The Scariest Developments to Watch Out For in 2023

posted by John Kudla at American Thinker

I believe most people hope 2023 is a better year than 2022.  But I am not counting on it.

In just the past two years, our national government has spent roughly $13 trillion and authorized spending trillions more.  Politicians use words and phrases like "investments," "long-term savings," "reducing inflation," "protecting Ukraine's sovereignty," etc. to justify this.  Clearly, they are either lying or living in a fantasy world.  Most of the money is being used to pay off campaign contributors and special interest groups, such as the climate change lobby, or to make politicians look good.

Inflation spiked to nine percent in June 2022, so the Federal Open Market Committee began raising interest rates to fight it.  As interest rates rose, the stock market tanked.  In 2023, interest rates will likely increase further, possibly sparking a worldwide recession.  Neither is good news for investors.

China appears to have ended its zero-COVID policy for economic reasons.  Now COVID is out of control in the Middle Kingdom, which will lead to other complications, such as pneumonia.  Since the Chinese communists do not like to be embarrassed, if China is suffering, they may want everyone else to suffer, too.  That seems to coincide with reports that roughly half of the airline passengers from China have tested positive for COVID.  They caused a pandemic once.  Why not twice?

Supply chains are a second issue.  Who will make the products we normally buy if Chinese workers are sick?  Yes, I know this sounds like a "who cares" thing.  But if they are not shipping parts, our factories will grind to a halt.

Naturally, these two problems overlap.  Due to a rash of lawsuits in the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies moved their manufacturing facilities to China.  Now China makes most of our antibiotics.  If Chinese workers are sick and using the antibiotics they usually produce, there may be little left to export.  With antibiotics already in short supply in the U.S., what do we do?

If you want to see life before sulfa drugs and penicillin, visit a graveyard that is at least a few decades older than World War 2.  The number of grave markers for young children and infants is sobering.

Illegal immigration is not good for the U.S.  It strains our medical and educational resources, costs billions to support people who cannot legally work here, and may increase the crime rate.  Roughly five million people have crossed into our country in the last two years.  How many are sick?  How many are vaccinated, and what are they immunized for?  How many are criminals or terrorists?  The government does not know and seems not to care.

Republicans are not helping clarify this issue.  Regarding the border, Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz says, "President Biden does not have a plan."  Actually, he does.  It is called let millions of illegals in, make them citizens, and get re-elected in 2024.

Now that Biden  has visited the border, will the flood of immigrants decline in 2023?  Apparently, the optics of illegal border crossings was making Democrats nervous.  So now potential migrants will be allowed to apply for asylum in their home countries and simply fly to the U.S.

There are other questions related to the border that should be asked.  For example, Mexican cartels are rumored to be making billions from human-trafficking and drug-smuggling.  Where does all the money go?  Is it possible someone in our government is getting a percentage to ignore these problems?  Has anyone bothered to investigate?

Okay, what about fentanyl?  This stuff is toxic and deadly.  In fact, over 110,000 deaths were attributed to fentanyl-type opioids during a 12-month period in 2021–2022.  Since you can die from breathing fentanyl and it is easy to manufacture, could terrorists use it to make an unsophisticated weapon of mass destruction?  Has Homeland or the DOD considered this?

It may surprise you that none of the previous issues scares me as much as the similarities I see between 1914 and 2023.

In 1914, there were two large, well armed military alliances in Europe.  Both had armed forces numbering in the millions, with detailed plans for confronting their potential enemies.  All that was needed for a  war to start was some unfortunate event to justify mobilization.  That event occurred in June 1914 with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  Only a month later, the armies mobilized, war-fighting plans were activated, and the war began.  No one seemed able to stop it.

In 2023, we already have a land war in progress in Europe between Russia and Ukraine over Ukrainian territory claimed by Russia.  Ukraine is backed materially by the largest military alliance on Earth, NATO.  Since Russia and NATO have been adversaries in the past, both have war-fighting plans and doctrines from the Cold War era.  Even though Russia has already threatened to use nuclear weapons multiple times, it cannot without risking retaliation by NATO.

Similarly, for several decades, China has claimed the Island of Taiwan as its territory and has indicated that it is ready to use military force to resolve the situation.  The main ally of Taiwan is the United States.  Both the U.S. and China have nuclear weapons.  So far, both sides have limited themselves to political posturing and war games.

What could change this?  Let's assume Joe Biden stumbles, falls, hits his head, has a stroke, none of which is unusual for someone in his eighties.

If he cannot continue serving as president, Kamala Harris will become the leader of the free world.  While this may ignite ecstasy within the Democrat cult of diversity, it will likely ignite a sense of opportunity elsewhere.  

Let's review why Biden chose her as his running mate.  First, she is a female Democrat politician.  Second, she is a "person of color."  Yes, that is all you need in the world of identity politics.  Hopefully, the fact that she was a district attorney, California attorney general, and senator from California factored into the decision, but who knows?

Even so, her ability at the presidential level seems lacking.  Behind-the-scenes reports and actual observations of her performance indicate she has trouble processing information, dealing with subordinates, talking without laughing inappropriately, and speaking in clear sentences.  Moreover, as a campaigner, she is a complete dud because she comes across as spoiled and entitled.

So what happens if Putin decides to use a tactical nuke to encourage Ukraine to surrender?  What if Xi decides this is the time to mount a full-scale invasion of Taiwan?

Suppose a single nuclear weapon is used in any capacity for any reason.  That will focus the world's attention like nothing else.  At that point, the DEFCON numbers will begin to fall as everyone's war-fighting plans start to spool up.  In 1914, they had thirty days to avert war.  Now we may have less than thirty hours.

In the game of world domination and power politics, we could have one or both of the world's most ruthless dictators in one corner.  While in the other, we have the world's foremost beneficiary of identity politics plus a gang of frightened European socialists.  What could go wrong?

X22, On the Fringe, and more- Jan 14

 

Russia Not Yet Defeated

Ukraine Will Lose to Russia Unless It Makes a Deal.

posted by Brandon J. Weichert at American Greatness

The Russian Army is in the process of pushing the Ukrainian military back from their territorial holdings in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. As the winter presses on and the ground continues to freeze, a force of roughly 350,000 Russian conscripts has been assembled across the border in Belarus. Russian lines within Ukraine are being fortified.

Sure, the initial Russian invasion last year was defeated by Ukraine. Sadly, however, Russia has not yet been defeated—and it does not appear to be on the brink of defeat, no matter what the propaganda in the West says. 

Meanwhile, at precisely the moment that the pro-Ukraine Twitterati are bulk-tweeting congratulatory exultations about all the winning that Ukraine is doing in places like Bakhmut, the Ukrainian defense there has lost something like 70 percent of its fighting capabilities in the last week. 

This, as a variety of Ukrainian officials plead with their Western supporters to send more money, more heavy weapons, and even the fearsome M1 Abrams tank and/or Germany’s Leopard tank. These pleas undercut the key claim that we’ve all been living under in the West, which is that Ukraine was defying the odds and winning. 

Certainly, Ukraine was winning. Although, with all due respect to Ukraine’s defenders, they pushed back a Russian invasion force last year that was barely150,000-160,000 troops strong. It was an understrength, poorly led, and haphazardly-planned invasion force. Given all the aid the Ukrainians have received since 2014, if their defense forces did not repel that shambolic Russian invasion, none of the investment would have been worth it. 

Things have changed, though.

 The Ukrainian military has shifted away from its necessary defense of the Ukrainian core in the western portion of the country and has instead gone on the offensive. As Edward N. Luttwak has long argued, war is a dynamic process. It is a balancing act between offense and defense and when you favor one over the other—or just when you think you’ve successfully defended yourself and can now go on the offensive—things immediately begin working against you. 

The Ukrainians have plunged too far into parts of the country that Russian forces have controlled at least since 2014. They’ve stretched what were already brittle supply chains to their breaking points. Trying to upend the unfortunate reality that Russia holds Eastern Ukraine and Crimea is a non-starter and will only ensure that the Russians will continue fighting and that they will hit back even harder. 

A year ago, Ukraine could depend on consistent and reliable supplies from NATO flowing to its forces. Those days are over. After a year of conflict, the already dwindling Western stockpiles of essential heavy weapons have been nearly depleted. Thanks to America and the Western world’s obsession with deindustrializing itself for the last 50 years, there will be no replacements on hand for these systems anytime soon. 

The Ukrainian defense needs to fall back and reconsolidate. And the problem for Ukraine is that once you get beyond that first line of defense—there are many unconfirmed reports indicating that Russian forces have already breached through in some areas—you start heading into flatland. There are military realities on the ground in Ukraine that the political fantasists in Washington simply refuse to acknowledge. 

The Russians are preparing for a breakout. It might be too late to stop it now, but the West should try its hand at actual diplomacy to be certain that opportunity is gone. 

It was always mind-boggling to me that, after Ukraine pushed the initial Russian invasion back, no truce was tried. Even today, though, the Russians have put feelers out to the intransigent West and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated his willingness to broker a deal between the two warring parties before things get totally out-of-hand. 

Despite what the hardliners in Kiev and Washington say about reclaiming Crimea and kicking the Russians completely out of Eastern Ukraine, this is a delusion—one that will get many innocent people killed and likely end in the total collapse of the proto-democratic Ukraine state based out of Kiev. 

So long as Moscow gets to keep the Russian-speaking provinces of Eastern Ukraine and, most importantly, maintains a permanent grip on the port of Sevastopol in Crimea, one of Russia’s only two warm water ports (the other being in Syria), Ukraine can survive and far scarier global conflict can be avoided.

NATO refuses to allow for Kiev to even countenance a truce with Moscow all while denying Ukraine the tanks that Kiev claims it needs (because these systems will be too few and arrive too late to make any real difference). Britain says it will send two Challenger tanks at some point. Gee, thanks! 

Instead of stringing the Ukrainians along, why not help to end the fighting while there’s still a Ukraine left? 

But working on a negotiated settlement is far too much for the Biden Administration and their lackeys in the “mainstream,” while the media keeps chirping in our ears that the war will end only when Vladimir Putin is overthrown and the Russian Federation is dissolved into its constituent parts. This kind of rhetoric stands in the way of a deal and leads to some pretty insane calculations in Moscow in response to these Western claims.

Presently, the balance of the war in Ukraine is clearly shifting in Russia’s favor. At the risk of evoking the ire of the massive pro-Ukraine troll farms on Twitter, I urge all sides to ratchet down tensions; to sit at a big, beautiful table, and make a deal. 

Should Ukraine be defeated it will cease being an independent state. The NATO alliance will be called into question. Europe will fracture, with many nations falling under the sway of pro-Russian and anti-American elements. 

What’s more, the United States will be fully pushed away from Europe and will suffer another humiliating defeat on the world stage when its Ukrainian proxy falls to Russia—a force we were assured by Biden and others was spent. 

Still, there is a window to prevent all of this and allow for Putin to get that which he has held since 2014: Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. The rest of Ukraine—the best portion, the western side—can remain free and prosperous. It will take courage and probity from Western leaders who have a proven track record, unfortunately, of lacking these key qualities for effective statesmanship. 

As Otto von Bismarck once quipped, “God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.”

Thanks To Radical Environmentalists, Not Even A ‘Bomb Cyclone’ Can Fix California’s Drought

IMAGE CREDIT

SHARE

• Share Article on Facebook
• Share Article on Twitter
• Share Article via Email

Tristan Justice reporting for The Federalist 

Poseidon answered California’s prolonged drought crisis with a “bomb cyclone” pouring enough water over the state to temporarily replenish residents’ parched reservoirs.

The single cyclone on its own still doesn’t come close to accomplishing long-term alleviation of California’s seemingly chronic water shortage. An end to the drought would require years of above-average precipitation, even after snowstorms have padded the Sierra Nevada snowpack. But the record rainfall does offer short-term relief.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, California’s surface area that’s under drought conditions has dropped to just more than 71 percent since the storm hit, down from 85 percent a month ago. That number might be far lower had the state been adequately prepared to capture the gift from the sky.

California hasn’t built a new dam in four decades. An estimated more than 80 percent of the state’s winter rainwater is annually wasted. Most of this week’s precipitation is finding its way back to the Pacific, where environmentalists have blocked efforts to desalinate.

In August, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom feigned outrage over the state’s slow progress on water storage.

“The time to get these dam projects (like Sites Reservoir) is ridiculous, absurd and somewhat comedic,” Newsom said in Sacramento.

If the Sites Reservoir, which is located west of the Sacramento Valley and has been in the planning process for more than 60 years, had been finished, the location would store excess flow from the Sacramento River.

Michael Shellenberger, who mounted an independent challenge for governor last year and is the founder of Public, a Substack publication, faulted Newsom for slow progress on state water storage. Newsom, Shellenberger said, remains captive to radical environmental activists who protest any and all development, and has only jumped on the issue recently over pressure from the drought.

“Gavin has been in the grip of pro-scarcity Malthusian environmentalists his entire career,” Shellenberger explained. “He hasn’t done what he’s needed to do to raise the heights of the reservoirs we have or build the new reservoirs we need.”

Prolonged drought periods that sometimes last up to 200 years are common in the American West, which, according to 2020 Census figures, is now home to nearly 79 million people.

“Water, it’s the dumbest thing in the world,” Shellenberger said. “It’s easy to store water, just dig a bigger hole, build higher walls.”

California’s slow reactive measures to manage the state’s water crisis, however, gave way to a missed opportunity. State leaders could have used the natural disaster to acquire a desperately needed natural resource, but instead, with the storm knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of residents and reportedly leading to at least 17 deaths, their failures ensured the weather event would be a net loss.

More on the Twitter Files - Exposing the Democrat and Media Fraud Behind 'the Russiagate Lies'

Susie Moore reporting for RedState 

We’ve been reporting on the Twitter Files as they’ve unfurled since early December. Independent journalist (and former Rolling Stone editor) Matt Taibbi was the first to begin sharing the files and has since shepherded several installments of them out into the Twitterverse.

Taibbi released the latest chapter Friday morning, as Sister Toldjah covered here. That release detailed the repeated efforts of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and his office to press Twitter to take censorious action against accounts they found troublesome.

Though it’s now several years in the rearview mirror, Russiagate was a seminal moment in the nation’s history involving collusion which did untold harm — not collusion between Donald Trump and Russia, mind you; collusion between numerous government actors and Big Tech. Another California Congressman was a central figure in the investigation into Russiagate — Republican Devin Nunes.

On Thursday afternoon, Taibbi released the 14th Twitter Files installment, detailing “the Russiagate lies” and the false narrative that Russian bots were behind #ReleaseTheMemo. The hashtag, which went viral, pertained to a classified memo submitted by Nunes to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) detailing FBI FISA abuses aimed at surveilling several figures in Trump’s circle.

In the 40-tweet thread, Taibbi laid out the back-and-forth between Twitter execs and Congressional Democrats, with the Dems insisting that Russian bots were behind the push to publicize the Nunes report and exhorting Twitter to tamp down on it, while Twitter insisted there wasn’t evidence of Russian involvement but rather, affirmative evidence the engagement was “overwhelmingly organic.”

Some of the key tweets:

The media were taking their cues from Democratic lawmakers who insisted this was all further evidence of the very Russian influence they claimed was at the heart of Trump’s election. Russia, Russia, Russia, indeed!

Taibbi further explains:

“Feinstein, Schiff, Blumenthal, and media members all pointed to the same source: the Hamilton 68 dashboard created by former FBI counterintelligence official Clint Watts, under the auspices of the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD).”

The problem? The dashboard was vague as to how it reached its conclusions, and Twitter execs were dubious, given that “Hamilton 68” appeared to be the sole source of the assertions and no one had bothered to actually check with Twitter as to whether there was evidence to support them. In one e-mail, Global Policy Communications Chief Emily Horne characterized the stories as “a comms play for ASD.” In another, Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth stated: “I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo and… none of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.”

As Taibbi notes, “Execs eventually grew frustrated over what they saw as a circular process – presented with claims of Russian activity, even when denied, led to more claims.”

Ultimately, per the e-mails shared by Taibbi, Twitter execs summed the situation up as “feeding congressional trolls” and likened it to the children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”

Unfortunately, rather than call out the chicanery, Twitter played along — at least publically. Taibbi observes, “Despite universal internal conviction that there were no Russians in the story, Twitter went on to follow a slavish pattern of not challenging Russia claims on the record.”

As a result, Taibbi explains most legacy media outlets went along with and amplified the Democrats’  narrative.

In other words, round and round we go and, by the time the truth comes out, the damage is well-past done.

Taibbi reached out to the Democratic lawmakers and media outlets that played a prominent role in the “Russian bots” story, including his own former employer, Rolling Stone, but all declined to comment. The sole comment came from Devin Nunes:

“Schiff and the Democrats falsely claimed Russians were behind the Release the Memo hashtag, all my investigative work… By spreading the Russia collusion hoax, they instigated one of the greatest outbreaks of mass delusion in U.S. history.”

Maddening.

When You Find Yourself in Agreement with Russell Brand…

You know things are squirrely when you find yourself listening to a rather unorthodox presentation of political events and agreeing with Russell Brand.

Someone shared this with me asking for my opinion.  

The presentation is a little over-the-top, but the message conveyed is ultimately accurate; remarkably so.  WATCH:

WATCH: Squad Member Pressley on Checking Chinese Aggression Is the Most Incredibly Stupid Take I've Ever Seen

 Mike Miller reporting for RedState 

As I began to write this article it occurred to me that someone needs to invent a game — call it Which Squad Member Said THIS? — which you could play with your friends in a number of ways. Perhaps as a drinking game or…but I digress. Needless to say, today’s offering could be one of the game cards.

Anyway, let’s first catch up. During a Thursday segment of “The Five,” co-host Kennedy set the table:

The House voted overwhelmingly to establish a Select Committee challenging the Communist Chinese on things like trade, defense, foreign policy, and human rights — 146 Democrats joined the Republicans in backing the measure, but Ayanna Pressley thinks it’s a terrible idea.

I know — try to control your shock and amazement.

The Massachusetts member of the ridiculous Squad, which also includes Mensa member [sarc] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Minnesota’s anti-Semitic Ilhan Omar, genius Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), and Missouri nutjob Cori Bush, didn’t disappoint when asked for her take.

It’s really clear that this is just a committee that would further embolden anti-Asian rhetoric and hate, and put lives at risk.

When asked if she thought the 146 Democrats who supported the measure were wrong, Pressley smugly replied: “We just see it differently.”

One wonders — this one, anyway — if Ms. Pressley believes the Uyghur people further embolden anti-Asian rhetoric and hate, simply because of the ChiComs’ genocidal war against them. [heavy sarc]

Truth is we should expect nothing more from Ayanna Pressley. A quick read through the following RedState articles pretty much tells you all you need to know about the Squad member’s hypocritical, far-left views.

Ayanna Pressley Introduces Resolution to Strip Lauren Boebert of Committee Assignments for Calling Ilhan Omar a Terrorist Fangirl

Boston Police Union Rips ‘Squad’ Member Ayanna Pressley For Her Support of Violent Antifa Activists

POPCORN. Ayanna Pressley Comes Within Inches Of Calling the Congressional Black Caucus Oreos

Here’s more on the new select committee, via Reuters:

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to create a select committee on China, using one of its first votes since Republicans took control to stress members’ desire to counter Beijing’s growing international influence.

The House voted 365 to 65 in favor of a resolution establishing the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, which will investigate the issue and make policy recommendations.

All 65 of the “no” votes came from Democrats, some of whom said they were concerned the Republican-led panel would be too partisan. But 146 other Democrats voted in favor.

[…]

There has been friction in U.S.-China relations over issues including the huge U.S. trade deficit, Chinese pressure on Taiwan, and Beijing’s transparency over its handling of COVID-19, which first surfaced in that country.

The new committee will be chaired by Republican Representative Mike Gallagher.

Not to nitpick, but how in the hell can a U.S. congressional investigation into the goings-on of Communist China — Xi Jinping has vowed world dominance by 2049 — be “too partisan”?

Oh, wait, it’s Ayanna Pressley. I’m out.

America Needs Truth and Reconciliation on Russiagate

The #TwitterFiles offer just the latest reasons why, but it's long been obvious that unwinding the Big Lie would be a key first step on this country's road to healing.

Twitter executives compared dealing with the endless cycle of Russian bot questions from politicians like Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to the children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”

The latest #TwitterFiles release is about a fake news story from early 2018:

https://t.co/0PUOm212iv a crucial moment in a years-long furor, Democrats denounced a report about flaws in the Trump-Russia investigation, saying it was boosted by Russian “bots” and “trolls.”

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

Remember this one? Russian bots and trolls were blamed by virtually every major news organization in the country for amplifying the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo. The files contain a mass of emails from executives blowing up this ridiculous story, once and for all.

The #ReleaseTheMemo scandal was one of the more shameful episodes in the recent history of our media, but taken seriously by all but one or two mainstream editors at the time. All citing the same dubious source — the Hamilton 68 “dashboard” trumpeted by former FBI counterintelligence official and current MSNBC contributor Clint Watts — they insisted Russians deployed Twitter bot-armies to whip up cyber-support for Republican congressmann Devin Nunes. Nunes had just released a classified memo alleging Democrats and the FBI used the infamous paid oppositional research dossier of ex-spy Christopher Steele to obtain secret FISA surveillance authority on Trump-connected figures like Carter Page, amid other improprieties. 

We now know Twitter internally found no evidence, as in zero, that Russians were anywhere near this story. 

“I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo,” wrote a piqued Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth, in all other respects as loyal a Democratic partisan as can be imagined. “None of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.” 

“These hashtags are organic,” said a second. 

“Not seeing it,” said a third. 

This is a constant theme in the files. In addition to revelations about FBI censorship, shadow-banning, Pentagon use of fake accounts, and suppression of true information about issues like Covid-19, the Twitter emails regularly expose the wide delta between what we were told about foreign threats, and what a major platform seeing the raw data knew. (In this case, for instance, the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag reportedly originated with @TracyBeanz, the clearly American editor of UncoverDC). Even within the heavily partisan culture at Twitter, the regular “Russia, Russia, Russia” claims by politicians and media in self-serving pursuit of headlines caused eyes to roll. 

“Members,” said one Twitter executive, “look foolish if they cry ‘Russia’ every time something happens on social media.”

We have a lot of problems in this country, and there are serious arguments to be had between blue and red about all sorts of issues, from immigration to the wealth gap to abortion and race. But the country is currently paralyzed by distrust of media that runs so deep that it prevents real dialogue, and that situation can’t be resolved until the corporate press swallows its pride and admits the clock has finally run out on its seven years of loony Russia conspiracies. 

It’s over, you nitwits. It’s time to stow the Mueller votive candles, cop to the coverage pileup created by years of errors, and start the reconciliation process. 

You’ll be tempted to shout, “But Trump, Stop the Steal, QAnon — Derp!” Don’t do it. Don’t be the Japanese soldier still clutching a bayonet to defend the forgotten atoll in 1960. Forget Trump: you need to clean your own house first. Expunging the years of absurd deceptions has to happen, if media companies ever want wide audiences to trust them again, and that starts with admitting the obvious screwups — like this case.