The Morning Report — 11/30/23

Good morning, kids. The breaking story this morning is the death of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger at 100 years old. It's more than a bit tragically ironic that arguably one of the shrewdest diplomatic minds who helped guide and foster American foreign policy dominance and leadership through several major world crises, several in the Middle East, passes into history while the nation he championed is utterly bereft of leadership, competence and ethics that has led us to the most dangerous level of global instability in 75 years.

He was right about some things, wrong about others, but you at least had the sense that when Kissinger faced off with world leaders and opponents, American interests were well represented and defended. Compare and contrast to individuals like Madeline Albright, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Tony Blinken.

Kissinger was a creature of the Cold War and its attendant geopolitics. The East vs West paradigm is long gone, but it has been replaced by a global conflict pitting billionaire oligarchs out of Davos against Beijing against a growing global Islamist movement, with corrupt politicians engaged in kabuki theatrics, pretending business as usual is still the order of the day.

The common denominator here is the chaos and descent into madness we have been witnessing is a result of the absence of America as the guarantor of the global order which has emboldened all of the aforementioned. That doesn't mean war for the hell of it like in Iraq or Afghanistan. But when we were energy independent at home, as well as promoting sane trade and tariff policies that could have brought industry back to the USA and secured our economy for the long term, China and Iran would not have been the problems they are now. And with the Abraham Accords, 10/7 might never have happened.

Oh well. Fin de siècle.

In this week's little-noted news of great importance, the fraternal socialist brotherhood government of Venezuela will hold a referendum on Sunday officially annexing the border region of tiny neighboring Guyana — a border region encompassing two-thirds of tiny neighboring Guyana. Whoever told you socialists aren't greedy was lying. And a socialist. But I repeat myself.

Anyway, Nicolás Maduro's United Socialist Party government authorized the referendum back in October and has been using "leaflets, reggaeton, videos, and other content" to stir up nationalist fury over lands Venezuela has long claimed but never bothered to fight for.

Perhaps until now. . .

. . . Who had "Venezuela and Brazil Fighting It Out Over Guyana" on their 2024 Global Doom Edition™ Bingo card?

International organizations have recognized Guyana's existing border since 1899. Caracas has been content until now to leave well enough alone. So why is Maduro suddenly getting frisky? Oil. Lots and lots of oil.

Discoveries over the last decade put Guyana's reserves at 11 billion barrels, on par with other mid-tier producers like Norway, Brazil, and Algeria — not bad for a country of fewer than 800,000 people. Imagine a poor family of four suddenly inheriting a large bank, and you'll get an idea of the windfall coming Guyana's way.

"But wait a minute," I can hear you ask, "doesn't Venezuela have more oil than that? Like, a lot more?"

Indeed. Venezuela's proven reserves are 308 billion barrels — the largest in the world and 28 times the size of Guyana's comparatively puny stash. Venezuela invading Guyana for the oil would be like Canada organizing an invasion of Vermont to steal their snow.

But socialists have run Venezuela for the last 20 years or so, and you know what that means: it doesn't matter how much oil is under the ground because they've run the domestic oil industry into the ground. Oil production in the world's most oil-rich country has been in decline since 2012, following years of official neglect.

After socialists are done eating their own country's seed corn, it's almost inevitable that they begin to covet their neighbor's seed corn. Pity poor Guyana's sudden windfall.

There might, however, be one more reason why Maduro has chosen now to move his country to a war footing. The Biden Administration began lifting sanctions on Venezuela last year, just like it lifted sanctions on Hamas's sponsor, Iran, two years before Hamas launched its terror invasion of southern Israel last month.

I see a pattern developing here, and I bet you do, too. 

And Venezuela's big ally is . . . Iran. Good thing we have our priorities straight in DC.

The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security has had federal air marshals following people for years who flew to Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, even if they did not go to the Capitol and were never charged with a crime, according to an association representing air marshals.

Air marshals were allegedly pulled off of sensitive missions to follow potential conservatives, suggesting that not only was a law enforcement agency politicized, but that people with no involvement in politics might have been placed at risk as a result. The finding comes amidst the revelation that the FBI let an apparent child rapist go free to pursue January 6 cases.

Five days after the January 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and then-Rep. John Katko (R-NY) wrote to the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), David Pekoske, to demand that the agency “disrupt the travel of terrorists who just attacked the seat of the U.S. government,” citing “online chatter” as evidence that they might be al-Qaeda-style bombers.

Soon, TSA appeared to be doing just that — a situation discovered only because of an almost comical situation in which one air marshal was forced to monitor another air marshal because his wife was in D.C. during that time period.

In January 2023, David Londo and Sonya LaBosco, the president and executive director of the Air Marshal National Council, an association that represents air marshals, wrote to House leaders saying that innocent Americans were being put on watchlists. . .

. . . One January 6 defendant, Kirstyn Niemela — a 5’6” lesbian who was charged with only misdemeanors – said at sentencing that “I have also been red flagged at the airport, and I have to go through extra security while other passengers stare at me as if I’m a terrorist. I have had other passengers come up to me — which I have videos of all of this – and tell me that undercover police or air marshals were watching and following me, and they even peeked inside the ladies’ room while I was in there. This is extremely humiliating, totally unnecessary.”

. . . The Air Marshal National Council said that TSA had repurposed a domestic surveillance program called “Quiet Skies” to follow people who may have been even weakly linked to January 6. The program, which FAMS initially kept secret not only from the public but even from other government agencies, allows air marshals to flag and follow people who are “unknown or partially known terrorists” who are “not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data base.” The DHS Inspector General found in 2020 that it has never found a single threat to aviation security.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• "Kissinger was a conservative internationalist, one who favored engagement over neutrality, but who prioritized American interests in doing so, and sought to create stability that would ultimately work to America’s advantage."
  Henry Kissinger, Legendary American Diplomat (1923-2023)
  
• "A reason why."
  The Descent into Barbarism
  
• "I refuse to pass this excuse on to my children. The 'Palestine' nonsense, its victimhood and its liberation, have to end and have to end now. I will not sit back and watch Americans who can barely point out the Middle East on a map tell me what Hamas is or is not or what should happen in 'Palestine'."
  How Dare These Western pro-Hamas Liberals Say They Speak for Me, an Arab Who Has Suffered From Islamic Terror

ISRAEL AT WAR
• "This is something that is only going to embolden the worst terrorist actors in the region.”
  Israel Is Getting ‘Relentless Pressure from the Biden Junta to Ease Back’ on Hamas
  
• "Tehran-backed group equipped to resume hostilities on Israel."
  Hamas Has Only Used 10 Percent of Its Arsenal, Iran Says
  
• "Israelis have become heavily invested in the fate of the trio, with their now-iconic red hair. The IDF said Sunday that it believed Hamas had transferred Kfir, his mother, and his brother to another terrorist faction, and that it had somehow lost track of them."
  Israel Probes Hamas Claim that Hostage Baby Kfir is Dead: ‘Hamas Is Wholly Responsible’
  
• "'Palestinian' mobs jeer and threaten Israeli hostages as they leave terrorist-controlled Gaza."
  Gaza: Hamas Kept Women Hostages in Cages, Forced Children to Watch Videos of October 7 Massacre
  
• "President Donald Trump had cut off funding to UNRWA, but [so-called quote-unquote "president"]
  Joe Biden restored it, without insisting on any reforms."
  Report: UNRWA Teacher, Gaza Doctor Kept Israeli Child Hostages
  
• "Qatar serving as mediator in Israel's negotiations to secure the release of hundreds of hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip."
  Qatar Cancels DC Celebration in Solidarity With Hamas
  
• "It gets worse. One Israeli child hostage said a teacher with the aid group held him in his attic for almost 50 days in Gaza."
  Germany Pulls Funding to U.N. Palestinian Aid Group After Review Finds It Handed Out Antisemitic Material
  
• Deroy Murdock: "History repeats itself."
  Nearly 15 Years Later, Thoughts on Gaza Still Ring True
  
• "Israel’s vengeance campaign could easily become a permanent condition of life in the Middle East."
  Israel’s War of Decision
  
• "Gaza and the West Bank are incapable of sustaining themselves, yet the world insists on keeping them going, and it’s not mere antisemitism that drives this policy."
  The Odious Reasons Behind the World’s Obsession With Gaza and the West Bank
  * * * * *

• Americans have looked on in horror as pro-Hamas sympathy and genocidal Jew-hatred have erupted across college campuses, on city streets and up to Capitol Hill in the aftermath of the jihadist group’s monstrous Oct. 7 attack on Israel. But perhaps even more horrific is how prevalent the “buttoned-up” version of this worldview is at the highest echelons of the US national-security and foreign-policy apparatus — and how the Biden [junta's] Middle East agenda reflects it.
  Meet the Israel-Haters at the Top of Biden’s Pro-Iran Government
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: "Is the pro-Hamas crowd ignorant of Middle East history?"
  The Unhinged Among Us
  
• Daniel Greenfield: "What the true origins of Hamas reveal about its nature."
  The Nazi Roots of Hamas
  
• The unusually rowdy protest dissipated just an hour into the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony they were aiming to disrupt, instead transiting into a march through Manhattan toward Times Square where they shouted, “Shut it down.” In spite of the rally, the 91st annual ceremony went off without a hitch
  Pro-"Palestinian" Protesters, One Carrying a Swastika, Swarm Midtown in Bid to Derail Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting
  
• "Gillian Lester’s likely replacement is David Schizer, a former dean who helped deepen Columbia’s ties with Israel."
  Dean of Columbia Law School Resigns Amid Anti-Semitism Scandals

  WE-ALL-SLAM-FOR-I-SLAM

• “If I did take you, I would kill you, your wife, and your children.”
  Muslim Cab Driver in Paris: "I Won’t Take You, You Dirty Jew"
  
• "Why restoring Sharia governance remains an unacceptable 'option.'”
  Jews Under Mid-19th Century Palestinian Sharia, Versus American Freedom

  OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY

• "Large swaths of the left now traffic in Jew-hatred because the left’s fundamental impulse is civilizational patricide."
  Jew-Haters Loathe All Of Western Civilization, Not Just Israel
  
• "People's City Council of Los Angeles could face financial scrutiny following attack on AIPAC president's home, experts say."
  This 'Abolitionist' Group Raised Millions To Support BLM. Now, It's Going After Jews.

  BIDEN CRIME FAMILY REVELATIONS

• "How did $40,000 from Communist-backed Chinese entities find its way to Joe Biden?"
  Oversight Committee Releases Email From Bank Investigator Who Flagged Chinese Money Laundered Into Joe Biden’s Pocket

  SHAMPEACHMENT 1.0, 2016 CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, MUELLER DECEPTION

• "Deutsche Bank executive David Williams testified in Manhattan on Tuesday, arguing that net worth can be elevated on self-reported financial statements for “high-wealth clients,” massively undermining New York Attorney General Letitia James‘ lawsuit against former President Donald J. Trump."
  Deutsche Bank Testimony Destroys AG Letitia James’s Case Against Trump
  
• The heavily redacted search warrant requests a list of all users who liked or retweeted posts from Trump between October 2020 and January 2021, including “all associated logs and metadata,” which could cover location data. This extraordinarily expansive request would result in data on millions of American users being turned over to the DOJ.
  Special Counsel Jack Smith Demands X/Twitter Give Info on All Americans Who Interacted with Donald Trump

  CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION

• "Air marshals were allegedly pulled off of sensitive missions to follow potential conservatives, suggesting that not only was a law enforcement agency politicized, but that people with no involvement in politics might have been placed at risk as a result. The finding comes amidst the revelation that the FBI let an apparent child rapist go free to pursue January 6 cases."
  Federal Air Marshals Diverted From Sensitive Flights To Follow January 6 Suspects, Officials Say
  
• Robert Zimmerman: "Like Israel with Hamas, we are now faced with the reality that collateral damage is likely in order to cleanse our society of this hate and bigotry. Had the decent people in the Democrat Party stood up against this corruption thirty, twenty, even ten years ago, the problem could have been solved relatively bloodlessly."
  Blacklisting is No Longer Enough, Now the Goal is Justifying Mass Murder
  
• Scott McKay: "Everything you were fed about Floyd and Chauvin is a lie."
  A Blood Sacrifice to the Mob
  
• "Is the melting pot broken?"
  Do We Live in the (Dis)United States of America? Most Say Yes, in Latest I&I/TIPP Poll
  
• The solution, according to Santana, is to move in secrecy. Rather than do away with DEI training, Santana instead suggested the DEI training sessions ought to continue, only, “don’t label it as ‘diversity and inclusion’ or ‘bias training,’ specifically.” Instead of referring to DEI training sessions, Santana instead recommends referring to them by the particular area or group of people the DEI training sessions are being conducted on behalf of. For example, “instead of ‘DEI Training for Managers,’ if you intend to improve relationships between managers and their teams for increased productivity, call it ‘Strategies for Enhancing Team Performance.’”
  Hidden Agenda: Forbes Pushes 'Guerilla Tactics' To Keep DEI in Business

  FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH

• America will only thrive and remain as free as her next generation is willing to fight for it to be so. So far, with TikTok as their main source of news, politics, and financial advice, it doesn’t look like Generation Z is even ready for that fight, let alone interested in it.
  TikTok is a National Security Threat
  
• "Check My Ads co-founder Nandini Jammi is a serial censorship advocate, having once run the notorious ‘Sleeping Giants’ group that targeted news websites like Breitbart.com in a bid to bankrupt them. Jammi has also confessed a strange obsession with radio host Dan Bongino, boasting about being the “CEO of ruining” him – an admission of her targeted approach."
  War on Censorship: Rumble Sues ‘Check My Ads’ Group for Defamation

  THE ECONOMY, STUPID

• "A Tuesday CBS News Moneywatch report used government data to determine how much Americans paid to live in January 2021 compared to today, finding that the typical family just can’t compete with the 40-year record-high inflation."
  Bidenflation: U.S. Households Are Spending an Extra $11,400 Annually to Afford Basics
  
• Under [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden, the federal government completed 89 economically significant rules in 2022, defined as those with at least a $100 million economic impact, which is higher than any point in the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations when deregulation is accounted for, according to CEI’s “Ten Thousand Commandments Report.” Regulations as a whole resulted in $1.939 trillion in added costs for the average American in 2022, exceeding every form of tax except income tax, which it rivals at $2.263 trillion.
  ‘Hidden Tax’: Biden Clocks In Biggest Regulatory Burden In Recent Memory, Report Says

  RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM

• Unfortunately for New Yorkers, despite studies like the one cited above which clearly lay out the reasons that the state’s policies are likely to be onerous and ecologically counterproductive, state politicians are not going to back down from their green new deal positions. And lucky for Boston residents that their mayor is willing to say "no." Because no one likes high energy bills. Especially when there’s no actual climate benefit.
  Dig Deeper, New Yorkers, You're 'Saving the Planet'
  
• “With each passing day, it becomes more apparent that this attempted electric vehicle mandate is unrealistic based on current and forecasted customer demand,” the car dealers write to Biden. “Already, electric vehicles are stacking up on our lots which is our best indicator of customer demand in the marketplace.”
  Car Dealers Warn Biden: ‘Unrealistic’ Green Agenda Must Be Abandoned, Americans Not Buying Electric Cars

  AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY

• "They get everything, and he gets nothing."
  Dozens Of NYC Seniors Evicted From Nursing Home Turned Into Migrant Shelter

  AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS

• The research team referred to the results as contradictory to earlier research indicating mask use as an effective preventive measure against [Chinese] COVID-19. Potential biases such as behavioral differences and self-reporting, along with the possibility of mask wearers not adhering to social distancing regulations, are among the factors noted for the unexpected results.
  Study: Mask-Wearing Associated With INCREASED [Chinese] COVID Infection Risk
  
• In a Sky Net Australia exclusive, Dr. Robert Kadlec says: ““I wake up at usually about 2 or 3am and think about it honestly, because it’s something that we all played a role in.”
  Top White House Health Official Regrets Working with Fauci to Downplay [Chinese] COVID-19 Lab-Leak Theory
  
• Lloyd Billingsley: "The perfect Christmas gift for Congress."
  The Epistle of Paul to the Americans: Exposing White Coat Supremacy

  EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT

• "Standing with courage against a woke and morally broke school board."
  The Teacher Who Wouldn’t Bow
  
• "While teachers were busily planning to arrogate power to themselves, the students were losing educational ground. But this was never about the children; this was always about power, greed, and revolution. And, as we learned from history and from Van Fleet's book, we know how this revolution ends."
  Radical Portland Teacher Reveals Why Strike Was About 'Raw Power,' Not the Kids
  
• "Bravo to Congresswomen Steele and Foxx for championing this needed reform."
  Follow the Money: House DETERRENT Act Tracks Foreign Funds in Higher Ed

  ABORTION

• “Having reviewed the text of your proposed constitutional amendment, as well as your proposed popular name and ballot title, I must reject your popular name and ballot title due to ambiguities in the text of your proposed measure that prevent me from ensuring that the ballot title you have submitted, or any ballot title I would substitute, is not misleading,” Griffin wrote.
  Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin Rejects Abortion Activists’ Deceptive Ballot Measure

  THE 2020 AND 2022ELECTION HEISTS & AFTERMATH

• Wisconsin has seen several lawsuits relating to absentee ballots since the 2020 election, with a judge ruling in September of 2022 that guidance allowing election clerks to fill in missing information on absentee ballot witness certificates was illegal.
  Judge Makes Massive Absentee Ballot Ruling In Wisconsin

  POLITICS

• “President Trump looks forward to debating Crooked Joe Biden next fall,” the aide told the Daily Caller. “The real question is whether or not Joe will debate President Trump. Specific to the Presidential Debate Commission, the campaign has not yet accepted the suggested terms made recently.”
  Biden Campaign Silent as Trump World Openly Lobs Debate Challenge
  
• “Give them a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump,” the magnate said.
  JPMorgan CEO Urges Democrats to Support Nikki Haley
  
• "The ice is melting beneath our feet and Trump is our life raft."
  It’s Time to Unite Behind Trump If We Want to Win in 2024
  
• "New polling should make Democrats question their lead."
  Is Pennsylvania Turning Purple?
  
• "He cannot let Newsom confuse-a-buster his way through the 90 minutes."
  DeSantis Needs to Win the Newsom Debate: Here’s How
  
• "California governor fundraising off debate to pad national campaign coffers."
  How Newsom Is Using the DeSantis Debate To Gear Up for 2028

  FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL

• "Who had "Venezuela and Brazil Fighting It Out Over Guyana" on their 2024 Global Doom Edition™ Bingo card?. . . Future historians may posit that mean tweets and world peace went hand in hand, but my hopes of living long enough to see that happen grow dimmer with every war that begins on Joe Biden's watch."
  How About One More War on Biden's Watch — Much Closer to Home?
  
• Gerry Carroll of People Before Profits took offense to the "Irish Lives Matter" sign and that there is "no place in our society for this kind of racist poison."
  Irish police investigate 'Irish Lives Matter' graffiti as 'hate incident'
  
• Court records obtained by Ireland’s ‘Gript Media’ show the individual – who is still hospitalized in “grave condition” and therefore cannot be arrested and therefore also not named – arrived in Ireland in August 1999. He claimed asylum claiming fear of torture from an Islamic militant group if returned to his native Algeria. Despite consistent refusal of applications and a deportation order in 2003, the suspect did not arrange his departure and was classified as an evader by Irish authorities.
  New Details About Ireland’s Child Stabber: Evaded MULTIPLE Deportation Orders With Help of NGOs
  
• "The charge of antisemitism is the last refuge of the truly unpatriotic “conservatives” who act against the interests of America and her people." (Sorry, but Pat Buchanan hated Israel as much as any leftist - jjs)
  Cowering in the Amen Corner

  DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE COURTS, WASTE/FRAUD/ABUSE

• "The scale of the spill is significant, accounting for 3% of crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico."
  Quest Continues for Location of Significant Pipeline Leak After 1 Million Gallons of Oil Spill Into Gulf of Mexico

  HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

• Males made up the biggest portion of suicides by far, with NCHS data showing that 39,255 boys and men lost their lives to mental illness in 2022, compared to 10,194 girls and women. 
  CDC Data: U.S. Suicides Reached a Record High in 2022
  
• "If the idea of price controls in the United States sounds far-fetched, they’re actually already here in the drug market."
  Drugs and Price Controls

  FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY

• Zephyr was disciplined by House officials on April 26 for breaking legislative protocol after Zephyr held up a microphone to support protesters, several of whom were arrested at the demonstration several days prior. Zephyr filed a lawsuit against Republican state House Speaker Matt Regier and the House’s Sergeant of Arms Bradley Murfitt for allegedly violating Zephyr’s right to freedom of speech, but District Judge Mike Menahan argued that the legislature does have the right to discipline members who violate the rules, according to court documents.
  Judge Hands Major Defeat To Transgender Lawmaker Suing Red State Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Censure

  CULTURE WARS, NATIONAL SUICIDE

• "If Holden’s family has a lawyer, this could be a major lawsuit. It’s outrageous how much controversy there was online about a little kid dressed up for an NFL game." (I hope they Nick Sandmann this Carron Phillips into the ground - jjs)
  Kansas City Chiefs Fan Accused of ‘Blackface’ Is from Chumash Tribe
  
• "We are now in the thick of the big Christmas/Hannukah/assorted holiday shopping season. We are buying gifts, ingredients, decorations, and gay apparel. But remember — when you drop a Benjamin on a present for someone special or a sweet new cocktail dress for the office party, if you do business with a woke corporation, multiple dollars of that price tag could ultimately wind up supporting anti-American, anti-Christian, pro-groomer, climate hysteria Marxism."
  The Woke Tax: How Much Extra You Pay for Woke Companies' Leftist Policies
  
• "By definition, the pope is an autocrat. But punishing dissent against policies that, at one time, were considered Church practice isn't autocratic. It's dictatorial."
  Pope "Fiction" Francis Is on an Ideological Crusade Against His American Enemies
  
• Christian Toto: "Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferer forgets purpose behind awards season."
  Why De Niro’s Diva Act Was Completely Out of Line
  
• "The gaudy decor commemorates all of the commercialized aspects of the holiday season instead of sacred religious Christmas traditions."
  Jill Biden’s White House Christmas Decor Is As Fake As Her Husband’s Presidency

  HITHER & YON

• "In an industry of fads and algorithms, Charlie Munger never lost faith in a fundamental approach: buy good companies at a good price."
  The Unshakeable Investor

NOTE: The opinions expressed in the links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.

ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.

Follow us on Twitter: @CutJibNews
Follow us on Instagram: @Cutjibnewsletter

TIP JAR : Your support helps keep the lights on and is truly appreciated. Note: We are on Stripe, not PayPal.

posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:26 AM

| Access Comments