Category Archives: Politics

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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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics

Some thoughts on protecting our children’s minds and TikTok

The US House of Representatives is preparing to vote this week on legislation to force TikTok ownership to change. TikTok has direct ties to the CCP, China’s communist ruling party. For several years, many technology experts and US lawmakers have made allegations that China is using this platform to feed propaganda to American young people. Reports are this current bill being considered doesn’t ban TikTok in America, but will force TikTok to cut ties to the CCP. Here’s a Time article explaining the proposed bill: What to Know About the Bill That Could Get TikTok Banned in the U.S. 

TikTok has recently waged a massive advertising campaign to convince Americans that TikTok is as American as apple pie and a force for good in the world. I’ve seen TikTok ads of a nun talking about how she can reach people with her Christian message, a ranching couple, who claim TikTok allows them to share their food production stories, and others. These ads are trying to sell TikTok as a positive force in American culture. Of course, there are many prominent right-wing influencers, who rant about TikTok and yet make their living scouring TikTok for the craziest liberal videos, to incite their right-wing followers. They rely on TikTok for their bread and butter, to create right-wing Outrage Theater content.

I don’t use TikTok.

The potential for insidious hostile foreign efforts to poison our kids’ minds certainly alarms many Americans, but will a new law forcing TikTok to be sold, in an effort to sever the CCP’s control, really save our kids’ minds? I don’t have any strong opinion about this legislation, other than I don’t think TikTok or hostile foreign propaganda is the real threat to the minds of American young people. We have chosen to allow our popular culture to become a wasteland. It’s easy to blame evil Marxists, but for all the alarm and outrage, most people, right-wingers included, go with the flow – especially when it comes to social media, entertainment, and tech gadgets.

Over the weekend I listened to an audiobook of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451. The story is set in an America in the future, where people’s lives are consumed by non-stop entertainment and a life filled by technological distractions. This constant noise and distraction have rendered people unable to concentrate and engage in critical thinking or have any meaningful conversations. Personal relationships have devolved to shallow and hollow interactions. People spend their days just reacting to technological and pharmaceutical stimulation.

The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman and his wife Mildred lives her life staring at her “parlor walls,” where they have wall-sized TV screens coving three walls and her big dream is get a parlor wall for the fourth wall. They paid for some adapter that “personalizes” the broadcasts, with the broadcasters calling out to “Mrs. Montag” constantly. Mildred considers the characters on the screens to be her family. When she’s not in her parlor, she stuffs “seashell radios” in her ears that block out the real-world noises.

Without giving away the entire plot, Montag being a fireman no longer means putting out fires, but instead the firemen set fire to books, which are banned, and to the homes of people who break the rules.

Bradbury’s 1953 story envisioned wall-sized TV screens, which exist today and we have air pods to stuff in our ears, but he didn’t envision small cell-phone screens that keep many people and kids trapped for most of their waking hours today. In recent years there have been numerous studies that detail how damaging the social media and online scrolling/clicking behavior is to our attention spans. This article, Your attention span is shrinking, but you can grow it back, reports:

“Gloria Mark, Chancellor’s professor in the Department of Infomatics at University of California, Irvine, wrote a book about the disappearing attention span. Her just-released “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity” says that nearly 20 years ago, people averaged 2.5 minutes of focused attention when they were working online or doing something involving screens, before switching to a different screen. By 2012, that time span had shrunk to 75 seconds. And by 2021, it had compacted to a measly 47 seconds.”

I spend too much time online and have been working to wean myself away from some of the screen time. All that scrolling hasn’t been good for my attention span and most of my online time isn’t productive in any way, shape or form. While many people take pride in their ability to “multi-task” and flit between various tasks online and in real life, all at the same time, I’ve found that my brain needs less distractions for better performance of most tasks. My attention span, after being online years, first with a PC, then also using a cell phone, isn’t what it used to be, where I could read many hours at a time. I’ve been carving out more quiet time now, where there’s no technological distractions.

Millions of kids and young adults only know this online life and fixating on screens. For years, studies have come out highlighting all the negative effects of smart phones on personal communication and social skills and for years other experts counter and point out all the marvelous good electronic devices bring to people’s lives. From personal experience, I do believe screen time can easily become both a huge time waster for me and has decreased my attention span. I also notice that many people hide behind their smart phones rather than make eye contact or speak in public. And I’ve also been in social situations where I felt totally alone, because other people around me were constantly looking at their phones. These behaviors before the digital age would have been considered extremely rude. There’s also something disconcerting to see young people sitting together with none of them speaking to each other, as each one stares at his/her cell phone.

How all of this came to mind listening to Fahrenheit 451 was I kept thinking it probably wasn’t necessary to ban books or burn them, because once the people are hooked on technological stimulation constantly, books become like obsolete junk, that few people even pay attention to. A character like Mildred Montag, who isn’t content with 3 wall-sized TV screens chattering constantly and dreams of a fourth “parlor wall,” isn’t ever going to curl up in a quiet corner with a book – even if books were legal.

The only Bradbury work I recall reading was Dandelion Wine, when I was a kid and sci-fi/dystopian was never one of my favorite genres, but I recommend this novel. It will make you think. Bradbury was a short-story writer, before writing novels, so Fahrenheit 451 is a quick read, being a little over 200 pages. I listened to the audiobook version on Hoopla and it was under 6 hours.

There’s a reason shorter and shorter social media formats, like TikTok, are replacing longer forms – like outdated blogs. People want to scroll by quickly. It’s unlikely they’re going to read a news article that’s several paragraphs long, so them sitting down to read books that are hundreds of pages is unlikely. Sure, there are still many bookworms around, but I’d bet there are fewer among younger people, who only know the digital age. Perhaps, we think in outdated terms about totalitarian control, when often people voluntarily give away their free will, preferring to be swept along with the fads and cool, shiny gadgets advertisers assure will make their lives better, in every way. Too many people rush to adopt all the weird new words, phrases, hashtags that partisans and activists amplify. They also rush to plaster emojis behind their username on social media to express their solidarity with causes most know nothing about.

For all the noise many people make about their “freedoms,” it often seems to me that most people allow themselves to be held captive by bright, shiny tech objects and crave more and more and more of them, especially if everyone they know has them. If one social media platform disappears or changes, assuredly another one, that’s just as bad or worse, will fill the void – and millions upon millions of Americans will rush to download the app. The other uncomfortable truth when it comes to protecting our children online, for many reasons, from being clueless on technology to not seeing any harm, most parents don’t carefully monitor their kids online activity. A new law or banning TikTok can’t fix that.

Note 3/12/2024: Here’s a Pew Research link from November 15, 2023, More Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites , which states about a third of US adults under 30 are now getting their news on TikTok. TikTok usage is growing in the US.

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Biden delivers pitch-perfect State of Our Disunity address

Last night President Biden arrived late to deliver the annual State of the Union address. Once at the podium, the president bypassed the normal protocol of the Speaker of the House introducing the president and just launched into a vitriolic 2024 campaign speech.

He railed against Republicans and yelled for over an hour. There was no effort to speak of national unity.

Biden finally spoke the name of the young woman in GA, who was murdered by an illegal immigrant recently, but he muddled her name, saying “Lincoln” instead of Laken Riley and he blamed Republicans for the border problems. The truth is Biden rescinded all of President Trump’s tougher border policies in 2021 when he took office and that has led to this massive illegal immigration increase in America.

A man yelled out during the SOTU address and was escorted out by security. It was later reported that what he yelled was, “Abby Gate,” and he is a Gold Star father, whose son was killed during Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. President Biden has never spoken to this Gold Star father or spoken his son’s name publicly.

For Biden’s efforts, Democrats and liberals raced on social media and TV news to praise Biden’s “fiery” speech and cheer his vigor.

The president’s hour-plus diatribe was followed by the GOP rebuttal speech delivered by Alabama Senator Katie Britt. Britt used her kitchen as the backdrop for a high-pitched, roller-coaster of female histrionics that seemed overly staged and disingenuous.

Both speeches were just more bad political theater. To complete the evening’s political clown show optics, Rep. Rashida Talib and some her Democrat Squad members came decked out in black and white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene donned a red MAGA hat.

Both speeches were an insult to the American people, talking down to us and worst of all using gimmicky ploys to try to manipulate our emotions.

Biden did make one big foreign policy announcement – a plan for the US military to spearhead building a pier in a Gaza port, to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza civilians. In typical Biden administration fashion – there were no details given, but Democrats roared with applause last night.

Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade on Gaza for over a decade to deter arms supplies and counter Hamas terrorist activities and now Biden is suggesting putting the US military in the midst of this active Israel-Hamas war zone to build a pier. The same architects of the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle are still in the Biden administration and still in charge – no one was relieved or fired. These same people would be heading up this Gazan pier project. It’s an insane idea to stick American troops into some war zone as humanitarian workers.

So, there was the Gold Star father being led away by security, as he reminded us of the Biden Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, and along comes Biden to try to lead America into a “humanitarian” Gazan pier-building project in the middle of a hot war zone. Sure, that makes perfect sense…

It’s been reported that this Gold Star father has been arrested.

A ranting old man was talking about putting US troops into a war zone for a humanitarian pier-building project and he insisted at the same time that there will be “no boots on the ground” and Democrats happily cheered. An angry father whose son died as the result of a Biden foreign policy debacle was led away by security and arrested…

Who the hell is going to protect US troops while they build this pier?

The inmates are running the asylum – that’s the real state of our union.

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Filed under 2024 Election, Politics

A few more blips in the information war

A few news bits, that will likely be quick blips that flit by caught my attention. There are so many bigger stories going on with the presidential politics, wars, and more high-profile issues, but these warrant some attention.

On March 4th, there were reports of three cables under the Red Sea being cut. The cause is unknown at this time. Here’s a bit from the Washington Post, :

“DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Three cables under the Red Sea that provide global internet and telecommunications have been cut as the waterway remains a target of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, officials said Monday. Meanwhile, a Houthi missile attack set a ship ablaze in the Gulf of Aden, but caused no injuries.

What cut the lines remains unclear. There has been concern about the cables being targeted in the Houthi campaign, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis have denied attacking the lines, however.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/04/red-sea-undersea-cables-yemen-houthi-rebels-attacks/2f2c6b8a-da34-11ee-b5e9-ad4573c62315_story.html

US News & World Report ran a piece, 3 Red Sea Data Cables Cut as Houthis Launch More Attacks in the Vital Waterway This article reports:

“It described the cuts as affecting 25% of the traffic flowing through the Red Sea. It described the Red Sea route as crucial for data moving from Asia to Europe and said it had begun rerouting traffic.”

An attack affecting 25% of data moving from Asia to Europe seems like a blip to pay attention to.

There’s been a ransomware attack going on for over a week in the US, crippling many pharmacies and healthcare providers connected with Change Healthcare. Wired reports:

“The ransomware attack targeting medical firm Change Healthcare has been one of the most disruptive in years, crippling pharmacies across the US—including those in hospitals—and leading to serious snags in the delivery of prescription drugs nationwide for 10 days and counting. Now, a dispute within the criminal underground has revealed a new development in that unfolding debacle: One of the partners of the hackers behind the attack points out that those hackers, a group known as AlphV or BlackCat, received a $22 million transaction that looks very much like a large ransom payment.”

https://www.wired.com/story/alphv-change-healthcare-ransomware-payment

Last year the group that my primary care provider belongs to was hit by a ransomware attack, that took down their phone and computer system. I had to physically go into the office to schedule an appointment and when I saw my provider, they couldn’t access records on their computer system. They also couldn’t process payments. Ransomware attacks against hospitals, banks, governments, businesses in the US are increasing. A few years ago, my local water department was hit by a ransomware attack that took a couple months to resolve. During that time online payments could not processed, so customers had to physically show up with cash or a check at the water department or mail in a check.

Yesterday there was a short-lived blip on the domestic ideological culture war front:

This crazy announcement was authentic, but due to social media backlash from the right the VA Secretary overruled this decision. I saw some prominent right-wingers on X applaud the VA Secretary and suggest the person who made that decision be fired. This blip might seem like one random leftist crazy within the VA making this decision, but I am sure this is just part of a vast, orchestrated left-wing culture war effort. The person who penned that public announcement likely won’t be fired and we have no idea how many documents, records, or other information within the US government are quietly being altered, removed, or “edited” to fit the DEI thought police.

Why make a public announcement banishing an iconic image of America’s victory in WWII within all VA facilities?

Back in 2020 during the BLM protests, when the statue-toppling exploded as an acceptable form of public protest, all sorts of politicians, historians, experts rushed to embrace the BLM position that the protest was against US Civil War statues of Confederate generals and therefore noble and heroic, not criminal destruction of public property. Several US military bases were identified for renaming. Many Americans bought into the BLM cause, despite the glaring Marxist ideological undertones swirling. There were scenes of white people participating in white privilege sessions, where they were berated for their “white privilege” and pressured to publicly renounce their “white privilege.” These sessions were eerily similar to Mao’s Chinese cultural revolution and the struggle sessions, that used this exact form of ritualized public humiliation to force conformity to the new rules. Speaking out against anything connected to the BLM protests risked being labeled a racist.

Tell-tale signs were present back in 2020 that the statue-toppling was about more than statues of Confederate generals. By 2022, the historic homes of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, two of America’s most famous founding fathers, have now “gone woke,” A 2022 FOX News opinion piece, Jefferson, Madison’s homes become woke monuments attacking Founding Fathers’ legacies, by Douglas MacKinnon asserted:

Jefferson’s Monticello is being reimagined to “finish the restoration of the landscape of slavery” — there is signage and interactive displays which incessantly link Jefferson to that subject. One of the main tours now at his home is entitled: “Slavery at Monticello.” On the website of the internationally famous home, visitors see: “Thomas Jefferson wrote that ‘all men are created equal,’ and yet enslaved more than 600 people over the course of his life.” 

There have been numerous other blips of efforts to erase American history since 2020, statues other than Confederate generals have been targeted, numerous historical sites are being “reimagined” is a popular leftist term that’s now used to smear founding fathers as evil racists, very similar to how the trans movement mainstreamed the term “gender-affirming care” to normalize puberty blocking drugs and mutilating genitals of children, as the only humane way to deal with gender dysphoria in children.

On February 14, 2024, protestors showed up at the National Archives and dumped a reddish powder on the display of the original US Constitution, while police looked on. The protestors were allowed to give their speech, before police escorted them away. Here’s a bit from an AP report:

““We are determined to foment a rebellion,” one man said, in a video posted on social media. “We all deserve clean air, water, food and a livable climate.”

Police then led the pair away, leaving a trail of powder out the door.

In the immediate aftermath, cleanup crews were reluctant to use any sort of water or liquids in the cleanup, especially since they were still unsure of the exact makeup of the powder.”

https://apnews.com/article/constitution-protest-red-powder-national-archives-evacuation-2a6dcfadbf35a3263887ac2fce1e813e

Here’s a NBC news report on the incident, National Archives closes after climate change protesters dump red powder on U.S. Constitution, which states, “The two men were immediately detained and escorted out by security personnel on site.” Well, I guess here we’ll have to haggle over the meaning of the word “immediately, ” since the NBC report includes a link to this social media video that was posted:

In the social media video the security personnel allowed the protestors to pour reddish powder all over the display and stood by and allowed them to make a prepared speech and it looks to me like the security guards didn’t even try to intervene until about 50 seconds into this video. The one protestor was spreading the red powder across the display case and this is an irreplaceable American historical document, but there was no rush to protect it.

In WWII, there were all sorts of efforts to try to preserve art, historical documents and books from Nazi destruction. Librarians, scholars, and even bookshop owners risked their lives hiding books and documents to preserve them for posterity. The US government embarked on hiring civilians, many librarians, to collect and microfilm documents, publications, and books from overseas, as part intelligence-gathering, but also to preserve this information from destruction. Now, we have security personnel, who just stood there while two extremists poured red powder on a display case of one of our most precious historical documents.

America today is nothing like the generation who won WWII.

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Filed under American History, Culture Wars, General Interest, Information War, Military, Politics

Who’s really a RINO?

The Trump-loyal part of the GOP has been cheering the announcement that Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell is stepping down. A sizable percentage of the Trump-loyal GOP are just like Trump – they weren’t involved in the Republican Party before the 2016 presidential election. I’ve been a pretty loyal Republican since 1980, when President Ronald Reagan was elected and now I consider myself a “none-of-the-above” when it comes to Washington politics.

Many of the Trump-loyalist comments I’ve seen online were trashing McConnell, saying good riddance and there’s a theme of how McConnell wasn’t a true “conservative” and now they’ll hopefully have some real conservative leading the GOP in the Senate.

One of Trump’s biggest weaknesses as president was his total lack of knowledge on the Constitution and how our federal institutions work – including the powers and duties of the President of the United States. Trump does not pay attention to details or study policies and his positions fluctuate constantly, based on what the buzz is in the media. Throughout his four years, he often announced policies or actions, then backpedaled when he was informed he didn’t have the presidential power to do that. He also believed that he could cut deals just like he did in the civilian business world and those invariably failed too or he’d pivot to some other spin battle with another liberal media personality or more often than not – target another “RINO” to attack. Of course, there was always the nebulous Deep State to attack to rally the faithful too. Despite, all that, there were many Trump administration policies that I supported and still do support – especially securing our borders.

Today I heard some Trump-loyalist comments online labelling McConnell as a “RINO,” which is completely absurd. McConnell has a decades-long track record of championing conservative causes and winning. And he was instrumental in there being a conservative majority on the US Supreme Court. The “RINO” smear that Trump-loyalists toss about constantly more accurately fits Trump, who was a NY liberal and Bill Clinton’s golfing buddy, before he decided to enter the 2016 presidential race than it does Mitch McConnell, who was fighting conservative battles back when Trump was cheering on Bill Clinton.

Trump’s doing well in the polls right now and the non-stop Democrat lawfare efforts to neutralize Trump’s 2024 presidential bid have been backfiring in dramatic fashion. Trump could very likely win the election in November. The Biden presidency, in my view, has been a total disaster, but the incendiary combination of Trump’s impulsiveness and the Democrat/liberal media deranged efforts to stop Trump could lead to more destabilization within America.

There’s no soft-landing regardless what happens in November, but when it comes to the Senate, I expect a Trump-loyalist led GOP in the US Senate to be much like the current Trump-loyalist led US House – constant in-fighting and a non-stop GOP circular firing squad – that will accomplish nothing. The Trump-loyalist faction in Washington loves to label and take out Republicans, who are effective at navigating within the US legislative institutions. Unfortunately, for the GOP, those purged knew how to cut deals and actually get legislation passed, while the Trump-loyalist crowd spends most of their time online, preening in front of media cameras, and smearing other Republicans as “RINOs.”

The big picture is America’s two main political parties are deeply fractured, corrupt and driven by radical factions. Both main parties are being hollowed out by extremists – the far-left in the Democratic Party and the Trump-loyalists in the GOP. Both parties no longer seem able to tolerate moderates or centrists, which is a symptom of how deep the partisan divides have grown in America. Within Congress, the only way to get legislation passed or stop legislation is to have seasoned legislators, who understand the intricacies of how the House and Senate function and can build consensus. That usually takes years of experience in Congress. Mitch McConnell was quite successful at that and so far the Trump-approved House Speaker, Mike Johnson, has been even more ineffective than Kevin McCarthy and the House GOP dominated by raging Trump-loyal firebrands has accomplished absolutely nothing.

Any political party led by people who are more committed to internal purges (destroying RINOs) over any sort of political platform that allows for differing viewpoints will become more and more dysfunctional and more radicalized. This bodes poorly for the longevity of the Trumpian GOP, once Trump is gone, and it bodes poorly for the GOP in the House or Senate being able to build consensus and pass legislation in the near term. On the other side, the Democratic Party keeps trying to appease the most extreme factions on the left, so there’s no moderating force to be found there. Both sides seem poised to become more radical and more extreme and that’s terrible for all of America.

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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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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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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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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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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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