Reader’s Links for January 8th, 2023

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

123 Replies to “Reader’s Links for January 8th, 2023”

  1. EXCLUSIVE to Gateway Pundit: Brazilian Journalist Who Exposed Child Sex Abuse in Schools Targeted by Communist Lula Regime Describes His Persecution: “Over 800 Arrest Warrants Filed by Chief Justice Moraes”
    By Richard Abelson
    Published January 8, 2023 at 7:30am
    98 Comments

    The Communist crackdown in Brazil continues: Journalist Wellington Macedo has fled the capital Brasilia for an undisclosed location, as he writes exclusively for The Gateway Pundit:

    I am investigative journalist, Wellington Macedo, 47 years old. I’m a conservative evangelical Christian. I have three children, I was studying the seventh semester of law school.

    My professional life was normal, until the moment when I started to denounce left-wing public servants involved in the rape of children, pedophilia and sexual abuse of male and female children and adolescents within our school system, as well as the manipulation of public data and corruption.

    In 2018, they tried to corrupt me with money and job offers, but I didn’t accept it.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/brazilian-journalist-run-800-arrest-warrants-filed-chief-justice-moraes/

    • The Enemy has been exceptionally successful fixing recent elections in Latin America. BRICS was created to counter G-7 hegemony; now it’s a beachhead for WW3.

      Great Power Conflict Fuels BRICS Expansion Push
      https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/great-power-conflict-fuels-brics-expansion-push/

      China’s advanced space station in Argentina, negotiated in secret and located in the remote desert of Patagonia…

      Iran has outsized influence in Venezuela and Chile, converting locals to Shitte Islam, complete with rabid jooo-hate. Twisted Ragheads have fabulous estates in those countries, already furnished with concubines.

      (Of course the Bear never really left us. He dwells within the brain cavity, formerly the left lobe, now mostly the right. There’s a special space for operatives who identify as “libertarians”, those bent on trashing the USA while posing as ultra-loyalists.)
      ……………..

      *Candy-4-Richard*
      https://www.securefreesociety.org/research/

      Besides the current reports, there’s good stuff from the past. For example, 2018:

      The Dragon and the Condor:
      Beyond China’s Economic Influence in the Americas

      http://www.securefreesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/SFS-Global-Dispatch-Issue-6.pdf

    • JAN 08 2023 – BBC – Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazilian Congress

      Supporters of Brazilian far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro have stormed Congress and police have used tear gas in an attempt to repel them.

      The dramatic scenes came a week after left-wing veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s inauguration.

      Supporters of Mr Bolsonaro – who refuse to accept that he lost the election – broke through barriers and entered the building in the capital, Brasília.

      Protesters – who smashed windows of the building – had been camping nearby.

      Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters are calling for military intervention and the resignation of Mr da Silva – better known as Lula – who defeated his far-right rival in October’s election.

      Lula is currently on an official trip in São Paulo state.

      In his inauguration speech, Lula vowed to rebuild a country in “terrible ruins”.

      He decried the policies of his predecessor, who went to the US to avoid the handover ceremony.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64204860

      • @Martin~
        These Brazilian patriots are as inspiring as the Truckers' Freedom Convoy. Are they fated to be crushed too?

        • We don’t know there are signs that the Military supports the protesters. This support will determine the time the revolution will last.

          Remember Brazil is one of the few nations that allows the private citizens to own guns.

          • Brazilian Military against the Federal Police --- to prevent them from entering the camp of the patriots situated in front of the headquarters of the army ( ??? )
            ==========================
            twitter @AlertaNews24

            Con barricadas y tanques de guerra el Ejército de Brasil impide que la Polícia Militar se lleve detenidos a los manifestantes bolsonaristas.

            + video

            https://twitter.com/AlertaNews24/status/1612286567015452672
            ============================

          • twitter @SelmaAcupuntura

            VÁRIOS MANIFESTANTES ESTÃO DIZENDO QUE JÁ HAVIAM PETISTAS DENTRO DO CONGRESSO E DO STF ANTES DA INVASÃO.

            Petistas infiltrados estavam com martelos, marretas, coquetéis MOLOTOV e barras de ferro.

            + video

            https://twitter.com/SelmaAcupuntura/status/1612266917800337409

        • let's see first what happens tomorrow in places like Rio and Sao Paulo

          It seems that today there could have been 90% patriots and 10% "agents provocateurs "

          I guess you know these expressions :

          "sacar las castañas del fuego con la mano del gato"

          "tirar as castanhas do fogo com a pata do gato"

        • twitter @UltrajanteSinc3

          ATENÇÃO: Mais vídeos comprovam que a depredação foi obra de infiltrados. O primeiro mostra os patriotas limpando a bagunça, o outro a polícia prende dois infiltrados que atearam fogo nas viaturas.
          @movadvdireitabr , acompanhe as investigações para não esconderem a verdade.

          + video

          https://twitter.com/UltrajanteSinc3/status/1612266384292978689

          ==============================
          twitter @emerisaz

          Black Blocs infiltrados na manifestação que deveria ser ordeira.

          + video

          https://twitter.com/emerisaz/status/1612234355325247489

          =======================================
          twitter @MundoEConflicto

          Intentona golpista en Brasil | Reportero Paulo Capelli dice que miembros del Ejército impiden actualmente que policías militares del Distrito Federal desmovilicen el campamento bolsonarista frente a la Quarta-General, en Brasilia - Metrópoles.

          https://twitter.com/MundoEConflicto/status/1612271614866980867
          ======================================

          twitter @carolina_moine

          Bolsonaro, como Macri en Argentina, también tiene traidores que formaron parte del fraude, entregando las elecciones para poner a Lula en el poder, igual que pasó aquí en 2019, y ahora, tal cual pasa acá, conforman la #FalsaOposicion que convalida al régimen.

          https://twitter.com/carolina_moine/status/1612205554474024963

          =======================================
          twitter @adilsonesp

          FOI TUDO PLANEJADO! Ajudem a divulgar os infiltrados! Senão nós vamos perder a batalha! São eles em Brasilia e nós nas redes sociais! Ajudem!

    • BREAKING: Massive Crowd of Brazilians Descend on Brasilia, Storm Congress – SHOTS FIRED (VIDEO)
      By Richard Abelson
      Published January 8, 2023 at 1:33pm
      368 Comments

      Massive crowd of Brazilians have descended on the capital of Brasilia to protest the stolen elections and are currently storming the National Congress. Police are using tear gas, Gunfire has been reported.

      Reports put the number of protestors in the capital in the millions.

      Protestors have broken through the barriers around the National Congress and are storming the building:

      Gunfire or explosions can be heard on some. It was not clear if it was live ammo being fired, or tear gas and rubber bullets.

      Protestors seem to have cornered Police on the roof, who opened fire before retreating

      NATIONAL CONGRESS BUILDING

      THE NATIONAL CONGRESS BUILDING IS BEING TOTALLY OCCUPIED BY PROTESTERS

      The presidential Palace has also been occupied:

      Protestors have also stormed the Supreme Court, which is mainly responsible for the Communist coup and election fraud denialism:

      Injured protesors were carried on stretchers, apparently with bullet wounds:

      Miltary Police were seen to be taking selfies with the pro-democarcy protestors:

      Brazil observer Matt Tyrmand called it “civil war”:

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/breaking-millions-brazilians-descend-brasilia-storm-congress-shots-fired/

      MORE FROM BRAZIL – “Protesters” Have Entered in the Facilities Where Brazil’s Congress and Supreme Court Meet
      By Joe Hoft
      Published January 8, 2023 at 2:15pm
      38 Comments

      Protesters have reportedly entered into the facilities where the country’s Congress and Supreme Court meet.

      There are now more pictures coming out of Brazil. The people of Brazil do not want to see their country become a communist nation.

      Sadly the pictures coming out remind Americans of Jan 6 where Federal instigators infiltrated the million-person 2020 Election Protest and broke windows and attacked cops at the US Capitol.

      We don’t know who is involved in the breach of the facilities in Brazil at this time.

      Below is another video from Brazil’s Congress from outside the facility.

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/brazil-protesters-entered-facilities-brazils-congress-supreme-court-meet/

    • NYT – Live Updates: Brazil Election Protesters Storm Government Offices

      Two months after Jair Bolsonaro lost his re-election bid for the presidency, angry supporters charged into Brazil’s Congress and presidential offices on Sunday.

      Thousands of supporters of Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed the country’s Congress and presidential offices on Sunday to protest what they falsely believe was a stolen election. It was the violent culmination of incessant rhetorical attacks by Mr. Bolsonaro and his supporters against the nation’s electoral systems.

      https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/08/world/brazil-congress-protests-bolsonaro

    • The Gateway Pundit

      UPDATE BRAZIL 2: Socialist Criminal Lula Flees City and Flies to San Paulo, Massive Crowd Increasing in Size, Conflicts with Police Attacked
      By Joe Hoft
      Published January 8, 2023 at 2:50pm
      20 Comments

      The already massive crowd in Brazil is growing. The people are taking back their country.

      Per reports, socialist criminal Lula has left the complex and city and fled to San Paulo.

      The protesters have taken over the seats of Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court of Brazil.

      The mounted police tried and subdued the crowd but didn’t have a chance. They were way outnumbered.

      Advertisement – story continues below

      Next, the people attacked the mounted police.

      Submit Additional Information

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/update-brazil-2-socialist-criminal-lula-flees-city-flies-san-paulo-massive-crowd-increasing-size-conflicts-police-attacked/

    • Lula announced he will sign an emergency decree allowing the federal government to intervene and implement “any measures necessary” to bring order to the capital. The decree will remain in effect until Jan. 31.

      In a live address, Lula said he is returning to Brasília to see the damage done by rioters. He said ex-president Bolsonaro’s discourse “stimulated” the attacks on the capital by questioning the integrity of institutions and the electoral process and vowed that those responsible for the attacks would be found, investigated and punished.

      =======================
      Lula decreta intervenção federal no DF até 31 de janeiro

      ( 3 min 39 )

      • Dictators do that, they sign in Emergency Act to protect themselves from the people. It is all about control – control the “little people”. And then their comes a day when the dictator is removed. History 101 good vs evil.

    • the independent

      Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his electoral defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace in the capital Sunday,

      + comments

    • DAILY MAIL – Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters STORM Brazil’s Congress in Brasilia – after refusing to accept new President Lula’s victory in ‘stolen’ election – copying Trump-inspired January 6th invasion of the US Capitol in 2021

      An estimated 3,000 people stormed Brazil’s Congress on Sunday in protest of left-wing President Lula’s win

      They believe that President Lula’s victory was stolen from right-wing Bolsonaro after he lost the election

      His supporters have been demanding that the military get involved in the row before the violent scenes

      Thousands of people broke into the buidling,s mashing glass and setting of smoke flares in Brazil

      Many clashed with police outside in violent scenes as the government condemned the actions as ‘absurd’

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11612419/Hundreds-Jair-Bolsonaro-supporters-STORM-Brazils-Congress-building.html

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

    • BRAZIL UPDATE 3: BRAZILIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS IS INVADED – On The Ground Report
      By Fernando de Castro
      Published January 8, 2023 at 3:25pm
      107 Comments

      Hundreds of protesters wearing green and yellow occupied Brasilia this Sunday (08). The ramp of the National Congress of Brazil was occupied in the early afternoon.

      The demonstrators are protesting against the socialist government of Lula (PT) and calling for the arrest of the corrupt leader. There are also placards calling for a military intervention

      The demonstrators left the Brasilia Army Headquarters and headed towards Congress

      The Minister of Justice, Flavio Dino, authorized on Saturday (07), the employment of the National Force on the Esplanade of Ministries until next Monday (09).

      The ordinance was published today for “protection of public order and public and private property” from the Bus Station in Brasilia to the Plaza of Three Powers.

      It is not known if there was any kind of depredation in Congress

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/brazil-update-3-brazilian-national-congress-invaded-ground-update/

    • BRAZIL UPDATE 4: Banner at Capital Protest “WE WANT THE SOURCE CODE”
      By Joe Hoft
      Published January 8, 2023 at 4:15pm
      48 Comments

      A banner hanging on a building in the Brazilian Capital says in Portuguese and in English:

      WE WANT THE SOURCE CODE

      Per a retweet from Mathew Tyrmand, the Brazilians want to know what is in the source code that is used in the election machines in that country.

      The people in Brazil know that their recent election was stolen just like the two recent elections in the US.

      One of the many methods used by communists to steal elections is faulty source code in voting systems used in elections.

      In the US those involved in election integrity efforts would like to get their hands on the source code used in the 2020 and 2022 elections as well. But to date, these efforts to obtain, investigate and audit the source code used in elections have been blocked by the courts.

      Despite efforts to block the code used in software in US elections, we know that the systems used in US elections are not well-designed or secure. We learned this from the report the CISA released when people were clamoring for the report provided to the court in Georgia that has not been released to date

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/brazil-update-4-banner-capital-protest-want-source-code/

    • Mass Arrests And ‘Federal Intervention’ In Brazil After Bolsonaro Supporters Storm Government Buildings
      Tyler Durden’s Photo
      BY TYLER DURDEN
      SUNDAY, JAN 08, 2023 – 01:14 PM
      Update (1633ET): President Lula has declared a ‘federal intervention’ until January 31 in response to the protest, while police could be seen arresting dozens of people.

      More via The Brazilian Report:

      What appears to be thousands of supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the National Congress building in Brasilia on Sunday, as well as the Presidential Palace and the nation’s top court, according to news agency LUSA.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bolsonaro-supporters-storm-brazil-national-congress-breach-presidential-palace-top-court

    • BRAZIL UPDATE 5: AOC and Other Globalists Claim Today’s Protests Were Done by Fascists and Those Who Disagree Lula’s “Win” Should be Punished
      By Joe Hoft
      Published January 8, 2023 at 6:25pm
      138 Comments

      AOC released a statement where she claimed that the US Capitol and Brazil’s Capital were attacked by fascists. She and others believe those who don’t agree should be punished.

      We’ve reported multiple stories on the protests in Brazil today

      In a tweet from her personal account, AOC claimed that the massive protests today in Brazil were done by fascists and that Bolsonaro should be punished.

      Mathew Tyrmand identified another fascist who believes Lula’s win was real and anyone who disagrees should be tossed into the gulag or executed.

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/brazil-update-5-aoc-global-fascists-claim-lula-won-election-disagree-punished/

    • the guardian — Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazil’s congress, presidential palace and supreme court

    • CBC – How the storming of Brazil’s Congress compares to U.S. Capitol Hill riots

      The incident has drawn comparisons to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, something many political analysts and the judiciary have warned about for months.

      ( 9 min 40 )

    • CNN – US lawmaker calls for Bolsonaro’s extradition to Brazil

      Joaquin Castro (D-TX) reacts to supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro breaking in to the country’s congressional building, Supreme Court and presidential palace, according to Brazilian media

    • BBC – How the Brazilian riot was stoked by Trump’s election-denying allies

      […]Bannon, as he had been doing for weeks, spread baseless rumours about election fraud.

      […]And like what happened in Washington on 6 January 2021, those false reports and unproven rumours helped fuel a mob that smashed windows and stormed government buildings in an attempt to further their cause.

      […]As in the US in 2020, partisan election-deniers focused their attention on the mechanisms of voting. In Brazil, they cast suspicion on electronic vote tabulation machines.

      […]A banner displayed by the rioters on Sunday declared “We want the source code” in both English and Portuguese – a reference to rumours that electronic voting machines were somehow programmed or hacked in order to foil Mr Bolsonaro

      […]A number of prominent Brazilian Twitter accounts which spread election denial rumours were reinstated after the election and acquisition of the company by Elon Musk, according to a BBC analysis. The accounts had previously been banned.

      […]Jamie Raskin called the Brazilian protesters “fascists modeling themselves after Trump’s Jan. 6 rioters” in a tweet.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64206484

      =================
      CBC – Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazil’s Congress

  2. FBI Agent Robert Cessario Who Destroyed Computer Evidence Against Trump-Supporting Lawmaker Gets 3 Years Probation – While GOP Lawmaker Rots in Prison for 18 Years
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 8:00am
    177 Comments

    Former FBI Agent Robert Cessario was sentenced on Thursday for committing a federal felony. Cessario was given an incredibly lenient one year of probation for destroying evidence in a political trial involving former pro-Trump Arkansas State Senator Jon Woods.

    Jon Woods remains in prison even though the government has admitted destroying evidence in his trial that might have been vital to his defense.

    Advertisement – story

    FBI Agent Cessario admitted to just one count of Obstruction of Justice, and received an incredibly lenient sentence despite on-site protesters agitating against this injustice.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/fbi-agent-robert-cessario-destroyed-computer-evidence-trump-supporting-lawmaker-gets-3-years-probation-gop-lawmaker-rots-prison-18-years/

  3. Female Olympic Shooter Gabby Franco Censored from LinkedIn for Showing Her Guns, Comes Up with a Soluition
    By Joe Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 8:40am
    99 Comments

    Olympic Shooter Gabby Franco was censored from LinkedIn for reportedly breaking the site’s advertising rule related to guns.

    Bearing Arms reported on LinkedIn’s recent actions against Gabby Franco.

    Advertisement – story

    Gabby Franco was the first female shooter to represent Venezuela in the Olympics. As an accomplished author, speaker, competitive shooter, and instructor, she is recognized worldwide for her shooting skills and advocacy for the right to own and bear arms. Gabby’s 25 years of experience in Olympic, self-defense, and practical shooting have served as a platform to educate and empower thousands of people through live and virtual training across the United States and Puerto Rico. For over eighteen years, Gabby has shown her commitment to promoting the shooting sports by not only participating and winning medals in various competitions, but also sending a message of dedication, sportsmanship, and positive attitude.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/female-olympic-shooter-gabby-franco-censored-linkedin-showing-guns-comes-soluition/

  4. Investigative Reporter Paul Sperry Responds After ‘Twitter Files’ Documents Reveal Adam Schiff Violated Constitution to Have Him Removed from Twitter
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 8:57am
    88 Comments

    As The Gateway Pundit previously reported back in February 2021 — Twitter permanently suspended top conservative investigative reporter Paul Sperry.

    Sperry was the first reporter to identify Eric Ciaramella as the CIA “whistleblower” behind the first junk impeachment trial of President Trump.
    Paul Sperry also reported on Ciaramella’s plot to remove President Trump from office.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/investigative-reporter-paul-sperry-responds-twitter-files-documents-reveal-adam-schiff-violated-constitution-personally-removed-twitter/

  5. Turkey’s Erdogan Flips Syria On Its Head
    Tyler Durden’s Photo
    BY TYLER DURDEN
    SUNDAY, JAN 08, 2023 – 06:00 AM
    Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

    While we are all, rightfully, worried about what’s going on in Ukraine, those sneaky Russians are shoring up their situation on the south shores of the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.

    As reported last week the meeting between Russia, Turkiye, and Syria took place between their Defense Ministers where they all described the talks as ‘constructive’ towards solving multiple outstanding issues like refugees and the backing of radicals.

    This meeting was put in motion by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the Moscow Times article notes:

    In November, Erdogan said a meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was a possibility, after cutting diplomatic ties with Damascus throughout the 11-year conflict.

    In mid-December, he indicated that he could meet with Assad after the two countries’ defense and foreign ministers meet.

    “We want to take a step as Syria, Turkey and Russia,” [emphasis mine] he said at the time.

    The issues discussed are especially important for Erdogan as the protracted war is sapping his popularity at home in the face of an ongoing pull out of western capital from Turkey that has seen the lira go through what can only be described as a hyperinflation since 2018.

    With elections on the horizon and Erdogan’s position tenuous for the first time in his political career, moves need to be made now to improve things. Allowing the millions of Syrian refugees the opportunity to go home would be a big win for Erdogan politically

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/turkeys-erdogan-flips-syria-its-head

      • We must never forget Erdogan wants to rebuild the Ottoman Empire. Or that Russia has wanted to seize large parts of Turkey and Iran for Centuries.

        • Demography is destiny.

          Orthodox Christians here say religion over there is mostly nostalgic pastiche. They cite rates of abortion, divorce, suicide, and the surrogate mother industry.

          Tards are going to take over no matter what flavor they are, no matter what “Empire” they claim they’re “restoring”.

          On Telegram you’ll hear soldiers on both sides yelling aloha-snackbar. As ethnic Slavs kill each other off, tardish mercs proliferate. Veterans from Western forever wars, fighting for and against “Nato” in Ukraine.

          • Their victory isn’t a given, the Europeans can still won. But only if they decide to think for themselves.

            • How much thinking does it take to make babies? That’s the very First Commandment !

              Eurotards are consuming beautiful young women refugees from Ukraine and Russia. Offspring may have hybrid vigor. Turns my stomach.

          • You are assuming things to continue the way they currently are. I am assuming that future events will change the direction the entire world is going.

            The forced return to tribalism that the left is trying to force on us will cause major changes. As will the coming kinetic portion of the war.

        • The mathematics of AFU losses: There are no men left in Yuzhnoukrainsk

          Forty thousand people live in the glorious city of Yuzhnoukrainsk in the Nikolaev region. Of those, 5 thousand are elderly, 15 thousand are children, about 10 thousand are women, a thousand are unfit for service in the armed forces for health reasons, and about 3.5 thousand are left after February 24.

          In a few hours, it became known that two AFU fighters had been killed from thius town alone… The proportions and tragedy of the situation are not difficult to calculate. Zelensky is still determined to go to war with Russia and try to occupy Crimea and Donbass…

          Locals report that no more men are left on the streets of Yuzhnoukrainsk.

          https://askeptic.substack.com/p/daily-report-from-the-ukraine-field-5f9?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

  6. Fed Confetti Party Will End Rudely & Abruptly – John Titus
    By Greg Hunter On January 7, 2023 In Market Analysis 46 Comments

    Lawyer John Titus is an ardent Fed watcher. He has some of the most popular videos on the internet explaining complicated Federal Reserve actions and policies. Titus says the Fed is in a dangerous situation where the slightest wrong move in any direction could cause a financial system meltdown worse than 2008. Titus explains, “When you have a debt based monetary system and you take away the drugs, you risk a withdrawal process that can get very nasty, and that’s exactly what happened in 2008. You start this downward deflationary spiral, and suddenly, people start calling in loans. Oh my goodness, the collateral is not good, and we all know what happened in 2008. That’s why the Fed has got to be careful now. They are between a rock and a hard place. They don’t want the money supply, the bank money supply, at the retail level to rocket up. They’ve got to stop that. They have stopped that on one hand, but on the other hand, they don’t want the deflationary spiral. The last thing they want in the world is the twin nightmare. You’ve got raging inflation, and by the way, no one has a job, and nobody has any money. The money you do have doesn’t buy anything. The Fed is staring right at it.”

    Titus contends the Fed has printed more money than ever before and at a much faster pace than ever before. Titus warns, “The confetti party has a way of ending rather rudely and abruptly.”

    What should the common person do? Titus says, “Not losing is winning. Not losing is a win, and that’s kind of where we are. If you put your money on gold last year, you may have lost 5% or gained 5%. It really was not that much, but it was a big win compared to the S&P 500 and bonds, wasn’t it? I mean you crushed them—right? You just don’t know. With the Fed raising interest rates, there is deflation on one hand, but in the grocery store, everybody is seeing inflation. Those two forces spell trouble ahead to me. I don’t know how this story ends, and I am not sure I want to know, but we are going to find out.”

    https://usawatchdog.com/fed-confetti-party-will-end-rudely-abruptly-john-titus/

  7. Children’s Defense

    CDC analysis shows numbers of serious events reported in less than 2 years from mRNA Covid-19 vaccines.

    There are 96 safety signals for 12-17 year olds.
    Myocarditis, pericarditis, Bell’s Palsy, genital ulceration, high blood pressure and heart rate, menstral irregularities, cardiac valve incompetencies, pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrhythmia, thrombosis, pericardial and pleural effusion, appendicitis and perforated appendix, immune thrombocytopenia, chest pain, increased troponin levels, being in intensive care and having anticoagulant therapy……………

    There are 66 safety signals in 5-11

    Imagine what “THEY” have done to the 6 months – 5 year olds

    Walter M Chestnut from WMC Research
    “Tropism: Why the spike protein can turn every major organ into a Graft:
    Spike protein entry Via Ace 2 should have struck terror from the start.

    And still we have governments pushing to get vaccinated?

  8. TIME JAN 06 2023 – The U.S. Keeps Offering China Its COVID Vaccines. China Keeps Saying No

    China has rebuffed repeated U.S. offers to share advanced vaccines as Beijing battles a fast-spreading wave of COVID-19, a rejection that’s led to growing frustration among American officials concerned about a resurgence of the pandemic.

    Worried about the rise of new variants and impact on China’s economy, the U.S. has repeatedly offered mRNA vaccines and other assistance to President Xi Jinping’s government through private channels, according to U.S. officials who asked not to be identified discussing the deliberations.

    U.S. officials have also proposed indirect ways to supply the vaccines in an effort to accommodate political sensitivities in China on accepting foreign aid, they said, without providing more details.

    The U.S. offers have been made by senior diplomats, including during a December trip to China by Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Kritenbrink and National Security Council Senior Director Laura Rosenberger, as well as through public health officials and intermediaries. Although U.S. officials have said publicly that they’ve offered vaccines to China, the full extent of that outreach hasn’t been previously reported.

    At a regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China’s vaccine and medical supplies were “overall in adequate supply.”

    “We have enough vaccines to make sure that people eligible have access to vaccines,” she said. “We will continue to work with the international community, including the US, to better deal with the challenge of COVID and protect people’s life and health.”

    It’s unclear how useful mRNA shots would be as the omicron variant runs rampant in China — antivirals to treat infection, like Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid, is the more urgent need now.

    The problem for the Communist Party has more been persuading its vulnerable elderly population to take the jab: Only about two-thirds of people over age 80 have gotten fully vaccinated as of November, the last time data was released.

    Moreover, accepting vaccines from the U.S. is likely a nonstarter politically for Xi, as it would shine a spotlight on Beijing’s failure to develop its own mRNA vaccine at a time when China is pushing for self-reliance amid a broader strategic fight with the U.S. China historically has been reticent to accept outside assistance during crises.

    ‘Unnecessary Deaths’
    The rising frustration — shared by both sides — underscores just how hard it will be for the U.S. and China to stabilize ties after a meeting between Xi and President Joe Biden in Bali last year. It’s also highlighted the significant distrust and suspicion that remain between the world’s two biggest economies.

    “The Xi administration’s propaganda narrative on COVID has long emphasized its ‘success’ as an outcome of China’s unique political institutions, and so this has artificially limited access to external vaccines,” said Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    “Even in the midst of a catastrophic outbreak of COVID, Beijing continues to emphasize vaccine nationalism, a decision that will undoubtedly result in unnecessary deaths,” Blanchette said.

    Early on, as tens of thousands of Americans died, China held up its COVID Zero approach of strict quarantines, travel limits and heavy masking as a model to the world that it was saving lives — and pointedly suggested the U.S. was recklessly killing its people. But now China is suddenly allowing the virus to run rampant, an abrupt shift that occurred days after spontaneous street protests against lockdowns.

    As a result, the U.S. has ramped up its offers in recent weeks, one of the people said. The two sides continue to speak through health channels, another person said, adding that China’s response to the repeated U.S. offers has been firm. Every time, Chinese officials have told their U.S. interlocutors that Beijing has the situation under control and doesn’t require assistance, according to the people.

    China has never lacked access to mRNA shots. Chinese company Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. licensed the vaccine developed by BioNTech SE and Pfizer nearly three years ago and planned to distribute 100 million doses in the country, but authorities in Beijing haven’t granted regulatory approval so far.

    Xi’s administration has officially acknowledged about 30 COVID deaths since it abandoned strict pandemic controls at the beginning of December, prompting governments around the world to impose restrictions on Chinese travelers. China has said the shift was the correct policy because omicron isn’t as deadly as other variants.

    In a briefing on Thursday, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, pushed back against suggestions that its vaccines weren’t effective.

    Liu cited a University of Hong Kong study that suggested three doses of Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s CoronaVac were 97% effective against severe illness or death, roughly in line with three doses of an mRNA vaccine. He added that China has administered 3.4 billion shots domestically and has an annual production capacity of 7 billion doses, making China a player in vaccine exports.

    “China can not only meet domestic demand but also supply to other countries in need,” he told reporters. “We are also working to upgrade the vaccines to make them more effective and bolster vaccinations to cope with possible new variants so that we will continue to play a constructive role in the global COVID fight.”

    ‘Very Sensitive’
    Governments and health officials from around the globe are seeking more transparency from China. Xi’s government has long blocked foreign inquiries into the origins of COVID, frustrating American officials, and the World Health Organization this week pleaded for more data from China.

    U.S. officials have grown even more vexed because China has threatened retaliation over requirements imposed by the U.S. and other nations that travelers coming from China submit proof of a negative COVID-19 test. Still, it’s unclear what that would look like since China already requires travelers to get a PCR test before entering.

    Asked this week if he was concerned about the way China is handling the virus, Biden said, “Well, yes I am.”

    “We have offered COVID vaccines to the PRC,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Friday. “They’ve said publicly that they appreciate the offer but they’re not in need of it right now. We’ll continue to discuss this with them, of course.”

    https://time.com/6245054/us-china-covid-vaccines/

    =============================
    TIME – Doctor Mike Reveals TIME Heroes of the Year 2021: Vaccine Scientists

    For those of us lucky enough to live in wealthy countries with access to these top-shelf vaccines, it has made all the difference.

    The miracle workers behind the COVID-19 vaccines are the TIME Heroes of the Year not only because they gave the world a defense against a pathogen, but also because the manner of that astonishing achievement guards more than our health: they channeled their ambitions to the common good, talked to one another and trusted in facts.

    • EU – Beijing heading for dispute over Covid restrictions on Chinese travellers! EU Offers Vaccines!

    • FORBES – The Quiet Scientist Behind The Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA Vaccine

      Katalin Karikó is an unsung hero. For decades, she has quietly devoted her career to studying and promoting mRNA technology—technology that is now the basis of the Covid vaccines being distributed across the globe.

      Karikó was born in Hungary and began her scientific career there, but immigrated to Philadelphia in 1985 with her husband, daughter, and the equivalent of $1200 stuffed in her daughter’s teddy bear for safe keeping. Her first ten years in the U.S. were not smooth; her idea that mRNA could be used to fight disease was, at the time, considered too radical and risky. She was demoted from her job at a Penn lab and was diagnosed with cancer shortly thereafter. But she didn’t give up on her mRNA thesis; in 2006 she cofounded a firm to develop mRNA drugs, and in 2013 joined BioNTech as a senior vice president. She is also now the head of its RNA protein replacement therapies.

      “I never doubted it would work,” she told the Guardian shortly before the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine got emergency use authorization from the federal government. “I always wished that I would live long enough to see something that I’ve worked on be approved.”

    • How mRNA Medicine Will Change the World | Melissa J. Moore

      The secret behind medicine that uses messenger RNA (or mRNA) is that it “teaches” our bodies how to fight diseases on our own, leading to groundbreaking treatments for COVID-19 and, potentially one day, cancer, the flu and other ailments that have haunted humanity for millennia.

      RNA researcher Melissa J. Moore — Moderna’s chief scientific officer and one of the many people responsible for the rapid creation and deployment of their COVID-19 vaccine — takes us down to the molecular level, unraveling how mRNA helps our bodies’ proteins maintain health, prevent disease and correct errors in our genetic code.

      “We have entered an entirely new era of medicine,” Moore says.

      “….. remarkably safe and incredibly effective.”

      ….”It only took 1 hour to design the covid vaccine”..

    • Financial Times – Coronavirus and the money behind vaccines

      The FT explains how the vaccine market works – including the cost of a vaccine and the vaccine development process – and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

      This short documentary features global experts including Bill Gates, the CEOs of Moderna and Gavi, and the lead scientist behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

    • DEC 2021 – CDC report: 79% of omicron cases are vaccinated; nearly all are mild

      In the first week of December, most cases of omicron were young, vaccinated people

  9. 17-Year-Old Basketball Player Dies Suddenly at Home Due to “Medical Condition”
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 9:40am
    408 Comments

    The Campbell County Coroner has confirmed that a high school basketball player from Gillette, Wyoming, died suddenly two weeks ago.

    Max Sorenson, 17, died suddenly of a “medical event” at his home on Monday, December 26.

    On December 29th, Campbell County Coroner Paul Wallem told the Cowboy State Daily that the high school basketball player had been brought to the Campbell County Memorial Hospital in Gillette, Wyoming, after a medical incident at his home.

    Wallem was later pronounced dead.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/17-year-old-basketball-player-dies-suddenly-home-due-medical-condition/

    • the gateway pundit –What Is Ukraine Hiding in the Bakhmut Salt Mines?

      […] the system of Soledar and Bakhmut mines, actually a network of underground cities.

      In which there is not only a cluster of people at a depth of 80-100 meters, but also tanks and infantry fighting vehicles move.

      And stockpiles of weapons have been stored since the First World War “

      The Artemsoli salt mine system is already being used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine as an underground fortress. Ammunition depots, quarters for personnel, and in some places even hangars for equipment are equipped at great depths. And “get” them from the surface is almost impossible. Underground communications are also used by Ukrainian military personnel to move between positions, and the approaches and some entrances to the mines are mined and ready to be blown up.

      In terms of difficulty for the assault, the Artemsol mines can easily compete with the famous Azovstal in Mariupol.

      This helps explain why Ukraine is pouring shrinking manpower into the meat grinder battle on the surface. It is a critical facility. However, is it possible that Ukraine has stored evidence of its bioweapons program in the mines? This is more than a key transportation/logistics hub.

      […]

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/ukraine-hiding-bakhmut-salt-mines/

      • “Bakhmut is the central point of the Eastern Front and a serious logistics center. And our task here is to kill as little as possible and to destroy the enemy as much as possible.

        Bakhmut’s specialty is its unique historical and geographical defensive capabilities, which include, first, the city’s division into several parts by water barriers.

        Second, Bakhmut’s surroundings are a complex of settlements that create a single defense system.

        The third is a unique landscape, ravines, and heights, which are natural tunnels.

        And the cherry on the cake – the system of Soledar and Bakhmut mines, actually the network of underground cities. There is not only an accumulation of people at a depth of 80-100 meters but also tanks and BMPs are moving around. And weapons stocks have been stored since World War 1.”

        https://askeptic.substack.com/p/daily-report-from-the-ukraine-field-5f9?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

    • Situation in Artemovsk direction as of 00.05 Moscow time 08.01.23:

      1. To the south of Bakhmut, fighting is taking place near Kleshcheyevka, where the Wagners are pounding and storming the AFU strongholds. Kleshcheevka itself has not yet been entered. To the south our troops are trying to advance from the Kurdyumovka and Ozeryanivka areas, but no results are known yet.

      2. In Bakhmut itself there is fighting in the southeastern outskirts, where “orchestra” is fighting for every house.

      Part of Opytnoye has been taken, fighting is taking place in the centre of the village, and no one is marking a clear front line there now.

      In the vicinity of the town’s industrial area fighting is taking place in the area of the plaster factory and Patrice Lumumba street. There is little progress and the fighting is mostly positional in nature.

      3. The town of Podgorodnoye is taken, where the system of the Ukrainian armed forces is similar to Opytnoye, but they are still breaking there, while in Podgorodnoye they have already broken through.

      Enemy strongholds between Podgorodnoye and Krasnaya Gora are being stormed, ours have not entered the latter yet.

      4. In Soledar, fighting continues in the residential areas in the central part of the city. PMC Wagner assault units have reached the salt mine 1.3, taking it. The enemy have marked themselves off GP Artemsol (video with Butusov). They are sitting on the Sol station, on the western outskirts of Soledar, having transferred the 46th Brigade from the Zaporozhye direction to reinforce it.

      Our troops have entered the town from the Yakovlevka side and there are reports of advances westwards to the Seversk-Soledar highway, but even here the real front line is difficult to mark at the moment.

      5. According to military expert Boris Rozhin, the capture of Soledar will allow us to cover the enemy positions in Bakhmut from the north. At the same time, problems arise in the enemy defence north of Soledar at the line of Veseloe – Belogorovka – Berestovoye – Spornoye.

      Cutting the Seversk-Soledar route will enable an offensive along it to Seversk. If the offensive towards Seversk and northwards develops, the enemy is deprived of the opportunity to use a bridgehead near the second Belogorovka at Seversky Donets to put pressure on Lisichansk and through the forested area to Kremennaya.

      This is a complex impact.

      6. The enemy tries to cling to areas of weapons depots, Artemsol underground communications and urban development.

      7. Retreating to Artemovsk, the enemy will attempt to hold the defenses in the western part of the city, if necessary by withdrawing to equipped positions near Chasov Yar, using the dominant heights, before retreating to Druzhkovka-Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka. With the enemy pushing through at Artemovsk, the front is hardly likely to crumble.

      8. A defensive breakthrough at Soledar could have more serious consequences for the AFU. But everything depends on the pace of our advance and how quickly the enemy will be able to stabilize the line after losing Soledar.

      The position of the AFU in this direction is close to critical, which is confirmed by the redeployment of formations from the Zaporozhye direction to Bakhmut and Soledar. If their front line is shattered, it will be shattered not only there.

      https://askeptic.substack.com/p/daily-report-from-the-ukraine-field-5f9?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

    • Larry Johnson:

      I think there is more going on underground than salt-mining. It is a secure warehouse for Ukraine’s military equipment. The blog ScoopTrade provides a great overview:

      Prior to the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Artyomsol was the largest enterprise for the extraction and sale of table salt in Central and Eastern Europe. It consists of five salt mines, which are located within the city limits of Soledar and Praskovievka: mines No. 1, No. 3, No. 4, No. 7 and the Volodarsky mine.

      They are interconnected by rail and road, as well as a developed system of underground communications, which, after the outbreak of hostilities, were improved by the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

      The Artemsoli salt mine system is already being used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine as an underground fortress. Ammunition depots, quarters for personnel, and in some places even hangars for equipment are equipped at great depths. And “get” them from the surface is almost impossible.

      Underground communications are also used by Ukrainian military personnel to move between positions, and the approaches and some entrances to the mines are mined and ready to be blown up. In terms of difficulty for the assault, the Artemsol mines can easily compete with the famous Azovstal in Mariupol.

      This helps explain why Ukraine is pouring shrinking manpower into the meat grinder battle on the surface. It is a critical facility. However, is it possible that Ukraine has stored evidence of its bioweapons program in the mines? This is more than a key transportation/logistics hub…

      https://sonar21.com/what-is-ukraine-hiding-in-the-bakhmut-salt-mines/

  10. Weekly Data from New South Wales Proves that Vaccine is Ineffective Against COVID – 86% of Deaths and 80% of Hospitalizations were Vaccinated
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 10:29am
    129 Comments

    We were told the experimental COVID vaccines were going to “stop the spread” and “prevent death and hospitalization.”

    The New South Wales government website released its daily Covid update. Based on its daily report, most of the people who died with COVID-19 were vaccinated.

    Australia is famous for its totalitarian COVID restrictions and vaccine mandates. The Deputy Premier of NSW boldly declared that even businesses that accept unvaccinated people would be subject to exceptionally heavy fines back in 2021.

    Earlier this year, The Gateway Pundit reported that most of the people who died with COVID-19 in January 2022 were at least double vaccinated.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/weekly-data-new-south-wales-proves-vaccine-ineffective-covid-86-deaths-80-hospitalizations-vaccinated/

  11. BRAVO, SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES! Kari Lake Tells Maria Bartiromo She Is Willing to Take Election Fraud Case All the Way to US Supreme Court (VIDEO)
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 10:55am
    97 Comments

    On Sunday Maria Bartiromo invited popular Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on her popular weekend morning show Sunday Morning Futures.

    Maria asked Kari Lake about the open border in Arizona. Katie Hobbs this week removed the miles of shipping containers set up as a barrier on the

    Hobbs is intent on opening the border with Mexico completely to the drug and human trafficking cartels.

    Maria Bartiromo was then the first FOX News host to ask Kari Lake to explain her ongoing lawsuit on the stolen midterm election for Arizona Governor.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/bravo-sunday-morning-futures-kari-lake-tells-maria-bartiromo-willing-take-election-fraud-case-way-supreme-court-video/

  12. print-icon
    Elon Musk Aims To Move Fraud Trial From California To Texas To Avoid “Local Negativity”
    Tyler Durden’s Photo
    BY TYLER DURDEN
    SUNDAY, JAN 08, 2023 – 11:00 AM
    Elon Musk is aiming to move an upcoming fraud trial with Tesla shareholders moved out of San Francisco and into Texas. Musk’s lawyers have claimed that jurors in the California region “will probably be biased against him” due to recent layoffs at Twitter and “local negativity”, Bloomberg reported this weekend.

    Musk is seeking to have the trial held in West Texas, the report says, where Tesla recently moved its headquarters. The request was made in court filings late on Friday afternoon.

    Musk’s lawyers wrote that jurors in the Bay Area are “likely to hold a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk as a result of recent layoffs at one of his companies as individual prospective jurors — or their friends and relatives — may have been personally impacted.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/elon-musk-aims-move-fraud-trial-california-texas-avoid-local-negativity

  13. europravda – Iranian national arrested in Germany on suspicion of plotting a religiously motivated attack

    The 32-year-old suspect was believed to have procured lethal poisons including cyanide and ricin, but authorities have confirmed that no evidence was found in his flat.

  14. AIER American Institute for Economic Research January 8, 2022

    Excellent Article – – The Twitter Files: Lenin Would Be Proud

    “The vast majority of Commercial and Industrial establishments are now working not for the free market but for the government”.
    V. I. Lenin State and Revolution 1917

  15. Redacted – BOMBSHELL docs reveal Covid-19 COVER-UP goes straight to the top | Redacted with Clayton Morris

    A BOMBSHELL new report claims shows that the Department of Defense – meaning the Pentagon – controlled the COVID-19 Program from the very beginning.

    If true, it means that everything we were told was political theater, right down to the FDA vaccine approval process.

    Our guest today is the former executive of a pharmaceutical contract research organization Sasha Latypova and she shows what she has found due to her searches based on instinct that the Covid vaccine was not exactly on the up and up.

    + comments on the YT page

  16. The Optimistic Conservative

    The Optimistic Conservative
    TOC Ready Room 7 Jan 2023: Border disorder, Project Censorship, Church redux
    What’s wrong and right with the world.

    Back from a Christmas “break,” and I’m still tired of politics. What a silly method of dealing with human affairs.

    A few random updates for the TOC squadron.

    Readers probably won’t be surprised to learn that in December, the House Democrats adopted a rule that the J6 Committee materials they were going to send to the National Archives must be sequestered from release for 30 years.

    It’s now being reported, almost as if it’s some nefarious move, that Republicans intend to undo that rule and get their hands on the J6 documents (and videos) in the new Congress.

    Some very weird measures seem to be necessary to “protect democracy.” Denying Republicans and the American people access to the original materials compiled by the J6 Committee doesn’t make any obvious sense as one of them.

    It will be interesting to see if the National Archives drags its heels or refuse to cooperate.

    Of course, the J6 Committee did release some of its materials in December 2022. Among them was a spreadsheet revealing the Social Security numbers of Trump officials and Republican governors, as well as nearly 2,000 other people who visited the Trump White House in December 2020.

    Meanwhile, at the border

    President Biden will visit El Paso, Texas on Sunday as part of a North American Leaders summit with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (colloquially known as AMLO) and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

    This gathering seems somewhat overdue to me, but let that pass. The right-wing media buzz is naturally that Biden will finally be visiting the border, or at least getting closer to it than he’s ever known to have been.

    Reporting from El Paso indicates that he’s going to see (as will the media) a cleaned-up, Potemkin version of the border city. El Paso has been working diligently to remove the homeless migrant camps all over its streets before Biden and the foreign dignitaries arrive.

    Interestingly, Senator Cornyn of Texas tweeted Friday evening that eight U.S. senators will tour the border the following day (Monday).

    We can hope their visit will yield an accurate picture of conditions at the border.

    In other border news, a Border Patrol officer was shot on 5 January by a suspected human trafficker, reportedly at the Lordsburg CBP station in New Mexico (in other words, inside the U.S.). It appears the shot aimed at his chest was prevented from doing major damage by the patrolman’s protective vest, but he did suffer injury.

    As briefly commented in the tweet, it was shooting at Americans, inside U.S. territory, that triggered the Army’s Mexican border operations under Woodrow Wilson. Shootings originating from our side of the border have been rare, and obviously intentional point-blank targeting of Border Patrol officers even rarer. The cartels are being emboldened in crime by Biden’s apparently intentional open-border policy.

    That probably explains former President Trump’s announcement this week of a plan to combat the cartels if he is elected in 2024. For now, I don’t need to elaborate further on my comment in this tweet:

    Trump’s emergence with this particular agenda point may seem a bit odd, but I think it’s indicative of what he sees as the security priority for America. I don’t think it’s a mere political play, either, to what he thinks are the concerns of his voters. I think it’s what he views as being of greatest importance. (Notably, he disappointed quite a few supporters this week with an apparent flip-flop on the Freedom Caucus 20 campaign in the speakership vote. Trump rarely if ever comes off as pandering, and his political instincts are unconventional, to say the least. All you have to do to understand his priorities and intentions, however, is listen to what he says.)

    Just a couple more items on the border. One, the Democratic governor of Colorado has been shipping illegal migrants to New York City, to the chagrin of Mayor Eric Adams. But this isn’t cruel, unconscionable kidnap-busing of illegals, as with Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis. This, per Governor Jared Polis, is “carrying out our values of treating every human being with dignity and respect.”

    And, sure, it must be: the media aren’t caterwauling about it. Aren’t even mentioning it.

    The last border item comes from my return trip to southern California this week. A Border Patrol checkpoint that has never once been closed in the years I’ve driven the local byways was closed on 3 January. It’s a small, remote one, southeast of the town I live in, but it was placed for surveillance and traffic control precisely because that’s where cartel coyotes like to try to sneak through. The problem of CBP manning versus the flood at the border is real.

    Government-social media collusion to censor speech

    This gigantic topic will be with us for some time, and I won’t try to fit in too much in this update.

    Some essential resources and thinking aids were produced this past week on the matter, by journalist Lee Smith and one of his sources, Mike Benz.

    To whet your appetite on Smith’s article in Tablet.

    Smith has outdone even his usual excellence in this piece; the plaudits circulating on Twitter have been off the charts.

    Mike Benz, quoted in the article, came in a bit later with a most useful thread on what he and Smith call the “whole-of-society” censorship effort (specifically with relation, mostly, to the Hunter Biden laptop and the on-the-fly voting arrangements for the 2020 election).

    Of particular note was Benz’s reference to measures adopted by multiple segments of society at essentially the same time: the fall of 2019.

    As observed in my subsequent quote-tweet thread, the substance of the measures, which targeted “misinformation” about the upcoming 2020 election, was assembled in documents dated after the FBI had been officially alerted to the Biden laptop (September 2019), and square in the middle of the House Democrats’ first impeachment effort against Trump.

    But it’s even more informative to review what the whole-of-society censorship plan was laid out before. Again, the core topic was a potential “election crisis” and potential “misinformation” about the 2020 election. As seen in Mike Benz’s thread, a joint statement in November 2019 by four cabinet-level agencies and their subordinate agencies alluded in an exceptionally vague manner to “protecting the democratic process” and sharing “timely and actionable information … to defend against any threats to our democracy.”

    The agencies urged Americans to “go to trusted sources for election information, such as their state and local election officials.” They added this: “We encourage every American to report any suspicious activity to their local officials, the FBI, or DHS.” The “suspicious activity,” seemingly, was to be defined later.

    As noted in my follow-on tweet thread, the year 2020 – which started two months after the joint notice from the federal agencies – saw a protracted attempt by Democrats on Capitol Hill to inject a narrative about election interference and “misinformation” or “disinformation” into U.S. intelligence community products. I’ve written at some length about former DNI John Ratcliffe’s rejection of this effort (see links in this comprehensive timeline), an effort that originated outside the intel community but tried to write analytical conclusions for it.

    That, as regards the whole-of-society preparations, would be an effort to generate the actionable semblance of a “threat” to the 2020 election.

    In January 2019, at the beginning of the 117th Congress, the Hill Democrats brought to the floor H.R. 1, the sweeping voting “reform” bill that included such measures as universal vote-by-mail and relaxed standards for timeliness of mailed ballots and signature-matching for vote integrity. (In my tweet, I incorrectly put this vote in January 2020. It was 2019, and the same bill was brought up for vote again in January 2021. The key point about the bill is that it was part of an overall effort to fundamentally alter voting procedures well prior to the pandemic. That effort failed. But the whole-of-society censorship effort relating to critics of the bill’s later-enacted provisions — critics who were accused of “misinformation” — was being assembled in the fall of 2019, when the bill’s measures were envisioned but as yet unenacted, and before the COVID-19 pandemic.)

    H.R. 1 wasn’t going to be signed by President Trump, or achieve veto-override passage in either house of Congress, so it didn’t go anywhere. But later still, starting with the lockdowns in March 2020, blue and “purple” state officials began proclaiming that they would adopt the same measures enumerated in H.R. 1, with or without the consent of their legislatures, because of the “election crisis” created by COVID-19.

    WaPo video, YouTube
    In retrospect, the policy statements from the fall of 2019 about “protecting democracy” laid the groundwork with remarkably convenient timing for the whole-of-society censorship campaign that ensued in 2020.

    The same censorship apparatus was used in October 2020 to suppress information about the Biden laptop.

    I note also, as chronicled here (based on the Molly Ball piece in TIME about the election-“fortifying” cabal – TIME’s word, not mine – that sought to basically rig the operation of the 2020 election), that the timing of the whole-of-society consultations between cabal activists and social media executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, dovetailed exactly with the timing cited by Mike Benz.

    The overall timeline of events indicates that “permanent state” contingents in the federal agencies were conferring with self-anointed “civil society” activists (in the same league as the National Task Force on Election Crises, if not that specific organization) at the same time the activists were conferring with social media. They were preparing to combat “misinformation” and “suspicious activities” related to the 2020 election, at a time when congressional Democrats had had the measures they wanted to shield against the so-called “misinformation” on an agenda list for months, but before COVID-19 was used to justify implementing those measures at the state level.

    When the censorship apparatus is in place before the emergence of the problem (“COVID-19” versus the election), the “solution” (implementing the measures of H.R. 1), and its critics or dissidents, you have to give serious thought to which is the chicken and which the egg.

    Looking for the right droids

    But one final point. If I had any quibble with Lee Smith’s article, it would be the same slight over-focus I see among most commentators on the “intelligence community” as the government contingent pulling the strings on this.

    Perhaps the intel community has to be no mystery to the observer, for the observer to be confident that the IC is not the deus ex machina in this sprawling scenario. It’s not. I say that without hesitation. The IC is the custodian of the tools, and when the visible manifestations come from the use of the tools, it can look like the custodian is the one with the plan and the fell intent.

    One slice on this is the point – one that may seem arcane to non-intel practitioners – that DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, is not an intelligence agency. Only part of the FBI has an intelligence mission, for that matter. The FBI is originally and mainly chartered as a law enforcement agency. In the 2020 election cycle, the Twitter files show that CISA became a hub for the project to monitor and censor Americans’ social media speech, and the FBI was a key participant. In neither case was this about “intelligence.” It was putatively about homeland security and public infrastructure, because that’s how it could be justified as a government effort.

    CISA and the FBI both became unnaturally empowered based on this justification, but intelligence, per se, wasn’t wielding the policymaking or decision power. Its tools were being drawn on to assemble the arena of operations. It’s really important to understand this. Systematic, whole-of-society abuse of intel’s tools cannot be ordered or master-minded by “intelligence.” Intelligence controls only its own tools; it doesn’t have the power to dragoon the other elements of society.

    But extra-legal things only presidents and their top staff could once order up from intelligence are now available for exploitation at lower bureaucratic levels – and known to be so by people who aren’t in government office, and may well be getting things done through contractors and the revolving-door ministrations of Washington’s endless consulting firms (including law firms). Assuming Trump himself had no involvement in arranging for CISA to broker FBI-Twitter collusion in 2020, even though CISA and the FBI both worked for him, it would have been the string-puller side of the whole-of-society apparatus that was making it happen. Thinking we see single fall-guys pulling strings is misleading.

    Smith nails it better here, in recognizing that the whole-of-society effort has become, in effect, a rogue spy service in its own right, one much larger and farther reaching than the intel agencies formally chartered by the U.S. government can be:

    In fact, the FBI’s penetration of Twitter constituted just one part of a much larger intelligence operation—one in which the bureau offshored the machinery it used to interfere in the 2016 election and embedded it within the private sector. The resulting behemoth, still being built today, is a public-private consortium made up of U.S. intelligence agencies, Big Tech companies, civil society institutions, and major media organizations that has become the world’s most powerful spy service—one that was powerful enough to disappear the former president of the United States from public life, and that is now powerful enough to do the same or worse to anyone else it chooses.

    As Smith so aptly says, this whole-of-society strategy isn’t merely about one election, or replacing Trump. It’s about replacing the Republic. I’ve written about that at length before as well, back when people thought the Obama administration’s motive for spying on and thwarting Trump was to preserve particular aspects of Obama’s policy “legacy,” or protect Hillary from exposure or prosecution. Those motives wouldn’t merit even an uncomfortable phone call, much less a whole-of-society enterprise, in the actual scope of what’s going on. (See the analysis and conclusions in these articles, for example: here, here, here. Warning: very long articles; to cut to the chase, do a word-find on “legacy.”)

    How the FBI Hacked Twitter, Lee Smith, Tablet, Jan 2023
    The actual motive – replacing the Republic – is and always was too big to originate in the intel community. Though the evidence indicates they’ve been involved, it’s not men like James Clapper, Christopher Wray, or John Brennan who lay awake at night in 2016 or 2020 envisioning an America that isn’t America anymore. Nor is it their bureaucratic subordinates, at least not in the sense of wielding the power to order lawless activities.

    Those men and women, custodians of the tools, have been tools themselves, if often willing ones, for people who operate at a different level, one at which the actors are mostly out of public office or have never been in it. When I’m asked who these people are, I usually suggest starting with the donors and projects of the Democracy Alliance and proceeding from there. Some of the individuals in question are social media and other Big Tech moguls, but most are not.

    Politically connected consulting firms and Washington’s boutique investment companies are a fruitful place to look. It’s not too much to suggest Obama’s inner circle for this set, either, considering that Susan Rice continues to babysit Biden in the White House, and many Obama functionaries have cycled through or remain in the Biden administration. It is, however, too much to identify Obama as a singular string-puller in chief.

    White House image (Pete Souza)
    Another method is to look around for the public activists who speak thematically in the exact terms Lee Smith encapsulates: what it will look like, and what must be done, to eliminate the American Republic (or any other inconveniently sovereign state) and replace it with something else. America’s sovereignty stands in the way of the hold on power a lot of transnational actors want to have. Inside America, the nature and strength of that sovereignty depend on our continuation as a constitutional republic, responsive to voters free to speak their minds and achieve un-orchestrated outcomes.

    In the past two decades, discussions have constantly revolved around the “replacing the republic” proposition at the World Economic Forum, to name just one. Other gathering spots have been the Aspen Institute and the European Council on Foreign Relations. The participants are in media, risk management, finance, targeted investment, information technology, politics – as well as academia and activist NGOs. Running with them, but by no means pulling their strings, are ex-intel types like the heavily-clubbed MI6 band of Russiagate and Spygate. Many of those visible through this lens are not Americans.

    The thematic underpinnings of the “replacing the republic” proposition have been out there in plain sight for years. Many of them are cultivated in the UN-sponsored global climate initiatives and Agenda 21. There’s no conspiracy theory in pointing this out. There is a consensus silence on it in the U.S. legacy media, especially as it affects the United States. But the participants are all real and have left a distinctive paper trail.

    This leads to the last topic:

    Hail, Speaker McCarthy

    On the fifteenth vote, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was elected Speaker of the House in the last moments of 6 January 2023.

    Leave aside, for now, all the philosophical comments on this. A wrap-up, more comprehensive than most of the copy circulating on social media, can be found here, listing the concessions McCarthy attached to his speakership under demands from the Freedom Caucus 20.

    One of the prior agreements is to establish a “Church Committee”-like body to investigate the use of intelligence tools and government agencies to spy on and censor Americans. This is where parts of the “whole-of-society” effort Smith and Benz describe will be probed.

    I say this next with some urgency. It will be fatally misdirected to imagine, as Senator Frank Church’s committee did in the 1970s, that the intelligence agencies are as far as a committee needs to look, to scope out the danger of the enterprise. The Church Committee was wrong about that in the 1970s (partly, of course, because looking beyond intel to the decision-makers led to people like Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and their senior advisors), and a new committee would be wrong to adopt that perspective today.

    Intel, even at the highest level, mans keyboards, wears headphones, and delivers messages through shadowy paths available to the fewest possible participants.

    The Church Committee meets in 1975. C-SPAN via YouTube
    Intel is involved, to be sure, and there can be utility in curtailing its tools (if that can actually be accomplished in the age of ephemeral digital footprints). The House is likely to take the easier route and confine itself to probing the custodians rather than taking on the decision-makers.

    But if we care who’s trying to replace the American Republic, the custodians aren’t the droids we’re looking for.

    https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2023/01/07/toc-ready-room-7-jan-2023-border-disorder-project-censorship-church-redux/#more-7713

  17. BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Just Like Mueller’s Russia Collusion Sham, Corrupt Jack Smith’s Special Counsel is Unconstitutional as Well
    By Joe Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 11:15am
    145 Comments
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    The corrupt Jack Smith Special Counsel is corrupt and unconstitutional.

    After a corrupt and arguable criminal investigation in the US House under Speaker Pelosi and Liz Cheney, the DOJ decided to take over the unconstitutional and criminal Jan 6 investigation by creating the Jack Smith Special Counsel.

    Rather than investigate the truckloads of evidence that the 2020 Election was corrupt and stolen due to weak and corrupt government officials and politicians certifying the uncertifiable mess, the Jan 6 committee accepted the results of the uncertifiable election and ignored this mound of information proving the 2020 election never should have been certified. Instead, these corrupt individuals went after President Trump and the record-setting tens of millions of Americans who voted for him in the 2020 Election.

    (I provide ample

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/breaking-exclusive-just-like-muellers-russia-collusion-sham-corrupt-jack-smiths-special-counsel-illegal-unconstitutional/

  18. El Paso Rushes to Remove Illegal Immigrants and Disappear Migrant Camps Ahead of Joe Biden’s Visit
    By Cristina Laila
    Published January 8, 2023 at 11:30am
    336 Comments

    Joe Biden on Sunday will be visiting the US-Mexico border for the first time in his life at the age of 80.

    Biden is expected to be at the border for only 3 hours on Sunday.

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    More than 5 million illegal aliens have crossed over the border since Joe Biden was installed in January 2021.

    It has gotten so overwhelming, and bizarre, that illegal aliens are popping up out of sewers in El Paso, Texas.

    Just a few weeks ago Fox News reporter Bill Melugin released video of the extreme overcrowding at the Border Patrol Central Processing Center in El Paso, Texas.

    4,600 migrants were in a facility that can only house 1,040.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/el-paso-rushes-remove-illegal-immigrants-migrant-camps-ahead-joe-bidens-visit/

  19. “I RAN OUT OF THINGS I COULD EVEN IMAGINE TO ASK FOR” – Rep. Matt Gaetz on Why He Finally Reversed Course on McCarthy for House Speakership
    By Joe Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 12:00pm
    466 Comments

    The suspense in the US House of Representatives on Friday night was historic. At the end of the evening, Matt Gaetz held the cards and he eventually conceded in his efforts to withhold the Speakership from Kevin McCarthy.

    Gaetz joined a group of Republican House members who were not comfortable with a McCarthy speakership.

    This group prevented McCarthy from winning House Speaker 13 times. Then on the 13th vote, most of the 20 voted for McCarthy with only a little more than a handful holding out.

    As TGP reported, it was likely McCarthy was going to win the 14th vote which was moved to Friday night. McCarthy was betting that some Democrats would go home and he would be able to win the speakership with fewer votes than needed with the full House in place. McCarthy may have also hoped that he would get the remaining votes needed from those who opposed voting for McCarthy by that evening as well.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/ran-things-even-imagine-ask-rep-matt-gaetz-finally-reversed-course-mccarthy-house-speakership/

  20. Scientific” American: Damar Hamlin’s Injury Proves Football Is Racist
    By Cullen Linebarger
    Published January 8, 2023 at 12:20pm
    311 Comments

    One of the great ironies of the woke, indolent nature of our corporate press is they continue to push narratives that harm the individuals they supposedly want to help. The Scientific American (which also thinks telling black women to lose weight is racist) on Friday published a piece trashing a game played by mostly black men as fundamentally discriminatory in response to the tragic injury suffered by Damar Hamlin last Monday night.

    The author of this piece, Tracie Canada, fancies herself an expert on football due to her background as a “cultural anthropologist.” What she offers instead, however, are the rantings of an educated idiot.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/scientific-american-damar-hamlins-injury-proves-football-racist/

  21. Mars Unveils Limited-Edition All-Female M&M’s Bag Featuring Lesbians and ‘Fat Positive’ Candies to Celebrate Women
    By Cristina Laila
    Published January 8, 2023 at 12:40pm
    480 Comments

    Mars unveiled a woke limited-edition all-female M&M’s bag featuring lesbians and ‘fat positive’ candies to honor women.

    The upside packaging celebrated women who are “flipping the status quo.”

    The green and brown candies represent a lesbian couple

    The purple cartoon candy promotes ‘body positivity.’

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/mars-unveils-limited-edition-female-mms-bag-featuring-lesbians-fat-positive-candies-celebrate-women/

  22. Democrat Connecticut State Legislator Killed in Car Crash Hours After He Was Sworn in For Third Term
    By Cristina Laila
    Published January 8, 2023 at 1:22pm
    89 Comments

    Connecticut state legislator was killed in a car crash just hours after he was sworn into office on Wednesday.

    Quentin Williams, 39, a Democrat, was killed after a car driving the wrong way collided with his vehicle

    According to police, Williams’ car was engulfed in flames and the lawmakers was pronounced dead at the scene.

    The wrong-way driver was also pronounced dead at the scene.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/democrat-connecticut-state-legislator-killed-car-crash-hours-sworn-third-term/

  23. Iran warns France over ‘insulting’ cartoons depicting supreme leader Ali Khamenei
    Publication by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ‘will not go without effective response’, says Tehran foreign minister
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/04/iran-warns-france-over-insulting-cartoons-depicting-supreme-leader-ali-khamenei
    Iran has summoned the French ambassador over publication of caricatures of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
    The weekly magazine published dozens of cartoons ridiculing the highest religious and political figure in the Islamic republic as part of a competition it launched in December in support of the protest movement that began in Iran last September.
    Later on Wednesday, Iran’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the French ambassador, Nicolas Roche.
    “France has no right to insult the sanctities of other Muslim countries and nations under the pretext of freedom of expression,” said a foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani. “Iran is waiting for the French government’s explanation and compensatory action in condemning the unacceptable behaviour of the French publication.”
    The foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, tweeted: “The insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against the religious and political authority will not go without an effective and decisive response.”
    Without spelling out the consequences, he added: “We will not allow the French governmen
    Seen by supporters as a champion of freedom of speech and by critics as needlessly provocative, Charlie Hebdo is controversial even within France. But the country was united in grief when in January 2015 the magazine was targeted in a deadly attack by Islamist gunmen who claimed to be avenging the decision to publish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
    Charlie Hebdo’s latest issue features the winners of a recent cartoon contest in which entrants were asked to draw the most offensive caricatures of Khamenei, who has held Iran’s highest office since 1989.
    One of the finalists depicts a turbaned cleric reaching for a hangman’s noose as he drowns in blood, while another shows Khamenei clinging to a giant throne above the raised fists of protesters. Others depict more vulgar and sexually explicit scenes.
    “It was a way to show our support for Iranian men and women who risk their lives to defend their freedom against the theocracy that has oppressed them since 1979,” Charlie Hebdo’s director, Laurent Sourisseau, known as Riss, wrote in an editorial.
    All the cartoons published had “the merit of defying the authority that the supposed supreme leader claims to be, as well as the cohort of his servants and other henchmen”, he added.
    Nathalie Loiseau, a French MEP and former minister loyal to France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, described Iran’s response as an “interference attempt and threat” to Charlie Hebdo. “Let it be perfectly clear, the repressive and theocratic regime in Tehran has nothing to teach France,” she said.

  24. Hardliner Iran Students Demand Expulsion Of French Envoy Over Cartoons
    https://www.iranintl.com/en/202301086790
    Hard-line student unions have called on Iran’s foreign minister to expel the France’s ambassador over “insulting cartoons” by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
    In a letter published by ISNA in Tehran on Sunday, the student unions called on the foreign ministry to take “the most serious action against the new insult supported by the Elysée against the people of Iran and Muslims of other countries.”
    “Considering the history of Charlie Hebdo in insulting the sanctities of about 2 billion Muslims around the world, we expect the foreign ministry not to accept any excuses by the French government,” reads the letter.
    The Iranian foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned France’s envoy to Tehran to protest “insulting” cartoons depicting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published by Charlie Hebdo.
    The magazine said the series was part of a competition it launched to support anti-regime demonstrations in Iran. France has said media in free and the government cannot interfere with what they publish.
    Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the publication of the cartoons was an “insult to authority, sanctities, and religious and national values” of Iran and the Islamic Republic does not accept these insults.
    Charlie Hebdo has been the target of three terrorist attacks: in 2011, 2015, and 2020. All of them were presumed to be in response to several cartoons that it published controversially depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. In the 2015 attack, 12 people were killed.

  25. Jan 7 2022 Charlie Hebdo Attack Victims Honored as Iran Rages Over New Cartoons
    https://www.voanews.com/a/charlie-hebdo-attack-victims-honored-as-iran-rages-over-new-cartoons-/6909080.html
    French politicians paid tribute Saturday to Charlie Hebdo magazine staff and other victims of the January 2015 Islamist attacks, days after the satirical weekly’s latest edition sparked outrage in Iran.
    French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted the names of all 17 victims of a spate of attacks eight years ago in and around Paris, including the 12 people killed at the offices of Charlie Hebdo.
    “We will never forget you,” he added, with a cartoon by the well-known French cartoonist Plantu attached.
    Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also marked the anniversary of the attacks, which also involved a deadly siege at a kosher supermarket.
    “In the face of Islamist terrorism, the Republic remains standing,” she tweeted. “For their families, for our values, for our liberty: we do not forget.”
    And Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak tweeted: “Satire, irreverence, the republican tradition of press cartoons are intrinsic to our democracy. We continue to defend them.”
    The tributes came days after Tehran reacted furiously to cartoons mocking Iran’s leadership in the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo, which appeared Wednesday.
    The magazine had invited cartoonists to depict Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the context of ongoing demonstrations against his theocratic regime, by women in particular.
    The graphic front cover sought to highlight the fight for women’s rights, while others were sexually explicit and insulting toward Khamenei and fellow clerics.
    Many cartoons pointed to the authorities’ use of capital punishment as a tactic to quell the protests.
    [..]
    In Paris Saturday, Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin and the city’s Mayor Anne Hidalgo were among the politicians who attended a ceremony at the former offices of Charlie Hebdo, in the city’s 11th arrondissement.
    It was there that two gunmen killed staff at the magazine, including some of its best-known cartoonists.
    [..]

  26. Iranian Dutch receive death threats, but do not stop their protest
    https://netherlands.postsen.com/trends/127986/Iranian-Dutch-receive-death-threats-but-do-not-stop-their-protest.html
    Cartoonist Sanaz Bagheri came from Iran to the Netherlands four years ago. She could no longer endure the oppression of women in her country. But here too she feels the pressure of the Iranian regime, now that she regularly criticizes the repression of recent months.
    She receives death threats, probably because of her anti-regime cartoons she posts online. The messages would come from the cyber arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s elite military corps. “But I have no fear,” says Bagheri. “I chose to fight against the regime in this way.”
    She is certainly not the only Iranian in the Netherlands to experience the long arm of Tehran. There is good reason to take the threats seriously: two murders in the Netherlands in recent years have been linked to the Iranian government.
    “People feel unsafe here,” says Asefeh Eskandari, who came to the Netherlands with her parents more than thirty years ago. “I know of several cases of Iranian Dutch people who are threatened with liquidation.”
    Eskandari is a political activist. On Saturday, she demonstrated at Schiphol for sanctions against members of the Iranian regime. “They can still travel freely and enter our country. They are terrorists, people who kill fellow citizens, imprison, torture, rape and issue death sentences. And those people are allowed to enter here and through a transfer to other places in the world . How is that possible?”
    [..]
    Ten party leaders in the House of Representatives are also calling for harsh sanctions against members of the regime. For example, they want the Revolutionary Guards to be on the list of terrorist organizations. International travel would then be made virtually impossible for them.
    This measure is badly needed, says Eskandari’s mother Tahereh Khorrami. “In recent months, the feeling of insecurity has increased enormously. The Iranian regime is capable of anything.”
    She seems to be right about that. In 2015 and 2017, two Dutch citizens of Iranian descent were liquidated in the Netherlands. The AIVD has strong indications that Iran is behind it.
    “The Iranian regime is dangerous and all opponents should be careful,” says cartoonist Bagheri. “At home and abroad.”
    Bagheri herself was recently advised by the Dutch police not to mention her place of residence in interviews. But she has no intention of posting fewer cartoons. On the contrary. “I want to have influence. I want to make the voices of Iranians heard in other countries and to other governments. A cartoon can be a way to fight.”
    “And I think that all Iranians all over the world should fight against the regime. Because they are terrorists. Iranians have been oppressed and killed for decades. The regime tries to silence people, but they can’t.”
    [..]

  27. JAN 6, 2023 ‘It is important that this cartoon is published’
    https://taketonews.com/it-is-important-that-this-cartoon-is-published/
    On December 9, Iranian Sanaz Bagheri (35) saw a call on Instagram: “Charlie Hebdo is launching an international competition to create caricatures of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the opening line on the account read Charlie Hebdo. Bagheri, who lives in the Netherlands, still had plenty of Ali Khamenei cartoons lying around and submitted them all.
    Eight years after the bloody terrorist attack on the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo Thursday with a special edition. “It was our intention to support the Iranians’ struggle for freedom by ridiculing their religious leader from another era and thus pushing him into historical oblivion,” the website reads.
    In the number of Charlie Hebdo Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is depicted, among other things, wearing a bomb as a turban and drowning in a sea of ??blood in a cartoon. That last cartoon comes from Bagheri. “To my great surprise, they wanted to publish it. Many cartoonists participated in that competition. I was also very happy and honored because Charlie Hebdo is a very controversial paper for the Iranian authorities. That is why it is extra important that this cartoon is published.”

    Why is it like that?

    Bagheri: „I consider this number of Charlie Hebdo as a symbol of resistance. The French magazine supports the demonstrators in Iran. You also see that the Iranian regime has been touched by these publications. They have called for it not to be published, but fortunately that has happened.”

    Aren’t you afraid of the consequences of your cartoon?

    “Not really. I know the regime can be dangerous, but what I’m doing is nothing like what the protesters are doing in Iran. I am staying in a safe location.”

    Still, the police are now advising Bagheri, na an interview that she gave to the news website NU.nl, to ask the media not to mention her place of residence. Into the cartoons Charlie Hebdo met with fierce criticism in Iran.

    The Iranian foreign minister spoke on Twitter of an “insulting and indecent act” against their spiritual leader. The French foreign minister responded sharply to the criticism: “In France we have freedom of expression, unlike Iran.”
    [..]

    The “offensive” cartoons by Sanaz Bagheri:
    https://cartoonmovement.com/cartoonist/13958

  28. Rep. Dan Crenshaw Apologizes For Calling McCarthy Holdouts ‘Terrorists’ After Major Backlash (VIDEO)
    By Cristina Laila
    Published January 8, 2023 at 2:35pm
    239 Comments

    Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) on Sunday walked back his comments that McCarthy holdouts were terrorists.

    Recall, 20 Republican ‘rebels’ refused to vote for McCarthy in last week’s vote for Speaker of the House.

    The speaker vote went 15 rounds before McCarthy won.

    The Republican ‘rebels’ made demands of McCarthy before finally supporting him late Friday night into early Saturday morning.

    On Wednesday Dan Crenshaw called the GOP holdouts ‘terrorists‘ after McCarthy lost in the 6th round.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/rep-dan-crenshaw-apologizes-calling-mccarthy-holdouts-terrorists-major-backlash-video/

  29. Rep Gosar: ‘We Will Conduct An Investigation Into Attempted Coup By Traitor Gen. Mark Milley and Pelosi’
    By Anthony Scott
    Published January 8, 2023 at 6:45pm
    Comment

    Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is leading the charge for Republicans in launching an investigation into General Mark Milley and Nancy Pelosi.

    On January 7th Gosar tweeted “Remember – we will conduct a real investigation into J6. The effort to attempt a coup between traitor Gen. Mark Milley and Pelosi will be reviewed and exposed.”

    Gosar would continue “Milleys treasonous sell-out to China will be investigated. Pelosi not warning members about intel of impending violence will be exposed.”

    Gosar would continue his series of tweets by writing “soon, we’ll know the truth.”

    The lawmaker from Arizona wrote teh wtees as a reponse to comedian John Fugelsang wo tweeted out “Remember – Kevin McCarthy, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert & Paul Gosar all share the same pre-existing sedition.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/rep-gosar-will-conduct-investigation-attempted-coup-traitor-gen-mark-milley-pelosi/

  30. INTERVIEW with Micki Witthoeft: “I want somebody to explain to me why I can’t lay flowers for my murdered daughter on the steps of the Capitol” (Audio)
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 6:58pm
    14 Comments

    The mother of Ashli Babbitt, Micki Witthoeft, was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police at a protest Friday afternoon in Washington, D.C. marking the second anniversary of her daughter’s killing by Capitol Police officer Michael Byrd during the January 6th riot.

    Micki was on her way to lay a rose on the steps of the US Capitol on the second anniversary of her daughter’s murder by Officer Mike Byrd on January 6, 2021.
    On Sunday The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft spoke with Micki Witthoeft following her arrest and release by the DC Police.

    This was an explosive interview where we covered several topics.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/interview-micki-witthoeft-want-somebody-explain-cant-lay-flowers-murdered-daughter-steps-capitol-audio/

  31. WATCH: Texas Governor Greg Abbott Hand-Delivers Joe Biden a Letter During His Drive-By Photo Op Visit to the Border – Here’s What It Says
    By Cristina Laila
    Published January 8, 2023 at 7:32pm
    Comment

    Joe Biden on Sunday traveled to El Paso, Texas in his first visit to the southern border ever.

    After 50 years in politics, this is Biden’s first trip to the US-Mexico border at the age of 80.

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    More than 5 million illegal aliens have crossed over the border on Joe Biden’s watch.

    Border facilities are overwhelmed by illegal aliens.

    Prozoro
    Biden toured a CBP parking lot and strolled by the border wall for a photo op.

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) was not impressed with Joe Biden’s 3-hour, drive-by trip to the southern border.

    Abbott greeted Biden on the tarmac and handed him a letter.

    WATCH:

    Your visit to our southern border with Mexico today is $20 billion too little and two years too late. Moreover, your visit avoids the sites where mass illegal immigration occurs and sidesteps the thousands of angry Texas property owners whose lives have been destroyed by your border policies. Even the city you visit has been sanitized of the migrant camps which had overrun downtown El Paso because your Administration wants to shield you from the chaos that Texans experience on a daily basis. This chaos is the direct result of your failure to enforce the immigration laws that Congress enacted.” Abbott wrote in his letter to Joe Biden.

    Under President Trump, the federal government achieved historically low levels of illegal immigration. Under your watch, by contrast, America is suffering the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country. Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings. Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure, sometimes with their very lives, as local leaders from your own party will tell you if given the chance,” Abbott wrote.

    All of this is happening because you have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the States against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws. Halfway through your presidency, though, I can finally welcome you to the border. When you finish the photo-ops in a carefully stage-managed version of El Paso, you have a job to do.” he wrote.

    Here’s the copy of the letter Abbott gave Joe Biden:

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/watch-texas-governor-greg-abbott-hand-delivers-joe-biden-letter-drive-photo-op-visit-border-says/

  32. IMPEACH 46” – HUNDREDS OF PROTESTERS Greet Joe Biden in El Paso In His First Visit to Open Border (VIDEO)
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 8, 2023 at 9:27pm
    0 Comments

    Protesters greeted Joe Biden in El Paso today during his first visit to the open US Border.

    Since Joe Biden took over the White House the southern border has been wide open to illegal aliens. Over 5 million illegals have already crossed into the US during Joe Biden’s watch.

    Democrats are done with America.
    This is the purposeful suicide of the country they despise.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/impeach-46-hundreds-protesters-greet-joe-biden-el-paso-first-visit-open-border-video/