Republican leadership in Congress has blasted President Biden’s massive $886 billion military budget request for 2024 as “inadequate” even as House GOP members claim they want to cap spending, Defense News reported Friday.

House Republicans favor a plan to cap discretionary spending for the fiscal year 2024 at 2022 levels. But military spending accounts for about half of the discretionary spending each year, and few Republicans favor rolling back the Pentagon’s budget.

“A budget that proposes to increase non-defense spending at more than twice the rate of defense is absurd,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement in response to Biden’s request. “The President’s incredibly misplaced priorities send all the wrong messages to our adversaries.”

Webmaster addition:

As 2023 unfolds, we fear that American policy will continue to be characterized by both mission creep and the absence of any sort of diplomatic engagement with Russia.

Throughout the course of the war, the Biden administration has slowly, steadily, even stealthily increased America’s involvement. Calls from Kiev for more and more weapons have, at every turn, been met with President Biden’s acquiescence. Meantime, Congress has continued in its decades-long abdication of its constitutional responsibilities, opting instead to act as a rubber stamp on ever-increasing amounts of financial and military assistance to Ukraine. All the while, Kiev’s appetite has grown larger with the eating.

First went the Javelin anti-tank missiles, sent to Ukraine by President Donald Trump. Then came the Russian invasion and demands for M777 Howitzers; and Bradley fighting vehicles; and Patriot missiles; and HIMARS; and NSAMS; and M1 Abrams tanks; and long-range GLSDBs.

Kiev is now demanding the delivery of F-16s fighter jets.

Will we soon see the demand for American ground troops? If so, will we witness any political will in Washington to refuse such a request?

Russia plans to equip several Navy vessels using Kalibr missiles, a weapon with which one naval policy expert predicts the country will more widely arm its fleet.

Russia recently attacked Ukraine using Kalibr cruise missiles, among other projectiles.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Tuesday the future Lada-class submarine Kronstadt, which is under construction, will be able to fire Kalibr cruise missiles. That same day, state-run news agency Tass reported the corvette Steregushchiy will receive a new Kalibr-NK missile system during modernization work at the Kronstadt Marine Plant.

And Mikhail Budnichenko, CEO of the shipyard Sevmash, said earlier this month the nuclear missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov will be armed with Kalibr-NK missiles, following repairs and modernization work.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi apologized Sunday evening after he had been quoted as saying that “a safe dictatorship is preferable to unprotected anarchy.”

"I said a sentence that I should not have said and that does not reflect my worldview at all,” he said speaking at a ceremony at Tel Aviv University honoring reservists who participated in Operation Breakwater — Israel’s months-long counterterrorism operation in the West Bank.

This is what Avigdor (Avi) Maoz has been waiting for since he established the Noam party, at the behest of his rabbi, Zvi Yisrael Thau, in July 2019. Noam withdrew from the race for the 22nd Knesset, which was elected that same September, nor did it run in the election for the 23rd Knesset, in March 2020. That changed a year later, and when the “government of change,” led by Naftali Bennett, took office during the term of the 24th Knesset, Noam was part of the opposition.

Now, following the November 1 election, and the convening of a new, fully right-wing government – the real test has arrived. As Maoz has stated, “The relationship between the beit midrash [institution of Torah study] and politics will be measured when we are part of the coalition.” Maoz (who constitutes a one-man Knesset faction, although Noam ran on a joint list with the Religious Zionism party) has been appointed a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office by Benjamin Netanyahu, and he will establish the “authority for identity security.”

The tactical controller looked up the valley, watching the trees sway in the winter breeze. A small dark speck, silhouetted against the sky, rapidly grew to full size.

A Eurofighter Typhoon flashed overhead with a roar, scattering a crowd of curious civilians who had gathered around a crashed Apache attack helicopter.

"Show of force complete," radioed the controller. Two feet to his right, the jet pilot was flipping a switch to turn off the Typhoon’s lights as he flew up Lake Windermere, briefly scratching his nose under the VR headset.

The conflict scenario that played out at BAE Systems' Warton base this week involved no boots on the ground, no helicopters, no jets and no civilians. Instead it took place inside a metaverse with all but a handful of roles being played by computers.

China's parliament on Sunday approved the cabinet line-up nominated by Premier Li Qiang, who took office on Saturday in a once-in-five years reshuffle.

Also during the National People's Congress (NPC), Xi Jinping was confirmed for a third five-year term as president.

Here are other key personnel moves made during the NPC, which closes on Monday.

China's four new vice premiers:

Colombia’s government and the left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group have hailed progress in their efforts to end decades of armed conflict in the South American nation, as a second round of peace talks concluded in Mexico City.

The negotiations come as part of an effort by President Gustavo Petro – the country’s first left-wing leader and former M-19 rebel – to reach peace or surrender deals with armed groups and bring “total peace” to Colombia.

For several months, unions and students in France have engaged in periodic general strikes and mass demonstrations in protest against a pension reform plan advanced by President Emmanuel Macron.

The new scheme being debated in the National Assembly and Senate would not only raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 these new regulations require 43 consecutive years of employment to receive full benefits.

On March 7 and 8, over one million people stayed away from work and school impacting the public services, transport and energy supplies. Workers prevented trucks carrying oil shipments from leaving their production facilities. Oil shipments on March 7 were halted when they were exiting the refineries of TotalEnergies, Esso-ExxonMobil and Petroineos groups.

In addition, truck drivers sporadically clogged major highway arteries and interchanges in successful efforts to slow down traffic. Approximately 20% of flights could not take off at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport while 33% were cancelled at Orly Airport. Transport rail lines to Germany and Spain came to a halt, and those to and from the United Kingdom and Belgium were reduced by one-third, according to the SNCF rail authority. Others were left without adequate electricity and heating services due to striking employees.

The General Confederation of Trade Unions (CGT) had called for the country to be paralyzed until the demands of the workers were met. Rising energy prices have contributed to the level of inflation aggravating an already decline in real wages.

French President Emmanuel Macron has refused to listen to the broad criticism of his pension reform policies. The president rebuffed two offers during the week of March 6-10 for urgent discussions with the trade union movement and students.

As of March 9, 2023, WHO’s VigiAccess database recorded 158,649 Adverse Events involving “Eye disorders” following COVID-19 vaccination: (click here)

Most notable are:

• Vision blurred: 32,935
• Visual impairment: 25,413
• Blindness 3,982
• Blindness, unilateral 1,370

VAERS

In 2021, a total of 717,577 COVID-19 vaccine adverse events were reported to VAERS (click here), and 55,313 of those involved ocular side effects.

One study examined 6688 of these VAERS ocular side effects (Nyankerh et al.)

• 74% of adverse event reports were women
• age group 40 to 59 years old had most frequent adverse events
• age group 18 to 29 had a fairly very high frequency of adverse events
• Moderna and J&J vaccines had higher proportion of adverse ocular events

How coincidental. USAID boss Samantha Power visited Tbilisi, Georgia the other day, and now there are violent protests in the streets outside parliament.

The announced adoption of a “foreign influence” bill provided an excuse for the usual suspects to begin a coordinated effort to overthrow the ruling Georgian Dream party and install a new government (or, more specifically, a pro-USG client state, similar to that in Ukraine).

Of course, it does not matter the Georgian government withdrew the legislation. The proposed law was merely an excuse to get yet another color revolution going on Russia’s border.

Don’t expect a Russophobic, nuclear war-taunting corporate media to point out the obvious fact this entire episode is the next phase in an effort to surround Russia and dismember it.

The USAID wrecking crew doesn’t care about the people of Georgia, “democracy,” or the fact the Georgian Dream party won 48.22 percent of the vote in 2020. The Strength Is in Unity party, led by former president Mikheil Saakashvili, came in at 27.18 percent.

Dear everyone, who is nervously looking around and is asking “What the hell is going on?”

I hope this isn’t too controversial. It’s certainly frightening, but I believe we are still on the right side of disaster & if enough of us become aware of what is happening here & everywhere in the democratic world, we can recover the situation. We really don’t have long. I believe it’s likely things will change irretrievably over this coming winter. Hence this urgent and unusual request.

Everything that’s happened and is happening becomes much simpler and it all makes sense, only when you force yourself to think the impossible.

If you experimentally adopt the position that OUR GOVERNMENT IS ACTIVELY WORKING TO HARM US, TO DISMANTLE MODERN SOCIETY & ENSLAVE ALL PEOPLE IN A DIGITALLY CONTROLLED TOTALITARIAN WORLD, it all fits. Nothing is surplus.

Even if your immediate response is that this is absurd, please try it for a day or so.

Why is much modern food of inferior quality? Why is health suffering and smallholder farmers who feed most of the world being forced out of agriculture?

Mainly because of the mindset of the likes of Larry Fink of BlackRock – the world’s biggest asset management firm – and the economic system they profit from and promote.

In 2011, Fink said agricultural and water investments would be the best performers over the next 10 years.

Fink Stated:

“Go long agriculture and water and go to the beach.”

Unsurprisingly then, just three years later, in 2014, the Oakland Institute found that institutional investors, including hedge funds, private equity and pension funds, were capitalising on global farmland as a new and highly desirable asset class.

Funds tend to invest for a 10-15-year period, resulting in good returns for investors but often cause long-term environmental and social devastation. They undermine local and regional food security through buying up land and entrenching an industrial, export-oriented model of agriculture.

Former Coca-Cola consultant-turned-whistleblower Calley Means has warned that Big Ag, Big Food, and Big Pharma are keeping people poisoned, overweight, and unhealthy to maximize and protect their profits from the sale of toxic food and so-called anti-obesity medication.

Means made the warning during a recent appearance on the podcast of English actor Russell Band, “Stay Free With Russel Brand.”

“This is a scandal that I think is the biggest story in the country right now,” said Means. “This is not complicated … We are being poisoned from a rigged food system and the medical system is profiting.”

Central to Big Food and Big Pharma’s plan is Ozempic, a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is a semaglutide injection allegedly designed to help improve insulin sensitivity and weight loss.

The FDA has approved Ozempic for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, to improve blood sugar levels along with a healthy diet and regular exercise and reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death in adults with Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday denouncing recent joint air drills between Washington and Seoul, South Korea. In that statement, the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) said this was a “catastrophic escalation” and the chances of a nuclear war are now “realistic.”

The drills that irritated North Korea involved at least one U.S. nuclear-capable B-52 bomber, saying the exercises only heighten the risk of conflict on the Korean Peninsula, according to a report by RT.  “Due to the irresponsible actions of the United States and South Korea, which are concentrating only on belligerent armed demonstrations thick with gunpowder, contrary to the international community’s desire for tension relief and political stability, the risk of nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula is shifting from an imaginary stage to a realistic one,” the ministry said, adding that the drills “clearly” show the U.S. is preparing for a war with the DPRK.

Similar joint military combat exercises were also launched last Friday. Those drills included the use of a U.S. B-1B strategic bomber, while yet another drill will be held next week to simulate the U.S. and South Korean response to a missile attack by the DPRK. Additionally, beginning on March 13, the two allies will carry out the largest drills in the region in five years, which will continue for 11 days.

During CNN’s town hall on Thursday, Nico, a 17-year-old transgender student, questioned Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin about state legislation regarding sports and school bathrooms.

According to Fox News, the student said, “Look at me. I am a transgender man. Do you think the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?”.

The Republican governor defended the policies his administration rewrote, which require students to use the appropriate bathrooms and locker rooms and participate on sports teams based on their gender at birth. Students are also required not to change their names and pronouns without parental consent.

The Biden administration on Thursday released an outline for its fiscal year 2024 budget. As expected, it promotes the same swampy, big-government agenda as last year, which the country desperately needs to avoid.

Beneath the administration’s spin, the ultimate message is that it thinks the federal government doesn’t have enough power and control over our families and businesses.

These charts, based on updated information from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, show just how off-base Biden’s narrative is and why America needs exactly the opposite from its leaders.

Thursday’s hearing on the Twitter files in the US House was one of the most important hearings in our lifetime.  We learned about the Obama-created “Censorship-Industrial Complex” and we learned the Democrats hate the US Bill of Rights. 

The hearing Thursday was so important and yet the “so-called delegate” from the Virgin Islands and the rest of the Democrats treated the guests and the topic with disdain.  The Democrats are really trying to coverup the crimes that have been going on since the Obama Administration through today.

We shared a report from Jason Goodman on Friday who was at the hearing.  Goodman pointed out at that the Democrat Ranking member is Stacey Plaskett who was born in and grew up in New York, yet she somehow got herself the delegate position from the US Virgin Islands.

The Army’s new branding campaign, unveiled Wednesday, shied away from social justice and diversity themes as it seeks to overcome a historic drop in recruiting, military experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The service’s buy-in on identity politics could turn off conservative families, which have traditionally served as the military’s largest recruiting base, and exacerbated the service’s recruiting woes in fiscal year 2022, experts and lawmakers warn. But, the years-in-the-making rebrand, with a goal of showcasing the Army’s role in defense and innovation throughout American history and encouraging soldiers to push their limits, could help the Army meet its ambitious recruiting goals for 2023, experts in military readiness told the DCNF.

“I think the new brand and commercial better appeal to young people’s desire to be part of a big, important effort larger than themselves,” Thomas Spoehr, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, told the DCNF. “I think that is the right approach to take.”

The Army has come under fire for embracing perceived left-wing values in branding, according to Task and Purpose. One example is a 2021 advertising scheme that emphasized the different kinds of people who could join the service, highlighting a same-sex family.

Webmaster addition: Actually, I think it's the rush to a World War that is causing the drop in recruitment. Young people would like to avoid being killed and crippled.