy cases and is associated with an inflammatory infiltrate. Collectively, our findings indicate that adipose tissue supports SARS-CoV-2 infection and pathogenic inflammation and may explain the link between obesity and severe COVID-19.

    Competing Interest Statement
    CAB is on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Catamaran Bio and DeepCell. CMS is on the Scientific Advisory Board of and has received research funding from Enable Medicine, Inc., both outside the current work. MSM has served as a consultant for Novartis and Glaxo Smith Kline and received speaker’s honoraria from ThermoFisher and Merck, all outside the current work.

    Paper in collection COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 preprints from medRxiv and bioRxiv
    http://connect.biorxiv.org/relate/content/181

    https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.24.465626v1

  8. Disturbing Footage Emerges of Dogs Tormented in Taxpayer-Funded Labs, Including ‘Inside One of Fauci’s Own Labs’

    This article includes graphic images and footage that some readers may find disturbing.

    […]
    The following are some of the animals that were used for research at the NIH Maryland campuses alone in 2019.

    Number of dogs used in experiments: 415
    Number of rabbits imprisoned or used in experiments: 487
    Number of monkeys used in experiments: 3,272
    Number of monkeys imprisoned but not used: 477
    Number of monkeys who endured pain or distress without any painkillers: 383
    Number of pigs used in experiments: 185
    Number of hamsters used in experiments: 420
    Number of guinea pigs used in experiments: 790
    Number of bats used in experiments: 414
    Number of ferrets used in experiments: 77

    […]

    Dogs are not the only animals affected by the NIAID’s questionable ethical compass. Another study of questionable medical utility has been unearthed involving mice and human fetal tissue. NIAID was found to have spent more than $400,000 on experiments in which the scalps of aborted fetuses were grafted onto live mice and rats.

    […]

    Dr. Fauci has served as NIAID’s director since 1984 and has worked there for more than five decades. Over that period, researchers from all government agencies and private laboraties have utilized over one million animals a year for their studies.

    […]

    A graphic video produced by The Intercept shows the extent of barbarity that such research dogs are routinely exposed to. The agency overseing the research dog mills that supply many government agencies for animal research, not just NIH-funded research facilities, is the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    A 2017 PETA investigation into Liberty Research Inc. also shows how dogs, and cats, are commonly treated as inanimate laboratory objects. “A PETA eyewitness revealed the miserable lives and deaths of dogs and cats who were injected with experimental drugs and viruses at a contract laboratory in New York,” the report said.
    […]

    https://beckernews.com/33-new-fauci-under-fire-dogs-inside-niaid-labs-got-no-pain-relief-even-after-tortured-in-taxpayer-funded-lab-experiments-42679/

  9. Seth Franzman, Thread [edited by me]

    One of the most misleading narratives is the claim that the US or Israel threaten “war” with Iran…not only is it the other way around, but it’s all a scam because Iran can’t afford a real “war”…you really think a regime like that would risk the results of such conflict…

    The Iran regime CANNOT afford war and does everything possible to avoid it, either through threats and boasting and bluffing or working with China, Turkey and Russia or by moving proxy pawns around Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen to put the “conflict” somewhere else…

    Iran’s regime doesn’t fight wars at home. It was traumatized by the war with Iraq in the 1980s that almost strangled the “revolution” in its cradle. Since then it decided to do a forward policy of proxy wars in the near abroad, strategic depth

    So when anyone says that if there isn’t a deal there may be “war” they are being either naive, deceptive or purposely lying. The regime can never risk war with the US or Israel. It can accept certain amounts of low level conflict and sabotage and proxy conflict but not war

    That is why Iran boasts a lot about war but what it invests in is PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY attacks using drones and rockets and piracy at sea and harassing ships with speedboats and empowering militias and recruiting Afghan kids for the IRGC in Albukamal

    Iran is a calculating regime. Zarif and friends spreads the “deal or war” lie to western publics they try studied and focus-grouped this concept via opeds to see if fear of more “Middle East conflict” would scare people in the West….

    Everyone knows that when Iran is at the threshold it will get a call from it’s new friends in China and it’s old friend in Moscow and also it’s partner in Ankara who will say “ok you scared the West but don’t do the next step”….

    And [that] is why there can never be war. Iran can risk it. It’s friends will advise it. And that’s how things work. Learn and study the Iranian regime method. Read the Iranian media. Stop listening to western commentators who invented the “war” bogeyman.

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1452730796608036878.html

  10. Seth Franzman thread (my edit)

    Can one person explain to me what it means when “US State Department says Sudan’s normalization efforts with Israel will have to be reevaluated following the coup”….what does it mean? What is being re-evaluated? How can the US decide for Sudan about Israel. I don’t get it.

    The only thing I understand was involved in the “deal” with Israel normalization was the US removed Sudan from state sponsor of terror list;

    The fact Sudan had a coup has nothing to do with sponsoring terror…that list shouldn’t be a “we don’t like you list”…but a list based on countries that actually sponsor terror. Since Sudan doesn’t sponsor terror, what’s the US going to re-evaluate….

    When it comes to Afghanistan…we hear how the US must “engage” the Taliban…and how it’s not fair if aid is withdrawn, plunging the country into more poverty…see so how can it be that Taliban=engagement….but Sudan coup means cut off everything? […]

    And here was have two examples of the US also caught off guard…Washington sent Feltman to Sudan and two days later there is a coup, that’s embarrassing. Kabul’s fall was embarrassing.

    …how come there is “engagement” with Kabul and more anger at Khartoum…and what does the Sudan-Israel relationship have to do with the US being angry over the coup?

    …Doha [Qatar] always helps spread this “US should engage _____(fill in the extremist group/country)…” but of course Doha and Ankara oppose the Sudan leadership …so no engagement there. Engage the Houthis…HTS…whoever…though…but Haftar no…Hamas yes….

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1452920519947440130.html
    ………
    They’re cooking up another MB Arab Spring. The “coup” is like al-Sisi kicking out MB Morsi {spit}.
    BOLO

      • Has scripted aspect to it.

        How does that “script” read?
        Iran’s collaborators in the West
        The Brzezinski/Carter Axis. Together with their Euro-counterparts (Davos, WEF).

        Brzezinski: fanatic Russophobe, communist, jooo-hater. One of three founders of the Trilateral Commission. Nurtured the Taliban against the Soviets, mentor to 0.

        0, Val Jarrett, ketchup gigolo Kerry, the “blob” (think tanks, lobbyists, MSM, enemy operatives like Khashoggi, etc.)

        Their goals in the Mideast: Flip the table, switch allies. Teeter-totter, with Iran on one side, MB-dominant Sunnis on the other.

        Destabilize the Levant (Syria/ Lebanon), bring it into Iran’s domain. Kick out Russia, DESTROY the “Zionist entity”.

        Afg-ugh under Paki control. Anti-India, pro-China.
        There we go again…

  11. AXIOS – Exclusive: Billionaires back new media firm to combat disinformation

    A new public benefit corporation backed by billionaires Reid Hoffman, George Soros, and others is launching Tuesday to fund new media companies and efforts that tackle disinformation.

    Why it matters: Good Information Inc. aims to fund and scale businesses that cut through echo chambers with fact-based information. As part of its mission, it plans to invest in local news companies.

    The group will be led by Tara McGowan, a former Democratic strategist who previously ran a progressive non-profit called ACRONYM.

    […]McGowan says that the group’s goal in the next year is to raise more awareness about immediate solutions to counter disinformation before it spreads.

    https://www.axios.com/soros-hoffman-disinformation-tara-mcgowan-b1e7cb89-a4f7-4281-8e0a-3877fe8a3944.html

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

    George Soros Teams Up With Billionaire Who Backed Liberal Disinformation Efforts to Fund Anti-Disinformation Media Venture

    Liberal tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, a funder of numerous disinformation projects, is backing a new media venture launched Tuesday that seeks to combat disinformation, according to a report.

    Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, joined ranks with financier George Soros to fund Good Information Inc., which will “fund and scale businesses that cut through eco chambers with fact-based information,” Axios reported.

    Hoffman’s new anti-disinformation media venture will be led by Democratic strategist Tara McGowan, who previously ran the Hoffman-backed nonprofit group ACRONYM.

    McGowan told Axios that Good Information Inc. will invest in a variety of news entities across the political spectrum as long as they exhibit fact-based editorial standards.

    “The information crisis we’re in is so much bigger than politics,” McGowan said.

    Hoffman also backed American Engagement Technology, a group that published misleading Facebook ads designed to depress Republican voter turnout in the 2018 midterm elections, The Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.

    In addition, Hoffman contributed $620,000 to the legal fund for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the largely debunked Steele dossier, which the FBI used to advance its investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to the Russian government.

    more:

    https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/10/26/george-soros-teams-up-with-billionaire-who-backed-liberal-disinformation-efforts-to-fund-anti-disinformation-media-venture/

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

    FOX NEWS – Left-wing billionaires George Soros, Reid Hoffman reportedly bankroll new media firm to fight ‘disinformation’

    Hoffman and Soros have long histories of funding the liberal agenda

    more :

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/reid-hoffman-george-soros-bankroll-media-company-disinformation

  12. Israel’s Shadow War Delayed Iran’s Takeover of Syria – But Only for Now

    The Syrians have been happy to fire surface-to-air missile systems, such as the Russian-made SA-5, at areas in the sky where they believed an Israeli jet might have been recently, in a haphazard manner. Russia has never fired its own air defense capabilities at Israel, using them instead to protect its own assets on the ground.

    In response to Israeli counter-measures, Iran merely adapts the ways in which it seeks to take over Syria.

    The end result so far is decidedly mixed. On the one hand, the threat from Syria is significantly smaller than it could have been. Still, Syria remains the focal point of the Iranian-Shiite axis’s activities.

    Another idea reportedly promoted by King Abdullah of Jordan and President Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt, is to try to drive a wedge between the Assad regime and its Iranian backer. A new initiative to supply Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon, which is in an economic crisis and enduring widespread blackouts, via a pipeline that runs through Syria, aligns with this logic.

    However, the idea that the Assad regime will be strong enough to push back on Iran’s activities has so far failed to stand up to the test of reality

    The Iranians have complained bitterly about Assad granting lucrative reconstruction contracts to Russia at the expense of Iran, and also about the failure to significantly expand Iranian-Syrian trade.

    This suggests that Damascus can make some decisions on its own – but not many. The Syrian regime remains weak, only partially in control of Syrian territory. It is unable to apply any meaningful sovereignty without its two main backers, Iran and Russia.

    The Assad regime is simply too weak, intertwined with Iran, and dependent on it to be separated from the Iranian mother ship – even if it wanted to. For now, the shadow war is set to continue.

    https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/10/26/israels-shadow-war-delayed-irans-takeover-of-syria-but-only-for-now/

  13. Tehran suffering worst drought in 50 years, says water supply official

    Iran’s capital is suffering its worst drought in half a century, a water resources official said Tuesday, citing a 97 percent drop in monthly rainfall compared with last year.

    Tehran has had 0.4 millimetres of rain since September 23, compared with 14.3 mm over the same period in 2020, said Mohammad Shahriari, deputy director of the company that supplies the region.

    “Groundwater and surface water are at a critical state and there has not been a similar drought for the past 50 years,” he was quoted as saying by Iran’s ISNA news agency.

    The five dams supplying water to the capital are at less than a third of their capacity, holding just 477 million cubic meters (under 17 billion cubic feet) of water instead of two billion cubic meters.

    In September last year, the reserves held 729 million cubic metres of water.

    Water consumption in the agricultural sector has gone up by 14% compared with last year, and by eight percent for industry.

    Hydroelectricity generation has dropped by 40% percent in the past six months, according to Shahriari.

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/tehran-suffering-worst-drought-in-50-years-says-water-supply-official/
    ………
    2019
    Iran is Sinking, and Not Just Figuratively

    [A]along with the figurative sinking of Iran’s ship of state, the S.S. Naufragium (also known as the S. S. Narrenschiff, there is the literal sinking of the country, which threatens to destroy many structures, including airports, apartment buildings, factories, roads, and highways. Huge sinkholes have opened up throughout Tehran, a city of some 13 million people; one of them is 60 meters deep. Some are fifty feet across.

    And even where there are no sinkholes, the subsidence of the earth by a few inches can have devastating consequences for buildings….

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/12/iran-is-sinking-and-not-just-figuratively

  14. Qatar’s ‘Democracy’ Charade

    A strange conjunction of events took place in the late summer of 2021. In Tunisia, the country’s democratically elected President Kais Saied suspended parliament and changed government officials, citing his authority under Tunisia’s constitution to do so.

    At almost exactly the same time, the democratically elected government of Afghanistan was being overthrown by a radical Islamist insurgent group – the Taliban – closely allied with the global terrorist organization Al-Qaeda.

    If you relied on the content of Qatari-owned media, chiefly the notorious pan-Arab television network Al-Jazeera in Arabic and in English[1] and other outlets in English, you would think that President Saied was a villain and that the Taliban were heroes…

    You would also think that the actions of American Democratic legislator Ilhan Omar, calling for a law against Islamophobia,[2] or accusations against France on that phobia, are to be trumpeted while actual demonstrations of Afghan women bravely standing up to the Taliban on the streets of Kabul, is something to be studiously ignored….

    This open political hypocrisy by the Qatari leadership has had the most receptivity in heightening Western pressure on the Tunisian president and in misunderstanding the reality of Qatari support for the Taliban as some sort of even-handed mediation. In both cases, there is a clear goal. [To Install anti-Western Islamists.]

    This American and Western “softness” on anti-Western Islamism has been a bipartisan malady, from the George W. Bush administration to this day. The Obama Administration coddled the ruling Islamists in Egypt while seeking an accommodation with Iran.[5]

    Even President Trump, derided as “Islamophobic” by his political enemies, was extremely forbearing to the Islamists in power in Turkey and Qatar, and it was Trump who initiated the fateful deal with the Taliban….

    https://www.memri.org/reports/qatars-democracy-charade

  15. Today for the loosening and dissipation again a little European culture, dear friends: “Sunny and dark sides of a capitalist metropolis.”

    At that time, Berlin was the third largest (and “most liberal”) city in the world. Six more years, then an Austrian megalomaniac provincial took over, leaving another 12 years later a moonscape of bomb craters and ruins.

    Valuable contemporary document of the Jewish filmmaker Karl Freund. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Freund