Reader’s links: January 18th, 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

94 Replies to “Reader’s links: January 18th, 2023”

  1. “…Little by little then all at once…”

    Nine syllables with the cadence of a poem opening that I will spare you.

    Why should information obfuscation be limited to medicine and war? It isn’t. Here, a good market observer pounds the table over the hiding from the public, to its absolute peril, of massive moves in precious metals not reflected in the retail price:

    https://youtu.be/_TZ55a8vsWM

  2. “A dozen yellow roses, please,” I asked of the young man at a local flower shop. I was buying for a friend’s birthday. The shop was very small and busy with displays.
    “Sure,” he replied. “It’ll take about ten minutes.”
    “How’s business?” I asked.
    “Good. Busy.”

    For the moment I was the only customer in there. The young man went into the walk-in cooler to fetch the roses. I’m not so much a flower guy. I buy them when I must. This business is driven by the cycle of life, I thought as I stood staring at a vase. Birth, death and every high and low moment in between. The front door swings for weddings and recoveries, friends and foes. I’d never given it much thought, actually, but here I was with my mind turning at idle waiting for on some pretty yellows. The young man came out of the cooler and started arranging the bouquet on a small table in front of me.
    “You get more bang for your buck with cut flowers. You get more flowers,” he said as he went to trimming the stems. I don’t think he was even twenty years old. Probably a student working part time.

    I was reminded of that famous book Freakonomics, and how real-world information can be gleaned from unlikely sources if you’re willing to dig a little bit. There’s one bit of trivia in that book that stuck with me about how a real estate agent’s own house will hang on the market weeks longer, on average, than a house the agent is selling for a stranger. Agents know they’ll get a better price if they expose the house to the market for a longer period, whereas if they’re selling for a customer they are more interested in simply moving sales for volume. Here I had an unlikely source now, of my own. We’ve heard from the margins such as funeral home directors on their accounts as to what’s been going on, but what about this little nexus of the death industry?
    “What kinds of arrangements do you do the most these days,” I asked.
    His eyes didn’t even raise up from the table. “Well, there have been LOTS of funerals in January. It’s like people are hanging on for Christmas then they just choose to go. Funeral wreaths are good because we get to use up more old flowers.”
    “You mean you can sort of bury the old stock in with the new?”
    “Exactly. We get lots of old ladies, lots of husbands. More middle-aged people. Yesterday I sent a vase for someone getting over something. It takes longer to make a vase.”
    “Is there special etiquette for different ages?” I was being careful.
    “Well, you can kind of tell things, sort of. You can’t ask, of course, because it would be too insensitive, like, people are grieving, like. But like when an old person dies you do lots of colours for a celebration of life.”
    “What about a younger person?”
    “Well, when a younger person dies suddenly you go mostly white. It’s more respectful. Maybe in carnations.”
    “Have you been doing many of those lately?”
    “Yeah, lots.”
    The bell on the front door then clanged as a young couple entered the shop behind me. My flowers were done. I was grateful they were yellow.

    • Oh Johnny, what joy flowers bring. I love a bunche of mixed white flowers, hmm, I will still buy them, perhaps not with such enthusiasm lol.

      Your writing reminded me of a poem on a plaque at Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. “When I quit this mortal shore, and mosey round this earth no more.” I love the lines:

      “If you have a rose, bless your soul,
      Just pin it in my button hole,
      But do it while I’m at my best,
      Instead of when I’m at my rest.”

      I always look at the flowers at a funeral, they remind me of all the beauty in this world. They are a form of condolences I guess.

      When you send flowers, they may not last a long time, but your thoughtfulness will last forever. You are a sweetie.

        • No. Keep sending flowers, keep singing love songs, as in “You don’t send me flowers, you don’t sing me love songs”. I see you doing the flamenco in burgundy attire, with a deep red rose in your mouth.

    • Full disclosure- – I do not own a flower shop or have any investments in any flower supply companies. LOL

    • Subtle, Johnny.
      You’d be a great asset for an intelligence agency. Perhaps the one that will serve the govt in exile.

  3. 3:14 on the price of food in Dystopia, and how it may bite Dear Leader in his rump roast:

  4. 6:15 The Rebel tries to ask a question of a Ukrainian-Dystopian-Fascist midget and gets jack booted to the curb:

    • eurpravda – Ukraine helicopter crash kills interior minister, with three children among 18 deaths

      A helicopter crash in Kyiv kills 18 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and three children.

      …the helicopter crashed into a nursery and set it ablaze

      … Monastyrskyi died alongside his first deputy, Yevheniy Yenin, and other ministry officials

    • CBC – Canada announces it will donate 200 armoured vehicles to Ukraine

      Ukraine and Russia are preparing for major offensive operations, says Andrew Rasiulis, a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

      This is motivating Western countries to supply ‘all the arms that are possible’ to Ukraine, he says.

      =====================
      https://roshel.ca/about/
      =====================

      + comments on the YT page

      • ctv news – Canada pledges 200 armoured vehicles to Ukraine

        Canada’s shipment of armoured vehicles along with support from NATO is a step-up for Ukraine’s battle against Russia, military expert says.

      • ctv news – Ukraine wants TANKS, despite Canada sending 200 armored vehicles

        Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada Yulia Kovaliv comments on the tragic helicopter crash in Kyiv, and Ukraine’s need for more military support.

    • NATO chief calls for significant boost in arms for Ukraine

      DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Ukraine needs a “significant increase” in weapons at a pivotal moment in Russia’s invasion and such support is the only way to a negotiated peaceful solution, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.

      Defence leaders from around 50 countries and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will hold talks at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base on Friday, the latest in a series of meetings since Russian forces swept into Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.

      “This is a pivotal moment in the war and the need for a significant increase in support for Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

      “If we want a negotiated peaceful solution tomorrow we need to provide more weapons today.”

      The focus in Ramstein is expected to be not on what the United States will provide but on whether Germany will lift its opposition to sending its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine or at least approve their transfer from allied countries.

      Stoltenberg remained cautious on the subject, saying consultations were continuing, although he welcomed a British decision to dispatch Challenger tanks to Kiev.

      This week, Britain raised the pressure on Berlin by becoming the first Western country to send Western tanks, pledging a squadron of 14 Challengers, but the Leopards are seen as the best choice to supply Ukraine with a large-scale tank force.

      Kiev says it hopes new Western weapons will give it fresh military momentum this year, especially heavy tanks which would provide its troops more mobility and protection to push through Russian lines in the east and south of the country.

      Beyond tanks, Stoltenberg said Ukraine needed more air defence systems and armour but also ammunition, spare parts and maintenance capabilities to ensure that its existing weapons continued to function.

      He said the situation along battlefronts had stabilised over the past weeks, but that the protracted fierce fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut demonstrated the importance of providing more weapons to support Ukraine.

      Russia has focused on Bakhmut in recent weeks, claiming last week to have taken the mining town of Soledar on the city’s northern outskirts.

      “(Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin has shown no sign of preparing for peace and therefore he must realise he cannot win on the battlefield,” Stoltenberg added.

      https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/davos-2023-nato-chief-calls-significant-boost-arms-ukraine-2023-01-18/

    • NYT – JAN 18 2023 – U.S. Warms to Helping Ukraine Target Crimea

      The Biden administration is considering the argument that Kyiv needs the power to strike at the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

      WASHINGTON — For years, the United States has insisted that Crimea is still part of Ukraine. Yet the Biden administration has held to a hard line since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, refusing to provide Kyiv with the weapons it needs to target the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has been using as a base for launching devastating strikes.

      Now that line is starting to soften.

      After months of discussions with Ukrainian officials, the Biden administration is finally starting to concede that Kyiv may need the power to strike the Russian sanctuary, even if such a move increases the risk of escalation, according to several U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive debate. Crimea, between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, is home to tens of thousands of dug-in Russian troops and numerous Russian military bases.

      The moderation in position has come about as the Biden administration has come to believe that if the Ukrainian military can show Russia that its control of Crimea can be threatened, that would strengthen Kyiv’s position in any future negotiations. In addition, fears that the Kremlin would retaliate using a tactical nuclear weapon have dimmed, U.S. officials and experts said — though they cautioned that the risk remained.

      The new thinking on Crimea — annexed illegally by Russia in 2014 — shows how far Biden administration officials have come from the start of the war, when they were wary of even acknowledging publicly that the United States was providing Stinger anti-aircraft missiles for Ukrainian troops.

      But over the course of the conflict, the United States and its NATO allies have been steadily loosening the handcuffs they put on themselves, moving from providing Javelins and Stingers to advanced missile systems, Patriot air defense systems, armored fighting vehicles and even some Western tanks to give Ukraine the capacity to strike against Russia’s onslaught.

      Now, the Biden administration is considering what would be one of its boldest moves yet, helping Ukraine to attack the peninsula that President Vladimir V. Putin views as an integral part of his quest to restore past Russian glory.

      American officials are discussing with their Ukrainian counterparts the use of American-supplied weapons, from HIMARS rocket systems to Bradley fighting vehicles, to possibly target Mr. Putin’s hard-fought control over a land bridge that functions as a critical supply route connecting Crimea to Russia via the Russian-occupied cities of Melitopol and Mariupol.

      However, President Biden is not yet ready to give Ukraine the long-range missile systems that Kyiv would need to attack Russian installations on the peninsula.

      With the Black Sea fleet, a major Russian air base, command posts and logistics hubs supporting Russian operations in southern Ukraine, the peninsula represents a major focus in Kyiv’s battle plans.

      In deciding to give the Bradleys to Ukraine, the Biden administration moved closer to providing Kyiv with something for which senior Ukrainian officials have been imploring the United States for months: direct American help for Ukraine to go on the offense — including targeting Crimea.

      The Bradleys are armored personnel carriers mounted with powerful 25-millimeter guns and guided missiles that can take on Russian tanks.

      Frederick B. Hodges, a retired lieutenant general and former top U.S. Army commander in Europe, said that in the coming months the Bradleys could be used by Ukrainian troops to help sever the land bridge.

      Being able to rely on military bases in Crimea for staging was the primary reason Russian forces were able to seize land in southern Ukraine last year, a U.S. official said. Making those forces less capable is a key battlefield goal of the Ukrainians.

      “Ukraine could use Bradleys to move forces down major roads, such as the M14, which connects Kherson, Melitopol and Mariupol,” added Seth G. Jones, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Any Ukrainian infantry advancing through these areas would face significant fire from Russian positions, and Bradleys offer helpful firepower and protection for troops.”

      The Bradleys, along with British tanks and the armored combat vehicles that France and Germany have agreed to send, could be the vanguard of an armored force that Ukraine could employ in a counteroffensive this winter or spring, government and independent analysts say.

      “We think now is the right time to intensify our support for Ukraine,” Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said Tuesday while on a visit to Washington. “We can’t allow this to drag on and become a kind of First World War attritional-type stalemate.”

      The British Defense Ministry said in a Twitter message last week that in recent weeks, Russia had bolstered defensive fortifications in central Zaporizhzhia, a province in southern Ukraine near the land bridge, and where Russia maintains a large force.

      If Ukraine does focus on reclaiming Zaporizhzhia, then preliminary attacks could include hitting targets in nearby Crimea. “A major Ukrainian breakthrough in Zaporizhzhia would seriously challenge the viability of Russia’s ‘land bridge,’” the British assessment said.

      Ukraine also has American-provided HIMARS, long-range rocket systems. With the reclaiming last year of Kherson in the south, Ukrainian forward lines can now use them to hit the main supply routes coming out of Crimea, one American military official said in an interview.

      This week, top U.S. and Ukrainian commanders will hold a high-level planning meeting in Germany to game out the offensive planning, another senior U.S. official said. The drill, the official said, is meant to align Ukraine’s battle plans with the kinds of weapons and supplies NATO allies are contributing.

      Ukrainian officials fear their country cannot survive years of a stalemated conflict while Russia continues to pound cities and towns. So they see little choice but to target Crimea and put it in jeopardy, a senior U.S. official said, noting that the issue has come up at recent high-level meetings at the White House.

      Still, despite the additional weaponry, the Biden administration does not think that Ukraine can take Crimea militarily — and indeed, there are still worries that such a move could drive Mr. Putin to retaliate with an escalatory response. But, officials said, their assessment now is that Russia needs to believe that Crimea is at risk, in part to strengthen Ukraine’s position in any future negotiations.

      By demonstrating an ability to strike in Crimea, American officials say, Ukraine could show that Russian control is not established. The Biden administration also increasingly believes that hitting Russia’s rear lines coming out of Crimea could severely damage Moscow’s ability to push its front lines further, officials say.

      “Without Crimea, the whole thing falls apart,” said Evelyn Farkas, the top Pentagon official for Ukraine during the Obama administration.

      Contributing to the shifting thinking is a dampening of fears that targeting Crimea would drive Mr. Putin to use a tactical nuclear weapon, officials say. “It feels to me like increasingly, the administration is recognizing that the threat of Russian escalation is perhaps not what they thought it was earlier,” General Hodges said.

      While Ukrainian strikes inside Russia proper still bring escalatory concerns from U.S. officials, Moscow’s reaction to periodic Ukrainian special operations or covert attacks in Crimea, including against Russian air bases, command posts and ships in the Black Sea fleet, has been tempered.

      “There is more clarity on their tolerance for damage and attacks,” said Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. “Crimea has already been hit many times without a massive escalation from the Kremlin.”

      Still, Mr. Putin and the Russian public view Crimea as part of Russia, so strikes there could solidify Russian support for the war.

      For their part, U.S. officials say they do not know how Mr. Putin will react if Ukraine attacks Crimea using American-supplied weapons.

      Ms. Massicot said none of Ukraine’s handful of attacks on Crimea so far have threatened Russia’s ability to maintain its claim on the peninsula. “So they may not be an accurate test of Russia’s resolve on this point,” she said.

      Last month, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken reiterated standing American policy on Ukraine — that the Biden administration was seeking to help the country take back territory seized during and after the Russian invasion last year.

      “Our focus is on continuing to do what we’ve been doing, which is to make sure that Ukraine has in its hands what it needs to defend itself, what it needs to push back against the Russian aggression, to take back territory that’s been seized from it since Feb. 24,” Mr. Blinken told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council summit. By Mr. Blinken’s definition, that territory does not include Crimea.

      That position, critics say, has largely given the Russian military an untouchable sanctuary from which to attack Ukraine.

      “We have in essence put limits on Ukraine, saying this war is going to be fought on your soil and not on Russian soil,” said Philip Breedlove, a retired four-star Air Force general who was NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. “To give Russia sanctuary from which to fight, without fear of reproach, is absolutely absurd. It makes no military sense.”

      https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/us/politics/ukraine-crimea-military.html

    • The US has maintained this stockpile under every President but Obama. He moved all of the ammo to Diego Garcia, Trump moved it back to Israel. Looks like Obiden is once again moving it out of Israel.

      Obiden is depleting the US weapons reserves and not ordering more.

      • Russian take on this:

        The Leak About Israeli-Based US Ammo Going To Kiev Is Meant To Weaken Ties With Russia

        The timing of the New York Times’ report is certainly suspicious since this agreement was reached sometime in the second half of last year yet was only just now brought to the public’s attention. That in turn prompts objective observers to seriously suspect that there are ulterior political motives at play, namely the unstated desire to weaken Russian-Israeli relations at the moment when they’re expected to further strengthen as a result of Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to office.
        […]
        To summarize, the US is extremely upset that Bibi is much less likely to bite the anti-Iranian information warfare bait and ship arms to Kiev under that pretext than his two liberal predecessors who were more ideologically aligned with the Biden Administration’s liberal-globalist agenda than he is.

        That’s why it’s now provoking a Color Revolution against him in an attempt to coerce the three-time Israeli leader into making unilateral concessions on his country’s foreign policy, which is unlikely to succeed though.

        Considering the high likelihood that the aforementioned influence operation will fail, the US arguably decided to leak details about last year’s deal under his predecessor in a desperate last-ditch attempt to throw a wrench in Russian-Israeli relations. That too will almost certainly fail…

        With this in mind, the very fact that such a manipulative information warfare operation was just launched by the US against the foreign policy of its nominal Israeli ally speaks volumes.

        First, it shows that these two really aren’t as close as their representatives claim nor what popular perceptions across the world are about their relations. Second, this development confirms that the Biden Administration doesn’t trust Bibi, or rather, that it doesn’t expect him to be their anti-Russian puppet.

        Third, the preceding insight in turn reinforces the perception of this three-time premier as a truly independent and pro-sovereign leader….

        [T]here shouldn’t be any doubt that he’ll continue his pragmatic foreign policy course in spite of the newfound US-orchestrated Color Revolution pressure against him. And finally, this information warfare operation might actually backfire on the US by further complicating its ties with Israel.

        https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-leak-about-israeli-based-us-ammo?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

    • https://www.jpost.com/international/article-728861
      …………….
      This pair of JPost columnists dribble Western, pro-Ukraine propaganda unaware of how hollow it sounds. They’re apologetic that Israel hasn’t done more. They try to explain away this servile, sneak ammo transfer. Sure, an angry Bear would pose an immense security threat, but that fact is offered as an excuse.

      The previous leftist government lasted just long enough to cause significant damage. Lapid and Gantz were bent on exchanging Israeli sovereignty for colony status under the hostile oBiden regime. Policy on the war in Ukraine is just one example.

      They couldn’t go as far as they would’ve liked to #StandWithUkraine – the government would’ve collapsed immediately. ‘Out of touch’ is an understatement.

      Almost 20% of Israelis are Russian-speaking, about a third from Russia, another third from Ukraine. They tend to be secular and lean to the right politically – though “inoculation by socialism” is wearing off somewhat in the younger generation.

      They remain closely attached to friends and family still living in the former Soviet Union. Like Soviet emigres here, Russian-speaking Israelis try to cut through the fog of war by connecting online with people on the ground daily. We compare notes to get a broader sense of what’s happening. It’s complicated and horrible. We just want it to stop.

      Only a very thin slice of the Israeli population supports the Kiev regime. The leftist, Western elites.

      The Left is a jealous mistress. You’re either with her or against her. She demands absolute fealty, forsake deviant thoughts. Banish concern for your own country’s immediate, physical security.

      How else can you explain someone like Natan Sharansky cheerleading for a deracinated Jew-“ish” president? Who shocked the nation in an address to the Knesset with grotesque historical revisionism, a wholly selfish madman.

      That the West has become fanatically Russophobic, enthusiastically demonizing an entire culture and people – and the penny still doesn’t drop? Even outright nazi symbolism, glorification of real Nazi murderers – all that gets a pass.

  5. WATCH: World Economic Forum Panelist Says the US Will ‘Soon’ Have ‘Illegal Hate Speech’ Laws
    By Cassandra Fairbanks
    Published January 18, 2023 at 9:00am
    Comment

    European Union official Vera Jourova claimed during a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel that the US would “soon” have “illegal hate speech” laws.
    Hate speech laws, of course, would be a direct violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

    Jourova made the claim on a panel on “the clear and present danger of disinformation” with former CNN Host Brian Stelter on Tuesday.

    “For hate speech, we need the people who understand the language and the case law in the country, because what qualifies as hate speech, illegal hate speech, which you will have soon also in the U.S., we have a strong reason why we have this in the criminal law,” Jourova said.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/watch-world-economic-forum-panelist-says-us-will-soon-illegal-hate-speech-laws/

    • twitter @elonmusk

      WEF is increasingly becoming an unelected world government that the people never asked for and don’t want

      https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1615751952465563650

      ===================================
      twitter @disclosetv

      NEW – Moderna CEO says he wants to have an mRNA factory on every continent at Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum.

      https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1615660839918342145

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

      CEOs of Moderna and Gavi join World Economic Forum session ‘State of the Pandemic’

      ( 46 min 10 )

    • Pfizer Wants to Make a Covid/Flu Vaccine

      Bourla talks about creating a MRNA flu vaccine and eventually one shot you can take for Covid-19 and the flu.


    • CBC – UN secretary general calls for an end to world’s ‘addiction to fossil fuels’

      Guterres is warning that time is running out to get serious about climate change while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

      The secretary general says the world is ‘flirting with climate disasters,’ with a new horror story every week.

      • Shameful, evil maniacs promoting fear, always fear. Oh geeez I am getting Grey hair. Can I sue the climate clowns for promoting fear, all the poor little kids who are being fed a steady diet of garbage from the WEF, politicians, some doctors? I cannot help but worry about the kids future, yes I should sue for pain, suffering and some grey hair. LOL. I can say “I AM TRIGGERED”.

      • Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla discusses new vaccines in the pipeline

        Bourla speaks with CNBC’s Sara Eisen at the World Economic Forum in Davos about China’s fight against Covid, new vaccines Pfizer is developing (including ones for RSV, Lyme’s disease) and the state of big pharma competition.

    • DAVOS – NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg speaks at the World Economic Forum

      Stoltenberg, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freelandspeak at a WEF session on ‘Restoring Security and Peace.’

      • Sell one of your oversized houses, explain why you and slick Willy had the solar panels removed from the White House roof and fade away please.

    • ‘We Are Still Failing Badly’: Al Gore Delivers Fiery Remarks On Climate Change Dangers

      ( 9 min 34 )

  6. 12-Year-Old Girl In Argentina Dies After Being Pressured to Participate in a “Choking Challenge” Her Friends Saw Online
    By Cullen Linebarger
    Published January 18, 2023 at 8:45am
    26 Comments

    Breitbart reported on a story in Argentina involving a young girl taking part in a “choking challenge” she saw on TikTok. Her classmates pressured her to partake in the deadly activity and then they watched her die.

    Here are the blood-boiling details from Breitbart:

    TRENDING:

    China-owned TikTok has been established as a grave threat to America’s national security due to the Chinese government’s ability to use TikTok to control users’ devices for influence or espionage purposes.

    But what children watch online can also be dangerous and parents need to be involved.

    A 12-year-old girl in Argentina has died after participating in the deadly “choking challenge” first popularized on the China-owned app TikTok.

    The girl’s death was filmed in a video call with her classmates watching as she attempting the choking challenge, also known as the “blackout challenge,” prompted by TikTok, reports El Litoral.

    The 12-year-old girl, Milagros Soto, was “encouraged” by her classmates to participate in the fatal TikTok challenge, which involved “recording herself and managing to hold her breath with an object tied to her neck until she fainted,” the report added.

    Soto, who had lived in Capitán Bermúdez, Argentina, was found dead hanging in her room on Friday. Her relatives are now asking to “raise awareness” about the risks associated with viral TikTok challenges, so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.

    “my little niece… who lost her life today doing a tik tok challenge — my family and I are inconsolable,” the girl’s aunt, Laura Luque, wrote in a social media post on Friday.

    Soto is not the first child to die as a result of a TikTok challenge. Last summer, 14-year-old Leon Brown and 12-year-old Archie Battersbee of the UK allegedly died due to attempting the same “blackout challenge.”

    Breitbart goes on to list several other deadly challenges promoted by TikTok users. Last September, there was a “challenge” encouraging children to cook chicken with Nyquil, an activity that could cause severe liver damage or even death.

    Another “challenge” back in 2020 coaxed TikTok users to get high off of Benadryl. Several teens undertook this challenge and ended up dying as a result.

    Parents need to be involved.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/chinas-tiktok-kills-child-12-year-old-girl-argentina-dies-participating-choking-challenge/

  7. The First Step Here is Exposure… So We Can Actually Have Accountability” – Senator Ron Johnson Discusses the “COVID Cartel” and the Nuremberg Trials (VIDEO)
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 18, 2023 at 8:30am
    169 Comments

    On Tuesday’s special episode of “Fearless,” host Jason Whitlock was joined by Robert Kennedy Jr., Senator Ron Johnson, NBA legend John Stockton, and others to talk about vaccine injuries and ‘The Covid Cartel.’

    Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) brought up the Nuremberg trials during the discussion on accountability.

    The reason the Nuremberg trials, one of the reasons that was made possible is because Eisenhower made sure the camps were exposed and photographed and those horrors were revealed to the world. That’s why the first step here is exposure,” Sen. Johnson said.

    “My main reason for advocating for [vaccine injured] is so they can be seen, heard, believed and healed and treated. Because right now, without federal agencies, without medical establishments acknowledging, they can’t even get treatment.”

    According to Sen. Johnson, those who have been harmed by the vaccine play an important role in spreading awareness and exposing the danger of the Covid vaccine, “so we can actually have accountability, so we can actually fix these problems.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/first-step-exposure-can-actually-accountability-senator-ron-johnson-discusses-covid-cartel-nuremberg-trials-video/

  8. Biden Attorney Dana Remus Who Had Obama Officiate Her Wedding, Departed White House Soon After GOP Senators Found a Second Pseudonym Email Assigned to Joe Biden
    By Joe Hoft
    Published January 18, 2023 at 7:45am
    109 Comments

    The top dollar attorney who was Joe Biden’s top attorney is now representing him in the document scandal.

    It turns out, Obama even received a temporary license to officiate her wedding.

    Advertisement – story continues below

    What isn’t mentioned is that Remus was contacted by GOP Senators who were looking into the fake emails used by the Bidens when cutting deals. In June 2022 another email popped up. The Tennesee Star reported:

    In July 2021, the senators requested information from Dana A. Remus, then-Counsel to the President, on reports that Biden, as vice president, used a non-government email for official business, including the transmission of government information to his son, Hunter Biden. After the White House failed to respond for nearly a year, Johnson and Grassley pressed the administration again in June 2022 after the discovery of an additional non-government email pseudonym associated with Joe Biden

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/biden-attorney-dana-ramus-obama-officiate-wedding-departed-white-house-right-senators-grassley-johnson-found-non-government-email-assigned-joe-biden/

  9. UPDATE: Gruesome Details Released in Gay Activist Couple’s Crimes on Their Adopted Sons (Warning on Content)
    By Cullen Linebarger
    Published January 18, 2023 at 7:30am
    500 Comments

    What you are about to read is the epitome of pure evil. A journalist from Townhall.com wrote a horrifying story Tuesday about an LGBTQ ring involving a gay couple allegedly raping and pimping out their adopted children to pedophiles in the Atlanta, Georgia suburbs.

    Mia Cathell, the journalist who wrote the article, had been investigating William Dale Zulock, Jr and Zachary Jacoby Zulock for months after their initial arrest in July 2022.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/update-gruesome-details-released-gay-activist-couples-crimes-adopted-sons-warning-content/

    • I have a feeling these abominations have been around forever. They might’ve made headlines in tabloids near supermarket check-out lanes, but that’s about it.
      Sexual perversion porn – soft-core, offered as “news” – normalizes aberrant extremes. It isn’t healthy.

  10. Ohio School District Sued By 18 Parents for Allowing Transgender Student Into Girls Bathrooms
    By Cassandra Fairbanks
    Published January 18, 2023 at 9:15am
    45 Comments

    A lawsuit has been filed by parents in federal court against an Ohio school district for allowing transgender students to use girls’ bathrooms.
    A group of 18 parents represented by America First Legal is suing the Dayton-area Bethel Local School District for violating their religious liberty with the policy

    The lawsuit argues that bathrooms should be limited to use by people of the same biological sex “for a variety of reasons, including safety, privacy, modesty, religion and historical views of sex.”

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has now asked to enter the lawsuit on behalf of the 14-year-old transgender student, even though they are not named in the case.

    “The missing character in the story, the voice that was not represented in the lawsuit, was that of the transgender student who would be directly impacted by this,” said

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/ohio-school-district-sued-18-parents-allowing-transgender-student-girls-bathrooms/

  11. The Optimistic Conservative
    Brief meditation on weaponized use of language: “DEI” and “disinformation”
    Tools to dangle us with.

    I’m not quite sure why the “equity” in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) has suddenly become a hot topic in the conservative punditry. It seems to have erupted in the last 72 hours.

    But the eruption is a nice opportunity to drop a few observations on the use of language entailed in the DEI formulation. I had occasion to tweet this weekend about the same use of language with the term “disinformation,” as it is deployed by Western cultural planners today, so I’m including that in the discussion.

    I commend to you the discussions of others. It never hurts to think about these topics and get our ideas in order.

    But rather than taking anyone else’s commentary as a starting point, I will just make my own points and leave it at that.

    Equity – let’s start there, as it’s the term being kicked around at the moment – is an indefinable, wholly subjective, and inevitably relative and situational term, in the context of DEI.

    In one of its contexts, the noun “equity” has the meaning of invested interest in an enterprise. Home equity or equity in a business or investment scheme is the best-known form of this.

    What we’re talking about with DEI is the noun “equity” as linked to the adjective “equitable.” Equity and equitable have a longstanding sense in the English language of justice or fairness among parties – but, crucially, an undefined one, without objective, reliable, or commonly agreed-on means of measurement. (Unlike equality, which can be measured by commonly-agreed methods.)

    And that’s the point. Without an objective means of measurement, held in common by everyone, there’s no way to hold “equity” itself to a good-faith, predictable meaning.

    The same is true of diversity and inclusion. Indeed, the ordinary meanings of those terms are routinely turned on their heads in DEI orthodoxy, such that if white people are included, that’s actually exclusionary because it traumatizes other races; and if “cisgender” people are involved in something, it’s non-diverse, because diversity can be proclaimed at any time to be a matter of getting rid of as many cisgender people as possible, or ensuring that supposed cisgender perspectives are not just minimized but silenced entirely.

    Determining whether there is diversity, equity, and inclusion is wholly subjective. That’s by prescription, not just in effect. If observers or participants – either one – are in particular, assumed categories in a matrix, their subjective perception of diversity, equity, and inclusion is controlling. If observers or participants are in other categories, they have no independent say in perceiving or defining diversity, equity, and inclusion. There’s no higher appeal to a standard that can be referenced and used as a guide.

    Don’t slow down here and stop listening, because it’s this next part that’s important.

    Using DEI this way is intentional, because it puts everyone at perpetual, unending risk of violating “DEI.”

    With DEI, there’s no way to achieve a defined set of improved conditions and put the complaint-and-punishment regime of DEI behind us. The purpose of DEI isn’t to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s to ensure that the putatively malevolent absence of them is being endlessly identified.

    We can never graduate from DEI reeducation. The whole purpose of DEI is to ensure a perpetual pretext for complaint, by some against others.

    It’s about holding everyone at risk – mostly of intimidation and shakedown.

    It’s another form of weaponizing language to alter culture and expectations, similar in both intent and effect to referring to the appeal for freedom of conscience and religious belief as “anti-LGBT bigotry.” Objectively, freedom of conscience and thought isn’t “anti-” anyone, and isn’t bigotry in and of itself. (For many, it’s foremost a sensible objection to government agencies being enlisted to dictate the people’s thoughts and ideas to them.)

    But eliding freedom into bigotry prioritizes the elider’s prejudice and hostility over truthful definitions and careful, open-minded discussion. Without explicitly doing so, it implicitly denies that there is any such thinking space as that in which freedom of thought does not produce bigotry. Wanting to think freely and not be constrained to behave as if one thinks un-freely is, inherently, bigotry.

    DEI is deployed with similar intent: using language to incorporate accusation and vilification into routine communication. The intended effect of DEI, as with the trope of “anti-LGBT bigotry,” is to make it impossible to talk about a lengthening list of topics without vilifying one group of our fellow human beings or another.

    As Rush Limbaugh used to say, don’t doubt me on this. DEI is meant to have the stature of a permanent cultural institution because it’s a tool of vilification, and it can be turned on anyone. It has no limits of definition or foundational expectation that can forestall that. You may be on the “right” side of it today, but woe unto you tomorrow.

    Note, incidentally, that DEI hasn’t been introduced as a basis for or element of law. America is still too pragmatic a nation for that, in terms of our understanding of what law is supposed to be.

    It’s been introduced via academic and corporate workplace culture. Significantly, it’s hacking a path into government agency regulations for personnel and work space interactions, increasingly a twilight zone hovering penumbra-like over the actual content of statute law.

    If left to run its course, DEI will poison the whole culture, and at that point, law, fatally corrupted by the people’s altered expectations, can follow.

    Not that it’s likely to matter much. Societal institutions are well capable now of holding people at risk: of their opportunities, options, freedom, livelihoods. All law has to do is invoke – however disingenuously, and regardless of double standard – principles like the freedom of private institutions to adopt their own rules, and the sanctity of contractual obligations, and there will be no protection for those vilified by the DEI regime.

    With this in mind, it doesn’t take much to lay out why the concept of “disinformation” fits the same weaponization of language and its cultural impact.

    Urging a concept of menacing “disinformation” on the public isn’t about striving for good, valid information. In its current use in Western culture (the volcanic ooze started ca. 2016), it never was.*

    It’s about having the concept of “disinformation” to accuse other people of. As with “equity” in DEI, there’s no reliable, commonly-agreed way to identify or measure disinformation. What matters is conditioning the people to think it’s a category of threat they have to be protected from. Once the people are so conditioned, they will mostly agree by default that it originates with malevolent actors, who are the parties to be vilified.

    It’s the vilification, and a perpetual shorthand method of alerting people to it, that are at work here. There’s no payoff in stopping short of that understanding, and getting stuck on things like what “equity” is or what “disinformation” means. The whole point is that those quantities will never be settled on. Meanwhile, the division, vilification, intimidation, silencing, de-platforming, and un-personing can accelerate.

    * Note: the Soviet concept of dezinformatsiya wasn’t (and still isn’t) the same thing. It was by definition a method of political warfare intended to plant false information and themes in a target society’s communications, in order to confuse, disrupt, deceive, and divide. Accusing elements in the target society of malevolent falsehood was a subset of that aggressive attack form, but not its main intent.

    The main intent of NBC “covering disinformation” is, however, precisely to accuse elements of society of malevolent falsehood.

    I’m making this point to save us all time. One more: the category of “misinformation” isn’t intended to have the same vilifying effect – i.e., the malevolence isn’t implied – but it is intended to result in instant dismissal of the speaker and his point. In social media “moderation,” we’ve seen that it’s also intended to justify cutting the speaker and his point off from the societal commons of speech and debate.

    https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2023/01/16/brief-meditation-on-weaponized-use-of-language-dei-and-disinformation/#more-7744

  12. Tragic. Newly Released Video Shows Trump Supporters Dragging Rosanne Boyland’s Lifeless Body after Police Killed Her on January 6
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 18, 2023 at 10:00am
    Comment

    On Tuesday Julie Kelly at American Greatness published newly released body-camera video from a DC Metropolitan Police Officer on January 6, 2021.

    Officer Terrence Craig, an 11-year veteran of the force, testified last week in the criminal trial of Richard Barnett, the Arkansas man who was pictured with his feet on then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk in the US Capitol.

    * The entire body-cam video is 2-and-a-half hours long.

    In one part of the video you can see Officer Craig at the scene when Trump supporters dragged the lifeless body of Rosanne Boyland up to the police. She was already dead. The police gassed her, pushed her down, and beat her unconscious.

    The Gateway Pundit has reported extensively on Rosanne Boyland’s death on January 6.

    Philip Anderson was knocked out next to Rosanne and almost died on January 6th.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/tragic-newly-released-video-shows-trump-supporters-dragging-rosanne-boylands-lifeless-body-police-killed-january-6/

  13. Pak residents use ‘plastic moving bombs’ as an alternative to LPG cylinders. Here’s how

    • DAILY MAIL – Jacinda Ardern shocks the world and RESIGNS as New Zealand Prime Minister: Says she’s got ‘nothing left in the tank’ and tells her fiancé Clarke ‘let’s finally get married’

      Ardern became NZ’s youngest-ever prime minister on October 26, 2017

      Led her country through Covid pandemic and Christchurch mosque massacre

      Resignation shocked everyone as she denied speculation she would leave

      Insisted she was just burned out and had nothing left in the tank to continue

      […]She insisted her party trailing in the polls the the rival National Party ahead of the upcoming election had nothing to do with her decision to step down.

      […]During her resignation speech, Ms Ardern announced the next New Zealand election would be held on October 14. She will stay Mt Albert MP until April so a byelection would not be needed.

      […]The resigning PM was asked if she would take up a role with the UN after leaving office and didn’t give a straight answer.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11651299/Jacinda-Ardern-resigns-New-Zealands-Prime-Minister.html

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

      sky news australia – Ardern announces resignation as Prime Minister

  14. FutureCast: Noubar Afeyan, Founder & CEO, Flagship and Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman & CEO

    • ‘Kraken’ COVID variant to make up nearly 25% of Ontario cases this week

      A new highly-transmissible strain of COVID-19 appears to be taking off in Canada and is prompting fears that another pandemic wave is around the corner.

    • CNN – Covid misinformation convinced this man to seek island sanctuary. Now he’s missing

      A 20-year-old man went missing after Covid misinformation led him to seek an island sanctuary in the South Pacific.

      + comments on the yt page

    • CBC – Former finance minister says government treated vaccine mandates as ‘wedge issue’

      Former finance minister Bill Morneau says he disagreed with the way Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used vaccine mandates as a wedge issue during the 2021 election, arguing it further polarized the debate in Canada.

      Morneau made the remarks during an interview to promote his new book — Where To From Here, A Path to Canadian Prosperity.

    • reuters – EU drug regulator has not seen signal of possible Pfizer COVID shot stroke link

      LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) – The European Union’s drug regulator has not identified any safety signals in the region related to U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech’s updated COVID-19 shot, the agency said on Wednesday.

      On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said that a safety monitoring system had flagged that the shot could possibly be linked to a type of brain stroke in older adults, according to preliminary data.

      “EMA can confirm that to date no such signal has been identified in the EU. EMA will continue to evaluate all available data to determine whether emerging safety information could point to a similar signal in the EU,” the agency told Reuters in response to a question.

      Pfizer and BioNTech said in a statement on Friday that they were aware of limited reports of ischemic strokes in people 65 and older following vaccination with their updated shot.

      Pfizer further noted that neither the companies nor the CDC and FDA had observed similar findings across other monitoring systems and said there was no evidence to suggest an association with the use of the companies’ COVID-19 vaccines.

      The EMA said it was aware of the U.S. announcement, in which the FDA and CDC also said they had not found signs of a link to stroke in other monitoring databases.

      “EMA will continue to evaluate all available data to determine whether emerging safety information could point to a similar signal in the EU,” its statement read.

      https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/eu-drug-regulator-has-not-seen-signal-possible-pfizer-covid-shot-stroke-link-2023-01-18/

  15. Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Return of American Anti-Zionism with Caroline Glick

    Israel’s new government appears at odds with Washington over policies. How serious or novel is this tension? How has the history shaped the present situation? Ultimately, what should the two states’ dynamic be?

  16. Suspected ISIS security boss arrested in the Netherlands; Requested asylum
    https://nltimes.nl/2023/01/17/suspected-isis-security-boss-arrested-netherlands-requested-asylum
    A 37-year-old man suspected of holding a senior leadership role in the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra was arrested in Arkel, Zuid-Holland on Tuesday. The Syrian man was believed to be in a top position in the security services of both terrorist organizations at various points, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) announced.
    “It is suspected that from his position at IS, he also contributed to war crimes that the organization committed in Syria,” the OM said. This occurred between 2013 and 2018 during the civil war in that country, which began two years earlier and is still ongoing.
    The suspect applied for asylum in the Netherlands in 2019. He then settled in Arkel the following year. The village is part of the Molenlanden municipality and is just outside of Gorinchem.
    His arrest was the result of a tip about his past, which triggered an investigation into his background. That uncovered information suggesting that he helped lead the security service at IS from 2015 to 2018, the OM said. “Before that, he supposedly held the same position for two years at another terrorist organization: Jabhat al-Nusra. He is said to have held both positions in and around the Yarmouk refugee camp in the south of the Syrian capital Damascus.”
    He will face a remand hearing in The Hague on January 20. During that hearing, a magistrate can extend his initial detention by a period of 14 days while the investigation into his background continues.

    Also see
    https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/01/17/Dutch-arrest-alleged-ISIS-security-official-Prosecutors
    https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2023/01/suspected-is-security-chief-arrested-in-netherlands-for-war-crimes/
    https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/dutch-police-arrest-alleged-is-security-chief-for-war-crimes/ar-AA16ro4P
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/01/17/islamic-state-security-chief-arrested-in-netherlands-having-lived-there-for-years/

  17. Ex-MEP charged in EU corruption scandal admits links to Qatar & Morocco, lawyer says
    https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/01/18/ex-mep-charged-in-eu-corruption-scandal-admits-links-to-qatar-morocco-lawyer-says
    The lawyer of former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri confirmed on Wednesday the involvement of Qatar and Morocco in the corruption scandal rocking the European Parliament but rejected claims his client was the brain of the operation.
    “Mr Panzeri confesses today to having actively participated in acts of corruption in connection with Qatar and in connection with Morocco and therefore to having been corrupted and to having corrupted others,” his lawyer, Laurent Kennes, told Euronews.
    He however refused to confirm whether more foreign countries are implicated, arguing that the secrecy is to “enable the investigation to move forward.”
    “Everyone knows that we are talking about a case that concerns Qatar and Morocco. If there are other countries, the investigation must be able to proceed without everything being disclosed to the press. And that is called the secrecy of the investigation,” he said.
    The Belgian Federal Prosector’s Office announced on Tuesday that Panzeri, an Italian socialist who served three terms in the parliament, had signed a so-called “repentance agreement” and pledged to share “substantial, revealing” information about the cash-for-favour scheme in exchange for a lower sentence.
    Four people, including Panzeri, have so far been arrested and charged in relation to the investigation probing “large sums of money” paid by a country so far only officially identified as a Persian Gulf state, but widely believed to be Qatar, with the aim to influence the European union’s policy-making.
    Doha and Morocco, which has in recent weeks emerged as another potential player, both vehemently deny the allegations.
    As part of the deal struck with the Belgian authorities, Panzeri also recognised being a “leader of the criminal organisation,” Kennes said, adding however that “it doesn’t mean that he is the only leader.”
    “It means that he is at least one of the leaders of an organisation that had as one of its objectives to corrupt people,” the lawyer said.
    Under the deal, Panzeri committed to informing Belgian authorities of the involvement of other people, including the identity of the person he admits to having bribed. But Kennes declined to give names or say whether sitting MEPs or officials working in other EU institutions are involved, once more citing the secretive nature of the investigation.
    Making such names public “would be announcing in advance what he will say in a secret setting” and “would be a violation of the agreement we have with Federal Prosecutor’s Office,” Kennes said.
    “It’s not in my client’s interest to communicate his information, which we communicate in his interest and in relation to the voice he wants to carry today. But we are not communicating on elements that he will communicate to the courts, for the sake of justice,” he added.
    The other three individuals currently detained are Greek MEP Eva Kaili, her partner Francesco Giorgi and NGO director Niccolò Figà-Talamanca. Belgian authorities have also requested the lifting of immunity of two additional socialist MEPs: Marc Tarabella (Belgium) and Andrea Cozzolino (Italy).
    In exchange for his cooperation, Panzeri is to be slapped with a five-year suspended prison sentence, with no more than a year spent in detention in jail or under electronic surveillance. He will also receive a suspended fine of €80,000, with a further €1 million to be confiscated.
    Kennes defended the deal to Euronews, saying that “the interest for justice is to have someone who no longer has an interest in defending himself or herself and who has no interest either in falsely accusing someone or in saying that someone has absolutely nothing to do with it, except perhaps those close to him.”
    Panzeri meanwhile, already knows his sentence whereas “it was quite possible that he would be sentenced in five, six or three years’ time” and received a similar sentence then.
    But he also hopes that there will be “a certain benevolence on the part of the public prosecutor” when it comes to his wife, Maria Dolores Colleoni, and daughter, Silvia Panzeri, which are suspected of having been aware of the illicit actions.
    Belgian authorities have requested their extradition from Italy which the two women have appealed.
    “Both have lawyers in Italy and they hope that they will not be handed over to the Belgian authorities but they will most probably be interrogated in Belgium, which is quite normal.
    “They have already given their approval, that I know, to be questioned in the hope that they will not be questioned in a detained setting,” Kennes said.

  18. What You Need to Know About the Corruption Scandal Involving Qatar and Morocco
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-corruption-scandal-involving-qatar-and-morocco/2023/01/18/ef175bd2-9749-11ed-a173-61e055ec24ef_story.html
    Whether it’s going after shady Russian oligarchs or chiding governments for failing to tackle corruption, one of the European Union’s most potent weapons is its own record in fighting graft closer to home. So it’s no surprise that the bloc’s critics are making the most of a bribery scandal at the European Parliament involving lurid revelations of suitcases stuffed with cash. The case centers on just a handful of people at the 705-member assembly, but could still undercut the EU’s soft power.
    1. How did it begin?
    In early 2021, Belgian police began to investigate possible interference by a foreign government in the EU’s decision-making, acting on information from the country’s intelligence services, according to newspaper Le Soir. Police made more than 20 searches at homes and offices of European lawmakers and parliamentary assistants in Brussels — the country’s capital and the heart of EU decision making — and in Italy, seizing about €1.5 million euros in cash. In December, they arrested four suspects, including Greek lawmaker and former newsreader Eva Kaili, her Italian partner Francesco Giorgi and Italian former European Parliament member Pier Antonio Panzeri, and charged them with being part of a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption. Kaili was stripped of her role as one of 14 vice presidents of the assembly.
    [..]

    • …the bloc’s critics are making the most of a bribery scandal at the European Parliament involving lurid revelations of suitcases stuffed with cash. The case centers on just a handful of people at the 705-member assembly, but could still undercut the EU’s soft power.

      Uh-huh, nothing loaded in this writing.
      From the chief mouthpiece of the MB in US MSM. Remember the martyred Khashoggi!

  19. Key EU corruption suspect makes deal to earn leniency
    https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Key-EU-corruption-suspect-makes-deal-to-earn-17722924.php
    The alleged ringleader of a European Union cash-for-influence corruption scandal linked to Qatar and Morocco has decided to reveal information about the affair in exchange for a lighter sentence, Belgian prosecutors said Tuesday.
    Pier Antonio Panzeri, who was charged last month with corruption, money laundering and membership of a criminal organization, and his lawyers have signed a memorandum in which he repents for his acts, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
    According to a Belgian arrest warrant issued for his wife and daughter, who are living in Italy, Panzeri “is suspected of intervening politically with members working at the European Parliament for the benefit of Qatar and Morocco” in exchange for payment. Both countries have denied the allegations.
    Panzeri, a former Socialist and Democrats lawmaker at the European Parliament, set up a campaign group dubbed Fight Impunity that was believed to have been a front for the scheme. Fight Impunity was involved in a number of conferences with parliamentarians in recent years.
    In the memorandum created under a little-used legal article, Panzeri pledges to tell investigators how the scheme worked, what financial arrangements were made with other countries, how the money was moved around, who was behind the plan and what they stood to gain, as well as the names of others who might be involved.
    The scandal came to public attention in early December after police launched more than 20 raids, mostly in Belgium but also in Italy. Hundreds of thousands of euros were found at a home and in a suitcase at a hotel in Brussels. Mobile phones and computer equipment and data were seized.
    The legal deal means that “a limited sentence is provided for Panzeri,” prosecutors said. “The punishment includes imprisonment, a fine and the confiscation of all assets acquired, currently estimated at one million euros (dollars),” it said.
    [..]

  20. Happy 60th birthday to a great Canadian Patriot. A man who believes we should not be flooding our country with hundreds of thousands of migrants. A man who stood with the Truckers and never believed or supported the lockdowns. A man who supports Peterson and freedom of speech……. Max Bernier.

  21. America Is Getting Played by the Deep State and Biden Administration – the Most Important Questions Remain Unanswered
    By Joe Hoft
    Published January 18, 2023 at 5:15pm
    46 Comments

    We have learned very little information surrounding Biden’s criminal acts in taking top-secret classified documents to his premises. The biggest questions remain unanswered.

    We first heard of classified documents being found at Biden’s office at Penn U where China has donated millions. Then we found out that there were classified documents found at Biden’s home.

    The stories lack many details that Americans would like to know. But we only get pieces and we don’t really know who they come from.

    A good example was today when FOX News reporter Peter Doocey shared the following:

    Real Clear politics reported on Doocy’s comments.

    AdvertisementThere are so many questions. Doocy covers some.

    Scott Johnson at Powerline gives a reason why we don’t have all the facts.

    BestBreath
    FOX News White House reporter Peter Doocy reports on the latest details dripping out about the mishandled classified documents found in President Biden’s private office and home.

    “We learned overnight that the Justice Department and the Attorney General decided not to send FBI agents to supervise the Biden lawyers’ search of the Wilmington residence. Now we can report that there were Justice Department officials there. The Justice Department had folks go to the location that the classified material was found to take possession of it and then be on their way,” Doocy reported. “Just because the FBI didn’t go and send a bunch of agents in windbreakers doesn’t mean the Biden lawyers’ search was completely unsupervised the entire time. It doesn’t sound like the Justice Department had folks there throughout, while people were going through every possible place documents could have been.”

    Everything we know in the Biden classified documents matter derives from Biden’s attorneys. In other words, it is inherently unreliable. The existence of the matter was leaked by unidentified sources. Attorney General Garland has since publicly appointed a Special Counsel and more classified documents have been discovered in Biden’s Corvette garage and elsewhere. Mysteries abound

    Americans would like to know –

    Why is this being released now?
    What is in the documents?
    Who saw the documents?
    Was this information Biden provided to China for “donations” in another pay to play scheme?
    What crimes were broken by Biden and others in obtaining and keeping the documents?
    Was creepy Hunter involved?
    Why were Biden’s attorneys looking for documents in the first place?
    How long have the documents been missing?
    Does the government not keep records of these documents and track them?
    Why were attorneys allowed to look at the documents without clearance for doing so?
    The list goes on and on…

    Americans would like to know –

    And to date we get crickets from the corrupt DOJ and FBI and pieces from Biden’s attorneys…

    Everything about this stinks.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/america-getting-played-deep-state-biden-administration-important-questions-remain-unanswered/

  22. BREAKING: Joe and Hunter Biden Seen Arriving at Delaware Home 4 Days before Documents Reportedly Retrieved by Personal Attorneys
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 18, 2023 at 4:57pm
    119 Comments

    FOX News played video on Wednesday night showing Hunter Biden and Joe Biden arriving at the family home in Delaware four days before attorneys retrieved classified documents at the home.

    There were no visitor logs kept for Biden’s Delaware home where Joe Biden spent at least one-quarter of his presidency.

    Hunter Biden claimed he lived at the home for years on tax forms.

    Kash Patel believes the investigation into Joe Biden’s classified documents started in the summer of 2022 and the FBI likely discovered them as a result of their investigation into Hunter Biden.

    ? Kash Patel believes that the investigation into Biden’s classified docs actually started in the summer of 2022 & suspects that the FBI discovered them as a result of the investigation into the Hunter Biden laptop, presumably by Delaware US Attorney David Weiss ? pic.twitter.com/pPY6rvOuBX

    — KC Tha Gr8 (@KC4Gr8NESS) January 18, 2023

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/breaking-joe-hunter-biden-seen-arriving-delaware-home-4-days-documents-reportedly-retrieved-personal-attorneys/

  23. Is Hunter Biden Ratting Out Papa Joe to Cut a Deal?
    By Larry Johnson
    Published January 18, 2023 at 10:45am
    464 Comments

    Let us start with the facts surrounding the “discovery” of classified U.S. Government documents, including Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information (aka SCI):

    The documents were “discovered” in early November 2022 by lawyers ostensibly working for Joe Biden.
    The documents were discovered at locations that Hunter Biden could enter or leave at will.
    Hunter Biden currently is the target of an investigation by the Delaware U.S. attorney and faces potential charges for information contained on his laptop.
    There is no requirement for Secret Service to keep a list of visitors for Hunter Biden.

    I initially speculated that the leak about these documents could be part of a plot to get rid of Joe Biden in anticipation of the debacle in Ukraine and to clear the decks for a new Democrat candidate for 2024. But one thing bothered me — why didn’t Joe Biden’s lawyers destroy the documents?

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/hunter-biden-ratting-papa-joe-cut-deal/

  24. MORE EVIDENCE: FOIA Requests Reveal There Were No DOJ Investigations on Election Fraud After 2020 Election as Bill Barr Claimed
    By Jim Hoft
    Published January 18, 2023 at 11:27am
    795 Comments

    In December 2020, US Attorney General Bill Barr said there was “no evidence” of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

    Barr said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, defying President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to reverse the results.

    Barr repeated this claim several times since leaving office as President Trump’s Attorney General.

    Now there is proof that Bill Barr is and was lying.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/evidence-foia-requests-reveal-no-doj-investigations-election-fraud-2020-election-bill-barr-claimed/

  25. Another North Carolina Substation Damaged by Gunfire
    By Cristina Laila
    Published January 18, 2023 at 9:10pm
    11 Comments

    Another North Carolina substation was damaged by gunfire this week.

    The FBI on Tuesday responded to an attack on a substation in Randolph County, North Carolina.

    This particular attack to the substation transformer didn’t cause a power outage.

    In December more than 40,000 people were without power after two North Carolina substations were damaged by gunfire.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/another-north-carolina-substation-damaged-gunfire/