Hopefully the St Pat’s day hangovers aren’t too bad . . .
Wuhan virus -
AstraZeneca’s vaccine hasn’t been authorized for use in the U.S. yet and US medical officals are trying to lessen concerns that may be unsafe following the decision by several European countries to suspend AstraZeneca’s shot after reports of blood clots. They are trying to say that the benefits of the so called vaccine outweigh potential consequences.
Meanwhile, new cases and related death continue to drop to levels not seen since last summer in the US.
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Economy -
The Fed has indicated that it will be keeping its rates at the present levels for at least through this year and likely into 2023. Inflation is still reported to be the biggest fear of investors and yesterday’s move by the Fed was designed to reduce that fear.
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Invasion of Illegals -
biden administration has placed further gags on Customs and Border Patrol officials speaking to the media in regards to the catastrophe of illegals at our border.
States are now suing the biden administration for stopping the construction of the border fence, based on that congressional funds were allocated for it and it is illegal for the president NOT to spend those funds.
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Biden watch -
biden put his foot into it calling Putin a murder and is going to get it. That rhetoric was the reason for Russia to pull its ambassador to the US for ‘consultations’ yesterday.
OMG - dementia joe trying to start a war with Russia?
Big from yesterday was a video of biden “answering” a reporter’s questions outside the WH. Video shows three microphones in the bottom of the frame and during the short clip, biden’s hand passes THROUGH and in front of the apparent basketball sized mic (in relation the hand). This clip was on the CSPAN feed, so not an outside entity altering the video. The CSPAN clip i saw had a title bar/block positioned to partially cover the are, but was still very visible. Raises all kinds of questions of the validity of the clip as well as other videos. As still and video clips of the doctored event can be found here (among other places)
OPINION - Video/photo altering like this is beyond weird and why is it necessary?
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CW2/Domestic violence -
Accused murderer from yesterday’s shooting spree in Atlanta believed to have had ‘sexual issues’ and not racist. We’ll see, however, police forces in cities across the country increased patrols of asian neighborhoods. The Left is trying to blame Trump’s use of the “china flu” term as the reason for this potential racist violence, but again, most assailants have been black/hispanic. Police say investigation is “far from over”.
In response, several marches broke out against Asian hate crimes. Again, the narrative is to try to pin it on white Trump supporters. By and large, these crimes have been committed by blacks/hispanics. In the Atlanta case, it is a white guy, non Trump supporter with a serious mental problem. California’s Asian and Pacific Islander representatives have even urged CA Gov Newsom to appoint an Asian American as attorney general.
Left continues to illegally use uniformed military as props, and gets away with it. Latest incident, Guam Rep. Michael F.Q. San Nicolas and members of the Guam National Guard visited the office of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in a action to intimidate her.
OBSERVATION - the politicization of the military was strongly warned against and is a violation of DoD directives. The NG troops should be reprimanded and sent back to Guam . The perfumed princes in their senior leadership won’t do this. Watching this, but it seems that a lot of the politicalization of the military is designed to degrade public confidence in our military.
CRT being used to divide the nation - see Cancel Culture Front below.
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CANCEL CULTURE FRONT -
A group of current and former teachers, activist organizations, and public officials in Loudon County, Virginia, compiled a list of parents suspected of disagreeing with a curriculum based on critical race theory. Luke Rosiak, the investigative journalist for the Daily Wire, reported.
OBSERVATION - The battle over Critical Race Theory (CRT) is going to be one of the major pushes during biden. In Florida, the governor had banned CRT from all schools. CRT is also pushed onto the military and other aspects of government and private sector. Creation of “lists” and doxxing has increasingly become the tool of choice by leftists to selectively target opponents on many issues.
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POLITICAL FRONT -
The Washington Post reports that “momentum is stalling amid congressional efforts to swiftly investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.” Many of the arguments and accusations by the left surrounding Jan 6th have evaporated and the continued optics of a fenced in capitol complex is going against them. Part of this may be a recent WaPo article where they and Vanity Fair (hardly pro conservative news outlets) show that on January 5th President Trump, acting Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller, and his chief of staff, Kash Patel told the Pentagon that they are going to need 10,000 troops in DC. The pentagon rejected the request due to ‘optics’.
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Strategic Developments /Deployments -
Deployment of key Naval assets - the Eisenhower CGG is operating in the Mediterranean, the Makin Island ARG is operating in the Western Persia Gulf and Teddy Rosevelt CSG operating off the NW coast of Australia.
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China -
The U.S. sanctioned 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials “whose actions have reduced Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy” Tuesday amid Beijing’s latest crackdown on the city’s political freedoms. Sanctioned officials include Standing Committee members of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber stamp legislature, and high-ranking members of the Hong Kong police force’s national security division, the State Department announced in a press release Tuesday.
OPINION - China knows these sanctions are the preverbal paper tiger. They will have little weight against China.
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North Korea -
New missile tests expected as NK gives biden a frigid shoulder. Among these are new SLBM and ICBM that were paraded in recent months. Other tests could include another nuclear test, given evidence of the restart of NK’s small nuclear plant that produces plutonium used for its current nuclear arsenal. Choe Son Hui, the first foreign minister, said ”What has been heard from the U.S. since the emergence of the new regime is only a lunatic theory of ‘threat from North Korea’ and groundless rhetoric about ‘complete denuclearization,’” calling the offer for talks a “time-delaying trick.” He reiterated North Korea’s position that no “dialogue of any kind” can be possible unless the U.S. rolls back its hostility. “Therefore, we will disregard such an attempt of the U.S. in the future, too,” Choe said.
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Russia -
See biden watch for his comments. Putin to Biden after ‘killer’ comment: “I wish him good health”. Russia summoned its envoy to the United States to “analyze future ties with Washington” after Biden says that Putin is a “killer”
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Israel -
Pending elections in the west bank, opponents Hamas and Fatah have reportedly agree to criminalize and prohibit the use of weapons during electoral activities, refrain from inciting violence against either candidates or voters, and outlaw using places of worship for campaigning.
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Iran -
Leaders have implemented a campaign to prepare Iranians for a major conflict. On Tuesday, Gen Amir Hatai stated ”We should be prepared to defend our nation against all threats and whatever the enemy may one day use as an offensive tool, including chemical, nuclear and biological weapons,” according to Iran’s Fars News Agency. Coincidentally, Hatami made his comments on the 33rd anniversary of a chemical weapons attack by Saddam Hussein on Iraqi Kurds in Halabja, Iraq. During the Iran-Iraq war that raged from 1980 to 1988, Hussein frequently used chemical weapons against Iran. OBSERVATION - Such ‘preparation’ of the people indicates that Iran is expecting some kind of a strategic strike. The people will be on their own thought. Use of chemical weapons is doubtful, but the use of tactical nuclear weapons by either the US or Israel has high potential - particularly against hardened, underground facilities.
Open source IMINT indicates Iranian Khorgo underground ballistic missile site is almost operational after new launching positions were constructed, reports Fox News. Construction on the ballistic missile site, located in southwestern Iran, started three years ago, though only in recent months did the Iranians ramp up work on the launching positions that can rapidly deploy two ballistic missiles each.
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Syria -
Activity in N Syria region around Aleppo and northern Ain Issa countryside (the ‘buffer zone created by Turkey last year) between Syrian separatists and Turkish backed forces.
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Black Swans -
There are currently 14 confirmed cases of Ebola in the African country of Guinea. Uncertain if this will develop into another epidemic.
Here’s another odd vid for the Biden watch:
Watch what happens to his head...
Wuhan virus -
Spring break is in full swing - so to the accompanying hand wringing of a super spreader event.
Fauci is already fear pandering of a new spike in infections/deaths. In a recent interview, he stated that the US runs roughly a month behind trends in Europe, which is facing another round of shutdowns. So much for all those vaccinations. . . .
French Prime Minister Jean Castex imposed a four-week lockdown on Paris as the country’s capital struggles with a faltering vaccine rollout and the spread of a highly contagious virus variant, Reuters reported. The lockdown will start Friday at midnight.
biden is looking at easing travel restrictions to / from Canada and Mexico in the middle of May. Ignores the unrestricted “travel’ of illegals.
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Globalism / Great Reset -
Bitcoin’s success is driving banks/nations to reevaluate digital currency and develop their own. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have yet to be launched on a large scale, but advocates envision a government-controlled cryptocurrency that replaces national currencies. CBDCs will use digital tokens on a computer network to represent a national currency. They’ll rely on blockchain, the same technology behind Bitcoin, Etherium, and other popular cryptocurrencies. These will evenuqtlly replace the dollar as the reserve currency. CBDCs are far different from Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is decentralized. No single authority controls it. In contrast, central banks will operate, regulate, and control CBDCs. Before CBDCs can become the standard, paper currency first needs to be eliminated. We’re moving toward that goal now. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend toward cashless payments. But even if people don’t voluntarily chose cashless payments, paper currency will disappear anyway. This will eventually result in a closed, government-controlled economic system where everyone is dependent on central bank digital currency to participate in society. The beta testing is being done with China’s social credit system even now.
This gives government the ability to control your behavior, down to the most minute details of daily life. If the government decides they don’t like you, they can cut off access to your account and freeze you out of the economic system.
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Economy -
I’ve noted the impending baconpocalypse. There is are shortages of piglets being reported, with those available running at as much as 10X what they normally run. Get your pork now because this will cause prices and availability to go way up in the coming months.
Further food concerns rising due to drought conditions in the greater western US. Snow levels are about 60% in Kalifornia and not much better here in the American Redoubt. The past couple years, weather has negatively impacted US crops, though there was a depth of a reserve aspect that mitigated some of the impact to consumers. Then wuhan which total threw a monkey wrench into agriculture. Poor crops and hight global demand (the rest of the world has had severe climate problems - see earlier posts) could lead to serious price increases.
RECOMMENDATION - stock up now.
New weekly jobless claims rose to 770,000 for the week that ended March 13, the Department of Labor said Thursday.
Economists surveyed by Econoday had forecast a decline to 700,000. The prior week was initially reported at 712,000 but was revised up to 725,000.
According to Forbes, biden is cancelling $1 billion of student loans.
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Invasion of Illegals -
biden is catching a lot more heat from progressive sources like NPR which negatively reports the situation at the border as a disaster. When your MSM mouth pieces won’t hold to the narrative, your are in serious trouble.
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Biden watch -
Yesterday, biden “misspoke” again during a speech announcing that his administration had reached its goal of 100 million vaccinations, referring to his vice president as “President Harris.”
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CW2/Domestic violence -
The left is still trying to include attacks against Asians as its latest front against Trump and the right. Yesterday, biden ordered the flags to half mast for the asian (and white women) killed by a sex pervert. In another publicized attack, Xiao Zhen Xie, 76, beat the living daylights out of her attacker. Little on the attacker other than it is apparent he is white (other attacks in the area have been by black/hispanics).
IMHO - Xie’s attacker was probably a druggie/homeless - a group that has skyrocketed in recent years. To other minorities, Asians are seen as privileged in that education and success are prized. Kalifornia for years have discriminated against them in college applications favoring other minorities even though they didn’t score as high.
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China -
Chinese officials are meeting with US officials in Alaska in the first high level talks of the administration. They got off to a very rocky start with both sides exchanging sharp comments towards the other. Chinese officials accused the US of inciting countries “to attack China”, while the US said China had “arrived intent on grandstanding”. When confronted about the treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, China replied that human rights in the US were at a low point, with black Americans being “slaughtered”.
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North Korea -
After biden threatened Putin, his administration has threatened NK. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday that U.S. forces are ready to fight - ““Our force remains ready to fight tonight and we continue to make progress toward the eventual transition of wartime operational control to a [Republic of Korea]-commanded future combined forces command,”
OBSERVATION - Between Russia, China and now NK, the biden administration is trying to pick a fight with just about anyone it can. The the use of fighting words are not constructive.
Some analysts looking at NK’s recent comments directed at the US are the attempt to gain concessions from the US or at least place it in a more favorable bargaining position. Many expect NK to resume provocative weapons testing if the US doesn’t respond in the way they desire - going back to their previous form of attention getting.
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Russia -
After yesterday’s tit for tat, Putin has challenged biden to a live dialogue to be streamed globally. WH showed no interest in taking up the offer. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev indicate biden’s outburst was due to age and “state of health”.
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Iran -
Various sources indicate that Iran’s nuclear program hasn’t fully recovered from the July 2 explosion at an above-ground structure at the Natanz facility. Natanz is one of Iran’s key uranium enrichment facilities. Over the years, Iran has spent much time and effort moving the processes underground, but that has limits too. The building that blew up was reportedly the main assembly building for the advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges necessary for the further enrichment of uranium. Sources indicate that though Iran is proceeding with enrichment with these newer centrifuges, the numbers available are substantially less than if the facility wasn’t destroyed last year.
OBSERVATIONS - I reminded myself that even though Iran has renewed ties to the North Korean nuclear program that there are some serious differences and technical issues that separate NK’s plutonium bombs from the uranium bombs that Iran appears to be working towards. First is that plutonium is easier to obtain critical mass from, whereas uranium requires a higher starting ‘bang’ to reach critical mass. The plutonium bomb is an implosion device, where the spherical plutonium core was surrounded by a charge which when exploded produced a strong inward pressure on the core causing it to reach critical mass. Though implosion can be used for uranium, the preferred method is a gun-type, where an explosion like a cannon ball out of a cannon forced elements together to create a critical mass. Uranium bombs can also be constructed to be smaller, making them more usable in rockets where payload limits the size.
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Lebanon -
As i’ve noted in the past, the real ruler of Lebanon is Hezbollah. Late yesterday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech addressing the domestic unrest and protests in the country. He warns against factions pushing towards civil war as a line in the sand they will not tolerate. He directs the political groups to basically get over it and get the government put together. He railed against the protestors saying that they aren’t helping the matter. He also at the moment refuses to use Hezbollah’s “guns” to force the issue, though that still lurks in the background. In conclusion he stated “For now, Hezbollah will work through state apparatus to save Lebanon. But if Lebanon reaches the point of total collapse and real starvation, Hezbollah has options. I won’t discuss these options now, because I don’t want debate over them.”
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Syria -
Considerable amount of fighting between Turkish and a collective of units consisting of the Afrin Liberation forces, Kurdish and anti-assad forces in an area north of Aleppo, northern Syria.
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Afghanistan -
I heard of some reports of US airstrikes on Taliban targets, but I couldn’t get any details.
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