"Sympathy For The Devil" (opens in separate window)

the floodgates of hell

friday, february 23rd, 2024

Back before World War II there were multiple small, regional conflicts that had developed.

Blood now soaks the soil of 3 continents. Aggressors are now on killing sprees.

And that is exactly what is developing now, according to an expert on international events, and Joe Biden is allowing it.

“Biden has opened the floodgates of Hell. Although nothing is inevitable, we are fast approaching the point where, as a practical matter, he will not be able to stop China and Russia, directly and through proxies, from merging existing conflicts and turning them into the next global war,” charged Gordon Chang, an expert on China, in a column at The Gatestone Institute.

[FULL TITLE: "Warning Sounded: ‘Biden has Opened the Floodgates of Hell’."]

He pointed out that, “Biden’s foreign policy has collapsed. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan effectively admitted that to CNN’s Dana Bash on February 4.”

The issue isn't the weakness of Biden, but the miscalculated aggression of Victoria Nuland.

Bash said, “You have said now a couple times on this show and you have said this many times before that the administration is trying to prevent this from spreading into a regional conflict.”

Then she listed conflict locations and said, “My colleague Peter Bergen smartly pointed out that this conflict involves 10 countries, at least four major terrorist groups, so isn’t this already a regional conflict?”

Sullivan responded, “Well, Dana, what I would say is that these are distinct but related challenges. … For example, what’s happening in the Red Sea is obviously to a certain extent triggered by what’s happening in Gaza, but it’s not the same thing. The Houthis aren’t just hitting ships related to Israel; they’re hitting a lot of different ships from a lot of different countries. And so we are trying to deal with the challenge to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. That is a distinct challenge. The militia groups in Iraq and Syria are hitting our forces. We’re responding. And then of course Israel is dealing both with the challenge of Hamas in Gaza and the threat from Hezbollah in the north.”

Chang explained, “Sullivan, although not his intention, confirmed the war in Gaza has already extended beyond that troubled strip. The situation is actually worse than he let on. Hamas leaders have fled Qatar and are now hiding out in Qatari diplomatic missions in Morocco, where they are unwanted by the King, and in Algeria, where they are welcomed by the regime.”

He said that means Iran effectively has operatives at the west end of the Mediterranean, in line with its threats to close down shipping there, as it already has in the Red Sea.

And Hamas operatives now “have also fled Qatar for Turkey, which controls access to the Black Sea, and Lebanon.”

The sequence has been: “Biden’s Afghanistan debacle of August 2021 was quickly followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, by China’s and Russia’s fueling insurgencies in North Africa, and by Iran’s attacks on Israel from Gaza and the Golan Heights.”

He noted Jonathan Bass, of InfraGlobal Partners, charged, “Blood now soaks the soil of three continents. More will be spilled. Aggressors are now on killing sprees.”

Chang said Biden’s policies are failing because Biden believes it is possible to integrate “virtually all nations into the rules-based international system.”

But he said China and Russia already do not respect sovereignty of other states.

That means, “Beijing and Moscow do not accept the assumptions that have defined the world since the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which established the current international system. Chinese and Russian leaders do not agree as to what should replace Westphalia, but they are nonetheless working together to bring it down,” he said.

That leaves Biden “trying to work” with China while Xi Jinping “believes the United States is at most a Chinese colony.”

Biden’s also is trying to “manage” the Russia-Ukraine war. And he’s hunting for “compromise” in the Middle East.

“He should realize that there can be no accommodation with regimes that either seek the destruction of the United States, China and Iran, for instance -- or regimes helping such enemies -- most notably Russia.

A Day In The Life.

Up at 8a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee, took two 50mg Tramadol and a 300mg Gabapentin for various pains, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, had a couple smokes in the very cool garage and checked the day's to-do list. Busy day ahead. I tuned into the "Chris Stigall Show LIVE" (CS Show) from 6-9a, and then the "Chris Plante Show LIVE" (CP Show) 9-12noon, and finally to the Rob Carson Show LIVE (RC Show) 12-3p.

We are going to have the most diverse and inclusive civilizational collapse in history.

It was a cold 31°, sunny and clear morning, but there was a Winter Weather Warning posted to my desktop. fired-up the furnace to take the chill off, and scanned the news and weather sites.

★ WINTER STORM WARNING! ★
• ... WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING ...
• WHAT...Heavy snow possible. Total snow accumulations of 4-6 inches possible..
• WHERE...Portions of the Laurel Highlands and South-Central Pennsylvania.
• IMPACTS...Plan on slippery road conditions.
• ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The highest accumulations will be on the hilltops and south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The storm track for this event is fairly far to our south. So any shift southward in the storm track could keep snow totals lower than current expectations. However, this storm will produce fluffier snow than the previous one. That could make it easier for the snow totals to increase.
• PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... There is the potential for significant winter weather that may impact travel.

I had 5 places to get to today: Farmer's Market, Podiatrist, Opthalamologist, Rite Aid Pharmacy, refuel the Jeep HEMI V8. I left at 10:45a. Back home after the Market, at 11:30, to get the food put away and get to the next 2 app'ts, I had some coffee and relaxed for a few minutes. The Friday traffic at the Market is unbelievable... every Friday, no fail. By 3:30p, I'd gotten 4-of-5 stops done: Market -- ✔, Podiatrist -- ✔, Opthalamologist closed Friday at 12noon? Refueled the Jeep HEMI V8 -- ✔, and put-off Rite Aid until Sunday or Monday; nothing "mission critical" there, yet, that can't wait a few days. I was tired, but a mug of the morning's Kona Coffee helped bring me back; no snooze needed.

I garaged the Jeep, and doing some 2023 Tax paperwork, kept checking various sites' weather maps thru the afternoon, as the HUGE snowstorm front approached. After BBQ and several of the pasta salads I got from the Market, for dinner, I watched the evening news, History's "Ancient Aliens" until 12:30a, and unplugged. The snow had already started.

Up at 6a on Saturday, it was sill snowing, 29° and I wished I hadn't missed the previous 5-6hrs of snowfall. That's 90% of a snow event: watching it fall. Looks like 5-6' so far. Twice now in one week. With temps rising quickly into the mid/upper-30s, the snow plow crew cancelled to plow and shovel. My driveway faces south and has a 8-9° slope, so snow melts quickly, and water drains down into the gutter. The front brick walk heats-up and it's clear within a very short time.

Nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to do it with.

I lounged around all morning, did 1-of-2 loads of laundry, some cleaning and enjoyed the slowly-disappearing snow. But hundreds of snow shower cells blew thru the area, from northwest to southeast, so much so that the NWS issued a ***SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT*** on it. LOL, duh. After some lunch, I finished-up the load of laundry, watched "Discovery's "Expedition Unknown" and grabbed a 2hr snooze on the LR couch. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to do it with. Natch.

I had dinner, got the refuse and recycle bins ready to go to the curb tomorrow, watched Discovery's "Expedition Unknown" and Motor Trend's "Iron Resurrection", got another load of laundry ready for tomorrow, By 2a, I was fading, and unplugged.

Up at 8:30a on Sunday, it was a bright, sunny, clear 24° morning. I did the usual morning routine, scanned the weather and news, had breakfast and enjoyed a few Marlboros with coffee. The snow we'd gotten Friday night, was melting nicely, despite the very cold wind. Sis stopped by around 1p, after her trip to Lancaster for a rescheduled haircut etc, and brought some Wegman's food goodies for me. I did some tax paperwork, took out the bins for pick-up tomorrow, and tried like hell to find a damned news program, all evening. Luckily, Motor Trend had a very vintage series, "Rusted Development" on for a few hours and I watched. By midnight, I'd had enough TV, and bagged it for the day.

Up at 6a on Monday, a clear, cold 26° start to the day, as it got light around 6:40. I fired-up the furnace and garage heater, started coffee, tuned into the "CS Show", recharged the Dyson® Outsize™ Cordless Vacuum for tomorrow morning, and recharge my old (2014) AT&T Cingular SmartFlip IV U102AA 4G LTE. No, I really don't need or want a "smart iPhone", since I only want to only make/take calls. I've disabled all email or messaging/texting on that phone.

After a delicious Apple Fritter for breakfast, and more "Dark Knight Coffee", I left at 12:30p, for 4 errands: Rutter's Convenience Store ✔, DeVono's Cleaners ✔, York Eye Center's Optometrist/Optician ✔, and Rite Aid Pharmacy✔. Lots of mileage in just 2+hrs. I unloaded the Jeep, had lunch, tuned into the end of the "RC Show", dialed-up the "CP Show" Podcast of today's 9-12 broadcast, and hit the LR couch for 2hrs. Getting dark when I woke-up, temps were also dropping quickly from the low-40s into the low-30s. I buttoned-up the condo, fired-up the furnace, had some dinner and watched the last hour of the rain-postponed Daytona 500. What a mess. Typical of the NASCAR crap. Sherry called and we made plans for the week.

I switched the TV to "History's Greatest Mysteries" on the History Channel, until the 11p news, and called it a night. JoAnne, my cleaning lady, is in at 8:30a. Time for some sleep.

Up at 6:30a on Tuesday, a cold and clear 24° morning, I'd overslept 30mins, so I got a shortened routine done more quickly than usual. Heat up, coffee made, I checked the weather and news sites, tuned into the "CS Show" from 9-12, had a few smokes, started a load of laundry (2 myPillow® pillows), had an Apple Fritter for breakfast, and relaxed with coffee. JoAnne arrived at 8;30 and I stayed in my office-sunroom, and minded the laundering pillows, until she needed to get in there to clean. She was done and gone by 11:30, so I had some lunch, and drove to Weis Market to get a "few things". $105 and 4 bags later, I was home unpacking. Heh.

By 3p, after a lunch of leftover Chinese Pork Dumplings & Fried Rice, I was crashing from the morning coffee's caffeine, and took a 2hr snooze on the LR couch. Back up by 5p, I closed down the condo, as temps were falling outside, had some dinner, and caught the evening news. I watched new episodes on Motor Trend's "Iron Resurrection" for a few hours and History's "Curse of Oak Island" until 11:30, and quit for the night.

Up at 5:30a on Wednesday, to a cold 23°, clear-forecast morning. Usual routine done, I could 'lounge around' this morning listening to both the "CS Show" and "CP Show", plus some of the "RC Show" until Sweet Sherry arrived at 2p. Not much lower R/S back/hip/leg pain, this morning, but just enough to take a single 50mg Tramadol and one 500mg Bayer Aspirin. I had lunch, did a little work on the piles of tax receipts. and Sherry arrived at 2p. We spent the afternoon at my place talking about lots of things, and she left around 4:30. I watched History's "American Pickers" all evening, had some dinner, and called it a day at midnight.

Up at 6a on Thursday, it was a cloudy, nippy 31°, as a major stormfront approached from the west. I did the usual routine, tuned into the "CS Show", enjoyed some coffee with the Marlboros, in the garage. Looks like the AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon hit with network outage this morning. The same storm which had blasted the Left Coast with torrential rain and floods last week, is coming to us and the northeast, with some nasty Winter weather. I scanned the news headlines on Fox, left-wing Drudge and a few other websites. Depressing stuff.

Looks like AT&T, Verizon, Cingular, t-mobile and other carriers are experiencing amassive East Coast "outage", which is spreading west into the South and Midwest. Digital and landlines both out. Hacked? Cyberattacked? Maybe. Anyway, the rain arrived around 1p.

I had a couple of mini-Croissants for breakfast, listened to the "CP Show" until 10:45a, and left for my 11:15 haircut app't. Done and back home by 11:45, I scanned the latest Net reports on the outage, which hasn't affected me so far, and other industries are getting slammed, too. In case it gets bad, I'm well-prepared.

I had a Grilled Cheese and Potato Salad, for lunch, took an hour's snooze and did some sorting work on the piles of tax receipts. I checked the Wells Fargo Bank site's Brokerage/Tax Docs section for the 1099-R P&L Form I need, but not yet. It was soon dark, temps dropping and the rain continued. After some BBQ and Olive Salad Pasta for dinner, I watched the evening news, checked the evening streaming line-up, and it was 'NBC' (Nothing But Crap), so I switched to NEWSMAX for the evening, took my pill, and called it quits early, at 10.

Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal", and Sherry will be with me in the afternoon. Otherwise, next week is clear, with just some lab tests at a local Wellspan lab for an upcoming Dr's app't. No biggie.

_____________________________________

Susan Shelley: Trump Was Right All Along About The Russiagate Hoax.

At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, a custom pavilion was built to house Reagan’s Air Force One plane. It’s a massive space that also displays a presidential helicopter and a collection of vehicles.

When Donald Trump eventually builds his presidential library, he’ll need a pavilion twice that size to hold the “Trump was Right” exhibit.

He might need two of them.

Special Counsel John Durham has released his “Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities and Investigations Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns,” and it confirms that Trump was right when he called the investigation into alleged collusion between his campaign and Russia “a hoax.”

There never was any actual evidence, none at all, to support that allegation or the opening of an FBI investigation. None. Nothing. Zero.

In fact, there was evidence to the contrary, and the FBI ignored it. “It is the Office’s assessment that the FBI discounted or willfully ignored material information that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia,” the report states.

Trump was framed and the country was torn apart by vicious, false allegations of treasonous conduct by the duly elected president of the United States. Who was responsible?

Hillary Clinton did this, aided and abetted by a number of people in the government.

How high did it go? All the way to the top. In late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies learned that Russian intelligence had picked up information alleging that Hillary Clinton had approved a proposal from one of her campaign advisors to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee, in order to distract from the investigation into her use of a private email server as Secretary of State.

According to his own notes, then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed President Barack Obama with that information on July 28, and on August 3 Brennan met with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director James Comey and other senior administration officials, including Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who participated remotely, to brief them on intelligence related to Russian interference and on the “Clinton Plan” intelligence.

So they all knew. The Durham report says the FBI “failed to act on what should have been — when combined with other incontrovertible facts — a clear warning sign that the FBI might then be the target of an effort to manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes during the 2016 presidential election.”

Exculpatory evidence, tending to establish innocence, was ignored, while Clinton-funded materials —the Steele Dossier, full of salacious and unverified claims, and false accusations that Trump shared a computer server with Alfa Bank in Russia—were treated as credible. Material from the Steele Dossier was even presented to the FISA court to back up a request for a warrant to spy on a Trump campaign advisor. The court was not told of its political origin.

“Put another way,” the Durham report states, “this [Clinton plan] intelligence — taken at face value — was arguably highly relevant and exculpatory because it could be read in fuller context, and in combination with other facts, to suggest that materials such as the Steele Dossier reports and the Alfa Bank allegations…were part of a political effort to smear a political opponent and to use the resources of the federal government’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies in support of a political objective.”

That’s exactly what happened. And while it was going on, they all knew. It was a hoax. Trump was right.

This corrupt manipulation of the FBI and other government agencies for political purposes did not end with the Russia hoax and still continues today. Consider how our elections have been affected.

As voters went to the polls in 2018, the special counsel investigation into the baseless Trump-Russia allegations was dragging on. How many voters were influenced by the belief that Donald Trump had engaged in treasonous conduct with Russia? The Mueller report was finally released in April 2019, finding no conspiracy or collusion.

As voters went to the polls in 2020, the FBI was in possession of the Hunter Biden laptop, in full knowledge that it was authentic, and keeping silent while the Biden team rounded up misleading statements from former U.S. intelligence officials asserting that the laptop looked like Russian disinformation. Revelations from the Twitter files show government involvement in the suppression and censorship of the New York Post’s truthful reporting that the laptop contained email evidence that Biden was lying to the American people when he said repeatedly that he had no conversations with his son about his business dealings.

As voters went to the polls in 2022, they had recently seen images of a massive FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August, an unprecedented use of government force at the residence of a former president, suggesting some gravely serious violation of law and national security which has yet to be identified. But it wasn’t until February 2023 that Biden’s lawyers acknowledged that on November 2, before the election, they had found classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president in his office closet at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

There were no police vehicles, no flashing red and blue lights, no news cameras for that discovery, or for subsequent discoveries at Biden’s Delaware home of illegally held classified documents from his time as VP and U.S. senator.

Now the 2024 election is approaching, and the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating both Trump and Biden over possession of documents. Durham called out the FBI and DOJ for “disparate treatment of candidates Clinton and Trump.” Watch closely to see if that happens here.

The abuses of power in the FBI are not limited to presidential candidates. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary subcommittee investigating the weaponization of government heard from three FBI whistleblowers whose lives and reputations have been devastated by improper retaliation. One had brought forth concerns about the tactics used against protesters arrested in connection with January 6th.

There must be accountability. This cannot continue.

The Green Energy Cult Is Killing the West.

Years ago, I wrote a post about how cheap air travel to Europe was ruining America. My point was that the Americans visiting Europe were confusing what they experienced as a tourist with the reality of life in Europe. These progressive American fans of two-hour lunches and 6 months of maternal and paternal leave didn’t have a clue about how average Europeans lived. Indeed, a couple of years later, the Foundation For Economic Education came out with a study that showed the poorest 20% of Americans were better off than the average European. Basically, the average European suffers from high taxes, high prices, tiny homes and cars, and, increasingly, less freedom. But tourists sipping tea in London or shopping in Paris rarely, if ever, see this, or understand it if they do.

Nonetheless, with little understanding of economics or history, they decide that America must become Europe. Socialism, Obamacare, and gay marriage are just some of those European imports that Americans have to deal with today.

We are seeing something similar play out on a grander, global scale—or at least in the West, where prosperity has dulled the brains of much of the population.

Naturally, I’m talking about the green energy hoax. Here in the West, we have people so spoiled by prosperity that they have the luxury of pining for a time when we weren’t poisoning our earth with fossil fuels or risking apocalypse with nuclear power.

On both sides of the Atlantic, you have a perfect mix of brain-dead green energy cultists and fascist elites who seek to harness the power of that cult to control everyone. That’s a toxic combination because energy controls pretty much everything.

The reality is that inexpensive, reliable energy is the single biggest driver of prosperity in all human history. And it’s not even close. Inexpensive, reliable energy drives virtually everything that we Westerners enjoy: Our food, iPhones, transportation, heating and cooling of homes, televisions, hospitals, schools, movies, plumbing, video games, Starbucks, and the Zambonis at hockey games! Everything.

It’s not that energy didn’t exist previously. It did. But the difference is that it was inefficient, hard to get, and expensive. The first significant source of fuel for humans was wood. That lasted for tens of thousands of years. Although the first recorded use of coal was in China between the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, in Europe, for two thousand years, coal remained an insignificant source of energy. Change came in the 17th century because England had felled most of the easily accessible trees and was in need of energy. With the advent of large-scale mining, coal rapidly became the most significant source of energy in Europe.

This would be the status quo for the next 300 years until the first successful oil well, drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. Over the following decades, tens of thousands of wells would be drilled and, by 1900, the US alone would be producing 20 million barrels of oil a year. That oil was first used to produce kerosene for heating and lighting homes, then gasoline for automobiles and, eventually, powering electricity plants as well, although coal was the dominant fuel for powering electricity production well into the late 20th century.

In the latter half of the 20th century, nuclear power emerged as a viable vehicle for producing electricity and was joined by fracking-driven natural gas early in the early 21st century.

Of course, renewables had been around for centuries, first with windmills and watermills, then hydroelectricity and, eventually, solar. Renewables always remained a small sliver of the power generation, however, only becoming slightly material in recent years due to heavy regulation and subsidies.

But now, for the first time in human history, we have a segment of the population, largely Western liberals, who want to restrict the use of inexpensive and reliable energy.

For the last 400 years, mankind has been marching forward in the direction of increasing the amount of energy we consume. As a result, lifespans have increased dramatically, prosperity has flourished, technology and sciences have advanced dramatically, and lives have become exponentially more varied.

Believe it or not, all of that is held together by a tenuous electricity grid. Not sure? In 2019 the Air Force said the following about an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack:

A successful EMP attack on the U.S. could lead to a nationwide blackout of the electric power grid and a shutdown of critical infrastructure reliant on the grid, including, but not limited to, communications, transportation, food and water supply, and sanitation. Such a shutdown could last as long as a year, and without such critical infrastructure, a large fraction of the America could die from starvation, disease, or the effects of general societal collapse.

That gives some indication of how dependent Americans are on energy. But it’s probably not going to be an EMP that cripples America and the West. It’s going to be the fiction of green energy.

In 2011, Angela Merkel announced that Germany would shut down all 17 of its nuclear reactors. Last year, the last three were shuttered. In 1990 Germany generated 25% of its electricity from nuclear; now it’s finally zero. And it shows.

While harassing citizens to conserve energy, Germany has gone from a net exporter of energy to a net importer. In addition, in 2010, German GDP growth was ahead of every single nation in the EU and double the average. By 2022, it was half the EU average and, over the next six years, it’s predicted to be dead last in the EU and behind only Belarus and war torn Russia and Ukraine on the continent. This is all in pursuit of the goal of cutting CO2 emissions 65% below the 1990 level by 2030.

On this side of the pond, we have California banning the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035 and a wave of blue states lining up behind them. This at the same time the state is asking existing electric car owners not to charge their cars while leaning on fossil fuels to stave off the return of rolling blackouts.

The reality is that the green energy revolution is a fiction. Green energy is incapable of providing the energy requirements developed nations require and the green energy movement is a cult. In fealty to that cult, Western nations are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars every year on “green energy” programs—most of which fail. Between 2020 and June of 2023, Western nations spent $1.34 trillion on green energy “investments“ while private companies spent tens of billions more annually.

Basically, for no discernable benefit, and arguably with many negative consequences, Western nations are setting fire to 2% of their GDP annually and expect to burn even more going forward. That would essentially mean that GDP would have to grow at 2% annually just to tread water, an unlikely prospect in the face of tightening energy supplies and skyrocketing costs.

And this is all because people with no understanding of science, economics, or history operate under the illusion that civilization is a virus on the pristine earth. Western civilization as we know it will not survive the economic suicide of the green revolution.

Perhaps that’s why Western elites are inviting into their countries tens of millions of third-world “migrants” who aren’t familiar with inexpensive and reliable energy. At some point, those who do remember them will become the minority, and the elites can finally drop the fiction of concern.