Good morning. Here’s your Daily Situational Awareness for Friday, 08 October 2021. You can receive this daily briefing by signing up at https://forwardobserver.com/daily-sa
TODAY’S BRIEFING:
- U.S. spec ops train Taiwanese troops to fight China
- Far Left PAC targets America’s youth for 2022
- McConnell caves in debt fight with Dems
- Cyber chief wants sanctions on crypto
- Jobs report shows massive stall in employment numbers
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
TAIWAN: A U.S. special operations (USSOF) unit and a “contingent” of Marines are training Taiwan’s military in ground and maritime operations. The troops’ deployment is rotational and ongoing for at least 12 months. Politicians in the U.S. authored provisions in new Defense spending bills which require USSOF to train Taiwanese soldiers in asymmetric warfare and assess the region for potential future operations. Chinese state media demanded U.S. troops leave with the Global Times editor saying, “See whether the PLA will launch a targeted air strike to eliminate those U.S. invaders!” (AC: The U.S. frequently uses small deployments of special operations troops to support training missions and provide a deterrent effect against China and Russia. A kinetic strike against Taiwan with U.S. military casualties would likely result in a high-end conflict with China. Previous training events in the Indo-Pacific region highlighted the use of special operations alongside conventional forces in sabotage, reconnaissance, and low-visibility infiltration operations. – D.M.)
VOTING: NextGen America, a progressive political action committee (PAC), is spending $32 million on voter outreach efforts in eight states. The organization seeks to register nearly 300,000 newly eligible voters in Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada. NextGen is a family of political organizations backed by activist and former presidential candidate Tom Steyer, which supports Far Left causes like stopping pipeline construction, instituting gun control, and raising taxes to address climate change. The PAC is using social media influencers, texting, mailing, and phone call campaigns to accomplish their registration goal (AC: The targeting of key states is designed to minimize losses by Democrats in the 2022 midterms. A secondary goal is the continued exploitation of the youth-vote by progressive politicians who feel the social and political mandate to institute their policies. Signalling a complete takeover by political activists inside schools, this particular PAC assumes young voters will be Democratic voters. – D.M.)
DEBT LIMIT: The Senate voted 50-48 to increase the statutory debt limit by $480 billion, keeping the government open until 3 December. The House is expected to vote on the same measure and pass it today, without much negotiating accomplished for two major spending provisions. So-called moderate Democrats are trying to negotiate the $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill down to $2 trillion by shortening the lifecycle of their proposals. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said negotiations are possible, but “we cannot compromise on science.” Given the ongoing legislative negotiations, groups like the Congressional Budget Office are unable to provide realistic fiduciary assessments to the public. (AC: By not cutting programs and changing the length, Democrats will be able to accomplish their social and political goals on the assumption that federal programs never reach their “sunset” provision and are extended ad infinitum. There is little appetite for compromise on these bills as Republicans are expected to retake the House in 2022 and the current party in power has so far failed to deliver the progressive agenda. – D.M.)
CYBER: National Cyber Director Chris Inglis cautions against offensive cyber responses by the U.S. Inglis said, “I don’t think we’re going to shoot our way out of the problem that we are in at the moment, but any good defense needs an offense.” Instead, the director believes “cost imposition” against malign cyber actors through financial and diplomatic sanctions will be more effective. Inglis wants U.S. regulators to target cryptocurrencies to reduce ransomware attacks. Efforts are ongoing in the U.S. to strengthen digital systems from attack by China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia by mandating reporting of cyber incidents and expanding free access to federal cybersecurity tips. (AC: The directors comments confirm the U.S. is doing essentially nothing to stop cyber intrusions and large-scale infrastructure attacks. The strategy of “waiting until we’re ready to respond” is predicated on a “no-change” assumption for the threat environment and does not address the years-long attacks on the public and private sectors. Expect cyber attacks to continue as long as the U.S. refuses to act in a unified policy manner. – D.M.)
JOBS: Jobs data for September falls extremely short of expectations, with total nonfarm payroll employment rising by 194,000. Dow Jones estimates put September job growth at 500,000 jobs. The majority of these jobs were added to the hospitality and leisure and the transportation and warehousing sectors. The unemployment rate fell by 0.4% to 4.8%, a decrease of 710,000 people, and labor force participation rates changed very little and remained at 61.6%. (AC: Although monthly job growth has increased by an average of 561,000 since the beginning of the pandemic, and nonfarm employment has increased by 17.4 million jobs, employment is still down by 5 million since February of 2020. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also updated their results from August, from 235,000 to 366,000 nonfarm jobs, still falling very short of the expected 720,000 for August. -T.W.)
HAZARDS WARNING
HURRICANE SEASON: Nothing significant to report
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