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Wuhan virus -
The White House Office of Management and Budget is reportedly telling federal agencies they can hold off suspending or firing federal workers for not complying with a vaccine mandate until after the holidays. It is uncertain that this period of ‘grace’ is due to recent federal court losses that currently have put a hold on mandates. The federal ‘mandates’ are shredding already, with choice labor unions being exempt while the administration is holding fast to hospital/medical mandates. Most recently, a federal judge on Monday blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on thousands of health care workers in 10 states that had brought the first legal challenge against the requirement.
Study confirms that naturally developed immunity is superior to the jab. A lot of medical-ise but just another crack in the dam of information the branch covidians are trying to maintain on real science.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2108120
In spite of S African doctors saying the Omicron symptoms are mild here in the US the medical community continues to warn that is may be more severe than being reported. One observation that is coming out is that more than 25% of the people testing positive for Omicron were fully vaccinated and a similarly large portion were classified as “reinfections” in people who had already survived COVID and presumably had their own natural antibodies. That suggests that the mutations that are showing up are shifting so dramatically that they can “evade” the immunity developed by both vaccinations and natural immunity.
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Globalism / Great Reset -
Items pertinent to this topic are found in wuhan and economy news sections.
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Economy -
Fed Chair Powell says omicron variant poses risk to economy, complicates inflation.
OBSERVATION - Globalist narrative forming up already - even though the only complication will be due to deliberate actions to keep the economy messed up.
The can was kicked down the road, and now it roaring back. The debt ceiling has to be dealt with by December 15th or the house of cards fall down . Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell don’t appear to even be close to having any sort of deal in the works. IF (and that is a big IF) McConnell holds to his previous statement and doesn’t help the democrats out of the hole, then this year may end with a devastating government shut down.
Stockpiles of arabica coffee beans in warehouses have plunged as much as 10%. I reported that this was going to happen back in the March time frame when weather issues damaged much of the crops in Central and South America.
U.S. Natural gas futures dropped as much as 12% on new weather models that forecast above-average temperatures for the U.S.-Lower 48 through the first half of December. This is good news for consumers already pinched by inflation in other sectors.
OBSERVATION - Here in the Redoubt, we recently had temps in the 60s! Outrageously warm for the end of November. My fire wood stockpile has hardly been touched and I’m taking advantage of getting more stored as intermediate range forecasts indicate a return to more normal temperatures over the December - February time frame.
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Biden watch -
Yesterday, biden tried to mitigate the hysteria about Omicron - say that there is “no need to panic”
NOTE - He caveated it by saying he said he saw no need for a new lockdown “for now... if people are vaccinated and wear their masks”.
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CW2/Domestic violence -
BLM/Antifa elements still have their underwear in a bunch over the Rittenhouse verdict. Andy Ngo report that Antifa accounts in Portland & beyond are terrified over the Rittenhouse acquittal because they’re afraid others will shoot them dead during an attack & have a legal argument for self-defense. They’re urging comrades to get guns immediately so they can kill before being killed.
OBSERVATION - BLM/Antifa did have a number of participants carrying and USING firearms during the 2020 riots as noted in my posts of the period. I suspect that the social media posts are from the ‘cannon fodder’ elements of the leftists. They expect to show up and loot/burn without pushback and have come to a sudden realization that the game has changed. The hard core, and specifically selected BLM/Antifa are ARMED and have been receiving training. Other affiliated groups like New Black Panthers are very open about using fire arms in the future.
Philadelphia reached the figure of 501 homicides for the year on Friday, surpassing the annual homicide record of 500 set back in 1990. This follows the trend of many other blue urban areas that have bowed down to the defund the police movement.
Looters are now looting looters in San Francisco. The mayor’s response is to party with friends.
Good analysis from the folks at Forward Observer - -
“A Portland, Oregon-based revolutionary anarchist website earlier this month published a “street warfare” manual that applies military doctrine to anarchist direct action demonstrations. The manual lists three military objectives that can be applied to street-level fighting with police: neutralization of enemy personnel, area denial, and resource denial.
1 Neutralization of enemy personnel is flipped around as a defensive objective: to keep one’s own side from being arrested, killed, or wounded. The manual dissuades an “active shooting war” because the Far Left lacks the capability. Instead, the manual points out that wounding of law enforcement has been common in Portland, and suggests that this is a minor reason for law enforcement officers leaving the force. The manual points out that this is a strategic victory, and encourages anarchists to find ways to cause disloyalty or loss of morale among the police.
2 Area denial is used as a teaching point for defending anarchist territory from law enforcement incursion. The manual explains that holding territory should not be an anarchist objective, as forcing police into a retreat often leads to military involvement if police cannot retake an area. Typically, police have been able to push back anarchists in Portland, as the anarchists are ‘poorly armed, relatively few in number, and too disorganized’ to hold out against a deliberate police assault. According to the manual, it would then be better to use guerrilla tactics against an occupying force. One popular tactic in Portland has been misdirection, where an anarchist direct action will draw a large police presence in one area, while another contingent of anarchists will attack or loot in another area. As a teaching point, the “Whose streets? Our streets!” chant has been used to gauge a mob’s morale, as a louder response signals the mob is ready to take on police while a less enthusiastic response means the mob is not willing. Attempts to change this chant are discouraged.
3 Resource denial most often means stealing or ruining the supplies of an adversary, e.g., the police. The same principle that applies to armed guerrilla conflict — stealing resources most often means equipping your own guerrilla force — still applies to low-intensity street warfare, according to the manual. In addition to stealing resources, vandalizing and setting fires to buildings forces the police to waste resources — time and money — with virtually no monetary cost to the anarchists. The manual points out that militant anarchist bands are generally poor at operationalizing this third objective. Instead of attacking police by throwing bricks and glass bottles, the manual encourages anarchists to attack more strategic targets, as in one case, while police were distracted elsewhere, anarchists cut through a fence at a police parking lot and disabled police vehicles.
The manual calls for the development of a grand strategy, although the author(s) admits that there is no longer a strategic opening for anarchist revolution following the end of the 2020 Floyd riots. Ultimately, the end goal — abolishment of police — is at least for now a lost cause, according to the manual, because support for police has increased since last year. While the manual calls for continued low-intensity street warfare against police, there are other avenues the militant anarchist movement should pursue, such as ecological terrorism or fighting back against eviction and immigration enforcement.
This manual builds on the anarchist tactical successes of 2020, although the author(s) points out that strategically, little was gained for the anarchist cause. Despite their efforts, last year’s riots did not foment revolution, and we’ve observed a substantial drop-off in Far Left activity since early 2021. The manual implies that the revolutionary anarchist movement is waiting for another “strategic opening” to again foment a revolution, which could come around the 2024 presidential elections.”
OBSERVATION - Good info to keep in mind going forward.
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CYBER/CANCEL CULTURE FRONT -
Jack Dorsey has stepped down as CEO of twitter, only to be replaced by a much ore outspoken opponent of 1st amendment standards Parag Agrawa. In a November 2020 interview: “Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment... focus[ing] less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed.”
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Strategic Activity / Deployments -
Biden is sending 1,000 Virginia and Kentucky National Guard troops to the horn of Africa, the services announced on Saturday. Units are deploying as part of “Task Force Red Dragon.” “to provide a security force in support of Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa.”
The Pentagon completed its Global Posture Review with minor changes in troop disbursement. While the report itself is classified, the Pentagon released a few key details such as lifting the 25,000 “boots on ground” limits in Germany, and improving military construction and infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific region. The review recommends continuing multilateral Pacific exercises to improve partner nation interoperability, without explicitly naming China as the reason.
NOTE - It generally takes several years to fully implement recommendations made by the review.
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China -
A senior Space Force official today made it clear that Beijing’s weapons test earlier this year involved a fractional orbital bombardment system (FOBS) that deployed a hypersonic glide vehicle”
OBSERVATION - Is this was based on a reported ‘object’ that separated from the hypersonic glide vehicle. Not sure.
A US Navy P8A recently shadowed a Chinese missile sub that was passing thru the Tiawan straits.
China does not plan to invite Western politicians who threaten a diplomatic boycott to the Beijing Winter Olympics, Chinese state media said on Monday, after President Joe Biden and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said their countries might limit an official presence at the Games.
OBSERVATION - This action will only fuel the boycott fire.
China’s decision to deploy a Y-20 aerial refueling aircraft alongside 18 fighter jets and five H-6 bombers during a weekend incursion into Taiwan’s air defense buffer zone is another effort to “normalize aggression” against the self-ruled island nation, China experts say. Beijing launched its latest incursion against Taipei on Sunday, sending 27 Chinese aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone — near the southern part of the island and out into the Pacific Ocean — before heading back to mainland China. The incursion spurred Taiwan’s air force to respond by deploying missile systems to track the planes.
In related, this 27 aircraft sortie was just part of about 150 aircraft over a period of four days, The Associated Press tallied by the close of Sunday.
OBSERVATION - I reported this incursion but didn’t note the presence of the Y-20 air refueled. These aircraft permit the attack jest to depart fully loaded with munitions and extend range and operational range.
Chinese officials are threatening economic and financial reprisals over a U.S. bill that would enable better U.S. competition with China. The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act has bipartisan support in the House and Senate, and would fund technology programs to reduce dependency on China and implement some “buy American” provisions. Although Chinese threats weren’t specific, they would likely focus on deliberate disruption to U.S. supply chains, especially critical components such as replacement parts, and increased tariffs, making items more expensive for U.S. consumers.
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Russia -
Putin: if strike systems appear in Ukraine with an approach to Moscow in a few minutes, Russia will be forced to create the same threats in response. Russia could respond to the possible appearance of strike systems threatening Moscow in Ukraine at this moment.
Russian FM Lavrov accused NATO of deploying a significant amount of military hardware near Russia’s borders and warns that it could respond to “security threats” from Western countries and Ukraine if necessary
OBSERVATION - Russia reiterating one of their red lines. Any movement of missile systems into Poland or Ukraine would trigger Russian action - even as far as war. Currently, the biggest stroke is focused on Ukraine and Russia will not tolerate NATO protection of the country because Russia wants to make it into another form of Belarus - a puppet govt and buffer against the west.
The United States is preparing to expel over two dozen more Russian diplomats by January, as part of ongoing tit-for-tat punitive efforts which previously saw the Russian government forbid its citizens from serving as local staff for the US Embassy in Russia, greatly reducing its ability to process visas and other actions in a timely manner. The Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov revealed over the weekend in an interview that “our diplomats are being expelled”.
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Ukraine -
See Russia above
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who is at the Nato meeting in Latvia today, warns that any incursion into Ukraine by Russia would be a “strategic mistake”
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Europe General -
The United Kingdom is increasing permanent troop presence in Germany with the intention to have a fighting force closer to eastern Europe if war with Russia ensues. The force will include hundreds of military vehicles including tanks and drones.
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Israel -
Israel has shared intelligence with the US and European allies suggesting Iran is taking technical steps to prepare to enrich weapons-grade uranium.
OBSERVATION - This is an Israeli “red line”. I suspect that they will assess US/European reactions in order to determine if they are going to have to go it alone or not.
Israeli leadership is expressing more concerns about Iranian drone capabilities. Part of this more open expression is the result of Iran’s attempt to transfer weapons and explosive materials (TNT) to Palestinian Arab terrorists in Judea and Samaria by using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The large UAV, which originated from the T-4 base near Homs in Syria, was intercepted near the Israeli town of Beit She’an in February 2018. The plane, armed with four missiles, then exploded in mid-air over the Jordan Valley.
OBSERVATION - Israel has established a radar network designed to detect these drones, based upon the system deployed along the US border to detect low flying drug runner aircraft.
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Iran -
Iran’s President Rouhani suggests he’s open to talks with the US if “all sanctions are lifted and apologies made for mistakes”. “But first, we have to make America regret [its actions],” he said during his weekly cabinet meeting today.
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Saudi Arabia -
The last time Houthis launched drone and missile attacks on KSA was November 21. Since then, the Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes on military sites & (workshops 4 assembling drones & missiles) in Sana’a, almost on a daily basis.
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Syria -
In the south (Daraa province) there has been an undeclared war between Iranian and Syrian forces since 2018. Over the summer, Syrian forces with Russian assistance took control of the region from anti forces. Iran has been attempting stage forces in the region to facilitate attacks against Israel. Syria and Russia want nothing like that happening so have been aggressively trying to neutralize Iranian efforts with out aggravating their “ally”. Negotiations have been underway between Iran and Russia/Syria for over a year but are not making much progress. The covert Iranian violence is just another incentive for Syria to get the Iranian agents out of the area.
This border security effort by Syrians and Russians is the result of years of working to gain the support of the largely Sunni and Druze civilian population along the border in (from west to east); Quneitra, Daraa and Suwayda provinces. This is a joint effort to block Iranian efforts to gain the support of the border population.
In the north, Turkish border policy has made Turkey unpopular, unwanted, and diplomatically isolated. Most of the violence is in northwestern Idlib and northeastern Hasaka provinces. Russian airstrikes against the Syrian Islamic terrorist rebels concentrated in Idlib have been particularly frequent in November. The rebels are surrounded by Syrian troops in the south and Turkish forces in the north. Russia provides air support for the Syrian Army but not for the Turks, and often bombs Islamic terror groups facing the Turks because these rebels are close to Russian bases near the Mediterranean coast and continue to threaten those bases. Russian airstrikes often take place when Turkish forces are nearby and sometimes the Turks as well as the rebels suffer casualties.
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Turkey -
Turkey is planning a rapprochement with Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. This is part of a campaign that Turkey initiated a year ago to try to patch up damaged relations . Turkey has also moved to repair ties with Egypt and Saudi Arabia but those talks have yielded little public improvement.
OBSERVATION - Turkey and Israel used to have a good relationship. But about 10 years ago, Erdogan started to shift the country towards a more radical islamic state - with a parallel hostility towards Israel. Reality has set in for Turkey, the economy is still in the dumps from poor management and extensive military commitments. Israel is economically and technologically superior to Turkey and to mend fences would open that up to Turkey. Secondly, I think there is a degree of opposition towards Iran for the islamic leader of the region - the old enemy of my enemy scenario. I don’t see much success by the Turks given Israel’s recent ties with Greece on military and economic basis and Turkey’s harboring Hamas leaders.
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Poland -
See Russia above.
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Central / South America General-
Leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro held a commanding lead early Monday as Hondurans appeared poised to remove the conservative National Party from power after 12 years of continuous rule.
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Belarus -
Belarus will start combat training on the border with Ukraine on December 1st.
Lukashenka to Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti: I will offer Putin to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus again, in case of such weapons will be brought to Poland
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We’ve entered December and I”m already processing the past years chaos to assess the trends of the last year and look into the crystal ball to see what those trends mean for 2022. I invite you to do the same.
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Wuhan virus -
23 countries now reporting the detection of Omicron.
Omicron first strike - Dutch health authorities announced on Tuesday that they found the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus in cases dating back as long as 11 days, indicating that it was already spreading in western Europe before the first cases were identified in southern Africa. The RIVM health institute said it found Omicron in samples dating from November 19 and 23. Belgium and Germany have also said that sample tests confirm the variant was in those countries before South African health officials alerted the world on November 24 to its existence.
According to Jim Naismith, Director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute and Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Oxford, masks are largely pointless.
“The ONS survey results on prevalence shows that the Scottish and English approach to masking, although formally different since July, has made no meaningful difference to Delta,” writes Naismith.
“In both countries very high levels of prevalence have continued for months. Thus the new changes announced are unlikely to have much of an impact if Omicron does indeed spread rapidly,” he added.
OBSERVATION - Masks and their ineffectiveness in preventing the dissimulation of wuhan has been a topic since the start of this pandemic. Honest researchers with nearly two years of data to draw upon continue to undermine the wuhan narrative.
After telling the country not to get excited, the Biden administration is currently weighing whether to impose a 7-day quarantine for all travelers returning to the U.S. in order to curb the spread of the omicron COVID variant. Those who refuse might possibly be fined. Even a negative test or full vaccination would not exempt a traveler from the quarantine period, the Daily Mail reported. Biden is currently deliberating his winter COVID strategy and plans on announcing it Thursday.
OBSERVATION - The results of this will likely help push for a national wuhan vaccine passport that is synced to other global vaccine passports.
Judge Terry A. Doughty in the U.S. District Court Western District of Louisiana ruled in favor of a request from Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to block an emergency regulation issued Nov. 4 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that required vaccines for nearly every full-time employee, part-time employee, volunteer, and contractor working at a wide range of healthcare facilities receiving Medicaid or Medicaid funding.
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Globalism / Great Reset -
Redesigning organisms for other purposes is a new field of scientific endeavor known as synthetic biology. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, expect to see (and hear) more about it as scientists look to reset humanity’s future and the “bio-economy” on the back of coronavirus vaccine research.
The study was released Thursday by the Switzerland-based WEF, and proclaims a scientific human reset is near because “Synthetic biology lies at the intersection of an ageing population, climate change and environmental degradation.”
Synthetic biology, proponents say, holds the promise of reprogramming biology to be more powerful and then mass-producing the turbocharged cells to increase food production, fight disease, generate energy, purify water and devour carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as the New York Times points out.
The aim is to follow computing, using biological information as coded in DNA, so it can be programmed — with the goal of redesigning organisms for what the WEF deems useful purposes.
OBSERVATION - Genetic engineering is a big component of the ‘Great Reset” of which the mRNA ‘vaccines fit into .
Fifteen state financial officers sent a letter to U.S. banks last week noting $600 billion in assets they pledge to take elsewhere if the financial institutions embrace corporate wokeism and prohibit financing to the fossil fuel industry.
Led by West Virginia Republican Treasurer Riley Moore, the group promised “collective action” in the form of an “economic boycott.”
“Just as each state represented in this letter is unique in its governing laws and economy, our actions will take different forms,” they wrote in the letter obtained by The Federalist. “However, the overarching objective of our actions will be the same – to protect our states’ economies, jobs, and energy independence from these unwarranted attacks on our critical industries.”
Signatories to the letter putting banks on notice include chief financial officers from Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Alabama, Texas and Kentucky, in addition to West Virginia.
OBSERVATION - One of the back door methods the left has used are influencing banks (and credit cards) to deny credit and sales to unwoke, non globally endorse industries/businesses like firearms. The left has pushed the corporate control as an alternative to pushing legislation through congress - creating a high profile situation - preferring the lower profile bank initiated actions.
“So, the President said earlier today that there haven’t been any recommendations to put in place domestic travel requirements. But what we saw with the Delta variant is that once it was already here, it spread rapidly across the country. So why not have any testing or vaccination requirements whatsoever for domestic air travel since people are, you know, going fairly openly across the country?” a reporter asked Psaki.
“Well, I think what you heard the President say […] was that he wasn’t taking any options off the table, but he’s going to rely on that advice of his health and medical experts,” Psaki responded.
OBSERVATION - Translation. biden has no problem implementing controls agains travel bans.
All members of the US National Guard must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or face a loss of pay, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday, according to NBC News.
OBSERVATION - Austin has also threatened to ‘decertify’ state guard units as well. Thus action serves to further reduce the combat capability of the US as the Pentagon relies heavily on Nat’l “Guard units in its global operations.
CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer on Monday urged President Joe Biden and his administration to require vaccination for all Americans to fight the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Cramer suggested the military should run the vaccination efforts and said those who don’t want to get vaccinated should “be ready to prove your conscientious objector status in court.”
“With the new Omicron variant sweeping the globe, how do we finally put an end to this pandemic? How do we save lives and get business back to normal so everybody can put dinner on the table? Simple: The federal government needs to require vaccines, including booster shots, for everyone in America by, say, January 1,” Cramer outlined.
OBSERVATION - While this arrogant ignoramus with delusions of adequacy is touting this idea, it is important to recognize that he is vocalizing the wishes and wants of the marxist / leftists propping up the biden administration. In a spoiler to my reading of the tea leaves for 2022, I see that this universal mandate to become a lead item in the biden administration. This will become the issue as the current mandates are facing judicial set backs and a substantially large portion of the population opposing them.
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Economy -
Omicron fears caused the DOW to drop 652.22 points. It didn’t help that the Fed chief spoke to congress on reducing the pace of monthly bond buys at a quicker rate. This week will continue to be a rough ride.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that, in light of high inflation, the central bank might wind down its bond-purchasing program sooner. Powell, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee alongside Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, faced questions about inflation, which has been soaring all year. The Fed has insisted that inflation, which is running at 6.2% for the year ending in October, is “transitory” and will tamp down. On Tuesday, though, the chairman said that term might no longer be appropriate.
“I think the word ‘transitory’ has different meanings to different people. To many, it carries a sense of short-lived — we tend to use it to mean that it won’t leave a permanent mark in the form of higher inflation,” Powell told lawmakers. “I think it’s probably a good time to retire that word and try to explain more clearly what we mean.”
OBSERVATION - The “transitory” narrative has collapsed into a pile of poo. This discussion infers that inflation is not going away any time soon.
IN RELATED - There are economic analysts warning that even steeper inflation will hit the markets the first part of CY 2022.
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Biden watch -
On Tuesday, biden signed four bills related to benefits for veterans. He didn’t know what they were. “Alright, here we go. Amend title—eh, I’m not gonna read it all. I’ll just sign it,” said Biden.
After signing the bills, Biden pulled his mask down to talk to someone across the room. As soon as Biden began rambling off script, the White House cut the audio and blasted music.
“Unlike Trump, I don’t shock our allies,” President Biden said on Tuesday, when asked whether he would coordinate with U.S. allies in the event he plans to announce further travel restrictions related to the new “omicron” variant of the coronavirus.
NOTE - One word - Afghanistan . . . . . .
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CW2/Domestic violence -
So far protests at the USSC over the current abortion debate have been peaceful. See Sen Shaheen’s comments under Political Front. Antifa supports pro-abortion issues and may show up, but doubt that they will go beyond simple protest support to violence.
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POLITICAL FRONT -
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., issued a warning to the Supreme Court days before oral arguments in a potential landmark abortion case, claiming that a “revolution” will take place if the high court overturns existing precedent.
OBSERVATION - Abortion is one of those key culture conflict fronts the left holds as holy. I don’t think the senator is calling to arms, but it will result in a lot of pro abortion protests to kick in that other elements can exploit for other leftist causes.
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Domestic Terror -
Authorities in New York’s Long Island are investigating a blast that left a crater and was felt miles away Sunday. Police are working with the FBI on the probe, to determine whether it could have been a prelude to something bigger.
The Suffolk County Police Department said the explosion occurred on Fox Island, off the coast of West Babylon, around 11:40 a.m. when a device was detonated. Authorities received nearly three dozen 911 calls, the department told Fox News.
The blast left a crater on the north side of the island that measured 4 feet wide and 2 feet deep. Authorities are seeking a boat seen leaving from the area at the time.
OBSERVATION - Not clear if terror related or a bunch of drunk rednecks playing with tannerite. But this was a big boom and the cause needs to be investigated.
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China -
China’s factory activity fell back into contraction in November as subdued demand, shrinking employment and elevated prices weighed on manufacturers, a business survey showed on Wednesday.
The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 49.9 in November from 50.6 the month before, versus analyst expectations of 50.5 in a Reuters poll. The 50-mark separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. (Reuters)
OBSERVATION - I’ve noted numerous times, wuhan has hit China;’s economy of many levels. This has forced Xi to try to wall paper over domestic issues like this so he can continue his efforts to force Chinese control of the S China sea and related areas like Taiwan. What is missing from the report is the impact of electrical shortages have had on manufacturing sector as well.
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North Korea -
Been pretty quiet lately but things continue. As reported numerous times, famine has gripped the country since the start of the wuhan epidemic. Current reopening of the border with China and resumption of food imports have not been sufficient to reverse the trend. Analysts are noting that a growing number of North Korean soldiers sent to the Chinese border to increase security have become a threat to civilians living nearby. The government has not been able to maintain food supplies for these troops, and many of them are now receiving half their normal food supplies. What food the troops do get is of lower quality. Even the secret police, whose job includes monitoring the performance of soldiers and police and punishing misbehavior, complain of the lower quality food they are receiving. But at least they aren’t getting visibly thinner like the border security troops. This is visible from the Chinese side of the border and often recorded on cell phone photos that eventually reach South Korea.
OBSERVATION - These are Kim’s enforcers, you can’t keep your strong arms fed and happy, then you better start watching back as he has elements in his govt that could exploit this and replace him.
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Russia -
See Europe general, Ukraine and Polish discussions.
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Ukraine -
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday sternly warned NATO against deploying its troops and weapons to Ukraine, saying it represents a red line for Russia and would trigger a strong response.
Commenting on Western concerns about Russia’s alleged intention to invade Ukraine, he said that Moscow is equally worried about NATO drills near its borders.
“The emergence of such threats represents a ‘red line’ for us,” Putin said. “I hope that it will not get to that and common sense and responsibility for their own countries and the global community will eventually prevail.”
Russia proposes to start substantive negotiations to achieve legal guarantees of NATO’s non-expansion to the East
Russian Foreign Ministry: Ukraine has deployed 125 thousand servicemen in Eastern Ukraine
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Europe General -
Latvia needs a permanent U.S. military presence to deter Russia and wants to boost its defences with U.S. Patriot missiles, Defence Minister Artis Pabriks said on Monday as NATO’s chief visited allied troops in the Baltic country. “We need additional international assistance,” Pabriks told Reuters. “We would like to have a permanent United States (military) presence in our country. And sea and air defence means basically going down to such systems as Patriot (surface-to-air missiles).”
The Baltic states are seen as NATO’s most vulnerable flank as they are linked to the alliance’s main territory only by a land corridor of around 60 km (37 miles) between Poland and Lithuania known as the Suwalki gap.
Military experts warn that Russia, via Belarus, might capture the gap, gaining a land corridor to its heavily fortified exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea.
OBSERVATION - The Baltic states are increasingly threatened by Russian expansionism. Along with Poland, they’ve been facing the deliberately directed flow of islamic “migrants’ coming thru Belarus. During the Soviet Union era, these countries also suffer a lot of oppression at the hands of Russians, an experience they don’t want to repeat. The high percentage of ethnic Russians in those countries keeps Moscow’s eyes on the region.
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Israel -
Lifting sanctions on Iran could lead to military action by Israel, officials in Jerusalem warned world powers, as negotiations to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program continued on Tuesday.
If the US lifts sanctions – along with international sanctions soon to be lifted under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal – Iran could reach the nuclear threshold within six months, Israel has warned.
OBSERVATION - Close watch necessary on these negotiations to bring Iran back to the nuclear control agreements. Israel recognizes that the removal of sanctions will be interpreted as weakness in the west by Iran and just encourage it to accelerate its nuclear program.
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Iran -
Heavy clashes reported between Taliban and Iranian border guards along the border in Nimruz.
OBSERVATION - This is a key border crossing on the Iran/Afghanistan border.
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Saudi Arabia -
Saudi-led coalition is continuing to carrying out airstrikes on military sites in Sana’a.
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Poland -
See Russia above.
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Belarus -
EU ambassadors have just given green light to the EU’s 5th sanctions package on Belarus. 17 people and 11 entities. to be published in the EU official journal tomorrow. Work on a sixth package has started but premature to talk numbers now. might be ready Jan/Feb.response
OBSERVATION - These sanctions began over claims that the Belarus elections earlier this year were corrupt and that the Russian supporting government is not legitimate. It has grown particularly in
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