EXCLUSIVE: FBI Whistleblower Who Exposed J6 Weaponization Speaks Out on Pardons.

HMM: Why Hamas still stands: Failed military doctrine drives IDF thinking.

Ran Baratz, who teaches military doctrine at the IDF’s National Defense College and founded Mida, an online Hebrew-language Commentary-like magazine, raises no objections to the ceasefire deal with Hamas—but not for the reasons one would expect. It’s because the IDF can’t win. At least, not with a General Staff marinated in postmodern military doctrine.

Baratz notes that the army’s rank-and-file is second to none, but the General Staff’s lack of strategy results in endless targeted raids, where the IDF goes in, kills some terrorists, retreats, then reenters the same area to cope with more terrorists—and lose more of its valiant young soldiers.

“When generals don’t have a strategy, they come up with an overarching strategy of attrition, which doctrinally, is achieved by raids,” Baratz told JNS on Jan. 15.

“They have different names for raids. In Vietnam, it was called ‘search and destroy.’ But it was the same idea. You raid a place, you kill the enemy combatants, with some collateral damage, and you pull back. You could see that in the Second Lebanon War [in 2006], and you can see that today. If they had a good operational plan, they wouldn’t be speaking about raids,” he says.

The General Staff didn’t even have a plan in place to invade the Gaza Strip, Baratz says. They thought it wasn’t needed as Hamas was “deterred.” That’s why it took so long for the IDF to go into Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion.

It seems almost impossible to believe there was no contingency plan for Hamas/Gaza but hubris is one of humanity’s most common failings.

There will be a next time and the IDF has until then to correct its ways.

PROMISE DELIVERED: ICE Is Back in Business! Homan Declares That Deportation Operation Has Already Begun.

“WOKEPEDIA IS AT IT AGAIN”:

WOW.

Nefarious Wikipedia editors have made it appear as though Israel was responsible for every death on October 7. The system is broken. @WikiBias2024 pic.twitter.com/sSnYXveDl3

— The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome (@TheMossadIL) January 21, 2025

The Left has to invent distractions like Elon Musk’s “Nazi salute” to keep people from noticing their actual, Nazi-like activities.

WELL-DESERVED: Trump Goes After the 51 Intel Officials Who Lied About Hunter’s Laptop, Interfered With Election.

BIDEN’S PARTING GIFTS:

If I take the current annualized run-rate deficit of about $3T per year and subtract the about $1T of run-rate interest payments, I get primary deficit of $2T. If I take the 2025 predicted US GDP of $28T, I get 7% of GDP primary deficit. That’s an implausibly large number on… pic.twitter.com/6v8Poc0YxW

— Ptuomov (@ptuomov) January 21, 2025

The Obama Cabal that ran the Biden White House really did a Third World number on our nation’s finances. Trump and the DOGE boys have their work cut out for them.

HEADS MUST ROLL: D.C. Gulag Holds J6 Prisoners Hostage Despite Trump’s Pardons.

DECOUPLING: Drone Makers Looking to Steer Clear of China Fear Beijing’s Wrath.

China dominates the global market for the small, inexpensive drones that have transformed the world’s battlefields—and Beijing hasn’t been shy about keeping the industry under its thumb.

For U.S. companies, dependence on China has become untenable, particularly as Beijing shows it is willing to cut off their access to essential supplies.

In Taiwan, that spells opportunity. Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who heads a government program to develop the island’s drone sector, said in a recent interview that the development of a “democratic supply chain” starring Taiwan is an inevitability.

However, recent examples of Beijing punishing companies for their ties to Taiwan have made U.S. businesses cautious in their efforts to avoid China in the production of drones, an industry where commercial ambitions and national security intersect.

Beijing really doesn’t want Taiwan to become self-sufficient in drones.

DRAIN THE SWAMP: Trump Makes an Epic Move Against the Department of Justice. “In an executive order signed Monday evening, Trump has directed his own government to investigate the agency for its misconduct in the aftermath of the January 6th events.”

CDR SALAMANDER: Red Sea Experience: Don’t Let Others Ignore It.

When it comes to war at sea, we get few opportunities to see what works, what does not work. What we need more of, what we can do without. The last 15-months of experience in the Red Sea have been priceless, unscheduled range time.

The Europeans have learned that they need to work on their software integration and need [to] find some extra money for improvements to existing kit, but as the US Navy has done the bulk of the fighting—from Aegis software to proving that Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles are not boogeymen—we have a lot to leverage.
…
Look at those numbers again. What weapon system was used more than any other?

The 5” gun.

We always need more shells. They aren’t sexy, they’re cheap compared to missiles, but we always need more.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Paxton Files One Last Lawsuit Against Biden For The Road. “As Joe Biden and his ruling cabal slunk out of the White House, Ken Paxton filed a final lawsuit against the regime’s executive regulatory overreach.”

NOPE, NOT SICK OF ALL THE WINNING: Senate Passes Laken Riley Act With *12* Dem Votes in Big Trump Win.

THERE’S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN:

BREAKING: Harvard has settled two antisemitism lawsuits. Among other policies, Harvard will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association's definition of antisemitism and start an official partnership with a university in Israel.

I am not tired of winning. pic.twitter.com/t5dQiR7AjZ

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 21, 2025

What was Glenn saying yesterday about the preference cascade having cascaded?

HMM: PhD-Level AI Poised for Release Soon.

The tech world is bracing for the release of Ph.D.-level artificial intelligence that will be able to do complex human tasks, Axios reported Sunday.

The superagent breakthrough could happen in a matter of weeks and speculation is that it could be coming from OpenAI, according to the report. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to brief U.S. government officials on Jan. 30, Axios reported, adding that OpenAI staffers are “jazzed and spooked” by their progress.

The report comes days after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that AI could replace mid-level software engineers as early as this year.

Skynet’s accountant smiles.

THERE’S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN: Trump Takes Office and Suddenly Putin Wants a ‘Lasting Peace’ With Ukraine.

AND SO BEGIN THE LAMENTATIONS OF THEIR WOMEN: The broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. It’s darker than you think.

There’s a dominant narrative in the media about why tech billionaires are sucking up to Donald Trump: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, all of whom have descended on the nation’s capital for the presidential inauguration, either happily support or have largely acquiesced to Trump because they think he’ll offer lower taxes and friendlier regulations. In other words, it’s just about protecting their own selfish business interests.

That narrative is not exactly wrong — Trump has in fact promised massive tax cuts for billionaires — but it leaves out the deeper, darker forces at work here. For the tech bros — or as some say, the broligarchs — this is about much more than just maintaining and growing their riches. It’s about ideology. An ideology inspired by science fiction and fantasy. An ideology that says they are supermen, and supermen should not be subject to rules, because they’re doing something incredibly important: remaking the world in their image.

It’s this ideology that makes MAGA a godsend for the broligarchs, who include Musk, Zuck, and Bezos as well as the venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen. That’s because MAGA is all about granting unchecked power to the powerful.

“It’s a sense of complete impunity — including impunity to the laws of nature,” Brooke Harrington, a professor of economic sociology at Dartmouth College who studies the behavior of the ultra-rich, told me. “They reject constraint in all of its forms.”

Opening Twitter — X, whatever — to dissenting voices did more to check the Establishment’s power than any one other thing in this century that I can think of.

For progressives, including the staff at Vox, having to make their cases in a free exchange of ideas is dark, indeed.

NOT REALLY: Schiff’s Past Attacks on Pardon Abuse Come Back to Bite Him.

Catching Schiff in a lie or hypocrisy is essentially meaningless. “I lied about Romney but he didn’t win, did he?” is about as close to honor or honesty as lefty politicians get.

WELL, BYE: A wave of Trump-demanded departures hits senior leadership at the State Department.

A large number of senior career diplomats who served in politically appointed leadership positions at the State Department have left their posts at the demand of the incoming Trump administration, which plans to install its own people in those positions, according to current and outgoing U.S. officials.

Personnel changes in the senior ranks of the department, like those at all federal agencies, are not uncommon after a presidential election, and career officials serving in those roles are required, just as non-career political appointees, to submit letters of resignation before an incoming administration takes office.

In the past, some of those resignations have not been accepted, allowing career officials to remain in their posts at least temporarily until the new president can nominate his team. That offers some degree of continuity in the day-to-day running of the bureaucracy.

There are plenty of “resistance” bureaucrats who will need to be shown the door with more vigor.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: A Whole Lotta MAGA Goin’ On. “Not only did the inauguration of President Donald Trump live up to my high expectations, it greatly exceeded them. I woke up yesterday filled with kid-on-Christmas-morning energy, as I suspect many of you did. Never mind that I didn’t sleep well, the nation was finally going to be rid of them.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China performs high altitude reusable rocket test with uncertain outcome.

A Chinese state-owned company performed a rocket flight aimed at testing reentry and landing burns late Saturday without announcing the outcome.

The Longxing-2 test article lifted off at around 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Jan. 18 (0300 UTC, Jan. 19) from a makeshift launch area near Haiyang, Shandong province.

Longxing-2 is thought to be a test article for the Long March 12A reusable launcher being developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST). The rocket was designed to replicate the first stage of a reusable flight, reaching around 75 kilometers before performing a reentry burn and making a powered descent and splashdown into the Yellow Sea.

Amateur footage captured from near the launch area showed the rocket rise very slowly from the tower and perform an ascent phase with no apparent anomalies. The test was intended to build on a successful 12-kilometer-altitude vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) test performed in June 2024.

SAST published results and footage from the June test, but has so far remained silent on the 75-km attempt, being yet to publish any results or details of the flight more than 24 hours after liftoff. The lack of official updates raises questions about the success of the test, which could indicate challenges during reentry or landing phases.

Not only is space hard but reusable vehicles are even harder — and commies generally don’t stay mum when there’s a public relations coup to be had.

TRUMP GETS IT: We’re Going to Mars, and We’re Bringing the Stars and Stripes With Us.

PUTIN’S STUPID WAR: Russian Mobilization and Force Generation Efforts. “Russian volunteer military detachments continue efforts to boost manpower by recruiting women into the Russian Armed Forces. Former Roscosmos (Russian space agency) head and Zaporizhia Oblast occupation senator Dmitry Rogozin reported on January 19 that the Russian BARS-Sarmat Detachment (Russian Combat Army Reserve) is recruiting specialists and unskilled men and women from across Russia to participate in combat operations in Ukraine. The post follows recent Russian promotional activities highlighting the recruitment of Russian women to various combat units in the Russian Armed Forces.”

Much more at the link. I’d just add that it’s one thing to give women combat roles when the Nazis are at the gates of Moscow, and quite another to try and take one more ruined little settlement in Ukraine.

That the US Army has done the same is a peacetime extravagance that I hope we’ll ditch sooner rather than later.

Previously: “This is pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel, unless they’ve got a brigade of the Tsar’s Own Cavalry in cold storage somewhere.”

It’ll be nice for everyone involved now that we have a peacemaker back in the White House.

IT FEELS PRETTY DAMN GOOD: ‘This Is What Victory Feels Like!’ Musk Gives Epic Victory Speech.

THIS IS (STILL) CNN:

Very bold of CNN to insinuate the richest man in the world did a Nazi salute just three days after the network lost a bombshell defamation suit. https://t.co/TygcjLOORL

— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) January 20, 2025

I guess the jury should have added another zero or two or three to the damages awarded in the previous defamation lawsuit.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

I shouldn’t cuss, but fuck you, we’re not doing this anymore. https://t.co/ZcRg1IKckS

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) January 20, 2025

I mean, even the NeverTrumpers aren’t buying it.

The thing at the 55 second mark, where he grabs his chest and says "my heart goes out to you" is supposed to be a deliberate Nazi salute? Sorry, not buying it. https://t.co/AMV138Oq02

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) January 20, 2025

Thought: This was bait so Elon can sue a lot of people for libel and bankrupt them. But hey, you’d have to be super rich and super smart to set a trap like that. . .

MORE:

The media: We don’t know why we aren’t trusted anymore

Also the media: Come spend the next 27 days with us pretending Elon did a Nazi salute

— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) January 20, 2025

THE NEEDS OF THE PARTY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE, COMRADE:

Two weeks ago, Joe Biden awarded Liz Cheney with the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Today, Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Liz Cheney.

How does one receive the nation's second highest civilian honor AND a pardon?

— Lance Gooden (@Lancegooden) January 20, 2025

And with that, I get to retire that headline for at least the next four years — at least when it comes to the White House.