Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

So, what’s with all the fake crying?

Rachel Maddow pretended to cry about “kids in cages”. Matt Hancock pretended to cry about Covid vaccines. Sarah Sidner pretended to cry over covid. Anderson Cooper pretended to cry about Israel, so did John Kirby. Van Jones pretended to cry after Biden “won” the 2020 “election”. Adam Schiff and Adam Kinzinger both pretended to cry about January 6th.

Don Lemon pretends to cry about pretty much everything.

They all do it, and they’re all so bad at it.

And speaking of pretending badly, remember those early photos of people in China lying in the street, straight as planks, supposedly killed by “Covid”?

As if this scary new virus just snuffs you out mid-step to topple backwards flat on the ground in a perfect silent movie pratfall.

And it’s not just “Covid”.

During the run-up to the 2020 election “pretending badly” was happening everywhere.

We were told, over and over again, “It’s going to look like Trump won, but then Biden will win at the last minute because of postal ballots”.

And gosh darnit – they were right!

Out of nowhere Joe Biden – ‘Creepy Uncle Joe’ – who in early 2020 was obviously the least popular democratic candidate, and even more obviously going senile – is transmogrified into the most popular presidential candidate

of ALL TIME…

…shattering the popular vote records by over 13 million votes.

Such is the power of bad pretending , when you just don’t give a crap about plausibility or boring details of historical precedent.

That was, of course, following Biden’s “miracle turnaround” in the primaries, where massive defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire left his campaign “teetering on the abyss”.

On election night they presented us with badly pretend graphs like this:

They reported that counting the first 99% of the vote took a few hours, and that counting the last 1% in a couple of swing states took two weeks.

…and told us this was all totally normal and that anyone who said otherwise was an “election denier”.

On January 6th 2021 they showed you an “insurrection” – a word that used to mean “an armed attempt to seize control of a government by force” but now means “some guy in a Buffalo hat putting his feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk”.

Then they told you to be afraid for the fate of a “democracy” which their previously blatant election-rigging had just demonstrated does not exist.

Bad pretending at its most brazenly ballsy.

Let’s be honest the airwaves have been saturated with this since at least 2020.

Remember those lovable doctors and nurses shooting increasingly elaborate music videos during a supposedly deadly pandemic.

Or doctors saying BLM protesters don’t have to stay home or social distance because “racism is a worse pandemic”.

Blatantly bad pretending.

The Israel-Hamas war has already produced similar scenes.

I mean what is this Busby Berkeley 4K drone footage routine supposed to be telling us?

Dozens of perfectly synchronized & choreographed women doing yoga poses over posters of supposed hostages as if it’s the most normal thing in the world, when it’s just NOT, is it?

Who responds to a loved one being taken hostage by calling all their friends and arranging a synchronized yoga session?

So, what are we looking at? How is this related to the real world?

And don’t forget “terrorists” on motorized hang-gliders chuntering along at a leisurely pace into some of the most defended airspace on the planet.

And of course Hamas – operating out of the world’s “largest open-air prison”, with only a couple of hours of electricity a day and limited food and fresh water – but somehow putting together professionally edited high definition music videos of them making improvised weapons.

…and we’re not supposed to ask “how?” or “why?”

After the alleged bombing of Al-Ahli Arab hospital, doctors held a press conference surrounded by dead bodies:

So did they bring the bodies to the podium or the podium to the bodies?

And WHY exactly in either case?

Is it sensible? Is it respectful? Is it even sanitary?

Stacking corpses, then running electrical and audio cables over them. In very hot weather, under bright television lights.

Presumably the mourning families had to wait to collect their dead until after the press conference. Hopefully they didn’t mind.

I mean you’d be ok with your deceased loved one being used as set-dressing for a presser wouldn’t you?

All the while, Israel continued carpet bombing a relatively small and very densely populated urban area in the name of “saving hostages” that a) they had made seemingly no effort to recover and b) Could EASILY have been inside one or more of the buildings they are levelling.

And NO – please – I am not claiming people are not dying. Don’t grab for that easy lazy assumption as a reason to switch off.

People are dying. People are being murdered. And degraded. And their corpses used as set-dressing for globalist agenda-drives. That’s both the goal and the method.

But that doesn’t change the fact the narrative rationalization for the killing & for so much else is literal madness.

And they’re conditioning people not to say it, and eventually not to even see it.

Look around you – see it while you still can.

• They kill people while claiming to save lives.

• They push vaccines while admitting they don’t work

• They present the physically impossible as an ongoing reality

• They completely invert the meaning of words and yet claim nothing has changed

• They attack reason as irrationality and tell you insanity is sense

• They paint farce as tragedy and real tragedy as “necessary evil”.

• They laugh, and tell you they are crying.

• They almost literally report 2+2=5 and call anyone who claims it’s 4 a “five denier”.

Is this just the symptom of an establishment and media so far removed from normal human experience they no longer understand it well enough to fake it?

Perhaps. But I think it could be something more.

Just hear me out…

I have argued before that a primary goal of the new normal agenda to disrupt each human individual’s relationship with the real world.

In my piece on the UN’s “Global Digital Compact” I described it thus:

the final aim of globalist policy [is] control of all aspects of life, achieved by inserting a digital filter between people and reality. Banking, communication, media consumption, shopping. Every interaction you have will be through a digital membrane which can both monitor your exchanges with the world and – if deemed necessary – deny you access to that world.

By making every purchase remote, every interaction digital, they can effectively disrupt everybody’s ability to interact with reality.

However, it could be there’s also a more subtle and potentially destructive policy at play – one that attacks people’s ability to understand or even perceive that reality.

A war on, for want of a better word, realness : the physical laws that govern our world, the emotional responses of human to human, the very existence of rational thought.

This is the perfidious unreality of the “new normal”: Nurturing and normalising a pervasive persistent state of non-real.

Why? What is the benefit of cultivating unreality?

Well, that’s a complicated question with a twisting trail of intertwining potential answers.

I have written before about the psychopathic individual’s tendency to lie to no purpose, to lie even when the truth would serve their interests better. This is because psychopaths are control addicts, and the ultimate expression of control is to create a fake world and make people live in it.

This applies to institutions as well as individuals. Perhaps more so. To an authoritarian ruling elite insane narratives serve as both loyalty test and humiliation ritual.

If they give you something impossible to believe, and you don’t question it, you are demonstrating greater loyalty to the authority above you than to the reality around you.

The more absurd the lie you believe – or claim to believe – the more loyal you are to the Party. The more you pretzel your own mind at the command of the establishment the lower you sink in obeisance, the more you humiliate yourself.

The more you humiliate yourself, the more you are no longer your own person.

Humiliation is the ultimate demonstration of control, and demonstrating control is important to a grasping power structure built on insecurity and forever teetering on the edge of collapse.

This idea of social control via collective belief predates Covid by decades.

Take “The magic bullet theory”, an explanation which is no explanation at all. Theoretical physics stretched to near-breaking point.

It literally has the word “magic” in it.

And people repeated it, maybe even believed it, rather than deal with the real world in which such an idea was clearly ridiculous.

Trading in their sanity for the comfort of belonging.

Telling outrageously nonsensical lies allows you to demonstrate your power over people. But it also allows you to cultivate that power. To prepare soil where useful lies can take root easily.

Because it’s easiest to lie to people who have no idea what truth means. Because if I can convince you to abandon sense, my narratives are no longer bound by the crushing monotony of causality, linear time or the laws of physics.

In a world of no reason or rule, everything I tell you becomes inherently believable. In a world where nothing is true, anything could be.

I can tell you that me taking your money makes us both richer, and you’ll never realise I’m robbing you.

I can tell you that bars and chains are an expression of freedom, and you’ll never realise you’re my slave.

In short, they use crazy narratives to erode the idea of objective truth, because if you don’t even know such a thing exists you are a lot easier to control.

This is the perfidious unreality of the “new normal”. It’s not just about deception or fakery or propaganda.

It’s about breaking your spirit and your mind.

Hezbollah on Saturday initiated what it announced as “an initial response” to Israel’s assassination by drone of Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri, which happened in a south Beirut neighborhood last week.

The Lebanese paramilitary group backed by Iran unleashed large salvos of missiles that bombarded military bases as well as communities in northern Israel (many of which have long been evacuated), triggering alert sirens among some 90 towns and settlements.

The Hezbollah statement declared that the assault was “part of the initial response to the crime of assassinating the great leader Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri.”

The Israel Defense Forces in a follow-up statement said some 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon at the Mount Meron area in particular, which contains a crucial IDF base which reportedly has overseen Israeli operations against Syria.

Hezbollah indicated it launched 62 “various types of missiles” against the Meron air control base as part of Saturday’s retaliatory attacks, however, Israel said there were no casualties in the aftermath.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah-linked Almayadeen news service has said that the targeting of Meron Base is a first of the conflict, and is of huge significance: 

Located just 8 kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border, “Meron” Base overlooks the Lebanese towns of Rmeish, Yaroun, and Maroun al-Ras in the central sector. It occupies the summit of Mount Jarmaq in northern occupied Palestine, making it the highest peak within the occupied territories.

Sitting at an altitude of approximately 1200 meters above sea level, the base sprawls across an area of up to 150,000 square meters, with a substantial portion of the surrounding areas believed to be under its control for military and intelligence purposes.

According to the Resistance statement released today, “Meron” primarily serves as an aerial surveillance center.

It is the sole facility responsible for managing and controlling air operations toward Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Cyprus, as well as the northern part of the eastern Mediterranean Sea basin. Moreover, this base acts as a central hub for electronic warfare interference in the mentioned directions, staffed by a significant number of elite Israeli officers and soldiers.

Hezbollah has already since Oct.7 been targeting and degrading Israel’s vast military communications infrastructure along the Lebanese border, often publishing videos of these attacks.

⚡️BREAKING

Hezbollah strikes Israel’s most important military site

With 62 missiles, Hezbollah pounded the Mount Meron base, which coordinates Israel’s air operations and bombing raids on Syria and Lebanon.

This strike was the initial response to the assassination of Saleh… pic.twitter.com/kKfEB3s2UK

— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) January 6, 2024

It is as yet unknown the degree of damage that Meron base may have suffered, and Israel is likely to keep this under wraps even if the damage is extensive.

Saturday’s escalation was met with swift reaction from the European Union, which urged restraint:

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Saturday that it was “imperative” to avoid a regional escalation in the Middle East.

“It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict,” he said, also warning Israel that “nobody will win from a regional conflict”.

“We are seeing a worrying intensification of exchange of fire across the Blue Line,” he added, referring to the current demarcation line between the two countries, a frontier mapped by the United Nations that marks the line to which Israeli forces withdrew when they left south Lebanon in 2000.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had vowed to retaliate for the killing of Hamas political deputy head Saleh Arouri in a Friday speech, while also saying he won’t negotiate ceasefire with Israel until it ceases attacking Gaza.

IDF published clips of its airstrikes on southern Lebanon Saturday:

חוליית מחבלים, עמדת שיגור, מבנים צבאיים ותשתיות טרור; צה”ל השלים שורת תקיפות בשטח לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/MH0HY5JRR6

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 6, 2024

Later in the day Saturday, the IDF said it launched multiple airstrikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon in response, and released footage showing attacks on buildings and rural sites said to include a “terrorist squad, launch site, military buildings and terrorist infrastructure.”

Earlier throughout the day there were significant rumors that Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin has been in the hospital for days, and no one knew it… surprisingly even at the White House, apparently—and at a moment the US is embroiled in running conflicts and proxy wars from Ukraine to the Middle East.

This is a worrisome development which has huge implications for the Biden administration and White House competency and issues of transparency. Not only has Austin’s hospitalization now been confirmed, but CNN is reporting late Saturday that President Biden was in the dark almost the whole time: 

President Joe Biden was not aware for days that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan ultimately informed Biden late Thursday afternoon, soon after Sullivan himself learned that Austin had been hospitalized, that source said. Austin was admitted to the hospital on New Year’s Day due to complications from an elective surgery.

The Pentagon announced the hospitalization Friday. Austin issued his first statement Saturday, five days after being admitted to the hospital, saying he could have done a “better job” of notifying the public.

All of this was ultimately confirmed by a statement from the hospitalized Secretary of Defense himself, who said in the early evening Saturday, “I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better.”

Austin continued regarding this growing scandal over transparency: “But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure,” the statement continued.

The Defense Secretary was at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and now says he’s “on the mend”. 

He was hospitalized and thus out of commission… as the head of the Pentagon… for nearly four days.

NEWS

CNN has now confirmed that President Biden was not aware that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized and in intensive care for nearly four days.

Biden only found out when National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan informed him Thursday afternoon shortly after… pic.twitter.com/S1lJPFYsR0

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 7, 2024

CNN underscores, “Senior administration officials said they were shocked to learn of Austin’s hospitalization and the delay in informing the White House.”

The initial procedure which led to complications has been deemed minor, but the situation worsened into a serious medical event based on the undisclosed complication.

This scandal may have Constitutional implications, given the White House-appointed civilian head of the military was persona non grata and the Commander-in-Chief didn’t so much as know about it…

An entire industry of reporters investigating Chris Rufo’s college degree but none of them can figure out why the Secretary of Defense was missing in action for four days while the Biden Administration covered it up.

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 7, 2024

Tucker Carlson sat down with evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein (brother of Eric Weinstein), where the two dissected the intricate web of narratives surrounding COVID-19, the pharmaceutical industry, and global shifts in governance and public health policy.

According to Weinstein, opposition to the ‘official’ COVID narratives is like taking on Goliath – with competent and courageous experts in various fields being aggressively censored during the pandemic. This led to the formation of a “Dream Team” of dissenters.

“I call the force that we’re up against Goliath. Goliath made a terrible mistake and made it most egregiously during COVID, which is it took all of the competent people, all of the courageous people, and it shoved them out of the institutions where they were hanging on. And it created in so doing, the Dream Team. It created every player you could possibly want on your team to fight some historic battle against a terrible evil,” he said, suggesting that the Dream Team is uniquely qualified to fight against those who botched the pandemic response with deadly consequences.

Weinstein also discussed the demonization of alternative treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, and suggested that there have been 17 million deaths from the COVID-19 vaccine.

“So I’m not a math genius, but one in eight hundred shots times billions is a lot of people…..17 million deaths from the COVID vaccine?” asked Tucker. “Just for perspective. I mean, that’s like the death toll of a global war.”

To which Weinstein replied: “Yes, absolutely. This is a great tragedy of history. So that proportion. And amazingly there is no way in which it’s over. I mean, we are still apparently recommending these things for healthy children.”

🚨 “17 million deaths from the COVID vax?”

Bret Weinstein tells Tucker Carlson: “I saw a credible estimate of something like 17 million deaths globally.” pic.twitter.com/US4Ejypb1f

— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) January 6, 2024

Weinstein and Carlson also discussed what they perceive as a global power shift orchestrated through public health policies. They discussed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) proposed pandemic preparedness plan, expressing concerns over potential overreach and infringement on national sovereignty. Weinstein warned of a “turnkey totalitarian planet,” with the WHO positioned to dictate unprecedented controls over nations and their citizens.

Bret Weinstein Exposes the World Health Organization’s Neo Dark Age Agenda – He is 100% correct on all of it…the best and brightest who were all doing their own things in life in all different areas and levels….found a common cause in trying to preserve Western Democratic… pic.twitter.com/wvAtDrI9bv

— DavidCWillisUSA (@DavidCWillisUSA) January 6, 2024

Watch the entire segment on the WHO below…

And subscribers to Tuckercarlson.com can watch the entire one hour interview here.

Authored by Brad Pearce via The Libertarian Institute,

Since the October 7 attacks restarted conflict between Israel and Hamas, U.S. troops have been under fire all over the Middle East. Thus far, most attacks have been deflected with minimal damage, but it is only a matter of time before one gets through and causes a serious loss of life.

Twenty-two years after the beginning of the Global War on Terror, the government rarely bothers to say what we are doing in the Middle East. There is an implication that by “fighting terrorism” we protect Israel, which is somehow crucial to our national security. In reality, our alliance with Israel harms U.S. national security, as demonstrated by the fact that we have been attacked alongside Israel.

The War Party has gone from the spurious line of reasoning, “We have to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here,” to not really fighting them “over there” but just leaving our troops as sort of reverse hostages to draw fire so that we have a pretense to get drawn into any regional conflict. The continuing U.S. presence across the Middle East is nothing but a depraved exercise in putting American personnel in harm’s way for its own sake.

Though it’s hard to imagine now, until around fifty years ago the United States policy class was skeptical of Israel, and the Middle East was considered a strategic backwater. Perhaps in the 1970s the need for oil and the internal logic of the Cold War justified constructing a policy of trying to split the difference between making Israel a satrap while also maintaining a sphere of influence among the Arab states.

However, that questionable strategy notwithstanding, the Cold War has been over for decades and the United States is now a net exporter of oil. All that justifies our presence with the American public is the detritus from years of propaganda which has left an unexamined belief that supporting Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East” serves some sort of moral or strategic purpose.

One way or another, U.S. troops continue to be spread throughout the Middle East and Israel continues to receive enormous amounts of foreign aid. Though the United States has multiple clients throughout the region, it is Israel with whom there is a “special relationship.” The perception among the Arab public is that there isn’t distance between the policies of the United States and Israel, despite the fact that Israel is nearly impossible to control and many observers see it as a case of “the tail wagging the dog.”

In pursuit of some rarely defined objective we have troops at over 30 locations in the broader region, according to a map from the American Security Project (and that is only the public or well-documented bases). Us peasants are left guessing where else our rulers are placing our countrymen, but a study by Axios Research found that there were approximately 45,400 known U.S. troops in the Middle East as of October 31, which includes new troops deployed to the region due to the current conflict.

At this time, the United States is not said to be engaged in any major conflicts in the Middle East. The troops seem to just be on standby to give hostile militant groups convenient targets and serve as tinder for a regional conflagration. And convenient targets they are. A December 11 article from the Associated Press says there have been “at least” 92 attacks on U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq alone since October 7. In response, the United States has launched airstrikes across the region, but they are obviously unable to eliminate the myriad of militant groups who are attacking.

The Iraqi government has protested the retaliatory airstrikes as a violation of their sovereignty, but of course they remain an occupied country twenty years after the American invasion and don’t have the ability to kick out the United States. In fact, it is Iraq itself that is the most threatened by attacks it has no control over, as the occupying foreign power could turn on them at any time. Alternately, the United States has nothing resembling authorization to be in Syria. Having failed to set up a puppet government in that country, they don’t even have anyone to complain to about coming under attack.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) recently forced a vote in the U.S. Senate to withdraw from our undeclared war in Syria, which failed 84-13, meaning 84 Senators want our troops to remain targets. Senator Paul said at the time, “It seems to me, though our 900 troops have no viable mission in Syria, that they’re sitting ducks. They’re a tripwire to a larger war, and without a clear-cut mission, I don’t think they can adequately defend themselves, yet they remain in Syria.”

It isn’t just Syria, it is the entire Middle East policy. Our political class is leaving American soldiers in the region as sacrificial lambs so there is a pretense to get involved and protect Israel should any major conflict break out. Meanwhile, few serious arguments are made that supporting Israel is good for national security—in fact, Joe Biden went with just saying he is a Zionist, which is to say he supports Israel for ideological reasons completely divorced from American interests. I suppose for the political class admitting that is better than acknowledging the more important truth: supporting Israel harms our national security and US troops in the region serve no purpose but to be easy targets.

The city of St. Louis reversed course less than 24 hours after reimplementing mask mandates, announcing Friday afternoon that it would no longer require city employees to mask up while working following pushback from hospitals, health experts, and the governor.

“The City of St. Louis has updated its communications with employees surrounding masking,” said a representative from Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office.

“The City of St. Louis Department of Health strongly recommends masking indoors for all City of St. Louis employees, effective immediately.”

This came one day after city health director Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis said that COVID-19, RSV and flu cases in the city justified masking up again.

On Friday, however, the department updated its original statistics with ‘less alarming’ data regarding RSV trends, according to KSDK.

“BJC is not seeing a strain on hospital capacity,” BJC Health Care officials told the outlet, adding “We are experiencing a seasonal increase in respiratory illness, which is typical for this time of year.”

Mercy Hospital described it as a “typical winter.” St. Louis County said they haven’t seen any out-of-the-ordinary strains on the health system.

“Luckily our influenza has not spiked yet and it is going up, but it’s not nearly what it was last year,” according to Dr. Jim Hinrichs, the interim co-director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health. “It’s moderate. It’s not alarming.”

Gov. Mike Parson’s office confirmed to 5 On Your Side it had a conversation with Jones’ office on Friday related to the city’s mask policy shift. -KSDK

The health department had originally claimed that COVID-19 hospitalizations were up 38% over December, as 278 people were hospitalized with (but not necessarily because of) COVID-19 during the week of Dec. 23. Flu cases rose an alleged 455%.

Perhaps, as Ian Miller noted on X, the reversal was because of the sudden realisation that masks never made a difference in St.Louis anyway…

…”science”.

Authored by Mike McDaniel via AmericanThinker.com,

Joe Biden At Valley Forge: Triumph Of The Shill II

Well, he did it again. 

Speaking near Valley Forge, PA, President Joe Biden delivered a follow up to his red-tinged “Triumph of the Shill” speech. The New York Post explains: 

President Biden kicked off his bid for re-election Friday by deriding former President Donald Trump as a “loser”and calling his bid for a political comeback something out of a “bad fairy tale” Friday — prompting his predecessor to fire back that the 80-year-old is a “true threat to democracy.”

As one would expect on the anniversary of Democrats/socialists/communists’ (D/s/cs) high holy day, we learned, yet again, how very, very close we came to losing America:

Valley Forge “tells the story of the pain and the suffering and the true patriotism it took to make America,” Biden, 81, began his first proper 2024 campaign speech.

“Today, we gather in a new year, some 246 years later, just one day before January 6 — a date forever seared in our memory because it was on that day that we nearly lost America, lost it all.”

Image: Erie Railroad Train Wreck. Wikimedia Commons.org. Public Domain.

I’m sure China, Iran and our other enemies are paying close attention. They don’t need massive militaries with nuclear weapons to conquer America, only a minor riot by unarmed citizens, provoked by the FBI, that lasts an hour or so.

Trump’s assault on democracy isn’t just part of his past, it’s what he’s promising for the future. He’s being straightforward. He’s not hiding the ball,” Biden said.

“His first rally for the 2024 campaign opened with a choir of January 6 insurrectionists singing from prison on a cellphone while images of the January 6 riot playing on the big screen behind him at his rally. Can you believe that? This was like something out of a fairy tale — a bad fairy tale.”

What were those horrid insurrectionists singing? The Star-Spangled Banner, our national anthem. The horror.

“Let’s be clear about the 2020 election: Trump exhausted every legal avenue available to him to overturn the outcome — every one. But the legal path just took Trump back to the truth that I’d won the election and he was a loser,” Biden said to hoots and applause.

Gropin’, sniffin’ Joe forgot to mention not a single court actually heard evidence, which makes for rather a dead end “legal avenue.”

He also forgot to mention Trump quietly, and on time, left office as the Constitution requires. What a pathetic dictator.

“Well, knowing how his mind works, he had one act left, one desperate act available to him: the violence of January the 6th,” Biden said, “and since that day, more than 1,200 people have been charged for their assault on the Capitol, nearly 900 of them have been convicted or pled guilty.”

To more cheers, he added, “Collectively to date, they have been sentenced to more than 840 years in prison.”

Rational Americans might think Biden’s glee in destroying the lives of more than 1000 Americans for what amounts to misdemeanor trespassing–normally a ticketable offense–doesn’t really live up to his endless rhetoric about uniting America.

“He calls those who oppose him ‘vermin.’ He talks about the blood of Americans being poisoned, echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany.  He proudly posted on social media the words that best describe his 2024 campaign, ‘revenge,’ ‘power,’ ‘dictatorship.’  There’s no confusion about who Trump is and what he intends to do,” Biden said.

“You can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American,” the president added at one point — insisting that unlike Trump “our campaign is about preserving and strengthening our American democracy.”

“The protection and preservation of American democracy will remain as it has been the central cause of my presidency,” Biden went on before turning his wrath on Trump’s allies in Congress.

There it is again: “our American democracy,” by which Biden means a tyranny of the majority. 

The words “constitutional, representative republic,” which is what America is, never escape his lips.

Biden just finished a very angry speech in which he previewed the center of his re-election campaign.

Number of times he mentioned…

Economy: 0️⃣
Inflation: 0️⃣
Border security: 0️⃣
Debt/spending: 0️⃣
Foreign affairs: 0️⃣
National security: 0️⃣
Crime: 0️⃣
Fentanyl crisis: 0️⃣

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 5, 2024

Donald Trump replied:

“This is not a time for us to have a mentally challenged president,” the former president said, adding that “the only insurrection is the insurrection that is taking place at our border where he is allowing millions of people from parts unknown to invade our country at a level far worse than even a military invasion.”

“Biden’s record is an unbroken streak of weakness, incompetence, corruption and failure, other than that he’s doing quite well, isn’t he? That’s a hell of a hell of a list, right? That’s why Crooked Joe is staging his pathetic, fear-mongering campaign event in Pennsylvania today. Did you see him? He was stuttering through the whole thing, he’s going, ‘He’s a threat to Democracy,’” Trump said. 

Serious ‘Where The F*** Am I?’ vibes here. pic.twitter.com/X6EVhwLFXT

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) January 6, 2024

Biden’s remarks are a preview of his second basement campaign, and a continuing act of desperation.

The 2024 campaign will be one for the record books, if America survives to write them.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) has announced yet another intercept of a launch out of Yemen which had targeted commercial vessels in the Red Sea. 

CENTCOM described that the Saturday incident saw the USS Laboon guided-missile destroyer down a drone over the Red Sea, after it came near near several commercial ships in international waters.

There were no casualties or damage to ships from the “unmanned aerial vehicle launched from Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” according to the US statement.

Further, the military statement suggests that US warships may have been targeted by the drone, given it says the USS Laboon shot the inbound drone down “in self-defense”.

The Biden administration has previously been accused of downplaying that there’s actually been attempted Houthi attacks directly on American warships and naval assets. This would of course be an act of war, and the White House is said to be belatedly drawing up plans to hit back at Houthi launch positions, in an offensive manner (and not just defensive intercepts).

This hasn’t happened yet, as the US is apparently pursuing a policy of restraint, not wanting a bigger regional war to break out with Iran, which has long backed the Houthis.

But the contradiction is that Washington has done nothing to impose any kind of limits or conditions on Gaza’s air campaign, which has resulted in unprecedented Palestinian civilian deaths.

Meanwhile the Pentagon has issued a lot of ‘final warnings’ as Red Sea attacks have persisted weekly & now daily…

The United States gave the Houthis a “final warning” in the Red Sea, and they responded with a sea drone to attack more ships. https://t.co/E0R25hT0qw

— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) January 6, 2024

The Houthis say their ‘war on Red Sea shipping’ and on Israel itself will continue so long as Israel drops bombs on Gaza civilians. Meanwhile things have only escalated across the region, including Iran-backed militant attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria. 

These attacks across Iraq-Syria have led to an escalation in the Pentagon response, which most recently saw a very high-ranking and influential Iraqi militia leader killed. This has enraged the Iraqi government in Baghdad, given the commander, identified as Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, had been integrated with national forces, and was considered a key ally.

Below is a policy note exploring the implications of the growing tit-for-tat in the region, via Peter Tchir’s Academy Securities.

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What has Happened:

• Yesterday [Jan.11], a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad killed Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, who was deputy head of operations for the Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), a network of Iran-backed militia groups.
• Since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7^th, there have been over 100 attacks on U.S. and allied forces in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed militia forces.
• Iraq’s prime minister, who had the backing of Iran-aligned factions and militias when elected, called the attack “unjustified” and a “dangerous escalation and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.”
• On Tuesday, as reported in our previous SITREP, a suspected Israeli drone attack killed Saleh al-Arouri (Hamas deputy leader) in Beirut.
• In addition, an Israeli strike on Wednesday night killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon and Israel has warned of more significant military action if a diplomatic deal is not reached to pull Hezbollah forces away from the Lebanese border.
• Finally, the U.S., the UK, and other key allies issued “a final warning” to the Houthi rebels this week to cease its attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea or face consequences.

Why it Matters:

“First, it’s important to understand that deterrence is the product of three factors: capability, will, and the adversary’s perception of those capabilities and that will. If the first two factors are missing—or inordinately low—or the adversary doesn’t believe that the U.S. has the will to use their capabilities, then deterrence fails. This is the current situation. The proof is in the actions that commercial shipping companies have taken in halting their transit of the Red Sea. We have warships in the region—capability—but if we’re not going to use them to ensure free movement through the Red Sea—will—and the adversary believes that we won’t use them—perception—then we won’t be successful in deterring further aggression on the part of the Houthis and Iran. A strong response to the initial Iranian-backed Houthi attacks could have prevented this situation (i.e., strikes against the Houthi command & control apparatus, launch, storage, and maintenance sites). The solution is that we should stop just shooting down arrows and kill the archers. But the Biden administration has been hesitant to address the source of these attacks over concerns of escalation. Which raises a second point—escalation has already occurred—it was initiated by the Iranians, Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian proxy groups.” – General David Deptula

“General Deptula lays it out nicely. Only comment I’d add is that the U.S. must produce a full array of attack options (both arrows and archers) that will punish Iranian proxies where they currently enjoy sanctuary. That is not an expansion of the current state of affairs; it is appropriate and would meet every legal prescription of proportionality. Not surprisingly, Iran is overreaching. The Iranian leadership, specifically the IRGC leadership, must know with certainty that their only sanctuary is within the borders of Iran.” – General Spider Marks

“General Deptula’s deterrence formula is how a great power imposes its will on a lesser power through military means. The current U.S. approach is not working, considering the continued attacks on U.S. forces in the region and the disruption of commerce through the Red Sea. The U.S. is failing to deter Iran and its proxy forces, and its deterrence strategy must be reset. The U.S. foreign policy is allowing bad actors to challenge the international order. The U.S. needs to escalate its response in compliance with international law to de-escalate the situation. How quickly and with how much force must be calibrated per General Marks’ salient points of proportionality and self-defense.” – General Robert Walsh

“While there is always the risk of a miscalculation that leads to escalation, I think that these recent events, while linked to multiple ongoing conflicts (many that predate 7 October), are not necessarily indicative of irreversible momentum toward broader escalation. Each participant (Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Houthis, or the U.S.) can adjust the rheostat as desired. These events could continue to play out as transactional, but limited in scope and scale, and are not indicative that a broader conflict is imminent or inevitable. I would not look at these as fully coordinated events, but rather as transactional. I’m not surprised to see ISIS claim the attacks in Iran which do not follow suit with how Mossad would traditionally strike in Iran proper. While it may seem counterintuitive given the strikes in Gaza, the Israeli government has been relatively surgical in their actions with respect to Iran to minimize casualties/collateral damage.

A possibly unanticipated outcome is that we may see a policy shift in Iraq. A deliberate strike in Baghdad has drawn the ire of the current regime (not that they haven’t complained during previous strikes) and may be enough for Iraq to consider a reduction (if not an elimination) of the U.S. military presence in Iraq. Lately, there is more being written in the news and opinion pieces about the risk to U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq and questioning the mission. Another factor is whether the U.S. is willing to begin to strike Houthi infrastructure should maritime attacks continue. All that said, I would assess with moderate confidence that none of the nation states are looking to expand the conflict into a direct war and will continue to measure their responses. Where the U.S. is struggling is how to establish deterrence.” – General Robert Ashley

“The U.S. desires to de-escalate, not escalate, but the challenge is that the same military response can be used to achieve both results. There are plenty of historical examples of U.S. administrations aggressively addressing such threats, resulting in Iran (and others) choosing to back down due to the sudden and high costs that they have incurred. Aggressive action (sinking ships, shooting down aircraft, and killing forces attacking civilian targets) may be our best chance to de-escalate Iran’s actions. It is doubtful that Iran will back down without a serious punch in the nose.” – General Mastin Robeson

“The bottom line is that escalation will occur by proxies if we don’t change our response and reset our deterrence level. We don’t have the initiative and many allies are not joining our efforts to deter Houthi strikes against shipping. They also see that our policy and posture are not working. The strike in Baghdad is a response that may have unintended consequences. It is possible that the Iraqis can expel or reduce U.S. forces in Iraq which could have a major impact on counterterrorism operations ongoing in Iraq and Syria. If we want an effective deterrent at this point, we will need to increase our response to attacks at a 1-1 level.” – General Frank Kearney

Please see (link) and attached PDF for full report.

At a moment the front lines are at a standstill and Ukraine is suffering severe manpower and ammunition supply woes, its military continues high-risk attacks on Russian territory, including two days of missile and drone launches on Crimea. Russia in return has been unleashing even harsher retaliatory strikes in Ukrainian cities, as it warned it would do.

The Russian military has said Saturday it deflected a fresh missile attack on Crimea, having shot down four inbound Ukrainian missiles overnight. The day prior, Russia downed 36 attack drones over the peninsula, a defense ministry statement also said.

However, Kiev said some of its projectiles made it through the anti-air measures, with Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of Ukraine’s air force, announcing on social media: “Saki airfield! All targets have been shot!” – in reference to the Russian airbase in western Crimea. Ukraine’s military also said it targeted a command post near Sevastopol.

Air raid sirens have been sounding in various border regions of Russia stretching back to Thursday:

Air alerts were heard over the Russian oblasts of Krasnodar and Belgorod, as well as temporarily occupied Crimea, on Jan. 4 as Russia’s aggressive war on Ukraine increasingly hits closer to home in Russia.

Russia claimed nearly 50 drones were used in the separate attacks, with explosions heard in occupied Crimea and Belgorod, and reports of injuries in Belgorod.

In the latest direct hit on a residential neighborhood in Belgorod city, two Russian civilians were injured by shelling. Belgorod Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram, “According to preliminary data there are two injured: one man has shrapnel wounds to the forearm, and another has shrapnel wounds to the shin.”

“Windows were shattered in several apartments and more than 30 vehicles were damaged because of a shell explosion near an apartment building,” according to regional media. “One house suffered roof damage and a car was damaged.”

Russia has throughout nearly two years of war warned that countries externally supplying weapons to Ukrainian forces would be treated as direct participants in the conflict if their weapons are found to be used against Russia. The US in particular has been the biggest supplier of heavy weaponry, followed by NATO and EU countries.

Moscow has all the while underscored the proxy war nature of the conflict and showdown with NATO, but so far a WW3-style escalation has been narrowly avoided, but this worst case scenario certainly looms large. This especially as President Putin has lately charged that Ukraine is using Western advanced weapons systems to directly target Russian cities and territory.

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

Donald Trump dropped a new campaign video featuring Bill Clinton meeting with Jeffrey Epstein, while the ad also promised more transparency on uncovering the full story behind the JFK assassination.

The video opens with Ronald Reagan’s ‘thousand years of darkness’ speech where he called on Americans to tell their elected officials that national policy should be based on a shared sense of morality and is soundtracked by Aerosmith’s Dream On.

It also features Trump’s promise to obtain transparency surrounding the assassination of JFK, featuring footage of Kennedy being shot before highlighting the lyrics, “you got to lose to know how to win.”

The ad then shows footage of when Trump was ‘arrested’ along with a passage from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War which reads, “If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”

Trump just dropped a video featuring Jeffrey Epstein, Clintons’, Obamas, Klaus Schwab, and Bill Gates. 👀 pic.twitter.com/yZrvncYnPx

— Patrick Webb (@RealPatrickWebb) January 5, 2024

The chorus then drops showing Trump with his supporters before clips showing Bill Clinton meeting with Jeffrey Epstein.

The lyrics “dream on” are then illustrated with images of Trump’s Republican rivals Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Mike Pence before showing footage from Trump’s 2016 victory.

World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, George Soros, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are also told to “dream on”.

The song’s ‘scream’ part is then illustrated with the infamous meme of the obese Democrat screaming in anger at response to Trump winning.

The ad finishes with Trump declaring:

“As long as the American people hold in their arms deep and devoted love of country then there is nothing this nation cannot achieve – the best is yet to come.”

Compare Trump’s ad to Biden’s latest effort, which demonizes Trump supporters as extremists.

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