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February 17, 2024


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Inevitable Consequences and Alamo Moments
6 min read


INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCES AND ALAMO MOMENTS

Michael Cessna January 26, 2024

 

 

 

 

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On January 24th 2024, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement, concerning
the right of the State of Texas to defend itself from invasion, because –
quoting from the statement – the Federal Government as a body and specifically,
the administration of President Joe Biden, have broken the Compact between the
Several States and the Federal Government (the foundational concept that
underpins the notion of the “United States of America”) by not simply pointedly
and openly declining to defend the nation from a literal “invasion” at the
southern border, but in actively taking measures to prevent the State of Texas
from defending itself.

Abbott specifically cited the Biden administration failing to fulfill its duties
under Article IV § 4 of the Constitution, which has now required Abbott, as
Governor, to invoke Article 1 § 10 Clause 3 of the Constitution requiring him to
take measures to defend the state.

This statement was issued on the heels of a frankly stunning decision by the
United States Supreme Court on January 22nd, which allowed the US Border Patrol
to remove razor wire barricades emplaced by Texas National Guard troops assigned
to defend Texas’ border with Mexico along the Rio Grande River. In effect, the
Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration in suborning an invasion of
the United States.

The massive influx of illegal aliens is a subject we have discussed here
previously. The fairest “neutral” assessment of the impact of illegal
immigration comes from, of all places, Wikipedia:

 


> “THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES IS CHALLENGING
> TO MEASURE, AND POLITICALLY CONTENTIOUS…”

 

 

However, given the reactions of “sanctuary cities” – most of them longtime
strongholds of the Democrat Party – to having waves of “migrants” dumped (waves
that are not even comparable to the numbers being dumped on Texas) on their
doorsteps, not just by Republican-led states such as Texas and Florida, but by
the Federal Government itself, it is clear that the staggering numbers are
having an immediate, clear and disproportionate impact on the nation (leaving
aside said migrants frequently complaining bitterly about the aid and shelter
they are given, including appeals to citizens to house illegal aliens in
churches and private homes).

In response to Governor Abbott’s January 24th statement, many politicians have
begun to hysterically demand that President Biden federalize the Texas National
Guard to halt the Texas program to stem the flow of illegal migrants, and to
restrict them to using the legal crossing points, and to follow the established
legal processes.

This situation (which has been building for well over a decade as of this
writing), and the breathless demands to invoke the Insurrection Act to stop
Texas’ actions, has brought the nation perilously close to an actual “civil
war”, for the first time since 1860. This is because, as of this writing, some
twenty-five state Governors have definitively stated their support of Governor
Abbott and the state of Texas.

Actually federalizing a state’s National Guard against the wishes of their
state’s governor has been done before, famously in 1957 in Arkansas in regards
to the “Little Rock Nine”. A popular misconception is that a state’s National
Guard cannot be federalized without that state’s governor consenting to the
mobilization. As demonstrated in Arkansas, this is patently untrue.

The National Guard was created by the Militia Act of 1903, known popularly as
the “Dick Act” after its sponsor, Ohio Congressman Charles Dick (R), in response
to the severe manpower shortage in the US Army in the aftermath of the
Spanish-American War (1898) and the subsequent campaigns against Filipino
guerrillas in the Philippines Insurrection (1899-1902).

This latter campaign was hampered by American volunteers – who had been enlisted
for a period of two years – insisting on being sent home after the conclusion of
the war against Spain. As those who had volunteered specifically for the war
against Spain were technically still a part of the Militia of the United States,
they could not be required to serve longer than the conclusion of the war unless
they specifically volunteered to do so.

This manpower issue came from Article 1, § 8, Clause 15 of the “Militia Clauses”
(which includes Clause 16 of the same Article and Section) of the Constitution,
which strictly limits the call-up and use of the Militia to executing “…the Laws
of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions…” As a result, the
United States quickly found itself significantly hampered in the Philippines by
not having enough troops.

The “Dick Act” was written specifically to bypass the restrictions of the
“Militia Clauses”, in order to create a new military entity in the form of the
National Guard (and later, the Air National Guard). In effect, the “Dick Act”
created a type of reserve formation for the US Army (before the creation of the
actual “Army Reserve”), which (ultimately) would be equipped and trained by the
US Army, but which be paid for by the states, who would also be allowed to use
the military formations within the state, at the discretion of its governor.
However, if the Federal government decided that they needed to mobilize the
National Guard, they could do so at any time…whether a governor agrees with the
Federal government or not, as was demonstrated in 1957, in Arkansas.

In the context of the hysterical demands of partisan political hacks, this would
mean that President Biden would have to declare the State of Texas to be in
rebellion against the United States – something that has only happened once in
United States history – in order to force the Texas National Guard to disregard
the orders of its state Commander in Chief in the face of an active invasion of
their state.

Stop, and consider that implication.

If President Biden were to take such an ill-advised action, that would place the
Texas National Guard in the position of obeying either the Federal Government –
and allowing a massive invasion of their home state by massive numbers of
“military-age males”  who certainly did not walk north from homes in Mexico, or
Central or South America, because “economic asylum seekers” do not buy airplane
tickets from Africa to Mexico, in order to walk north…

…Conversely, the Texas National Guard could refuse orders to federalize. This
would constitute “Mutiny”, under Article 94 of the Uniform Code of Military
Justice (UCMJ, the legal code of the US armed forces), at the very least. This
would place the Federal government in the position of having to arrest up to
19,000 people en masse.

In like manner, there would then be the question of the reactions of the various
states and governors who have expressed their solidarity with Governor Abbott’s
actions…

This perilous situation is the ultimate outcome of decades of neglect, political
pandering and the abject failure of successive Federal governments to execute
the most basic of their duties, duties that the Several States voluntarily
allowed the Federal Government to maintain authority for, as a condition of
their joining the Federal Union in 1789. Leaving aside the obtuse legalities of
this situation, the reality is that the American Left – led primarily by the
Democrat Party – has driven the nation to a potential breakpoint, where the
States may well declare the sitting Federal Government to no longer be a
legitimate body. Such an action could go in several directions, none of them
good, and all of them highly dangerous.

And while pundits and armchair-warrior-gamers may believe the nearly incoherent
ramblings of President Biden, the reality is that the United States military and
law enforcement establishments are not able to enforce any nationwide martial
law order; in fact, it is questionable if they could enforce such an order over
any large metropolitan area, given what happened the last time Federal troops
were deployed under “Operation Garden Plot” was engaged.

…In the end, this writer has no solution to this problem, other than telling the
Federal government to do its job in securing the borders of the United States,
which it has consistently failed to do for over forty years.

The alternatives are not desired by any sane person.

 

 

 

The Freedomist — Keeping Watch, So You Don’t Have To
The Forgotten War
6 min read


THE FORGOTTEN WAR

Michael Cessna January 19, 2024

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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There are wars, and rumors of wars, all over the world as 2024 dawns. Russia and
Ukraine continue to bludgeon each other relentlessly. Israel’s war against Hamas
grinds on, threatening to expand into the southern territory of Lebanon under
the control of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group. To the south and east,
the Houthis in Yemen are waging a “pin-prick war” that has diverted some 12% of
the world’s commercial shipping, forcing extensive delays and threatening to
log-jam global trade on a scale that rivals the dislocations of the COVID
pandemic, as their backers in Iran rattle their own sabers and threaten the oil
export structure of the Persian Gulf.

Across the Red Sea from Yemen, wars rage in Sudan and Ethiopia, while Ethiopia’s
own actions threaten wars with Eritrea and Somalia. To the north, Egypt and
Jordan – for different reasons – are on the verge of internal collapse.
Throughout the rest of Africa, nations struggle with internal, interminable and
seemingly unsolvable issues, with many states facing continued attacks from
radical jihadist militias. In Myanmar, the military government is clinging to
power by its proverbial fingernails. In South America, Venezuela continues to
threaten the annexation of Guyana, while Bolivia and Ecuador are the new
battlegrounds in the war of the drug cartels.

Naturally, with all of these long-running – or suddenly appearing – conflicts,
most of them remote, obscure and obtuse to outsiders, there are other conflicts
that get lost in the shuffle…but those conflicts are no less important; in fact,
many of them are not petty in any way, with the victims not simply being on the
short end of the stick, but who were actively abandoned to the whims of
‘realpolitik’.

The war in Kurdistan is just that kind of conflict.

The wars and depredations inflicted on the Kurdish people for over one hundred
years have largely been caused by the West, primarily Britain and France…but the
United States hasn’t helped. And that war continues, not only against Syria and
Turkey, but against Iran.

While the Kurdish nation has been noted as a separate and distinct people since
the 11th Century, when the term “Kurdistan” was noted by the Seljuk Empire, it
was only after World War 1, and the last, vile gasp of debased European
imperialism – the Sykes-Picot Agreement – that the real agony began.

Neither Kurdistan nor its people were given more than lip service by Britain and
France. Bolshevik (Communist) Russia repudiated any Russian claims associated
with the agreement after the revolution that unseated the Tsar, as they had far
more pressing problems. The signatories, channeling previous agreements covering
African and Asia, cavalierly split what they, themselves, knew to be ethnically
Kurdish areas between themselves to rule. While subsequent, limp-wristed
treaties “graciously” allowed for the possibility of a Kurdish state (despite
several Kurdish states being organized from 1918 to 1930), the European powers
threw up their hands in 1923, and washed their hands of the Kurdish areas, for
the most part, with the Treaty of Lausanne, which made no mention of the region
at all, condemning the Kurdish people to be split between what is now Turkey,
Syria, Iraq and Iran. The Kurd’s only ally of significance was Winston
Churchill, who argued for a separate Kurdish state, but his political influence
in the 1920’s was very limited, compared to what it would become in later
decades.

 

Lt Col Francis R. Maunsell’s map, Pre-World War I British Ethnographical Map of
eastern Turkey in Asia, Syria and western Persia, 1910. Kurdish regions are in
yellow. Library of Congress.

 

The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres was a draft treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the
Principal Allied Powers. It was ultimately shelved because of Turkish
non-ratification and was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne. Map by
User:Zero0000 CCA/4.0

 

But the Kurds wouldn’t give up.

The Kurds sent a delegation to the San Francisco Peace Conference of 1945, which
would form the United Nations, to argue for an independent state; they were, of
course, refused. But, armed Kurdish groups continually waged low-level guerrilla
wars against the states they had been relegated to; the wars’ ferocity depended
on how intense the ruling government’s programs to suppress Kurdish culture were
at the time.

However, this would occasionally swing into full-on war crime territory, as
happened in the Halabja Massacre of 1988, when the Kurdish village was attacked
with lethal “war agent” chemicals weapons, primarily mustard gas, but also with
a mix of nerve and blood agents. It is generally assumed that Saddam Hussein’s
government was responsible for the attack, although allegations have long been
made against Iran.

When the 1991 Persian Gulf War ended, US President George H. W. Bush made
casual, off-hand remarks, that left many in Iraq – including the Kurds –
believing that if they rose up to overthrow Saddam Hussein, they would get at
least some help from the United States. Unfortunately for them, the Kurds in the
north and Shi’a Iraqis in the south read far too much into the first Bush’s
words, and were left stunned (assuming they lived) then they rose up…and the
United States barely lifted a finger, seemingly completely surprised that the
subject peoples of a brutal dictatorship might actually have the gall to rise up
in armed revolt against said brutal government.

The absolute cheek of little people.

Shamed into doing something, though, the Bush administration launched “Operation
Provide Comfort” to protect Kurdish refugees fleeing the Iraqi Army units not
destroyed fighting the United States and its allies in Kuwait.

Quite unintentionally, this would be the first real break for Kurdish autonomy
since 1918. The strict limiting of Iraqi military abilities against the Kurds
left the northern people able to organize in safety, and begin building a formal
military organization, the Peshmerga, from scattered guerrilla forces. While
remaining in “recognition limbo” – without formal recognition as a sovereign
state – the Kurdish authorities could not legally purchase military weapons on
the open world market, forcing them to develop a “cottage industry” for making
weapons, alongside reusing weapons captured from Iraqi forces when the
government in Baghdad drags its feet on providing any, buying weapons on the
black market and the occasional under-the-table crumbs offered by a scattering
of Western states.

With the overthrow of Saddam in 2003, and the resulting upheaval in the
aftermath, this organization became much more formalized and professional, at
least compared to where it had been. It still has serious internal issues, a
reflection of thirty-odd years of disordered and fragmented political
organization, leading to a fragmented command and operational structure.

Kurdistan deserves better, not least because they have carried the United States
water in the region with little return for their money. Kurdistan, from 2003
onwards, made themselves into a safe area for the US and its allies, doing what
it could against Al Qaeda-aligned jihadist groups, for very little return.

Kurdistan remains split between four nations, with no prospect of real help from
anyone else. Syria, still embroiled in its decade-and-a-half long civil war, has
no intention of allowing its Kurdish regions to leave the country; the
autonomous region known as “Rojava” formalized in 2018 is nothing more than a
convenience for Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus.

The United States is unlikely to attempt to rein in the extreme excesses of
Turkey’s operations in its own Kurdish areas, nor the northern parts of Syria
and Iraq. This is because Turkey, as a member of NATO, is vital to European
security…even as the Turkish state keeps expanding its influence throughout the
world.

Likewise, Iraq is not about to allow its own Kurdish areas to actually leave, as
that would remove a large oil-producing area from the country, fundamentally
weakening the shaky government in Baghdad.

And then – there is Iran.

The mullahs in control of Iran view its Kurdish population as a useful foil that
allows them to accuse any number of nations of trying to undermine them, while
occasionally killing people wholesale to intimidate all of its ethnic
minorities.

Now, however, with wider wars exploding throughout the region, as well as the
rest of the world, the faint glimmer exists that the Kurds may soon have a
chance to finally establish themselves as an organized state. The chances are
remote, and it will be neither easy nor bloodless, but the chance is there.

The question is: Can the Kurd’s leadership come together to capitalize on the
opportunity?

If they can, the United States should help make it happen – that’s not
“imperialism”. That’s helping your actual friends, who have sacrificed to help
you in the past, with no prompting.

 

 

 

The Freedomist — Keeping Watch, So You Don’t Have To
Robbing Peter To Pay Paul
5 min read


ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL

Michael Cessna January 12, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

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It would seem that 2024 is off with a bang, if the Reader will forgive the pun.

Beginning on October 7th of 2023, of course, Hamas launched its suicidal Don
Quixote war with Israel, showing that the debased savagery of the Islamic State
is alive and well. Shortly after, on October 13th, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abey
Ahmed announced what can only be termed a policy of “lebensraum” for Ethiopia,
demanding free access to the Red Sea. And, as if on cue, the Houthi rebels in
Yemen began attacking any unarmed commercial vessels they could draw a bead on
in the nautical chokepoint of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, controlling the southern
access point to the Red Sea.

Now, as the second week of January 2024 closes, Iran has entered the fray,
seizing the oil tanker St. Nikolas off the coast of Oman, in the Arabian Sea,
significantly widening the security problem – and potential naval combat area.
Iran’s explanation for the seizure is a flimsy claim to Iranian ownership, a
claim even flimsier than the excuse of the Houthi’s for attacking ships in the
Red Sea.

Obviously, as we reported last week, all of this military action has begun to
significantly impact world commerce, as increasing numbers of shipping lines
abandon the critical Red Sea route, opting for the much longer transit around
the Cape of Good Hope.

The question for most Readers is, obviously, “Where is the US Navy in all of
this?” Good question.

The United States Navy is, unquestionably, the most powerful navy the world has
ever seen. Disputing that statement is, frankly, ludicrous. The United States
currently operates more aircraft carriers for fixed-wing operations than the
rest of the world, combined…and this is before the various US Marine Corps
aviation squadrons are added to its figures. It operates some seventy-six
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, regarded as the most capable destroyer class
ever designed. Likewise, the US Navy maintains amphibious and supply forces that
no other nation can match, giving it a truly global reach. It is not an
exaggeration to say that a US Navy carrier battle group can deploy more
firepower to a region than can be mustered by most nations’ entire militaries.

So – handling the Houthi’s, or even Iran, should present no great trouble for
the United States, right?

Well…it’s complicated.

While the United States does, indeed, have a vast and capable military, like the
armed forces of Great Britain before it, it has a major problem. It is not
really a question of how good your weapons are; the greatest warship ever
designed is completely useless if it isn’t where you need it to be, when you
need it to be there.

The US military, and specifically the US Navy, cannot be everywhere at once.
Aside from the chronic, military-wide problems with both recruiting and
retention of personnel, the political leadership of the United States has, for
the preceding forty years or so, almost uniformly failed to make even reasonably
good choices in economic, military, social and foreign policy decisions. These
failed policies have led to critically short numbers of personnel in almost all
of the armed services, which translates into too few forces being available to
deal with multiple threats. Indeed, while the US Navy, as of 2019, had some four
hundred and eighty ships in commission, it could only deploy about two hundred
and ninety.

What does this mean in the modern day, of January 2024?

As US and Western industry still struggles to supply the war in Ukraine, that
situation is now worse, as the limited supply of ammunition is further divided
to support Israel in its war against Hamas. Added to this, is the double threat
from Iran and it’s Houthi proxies, a threat that is already damaging world
commerce.

And then – there is Communist China…more on that, later.

Many people fail to grasp the impact of world shipping. Like it or not,
everything you rely on is tied into global commerce in some way. Even if nothing
you directly interact with physically transits the Red Sea, the major delays
created will affect the prices of the everyday item you pay for. Likewise, the
rising interest and insurance rates caused by the fighting will impact the
Reader in a very real way, as those industries have to spread out the damage.

And then – there is Communist China.

A week ago, Communist leader Xi Jinping launched a purge of the upper echelons
of the Communist state’s military leadership. While a relatively common practice
among Communist states, it remains to be seen if Xi will go to the extent of
other Communist dictators.

The end result of actions like this, is universally bad for the capabilities of
a nation’s military forces, overall, as it significantly hampers military
initiative, in favor of rigid obedience to political dogma – translation: Scare
your military enough, and they will be too busy avoiding being shot by your
political officers to fight your actual enemies.

However, there are many forms of warfare, and Communist China has learned that
throwing money at a problem can make that problem either go away, or at least
not bother it…and undermining an enemy while doing so is icing on the cake.

The bottom line? The West is failing. It is failing partially from it’s own
success, but mostly from too many decades of throwing pasta at walls to see what
sticks. The desire for profit beyond the dreams of avarice has led to a
simultaneous weakening of Western industry, and to “good enough” levels of
technological and industrial capacity leaking out to nations and groups who hate
the West.

In a word: they hate you. It’s not so much that they hate you, personally – but
they hate the society you grew up in, and are more than happy – and capable – of
burning the world to the ground to spite you.

As of this writing, there are two hundred and ninety-seven days to the 2024
election. One way or another, you need a plan for what happens when we get
there.

Assuming, of course, that we get there.

 

 

 

The Freedomist — Keeping Watch, So You Don’t Have To
The Lion Stirs – The Murky War Upsetting World Commerce
5 min read


THE LION STIRS – THE MURKY WAR UPSETTING WORLD COMMERCE

Michael Cessna January 5, 2024

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

In the week before Christmas of 2023, there are several large-scale wars going
on, with several more potential wars in the making: Russia-Ukraine;
Israel-Hamas/Hezbollah; the ongoing offensive of pro-democracy rebels closing in
on the fascist junta in Myanmar/Burma; the never-ending battles across the
African Sahel region, and the potential Venezuelan invasion of Guyana.

 

But, lurking in the background is another potential conflict, one that may be
impacting and aiding the neo-con agenda: Ethiopia vs. Eritrea.

 

Ethiopia is unique in history, as the only African state that was never
colonized by any European power. Although conquered and occupied by Italy in the
years immediately preceding World War 2, that occupation was short-lived, as the
country was fully liberated from Italian rule by 1943.

 

A truly ancient state, Ethiopia maintained its status as an imperial monarchy
until 1974, with the Communist revolution that placed a brutal Marxist-Leninist
government in charge of the country. This government would, in turn, be deposed
in another revolution in 1989, as part of the wave of Communist states around
the world that collapsed as the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact imploded,
leaving Communist “economies” to wither on the vine.

 

In the aftermath of the Derg’s collapse, Ethiopia was left unable to stop a
popular referendum in one of its most critical provinces – Eritrea – that
resulted in that state becoming independent in 1993. While this may seem like a
random “factoid”, it is actually of enormous significance.

 

Eritrea – long part of Ethiopia – occupies the coast of the Red Sea, and as
such, was Ethiopia’s only access to world commerce…and after a series of wars in
the 1990’s and early-2000’s, Eritrea has effectively blocked Ethiopia from using
its Red Sea ports. With a population of over one hundred and seven million,
Ethiopia ranks 13th in the top fifteen nations in the world by population – and
is the only one of those states that is completely landlocked.

 

This translates to Ethiopia being forced to pay exorbitant, even “extortionate”,
fees to export its goods to market through its only access to the Red Sea, via
the Port of Djibouti, which handles an estimated 95% of Ethiopia’s foreign
commerce.

 

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, takes this issue seriously…seriously
enough, that he made statements on the 13th of October of 2023, that explicitly
underlined Ethiopia’s ‘right to access’ to the Red Sea. Understandably, this
rattled every other nation in the “Horn of Africa”, all of whom are vastly
outnumbered in both population and military capacity by Ethiopia.

 

These remarks came less than two weeks after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel
that commenced on October 7th. As a result, the wider world – obviously – paid
little the comments little attention. But then, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in
Yemen chose to insert themselves into that conflict on the side of Hamas, on
October 19th…clearly a coincidence, surely.

 

And then, on January 1st, Ahmed dropped another bombshell, announcing that
Ethiopia had inked a deal with the breakaway Somali province of Somaliland to
use their port of Berbera to access the Gulf of Aden – well outside the current
shooting gallery – reputedly in exchange of recognition of the breakaway state.
This has obviously infuriated Somalia, which has never relinquished its claim to
the province, despite the region being de facto independent since 1991 and the
region’s independence being ratified in a referendum in 2001.

 

Now, in the first week of 2024, the Houthi missile attacks and piracy have
attracted the attention of major powers around the world, many of whom have
joined “Operation Prosperity Guardian”, in an attempt to guarantee safe passage
through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait…albeit too late for world shipping giant
Maersk, who announced on January 5th that they were ordering all of their
vessels not already in the Red Sea to divert around southern Africa’s Cape of
Good Hope, to avoid the fighting. While this, alone, will cause serious
disruptions to global trade, many more cargo carrier lines are virtually certain
to not take the risk and divert their vessels, for the same reason as Maersk.
This could easily lead to a reprise of the shipping disruptions that happened at
the height of the COVID pandemic.

 

As a result, there are increasingly serious calls within Washington circles to
attack Iran directly, as they are the Houthi’s major source of money and
weapons. This would be a Godsend to neo-con chickenhawks desperate to finally
get the United States into their long-desired war with Iran…

 

…Which brings us back to Ethiopia’s moves on its future access to the Red Sea.

 

Ethiopia has three options: they can a) maintain the status quo, with limited
access to world shipping solely through Djibouti’s port; b) conclude their deal
to access breakaway Somaliland’s ports; or – c) invade at least part of Eritrea,
to capture at least that nation’s port of Assab.

 

Obviously, the status quo is not working for Ethiopia; if it were, there would
have been no need for the deal with Somaliland. Djibouti’s port is increasingly
limited in capacity, and has little physical room to expand operations, which
will soon severely stunt Ethiopia’s economic output…Conversely, the deal with
Somaliland risks war with Somalia, as recognition of Somaliland’s independence
would almost certainly gut Somalia’s hopes at stabilizing their nation, which
was only reunified in 2012. Somalia would have to launch a military campaign to
invade the territory to bring it to heel, presenting Ethiopia with the option of
going to war with Somalia in support of a breakaway province, something Ethiopia
would be loath to encourage, considering recent history.

 

As well, invading Eritrea to capture Assab carries significant risks on its own,
because – all other things being equal in the absence of the current conflict in
the Bab-el-Mandeb – Ethiopia could well face a UN-led coalition of military
powers “riding to the rescue” of what has been described as the “North Korea of
Africa”.

 

None of these seem like viable solutions, on their own…Unless the world is
focused on a different series of conflicts that would combine to divert
attention away from Ethiopia “readjusting” the local map, and allowing Addis
Ababa to present the world with a fait accompli in the aftermath of the Houthi’s
inevitable neutralization, as well as the likelihood of a massive US-Iran war…

 

…While the foregoing may sound like the implication of a dastardly plot on
Ethiopia’s part, it is not…well, mostly “not.” But, the timeline of Ethiopia’s
rhetoric regarding its right-to-access to the Red Sea is certainly suspicious,
and indicates some level of foreknowledge of events beginning ion October of
2023, and having active plans and options ready to go.

 

There are plenty of players in this global chess tournament, and too many
“leaders” in the West – and elsewhere – are arrogantly blind to the knives in
the dark, thinking that “bit players” cannot harm them.

 

…Rather like Britain, France and the United States from the 1950’s to the
1980’s.

 

Word to the wise.

 

 

The Freedomist — Keeping Watch, So You Don’t Have To
Iran Escalates Red Sea Tensions
1 min read


IRAN ESCALATES RED SEA TENSIONS

Michael Cessna January 1, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

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The Islamic state of Iran has significantly escalated tensions in the Red Sea,
by deploying the warship Alborz to the crucial Bab el-Mandeb Strait a day after
US Navy helicopters drove off Iranian-backed Houthi pirates of Yemen following
their attempted seizure of the Singapore-registered container ship Maersk
Hangzhou, sinking several Houthi boats and killing an estimated ten pirates, on
December 30, according to CENTCOM.

This also comes some 10 days after the Liberian-flagged tanker MV Chem Pluto was
struck by a suspected Iranian drone while at sea, en-route from Saudi Arabia to
India on December 23rd.

The Alborz, an Alvand-class frigate, was originally bought by the Imperial
Iranian Navy in 1971.

The move by Iran raises the distinct possibility of hostile action between the
Iranian vessel and the various, dozen-or-so warships of Operation Prosperity
Guardian, assembled in late-December to counter repeated missile and boarding
attacks on international shipping, claiming to be countering the Israeli
response to the unprovoked attack on its civilians that began on October 7 by
the Hamas terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip.

The Freedomist will continue to monitor the situation as it develops.

 

 

 * UPDATED AT 5:50PM CST, WITH INFORMATION AND LINKS TO THE ATTACK ON MV CHEM
   PLUTO.

 

 

The Freedomist — Keeping Watch, So You Don’t Have To
Maine Joins Seditious Movement to Remove Trump from Ballot
2 min read


MAINE JOINS SEDITIOUS MOVEMENT TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM BALLOT

Paul Collier December 29, 2023

If you can’t beat them, ban them. At least that’s what the Secretary of State of
Maine has decided when she unilaterally decided to remove the leading candidate
for President of the United States in 2024 from the Maine ballot. As Trump is
booted from ballot, he is restored in another, the Colorado ballot, pending the
SCOTUS appeal.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows made her decision based on the 14th
Amendment, which bans “insurrectionists” from running for President. The major
unconstitutional problem with her unhinged, seditious decision is Trump has
never been charged with, let alone convicted of, “insurrection.” If anything,
she joins the Colorado Supreme Court in committing an overt insurrectionist
action, seeking to remove a candidate from the ballot purely to prevent them
from winning in 2024. GO DEEPER

She attempted to cover up for her public declaration that she no longer operates
under the American rule of law, but instead is attempting to overthrow the
republic and replace it with a one-party totalitarian state, saying, “I do not
reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred … I am mindful that no
Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access
based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however,
that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”

Donald Trump has not engaged in insurrection, for the record, nor has he been
charged or convicted of such an action. This woman should be immediately be
removed from office, arrested, and charged with sedition and high crimes and
misdemeanors against the American republic.

As the state’s Attorney General, Aaron Frey, belongs to the party of sedition,
the Democratic Party, this insurrectionist Secretary is not going to have to
worry about facing the charges she should be facing.

California Town Purges Woke
2 min read


CALIFORNIA TOWN PURGES WOKE

Paul Collier December 28, 2023 2

Over the objections of the seditious members of the DNC-CCP still serving on the
council a GOP-majority city council in California voted to remove all wokeness
from the government, including holding events that glorified far left activism,
like Pride Month, Black History Month, etc. The city is Huntington Beach. It
will replace these events with events highlighting the history of the country,
the state, and the city.

The events the city supports will not include any that showcases identity
politics, or any political agenda at all.

From The New American:

As California City News (CCN) reports, “The Huntington Beach City Council voted
Tuesday [12/19] to repeal and rescind the city’s celebration of Black History
Month, Women’s History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Asian American and
Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, and other months recognizing
diversity and heritage” (read: other months encouraging division and
balkanization).

“Instead, the city council will adopt a new 12-month celebratory history
schedule developed by a panel of appointed members,” CCN continues. “The new
agenda would ‘be free of any identity politics and political agendas,’ according
to a city staff report.”

“‘I’ve been amazed to learn just how much of our rich history I was unaware of,’
said Councilman Casey McKeon from the dais on Tuesday night,” commenting on the
history schedule, relates Voice of OC. “‘We wanted to focus on 12 themes a year
instead of dozens to help city staff get on the same page.’”

The vote to remove wokeness from the city’s agenda went down party lines, with
the DNC-CCP members voting against the measure, desperately seeking to hold on
to the anti-American ideology they place over the American republic itself.
Wherever Democrats have power, America’s rule of law suffers.

Let us pray the GOP members of this council hold on to power and the DNC-CCP
members continue to be rightly voted out. There is no place in the American
republic for “democrats” anymore.

The Mass Migration Invasion Strategy of the U.S. Exposed
2 min read


THE MASS MIGRATION INVASION STRATEGY OF THE U.S. EXPOSED

Paul Collier December 27, 2023 5

According to a report released by Muckraker, the wave upon wave of human beings
pouring across America’s intentionally unguarded borders is not an organic
happening, it’s planned. The proof that this is a planned, coordinated assault
on American stability comes from the discovery of pamphlets being handed out in
multiple countries in South and Central America that promise rewards and offer
methods of making it to American soil.

These pamphlets are being distributed by NGOs (Non-governmental Organizations)
with ties to far left groups in America, as well as to foreign governments.
According to Muckraker, “the collapse of the U.S. southern border is the result
of a carefully planned and deliberately executed industrial mass migration
program.”

The enemies of the American republic, from within and without, appear to be
working in collusion with the seditious Biden administration to flood America
with millions of people it cannot take care of, creating instability for all,
and also importing de facto soldiers who can add to the instability by
committing acts of terror and violence against the American people.

This writer believes the “mass migration” is a mass invasion being orchestrated
by the Biden administration in collusion with foreign powers and seditious far
left “American” groups. It is an act of high crimes and misdemeanors against the
American republic committed by the far left and its foreign partners, all
sharing the same enemy, we the American people.

From blacklistednews.com:

What’s becoming increasingly evident is that a network of NGOs funded partly by
the US taxpayer but by other countries and corporations are covertly
facilitating the invasion of illegals at the US southern border, as well as
distributing them across the US into progressive metro areas.

According to an August report by progressive left-leaning media watchdog
organization Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, President Biden’s Department of
Homeland Security allocated $363 million to NGOs to assist illegal aliens once
in the US.

This is nothing short of an act of war by America’s enemies from within, the DNC
and its far left NGOS, and without, the NGOs funded by foreign governments like
China and Russia.

SCOTUS Denies Jack Smith an Early Victory
2 min read


SCOTUS DENIES JACK SMITH AN EARLY VICTORY

Paul Collier December 27, 2023 5

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to expedite considering the immunity of
Donald K Trump from the type of prosecution he faces from lawfare assassin and
hired DNC-CCP gun Jack Smith, meaning the trials strategically activated by the
lawfare assassins and their DNC-CCP-owned judges to interfere with Trump’s
ability to campaign against Mass Mailer President Joe Biden will not happen.

Instead, the Trump team can delay these trials most likely until after the
election while the issue of his immunity works its way through the appeals court
process until it eventually reaches the Supreme Court.

NBC News made this claim in their article covering this decision, “ Steering
clear of a political firestorm for now, the Supreme Court said Friday it would
not immediately decide the key question of whether Donald Trump has broad
immunity for actions he took as president challenging his 2020 election loss.”

This, of course, is not the case, and it makes the reader believe the court
hasn’t made a strong political statement in its ruling, which, of course, it
has. The decision throws a monkey wrench into the lawfare assassin’s plans to
interfere with the 2024 election using trial schedules to do so.

This writer believes SCOTUS knows full well the actions by the lawfare assassins
and their collusionist judges do not meet basic constitutional requirements.
Their ruling portends their eventual ruling, but they want to make sure before
they make such a monumental ruling that the arguments for and against have been
fully flushed out so that there is no doubt as to the legal efficacy of a SCOTUS
ruling to come that will essentially blunt the most potentially damaging lawfare
assaults on the former President.

Of course, NBC, a content marketing company for the DNC-CCP, and overt
seditionist against the American republic, isn’t giving up hope that SCOTUS
could STILL deliver the type of quick action they hope will happen: As a result
of the court’s refusal to intervene, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit will take first crack at the issue; it is scheduled to hear
oral arguments on Jan. 9.

Once that court rules, the Supreme Court could act quickly on whether to take up
the case.

In asking the court to step in on an expedited basis, Smith said the case
“presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former
President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed
while in office.”

Trump’s lawyers argued in court papers that Smith had given “no compelling
reason” why the Supreme Court should immediately step in ahead of the appeals
court.

This is not reporting, this is performing, performing for the DNC-CCP in the
interest of a Progmerican Empire they dream will come, which is no America at
all.

Jordan Accuses DOJ of Spying on Congress, Wants Answers from Garland
1 min read


JORDAN ACCUSES DOJ OF SPYING ON CONGRESS, WANTS ANSWERS FROM GARLAND

Paul Collier December 21, 2023 3

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is accusing the Department of Justice
of spying on members of congress, and he wants the head of the DOJ, Merrick
Garland, to answer for it.

He wrote a letter to Garland saying, “The Committee on the Judiciary is
conducting oversight of the Justice Department’s use of its law-enforcement
authority to obtain the private communications of Members of Congress and
congressional staff members… On November 8, the Department informed the
Committee via e-mail of ‘a change to the Department of Justice’s policies and
procedures in criminal investigations involving Members of Congress and their
staff’ that ‘impose[s] new requirements to consult with, or receive approval
from, the Public Integrity Section.’”

Jordan Subpoenas AG Garland Over Alleged DOJ Effort to Spy On Congress –
conservativebrief.com

Excerpt:

> House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has issued a subpoena
> to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to appear before his panel and
> explain alleged efforts to surveil members of Congress and congressional
> staff, which included during the so-called “Russiagate” scandal when
> then-President Donald Trump was in the White House.

> “The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of the Justice
> Department’s use of its law-enforcement authority to obtain the private
> communications of Members of Congress and congressional staff members,” a
> letter from Jordan to Garland began.

 

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