Opinion
By Jeff Childers
04-12-23
Good morning, and Happy Wednesday, C&C! Today we catch up on Bidenβs World War, with a loaded roundup: Russia becomes largest oil supplier to former ally Saudi Arabia; China to overtake US as worldβs largest economy; Israel prepares for massive attack on all fronts; leaked Minecraft Papers; appallingly-convicted self-defense veteran Daniel Perry gets some good news; and Elon Musk effortlessly and amusingly rakes a hapless BBC reporter over the Twitter coals.
ππ¬ *WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY* π¬π
π Reuters ran a slippery story last week headlined, βRecord Flows of Russian Diesel to Mideast Boost Exports to Europe, Africa.β
The story buried the lede. While it is telling that Russia is selling record amounts of oil to Europe and Africa, defying Joe Bidenβs worldwide sanctions threats, it is even more interesting that Russia is accomplishing this miraculous feat by laundering its oil through its brand-new ally Saudi Arabia, which right up until Joe Biden fist-bumped the Saudi Prince used to be OUR ALLY.
The fist bump that lost the Middle East
According to Reuters, the Russians sold a half-million tons of oil to the Saudis in March and are on track to exceed that total in April. Thatβs compared to the previous yearβs purchases of Russian oil of (checks notes) zero gallons.
The useless corporate media is β of course β completing ignoring the woeful failure of Bidenβs foreign policy, if you can call it that.
Maybe the Saudis are mad at Biden and think their best bet is hanging with the Chinese and the Russians. But maybe theyβre also sick of hearing about Tony Blinkenβs perverted atypical sexual preferences that are abhorrent to Muslims and deserve the death penalty under Saudi law:
Because everybody wants to hear about Tonyβs bizarre bedroom preferences
Needless to say, Saudi Arabia is a massive oil EXPORTER. They donβt need to buy oil. Theyβre only buying Russian oil to help Russia, knowing full well that the budding new relationship will make the deep state jealous and angry.
π₯ According to the World Bank, China β who was in tenth place in 1992, will surpass the US as the worldβs largest economy next year.
While this prospect has been forecast for decades, itβs the first time that Chinaβs economic dominance has a one-year horizon. But maybe Biden can turn it around this year. Who wants to bet?
π Yesterday the Jerusalem Post ran a story headlined, βIran Kickstarts Multi-Front Middle East War Against Israel.β The sub-headline explained, βThe Islamic Republicβs proxies and allies appear to have begun a multi-front conflict with Israel over the past week.β
Iran allegedly has staged proxies all around Israel, primed for attack
The article described a week of rocket and drone attacks, and described a theory that Iran is using βproxiesβ to indirectly attack Israel, to avoid blame, kind of like how you might secretly blow up somebodyβs gas pipeline in the middle of the night and then hang around the accident scene saying βwhat? It wasnβt ME.β
Some reports suggest that all together, Iran and Iranian-affiliated groups are now aiming over 250,000 β a quarter MILLION β rockets and UAV drones at Israel. If they were all launched in a single attack, the Jewish stateβs defenses could be overwhelmed in a few hours.
Israeli officials have also expressed concern that US military assets that have historically been stationed in Israel β ostensibly for its defense β have been sent to Ukraine or otherwise withdrawn to help the Proxy War, leaving Israel exposed. Furthermore, new American weapons and ordinance may be hard to get, what with US military inventories depleted by Zelensky, and with new production already earmarked for the Eastern European war theater.
For some reason, the Israelis fret that Joe Biden would not exactly spring into action if a coordinated assault against the Jewish nation begins. Israeli military officials have begin assessing the countryβs defense without any help from America:
Thanks for nothing, Joe
After all the recent civil unrest in Israel, plus Saudi Arabiaβs recent flip to the Russia-China axis, its regional enemies might well be calculating it is an opportune time to attack. Itβs looking a lot more like there might soon be a boogaloo in the Middle Eastern basin.
π Meanwhile, not that youβd have noticed from watching our inept corporate media, China has completely surrounded Taiwan with sea-going military assets in what the communist superpower called another βdrill.β This morning, Reuters ran a story headlined, βChina To Close Airspace North of Taiwan April 16-18, Sources Say.β
Chinaβs massive encirclement drill was βconcludedβ on Monday, but most military assets are still bobbing around the island nation. For context, last week, Taiwanβs president met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy here in the U.S., βenragingβ the Chinese. Yesterday, China announced the upcoming closure of all flights north of Taiwan β without any explanation.
The move is not unprecedented. China did the same thing last year after Speaker Pelosi visited Taiwan and met with its leaders. So it could be nothing. But sooner or later, all this nothing might turn into something.
π On Sunday β amidst Chinaβs encirclement exercise, and right after French President Emmanuel Macron and EU President Ursula Von Der Layan visited China to personally meet with President Xi β Politico ran a story headlined, βEurope Must Resist Pressure to Become βAmericaβs Followers,β Says Macron.β
Macron and Xi hang out
I wonder, when was the last time Macron and Von Der Layan visited with an alert Joe Biden?
The sub-headline explained, βThe βgreat riskβ Europe faces is getting βcaught up in crises that are not ours,β French president says in interview.β
Specifically, Macron told reporters “Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan.β He also said that Europe should reduce its dependency on the dollar, and should aspire to becoming an independent superpower, presumably instead of being a bootlicking American vassal state.
“The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just America’s followers,” Macron explained in the interview. “The question Europeans need to answer β¦.. is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” he said.
Coincidentally, Taiwan reportedly hosts over 1,200 biolabs, many linked to Hunter Biden-related entities β even more labs than Ukraine.
Taiwan is jam-packed with gain of function labs
It hardly needs to be said, but France is a top NATO member and one of Europeβs most important players. EU President Von Der Layanβs presence at the same meeting suggests that the EU may be leaning the same direction as France, despite her previous public comments seemingly opposing Chinese military adventurism.
Is the deep state losing control?
The unspoken conclusion is that a Taiwanese conflict could drive Europe away from the Western alliance. In just two years, Joe Biden has managed to put all of Americaβs most important historic alliances at risk. As his old boss used to say, never underestimate Joeβs ability to muck things up.
π₯ The Washington Post ran a gloomy story yesterday headlined, βU.S. Doubts Ukraine Counteroffensive Will Yield Big Gains, Leaked Document Says.β
The gist is that the leaked Minecraft Papers included some pretty bleak assessments of Ukraineβs much ballyhooed Spring Offensive, which the Biden Administration and its compliant corporate media have been trumpeting as the unstoppable military initiative that will give Putin a spanking he wonβt soon forget, for real this time, just you wait.
According to WaPo, the Minecraft Papers disclosed top U.S. generals war-gamed the upcoming offensive with the Ukrainian team and were pretty much βmeh.β Their conclusion was, if things go very well, Ukraine might expect some incremental gains, pressuring Russian supply lines, but shouldnβt expect to retake Crimea or claw back the Russian-occupied territories in the west.
WaPo devotes exactly one sentence in the story to the striking contrast between what the US government has been publicly advising Congress and Americans versus the truthful realities on the ground.
In other words, the WaPo is not a bit interested in all the LYING. Which is weird. Nobodyβs disputing the accuracy of these Minecraft reports. They prove the Biden Administration is one of the LEAST transparent, most unethical and most undeserving U.S. administrations in history.
So the totally natural and completely reasonable question arising from these disclosures should be: WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE ANYTHING THEY SAY ABOUT THE PROXY WAR?
But ho-hum, the WaPo isnβt interested in THAT boring line of thinking that goes nowhere and just gives reporters a headache.
There are a couple interesting point about this disclosure from a psyops perspective. It COULD be disinformation aimed at Russia, but it seems unlikely even to me, a non-military-expert, that Russia would fall for something like that and just drop its defenses, or be baited into recklessly invading right into the teeth of an ambush.
But β especially because of the WaPoβs singular focus on what it all means for the Proxy War, rather than what it explains about the mendacious Biden Administration β the entire Minecraft Papers leak could be Bidenβs way of lowering expectations for the Glorious Spring Offensive which was used to milk billions out of Congress.
Plus, now Biden can now use the βsunk costβ fallacy to milk billions more out of Congress. Hereβs a formal definition of how the fallacy works:
The sunk-cost fallacy is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual or organization continues to invest time, money, or resources into a project or decision based on the amount already invested, rather than evaluating the current and future value or potential outcomes. The fallacy is driven by the desire to avoid the feeling of wasted effort or resources, even when it is more rational to abandon the project or change course.
The sunk-cost fallacy leads people to make decisions based on the amount of resources already βsunkβ into a project, rather than considering the future benefits and costs. This can result in irrational decision-making, as the past investments should not influence the evaluation of future costs and benefits, since these sunk costs are irretrievable and cannot be changed. Recognizing and avoiding the sunk-cost fallacy can lead to better decision-making by focusing on the present and future consequences of choices, rather than the irrecoverable past investments.
In other words, Biden will argue that, since weβve already wasted so much money on Ukraine, we canβt afford to lose the Proxy War now, since that would make all our previous investments worthless. But that is a logical fallacy and hopefully Republicans in Congress can avoid it.
π₯ Yesterday, Fox ran a story headlined, βDaniel Perryβs Attorneys File Motion for New Trial Days After Austin Jury Convicted Army Sergeant of Murder.β
Well, they would have, since deadlines to file a motion for a new trial are usually very short.
Army veteran and Uber-driver Daniel Perry turned down the wrong street and ran right into a BLM riot in Austin in July 2020. After his car was blocked by protestors, an armed BLM rioter confronted Perry at his car window, and Perry shot him dead.
Dead protestor in upper right, aiming his rifle at Dan Perry
Last week, an Austin jury convicted Perry of murder.
Yesterday, Perryβs lawyers argued in their motion for a new trial that the judge had improperly excluded evidence showing the BLM rioter was βthe first aggressorβ and had a history of scaring βother drivers who he believed might interfere with his objective to βtake the streets.ββ The motion also cited additional reasons for the new trial, including possible juror misconduct.
On Saturday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement saying he intended to pardon Perry as soon as the Board of Pardons completes its review (assuming the Board recommends a pardon).
Folks had been concerned the Texas governor wasnβt responding fast enough. Iβm not surprised that Abbott took a few days to make sure he wasnβt wading into a bad case, and his statement is very encouraging, given everything we know about the events.
In related news, Antifa seems to be distancing itself from the dead protestor, claiming he was really a right-wing nut job and not affiliated with βrealβ BLM protestors at all. Thatβs a good sign the brownshirts know itβs a lost cause.
π₯ Elon Musk held a live Twitter-space debate with a government-funded BBC reporter yesterday and by all accounts, Elon handily destroyed the accented scribe. βI say, sir, that you donβt know what youβre talking aboutβ¦ you literally say you experienced more hateful content and you canβt name a single example. Thatβs absurd.β
Hereβs a short seven-minute clip about disinformation/misinformation that will give you an enjoyable taste:
Youβd think β in a sane world β that a senior BBC reporter could have done a better job of defending the news and media giant against a random billionaire entrepreneur who doesnβt know the news business. But woke diversity hiring practices seem to be taking their toll, as you would expect. Or maybe itβs just because the irrational βmisinformationβ argument is so blatantly preposterous.
Either way, itβs a fun listen that will help you start your day with a smile.
Have a wonderful Wednesday! Weβll meetup here again tomorrow for another delicious mug of Coffee & Covid.
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Β© 2022, Jeff Childers, all rights reserved
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.