Category Archives: Foreign Policy

April 15, 2024 · 5:51 am

Rumors of war

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

– Daniel Webster

Over the weekend Iran launched a massive drone, cruise and ballistic missile attack against Israel. Political and pundit reactions and hot takes on Israeli and world responses started pouring out before we even knew much in the way of details as the strike was ongoing.

We also had Biden White House murmurings being reported that President Biden was warning Israel not to retaliate.

There’s a segment of the American right that has become hardcore isolationist and won’t support US military action anywhere or for any reason and they sound, to me, the same as the segment of the American left that reacts the same way – no war under any circumstances. I’ve always felt that isolationists have the luxury of being isolationists in America, because we have a strong military, prepared to defend our nation.

So, then we get to speaking truth about Iran – Iran declared war on America decades ago. Their official policy has been “Death to America” since 1979. When they declare Death to America and rant about defeating the Great Satan (America) as their top tier foreign policy objective, we should believe them.

This truth about Iran should guide American foreign policy decisions, but it doesn’t.

Democrats believe the Obama Iran deaI would change Iran’s foreign policy toward the US and deter Iran’s belligerent actions in the Middle East. The Democrat position that’s high on Obama Iran deal pipedreams seems delusional in light of Iran’s continued attacks against America and American allies. The reality is Iran has been attacking American military assets and personnel continually, especially via Iranian-backed proxies and Shia militias in Iraq, rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th last year, Iranian-backed groups have attacked US military interests over 170 times and three US servicemembers were killed in an Iranian-backed attack in January.

It’s myopic to pretend that we’re not involved in the ongoing war that Israel is engaged in. For all of Biden’s telling Netanyahu not to retaliate, he ordered the US military to help defend Israel during that weekend Iranian attack. The Biden policy remains convoluted and incoherent toward achieving any real strategic aims. Biden officials continually talk out of both sides of their mouths and pretend that words can gloss over deeds – so, yes, they keep saying we support Israel, but at the same time they’re undercutting Israel at every turn. They are also still committed to Obama’s Iran deal and believe that the Iranian government, which proclaims “Death to America,” can be trusted to act in good faith.

Biden’s public lecturing Israel about a ceasefire in Gaza and now urging Israel not to retaliate against Iran is read by America’s enemies the same way they read the American political right urging no aid to Ukraine and urging Ukraine to stop fighting – our enemies read that as American weakness and appeasement. History clearly shows that this will lead to our enemies being emboldened to more aggressive actions. In the most simplistic terms, I think, Iran wants to be the dominate power in the Middle East, Russia wants to retake former Soviet territories, China wants to take Taiwan and replace the United States as the world’s #1 superpower. The foreign policy expert class remains widely divided on how to contend with our adversaries’ aspirations

There are silly and simplistic reactions calling for a too forceful response and some calling for a too weak response, however after over 170 Iranian-backed attacks against US military interests in six months, three dead US servicemembers and now this attack on Israel, it seems like the no retaliation response would be suicidal for Israel and pretending the US isn’t involved in this war is likewise delusional.

There’s an argument about the monetary cost of military action being too high with the state of our economy, but I would argue the economic costs, if we allow Iran, Russia and China to disrupt more global shipping, (hint, that’s a large part of what Iran, Russia and China have been doing), and if they take more aggressive actions to expand their power beyond their borders will be even more costly.

There are various levels of military responses the US could take to make sure Iran gets the message. Even US missile strikes can send a strong message or a weak message, as we learned during the Clinton administration and which the Obama and Biden administration are now following suit. If the US targets Iranian interests or assets that are not high-value (the Biden approach), the message is we aren’t serious. Those are signals of weakness – just going through the motions of a response and that’s really just more appeasement. Of course, there can be over-the-top responses, like the people who rant about nuking adversaries. The better response for America is likely somewhere in the middle or supporting Israel responding as it sees fit (which will be a strong response) and then getting more aid to Israel quickly.

Appeasement and not responding to aggression are actions. That is choosing not to defend your country or interests. History shows that not responding to military aggression can result in a heavy cost, including emboldening adversaries to make more aggressive military moves and leading to wider conflicts. Deterrents can work, but the Biden administration so far has offered only muddled word salad responses and missile strikes against low-value targets.

The reality is America does have direct interests with what happens in Ukraine and what happens in Israel.

We aren’t an island unto ourselves.

Weighing what we know vs. the unknowns, brought me back to thinking about a 2015 piece, Thucydides Was Right: Defining the Future Threat, written by Dr. Colin S. Gray and published at the US Army War College. I’m going to be rereading this piece. I talked to one of my sisters on the phone yesterday and we were talking about leaders who react to crises emotionally. My sister is retired from the Air Force and has a lot of experience handling crisis communications. She echoed my belief that emotional responses are terrible leadership in a crisis and will lead to bad decisions. In fact, making decisions based on emotion and fear will lead to bad decisions for anyone. We definitely need calmer heads, but too many of our elected leaders and most of the news media now seem to spend more time on their social media hot take drama than they do in calmly and carefully reading and analyzing information. Instead, they rush out with emotionally-charged statements to try to garner news media attention.

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March 26, 2024 · 12:42 pm

A gloomy reality check: America did lose

It’s a safe bet most Americans reflexively would not support American military action anywhere, for any reason. Over 20 years of military adventurism, thousands of American lives lost and gravely injured, billions upon billions of dollars spent and in the end, last week a top retired general finally admitted that our mission in Afghanistan was a “strategic failure.” That was retired General Mark Milley, testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

A former top US military official stating an assessment of over 20 years of American blood and treasure expended on a foreign policy effort that was a STRATEGIC FAILURE should demand accountability and a serious study of what all went wrong and they should seek to learn from those lessons, but that’s not how Washington works. No one in any of the administrations, Bush, Obama, Trump or Biden administration or any of the prominent policy experts involved in crafting these policies will ever admit they made serious strategic mistakes.

Here’s a CBS News link to that 3+ hours House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, where retired General Milley and General McKenzie testified about the decision-making and failures with the Afghanistan withdrawal. If you’re interested, Milley’s assessment of “strategic failure” comes in his opening statement at minute 21:47 in that CBS News video. Clearly, the blame for the withdrawal debacle lies with the Biden White House and State Department, who ignored and dismissed all of the Pentagon’s advice and warnings. It’s an utter disgrace that Anthony Blinken is still the Secretary of State and Jake Sullivan is still the National Security Advisor.

However there’s a bigger picture that continually gets lost in these highly-charged partisan issues. For decades before 9/11 US strategic-thinking operated from a “small footprint” in the Middle East and predominantly Muslim countries, due to the clash of western culture with Islamic culture. The hostility within the Muslim world toward the secular West was no mystery and US policy operated that it was better to limit American military presence in the Muslim world. The US government was well aware of the rise of Al Qaeda and back in the 1990s there were several attacks by radical jihadists against US military interests. Bin laden had been issuing fatwas swearing death to America long before 9/11. Al Qaeda and later ISIS comprise the Sunni brand of radical Islam, but there’s also the vast Shia brand, controlled by Iran, who likewise preach “Death to America” as one of their core Islamic missions.

Both our “Global War On Terrorism:” and our entire building western-style democracies among tribal Islamic people, who have no cultural underpinnings that bolster a democratic state, were delusional from the start. The magic ingredient to success in Afghanistan, centered on the idea that we could somehow build some sort of western-style police and military in Afghanistan, and from that the government we were propping up in Afghanistan would flourish. Except those Afghan security forces were completely dependent on the US military to function. The entire fabric of Afghan culture is rife with deeply-embedded corruption and it’s also a narco-state where opium production is a lucrative part of the economy, so these idealistic “democracy-building” goals were not based on any sort of reality-based assessments. Opium production under the Taliban is booming, according to the UN, with a 32% increase in 2022, per this UN report: Afghanistan opium cultivation in 2022 up by 32 per cent: UNODC survey.

Experts throughout the American foreign policy class latched onto the democracy-building projects and then during the Obama administration, we moved from regime change in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the Taliban was hosting Al Qaeda leadership and Iraq, where Saddam Hussein had been a thorn in America’s side for over a decade, to Secretary of State Clinton pushing to topple Gaddaffi in Libya and the push to arm imaginary “moderate Syrian rebels” to topple al-Assad in Syria. In the process of American military adventurism pursuing the “Democracy in the Middle East” delusion, America became a force for regional destabilization. That’s the hard truth.

In 2021, the Afghan leader America was propping up fled the country and the Afghan security forces, we had been training for 20 years, crumbled in days, as the Taliban seized control of Kabul. While it’s good that Milley and McKenzie, showed up at this hearing, they were part of that Pentagon groupthink that persisted all those years, even though they had to know none of the catchphrase strategy they all mouthed was any sort of coherent strategy. The other big loss, that could be even more ominous, is there’s been a widespread erosion of American trust in US military leadership over the past 20 years. As the years rolled by, top generals repeated the same “winning hearts and minds” spiel, but many Americans did not believe America was winning and even worse, the perception that we were being lied to grew. An America where the American people lose faith and trust in their military leadership reminds me of our post-Vietnam era and our military morale and readiness suffered because of that. The Afghanistan withdrawal provided the American people with real-time images of “strategic failure” and images eerily reminiscent of Vietnam, with a US embassy being evacuated from a rooftop, blazed across the media: Afghanistan: Near-identical images of US evacuating Saigon and Kabul go viral as Taliban seize power

Milley admitting at this hearing that our Afghanistan adventure was a strategic failure was latched onto by Republicans and right-wing media to feed their fury against the Biden administration over the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle. Democrats and the liberal media are still trying not to talk about the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle and they just flip to Trump trash talk.

Both sides refuse to admit to the big picture American strategic failure and no one’s talking much about what that portends for America now and in the future. If we lost, the obvious question is who won when America made such a humiliating and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021? The Taliban came out a big winner and they’re back in power in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda is emboldened. ISIS is emboldened. China, Russia and Iran are on the move to assert global economic and military dominance in the world. China has offered economic and development aid to the Taliban. China also secured rights to Afghanistan’s vast mineral reserves. Here’s a 2021 CNN Business article: The Taliban are sitting on $1 trillion worth of minerals the world desperately needs. Iran has aided Hamas and is funding and arming the Houthi rebels launching drone and missile attacks against American ships.

The October 7th Hamas attack in Israel was carried out with direct aid and military support from Iran. Moscow just suffered a major terrorist attack perpetrated by ISIS. Despite Putin wanting to point the finger at Ukraine, because that feeds his domestic propaganda effort, ISIS immediately claimed responsibility for this attack.

There’s a potent Russian propaganda effort in America too and it gains traction within a segment of the American right, who are virulently anti-Ukraine and perceive Putin as a victim. They’ve bought into some sort of belief that it’s the mean Ukraine/West “poking the bear” Russian victimhood. It’s absurd, because although the Obama administration was clumsily involved in the toppling of the pro-Russian Ukraine government in 2014, Russia was doing the same thing in Ukraine and elsewhere in former Soviet bloc countries. Then rather than stand up to Putin, Obama quickly folded and left Ukraine with part of the country embroiled in a frozen conflict against Russian troops and allowed Russia to annex Crimea. Putin has had a long-range goal to regain influence and control over as much of the former Soviet Union territory as possible – that’s not “poking the bear,” that’s a very aggressive bear on the move.

With the Biden administration’s dangerous, lax US border policy, millions of illegal aliens have flooded into the US and our own Homeland Security has reported a dramatic influx of military age men from countries hostile to the US – from China, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. At the same time the FBI director, Christopher Wray, has been warning about the escalating cyberattacks against critical US infrastructure being perpetrated largely by Chinese hackers. Wray testified to Congress recently that US cyber experts are outnumbers 50 to 1 by Chinese hackers. 9/11 was carried out by 19 Al Qaeda jihadists. That propelled America down over 20 years of strategic failure dealing with Al Qaeda. We’re in a more dangerous strategic threat environment now than before 9/11 – that’s a hard pill for most Americans to swallow.

The Moscow terrorist attack last week has resulted in 137 deaths so far. Russian authorities have charged 4 gunmen and detained 7 others, according to this linked ABC News article. The article also reports:

” The U.S. said it shared intelligence with Russia that warned that ISIS was preparing similar attacks on concerts in Moscow just two weeks ago. A U.S. State Department official said Saturday that the U.S. government had shared information on a possible attack with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding “duty to warn” policy.”

“The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a warning on March 7, advising U.S. citizens to avoid large gatherings for 48 hours, saying extremists have “imminent plans” to target large-scale gatherings in Moscow.”

Whether Americans are weary of “forever wars” or not – we lost in our “Global War On Terrorism” and democracy-building projects in the Mid-East.

The winners are on the move.

What happened in Israel and Moscow should be wake-up calls – more radical jihadist terrorist attacks are likely, especially in Europe and the US. While I’d like to forecast sunshine and rainbows, I believe the forecast is more dark clouds and storms ahead.

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March 15, 2024 · 9:26 pm

Fool me once and I’m done, thanks

The illegal immigration issue has been a political football for as long as I can remember. Here’s a 2020 article from the University of Arizona, A Brief Legislative History of the Last 50 Years on the U.S.-Mexico Border, with short excerpts on illegal immigration policy in the US through both Democrat and Republican administrations. Somehow this problem, despite Americans’ support for secure borders, despite experts galore, despite taxpayer money galore, and despite political promises galore, never gets resolved. A cynical person might conclude that special interests profiting from the illegal immigration problem hold more power over politicians in Washington than the voters, who elect them. The majority of Americans consistently support securing our borders.

Even worse than our leaders in Washington not dealing with the illegal immigration problem, is American tax dollars are actually funding it. Here’s a Daily Caller article from 2023: EXCLUSIVE: Red Cross Packets Show Migrants Where To Cross The US Border, detailing how DHS funds the American Red Cross and many other non-profits, particularly religious charities, who provide shelter, food, medical care, etc. for illegal immigrants. These groups rake in millions upon millions in federal funding and are deeply invested in the illegal immigration “business.”

Haiti’s government collapsed again, which happens repeatedly. When Haitian internal chaos escalates, thousands upon thousands of Haitians usually flee and many head to the US. The news media is filled with reports of violent gangs running rampant in Haiti. Right-wing media reported on a Haitian gang with a leader named Barbeque, because he’s rumored to advocate cannibalism. Of course, that led to liberal media backlash. Here’s a NBC report from a couple days ago: Elon Musk and right-wing influencers use ‘cannibal’ claims to smear Haitian migrants amid crisis. This NBC news report insists that the right-wing media hyping cannibalism is baseless and meant to disparage Haitians as cannibals, but it includes this paragraph:

“The accusations of widespread cannibalism are based on what experts said was a likely intimidation tactic from select gang members: In some videos, the most prominent examples being at least two years old, alleged members of violent gangs in Haiti appear to bite into human flesh. Experts said these videos are likely part of propaganda campaigns designed to scare rivals and terrorize local Haitians rather than a reflection of common or normalized behavior. One former armed group went by the name “Cannibal Army.”

NBC referenced “experts” who say this was likely an intimidation tactic by gang members. I hope their experts are more reliable than the Biden administration experts, who assured us that all those Afghan refugees were being properly vetted.

So far, we’ve recently been warned by the FBI director about potential terrorists in the midst of the massive influx on illegals and that there are thousands of military-age male illegals from China, Iran, and other places flooding in and he doesn’t know their intentions or even how many of them got into the US. The prospect of a violent gang of cannibals invading our country somehow seems about par for the course with the Biden administration.

So, with the prospect of an increase in Haitian illegal immigrants heading to America, there are two political approaches so far. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida activated military and got legislation passed to deal with this impending crisis: Florida Deploys Officers, Fleet to Halt Potential Haitian Influx.

The Biden administration is concerned about “vetting” Haitians and considering expanding the use of Guantanamo Bay for processing Haitian migrants. Here’s a CNN article from a couple days ago: Biden administration discussing using Guantanamo Bay to process possible influx of Haitian migrants. This article has this line, “The Department of Homeland Security has been dusting off mass migration event plans, as they’ve done before with Haiti, including in 2022 as the number of Haitians interdicted at sea ticked up.”

One can hardly wait to see how the Biden administration, which has botched every crisis thus far, handles this one. Back in 2021 with the Afghanistan withdrawal and that effort at refugee evacuation, the Biden administration repeatedly assured us that all refugees were being carefully vetted. This assurance seemed hard to believe when reporters were showing the scenes of mobs of refugees and chaos at the airport in Kabul. The liberal media repeated the White House assurances about this careful vetting process, without question.

Here’s a August 2021 CNN piece, Here’s how Afghan refugees coming to the US are being vetted, describing this super-duper vetting process:

“National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that this vetting includes “biometric and biographic background checks” that must be cleared before Afghan evacuees can be brought to the US or relocated to another country. Biometric vetting often refers to voiceprints, iris scans, palm prints and facial photos.”

A year later, here’s a CBS news report, DHS officials lacked “critical data” when vetting Afghan evacuees, watchdog finds. The DHS Office of the Inspector General issued a 34 page report and concluded:

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees,” the report by DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said. “We determined some information used to vet evacuees through U.S. Government databases, such as name, date of birth, identification number, and travel document data, was inaccurate, incomplete, or missing.”

We went from 2021 WH assurances of biometric and biographic background checks to 2022 an IG investigation that reinforced that the chaos we were seeing from news reports was the reality.

How many times should we believe the Biden administration when they assure us they’re on top of a crisis situation? Should we feel confident that a DHS official is dusting off mass migration event plans? No one was fired or held accountable for that Afghanistan withdrawal debacle and the same crowd that bungled that are still in charge now. Are you confident they’re prepared for a potential Haitian migrant crisis?

At this point, considering the liberal brain rot and how many Americans have taken to the streets to champion Hamas terrorists, after they massacred over a thousand Israelis (mostly civilians), I would not be surprised if the next liberal cause is defending Haitian cannibal gangs. Truly, I can already imagine looney liberals protesting in the streets defending Haitian cannibal gangs and waving campfire roasting forks…

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February 15, 2024 · 11:01 am

American news media went on an “Alert” frenzy again

Yesterday was another bizarre news “Alert” day. It started like this:

As Washington’s political class, news media and the political punditry circles churned this around, once again we got few facts and lots of partisan theorizing to bolster political talking points. Some of the right-wing punditry circle rushed to the conclusion this statement was just fearmongering to scare people into supporting the Senate foreign aid bill that moved to the House, which includes more aid for Ukraine.  Some of the right-wing pundit class went down even crazier conspiratorial rabbit holes. Some Republican officials in Washington offered various takes, trying to tamp down alarm by stating Rep. Turner’s information is real, but trying to calm fears, by stating we’re not facing an imminent threat. 

Russia is way ahead of America on hypersonic missile development and this Washington news yesterday seems to be about Russia developing space-based nuclear weapons. 

The right-wing punditry circle in right-wing media now has some “super-stars,” who are clueless about national security and military matters. Some of them live in Deep State paranoia and insist there is no Russian threat and it’s the evil US intelligence agencies, who are the real threat. Both are a threat – Russia is a threat and so are US intelligence officials operating outside the parameters of the law or for domestic partisan advantage. Here’s a FOX News pundit just making fun of and completely dismissing the Russian threat. Waters framed this as all about Ukraine funding and news media hysteria:

I believe China, Russia and Iran are already aligning to challenge the West – and that definitely includes America. This threat is there, regardless which party controls the White House or Congress in America. China has been working to implant malware within our computer systems that control our critical infrastructure, in order to launch cyber-attacks against critical American infrastructure – especially near US military installations. A space-based nuclear capability could allow our adversaries to take out satellites and our power grid (EMP attack). That’s the gist of this latest threat from the little bit of information that came out yesterday.

So many Americans are now completely immersed in seeing the world through an Us vs. Them domestic political lens, that they are unable to fathom that the world is much bigger than just MAGA vs. Woke/Globalist Elites. We still have actual countries who have their own political and territorial aspirations. China wants to take Taiwan and expand influence in the Pacific, plus become the world economic superpower. Putin wants to restore as much of the former Soviet Union as possible, Iran wants to be the regional superpower and Shia Islam to control the Islamic world. All three of these adversaries’ aspirations require unseating America from its world superpower status. There’s also North Korea that wants to seize control of South Korea, which is part of that China, Russia, Iran alliance.

With Rep, Turner’s statement and the news media doing what it does best – creating drama and hysteria to fill in airtime, when no new information is available- his statement probably did more harm than good. Most of the American public has no clue about an EMP following a nuclear blast at high-altitudes. And most people have never even thought about an extended grid-down situation. I hadn’t given this much thought either until recent years. Making sensitive intelligence information public usually tells our adversaries way more about what our intelligence experts know about their programs than providing useful information to the American public.

With this crazy “ALERT!” news hysteria all day yesterday, it’s probably more sensible to be aware of new information pertaining to the weapons system advancements of our adversaries, but to just go about our daily lives. I can’t speak to Rep. Turner’s motivations for issuing his statement yesterday, but there’s a sizable segment on the MAGA right, that will dismiss any warnings about Russian threats, especially since Tucker just went to Moscow. Plenty of the Trump-right have bought into the belief that Ukraine should just surrender to Putin – because they should want peace – even though Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of their country two years ago. And of course, Ukraine (or any of the other former Soviet bloc countries bordering Russia) should not want to align closely with the West or want to join NATO, out of fear of Russian aggression. Why on earth would they believe Russia might want to invade their countries… 

Again, Russia launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine two years ago. 

History matters. In 1994, the US agreed to protect Ukraine from Russian aggression, in return for Ukraine returning the Soviet nuclear weapons in Ukraine to Russia. Russia signed that agreement to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty in that Budapest Memorandum and then invaded Ukraine in 2014 and in 2022.

Russia is not the victim. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago, even Finland, a country that prided itself on neutrality between the Soviet Union and the West, has now joined NATO and Sweden wants to join too. Yet, Trump wants to abandon NATO and cozy up to Putin… For the life of me, I can’t fully understand why so many right-wing pundits now sound like 1960s radical leftists, with making excuses for Russian aggression and siding with our adversaries, who want to destroy America, but that’s where we’re at. Tucker waxing on about how wonderful Moscow is compared to American cities sounded like Bernie Sanders’ 1988 honeymoon trip to Russia. 

The larger part of the right-wing lurch into siding with Putin though, I think, goes to 2016 and the corrupt Hillary campaign creating a fake dossier about “Trump-Russian Collusion.” The Clinton campaign’s Steel dossier dirty trick evolved into the left’s #Resist effort and then even into pandemic “Russian disinformation” hysteria constantly, which Dems used to silence opponents on social media and malign people with differing views about COVID.  This Democrat spin war effort of calling everything “Russian disinformation” has made “Russian disinformation” a meaningless term and many people on the right just automatically dismiss any mention of Russian disinformation now. 

However, Russian threats to America are real, whether we choose to believe it or not. The Russians trying to build this space-based weapons system sounds like it’s further off than the Chinese, who already have implanted malware in American critical infrastructure, according to FBI reports for several years now. Reports about a threat posed by American cell towers using Chinese Huawei equipment were coming out during Trump’s presidency too. 

National security is about all Americans, not just the left or right.

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February 11, 2024 · 12:14 am

Are Americans really buying into Putin’s version of history?

Today, I watched a short video by The Rubin Report, where Karol Markowicz was a guest. At 2:28 she states that she speaks Russian (she was born in the Soviet Union and her family moved to America) and that the translation of what Putin said in a widely shared clip is incorrect. She also says that the people who hate Tucker Carlson will say he’s a Russian stooge and the people who love him will say he’s the greatest journalist to ever journalist She explains that the incorrect translation completely flipped the meaning of what Putin actually said.

The European and liberal American insane reaction to Tucker Carlson doing this interview certainly went totally off the rails into Cuckoo Land. I didn’t see this kind of reaction when other Americans journalists or when Oliver Stone interviewed Putin. Putin’s a master at these interviews with American media, just like he was a master at manipulating Trump in that meeting and came with that soccer ball to hand to Trump – carefully planned Russian propaganda move there.

Here’s a Pravda headline from yesterday: Putin presented Tucker Carlson with copies of historical documents

I’m halfway through the Tucker Carlson interview of Vladimir Putin and this is a classic KGB-staged performance, to foment distrust of the US government among mainly Trump supporters, who are, thanks to Trump’s fawning all over Putin and the relentless right-wing media efforts (especially Tucker Carlson’s efforts) totally willing to side with Putin. Putin also repeatedly waded into blaming the American “Deep State” for causing problems, which plays well with Trump supporters now, although years ago, that sentiment played well with the left in America. What’s always missing though is any concern about Kremlin malignant actions around the world, especially in Ukraine. Why so many Trump supporters have become sympathetic towards Putin and buy into his bs, I’ll never understand. Putin and his influence operations in America, also have worked very hard to turn Americans against NATO and against aiding Ukraine. Trump also holds anti-NATO views and spouts many things about NATO, that are completely untrue, yet his followers have completely bought into those views too. 

In this interview Putin was also playing to bolster support for his war in Ukraine among the Russian people and that’s where his carefully constructed, laborious recitation of his version of Russian history comes in – he goes to great pains to show the historical legitimacy of Russia’s present claims to Ukraine. The handing Carlson copies of historical documents was a masterstroke of theatrics – sort of “I’m handing you copies of these sacred historical documents.” I tried not to laugh.

Americans have to be pretty gullible to buy into this, but so many seem to despise Democrats and the corruption within the US government so much that they’re willing to trust a Russian despot, who has his political enemies murdered, without hesitation. Sadly, it seems most Americans don’t understand how the Soviet Union seized control of Eastern Europe after World War II and they’ve forgotten all the lessons of the Cold War. Putin hasn’t forgotten the Cold War though, because as a KGB agent, he was an active player and true believer in the Soviet Union. 

It was hilarious how Putin had rehearsed all these ancient historical details to sell legitimacy that Ukraine is really part of Russia, but when Carlson asked him which president he was referring to when Putin was talking about a conversation with an American president, Putin wouldn’t say which president said that. Yet, he went into excruciating detail on the ancient Russian origin story… but with the modern history that’s really relevant – it was vagueness. 

Putin can’t say, that after watching Biden’s withdrawal debacle in Afghanistan and seeing America retreating in such an embarrassing manner, it was a very opportune time to try a bold military action – a decapitation of the government in Kiev military effort. Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was intended to be carried out swiftly – in a few days, Putin expected Kiev to fall and he expected Western Europe and especially the Biden WH to not be able to aid Ukraine quickly. None of that turned out the way Putin intended. Obama had not responded when Putin seized Ukrainian territory in 2014 and it’s understandable that Putin expected Biden to waffle too. Anyone who believes Putin is a peacemaker is a fool.

Americans who buy into this will be in for a rude awakening I fear, because China, Russia and Iran are preparing to launch more bold military actions and many of them will be asymmetrical – like China hacking our infrastructure. They aren’t into peacemaking – they’re setting the stage for wider war. China has been building artificial islands in the South China Sea to expand China’s military reach in the region for years. Here’s a March 20, 2022 article from The Telegraph: China has fully militarized three islands in South China Sea, US admiral says. China, Russia and Iran have also expanded both their economic and military reach in Central and South America – all the way into Mexico. 

Wake-up America!

Iran is arming proxies, who are attacking American forces daily.

I’ve heard a lot of isolationist sentiment on the right in America and Trump amplifies that, even though he did authorize military attacks while president. It’s become popular on the right to be isolationist and some Americans want all American troops home, which would quickly place America into being irrelevant on the world stage and it would quickly lead to Americans’ standard of living plummeting even worse than it is now, as world shipping lanes would then be controlled by China, Russia and other rogue actors. Say good-bye to dollar stores. There seems to be zero comprehension that American military forces around the globe provide security for international shipping lanes.  Yes, we should secure our own borders, but that doesn’t mean we should just retreat from the world.

Putin invaded Ukraine, because he didn’t expect the Biden administration and Europe to respond. He’s got more territorial aspirations too.

I’ll try to listen to the rest of this interview later, but the first half was something else – carefully constructed propaganda designed to turn Trump supporting Americans against the American government… and to sell the war in Ukraine to war-weary Russians.

2/11/2-24: I did a little bit of editing and added some thought to this post this morning – post-publication. 

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February 9, 2024 · 6:23 pm

Some links and notes on the threat China poses to the US homeland

A NBC article from February 7, 2024: Chinese hackers spent 5 years waiting in U.S. infrastructure, ready to attack, agencies say This article says:

“Chinese hackers have at times secretly hidden in U.S. infrastructure for up to five years, ready to conduct a potentially destructive cyberattack if the two countries were to go to war, federal agencies said Wednesday.”

“The claim was published in a public cybersecurity warning, one of the largest and starkest of its kind, from six U.S. agencies, as well as allied cybersecurity and intelligence agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K.””

FIVE YEARS, the CCP has been working on this…

This NBC article mentions a February 7, 2024 public cybersecurity warning, with a link to a Joint Cyber Advisory by the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada titled PRC State-Sponsored Actors Compromise and Maintain Persistent Access to U.S. Critical Infrastructure.

This isn’t going to be a blog post. It’s a bunch of news links, some quotes and my notes and thoughts on the growing Chinese threat. I’d encourage everyone to do their own research and start paying attention to these news stories about Chinese espionage and other malignant activities.

Last year, with that Chinese spy balloon episode, here’s one of the early reports from February 15, 2023, ABC article: US tracked Chinese balloon from launch, may have accidentally drifted: Official. This article mentions how the narrative shifted:

“U.S. intelligence agencies tracked the Chinese spy balloon from its launch in China and watched as it may have been inadvertently blown into U.S. airspace, a U.S. official has confirmed to ABC News.”

“This latest revelation differs significantly from the previous narrative related by the White House and U.S. military officials over recent days, which has changed repeatedly since the balloon’s existence became public when it was spotted over Montana on Feb. 1.”

The Biden administration’s initial response was to make excuses for the Chinese government and it’s emblematic of how they respond to America’s adversaries – they initially made excuses for Russia with the Ukraine situation. With Iran, at first the Biden administration suggested Iran wasn’t aware of the plans Hamas had of attacking Israel and they suggested Iran didn’t have control over Hamas, They also initially made excuses that Iran didn’t have control over it’s proxies, who are firing missiles and launching drone attacks against American troops. With the Chinese spy balloon last year, there were excuses like the balloon had just drifted off course and also that the Chinese government (CCP) wasn’t aware of this spy balloon effort and the weather balloon activity is run by some military agency. 

In each case, once the overwhelming evidence piled up, the Biden administration switched their narrative. It’s important to remember that their initial response is to appease our adversaries, but they’re quick to denigrate American law enforcement immediately. Since Team Biden is the same as Team Obama, with Obama on the sidelines, this is familiar – like Obama chastising the Cambridge police department in 2009: Obama: Police Acted ‘Stupidly’ in Gates Case . Team Biden was quick to latch onto that hyped false border patrol on horseback story accusing them of whipping illegal Haitian immigrants:

September 21, 2021: White House condemns border guard use of whip-like cord against Haitian migrants

July 8, 2022: Biden admin admits Border agents did not ‘whip’ migrants, punishes them anyway

I’ve collected numerous news articles about that Chinese spy balloon and other stories about China’s malevolent actions, because I had been following the Chinese infiltration of America for a long time. There are many tentacles to the Chinese infiltration – from buying up American land, especially close to American military installations, to Huawei cell phone equipment on cell towers, to the mass illegal immigration of Chinese, to even Chinese “tourists” trying to access US military installations. There’s also the persistent political corruption in Washington with the Chinese government buying off American officials (here’s looking at President Biden)…

Huawei is a Chinese cell tech giant. Here’s a July 25, 2022 CNN story: CNN Exclusive: FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications. This CNN article states:

“Since at least 2017, federal officials have investigated Chinese land purchases near critical infrastructure, shut down a high-profile regional consulate believed by the US government to be a hotbed of Chinese spies and stonewalled what they saw as clear efforts to plant listening devices near sensitive military and government facilities.”    

“Among the most alarming things the FBI uncovered pertains to Chinese-made Huawei equipment atop cell towers near US military bases in the rural Midwest. According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the FBI determined the equipment was capable of capturing and disrupting highly restricted Defense Department communications, including those used by US Strategic Command, which oversees the country’s nuclear weapons.”

July 25, 2022 Article from The Warzone by Thomas Newdick: Nuclear Experts Question Possible Effects Of Chinese Cell Towers On U.S. Missile Silos

In 2019, the Trump administration banned Huawei and the FCC developed a “Rip and Replace” program, to aid cell phone companies to replace the Huawei equipment. However, that program has run into funding and implementation snags along the way. Smaller cell phone companies (often in rural areas, which is also where some of our most critical nuclear bases are located) are much more likely to have Huawei equipment, which was cheaper and these smaller companies are less likely to have the money to replace it, like the big cell phone companies. There have been delays along the way with Congressional funding to assist small companies to remove the Huawei equipment.

Last year, March 30, 2023, FOX News reported: Chinese illegal immigrants are crossing into US in unprecedented numbers. This report states:

“Chinese nationals are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into the U.S. in unprecedented numbers this year, with the first few months of FY 2023 already eclipsing the total for 2022.”

“The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports that just under 2,000 Chinese nationals crossed the border in FY 2022, but the first few months of FY 2023 have already seen 4,300 encounters, according to federal data.”

Let’s move along:

April 3, 2023 – Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence from sensitive U.S. military sites, despite U.S. efforts to block it

April 3, 2023 – Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence from US military sites: report – This is a NY Post article – includes map of the path of Chinese spy balloon and list of US military sites:

Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana – One of three bases that maintains and operates Minuteman III ICBMs.

Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska – Headquarters of US Strategic Command, overseeing America’s nuclear forces.

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas – Home of the Army’s Combined Arms Center & key officer training location.

Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri – Home to the B-2 stealth bomber.

Fort Campbell, Kentucky – Home of the Army’s 10st Airborne Division, a key rapid-deployment unit.

Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina – One of the Air Force’s largest bases.

Naval Weapons Station, Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina – Home to two nuclear submarine squadrons.

Most people forgot about the Chinese spy balloon incident and I doubt most people care one iota about the subsequent news reports. America was following the illegal immigration invasion though.

April 18, 2023 – Mayorkas to testify on border crisis after visiting Darien Gap

April 19, 2023 FOX News report: Reporter says he filmed hundreds of military-age Chinese men heading toward US in migrant groups

July 29, 2023 – Biden administration searching for Chinese malware with potential to disrupt military: Report

“The Biden administration is searching for malware it believes China has buried in networks that control a variety of utilities to military bases, according to a report from the New York Times, which Fox News has not yet independently confirmed. 

“One congressional official told the New York Times that the malware is “a ticking time bomb” which could hand China power to disrupt movement of the U.S. military by shutting off water, power, and communications to bases.”

July 29, 2023 – Chinese Malware Could Cut Power To U.S. Military Bases, Businesses And Homes, Report Claims

July 25,2023 – CNN Exclusive: FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications

“The administration believes malicious computer code has been hidden inside “networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases,” officials told the Times. The discovery has heightened concerns that hackers could “disrupt US military operations in the event of a conflict,” according to the Times. The two nations have been increasingly at odds over Taiwan as well as over China’s actions in the Indo-Pacific.”

“One congressional official told the newspaper that the malware was “a ticking time bomb” that could allow China to cut off power, water and communications to military bases, slowing deployments and resupply operations. Because military bases often share the same supply infrastructure as civilian homes and businesses, many other Americans could also be affected, officials told the Times.”

August 7, 2023 – U.S. Military Systems Infected by Chinese Malware: How Deep Does It Run?

“The Chinese malware appears to be primarily targeted at overseas military bases that would likely be in heavy use in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. But homes and businesses in the area would also be impacted, as the critical infrastructure is shared between military systems and civilian residential or business areas.”

“The threat is not limited to overseas territories or bases, however, as the officials indicated that the Chinese malware could also likely cut off utilities to civilian areas of the continental United States. Indications are that this particular campaign has been active since at least mid-2021, and traces of the code that targeted military systems in Guam has also been found stateside.”

Sept. 4, 2023 – FBI tracks over 100 incidents of Chinese nationals posing as tourists to breach US military sites: report

“The FBI and Department of Defense have reportedly tracked more than 100 incidents of Chinese nationals posing as tourists to attempt to breach U.S. military bases and other federal sites.” 

“Those responsible, dubbed “gate crashers,” range from Chinese nationals detected crossing into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico, to scuba divers caught swimming in murky waters near a U.S. government rocket launch site in Florida, several U.S. officials recently told The Wall Street Journal. The growing trend represents a potential espionage threat, as authorities believe the Chinese government in some cases is compelling nationals into service in order to test out and report back about security practices at the installations.”

Dec. 3, 2023 – Weekly U.S.-Mexico Border Update: Congress negotiations, increased arrivals, migration from China

“U.S. authorities encountered over 28,000 citizens of China at the U.S.-Mexico border over the 12 months ending in October, a more than tenfold increase over the previous 12 months, with more than 8,000 arriving in September and October. Most are coming to San Diego. People who flee China tend to be middle class or lower middle class. They are escaping persecution but also cite fears of falling into poverty as the world’s second-largest economy falters.”

So, in March of 2023, officials were warning about the dramatic increase of Chinese illegals flooding across our southern border and by December, US authorities encountered over 28,000.

There’s a February 1, 2024, Bret Weinstein interview with Tucker Carlson, How China and the UN are Fueling the Invasion of America, about Weinstein’s trip to the Darien Gap in Panama to try to understand what’s going on. I watched this interview and also watched his January 31, 2024 YouTube channel video: Trojan Migration? The 210th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying on what he saw in Panama. Weinstein is an evolutionary biologist, not a journalist, and he did his graduate research in Panama, so he was curious about what’s going on in the Darien Gap, which gets mentioned in news reports frequently in regards to this illegal migration. DHS Secretary, Myorkas, took a trip to Panama last year to see the Darien Gap too. Weinstein also related how what used to be the US’s Central Command headquarters formerly Fort Clayton, which President Carter signed away, is now home to the City of Knowledge, which looks like a UN-funded effort and it’s also home to one of the UN’s two global administrative center of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

I am not a Tucker Carlson fan, but I think this interview is worth watching and considering. Hopefully, our CIA and US military have been paying close attention to what’s going on in the Darien Gap too, but watching that Chinese spy balloon fiasco last year, my hopes aren’t high.

Moving along some more:

January 31, 2024 – U.S. Government Disrupts Botnet People’s Republic of China Used to Conceal Hacking of Critical Infrastructure

I mentioned this December 28, 2023 NBC News report about the Chinese spy balloon in a previous post: U.S. intelligence officials determined the Chinese spy balloon used a U.S. internet provider to communicate. So, we went through many “official” narratives about the Chinese spy balloon and I doubt this December story got much attention, since most people are fixated on all the culture war dramas and presidential political dramas. Who cares about a year-old story? That article stated:

“The balloon connected to a U.S.-based company, according to the assessment, to send and receive communications from China, primarily related to its navigation. Officials familiar with the assessment said it found that the connection allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions, or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods of time.”

“Primarily related to its navigation,” so what about the other things that weren’t part of navigation?

Okay, well, did it connect to Chinese nationals on the ground in America? 

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January 28, 2024 · 4:17 pm

Are your eyes wide open one year after the Chinese spy balloon incident?

This is going to be a one year after blog post. From January 28 – February 4, 2023 an unmanned Chinese spy balloon drifted across America’s most sensitive military sites. As that balloon was drifting off the east coast, President Biden finally ordered the balloon to be shot down. It took a week for the Biden administration to respond… There have been numerous government assessments, but mostly it’s been to downplay this incident and do face-saving for the Biden administration. If you were assessing response times of a leader of a country to react to a threat and it took a week to shoot down an unmanned spy balloon, from a hostile country, flying over that country’s most sensitive military sites, you might conclude you were dealing with clueless idiots in charge of that country.

For several years, I’ve thought about pivoting my blog away from the partisan political battles that have consumed our nation over the past few decades, but I invariably end up back to the politics. So, while I may write about other things on my mind, the partisan battles raging right now will largely determine the path America heads down and what our future will be like. So, there’s going to be more politics here.

What happens with the election in November definitely matters, but I’m preparing to expect the unexpected this year, because I believe there could be even more defining events than the American presidential election. 

People like to make binary choices- it’s either Biden or Trump or I’ve seen some people trying to say it’s the globalist elites trying to transform the world who are the biggest threat and not the nation-state alliance (China, Russia, Iran) that’s aligned against the West. This form of binary-thinking gets used in right-wing punditry often, with trying to sway Americans against supporting Ukraine and presenting Putin as not a threat.  What if both the globalist transformers and the China-Russia led alliance pose serious threats to America? What if neither Biden nor Trump are the life-preserver to save America, that we think they are? What if the election in November isn’t the most pivotal event this year? Lots of questions to ponder. This isn’t going to be a warm and fuzzy blog post.

There’s a whole lot more than the domestic political battles going on, but definitely who is elected president in America impacts all of those and is tied to all of them. I was watching a news report recently, I can’t remember who the reporter was, but she mentioned being at the WEF meetings in Davos and she said the two things everyone was talking about were stopping Trump and disinformation and misinformation. What’s going on with the liberal media is trying to stop Trump and hype right-wing disinformation and misinformation. What’s going on in right-wing media is largely promoting Trump and downplaying disinformation and misinformation or accusing the liberal media of spreading disinformation and misinformation. 

The global elite/WEF crowd definitely wants to stop Trump, because Trump would likely get in the way of the green transformation and the larger UN 2030 Agenda, but what do Russia and China really want? They might just add fuel to the partisan dumpster fire or they might act before the 2024 election in ways we are not prepared for. 

Russia had been working to destabilize Ukraine for years and it wasn’t until the hapless Obama administration mishandled things, that Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and annexed Crimea and the Donbas region. The Obama administration did nothing and let Russia hold that territory. It was no surprise that once the Obama crowd was back in the White House in 2021, that we had the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, with the same Obama crowd bungling that and then in 2022 Russia was emboldened to invade Ukraine. 

Watching the Biden administration foot-drag military aid to Ukraine for almost two years, despite big announcements of big dollar aid packages, it’s obvious the Biden administration isn’t really committed to helping Ukraine defeat Russia, it’s more kicking the can down the road, trying to look for a way to spin this as winning. Many Americans are tired of sending aid to Ukraine and Russia, with the aid of some right-wing media, has squashed a great deal of American support for Ukraine and simultaneously conned Americans into believing Putin is a victim and Ukraine is at fault for Russia launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Cold War mindset in me, just gets disgusted to hear Americans champion Putin and dismiss the Russian threat of toppling governments in Eastern Europe, but at the same time Biden and the European leaders, who are mostly high on Great Reset fumes, are more committed to the green transformation than the war in Ukraine. There seems to be more passion for imposing hate speech laws, attacking farmers, and monitoring people’s carbon footprints than in Ukraine’s fate or what Russia does. These same European leaders, just like the Biden administration, believe they can eventually cut deals with Russia.

Then we move on to October 7, 2023. Hamas launched an asymmetrical invasion of Israel and massacred over a thousand civilians and took over a thousand hostages. That should have been a wake-up call for America. Israel was undergoing a lot of internal domestic divides. Hamas did not act alone and had training, aid and direction from Iran.

At this point, I don’t even know if Biden will be the Democratic nominee. I do expect Trump to be the GOP nominee, but I keep watching the timeline of Russia, China and Iran aggression. Russia invaded Ukraine, even while the goobers in the Biden White House believed they were achieving diplomatic success at preventing an invasion 

The Western effort to aid Ukraine and launch their Great Reset at the same time has led to degradation of readiness in NATO and the US, economic hardships and fueled populist uprisings in Europe and the US. The October 7th Hamas attack, orchestrated by Iran, has created more drains on Western aid and increased political instability. The Democratic Party sounds bipolar since October 7th – trying to support Israel and appease Palestinian extremists at the same time. Much of Europe is in the same boat.

The goobers in the Biden White House restored aid to Gaza in 2021 and in 2021 Hamas also began intensive planning for the October 7, 2023 attack. Right before the October 7th attack, the Biden national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, was taking a victory lap for the administration ditching Trump’s Middle East policies and deescalating tensions in Gaza and restoring direct diplomacy. Sullivan penned a piece for Foreign Affairs magazine doing a victory lap and the print edition had already gone to print when Hamas invaded Israel. Foreign Affairs magazine allowed Sullivan to stealth edit the online edition to rewrite his piece (I wrote about that here). Rewriting his piece doesn’t rewrite the outcome on the ground from the disastrous Biden foreign policy failures – the Biden administration restoring US aid to Gaza in 2021 actually aided and abetted Hamas terrorists in carrying out an attack on Israel.

China’s already ramped up aggression in the Pacific and there’s definitely hostile foreign involvement in our border invasion that started in 2021. China has also expanded their Belt and Road Initiative, expanding economic influence and deals in Central and South America. 

Kind of disturbing timelines since 2021, so perhaps we should be concerned about who is next in line for being a China/Russia/Iran target? There certainly seems to be a pattern there with China, Russia, Iran destabilization efforts targeting countries. 

Timeline:

August 2021 – Biden administration: Afghanistan withdrawal debacle. Also in 2021, Biden ditched the Trump Mid-East policies, he changed US policy in Ukraine, restored aid to Gaza, removed Yemen’s Houthis from the terrorist watchlist, unfroze billions of dollars to Iran, rescinded the Trump border policies, which opened the border.

February 2022 – Russian Invasion of Ukraine

October 2023 – Hamas invasion of Israel

Today – Three US troops killed in drone strike. Border crisis escalating. Internal divides growing.

In the 2016 election, when Trump made securing the border a key campaign issue, the number that kept being thrown about was 11 million illegal immigrants in America. In 2021 Biden reversed Trump’s border policies and border security officials keep saying they’ve never seen numbers like this. Customs and border enforcement reported roughly 2.5 million encounters at the border in 2023 alone.  Now we have former top FBI officials noting that this shift in demographics, to mostly fighting aged males, crossing the border began in 2021, and that it is a serious potential threat. So, just like the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, where the Biden goobers trusted the Taliban, they also believed their grand diplomacy was working in Ukraine and their restoring funding to Gaza, which Hamas controls was a big success – until it wasn’t, we’re now supposed to believe they’ve got the border situation well in hand.

Everything the Biden administration has done with border policy has made America more vulnerable to hostile countries being able to exploit our open border. Republicans in the House have just unveiled impeachment articles of the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who has been an unmitigated disaster at safeguarding America. The Pentagon has readiness and recruitment problems, along with leadership problems. Recently, the White House did not even know the Secretary of Defense was hospitalized for almost a week. That’s a serious chain of command gap. Then again the UK’s got its own craziness going on with reports the undermanned Royal Navy is redeploying officers to diversity and inclusion teams.

I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed this year and hope I’m reading the big picture warning signs wrong.  At the same time I’m rethinking and reassessing all of my emergency preparedness efforts. For many years there’s been a concerted media effort to caricature people who get involved in emergency preparedness as far-right kooks or Doomsday fanatics. I grew up during the Cold War and still believe we should all treat emergency preparedness like a civic duty. We should all want to be an asset and not a liability in our family and community, if there’s an emergency situation. If you’re not even prepared with basics, like food and water, how on earth are you going to be an asset to anyone? In a real crisis, you’d be in a dire situation and panic mode from the first minute.

Events can change quickly and that’s why I want to try to be as prepared as I can to weather the storms ahead, as best I can. The question everyone should ask is, “How long can I and my family survive if the power and utilities stop working or there’s a civil disturbance?” I’ll be following the news, but I’m also working more on my personal preparedness and still trying to maintain a positive attitude. Instead of approaching alarming information with fear and anxiety, I look at information as expanding opportunities. Whatever we learn now and being able to troubleshoot problems that might arise, allows us to calmly consider practical ways to be prepared and is one less thing that can throw us for a loop in an actual emergency situation, that involves that type of challenge. The more information, training and skills (and supplies) you acquire, the better able you should be to adapt and manage in an actual emergency. 

I was reading a 2018 government report, Surviving a Catastrophic Power Failure: how To Strengthen The Nation’s Capabilities and it was both informative and alarming at the same time. There was a lack of clarity of who is in charge of what and chains of command and communication between federal, state, local and corporations, because power and utilities in America are privately owned. The same goes for communication. That report said FEMA was working to promote personal preparedness:

People “no longer keep enough essentials within their homes, reducing their ability to sustain themselves during an extended, prolonged outage. The nation needs to improve individual preparedness.

o Most preparedness campaigns call for citizens to be prepared for 72 hours in an emergency, but the new emerging standard is 14 days.

o For example, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii have a standard recommending that individuals have enough food and water to support themselves for 14 days. These efforts could serve as a model for federal and state preparedness resources, campaigns, and training.

o The idea of individual preparedness is not a new concept. Civil defense, an older term used to elevate a level of individual preparedness and activate communities, used to be more widely accepted.

o FEMA offers a number of tools, resources, and guidance on emergency preparedness, including recent efforts focused on better financial preparedness for disasters, and work

(page 14) https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/NIAC%2520Catastrophic%2520Power%2520Outage%2520Study_FINAL.pdf

That’s advice from FEMA – take it or leave it. I decided in 2020 that I wanted to expand, to try to be prepared with basic supplies for 6 months to a year, but having even 14 days, which is the FEMA recommendation, is better than not having enough for a few days. Don’t wait to see if anyone around you is preparing – just go ahead and get busy. 

February 1, 2024: I decided to add this note since this Dec. 28, 2023 NBC report, U.S. intelligence officials determined the Chinese spy balloon used a U.S. internet provider to communicate, is another iteration of US accounts of that Chinese spy balloon incident last January:

“WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. this year used an American internet service provider to communicate, according to two current and one former U.S. official familiar with the assessment.”

“The balloon connected to a U.S.-based company, according to the assessment, to send and receive communications from China, primarily related to its navigation. Officials familiar with the assessment said it found that the connection allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions, or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods of time.”

The phrase “primarily related to its navigation” is meant to deflect, since that leaves shrouded what the information that wasn’t about “its navigation” was. 

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November 29, 2023 · 9:22 pm

Israeli captives begin talking

Over the weekend there was a spun up story emerging about a Palestinian woman who was released by Israel in the hostage exchanges taking place. Israel released Israa Jabbis amidst a flurry of propaganda asserting Jabbis was a beautiful young woman before being held in an Israeli prison for 8 years. When I started to tell my sister about this news report, before I even told her the details, she said, “Let me guess, she was a suicide bomber.” Jabbis was convicted of terrorism when her car exploded near an Israeli checkpoint, so yes, she was injured in an attempted suicide car bomb attack. My sister said she was so sick of all the pro-Palestinian propaganda and how disgusting the American liberal media is. She also said that if Israel doesn’t finish off Hamas and caves to the media pressure, they’re doomed. I agree with that assessment and yet so many people inside the Biden administration are trying to stall and derail Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas.

My sister is retired from serving over 20 years in the Air Force and she also served in Afghanistan in the early years, so she’s knowledgeable about the suicide bomber/IED attacks against American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel has been dealing with this threat too, not only their military and police forces, but also Israeli civilians – for decades.

One of the interesting “lifestyle” things that got mentioned over and over with the Oct. 7th attack was that Israelis that aren’t in urban areas have safe rooms in their homes to protect them from airstrikes. However, most of those safe rooms weren’t secured against invaders breaking into their homes. Imagine living where rocket attacks are just part of daily life. That’s what the Israelis have put up with for decades now. I bet there will be security upgrades to safe rooms in Israeli homes after this Oct. 7th attack.

Why on earth anyone buys into this Palestinian “colonizer” propaganda is beyond me. The entire spread of Islam was one of bloody conquest, and forced submission of the conquered. And with displaced Palestinians when the state of Israel was established, well, more than 850.000 Jews were forced to leave Arab countries and Iran in the 20th century. That’s why this entire Palestinian victimhood narrative strikes me as dishonest.

The lying by Hamas and the “ceasefire” media choir in the Hamas-Israel war has exceeded the propaganda in the Russia-Ukraine war, where I gave up on even trying to figure out what was propaganda and what was factual information within a few months.

In Ukraine, the Obama administration created all sorts of chaos by misguided and sloppily carried out policy efforts. The Obama administration kept trying to appease Putin, with Obama even mocking the GOP 2012 presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, about his insistence that Russian aggression was a serious threat. Obama won reelection and then Russia invaded Ukraine and seized control of Crimea. Obama refused to send arms to Ukraine and he did not take any stronger US action. Russia occupied Crimea and parts of Ukraine since 2014 and that frozen conflict led to tens of thousands of deaths, as fighting continued in those contested areas. Then in 2022, Putin decided to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Biden response has been foot-dragging, with big announcements of high-dollar military aid, followed by slow-walking that military aid to Ukraine.

In Israel, the Biden blueprint was crafted by the same Obama foreign policy architects. Trump had cut off aid to Gaza, but Biden immediately started pouring aid to Gaza, which went right into the hands of Hamas. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor, was taking a victory lap in a Foreign Affairs piece he wrote, about how their policy had led to a new era of peace in the Mid-East. Then Hamas invaded Israel, as that Foreign Affairs article was already being published in the print version. To spare Sullivan embarrassment, Foreign Affairs allowed Sullivan to edit his piece for the online publication… as if rewriting the article could erase how disastrous and wrong Sullivan’s foreign policy ideas really have been Rewriting an article can’t rewrite history.

The major organization aiding and abetting Palestinian terrorism looks to me like it’s the United Nations. The UN women’s rights mouthpieces refuse to denounce Hamas brutally raping and murdering Israeli women on October 7th. With these Hamas/Israeli hostage exchanges taking place now, the stories of mistreatment of Israeli hostages emerging go well beyond just Hamas. Today there’s a report that a 7 year-old Israeli boy was held captive in Gaza by an UNWRA school teacher in the attic of his home for 50 days, with barely any food to eat. There’s another report of another Israeli child being held hostage by a Gazan doctor, who treated Palestinian children, but refused medical treatment to the Israeli child. That a UN teacher and a Gazan doctor were participating in holding Israeli children captive is appalling.

At the same time this news came of Israeli children’s treatment in captivity, today the White House was hyping all the aid they’re sending to Gaza, which I shared with the X post above.

Where is the outrage about the UN’s role in aiding and abetting terrorism? Where’s the demand for an investigation? The UN is responsible for UNWRA activities in Gaza. Where is the Biden administration on condemning this? The EU and now the Germans have frozen UNWRA funding, but not the Biden administration:

“The wide German support for freezing funds came in light of findings that Palestinian learning materials were used to teach hate, glorify jihad and antisemitism

The German Development Ministry announced its entire aid budget to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) operations in Gaza will continue to be frozen, until further notice, as a result of its internal review of its Palestinian aid portfolio.”

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/europe/1701159704-germany-freezes-aid-for-unrwa-operations-in-gaza-amid-internal-review

So, far, in the US here’s where things stand: GOP targets Gaza’s biggest relief group, clashing with the White House.

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November 6, 2023 · 8:30 am

BLM morphs into “Free Palestine” movement

Although it’s not even a month since over 1.400 Israelis (and civilians from many other countries) were brutally massacred on October 7th, by Hamas terrorists, all around the world big protests are happening to demand an Israeli ceasefire and a stop to Israel dismantling and destroying the Hamas terrorist organization. Many prominent Democrats have come out and demanded a “humanitarian pause,” which is just a semantical word game to pretend they aren’t trying to derail Israel’s military operation, but more critical for Democrats is they’re also back to appeasing the most radical factions in their base. So, here’s a rundown of where we’re at.

A Hamas leader was asked about the Israeli ceasefire and he’s all for an Israeli ceasefire, but Hamas isn’t going to cease their attacks on Israel:

So, there you have it, the ceasefire or “humanitarian pause” the Biden administration and other European leaders are demanding only applies to Israel – not to Hamas. There’s no demand to tell Hamas to stop firing rockets at Israel or to release the hostages, some of whom are American citizens. Nope, the demand is for an Israeli ceasefire or “humanitarian pause.”

When I turned on the news Saturday, it felt like I was back in the “Summer of Love” in America, with American cities filled with raging far-left lunatics – defacing statues and trying to climb the WH gates, but of course this time there was no President Trump to blame – this time it’s all Israel’s fault… for responding to having their country invaded by Hamas terrorists and over 1.400 innocent citizens brutally massacred.

And to explain why it’s also our fault, along came former President Obama to play the moral equivalency card and try to explain that Israel is at fault… for existing. Dem politicians will rattle on about a “two-state solution” again and Palestinian leaders will reject that completely, as will Iran, because contrary to the effort to pretend “from the river to the sea” isn’t a call to drive the Jews from the Jordan River into the Mediterranean Sea, well, Palestinian leaders (and most of the Arab world & especially Iran) have clearly articulated that position over and over and over.

This entire “colonizer” narrative to try to justify Palestinian terrorism is filled with endless lies. The UN deliberately handles the Palestinian refugees differently than every other group of refugees in the world, to hinder any sort of political solution. Destroying the state of Israel is the only solution they will accept.

By creating a permanent Palestinian refugee crisis, there’s no incentive to reach a solution and billions upon billions of dollars flow through the UNWRA to corrupt Palestinian leaders and NGOs operating in the Palestinian refugee camps and it also funds the Palestinian terror organizations. It’s quite a racket and the people most poorly served by all this UN-funded corruption are the Palestinian people. In Gaza, two-thirds of the population is unemployed and 80% rely on international aid, but the one thing there’s no shortage of is rockets to fire at Israel.

President Obama was a big appeaser and apologist for radical Islamist terrorism, to the point, where no one in the US government could even use the term radical Islamist terrorism. He also purged all training on radical Islam from the US military and intelligence agencies. Obama embarked on Muslim outreach and hiring terrorist-sympathizers to focus on “Islamophobia.” So, when these stories emerge of radicals who are siding with radical Islamist terrorists being employees of the federal government, we have President Obama to thank for that.

While Obama showed up this weekend to lecture us on our failings, President Biden was at home in Delaware. Then there was a release of very bad poll numbers yesterday, where Trump is beating Biden in several swing states. David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, started tweeting yesterday – strongly hinting that Biden should step aside:

Perhaps, Dems are going to try to ditch Biden and run with someone else.

Mark Levin interviewed Michael Doran, an international affairs analyst, over the weekend and there was mention of a 2021 article Doran wrote. Here’s that 2021 article, The Realignment, by Michael Doran and Tony Badran, which explains the Obama Iran policy. The Obama plan aims to bolster Iran in the region, in the belief that Iran (a Shia state) will be a counterweight to the Sunni Arab countries. The US has been more aligned with the Sunni Arab countries, since the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 (and all that “Death to America” stuff). Robert Malley, the top Obama and Biden Iran negotiator, who this summer had his security clearance suspended and who is under investigation for running an Iranian spy ring out of the US State Department, explained the Obama (now Biden) Iran policy:

“The president’s “ultimate goal,” Malley wrote, was “to help the [Middle East] find a more stable balance of power that would make it less dependent on direct U.S. interference or protection.” That is a roundabout way of saying that Obama dreamed of a new Middle Eastern order—one that relies more on partnership with Iran.”

This article goes on:

“This project to create a new Middle Eastern order, which now spans two presidential administrations, deserves a name. The “Obama-Biden-Malley-Blinken-Sullivan initiative” is quite a mouthful. Instead, we hereby dub it “the Realignment.” That it should fall to us, and at this late date, to name a project on which many talented people have been working for the better part of a decade is more than a little odd. Typically, presidents launch initiatives as grand as this one with a major address, and they further embroider their vision with dozens of smaller speeches and interviews. One searches in vain for Obama’s speech, “A New Order in the Middle East.”

“Obama, it seems clear, felt his project would advance best with stealth and misdirection, not aggressive salesmanship. Biden, while keeping Obama’s second-term foreign policy team nearly intact, is using the same playbook. He and his aides recognize that confusion about the “ultimate goal” makes achieving it easier. Indeed, confusion is the Realignment’s best friend.”

If you’ll recall when news broke of this horrific Hamas attack on Israel, the Biden White House was at pains to state there was no direct evidence Iran was involved, because above all else the Team Obama goal is to not only “fundamentally transform America,” they want to transform the Middle East too and they’re banking on aligning the US with the mullahs in Iran, who rant, “Death to America.” They believe the terror masters in Iran will be rational actors on the world stage and act responsibly when they acquire nuclear weapons… This crowd in the White House is also the same crowd who trusted the Taliban’s word and we ended up with the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle. Then they were negotiating with Putin and believed they could dissuade Putin from invading Ukraine. If there’s one thing this crowd has no shortage of it’s confidence in their own diplomatic brilliance.

In my previous post, I mentioned both 2020 BLM George Floyd star, Ben Crump and CAIR representing the family of the murdered Muslim boy in Illinois in October. This weekend we saw the 2020 BLM movement revamped into the “Free Palestine” movement – a few sign and costume changes, but the defacing statues and trying to storm the WH is the same. I’m not sure what they’ll call this rampaging in the streets, since “Summer of Love” won’t work with us close to winter time.

Hamas has a highly effective global propaganda operation and they’re aligned with BLM, as these massive protests demonstrate. CAIR has been the Hamas propaganda arm in America for decades. The media is filled with reporters who will carry water for Hamas propaganda without question, as that false story of the Gazan hospital being hit by an Israeli missile showed – no verifying facts – they all just ran with the story.

The Biden administration isn’t going to forcefully retaliate against Iran, as US troops come under attack in the region. They still want to suck up to Iran and work to turn Iran into the power-broker in the Muslim world, despite the US government experts repeatedly stating Iran is the #1 state sponsor of terrorism in the world.

In 2020, the American people were lectured by the left that the BLM rioting, looting and destruction of statues was the result of centuries of oppression of black people. We were told the solution was to “Defund the Police” and check “white privilege.” This past weekend, former President Obama came out to lecture us that we are responsible for Hamas terrorism, because the Palestinian people are oppressed. And their solution is to demand an Israeli ceasefire and “Free Palestine.” Buckle up, because we’re in for some rough times.

My next post is going to be about emergency preparedness and a reminder that if you aren’t prepared or haven’t ever seriously thought about emergency preparedness, now would be a good time to do so.

Update, November 6, 2023, 11:07 am – Well, it didn’t take long for the first liberal media hot take to downplay the “Free Palestine” protest vandalism and mayhem to drop. Here’s Mary Bruce, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent:

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November 2, 2023 · 9:24 pm

“Islamophobia” they say…

This post is going to be a timeline covering how the Biden administration is going to try to have it both ways by publicly mouthing support for Israel to respond against the horrific Hamas attack on Oct. 7th, where over 1,400 people were massacred in heinous ways, while doing everything they can to hype “Islamophobia” and throw roadblocks in the way of Israel destroying Hamas.

October 17th – The media ran a story about an Israeli missile hitting a hospital in Gaza and mass casualties. That story was false. It was a Hamas rocket that misfired and hit the hospital parking lot and not mass causalities. This false story inflamed violent, anti-Israel protests around the world:

October 20, 2023: President Biden gave an Oval Office speech affirming US support for Ukraine and Israel, but he focused more on Ukraine than Israel and he blabbered on about “Islamophobia.” There was a highly publicized murder of a Muslim boy in Illinois on October 16th and Biden mentioned that. I’m not going to argue about details, because the DOJ is investigating this, but I’ll offer one word of caution that with cases where the assailant and victims had some relationship – landlord/tenant in this case, there are often other issues and in this CNN story I linked, CAIR seems to be the media spokespeople for the Muslim family. CAIR is the Council on American Islamic Relations, founded in 1994 by leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine and mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda. I’m not trying to justify or minimize the murder of this child, what I’m saying is I don’t know all the details and I don’t trust any narrative being stage-managed by CAIR. I’m adding this news article after posting, because it has a photo of the attorney for the mother, who was also stabbed… Ben Crump: Man pleads not guilty to hate crime in fatal stabbing of 6-year-old Muslim boy in Illinois. Ben Crump (George Floyd fame) and CAIR lawyers together… go figure.

October 23, 2023: Karine Jean-Pierre, the WH press secretary, answered a question about the rise of antisemitism in America, by stating there’s no credible threats and that the real threats are against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims:

The next day she walked that back a bit, but it seemed bizarre to focus so heavily on “Islamophobia” and be so dismissive of the rise of anti-Semitism in America, when the incidents are cropping up all over and the angry protests supporting Hamas have been raging across American college campuses and cities.

October 30, 2023: I posted this comment on Twitter/X. Here’s a link to explain the Dem/liberal media narrative flip after the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016, Reminder: The press blamed Christian conservatives for the Pulse nightclub shooting. It was a vicious smear.:

October 31, 2023: FBI Director Wray testified in front of Congress and stated that anti-Semitism was at historic levels, and makes up over 60% of all religious hate crimes being investigated. So, how to square the WH the day before doubling down on Islamophobia is the big problem, not anti-Semitism:

November 1, 2023: Vice-President, Kamala Harris announces:

November 2, 2023: The global effort to hype “Islamophobia” and throw obstacles in Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas is underway .

And on and on it will go. The Republicans in the House insisting they needed to separate funding for Israel and Ukraine played right into Dems hands and the Biden administration has announced Biden will veto that separate aid for Israel bill, which will aid the “Islamophobia” crowd’s effort to hobble Israel’s military operation to destroy Hamas. It also buys more time for the global “Islamophobia” propaganda effort to hype the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This is a global progressive propaganda effort working in tandem with the international cabal of Palestinian activists and mouthpieces, I believe.

The narrative flip to downplay anti-Semitism raging across the world and in America is underway and the efforts to hype the Palestinian cause is now coming from the White House.

And for the record: Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas in 2021 and October 7th is what they got in return:

And if that’s not bad enough, here’s a FOX News report: Timeline: US forces in Iraq and Syria were attacked at least 28 times between since Oct. 17. Meanwhile Biden keeps warning Iran to stop and that we’ll respond, but so far it’s been meaningless retaliations and lip service. If you thought the Afghanistan Withdrawal Debacle was a nightmare, I fear America is in for much worse with this “Islamophobia” crowd in the driver’s seat of American foreign policy.

Update: I forgot to put in the October 17th media meltdown over the Gaza hospital/mass casualty report from Gazan officials, which the media ran with and then later that entire story imploded. I added that Oct 17th story

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