Reader’s Links for April 5th, 2024

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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.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

29 Replies to “Reader’s Links for April 5th, 2024”

  2. It’s 10:24 AM ET – on Long Island, NY. I think we just had an earthquake. Everything shaking for seconds.

    • Developing: Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake Centered in New Jersey, Tremors Felt Throughout Surrounding Area
      by Margaret Flavin Apr. 5, 2024 10:00 am50 Comments

      An earthquake was reported Friday morning in New Jersey, and tremors have been felt in Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut, and Delaware.

      USGS filed a report at 10:23 a.m. indicating the 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit Lebanon, New Jersey with the specific location of 40.672°N 74.784°W.

      New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day.”

      No immediate reports of damages or injuries have occurred.

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/developing-magnitude-4-7-earthquake-centered-new-jersey/

      • Remember the line in The Phantom Of The Opera when he cried out “You Try My Patience Christine”, well God just might be saying something to the left loon governors. God Almighty.

    • Read more: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20240326/the-us-supreme-court-looks-at-government-blacklists#ixzz8WXRiSuxP
      Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
      Follow us: @Ammoland on Twitter | Ammoland on Facebook

      The U.S. Supreme Court Looks at Government “Blacklists”
      Ammoland Inc. Posted on April 5, 2024 by NRAHQ

      Opinion
      Banned iStock-1055867850.jpg
      iStock-1055867850

      Much of the attention in recent weeks in the United States Supreme Court was the oral arguments in National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo, No. 22-842, a First Amendment case on whether government officials may use their regulatory authority to effect a “blacklisting campaign” to silence and punish entities like the NRA for their pro-gun advocacy.

      Last week, also, the Court issued a decision in Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fikre, No. 22-1178, arising out of a different alleged abuse of government power, the federal government’s “No Fly List.”

      The “No Fly List,” of course, underlies the “No Fly, No Buy” gun control proposal endorsed by then-President Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and others, whereby any person on the “No Fly List” would be prohibited from passing a background check to purchase a firearm.

      The NRA has long maintained that terrorists or dangerous people should not have firearms and that “any suggestion otherwise is offensive and wrong.” The real issue, as the NRA pointed out in its opposition to proposed state legislation in 2019, is that “No Fly, No Buy” has:

      the potential to impact law-abiding individuals who mistakenly end up on the list for unbeknownst reasons. The terrorist watchlist is not public record; both the list of individuals and the evidence used to determine who is added to the list are secret. Due process is a pillar of the American justice system, and a constitutionally protected right cannot, and should not, be taken away on the basis of a secretive or unsubstantiated accusation. Additionally, the process for being taken off of the list is tenuous and difficult.

      Besides a process without clear standards, notice, a hearing or similar judicial oversight (one amicus brief described the “No Fly List” as a “regulatory black box”), those on the list face potentially nightmarish consequences, as a review of the Fikre case serves to show.

      In 2010, Yonas Fikre, a U.S. citizen resident in Oregon, was on a business trip to Sudan when he was invited to a lunch at the U.S. embassy. According to Fikre, FBI agents met with him to ask about his ties to a mosque in the Portland area. They advised him he was on the “No Fly List” but could be taken off if he agreed to act as an FBI informant. Fikre refused. Unable to return to the United States, Fikre travelled to the United Arab Emirates, where he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured in 2011, allegedly because the FBI had requested his detention and interrogation. Upon his eventual release, Fikre flew to Sweden, where he unsuccessfully applied for asylum while attempting to modify his “No Fly List” status through the Department of Homeland Security. He claimed that his wife divorced him because of his inability to return to his family and the stigma that attached to him as a person on the list.

      In 2013, he sued the federal government over his inclusion on Terrorist Screening Dataset and its constituent “No Fly List,” and the procedures the government used in making that decision. He contended that he was placed on the list for constitutionally impermissible reasons, including his religious beliefs. The Swedish government returned Fikre to the United States by private jet in 2015.

      The next year, while the litigation was ongoing, the government removed Fikre from the “No Fly List” and submitted a declaration that he would “not be placed on the No Fly List in the future” based on “currently available information.” (By that time, the list prohibited approximately 81,000 individuals from flying into, out of, within, or over the United States.) The government defendants then sought to have the lawsuit dismissed.

      The declaration did not disclose why Fikre ended up on the list and did not guarantee that he would not be placed back on it for substantially the same reasons; it also did not renounce the original decision to have him listed. As one of Fikre’s court filings states, Fikre “may have been placed on the list for any number of other unknown reasons. Perhaps he attended the wrong lectures, purchased the wrong books, or browsed the wrong websites. He has no way of knowing because the government has not told him,” and he could “unwittingly repeat the same type of actions deemed suspicious and end up back on the list for the same reasons.”
      The question before the Supreme Court was whether the government’s declaration was enough to foreclose further proceedings as futile or “moot.”

      In a unanimous decision, the Court held the case could proceed. A defendant’s voluntary cessation of a challenged practice would moot a case only if the defendant could show that the practice could not “reasonably be expected to recur,” and the government failed to overcome this “formidable burden.” “While the government’s representation that it will not relist Mr. Fikre may mean that his past conduct is not enough to warrant relisting, that does not speak to whether the government might relist him if he engages in the same or similar conduct in the future.” The government’s declaration failed to state whether Fikre faced being re-listed “if he does the same or similar things in the future — say, attend a particular mosque or refuse renewed overtures to serve as an informant.”

      It is possible that the government had excellent national security reasons to place Fikre on the list; alternatively, Fikre may have been the victim of faulty intelligence or was listed simply as part of being leaned on to become an informant. Notably, though, the Court stated that, “given what little we know at this stage in the proceedings, Mr. Fikre may have done none of the things the government presumes he has.”

      The ruling is a preliminary or provisional decision, as the lawfulness of the government’s actions (the “as-yet uncontested allegations”) was not before the Court. What the ruling establishes is that the government has to meet the same standards as private defendants when seeking a dismissal for mootness, despite its argument that allowing “No Fly List” claims “to proceed to discovery would needlessly enmesh the parties and courts in disputes about the use of [highly sensitive] information…” For Mr. Fikre, however, being taken off the “No Fly List” still means even more litigation lies ahead, in a case that already consumed over a decade of his life.

      The Court’s decision sheds a fresh light on why it is wrong to allow the Executive branch to unilaterally rescind citizens’ constitutional rights, including Second Amendment rights, based on no more than “reasonable suspicion” and without due process safeguards.

  4. Climate Change and Low Wages Not Grounds for Asylum
    by Antonio Graceffo Apr. 5, 2024 9:15 am51 Comments

    Two of the biggest reasons the Democrats give as to why illegals are coming and why they should be granted asylum are climate change and “the chance at a better life“; essentially, because they want higher wages.

    In the past, neither of those qualified you for asylum. You pretty much had to prove that you had been singled out for execution by a despotic government or had to be fleeing a real, verifiable crisis, not a made-up climate crisis.

    If we allow everyone in who wants to earn more money, that would encompass most of the world’s population.

    The US has the 8th highest GDP per capita in the world, behind some very small but rich countries: Luxembourg, Singapore, Ireland, Norway, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland, which have a combined population of 37,600,000 people.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/climate-change-low-wages-not-grounds-asylum/

  5. ‘It’s Like the End of Times’: UN Expert Predicts ‘Apocalyptic Scenario’ in Haiti May Fuel Mass Exodus Towards the US ‘In Weeks’
    by Paul Serran Apr. 5, 2024 8:00 am326 Comments

    About a month ago, I wrote here in TGP that “the present situation in Haiti defies our capacity for hyperbole. […] MSM headlines try to describe it by saying that Haiti ‘may fall at any time,’ is ‘on the brink,’ ‘spiraling into chaos,’ and further pointing out that ‘a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding’.”

    Right now, this sentiment is echoed by sources on the ground, with UN’s top expert on human rights in Haiti saying ‘I’m running out of words frankly at this point … it’s apocalyptic, it’s like the end of times’.

    William O’Neill is an American human rights lawyer with 30 years of experience in Haiti.

    He says that the gang rebellion that started in early March has deteriorated the situation in the capital Port-au-Prince to unprecedented levels.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/its-like-end-times-un-expert-predicts-apocalyptic/

  6. Activist Warns Democrats to STOP Registering Young Voters – They’re Going to Vote for Trump
    by Jim Hoft Apr. 5, 2024 7:45 am145 Comments

    Influential data scientist Aaron Strauss sparked controversy in Democrat circles when he recently urged Democrat donors to stop registering young voters and black voters in the runup of the 2024 election – because they will likely vote for Trump.

    The black vote and youth vote is trending towards Trump in 2024 as Joe Biden continues his planned destruction of America’s economy, borders, and foreign policy.

    Recent surveys show young people are supporting Trump.

    Via Conservative Treehouse and the Washington Post.

    […] A confidential memo circulated among top Democratic donors has sparked a furious debate in Democratic circles about whether to narrow the focus of voter registration efforts to avoid signing up likely Republicans.

    For decades, nonpartisan groups allied with the Democratic Party have run wide-ranging efforts aimed at increasing voter registration among people of color and young people — groups that tend to lean Democratic but have historically voted at lower rates than older and White people.

    In recent years, however, there has been a marked shift among the roughly one in five citizens of voting age who are unregistered toward Republicans, raising fresh questions about how much boosting nonpartisan voter registration could help presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump heading into November

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/activist-warns-democrats-stop-registering-young-voters-theyre/

  7. Biden Regime Introduces Regulations to Block Trump’s Plan to Expunge The Deep State
    by Ben Kew Apr. 5, 2024 7:15 am554 Comments

    The Biden regime is already putting in place plans to stop President Donald Trump from firing members of the deep state should he take back the White House this November.

    The Office of Personnel Management, the principal agency overseeing federal government employees, has introduced guidelines preventing career civil servants from being reassigned as political appointees who can be terminated more swiftly from their positions.

    This move is a response to Trump’s ‘Schedule F’ directive in 2020, which sought to reclassify the role of tens of thousands of federal employees, essentially making it easier to fire them.

    In a White House statement on Thursday, Biden said he was introducing “the final rule to protect nonpartisan civil servants” that would “protections for 2.2 million career civil servants from political interference, to guarantee that they can carry out their responsibilities in the best interest of the American people.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/biden-regime-introduces-regulations-block-trumps-plan-expunge/

  9. U.S.
    Largest fresh egg producer in U.S. finds bird flu in chickens at Texas and Michigan plants

    The largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. said Tuesday it had temporarily halted production at a Texas plant after bird flu was found in chickens, and officials said the virus had also been detected at a poultry facility in Michigan.

    In Texas, Ridgeland, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. said in a statement that approximately 1.6 million laying hens and 337,000 pullets, about 3.6% of its total flock, were destroyed after the infection, avian influenza, was found at the facility in Parmer County, Texas.

    The plant is on the Texas-New Mexico border in the Texas Panhandle about 85 miles southwest of Amarillo and about 370 miles northwest of Dallas.

    “The Company continues to work closely with federal, state and local government officials and focused industry groups to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks and effectively manage the response,” according to the statement. “Cal-Maine Foods is working to secure production from other facilities to minimize disruption to its customers.”

    The company said there is no known bird flu risk associated with eggs that are currently on the market and no eggs have been recalled. Eggs that are properly handled and cooked are safe to eat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fresh-egg-producer-us-bird-flu-chickens-texas-michigan-plants/

    • Oh yeah. headline Human and Cattle Infected With Bird Flu Puts “Scientists” on Alert LOL LOL LOL Is it Disease X ????

      Can the elites not wait until May 27 meeting to tell the world they are taking over? When will they inform peoplekind that they have already contracted German-based company, T-Systems to develop technology—Compliance with digital health tyranny enforced by the UN, World Health Organization????

      Global passports — Global vaccinations, well maybe, most likely not the Elites of the world, just the little people.

  10. “His name was Muhammad” – Amit Soussana Speaks About Her Days in Hamas’ Captivity

  12. Judge Cannon Rejects Jack Smith’s Demands of Her Jury Instruction Order as “Unprecedented and Unjust”
    by Cristina Laila Apr. 5, 2024 12:40 pm371 Comments

    Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday rejected Trump’s motion to dismiss the classified documents case based on the Presidential Records Act.

    In February Trump’s legal team filed several motions to dismiss Jack Smith’s classified documents case.

    Cannon has now denied two of Trump’s motions to dismiss Jack Smith’s lawfare case playing out in a federal court in Florida.

    “The Superseding Indictment specifies the nature of the accusations against Defendant Trump in a lengthy speaking indictment with embedded excerpts from investigative interviews, photographs, and other content,” Cannon wrote in her brief order on Thursday. “Accepting the allegations of the Superseding Indictment as true, the Presidential Records Act does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/judge-cannon-rejects-jack-smiths-demands-her-jury/

  13. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Withdraws Political Support for Joe Biden in 2024, Says He Regrets Endorsing Biden in 2020 (VIDEO)
    by Jim H?ft Apr. 5, 2024 9:00 am1019 Comments

    In a recent interview with FOX News’ Will Cain, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, once an avid supporter of Joe Biden, has expressed regret over his 2020 endorsement and stated he will not be endorsing Biden for the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

    Johnson, along with everyone who supported Joe Biden, is complicit in the destruction of the US today.

    Johnson has been a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump and was seen as part of the broader Hollywood contingent that supported Democratic candidates.

    In 2020, Johnson posted a video on Instagram criticizing then-President Donald Trump‘s response to the protests after George Floyd’s death.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/dwayne-rock-johnson-withdraws-political-support-joe-biden/

  14. POWDER KEG AMERICA: Maduro Signs Into Law Referendum Claiming Essequibo, Guyana as Part of Venezuela, Says Guyana Is Governed by US Southern Command, the CIA and Exxon-Mobil
    by Paul Serran Apr. 5, 2024 2:00 pm109 Comments

    Tensions are bound to rise in South America, as the dispute between Guyana and Venezuela for the oil-rich Essequibo region appears headed for some serious escalation.

    Venezuelan Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s signed into law the results of a recent referendum that lays claim to the Essequibo region of Guyana.

    The move led to fierce condemnation from the neighboring country’s government.

    Associated Press reported:

    “The text of the law was not immediately made public. Even so, Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs vowed not to yield any land to Venezuela and called the move targeting Guyana’s western Essequibo region an ‘egregious violation of the most fundamental principles of international law’.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/powder-keg-america-maduro-signs-law-referendum-claiming/

  15. Post
    See new posts
    Conversation
    Ryan Goodman
    @rgoodlaw
    Beneath the headlines: why Judge Cannon’s “ruling against Trump” is not what Jack Smith wanted to hear.

    I discussed ?@OutFrontCNN
    ? how Judge Cannon may be buying time to deep six the case later based on ludicrous legal theory that can’t then be appealed.

    https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1776037400625529118

  16. Post
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    Conversation
    Katie Phang
    @KatiePhang
    Katie’s Sidebar: This is a TELLING statement from Judge Cannon. She is telling Jack Smith that she will not rule on jury instructions at this time and will wait until trial and “the presentation of trial defenses and evidence.”

    The timing of that means Cannon might wait until AFTER a jury has been sworn-in and jeopardy attaches. Once jeopardy attaches, a criminal defendant cannot be tried a second time for the same crime. This is exactly what Smith is trying to avoid by having Cannon rule on the jury instructions at this stage.

    Cannon is sticking her finger in Smith’s face and telling him to do something about it.

    https://twitter.com/KatiePhang/status/1775967426460389825

  17. Post
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    Tom Fitton
    @TomFitton
    BREAKING: @JudicialWatch
    Asks Court to Deny Biden Justice Department Request to Transfer Ashli Babbitt $30 Million Wrongful Death Lawsuit from California to Washington, DC –

    Let’s be blunt, the Biden DOJ wants to move the Ashli Babbitt wrongful death lawsuit to DC because it knows the courts here are notoriously hostile to anyone tied to the January 6 protests.

    From our brief:

    Defendant’s position [to transfer venue] illustrates and underscores the prejudice and injustice that Plaintiffs would face if venue were transferred to the District of Columbia. Defendant mentions 80 Capitol Police officers and 60 Metropolitan Police officers that were injured and connects the deaths of three officers to the events on that day, thus connecting Ashli Babbitt to these deaths and other injuries, as if she caused them. The request for a change in venue is clearly influenced by Defendant’s strongest motivation for changing venue, which is to select the forum where it feels it would receive a favorable process and outcome based on adversity against January 6 participants. By its motion, Defendant hopes to unfairly and unjustly connect Ashli Babbitt to violence, injuries, and deaths for which she is blameless and connect her by association to thousands of individuals convicted of misdemeanors and felonies for which she was never charged and is unable to present a defense due to the lawless actions of one of Defendant’s employees in shooting and killing her.

    ***

    It’s no secret that the District of Columbia is a hostile forum for January 6 defendants. It’s also prejudicially biased against Ashli Babbitt. For example, during a recent sentencing hearing in the District of Columbia in United States v. Daniel Goodwyn … District Judge Reggie B. Walton made the following statement to the defendant and his counsel regarding the shooting of Ashli Babbitt:

    THE COURT: You should not have been – you cannot convince me that somehow what she was doing was somehow justified and the police did not have a justification for taking the actions that they took. You can’t convince me of that.

    Judge Walton’s statement evidences he has already predetermined a crucial issue in this case – whether Ashli Babbitt’s killing was justified. Judge Walton made other biased comments on the record, including, “Well, she shouldn’t have been coming through the window,” and “this man who was protecting the Capitol ends up being called a thug … that is just mind boggling.” … Unfortunately, Judge Walton is speaking what many others are at least thinking behind the bench in the District of Columbia. This Court is the only venue which offers Plaintiffs a chance of receiving a fair trial.

    https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1776250125238608121

  19. Concerns about ‘structural racism’ prompt major Mass. hospital network to change policies about babies born addicted to drugs
    Cortney Weil

    A major hospital network in Massachusetts has now revamped its policies regarding babies born addicted to drugs in an attempt to address “significant racial and ethnic inequities” it claims are associated with substance abuse disorder.

    On Tuesday, Mass General Brigham, the commonwealth’s largest hospital group, announced that it will no longer automatically report that an infant has been born with drug addiction since the automatic reporting and other such policies “disproportionately affect Black individuals.”

    Current commonwealth law demands mandatory reporting of all infants with “physical dependence upon an addictive drug at birth.” However, the hospitals affiliated with Mass General Brigham — including Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and Salem Hospital — will now encourage reporting such cases to child protective services only if the babies are “suffering or at imminent risk of suffering physical or emotional injury.”

    Another policy change at Mass General Brigham means that medical professionals will now conduct toxicology tests on newborns and/or “pregnant people” — sometimes referred to as women — only under two conditions. First, hospital workers must be given written consent to perform the tests. Second, they will perform the tests only if the results will affect the medical treatment the mother and/or child receives.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/concerns-about-structural-racism-prompt-major-mass-hospital-network-to-change-policies-about-babies-born-addicted-to-drugs

  20. Beer Beats Wine In Regular Consumption
    Tyler Durden’s Photo
    by Tyler Durden
    Friday, Apr 05, 2024 – 07:00 PM

    Alcohol has long been portrayed as a “social lubricant”, an effect possibly explained by the alcohol myopia theory. It suggests that intoxication can result in “hyperfocus directed to emotional situations when they are sufficiently relevant to grab attention, or a reduced attentional focus to emotional events in the presence of a relevant demanding task”, according to a 2010 paper on the topic by a group of researchers from Spain and Brazil.

    On the other hand, alcohol is a drug that negatively affects psychological and physical health. As the World Health Organization postulated in a news briefing from January 2023 “alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago – this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco.”

    However, as Statista’s Florian Zandt notes, the ambivalent picture of alcohol consumption doesn’t stop many people from drinking regularly.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/beer-beats-wine-regular-consumption

    • In the three thousand five hundred years that humans have been drinking,how have we never noticed this before,more fear porn.

  21. “Are You Kidding Me?” – Biden-Appointed Judge Rips DOJ For Flouting Hunter Biden-Related Subpoenas While Pointing Out Peter Navarro is in Prison For Same Defiance
    by Cristina Laila Apr. 5, 2024 8:20 pm101 Comments

    A federal judge on Friday ripped DOJ prosecutors for ignoring Hunter Biden-related subpoenas while pointing out that Trump’s top advisor is in prison for defying a subpoena issued by House members.

    In September former Trump advisor Dr. Peter Navarro, 74, was convicted of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena in Liz Cheney’s January 6 investigation.

    Navarro did not comply with the subpoena because he said Trump told him to assert executive privilege.

    Hunter Biden blatantly defied a congressional subpoena and nothing happened to him. He is a free man while Navarro sits in prison.

    US District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, blasted Justice Department prosecutors for ignoring subpoenas issued to two DOJ lawyers in the tax division over their role in Hunter Biden’s federal investigation.

    “There’s a person in jail right now because you all brought a criminal lawsuit against him because he did not appear for a House subpoena,” Judge Reyes said, referring to Peter Navarro. “And now you guys are flouting those subpoenas. … And you don’t have to show up?”

    “I think it’s quite rich you guys pursue criminal investigations and put people in jail for not showing up,” but then direct current executive branch employees to take the same approach, judge Reyes said, according to Politico. “You all are making a bunch of arguments that you would never accept from any other litigant.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/are-you-kidding-me-biden-appointed-judge-rips/