How a GOP majority in Congress might handle Biden in 2023 . . . Republicans are feeling so good about their chances of retaking Congress this fall that they're already debating their governing relationship with President Joe Biden. And they're divided over how to handle their potential big wins. With Biden and Democrats floundering right now, the GOP is increasingly favored to vault back to partial power in Washington by flipping the House, and potentially also the Senate, in the coming midterms. What comes next isn't quite clear: Some Republicans are mulling ways to collaborate with Biden on issues like trade, energy or tech; others are prepared to go scorched-earth as their party eyes the bigger prize of retaking the White House in 2024. Politico

 

 

Chinese Investment in U.S. Plane Maker Draws FBI, National-Security Reviews . . . The FBI and a U.S. investment-screening panel are investigating a Chinese investment in an aircraft startup following allegations of improper technology transfer to China, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Under review is a Chinese government-backed investment company’s nearly 47% stake—the largest of any shareholder—in Icon Aircraft Inc., a California-based maker of small recreational, amphibious planes. A group of U.S. shareholders has accused the Chinese firm of hollowing out Icon and moving its technology, which the Americans say has possible military applications, to China. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., an interagency panel that can recommend that the president block or unwind deals on national-security grounds, began its review in late November after the American shareholders urged it to intervene, according to documents and the people familiar with the matter. Wall Street Journal

 

US airlines warn of ‘chaos’ as telecoms groups roll out 5G . . . The imminent rollout of high-speed 5G telecoms services threatens to ground flights across the US, America’s largest airlines warned on Monday, as they urged government agencies to intervene to avoid “chaos” for passengers and “incalculable” disruptions to supply chains. “The harm that will result from deployment on January 19 is substantially worse than we originally anticipated,” warned Airlines for America, an industry lobby group, pointing to the potential for 5G services to interfere with the sensitive equipment that aircraft use to take off and land.
The letter, seen by the Financial Times and first reported by Reuters, was signed by the largest US carriers as well as the air freight arms of two of the biggest logistics groups, UPS and FedEx. The companies called on Joe Biden’s administration to block the rollout of 5G to towers located within two miles of airport runways that the Federal Aviation Authority has identified as being prone to disruption. Financial Times

 

Russia Thins Out Its Embassy in Ukraine, a Possible Clue to Putin’s Next Move . . . The week before intensive diplomatic meetings began over the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, American and Ukrainian officials watched from afar as Russia began emptying out its embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. On Jan. 5, 18 people — mostly the children and wives of Russian diplomats — boarded buses and embarked on a 15-hour drive home to Moscow, according to a senior Ukrainian security official. About 30 more followed in the next few days, from Kyiv and a consulate in Lviv, in western Ukraine. Diplomats at two other Russian consulates have been told to prepare to leave Ukraine.  Thinning out the Russian Embassy may be part propaganda, part preparation for a looming conflict or part feint, Ukrainian and U.S. officials say. It could be all three. New York Times

 

 

VIDEO: My guest appearance on Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream Friday Night Fox News Video

 

Threats of War and Nuclear War: Putin’s Effort to Revive the Soviet Union . . . Analysis. By Mark B. Schneider. Late 2021 saw unprecedented threats of war and nuclear war from the Putin government. While Russian nuclear threats are common, the recent ones are fundamentally different for three reasons: 1) they are linked to the threat of an invasion of Ukraine backed by credible deployed military capabilities (reports of 100,000 or even 175,000 troops); 2) they are offensive in nature; and 3) they are linked to political demands that amount to the U.S. and NATO accepting the recreation of the Soviet Union and its imperial domination of Eastern Europe under the guise of “security guarantees” for Russia. Russia has not only threatened military action against Ukraine, it has also sent troops into Kazakhstan in Putin’s continuing war against the concept of representative government. Russian Chief of the General Staff General of the Army Valery Gerasimov declared, “…any provocations by the Ukrainian authorities to settle the Donbass difficulties militarily will be thwarted.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned, "…that the ‘nightmare scenario of a military confrontation was returning’ in Europe, accusing NATO of inching its military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders. Real Clear Defense

 

Putin, Xi to highlight Russia-China summit while U.S. and allies diplomatically boycott Olympics . . . The U.S. and key allies will diplomatically boycott next month’s Winter Olympics in China, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to seize on the Games to spotlight strategic ties between Moscow and Beijing. While the U.S., Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom are keeping official delegations away in protest of Chinese government human rights abuses, Mr. Putin plans to attend the opening ceremony of the Games and hold direct talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Preparations for the Russia-China summit which will take place in Beijing on February 4, on the opening day of the Winter Olympics, are at full speed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said,” according to a report published Friday by Moscow’s official TASS news agency. The agency specifically quoted Mr. Lavrov as saying: “We are preparing an official Russian-Chinese summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the invitation of China’s President Xi Jinping, will visit Beijing … and full-scale talks at the highest level will be held.” Washington Times

 

The end of NATO . . .  As Russia threatens to invade Ukraine, the U.S. and NATO are facing fundamental questions about the alliance's purpose. Andrew Bacevich argues America should leave NATO in his podcast History As It Happens

 

Moscow’s sanction-proofing efforts weaken western threats . . . Russia’s efforts to reduce its reliance on the global financial system have made it better prepared to weather the sanctions that the US and Europe have warned would follow a new attack on Ukraine. The relative success of what investors have called Moscow’s “Fortress Russia” strategy is likely to make western threats less of a deterrent, analysts say. Meanwhile, the EU has not weaned itself off Russian gas, making any restrictions on Russian energy exports potentially self-damaging — and leaving the possibility for Moscow to retaliate by limiting supplies. The western sanctions under discussion could go far beyond those passed following Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. They could ape punitive measures used against Iran and North Korea that all but cut the countries off from the global economy. But Russia’s finance ministry, which has stress-tested worst-case scenarios for years and set up a unit working to counter possible measures from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, says Russia’s economy could withstand even those types of measures. Financial Times

 

China’s new blue water naval phase . . . One of the significant metaphors among national security experts is the use of color to explain naval capability. Brown water describes nations that can only operate in their own river ways and estuaries; green water is those navies that can operate near and around their coastal waters and, finally, blue water, which projects power internationally, militarily, economically and within the political realm. It is important to note that blue water capability is not just the ability for a warship to cross oceans but to knit together and stabilize a nation’s overseas economic and trade interests. It creates a synergy between economics, diplomacy and military needs and wants. The last time China was willing and able to do this was the 15th century during Admiral Zheng He’s “Ming treasure fleet voyages.” From 1405 to 1433, the fleet projected Chinese power into South Asia, the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. It combined military combat, diplomacy and trade to establish dominance. China established military bases, trade routes and a tribute system. It ended by choice because of China’s internal political and diplomatic shift in priorities. Why is this important today? This 15th-century template that China uses to project power in the 21st century in the third world will be its template for its ambitions beyond earth. Washington Times

 

Utah Newspaper Pushes for National Guard to Block Unvaccinated From Socializing . . . The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board criticized Utah's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in an op-ed, writing that the "civilized" thing to do would be to deploy the National Guard to ensure unvaccinated individuals largely remain at home. Utah has the fourth-highest number of new COVID-19 cases of any state and the Omicron variant's prevalence has forced some students to return to remote learning. Given Omicron's pervasiveness and the state's inability to handle the influx in testing demand, officials are advising people to just assume they have COVID-19 if they experience symptoms. TheSaturday op-ed applauded officials for citing the COVID-19 vaccination as the best tool for fighting the virus and for recommending people get inoculated. However, the board wrote that Governor Spencer Cox and other legislators didn't carry "the courage of their convictions" because they did not institute vaccine mandates. Newsweek 

 

COVID-19 shots are not vaccines . . . Why can't doctors and the public health crowd just say that? At what point is the public health community gaslighting us? Collins Dictionary of Biology defines a vaccine as “a preparation … that is used to stimulate an immune response.” Until about two months ago, Merriam-Webster defined a vaccine as “a preparation … that is administered to produce or artificially increase immunity to a particular disease.” Last May, no doubt anticipating the emerging clarity that what they were selling were not vaccines, the CDC changed its definition of what a vaccine is to emphasize the stimulation of immune response rather than immunity. A “vaccine” is commonly understood to be a product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease. Vaccines prevent one from becoming infected with a disease and prevent the transmission of the disease to others. The recent surge in omicron infections suggests that almost every individual who has received one of the “vaccines” and/or boosters for COVID-19 has the potential of both becoming infected with COVID-19 and, presumably, becoming transmission vectors for the virus. Washington Times

 

 

Fauci's investments worth more than $10 million, according to new documents . . . Dr. Anthony Fauci and his wife are worth a whopping $10.4 million, at least, despite both being career bureaucrats. The figures were shared by Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican and physician who tangled with Fauci last week on Capitol Hill. His financials were released just days after Fauci was heard calling Marshall a "moron" on a hot mic. “BREAKING! I obtained Dr. Fauci’s previously unpublished financial disclosures," Marshall tweeted. "Dr. Fauci was completely dishonest about his disclosures being readily accessible to the public which is why I am releasing them now.”

It's long been known that, with a reported salary of $434,312, Fauci is the highest-paid government worker in America, including President Joe Biden. Fauci's wife, Christine Grady, who is the National Institutes of Health’s chief bioethicist, earned more than $234,000 in 2020. But the pandemic power couple doesn't just bring home hefty paychecks — Fauci and Grady invest well. In 2020, they brought in nearly $800,000 in unrealized gains in investment accounts. Washington Examiner

 

40% of guns traced from crimes in Central America came from US . . . Thousands of firearms manufactured or bought in the U.S. end up being used in crimes in Central America, according to an audit released last week that found about half of the weapons are smuggled into the region and the others are exported legally and “diverted” into criminals’ hands. Florida, Texas and California were the most frequent sources of U.S.-purchased weapons that ended up in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, according to the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ chief watchdog. GAO investigators examined 27,240 requests that those countries submitted to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for tracing from 2015 to 2019.
ATF found about 40% of the weapons were manufactured in the U.S. and the rest came from 39 other countries, the GAO said. Washington Times

 

 

 

Russia moving troops to Belarus . . . Situation continues to heat up. Putin is upping the ante in his stand off with Biden over influence in Eurasia.  Russia has begun moving troops to Ukraine’s northern neighbor Belarus for joint military exercises. The joint military drills, named United Resolve, are to take place as Russia also musters forces along Ukraine’s eastern border, threatening a potential invasion that could unleash the largest conflict in Europe for decades. Alexander Volfovich, the head of Belarus’s security council, said in a briefing that troops were already arriving before exercises scheduled for February. Belarus is a different kettle of fish than Ukraine because it borders Poland and Lithuania, both of whom are NATO members.