Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says Taiwan is not ready for a war with China.

 

Chinese fighters on patrol near Taiwan. The Hill/AP.

Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has said that Taiwan is not ready for a war with China. The Hill. Esper traveled to Taiwan last summer and informed Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen what he thought they should do to prepare for a potential war with China, which considers Taiwan to be their possession. Esper recommended a major build up in weapons and supplies, increasing the military budget and increasing the length of conscription. Taiwan is not recognized as an independent country by the United States but we have committed to defending the country. Esper did note that he didn't think China was ready for a war with Taiwan either, citing the difficulty of invading the island nation. 

My Comment:

I don't know if anyone is ever prepared for a major war and I doubt that Taiwan is any exception. Taiwan does have a decent military and weapons but they are obviously outnumbered by China and I think Esper is right, they need to spend more and conscript more. 

To be fair, China isn't anywhere near ready for a full scale invasion of Taiwan either. An amphibious invasion is one of the most difficult military tasks and I just don't think that China has the civilian or military vessels to do so at this point. They still need a few years to build up those forces before they can even attempt it. 

That being said, China might not need to invade. A military blockade could accomplish most of what they want. Taiwan is a island company and its economy is extremely dependent on trade. A major blockade could bring Taiwan to their knees and force them into some kind of deal with China. 

And I think China could probably do that with the forces they have now, assuming no interference from Western powers. But that's the rub, right now I think the west, along with Japan on other Eastern powers would want to help Taiwan if they got invaded. I don't think the time is right for China to try and blockade Taiwan either. 

Still, Taiwan does need to build up their forces quite dramatically. Most specifically, they need to build up anti-ship and anti-air weapons as those will be the biggest threat by far. Again, I am not convinced that China will ever invade Taiwan directly, but they can blockade and Taiwan needs to be sure they can break that blockade. 

Unfortunately for Taiwan, the entire world is distracted by Ukraine right now and we aren't really able to help build up Taiwan as much as they need to be. So many of our weapon stocks have been diverted to Ukraine there just isn't much left to go around for Taiwan. Even purchasing weapons from other countries might be difficult given how many weapons are being sucked into the Ukraine black hole. 

I do expect a war between Taiwan and China eventually, but I think it will take some time. I think China is playing the long game and is relying on the fact that the United States power is fading dramatically. No other country in the world is happier to see us waste our weapons reserves and bankrupt our country over Ukraine, of all things. The way things are going the United States will likely no longer be the world's greatest power within a decade or so, perhaps sooner. And when that happens then I expect China to strike and Taiwan had better have built up their defenses before then... 

Ukraine admits that the war is now deadlocked.

 

Ukrainian soldiers fire a howitzer. BBC/Getty.

Ukraine's spy chief, Kyrylo Budanov, has admitted in a BBC interview that the war between Ukraine and Russia is now deadlocked. BBC. In earlier stages of the war the front lines were fluid but now the front lines are stagnant with most of the fighting happening in Bakhmut. Budanov dismissed reports of a possible offensive being launched from Belarus, despite multiple meetings between Putin and Lukashenko and troop movements. Despite saying that Ukraine was unable advance without new western weapons, Budanov said Ukraine would prevail in the end. 

My Comment:

The Ukrainians are being absurdly optimistic here but it is still shocking for them to admit that the war isn't going their way anymore. To see the spy chief say that the front lines are frozen and that can't really advance anymore without western weapons is not something I expected them to admit anytime soon. 

I obviously think that things are actually going quite bad for Ukraine. They are taking absolutely massive casualties and unlike Russia, who have a massive army and huge numbers of untapped reserves, they can no longer easily replace them. 

Russia seems to be fighting smarter than they were at the beginning of the war. They have finally moved against Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, making the war dramatically harder to fight, which is something they should have done immediately after it was clear that the war wasn't going to be an easy victory. They are also getting better at counter battery fire with Ukrainian artillery systems getting regularly destroyed. 

Ukraine, on the other hand, is wasting thousands of troops in the battle for Bakhmut. Sure, Russia hasn't been able to take the town, but I don't even think that is their goal. Remember, Russia is playing the long game here. They don't care all that much about territory, their goal is to "de-nazify" and demilitarize Ukraine by destroying their military. For them, taking a city is not a big deal but the absolutely massive amount of casualties they are inflicting on Ukraine is a major win. 

Russia seems to be having less problems supplying their troops than Ukraine is as well. The west seems to be close to the limit of what they can supply to Ukraine as well. We are now dipping into our reserves and eventually will have to rely onto new production and I can't see how that will happen anytime soon. 

I do think that the west is extremely overconfident. They don't understand that they could lose this war. For our elites the west in Ukraine will win because no other option is believable. But they seem to forget that America lost in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and hasn't really won a war with anyone except ISIS. And with ISIS we had the help of pretty much every other nation in the world, including the Russians. 

As for me, I still think that the most likely end to the war is a negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine. They are at least attempting to talk to each other and it's very possible a deal could be made. Ukraine is the sticking point though as I think Zelenskyy understands that if he makes a deal with Russia he has a good chance of getting killed, either by hard-liners in his own government by the west. 

A Russian victory is the 2nd most likely option, as I think Ukraine is probably close to collapsing. Russia is winning economically and I think eventually the west will reach a point that they can no longer supply Ukraine with weapons. And they are mobilizing reserves and may launch a major offensive from Belarus. 

As for a Ukraine victory, I can't see it happening. It would require either a total collapse of the Russian military, which is unlikely to say the least, or for NATO to deploy troops. I can't see NATO openly joining the conflict and if that did happen, I don't see how the situation doesn't devolve into nuclear war. 

I do think what is best for Ukraine at this point would be to try and get as good as negotiated settlement as they can. They are already bankrupt and every day the war continues they lose men and materials. If they were to give Russia the territory they conquered and end the war soon, they might be able to recover from the war sometime in the next couple decades. But if the war continues, even if they "win" Ukraine may never recover... 

United States to again require testing for Coronavirus for travelers from China

 

Travelers in China. Fox News/AP.

The United States will again require negative Coronavirus test results for travelers from China. Fox News. The ruling comes after China has  removed their Zero Covid restrictions that imposed lockdowns much more severe than what happened in the United States. It is unclear what is happening in China after they lifted most of their restrictions as China has not been sharing data. Some estimate that China could have had as many as 250 million cases in the three weeks since they dropped Zero Covid. The CDC will also increase their efforts to sequence the genome of any Coronavirus samples from Chinese travelers to try and detect any new variants. 

My Comment:

This is starting to make me nervous, but not for the reason you think. I have no real fear of the Coronavirus anymore. It's not worse than the flu at this point and I have gotten that enough times that I'm not worried about getting it again. Plus the Coronavirus is now a lot less deadly then it was when it first came onto the scene almost three years ago, it's now equivalent to a bad cold or a weak flu for the vast majority of people. And the vast majority of Americans now have natural antibodies against the virus. 

So why would I be worried about this? Because it could be the excuse Biden needs to put us all back under lockdown and masks again. I think Biden wants to do this and would if he could as it would excuse the current bad economy. After all, if the economy tanks after lockdowns all Biden has to do is throw up his hands and say "nothing I can do". Nobody wants to go back to lockdown here in the United States and as far as we are concerned the pandemic is over. 

I am not concerned about new variant of the virus coming out. As I have said before it would be extremely unlikely for a new variant to be deadlier than the forms that are out there now. The exact opposite usually happens. Viruses tend to get weaker over time and that certainly has been the case with the Coronavirus. 

It is clear that we don't know exactly what is going on in China. They aren't really cooperating with international authorities anymore and we really have no idea how many people are getting sick and dying with the Coronavirus right now. 

Are things bad there? Probably not. Like I said, the virus is not anywhere near as deadly as it once was. It can still kill people, but most of those people will be the ones that are on the way out anyways. Just like the flu, there will be unlucky people dying because of the virus. 

There are probably problems going on in China though. China is the closest thing to a "virgin" population for the virus. I never really believed the numbers from China so I think more people have partial immunity than people think, but if there is anywhere where people haven't been exposed to the virus it's probably China. With no natural immunity and China's vaccines being crap, there could be a few people getting very sick. 

Still, I think this is more about China trying to save face yet again. They can't admit that Zero Covid was the wrong move so they are trying to downplay new cases and deaths. That doesn't mean that there is a huge number of deaths being covered up but it does mean that they aren't telling the truth about what they are doing. 

With all that being said, is it worth it to bring back testing for people from China? Probably not. Like I said, I am not afraid of new variants and it's not like the virus isn't still around here in the first place. The Coronavirus is never going away and we can't keep asking like it's not just another virus at this point. We have no reason to waste resources on testing, though I suppose it's China that is going to bear the cost. 

Another war in Europe? Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo are high.

 

A roadblock that appeared in Kosovo. BBC/Reuters. 

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo are high with fears of another European war breaking out. BBC. Serbia has raised their military alert to the highest level after claims that Kosovo is targeting ethnic Serbs in the country. Kosovo is a majority Muslim country with a small Serbian Christian minority. Serbia says that Kosovo is plotting terror attacks against Serbs and claims that there was a shooting incident targeting Serbs, though nobody was hurt. The high tensions started over a dispute over license plates, of all things, after Kosovo demanded that Serbs in the country give up their Serbian issued license plates. NATO has peacekeepers deployed in Kosovo. 

My Comment:

What a stupid thing to potentially go to war over. License plates? Really? Both sides appear to be extremely foolish to push an issue that absolutely doesn't matter. And it would seem to be easy to come to a compromise. Perhaps two license plates at once? I'm far from an expert about the region but given the bad memories of the pervious war they should be able to come to a compromise.

Regardless, it's not really about license plates, it's about Muslims and Christians not being able to get along. Kosovo is majority Muslim and the Serbs have a valid fear that the Serbs still left in Kosovo could be attacked. Kosovo doesn't like the Serbs having control in their territory. It's a mess. 

What is sad is that this issue was solved under President Trump. Trump was able to use Richard Grenell to broker a deal between the countries and normalize relations. Trump used the carrot of economics to bring the sides together but I guess Biden wasn't interested in keeping the agreement up. 

Biden isn't really focused on the issue at all. If he cares about a 2nd major war breaking out in Europe I haven't heard about it. Biden, scatterbrained at the best of times, is focused on Ukraine to the cost of everything else. It might backfire on him. 

If a war does break out NATO troops will likely be involved. And unlike Ukraine it would probably involve boots on the ground. For some reason NATO is on the side of Kosovo and would probably attack Serbia if a war broke out. I personally think that it's none of our business and that we should not get involved, but I don't think that will happen. 

Any such war would force the United States into a difficult position. They can't single handedly fund the Ukraine war while at the same time doing combat missions in Kosovo and Serbia. Tough choices would have to be made. I personally would be ok with either abandoning Kosovo or the Ukraine war since I don't want us to be involved with either, but it would be an interesting discussion to see who wins out in that fight. 

But war is not inevitable. Right now it's just a bunch of saber rattling and there is every chance to avoid a conflict. A compromise on the plate issue seems like common sense and it's very possible that a deal could be made. Unfortunately I don't see the Biden White House focusing on diplomacy as they have pretty much completely given up on diplomacy and like I said, they don't care about anything else but Ukraine... 

Looters ransack Buffalo New York after massive snow storm.

 

A damaged Cricket Wireless store in Buffalo New York. New York Post/WGRZ.

Looters have ransacked several businesses in Buffalo New York in the aftermath of a major blizzard. New York Post. Police were busy with search and rescue operations after a major storm dropped 40 inches of snow on the city, leaving at least 27 people dead. Looters took advantage of the police being busy to make away with goods while also damaging stores. Police have started to make arrests for looting but are still hampered by poor weather conditions. Buffalo's Mayor, Byron Brown, said that the looters were not taking supplies needed in the aftermath of the storm, but stealing things they wanted instead. 

Looting of stores in Buffalo and New York at the same time as the extreme cold and frost pic.twitter.com/jczYBJgjNq

— The last word (@Thelast05015969) December 26, 2022

 

🚨#BREAKING: Looting breaks out after a major blizzard hits

📌#Buffalo l #NY

Watch as video shows dozens of people looting stores and shops after a major blizzard hit parts of Buffalo causing people to be stranded with no supplies people can be seen walking out with items pic.twitter.com/tE0D9ssSFO

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) December 26, 2022

My Comment:

This is a fairly major news story that most news outlets aren't covering for pretty obvious reasons. The mainstream media almost always takes the sides of looters and criminals as long as they are perceived to be Democratic voters. Since Buffalo is a Democratic Stronghold the media will not criticize these people. 

It's very clear to me that these people weren't taking supplies they needed because of the storm. They were instead just taking things they wanted and didn't want to pay for. There is nothing you need in a survival situation in a cell phone store, for example. Other stores were ransacked and destroyed, which is not something you need to do if you are just trying to survive a storm. 

It's very clear that these people were taking advantage of the disaster to their own ends. To them, this wasn't a major winter storm where dozens of people died nationally, it was a chance to get stuff they wanted and didn't want to pay for. 

The police could do little to prevent this as they were unable to do much of anything. Most of them were either out trying to rescue people trapped in the snow or were trapped in the snow themselves. From what I understand there was 40 inches of snow and high winds blowing that snow around, which means that a lot of roadways were blocked. You could still walk through the snow and that is how these looters were able to steal so much. 

A few people on Twitter were trying to defend the looters but I am thankful that nobody seemed to be buying it. This wasn't people taking food and other resources, it was looting, plain and simple. And the people trying to defend it looked utterly ridiculous. Sometime people's actions are so over the top that even people on Twitter have a hard time defending it. 

I do think that this is a strong argument for gun rights. We have seen again and again that the police aren't always up to the job. In this case the police were unable to do so because of the weather and more pressing concerns, like rescuing trapped people. But we have also seen in 2020 that sometimes the police are either unwilling or ordered to not help people when looting and rioting is going on. 

When it comes down to it your safety comes down to you and it's very possible that this kind of thing will get more common. This time it was targeting businesses but what happens next time when it's people's homes getting targeted. Keep in mind too, that these people were just out for a good time, what happens when people are truly desperate? You will need a gun to defend yourself because you don't want to think about what will happen if you don't have one.  

Why are weather forecasts so inaccurate?

 

As you are probably aware the midwest is in the middle of a major snow and cold event, which is terrible. Things aren't great here as we had several inches of snow along with high winds and extreme cold temperatures. We are expecting 40 mile per hour winds and heavy drifting tomorrow as well. 

But I am actually relived. Why? It was forecasted to be so much worse. Earlier in the week we were supposed to get 12 to 17 inches. Right now though? Supposedly we got 7 inches but it sure feels like it's more like 5. To be fair it's hard to tell with everything drifting, but how did they get things so wrong?

It's always like this. Everyone who lives in the midwest has a dozen stories of how the weather forecasters have said that we were going to get two feet of snow and we end up with three inches. Or the forecast is for three inches and we get two feet. It happens every winter and it's ridiculous. 

I just don't understand how they can get forecasts so bad. About all you can rely on is that they will generally get if it is going to snow or not right, but other than that it's a total crap shoot. They aren't giving accurate forecasts. 

Some of this I think is actual deception. I think the major weather players know that they get more visits to their websites if people are panicking due to the threat of snow. To be fair, I understand that completely, I hate driving in snow and it's the worst part of living in Wisconsin by far. And these companies understand that and intentionally drive up the snow total levels so people pay attention to their forecasts. 

It's especially annoying for someone like me that doesn't get to stay home from work when it gets snowy. For me it's very important to have accurate information about what storms are going to do and now I just don't get it. It's extremely annoying. 

I know that this is more of a rant than a traditional post but I am pretty annoyed with the whole thing. I also didn't have a whole lot of time tonight to get a post up as I had to clean off my cars and recharge the battery of the one I didn't use today by taking it for a short drive. I should have a more normal post up tomorrow but no promises for posts on Christmas Eve and Day as I will be spending the time with my family. 

Russia warns against US escalation in Ukraine War.

 

Vladimir Putin. Fox News/AP.

Russia has warned against US escalation in the Ukraine War. Fox News. A Kremlin spokesman, Dimitry Peskov, said an increase in aid would  "(lead) to an aggravation of the conflict and, in fact, does not bode well for Ukraine." Zelenskyy's much ballyhooed visit to the United States was also not views positively by Russia, with Peskov saying it made any peace talks unlikely. The latest massive spending package to Ukraine will include Patriot Missile batteries and guided munitions' for Ukraine's air force. 

My Comment:

It was hard to find any article that was even remotely neutral on the Ukraine conflict today as most western media is busy drooling over Zelenskyy and his idiotic visit to Congress. At least this post from Fox News and the Associated Press gave Russian voices a chance to be heard. 

And I think that people should be listening what to Russia is saying. Everyone knows that a major offensive is coming and I think the main goal will be to cut off western supplies from NATO. The fact that the United States now wants to give Patriot missiles gives Russia a major incentive to target infrastructure and cut off these supplies. 

Sending guided bombs for Ukrainian fighter jets is an absolute joke as Ukraine's air force has been a non-factor for a long time. But the Patriot missile batteries? Probably not much of an impact either. They probably would threaten Russian air power but they haven't been used all that much either. It's just another example of NATO trying to send Wuderwaffen to Ukraine and it has largely failed. 

I think that Congress has underestimated how angry this is going to make Americans. Sure, there are a lot of people that do want to support Ukraine but there are millions of people in this country that cannot understand why Ukraine seems to get unlimited money for a war we don't even want while Americans get nothing.

And it's a bipartisan thing too, or at least it should be. The conservatives are wondering why Ukraine gets Patriot missiles but our border gets absolutely nothing. Liberals are wondering why Ukraine gets guided bombs while college students don't get their debt relieved. You can question if those are good goals or not but the fact is that for all the money we have wasted in Ukraine we could have, if not solved, we could have helped with these goals significantly. 

People are going to remember this. At a time when our borders are being invaded, while inflation spirals out of control, when crime runs rampent and when any of a dozen massive and dangerous problems aren't being dealt with, what is Congress focusing on? The foreign leader of a government that has done absolutely nothing for American citizens but has laundered our money into aid to the elite. 

What gets me about all of this is that Russia is pretty obviously winning the war. Ukraine has been taking unsustainable casualties for months now and is probably pretty damn close to collapse. Obviously if Ukraine was doing as well as western media sources were saying, why did Zelenskyy come to the United States with his hands out? All this money that we are sending to them? An utter waste of money and I wouldn't be surprised if the war ends with a massive NATO failure, assuming the war doesn't expand into World War III... 

Entire B-2 Spirit bomber fleet grounded after an emergency landing and fire last month.

 

File photo of a B-2 Spirit doing a flyover at an NFL game. AP.

The entire B-2 Spirit bomber fleet has been grounded after an emergency landing and fire last month. AP. One of the bombers had a malfunction in flight and was forced to land and it caught fire afterwards. The shutdown is significant as the B-2 Spirit is part of the nuclear deterrence triad. With the fleet grounded the only the B-52 bomber is capable of launching nuclear attacks from the air. The US would still have missile and submarine based nuclear weapons. The US only has 20 surviving B-2 Spirits. The plane's replacement, the B-21 Raider, has been announced and revealed but have not even taken a test flight. 

My Comment:

More evidence that NATO is not ready for a war with Russia or China. Yesterday I wrote about how Germany has a massive headache because its new IFV, the Puma, is not capable of combat due to breakdowns. Now we find out that our most important bomber is now out of service and we don't know for how long. 

The B-2 bomber would be critical in any conventional war against Russia or China. The B-2 are hard to hit with anti-air radar and they would be needed to launch attacks far beyond enemy lines. The B-1 and B-52 bombers obviously don't have that capability and we really don't have anything in our fleet that could really try it, unless they want to un-mothball the obsolete and probably ineffective F-117 Nighthawk. 

But in a nuclear war? It would be absolutely critical. Without B-2's one third of our nuclear weapons triad is basically out of service. The B-52 is not capable of surviving a raid on enemy territory and the B-1 would have to be modified to be able to use nuclear weapons again. We would obviously have our submarines and ICBM's but it would still put at us at an advantage. 

My guess is that if a war were to happen we would probably have to use the B-2's regardless of the risk. Without more information it's hard to tell how exactly serious the problem with the B-2's is, but I am thinking in any major conflict with Russia we would be in such dire straits we would have to use the B-2's anyways. Better they have a malfunction and crash than be destroyed on the ground by a nuclear strike. 

What is strange to me is that they are announcing this via the media which makes me wonder if this isn't actual disinformation. Obviously there are advantages to having the Russians or Chinese think that our fleet is down when it actually is ready. I don't think that is what is happening here but I did think it is worth it to point out. I don't think they would bother faking a forced landing and fire just to mess with the Russians. 

Again, I would hope that the lack of readiness in NATO forces would cause some people to reconsider their undeclared war with Russia. If the conflict were to spiral out of control I don't think we would do well. Our troops are not ready and our equipment is not ready for a major conflict. And we have depleted our stocks of weapons and ammo which would be a real problem in a longer conflict. Unfortunately, I still don't see much in the way of diplomacy. 

Germany halts purchases of their Puma IFV after 18 out of 18 involved in an exercise break down.

 

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht rides in a Puma IFV. The Guardian/Reuters.

Germany has halted purchases of their Puma Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) after 18 out of 18 involved in a recent exercise broke down. The Guardian. The Pumas were supposed to be ready for combat operations next January but the plans are now on hold as the new IFV's will not be used. Germany will have to rely on their aging Schützenpanzer Marder IFV's. Germany has begun efforts to try and modernize their fighting force but the failure of the Puma will be a major setback in that effort. Germany has 350 Pumas in their inventory. 

My Comment:

The failure of the Puma is a huge embarrassment for Germany and one that could complicate efforts to prepare for a possible war between NATO and Russia. Losing 100% of your IFV's in a military training exercise is pretty much completely unacceptable. 

This doesn't surprise me too much though, I have not been too impressed with German equipment since the G-36 disaster. The H&K G-36 was Germany's service rifle and, if nothing else, it looked cool. But the rifle was found to be pretty much garbage in combat conditions. German troops stationed in Afghanistan reported that the gun would overheat and warp, meaning accuracy was terrible, which was very bad in the long range combat situation. The rifles are being replaced by the HK-416.

It's unclear why all of these new IVF's failed. The Puma's are not old at all, they were introduced in 2015. It's possible it is a maintenance issue. Germany has been fairly neglectful of their military and I wouldn't be surprised if maintenance on these weapons was poor. Still, it's pretty absurd that even with poor maintenance that they would still get 100% failure rate during a military exercise. Russia got better results with their mothballed vehicles they took out of storage to fight in Ukraine.  

My guess is that the IFV's were just poorly designed and built. From what I understand the main focus for German designers on the Puma was survivability and to be fair they supposedly did a good job there. But it's possible that they overengineered the vehicle making it harder to maintain. And it's possible they were just poorly built. 

Germany does not have good options to replace the Puma. The Marder is obsolete and 40 years old. Germany is trying to modernize some of them but that's a stopgap solution at best. Realistically in the short term they will have to try and figure out how and why these vehicles failed and try and fix them. If war breaks out they will have no choice but to use them. Long term I think they will either have to develop a new IFV or purchase ones from other countries. 

IFV's are mostly support and transport vehicles that can support infantry. They aren't tanks because they don't have the survivability that tanks have. They aren't ideal for fighting against tanks and are extremely vulnerable against air power and anti-tank weapons. Without effective IFV's Germany will have trouble transporting infantry and supporting tanks. 

Keep in mind this is all happening during the high tensions between NATO and Russia. War between the alliance and Russia still seems fairly unlikely but it's far from impossible and it's very clear that one of the major allies is no longer prepared for a war. In a sane world this would perhaps make some people in NATO push for a peaceful solution to the Ukraine conflict but I have seen very little effort to do anything like that from any NATO ally... 

El Paso mayor declares state of emergency over massive wave of illegal immigrants.

 

Hundreds of illegal immigrants in Juarez awaiting the repeal of Title 42 on December 21st. Reuters. 

The mayor of El Paso has declared a state of emergency over a massive wave of illegal immigrants that are expected as Title 42 expires. Reuters. Democrat Mayor Oscar Leeser made the emergency declarations to somehow deal with the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants that have entered the country recently. Things are expected to get worse after a judge has ruled that Title 42, an Coronavirus related border order, was to go out of effect on December 21st. The El-Paso sector of the border has been seeing 2400 illegals a day. Once Title 42 expires many of the illegals from El Paso are expected to be moved to Democrat led cities like Chicago and New York. 

My Comment:

You would think that the massive invasion of illegal immigrants on our southern border would be a bigger story but it's mostly a non-factor. There have been a few stories in the media about title 42 but it's not a big story to say the least. But given the massive amount of damage this could do to pretty much everyone involved it's absurd that it isn't bigger than it is. 

What never makes any sense about this is that we don't simply deport these people. There is no reason for any of these people to be their. The ones that are refugees, which are a minority from what I understand, are perfectly safe in Mexico. The vast majority of them are just economic migrants and there is absolutely no reason for them to be here. Let Mexico deal with it. 

Title 42 was helping but that was always a temporary thing. It's basically impossible to argue that the Coronavirus pandemic is still a threat and with that being the case there isn't really a way to keep Title 42. It's most likely going away and once it does that goes our most effective way in dealing with these people. 

I noticed that the mayor of El Paso was going to do the same thing that Governors DeSantis and Abbott have done. They are going to ship many of these illegals to Democrat led cities including Chicago and New York. I doubt that Mayor Leeser will get the same kind of backlash that DeSantis and Abbott got, even though he will be doing the exact same thing. 

Regardless, shipping these people is not the answer. These Democrat led cities aren't capable of taking care of their own people, let alone tens of thousands of illegals. There isn't really any answer to this other than deportation. 

But the Democrats won't do that. They don't care about the damage illegal immigrants do. They only care about changing the demographics of red states to the point where it's impossible for Republicans to win. It doesn't matter if the social services they like collapse under the weight of everything.

What really gets me is why aren't the Republicans focusing on this? Indeed, they won in 2016 because Donald Trump focused on immigration almost exclusively. Inexplicably, both Trump and the Republicans abandoned the issue in 2020 and 2022 and I think it costs them. It's such a winning issue for them but they aren't focusing on it at all...

So I bought Twitter blue...

Elon Musk in 2018. The Royal Society. 

As you are probably aware of Twitter is in the news pretty much constantly. I have a fairly active account there (at least by my standards) and I have had problems with the company in the past. But as of tonight I have bought a Twitter Blue subscription. 

What is Twitter Blue? It's Elon Musk's money making operation and it gives users several features, many of which aren't rolled out yet. The first and most obvious is the blue checkmark that in the past was used mostly to denote celebrity and journalist accounts. Now anyone can get one if they are willing to shell out the $8 a month (or $11 if they are on an iPhone). 

Why on earth would I buy this? Several reasons. Some of it is pure pragmatism. My blog gets the vast majority of its views via social media and I would say that Twitter is probably the biggest one. Sometimes I get more from Facebook, but the majority of my views come from Twitter, with other social media sites like Parler and Gab being mostly trivial. 

I have been searching for a different way to advertise my blog for awhile now ever since Facebook beefed up their requirements. I had bought a few advertisements from Facebook but in the wake of the 2016 election they wanted more than my debit card to identify myself. I didn't think Facebook needed a copy of my drivers license, among other things, so I have gone without any advertisement for my blog. That has meant the growth of my blogs readership has largely stayed stagnant. 

Will Twitter Blue help with this? I don't know. I know Elon Musk has said that verified accounts will get preferential treatment and that I would be higher in search results and that could result in more people reading my blog. And people do take the blue check marks seriously for some silly reason, so it could make people more willing to click on links I post. My guess is that it will probably help a little bit, but will it be worth the $8 a month? I don't know. 

Still, some of the other features are pretty cool. I have been waiting for an edit button for a long time and now I finally can edit my tweets in a 30 minute window. That's a huge upgrade and one worth using. They also give you a small cool down period to review what you just tweeted which is probably a good thing as not only does that allow you to change your tweet, you can also think for a few seconds if what you sent out was a good idea or not. 

Honestly though, half the reason I got Twitter blue is because of how entertaining Twitter has been since Musk took over. It reminded me of the good old days of Trump's 2016 run where a huge community sprung up on social media. Plus, it's finally good to see things like Keith Olbermann melting down, getting banned and then being forced to tweet from his rescue dog's account. It honestly is worth it to me to send a few bucks Elon's way just so this circus can continue. 

Will I keep Twitter Blue? Probably. $8 a month is pretty trivial and if I am ever in a situation where it isn't, it's not like it would be hard to cut it out. Some of the new features are nice and like I said, Twitter is actually fun again. I mean, you still have to follow the rules but it's not anywhere near as oppressive feeling it was under the old regime. Time will tell if it is worth it or not, but for now I am just enjoying the ride.

Citing threats from China and North Korea, Japan will double their military spending.

Protesters in Japan who are opposed to the increase in funding. BBC/EPA.

Japan will double the amount they spend on their military, citing threats from China and North Korea. BBC. Japan has been a pacifist country since the conclusion of World War II. That role appears to be changing as former Prime Minster Shinzo Abe redefined the role of Japan's military. The new military budget now will pay for the purchase of American long range missiles capable of destroying bases targeting Japan. The funding will also pay for an expansion in cyberwarfare capabilities. The new military budget will be about 2% of Japan's GDP. China is upset by the increase in funding and is urging Japan to remain partners. However, Japan cites China's threats against Taiwan, as well as possible threats from North Korea, as the justification for the increase in spending. 

My Comment:

I always thought that Japan's post war military policy was fairly misguided. In the past they could at least rely on the United States to protect them, but given the current leadership of the United States and the nonsensical policies emanating from our government, I don't blame them for stepping up their military spending. 

In short, Japan is now doing what every other major country in the world has done with their military. It's actually kind of absurd that they did not have a long range strike capability as pretty much all of the other major players in the region have such weapons. They had greatly handicapped themselves by not having a 2nd strike capability if their enemies attacked them. 

There is a fear I guess that this could create an arms race. I honestly am not too worried about it. The arms race is already basically here with China leading the race. They have spend billions of dollars modernizing their military and building up a major fleet, so it's not surprising that other powers in the region are doing the same thing. 

Japan does face some major threats, and China is only the most obvious. The Japanese and Chinese people have a long history and most of it has been bad. And I think Japan understands that they could be next if Taiwan does get invaded, so they have a major incentive to want to fight in that war if it does indeed happen. 

North Korea is more of a wildcard, they are only dangerous because they are unpredictable. Even under Japan's old military budget and strategy, North Korea would not win a war against Japan. They could hurt Japan though so I do think it's wise for Japan to spend money to try and prevent that, or at least bring up the costs to North Korea if they were to attack by having the ability to destroy their bases. 

And now Russia is a problem for Japan as well. I don't think that Russia has any real reason to be against Japan but the problem is that Japan is allied with the west and the Ukraine situation could end up going so bad that it could draw Japan into the war. I find that fairly unlikely, but it is possible and if it happens Japan needs to be ready for it. 

Still, even with this increase in budget, Japan is still fighting with one hand behind their backs. They don't have nuclear weapons (though I think they could develop them fairly soon) and their fleet is merely a shadow of what it could be. If a major Pacific War were to break out I do think we could see Japan fully abandoning pacifism....

 

Belarus conducts wide scale exercises near the border with Ukraine. Could they be joining the war?

 

File photo from Ukraine. US News/AP.

Belarus is conducing wide scale exercises near the border with Ukraine. Reuters. The exercises included an anti-terror operation, a snap inspection and an increase in readiness for units deployed to the border with Ukraine. The situation is serious enough that Belarus has limited some civilian travel in the area. Belarus has said they are not joining the war but have allowed Russia to use its territory to launch attacks and there is a possibility that they could indeed join the war as most of the military activity has been near the border. Belarus has a fairly small and unimpressive military but the threat of an invasion from the country has forced Ukraine to position some units near the border. 

My Comment:

I first wrote about the possibility of Belarus joining the war back in October. Most of what I said back then still applies now. Though Russia would certainly be happy with Belarus joining the war it won't be a gamechanger by any means. Compared to Ukraine and Russia, Belarus is a minor power with a small and outdated military. Without Russia's help they would lose in a war against Ukraine and do so badly. 

And despite these exercises I don't know if Belarus is joining the war or not. They have a lot of reasons to not do so and the main reason to actually invade is loyalty to Russia and not much else. They wouldn't gain territory in any war with Ukraine and they would probably lose a lot of troops if they were to invade. It's not like Belarus is swimming in money either. 

If they were to invade I would not expect them to do all that much unless there was a large amount of Russian troops to help them. Like I said, their military is pretty pathetic and without major Russian help I can't see them doing much even against Ukrainian conscripts. I doubt that Ukraine has their best troops in the region but even so I don't see Belarus having much in the way of competent fighters and equipment. 

When you come down to it though, it hardly matters if Belarus is joining the war or not. They are acting like they will be doing so and that will force Ukraine to move forces around to deal with the threat. That means that they will probably have to either take troops off of the line or end up deploying whatever reserves they have left. If it is real those troops will be caught in the fighting and if it isn't then they will be out of position when the Russian offensive actually comes. 

Ukraine can't take the risk by leaving the border undefended, if they do and Belarus does attack I bet even their army could make major progress in cutting off Ukraine's rear areas. If Belarus were to somehow make a large amount of progress they could even cut supply lines and choke off the flow of aid and weapons from the west. That's fairly unlikely but it's not outside the realm of possibility. 

As for the war itself, it appears to be in a stalemate for the moment. There does not appear to be a whole lot of movement on either side, with minor advances and retreats for both sides. I am expecting a major offensive from the Russians as soon as their newly mobilized conscripts are up to speed and deployed. And I would expect it sooner rather than later as Spring is mud season in Ukraine and any offensive would likely have to be launched before then. Whether Belarus is going to be involved in that or not is something we will find out soon enough. 

Troops from India and China clash in border dispute.

 

File photo from the area of dispute. BBC/Getty.

Troops from China and India have clashed in the border region of Tawang in the Arunachal Pradesh state. BBC. At least six Indian troops and an unknown number of Chinese troops were injured in the skirmish. India claims that the Chinese troops crossed the border in the disputed region and the Indian troops responded with force. The brawl ended quickly with commanders on both sides meeting each other to reduce tensions. There have been border skirmishes between the two countries in the region before, including a 2020 incident where at least 20 Indian and at least four Chinese troops died. Efforts to reduce tensions had been successful with both sides pulling back troops from the region. It is unclear what the effects of this skirmish will be.

My Comment:

I am not expecting too much to come from this. I don't think a war between China and India is likely anytime soon. Yes, they both claim this region but as of right now I don't see either of them going to war for it. The only real thing at stake there is the national pride of each country. 

Why don't I think these border clashes are serious? Because they involve fists and clubs and not rifles and tanks. Real border conflicts involve heavy weapons, not people beating on each other. And even there that doesn't always mean that a full scare war will erupt. Indeed, India and Pakistan had some recent and fairly serious border clashes and it did not result in a full scale war. 

This seems more like saber rattling for the sake of saving face. Both sides make claims to this territory and neither side is willing to admit that it's not worth going to war over. Doing so would be embarrassing and would not be popular at home. So they have a little brawl in the mountains to save face. 

What is interesting is if this was ordered by China or if it was just one commander doing his own thing. With China being the way that it is I can't see one of their commanders just deciding to push a border issue like this but I guess it is possible. My guess is that China did this by themselves to save face. That's assuming that you believe India's account, which, to be fair, we probably shouldn't. They just have the advantage of actually releasing a statement while China has remained mostly silent on the issue. 

Much like yesterday's post about the saber rattling between Turkey and Greece, I don't expect much to come from this. Like Turkey, both India and China have bigger things to worry about. Even ignoring the elephant in the room, the economy, both sides have bigger foreign policy threats. India obviously has Pakistan and China is laser focused on Taiwan over all other things. Neither side wants an actual war with each other.

Still, these border clashes between China and India are absurd. It's crazy that two of the most powerful and populated countries in the world would send their troops to just brawl with each other. If it wasn't for the fact that people occasionally die in these skirmishes it would actually be pretty funny. 

Turkey warns Greece that they now have missiles that can hit Athens...

 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Politico/AFP.

Turkey has warned Greece that they now have missiles that can hit Athens. Politico. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was referring to Turkey's new Tayfun (typhoon) ballistic missiles that have a range of 560 kilometers (347 miles). Erdogan threatened to use those missiles if Greece tried to develop or purchase similar weapons. The two countries remain NATO allies but the relationship is extremely strained due to many issues including maritime boundaries and Cyprus. The Turks say that Greece is building up forces in the Aegean Sea and that the build up is unacceptable. For their part, Greece has pressured their other NATO allies saying that the situation could turn into another "Ukraine". 

My Comment:

With allies like these. The last thing the world needs right now is a conflict between Turkey and Greece. Such a conflict would cripple trade in the region and would utterly destroy the NATO alliance. Though I wouldn't be upset about the 2nd part, a war between Greece and Turkey helps no one. 

The real question is if this is a real threat or just more saber rattling between the two nations. I would think that an actual war is fairly unlikely. The entire region has a lot on its plate right now and there is always the threat of war with Russia to help keep the alliance in line. 

I am fairly skeptical that Turkey wants another war right now regardless. They are kind of bogged down with their own mess with the Kurds and they are probably going to invade Syria and possibly Iraq any day now. The Kurds have been a much larger problem than the Greeks ever had been and I can't see them taking the foot off the Kurds neck just to get into a pointless war with a major ally. 

But then again, this is 2022 and nothing about foreign policy makes sense. The hatred between the two countries is real and I consider it fair on the Greeks part. After all, Turkey was responsible for the Greek genocide, so it's not like there isn't precedence for conflict between the two states. 

I don't blame the Greeks for shoring up their defenses. They are under threat and they can't trust Erdogan. I don't think it's worth it for them to try and purchase long range missiles like the Turks have. Doing so wouldn't really help that much during a war, after all, ballistic missiles are used fairly regularly in the Yemen conflict and it hasn't had that much of an effect. It's simply not worth the risk to purchase these weapons at this point for the Greeks. 

As for Erdogan, I consider him to be a thug and everything that people say about Vladimir Putin is also true about Tayyip Erdogan. He's a warmonger and a leader that could cause major problems for the rest of the world. I do wish that the coup against him had succeeded, though there is no guarantee that the coup plotters would have been any better than he is. 

Still, I am not too worried about a war breaking out between Greece and Turkey, at least not yet. NATO is still a major force and the last thing the United States wants is a war between two of their allies. I am sure there will be some diplomatic pressure put on both sides to cool off. The world has enough tinder boxes as it is there is no reason to add to it. 

Canada will expand their assisted suicide law to include people with mental health issues.

 

File photo of Canada's Supreme Court. Reuters. 

Canada is preparing to expand their assisted suicide law to include people with mental health issues. Reuters. Starting in March people with mental health will be able to apply for access to assisted suicide. Under the previous law these patients were not able to do so. 30,000 Canadians have died since the country legalized assisted suicide in 2016, with 10,000 of those cases happening in 2021, which amounts to 3.3% of all deaths in the country. The system has come under criticism with some people requesting death because they lack adequate support. Four Canadian veterans also reported that they were suggested to commit suicide by the department unprompted. Others criticize the expansion as it is likely impossible to determine if a mental health case is so severe that it can't be treated by conventional means. 

My Comment:

Canada's state assisted suicide program is again in the news. It has been bubbling under the surface for awhile but it seems pretty clear that things are stepping up. In the past it was just terminally ill people that were being put down, but now it's the mentally ill as well? 

I'm not a fan of assisted suicide, at least in the way Canada does it. I do think that people have a right to end their lives if they are suffering, but I don't think the government should have anything to do with it whatsoever. If it is done at all it should be between that person, their family and whatever deity they worship. What gets me is that in Canada someone who purchases a firearm and then pulls the trigger on themselves would be condemned but if the same person goes to the government they will be all for it. 

Supposedly there are a lot of controls to ensure there aren't any abuses of this system, but I have little faith that there aren't abuses going on. Asking the veterans to consider suicide seems like something out of a parody but it apparently happened. I can see things getting worse when the mentally ill are allowed into this program as well. 

What is really scary about this is that the system has a major perverse incentive to promote assisted suicide. Many of the people requesting suicide are expensive to the state as they cost millions of dollars in care as their lives come to an end. And now people with mental health issues, who are also expensive to treat, are going to be able to kill themselves as well? It seems like the government has a major incentive here to not protect these people. 

Who is to say that people with non-terminal disease won't be encouraged to end their lives? It's one thing to assist someone in suicide if they are already in the process of dying. But with the mentally ill included it could be that other expansions could happen as well. Perhaps someone with cancer will be told to kill themselves instead of getting expensive surgery and treatment? It just seems like an expansion to rationing healthcare. 

I also think it sends the wrong message to the people with mental illness. I don't know a whole lot about suicide prevention but I do know that for most mental health cases suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I also don't know how you can argue that some kid having a bad day killing himself is bad when you also say that someone with some kind of long term mental issue killing themselves is good. It's hypocrisy. 

 Yes, many people with mental illness aren't ever going to get any better. And yes, some of those people might be better off dead. But I sure as hell don't trust any government, yet alone the government of Canada, which has been so abusive to its citizens lately, to make that kind of decision. The government has every incentive to put these people down like dogs.  

Would this be as much as a problem here in the United States? I doubt it. The incentives are not there in a private system with most people paying for their own healthcare. Of course then you would have the insurance companies pushing this instead of the government, but at least then they wouldn't have the power of the state backing them. On the other hand many people end up on socialized healthcare in America with Medicare and Medicaid and those people could be abused. 

But in Canada with socialized medicine? I have a real concern that people will be convinced to end their lives simply to save money. Indeed, I would absolutely believe that this was just a cynical plot by the Trudeau government to do exactly that. It's scary to say the least. 

Senator Krysten Sinema leaves the Democratic Party and registers as an independent.

 

Senator Krysten Sinema. Politico.

Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema has left the Democratic Party offering a major shakeup to the Democrats plans in the Senate. Politico. Sinema downplayed the news saying she won't caucus with the Republicans and will still vote the same way she did in the past. Sinema said that she didn't really fit into the Republican/Democrat mindset and was independent on many issues. Sinema, along with blue dog Democrat Joe Manchin, now have considerable power over Senate legislation as both would have to be brought on board to pass anything that the Democrats want. It is unclear if Sinema will run again in 2024 but if she does it could be chaotic for all parties involved since it is very possible that she could face challengers from both the Democrats and Republicans. Democrats appear to be furious with her but it is important to note that Sinema has already faced massive criticism from her former party after not rubber stamping many of their priorities. 

My Comment:

I think a lot of people are overplaying the importance of this as I don't think that much will actually change. Sinema and Machin were always going to be the deciding votes in the Senate and that doesn't change with Sinema leaving the party. The only thing that has changed compared to before the midterms is that now the Senate Democrats will only have to convince one of them to go along with legislation instead of both. 

Also keep in mind the Republicans did manage to capture the house, meaning that outside of judicial appointments this will not have much of an affect at all. Pretty much all Democratic bills are DOA at the House once the new congress is sworn in. Judicial appointments are fairly important though so it will be interesting to see how much of a curveball Sinema and Machin will be there. 

I do expect that the Democrats rank and file won't care about this anyways and will feel betrayed by this. The one thing that Democrats have over the Republicans is the fact that they put party loyalty over everything else and they have never had much use for Democrats that don't go along with their plans. It's why Bernie Sanders got ganged up on in the 2016 and 2020 primaries and it's why Joe Manchin is called a Democrat in name only. 

Sinema herself got a huge amount of vitriol for killing a few bills that the Democrats cared about. Indeed, they were already planning a primary challenge for her in 2024 and this probably confirms it. My guess these attacks paid a major role in her leaving the Democratic Party and it's no surprise to me. 

This does mean that the Republicans have a very good chance of picking up her seat in Arizona, despite the fact that the state no longer has fair elections. All the voter suppression in the world won't matter if Sinema faces a challenge from both the right and the left. The Republicans will probably stay united behind their candidate while the Democrats will likely split the vote. That's a pretty good scenario for Republicans but I think it's very possible that Sinema does not run in 2024 since I think she knows that she won't win. 

Indeed, I think this is a case of her burning her bridges. If she thought she wasn't going to be primaried out in in 2024 I don't think she would be doing this, despite the horrible way she has been treated by the Democrats. I think this is more of a middle finger to the Democrats than anything else. 

With all that being said, I do think that this will probably not change things in the Senate. It's mostly status quo ante there with the only change is that the Democrats have 50 votes instead of 51 (though technically it's 49 because Bernie Sanders is independent as well). If she or Joe Manchin switch parties then we would have something interesting but as it stands now not much should change. 

China finally abandons zero covid and begins to lift Coronavirus restrictions.

 

A Chinese family visits a park. AP.

China is finally abandoning "zero covid" and has begun to lift many Coronavirus restrictions. AP. The change in policy follows widespread protests against the policies that rocked many cities recently. People are now allowed to enter businesses without having to scan "health codes" on their phones and are no longer requiring constant testing for the virus. In what may be the most significant changes, people with symptoms or a positive test may now stay home instead of going to a quarantine camp. Those camps were commonly criticized of being unhygienic, crowded and having poor food. China's moves are now more in line with the rest of the worlds governments, many of which have moved on completely from the virus. However, many restrictions remain in effect for China and some experts say that they will likely see a major wave of infections. 

My Comment:

What a backpedal  from the Chinese government. For the longest time they would broker no dissent on their zero covid strategy. But now? In just a few weeks it appears to have been pulled back dramatically. 

Why did they do this? I am guessing the Chinese Communists got scared. People were very upset about the restrictions and the fact that a large number of people died in a fire because of those restrictions. Though I think the scope of the protests were overblown I do think that they were effective in finally putting some pressure on the Chinese government.

With that being said, the zero covid strategy had to be absolutely ruinous to the Chinese economy. They must have been spending billions of dollars on testing, field hospitals and business closures and I doubt they could have afforded it for much longer. The amount they spent on testing alone had to have been obscene. 

And it was getting pretty obvious that there really wasn't a point to it anymore. Almost every other government on earth has pulled back their restrictions to the point where it's almost back to the conditions of pre-Coronavirus 2019. I know for me I only think about the virus when a news story like this hits or someone I know gets it. And honestly when someone I know gets it my response is "huh, that sucks I guess" and not "oh my God they are going to die". The virus clearly isn't the deadly one that first spread in late 2019 and early 2020, it's essentially a cold virus now for the vast majority of people. It's not there 100%, some people can and will die from the Coronavirus, but that's true for Influenza too and we don't shut down the world for that. 

The so-called experts are worried that China will now see a huge wave of infections, but I am skeptical. Largely because I have never trusted China's numbers and I don't actually believe that they have a large "virgin" population that have never been exposed to the virus. And even if they did, the virus is weak enough now that it probably won't have that much of an effect on normal people. They may see some cases where the sickly and elderly die but I don't see too many healthy people dying off because of the supposed wave. And it's not like they are abandoning their Coronavirus restrictions entirely, they are just easing back on the ones that they have now. 

With China finally pulling back on their restrictions I think we can see that the pandemic is basically over. Sure the virus is still around but it always was going to, eradication was never an actual option. We will still be dealing with the fallout from the virus for years but for the pandemic itself? It's finally done. 

Editor's Note: Vacation!

 Starting tomorrow I am going to be on vacation. As usual that means that posting may be infrequent, absent or at strange times. I am going to be off for a week and a half so things will be different for quite a awhile. I'm not going anywhere special so I should still be posting though. 

North Carolina county has power shut down after attackers shoot transformers...

 

Linemen working on a power pole. Fox News.

A North Carolina county has had their power shut down after attackers have shot transformers. Fox News. The attack occurred in Moore County and targeted two separate transformers, leaving 40,000 people without power. Both substations were damaged by gunfire. The county is now under curfew due to the lack of power and it may take several days to restore power. It will take longer to restore power than during a storm because of the damage to the transformers, which will have to be replaced. 

My Comment:

It's an open secret that America's power grid is extremely vulnerable to this style of attack, and I am honestly surprised that this story is getting the coverage it is. There have been other similar attacks like this recently, but only rarely do they get coverage. 

In short, it's pretty trivial for anyone with a rifle to take down power this way. All you need is a rifle and aim good enough to hit the part of the transformer that has lubricating oil in it. If you do and the oil drains out the transformer seizes up and is destroyed. And you can't really repair the transformer after that, it has to be replaced, which, given our countries current extreme logistical problems, can take quite some time. 

A sustained campaign like this could shut down entire states. This attack hit two transformers and shut down power for 40,000 people. And it happened in a underpopulated rural area so if this had happened in a major city hundreds of thousands of people could be out of power. 

And we aren't even sure if this attack is over! The attacker(s) could have more attacks planned and it could continue indefinably until they get caught. Sure you can put surveillance on transformers but there are so many of them across the country that you can't really protect them all. It's possible that whoever is responsible for this attack could conduct more. 

Responsibility for this attack is the big question. The usual suspects on Twitter seem to think that this is somehow related to a drag queen story hour event that was going to happen in this county before the attack happened but there is pretty much zero evidence for that. I doubt it myself as there are other better ways to shut down an event like that than cutting power to an entire county. 

It really could be anyone at this point so I am not going to speculate too much on who could be responsible. I will say that they do seem to be professional. These attacks are fairly easy to pull off but I wouldn't expect it to be some random person to do this. Most random nutjobs aren't capable of this kind of long term planning and simply shoot up a bunch of people. Taking out the power like this makes me think that this was a person thinking strategically. 

I do wonder if this is some kind of terror cell. If it is then things could get ugly because this isn't the kind of terrorist we are used to seeing. Most of the time publicity is the main point of terrorism, but as of this writing nobody has taken credit for this attack. This will make the attackers a lot harder to find and if it holds it shows that the attacker(s) are a lot smarter than average. They could do immense damage before they are caught. 

I've actually been expecting a campaign against our infrastructure for awhile now. Like I said, it's an open secret how vulnerable our nation's transformers are and though there have been a few attacks, there hasn't really been too much at this scale. Given how terrible things are in this country and how many enemies we have both foreign and domestic, it's very possible that there could be more attacks like this now that the cat is out of the bag. 

Elon Musk releases files showing how the Hunter Biden laptop story was censored.

 

Elon Musk. New York Post/AP.

Elon Musk has released files showing how the Hunter Biden story was censored on behest of the DNC. New York Post. Hunter Biden's laptop was found in 2020 and information from that laptop showed degenerate behavior from Joe Biden's son along with credible evidence of corruption and graft. However, Twitter censored the story from their platform citing their "hacked materials" policy. Internal e-mails show that their was major disagreement about that policy due to a total lack of evidence about the supposed hack. The decision to censor the story was taken behind former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's back and was made by former Vijaya Gadde. 

In addition, the released files show that Twitter routinely censored accounts, including right wing celerity James Woods, at behest of the DNC, raising major 1st amendment concerns about the censorship. Kayleigh McEnany, the former White House secretary was also censored under this plot. The files show that both parties had tools that would allow them to request tweets to be removed but the system was unbalanced and favored the Democrats due to the Democrats having personal relations with the people in charge at Twitter. 

Matt Taibbi was the journalist that broke the story and a link to his twitter thread can be found here and in the embedded tweet below. 

1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

My Comment:

There is a difference between knowing something and being able to prove it. Everyone on the Republican side of the political spectrum knew that Twitter tilted the scales against Donald Trump in the 2020 election and did so in collusion with the DNC. We weren't able to prove it in a court of law until now. People that claimed that this story didn't happen that way are now eating crow. 

The information here is fairly damning. The people at Twitter knew that censoring the Hunter Biden story based on the "hacked materials" policy was bunk. They knew as well as we did that the stuff on Biden's laptop wasn't hacked, it was just left there when Biden didn't pay for his laptops to be repaired. In a sane world the story would have been able to naturally spread on Twitter but instead it festered in mainstream obscurity. 

More disturbing is the fact that both the DNC and RNC had the ability to have tweets removed from Twitter directly. The GOP didn't use that ability much because they simply did not have the connections with the people in Twitter. But the Democrats did use this and were able to get posts talking about the contents of Biden's laptop banned. Even James Woods, a fairly famous b-list celeb back in his day, got posts removed at behest of the DNC. 

Keep in mind that many news outlets have confirmed that Biden's laptop was legit, including most recently CBS. That's what Twitter did here. They censored a legitimate story to help the Democratic Party and at the behest of the Democratic Party. 

This is election interference at the very least. The 2020 election was so close that Donald Trump only needed a few votes to beat out Joe Biden in a few critical states. And that's not even considering the lower ticket races at the Senate, House and Gubernatorial level. It's very possible that not only would have Trump kept the White House in 2020 if this story have been allowed to spread, the Republicans may have captured the House and Senate as well. 

I am so glad that Elon Musk actually stepped up and bought Twitter. If he hadn't we would have never been able to prove this. He did a good job using Matt Taibbi for this as well. Taibbi is not pro-Trump in any way shape or form but he is a good journalist and one that is known for not simply following whatever it is the Democratic Party says. If it wasn't for these two men I don't know if we would have ever found out about this. 

And it's not done yet. Musk says other files, some damaging to both parties, will be released soon. There are a lot of other things that Twitter has done with trending news that I would like exposed, such as their reaction to the Coronavirus, the 2020 riots, Kyle Rittenhouse and the 2022 midterms as well, and hopefully all or some of those topics will be exposed as well. I do wonder what the Republicans were doing with this as well. Time will tell what these topics will be but if they are as informative as the first series, it should be worth the wait.