Reader’s Links for May 16, 2024

Posted on by

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

26 Replies to “Reader’s Links for May 16, 2024”

  1. On Wednesday (16 May), the Slovakian town of Handlova was shaken when the country’s prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot at, leaving him hospitalised with life-threatening injuries. Hours after the incident, a government minister said that 59-year-old Fico was no longer in danger after undergoing hours-long surgery.

    The assassination attempt on Fico is the first on a European national leader since 2003, when Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic was killed.

    https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/slovakia-pm-robert-fico-assassination-attempt-71-year-old-suspect-13771415.html

  2. Another day, another university occupation in the Netherlands, and of course another baton session. In the city of Utrecht this time:

    Police used batons on pro-Palestinian protesters at Utrecht University
    https://nltimes.nl/2024/05/16/police-used-batons-pro-palestinian-protesters-utrecht-university
    Police in Utrecht used batons against pro-Palestinian demonstrators who blocked a city bus containing other protesters. The bus contained around 40 pro-Palestinian activists who occupied a building at Utrecht University (UU) earlier on Wednesday. They were removed from the building by the police on Wednesday evening.
    Just after midnight, peace had returned near the university building, according to an ANP reporter.
    Before using their batons, the police wanted protesters outside to move away or they would use force. When the protesters did not comply, police officers struck them with their batons.
    The city bus containing the activists left. It was not clear where it went. At an earlier pro-Palestinian protest in Utrecht this month, dozens of demonstrators were taken in buses to Houten, where they were dropped off at the cell complex and then allowed to go home.
    The demonstrators on the bus occupied a university building at the Janskerkhof for hours. About 150 sympathizers stood outside for a long time. Anton Pijpers, the chairman of the university’s executive board, was also on site for a short time. A university spokesperson previously said that he would like to talk to the demonstrators.
    However, the demonstrators said there was no negotiating with the Executive Board. Their demands have been known for a long time, but the university is not acting on them, they argued.
    All Utrecht University buildings in the city center will reopen on Thursday. Education in the occupied Janskerkhof 15a building has been moved to another location, the university said on Thursday.
    The University of Amsterdam (UvA) locations will also reopen on Thursday after a two-day closure due to Gaza support protests. The Executive Board finds the risk of opening the doors again acceptable and attaches great importance to resuming education and research. The UvA does not rule out new protests and is closely monitoring developments.
    While the UvA and UU locations are reopening, Erasmus University in Rotterdam (EUR) is closing for one day. All buildings on the Woudestein campus and the Erasmus University College will be closed to accommodate pro-Palestinian organizations, which announced protests there from 1:00 p.m. The EUR wants to prevent “Amsterdam scenes.”

    Only video I could find of this incident:
    https://www.nu.nl/308504/video/politie-haalt-demonstranten-uit-bezet-universiteitsgebouw-utrecht.html

    Video from attempted occupation of the Utrecht university’s humanities library last week:
    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9b4in5dXSyY

  4. Yucki, the approach was different between Hungary and Israel regarding injections. I really don’t know how much it matters, though. Hungary jumped out of the gate for Chinese and Russian non-mRNA goop. This soon hampered the younger population for travel to western Europe, so many later complied by getting the mRNA versions.

    https://www.rferl.org/a/hungary-covid-sputnik-sinopharm-orban/31560829.html

    Israel was arguably the world’s most injected country, going with mostly with Pfizer’s product.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8099312/

    The Chinese and Russians rejected offers of mRNA products.

    It remains a great mystery to me why Orban and Bibi signed on. I’ve asked this question many times. Their countries would most certainly have been isolated from trade which would have made worse Covid’s economic impact. Another theory I’ve heard is that they or their families were personally threatened–rabbit hole stuff I know.

    Don’t know the answer. Maybe we’ll find out in 75 years.

    • The excuse of protecting the family is a perennial. When loyal conservatives are disappointed by a Supreme Court vote or a politician turns coat, they try to understand it by projecting their own personal, generosity.

      I don’t buy it. Not at the level of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roberts or PTrump. Or Bibi. Or Mr. Orban.

      I try to put away questions about men who’ve proven themselves the greatest leaders in the world today. To stay positive in very hard times.

      But I find myself becoming hypercritical of other, unrelated policies and decisions. That’s not productive, it just transfers and expands anger.

      Not good.

    • For example, embracing the PRC.

      I appreciate the logic of expanding ties beyond the West, opportunities with the Rising Dragon.

      But opening the port of Haifa?! Making Israel vulnerable to CHY-na?!

      “In January 2024, COSCO, China’s state-owned shipping giant, cut ties with Israel. The company announced that it would cease operations in Israel. According to Ynet, the decision seemed ‘a principal decision by the Chinese to no longer operate with ports in Israel.’

      “The decision by COSCO is all the more remarkable, because Chinese state-owned companies built, own and operate Israel’s new automated container port in Haifa…

      “Is the enemy, already inside Israel’s gates, also inside the US?”

      https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20623/israel-china-security-threat

  5. The university of Leiden, the Netherlands, seems to be giving in to protester’s demands:
    https://twitter.com/UniLeidenNews/status/1791060039366504911
    Today, after a constructive and fruitful discussion between the rector of
    @UniLeiden
    and the chair of Campus The Hague with SfP and LSP, we agreed on several concrete steps the University will take regarding its ties to Israeli Universities. We will publish the details tomorrow.

    The university was re-occupied because protestors feel the university’s consessions do not go far enough. Article in Dutch:
    Pro-Palestijnse betogers bezetten gebouw van Universiteit Leiden in Den Haag
    https://www.nu.nl/binnenland/6313150/pro-palestijnse-betogers-bezetten-gebouw-van-universiteit-leiden-in-den-haag.html

    The same goes for the university of Ghent, Belgium. Two articles in Dutch:
    https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2024/05/16/ugent-roept-extra-mensenrechtencommissie-samen-voor-nieuw-advies/
    https://www.nu.nl/buitenland/6313140/ugent-wil-band-met-instellingen-in-israel-verbreken-leiden-kondigt-stappen-aan.html

    Article in English, cencelling research is a bit problematic:
    Horizon Europe: Can Belgian universities cancel research contracts with Israel?
    https://www.brusselstimes.com/1041821/horizon-europe-can-belgian-universities-cancel-research-contracts-with-israel

    This article in Dutch contains an interesting statement from an activist group in Rotterdam, the Netherlands:
    https://www.nu.nl/binnenland/6313132/pro-palestijns-protest-na-sluiting-universiteit-verplaatst-naar-rotterdam-cs.html
    In de post schuwen de organisatoren dreigende taal niet. “Ze (de bestuurders, red.) zijn terecht doodsbang. We zullen ze blijven achtervolgen tot Palestina bevrijd is.”
    [..]
    “We zijn niet geïnteresseerd in ‘beschaafd debat'”, schrijven ze. “Fuck jullie met je uitnodiging! We willen geen gesprek, we willen revolutie.”

    translates as:
    In their post, the organizers do not shy away from threatening language: “They [the board] are right to fear for their lives. We will continue to stalk them until Palestine is freed”.
    [..]
    “We are not interested in a civil debate. Fuck you and your invitation! We don’t want to talk, we want revolution”.

    • Boston area universities caved and continue to appease the rotters. Graduation ceremonies this week and next, gotta look good.

  6. Wilders and friends have big plans:

    Hope, guts and pride: The new right-wing Dutch coalition plans
    https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/05/hope-guts-and-pride-the-new-right-wing-dutch-coalition-plans/
    The agreement put together by the four coalition parties over the past five months covers 26 pages and contains what the new partners say is the headline strategy.
    Given the title Hoop, lef en trots (hope, guts, and pride) the document is supposed to pave the way for ministers to flesh out actual policy and how the new strategy will be implemented. Nevertheless, it contains a string of detailed plans covering 10 key areas including immigration, the economy, public safety and boosting individual financial security.
    “Whether we are talking about feeling secure about the future, healthcare, money in your pocket or the availability of sufficient housing, we have big ambitions,” the four parties say in the introduction. “We also want to reverse the much too high influx of refugees and immigrants. We want farmers, market gardeners and fishermen to have a future again.
    Here are some of the main points:
    [..]

    This point is remarkably Trumpian:
    “Research will start on the logistics of moving the Dutch embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem”

  8. Geert Wilders forms government:

    Press conference: making history today!

  9. on I/P conflict and its effect on World Jewry :

    In my circle of personal friends (In Real Life): One couple has left, but differ on returning after the War (should there be such a thing as “after”); two other couples have found the current situation in the Diaspora untenable and are making aliyah. (This expression is relevant as the term that traditional Jews and Jews in general use for moving to the Holy Land is “going upwards,” which is a physical and spiritual characterization of what a pilgrim would go through when ascending the way to Jerusalem.) My observation is that the latter couples have families that were more touched by the Shoah (WWII Holocaust) than the former. So, the current cycle of war has ignited both fear and longing amongst people in the Diaspora.
    ======
    I wonder if @Johnnyu can look at the conflict from a $ perspective. Some of the issues that divide the inhabitants of the area came to the fore when the Ottoman vacuum left open who should be collecting tax revenue. The Ottoman-origin clan that I know the best were willing to learn Hebrew instead of Turkish and participate in the new government, assuming leadership roles in it, so they then had an interest in having the nascent government succeed, or at least negotiating positions within it.

    https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Storyteller_of_Jerusalem/tb8cAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Nashashibi+Jewish+%22wife%22&pg=PT218&printsec=frontcover
    https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/bio/raghib-al-nashashibi
    Family dynamics emerge as the Ottomans recede – Search “generations” ottoman nashishibi

  10. An echo from Algeria’s civil war?

    Omar Bin Omran: 45yo Algerian kidnapped as 17yo rescued from neighbour’s cellar just 100m from family home
    https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/world/omar-bin-omran-45yo-algerian-kidnapped-as-17yo-rescued-from-neighbours-cellar-just-100m-from-family-home-c-14690938

    Teen kidnapped 26 years ago rescued from neighbor’s cellar just 100 meters from Algerian home
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/teen-kidnapped-26-years-ago-rescued-from-neighbor-s-cellar-just-100-meters-from-algerian-home/ar-BB1mt5PR

  12. Comer Finds New Biden Family Bank Accounts, Issues Subpoena For Hunter Bank Records (VIDEO)
    by Cristina Laila May. 16, 2024 12:20 pm359 Comments

    House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) on Thursday told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that his Committee found new Biden family bank accounts.

    Comer said the Biden family has dozens of bank accounts and dozens of LLCs without any legitimate business.

    James Comer told Maria Bartiromo that he issued a subpoena for targeted financial information from a “certain financial institution” related to Jim Biden, Sara Biden and Hunter Biden.

    WATCH:

    House Republicans previously announced they reviewed 170 suspicious activity reports linked to the Biden Crime Family.

  13. Fight Erupts When Feds Ban ‘Religious’ Memorial Day Event
    by Guest Contributor May. 16, 2024 11:40 am336 Comments
    A fight – that could end up before the federal courts – has erupted in Virginia because officials in the National Park Service abruptly have decided to censor all “religious” events planned to honor Memorial Day at Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Petersburg.
    Officials with First Liberty Institute have written to federal officials offering advice on “the right” thing to do to resolve the standoff.
    “Our hope is that the National Park Service will immediately correct this error and grant the permit,” said John Moran of the McGuireWoods law firm working with the institute. “This policy and the decision to block the Knights of Columbus from continuing their long-standing religious tradition is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
    Roger Byron, of First Liberty, added, “Due to the religious nature of the Knights’ annual service to honor and pray for the nation’s fallen soldiers, they have been assigned a second class status and relegated to the proverbial back of the bus. That is precisely the kind of unlawful discrimination and censorship the First Amendment was enacted to prevent. Surely this decision was an oversight.”
    The problem is that while the Knights of Columbus Petersburg Council 694 has held Memorial Day services in the cemetery since the 1960s, the Parks Service now is banning them, because there is a new prohibition on “religious services.”
    Disrupting a long tradition of holiday events recognizing American’s veterans, the Park Service last year denied the fraternal organization a permit to continue.
    Park Service officials, under the Joe Biden administration, now are claiming that masses, or even prayer events, are now “demonstrations.”
    The letter to the chief ranger at the federal location said, “There is no reason under NPS regulations or Policy Memorandum 22-01 to deny the Knights a permit to hold the service within the cemetery. Indeed, even since the adoption of Policy Memorandum 22-01, the Park Service has authorized Memorial Day masses in other National Cemeteries.”
    The legal team, while it has not yet filed a formal case in court, explained that it is a violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act “to discriminate against and censor the Knights’ activities solely because of their religious character.”
    The letter details, “The NPS’s prohibition of the Knights’ Memorial Day service due to its religious nature is not merely unlawful content-based discrimination on speech—it is textbook viewpoint discrimination, which is per se unconstitutional. … The Knights ask NPS to do the right thing and grant them permission to host their annual Memorial Day mass in Poplar Grove National Cemetery, as the Park Service has done since time immemorial—before last year—and as it has continued to do in other National Cemeteries.”
    And it included a notice to the federal facility: “We strongly urge you to reconsider your decision and promptly to grant the Knights a permit to host their annual Memorial Day mass within the walls of the Poplar Grove National Cemetery. If you persist in denying the permit, our clients intend to take all appropriate steps to protect their rights, including though litigation. We therefore ask that you preserve all relevant documents and materials in anticipation of litigation.:
    The letter advised that “the right thing” to see is for the permit to be issued as it has been for decades.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/05/fight-erupts-when-feds-ban-religious-memorial-day/

  14. WAYNE ROOT: Democrats Keep Calling Trump “Hitler.” Could It Be Because They’ve Turned America into 1930s Nazi Germany?
    by Assistant Editor May. 16, 2024 12:40 pm332 Comments

    By Wayne Allyn Root
    Folks, Democrats (ie radical communist traitors who hate America) keep calling Trump “Hitler.” They keep saying if Trump is elected, he will become a Hitler-like dictator. Hillary Clinton said it days ago. Robert De Niro said it on ABC’s “The View.” again.
    But why go to the extreme of comparing Trump to Hitler? Of all people, why Hitler? It’s so extreme, ridiculous, over-exaggerated and preposterous. Why exaggerate like that?
    The answer is simple: Saul Alinsky.
    Every leading Democrat has studied Saul Alinsky. He is their God- along with Satan. Don’t believe me? Think I’m exaggerating? Saul Alinsky’s book, “Rules for Radicals” is the Democrat playbook. They all follow his strategy. The book is dedicated to the devil. On the very first page you’ll see the dedication. The book is dedicated to “the first radical who fought the establishment and won his own kingdom, Lucifer.”
    Insanity, right?
    This explains a lot about what’s happening today in America. Satan runs the Democrat Party. His right-hand man may be Obama…with help from George Soros, Klaus Schwab and the Chinese Communist Party. But in the end, the guy at the top of the food chain giving the final orders is Satan.
    Democrats really are the party of criminals, illegal foreign invaders, communists, terrorists, weirdos with mental illness, and Satan.
    Saul Alinsky is famous for saying, “Look in the mirror. Whatever you see, blame your opponent.”
    So, the reason you see and hear Democrats calling Trump “Hitler” so often is they looked in the mirror and saw Hitler in themselves. They are the dictators. They want to imprison, or impoverish, or enslave, or torture anyone who disagrees with them, criticizes them, or challenges them. They are ones following the playbooks of communist Saul Alinsky and National Socialist Hitler.
    Look around. America today looks very much like 1930s Nazi Germany.
    Start with the Covid vaccine. Trump never mandated it. He never threatened anyone with losing their job, or career for not taking it. He never kicked hero warriors out of the military for not taking it. Trump believes in freedom. He gave everyone a choice. There was no coercion.
    But Biden and Democrat Governors forced every employee and even school children to take an experimental, for-emergency-use only vaccine against their will. Exactly like Hitler did. This mandate violated the post-Hitler era rule called “The Nuremberg Code” that no human being would ever again be forced to take any vaccine or drug against their will.
    So, who is more like Hitler? Trump or Democrats?
    Democrats also acted Hitler-like with ridiculous lockdowns that destroyed the U.S. economy for a germ…and suffocating, dehumanizing masks with holes bigger than the germ…and business closures. Trump never mandated any of them.
    Democrats wanted you to believe that germs only attack small businesses (who mostly support Trump), but leave billion dollar businesses alone (who mostly support Democrats). They closed and bankrupted small businesses, made tens of millions of Americans jobless, destroyed small landlords, and jailed Americans who refused to listen.
    That sounds pretty Hitler-like to me.
    Who wanted vaccine passports to walk into any store, restaurant, bar, gym, or hair salon? Only Democrats. They demanded “your papers” 24/7.
    Doesn’t that sound a lot like the Nazi Gestapo asking Jews for “their papers?” Yup.
    Who weaponized the government? Not Trump. Did Trump send the IRS to destroy Democrat’s lives? Nope. Did Trump use the FBI to go after Democrat protestors? Nope. Did Trump send the FBI to harass or intimidate critics? Nope.
    But Biden (and his boss Obama) sent FBI SWAT teams to arrest J6ers…and Catholic church goers…and PTA parents…and Pro-Life protestors who sang religious songs and prayed outside abortion clinics.
    Obama used the IRS to try to destroy critics like me (I’m a witness), and conservative organizations and donors.
    That sounds pretty Hitler-like to me.
    Trump never used the government to arrest his political opponents. Heck, Trump never even indicted Hillary!
    But Biden (and his boss Obama) have been conspiring with obsessed, Trump-hating, Democrat prosecutors across the USA to frame Trump with bogus charges, or make up crimes that either never happened, or prosecute behavior that has never been prosecuted in the history of America.
    They have created rigged judges and juries. In New York they want to put Trump in prison for years by using the testimony of a discredited, disbarred shyster lawyer, and a porn star and alleged prostitute. These are communist show trials. These are things a tyrant does to get rid of his opponents.
    That sounds pretty Hitler-like to me.
    Then there’s rigged elections. It was Stalin who said, It’s not who votes that counts, but who counts the votes.”
    And media manipulation to blackout anything negative to Democrats (like Hunter Biden’s laptop, or rigged elections, or Covid vaccine deaths).
    And the way Biden demonized the unvaccinated and now conservatives as “domestic terrorists” sounds awfully like the way Hitler demonized Jews.
    And then there’s mass censorship, banning and silencing of conservatives and critics of this administration on social media through a conspiracy between government and Silicon Valley.
    Did Trump ever do any of that? Nope. But Biden (and his boss Obama) sure did.
    And now we have the cherry on top…
    Watch the anarchy, hate and threats of violence on college campuses across America by thugs screaming “Death to Jews” “Death to Israel” “From the River to the Sea” and “We are Hamas.” And the thugs on college protests are exactly like Hitler’s youth army. Except now they’re the youth army of the Democrat Party.
    So, now you know why Democrats are comparing Trump to Hitler. Because they looked in the mirror.
    Democrats have introduced Nazi tactics into American politics. Democrats have turned our country into 1930’s Nazi Germany. And if you can’t see that, you’re part of the problem.
    There is only solution: Trump.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/05/wayne-root-democrats-keep-calling-trump-hitler-could/

  15. Did a Jordanian Border-Crosser Just Attempt a Terror Attack on a Marine Corps Base Near D.C.?
    Cone of silence falls over local media report of a breaching attempt at Quantico
    FacebookTwitterRedditLinkedInEmailCopy LinkPrint
    By Todd Bensman on May 14, 2024
    The Potomac Local News, founded in 2010 “to help people understand what is happening in their local communities in Northern Virginia”, practices what it calls local “conservative journalistic standards” and almost prides itself on a fact of life about today’s politically bifurcated media landscape. As the online outlet explains on its “About” page”
    Often overlooked by the Washington, D.C. legacy media, we’ve remained true to our community by providing local, can’t-get-it anywhere-else coverage of local government, business, and charitable organizations.
    But on May 3, the little online newspaper’s Kelly Sienkowski broke a major national story with serious policy and electoral implications, but which has been overlooked by the legacy media. At issue in Sienkowski’s story is whether the United States just experienced its first attempted terror attack by a border-crossing illegal alien from the Middle East.
    In the early morning of May 3, two men in a box truck pulled up to the front gate of Quantico Marine Corps Base 35 miles southwest of Washington and tried to lie their way in claiming they were Amazon delivery men. After skeptical military police channeled them to an area for secondary security inspection, the driver hit the gas in defiance of orders to halt and tried to barrel the truck into the base’s town center. Quick-thinking MPs put up road barriers that stopped the truck. 
    The Marines ended up citing the two for trespassing on federal property.
    Sienkowski’s Potomac Local News story, quoting a prepared email statement from base spokesman Capt. Michael Curtis (shared with me) confirmed the incident’s basic contours but no more. It would have remained merely a curious local incident had she not kept pressing. 
    Sienkowski cited “multiple anonymous sources” to report more details that ramp up this incident to a national story with potential implications for President Joe Biden’s highly controversial U.S. border policies and even the outcome of this November’s presidential election – an election which is frequently said to hinge on widespread voter concerns about a prolonged mass migration crisis that has allowed into the country hundreds on the FBI’s terrorism watch list, among millions of other foreign nationals from all over the world.
    Sienkowski’s sources told her that one of the two individuals in the truck was a Jordanian foreign national who “recently crossed the southern border into the U.S.” and also that one of them is on the U.S. terrorist watch list. Her sources didn’t say which was on the watch list. But clearly both were foreign nationals in the country on questionable legal status grounds because, after citing the two men for trespassing, the Marine Corps turned them over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the sources told Sienkowski.
    Questions Gone Unanswered. The big question in the room that has gone unanswered for more than a week after Sienkowski reported the story is, of course, this one: Did illegal border-crossers from the Middle East just try to attack a U.S. military base?
    Many more questions deserve answers too. 
    Have U.S. investigators ruled out a terrorism motive? Do U.S. counterterrorism agencies even want to know, and is anyone even investigating that question?
    Were there any weapons in the truck or on the illegal immigrants it carried? Was the truck itself the weapon? That wouldn’t be unusual. And where’d they get it?
    Did the men say anything illuminating during their time in custody about why and how they obviously planned acquisition of a box truck and plotted out a strategy to lie their way into a military base in it?
    When and how exactly did the men enter the United States? Was the Jordanian a Palestinian Arab from Gaza and angry about U.S. support for Israel’s retaliatory war? Many Palestinians hold Jordanian passports.
    Did an overwhelmed Border Patrol accidentally release the one who was on the FBI’s terrorist watch list as part of what I have reported as a new national security threat phenomenon of accidental releases? 
    Border Patrol has encountered at least 340 immigrants on the terrorism watch list since the mass migration began three years ago. In at least eight instances, the overwhelmed Border Patrol has accidentally released watch-listed illegal border-crossers and DHS had to frantically hunt them down afterwards. 
    What has ICE done with this pair since the MPs turned them over? 
    I emailed Sienkowski to query her about what she’s learned in the week since her story published. Not much. No one will tell her anything more, and none of the larger media outlets has joined her lonely quest.
    A local mom living in northern Virginia who has no formal journalism training, Sienkowski took a few minutes to chat with me on Mother’s Day. She said she pursued the story after seeing a comment on social media, published what she could find out, and has fought a very lonely battle for more answers.
    “What really blows my mind is that no other media has followed up on the story after a whole week has passed,” Sienkowski told me. “We need more transparency in how our border problems are impacting national security through localized incidents like this one.”
    Sienkowski isn’t really surprised. She knows she is a journalistic small fry seeking sensitive answers from a monolithic federal bureaucracy that would only see benefit in saying nothing until her blip of an obscure local story blows over. 
    There is, after all, electoral peril in any admission that President Biden’s controversial border policies just produced an attempted illegal-immigrant terror attack on a military base just outside Washington, D.C.
    No one will tell Sienkowski anything, certainly not the Marine Corps nor ICE.
    “We have reached out to almost every elected official, and many running for office,” Sienkowski said. She named names: Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D-Va., 7th District), Virginia Republican candidate for congress Derrick Anderson, Republican candidate for congress Cameron Hamilton, Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega, “and many more local candidates and supervisors.”
    “I’ll keep you posted on any updates and responses,” Sienkowski assured me.
    In a region saturated by major media outlets anchored by the likes of The Washington Post, only a stay-at-home mom who freelances part-time as a local reporter seems remotely curious that a couple of illegal border-crossers, one of them from Jordan, just tried to lie their way onto a U.S. Marine Corps facility and, when caught, tried to forcibly breach it for some purpose that cannot possibly have been benign. 
    Taking all this into account, I can promise one thing: Sienkowski is no longer alone in her quest for answers.
    (An abridged version of this article was published by New York Post on May 13.)

    https://cis.org/Bensman/Did-Jordanian-BorderCrosser-Just-Attempt-Terror-Attack-Marine-Corps-Base-Near-DC

  17. ‘Disgust factor’ must be overcome if planet-friendly insect food to become mainstream
    Sky News
    Updated Tue, May 14, 2024 at 2:00 a.m. CDT·2 min read

    The “disgust factor” must be overcome if insect-based foods are to become mainstream, according to a study.
    Insects can be high in protein and making them more acceptable could help cut the high greenhouse gas emissions that come from farming cattle.
    There are also potential benefits for cutting obesity and researchers say the idea of farming insects is gaining more attention.
    Hundreds of millions of people in Asia, Africa and Latin America are estimated to already eat insects to some degree.
    There are hopes Western attitudes could shift over time, perhaps in a similar way that food such as sushi has become mainstream.
    “Insects are a potentially rich source of protein and micro-nutrients and could help provide a solution to the double burden of obesity and undernutrition,” said study lead Dr Lauren McGale, from Edge Hill University in Lancashire.
    “Some insect proteins, such as ground crickets or freeze-dried mealworms, are cheaper and easier to farm, often lower in fat and have a lower environmental impact than traditional livestock.”
    However, most people are still very reluctant due to preconceptions over taste and appearance.
    But the study also found they were significantly more likely to give insects a go if they are ground into a powder.
    “This has been done successfully with rice products fortified with cricket or locust flours in other parts of the world,” said co-author Dr Maxine Sharps from De Montfort University.
    Only 13% of the 603 people questioned in the UK study said they would be willing to regularly eat insect food.
    Some 47% said they wouldn’t eat it regularly, and 40% were unsure.
    More than 82% of people expected insect food to be crunchy, 64.6% salty, and 62.4% bitter.
    Only 24% said they expected to like the flavour, with just 14.1% believing insect food would look appetising.
    Younger people also appeared more squeamish – and each year younger was associated with a 2% increase in saying “no” to the idea.
    “The disgust factor is one of most important challenges to be overcome,” said Dr Sharps.
    “After all, there may be eventually no choice with climate change and projected global population growth.”
    The study’s findings are being presented at this week’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Venice
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/disgust-factor-must-overcome-planet-155500757.html

  18. Oops! I posted the wrong video. Here is the entire 1:32:19 webinar:
    Covid Vaccines – The Devastating Heart Crisis in the Channel Island & Around the World [Webinar] – Channel Islands & UK Alliance – Recorded April 24, 2024

  19. Gabriel Noronha @GLNoronha

    An Iranian think tank (SARAMAD) has published a 128-page report with recommended responses to a 2nd Trump term.

    1. “Influence through Intellectuals: Iran should establish a network of elite lobbyists to indirectly advance our interests in policies and US public opinion.” [thread]

    The report calls for the creation of a “Special Network” of people in America who “are able to put Iran’s interests first for the direct benefit of Iran, and in the case of an incident between Iran and America, they can act in a way to make their views public.”

    They hope to “restore Iran’s image in the public sphere” through the publication of articles “in line with the interests of our country” by Iranians living in America and working for think tanks.

    This appears to be similar to the Iran Experts Initiative started by FM Javad Zarif in 2014 revealed by @semafor and @IranIntl_En last fall.
    https://semafor.com/article/09/25/2023/inside-irans-influence-operation

    The report also worries about how to respond to the economic pressure that a return to Maximum Pressure would entail.

    The report also suggests creating an “US Action Group” to mirror the Iran Action Group (that I served in) created by Sec. Pompeo to counter the United States.

    The report also calls for “Research on US officials: Iran should thoroughly study potential key figures in the Trump Administration, including their key connections, to better and more effectively influence them.”

    The 128-page reports lists out 100s of former Trump Admin officials, but probably them gleaned from Wikipedia lists, since it also includes a bunch of appellate judges and local officials.

    They list a few think tanks (including AFPI and the Heritage Foundation) and then list out their leadership teams but seem to have no deep insight on the American political scene beyond what they found from cursory searches.

    The report also worries about how to respond to the economic pressure that a return to Maximum Pressure would entail.

    The report also suggests creating an “US Action Group” to mirror the Iran Action Group (that I served in) created by Sec. Pompeo to counter the United States.

    https://twitter.com/GLNoronha/status/1790838931757334629