Reader’s Links for October 6th, 2022

Here is a link to the VladTepesBlog social media Mastodon Pod. Please feel free to check it out and sign up for an account if you are sufficiently annoyed with Twitter and Facebook to try something new.

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

50 Replies to “Reader’s Links for October 6th, 2022”

  1. Coming Attraction

    A new documentary
    The Real Anthony Fauci Exposing the Collusion of Big Tech, Big Pharma and Big Government

    The “ Lie of the Century” will be revealed to the masses, the documentary will stream for FREE on October 18, 2022

    • A Brain-Damaged Nation: Neurological Diseases Explode in 2021 After COVID-19 Vaccines – 100,000%+ Increase in Strokes

      […]The U.S. Government funded VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System) database continues to give us the best data available to truly understand the scope of this massacre, because it is a database of reporting vaccine injuries and deaths that was mandated by Congress and has been in existence since 1990.

      The database is but a snapshot of the true scope of reported injuries and deaths following vaccines, because most of the public, including many in the medical field, do not even know it exists, and therefore only a fraction of cases are reported.

      A 2011 report by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc. for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated that less than 1% of all adverse events following vaccines are ever reported to VAERS.

      MORE :

      https://healthimpactnews.com/2022/a-brain-damaged-nation-neurological-diseases-explode-in-2021-after-covid-19-vaccines-100000-increase-in-strokes/

    • UK – EXPRESS POLL: Should booster jabs be mandatory this winter as Covid cases soar?

      Experts are warning of a new wave of Covid as winter approaches and urging Britons to get a booster vaccine.

      Daily symptomatic Covid cases have doubled in just over a month, with some 200,000 recorded every day. Cases rose from 101,600 on August 27 to 202,738 on Friday 30 September, according to the ZOE Health study. So should boosters be made mandatory? Vote in our poll.

      Figures are predicted to rise further throughout October as the R-value – the average rate of infection – is already at 1.1.

      Co-founder of the Covid ZOE app, professor Tim Spector, told The Independent that the UK is already experiencing the next wave of coronavirus.

      He warned that the new wave is affecting older people earlier and that as the Omicron variant becomes immune-evasive, there could be “real problems” in the winter.

      Mr Spector said: “It’s clear we’re now seeing an autumn wave of COVID-19…We are already at rates last seen in the June wave.

      “And with rates on the rise, especially in the vulnerable elderly age groups, the impact on hospitalisations could be higher.”

      He noted that people should be prepared for “a combination of viruses”, encouraging Britons to have a booster vaccine.

      He said: “With the increase in colds and rhinovirus [the most common cause of colds], as well as COVID-19, and the likelihood of a major seasonal flu epidemic, it’s especially important to keep vulnerable people properly protected.

      “I advise everyone eligible to get the latest autumn COVID-19 booster as well as the flu jab to provide protection from serious illness and hospitalisation, and to avoid poorly ventilated areas without FFP mask protection.

      “In addition, maintaining a high-quality diet is important to maintain protection against Covid and flu, especially in the elderly.”

      University of Warwick virologist professor Lawrence Young, also warned that the UK is “blind” to the behaviour of new potential variants due to low testing.

      He said: “We’ve really taken our eye off the ball with Covid tests. People are going to get various infections over the winter but won’t know what they are because free tests aren’t available – it’s going to be a problem.”

      The Covid booster jab is currently being rolled out to some groups including people aged over 50, and those with underlying health conditions.

      Vaccinations are being provided by GP surgeries and community pharmacies as well as at health trusts and schools.

      More than 4.6 million autumn Covid boosters have been administered so far, according to latest data released on October 3 dating back to September 5.

      https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1678042/covid-poll-coronavirus-autumn-booster-vaccine-winter-cases-spt

    • Germany Spends 2.5 Billion Euros on 100 Million Bivalent Boosters Only To Discover That Nobody Wants Them

      A strange fate for such safe and effective products.

      The German government has ordered 100 million doses of BA.1 and BA.4/5 bivalent vaccines at a cost of 2.5 billion Euros, and almost nobody wants them. An amusing Welt article chronicles the scenes unfolding at our deserted regional vaccination centres, which for some reason are still open:

      Michael Hubmann did not expect that so few would come. Only 85 people had themselves vaccinated against Covid-19 on Thursday in Fürth in Middle Franconia, a district with 120,000 inhabitants. “We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for people,” says Hubmann, a paediatrician who is coordinating the vaccination campaign. He explains that vaccinations were offered simultaneously in two shopping centres, a bus, a home for the elderly and in a former shop in the pedestrian zone. “Yet hardly anyone wanted to have the fourth dose.”

      The medical bureaucrats are baffled, just baffled:

      “Unfortunately, interest in the fourth dose has been pretty low so far,” says Markus Beier, Chairman of the German Association of General Practitioners. At the same time, he says it’s important that people over 60 and those with previous illnesses in particular protect themselves with a further dose. “There is uncertainty among the population as to what further vaccinations will achieve. But they still strengthen protection against severe outcome.”

      Meanwhile, vast quantities of vaccine are expiring. At the end of August alone, 3.9 million doses of Moderna and another 700,000 doses of Novavax had to be binned.

      The chart above tells the whole sordid story of our recent experiment with mass vaccination. Demand for this snake oil was highest in the beginning, before anybody had any direct experience with it; and in the Fall, when the government tied vaccination to specific social privileges. As overt vaccinator coercion has faded and millions of people have tried these doubtful elixirs for themselves, interest has all but entirely evaporated. This is the ultimate vindication for all those who have been saying that the vaccines are lousy overhyped pharmaceuticals with a bad side-effect profile. A safe and effective product would only gain momentum with the population. It took less than two years for these to wear out their welcome.

      https://www.eugyppius.com/p/germany-spends-25-billion-euros-on

      „Natürlich will den BA.1-Impfstoff jetzt niemand mehr haben“

      https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/plus241372305/Geringe-Impfbereitschaft-Natuerlich-will-den-BA-1-Impfstoff-jetzt-niemand-mehr-haben.html

    • IVERMECTIN: Oxford University has been conducting random trials for 16 months now, and still no conclusive reports re effectiveness have been published. I wonder why?

      The use of the word Ivermectin is a major taboo. Start at 10:00 re studies:

    • Will We See A Cold Weather Wave of COVID This Year? Fauci Weighs In

      …. talk about the latest science around the pandemic and his efforts to convince more Americans to get vaccinated.

    • Fauci Gets His Booster Shot LIVE on The Late Show

      … to demonstrate that the vaccine is safe and microchip-free

      + comments on the YT page

    • Doctor’s Orders: Stephen’s Rapid-Fire Q&A With Anthony Fauci, M.D

      …. round of questions, including, “Can you get a flu shot and a booster shot together at the same time?

    • FEB 2021 – Anthony Fauci Wins $1 Million Israeli Prize for ‘Courageously Defending Science’

    • Megyn Kelly and Gad Saad Discuss Dr. Fauci Overstaying His Welcome and Funding EcoHealth Alliance

    • Mark Steyn gives his take on the Online Harms Bill, misinformation and Dr Anthony Fauci

    • Doctor on FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee disagree with COVID booster guidance

      Dr. Paul Offit says he’s not fully sold on the benefits of everyone getting the new COVID-19 booster shot.

    • CDC, WHO, Uganda to host regional meeting as Ebola spreads

      NAIROBI, Kenya — The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Uganda next week will host a ministerial meeting on the outbreak of the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus which has no proven vaccine and has caused alarm in the East Africa region.

      Acting director Ahmed Ogwell told journalists on Thursday the three countries that suffered the devastating West Africa outbreak of Ebola in 2014-16, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, also are invited to the Oct. 12 meeting.

      The current Ebola outbreak in central Uganda has a 69% case fatality rate, which Ogwell called “very high,” and four health workers are among 10 people confirmed to have died of Ebola. There have been 43 confirmed cases. None have been in the capital, Kampala.

      Ugandan scientists and their partners abroad are looking to deploy one of two possible vaccines against the Sudan strain of Ebola, the WHO representative to Uganda told reporters Thursday. But there are only 100 doses of the vaccine from the Sabin Vaccine Insitute, said Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam.

      “These manufacturers are looking to produce more,” he said. “We do not have sufficient data to deploy it in a large (population) and the supply is not there. Currently the scientists are agreeing (on) scientific protocol for the study and as soon as the protocol is agreed … I think the vaccine will be imported into Uganda. Hopefully within less than a week.”

      Immediate contacts of confirmed Ebola cases would be targeted in the study, he said.

      Ogwell of the Africa CDC said health workers were exposed to Ebola at the beginning of the outbreak “when we did not know what we were dealing with,” and he dismissed the suggestion that the infections signaled the outbreak was getting out of hand.

      He said more than 860 active contacts have been listed and at least 78% of them are being monitored, a situation that has almost doubled from a week ago.

      The Africa CDC said it has procured 20,000 test kits that should arrive early next week for the region, and it will ship stockpiles of personal protective equipment next week.

      A mobile lab set up at a hospital near the outbreak has reduced the turnaround time for test results to six hours, according to Woldemariam, who said the response of Ugandan health authorities is improving “every day.”

      Ebola can be difficult to detect at first because fever is also a symptom of malaria. Ebola, which manifests as a viral hemorrhagic fever, is spread through contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.

      Uganda has had multiple Ebola outbreaks, including one in 2000 that killed more than 200 people.

      Ebola first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo, where it occurred in a village near the Ebola River after which the disease is named.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/cdc-who-uganda-to-host-regional-meeting-as-ebola-spreads/2022/10/06/fa0808c4-4560-11ed-be17-89cbe6b8c0a5_story.html
      ===============================================
      WHO Confirms 10 Ugandan Health Workers Now Dead From Ebola

      The World Health Organization’s representative to Uganda, Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, confirms the death of another Ugandan health worker, bringing the total number killed by the Ebola virus in the country to 10.

      https://www.barrons.com/articles/who-confirms-10-ugandan-health-workers-now-dead-from-ebola-01665066913

      https://www.barrons.com/articles/who-confirms-10-ugandan-health-workers-now-dead-from-ebola-01665066913

      WHO: 10 health workers infected with the Ebola virus in Uganda

      Dr. Woldemariam, the WHO (World Health Organisation) Representative to Uganda, says of the 44 confirmed Ebola cases currently in the country, 10 are health workers.

  2. 10,000 people dead in one year alone… Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in Canada

  3. An appeals court ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as the “Dream Act,” was unlawful, but said it could stay in force for the 600,000 “Dreamers” who had already obtained the status.

    The DACA program was put into place by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in 2012 after saying numerous times that he did not have the constitutional power to do so. The act allows illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as children to remain on U.S. soil.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/court-rules-obama-daca-unlawful

  4. DOJ At It Again: FBI Reportedly Raid Home ‘Guns Drawn,’ 11 Pro-Life Activists Charged for Blocking Abortion Clinic
    Posted On October 5, 2022
    Amid accusations that it is targeting pro-lifers to silence and intimidate, the Justice Department has charged 11 more pro-life activists with violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking the entrance of an abortion clinic in 2021.

    The 11 activists were charged with FACE Act violations stemming from their 2021 “blockade” of an abortion clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. This blockade was peaceful, pro-life activist AJ Hurley told The Daily Signal on Wednesday evening.

    Several of the activists were arrested on the day of the blockade, after reportedly successfully preventing abortions from taking at the clinic for most of the day, but police reportedly released these activists later in the day after they posted bail for misdemeanor charges, the pro-life news outlet Live Action reported.

    https://newrightnetwork.com/2022/10/doj-at-it-again-fbi-reportedly-raid-home-guns-drawn-11-pro-life-activists-charged-for-blocking-abortion-clinic.html

  5. Free Speech vs. Banning Jews
    Posted On October 5, 2022
    The University of California, Berkeley is known for many things, some good and some very bad, even outrageous.

    In 1964, a ban on campus political and religious activities launched what was called the free speech and academic freedom movement that quickly spread to other campuses. To many of an older generation, it quickly got out of hand. During his run for governor in 1966, Ronald Reagan promised to “clean up the mess at Berkeley,” and end what had evolved from free speech, to strikes related to the draft, civil rights, discrimination and women’s liberation.

    Whatever one’s view of the unrest at the time—liberals loved it and conservatives like Reagan vowed to stop it—what is happening now at Berkeley ought to shame especially those who believe in free speech and oppose discrimination.

    Nine law student groups at the law school have managed to amend the university’s bylaws to ban any speakers who support Israel or Zionism.

    These are not groups that “represent only a small percentage of the student population,” according to the Jewish Journal. They include Women of Berkeley Law, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association, Law Students of African Descent and the Queer Caucus.

    https://newrightnetwork.com/2022/10/free-speech-vs-banning-jews.html

  6. World Economic Forum – Nord Stream methane leaks are ‘world’s worst’ – what does it mean for climate change?

    Methane is one of Earth’s most dangerous gases for climate change.

    And record levels of it are thought to be leaking into the atmosphere from four ruptures in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea.

    Scientists say the Nord Stream leaks are a disaster for climate change, and that the world must speed up efforts to cut methane emissions.

    more :

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/nord-stream-pipeline-methane-leaks/

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

    World Economic Forum – Global ‘stilling’: Is climate change slowing down the wind?

    Much of Europe experienced a ‘wind drought’ last year, with wind speeds falling about 15% below the annual average in many places.

    […]the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts slowing winds for the coming decades.

    […]By 2100, wind speeds will decrease over most of the western U.S. and the East Coast, but the central U.S. will see an increase.

    […]}Global stilling, if it happens, will have a massive impact on alternative energy production. “A 10 percent drop in winds does not mean a 10 percent drop in energy,” Williams says. Turbines are somewhat inefficient, with limits on how much energy they can extract from the wind. According to Williams, a 10 percent decline in wind speeds would actually result in “a 30 percent drop, and that would be catastrophic.”

    Europe is all in on wind power as an alternative to coal and other fossil fuels. The United Kingdom generates about 24 percent of its energy from more than 11,000 on- and offshore wind turbines, and the European Union gets about 15 percent of its electricity from wind. That percentage is growing as more wind turbines come online. In the U.S., wind farms provide nearly 10 percent of utility-scale electricity generation. By 2050 the amount of power produced is projected to nearly quadruple. But if wind speeds diminish, it could be harder to reach that goal.

    more :

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/global-stilling-is-climate-change-slowing-down-the-wind/

    • JOHN BOLTON – Putin Must Go: Now Is The Time For Regime Change In Russia

      “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” President Biden said of Vladimir Putin in March, a month after Russia’s second unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, in remarks the Washington Post called “the most defiant and aggressive speech about Russia by an American president since Ronald Reagan.” Biden’s staff, however, immediately backpedaled, saying, “the president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia or regime change.” Later, Biden himself dutifully resiled from regime change.

      Why the angst? There is no long-term prospect for peace and security in Europe without regime change in Russia. Russians are already discussing it, quietly, for obvious reasons. For the United States and others pretending that the issue is not before will do far more harm than good.

      Notwithstanding recent Kyiv’s military advances, the West still lacks a shared definition of “victory” in Ukraine. Last week, Putin “annexed” four Ukrainian oblasts, joining Crimea, “annexed” in 2014. The war grinds on, producing high Russian casualties and economic pain. Opposition to Putin is rising, and young men are fleeing the country. Of course, Kyiv’s civilian and military casualties are also high, and its physical destruction is enormous. Hoping to intimidate NATO, Moscow is again rhetorically brandishing nuclear weapons, and has sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines. Europe worries about the coming winter, and everyone worries about the durability of Europe’s resolve. No one predicts a near-term cease-fire or substantive war-ending negotiations, or how to conduct “normal” relations with Putin’s regime thereafter.

      To avoid the war simply grinding along indefinitely, we must alter today’s calculus. Carefully assisting Russian dissidents to pursue regime change might just be the answer. Russia is, obviously, a nuclear power, but that is no more an argument against seeking regime change than against assisting Ukrainian self-defense. White House virtue signaling already empowers the Kremlin, accusing us of “satanism,” to claim America is trying to overthrow Russia’s government even though Biden is doing no such thing. Just to remind, the Kremlin has been doing this to us for many decades. Since we are already accused of subverting the Kremlin, why not return the favor?

      Obstacles and uncertainties blocking Russian regime change are substantial, but not insuperable. Defining the “change” is critical, because it must involve far more than simply replacing Putin. Among his inner circle, several potential successors would be worse. The problem is not one man, but the collective leadership constructed over the last two decades. No civilian governmental structure exists to effect change, not even a Politburo like the one that retired Nikita Khrushchev after the Cuban missile crisis. The whole regime must go.

      Actually effecting regime change is doubtless the hardest problem, but it does not require foreign military forces. The key is for Russians themselves to exacerbate divisions among those with real authority, the siloviki, the “men of power.” Disagreements and animosities already exist, as in all authoritarian regimes, exploitable as dissidents set their minds to it. Boris Yeltsin standing on a tank outside the Russian White House in 1991 evidenced the fracturing of the Soviet ruling class. Once regime coherence and solidarity shatter, change is possible.

      Inside Russia’s military, intelligence, and internal security ministries, there is almost certainly shock, anger, embarrassment, and despair about Moscow’s performance before and during the current invasion of Ukraine. As in many coups in third-world countries, the likely leadership for regime change will not come from the top flag officers and officials, who are too personally invested in the Putin regime, nor from the ranks of enlisted personnel or lower-level bureaucrats. It is from the colonels and one-star generals, and their civilian-agency equivalents, where the most-likely co-conspirators to take matters into their own hands. These are the decision-makers whom the dissidents must identify, persuade and support to facilitate regime change. Obviously, the desired interim outcome is not an outright military government, but a transitional authority that can hold the ring while a new constitution is formed. This stage alone is very risky business, but unavoidable given Russia’s current domestic political structures.

      Outsiders can assist in many ways, including augmenting dissidents’ communications internally and with their diaspora, and significantly enhanced programs to transmit information into Russia (complicated by the long decline in US information-statecraft capabilities). Financial support, especially given Russian economic conditions, and not necessarily in large amounts, can also be critical. What Washington says publicly about regime-change should be concerted with the dissidents and other foreign allies. Keeping our actions covert may be impossible, but there is likely no need to ballyhoo them.

      Some will object that foreign involvement would compromise the dissidents, affording Putin propaganda openings. The short answer is that he is already making this point, and will continue, whatever we say or do. Our metric should be whether the dissidents themselves value outside help. Most likely, their cost-benefit analysis will welcome the assistance more than they fear Putin’s anti-American rhetoric. Russians have heard it all before.

      What follows the Putin regime is ultimately the most critical question. Russians are already considering their options, as they should, since it is primarily their task to form a successor government. Enough mistakes were made after the Soviet Union dissolved that humility in future planning this round is fully warranted, and highlights why immediate research and planning is necessary.

      Washington’s obvious strategic objective is having Russia aligned with the West, a fit candidate for NATO, as we hoped after the Soviet Union’s breakup. Others may be unhappy about such a new Russia. China can hardly welcome the collapse of a regime that is turning into Beijing’s junior partner, if not an outright satellite. Chinese efforts to support Putin, even militarily, cannot be ruled out.

      While Russian regime change may be daunting, America’s goal of a peaceful and secure Europe, episodically pursued goal for over a century, remains central to our national interests. This is no time to be shy.

      https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/10/putin-must-go-now-is-the-time-for-regime-change-in-russia/

    • twitter @disclosetv

      Ukraine’s Zelensky calls on NATO to launch “preemptive strikes” against Russia to “eliminate the possibility” of a Russian nuclear strike.

      https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1578097733860065281

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

      Lowy Institute – A special address by Volodymyr Zelensky

      Zelensky has become an internationally admired figure at the heart of some of the most remarkable events in world affairs in recent decades.

      Zelenskyy will address the Lowy Institute from Ukraine via live video link. Afterwards, he will speak in conversation with Executive Director Michael Fullilove and take audience questions.

    • NYT – She’s a Doctor. He Was a Limo Driver. They Pitched a $30 Million Arms Deal.

      New brokers are cashing in as the Biden administration quietly encourages private weapons sales to Ukraine. Oversight is scant in these shadows.

      After falling out with his partner at a limousine company in the St. Louis suburbs, Martin Zlatev recently sought a lucrative new business opportunity: selling $30 million worth of rockets, grenade launchers and ammunition to the Ukrainian military.

      Mr. Zlatev and his new business partner, a local osteopath, took their first crack at international arms dealing. Contract documents and other records obtained by The New York Times show that the deal relied on layers of middlemen and transit across seven countries. And it exists in a legal gray area, designed to skirt the arms-export rules of other countries.

      “Time is of the essence,” the pair recently wrote to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. They outlined a plan to sell American, Bulgarian and Bosnian arms to Ukraine.

      Since the Russian invasion in February, the Biden administration has quietly fast-tracked hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of private arms sales to Ukraine, slashing a weekslong approval process to a matter of hours. In just the first four months of the year — the latest data available — the State Department authorized more than $300 million in private deals to Ukraine, government documents show. The department authorized less than $15 million worth of such sales to Ukraine during all of the 2021 fiscal year.

      That has helped open another stream of weapons to the Ukrainian battlefront, but it has also enticed new players like Mr. Zlatev and his partner, Heather Gjorgjievski, into a shadowy market. Weapons sold through private brokers are far more likely to end up on the black market and resurface in the hands of American adversaries, according to government advisers and academics who study the trade. Recent experience in Afghanistan and Syria shows that, without strict tracing policies, weapons can end up with terrorist groups or hostile military forces.

      These private arms sales are a pittance compared to the more than $17.5 billion worth of machine guns, anti-tank missiles and other security aid the White House has sent to Ukraine. But those deals have stringent tracking requirements to help ensure the weapons go to their intended recipients. Private sales come with less oversight. The sellers, the buyers and the weapons are all kept out of the public eye.

      “It’s the Wild West,” said Olga Torres, a lawyer who represents arms exporters and serves on the federal Defense Trade Advisory Group. “We are seeing a lot of people who were previously not involved in arms sales getting involved now because they see the opportunity.”

      In recent months, Ms. Torres said, she has consulted with a Texas nonprofit that tried to send weapons to Ukraine without realizing it needed U.S. permission, and a broker who wanted to sell Indian weapons to Ukraine but illegally claim they were American. (She said she did not ultimately represent the broker.)

      Just as it has cut the approval time for deals to under a day, the State Department has also accelerated the registration process for new arms dealers.

      “Generally, this is a process that takes 60 days,” Mr. Zlatev wrote in a letter to the Ukrainian defense ministry. “We were approved in seven days.”

      At home on a suburban cul-de-sac on a recent Tuesday, Mr. Zlatev, 45, came to the door and denied any knowledge of an arms deal. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said when shown copies of contracts for rockets, grenade launchers and bullets drafted by his company and the Ukraine Ministry of Defense.

      Leaving her medical office later that day, Dr. Gjorgjievski, 46, acknowledged knowing about the deal but would not discuss it.

      Richard El-Rassy, a lawyer for Mr. Zlatev’s company, later sent an email explaining that the company aimed “to facilitate potential defense trade transactions with allied foreign nations.” He said the State Department had approved the company’s request to move ahead with a deal.

      With a typical arms broker commission, the pair would stand to make more than $2 million.

      Records show the deal was in its final stages, with both sides having reviewed and revised the contract.

      But after The Times asked both Mr. El-Rassy and the Ukrainian government why the deal relied on falsified documents to evade foreign export laws, the lawyer sent a new statement saying the deal was off. Both Bosnia and Bulgaria, two key weapons sources in the deal, have publicly said they do not allow arms exports to Ukraine.

      The Biden administration encourages private sector deals for several reasons. It saves the Pentagon from further depleting its own armory after months of sending arms to Ukraine. And private sellers can provide weapons that the government cannot — like the Soviet-style weapons already used by Ukrainian soldiers.

      Not all private sales carry the same risk. Foreign governments, for example, frequently buy weapons from major American defense contractors. Deals like the one Mr. Zlatev proposed are different. Rather than selling directly, they involve brokering arms sales from other countries, with numerous middlemen in between.

      Records show that Mr. Zlatev and Dr. Gjorgjievski planned to supply Ukraine with bullets produced in the United States and weaponry from Bulgaria and Bosnia.

      Each of the deal’s many intermediaries is a potential point for weapons to be diverted, experts say. That’s especially true when dealing with countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria with well-documented corruption and free-flowing black-market arms.

      “All the risks — diversion, escalation, corruption — are all magnified by the fact that we don’t have visibility into these private-sector deals,” said Elias Yousif, a researcher with the Stimson Center, a Washington research group that studies the arms trade. “You encourage this entire economy that exists in this gray space across borders and with people of questionable motives.”

      While lawyers say they have seen an influx of new brokers, a State Department spokesman said that the department had not compiled data for 2022 to say for sure. Regardless, the spokesman said that brokered arms deals like the ones Mr. Zlatev proposed represent a small fraction of the American-authorized arms trade.

      The State Department has a tracking program that examines a portion of the deals, looking for risks of arms being diverted, among other concerns. Of the 19,125 export requests that the department authorized in fiscal year 2021, the tracking program checked 281.

      Mr. Zlatev, who is originally from Bulgaria, got into the arms business last December during a perilous moment both at home and abroad. Russian troops were massing near the Ukrainian border. The pandemic destroyed business travel to St. Louis, crushing the limo industry, and Mr. Zlatev had a falling out with his business partner.

      He based his business, BMI US LLC, in Eureka, a small city on the far outskirts of St. Louis. The company shares an address with a firearms training facility, next to a Mexican restaurant. A trainer there said Mr. Zlatev rents space because federal regulations require some arms dealers to have a physical address.

      Later corporate filings show Dr. Gjorgjievski as a partner. They got BMI letterhead with cross hairs over the “I.”

      The timing was perfect. Ukrainian authorities were soon scouring the world for weapons, looking to quickly spend whatever was necessary to bolster the front lines. For instance, a state-owned Ukrainian company began contacting American arms brokers, looking to buy tanks, mortars and Soviet-style MiG-29 fighter jets, according to letters obtained by The Times.

      The American side of the BMI deal was relatively straightforward, documents show. Once the Ukrainian government deposited about $25 million in the company’s Bank of America account, BMI would pay a middleman for 2.2 million rounds of surplus U.S. military ammunition and fly it to Poland. From there, drivers would truck the bullets to Ukraine.

      Separately, BMI would buy 540 anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 22 mortars from a Bosnian producer. These weapons would travel by truck convoy through Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia and Poland to the Ukrainian border, according to the deal documents.

      Mr. Zlatev also planned to ship 900 air-to-ground rockets from Bulgaria, through Poland, to Ukraine.

      The Bosnian and Bulgarian deals, worth about $5 million, were complicated by the weapons export bans in both countries.

      Records show that BMI planned to get around that by providing documents to the Bosnian and Bulgarian governments falsely claiming that the arms would end up in Poland, rather than Ukraine, according to a plan Mr. Zlatev sent to Oleksandr Liiev, a former Crimean tourism official who now procures weapons for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

      The legality of using falsified records is murky, say lawyers and academics who work in the field. BMI’s documents say it was honest with the State Department about the weapons’ real destination. But the use of subterfuge abroad would make an already murky trade even more opaque, and risk upsetting allied foreign governments.

      “Anytime there’s fake end-user certificates, that should be a red flag to the State Department,” said Jodi Vittori, a Georgetown University professor who studies the arms trade.

      A State Department spokesman declined to comment on whether such practices would violate U.S. laws. A spokesman for the Ukrainian defense ministry would not discuss the BMI deal.

      Whether the deal goes forward or not, the BMI documents show that the Ukraine war presents an opportunity to charge big prices. The bullets that Mr. Zlatev planned to sell were 50 percent more expensive than those publicly listed by other vendors. His grenade launchers were selling for more than twice what is listed on a price list for United Nations peacekeeping forces. Experts say these increases typically help pay the middlemen — at the expense of a nation in the middle of a war.

      The bullets, rockets, mortars and grenade launchers that Mr. Zlatev planned to ship were unlikely to meaningfully tilt the war in Ukraine’s favor, said Mr. Yousif, the researcher. But the process of establishing middlemen, trade routes and agents with falsified documents could have a lasting impact.

      Once the war is over, he said, Ukraine could turn into a hub for black-market weapons dealing: “The illicit market will emanate from this country for the next 30 years, as it did just after the Cold War.”

      https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/world/europe/ukraine-private-arms-deals.html

      • Like that movie, Lord of War. With whatshisname, that actor that gets up and walks around but not Rory Calhoun, the other one.

  7. NYT – Live Updates: 38 Killed in Thailand After Gunman Attacks Child-Care Center

    More than 20 children were among the victims of the deadliest mass shooting in Thailand ever carried out by a lone perpetrator.

    Here are the latest developments in the mass shooting in Thailand.

    BANGKOK — A former police officer armed with a handgun and knife attacked a child-care facility in northeastern Thailand on Thursday, killing more than 30 people, most of them children, in the deadliest mass shooting in the Southeast Asian nation ever carried out by a lone perpetrator.

    The attacker then shot and killed himself, his wife and their 4-year-old child, according to officials. In all, 38 people died in the rampage, including the gunman, the national police chief said. Here is the latest:

    Witnesses described a scene of terror inside the Child Development Center Uthaisawan, as the attacker shot and stabbed more than 20 children, some as young as 2, and fatally stabbed a teacher who was eight months pregnant.

    The gunman was identified as Panya Kamrab, 34, a former corporal who was fired from the police force in June after being arrested for drug possession, according to the Royal Thai Police. After attacking the child-care facility, he shot at people as he drove away, said Major Gen. Paisan Leusomboon, a regional police spokesman.

    Thailand, a majority Buddhist country of about 69 million, has some of Asia’s highest rates of gun ownership and gun homicide, although the levels are far lower than those in the United States. The toll in Thursday’s massacre surpassed that of an attack in 2020, when a soldier armed with an assault rifle killed at least 29 people at a Thai shopping mall.

    The attack occurred in rural Nong Bua Lamphu Province, one of the poorest pockets of Thailand, where life revolves around agriculture and is governed by the harsh annual fluctuation between drought and floods.

    Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn will place the victims under royal patronage, according to Gen. Damrongsak Kittipraphat, the national police chief, meaning that the king will pay for the funerals of those killed and the medical expenses of the wounded.

    Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will travel to Nong Bua Lamphu Province on Friday to meet with families of the victims, according to a statement from his office.

    According to the Royal Thai Police, the gunman was a former corporal who was fired from the police force in June after being arrested with methamphetamine. Over the years, Thailand has swung between two extremes — from crackdowns to permissiveness — on its approach to drug use.

    In 2003, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra started a crackdown aimed at drug traffickers and illegal trade. Like more recent antidrug campaigns in the Philippines, the effort to clear the streets of illicit drugs devolved into a campaign of widespread extrajudicial killings.

    The killings at the daycare center occurred at what is normally nap time at such government-run facilities. Bodies of children were found sprawled on sleeping mats, with pillows and blankets spread out on the floor.

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/10/06/world/thailand-shooting

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

  8. (Richard: As you read this article think about what has happened in the First and Second World nations over the last 3 or 4 decades and what the current reactions to the.changes are.)

    Three Regimes in Russia
    Revolutions and the deficiencies of political taxonomy

    Revolutions can be tricky things. Often, they are fairly obvious and hard to miss – the Bastille is stormed, the Tsar is placed under house arrest, or the British are forced to leave the Atlantic seaboard in disgrace. The political and societal churn that accompanies such dramatic state upheaval provides catharsis for angry populations, avenues of ascent for the ambitious, and the climactic “year zero” of the new state, society and man, who is permitted to believe that everything really has changed. These sorts of revolutions feel good – at least for a time.

    Paradoxically, however, the most successful political revolutions tend to be the ones that nobody notices.

    https://bigserge.substack.com/p/three-regimes-in-russia

  9. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF RUSSIA’S STRATEGY IN UKRAINE?
    5 October 2022 by Larry Johnson 236 Comments

    FacebookTwitterEmailShare
    First, my sincere thanks for everyone who took time to comment in depth on the Open Thread. I learned a lot from all of you and have had calls from friends today who are equally impressed. You are, by and large, a thoughtful, intelligent group of folks and I am humbled that you deign me worthy of your attention.

    Second, let me tell you what I think is going on with the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine. Let me start with Captain Obvious–Russia is grudgingly giving up territory in Kharkov, Donetsk and Kherson, but is avoiding set piece battles. What do I mean? Consider what happened at Liman, for example. Five hundred Russian allied troops help off over 6000 Ukrainians for more than a week and then

    https://sonar21.com/what-do-you-make-of-russias-strategy-in-ukraine/

  10. “He’s Suffering Profoundly!” Wife of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Calls For His Release

    Piers is also joined by former U.S national security adviser John Bolton who thinks Assange should face the maximum sentence of 175 years in U.S jail for his breach of national security.

  11. More than 90 people rescued from seas off Greek islands

    Two boats carrying scores of refugees have sunk off Greek islands within hours of each other.