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Wuhan virus -
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to announce mandatory vaccines for active-duty troops today. The move follows a White House order functionally requiring federal employees to get vaccinated or face punishment. While the experimental vaccine was never mandatory for troops, several reports of coercion, discrimination, and manipulation came out over the summer. An estimated 70% of active-duty forces are vaccinated already, often requiring it before overseas duty or training. (FO)
China continues to lock down more of the country.
More of Kalifornia resumes mask mandates.
See Globalism / Great Reset below for more wuhan related.
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Globalism / Great Reset -
The WaPo reports that the Biden administration is considering using federal regulatory powers and the threat of withholding federal funds from institutions to push more Americans to get vaccinated — a huge potential shift in the fight against the virus and a far more muscular approach to getting shots into arms, according to four people familiar with the deliberations. The effort could apply to institutions as varied as long-term care facilities, cruise ships and universities, potentially impacting millions of Americans, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.
The conversations are in the early phases and no firm decisions have been made, the people said. One outside lawyer in touch with the Biden administration on the issue is recommending that the president use federal powers sparingly.
OBSERVATION - Backdoor govt mandates by using leverage and the private sector to do its dirty work. There have been a lot of leftist discussions on other means to pressure people, even to the extent of denying medical services to the unvaxxed receiving SS, Medicare/Medicaid or VA services.
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Economy -
OBSERVATIONS - I mentioned yesterday that Oroville only had a couple more weeks before being forced to shutdown the power plant. DWR State Water Project operations managers have decided to take the Hyatt Powerplant at Lake Oroville offline due before it reaches that critical level. This is the first time Hyatt Powerplant has gone offline as a result of low lake levels. This increases the probability of brownouts or rolling blackouts later this summer/early fall’s peak electrical demands. Loss of hydropower thought the western US due to drought will force reliance on coal/gas plants, who’s numbers have been diminishing over the years. For California, this will equal skyrocketing electrical bills since PGE and others will have to pay outrageous “carbon” fees for fossil fuels. And that supposes these plants will sell to Kalifornia over other electricity starved customers in the west. Power outages and costs will wreak havoc on Kalifornia’s already wobbly economy. Last week, DWR shut down ALL water withdrawals for farmers from the delta with water rights, first time ever.
Govt announced latest job numbers. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 943,000 in July, better than the 845,000 Dow Jones estimate.
The unemployment rate slid to 5.4%, compared with the 5.7% expectation. Job gains came fastest in leisure and hospitality, followed by education and professional and business services. Average hourly earnings also increased more than expected, rising 0.4% for the month and are up 4% from the same period a year ago, at a time when concerns are increasing about persistent inflationary pressures. (NOTE - laborer shortages have also caused wages to increase, to get people back to work)
The national average is sitting at $3.19 per gallon, which is the highest its been since Oct. 12, 2014, according to GasBuddy head petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan. Earlier this week, GasBuddy reported that the nation’s average gas price rose 1.7 cents per gallon to $3.16 per gallon. Analysts don’t see much more increases in the immediate future as summer travel season wanes and potential “delta” variant encourages maintenance of work at home scenarios.
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Biden watch -
Biden on the eviction moratorium:
“I can’t guarantee you the court won’t rule that we don’t have that authority but at least we’ll have the ability to, if we have to appeal, to keep this going for a month-at least. I hope longer.”
Shortly before Biden signed a bill awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to all law enforcement officers who responded to the Jan. 6 protest at the US Capitol, he pointed to Abigail Evans and beckoned her to join him at the desk in the White House Rose Garden.
After Abigail scampered up to the president, followed by brother Logan, Biden pulled her in for a one-armed embrace. As the girl greeted Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden began signing the legislation with a series of ceremonial pens.
Joe Biden motioned for the children to come to him and aggressively pulled a little girl up against his body and whispered in her ear.
“This is a silly way to do this,” the president told Abigail. “Mommy will explain it to you later.”
The poor little girl was visibly uncomfortable when Biden grabbed her and whispered in her ear.
The mainstream media decided to downplay this “incident” but look at the close-up photo from the girl shows obvious discomfort
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CW2/Domestic violence -
BLM/Antifa violence can be expected at protests in the hot bed areas of Portland Oregon where militants are planning to confront attendees and disrupt a Christian conservative rally and a direct action against a small business owner in Aberdeen, Washington who allegedly “misgendered” a city council member this week.
BLM is trying to organize a number of “Black August” rallies and protests on August 7th in New York, Illinois, Michigan, Rhode Island, Georgia, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C. “Black August” events began in the 1970’s, praising Marxist revolutionary, Black Panther, and convicted murderer George Jackson. Jackson died during an attempted prison escape in 1971 during which he allegedly killed five hostages.
OBSERVATIONS - So far there have been no major law enforcement triggering event(s) to cause the left to mobilize into riot mode. This lull has caused their efforts to morph into support of other social justice / environmental efforts. However, I fully expect that the leftist underground leadership is furthering preparations for large scale violence by improving logistics, intelligence and training of key elements. These social justice / environmental activities are serving as recruiting exercises for future actions.
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POLITICAL FRONT -
Video resurfaced this week of David Chipman — President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — appearing on Chinese state-run television in 2012 to promote gun control efforts, which China may have used to aid its anti-U.S. propaganda efforts.
NOTE - This thug’s nomination is increasingly hitting the toilet as discomfort levels of democrats in states with strong gun rights tendencies are getting squishy. If nominated, it could make things hot for them in the 2022 midterms. They have enough heat coming to bear due to the other dumpster fires they have participated in creating.
FURTHER NOTE - If Chipman gets in after all of this, his virulent anti 2d amendment views/goals combined with the growing willingness of biden to engage in clearly illegal ignoring of the constitution and USSC displayed in the Eviction extension could result in a very volatile situation that could result in violence which could provide a basis for martial law and a more forceful attempt to disarm Americans.
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Cyber Warfare -
Amazon, Microsoft and Google will join the “Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative” established by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The head of DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Jen Easterly said, “This will uniquely bring people together in peacetime, so that we can plan for how we’re going to respond in wartime.” The Collaborative’s goal is to reduce ransomware and cyberattacks on cloud-based systems, which Amazon maintains for the Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency. (FO)
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China -
The WSJ is reporting that the United States is offering a temporary “safe haven” for Hong Kong residents in light of the actions taking place against the people of Hong Kong by the communist Chinese government. It reports that Biden signed an order on Thursday that will allow some Hong Kong residents to stay in the United States instead of going back to Hong Kong for 18 months.
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North Korea -
Extremely heavy rains hit parts of coastal northeastern North Korea from August 1 to 3, 2021, resulting in widespread damage to homes, infrastructure, and agricultural fields. The event follows a crop-damaging heatwave and drought in July that may threaten upcoming harvests, further deepening the country’s food crisis.
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Israel -
Israeli security official says Israel is “preparing additional response options using various means, overt and covert, depending on the developments.” to Hezebollah’s rocket fire today (see Lebanon below)
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Iran -
see Afghanistan below on new Iranian backed militias
US isn’t ruling out a military option to recent attacks on Gulf shipping by Iran. “A coordinated response doesn’t have to be a military response,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday, before adding, “Certainly we’ll do what we need to do to protect our forces and our interests.”
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Lebanon -
Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel this morning in retaliation of Israel’s airstrikes yesterday. Iron dome intercepted 10, 6 landed in open areas of Israel and 3 fell short into Lebanon. Hezbollah said it fired dozens (over statement) of 122mm rockets at Israel and were fired from within a residential area. The rockets landed in the Shebaa Farms and Golan Heights. They were fired from Kafr Shuba in Lebanon. Armed Druze villagers stopped Hezbollah firing more.
Lebanese Army says in a statement it arrested four people involved in the rocket fire and seized the truck with the launcher on the back. These individuals were stopped and detained by Druze villagers in southern Lebanon. Videos show a truck with a launcher capable of 32 rockets at a time surrounded by villagers. Lebanese military then comes in and takes over. The villagers are furious with the Hezebollah fighters and they don’t want Israeli airstrikes crashing down around them. Hezebollah says that when its fighters were “were passing through the Shwaya area in the Hasbaya district, a number of citizens objected to them”. Hezebollah also claims in the statement it doesn’t fire its rockets from populated civilian areas. Iran’s Press TV calls the Druze who intercepted the rocket truck “traitors” and suggests they should be put on trial.
The last time Hezbollah sent rockets over Lebanon’s border with Israel was in September 2019. The last time Israel used its air force to hit Lebanese targets was 2006.
OBSERVATION - Though the Druze are not necessary pro-Israeli, they share aspects of a common persecution by muslims in the region. They have been known historically to align with the team that’s likely to give them more benefits. Their loyalties change over time, and so as of now it seems that Israel is their better bet. One can expect that Israeli intelligence has opened significant contacts with them over the past years and that they will be a valuable source of intel and targeting when Hezebollah / Iran finally attack Israel directly.
Hezbollah openly launching into Israel OTOH is a dangerous escalation of the standoff between the two. Druze do not want a repeat of what happened in Gaza to happen to them and now seem to be becoming ready to take action against them to protect themselves.
Capture of the rocket launching vehicle also reveals Hezebollah attempts to prevent Israel from taking their launch capabilities away from them. US Army calls the tactic “shoot and scoot”. Clear the area before counter fire can hit. At the risk of repeating myself, Druze intervention may endanger that tactic.
ADDITIONAL NOTE - Hezebollah operates largely at the direction of Iran. Iranian exploits in Gulf region has brought it into the gunsights of Israel as well as GB and the US. They may be trying to distract Israel from the recent attacks in the Gulf to prevent the promised retaliation strikes. If so, Iran is grossly under estimating Israeli capabilities to deal with both at once.
Right after Israel was attacked with with missiles (with Hezebollah tacit approval), Biden said that Washington will pledge close to $100 million in additional “humanitarian aid” to Lebanon reports Reuters. It should be noted that Lebanon is currently controlled by Hezbollah organization and like Hamas in Gaza, those funds will be skimmed off to support their war preparations. .
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Syria -
Conflict around Daraa is taking on the same form as around southern Idlib - near constant artillery attacks into civilian areas. It has the effect of forcing civilians to flee into core areas of Daraa, creating a refugee crisis with restricted supplies (due to siege efforts) and overwhelming local medical support.
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Afghanistan -
Things continue to fall apart for the Afghani govt. Sources confirm to the BBC that Nimruz airport has fallen to the Taliban as the militants take their first provincial capital. Many thought this would not happen this early - but it is most definitely happening.
Iranian media reports that Iran is establishing explicitly Iran-backed Shia militias in western Afghanistan. Iran wants to protect the Shia minority (about 20 percent of Afghans) from the expanding reach of the Taliban. In the late 1990s the Taliban went after Afghan Shia in a big way and the victims have not forgotten. The new militias are composed of combat experienced Afghan Shia who served as Iranian mercenaries and survived combat in Syria.
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Misc of Note -
For those in Kalifornia, the Dixie fire has exploded, bypassing Lake Almandor on both the north and south sides. The town of Greenville was destroyed on the south. Communities of Chester, Westwood and the larger town of Susanville are increasingly threatened. Susanville is near the Sierra Army Depot, a major munitions storage base for the US military.
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Wuhan virus -
Fauci already beating the drum about the latest evil version of wuhan - Lambda strain. Lambda is currently thought to be immune to the ‘vaccines’ on the market.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has essentially threatened states with funding loss if they don’t comply with nationally directed wuhan mandates for this school year. He specifically singled out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for banning mask mandates for schools, saying, “Don’t be the reason why schools are interrupted.”
NOTE - According to the ‘science’ - CDC data as of Wednesday, August 4, a total 349 children ages 0-17 have died of COVID since the pandemic began in January 2020, based on death certificates submitted so far to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. In that same time period, CDC counts a total of 606,389 COVID-involved deaths in the United States. So children account for 0.057 percent of all COVID-involved deaths. (CNS)
Riots and other protests against wuhan ‘passports’ continue in Europe and Australia.
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Globalism / Great Reset -
NOTE - A lot more wuhan news showing up here this week. Primarily because IMHO there has been a transition of the effort to force the vaccination narrative into more a direct action / coercion mode. They replacing the carrot with a big stick and using what ever means possible to force the jab on a large percentage of the population. This plays into the Globalist / Great Reset plans of public submission/controls desired for the utopia the WEF envisions.
White House reporters supposedly got an email from the White House Press Office informing them if each reporter failed to prove they were vaccinated by August 8, which is Sunday, their hard pass would be revoked. Allegedly they were given only two days to comply. Some view this as another way of controlling the narrative via the media.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is said to be planning an expansion of his wuhan passport program already running to include other businesses such as delis, bodegas and supermarkets. Many view de Blasio and other similar wuhan ‘passports’ to represent a new system of medical apartheid.
The Federation of State Medical Boards warned July 29 that physicians and other healthcare professionals could be at risk of losing their medical licenses if they spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on social media, online and in the media.
FSMB, a nonprofit that represents all U.S. state medical boards, said any clinicians who create or spread vaccine misinformation or disinformation risk disciplinary action by state medical boards, including suspension or revocation of their medical license, according to a statement emailed to Becker’s Hospital Review.
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Economy -
Average hourly earnings climbed in July for the third consecutive month, rising 4% from the year-ago period and 0.4% over the month, according to the Labor Department’s monthly payroll report. That follows similar gains in April, May and June. However those raises no where near match inflation for the same period. According to the Labor department, in June, consumer prices jumped 0.9% from the previous month and 5.4% over the past year – the biggest increase in 13 years.
Expanded lockdowns in China are starting to send shockwaves through the shipping community. Additional delays up to 14 days, shipping container shortages and overloaded ports contributing to the matter.
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Invasion of Illegals -
Washington Examiner’s Anna Giaritelli tweeted:
“The Biden administration announces 834 migrant children were encountered at the southern border on Wednesday. Each child was alone and without a parent or guardian. “That’s the highest daily number ever.”
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Biden watch -
Biden announcers that there have been approximately 350 million people vaccinated in the United States. The problem, of course, is that there are only around 330 million people living here (unless he wants to include 20 undocumented illegals). BTW he made the statement not once but twice. Worse, he was reading from notes someone prepared for him.
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Israel -
IAF hit Hamas targets in Gaza following more fire bomb balloon attacks on Israel.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz told diplomats from UN Security Council that Tehran will be able to break out to a nuclear weapon within 10 weeks. By this he meant that Iran would have acquired enough weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon.
NOTE - this doesn’t factor in creation of the bomb itself. Many have thought that Iran’s close work with N Korea over the years may have provided the information necessary to shorten the creation of such a device, and in fact may have procured one. N Korea as you would know from what I’ve posted at least, is desperate for money and supplies to keep their own nuclear program progressing. Iran showing the money would be a substantial incentive for Kim to share the technology. However, such technology transfer is still speculation and nothing has popped out into the open source world to confirm it.
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Iran -
Iran has replaced the intelligence/forward operating ship Saviz, seriously damaged by an attack in July, with a nearly identical ship Behshad. The Iranian ship registered as a general cargo vessel, but is strictly military in operations. The Behshad stopped near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a crucial waterway that controls access to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
Analysts are noting that civil unrest is becoming more pervasive throughout Iran, be it from food and water shortages to lack of medical care, etc. With the new hardline president looking to expand tyrannical powers, more violence is almost a given. The centralization of power at the expense of the civilian population is a common feature of many middle eastern countries - Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, many African nations, etc.
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Lebanon -
At least one of the Hezbollah rocket crew arrested by the Lebanese army yesterday has been released already
American Thinker has this good observation regarding Hezebollah and the Druze - “This offers a fascinating window into a situation in Lebanon, and into the thinking of Hezb’allah, and of the Lebanese who are not particularity sympathetic to its cause. Apparently, some of the rockets in Hezb’allah’s salvo were supposed to come from a Druze village. From Hezb’allah’s perspective, that would have had multiple benefits. Politically, Lebanese Druze are opposed to Hezb’allah, so the return Israeli fire would have helped drive the Druze into Hezb’allah’s circle, along with creating political problems inside Israel: the Israeli Druze are fully integrated, including mandatory army service, and an attack on their Lebanese brethren would have shaken Israel’s internal cohesion.”
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Syria -
Heavy artillery shelling of the Daraa and Idlib regions by pro-assad forces.
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Afghanistan -
The U.S. Embassy is urging U.S. citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advise against all travel to Afghanistan. All British nationals in Afghanistan are advised to leave now by commercial means.
USAF B52s and Spectre gunships have been active supporting Afghani military in its defense against the Taliban. The Afghan need all the help they can get now that the Taliban have captured the provincial capitol Sheberghan city in Jawzjan. It is the second provincial capital to fall to the insurgents over the past 24 hours after Zaranj fell yesterday.
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