Reader’s links for April 13th, 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

51 Replies to “Reader’s links for April 13th, 2022”

    • Dear Rita,
      A man wearing a toupee is a turn-off for this woman. I see only a fluffy toilet-seat cover.
      ugh

      Elon Musk: fascinating critter. Could be Mephisto OR Faust. Out of this world, for sure.
      …………….
      OT/ My sweet little 2015 laptop is back home, humming!
      • 2012 could download a free update, but I don’t want to stress her innards. Have to think about it.
      • 2009: an update might bring her back online, but she’s splendid in isolation. A vintage classic, with UNIX stability, a full complement of DIY tools, CD player. Steve Jobs lives on in her.

      • Billionaires…rich and famous…brilliant…hair…teeth…ugh
        BORING!

        If only this chicken farmer had a nickle for every time he heard a woman cry, “Ohhh Johhhnnny!”

        And that’s ’cause I wrap my chickens in CLEAN newspaper b’fore I give ’em to the ladies. (Sniff)

      • 1. TeeeheeeeLOL tsk tsk tsk !!! yucki..!!!!! .you make me break a promise to myself to never post anything when I had a glass of wine or 3, like tonight (first vino in a while)…but you are telling me the equivalent of “there is NO father Xmas” ? Tucker and a toupee ???????? !!!!!!! WHAT ??? I will never listen to him with the same eyes again ! 🙂

        Elon Mask: I have a deep longing for “Hope for a saviour or such”, but a source I listen to with some trust was talking about Elon Mask, being a co-founder of PayPal, yet not saving the donations via PayPal to the Canadian Truckies, made him think that Elon Musk was not alltogether kosher, and that, in tourn, makes me think…..hmmm….

        2. My old cranky laptop is (literally) a teenager…..= geriatric in digital lingo. He has turned in to a controlling bully, lets me post only when he/it wants to. Needs replacing, to show who is the boss.

        Conclusion: dear yucki, you are definately centuries ahead when it comes to digital, of this country pumpkin and you have the most elegant avatar in cyberdom 🙂 x

        As to the French Elections: I am crying. They could have changed (saved !!!) the world and our lives. Eric Zemmour, no toupee ;} and the bravest man in MY memory.

        • No worries, Rita. I recently was called out by SOMEONE for writing on Bull’s Blood. Funny thing is they were right!

        • @Johnny-
          Bull’s Blood packs a wallop. If somebody can’t handle the name, they best stay clear of the nectar.

          @Rita-
          From my shallow perspective, I’m not convinced Zemmour was in it to win for himself. Maybe doing all he can to prevent another term of Oedipus Schwab.

          Marion Le Pen as part of a strategy?

  1. Ottawa Prof. Ivan Katchanovski:

    “The evening news programs of the three dominant U.S. television networks devoted more coverage to the war in Ukraine last month than in any other month during all wars, including those in which the U.S. military was directly engaged, since the 1991…” 1/

    “Combined, the three networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC – devoted 562 minutes to the first full month of the war in Ukraine. That was more time than in the first month of its invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001 (306 minutes)….” 3/

    US #media coverage of #UkraineWar is manifestation of indexing theory. Coverage reflects government narratives & is not much concerned with evidence & expertise of scholars who research this issue. 8/
    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1512606056584777729.html
    ________________
    INDEXING.

    “Indexing” is a theory of news content and press-state relations…

    [T]hose issues and views that are subject to high-level political debate are most likely to receive news attention that is wide-ranging; issues not subject to debate receive less critical attention. Indexing theory thus attempts to predict the nature of the content of news about political and policy topics…

    Conversely, at times when officials are not debating the topic, the range of views included in the news will be correspondingly smaller. Views not voiced within current elite debate will thus tend to be marginalized in news as well, particularly in times of elite consensus…

    [T]he indexing hypothesis “applies most centrally to how the range of … legitimate, or otherwise ‘credible’ news sources is established by journalists.” Indexing thus offers not only an empirical theory of how daily news is constructed but also a normative framework for analyzing press performance in democracy.

    When the democratic process is functioning well, news that is indexed to elite debate probably offers a reasonably good representation of public opinion. But when elites do not act in good faith or when political pressures hamper elite debate, a press that merely indexes that debate may not be operating in ways that support a healthy democracy….

    [N]ews coverage follows the contours of elite debate and has little relation to public opinion.

    (Regina G. Lawrence, 24 Apr. 2012.
    DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199756841-0090)
    https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-0090.xml

  2. Since the bio-weapon labs in the Ukraine were working on developing airborne rabies (among other abominations), I think this is a good and 100% non-politicized refresher on what rabies is and how it works:

  3. I’m suspicious of pundits who claim to have some sort of crystal ball. In Martin Armstrong’s case he calls it a mysterious computer of his named “Socrates”. He also casually drops names and claims to be consulted by governments on economic issues. However, there’s enough that sounds right in this interview. Identifying the obscuring of the malfeasant management of the world’s largest economy brought on by history’s largest debt is a good opener. Healthy skepticism of Zelensky and recognizing, in his own way, Colbert’s concept of 3D chess deserves credit where it’s due:

    https://usawatchdog.com/the-west-needs-wwiii-martin-armstrong/

  4. The Ukraine is a good hole to fkuc in. First Poland tried to dump their old garbage weaponry to be replaced by the U.S., now the Slovaks try. And we have the Biden family games there, bioweapon labs, all enabled by corruption, I suppose. A war to hide the failing USD could not have been started in Africa. Who cares about Africa? Sorry, but really. Europe remain our primary root system. It all stinks to high heaven.

    https://news.antiwar.com/2022/04/11/slovakia-in-talks-with-nato-allies-to-send-mig-29-fighter-jets-to-ukraine/

  5. Vlad, running a blog these days that tries to retain real integrity must feel like being a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman in Mariupol.

    Dear Dolt dumbs down the Peepo with corrupted news outlets. Ezra on Tucker:

    https://youtu.be/-085_AfyZrI

    • Peoplekind, I can only watch this huffing, arrogant, little Klaus Schwab puppet SOB for 3 seconds. Aw aw scoff, huff huff, this aw clown talks about hate speech and intolerance. HA ha ha, Johnny would tell him to “go suck an egg”. Look at Justine’s hair aw aw aw huff huff – grass doesn’t grown on a busy street

  6. BBC – The microchip implants that let you pay with your hand

    Patrick Paumen causes a stir whenever he pays for something in a shop or restaurant.

    This is because the 37-year-old doesn’t need to use a bank card or his mobile phone to pay. Instead, he simply places his left hand near the contactless card reader, and the payment goes through.

    “The reactions I get from cashiers are priceless!” says Mr Paumen, a security guard from the Netherlands.

    He is able to pay using his hand because back in 2019 he had a contactless payment microchip injected under his skin.

    “The procedure hurts as much as when someone pinches your skin,” says Mr Paumen.

    A microchip was first implanted into a human back in 1998, but it is only during the past decade that the technology has been available commercially.

    And when it comes to implantable payment chips, British-Polish firm, Walletmor, says that last year it became the first company to offer them for sale.

    “The implant can be used to pay for a drink on the beach in Rio, a coffee in New York, a haircut in Paris – or at your local grocery store,” says founder and chief executive Wojtek Paprota. “It can be used wherever contactless payments are accepted.”

    Walletmor’s chip, which weighs less than a gram and is little bigger than a grain of rice, is comprised of a tiny microchip and an antenna encased in a biopolymer – a naturally sourced material, similar to plastic.

    Mr Paprota adds that it is entirely safe, has regulatory approval, works immediately after being implanted, and will stay firmly in place. It also does not require a battery, or other power source. The firm says it has now sold more than 500 of the chips.

    The technology Walletmor uses is near-field communication or NFC, the contactless payment system in smartphones. Other payment implants are based on radio-frequency identification (RFID), which is the similar technology typically found in physical contactless debit and credit cards.

    For many of us, the idea of having such a chip implanted in our body is an appalling one, but a 2021 survey of more than 4,000 people across the UK and the European Union found that 51% would consider it.

    However, without giving a percentage figure, the report added that “invasiveness and security issues remained a major concern” for respondents.

    Mr Paumen says he doesn’t have any of these worries.

    “Chip implants contain the same kind of technology that people use on a daily basis,” he says, “From key fobs to unlock doors, public transit cards like the London Oyster card, or bank cards with contactless payment function.

    “The reading distance is limited by the small antenna coil inside the implant. The implant needs to be within the electromagnetic field of a compatible RFID [or NFC] reader. Only when there is a magnetic coupling between the reader and the transponder can the implant can be read.”

    He adds that he is not concerned that his whereabouts could be tracked.

    “RFID chips are used in pets to identify them when they’re lost,” he says. “But it’s not possible to locate them using an RFID chip implant – the missing pet needs to be found physically. Then the entire body gets scanned until the RFID chip implant is found and read.”

    Yet the issue with such chips, (and what causes concern), is whether in the future they become ever more advanced, and packed full of a person’s private data. And, in turn, whether this information is secure, and if a person could indeed be tracked.

    Financial technology or fintech, expert Theodora Lau, is co-author of the book Beyond Good: How Technology Is Leading A Business Driven Revolution.

    She says that implanted payment chips are just “an extension of the internet of things”. By that she means another new way of connecting and exchanging data.

    Yet, while she says that many people are open to the idea – as it would make paying for things quicker and easier – the benefit must be weighed up with the risks. Especially as and when embedded chips carry more of our personal information.

    “How much are we willing to pay, for the sake of convenience?” she says. “Where do we draw the line when it comes to privacy and security? Who will be protecting the critical infrastructure, and the humans that are part of it?”

    Nada Kakabadse, professor of policy, governance and ethics at Reading University’s Henley Business School, is also cautious about the future of more advanced embedded chips.

    “There is a dark side to the technology that has a potential for abuse,” she says. “To those with no love of individual freedom, it opens up seductive new vistas for control, manipulation and oppression.

    “And who owns the data? Who has access to the data? And, is it ethical to chip people like we do pets?”

    The result, she cautions, could be “the disempowerment of many for the benefits of a few”.

    Steven Northam, senior lecturer in innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Winchester, says that the concerns are unwarranted. In addition to his academic work he is the founder of UK firm BioTeq, which has been making implanted, contactless chips since 2017.

    Its implants are aimed at people with disabilities who can use the chips to automatically open doors.

    “We have daily enquiries,” he says, “And have carried out over 500 implants in the UK – but Covid caused some reduction in this.”

    “This technology has been used in animals for years,” he argues. “They are very small, inert objects. There are no risks.”

    Back in the Netherlands, Mr Paumen describes himself as a “biohacker” – someone who puts pieces of technology into his body to try to improve his performance. He has 32 implants in total, including chips to open doors and imbedded magnets.

    “Technology keeps evolving, so I keep collecting more,” he says. “My implants augment my body. I wouldn’t want to live without them,” he says.

    “There will always be people who don’t want to modify their body. We should respect that – and they should respect us as biohackers.”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61008730

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

    JAN 2015 – BBC – Chip & skin: The office that microchips its staff

    A new office block in Sweden is offering workers the chance to have a microchip implanted under their skin to allow them to access to various services within the building.

    A tiny gadget the size of a grain of rice is implanted in employees hands.

    It then allows them to open doors, or use the photocopier, without a traditional pass card.

    Chief technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones went to try it out.

    • JAN 2019 – PBS – Microchipping humans wields great promise, but does it pose greater risk?

      Advantages include fast communication of critical patient data to medical teams, seamless payment and automatically opened doors.

      But skeptics warn of dire implications for privacy and ethics.

    • SEPTEMBER 2017 -AUSTRALIA – Microchip implants

      Using public transport, getting access to buildings and paying for coffee, is now as simple as a touch of your hand.

      A micro-chip implanted beneath the skin gives people the same capabilities as dozens of cards and devices, and it’s not as painful as you might think.

      • Can he take the ear rings off? How could you sleep? If he takes them off, do his ear lobes hang down? I am not sure what look he is going for. What is on his forehead, is it a giant chip, it could not possibly be a prayer bump.

      • To embed a tracker, emitter and receiver under the skin…

        Is it more/less valuable to dispose of, now it’s ‘my body?’
        Will small knives be illegal as people are literally, strip searched?
        Will social interactions like dating, affiliation and social credits be identified?

        Why is it humans making themselves more accessible to technology than the other way around?
        Face, fingertips, breath, voice etc. are already readable.

      • Computers claim to have unbreakable security protocols for handshakes, passwords and data transmission, to not be able to be cloned. (Until the next superfast device).

        A human can be copied to look-alike, sound-alike and act-alike. To lie to people and even themselves as say, a muslim, Communist and Woman-branch.

        A detector may pinpoint the dna, emotion and x-y chromosomes of such Protected Characteristics as fake. But there is always the perfect clone of birth to be held up as the example. The lottery winner who previously danced naked around the camp fire.

        We can’t escape the imaging of real-time brain neurons, spreading due to undetectable stimulai. To reveal the person present.

        Why carry a chip to flash its light as to your whereabout, when your whereabout is tracked from streetlamp to home smarts?

        At least have a little privacy without something on you.

  7. RCMP billed taxpayers nearly $250K for buffets during Freedom Convoy crackdown

    The RCMP billed taxpayers nearly a quarter-million dollars for buffets at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier while officers cracked down on Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa this February.

    An Access to Information and Privacy request obtained by True North reveals that the total costs for breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets in the luxury hotel’s Canadian Room was $234,995.79.

    “The enclosed invoice for the lodgement of RCMP officers, other police services and staff at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier totals $234,995.79 and consists of costs pertaining to meals provided in conference rooms used as shelter/down rooms from February 11th to 25th,” the RCMPs National Division of Financial Management told True North. ”At no time did RCMP members stay in accommodations at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier between January 20, 2022 and March 3, 2022.”

    Since officers did not use accommodations at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, the total bill for their stay in Ottawa is likely much higher.

    Lodgement was billed under “events” on the invoice, and dinner buffet services cost up to $12,240. Lunch buffets cost up to $11,340 while the hot breakfast buffet was priced at $9,312.

    Records indicate that the RCMP’s use of the luxury hotel began over a week before police moved in on protesters on Feb. 18. Fairmont Chateau Laurier invoices note the RCMP’s arrival as Feb. 10, with a planned departure date of Feb. 27.

    On Feb. 11, Ontario premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to US President Joe Biden about ending border blockades. Around the same time, a new Integrated Command Centre was created to allow better coordination of law enforcement.

    Three days later, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever to quash the Freedom Convoy demonstrations. By Feb. 18, a joint force of federal, provincial and municipal police had established a red zone in Ottawa’s downtown core and had begun to arrest protesters.

    Reports from the time show that police began to move out from their headquarters at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier early in the morning, pushing protesters back from the hotel toward Wellington street.

    The amount billed to the RCMP for buffets suddenly spiked on Feb. 19 and continued at a higher price until the last available invoice on Feb. 23, suggesting a larger number of diners.

    Buffet costs spiked from an average of $4,000 to over $10,000 for the remainder of the stay.

    https://tnc.news/2022/04/12/rcmp-billed-taxpayers-nearly-250k-for-buffets-during-freedom-convoy-crackdown/

  8. The Russian military found UAVs with liquid containers and sprayers on the territory of one of the military units abandoned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine

  9. Macron reopens debate on ending anonymity online

    French President Emmanuel Macron has reiterated his opposition to online anonymity, and stated that he will not close the door on the idea of dismantling platforms. EURACTIV France reports.

    “In a democratic society, there should be no anonymity. You can’t walk around in the street wearing a hood. On the Internet, people allow themselves, because they are hooded behind a pseudonym, to say the worst abjections,” the outgoing president told Le Point on Tuesday (12 April), two weeks before the second round of the presidential elections.

    This is not the first time that Macron has made calls to tackle anonymity online.

    In January 2019, he said his ambition was to move “towards a progressive lifting of all forms of anonymity” as part of a discussion conducted as part of the ‘Great National Debate’. His position is not new, but contrasts with that of the current secretary of state for digital affairs, Cédric O.

    A few days after Samuel Patty’s murder in October 2020, O wrote on US publishing platform Medium that “the issue of ‘anonymity’ online is a very bad fight” on the grounds that social media users are “not anonymous, just pseudonymous”.

    Law enforcement agencies and the courts, for instance, have ways to trace people who have committed offences online. Internet service providers and social media websites also have a great deal of information on users, like names, addresses, bank details, telephone numbers, IP addresses, and so forth.

    “An identification requirement would not only be easily circumvented but also legally very uncertain,” O warned at the time.

    The state secretary is due to step down, however, even if Macron wins the upcoming elections.

    Targetting US giants

    In the recent interview, Macron also attacked global “platforms [that] come to use our ancient or post-revolutionary freedoms to divert them from their essence”. “We need to create a public order, like in the street. This is not the state of nature,” he said.

    “On social media networks, you can kill reputations, spread false news, drive people to suicide,” he continued, criticising the “world view” of Mark Zuckerberg, as well as that of Elon Musk, “shareholder of Twitter and […] libertarian”.

    For Macron, the EU’s new rulebooks for online platforms, the Digital Markets and Digital Services Acts, “are the beginning of an answer” to the problem.

    If it is “not too late” for Europe to catch up and offer alternatives to the American giants, “we must not rule out a dismantling if this proves necessary,” said Macron, citing the anti-trust policies of former US president Theodore Roosevelt as an example.

    On cloud technologies, Macron acknowledged that building French and European solutions “will take time and represent an enormous investment”. “Ensuring our sovereignty in the areas of platforms, mobile applications, metaverses, the cloud and cybersecurity will take us ten years,” he added.

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/macron-still-wants-to-end-online-anonymity/

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

    Emmanuel Macron plans to “dismantle” Facebook

    The candidate for his re-election positions himself firmly against American platforms, of which he criticizes the addictive and harmful aspect for our societies. He also takes a stand against online anonymity.

    The next meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Mark Zuckerberg could be colder than that of May 2018. of Point, the president-candidate delivered his vision of the major digital platforms and their effects on society, with a particularly critical point of view on the latter. During the interview granted to the weekly, Emmanuel Macron hypothesized a dismantling, in particular to put an end to the power of Facebook.

    Facebook indirectly targeted

    “First there is the subject of social networks. Many are American today. We must not hesitate to consider the dismantling of those who are in a monopoly situation and to regulate” warns Emmanuel Macron.

    If Facebook is not explicitly named, it is currently the only American group (now called Meta) accused of monopoly and whose activity is based on the exploitation of social networks. The latter thus has Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger messaging as well as the Oculus virtual reality platform.

    The hypothesis of such a dismantling of Meta is raised with increasing insistence by elected officials in Europe and the United States, where the firm is the target of numerous complaints for abuse of a dominant position. In particular, the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg is accused of to have bought Instagram and WhatsApp in order to avoid any competition.

    During the same interview, Emmanuel Macron draws a rather negative assessment of the role of Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

    “On social networks, we can kill reputations, spread false news, push people to suicide” regrets the candidate. “When you read what Mark Zuckerberg thinks, for example, or even Elon Musk, who became a shareholder of Twitter and who is a libertarian, you realize that they also have a vision of the world. is not always democratic”, he adds.

    “There should be no anonymity”

    More surprisingly, Emmanuel Macron evokes a track yet criticized by his Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O: prohibit anonymity online.

    “In a democratic society, there should be no anonymity. You cannot walk around in the street wearing a hood. On the Internet, people allow themselves, because they are hooded behind a nickname, to say the worst abjections” thus analyzes Emmanuel Macron.

    The candidate, who will face Marine Le Pen in the second round on April 24, also returns to his campaign promises around France’s digital sovereignty, in the face of the omnipotence of the American and Chinese giants in the field.

    “Ensuring our sovereignty in the areas of platforms, mobile applications, metaverses, the cybersecurity cloud will take us ten years” anticipates Emmanuel Macron.

    https://www.world-today-news.com/emmanuel-macron-plans-to-dismantle-facebook/

  10. Associated Press – France’s Le Pen warns against sending weapons to Ukraine

    PARIS (AP) — French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen warned Wednesday against sending any more weapons to Ukraine, and called for a rapprochement between NATO and Russia once Moscow’s war in Ukraine winds down.

    Le Pen, an outspoken nationalist who has long ties to Russia, also confirmed that if she unseats President Emmanuel Macron in France’s April 24 presidential runoff, she will pull France out of NATO’s military command and dial back French support for the whole European Union.

    Macron, a pro-EU centrist, is facing a harder-than-expected fight to stay in power, in part because the economic impact of the war is hitting poor households the hardest. France’s European partners are worried that a possible Le Pen presidency could undermine Western unity as the U.S. and Europe seek to support Ukraine and end Russia’s ruinous war on its neighbor.

    Asked about military aid to Ukraine, Le Pen said she would continue defense and intelligence support.

    “(But) I’m more reserved about direct arms deliveries. Why? Because … the line is thin between aid and becoming a co-belligerent,” the far-right leader said, citing concerns about an “escalation of this conflict that could bring a whole number of countries into a military commitment.”

    Earlier Wednesday, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said France had sent 100 million euros ($109 million) worth of weapons to Ukraine in recent weeks as part of a flow of Western arms.

    Earlier in his term, Macron had tried to reach out to Russian President Vladimir Putin to improve Russia’s relations with the West, and Macron met with Putin weeks before the Russian invasion in an unsuccessful effort to prevent it. Since then, however, France has supported EU sanctions against Moscow and has offered sustained support to Ukraine.

    Le Pen also said France should strike a more independent path from the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.

    And despite the atrocities that Russian troops have committed in Ukraine, Le Pen said that NATO should seek a “strategic rapprochement” with Russia once the war is over. Such a relationship would be “in the interest of France and Europe and I think even of the United States,” she said, to stop Russia from forging a stronger alliance with world power China.

    She did not directly address the horrors unfolding in Ukraine.

    Le Pen was speaking at a press conference Wednesday to lay out her foreign policy plans, which include halting aid to African countries unless they take back “undesirable” migrants seeking entry to France. She also wants to slash support for international efforts to improve women’s reproductive health in poor countries, increase minority rights or solve environmental problems.

    At the end of the event, protesters held up a poster showing a 2017 meeting between Le Pen and Putin. One activist was pulled out of the room. Anti-racism protesters also held a small demonstration outside.

    “The election of Madame Le Pen would mean electing an admirer of Putin’s regime, an autocratic regime and an admirer of Putin’s imperialistic logic,” said Dominique Sopo, head of the group SOS Racism. “It would mean that France would become a vassal to Putin’s Russia.”

    https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-marine-le-pen-macron-moscow-d79b5ddd4fe93ebef39da900d99b22da

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

    EU and Nato keep nervous eye on Marine Le Pen’s bid for French presidency

    Far-right candidate wants to rein in Brussels’ power and take Paris out of military alliance’s
    command structures

    […]
    Nato, the US-led military alliance, also stands to be dramatically overhauled by a Le Pen victory. The 53-year-old has vowed to withdraw France from Nato’s integrated military command structure, a step that would remove French troops and weapons from the pool of assets under alliance command.

    […]
    “We must all rally behind Emmanuel Macron,” said Michael Roth, Germany’s former Europe minister and now chair of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee. “It’s either him or the downfall of a united Europe. It sounds a bit dramatic but that’s the way it is.”

    https://www.ft.com/content/aea77380-08c0-4f57-80ff-0121d0646ee8

    =================================
    Nigel Farage on Marine Le Pen media attacks: They tried this with Brexit and Trump and failed

  11. Senior IRGC General: Western Culture Is a Path to Racial Extinction, Loss of National Identity

    Deputy IRGC Commander-in-Chief for Coordination General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi said in a March 31, 2022 interview on Ofogh TV (Iran) that Europeans are losing their national identity and are headed for extinction due to the negative population growth in Europe. He said that Western countries preach to other societies how they should conduct themselves, yet Westerners are not getting married or having children.

    As a result, he said, the West is headed towards extinction and is forced to “import” populations from Africa and other parts of the world. Naghdi gave the example of France’s national soccer and basketball teams, which he said comprise mostly of Africans.

    He predicted that in a few years the European race will exist only in museums, and that if the African immigrants to Europe embrace the Western lifestyle, they too will be headed for extinction.

  12. Taiwan issues first war survival handbook amid China threat

    TAIPEI, April 12 (Reuters) – Taiwan’s military released a handbook on civil defence for the first time on Tuesday, giving citizens survival guidance in a war scenario as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine focuses attention on how the island should respond to China’s pressure…

    Taiwan’s handbook details how to find bomb shelters via smartphone apps, water and food supplies, as well as tips for preparing emergency first aid kits.

    Planning for the handbook pre-dates Russia’s attack on its neighbour, which has prompted debate on its implications for Taiwan and ways to boost preparedness, such as reforms to the training of reservists…

    The handbook uses comic strips and pictures with tips to survive a military attack, such as how to distinguish air raid sirens and ways to shelter from missiles…

    https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-issues-first-war-survival-handbook-amid-china-threat-2022-04-12/

  13. Travellers coming to Canada must wear mask for 14 days

    Anyone travelling to Canada must wear a mask for 14 days after their arrival. It’s also still required they fill out the ArriveCan form within 72 hours.

  14. COVID-19 vaccines in Canada’s stockpile starting to expire as uptake slows

    Health Canada says almost 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines held in a national inventory have expired since January.

    That includes more than 420,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine that expired on Tuesday.

    The 1.5 million expired doses amount to less than two per cent of the 118 million doses delivered to Canada since December 2020.

    There are more than 18 million doses in Canada’s national stockpile at the moment, the vast majority of which will expire in the next four months.

    […]Expired doses are not tossed immediately while Health Canada awaits word from the manufacturer about whether the expiration date can be extended.

    https://globalnews.ca/news/8757612/covid-19-vaccines-canada-stockpile-expiring/
    ====================================
    COVID-19 vaccines in national stockpile starting to expire as uptake slows

    OTTAWA — Health Canada says almost 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines held in a national inventory have expired since January.

    That includes more than 420,000 doses of Moderna’s Spikevax that hit the end of their shelf life on Tuesday. Those doses had already seen their expiration date pushed back two months.

    The government says this is a relatively new issue because dose deliveries were aligned with demand until late last year. But uptake of vaccines has slowed even as governments and public health authorities urge people to get a booster shot.

    More than 80 per cent of Canadians are considered fully vaccinated, while 57 per cent of adults and 15 per cent of teenagers have received a third dose.

    Some provinces are extending fourth doses to high-risk populations as well and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization this week issued more urgent advice for younger adults and teens to get their third dose as the sixth wave of COVID-19 keeps growing.

    Still uptake is significantly lower than it has been, falling from a peak of 600,000 doses a day in June, to 250,000 in January, and about 30,000 daily over the last month.

    So far less than two per cent of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine supply has expired, though that number doesn’t include doses that expired after being shipped to provinces and territories.

    Last fall, a Canadian Press survey of provincial governments on wasted doses found at least 120,000 doses sent to provinces had expired, but the data didn’t include numbers from Ontario, which refused to respond to the question.

    Dr. Srinivas Murthy, an infectious disease expert at the University of British Columbia, said losing some doses to expiration is normal in vaccine campaigns.

    “You’re distributing a good to all parts of the country with varying uptake rates and varying desires for a specific product during that process, so some products will meet their expiry date,” he said.

    Canada has only donated 15 million of the 38 million doses it promised to share from its own supplies, but demand for those has also fallen this year. The COVAX vaccine sharing alliance distributing most donations has slowed its requests in recent weeks as supplies exceeded the ability of countries to get doses into arms.

    Murthy said Canada should have done more earlier to facilitate vaccinations in lower-income countries by supporting changes to licensing laws and manufacturing so the vaccines could be made in more places.

    Those changes are now in the works but Murthy said it shouldn’t have taken two years for that to happen.

    Canada now has 18 million doses in its national stockpile and the vast majority will expire within the next four months. That includes 4,200 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that run out of time at the end of April, more than 900,000 doses of the pediatric Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that expire in June, and 3.1 million doses from a recent shipment of the new vaccine from Novavax that expire at the end of August.

    Almost 5.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for adults and teenagers will expire in July and August. Another 8.2 million doses of Spikevax expire between May and October.

    Provinces and territories still have between 10 and 12 million doses in their own stockpiles.

    Health Canada said in a written statement that it’s working to manage doses to limit expirations, including donating when possible and working with manufacturers to see if expired doses can still be used safely.

    Health Canada has revised expiration dates multiple times in the last year, as the companies that make the vaccines were able to get better data on how long the vaccines remained viable.

    Pfizer’s shelf life was extended from six months to nine months last summer, and Moderna’s from seven months to nine months in December.

    https://ottawa.citynews.ca/national-news/covid-19-vaccines-in-national-stockpile-starting-to-expire-as-uptake-slows-5261602

  15. national post – Federal government paid $20M for Ottawa company’s COVID-19 test that flopped

    Spartan Bioscience created buzz by promising an Ontario-made, portable testing cube that it said could detect the novel coronavirus in less than an hour without a trip to the lab

    OTTAWA — The federal government pre-paid $20 million for COVID-19 tests from Ottawa-based Spartan Bioscience that it never received because they never worked as promised, according to new documents.

    Now, the Public Health Agency of Canada says it is writing off the amount as a loss pending the company’s liquidation, according to information recently tabled in the House of Commons and in the 2021 federal public accounts.

    “The company went through insolvency proceedings and is now being liquidated. By law, once a person or a company is in the insolvency process, no one can sue or attempt any other form of recovery. No litigation is allowed and all procedures go through the Trustee and is a public process,” reads the document.

    Spartan Bioscience created buzz early in the pandemic by promising an Ontario-made, portable testing cube that it said could detect the novel coronavirus in less than an hour without a trip to the lab. Users just needed to swab their nose, insert the test into the cube and wait for the result.

    In spring 2020, CEO Dr. Paul Lem was promising MPs that his company would produce over 200,000 of his proprietary Cube, which sold for $8,000 each in addition to the cost of each individual test ($70).

    Seduced by the concept, the federal government as well as public health agencies and hospital networks in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec poured millions of dollars in orders for the product. For Health Canada, that amounted to $20 million following the signing of a March 2020 contract, it confirmed Tuesday.

    Except the Cube never worked as well as promised, failing to catch nearly half of COVID-19 positive cases at one point during testing. Health Canada originally approved the product for sale, then retracted it in late 2020 before re-approving it in January 2021.

    Three months later, the company had to halt production again due to technical issues, according to the Ottawa Citizen. Soon after, the company declared bankruptcy and is in the process of liquidating its assets.

    But in the meantime, the federal government never received a single unit, barring a few used in clinical validation studies. Now, it’s hoping to recoup any amount of money through the liquidation process.

    “The Spartan COVID-19 system encountered numerous performance-related issues since the initial contract was signed in March 2020. The company was unable to fulfil the terms of the contract and did not deliver Health Canada-approved COVID-19 tests to the Government of Canada,” Health Canada spokeswoman Anna Maddison said in a statement.

    “The total loss is still $20 million,” she added as an update to the 2021 public accounts.

    A representative of the company’s trustee Ernst & Young did not respond to emailed questions Tuesday.

    For the Conservatives, none of this would have happened had the government been faster acquiring proper PPE and testing equipment early in the pandemic.

    “Instead of being proactive from the start and using every second available to prepare the best defence against COVID, the Liberal government made a panicked last-minute dash to secure rapid tests, putting millions of taxpayer dollars at risk as a result of their failure to perform proper due diligence,” Conservative MP and health critic Michael Barrett said in a statement.

    “The cost of the Liberal government’s failure is always paid by Canadians, and this is one more example of how Canadians can’t afford more of the same from this NDP-Liberal coalition government.”

    The Spartan Bioscience loss is one of three COVID-19 advance payments worth a total of $105 million that PHAC wrote off in 2021.

    But all is not necessarily lost in the two other cases, as the government is suing both organizations to recoup some of the expenses.

    The first and largest case involves Montreal-based company Tango, which the government is suing to recover up to $81 million it prepaid for millions of protective masks.

    In its lawsuit, Ottawa claims it pre-paid Tango for nearly 40 million masks early in the pandemic as the world scrambled to secure enough protective personal equipment for its health-care staff.

    But when the KN95 masks finally arrived, over 80 per cent did not meet air filtration efficiency standards.

    In the new documents, PHAC says it has written off $75 million of its pre-payment to Tango for the time being.

    The documents also show the agency lost nearly $10 million in prepayments to TCG Medical because it also sold masks that the government claims were not up to standard. It is now suing the company for US$7.9 million.

    “Despite PHAC’s best efforts in ensuring value for money and minimizing risks associated with purchasing such a large amount of goods, some vendors did not provide deliverables in the form agreed upon in their respective contracts,” read the documents.

    “The Government of Canada is taking action against companies that failed to meet their contractual obligations. This can entail negotiation, alternative dispute resolution and, where necessary, pursuing remedies in court by way of formal legal action,” PHAC added.

    https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/federal-government-lost-20-million-in-pre-payments-for-ottawa-based-spartan-biomedical-covid-19-test-that-never-worked-as-promised

  16. DAILY MAIL – Two inmates at all-women’s New Jersey jail are PREGNANT after both had sex with transgender prisoners: ACLU won battle to house 27 trans inmates there

    The pregnant women are housed at the embattled Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, in Clinton, which New Jersey Governor announced plans to close

    It is unclear if the women had sex with the same transgender woman. Edna Mahan houses 27 transgender prisoners, and over 800 cisgender women

    The correctional facility began to house inmates by gender identity last year, after reaching a settlement in a lawsuit brought by a trans woman and the ACLU

    Edna Mahan, the only women’s prison in the state, does not require transgender inmates to proceed with reassignment surgery in order to be housed

    In recent years, Edna Mahan has grappled with reports of widespread abuses and systemic failures

    Ten prison guards face criminal charges stemming from an alleged assault on inmates, including a transgender woman, in January 2020

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10716417/Two-women-female-New-Jersey-prison-PREGNANT-trans-inmates.html

  17. city news – A Montrealer revolutionizing medical wear

    She struggled to find “MODEST” medical scrubs

  18. city news – With proven COVID-19 treatments, why some still opting for unproven?

    Alberta has proven outpatient treatments for COVID-19, but still, Dr. Hinshaw was asked in court last week why she didn’t recommend unproven treatments.

    What is driving the push for drugs like IVERMECTIN after they’ve been disproven? ….. INTENDED FOR HORSES