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.
For those interested, please check out https://vladtepesblog.substack.com/ as an another avenue of expression.
The snarling face of tyranny:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/all-four-pillars-civilization-are-under-attack-anti-human-death-cult-shellenberger
Canada announces methane emission reductions at UN meeting. The disingenuous announcement speaks about petroleum industry leakage but when, I ask, will cattle emissions be included as an excuse to restrict the food supply? Sneaky stuff.
https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-brazil-egypt-announce-new-methane-regulations-monday-us-official-2023-12-04/
No idea if this is old news here but it is about time as univerties are totally undermining their once value.
I spent not a little time talking to medical students during my “incarceration” and I was appalled at 1) how ignorant they were of history and politics; 2) how politicized they already were (the only non-woke one was a Christian) ; & 3) when I was finally allowed to use my vision, how their “diversity” was heavily skewed away from young white males ( this particular university uses a board interview selection method (unless the TER is so high that they cannot ignore you) this enables woke selection and nepotism/cronyism) to run riot.
In addition, as I am totally deaf on one side I had great difficulty in understanding what several of them were saying due to their accents and I pity the poor elderly patients who have them as doctors.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/consumer/article-12806053/companies-ax-college-bachelors-degree-requirements-walmart.html
Flushing the third world into the civilized world is delivering predictable results. Skyrocketing crime rates and homelessness are ongoing while oppressive legislation giving years of prison to those who complain, or even think of complaining, looms. Sadly, it will mean the end of VTB if such laws come to pass. True North:
More flushing. This time rats from tunnels:
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-weighs-plan-to-flood-gaza-tunnels-with-seawater-a375dd0b
BREAKING! It’s raining in Vancouver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR0yBnAqfqw
(The only atmospheric river is the river of Woke bullshit tears.)
Commie retard blows up self. MSM silent:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/arlington-home-explodes-arlington-virginia-neighborhood
Interview with Prof. Norman Fenton:
https://www.thefreemind.co.uk/p/professor-norman-fenton
First of all, it might be hard for you to be brief on such a huge topic, but could you give me a summary of the worst official mistakes and misconceptions about managing the Covid-19 pandemic?
Mistake 1: In March 2020 the Government was assuming massively exaggerated Covid-19 fatality rates. This mistake drove many of the subsequent disastrous decisions. By properly analysing the early publicly available international data we already found (even before lockdowns were properly in place) that Covid-19 was far less deadly than was being assumed by the Government. Although almost all our many research papers since July 2020 have been censored, between March and June 2020 we published a few papers in peer reviewed journals reporting these low case fatality rates and that government statistics were failing to accurately present the situation. Other researchers (such as Ioannidis at Stanford) were reporting similar low fatality rates but although our estimates have since proven to be far more accurate than what the Government was assuming (in fact the fatality rates were even lower than what we were estimating) our work was ignored.
Mistake 2: The Government made catastrophic changes to existing treatment protocols for viral infections that led to many of the excess deaths in spring 2020. In addition to the excess deaths caused by moving elderly patients from hospitals into care homes, and the damaging use of intubation and ventilators for Covid-19 patients, the introduction of NICE Guideline NG163 was especially disastrous. This was the guideline which recommended the use of deadly drugs like midazolam to a class of patients who never needed it (in my opinion), and which also stopped the use of antibiotics to Covid-19 patients; most people with a viral infection die from the bacterial pneumonia that follows it and antibiotics are a standard treatment for that. Not only did many people die unnecessarily (or die earlier than they would otherwise have done) in that period but the massive spike in deaths attributed to Covid-19 created a sense of hysteria and further exaggerated the perception of deadliness of Covid-19. All of which fed into the demands for lockdown.
Mistake 3: The lockdowns were an unnecessary disaster. Even if the Government’s flawed assumptions and approved models had been accurate, no comprehensive risk-benefit analysis to support lockdowns was ever conducted. After three years there is no evidence that lockdowns had any beneficial effect anywhere in the world.
Mistake 4: The Government relied far too heavily on ‘experts’ who had their own underlying social and political objectives. Many of the ‘experts’ on committees like SAGE appear to be leftwing and seemed to welcome increased levels of Government interventions. Susan Michie on SPI-B said in the media that she wanted all the social distancing and masking to remain in place ‘forever’. They were especially excited that the lockdowns were helping to ‘combat climate change’ and ‘The Great Reset’.
Mistake 5: The mass testing of healthy (‘asymptomatic’) people starting September 2020 created the false narrative for the second lockdown and the notion that the vaccine was the only way out. The so-called second wave of Covid-19, which was claimed to be much bigger than the first, was driven by the unprecedented mass testing of healthy people going back to work and school after the first lockdown. I wrote a few articles about this, including ‘Don’t Panic’. Using the flawed PCR test the vast majority of ‘cases’ among asymptomatics were false positives – these people neither had, nor went on to develop, any viral illness. All the independent data, most notably 999, ambulance and hospital data, indicated that there was nothing more than the normal seasonal increase in viral infections in the autumn-winter 2020-21
Mistake 6: The track and trace scheme was an unnecessary and expensive disaster. Just before the pilot scheme was released in the Isle of Wight in May 2020, my colleague Scott McLachlan led research which explained why the scheme, as designed, could not possibly work even if it had been necessary. Our paper on this was rejected by all the main journals (although a much watered down version was eventually published, with recommendations on how it could work that were ignored). We estimate that the scheme wasted almost £40 billion and achieved nothing other than unnecessarily quarantining millions of healthy people in their homes.
Mistake 7: False claims were made about vaccine efficacy and safety: It was the inflated Covid-19 case numbers at the end of 2020 which were used by the Government as the rationale for its argument that only the vaccine could end the lockdown. But not only was the lockdown, and hence the vaccine, unnecessary but I set out that the vaccines were neither as safe nor as effective as claimed. Our analysis of the first ONS data published on mortality by vaccination status in March 2020 showed that not only was the data flawed but that the flaws were covering up obvious spikes in mortality shortly after vaccination in each age group.
Prof Norman Fenton has struggled to have critiques of the vaccine safety and efficacy published.
What do you think the UK government did right?
Almost nothing. I suppose that as they did allow England, Wales and Scotland to adopt different lockdown and vaccine mandate policies, at least England was spared the harsher policies adopted in Scotland and Wales.
(Richard: They introduce the new math into our schools, math that hardly anyone can do and then can’t understand why our math scores are falling.)
US Students’ Math Scores Drop to Lowest Levels Ever in Global Education Assessment as Millions of Illegals Flood Over Border
US students’ math scores have dropped to the lowest levels ever in a global assessment of scores.
In just four years – from 2018 to 2022 – US students saw a whopping 13-point drop in their Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results.
Axios reported:
U.S. students lag behind their peers in many industrialized countries when it comes to math, according to the results of a global exam released Tuesday.
Why it matters: U.S. students saw a 13-point drop in their 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) math results when compared to the 2018 exam.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/us-students-math-scores-drop-lowest-levels-ever/
Major Liberal City Set to Discipline Students Based on Their Race and Gender Identity for ‘Restorative Justice’
by Jack Davis, The Western Journal Dec. 5, 2023 11:45 am323 Comments
An agreement that ends a Portland, Oregon, teachers strike includes a sweeping call to provide “restorative justice” to students who tick the right boxes.
The strike was resolved late last month, according to CNN.
In the past, middle school and high school students could be suspended for at least five days in case of the most serious incidents of physical harm or threats of violence, according to KGW-TV in Portland.
Now, a team of staff psychologists, counselors and social workers will become involved, with more staff assigned as needed.
“Black, Native American, and other students of color are referred out of class significantly more often,” the district’s Collective Bargaining Team said in a letter to families last month.
“Students receiving special education services also bear the burden of disproportionate discipline. This ‘discipline’ is far from the root of the term ‘discipline’: to instruct, train, and educate,” the letter said.
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The new collective bargaining agreement requires that when a student exhibits “continuous disruptive behavior,” a “support plan” must be developed that can go as far as detention.
The mix of factors to consider to develop just the right approach includes “the impact of issues related to the student’s trauma, race, gender identity/presentation, sexual orientation … and restorative justice as appropriate for the student.”
Mandatory suspensions are out. They are replaced with the potential removal from class but not the school.
“The District and Association are committed to an approach for student conduct and discipline that aligns with the PPS Vision and utilizes research used in Racial Equity and Social Justice, Restorative Justice and Trauma Informed to minimize the use of exclusionary discipline and to maximize instructional time while repairing harm done within the school community,” the agreement said.
“Student behavior is a communication of unmet needs and makes sense when put in context. The disciplinary response process should be aimed at meeting these needs and create an environment that helps students find new ways to meet their needs,” it said.
The agreement said that escalating violence or serious violent incidents could still result in removal from school
Michele Exner, senior adviser for Parents Defending Education, called the discipline policy “absurd.”
“These policies are wrong, counterproductive, and will only feed into the divisive climate we are seeing across academic institutions,” Exner told The Washington Free Beacon.
Portland was developing a “restorative justice” pilot program at the time the pandemic hit.
“The goal of restorative justice, on the school level, is to look at the effectiveness of restorative justice in addressing the disproportionate number of students of color being affected by major discipline referrals (in-school suspension, suspension and expulsion),” one city school that was part of the pilot project posted on its website.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/major-liberal-city-set-discipline-students-based-race/
Time for caring parents to move away from these lunatic freaks. I see teachers as the leading edge of the coming disaster.
That they are.
Guyana on High Alert Against Maduro’s Invasion Threat – Referendum’s Turnout Is Said To Have Been Very Low – Venezuelan Voters Also Allegedly Rejected Arbitration by International Court
by Paul Serran Dec. 5, 2023 7:00 am146 Comments
Maduro is hell-bent on getting all that Guyanese oil and gas.
Now that all over the world frontiers have begun to be redrawn left and right, it is not all that surprising when a down-on-luck socialist dictator from Venezuela decides to have a crack at snatching 74% of his oil-rich neighbor Guyana’s territory.
After all, if post-WW2 borders are being moved around, why not one that was settled in 1899? The international mediation by the US and Russia awarded the area to England, no less.
After massive oil reserves were found in Guyanese territorial waters, the secular claim by Venezuela was rekindled in a spectacular fashion.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/guyana-high-alert-against-maduros-invasion-threat-referendums/
Traders made millions shorting Israeli companies before October 7 attack
Israeli authorities are investigating claims that some traders may have known about Hamas attacks before they happened
(JNS) Israeli authorities are investigating a claim by two researchers in the United States that traders possibly knew in advance about the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 and profited from the massacre.
The report by law professors Robert J. Jackson Jr. of New York University School of Law (NYU Law) and Joshua Mitts of Columbia Law School found a sharp rise in short-selling of Israeli stocks in the weeks leading up to the attack, in which thousands of Hamas gunmen stormed the border, murdering 1,200 people, wounding more than 5,000 and taking 240 hostages back to the Gaza Strip.
“Days before the attack, traders appeared to anticipate the events to come,” they wrote in a 66-page report. They cited a sudden and significant spike in short interest in the MSCI Israel Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) on Oct. 2 based on data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
“And just before the attack, short selling of Israeli securities on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) increased dramatically.”
The Israel Securities Authority told Reuters that “the matter is known to the authority and is under investigation by all the relevant parties.”
The researchers wrote: “Although we see no aggregate increase in shorting of Israeli companies on U.S. exchanges, we do identify a sharp and unusual increase, just before the attacks, in trading in risky short-dated options on these companies expiring just after the attacks.
“Our findings suggest that traders informed about the coming attacks profited from these tragic events, and consistent with prior literature we show that trading of this kind occurs in gaps in U.S. and international enforcement of legal prohibitions on informed trading,” they added.
According to the researchers, the findings show that the short sales were larger than in the days before previous rounds of fighting between Israel and terrorists in Gaza, as well as before the outbreak of COVID-19.
They also referred to similar patterns in April when it was reported that Hamas initially planned the attack on Israel.
“Short volume in EIS [the MSCI Israel ETF] peaked on April 3 at levels very similar to those observed on Oct. 2 and was far higher by an order of magnitude than other days prior to April 3,” they said.
Read Next
Hamas won’t free women who may reveal sex abuse in captivity, suggests US official
TOPSHOT – Members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group enter a tunnel in the Gaza strip, on April 17, 2022, during a media tour amid escalating violence with Israel. – More than 20 Palestinians and Israelis were wounded in several incidents in and around Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, two days after major violence at the site. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)
Israel making plans to flood Hamas tunnels with seawater, reports say
RAFAH, GAZA – NOVEMBER 30: Hostages are transported in International Committee of the Red Cross vehicles from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah land crossing on November 30, 2023 in Rafah, Gaza. Israel and Hamas agreed to a further extension to a truce that has lasted nearly a week, which promised the release of more Israeli hostages held in Gaza, as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. (Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)
Hamas drugged hostages to make them seem happy after 50 days in captivity, says Israel
British IDF soldier killed in Gaza had a ‘pure soul’ says family
AFP or licensors
Israeli Police have evidence Hamas terrorists raped men on October 7, activists claim
https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/traders-made-millions-shorting-israeli-companies-before-october-7-attack-qdumzueo
Hamas won’t free women who may reveal sex abuse in captivity, suggests US official
Spokesman suggests the recent truce fell apart because of Hamas fears over a PR disaster
A US State Department official has suggested that the reason the truce between Israel and Hamas fell apart was that the terrorists did not want released female prisoners revealing the sexual abuse they have faced in captivity.
Under the terms of the truce, which collapsed last Friday, Hamas was to prioritise the release of children and non-IDF females.
Israel says 15 women still held by Hamas meet that description, as well as two children — Ariel Bibas, 4, and Kfir Bibas, 10 months, both of whom may now have perished.
“The fact that they continue to hold women hostages, the fact that they continue to hold children hostages, just the fact that it seems one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over they’ve been holding hostage, and the reason this pause fell apart, is they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Miller, citing sensitivities in discussing treatment of captives, declined to give details on the treatment of the women.
But he said that the United States had “no reason to doubt” reports of sexual violence by Hamas.
“There is very little that I would put beyond Hamas when it comes to its treatment of civilians and particularly its treatment of women,” Miller said.
It comes as Israeli film star Gal Gadot said on Monday that the world had “failed the women of October 7” amid a global campaign to highlight the silence of the UN and other women’s rights bodies over the brutal sexual violence carried out by Hamas terrorists.
https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/hamas-wont-free-women-who-may-reveal-sex-abuse-in-captivity-suggests-us-official-m9rqejv7
School of sharks gang up on a crocodile
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0P2iWDyPhM/
Elk attacks tourist
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0Z2VPkPAA3/
I have referenced this book before: The Great Taking. It is, essentially, about the core collateral that supports the world economy. This collateral is dwarfed by derivatives of it.
Ownership of the collateral may not be what it seems. Claims against what you think you own with the assistance of borrowed money may be real and unbeknownst to you. This is what this 1hr+ documentary is about.
The biggest problem I have with it is that I cannot find a flaw with it, which means little. But if we only consider the hundreds of trillions of dollars of derivatives in the financial system, this man’s voice becomes consequential. What about collateral? Who really owns it if not us? What does it all mean? It’s pretty dry and boring 3/4 through. I’m pretty sure no one will watch it. He has nothing to sell. It is a public service.
https://youtu.be/dk3AVceraTI?si=4GY3YQ3BeIGqOa6y
The Zelensky goose seems cooked. Merry Christmas, arsehole.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/zelensky-abruptly-cancels-address-senators-lashes-out-failure-secure-more-taxpayer-funds