December 8, 2023
Many have recently concluded the gloves will be off as the November 5, 2024 election approaches. Everything from old-fashioned election fraud to assassination is being floated as possible strategies to prevent Trump 2.0. Perhaps. Riots and a pandemic were on the 2020 agenda, so it would hardly be novel should they be rolled out again. As Marx observed, when history repeats, the first time is a tragedy, the second time is a farce. The same playbook can not be perpetually recycled. Now that America has broadcast its weakness to the world, beginning with the Afghan withdrawal, foreign actors may use the remainder of the Biden administration to trigger domestic attacks. There is also the possibility of engaging in a foreign war, an ancient tactic of tyrants to distract their subjects from domestic problems.
The problem with all these scenarios is all would drive even greater numbers into the MAGA fold. Even an assassination would only serve to exponentially provoke the populist base. This does not mean none of these gambits would be used, only that they would be strategically counterproductive. It would not be the first time America’s enemies (domestic and foreign) miscalculated. The most recent example would be the attack on Israel by Iran’s proxy Hamas. The domestic impact has been to drive a wedge through the Democratic party and convince many it is time to leave it, thus weakening hamas’ domestic allies. The long-term impact is only beginning, as many aligned with the Left have now been outed by their Hamas advocacy. The 9/11 attack achieved Bin Laden’s objective of eliciting a response from America, but ended with his death and that of millions of other jihadis. Be careful what you wish for.
Democrats are either delusional — hoping against hope that the indictments will take down Trump, up to imprisoning him — and/or demoralized. When Newsom maintained during his debate with Desantis that neither would be the party’s nominee, maybe this was an indication he knows 2024 is hopeless for his party and is too smart not to sit this one out. Wholesale election fraud is the third possibility, but for various reasons it would not be as easy to pull off this time and may have been ruled out. Hoping against hope that the flawed indictments winding their way through the courts will sideline Trump seems to now be the fallback therapy Democrats are deluding themselves with.
But maybe the majority have it wrong, and while 2024 may prove to be domestically chaotic, the greater threat is from aboard. 2020 would be difficult to top on the craziness scale. It appears more likely the worst of the 2024 disruptions will occur organically in the financial markets as the reality of the Debt Monster hangover from 11 decades of hyperinflation sets in.
While most anticipate 2024 chaos originating from the Biden administration and its leftist affiliates (including Antifa and BLM), a far greater concern is the foreign factor. As noted by the always insightful Kim Dotcom, who provides clarity regarding the timing and intent behind the Hamas attack:
Understanding the Hamas attack on Israel
Iran is aiming for a confrontation with Israel and the US. The success of Russia in Ukraine is encouraging Iran to undo decades of hostile US foreign policy in the Middle East. A bankrupt US Govt has just been invited to another war. The timing is opportunistic. The US Govt is forced to print trillions of USD as it struggles to raise new debt. Another war would lead to a significant increase in inflation and an accelerated economic decline of the US.
If Iran mines the Strait of Hormuz the global energy crisis would become critical. The Biden administration has used the majority of US oil reserves to stabilize domestic oil prices. Iran can increase the pain for the US Govt significantly. Ukraine is turning into a major defeat for the US and NATO. A new front in the Middle East would accelerate the US decline. The US Govt and its western partners simply cannot afford it. Russia and China would benefit most. Iran understands this and is playing into the hands of its partners.
Iranian leaders (increasingly desperate due to domestic turmoil) apparently pulled the trigger on their Hamas cannon fodder, hoping it would spark a universal jihadi uprising. This was the same gambit Bin Laden played on 9/11, much to his eventual regret. Pay attention to what has been going on for almost two months in the Persian Gulf. Our naval assets and commercial vessels have been under attack from Iran’s Houthi subcontractors. Only recently has our government admitted the increasingly obvious. As Jefferson discovered over two centuries ago with that region’s Barbary pirates, ignoring the problem eventually means decisive action becomes required. At some point (perhaps after American deaths) Biden will be forced to reciprocate — or at least go through the motions of responding. Pressure is now building for a response.
Options abound for creating domestic chaos with an objective of putting the United States out of business, something which has not occurred on our home turf since 1812. 9/11 was merely a demonstrative act designed to a) trigger the U.S. into responding; and b) thus cause America to walk into a trap in the jihadis’ home turf. Both occurred, but not with the result Bin Laden intended. Suppose this time simultaneous terror attacks are unleashed and the electric grid is attacked. The result, in a relatively short period of time, would not be much different from a nuclear attack — millions would die of starvation or freezing. There is also the possibility of an economic crisis, similar to what occurred immediately before the 2008 and 2020 elections. With the debt bomb rapidly imploding the federal budget, this might occur organically without any political intervention. The assumption must be that every option is on the table — there is no extreme the forces against Trump will not resort to. Those forces include foreign powers dreading a second Trump administration.
Thanks to the bogus Russian collusion narrative, many of us have become convinced foreign influence played essentially little role in recent elections. This may not be accurate and can not be ruled out. According to a recent filing by Trump’s counsel in his DC trial:
President Trump will offer classified information at trial relating to foreign influence activities that impacted the 2016 and 2020 elections, as well as efforts by his administration to combat those activities. President Trump will also present classified information relating to the biased and politicized nature of the intelligence assessments that he and others rejected during the events in question.
If Biden is doing a superb imitation of someone on the Iranian and Chinese payrolls (and/or being blackmailed by them), it does not require exceptional imagination to anticipate wholesale efforts to subvert the 2024 election. The only question might be the magnitude and effectiveness of such initiatives. If Trump received “biased and politicized” intelligence, he would not be the first president to be misled by the intelligence community whose sole function is to inform him of the truth. This was certainly the case with JFK, and his resulting hostility toward the spooks foretold his elimination.
What happens if, counter to the general expectation, little or nothing significant occurs prior to the election and Trump prevails in an overwhelming landslide? There are 75 days between the election and the 2025 inauguration. Would it not make more strategic sense for our enemies (domestic and foreign) to act during that window, rather than when doing so might ultimately increase Trump’s support? During those 75 days the weakling Biden will still be present (in body, not necessarily in mind) and paid for. Various things could occur in that window, ranging from petty mischief to existential level attacks. The bureaucrats under Clinton were merely being childish when they performed stunts such as removing all the W keys from White House computer keyboards prior to the incoming George W. Bush administration. The far more radical Obama crew’s sabotage of Trump’s administration, beginning before he was even inaugurated, violated constitutional norms. General Flynn, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, Brian Kolfage, over 1,100 J6 defendants, countless others — and of course Trump had their freedom and wealth violated. The continuation of these constitutional assaults under the Biden regency hardly needs mentioning. The radicals employed under Attorney General Garland and DHS Secretary Myorkas have demonstrated a willingness to “bend the rules.” Yet it is difficult to imagine actions much worse than we have already witnessed in recent years. The riots which greeted Trump’s 2017 inauguration were probably negligible compared to what awaits.
There is also the possibility of false flag incidents, similar to the events of J6. Yet if trouble is to arise, it is more likely to come from without — or more accurately, from those formerly from without but now massed inside our borders. In a October 18, 2023 letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas, Senator Hawley mentioned
record numbers of aliens who have been listed on the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) or traveled from countries known to be state sponsors of terrorism. In fiscal year 2023, Border Patrol encountered 154 TSDB aliens attempting to cross the border between ports of entry—more than the last six years combined. Furthermore, it is virtually certain that terrorist-linked individuals are among the estimated 1.6 million illegal aliens who have successfully evaded Border Patrol in entering the United States since President Biden took office. . . . U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are encountering a growing number of “special interest aliens” from countries known to harbor terrorists—including Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. Just this week, four Iranians were apprehended in Texas by Border Patrol.
FBI Director Wray’s recently issued preemptive CYA statement to the Senate, only served to confirm what many fear:
. . . the dangerous implications the very fluid situation in the Middle East has for our homeland security. The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level. . . .
We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago [under a previous Democratic administration]. In just the past few weeks, multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West. Al-Qaeda issued its most specific call to attack the United States in the last five years. ISIS urged its followers to target Jewish communities in the United States and Europe. Hizballah has publicly expressed its support for Hamas and threatened to attack U.S. interests in the Middle East. And we’ve seen an increase in attacks on U.S. military bases overseas carried out by militia groups backed by Iran.
. . . we also cannot—and do not—discount the possibility that Hamas or another foreign terrorist organization may exploit the current conflict to conduct attacks here on our own soil. We’ve kept our sights on Hamas and have multiple ongoing investigations into individuals affiliated with that foreign terrorist organization. . . . But it’s not just Hamas.
As the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism, the Iranians, for instance, have directly, or by hiring criminals, mounted assassination attempts against dissidents and high-ranking current and former U.S. government officials, including right here on American soil. And, along those lines, Hizballah, Iran’s primary strategic partner, has a history of seeding operatives and infrastructure, obtaining money and weapons, and spying in this country going back years.
Given that disturbing history, we’re keeping a close eye on what impact recent events may have on those groups’ intentions here in the United States and how those intentions might evolve. For example, the cyber targeting of American interests and critical infrastructure that we already see—conducted by Iran and non-state actors alike—will likely get worse if the conflict expands, as will the threat of kinetic attacks.
Wray’s public CYA tour has been moved to the front burner and is likely to be ramped up in the coming months. With the extension of the FISA authorization apparently now about to remain in place until April 19th (the 249th anniversary of Lexington and Concord, the start of the American hostilities), this provides Wray and his fellow travelers additional months to make the case that because of the imminent threat of domestic attacks, it is essential that federal investigators retain the ability to spy on us all without effective safeguards. It also allows continuation of Russiagate 2.0, snooping on Trump, his associates, and millions of his supporters during an election season. Thus the approach to April 19 now becomes a window in which a false flag domestic disruption could pave the way for a hasty Congressional FISA reauthorization in a panicked response. Any constitutionalists opposed would be painted as terrorism supporters.
In an accompanying document Wray simultaneously submitted to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in conjunction with his oral testimony on October 31, he provided additional details of the threat assessment. The document is interesting as much for what it omits than what it reveals.
Missing is any mention of the White supremacists boogeyman theme touted lately by the FBI and other components of the Biden administration.
Missing is any mention of the sort of details Senator Hawley provided.
Missing is reporting on the collaboration of cartels and foreign terrorist organizations to smuggle in assets across the southern border.
Present is pleading with Congress to reauthorize full, undiluted FISA authority which expires on December 31, 2023, using threat of terrorism as justification.
Who needs a phony White supremacists apparition when we have jihadis ready to foment actual chaos? The objective is to continue the charade of the Patriot Act and find excuses to justify wholesale domestic surveillance. Pre-Trump most would have dismissed related concerns as paranoid. After the wholesale transformation of the DOJ, FBI, ATF, and DHS as weaponized tools against domestic tranquility, most no longer need convincing.
Among the additional details Wray submitted in writing:
As of right now, we have no information to indicate that HAMAS has the intent or capability to conduct operations inside the U.S., though we cannot, and do not, discount that possibility, but we are especially concerned about the possibility of HAMAS supporters engaging in violence on the group’s behalf. As always, we are concerned with any foreign terrorist organization who may exploit the attacks in Israel as a tool to mobilize their followers around the world. In recent years, there have been several events and incidents in the United States that were purportedly motivated, at least in part, by the conflict between Israel and HAMAS. These have included the targeting of individuals, houses of worship, and institutions associated with the Jewish and Muslim faiths with acts of physical assault, vandalism, or harassment. Antisemitism and anti-Islamic sentiment permeate many violent extremist ideologies and serves as a primary driver for attacks by a diverse set of violent extremists who pose a persistent threat to Jewish and Muslim communities and institutions in the United States and abroad. Foreign terrorist organizations have exploited previous conflicts between Israel and HAMAS via media outlets and online communications to call on their supporters located in the United States to conduct attacks. Some violent extremists have used times of heightened tensions to incite violence against religious minorities, targeting both Jewish and Muslim Americans.
The FBI remains concerned about the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and that the intent of FTOs, such as ISIS and al-Qaida and their affiliates, is to carry out or inspire large-scale attacks in the United States.
The problem for Wray is that in essentially all major domestic terrorist incidents, from the Oklahoma City bombing 28 years ago on forward, it has subsequently come out that the FBI had foreknowledge of the participants. When he now claims they have zero information on what Hamas might be up to, few find this credible. Or excusable, considering how many FBI resources have been diverted to anti-MAGA efforts. Especially when his boss, Attorney General Garland, began his rise through the DOJ ranks when then Attorney General Janet Reno (famous for roasting Branch Davidians at Waco) sent him to Oklahoma City to oversee the cleanup operation. Garland was assigned to prosecute Timothy McVeigh, to ensure his intelligence community secrets went to the grave with him after his prompt execution. Could the reason the effort to impeach Garland for obvious criminality has stalled is because he knows where too many bodies are buried in the Washington swamp?
It is necessary to comment here on the odd dynamic underlying the FBI’s need to serve two masters. On one hand it must protect the homeland. On the other it exists in the political environment now controlled — after two Clinton terms, two of Obama, and one of Biden — by actors intent upon America’s destruction (and in the case of Biden, on the payroll of foreign enemies). The internal schisms this creates within the agency must be extreme — witness the ongoing stream of whistleblowers coming forward to brief House GOP investigators. As matters percolate further, we are likely to witness more Congressional communications along the lines of Senator Hawley’s letter which, unlike Wray’s fluff, actually provides specifics of serious threats. One of the FBI’s two masters requires internal attacks to justify repression against Americans.
The Hamas attack of October 7 was one of those defining moments (similar to 9/11) when individuals, political parties and governments are forced into reluctantly choosing sides, when many had previously elected to remain neutral. The initial domestic implications of that epochal event are only beginning to appear, including shattering the loose bonds holding together the Democratic party as many flee its fracturing shell due to the alignment of many of its factions with Hamas. The foreign fallout is developing over time.
Trump placed blame for the Hamas assault where it ultimately belongs:
The attack on Israel would never have happened, zero chance, if the election of 2020 was not rigged and stolen. It shows the world how important elections are. Iran was broke and talking, now they are rich and watching, waiting to make their move, and it will be a big one! How could crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most incompetent president in the history of the United States, allow this to happen? We went from the Abrahamic Accords and peace, to unprecedented death and destruction. Nevertheless, this big and very dangerous problem is solvable. Make America great again!!!
— Donald Trump Truth Social Post 10/13/23
Iran would not have pulled the trigger without consultation with its Chinese and Russian associates. One thing is certain. Our wide-open border has been exploited by foreign actors with ill intent. The battlespace is clearly being prepared, domestically and abroad. The October 7 Hamas attack provided an early preview. How, when, and where events unfold over the coming year will undoubtedly prove complex.
Meanwhile, back at the border where FBI Director Wray maintains “we have no information to indicate that HAMAS has the intent or capability to conduct operations inside the U.S.,” Journalist Sarah Fields might suspect otherwise. FBI agents have hounded her to give up her sources for her reporting on Hamas training camps. She has maintained that:
For years, in Matamoros, Mexico, directly across the border from Brownsville, Tx, Hamas had a training center. Once a large factory, the building was used to train young, military age men. Dressed in all black, these men would wait for the river to be low enough to cross over the border and illegally infiltrate the US for further training. Hamas has training camps in Mexico, and has for a long time.
Thousands of jihadists have crossed the border and disappeared into the US. Some given rooms and cell phones (courtesy of your tax dollars). Many have been flown to multiple cities throughout the United States including Hartford, Tampa, Atlanta and Houston.
Newsweek, in a “Fact Check,” assures us it is all baloney:
Newsweek was unable to find any evidence that Hamas had, or has, a training camp in Matamoros, Mexico.
No searches on a variety of terms predating the current conflict returned any results even suggestive of a link between Hamas militants and training camps in Matamoros or elsewhere in Mexico.
Newsweek has contacted the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the Mexican government and the National Intelligence Center in Mexico for information relating to Hamas' alleged presence in the country.
The claim, as shared on X, was presented without evidence. Newsweek has contacted Sarah Fields to ask for further information.
Matamoros is a relatively built-up city near the border shared by southern Texas in an area which is heavily monitored by U.S. and Mexican border security.
Congressional reports produced between 2017-2023 by the U.S. Department of State, reporting on international terrorist threats, have consistently stated that there has been no credible evidence “indicating international terrorist groups have established bases in Mexico, worked directly with Mexican drug cartels, or sent operatives via Mexico into the United States.”