Month: January 2023

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The US and Israel on Thursday announced the conclusion of their largest-ever joint military exercises, known as Juniper Oak 23.

The drills were launched Monday and involved over 140 aircraft and nearly 8,000 troops from both militaries. The massive show of force was clearly a provocation toward Iran despite claims from US officials that it wasn’t aimed at any one country.

“US Central Command and the Israel Defense Forces concluded Juniper Oak 23.2, the largest US-Israel partnered exercise in history,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a press release.

CENTCOM said the drills included a live-fire exercise that involved “B52s, F35s, F15s, F16s, FA-18s, AC-130, AH64s, 12 naval assets, High Mobility Rocket Artillery Systems, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, a mix of jet fighters, and long-range bombers.”

Besides sending a message to Iran, the massive exercise demonstrates that the US has Israel’s back in the region despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has pledged to expand settlements in the West Bank and eventually annex the territory.

Juniper Oak 23.2, the largest ever US-Israel combined exercise, continues.

Look 👀for the culminating Juniper Oak video tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/xyme9p5aPe

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 26, 2023

Netanyahu’s new government is also full of Iran hawks, including his national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi. Before the new government was formed, Hanegbi threatened that Netanyahu would attack Iran if the US doesn’t negotiate a stricter nuclear deal or take military action itself.

Both the US and Israel have been threatening military action against Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. But the Pentagon acknowledged in its recent Nuclear Posture Review that Iran is not trying to build a nuclear bomb.

WATCH: The Juniper Oak 23.2 final video pic.twitter.com/3QFXiPl9sX

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 27, 2023

Juniper Oak came after Israel’s former army chief visited Washington DC in November and said upon his return that the two countries would expand joint military cooperation.

In early January, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board warned that one peril of a large administrative state is the mischief agencies can get up to when no one is watching.

Specifically, they highlight the overreach of the Agriculture Department, which expanded food-stamp benefits by evading the process for determining benefits and end-running Congressional review.

Exhibit A in the over-reach is the fact that the cost of the federal food stamps program known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) increased to a record $119.5 billion in 2022, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture…

Food Stamp costs have literally exploded from $60.3 billion in 2019, the last year before the pandemic, to the record-setting $119.5 billion in 2022.

In 2019, the average monthly per person benefit was $129.83 in 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That increased by 78 percent to $230.88 in 2022.

Even more intriguing is the fact that the number of participants had increased from 35.7 million in 2019 to 41.2 million in 2022…

All of which is a little odd – the number of people on food stamps remains at record highs while the post-COVID-lockdown employment picture has improved dramatically…

Source: Bloomberg

If any of this surprises you, it really shouldn’t given that ‘you, the people’ voted for the welfare state. However, as WSJ chided: “abuse of process doesn’t get much clearer than that.”

In its first review of USDA, the GAO skewered Agriculture’s process for having violated the Congressional Review Act, noting that the “2021 [Thrifty Food Plan] meets the definition of a rule under the [Congressional Review Act] and no CRA exception applies. Therefore, the 2021 TFP is subject to the requirement that it be submitted to Congress.” GAO’s second report says “officials made this update without key project management and quality assurance practices in place.”

Abuse of process doesn’t get much clearer than that. The GAO review won’t unwind the increase, which requires action by the USDA. But the GAO report should resonate with taxpayers who don’t like to see the politicization of a process meant to provide nutrition to those in need, not act as a vehicle for partisan agency staffers to impose their agenda without Congressional approval.

All of this undermines transparency and accountability for a program that provided food stamps to some 41 million people in 2021. The Biden Administration is using the cover of the pandemic to expand the entitlement state beyond what Congress authorized.

The question now is, will House Republicans draw attention to this lawlessness and use their power of the purse to stop it to the extent possible with a Democratic Senate.

And don’t forget, the US economy is “strong as hell.”

Authored by Grzegorz Adamczyk via Remix News,

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood claims the construction of an arms factory in Poland to produce NATO-standard ammunition would be a more sustainable way of supply the Ukrainian war effort…

The construction of a major arms factory in Poland would transform procurement for Ukraine’s forces and could be necessary to make the Ukrainian war effort more sustainable and less dependent on Western aid, a U.K. Conservative MP has told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper.

In an interview with the newspaper, Tobias Ellwood, who also chairs the U.K. parliament’s defense select committee, argued Western governments have demonstrated a lack of strategic foresight in their plans for helping Ukraine.

He welcomed the decision to deliver Western-made battle tanks but believes the model of transferring weapons to Kyiv with differing supply chains and types of ammunition, was not sustainable in the longer term. 

Tobias Ellwood the British Conservative Party MP and the defense select committee chairman said that building a major arms factory in Poland  could transform Ukraine’s armed forces into a more independent military. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

“It’s just not feasible in the long term.

“Tanks today, yes. But we need a strategy to make sure Ukraine can defend itself,” he said.

The concept being proposed by Ellwood is modeled on a microchip factory opened by Taiwan, which fears a Chinese invasion could cut it off from the West. He argued Ukraine should be helped to do the same so “they can procure their own equipment to their own specification, probably NATO standard, and have a constantly protected supply chain.”

Talks have already opened with Poland over hosting such a facility, and Ellwood proposed that Britain should take a leading role among Western governments to ensure any project is successful.

It is thought Ukraine would be able to use the factory to produce the German-licensed Leopard II tank.

The move could also significantly ease pressure on Western arms companies struggling to keep up with the demand of the war in Ukraine, and the need to replenish stocks among NATO’s allies.

Tesla, Inc. appears to have updated software for its vehicles that attempt to detect a small counterweight on the steering wheel that is used to trick the Autopilot system into thinking a driver’s hands are on the steering wheel. 

The first evidence of this surfaced on Twitter in December. A person tweeted a screenshot of a warning from a Tesla vehicle that read: 

“Hands-on defeat device detected. Remove defeat device from steering wheel.” 

Here’s the warning.

From my friend that just texted me …

My buddy just got a beta strike for using a counterweight 😂

Elon is getting smarter@Tesla @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/YE25MRcx6s

— TeslaChillMode #HellaTeslas (@TeslaChillMode) December 23, 2022

People commenting on the tweet were perplexed about how Tesla could detect such a small device to create the impression that the driver is keeping their hands on the wheel. 

Can still find these devices on eBay. 

Someone claimed:

“The new updates are trying to detect it. Just keep some tension on the bottom of the steering wheel with your leg, so it’s not a steady force from the weight.” 

In 2018, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a cease and desist order to one manufacturer of the counterweight, though we’ve seen people able to purchase the devices easily on eBay and Amazon over the last few years — many of the times, the seller brands the device under a different type of product. 

“A product intended to circumvent motor vehicle safety and driver attentiveness is unacceptable,” NHTSA deputy administrator Heidi King wrote in a statement in 2018. 

The warning from Telsa is the first of its kind we’ve seen. And there’s no telling how many Autopilot crashes were attributed to this small device. 

Tesla technicians also told us that they would seize these devices if found during a service appointment. 

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The problem with universities overwhelmingly controlled by faculty on the left is that there are few to offer a dose of reality or rationality.

Left to their own devices, some faculty seem to search for new ways to demonstrate woke priorities.

British universities have long been ridiculed for policies controlling speech or symbols.

Now, The Telegraph is reporting that British universities are adding trigger warnings to Greek and Shakespearean tragedies to protect students from being triggered by tragedy.

Indeed, there are now warnings on other classics for everything from “ableism” to “depictions of rural life.”

One such warning stated, “Tragedy is a genre obsessed with violence and suffering, often of a sexual or graphic kind, and so some of the content might be triggering for some students.”

The University of Aberdeen in Scotland put a trigger warning on “Beowulf” due to its depictions of “animal cruelty” and “ableism.” Beowulf had to fear “a creature of darkness, exiled from happiness and accursed of God, the destroyer and devourer of our human kind.” However, Aberdeen students have the added fear that they may run across depictions from 975 which “place value on people’s bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normality, intelligence, excellence, desirability, and productivity.” [Notably, even that definition is preceded at Stanford by a trigger warning that “Content warning: The following page contains content including the historical context of ableism. It may be disturbing to those with a history of institutionalization or other negative experiences in the medical world concerning their specific disabilities.”]

Even the death of an albatross in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” required a trigger warning at the University of Greenwich as “potentially upsetting.”

There is trigger warning imposed by the University of Warwick for Thomas Hardy’s “Far From the Madding Crown” because of its depiction of “rural life.”

Of course, the British are not alone in such warnings. The National Archives recently moved to add trigger warnings to displays on our founders and founding documents.

Trigger warning: I am about to quote Shakespeare….

This all proves the Bard’s point that “Nothing routs us but the villainy of our fears.”

After a drawn-out back and forth between Ukraine, the U.S. and European NATO countries, the first deliveries of Western-made tanks for the Ukrainian military have been announced.

A meeting last week at the U.S. airbase in Ramstein had yielded no result, as Germany did not want to sign off on deliveries of German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks from any country, while the U.S. was reluctant to make its own model, the M1 Abrams, available due to concerns they were to hard to maintain given existing Ukrainian logistics operations. After the Russian invasion in early 2022, the country had previously received older model Soviet-made tanks from European allies.

According to CNN, Germany reportedly did not want to take the step of delivering the tanks without their U.S. partners also doing so despite the UK having pledged 11 Challenger 2 tanks previously.

Since then, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, the U.S. has announced to deliver one battalion, or 31 Abrams tanks. Germany has said it will part with 14. Poland, the most outspoken about wishing to deliver its Leopard 2s, will reportedly also sent 14, while 18 will come out of the Netherlands. More deliveries are expected from Norway, Finland and Spain, while Portugal is also in the process of officially signing off on the matter.

You will find more infographics at Statista

But, the Abrams will not have the “secret” armor… and there’s no date yet for the actual deliveries… and that’s 3 different battle systems… and it’s definitely not “war” with Russia.

Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times,

Some members of the European Union are calling for the body to support renewed construction of border barriers as Europe has seen a rise in illegal border crossings in recent months.

On Jan. 21, 26 European Union members and envoys for Switzerland and the United Kingdom visited Greece, where Greek Citizens’ Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos showed them a still expanding border wall and called for EU support in growing and maintaining that border security measure.

“The task [of protecting the border] needs the support … of European public opinion, the European Union itself and its constituent members individually,” Theodorikakos said.

“It is our steadfast position that member states of first reception cannot be [the migrants’] only European destinations.”

“There must be solidarity among member-states and a fair sharing of duties … close coordination is a must,” he added.

Greece currently has 17 miles of barriers along its border, and Theodorikakos recently announced plans to add about 87 more miles of barriers in 2023. On Jan. 7, Theodorikakos said construction is already moving forward on the first new sections of wall construction, which will cover nearly 22 miles.

Greece’s border wall consists of rows of 16-foot vertical steel beams, topped with an anti-grip metal scaling barrier and razor wire.

Former President Donald Trump pursued a similar wall design during his presidency, which used 18- to 30-foot steel beams topped with a metal plate.

Illegal Crossings at 6-Year High

Much of the illegal immigrant traffic into EU countries comes through Turkey.

Greece’s northeast border and fellow EU member Bulgaria’s southern border connect with Turkey. Much of the illegal crossing attempts have come over the Evros River, which forms a natural barrier between Greece and Turkey. Theodorikakos said Greek authorities prevented 256,000 migrant crossings and arrested 1,300 traffickers in 2022.

The EU’s premiere border security agency, Frontex, recently shared preliminary data indicating 330,000 irregular border crossings were detected along the EU’s external border in 2022.

“This is the highest number since 2016 and an increase of 64 percent from the previous year,” Frontex said.

As the 28 envoys visited Greece on Saturday, Theodorikakos emphasized that Greece’s border is also the EU’s external border.

Cypriot ambassador Kyriakos Kenevezos shared Greece’s concerns about border security and spoke of the “need for understanding” from countries that don’t have external EU borders during the recent visit to Greece.

Although the UK is no longer part of the EU, ambassador Matthew Lodge also signaled UK cooperation on new border security efforts.

“Our priority is to protect the human life and dignity endangered by the criminal trafficking networks … even though we are no longer an EU member, we are closely cooperating,” Lodge said.

Dutch Secretary for Justice and Security Eric van der Burg has indicated he would be open to EU financing for more border barriers, Reuters reported.

Theodorikakos said Frontex will send about 400 more border guards to Greece to assist an existing border security force of about 1,800 members in the country.

Other Walls

While Greece is expanding its border walls and bolstering its border guard forces to deal with an influx of illegal crossings, Poland is pursuing new border barriers for another reason: the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Poland borders Ukraine and the Russian-allied state Belarus. In November, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński said illegal immigration from Belarus is “motivated by political considerations and aimed at destabilizing the region’s situation.”

Poland is pursuing both physical barriers as well as electronic barriers comprised of motion sensors, daytime, infrared, and thermal imaging cameras to detect border crossing attempts.

Returning Migrants

In addition to rising illegal border crossings, the EU is reportedly seeing high numbers of migrant arrivals with few returning to their countries of origin.

“We have a huge increase of irregular arrivals of migrants,” EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said in Thursday talks with the EU’s 27 migration ministers, Reuters reported.

“We have a very low return rate and I can see we can make significant progress here.”

The EU is struggling with about 20 countries that don’t cooperate in taking back their nationals who EU members determine have no right to stay in Europe. Only about one-fifth of people from those countries are successfully sent back.

Opposition to New Restrictions

While support is growing for expanding border barriers and returning migrants, some activists say the security measures would violate the rights of refugees and those seeking asylum from their native countries.

“It appears evident that EU Member States continue making access to international protection as difficult as possible by putting up new fences (such as at the borders with Belarus), or by using technology to detect and stop crossings instead of providing assistance (such as at Greece’s external borders),” the Danish Refugee Council, a refugee activism organization, said in a report on Thursday.