Buckling down for the cold as forecasters are suggesting that by tomorrow morning my home town could be seeing temperatures as low as -37 to -41 range. Add wind chills down to -60 in places (exposed skin freezes in less than 10 minutes) and wee doggies. Fire roaring in the stove to assist the furnace with this craziness. In the past this weather would separate the Montanans from the liberal locusts and send them packing to warmer climes. However, with the current economy and housing / mortgage dumpster fire, they are stuck and are going to have to toughen up fast.
LOOKING FOR SUBMISSIONS AS TO THE KEY EVENTS OF 2022 FOR A YEAR END WRAP UP.
Also looking for what 2023 events you are most concerned about.
Invasion of Illegals –
The U.S. acknowledged in its filing to the Supreme Court that the end of Title 42 will likely lead to “disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings” but asked the court to reject efforts by a group of conservative leaning states to keep the asylum limits in place.
OBSERVATION – biden et al seem to be seriously flip-flopping on the Title 42 issue. It is as if they’ve just had an “oh crap” moment realizing the catastrophe that is building on the border.
CANCEL CULTURE FRONT
An 8th round of Twitter Files were released on Tuesday, with a specific focus on Twitter’s role in directly assisting the US military’s influence operations. The files were broken down by journalist Lee Fang, who titled them “How Twitter Quietly Aided the Pentagon’s Covert Online PsyOp Campaign.”
“Despite promises to shut down covert state-run propaganda networks, Twitter docs show that the social media giant directly assisted the U.S. military’s influence operations,” Fang said.
OBSERVATION – Can any one be surprised at this stage? Still in the wings are the Fauci/wuhan drops.
POLITICAL FRONT –
The senate passed the 1.7 Trillion omnibus CR thru Sept 2023 in its first vote – eliminating the filibuster by 10 votes. Future votes are simple majority.
OBSERVATION - McConnel just shafted the incoming republicans in the house the opportunity to influence the bill. Sorry to say, the govt corruption is become almost unfathomable at this stage.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy will address Congress on Wednesday evening. Pelosi is making a big to-do about it.
China –
Not to forget, China continues to daily fly planes and sail ships into Taiwan’s defense zone.
Russia -
WAR WATCH - Russia is now closing out its ninth month of the “three days to conquer Ukraine” since fighting starting on Feb 24th.
CURRENT ASSESSMENT
Russian forces continue to construct defensive lines across occupied southern Ukraine.
At present, it is capable of very local offensive actions as in the ongoing fighting around Bakhmut and Donetsk. It is incapable of large scale offensive operation in Ukraine at this time. There is evidence building that Russia is trying to play out the current Fall mud season’s break in Ukraine’s tempo to try to build up for an early 2023 offensive operation.
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 and less intense.
While Russia has nuclear capability, the probability is low that it will use one to swing the initiative back to its forces.
********
Logistics –
- Russia has reportedly launched approximately 508 Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 kamikaze drones against Ukrainian targets since September, based on data released by Ukrainian government officials.
- Russia is now visually confirmed to have lost 8500 vehicles and other pieces of heavy equipment since it began its invasion of Ukraine 300 days ago. Of that 1580 tanks have been lost, this is equivalent to about 42% of its tanks in active service. These are only visually confirmed losses.
Ukraine -
WEATHER FORECAST – Nasty mix of rain and snow throughout most of the 10 day forecast with cold temperatures.
Ukraine is preparing additional measures to protect the Rivne NPP due to the risk of an open invasion from Belarus. This region is in the northwestern portion of the nation opposite from where many Belarus/Russia training exercises have been taking place.
24 HOUR ROUND UP –
Action seems to have picked up a little in the standard areas I’ve been noting for weeks now. Updated analysis indicates that Russia may have finally reached the outskirts of Bahkmut – a feat that required over 4 months to achieve. However, now its developing into urban combat – a defense that Ukraine has perfected.
Most of Russia’s available artillery support was in those areas as well, with widely scattered artillery fire elsewhere along the
Eastern (Kharkiv) front ——
Ukraine forces continue to pressure the Russian lines NW of Svatove with Russian attempting to conduct spoiling attacks.
Donetsk Oblast ——
Russian attacks continue to focus around Bahkmut and northwest of Donetsk. Central Donetsk was hit again by Ukrainian artillery fires
Zaporizhizhia Front ———
NSR
Crimean front ———
NSR
Western / Central Ukraine ——
NSR
Russian Territory –
An electrical substation was attacked by a drone in Trubchevsk of Briansk region
Partisan Resistance ——
NSR - but don’t let that fool you, there are plenty of unconfirmed reports of rear area attacks across Russian occupied territory.
OUTLOOK ——
More of the same as combat is mainly being waged on foot given that the mud inhibits pretty much anything else.
More analysis on the potential Russian - Belarus attack options. Some OSINT analysts are indicating that Russia may be gradually building its forces in Belarus beyond those mobilized conscripts sent there for training. I’ve noted the reported presence of the 1sts Guards Tank Army and that it may be there to form the shell of a reconstituted unit.
Independent Belarusian sources continue to report growing Russian mechanized forces in Belarus. With about 30 Russian T-80 tanks were reportedly deployed to Belarus around December 20. These elements are far too little for a meaningfull offensive. The 1st GTA originally had something like 500-800 tanks alone.
Again, no imminent attack from Belarus, but still needs close monitoring.
Iran –
Observers are noting a slowly diminishing protest turnout since the regime intensified its protest crackdown in mid-November 2022. The regime issued its first death sentence on November 13 and deployed the IRGC Ground Forces in Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces beginning on November 19. These escalations combined with the colder weather, mass arrests, and possible disorganization among protester coordinators may have led to the declining turnout over the past month. This reduced protest activity does not, however, indicate the end of the anti-regime movement.
Netblocks reports that internet service disruption lasted for two days in Iranian Kurdistan.
McConnell is a real piece of shit. He's not even a RINO, not when he works against the interests of the Republican party,
LOOKING FOR SUBMISSIONS AS TO THE KEY EVENTS OF 2022 FOR A YEAR END WRAP UP.
Also looking for what 2023 events you are most concerned about.
Globalism / Great Reset –
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Tuesday that new heavy truck makers will have to cut nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 80 percent, the latest move in an effort toward implementing the Biden administration’s “Clean Truck Plan.”
The new standards will go into effect from 2027.
Specifically, nitrogen oxide emissions from new semis and other heavy trucks will be limited to 35 milligrams per horsepower-hour. The current standard is 200 milligrams, the EPA said.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents independent truck drivers, said the new rule will effectively push truck owners to stay with older, less-efficient vehicles as they will no longer be able to afford new ones.
OBSERVATION- This is one of many tactics the govt is using to eventually force the trucking industry into electric trucks. I don’t know if these regulation changes will be challenged as another overreach by the EPA as have other green regulations have. But all point to similar regulations developing throughout the globe to force zero emissions standards on all of us, whether we like it or not.
Going back to a theme of the WEF being the reduction of the earth’s population, its Canadian test bed has come out with an activity book is pure propaganda aimed at children to normalize medically assisted suicide.
The activity booklet uses cartoon illustrations and a child-friendly font is not meant to push children to choose suicide, but it does normalize the process of medically-assisted suicide in a country that has government-run healthcare. The aim of the booklet is to help children understand the process when someone that they love has chosen assisted suicide.
Created by Canadian Virtual Hospice, the booklet titled “The Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Activity Book!” claims to have been created for young people who have someone in their life who may have MAiD.
The first few pages explain that MAiD is the use of “medicines” are used to “help someone with their death.” It also explains that this is a personal choice and that you probably shouldn’t bother to try to convince the person to live because they’ve likely thought about it for a long time already.
OBSERVATION – This is a further move toward physician assisted suicide targeting children.
Wuhan virus –
See China for their latest
Economy –
According to Texas A&M Agrilife economist David Anderson, the U.S. is on pace to produce a record 28 billion pounds of beef this year, but the overall U.S. cow herd will see a 3% reduction next year. Anderson said that production is up this year due to drought and increased input costs spurring the culling of beef herds.
OBSERVATION – While this may sound good on the front end, it reflects continuing economic issues for ranchers from drought, high feed costs and high fuel prices. If these factors turn around, it will still take a couple years to restore the herd sizes and likely result in some shortages – once again raising prices.
Sales of existing homes fell 7.7% in November compared with October, according to the National Association of Realtors. The seasonally adjusted annualized pace was 4.09 million units. That is weaker than the 4.17 million units housing analysts had predicted, and it was a much deeper fall than usual monthly declines.
Sales were down 35.4% year over year, marking the tenth straight month of declines. That was the weakest pace since November 2010, with the exception of May 2020, when sales fell sharply, albeit briefly, during the early days of the Covid pandemic. In November 2010, the nation was mired in the great recession as well as a foreclosure crisis.
OBSERVATION – The housing market was one of the first sectors of the economy to be hit as a result of the Fed’s raising of the prime rate. Increasing weakness in this market can be viewed as a forecaster of what to expect from the rest of the economy in the months to come. If this holds, then next year is not looking too good.
According to data from the Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Administration District for Defense (PADD) 1, which stores petroleum products for the East Coast, is holding just over 25 million barrels of distillate fuel oil. PADD 1 distillate fuel oil stocks are currently at their lowest level for this time of year since 1981.
OBSERVATION – This shortage is affecting supplies/prices across the country. Here in the Redoubt, gasoline prices have steadily dropped, while diesel has remained stubbornly high.
Invasion of Illegals –
Situation in El Paso Texas is becoming critical. Migrants have taken over the streets of El Paso - where food banks are just days from running dry - after making last-ditch border dashes in anticipation of Title 42 limits being lifted. More than 400 National Guard troops and state policer were deployed Tuesday before the policy’s expected end, causing dozens more asylum seekers to make a break for the border to avoid clashes.
Officials said over the weekend 2,500 migrants were arriving in El Paso daily, a figure that could rise to ‘4,000, 5,000, maybe 6,000.’ Many believe that number could be even higher when Title 42 ends, with Axios reporting 14,000 daily crossings could occur.
New fencing at the Rio Grande River bank was also erected to stop migrants from crossing with pandemic-era expulsion policy Title 42 just hours away from ending.
The show of force apparently had the intended effect. Migrants quickly began moving away from the area. The remaining stragglers were described by local reporters as being “a small group.”
OBSERVATION – This scene will replay in dozens of other border cities when Title 42 eventurally gets turned off (doubtful that the USSC stay will last long).
In an agreement reached Wednesday with the federal government, Ducey’s administration said it will “remove all previously installed shipping containers and associated equipment, materials, vehicles, and other objects from the United States’ properties on National Forest System lands within the Coronado National Forest”.
OBSERVATION - Part of the push back was that the barriers were blocking critical wildlife migration routes and that illegals by pass the region because it is too rough anyway. To them it was more important for jaguars to cross the border than it was to prevent two legged predators from the same.
Tennessee’s two Republican senators and Gov. Bill Lee are demanding a response from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on its plans to transport illegal immigrants from New Orleans to the state in a letter sent on Tuesday.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) posted her frustration with the agency’s lack of transparency, stating “ICE can respond to media requests about trafficking illegal immigrants to Tennessee, but won’t get back to us with information about who they are dropping off in our state.”
However, Blackburn said on Fox News Wednesday the plan is to have “50 at a time” and “at least two buses, maybe more, every single week” into Tennessee.
The governor’s office said notices from the Biden administration on Monday are the first time federal officials have notified the state of plans to relocate “single adult detainees into Tennessee,” adding they have received no further details.
OBSERVATION – More and more it becomes apparent that biden is shipping these illegals into predominantly red areas of the country. Taking a deep dive into the conspiracy – at some future time these illegals will be allowed or caused to support leftist violence against conservatives in these area. One thing that was made clear during the BLM/Antifa riots of 2020, when the black bloc tried to bus into rural, red areas, the were immediately confronted by no-nonsense and well armed Americans. One repeating observation is that many of these “single adult detainees” shipped inland are military-aged males. Importing them may well be a method to offset this advantage of red vs leftists.
Now, in an effort to keep Americans in the dark once the surge hits, a source not authorized to speak to the press told Brietbart Media that the Department of Homeland Security has decided to brush the issue under the rug by issuing a gag order to Custom and Border Protection managers, forbidding them from releasing the number of migrant apprehensions to the public without DHS approval.
The directive was issued on Monday and took immediate effect.
OBSERVATION - Tightening the control of the narrative, makes me wonder if the tsunami is going to be larger – in their view – than what we’ve been warned of so far.
CW2/Domestic violence –
The growth of the Stasi state FBI unbelievably is poised to increase as republicans sport a substantial funding increase for the agency – in the face of the revelations of gross corruption and anti-constitutional behavior revealed in the Twitter Files.
Vice President Kamala Harris said on Monday that she expects and “would require” social media companies to work with the Biden administration to prevent so-called misinformation and disinformation, and to “protect democracy.”
“When I see how social media is used in that way, it causes me a very deep level of concern,” Harris said. “So, what I would say about any social media site is this: I fully expect and would require that leaders in that sector cooperate and work with us who are concerned about national security, concerned about upholding and protecting our democracy, to do everything in their power to ensure that there is not a manipulation that is allowed or overlooked that is done with the intention of upending the security of our democracy and our nation.”
OBSERVATION – This is incredibly obtuse given how the govt directly censored 1st Amendment rights of citizens as revealed so far by the Twitter Files. Instead of “upholding and protecting our democracy”, biden and the deep state have done what they can to corrupt and destroy it.
IMHO, Orwellian govt censorship may be one of the key fractures along which future red/blue (govt) strife may develop along. It is unlikely that govt will stop at controlling speech on social media and will advance more into the public square in a more aggressive manner.
CANCEL CULTURE FRONT
FWW, fakebook put me in 24 hour time out because I shared a NY Post article on hunter biden. Cowards, and of course their system permits no real recourse. Gotta cover hunter’s rear end and protect the big guy.
POLITICAL FRONT –
SUMMARY –
The House Ways and Means Committee voted Tuesday to release its review of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns and is preparing to release the returns publicly this week.
OBSERVATION – Democrats exerting another attack on Trump by sheer political force. There is no justification for the release other than a smear. The disastrous republican midterms have given the dems cover for more and more outrageous attack knowing the next election is two years away and that they think they have the support of the country now.
Kari Lake’s trial against Maricopa county has the goods on the fraudulent results there. Just from the first day or so it has been documented that at least 42% of the printed forms were apparently altered in size to as to be rejected by the scanning machines. That as well as clear and deliberate breaking of chain of custody laws and callousness of election officials to resolve those problems are piling up on the county and eventuall AZSOS hobbs. This is the first real trial that has been ‘permitted’ to allow voting irregularities and probable voter fraud to go forward and so far Lake has the goods on the county. If the results of Maricopa county are tossed – we are entering new terrain as how will the votes lost in the heavily republican county be addressed.
China –
Hospitals in China appear to be filling up amid concerns about a fresh Covid-19 wave hitting the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. China figures show no-one died of Covid on Wednesday but there is scepticism about the disease’s real impact.
In recent days hospitals in Beijing and other cities have been filling up as the latest Covid surge hits China.
Since 2020, China has imposed strict health restrictions as part of its zero Covid policy.
But, the government ended most of those measures two weeks ago after landmark protests against the strict controls.
Speaking during a weekly news conference in Geneva WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he is “very concerned over the evolving situation in China”.
He appealed for specific data on disease severity, hospital admissions and intensive care requirements.
OBSERVATION – China tightly controls news on this topic. It is assumed it is wuhan related, but could also be a variety of this years flu bug as well. Don’t expect detailed info coming out of china any time soon.
China is holding joint naval exercises with Russia in the East China Sea this week. According to an announcement by China’s Eastern Theater Command, the exercises are being held off the coast of Zhejiang province south of Shanghai and will last through next week.
OBSERVATION – This is another of what appears to be an expanding continuation of exercises between the two countries. The most important part of these exercises is developing the ability to communicate and coordinate actions between the two forces.
North/South Korea –
In an official statement from North Korea’s Foreign Ministry Tuesday, a ministry spokesman said North Korea would take a “resolute and decisive military step” against Japan over its adoption of a new national security strategy. Japan’s new national security strategy doubles defense spending and includes heavy counter-strike capabilities from long-range missiles and naval forces. The statement accused Japan’s leaders of trying to turn the country into an “offensive military giant.”
OBSERVATION - This is common war of words coming out of NK. In this instance, NK may be realizing that its aggressive military posture against the US has resulted in other regional powers building up to counter NK military threats. Japan’s build up is currently more directed against China – the greater threat – and lesser so towards NK.
Russia -
WAR WATCH - Russia is now closing out its ninth month of the “three days to conquer Ukraine” since fighting starting on Feb 24th.
CURRENT ASSESSMENT
Russian forces continue to construct defensive lines across occupied southern Ukraine.
At present, it is capable of very local offensive actions as in the ongoing fighting around Bakhmut and Donetsk. It is incapable of large scale offensive operation in Ukraine at this time. There is evidence building that Russia is trying to play out the current Fall mud season’s break in Ukraine’s tempo to try to build up for an early 2023 offensive operation.
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 and less intense.
While Russia has nuclear capability, the probability is low that it will use one to swing the initiative back to its forces.
********
In his speech to defense chiefs in Moscow today, Putin made a series of rare and frank concessions about his botched invasion, admitting there were ‘problems’ with his mobilization and acknowledging vague ‘criticism’ of his military strategy.
But to reverse his fortunes, the president will spend ‘whatever it takes’ on the military, ‘improve the combat readiness of our nuclear triad’ and increase his troop numbers from 1.15million to 1.5million.
He said the country’s military should learn lessons and modernize based on its experiences in Ukraine and special emphasis will go to developing his country’s nuclear forces, which he described as ‘the main guarantee of Russia’s sovereignty’.
Defense minister Sergei Shoigu also declared plans to form new military units in western Russia to, as Kremlin chiefs prepared for a new phase in the war which is entering its tenth month.
In response to Zelensky’s visit to the US, the Kremlin said that nothing good would come from from it and that Russia saw no chance of peace talks with Kyiv.
In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that continued Western arms supplies to Ukraine would lead to a “deepening” of the conflict - something which could backfire on Kyiv, he warned.
“The supply of weapons continues and the range of supplied weapons is expanding. All of this, of course, leads to an aggravation of the conflict. This does not bode well for Ukraine,” Peskov said.
Russian Personnel Issues –
- Fighters from Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group have ballooned from 1,000 to nearly 20,000 in Ukraine, British government officials say, a sign of Russia’s growing reliance on the military contractor in support of its invasion. Wagner’s inflated ranks are linked to its targeted recruitment of convicts in Russian prisons. UK officials say open source estimates suggest that the numbers of convicts in Russian prisons fell by over 23,000 in the two months leading up to November 2022 - the period in which it was recruiting.
UK officials say there’s been a pivot from quality to quantity. In the past, Wagner was believed to recruit mostly experienced former soldiers - including from Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, and ex-special forces.
Wagner’s group field commander, Lt Col Dmitry Utkin, was an officer in the GRU’s Spetsnaz (special ops). But with the influx of prisoners and others of lesser caliber to draw upon, UK officials say that Wagner is now “far from an elite force”.
- Minister Shoigu proposed the following: changing the conscription age range to 21-30 years old, increasing armed forces personnel strength by 30% (350,000), and increasing professional soldiers by 33% (174,000).
Ukraine -
WEATHER FORECAST – Nasty mix of rain and snow throughout most of the 10 day forecast with cold temperatures.
24 HOUR ROUND UP –
Zelensky spoke to congress and biden yesterday in a bid to maintain support for the fight with Russia. Pelosi referred to him as a modern ‘Churchill’. Russia was not too happy with the trip. See their response under Russia above.
More of the standard areas of combat – Savatove, Bakhmut and Donetsk. Artillery seemed to be focused along this line with widely scattered attacks elsewhere.
It was revealed yesterday that Ukraine targeted former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin at a party was wounded as result of shelling in Donetsk. Injured along with Rogozin was the Prime Minister of the Donetsk Republic, Vitaly Khotsenko. The attack reportedly used precision-guided artillery or HIMARS and struck the hotel in which the two men were staying – suggesting the attack was directed by specific intelligence and meant to take out the two high-profile leadership figures.
Eastern (Kharkiv) front ——
Ukraine forces continue to pressure the Russian lines NW of Svatove with Russian attempting to conduct spoiling attacks.
There appear to be an increase in Russian artillery attacks along the border east – northeast of Kharkiv city. Actual intensity is hard to judge and is more likely harassing fires.
Donetsk Oblast ——
Russian attacks continue to focus around Bahkmut and northwest of Donetsk.
Zaporizhizhia Front ———
NSR
Crimean front ———
NSR
Western / Central Ukraine ——
NSR
Russian Territory –
Ukraine continues to strike Russian border towns with explosions being reported in Schebekino district of Belgorod region overnight.
Partisan Resistance ——
NSR - but don’t let that fool you, there are plenty of unconfirmed reports of rear area attacks across Russian occupied territory.
OUTLOOK ——
Activity continues to be relatively light across the whole LOC with battles continuing in the same locations resulting in little change in the front.
More eyebrows continue to be raised over the potential Russian build up in Bellarus and will it be enough by early next year to support an attack either towards Kyiv or western Ukraine as part of Russia’s reportedly planned winter offensive. Another try towards Kyiv would be foolish in many ways, but could tie up resources needed by Ukraine to deal with an offensive in the Donbas. See Belarus below for more discussion.
Belarus -
On Dec 21st, Belarus officials set travel restrictions for the regions bordering Ukraine. The government said on its website it would “temporarily restrict entry, temporary stay and movement in the border zone within the Loevsky, Braginsky and Khoiniki districts of the Gomel region”. This is the area from where Russia launched its previous strike on Kyiv at the beginning of the conflict.
OBSERVATION - There is some speculation that the restrictions may be due to Russian and Belarusian forces moving into assembly areas in advance of an anticipated winter offensive. While many OSINT analysts and observers note that at this time Russia and Belarus lack the forces necessary for another try at Kyiv, this closure warrants close monitoring to see if Russian/Belarus forces continue to filter into the area in an attempt to try to fly under the radar so to speak in preparation of a new offensive from the north.
SERBIA / KOSOVO -
Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic called on the International NATO mission in Kosovo and Metohija (KFOR) to stop Kosovar violence and terror against Serbs. Last week, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic asked NATO to approve up to 1000 Serbian troops and police to deploy to Kosovo.
OBSERVATION – These requests border on the Serbs prestaging themselves and the victims in this dispute and hopefully gaining some international support. However, since the Serbs are appealing to NATO, it seems there is a degree of hesitancy in their executing any plan on their own, having to seek NATO permission. So far the KFOR presence is deterring the Serbs from outright attacks.
Hundreds of Serbs have gathered in Rudare to protest against Kosovo government on the 13th day of barricades in Kosovo north roads.
OBSERVATION – Though Serbia has been undergoing a substantial military modernization effort and aggression towards Kosovo a spin off on its own (as it refuses to recognize the country), many are keeping a close eye on this flashpoint as a potential way to partially neutralize NATOs support to Ukraine.
Worst case scenario developing is that Serbia will launch some sort of military campaign into N Kosovo about the same time Russia launches what ever the form of its winter offensive into Ukraine develops into.
Pakistan –
On top of all the internal political and economic woes Pakistan is experiencing, terror operations from the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) forces are on the rise. TTP leaders ordered the resumption of hostilities against the government in Islamabad on 28 November. The group occupies Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas in Waziristan. The TTP was nominally aligned with Al Qaeda in the past and has sympathetic followers within the Pakistani government.
Israel –
After weeks of negotiations within his coalition Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu called President Isaac Herzog and informs him of his success in forming a government. The new government seen as the most right-wing in Israel’s history and time will tell if it will be stable or if Israel will be tossed into another round or parliamentary elections.
OBSERVATION - Because of the rising instability of the region caused by iran and increasingly hostile biden administration policies, a longer term and more stable Israeli government is necessary. Netanyahu’s long terms as PM move a long ways towards some stability. What may cause things to crash are the ultra conservative parties he has in his coalition that may cause more friction with Palestinians in the west bank – even more than the current round of activity.
Iran –
Protests continue in the predominantly Kurdish region in northwestern Iran. The regime’s increasing harsh response appears to be forcing a pull back of protests in other regions.
Central / South America General-
The Peruvian government expelled the Mexican Ambassador to Peru following Mexico’s decision to grant asylum to the family of ousted Peruvian President Pedro Castillo. Castillo’s wife and two children are reportedly hiding out in the Mexican embassy in Lima as Castillo’s wife faces criminal charges of corruption.
OBSERVATION – Mexico recently announced support for Castillo and this is a natural expression of that support.
Misc of Note –
CVS and Walgreens, the two largest drugstores in the United States, have placed purchase limits on over-the-counter (OTC) children’s fever-reducing and pain-relieving medications. Walgreens said retailers are experiencing supplier fulfillment challenges due to increased demand for the medications.
OBSERVATION – As noted in previous posts, the nation wide shortage is becoming more critical and purchase limits have finally had to come out like they did (and locally continue) for baby formula.
Named Winter Storm Elliott by the Weather Channel, the arctic blast is expected to deliver the coldest Christmas to the Midwest since the late 1980s, according to forecasts cited by US media. The NWS has called it a once-in-a-generation winter weather event, especially as the storm reaches the Great Lakes region, where its pressure is expected to reach the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane. As the storm develops, meteorologists anticipate it will turn into a “bomb cyclone”.
The developing storm is hitting at the front end of the start of a busy holiday travel period – extremely dangerous conditions to drive in and a plethora of cancelled flights.
OBSERVATION – Here in my corner of the Redoubt, the continental divide to our immediate east managed to deflect most of the intensity and cold away. Even with that I’m looking at my weather station this morning with a current low of -36 degrees (and still dropping). I’ve searched out lows for the state in the 1959-1983 time frame (before I left for military service and later to work out of state) to see if I had faced any similar lows – so far this is the coldest I’ve experienced and man does it make your face (and any other exposed skin) hurt – and that is before wind chill is added in. Wood stove is glowing and yet the furnace is having to still kick in.
Nationally, there are concerns that it will hit Texas like previous storms and endanger the grid. Other concerns are for the citrus crops in the south as this air mass is suppose to reach all the way into Mississippi and Alabama. The next few days may reveal the extent of damage.
FWIW, the storm named “Elliott” is so far living up to its Scottish heritage as being a Border Reaver and “Who dare mess with me” (The Elliott Clan is my adopted clan via Mrs Godzilla and I wear its tartan proudly)