Reader’s Links for February 20th, 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

63 Replies to “Reader’s Links for February 20th, 2023”

  1. 7:22 Chris Martenson on the Nigerian rebellion coming to a country near you.
    https://youtu.be/yI7TsvHPYT4

    Meanwhile:

    “Knock-knock.”
    “Who’s there?”
    “Tyranny.”
    “…And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say goodbye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrest, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood that they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you’d be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. What about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur – what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked. The Organs [Soviet state institutions] would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!…”

    • Tyrants take power because they have

      1) Disarmed the population

      2) Convinced the population that they stand no chance in resisting the tyrants.

      3) Successfully turned a portion of the population into police spies. The spies hope they will be the last who are arrested.

      The scenario you describe is one of the 2 reasons the Second Amendment was written. The other reason was so we could fright back against the small criminals that prey on the unarmed.

  2. DAILY MAIL – If China sides with Putin in Ukraine, World War 3 will have begun, warns Zelensky – as Beijing denies claims it is considering giving ‘lethal aid’ to Russia

    Top US diplomat Blinken warned China could arm Russia in its on-going invasion

    Biden made surprise visit to Kiev today ahead of Putin’s meeting with Wang Yi

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11772011/If-China-sides-Putin-Ukraine-World-War-3-begun-warns-Zelensky.html

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

      • CNN’s Alex Marquardt: “I’ve been here for the past five days.

        CNN’s Alex Marquardt: “I’ve been here for the past five days. I have not heard any explosions.

        I have not heard any air sirens, until about half an hour ago, right when President Biden was in the center of Kyiv.”

    • Feb 20 2023 – Director of International Monetary Fund Georgieva arrives in Kiev

      The International Monetary Fund will finalise a support program for Ukraine within a few weeks, and the plan must now be approved by the Fund’s management.

    • WWII has already started, the early (non kinetic) portion has been active since Obama first took office. The kinetic part started when Obama allowed Putin to seize Crimea. The war then paused while Putin ensured he was in complete control of that region. Putin then rested while Trump was in office then once his and Xi’s puppets (Obama and Biden) seized power in the US they arranged for the puppets to create a situation where they had an excuse to attack Ukraine. The puppets then used the invasion as an excuse to strip the NATO nations of their military hardware and ammo.

      Putin is getting a blooded military with officers use to large scale war. The US is busy purging it’s military of all competent officers and NCO’s. This is leaving a bunch of incompetent perverts in command with a smattering of competent people carrying out a rear guard action while praying Trump manages to win enough states by a large enough number that the Dems can’t steal the 2024 election.

      People who aren’t paying attention or are wearing rose colored glasses think that everything will calm down. Their opposite numbers on the left are thinking that the US is going to collapse and Russia and China will take over.

      Both sides are wrong things aren’t going to calm down and Russia and China are going to be weakened by the crash to the extent that all sides in the war will be roughly equal.

      The war is going to last a long time (with a few brief periods to rearm and retrain).

      It’s scary and going to get scarier.

    • EU looking into joint procurement to give Ukraine ammunitions

      The collective acquisition of supplies would be similar to that of the European Commission’s purchasing of COVID-19 vaccines.

  3. australia – New Adelaide research reveals health risks of not getting COVID vaccines

    If you needed more proof the COVID vaccine can save lives, local scientists say they have uncovered it.

    Their findings come as health authorities urge all South Australians adults to book in for a fifth vaccine.

    • abc news australia – Fifth dose of COVID vaccine available for all Australian adults

      All adults who have not had a COVID-19 vaccine, or tested positive to the virus in the past six months, are now eligible for another shot.

    • the sun UK – Covid jabs ‘lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes’ in those infected with bug

      THOSE who catch Covid while jabbed are less likely to have killer heart issues than those who don’t get vaccinated, a study claims.

      US researchers have found the jab protects high risk individuals against heart attacks and strokes in the months after infection.

      Experts have long feared the virus can cause problems with the heart, with studies showing it can cause the body’s own immune system to attack healthy cells in the muscle.

      Patients with severe Covid also get less oxygen in their bloodstream, forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood around the body and risking heart failure.

      The latest study found that even those who had only received one jab were less likely to have heart issues than those who choose to have none.

      While the authors could not explain why jabs reduced the risk of heart disease, they said the study “supports evidence that vaccination may have beneficial effects on a variety of post-Covid-19 complications”.

      “We hope our findings could help improve vaccination rates, especially in individuals with coexisting conditions,” they added.

      It comes as Covid-19 levels are rising in most parts of the UK.

      And just last week, the Government stopped offering booster jabs to millions of Brits.

      The experts tracked the heart health of almost 2million people – of which 217,843 had received at least one Covid jab.

      The paper was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

      Latest data show Covid infections are rising in most parts of the UK, the latest sign a new wave of the virus may be under way.

      Infections jumped a fifth to 1.2million on any given day in the week up to February 7, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

      It is the second week in a row the UK-wide total has increased and comes after a steady drop in levels throughout January.

      And while immunity from vaccination and natural infection mean less people are suffering severe Covid, hospitalisations breached 900 on February 13 and continue to tick upwards.

      https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/21446739/covid-jabs-lower-risk-heart-disease/

      ===============================
      john campbell – mRNA in blood after 28 days

  4. Catholics Hold Prayer Vigil at Home of Bishop David O’Connell Who as Shot and Killed in Los Angeles on Saturday – Authorities Investigate His Murder
    February 20, 2023 9:14 am by Jim Hoft
    Los Angeles Catholic Biship David O’Connell was shot and killed on Saturday.

    Police responded to his home in Hacienda Heights at 1 PM on Saturday and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

    Bishop O’Connell spent more than four decades serving Los Angeles’ inner city has been shot dead at the age of 69.Police are investigating O’Connell’s death as a murder.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/catholics-hold-prayer-vigil-at-home-of-bishop-david-oconnell-who-as-shot-and-killed-in-los-angeles-on-saturday-authorities-investigate-his-murder/

    • Breaking: Suspect Arrested Over Murder of Catholic Bishop David O’Connell in California
      By Cassandra MacDonald February 20, 2023 1:20 pm

      The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has arrested a suspect in the murder of Catholic Bishop David O’Connell.
      O’Connell, 69, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was fatally shot at his home over the weekend.

      Police have not yet released the identity of the suspect.

      When police arrived at O’Connell’s Hacienda Heights home, they found him unresponsive with a bullet wound in his chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
      It’s very early in the investigation,” sheriff’s department Homicide Bureau Detective Michael Modica said Sunday, according to a report from Fox News. “We got a lot more steps we have to take to make more determination to what’s happening.”

      Archbishop José H. Gomez announced the Bishop’s death during Sunday mass.

      “Our beloved Auxiliary Bishop David O’Conell has passed away unexpectedly,” Gomez said. “It’s a shock and I have no words to express my sadness. As a priest and later a bishop here in Los Angeles for forty-five years, Bishop Dave was a man of deep prayer who had a great love for Our Blessed Mother. He was a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant, and he had a passion for building a community where the sanctity and dignity of every human life was honored and protected.”

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/suspect-arrested-over-murder-of-catholic-bishop-in-california/

  5. America Last!”, “Biden Is in Ukraine, Trump Is Heading to Ohio”: Strong Reaction to Secret Trip to Kyiv
    February 20, 2023 8:45 am by Kristinn Taylor
    The U.S. woke up on the Washington’s Birthday holiday to news of Joe Biden’s secret trip to Ukraine. Reaction was strong among those opposed to Americans giving Ukraine a blank check to defend itself from Russia’s invasion while Biden allows the U.S. to be invaded at the southern border, with observations of “America last!” and ‘Biden is in Ukraine, Trump is heading to Ohio’. President Trump announced he will visit East Palestine, Ohio on Wednesday to support the people affected by the toxic train wreck earlier this month. While in Kyiv, Biden announced a new arms package for Ukraine.

    Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), “When our border is in crisis, Joe Biden goes home to nap in Delaware. When Ohio burns with toxic chemicals, Biden’s admin says everything is fine. So on Presidents’ Day, I’m not surprised that Biden is ditching America for Ukraine. He ditched America’s interests since the start of his presidency. They can keep him!”

    Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), “Breathtaking that President Biden can show up in Ukraine to ensure their border is secure, but

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/america-last-biden-is-in-ukraine-trump-is-heading-to-ohio-strong-reaction-to-secret-trip-to-kyiv/

  6. BREAKING: Tucker Carlson given 41,000 hours of January 6 surveillance footage by Kevin McCarthy

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has reportedly handed over to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson access to over 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot.

    According to Axios, producers for Carlson were on Capitol Hill last week, and began digging through the 41,000 hours of footage captured that day, which includes multiple camera angles across Capitol grounds.

    more :

    https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-tucker-carlson-given-41000-hours-of-january-6-surveillance-footage-by-kevin-mccarthy

    ==========================
    JUST IN: Kevin McCarthy Releases Jan. 6 Riot Tapes — All 41,000 Hours — to Tucker Carlson

    Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.

    The top rated Fox News host has a complicated history covering the Jan. 6 attack, in which a mob of Trump supporters inspired by his stolen election claims stormed the building, violently beat police, and hunted political leaders.

    more:

    https://www.mediaite.com/tv/just-in-kevin-mccarthy-releases-jan-6-riot-tapes-all-41000-hours-to-tucker-carlson/

  7. Large White Balloon” Spotted Near Hawaii
    Tyler Durden’s Photo
    BY TYLER DURDEN
    MONDAY, FEB 20, 2023 – 07:58 AM
    A number of airborne objects have been shot down this month, including a Chinese surveillance balloon. New reports indicate this balloon fad might not be over.

    The Drive reported a large white balloon was spotted by commercial pilots about 600 miles east of the Hawaiian Islands on Monday. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has notified pilots in the area about the sightings of a balloon traveling at an altitude of 40,000 and 50,000 feet.

    Subsequent ACARS (Aircraft Communications, Addressing and Reporting System) messages show aircraft in the area — which is normally quite busy as it sits on the route from the US west coast to Hawaii — acknowledging the alert, which includes a request to report back if they spot any such object,” The Drive said.

    The FAA first broadcasted reports about a balloon to pilots around 0746 local time in Hawaii. It’s unclear when the FAA received the first report of the balloon or if the military was tracking the object.

    One forecast model via the National Weather Service shows the potential path of the balloon.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/large-white-balloon-spotted-near-hawaii

  8. Florida Teacher Behind Misleading Viral Video is Fired
    February 20, 2023 10:15 am by Margaret Flavin

    Brian Covey, a substitute teacher at Mandarin Middle School in Florida shared a video in January displaying rows of empty bookshelves in the school’s library. The video has garnered over 13 million views.

    “They removed every single book from my children’s classrooms… I read books about the consequences of this when I was in school…”

    “Nah. Not only that they removed the media/resource elective from their schedule and telling the kids that the librarian has to review every single book…”

    Not only did they have all the teachers remove the books from their classrooms they took any library book the kids were reading and didn’t let them finish. All in a week where they are having a book fair fundraiser.”

    Read

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/florida-teacher-behind-misleading-viral-video-is-fired/

  9. China successfully tests ‘phantom space strike’ weapon which can overwhelm an enemy’s missile defence systems ahead of a nuclear attack
    By Olivia Jones For Mailonline

    Meghan planning to sue makers of South Park?
    China successfully tests ‘phantom space strike’ weapon which can overwhelm an enemy’s missile defence systems ahead of a nuclear attack
    By Olivia Jones For Mailonline
    09:16 EST 20 Feb 2023 , updated 09:40 EST 20 Feb 2023

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    Tactic could exhaust an enemy’s weapon supplies, making it easier to destroy it
    Engineers said they a computer simulation came back with positive results
    China has successfully tested a ‘phantom space strike’ – a new tactic to overwhelm and sabotage missile defences by emitting fake target signals from space

    Military engineers announced earlier this month they had completed a computer simulation and achieved positive results.

    The tactic is designed to overwhelm the enemy on the basis that there is only so much a missile defence system would be able to cope with.

    This can lead to exhaustion of the enemy’s weapon supplies, making it easier to destroy it.

    In the simulation, a ballistic missile was launched against an enemy which had a missile defence system.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11772149/China-successfully-tests-phantom-space-strike-weapon-overwhelm-missile-defence-system.html

  10. Beholding the Beholders: Hunter Biden’s Art Dealer Defies the House Over Business Records

    It appears that Hunter Biden’s art dealer believes that his art should be left entirely to the eye of the beholder — and not Congress. Georges Bergès reportedly refused last week to provide the House Oversight Committee with the identities of the buyers of Biden’s high-priced art work. While counsel William Pittard insists that the list of purchasers must remain secret, it is hard to see the viable legal basis to refuse the demand of the House Oversight Committee, if made subject to a congressional subpoena.

    The Biden sales have long been a subject of intense debate over whether it is another form of influence peddling or money laundering. Even President Barack Obama’s ethics head has raised objections.

    Former Obama-era ethics official Walter Shaub called the art sale a “terrible idea” and noted that “it just is implausible that this art from an unknown artist would be selling at this price if it didn’t have the Biden name attached to it.”

    https://jonathanturley.org/2023/02/19/beholding-the-beholders-hunter-bidens-art-dealer-defies-the-house-over-business-records/

  11. James O’Keefe Resigns From Project Veritas After Employee Complaints

    Right-wing activist James O’Keefe resigned Monday morning from his position leading Project Veritas, the conservative group he founded, after clashing for weeks with his board.

    O’Keefe, who became a star on the right by targeting journalists and liberal groups in hidden-camera stings, was placed on paid leave earlier this month amid a dispute with the nonprofit’s board. The board reversed O’Keefe’s firing of two top executives, and received a lengthy memo from unhappy employees detailing O’Keefe’s allegedly “outright cruel” conduct.

    The news that O’Keefe had been sidelined in the group he founded provoked outrage on the right, with many conservative pundits tweeting that Project Veritas would be nothing without him. Project Veritas’s board and remaining executives had tried to heal the rift, insisting in a bizarre tweet last week under the organization’s name that O’Keefe was “alive and well.” Just days before the resignation, the board put out a statement insisting that its members “all love James.”

    O’Keefe and the board didn’t respond to immediate requests for comment.

    James O’Keefe ‘Outright Cruel’ to Project Veritas Employees, Internal Memo Alleges

    O’Keefe’s resignation was first announced on Twitter by Neil McCabe, a reporter at conservative cable channel One America News.

    https://twitter.com/NeilWMcCabe2/status/1627711907636383745

    McCabe told The Daily Beast that O’Keefe resigned from the group without striking a severance deal with the board.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/james-okeefe-resigns-from-project-veritas-after-employee-complaints

    “He just resigns and walks out the door to start a new life,” McCabe said. “Now we’ll see: does the organization he created survive?”

    https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/james-o-keefe-resigns-project-175325037.html

    • James Remarks to PV Staff: “I’ve been removed from CEO and Board”

      ( 44 min )

      fe482c1859

    • Statement from the Project Veritas’ Board of Directors

      Today, James O’Keefe decided to remove his belongings from Project Veritas headquarters. The Board and Management made numerous attempts in the last 14 days to have a conversation with James, but he ignored our outreach and decided to instead leak private information to others, either by doing so himself or by proxy.

      As today is President’s Day, our office was closed. We had a Board meeting scheduled for tomorrow where James was invited, and there was also a Board meeting on Friday, February 10, where James was invited (but did not attend) to discuss the financial malfeasance that was discovered, which requires us to act in order to remain in compliance with the law.

      There were two subjects that the Board wished to come to terms with James on: the company’s long-term sustainability based on staff retention and morale, and the company’s financial health — which has been a serious concern for several months now.

      Although PV Leadership has not concluded looking into the full scale of financial issues over the years, a preliminary review at this time indicates that James has spent an excessive amount of donor funds in the last three years on personal luxuries. More is still being uncovered during the ongoing review at this time. Contrary to many reports from today, James was suspended indefinitely pending the resolution of a fulsome investigation and clarity which will need to be provided by a third party investigative audit report.

      Here are a few examples of what has been uncovered so far by PV Leadership (this is far from an exhaustive list, it is merely a small representative sample):

      -$14,000 on a charter flight to meet someone to fix his boat under the guise of meeting with a donor

      -$60,000 in losses by putting together dance events such as Project Veritas Experience

      -Over $150,000 in Black Cars in the last 18 months

      -Thousands of dollars spent on DJ and other equipment for personal use

      -Hundreds of other acts of personal inurement

      The Board wants to work things out with James, and has tried every route possible to remedy the issues at hand and begin to take the legally required corrective actions.

      James also left us no choice but to suspend him in the last few weeks when he unilaterally fired the CFO, who can only be fired with Board approval. That is a violation of our non-profit’s bylaws. James went as far as to say that a Board member had approved this firing to others, but it was later discovered that it was not the case. That member did not approve the firing. The Board approved James’ suspension so it would have time to properly investigate these internal infractions.

      The Board has a legal obligation to comply with state and federal law, and these matters are serious ones that cannot be ignored.

      James claims that the Board did not allow him to send an apology letter to the staff, which is not true. The Board never told James he was not to speak with staff members, nor that he could not apologize to them.

      But, more than anything, the Board cares about the donors of this organization, who decide to donate their hard-earned money to us because they believe in the mission. We could not allow for our donors to send us money and have it be misappropriated in such a way. We love our supporters, and we would never sit idly by as money is being used for matters that are not mission related.

      Even with all of this public fallout, the Board still wants to speak with James. We did not fire him, nor do we want him to resign. We would like to continue conversations with James to resolve internal matters rather than litigate them publicly.

      Project Veritas will continue to be transparent with the public as more information can be released over time. The fight for truth will never stop.

      https://www.projectveritas.com/news/statement-from-the-project-veritas-board-of-directors/

  12. JUST IN: DA Drops Gun Enhancement Charge Against Alec Baldwin
    By Cristina Laila February 20, 2023 12:40 pm

    The Santa Fe District Attorney on Monday announced it dropped the gun enhancement charge against Alec Baldwin.

    Baldwin shot and killed 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins and injured 48-year-old Joel Souza on the movie set of ‘Rust’ in Santa Fe, Mexico in October 2021.

    Last month Alec Baldwin was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting death of Halyna Hutchins.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/just-in-da-drops-gun-enhancement-charge-against-alec-baldwin/

  13. the guardian –It’s not Orwellian for publishers to edit Roald Dahl, just commercially savvy

    The industry is simply updating classics to appeal to millennial parents.

    The main problem seems to be the quality of the prose

    anding down beloved books to your children is one of the best things about being a parent. And so like countless others raised on Willy Wonka’s golden ticket and the BFG’s jars of dreams, of course I was thrilled to relive the Roald Dahl books with my son all over again.

    On bored, rainy afternoons we copied George’s Marvellous Medicine by mixing potions from the contents of the kitchen cupboards. We made the pilgrimage to the Dahl museum in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, with its magical recreation of his writer’s hut and its collection of homesick letters the author wrote back from boarding school as a boy, which shed a sad kind of light on the cruel adults who stalk his fiction.

    I understand, then, why his publisher Puffin’s decision to update the books with the help of a sensitivity reader has caused such uproar; why it leaves many nostalgic adults feeling not just deprived, but morally judged for loving them in the first place. And I winced along with everyone else at the tin-eared re-rendering of the Centipede’s song from James and the Giant Peach, in which Aunt Spiker – once “thin as a wire/and as dry as a bone, only drier” – is ploddingly lumped in with her brutish sister as “much of the same/and deserves half of the blame”.

    All that said, am I shocked that the Dahl empire – and it’s quite the empire, with Netflix buying up the rights from the writer’s estate for a cool £500m in 2021 – would move to protect its investment? Do I find it Orwellian that before long you’ll find the originals only in charity shops? No, not enormously.

    The author Salman Rushdie, who denounced the “absurd censorship” of Dahl, rightly focuses on the broader principle that editing cannot become suppression. But this looks more like a hardheaded business decision to protect those Netflix rights and avoid Dahl sharing the fate of the equally beloved Dr Seuss, some of whose titles were dropped in the US after being deemed culturally insensitive. Given his own famously antisemitic views, Dahl has always, perhaps, been a high cancellation risk, and the books themselves were starting to show their age compared with modern children’s titles. They’re fighting for space in a market of politically conscious millennial parents and school libraries whose inclusivity policies might in future make them think twice about a book like The Witches, whose demons hide their tell-tale bald heads under wigs.

    So now children will be reminded that “there are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that”, which doesn’t on reflection seem the end of the world, if it’s to avoid upsetting a child whose mum has lost her hair to chemotherapy. The thrilling nastiness that children love about Dahl isn’t completely expunged, but the range of things he can be nasty about is narrowing.

    Mrs Twit remains beastly, but no longer ugly. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, spoilt Veruca Salt is still spoilt and Mike Teavee still screen-obsessed; but greedy, doughy Augustus Gloop is now somewhat awkwardly “enormous”, not fat. (The f-word is one of many familiar playground taunts now frowned on in primary schools to discourage bullying; I still remember my then six-year-old breathlessly reporting that someone was in big trouble for using the “i-word”, which turned out to be “idiot”). That “fat” can’t now be employed as a lazy synonym for hateful, or that schools now are infinitely kinder and gentler places than Dahl’s sadistic-sounding prep, is wholeheartedly a good thing. But these cultural shifts do create an unmistakable gap between today’s under-10s – the actual audience for children’s books – and nostalgic adults, which seems increasingly hard to bridge.

    Should publishers even try? On Radio 4, the children’s author Philip Pullman reeled off a string of brilliant modern writers who might get read more if Dahl’s texts were left to grow old as their author intended, and thus to drop naturally down the bestseller lists. Increasingly, publishers face the same dilemma over children’s classics as ageing female actors do over their faces: get some “work” done and remain contenders, or graciously fade away.

    As with plastic surgery, the ideal sensitivity edit is one readers barely notice, but which just makes everything feel fresher. Dahl himself agreed in the late 1960s that his original Oompa Loompas – who in the original 1964 novel were human pygmies bought for cocoa beans in the African jungle – could be recast as the little orange creatures with which we’re all now familiar. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is less gratuitously offensive for dropping the N-word from the title, but no less gripping. The current West End production of Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird is, if anything, richer for the addition of a scene in which the idealistic white lawyer Atticus Finch is taken to task by his Black maid Calpurnia, after failing, despite his best efforts, to save a Black man from the electric chair. It’s a beautifully judged intervention by the screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who adapted the novel for the stage, letting the story move with the times but without taking liberties.

    Unfortunately, not every sensitivity reader is a Sorkin, and whoever rewrote the Centipede was no Dahl. If there is a moral to this story, it’s perhaps less political than literary: come for a classic, and you’d really better not miss.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/20/roald-dahl-industry-classics-parents

    • FRANCE PR4VD4 – Critics reject changes to Roald Dahl books as censorship

      Critics are accusing the British publisher of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s books of censorship after it removed colorful language from works such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda” to make them more acceptable to modern readers.

      A review of new editions of Dahl’s books now available in bookstores shows that some passages relating to weight, mental health, gender and race were altered.

  14. CNN: East Palestine, Ohio Residents Break Out in Rashes, Report on Headaches After Toxic Chemical Explosion – Imagine That! (VIDEO)
    By Jim Hoft February 20, 2023 12:20 pm35 Comments

    Residents in East Palestine, Ohio are reporting rashes and headaches following the massive toxic chemical explosion in their town earlier this month.

    State, government, and railroad officials approved a plan to blow up six rail cars of toxic vinyl chloride that formed a mushroom cloud in the sky before it rained down on the city and surrounding area.

    Residents are reporting dead chickens and pets. Dead fish and salamanders are washing up in the local stream and river. And now there are reports of rashes and headaches.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/cnn-east-palestine-ohio-residents-break-out-in-rashes-report-on-headaches-after-toxic-chemical-explosion-imagine-that-video/

  15. When Justine Trudeau was first elected, he did not waste any time firing Dr. Kennith
    Zucker. Dr. Zucker had studied youth gender for many years and did not believe most children were candidates for sex change.

    So here we are today watching an Oakville Trafalgar, high school shop teacher going to school wearing extremely large breasts but not wearing them on the street. What kind of an example are the adults setting for the students who must “tolerate” this type of extreme behaviour?

    Halton District School Board statement:

    “Halton District School Board is committed to establishing and maintaining a safe, caring, inclusive, equitable and welcoming learning and working environment for all members of the school community including students, staff, parents / guardians and community members who identify as, or are perceived as Two-Spirit, Queer, trans, Non-Binary, intersex, and those who are questioning their sexual orientation and / or gender identity(ies)”.

    When Justine Trudeau met with the LGBTQ community members he stated that Canadians are tolerant of their choice.

    The lethal, “fringe minority”, Canadian Prime Minister, WEF supporter called unvaccinated Canadians many disgraceful names, as did Jagmeet Singh, leader of the NDP who is keeping this traitor in power. Justine asked the Canadian people if we should tolerate the unvaccinated.

    How much longer should normal, decent Canadians have to “tolerate” this destructive little clown? Have all the adults left the room?

    • Just wait, ET. When the digital currency comes up you’ll see the adults in the room, I hope.

  16. Corrupt DOJ Continues to Illegally Ignore President Trump’s Attorney-Client Privilege
    By Joe Hoft February 20, 2023 12:05 pm

    When it comes to President Trumrp, corrupt Democrats and the DOJ believe attorney-client privilege means nothing.

    We saw this first in the Mueller years. The DOJ was welded into one giant corrupt and criminal enterprise under Barack Obama. The law meant nothing to this gang.

    When the DOJ didn’t have enough on President Trump for their coup to work, they stole documents from President Trump’s attorney Rudi Giuliani. When the FBI raided his place and he offered them a copy of Hunter’s laptop they declined it. But confidential communications of Giuliani’s with the President were fair game for these crooks.

    The FBI recently raided President Trump’s iconic home Mar-a-Lago in one of the most corrupt acts in history. During this raid then stole the President’s attorney-client material. They have never given it back. They never should have had it. This again proves how criminally compromised the DOJ and FBI are.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/corrupt-doj-continues-to-illegally-ignore-president-trumps-attorney-client-privilege/

  17. Another One! 6.4 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Turkey, Buildings Collapse (VIDEO)
    By Cristina Laila February 20, 2023 1:00 pm

    Another one!

    A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Turkey on Monday.

    The latest quake hit more than two weeks after a 7.8 magnitude quake and severe aftershocks hit Turkey.

    Read

    More than 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria have died so far in the quakes.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/another-one-6-4-magnitude-earthquake-hits-turkey-buildings-collapse-video/

  18. the guardian – ‘Incredibly intelligent, highly elusive’: US faces new threat from Canadian ‘super pig’

    Northern states on alert for invasion of cross-bred pig that threatens flora and fauna – and is difficult to stop

    For decades, wild pigs have been antagonizing flora and fauna in the US: gobbling up crops, spreading disease and even killing deer and elk.

    Now, as fears over the potential of the pig impact in the US grow, North America is also facing a new swine-related threat, as a Canadian “super pig”, a giant, “incredibly intelligent, highly elusive” beast capable of surviving cold climates by tunneling under snow, is poised to infiltrate the north of the country.

    The emergence of the so-called super pig, a result of cross-breeding domestic pigs with wild boars, only adds to the problems the US faces from the swine invasion.

    Pigs are not native to the US, but have wrought havoc in recent decades: the government estimates the country’s approximately 6 million wild, or feral, pigs cause $1.5bn of damage each year.

    In parts of the country, the pigs’ prevalence has sparked a whole hog hunting industry, where people pay thousands of dollars to mow down boar and sow with machine guns. But overall, the impact of the pigs, first introduced to the US in the 16th century, has very much been a negative, as the undiscerning swine has chomped its way across the country.

    “We see direct competition for our native species for food,” said Michael Marlow, assistant program manager for the Department of Agriculture’s national feral swine damage management program.

    “However, pigs are also accomplished predators. They’ll opportunistically come upon a hidden animal, and the males have long tusks, so they’re very capable of running and grabbing one with their mouth.

    “They’ll kill young fawns, they’re known to be nest predators, so they impact turkeys and potentially quail.”

    The wild pigs are also responsible for a laundry list of environmental damages, ranging from eating innocent farmers’ crops to destroying trees and polluting water. They also pose “a human health and safety risk”, Marlow said.

    A pig is a “mixing vessel”, capable of carrying viruses, such as flu, which are transmittable to humans. National Geographic reported that pigs have the potential to “create a novel influenza virus”, which could spread to humankind.

    The first record of pigs in the continental US was in 1539, when the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto landed in Florida with an entourage which included 13 swine.

    During the four-year expedition, which saw De Soto order the slaughter of thousands of Native Americans, declare himself “an immortal ‘Son of the Sun’”, and then die of a fever, the number of pigs grew to about 700, spread across what is now the south-eastern US.

    But it is only relatively recently that the pigs have become a problem.

    “They lived a benign existence up until, you know, probably three or four decades ago, where we started seeing these rapid excursions in areas we hadn’t seen before,” Marlow said.

    “Primarily that was the cause of intentional releases of swine by people who wanted to develop hunting populations. They were drugged and moved around, not always legally, and dropped in areas to allow the populations to develop. And so that’s where we saw this rapid increase.”

    The number of pigs in the US has since grown to more than 6 million, in some 34 states. The pigs weigh between 75 and 250lbs on average, but can weigh in twice as large as that, according to the USDA. At 3ft tall and 5ft long, they are a considerable foe.

    Marlow said his team had managed to eradicate pigs in seven states over the past decade, but with little realistic hope of getting rid of the swine completely, there are also fears over the potential impact of pig-borne disease, particularly African swine fever.

    The disease is always fatal to pigs, and in China, which is home to more than 400 million pigs – half of the world’s pig population – African swine fever wiped out more than 30% of the pig population in 2018 and 2019. African swine fever has presented in Europe, too, but Marlow said it has not yet been detected in the Americas.

    That’s something that Ryan Brook, who leads the University of Saskatchewan’s Canadian wild pig research project, hopes to maintain.

    In Canada, like in the US, wild pigs are a relatively recent problem. Up until 2002 there were barely any wild pigs in the country, but Brook said the population has exploded in the past eight years. The animals are now spread across 1m sq km of Canada, predominantly in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

    “Wild pigs are easily the worst invasive large mammal on the planet,” said Ryan Brook.

    “They’re incredibly intelligent. They’re highly elusive, and also when there’s any pressure on them, especially if people start hunting them, they become almost completely nocturnal, and they become very elusive – hiding in heavy forest cover, and they disappear into wetlands and they can be very hard to locate.”

    Brook and others are particularly troubled by the emergence of a “super pig”, created by farmers cross-breeding wild boar and domestic pigs in the 1980s. The result was a larger swine, which produced more meat, and was easier for people to shoot in Canadian hunting reserves.

    These pigs escaped captivity and swiftly spread across Canada, with the super pig proving to be an incredibly proficient breeder, Brook said, while its giant size – one pig has been clocked at more than 300kg (661lbs) – makes it able to survive the frigid western Canada winters, where the wind chill can be -50C.

    “All the experts said at that time: ‘Well, no worries. If a wild pig or a wild boar ever escaped from a farm, there’s no way it would survive a western Canadian winter. It would just freeze to death.’

    “Well, it turns out that being big is a huge advantage to surviving in the cold.”

    The pigs survive extreme weather by tunneling up to 2 meters under snow, Brook said, creating a snow cave.

    “They’ll use their razor-sharp tusks to cut down cattails [a native plant], and line the bottom of the cave with cattails as a nice warm insulating layer.

    “And in fact, they’re so warm inside that one of the ways we use to find these pigs is to fly first thing in the morning when it’s really cold, colder than -30, and you will actually see steam just pouring out the top of the snow.”

    Given the damage the pigs have wrought, a range of attempts have been made to get rid of them. Scientists and researchers in the US and Canada have had some success with catching whole sounders of pigs in big traps, while in the US attempts have been made – sometimes unsuccessfully – at poisoning wild pigs.

    One method that has worked in the US, Brook said, is the use of a “Judas pig”. A lone pig is captured and fitted with a GPS collar, then released into the wild, where hopefully it will join a group of unsuspecting swine.

    “The idea is that you go and find that collared animal, remove any pigs that are with it, and in ideal world then let it go again and it will just continue to find more and more pigs,” Brook said.

    Brook said a variety of methods are required to tackle the pig problem. But the efforts are more about managing the damage caused by these non-native mammals, rather than getting rid of the pigs completely. In Canada, that chance has gone.

    “Probably as late as maybe 2010 to 2012, there was probably a reasonable chance of finding and removing them. But now, they’re so widespread, and so abundant, that certainly as late as 2018 or 19 I stopped saying that eradication was possible. They’re just so established,” Brook said.

    “They’ve definitely moved in, and they’re here to stay.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/20/us-threat-canada-super-pig-boar

  19. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls For The Separation Of Red And Blue States
    By Cullen Linebarger February 20, 2023 2:45 pm

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Monday morning set off political shockwaves when she called for a national divorce between red states and blue states.

    “We need a national divorce,” Taylor Greene tweeted. “We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.”

    “Everyone I talk to says this,” she continued. “From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

    Taylor Greene previously floated the idea of a national divorce but never explicitly called for one. Less than two years ago, she posed a question to her Twitter followers asking for their thoughts on the matter.

    By a narrow margin, they rejected the idea.

    Normally calls for a national divorce would involve states going to war with one another. Taylor Greene, however, explained the process for national divorce does not mean a civil war, but rather it involves a legal process.

    She went on to say “it’s a real issue bc Americans don’t like communism.”

    Taylor Greene later amended her remarks slightly to say a national divorce should happen unless Biden is impeached. At the same time, she blasted Biden for visiting Zelenskyy and funding Ukraine while “America is broke” and “cartels reign.”

    While one can understand why Taylor Greene and millions of other Americans want to get away from dark blue states and from under the Biden regime’s rule, there is no way the left will make a national divorce simple. The easiest path for saving America involves removing Biden from office via either impeachment or the ballot box in 2024.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-calls-for-the-separation-of-red-and-blue-states/

    (Richard: There is no way the Dems would let us go! The people who work, pay taxes and keep the economy working would move to the free states living the commie states broke. Rather then admit their governing by theft economy will never work they will go to war with the free states to loot them and keep their economy working a while longer.

    Another problem is the various predator nations would see the US divided and weak, one or more would invade. These invaders wouldn’t stop at the free States but would also invade the commie states. Both sets of states would fall and the invaders would turn north and probable south. We need to remain as one nation and get rid of the treasonous Dems.),

  20. San Joaquin Sheriff Discloses Massive Voter Roll Anomalies in California County
    By Brian Lupo February 20, 2023 4:30 pm0 Comments
    Last week, The Gateway Pundit reported on a press conference about the arrest of a Lodi city councilmember named Shakir Khan. The San Joaquin Sheriff discovered the election crimes while serving a search warrant for non-election related findings regarding Khan’s businesses in the city.

    KCRA reported:

    [Khan] is accused of stashing 41 ballots at his home. Investigators also say he registered 23 people to vote at his home and that his email and phone number were used to register 47 others. Body camera footage showed voters telling detectives how Khan allegedly pressured them to vote for him and how he allegedly falsified voter registration documents.

    Towards the end of the press conference, before taking questions from the media, Captain Hardy addresses some discrepancies in the voter rolls they discovered during their investigation

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/san-joaquin-sheriff-discloses-massive-voter-roll-anomalies-in-california-county/

  21. (Richard: Why are so many “accidents” happening in Ohio?)

    DEVELOPING: At Least 13 Injured in Explosion at Metal Alloy Factory in Bedford, Ohio
    By Cristina Laila Feb. 20, 2023 5:05 pm13 Comments

    At least 13 people are injured after an explosion at a metal alloy factory in Bedford, Ohio.

    The explosion occurred at the I Schumann & Co. metal alloy plant Monday afternoon.

    WKYC reported:

    Multiple area crews are responding to an explosion that took place at an Oakwood Village manufacturing plant Monday afternoon.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/developing-at-least-13-injured-in-explosion-at-metal-alloy-factory-in-bedford-ohio/

  22. WATCH: Benny Johnson Gives $20,000 To Suffering East Palestine Residents – Their Reactions Are Priceless
    By Cullen Linebarger Feb. 20, 2023 6:00 pm46 Comments

    In a country run by a callous and incompetent regime, one can take comfort there are still people willing to help out their fellow man.

    Conservative commentator and Turning Point USA chief creative officer Benny Johnson decided to visit East Palestine, Ohio shortly after the train derailment on February 3rd and help the suffering residents. The 20 people closest to the disaster received $1,000 each.

    He released video of his visit on Sunday.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/watch-benny-johnson-gives-20000-to-suffering-east-palestine-residents-their-reactions-are-priceless/