Category Archives: General Interest

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Here’s a Pravda headline from yesterday: Putin presented Tucker Carlson with copies of historical documents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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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest

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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February 6, 2024 · 5:58 pm

I’m happy to be a weirdo

Sunday night thunderstorms rolled through my area. As the wind picked up and the thunder became much louder, I decided to get out two of my LED lanterns, even though my cell phone has a flashlight and I keep flashlights in several rooms in my house, so they’re easily accessible. This habit of checking that I have emergency lighting is something I’ve done throughout my entire adult life and probably started because I hate being caught in the dark and having to fumble around.

Sure, enough about a half-hour later the power went out. The next issue was the claps of thunder had my two dogs in panic mode, so I went out in the sun room and brought the cheap weather radio into the living room and tuned in to a local country music radio station. The music helped calm down the dogs. I keep this weather radio charged now, although for about a year after I bought it, it just sat in the box. I had taken it out the box, after I bought it, looked at it, and stuck it back in the box. It was after listening to some online prepper lecturing about how prepping supplies aren’t going to do you any good, if you don’t know how to use them, that prodded me to get this weather radio out of the box. It can be charged with a USB cable, has a little solar panel and a hand-crank. So, since then I keep it charged.

My cell phone was working and my power company has an outage map, that provides updates on outages and how many people are without power. My outage was a very small area and the power company said it was due to an event, so I figured someone hit a pole or the wind caused damage. It took around 4 hours for power to be restored.

This outage was a minor inconvenience. Most of us have been through much longer power outages, plus thanks to modern technology, I had immediate access to the power company, via my cell phone, for information about the outage. In the old days, before the internet, we had no idea how large the outage area was, what caused it, and we definitely didn’t have any idea how long the power was going to be out. We could just tell all the neighbors were without power too.

Most people would just memory hole a minor power outage like this and I used to do that too. Now, I review what I did and what I might do better, as far as being prepared.

Until recent years, I didn’t even understand the vulnerabilities of our power grid in America or the magnitude of the threat of attacks on our critical infrastructure. Sure, I had read about the threat of asymmetrical attacks for decades, but didn’t consider them likely. 

Then 9/11 happened and the US government jumped into fighting terrorism mode. After trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives lost in that fight, the reality is America lost – that’s the truth. Lots of military contractors and “experts” made lots of money, but our military spent 20 years eroding our military readiness. We withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban is back in charge there and Hamas, another terrorist regime, last October, waged a catastrophic attack on Israel. Many Israelis likely had faith in their government to ward off a catastrophic attack too. Sure, seems like we’re back to where we started with 9/11 when it comes to terrorist attacks and and we haven’t learned much of anything. 

The same scenario played out with the 2020 “pandemic,” another crisis, I never gave much thought to, let alone thought about being prepared for. There again, years ago I had read a very interesting book, The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry, which chronicled the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920, which killed more than 50 million people worldwide. I didn’t rush to prepare for a pandemic after reading this book, but according to Wikipedia, President George W. Bush read this book in 2005: “In the summer of 2005, then-President George W. Bush read the book while on vacation at his ranch in Crawford.[26] His study would later set forth plans for the federal government to prepare for future pandemics in a November 2005 speech.[27]“ So, 15 years later, I think our government’s 2020 pandemic response failed miserably.

I have little faith in the government to respond adequately to a major crisis here in America, but even worse, most Americans aren’t prepared for even more common weather emergencies, in their own area and there’s been a concerted liberal media effort for decades to denigrate “preppers” as far-right doomsday kooks. Most Americans, at the same time, express concerns about the uncertain state of the world now, with wars spreading, domestic divides growing, border chaos, political chaos in Washington, and all sorts of fall-out from the crazy 2020 BLM “defund the police” efforts, that have resulted in a rise in crime and police retention issues.

Despite working on my preparedness in a much more serious way since 2020, I am still not adequately prepared for a long-term emergency. I am much better prepared than I used to be and continue to work on it.

A couple years ago I decided to buy a Mr. Heater Buddy when I bought one for my daughter in IN. I’m in GA and don’t really worry about freezing, plus I have a fireplace in my house, but I thought having this little heater was a good idea. I went to Lowe’s to buy more 1 lb. propane tanks and the friendly, young man who assisted me in locating them was very helpful, but what he told me stuck with me. I told him I’d become a bit of a prepper in recent years and he told me about his neighbor being an old guy, who is a sort of weird prepper, but he said that guy knows a lot. He told me if he needs help in an emergency he’ll go to his neighbor. That is the mind-set of a lot of people – they mock preppers and emergency preparedness. Rather than think about unpleasant things like emergencies, their plan is to just go to the “weirdo” preppers they know, who are stocked up. I told him that he should want to learn to be able to take care of himself, no matter what happens.

Books often spur government action. The 2009 William Forstchen fictional novel, One Second After, imagines the US grid being taken down by a hostile foreign attack. The story is set in a small town and the characters are very relatable. So, I’m a technology-challenged person and I didn’t even understand the magnitude of the impact if our grid went down and really, who wants to think about worst-case scenarios? This fictional novel got the attention of some Washington national security types and the author has made presentations about the threat of EMPs to Congress and other experts. I had heard the terms EMP and grid-down, but didn’t really understand the ramifications, because I had faith in my electric company to fix things and get the power up and running, even after hurricanes and I trusted the government had some contingency plan for worst case scenarios, so there was no need to worry about any of this. 

So, what’s the big deal about grid-down and why even think about it?

About a year ago, I read Ted Koppel’s book, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, which was published in 2015.  I watched Koppel’s Nightline show for years and he’s definitely not some far-right kook. On pages 14-15 of Lights Out, Koppel wrote:

“Ours has become a largely reactive culture. We are disinclined to anticipate disaster, let alone prepare for it. We wait for bad things to happen and then we assign blame. Despite mounting evidence of cyber crime and cyber sabotage, there appears to be widespread confidence that each can be contained before it inflicts unacceptable damage. The notion that some entity has the ability or the motive to launch a sophisticated cyber attack against our nation’s infrastructure, and in particular against our electric power grids, exists, if at all, on the outer fringes of public consciousness.”

So, our grid is actually three grids, different areas of the country, is my understanding. Then there was this term, black start, which is starting the grid back up from nothing. Here’s a 2022 Practical Engineering article, How Long Would Society Last During a Total Grid Collapse?, which explains the threat of grid-down in easy to understand terms and the difficulties. Here’s a key point about preparedness:

“At both an institutional and personal level, finding a balance between the chance of disaster striking and the resources required to be prepared is a difficult challenge, and not everyone agrees on where to draw the line. Of course, the other kind of preparedness is our ability to restore service to a collapsed power grid and get everyone back online as quickly as possible. That’s called a black start, and it sounds simple enough, but there are some enormous engineering challenges associated with bringing a grid up from nothing.”

Here’s a 2022 follow-on Practical Engineering article on a black start, What Is A Black Start Of The Power Grid?.

A month ago there was this warning: “FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday he has never seen a time during his decades-long career when so many threats against the US were all as elevated as they are now, warning senators he sees “blinking lights everywhere.”

Last week, FBI director, Chris Wray testified to Congress about the threat Chinese hackers pose to our critical infrastructure. Here’s the warning from an NBC report, FBI director warns Chinese hackers aim to ‘wreak havoc’ on U.S. critical infrastructure :

““China’s hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities, if or when China decides the time has come to strike,” said excerpts of Wray’s prepared testimony released by the FBI.”

“Wray also argued that “there has been far too little public focus” on Chinese hackers’ targeting critical infrastructure in the U.S., such as water treatment plants, electrical grids, oil and natural gas pipelines and transportation systems, according to the prepared remarks.”

““And the risk that poses to every American requires our attention — now,” his prepared testimony said.”

I’m not suggesting we should all panic, but I do believe every American should think about having adequate basic supplies to manage a few weeks (or longer) in a power outage. Most people don’t want to imagine worst-case situations and that’s understandable, but when you’re warned that a hostile country is actively working now, to be able to wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure and the world situation has become very unstable, with wars starting and other chaos spreading, then perhaps we should all heed these warnings 

Most people can’t afford to buy a private island for a getaway location in a crisis or some high-tech bunker, like some billionaires, but most people can afford to gradually start storing some extra water, buying some extra food, considering home security measures, learning basic first-aid, etc. I had a neighbor years ago, who told me she did not have a flashlight in her home, when she was talking to me the day before a hurricane was ready to make landfall, where our area was in the “cone of uncertainty.” The conversation began with me asking her if she was prepared for the storm and she told me she doesn’t mess with that. I then asked her if she at least had a flashlight. She didn’t and she didn’t seem concerned. I felt like I was talking to an alien. I insisted on giving her an LED lantern and extra batteries. She looked at me like I was a weirdo. Our power was out over 24 hours. Was she an alien or am I a weirdo?

These escalating warnings (Wray’s blinking lights everywhere) are like being in that hurricane “cone of uncertainty,” even if your area doesn’t take a direct hit, it can still cause a lot of devastation. There are usually severe thunderstorms, tornados, and plenty of wind damage and flooding to go along with them as they move inland. I have no idea how well prepared our power companies or government are for attacks on critical infrastructure – but I do know the likelihood of this sort of attack is way more likely than it was even just a few years ago. Wray said FBI cyber staff is outnumbered at least 50 to 1 by the Chinese hackers. So, let’s think about those Iranian proxies continuously firing missiles and launching drone attacks against the US military since last fall – we didn’t suffer any fatalities until a week ago. 

That’s enough doom and gloom for today, but I am going to keep talking about this. I understand that most people don’t want to hear any of this, but I believe it’s very important. 

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January 31, 2024 · 1:20 pm

Signal or noise… you decide?

I would say, definitely a signal. Here’s a quote from a CBS report today:

“Washington — Hackers backed by the Chinese government are targeting U.S. water treatment plants and electrical grids, strategically positioning themselves within critical infrastructure systems to “wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress Wednesday.”

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Filed under General Interest, Politics, Terrorism

January 30, 2024 · 7:21 pm

Here’s another investigation to Nowhere

January 2016

When trying to connect a lot of dots, it’s easy to get lost in the dots and miss the bigger picture. That’s what happened to me last fall when the October 7th attack on Israel happened. Along with too many dots with a story I had been trying to understand – the suspension of Robert Malley earlier in 2023 – too many other events exploded. Listening to weird Biden administration responses to three American soldiers being killed in an Iranian proxy drone strike prodded my memory. 

Something is very off with how the Biden administration still keeps trying to kowtow to Tehran and exhibiting weakness at every turn. They’re blabbing about not wanting to escalate tensions with Iran and doing meaningless, theatrical, “DON’T” warnings, while Iran has continually escalated tensions. The retaliatory strikes have been strategically pointless targets, because the Biden administration doesn’t really want to retaliate – they want to avoid upsetting Tehran.

I had saved some links about Malley, but I began trying to tune out the news information overload and never got back to this story. However, this story of the Biden administration’s top Iran/Mid-East guru being removed from his position and having his security clearance suspended, back in April 2023 is probably a very important story in light of the October 7th attack and the Biden administration’s embarrassingly weak response to increasing Iranian aggression.

Here’s a June 29, 2023 CNN report:  Biden’s Iran envoy placed on leave after security clearance suspended amid investigation into possible mishandling of classified material, sources say This CNN report has this peculiar paragraph (paragraph 11):

“The move to suspend Malley’s security clearance was not communicated widely within the State Department or across the Biden administration, as the department kept him in his role and made no official announcements about replacing him. Some officials at the State Department were told that Malley was handing personal matters, which is why he had taken a back seat on the Iran portfolio, two State Department officials and a third person who was briefed told CNN.”

So, here’s what paragraph 2 said:

“A US official said that Malley’s clearance was suspended amid a State Department diplomatic security investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information. Another source familiar with the matter said he was placed on unpaid leave on Thursday afternoon.”

Why on earth did Blinken keep someone suspected of mishandling highly sensitive information working in the State Department and who lied to other State Department workers to keep it quiet? Well, Blinken and Malley are childhood friends and Malley is the Democratic Party Middle-East guru. Again, this is the CNN sentence: “Some officials at the State Department were told that Malley was handing personal matters, which is why he had taken a back seat on the Iran portfolio, two State Department officials and a third person who was briefed told CNN.” I’m wondering “were told” by whom???

I’m adding this paragraph, after publishing, because I realized I wasn’t clear about the allegations against Malley. Here’s a quote from an October 1, 2023,  Lee Smith piece at Tablet Magazine, “The Biden administration’s now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails.” He was alleged to have mishandled highly classified information and of putting together a group of Iranian experts, who were working to sway US policy toward Iran’s objectives. It had to be some damning information for Blinken to first suspend his long-time friend/Democrats’ Iran policy guru’s security clearance in April and then when the State Department investigated, they referred it to the FBI and Malley was placed on unpaid leave in June.

Malley’s story is critically important to what’s going on with the Biden administration handling of policy with the Israel/Hamas war and with our American response to escalating attacks by Iranian proxies. Malley worked for the Clinton administration, trying to broker an Israeli/Palestinian peace deal and then for the Obama administration, becoming their architect of the Iran deal. Malley has close ties with Hamas leaders, his father was very close friends with Yasser Arafat and Malley continued those close ties. In 2008, when Obama was running for president, Malley was asked to step aside from his informal campaign role over concerns his close ties to Hamas could damage Obama. However, in 2014, Obama hired Malley to be senior director of the National Security Council and his chief Iran policy architect.

Never fear, Malley is still in the loop among the connected Democrats’ elite foreign policy crowd – he’s now a Senor Fellow at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs and there are plenty of his cronies, who assuredly will try to relaunch him into the Democrat foreign policy club. Here’s a piece in The Nation, from October 19, 2023, Disinformation and Deception in Tehran and Washington, making the case that people are trying to sabotage Malley and other aides are having their work sabotaged. Well, it was the State Department who investigated Malley’s handling of highly classified information and referred the matter to the FBI and it was Malley’s close friend, Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who removed him from his post – not reporters running a disinformation effort. Blinken suspended Malley’s security clearance in April – long before the reporters knew anything about it in June. Timelines matter.

Here are some links to other reports on this situation:

July 23, 2023 – Lee Smith article in Tablet Magazine : What happened to Robert Malley?

August 14, 2023 – Reuters report: Malley, on leave from US Iran envoy post, to teach at Princeton

September 29, 2023 – Jay Solomon piece in Semafor: Inside Iran’s influence operation

October 1, 2023 – Lee Smith article in Tablet Magazine: High-Level Iranian Spy Ring Busted in Washington

October 16, 2023 – Lee Smith article in Tablet Magazine: The Biden Administration Tries to Hide What It Knew About an Impending Massacre, While Leaving U.S. Backing for Iran Untouched

January 19, 2024 – Yale News: Controversial Jackson fellow Robert Malley to teach ‘Contending with Israel-Palestine’ seminar

I’ll leave it up to you to decide if Malley mishandled highly sensitive classified information or is a victim of “disinformation.” The Biden State Department decided the matter was serious enough to suspend his security clearance and refer it to the FBI. As for me, I think Malley’s so well-connected at the highest levels in Democrat circles – the Clintons, Obama, Kerry, etc. etc. etc. that the FBI will handle this like Hillary’s emails and Hunter’s laptop… another investigation to Nowhere. 

I also believe the Biden White House and our other top national security agencies are thoroughly compromised.

The dots never end with the Obama crowd, that’s now the Biden crowd. Then there was this story in September 2023, connected with the Malley case: “Pentagon Defends Biden Appointee’s Alleged Membership in Iranian Influence Network. From the Washington Times: “Ms. Tabatabai is an Iranian-American scholar who now works as the chief of staff for Christopher P. Maier, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of Defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. She had previously worked for the State Department.”

Along with Malley’s saga, right after Oct. 7th there was a pro-Hamas Homeland Security official:

If you wonder why this administration often sounds like they’re more sympathetic to the terrorist regime in Tehran and Hamas terrorists, well, just look at who is writing their policies and narratives… Malley was the Obama Iranian expert in 2016, when John Kerry was Secretary of State. Kerry was working inside deals with Iran for the release of American sailors Iran had taken hostage. Kerry did a victory lap, bragging about his smart diplomacy leading to a peaceful release of the American hostages. Then Iran unleashed a humiliating propaganda attack in the international media of American sailors on their knees. Never forget who these people really are – Malley was the Obama Iranian policy guru, with all the Iranian connections back then too.

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January 29, 2024 · 5:28 pm

It just gets crazier

Here’s a press release from the US Department of the Treasury, The United States and United Kingdom Target Iranian Transnational Assassinations Network. An Iran based narco-trafficker reportedly has been recruiting assassins, like a Hell’s Angel Motorcycle gang member in Canada to assassinate people inside the US:

“In 2021, Zindashti’s network recruited Canadian national and British Columbia-based Hells Angels Outlaw Motorcycle Group member Damion Patrick John Ryan (Ryan) to assassinate individuals in the United States who fled Iran. Ryan, whose criminal history ranges from firearms trafficking charges to international drug trafficking, has ties to criminal elements in Canada, the United States, and Greece. Zindashti associate Asan worked closely with Ryan to plan the assassinations, sending the location and photos of the targets, in addition to coordinating payment details. Ryan also recruited Canadian national and Hell’s Angels affiliate Adam Richard Pearson (Pearson) to carry out the murders.”

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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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January 27, 2024 · 11:11 am

Former FBI officials warn about border invasion

JK posted a comment with a link to a January 17, 2024 letter sent to Congressional leaders on my last blog post, that I think every American should read. The letter was written by ten former FBI directors and experts in counterintelligence. They warned this invasion at the southern border is different than other illegal immigration surges in the past. Here is a link to that letter:https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/pdclarion.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/9a/f9ab16aa-1396-5762-8198-2efd36fa97b1/65b32e508e0b0.pdf.pdf

They write:

“In 2021, the demographics of those crossing the porous southern border started to shift. Young men from around the world traveling alone and holding questionable motivations dramatically increased in number to become the most common profile of those breaching the nation’s border. A startling number have been found on the terrorist watchlist or are from countries designated as State Sponsors of Terror distinctly unfriendly to the United States.”

Their letter mentions, “The nation’s military and laws and other natural protective barriers have been thoroughly circumvented over the past three years.” Well, that is what would be termed “asymmetrical warfare,” if some of the thousands upon thousands of fighting age men are being deployed by nations hostile to the US, in preparation to launch asymmetrical attacks inside the US. Remembering Pearl Harbor should be on our minds, but even more recently, the Israelis didn’t believe Hamas could carry off an asymmetrical attack like October 7th last year. 

I doubt America’s military can be defeated by direct confrontation and I believe our adversaries are well aware of this. 

After World War I, a British soldier, Captain B. H. Liddell Hart began studying history and military strategy. He became known for his military theory, advocating the avoidance of direct frontal attack and using the indirect approach, by attacking the rear and supply lines to throw the enemy off-balance. He wrote numerous books and the photo above are the ones I have. I find his ideas interesting.

Thanks, JK for the link to this letter, because I hadn’t seen it. That’s it for this blog post, but I urge you to read the warning letter by former FBI officials.

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January 26, 2024 · 1:36 pm

Asymmetrical war against US already ongoing

The border crisis in America blares across the news constantly now, so I decided to take a look back. The US declared war on Mexico in 1846 over territorial disputes. That war lasted two years, Mexico lost about 1/3 of it’s territory when the dust settled and many of America’s top Civil War generals in the 1860s, cut their eyeteeth on war during that Mexican-American War.

Since that 1840s conflict, US-Mexico territorial disputes flared up many times In 1914, Mexico was in the midst of a revolution and a Mexican revolutionary leader/guerilla fighter, Pancho Villa, launched a raid on Columbus, NM, which led to the US invading Mexico. President Wilson picked General John J. Pershing to lead the US retaliatory attack on Mexico. By 1917, the US entered World War I and General John J. Pershing became the commander of the US Expeditionary Force, leading US forces in World War I. Pershing’s previous war experiences also included serving in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and the Philippine-American War in 1899. 

From the Library of Congress:

“Mexican immigration in the 20th century came in three great surges of growth. The first surge began in the 1900s. Revolution in Mexico and a strong U.S. economy brought a tremendous increase in Mexican immigration rates. Between 1910 and 1930, the number of Mexican immigrants counted by the U.S. census tripled from 200,000 to 600,000. The actual number was probably far greater. El Paso, Texas, served as the Mexican Ellis Island–a gateway to a different life for Mexican immigrants and a powerful symbol of change and survival for their children and grandchildren.”

So, what’s going on now with this massive increase of illegal immigration flooding across the US southern border? Is this similar or dissimilar to previous surges of illegal immigration at the border?

Well, I’m of the belief this is very different and a deliberate, orchestrated asymmetrical attack on the United States of America, just like I believe the “Syrian Refugee Crisis” was a deliberate, orchestrated asymmetrical attack on the West, to flood in refugees to destabilize Western countries. Certainly, criminals, like the Mexican drug cartels are opportunistically involved in this invasion of the US too, flooding in Chinese fentanyl and other drugs. China is on the move in Central and South America, setting the stage for a larger economic war and, I believe, more asymmetrical attacks on the US.

Certainly, amidst the hordes of illegal immigrants flooding into the US, there are likely many people just seeking a better life here, but these caravans transporting illegal immigrants from Central America and through Mexico paint a much more ominous bigger picture. The same liberal activist crowd (including the Obama crowd) aided and abetted the Syrian Refugee Crisis and they’ve aided and abetted this invasion of our southern border, that’s happening now. All sorts of NGOs operate to facilitate this invasion, just like there were NGOs involved in facilitating the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Here’s a 2021 quote from UNHCR, Syria Refugee Crisis – Globally, in Europe and in Cyprus:

“European countries host over 1 million Syrian asylum-seekers and refugees, with the 70 per cent being hosted in two countries only: Germany (59 percent) and Sweden (11 percent). This makes Germany the fifth largest host country globally, hosting over 1 million in total, of which over half (560,000) are Syrians. Austria, Greece, the Netherlands and France host between 2 to 5 percent, while other countries host below 2 percent.”

Unfortunately, the political people on the right, from Trump, to Abbott, to any Republican leaders, only talk about symmetrical actions to secure the physical border, not ways to defeat the much larger asymmetrical war taking place. A large part of this asymmetrical war is like everything else the far-left global transformers embark on – it’s largely dependent on controlling public opinion and yes, it’s the spin information war. 

The right, including Trump, are presently winning the spin war battle on illegal immigration. Polling consistently shows Americans want US borders secured and they don’t want to pay for millions of illegal immigrants to live off of US taxpayers or to be rewarded with benefits for illegally entering the US.

I think Trump will be the GOP nominee and stands a good chance of winning in November, while the Dems are in disarray at the moment. I believe former President Obama is pressuring Biden to step aside. There’s a media drumbeat about Michelle Obama being the magic ticket for Democrats and certainly the liberal media would galvanize to promote her. Gavin Newsom is another possibility, who’s talked about frequently. I won’t be surprised if Biden steps aside in the next few months.

With this being the current state of politics, I feel certain Democrats and their global elite transformers will try to stir up crisis after crisis at the US southern border, to create a media firestorm about the Republican physical efforts to secure the border. And China, Russia, Iran and their allies will be trying to foment chaos in the US anywhere they can this year. During that Syrian refugee crisis, there was a global media effort to pressure Western leaders to accept more and more refugees – the drowned Syrian boy became the face of that crisis. I remember this, because of the orchestrated way media stuck microphones in the faces of European leaders and demanded they respond about this child drowning.

I feel the same sort of situation is developing at the Texas border and so far we’re hearing about drownings and razor wire constantly. I feel it’s a terrible idea for random Americans and groups to show up at the border to help secure or defend the border. It feels like playing into the hands of the global transformers (many of whom are American liberals) to have untrained and unorganized people showing up, to exacerbate an already chaotic situation. 

I wonder why Tucker Carlson encouraged this – then again, I believe he’s a total fraud. 

All it takes is for one incident of a “patriot” to shoot an illegal immigrant, then Trump shooting off his mouth in support of it, and the global media will be amplifying that non-stop and it could quickly dissipate support for Republicans on the handling of the border issue. It’s almost like Tucker Carlson is manipulating the right (and Trump) into the most self-destructive approach to fighting smart against the asymmetrical attack at the border. Carlson bragged he talked to Trump too. It feels like Carlson is trying to nudge (sabotage) Trump into saying bombastic things and support extreme policies, which could topple his current strong position to win in November.

I know there are many Trump supporters, who also have 100% trust in Tucker Carlson and buy into everything he says, so I expect there will now be pressure for Republican officials to embrace Carlson’s stupid idea. It’s stupid to encourage vigilantism with no plan to organize, train or utilize them in a coherent manner. It just encourages another J-6 chaotic type outcome, where angry people who consume too much right-wing social media, hyperventilating, then heading to TX or as in the J-6 protest, some unbalanced people too. And of course, it would give the feds another opportunity to utilize informants in the most radical right-wing groups and then prod more craziness, like the kidnapping Governor Whitmer plot. 

Bottom-line is there is nothing strategically beneficial to an effort to secure the border with mobs of angry Americans showing up. And even more than that, there is nothing strategically beneficial for Trump to get behind this kind of vigilante effort Carlson is pushing.

I wrote two blog posts on “militias” in early America back in 2022, I can’t believe I’m writing about militias and The second part on militias. I was interested in this topic since 1976, the American Bicentennial, when I found out one of my ancestors was a captain of a local militia in the Northampton territory of northeast PA. Militias were organized by local governments. They operated under the auspices of the territorial authorities. My ancestor was tasked with recruiting 82 men. Many of those militias later were part of the Continental Army, which fought in the American Revolutionary War. 

Unorganized mobs and individuals showing up at the border isn’t a plan – it’s a recipe for more chaos and for Republicans to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in November.

Note: the most successful effort to sway public opinion and change the entire national debate on the border invasion has been Governor Abbott’s effort of transporting illegal immigrants to Democrat-run “sanctuary cities.” 

Currently, over 20 Republican governors are supporting Governor Abbott’s border efforts in TX and I feel more State vs. Federal challenges would be way more effective than a call to arms of untrained and unorganized citizen (vigilante) efforts. Republicans need to win in the court of public opinion, in order to win in November. There is no way a bunch of random armed citizens showing up at the Texas border will help Republicans keep winning in the court of public opinion or win in November.

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January 25, 2024 · 10:40 am

A look back at the George Floyd saga

A couple months ago, talk about George Floyd was flitting across right-wing media and I didn’t watch any of it. Today, I happened to click on a Glenn Loury and John McWhorter video, The Truth About George Floyd’s Death, from December 8, 2023. They referenced a documentary, The Fall of Minneapolis, above. 

I decided to watch this documentary, by Alpha News journalist, Liz Collin. Collin is an Emmy award-winning reporter and news anchor according to the blurb at amazon for her book, They’re Lying: The Media, The Left, and The Death of George Floyd.  I haven’t read her book. She interviewed police officers and other people directly involved and she presented the actual body cam footage of the police officers, which was suppressed by the judge in the police officers’ trials. She went into the activist history of many of the officials involved in the case, like Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison, who has close ties to Louis Farrakhan, defending gang members, championing cop-killers and being very anti-police. Then there’s the initial autopsy report, which showed the drugs and preexisting medical problems George Floyd suffered from, but no physical evidence of asphyxiation or injury to his neck. 

Beyond that, the sequence of events presented by BLM mouthpieces, then repeated non-stop by the liberal media and Democrats, was not accurate, according to Collin, who uses police body cam footage and officials records to back this up. Most disturbingly were the number of officials who said the Maximal Restraint Technique used to restrain George Floyd was not an approved procedure or taught, when clearly the reporter talked to numerous officers, who said they were taught that technique and it was approved. The reporter showed the actual police training manuals. 

If even some of Collin’s information is correct, it’s clear we were massively manipulated and lied to by the media bombardment hyping a BLM manufactured narrative of “I can’t breathe,” and hyping how many minutes Floyd was restrained and insisting he was murdered by the police. Those officers are in prison. We never heard about the fact that a police officer called for EMS support 36 seconds after Floyd was on the ground.

Collin’s documentary goes further in showing the aftermath and how officials tied the hands of police officers in Minneapolis and allowed rioters to torch the 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis. She presents interviews with several of the police officers who were in that precinct during this rioting.

Does any of this matter? What if the entire narrative BLM, the media and politicians told us was lies? Should we care? There are four former police officers in prison and Derek Chauvin, the officer who restrained Floyd, received a 22 year sentence. He was stabbed 22 times by a former gang leader in prison, in December 2023. 

While it would be easier to just ignore this and move on, the truth is these false partisan narratives amplified by media do matter. Since the fall-out from “defund the police” has been an unmitigated disaster, Democrats and their media friends continually downplay crime statistics and many Democrats now claim they never supported defunding the police and that they fully support the police. These leftist culture war false narratives matter, just as right-wing false narratives matter too. The power to dominate most of the media coverage in America, still resides with the liberal media (what used to be called “mainstream”). These false narratives fuel deeper divides, distrust and lead to serious public corruption. 

The liberal media will regale you with how crazy the right-wing echochamber is and the right-wing echochamber will yammer on about the left-wing crazy, but what happened during the George Floyd protests and riots goes much further than just concerns about partisan lies told in the media – deliberate lies (BLM narratives) were used to incite nationwide protests, which led to the most destructive rioting in US history, the lying led to the conviction of four police officers. And the BLM narrative about how we needed to “defund the police,” because the police are unfairly targeting back people, seriously eroded our entire culture and led to a rise in attacks on police officers, a rise in crime, and a loss of public trust in law enforcement.

If you challenge anything related to the BLM narratives, you’re going to be labeled a racist. The liberal news media, who willingly amplify so many of these false narratives, then have a vested interest in propping up the lies. Admitting they’re just political hacks for hire and not ethical journalists dedicated to the truth would be a hard pill for them to swallow. If they admit they didn’t investigate and just repeated the BLM narratives without question, well, that would destroy their journalistic reputations.

Perhaps, my skipping a lot of the news, because it’s exhausting, needs some rethinking, because after watching this documentary, I think, once again, the prevailing BLM narrative we were bombarded with in 2020 was deliberately manufactured and filled with lies. I could have known about this documentary two months ago, if I had been paying closer attention to the news, like I used to. I’ll have to consider how I consume news, because what happened in 2020 is still very relevant.

The larger issue, beyond even BLM’s despicable effort to foment racial animus, is we always come back to the Democrat and liberal media spin information war, which is now being developed into a whole new field – cognitive security – to police speech globally. Launching more manufactured narratives will certainly be part of this ramped up cognitive security effort, to combat what liberal elites deem “disinformation and misinformation,” that’s underway.

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Filed under BLM movement, Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Information War