Replies

Globalism / Great Reset -

The WEF Davos shin dig kicks off officially today - there will be a lot of stuff (mostly brown and stinky) flowing out as reports over this week.

United States Embassy in Switzerland released the list of the 2023 U.S. delegation attending the World Economic Forum (WEF), which includes 11 current members of Congress.
The 2023 delegation includes the following three senators:
– Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.);
– Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.);
– Senator Joe Manchin (D-W. Va,).
Additionally, the following eight Members of the House of Representatives have been selected to be part of the U.S. delegation:
– Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.);
– Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Penn.);
– Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.);
– Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.);
– Rep. Seth Moutlon (D-Mass.);
– Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.);
– Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.);
– Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif).
While she is not listed as part of the delegation, Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) is slated to speak at an event entitled “America (Un)Bound” during the conference. Other speakers include members of Congress from the U.S. Delegation, as well as Governors Brian Kemp of Georgia and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois.

OBSERVATION - Participation noted.

Japan is building a futuristic 175-acre ‘smart city,’ much to the delight of the World Economic Forum, which recently made a video highlighting the Globalist creation. Artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, futuristic food, and robots will be found in the government-monitored “Woven City,” created by Toyota.

OBSERVATION - This is the Japanese version of the “15 minute” city. While it doesn’t appear to have the same draconian measures for leaving the city as the European versions do, it does advance a Chinese-styled social credit system.

With much of wuhan behind us, the WEF/GGR tyranny it created is still very present and virulent in places. Recently, German authorities want to put a celebrated Jewish composer and Holocaust survivor in a psychiatric institution and force her to take the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.
Inna Zhvanetskaya, 85, a Ukrainian-born Jew who survived the Holocaust and is a resident of Stuttgart in southern Germany, was charged by a German court with admission into a psychiatric institution where she will be forcefully injected with the COVID-19 vaccine twice.

The court order authorizing her forceful transfer to a psychiatric institution and her forced vaccination stated that this is “for her own good.” (Related: Holocaust survivor warns COVID-19 measures similar to Nazi Germany’s subjugation policies.)

Furthermore, the German court has officially appointed a professional guardian for Zhvanetskaya, despite her being of sound mind and this being against her wishes. The court order stated that Zhvanetskaya has been diagnosed with several mental illnesses, including dementia, delusional disorder, narcissistic “grandeur self-image” and egocentrism. The court also claimed that Zhvanetskaya suffers from heart disease and severe obesity.

OBSERVATION – Same calls rained out here in the US to force the jab. Germany is one of the more closely aligned test beds (as I call them) for the WEF model of global governance – everything from a (failed) green energy push, social credit and wuhan compliance. It will eventually come to America.

In a preview of the demands for more taxation being brought before the Davos conference, OXFAM is demanding that food companies should pay windfall taxes to help tackle global inequality.
The organization asserted that food companies — like energy companies — have used climate change, the surging cost of living, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to increase prices for consumers.
Oxfam said the world’s top 1% gained nearly twice as much wealth as the remaining 99% combined. Meanwhile, 1.7 billion workers live in countries where inflation is outpacing wage growth.
The organization also analyzed 95 companies that posted windfall profits and found that most pass on these profits to shareholders while charging consumers higher prices.
Oxfam executive director Gabriela Bucher told the AP, “The number of billionaires is growing, and they’re getting richer, and also very large food and energy companies are making excessive profits,”
“What we’re calling for is windfall taxes, not only on energy companies but also on food companies to end this crisis profiteering,” she added.
At least one country has already implemented a windfall tax similar to what Oxfam has proposed.
For the whole of 2023, Portugal has introduced a 33% tax on food and energy companies that record profits 20% higher than the average of the last four years.
Revenue raised from this windfall tax will go towards welfare programs and to help smaller food retailers.

OBSERVATION – First the Oxfam claim “Oxfam said the world’s top 1% gained nearly twice as much wealth as the remaining 99% combined.” Well, I guess they are in the right place where these 1%rs are meeting to plan their Orwellian take over of the world eh?

This is but an outgrowth of the whole GGR/WEF redistribution of wealth play and displays a total ignorance of the whole of the economics necessary to get food on the table.

Invasion of Illegals –

The mayor of New York traveled to the Mexican border city of El Paso on Sunday and declared that “there is no room in New York” for busloads of migrants being sent to America’s most populous city.

OBSERVATION – The hypocrisy is over whelming here. El Paso is a fraction of the size of NYC, yet is having to deal with orders of magnitude more illegals that ‘sanctuary city’ NYC.

Biden / Harris watch –

On Sunday, Joe Biden gave a speech at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr where he repeated false claims about his supposed involvement in the civil rights movement and protesting apartheid in South Africa.
“I’ve two political heroes. My entire life. When I started off as a 22-year-old on the east side of the civil rights movement,” Biden said. “I got elected to the United States Senate when I was 29 and wasn’t old enough to take office.”

In 2020, Biden repeated a story for weeks that he was arrested in South Africa while trying to meet with Nelson Mandela. He later admitted the story was not true.

This all on top of more and more classified documents being found lying around Biden offices and residences.

CW2/Domestic violence –

As our Marxist swamp govt continues to try to disarm the country in advance of attempting to complete the subjugation of the nation – the Second Amendment has become a major front. A federal appeals court on Friday struck down a ban on bump stocks, while the ATF just published its new rules that outlaws arm supports for AR base pistols. Due to be hit in court soon as it is fraught with illegalities.

IN RELATED - At least 80 county sheriffs and prosecutors have vowed not to enforce the new Illinois gun control law that bans 170 kinds of semi-automatic rifles and places limits on ammunition magazines.

OBSERVATION – Sheriffs are understood to be the highest duly elected law authority and their stance against Pritzker is going to get hot. Pritzker threatened them with removal and told them to ‘uphold the law’ whereas he forgot their oath was to uphold the constitution first. The Illinois gun ban will be facing a hard time given recent USSC decisions and expect the lawsuits to follow as well. This could be the first hard case of sheriffs vs swamp we’ve seen yet.

Antifa has stepped up its support of the radical Trans movement and so called ‘family friendly’ drag shows. Most recently Antifa showed up in bloc and bearing AR-15s to protect one such ‘show’ in Texas.

OBSERVATION - We on the right must take these hard core elements of Antifa very seriously if things go sideways. They’ve invested a lot of selective recruitment, training and equipping for these components and I have no doubt that they have the potential to be extremely dangerous tactically - not like the dumb **** who’ve showed up at times in the past.

CANCEL CULTURE FRONT

Strategic Activity / Deployments –

Despite the Department of Defense rescinding the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, unvaccinated military members are still facing repercussions, including denied benefits, ineligibility for promotion, being non-deployable, and potentially diminished employment prospects for those already discharged.

Service members won’t “be separated solely on the basis of their refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccination if they sought an accommodation on religious, administrative, or medical grounds,” according to the memo. Additionally, records of military members will be updated with the removal of “any adverse actions solely associated with denials of” COVID vaccine exemptions, “including letters of reprimand,” and reviews of members seeking exemptions will end.

Military branch commanders may, however, consider a service member’s vaccination status “in making deployment, assignment, and other operational decisions, including when vaccination is required for travel to, or entry into, a foreign nation.”

Air Force Second Lt. Addie Hulet and 10 other officers who refused to get the vaccine have been in an ongoing legal and financial battle with the government. The NDAA “does not prevent the Department of Defense or anyone else from putting on mandates on service members, once again,” she told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show on Monday.

OBSERVATION – As the failed and deadly history of the jab has demonstrated, there is no readiness argument for the DoD to rely upon as even the Sec Def has gotten it after four jabs. This is nothing more than the continued effort to purge the services of otherwise very well motivated military and damage the morale and readiness of the services. Woke syncopaths in the General officer corps and defense bureaucracy have totally lost all credibility in my eyes and it is reflected in the significant missing of recruitment goals. Those remaining in the service who will benefit from this reversal of DoD policy will still face the historical record of adverse performance reports that cannot be reversed like the discharges.

China –

WAR WATCH – I am still monitoring for indicators that indicated that China may initiate a more coercive plan to force Taiwan into submission with a potential start of a potential blockade of the island during the Chinese New Years timeframe. Chinese New Year celebrations begin 22 January, after which they would have 60 days until a break in seasonally rough weather conditions in the Taiwan Strait.

Quickly approaching the Chinese New Year and nothing significant to note either way on the potential for China to attempt an initial move on Taiwan.

Russia -
WAR WATCH - Russia’s “three days to conquer Ukraine” war continues since fighting starting on Feb 24th.

CURRENT ASSESSMENT
Russia is currently working to (re)assemble a military force capable of resuming the offensive in the Donbas while at the same time trying to make defensive preparations for an expected Ukrainian offensive as well. Suspected goal for the start of offensive operations is latter half of January at the earliest.

At present, it is capable of very local offensive actions as in the ongoing fighting around Bakhmut and Donetsk.

Russia is also capable of launching more cruise/ballistic missile attacks directed against Ukrainian infrastructure -primarily its power grid, but massively reduced inventories of such missiles means these barrages will be further apart.

While Russia has nuclear capability, the probability is low that any will be used in the near future.

********

RUMINT-
A former ally of the Russian President talked about the possibility that Putin might retire soon, rather then potentially getting killed in a coup.
A source who was close to Putin once claimed that “the president will nominate his chosen heir already this year, instead of risking his downfall,” the British Daily Mail reported on Friday. This comes after the Russian president’s popularity is reportedly in a freefall because of repeated military failures in the war in Ukraine.
According to his former ally, Putin will want to transfer the power to his chosen successor and retire to his palace near the black sea, rather than risk a coup against him, similar to what happened to Qaddafi and other dictators.
Furthermore, he claimed Putin will seek to give up power, negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine and also not be part of the elections which are planned for 2024.
Putin got flustered by the rise of Yevgeny Prigozhin, one of the owners of the Wagner mercenary group. Since the start of the war, Prigozhin has been fighting for more power and resources, which shows his desire to push Putin to the side.

Ukraine -
WEATHER FORECAST – Rain and snow letting up with increasing number of days that are below freezing and for much of eastern Ukraine, a multi-day episode of sub-freezing temperatures on the way.

RUMINT –

24 HOUR ROUND UP –
No significant changes on the ground. The death count from the Russian missile strike that hit Dnipro city increased to 40, 3 children among them. The missile was reportedly an cold war vintage anti-ship cruise missile carrying 950Kg of explosives.
Some minor advances by Russian forces in Soledar while Ukrainian troops are reportedly in the outskirts of Kreminna

Pretty much the standard Russian artillery strikes along the LOC with additional ground attacks from Donetsk.

OUTLOOK ——
There is a lot of discussion in the various OSINT communities as well as other analysts of just what form or goals the Russian offensive will take. The most likely assumptions are an increased effort to secure the Donbas (and with it Kherson and Donetsk oblasts still under Ukraine control) - that was the war’s stated goals from the start. Other objectives, include Russian just trying to brace for the Ukrainian offensive to the most dangerous course of action – a second attempt to seize Kyiv. These are pretty general at the moment as the Russian tactical situation on the ground is evaluated. None of them look particularly good for Russia and will require a substantially larger and equipped military to accomplish. Much of the recent mobilization’s forces have been squandered in the meat grinder attacks in the east and Russian failed to supply them with even the most basic of equipment. Now if the rumored much larger mobilization occurs, there is very little evidence that the Russian logistics machine will be able to do it any better. Even Wagner Group is reluctantly reporting that many of the recent prisoner conscripts have been killed or wounded in their attacks around Bahkmut.
Logistics has put Russia into a further bind. Even the most recent missile/cruise missile attack on Ukraine last week featured obsolete KH-22 anti-ship cruise missiles and not its more modern Kaliber.

Last couple of months, the talk was Russia kicking off its offensive by the end of January 2023. We have now pushed past the half way mark and there is no evidence of a build up necessary to execute such an attack. In part due to the wasting of forces as noted above as well as the continued relatively warm weather that has not permitted the ground to freeze up sufficiently to permit greater maneuvers. Talk is now focusing on a Spring offensive and given what I’ve seen that is a better bet. However, Russia will lose a window of opportunity with frozen ground and will face the mud once again like their initial attacks in 2022.

Ukraine OTOH is calling for more armor from the west. The earliest these new western tanks would be available in any tactically significant numbers will be in the spring. Ukraine does have the capability to execute offensive operations once the ground freezes as it is better equipped and trained. Most likely the main attack will hit in the northern Luhansk Oblast region (Svatove - Kreminna line) as this would cripple logistical resupply to Russia’s Donbas efforts and permit Ukraine to swing southward behind current Russian defenses.

The Ukrainian threat towards Crimea will continue to freeze Russian forces there, making them unavailable for any defensive actions further east. This threat is more viable than Russia’s threat of a second attack southward towards Kyiv or western Ukraine.

Still a lot of speculation with a lot of wild cards
1) Russia getting their hands on more Iranian drones and ballistic missiles
2) The political infighting and threats to both putin’s health and position.
Indicators for both sides are pretty cloudy and poorly defined at the moment. This always leaves room for sudden developments.

Belarus -

The Belarusian MoD announced the beginning of the joint tactical exercises of aviation units of the Belarusian and Russian Armed Forces included in the aviation component of the regional group of troops. The exercises are expected to be held from January 16 to February 1.

Also, observers have noted many loaded Russian troop trains departing as other arrive. This lends credibility to the observation that the Belarus military is training many of the new conscripts and not building up forces for an attack into Ukraine.

What is concerning are the number of training exercises taking place in the southwestern corner of Belarus – a potential alternative invasion route that could target the western Ukrainian city of Kviv and logistical routes in from Poland. This would also be a very dangerous assault as it could bring Poland and a large chunk of the Baltic countries into the fight.

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Europe / NATO General –

Great deal of discussion of supplying Ukraine with more modern western weapon systems such as tanks, attack helicopters, and infantry fighting vehicles.

Israel –

The Biden administration condemned Israel for giving $39 million in Palestinian Authority tax revenues to the victims of terrorism instead of the terrorists.

“It is morally just and important for the war against terror. There is no greater justice than using the funds for the victims of terror,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said of the move.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price condemned Israel’s actions as a “unilateral response” that will “exacerbate tensions,” and warned that the administration will raise the issue with Israel.

Price did not address whether the P.A. spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to finance terrorist attacks against Israelis through its “Pay-to-Slay” program raises any tensions. The ruling PLO body spending millions to kill Jews is not unilateral, but Israel refusing to finance the murder of its own citizens is a dangerous move that will make peace difficult.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh claims that if Israel doesn’t give it $39 million, that “will promptly lead to its collapse.”

OBSERVATION – Billions have gone to the ‘Palestinians’ with most of it syphoned off by terror groups and corrupt officials. The biden emphasis of keeping the money flow to terrorists works towards its goal of trying to leverage Israel into a two state solution – as THE solution for ending the ongoing strife. US (and other anti-Israel govts) create the problem and then try to impose the ‘solution’.

Meanwhile, ousted former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has called for Israelis to become involved in street battles to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an article published by Yedioth Ahronoth on Wednesday, Barak asserted: “This is an elected government. It is legitimate, but its actions and plans revolve around a coup. This makes it illegitimate.”
He added: “Therefore, it is the duty of every citizen to join the fight for the sake of the country, its security and its safety, as well as for the sake of the values of the Declaration of Independence, for the sake of equality, for the sake of human fraternity, dignity, rights and freedom.”
The article, published only in Hebrew, also stated that the: “Struggle will be resolved through demonstrations in the streets, squares, workplaces and the spaces of high education as millions are slated to take to the streets. This wicked government will collapse.”

OBSERVATION – While recent elections show the nation is split politically, it is questionable if Israeli’s want a civil war to break out.

Central / South America General-

Peru - Peru’s capital Lima was under a state of emergency Sunday, along with three other regions, as the government responded to weeks-long protests against President Dina Boluarte that have seen at least 42 people killed.
The state of emergency, in force for 30 days, authorizes the army to intervene to maintain order and suspends several constitutional rights such as freedom of movement and assembly, according to a decree published in the official gazette.
It covers Lima and the regions of Cusco and Puno, as well as the port of Callao adjacent to the capital.

Supporters of ousted president Pedro Castillo have taken to the streets and blocked roads across the South American country since December, demanding fresh elections and the removal of Boluarte, who has refused to step down.

The mass anti-government demonstrations first broke out in early December, after Castillo was ousted from office for attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree, seeking to prevent an impeachment vote against him.

OBSERVATION – Leftist violence in S. America. Peru is a critical copper supplier (about 10% of global production) and any disruptions would cause serious ripples across the globe.

Increasing instability in S America in general as there is more tension in Brazil as well.

Just realized, over half way into January

Globalism / Great Reset –

Yesterday a rumor went rampant that Schuab, Soros and Gates, along with 50% of the listed attendees to the Davos confab bailed. Schuab later appeared to welcome attendees as well as join them for dinner.

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) said this week that every person should have a limit of three tonnes of C02 emissions per year and those who exceed their limit should be forced to pay for the pleasure.
In comments reported by Taagesschau, Schellnhuber said that there were are two competing property rights issues at hand, namely the right to spend one’s money on high emissions activities and the rights of the rest of the population to “have an environment worth living [in]”.

In a carbon credit style scheme, those who emit over the three-tonne limit by the middle of the century would need to privately purchase credits from those who are under the limit, he suggested: “Every person gets three tons of CO2 per year, but if you need more, you just have to buy it.”

OBSERVATION – The ESG component being developed along with a CBDC has long been noted as a means to control excess carbon used – programmable to prevent things like filling up one’s gas tank, etc.

Economy –

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the U.S. Treasury is expected to hit the debt ceiling on Thursday, 19 January 2023. The Treasury Department is prepared to take extraordinary measures to prevent a debt default, including suspending federal employee retirement fund investments, which could delay a debt default until June.

OBSERVATION – Running it right down to the wire. It doesn’t appear the republicans have a functional proposal to negotiate with biden, so the threat of at least a partial govt shutdown is growing by the minute.

Eggs have gone outrageously expensive and now are disappearing from store shelves. Costco and Walmart across the country are displaying empty shelves. In my corner of the Redoubt, Wally world’s egg shelves are barely half full, reflecting the situation. Most attribute this to the ongoing fight against avian flu that has caused tens of millions of chickens to be culled as the pandemic is in its second winter.

Invasion of Illegals –

A new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom — gives extraordinary policing powers to non-citizens in California. According to the Washington Examiner, SB 960, which takes effect this year, allows non-citizens to become police officers in the state of California.

OBSERVATION – This creates a plethora of legal and constitutional problems. Most of these ‘illegals’ will then apply the ‘law’ as they know it from what ever third world socialist utopia they came from. End result is the expansion of lawlessness.

Biden / Harris watch –

At a MLK memorial biden decided to threaten to carpet bomb right-wingers again. Also threatened to eliminate the 2d Amendment because the US has F-15s.
He had a bunch of other cringeworthy statements as well.

CW2/Domestic violence –

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Reparations), who has just introduced a bill in the House, the “Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023.” The bill is designed to “prevent and prosecute white supremacy inspired hate crime and conspiracy to commit white supremacy inspired hate crime and to amend title 18, United States Code, to expand the scope of hate crimes.” The framers of the bill were thoughtful enough to provide a helpful explanation: “A person engages in a white supremacy inspired hate crime when white supremacy ideology has motivated the planning, development, preparation, or perpetration of actions that constituted a crime or were undertaken in furtherance of activity that, if effectuated, would have constituted a crime.”

If it became law, it could quite easily become the pretext for the persecution of people who expressed views that the ruling party disliked? The dissidents would be claimed to be operating according to the “white supremacy ideology” and prosecuted accordingly.

OBSERVATION – Once again, the left is attempting to criminalize any opposing view point. They failed to it legislatively when they controlled the house, but then dumb as a box of rocks Lee wont let that stop her.

Senate Joint Memorial 2, also known as the Greater Idaho bill, was introduced on the floor of the Oregon legislature by Republican state Senator Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls on Jan. 10.
The bill requests “discussion between Oregon and Idaho governments regarding relocation of Oregon and Idaho border,” according to the bill text.
Voters in 11 eastern Oregon counties have already approved ballot measures indicating their support for joining the State of Idaho.
“Eastern Oregon is culturally, politically, economically much more similar to Idaho than it is to western Oregon,” said Matt McCaw, a Grater Idaho Movement spokesperson. “Our movement is about self-determination and matching people to government that they want and that matches their values. In Oregon, we’ve had this urban-rural divide for a very long time.”

OBSERVATION – The split between red and blue will face a test with this one. I predict that the leftists in the Oregon State Legislature will kill the bill - they will see this secession as a loss of power.

CANCEL CULTURE FRONT

More Twitter file releases, but these have lost a lot of their notoriety the initial ones have. Simply more and more corrupt and illegal actions by the govt and private businesses to get opposing views silenced by any means.

China –

Indicators –
China’s state-backed media reported that the Chinese navy carried out “confrontational drills” in the South China Sea over the weekend. The military exercises, carried out by China’s Shandong carrier strike group, included simulated air strikes and intercepts with J-15 fighter jets as well as attack and defense maneuvers with its guided missile destroyers, cruisers, and submarines. The exercises were aimed at preventing foreign incursions into Chinese waters.

China’s population fell last year for the first time in six decades. The historic downturn signals a much-discussed demographic challenge for the rising global power. The country’s National Bureau of Statistics reported a drop of roughly 850,000 people for a population of 1.41175 billion in 2022, marking the first decline since 1961, the last year of China’s Great Famine. India now becomes the world’s most populous nation at 1.412 billion people.

OBSERVATION - A decline like that is but a drop in the 1.4 billion people bucket. The trend does hold problems for China’s long term as fewer people means that cheap labor will gradually become scarce. But this is down the road aways.

Russia -
WAR WATCH - Russia’s “three days to conquer Ukraine” war continues since fighting starting on Feb 24th.

At present, it is capable of very local offensive actions as in the ongoing fighting around Bakhmut and Donetsk.

While Russia has nuclear capability, the probability is low that any will be used in the near future.

********

RUMINT-
Russian media say that Putin will make an important announcement tomorrow about the war. This has triggered a lot of rumors and discussions surrounding putin’s speech tomorrow regarding the ‘special operation’ in Ukraine. Coming off of pro-russian telegram channels that have been relatively accurate over the past year regarding the Ukraine war comes the indicators that putin is going to announce the end of the special operation. Other recognize that with all the propaganda to date – especially the anticipation of another major mobilization for what now appears to be a spring offensive – that putin will officially declare war against Ukraine and that he will order a national mobilization.
So in light of the special speech tomorrow and the leadership shuffle. Declaration of war and full mobilization may be on the agenda in a major way.

OBSERVATION - Ukraine has turned into a quagmire for putin. It too a lot of Russia’s remaining resources to capture the small town (had only a 10,000 population before the war) after over 5 month and some estimate at tens of thousands of casualities. His health and perhaps increasing concerns around his ability to remain in power may generate a desperate move. Already rumored that Putin has given General Gerasimov until early March to capture the Donbas Region, there is growing pressure that something has to break for Russia and soon.

RUMINT –
Ukrainian Intelligence is reporting that Russian President Putin has given General Gerasimov until early March to capture the Donbas Region of Eastern Ukraine.

24 HOUR ROUND UP –
Pretty clear now that Russian forces have secured the town of Soldar, north of Bahkmut and are trying to push further to the west. Russian now appears to be focusing attacking Ukrainian forces in the town of Klishchiivka, just southwest of Bakhmut,in what appears to be an attempt to encircle Bakhmut.
More Russian attacks along the LOC from Kreminna to the Donetsk region, with associated artillery.

In Kreminna, Ukraine forces have gained a foot hold on the outskirts and it is noted that Russia has been bringing artillery fire into the main portion of the town.

Other than this, no significant tactical changes on the battlefield.

OUTLOOK ——
With the fight for Soledar wrapping up, I expect the focus to shift to Bakhmut. Initial analysis of the Soledar fight indicates that Russia reclaimed a tactic it used successfully early last summer, that being Russian armored units advancing behind large artillery and rocket barrages before dismounting and fighting house-to-house. Though heavily depleted, Russia still has the capability to mass planned fire on a relatively small front.
Looming on the radar – noted under Russia – RUMINT and Ukraine RUMINT above is the actions Russia may take to swing the war in their favor. Key indictors I’ll be looking for –
1. Does putin officially declare war, ending the ‘special operation’
2. What level of new mobilization is he willing to institute to get the man power necessary to press a new offensive.
3. Is putin looking to reduce the scope of any operation to just the Donbas or is he still looking for total conquest of Ukraine (his current operational goal)
4. Putin’s health status changes
5. What sources will Russia try to mobilize to equip this new mobilization.
Tomorrow will be the start of a set of new clues that will eventually display themselves in a slew of new operational movements.

Belarus -

The trial in absentia of Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya opened in Minsk on Tuesday, state news agency Belta said.
According to Belta, Tsikhanouskaya faces charges including high treason, “conspiracy to seize power” and creating and leading an extremist organization.
Tsikhanouskaya ran for president in 2020. Although the electoral commission in Minsk announced the victory of longstanding strongman Alexander Lukashenko, Tsikhanouskaya and her supporters allege that the results were fraudulent.
Following the election, she fled to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius and became the head of the opposition in exile.
On Monday, Tsikhanouskaya told the Reuters news agency, “In Belarus there are no honest trials. We live in absolute lawlessness in our country so tomorrow’s trial will be a farce and a show but not real justice.”

OBSERVATION - This is why Belarus military has been strongly opposing getting involved in a deep way with the war against Ukraine. Lukashenko knows this well – that it could instigate a coup if he orders them into battle.

SERBIA / KOSOVO -

Serbia calls on Russia to stop recruiting its citizens as mercenaries for war in Ukraine. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic criticized Russian websites and social media groups that publish recruitment ads by Russian state-backed mercenary company Wagner Group, a private army of tens of thousands which has played a prominent role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

OBSERVATION – Hmmmmm, Serbia has been a very vocal supporter of Russia in the Ukraine war. This makes me pause to think if this is a foreshock of what putin may be thinking to announce tomorrow.

Israel –

There were massive protests yesterday in Jerusalem by Netanyahu’s opponents calling for a stop to judicial reforms.

The Biden administration, which has worked hand-in-glove on a wide range of funding projects for Palestinians in the Middle East, now says it is adamantly opposed to allowing Jews to pray on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Muslims have that right as of now. Jews do not.
A Biden State Department official insisted it would be “unacceptable” for Jews to be allowed to pray there. It’s because, the Biden official said, that would change the “historic status quo” that only allows Muslims to pray there.

OBSERVATION - Biden is once again showing himself and regime to be less of a friend and more of an enemy of Israel. This portends bad things coming our way in a Biblical sense.

Iran –

At the WEF in Davos, European Commission President Vonderleyen said on Tuesday she backed listing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization to respond to the “trampling” of fundamental human rights” in the country.

Black Swans -

Weather service computer models suggest that the massively frigid arctic air mass over Siberia (with -80 deg F) will migrate to the east and give the US another slam in the icebox as early as the end of January. Historically, those Siberian airmasses have migrated eastward, the biggest question is just how strong will the air mass be in the face of the extended atmospheric river that has been hosing western US over the past several weeks.