Reader’s Links for April 18th, 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

45 Replies to “Reader’s Links for April 18th, 2022”

  1. Archbishop’s Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral Sung Eucharist
    17/04/2022

    As prepared – check against delivery:

    “On 3 March this year President Zelensky gave a speech in which he declared, ‘The end of the world has arrived.’

    It wasn’t just the bombs, the air strikes, the 40 mile long convoy of Russian troops advancing towards the capital. It wasn’t just the need for millions to flee for their lives, or the evident impotence of the nations of the world to do anything to stop the destruction; it was the fact that this threat came from their neighbours, their brothers, those who they shared a common history and purpose. All that they knew was not only under threat. It was being obliterated; ‘the end of the world had arrived.’

    And we know what they are experiencing has been experienced in even great magnitude by Syrians and South Sudanese, by Afghanis and those having to flee from Myanmar – those for whom the end of the world has arrived.

    In the dark of that first Easter Sunday morning Mary’s world had already ended.

    Jesus had been crucified – and in the death of Jesus everything seemed lost. The disciples were scattered and fearful, only Mary and some other women had gone to the tomb. The greatest event ever in the world’s history was to be revealed to those that society counted for little. The new world, where justice reigns and hope lives, was to be experienced first by a woman in tears of despair who had seen the greatest injustice.

    Not just for her personally. In his death, violence seemingly triumphed, physical force won, hatred and fear overcame love and hope. It seemed there was no justice.

    Yet our world – for all its injustices – is not left to it’s own devices, as if all we could ever look forward to was the things we could bring about ourselves. If it is we would simply acknowledge on repeat, ‘the end of the world has arrived’ – for which of us doesn’t recognise the powerlessness of individuals and nations in front of destructive evil?

    But the Easter message is that what we cannot do has been brought into the world by God.

    For Christ Jesus is alive with the life of the world to come. A life where every tear is wiped away, every injustice righted, every evil exposed and judged and banished. And through Jesus a new future is set for the whole world. The resurrection promises each nation, and every victim and survivor, that the injustices, cruelties, evil deeds and soulless institutions of this world do not have the last word.

    Not only his blood stained grave clothes are left behind in the tomb but all of our grave clothes.

    This is what we proclaim at Easter. It is a season of life and hope, of repentance and renewal. This week in the Eastern Orthodox world it is Holy Week, the greatest time for repentance. Muslims are in Ramadan, a time for purification and change, coming to Eid. Jews celebrate the Passover and liberation. Let this be a time for Russian ceasefire, withdrawal and a commitment to talks. This is a time for resetting the ways of peace, not for what Bismarck called blood and iron. Let Christ prevail! Let the darkness of war be banished.

    And this season is also why there are such serious ethical questions about sending asylum seekers overseas. The details are for politics. The principle must stand the judgement of God and it cannot. It cannot carry the weight of resurrection justice, of life conquering death. It cannot carry the weight of the resurrection that was first to the least valued, for it privileges the rich and strong. And it cannot carry the weight of our national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values, because sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God who himself took responsibility for our failures.

    Suppose this is so. Suppose the evil and injustice which is so dark, so deceitful, so disgraceful has been defeated.

    Because Jesus is alive the promise is that the world of darkness is not ultimately triumphant.

    This causes us to say to all who perpetuate evil – You will not win.

    Your hatred will not triumph. Your lies will be exposed. Your power will be broken and you will categorically fail. You will face justice. Forever.

    Dictators who rule by fear, violence and cruelty – you will lose. Despite nuclear weapons, armies which number in the tens of thousands, superior fire power or the ability and will to raze cities to the ground.

    Christ Jesus who was crucified has been raised to life by God the Father in the power of the Spirit.

    The victory of goodness and love has been guaranteed.

    The defeat of evil is assured.

    Injustice is defeated.

    The end of the old world has arrived.

    Our greatest challenge is to live in a world where this new reality is our central most determining reality. To live in a way that seeks justice, that values the vulnerable, that struggles for justice.

    Easter makes another future not just a dream, but an achievable reality. The world characterised by sin, evil and injustice will not always be the case. In the middle of human history God raised his Son Jesus – therefore promising a future we could not make possible.

    Even in the middle of the darkness of these times we see glimmers and threads of this gold.

    Maybe there can be an ending of a world where we turn away from the refugee, the end of a world where we don’t care, the end of the world where propaganda wins, where dictators can assume that everyone will simply be kept in check by the threat of arrest and violence.

    Hope gives an eternal purpose to each human being because hope is sown by God and its harvest is a life of living in the power of the resurrection.

    May the power of the Holy Spirit by which God raised his crucified son strengthen our hearts to witness to his Easter hope across the world – that we may leave behind the bloodied graveclothes of the world that has ended – and live out of the hope of a world renewed and healed which only God can make possible”
    https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/speaking-writing/sermons/archbishops-easter-sermon-canterbury-cathedral-sung-eucharist

    Links to Easter message from Vlad’s readers
    https://vladtepesblog.com/2022/04/17/readers-links-for-april-17th-2022/#comment-754555

    • Vaccine adverse events reactions system reported up to April 8, 2022
      Historically VAERS has reported 1%.
      Adverse Reactions 1,226,314

      Deaths 26,976

      Serious Injuries 219,865

    • Ukraine Lviv – The logistics center and the large consignments of foreign weapons that were delivered to Ukraine over the past 6 days from the United States and European countries were destroyed.

    • the conservative tree house – Col Douglas Macgregor Discusses Current Status of Conflict in Ukraine

      While no media have a good track record of outlining the conflict in Ukraine, retired Col. Douglas Macgregor has the most consistent perspective that reconciles what little factual information is visible with the reality on the ground.

      In this recent interview, Macgregor notes the Russian operation is currently focused on securing the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, where fighting has been taking place since 2014. During an earlier interview on CNN, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy noted the largest and most experienced elements of the Ukrainian army are located in this region. According to Zelenskyy, approximately 44,000 Ukrainian troops are there; oddly, Zelenskyy seemed to concede that he has no control over what’s happening there.

      During this segment, Macgregor notes the current Russian objective is to encircle those eastern Ukraine forces, cut them off from western supply lines, and then slowly and methodically eliminate them – while separating them from Russian speaking citizens in the region. Macgregor notes a particular concern once those Ukraine forces are eliminated.

      What Col. Macgregor states toward the end rings very true to the practical events being discussed.

      The most dangerous time will be when the Russians are close to achieving their objective in Eastern Ukraine, and the western media will be faced with having to reconcile the difference between the propaganda they have been selling to western citizens and the actual truth on the ground. That’s when the western alliance is likely to do something drastic.

      https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/04/17/col-douglas-macgregor-discusses-current-status-of-conflict-in-ukraine/#more-231909

  2. “Woke Arizona education leaders are blasted after they mistake African-American DJ at school fundraiser for white man in BLACKFACE and wrote scathing complaints” by Adam Manno – April 18, 2022
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10726659/Arizona-education-leaders-blasted-mistaking-black-DJ-fundraiser-white-man-BLACKFACE.html

    “Woke Diversity Activists Cry RACISM Accusing DJ Of Wearing Black Face Excerpt There Is One Problem” Black Conservative Perspective – April 18, 2022

  3. EUROPRAVDA – Dozens arrested after days of FAR-RIGHT CLASHES across Sweden

    Unrest broke out after demonstrators threatened to burn copies of the koran.

    • global news – 3 injured after Swedish police fire warning shots during riot

      […]Two groups are reportedly involved in the unrest: anti-Islam demonstrators and counter-protesters.

  4. Report: Putin Puts Personal Pressure on Bennett to Hand Jerusalem Church to Russia

    Russian President Vladimir Putin recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urging him to hand over Alexander’s Court in the Old City of Jerusalem, Ynet reported Monday. The unusual move indicates the importance that Russia attaches to the site.

    In early March, Jerusalem District Court Judge Mordechai Kaduri revoked the land registration of the Alexander Church Courtyard in the name of the Russian government, which raised concern in Jerusalem of a further deterioration in relations with Moscow, and a diplomatic crisis.

    Russia has shown only a few years ago the lengths to which it is willing to go to acquire Alexander’s Court, which includes the Alexander Nevsky Church and several other buildings purchased in 1859 by Czar Alexander III, Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland.

    In April 2019, Russian authorities arrested Israeli-American Naama Issachar, a transit passenger flying from India to Israel, for drug smuggling after some 10 grams of hashish were found in her bag during a stopover in Moscow. On October 11, 2019, a Russian court sentenced her to seven and a half years in prison on drug possession and smuggling charges.

    In December 2019, the Israeli Justice Ministry transferred Alexander Court to Russia’s proxy, the Imperial Pravoslav Palestine Society, and on January 29, 2020, President Putin signed Issachar’s pardon. Her attorney noted that no convicted foreigner had ever been pardoned by a Russian President before.

    The dispute over who owned Alexander’s Court began after the Russian Revolution of 1917, with two organizations bearing nearly identical names claiming ownership of the complex. The first is the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, founded in 1882 by Vasily Khitrovo with the approval of Alexander III. It actually runs the complex. The competing organization is the Imperial Pravoslav Palestine Society, which is closely associated with the current czar in the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin.

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/report-putin-puts-personal-pressure-on-bennett-to-hand-jerusalem-church-to-russia/2022/04/18/

  5. In call with PA’s Abbas, Putin said to criticize Israeli policies at Al-Aqsa Mosque

    Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call Monday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss tensions in Jerusalem and negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported.

    According to the report, Putin updated Abbas on “Russia’s special military operation to defend the Donbas region” in eastern Ukraine. The phone call reportedly took place at the Palestinian leader’s behest.

    With the war in Ukraine driving up food prices globally, Putin also assured Abbas during the phone call that Moscow will provide the Palestinians with “Russian wheat, materials, and crops.”

    The Palestinian official news agency Wafa said that Putin “stressed Russia’s firm position in support of the rights of the Palestinian people, and that Russia will continue to accord its political support to the Palestinian cause in all international forums, and what is happening in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

    Wafa also reported that the Russian leader rejected “the Israeli practices that prevent worshipers from freely accessing the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” adding that Israel must “respect the existing historical status quo” at the holy site.

    Russia has long been a champion of the Palestinian cause, with PA hoping Moscow will play a more central role in mediating between it and Israel.

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/putin-and-pas-abbas-discusses-jerusalem-tensions-war-in-ukraine/

  6. Translation a bit rocky, but try Kinky Beirut, for a change of pace:
    Maher al-Assad turned Syria into graveyard for Hezbollah leaders

    Hezbollah has never witness this huge number of deaths, throughout its entire bloody path, especially during the period of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, or July war, when the party lost its best leaders in the Syrian alleys.

    In this context, observers of the Syrian war revealed to “Sawt Beirut Emt National” website, that the party has lost its strongest leaders who gained great military experience during the war with Israel, but the Syrian war, especially the war of mafias and thefts, eliminated most of these leaders who headed towards slander, and theft, in suspicious deals with the commander of the Fourth Division, the brother of Bashar al-Assad, Maher al-Assad, who killed a large number of them.

    Observers say that Syria has yurned into a cemetery for Hezbollah leaders, that and the party suffers from a shortage of trained leaders. The batch that received high-precision training by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards no longer exists, especially those related to the assassination of Martyr Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as they were assasinated one after the the other.

    According to observers, Maher al-Assad sought to get rid of the leaders of Hezbollah, and in agreement with a special Russian unit specialized in monitoring the movements of the party’s leaders and informing the Fourth Division of their whereabouts, according to observers.

    Confirming that the fourth devision killed a good number of Hezbollah leaders, even at times providing some opponents with secret military information about Hezbollah leaders, and preparing for ambushes with the aim of assassinating them.

    Observers also indicate through their information, that the party’s members are afraid to wander in some Syrian lands, and one of the reasons why the party redeployed them inside the Syrian lands, to reduce losses, and some of the members and leaders are now under the Iranian militias’ protection.

    https://english.sawtbeirut.com/opinions/maher-al-assad-turned-syria-into-graveyard-for-hezbollah-leaders/
    ……………
    Now the Russians are redeploying:
    Iranian Forces Replacing Russians in Syria

    Russia is reducing its forces in Syria, among them hundreds of mercenaries from the Wagner Group, to beef up its presence in Ukraine, Arab media report.

    The Russian soldiers are being replaced by Iranians and pro-Iranian militias, reflecting the Syrian regime’s reliance on Iranians to fill the gap left by Russian forces.

    Ha’aretz source, from a blog. I won’t link there.

  7. ISIS Calls on Supporters in Israel to Launch New Terror Attacks
    The Islamic State (IS) group on Sunday urged its supporters in Israel to launch new terrorist attacks.

    The jihadist organization’s spokesman called for a “global offensive” in retaliation for the death of its leader killed during a US special forces operation in Syria last February.

    Since March 22, Israel has been hit by four attacks, the first two carried out by Israeli Arabs linked to the Islamic State, and in which the three terrorists were killed during the attacks.

    “We announce, relying on God, a blessed campaign to take revenge” for the death of the leader of the IS, Abu Omar al-Muhajir said in an audio statement broadcast Sunday on Telegram attributed to the group.

    He hailed “those who fought and were killed for Allah and religion,” denouncing the “secular terrorists” of Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad who fight for land and homeland.

    Al-Muhajir also called on all Muslims in the Arab world to oppose all leaders who have relations with Israel, arguing that Jerusalem can only “be liberated from the Jews by the return of the caliphate.”

    “Modern Muslim politicians trying to liberate Jerusalem are nothing more than puppets in the hands of Israel and the West,” he said.

    https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/04/18/isis-calls-on-supporters-in-israel-to-launch-new-terror-attacks/

  8. Rocket fired from Gaza at Israel

    Iron Dome intercepts rocket as red alert siren activated in Gaza envelope. No casualties reported.
    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/326046
    ………..
    After rocket attack: IDF destroys Hamas weapons manufacturing workshop in Gaza

    IAF jets attack Hamas targets in Gaza Strip following rocket fire on Gaza envelope.
    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/326057
    ………..
    video:
    https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1516186845645877250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1516186845645877250%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.israelnationalnews.com%2Fnews%2F326057

  9. Our “moderate Sunni allies” read from the same script:
    UAE, The National:
    This Ramadan in Israel could have been different, but it wasn’t

    Last Friday, as morning prayers at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque were ending, Israeli police barged through the doors of the prayer hall, firing tear gas and stun grenades at the Palestinians, injuring more than 150. One was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet.

    It is far from the first time Israeli security forces have violated the sanctity of the mosque, which is formally under the custodianship of Jordan and the Islamic Waqf, a religious trust…

    https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/2022/04/19/this-ramadan-in-israel-could-have-been-different-but-it-wasnt/
    ………………
    Two very short videos you won’t see on CNN or MSNBC: Jews attacked in Jerusalem, Arabs stockpiling rocks while at prayer

    With a soundtrack made by another Arab who is thrilled to see attacks like this.

    Which gets about as much coverage as when we see similar attacks in Brooklyn.

    And with the exact same motivation: pure hatred of Jews.

    Here is another video from Sunday. It was taken at the dawn prayer inside Al Aqsa mosque – when there are no police on the Temple Mount.

    And Muslims are praying right next to them, not seeing any contradiction between a place of prayer and a weapons cache.

    https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2022/04/two-very-short-videos-you-wont-see-on.html