Chinese President Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to conquer Taiwan by the year 2027. Most U.S. military and intelligence analysts believe Xi will attempt such an invasion before this decade is out. Xi views Taiwan’s subjugation under the Chinese Communist Party flag as a requirement of his personal destiny and the party’s political destiny. //
The United States is not obligated, under the current Taiwan Relations Act, to intervene with military forces should the Communist Chinese forces invade the island nation; we are committed to supporting Taiwan with arms and logistical support. But that, in itself, may make the mainland Communists see value in interdicting any such support, which would mean taking military action against U.S. forces in the Pacific.
That could make things in the Pacific downright spicy, and quickly. And China may be preparing to do just that. //
USA_Proud
9 hours ago edited
Their aging demographics alone make military attacks in the next 5 years likely. While their "One Child" policy resulted in a high percentage of Military age Males, it ran for decades, and only ended in 2015. The lack of females in prime child- bearing years makes it difficult to staff a Military. While China may have wanted to wait a few more years to further let Biden decimate our Military while they modernize theirs, fear of a GOP Administration may cause them to jump early. //
Chuck in TX
9 hours ago
China is surrounded by some very strong opponents that would view an attack on one as a likely attack on all of them. Also, Xi has to have serious questions about whether the PLA is as prepared and capable as he has been told. Fatal flaws seem to reveal themselves with the PLA pretty regularly. Any kind of high-tempo operations will reveal even more. Fortress Taiwan undoubtedly has agents within China ready to make life miserable for the CCP and a Three Gorges Dam failure wipes out almost a third of China (from the river to the sea, indeed).
Laocoön of Troy Chuck in TX
7 hours ago
Glad you caught the Three Gorges Dam problem. It really is a war-loser for the People's Republic if it's taken down. The threat of famine over the next coupla years if it goes is all by itself a PRC killer. Their garrisoned waterlogged sandbars in the South China Sea can be made into quicksand with a MOAB...we don't even hafta go nuclear to sink them back into the ocean one at a time.
In a classified letter, US Central Command commander General Michael Kurilla warned Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that US military operations to keep the Red Sea open to commercial traffic are "failing." General Kurilla's warning to Austin and his cronies predicted that “U.S. service members will die if we continue going this way.” According to reports, there was a sudden demand for brown trousers in the upper reaches of the Pentagon. //
There is no doubt we are getting our asses kicked in the Red Sea. That is happening for one reason. Our foreign policy and defense strategy establishments are running on empty. The Israel Air Force has done more to establish dominance over the Houthis in one airstrike than we have in a year of half-hearted and hamstrung efforts to keep a vital international maritime route open. //
Houthi attacks are responsible for a significant drop in container shipping through the Red Sea, with a 90% decrease since December 2023, affecting 10-15% of global maritime trade. //
According to the report, alternate shipping routes around Africa, despite adding about 11,000 nautical miles, approximately $1 million in fuel costs per voyage, and 1-2 weeks of transit time, can be less expensive than the combined costs of crew bonuses, war risk insurance, and Suez transit fees.
Insurance premiums for Red Sea transits have increased to 0.7-1.0% of a ship’s total value as of mid-February, up from less than 0.1% before December 2023. //
Not only have our efforts to protect shipping not worked, but they have resulted in our allies forming a counter-coalition to avoid being under US command. US leadership in an area of immense national security interest, both the Red Sea route and the freedom of navigation, has been lost and will require much hard work to regain.
Once American hard power is used, it must emerge victorious. The failure to do so leads to instability and more warfare.
Much of Iran's resurgence and instability in the Middle East is directly attributable to Biden's horrendous leadership in closing out our Afghan misadventure. Now, he's about to end his misrule of America with another catastrophe that will echo for generations as a bookend to his Afghanistan failure. All in all, this is a fitting legacy for Joe Biden's life and political career.
In a new wrinkle exposed in the defamation lawsuit brought against CNN by a private contractor and former military veteran, a deposition filing was made with unredacted content that may expose the network further. As we covered recently, the news network is facing a lawsuit that may match – or exceed – the defamation settlement FoxNews reached with Dominion Voting Systems.
This stems from a report made on “The Lead With Jake Tapper” by Alex Marquardt where he covered a component of the extraction efforts from Afghanistan. Security contractor Zachary Young worked as a private evacuation expert in the region, and Marquardt’s report carried the supposition that Young was an illegal operator. Judges have determined there is enough revealed to bring to a jury the charge that CNN knew there was a lack of factual basis and may have acted with malicious intent.
So far, the evidence of Harris being a leader of any type, much less a "strong and tested" one, is scant. The sky-high attrition rate in her office indicates a toxic and dysfunctional work environment. Indeed, she reminds me of the story about the lieutenant of whom it was said, "Men follow this officer out of sheer curiosity." //
I find it ludicrous and insulting to the intelligence to say she can make the case "about why Donald Trump is a threat to America’s national security" when she just participated in a palace coup to strip Joe Biden of his candidacy, if not supplant him as president. //
This letter has the same credibility as that of the 51 "intelligence professionals" who proclaimed Hunter Biden's laptop to have the hallmarks of Russian disinformation ... //
houdini1984
9 hours ago
Harris, describing the Russia-Ukraine situation:
"So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that's wrong."
Yep. A true foreign policy genius at work.
Those 350 "experts" are not even qualified to teach at Clown College. //
Scholar houdini1984
9 hours ago edited
An old Asian proverb: "One of the merits of our beloved leader is that he tasted the sugar and declared: It is sweet.". //
Jim frm Palo Alto
9 hours ago
The dishonesty is shocking. Traveling does not mean accomplishment. Meetings are a dime a dozen. Where are the Biden-Harris versions of the Abraham Accords, the five trade deals, the strong push back against China, Trump’s NK trip, etc? Under Biden-Harris all we have is chaos and embarrassment such as the Afghanistan debacle and our continued aid to the Taliban; sanctions relief to Iran and aid to Hamas; the closure of multiple embassies because of threats; getting kicked out of Niger; losing to China around the globe; three years of war in Ukraine.
https://thehill.com/opinion/4784733-biden-withdraws-democratic-party-nominee/
After weeks of Democrats and the media raising the alarm of his mental capacity, Biden finally gave up his public refusal to step aside. Harris will now be the nominee through succession by defenestration, or being tossed from a window. Yet, there remains a lingering question of Biden’s capacity to serve for another six months as president.
President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw as the Democratic Party’s nominee solved an immediate problem for his party. Biden has plummeted in the polls as the vast majority of voters concluded that he is too diminished by age to serve another term.
Yet, it has now created several new problems, including the obvious problem of a president who is viewed as incapable of running for an office that he continues to hold. //
Millions voted for [Biden], and tens of millions of dollars were contributed to his campaign. He is now withdrawing weeks before accepting the nomination. That unprecedented decision alone would warrant a House investigation into Biden’s continuing capacity to serve in an office that he no longer believes he can run to occupy after January 2025.
Before this decision, a special counsel cited President Biden’s diminished faculties as a reason not to indict him for unlawfully retaining and handling classified material. Now, the president is effectively saying that, in addition to being allegedly too diminished to be prosecuted, he is too diminished to run for the office that he currently holds.
The question is whether Biden has ended the fight to retain his nomination only to trigger a fight to retain his office.
In light of the Biden administration's poor record of truth-telling when it comes to POTUS' medical condition, many people questioned whether that COVID diagnosis was a convenient way to get Biden out of the spotlight for a few days, or if there was more to the story. Based on the reporting of Charlie Kirk and Jordan Schachtel, portions of which were confirmed independently by RedState's Brittany Sheehan, and exclusive details provided to RedState by a well-placed credible source, it seems that skepticism was justified. According to these sources, Biden had a sudden medical emergency and was headed toward University Medical Center trauma center before his team decided to "medivac" him out instead, and that medical emergency was some type of neurological event like a transient ischemic attack. //
Several law enforcement officers on duty that day were informed over the radio that the president was dealing with an unspecified medical emergency. Far from a case of the sniffles, this was sent out on encrypted police airwaves as if something akin to a five-alarm fire had broken out.
Our sources estimate that it was “easily” hundreds of Las Vegas Metropolitan officers and employees who heard the broadcasts live, so a curious media shouldn’t have a problem reporting any follow-ups to this story. The dispatches made clear that this was much more than a mere change of plans, because it set into motion so much of their on-duty emergency response apparatus.
Radio dispatchers responsible for coordinating with the president’s detail requested an immediate “surge” of law enforcement resources into the area, both to secure the vicinity and to expedite the president’s movement. //
But the president’s team decided not to bring him to the hospital. The plans changed in rapid succession once more. It was then relayed over to on duty officers on the president’s detail that they would need to clear an express route to Harry Reid International Airport. The police assigned to the president’s detail and the emergency “in the box” squads then redeployed their resources to getting the president out of town as fast and as safe as humanly possible. //
US Secret Service diverted from the route to University Medical Center back to the tarmac when their doctor determined it wasn't a full stroke, and they could treat him on Air Force One.
The source added that it's now believed that Biden had a TIA. //
RNC Research @RNCResearch
·
PROOF OF LIFE? Biden shuffles out of his motorcade, mumbles incoherently at reporters, and ascends the stairs of the smaller AF1.
It's Biden's first public appearance since the coup to force him off the ballot.
1:48 PM · Jul 23, 2024
It's an issue that even has Democrat strategist James Carville growing hair just to pull it out.
“I’ve been very vocal about this,” Carville said on his podcast. “It’s horrifying, our numbers among younger voters, particularly younger blacks and younger Latinos and whatever, younger people of color. Particularly males. We’re not shedding them, they’re leaving in droves.” //
But none of them seem to be able to figure out that the messaging towards men has been anti-male. The Democrats either won't or can't push away from their gyno-centrism. Not that they care about women all that much, either. You can see how much they stand up for women by how much they abandon them whenever a man claiming to be a woman demands he get all the privileges and accolades a woman should get, but I digress.
The Democrats have really lost it if they think the male youth will come crawling back because their new candidate is a woman. If they believe this will turn the tide, then they haven't been paying attention.
These transcripts are a big deal because one of the most direct allegations of criminality involving Biden's actions was that he shared classified information with his biographer. Had these been handed over months ago, it could have dramatically escalated the stakes regarding Hur's investigation and his subsequent report. It would have also deepened the scandal for a White House that was already in crisis given Biden's other issues, including his mental and physical condition.
It is simply not believable that the DOJ didn't know about these transcripts until the exact moment it became most politically convenient to acknowledge them. Now that Biden is out of the race, he is no longer in need of protection from AG Merrick Garland and his compromised department. Further, it allows now-presumptive Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris to claim that the administration is "transparent" despite the obvious timing issues at play. The same is true of the sudden reversal by Secret Service head Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned on Tuesday.
Then there's the other aspect at play. Could this be part of a ploy to go ahead and push Biden to resign the presidency, giving Harris a chance to garner an incumbency advantage? I wouldn't put anything past the DOJ and the administration as a whole at this point. Everything is on the table given the continued evidence of their dishonesty and corruption.
Right now, this looks like a two-birds-with-one-stone setup, and I don't think too many people are going to buy that it's just a coincidence.
Plasma Bigscreen is an open-source user interface for TV's. Running on top of a Linux distribution, Plasma Bigscreen turns your TV or setup-box into a fully hackable device. A big launcher giving you easy access to any installed apps and skills. Controllable via voice or TV remote.
Democrats’ success in removing Biden from the ballot should serve as a wake-up call to normie America about the security of our elections.
If you need further proof that Democrats will go to extreme lengths to rig elections in their favor, look no further than the silent coup that occurred Sunday, when it was announced that Joe Biden would not seek reelection this November.
Madam Director, I would fire you — regardless of the failure — I would fire you just how you've handled it since. You should have been the first to the mics, to say, "America, world, I want to assure you we're going to get to the bottom of this. I want to assure you full transparency. Our agency clearly had major gaps here. And I want to personally take responsibility and accountability. You should have been the first, standing alongside Secretary Mayorkas. And I would even go so far as to say have daily press conferences, updating everyone on what we know. But you haven't had any of that. What are you hiding behind? Because you're making the situation worse. I think you've heard that on a bipartisan basis here: You are making this situation far worse in the absence of information. //
Fishin'withFredo
2 hours ago
Just come out with it, for god's sake. This was a multi-agency orchestrated plan to kill Donald Trump. //
wildmlm Fishin'withFredo
12 minutes ago
No. Because those secrets would never stay secret. Listen to her…she’s incompetent. They were lax and overconfident. //
Spike the Kool-Aid P Bro
2 hours ago
There is no accountability because the true power does not lie with We The People or our elected representatives, where it is supposed to. The hubris of those who rule (not govern) us is yet again on full display.
America's true and only systemic RACE problem is the federal government, which takes zero Responsibility, has no Accountability, never faces Consequences, and does not apply Equal treatment under the law.
That needs to change. The federal government and those who control it do not have our consent to rule over us.
Rep. Eli Crane
@RepEliCrane
·
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This video was taken from one of the windows the Secret Service had access to, overlooking the entire roof.
As you can see, they had complete coverage.
Makes you wonder how on earth they allowed the shooter to access the roof, let alone crawl up it & fire several shots.
2:27 PM · Jul 22, 2024 //
With questions still swirling about why warnings to local police about the suspect were slow to reach Secret Service personnel, Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said he learned Monday that local authorities were excluded from the Secret Service command posts for the July 13 rally, even though such officials had been granted that access at similar events in the past.
“Normally, the local law enforcement guys are allowed to sit in the Secret Service … control room,” Green said. “Today, the locals shared with us that they were not allowed to have anybody in there. So, that makes you want to dig a little further, right?”
RNC Research
@RNCResearch
·
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🚨 Biden's brother, Frank, says Biden's declining health "absolutely" played a "considerable role" in his decision to drop out of the presidential race — something the Biden administration has consistently denied.
THIS IS THE COVERUP OF THE CENTURY.
8:49 PM · Jul 21, 2024 //
Nancy Cordes
@nancycordes
·
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Frank Biden told @cbsnews that his brother's health, "in my humble opinion absolutely" contributed to his decision to bow out. But source close to Biden fam says “Frank Biden suffers from alcoholism and hasn’t spoken to his brother in weeks. What he said...is completely untrue.”
7:13 PM · Jul 21, 2024 //
houdini1984 Ribs_of_Rock
an hour ago
Now who could imagine that the democrats are the real threat to democracy?
Anyone who's ever seen what leftists do to countries when they take power. //
Ribs_of_Rock houdini1984
an hour ago
It’s almost like they ruin everything intentionally, blame the opposition, accuse the opposition of doing what they’re already doing and then declare themselves sole arbiters of democracy or science or what have you…. //
houdini1984 Ribs_of_Rock
an hour ago
It's because their entire philosophy is incapable of improving the lot of humanity. They build nothing. Like locusts, they come into fields that others labored to produce, eat to their heart's content, and leave devastation in their wake. They create equality in the worst way, but tearing down success to ensure that everyone is equally miserable.
They're demons in human form, doing the devil's work wherever they cast their eye.
It was one of the most epic political takedowns you’ll ever see, and it occurred during the August 2019 Democrat presidential debate. Then-Senator for California Kamala Harris, whose campaign had started out with such hope and fanfare, basically saw her effort die after one exchange with Tulsi Gabbard, the Army Reserve officer and former representative for Hawaii.
Gabbard brought the fight to Harris, saying her record as a prosecutor was deeply problematic.
She blocked evidence – she blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.
The tongue-lashing clearly shocked Kamala (watch her face), and in essence, she never recovered. As our sister site Twitchy reported Sunday, Gabbard has come back to haunt Harris once again now that Joe Biden has called it quits on his reelection campaign.
The vice president is the maidservant to Hillary Clinton, Gabbard warned:
After claiming to have ramped up security around former President Donald Trump because of an Iranian plot to assassinate him, the Secret Service provided only three agency personnel for “post-standing” Trump’s fateful July 13 Pennsylvania rally, compared to the 12 post-standers that first lady Jill Biden received at a dinner in nearby Pittsburgh that night, according to emails between and among Secret Service personnel obtained by RealClearPolitics.
The Secret Service typically assigns special agents in a candidate’s detail, or “shift” agents in Secret Service lingo, to posts within an inner perimeter of an event. The middle perimeter is then monitored by agents pulled for local Secret Service field offices and assigned as “post-standers” assigned to specific spots and responsible for security specific targeted areas. //
Probable Cause
31 minutes ago
To be fair, it does make sense that they'd assign more resources to protect the current president. /s. //
Chuck in TX
27 minutes ago
Now, let's dig a little deeper and see if it gets even more interesting. Three were assigned to the Butler, PA detail. Was this a one time, singular, reduction? Was this abnormally low compared to the weeks and months prior? In other words, did the Secret Service reduce protection specifically for this event? An event where they secured the building the shooter used but allowed him to access the roof? An event where multiple law enforcement and bystanders reported a man with a rifle in a shooting position and they chose to look the other way? //
Truth Seeker First
22 minutes ago
Now all needs to be done to make a head count of attendees at fake-doctor Jill's event and Trump's event to get a "post" to attendees ratio to evaluate that there is no political bias in assigning Aecret Servuce Agents.
I can tell you already, that Jill's 6 attendees event got already more agents assigned than Trump's 30,000 attendees!
Wow, politicising needed personal protection for opposition party's candidates!
Trump should refuse to debate Harris and label her as an illegitimately selected candidate who was put into the race by unelected party oligarchs. //
At this point, the spotlight needs to be focused on the Democrat decision to replace Biden, the hypocrisy of him staying in office, and treating Harris as an usurper in the field who has no right to be taken seriously.
Joe Biden
@JoeBiden
·
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My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… Show more
2:13 PM · Jul 21, 2024
Does this mean Harris is automatically the nominee? The answer is no, but what this does is paint Democrats into a corner. With Biden having stepped aside, he's already done them a massive favor. For there to be any movement against Harris at this point would cause a huge rift within the Democratic Party. Yes, she's deeply unpopular and losing to Trump according to the current polling, but she's the vice president and she checks way too many intersectional boxes to be pushed aside.
In short, this could get really ugly going forward. Either Harris is coronated and there's some semblance of unity within the party or others step up to challenge her and you've got chaos. //
Regardless, no American voter should forget who lied to them. If the nominee does end up being Kamala Harris, she knew about Biden's condition. She was in the administration that covered it up and trashed anyone who dared question the official narrative. She is culpable, and the fact that she misled voters is a genuine scandal. This fight is just beginning.
On Sunday, using his personal X account, President Joe Biden released a letter to the American people in which he announced his withdrawal from his 2024 reelection bid. //
Clodagh
5 hours ago
Does Joe know? //
anon-x7j0
5 hours ago
If he is not fit to run for reelection, how is he fit to run the country till January 20, 2025? The party that is screaming the most about “threat to democracy” has already ENDED our democracy because unelected people are running the country, not Joe Biden.
Rep. Mike Waltz
·
23h
@michaelgwaltz
·
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Once again Mayorkas has MISLED the public.
On CNN he called my statement that President Trump’s detail was DENIED repeated requests for stronger secret service protection “an irresponsible statement that is unequivocally false”.
Now WaPo is citing officials that I was CORRECT,…
Josh Dawsey
@jdawsey1
NEWS: Secret Service repeatedly denied requests from Trump’s detail, contrary to their statement last week. Requests included at times: snipers, magnetometers and agents to work them, specialty teams. Our latest: https://washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/07/20/trump-secret-service-security-attempted-assassination/
Rep. Mike Waltz
@michaelgwaltz
·
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Next time you’re going to call me and your own Secret Service agents liars on national TV, make sure that you're not the one lying to the American people yourself.
7:39 PM · Jul 20, 2024
Rep. Mike Waltz
@michaelgwaltz
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I have very reliable sources telling me there have been repeated requests for stronger secret service protection for President Trump.
Denied by Secretary Mayorkas.
Chad Pergram
@ChadPergram
Comer wants USSS Director Cheadle to appear for a hearing on Trump shooting “soon.” His committee has oversight of Secret Service:
Comer: My prayers are with President Trump and the victims of the assassination attempt at today’s rally in Pennsylvania. I thank the brave Secret…
9:59 PM · Jul 13, 2024
Rep. Mike Waltz
@michaelgwaltz
·
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Director Cheadle should be fired just for how badly she’s dealt with the public this week.
NO press conferences, NO on-camera briefings, NO flow of information to the American people.
The public has a RIGHT TO KNOW how someone came within 1/4 inch of killing President Trump!
5:00 PM · Jul 20, 2024
Re: Cor, blimey
Make your own hot sauce.
Take about a cup(235ml) of good white or cider vinegar, put it in a blender with a dozen or so ripe habeneros (seeds & all ... ghost, scorpion, reaper, whatever), a teaspoon (5g) of sea salt (not that nasty, metallic tasting, iodine-infused "table salt"), and about a tablespoon each of honey(20g) & turbinado/demerara sugar(12g) (muscovado or piloncillo also work, if you can find 'em). You can leave the sugars out if you like, taste before adding. A tablespoon of chipotle powder (10g) (or smoked cumin) adds a nice smoky note, but isn't required. Blend well. Add a little more vinegar or another habenero if needed, to get a Tabasco-ish consistency. It's usable immediately, but bottle it & stick it in the back of your fridge for a couple months and it just gets better ... A turkey baster with the plastic bit from an eye-dropper stuck on the end works well for re-filling old Tabasco[tm] bottles.
Cheap, cheerful, requires no cooking or special preservation techniques, and above all it's tasty. Enjoy.
WARNING! Keep this stuff away from mucous membranes! It WILL hurt you! Do not play with your contacts after handling it ... come to think of it, don't play with anything after handling it. If you get my drift. (Hang on a second ... we EAT this stuff? On purpose?)