Reader’s Links for January 23, 2022

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

75 Replies to “Reader’s Links for January 23, 2022”

  1. Children’s Health Defense Europe
    Call for a European moratorium on heath restrictions: the future of our children is at stake!
    Livestream: Sunday 23rd January 2022 // 10:00 – 12:30 (CET) / 9:00 – 11:30 (GMT)
    Press Conference, Live From Brussels, Belgium

    Stream will start playing automatically when it is live.
    https://childrenshealthdefense.eu/live-stream/

  2. Sharyl Attkisson: ‘A Lot of Propagandists Have Become Part of the Media’ | CLIP
    Note: a must watch, as she is one of the last honest investigative journalists and she speaks the truth here

  3. But what happens when power turns coat and speaks to power? What happens when State narrative is torpedoed by truth?

    The result is large-scale red pilling, because people listen to power, and when it turns on itself they see things differently. How many young mens’ lives can be saved by not going to war for a corrupt Ukraine? How many lives can be saved by not injecting mRNA? Those pushing for it should be held to account BEFORE the killing starts.

    The Ukraine issue is far less removed from the vaxx issue than most realize. Narrative upon narrative, lie upon lie. Dear Leader is giving tax payer money and weapons to Ukraine. Why?

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/germany-roiled-political-earthquake-navy-chief-resigns-after-saying-putin-deserves-respect

  4. “Tavistock Policy Seminar: Whiteness – A problem for our time”

    “This presentation is rooted in the assumption that the problem of racism is a problem of whiteness and that an examination of this construct of whiteness needs to be central to seeking a solution to this destructive dynamic. A key and urgent question then for those of us who are regarded as white is, how do we interrogate our whiteness to bring about the radical change that is required?”
    https://tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/news-and-events/conferences-events/tavistock-policy-seminar-whiteness-problem-our-time/

    “…how do we interrogate our whiteness…”

    Yep, no one rushes to live among white people.

    Any competent psychologist, would recognize the demoralisation deployed by Marxism.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IQPsKvG6WMI

    “One of Britain’s leading mental health clinics could face legal action after telling a student therapist to watch lectures saying that white people are unconsciously racist, that Christianity is a racist religion, and that the Bible can be blamed for racism because it contrasts ‘darkness’ and ‘light’.”
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10430711/Christian-nurse-sue-Portman-Clinic-course-said-Bible-racist.html#article-10430711

    Defend from bad ideas with sane ones. But , defend using the division of identity, of say race and religion, then if you win, you lose.

    Because it’s straight from Saul Alinsky’s 12 Rules for Radicals, (an ill-intentioned psychologist, the Edward Bernays of debasement):
    “RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)”

    Jesus in Matthew 5:39 “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”

    Which means, expose these surrendering belly-up frauds without getting upset.

    “There is an old Soviet joke. An American dies and goes to hell. Satan himself shows him around. They pass a large cauldron. The American peers in. It’s full of suffering souls, burning in hot pitch. As they struggle to leave the pot, low-ranking devils, sitting on the rim, pitchfork them back in. The American is properly shocked. Satan says, “That’s where we put sinful Englishmen.” The tour continues. Soon the duo approaches a second cauldron. It’s slightly larger, and slightly hotter. The American peers in. It is also full of suffering souls, all wearing berets. Devils are pitchforking would-be escapees back into this cauldron, as well. “That’s where we put sinful Frenchmen,” Satan says. In the distance is a third cauldron. It’s much bigger, and is glowing, white hot. The American can barely get near it. Nonetheless, at Satan’s insistence, he approaches it and peers in. It is absolutely packed with souls, barely visible, under the surface of the boiling liquid. Now and then, however, one clambers out of the pitch and desperately reaches for the rim. Oddly, there are no devils sitting on the edge of this giant pot, but the clamberer disappears back under the surface anyway. The American asks, “Why are there no demons here to keep everyone from escaping?” Satan replies, “This is where we put the Russians. If one tries to escape, the others pull him back in.”
    -Jordan Peterson, (a well-intentioned psychologist) 12 Rules for Life.

    • The Devil moved the American, along. She felt dread rise within her. Ahead in the distance, was a blue-hot, silky-glassed, surface. Silent, alone and untouched by human hand. “Not there,” The Devil murmured, “billions of Chinese don’t bother anymore,” and then nudged her into the Depths of Hell.

      The scorching heat faded as she descended onto cool green pasture. Satan retreated.

      “You’re going to set me free?” she called out.
      “Don’t worry,” while waving a backward hand, “you’ll build your own crucible”

    • RE: My Russki’s son and family in Kiev

      Last year my Russki and I were more frantic. He figured he’d go, grab the grandkids, bring them here. (That’s why he got the shot. I did too, in case something happened I’d be ready to go in a heartbeat.)

      Now, well… We’re trying to take it like the family there. Their perspective isn’t the same as the noise-makers. It doesn’t mean they’re sanguine: they bleed when that sound from afar actually hits them. But they’re immune to what they recognize as ni pravda, ni isvestia – neither truth, nor news (sp?).

    • This Anglo-American cackling is unseemly. They collaborated against PTrump, they’re rotten to the core.

      Competing – whose lethal weapons kill the most Ukrainians?

  5. Rioters fight Brussels police, smash headquarters of EU foreign service
    Some 50,000 people protested coronavirus restrictions.
    https://www.politico.eu/article/protest-against-covid-restriction-police-violent-brussels/
    Protests in Brussels against coronavirus restrictions spiralled into violence on Sunday as protesters clashed with police officers and vandalized the offices of the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic arm.
    In one of the largest demonstrations against COVID-19 measures in the city, an estimated 50,000 people poured onto the streets, including groups traveling from outside Belgium, according to a police spokesperson. The demonstration was organized by the EU-wide network Europeans United for Freedom and other groups that oppose health restrictions.
    Police used teargas and water cannons to clear the Cinquantenaire park near the EU institutions after groups of protesters threw objects at officers. Live footage showed protesters at street level hurling metal fences and a burning dustbin at policemen below them in the entrance to a metro station. An escalator was later shown burning.
    Hooded and masked demonstrators shattered the glass exterior of the EEAS office while police were inside.
    “The side entrance was vandalized,” said a Commission spokesperson, adding that nobody was in danger and that top diplomat Josep Borrell would visit the office to inspect the damage.
    The police spokesperson said that the situation around the EEAS building had cooled by around 5:30 p.m. Six people were arrested before the protest started, according to the spokesperson, with more people detained afterward.
    Police said they began clearing the protesters out of the streets at around 4.30 p.m., saying those who refused to leave would be arrested.
    Protesters have been staging demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions regularly in the Belgian capital since last year, but Sunday’s rally marked a major uptick in participation compared with an estimated 5,000 protesters earlier this month, and more than the roughly 35,000 people who attended a protest last November that had also turned violent.
    “Our main demand is that emergency measures are introduced in a democratic and balanced way,” Tom Meert, chairman of Europeans United for Freedom, wrote on the group’s website.
    “We do not deny that there are diseases. Our arguments would be the same in the case of a natural disaster or any other crisis: a country’s policies must be deliberate and founded on the principles of the democratic rule of law.”

  6. Riots at a demonstration with 50,000 people against the Covid restrictions in Brussels
    https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2022-01-23-riots-at-a-demonstration-with-50-000-people-against-the-covid-restrictions-in-brussels.S1bTd-ipF.html
    Helicopters, drones, hundreds of riot police, horse units, tanks, tear gas and water cannons.
    As expected and feared, in line with what has happened over and over again in the past, the demonstration held this Sunday in Brussels against the Government’s restrictive measures in the face of the pandemic has degenerated into a brutal confrontation between participants and security forces.
    Up to 50,000 people, according to the Police, have filled the streets of the capital, in a mix of virus deniers, anti-vaccine activists, far-right forces, anti-system and anarchist groups
    and the consortium called World Wide Demonstration for Freedom et Europeans United for Freedom, with more than 600 small local groups joining the initiative.
    It began with a march, continued with speeches at the gates of the Cinquantenaire Park and ended with stones, attacks and fights.
    With groups of hooded men destroying the facilities of the Foreign Action Service, the building where the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the Union, Josep Borrell, has his main office .
    The images are shocking.
    The destruction and the exchanges, between clouds of smoke, in the middle of the park, one of the lungs of the city, barely 100 meters from the headquarters of the Commission or the Council of the EU.
    Shortly before 3:00 p.m., the forces of order have requested the dissolution of the act, but by then the violence was already dominant.
    In the middle of the afternoon the Police have taken the park and have proceeded to evict it by force.
    In Belgium, 76.75% of the population, almost nine million people, have completed the vaccination schedule, and more than half have already received their third booster dose.
    But the differences between regions are important and brutal in the capital.
    In Brussels, 60% of vaccinated have not yet been reached for ideological, health or religious reasons. On the extreme right there is a strong component of conspiracy and resistance to immunization. Among the Muslim community, there are serious doubts about the possibility that the vaccines are not halal and contain traces of pork. In the poorest districts with the highest population density, the educational level and digital training are against it, and the fear of appearing in health records when family members are not legally registered is a factor that is weighing, according to experts.
    Protesters have set fires, vandalized cars, and smashed litter bins and glass. The access tunnels to the city center have been closed and traffic interrupted in the European quarter for hours. Every month marches or protests are held (there are five in eight weeks) but the number of participants has surprised in a capital that slightly exceeds a million inhabitants. Politically there is no pressure on the federal Executive, nor on the regional governments, but the anti-vaccine movement and above all against the Covid digital certificate is growing.
    For months the certificate has been mandatory in the country to enter bars, restaurants, events or sports centers.
    Enforcement is very high (although ID is rarely required at the same time) but uneasiness has continued unabated over time among critics, who see it as a civil rights violation and unconstitutional encroachment.

  7. the gateway pundit – Brazil: Child Vaccination Suspended After 10-Year-Old Girl Suffers Cardiac Arrest Hours After Receiving Pfizer Vaccine

    A 10-year-old girl from São Paolo, Brazil has suffered a cardiac arrest and was in critical condition 12 hours after taking a dose of the Pfizer vaccine, the Covid World reported.

    Luisa Petenuci took the Pfizer shot on Tuesday, January 18th in Lençóis Paulista, São Paulo. After 12 hours, she suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on her father’s lap.

    […]

    more :

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/brazil-child-vaccination-suspended-10-year-old-girl-suffers-cardiac-arrest-hours-receiving-pfizer-vaccine/
    =======================
    https://www.redetv.uol.com.br/jornalismo/cidades/entreguei-minha-filha-morta-diz-pai-de-menina-que-sofreu-parada-cardiaca-ap

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

    CNN BRAZIL – NOTHING TO DO WITH THE VACCINE – could be a rare congenital anomaly

    • BRAZIL – Governor of tthe State of Sao Paolo

      — coincidence —

      — they didn’t inform him that the girl is not dead — (at least for now)

  8. Riots are ongoing in Brussels during Peaceful protests Officers down
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcRcj5uCePE

    #BreakingNews PROTESTS in Brussels. Belgium Jan.23.2022
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCOMYGiDLrA

    Mass #demonstration in #Brussels against restrictions on freedoms and health passes. #Belgium Jan.23
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV4rVsnlx8s

    Riots in Brussels 23rd January 2022
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pPhv9-JY2o

    Brussels lockdown protests: Riot police unleash water cannons and tear gas on Brussels protesters

  9. DEUTSCHE PRAVDA – German navy chief Schönbach resigns over comments on Putin, Crimea

    Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach stepped down as the head of the German navy after publicly saying Crimea was lost to Ukraine and that Vladimir Putin “probably” deserved respect.

    [...]What were Schönbach's remarks?

    Schönbach made the comments during a talk that he gave in a visit to India. Speaking at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, the German vice admiral said Putin "probably" deserved respect.

    "What he really wants is respect," the vice admiral said, speaking in English in remarks that were posted on a video on YouTube.

    "And, my God, giving someone respect is low cost, even no cost. ... It is easy to give him the respect he really demands — and probably also deserves," Schönbach said, calling Russia an old and important country.

    Schönbach said Russia's actions in Ukraine needed to be addressed, but added that "the Crimea Peninsula is gone: It will never come back — this is a fact."

    […]

    https://www.dw.com/en/german-navy-chief-sch%C3%B6nbach-resigns-over-comments-on-putin-crimea/a-60525709

    German Navy Chief Resigns Over Remarks On Russia & Ukraine | Here’s What He Said In New Delhi

    • India: German navy chief Schonbach resigns after comments on Putin, Crimea cause stir

      German Navy chief Vice-Admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach has resigned shortly after comments made on a visit to Delhi on Friday, during which he stated that Putin ‘probably’ deserved respect, and claimed that the Crimean peninsula is ‘gone’ and ‘will never come back.’

      Schonbach’s remarks came during a trip to Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses regarding ‘Germany’s Indo-Pacific Strategy.’

      The EU and US maintain that the 2014 ‘annexation of Crimea’ by Russian forces was unacceptable.

      On Saturday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced that it had summoned German Ambassador Anka Feldhusen to discuss the comments.

      Schonbach has also issued an apology on his Twitter account, calling his statements a ‘mistake’ and noting that they do not reflect ‘the official position of the Defence Ministry.’

    • zero hedge – Germany Roiled By “Political Earthquake”: Navy Chief Resigns After Saying “Putin Deserves Respect”, Warning China Is “Not A Nice Country”

      Just as the covid narrative is slowly disintegrating even as its MSM propaganda powers “cancel” anyone who dares to speak out against the lies –

      […]Then in an even greater transgression of conventional pro-China etiquette, the German had the temerity to point out the elephant in the room when he slammed China which is “not that nice country we probably thought” and added that that “Russia is an old country, Russia is an important country. Even we India, Germany, need Russia. We need Russia against China…” This, he said, is “easy” and “keeps Russia away from China” because China needs resources of Russia and they [Russia] are willing to give them because the sanctions sometimes do go the “wrong way”.

      […]And while it is unclear if the establishment was more shocked by his comments about Putin, Russia and Ukraine or his brutal honesty about China, what followed has been no less than a “political earthquake” with the country’s defense ministry immediately distancing itself from the controversial statements, and its spokesperson saying that characterizing the vice-admiral’s comments as not reflecting “in any way the position” of the ministry, both “in terms of the content and choice of words.”

      […]Last month, Russia sent proposals to the US and NATO for treaties with security guarantees, but so far negotiations were unsuccessful in finding terms for an agreement.

      Meanwhile, so-called “progressive, liberal” powers in the west are actively pushing for “kinetic” intervention, one which could quickly spiral out of control and escalate into a global war.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/germany-roiled-political-earthquake-navy-chief-resigns-after-saying-putin-deserves-respect
      ==================================

      europravda – German navy chief Kay-Achim Schönbach resigns over ‘ill-considered’ Ukraine-Russia comments

      Vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach said Ukraine would never regain Crimea from Russia, and described as ‘absurd’ Western views that Putin may invade Ukraine.

      • WoW !
        There have to be more like this guy. Our leaders having been keeping their heads down, but they surely exist.

  10. GERMANY – DÜSSELDORF – German Healthcare Workers Rally Against COVID Vaccine Mandate

    • paul j watson – German Government “Concerned” About Massive Anti-COVID Restriction Protests

      Never before in history have demonstrations been so widespread.

      he German government is seriously “concerned” over the sheer number of protests against COVID restrictions in recent weeks, which are the most widespread in the country’s history.

      Influential German broadsheet Die Welt reveals that on the same day, protests took place in over 1,000 locations across the country.

      “The government is concerned about the decentralized actions,” reports the newspaper, with one source labeling the “immensity” of the demonstrations “depressing.”

      “Never before in the history of the Federal Republic have there been demonstrations that are more widespread than in the last few weeks,” states the report, with the government counting 1,046 separate protests involving around 188,000 participants.

      Instead of describing such developments as “depressing,” you’d think authorities in Germany would maybe considering listening to the will of their people.

      A scandal in Hamburg where the Mayor falsely claimed that the unvaccinated represented 95% of COVID cases didn’t do anything to restore trust.

      A Senate investigation reported the actual number to be 14.3%.

      Germany is still pushing ahead with plans to make the COVID vaccine mandatory, with a parliamentary debate on the issue planned for next week.

      Last year, the editor-in-chief of Germany’s top newspaper Bild apologized for the news outlet’s fear-driven coverage of COVID, specifically to children who were told “that they were going to murder their grandma.”

      As we highlighted earlier, the Czech Republic has abandoned plans to make the COVID vaccine mandatory for some groups after numerous large protests took place in Prague.

      The general picture across the continent is one of restrictions being gradually rolled back in response to Omicron proving mild, although countries like Austria are still planning to make the jab compulsory.

      https://summit.news/2022/01/21/german-government-concerned-about-massive-anti-covid-restriction-protests/

      Tausende Teilnehmer bei Demos gegen Corona-Maßnahmen in Deutschland

  11. New Hampshire is poised to become the first state in the United States to make Ivermectin available as an over the counter medication and sanction it as a protected treatment for COVID-19, under a bill before the House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee.

    While similar bills proposed in three other states have been ill received, the primary sponsor of the New Hampshire bill told The Epoch Times she expects a slightly amended version to garner enough votes from the Republican majority committee to send it for approval to the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

    The House has already shown support for other COVID-related bills including statewide bans against both government and private-imposed mandates related to the virus.

    https://yournews.com/2022/01/21/2286130/new-hampshire-seeks-to-make-ivermectin-an-alternative-covid-treatment/

  12. Teenagers living in group homes in Laval were confined to windowless rooms for 10 straight days this month, in the name of COVID-19 control – though they didn’t have COVID-19.

    The rule, in place for two weeks, was written specifically for youth group homes and was also applied to much younger children, social workers said.

    “It’s like if she’s been in jail,” said one mother about her 15-year-old daughter, who lives in a group home because she was self-mutilating and running away.

    https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/in-jail-teenagers-spent-10-days-in-windowless-rooms-in-quebec-group-homes-over-covid-19-exposure-1.5750015

    • global news – Will Canadians have to take more vaccine boosters in the future?

      …. the coronavirus is only expected to keep mutating.

      Does that mean vaccinated people will have to get more booster shots?

      Jamie Mauracher hears what some doctors have to say about a fourth dose and how vaccine makers are planning for the future.

    • the gateway pundit – Alberta Canada Inadvertently Published (and Quickly Deleted) Health Data Exposing that MORE THAN HALF of VACCINATED DEATHS Have Been COUNTED AS UNVACCINATED

      In yet another absolute bombshell revelation the government of Alberta, Canada exposed itself this week when it accidentally published damning evidence that exposes how the public health authorities have been manipulating the Covid-19 statistics.

      After seemingly realizing what it had just done, the corrupt Canadian province quickly scrambled to delete the incriminating data off their website, but, thanks to internet sleuths like Twitter user Metatron – and his substack post, we have the receipts.
      ===================================

      https://twitter.com/mdccclxx/status/1482322147313913865

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

      According to its latest Covid-19 update, the Alberta Government admitted to following the fraudulent standard that was in use by vaccine manufacturers during clinical trials – which is to ignore the adverse outcomes, including Covid infection, hospitalizations, and deaths, for fourteen days after vaccine administration – no matter how many doses they have had.

      But instead of just ignoring the cases like the vaccine manufacturers, the corrupt Alberta government has been lumping them in with the unvaxxed.

      In other words, anyone who was infected – was hospitalized – or even died, in the two weeks following their first, second, or even THIRD dose would be recorded as an unvaccinated case.

      Because, sCiENcE!

      https://metatron.substack.com/p/alberta-just-inadvertently-confessed

      As illustrated in the chart below, almost 56% of ‘recorded’ Covid-related deaths among the vaccinated occurred within 14 days of vaccination – and almost 90% within 45 days, which is noteworthy because that is what’s claimed to be the timeframe of the vaccine’s effectiveness.

      MORE :

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/alberta-canada-inadvertently-published-quickly-deleted-health-data-exposing-half-vaccinated-deaths-counted-unvaccinated/

  13. ctv news – Harjit Sajjan on why Canada isn’t sending weapons to Ukraine yet

    Former defence minister and current International Development Minister and Harjit Sajjan discusses why Canada isn’t yet sending weapons to Ukraine to defend against Russia.

    + comments on the YT page

    • The British have been playing the Great Game against Russia for a couple centuries now. The Americans became surrogates as the sun was setting on the Empire.

      What passed for “elite” here was an establishment built on grubby lucre. Ridiculously easy to seduce: polish the jumped-up Ivy with a Rhodes scholar gloss, get us to read the script they had crafted.

      Anglo mass media warmongering was born anti-Russian. The Crimean War in the middle of the 19th century brought war to the homefront as never before. Frontline reporters and photographers, the relative immediacy of the telegraph, a broadly literate British public.

      And the Tsar was truly despicable, a despot animated by revanchism, a menace to free trade and Enlightenment values. The tropes that whipped up mass frenzy back then continue to be recycled today.

    • NYT – Biden Weighs Deploying Thousands of Troops to Eastern Europe and Baltics

      The president is also considering deploying warships and aircraft to NATO allies, in what would be a major shift from its restrained stance on Ukraine.

      WASHINGTON — President Biden is considering deploying several thousand U.S. troops, as well as warships and aircraft, to NATO allies in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, an expansion of American military involvement amid mounting fears of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, according to administration officials.

      The move would signal a major pivot for the Biden administration, which up until recently was taking a restrained stance on Ukraine, out of fear of provoking Russia into invading. But as President Vladimir V. Putin has ramped up his threatening actions toward Ukraine, and talks between American and Russian officials have failed to discourage him, the administration is now moving away from its do-not-provoke strategy.

      In a meeting on Saturday at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, senior Pentagon officials presented Mr. Biden with several options that would shift American military assets much closer to Mr. Putin’s doorstep, the administration officials said. The options include sending 1,000 to 5,000 troops to Eastern European countries, with the potential to increase that number tenfold if things deteriorate.

      The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about internal deliberations.

      Mr. Biden is expected to make a decision as early as this week, they said. He is weighing the buildup as Russia has escalated its menacing posture against Ukraine, including massing more than 100,000 troops and weaponry on the border and stationing Russian forces in Belarus. On Saturday, Britain accused Moscow of developing plans to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine.

      “Even as we’re engaged in diplomacy, we are very much focused on building up defense, building up deterrence,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “NATO itself will continue to be reinforced in a significant way if Russia commits renewed acts of aggression. All of that is on the table.”

      So far, none of the military options being considered include deploying additional American troops to Ukraine itself, and Mr. Biden has made clear that he is loath to enter another conflict following America’s painful exit from Afghanistan last summer after 20 years.

      But after years of tiptoeing around the question of how much military support to provide to Ukraine, for fear of provoking Russia, Biden officials have recently warned that the United States could throw its weight behind a Ukrainian insurgency should Mr. Putin invade Ukraine.

      And the deployment of thousands of additional American troops to NATO’s eastern flank, which includes Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Biden administration officials said, is exactly the scenario that Mr. Putin has wanted to avoid, as he has seen the western military alliance creep closer and closer to Russia’s own border.

      The discussions came as the State Department ordered all family members of U.S. embassy personnel in Kyiv to leave Ukraine, citing the threat of Russian military action, and authorized some embassy employees to depart as well, according to senior State Department officials who briefed reporters on Sunday. The officials, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, declined to say how many embassy personnel and family members were in the country. Thinning out staff at American embassies is a common precaution when conflicts or other crises arise that could put American diplomats in harm’s way.

      In his news conference last week, Mr. Biden said he had cautioned Mr. Putin that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would prompt Washington to send more troops to the region.

      “We’re going to actually increase troop presence in Poland, in Romania, et cetera, if in fact he moves,” Mr. Biden said. “They are part of NATO.”

      During a phone call this month, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III warned his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shoygu, that a Russian incursion into Ukraine would most likely result in the exact troop buildup that Mr. Biden is now considering.

      At the time of the phone call — Jan. 6 — the Biden administration was still trying to be more restrained in its stance on Ukraine. But after unsuccessful talks between Mr. Blinken and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, on Friday, the administration is eying a more muscular posture, including not only diplomatic options like sanctions, but military options like increasing military support to Ukrainian forces and deploying American troops to the region.

      “This is clearly in response to the sudden stationing of Russian forces in Belarus, on the border, essentially, with NATO,” said Evelyn Farkas, the top Pentagon official for Russia and Ukraine during the Obama administration. “There is no way that NATO could not reply to such a sudden military move in this political context. The Kremlin needs to understand that they are only escalating the situation with all of these deployments and increasing the danger to all parties, including themselves.”

      A former top Pentagon official for Europe and NATO policy, Jim Townsend, said the administration’s proposal did not go far enough.

      “It’s likely too little too late to deter Putin,” Mr. Townsend said in an email. “If the Russians do invade Ukraine in a few weeks, those 5,000 should be just a down payment for a much larger U.S. and allied force presence. Western Europe should once again be an armed camp.”

      https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/23/us/politics/biden-troops-nato-ukraine.html

      NBC News – Full Blinken: ‘No Question Of Capitulation’ to Russia

    • zero hedge – US Orders Families Of Diplomats To “Immediately” Leave Ukraine As Biden Weighs Deploying Thousands Of Troops To Eastern Europe

      On Friday we said, half-jokingly, that it feels like a false-flaggy weekend…
      … and while so far luckily World War III fighting has not erupted (even if the German head of the navy lost his job for telling the truth), moments ago the US has once again done everything in its power to further inflame tensions when it ordered family members of US government workers at the US embassy in Kyev to leave Ukraine “due to the continued threat of Russian military action,” the State Department said Sunday.

      […]

      The latest escalations come after Blinken spoke earlier on Sunday during the TV media circuit, rejecting pressure to immediately escalate sanctions on Russia for its military buildup, saying it would limit western options in the future. He said the U.S. has focused with its European allies on building up the threat of “massive consequences” for Russia to dissuade Putin from sending forces into Ukraine and on leaving the door open to diplomacy.

      “The purpose of those sanctions is to deter Russian aggression and so if they’re triggered now, you lose the deterrent effect,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

      He said the U.S. is tracking a U.K. warning that Russia is plotting to install a pro-Kremlin government in Ukraine as part of the Kremlin’s playbook for encroaching on its neighbor.

      “We’ve been concerned and have been warning about exactly these kinds of tactics for weeks,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

      What we are more concerned about is just who is so earnestly pushing the US into World War III, because it certainly is not the senile president who barely has any idea where he is half the time, and whose puppet strings are controlled by dozens of special interest groups.

      Unfortunately we doubt anyone in the media will inquire into whose actions are pushing the US to the brink of all out war, with potentially tens of millions dead, until it is too late. We are, however, certain that the deflationary impact of another world war should delay any rate hikes from the Fed sending futures limit up.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-orders-families-diplomats-immediately-leave-ukraine-biden-weighs-deploying

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

  14. Is the time for the House of Sauds over?

    The intense struggle between MBS and the traditional power brokers has reached a tipping point. And from the looks of it, the days of the House of Saud seem numbered.

    • Shame on TFIglobal !
      A whole segment based on MB-rubbish!
      The Economist is about as reliable as the BBC.
      Sowing doubt straight out of the regime change manual.

    • Ah hah!
      Popular Saudi newspaper says it is time to stop supporting Palestinians

      Okaz is one of the most popular and influential newspapers in Saudi Arabia.

      On Sunday, it published an op-ed by Mohammed Al Saed titled, “Is it time to break with the Palestinian cause?” And his answer is an emphatic “yes.”

      He describes how the Palestinians have been political opponents of Saudi Arabia for over 30 years.…

      He doesn’t say to embrace Israel, but in a region where people think in terms of zero-sum games, that seems the only logical conclusion.

      https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2022/01/popular-saudi-newspaper-says-it-is-time.html

      • Gulf Arabs slam Palestinian terror groups for ‘supporting’ ?????? attacks

        Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) condemned over the weekend the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, drawing sharp criticism from Arabs in the Gulf.

        Several writers and political analysts from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain responded by launching a scathing attack on the Palestinian groups in particular and the Palestinians in general for allegedly supporting the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen, which has launched drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.…

        The Palestinian Authority, Hamas, PIJ and other Palestinian factions condemned the “normalization” agreements with Israel and accused the Gulf states of “betraying” the Palestinians. Many Gulf Arabs responded by accusing the Palestinians of being “ungrateful.”

        Like the Houthi militia, which controls large portions of territory in Yemen, Hamas and PIJ are backed by Iran. The Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist group is also funded and armed by Iran.

        The PFLP, the second largest faction of the PLO after the ruling Fatah faction headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, is a secular Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organization that also has close ties with Tehran.

        The PA has thus far refrained from commenting on the airstrikes in Yemen, apparently to avoid exacerbating tensions with the Gulf states.
        https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-694236

  15. “Silent War” by Five Times August Live at the Lincoln Memorial #DefeatTheMandatesDC
    FiveTimes August – January 23, 2022

  16. ctv news-canadian press –

    Canadian Trucking Alliance condemns trucker protests

    OTTAWA — A federation representing truckers across Canada has denounced a series of planned protests against the federal government’s cross-border travel vaccine mandate, arguing such demonstrations aren’t a safe or effective way of resisting the policy.

    The Canadian Trucking Alliance spoke out against the pending protests in a statement issued 24 hours before a convoy of unvaccinated truckers was set to leave British Columbia en route to Ottawa. They will be joined by fleets of other drivers from across Canada in the Nation’s capital on Jan. 29, where they plan to hold a rally decrying policies that require drivers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to cross the Canada-U.S. border.

    “The Canadian Trucking Alliance does not support and strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways, and bridges,” the statement read. “CTA believes such actions — especially those that interfere with public safety — are not how disagreements with government policies should be expressed.”

    The “vast majority” of Canadian trucking industry members are vaccinated, the alliance said, noting the immunization rate among truck drivers is on par with that seen among the general public.

    Alliance President Stephen Laskowski called for still greater compliance in light of the fact that both Canada and the United States have cross-border vaccination rules in place.

    “This regulation is not changing so, as an industry, we must adapt and comply with this mandate,” Laskowski said in the statement. “The only way to cross the border, in a commercial truck or any other vehicle, is to get vaccinated.”

    Those opposed to the measure, however, were unmoved.

    “We’re not backing down and we are going to Ottawa,” Tamara Lich, a protest organizer from Medicine Hat, Alta., said in a Facebook Live video posted on Sunday.

    Organizers describe the vaccine mandate as an example of political overreach resulting in economic harm, arguing the policy hurts small businesses and denies some workers the means to survive.

    A GoFundMe page set up by organizers had garnered $2.6 million in donations, with more than half that total coming in the past 48 hours. The money will go toward the cost of fuel, food and accommodations for participating protesters, according to the fundraising campaign page.

    Up to 26,000 of the 160,000 drivers who make regular trips across the Canada-U.S. border would likely be sidelined as a result of the vaccine mandate in both countries, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the American Trucking Associations.

    Some 30,000 trucks roll across the border each day hauling nearly $850 million in freight, according to 2020 figures from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

    The Liberal government announced in November that all Canadian truckers looking to cross the border from the United States would need to be vaccinated in order to avoid a 14-day quarantine, a policy that came into effect on Jan. 15.

    The mandate came into effect despite a previous statement from the Canada Border Services Agency that said unvaccinated and partially immunized truck drivers crossing into Canada from the United States would remain exempt from the mandate announced about two months before it came into force.

    The federal government reversed itself again the next afternoon with a statement that said the information shared the day before had been sent “in error.”

    This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canadian-trucking-alliance-condemns-trucker-protests-1.5751439
    ==================================
    global news – Trucker convoy protest raises questions on vaccine mandates, restrictions

    + comments on the YT page

  17. This is significant.
    Texas synagogue attacker was a member of deadly terror group Tablighi Jamaat

    Never heard of Tablighi Jamaat? That you haven’t is part of the problem. Meet the worldwide terror force to which Akram belonged.

    For years I have been exposing the notorious face of Tablighi Jamaat, which is known in the world as the antechamber of terrorism.… [A]ctivities of Tablighi Jamaat have been continuing in most of the Muslim nations as well as India, the United States, Britain and the European countries.

    Tablighi Jamaat also has activities in countries such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the former Soviet republics, thus posing gravest threat to national security of those nations….

    According to Indian newspaper the Hindustan Times, Faisal Malik Akram was a member of Tablighi Jamaat and had travelled abroad for activities related to the organization.

    Akram’s father is a well-known member of the Muslim community in London. His family has political links through Malik Irfan, a Councillor linked to the British Labor Party….

    …Akram had previously served as the head of the Rondell street Islamic Centre in London…. The mosque mainly attracts Muslims of Pakistani origin. He also prayed at the Eldorado Mosque, where largely the congregation is Gujarati Muslims.

    A vocal supporter of radical Islam, sharia and jihad, Akram has also participated in demonstrations supporting pro-Palestine agenda and Guantanamo Bay prisoner rallies. He has been a diehard supporter of Palestinian Arab terrorist activities as well as notorious activities of Hamas….

    Following the latest incident of Faisal Malik Akram and his connections with Tablighi Jamaat, counterterrorism experts are raising the demand for an immediate ban on the activities of this dangerous jihadist vessel. They also are calling upon the Indian authorities to immediately impose ban on activities of Tablighi Jamaat and evict the so-called headquarters of this dangerous group from New Delhi, India.

    Faisal Malik Akram was not a lone wolf terrorist. He was one of the wolves in a pack that wants to destroy the West.

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320883

    • 2009
      What is the Tablighi Jamaat?

      The… leader of the airline bomb plot, Abdullah Ahmed Ali, worshipped at the Queen’s Road mosque in Walthamstow. This, the reporter says, is a mosque controlled by the Tablighi Jamaat. Given that most mosques in the east end of London, according to sources, are Tablighi Jamaat, that’s not surprising.….

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/sep/08/religion-islam-tablighi-jamaat
      …………
      Small world, “Countering Violent Extremism” heartland.

      Massachusetts Islamism

      …Boston … has a long, unfortunate history of producing internationally-recognized terrorists, including the Tsarnaev brothers, who bombed the Boston marathon; Aafia Siddiqui, whom FBI Director Robert S. Mueller V O M I T describes as “an al-Qaeda operative and facilitator;”

      Abdulrahman Alamoudi, the founder of the Islamic Society of Boston, and named by the federal government as an Al Qaeda fundraiser, and Ahmad Abousamra, a key official within Islamic State, whose father is vice-president of the Muslim American Society’s Boston branch.

      During the past decade, in fact, twelve congregants, supporters, officials and donors of the Islamic Society of Boston alone have been imprisoned, deported, killed or are on the run in connection with terrorism offenses.

      Despite these alumnae, a number of extremist Islamic organizations, such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), have claimed that the government’s attempt to combat radicalization “targets American Muslims” and “undermines our national ideals.”
      https://vladtepesblog.com/2016/04/04/readers-links-for-april-4-2016/comment-page-1/#comment-295809
      ......
      Now Tablighi Jamaat joins the Squad and CAIR to free Lady al-Qaeda. Cause da joooz, ya know.

  18. Biden’s Colossal Failure on Iran: Redesignate the Houthis a Foreign Terrorist Organization

    The Houthis serve as Iran’s proxy in the civil war in Yemen and against Saudi Arabia, which backs the internationally recognized Republic of Yemen government. The UAE, which hosts U.S. military forces at Al Dhafra air base, has been a part of the Saudi coalition to support the official Yemeni government.

    With its decisions to delist the Houthis, sideline the Abraham Accords, and focus on diplomacy all within days of each other, the Biden administration demonstrated the lengths it would go to reenter the deeply flawed, Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran.

    The State Department most likely realized early on that its decision to delist the Houthis [from the List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations] was doomed to failure. Only two days after they were removed from the terrorist list, the State Department was forced to condemn the group for its continued attacks…

    Given the clear evidence that its policies are not working, it is time for the Biden administration to shift direction. The administration must redesignate the Houthis as the terrorist organization it is.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18160/biden-colossal-failure-on-iran-redesignate

    A missile fired by Twisted-Raghead proxies struck a UAE tanker less than 10 kms from a US base. Crickets.

    • More on that attack from Seth Franzman:

      Speaking at an event at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) several days after the attacks, [UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef] Otaiba said they involved “a combination of cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones, targeted civilian sites in the UAE.”

      Several of the incoming threats were intercepted, he said.

      US Central Command confirmed that there was an inbound threat and that American service members at al-Dhafra base, several kilometers from where the targeted oil facilities are located, had to take shelter for 30 minutes, Defense News reported.

      “Airmen were directed to keep their protective gear close for 24 hours afterwards….”

      https://www.jpost.com/international/article-694254

  19. US Policy on Iran: Learning From the Past?

    Ten days before the toppling of the Shah of Iran, president Jimmy Carter told a conference of world leaders on the Island of Guadeloupe that a Khomeini-led Iran “would not export revolution … and would be interested in buying tractors, not tanks.” On Jan. 11, six days before the toppling of the Shah, “the CIA assessed that Khomeini would sit back and let his moderate, Western-educated followers run the government.”

    On the eve of the toppling of the Shah, US Ambassador to Iran William Sullivan argued that Khomeini and the armed forces were anti-communist, that “Khomeini would play a Gandhi-like role and that elections would be likely to produce a pro-Western Islamic republic.”

    Five months before the toppling of the Shah, an August 1978 CIA study concluded that “Iran is not in a revolutionary or even a pre-revolutionary situation.”

    https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/01/23/us-policy-on-iran-learning-from-the-past/

  20. Richard Goldberg@rich_goldberg

    Russian ambassador involved in Iran talks confirms US, Russia continuing cooperation on Iran amidst Ukraine standoff. Follows Blinken call with Lavrov where Iran discussion comes up on call supposedly about Ukraine, and this NBC report on US/Russian offer.

    Mikhail Ulyanov @Amb_Ulyanov · Jan 21
    Russia-US relations are in extremely bad shape. However on #Iran we managed to work productively so far. Provocative insinuations will not change it. Of course, a positive outcome depends on all actors, including Iran as a major player, but we are moving in the right direction.

    Richard Goldberg @rich_goldberg
    In other words there is no “standoff” on Ukraine. And Moscow knows it.

    https://twitter.com/rich_goldberg/status/1485249092821438470