A very Happy New Year to you and yours and what better way to kick off the beginning of 2024 than to remind the readers of RedState that we live in some pretty gosh darn challenging times.
I thought that my first post of the year would be about something fluffy and light-hearted but unfortunately, after spending the past week reading a lot of background stuff on the actual state of the world, I concluded light and fluffy is not going to cut it to begin this year. Americans, at one point, were known for looking a challenge right in the eye and tackling it, and hopefully, we still have some moxie in our soul, as we truly need it.
On my reading list over the holiday was CBS reporter extraordinaire Catherine Herridge's book which she wrote back in 2011: The Next Wave: On the Hunt for Al Qaeda's American Recruits and it paints a dire picture that, in light of the open border the Biden administration has allowed, appears even more grave than post 9-11. I tackled this subject last week in my post called Arizona Rancher Gives Warning About Illegal Immigration: Cartels Are in Control of Everything — which should alarm everyone.
We have to, as a country — and more importantly, as individuals who make up this country — look at the situation as it is and not as we would like or wish it could be.
My colleague Bonchie covered a bit of this last week and has the same conclusion that I and many others do. From his piece last week, CBS News' Catherine Herridge Predicts 'Black Swan' Event in 2024:
CBS News recently held a roundtable event that included predictions for 2024, and Catherine Herridge, the network's senior investigative correspondent, didn't pump out any rainbows and unicorns. Instead, she predicted a "black swan" event that could leave the United States in a very different place than it is today.
.@CBS_Herridge predicts in 2024, the U.S. may have "a national security event with high impact that's very hard to predict," pointing to ongoing wars and U.S. division as factors creating "fertile ground for our adversaries like North Korea, China and Iran" to take advantage of. pic.twitter.com/Vx8MTnn1W8
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 24, 2023CBS News' "Face the Nation" held a roundtable on Christmas Eve, affording various talking heads an opportunity to make predictions for 2024. While most of the predictions were relatively banal, one among them stood out, prompting critics to puzzle over its possible significance.
Network correspondent Catherine Herridge, the wife of a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, suggested that "2024 may be the year of a black swan event. This is a national security event with high impact that's very hard to predict."
(...)
Herridge told the other CBS News panelists Sunday there were a number of concerns that factored into her "dark" prediction, including that "this sort of enduring heightened threat level that we're facing, the wars in Israel, also Ukraine, and we're so divided in this country in ways that we haven't seen before. And I think that just creates fertile ground for our adversaries like North Korea and China and Iran."
Now, I know that we have a large faction of the country that would lump Heriidge into the mainstream media and just discount anything she says because of it. I would, however, make the argument that she is one of the few people who reports the facts and does not break it down based on whatever her ideological beliefs may be. She is a reporter in every sense of the word's meaning.
Because of that fact, if she has concerns about some sort of event happening in the coming year, I would be laying money heavily on that concern.
She is that good.
If you recall, the 9/11 attacks were executed by 19 people who hijacked four planes and crashed them into three different areas. They were able to bring down the Twin Towers, damage the Pentagon, disrupt an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and damage the nation's psyche, which catapulted us into two wars halfway across the world.
What could be waiting for us with the millions of people who snuck (walked) across the border since January 20th, 2021, when the Biden administration essentially flung open the doors to the southern border and put an open-for-business sign for people to walk in?
We have been invaded at our borders and over our skies (don't forget the Chinese Balloon) and our federal government seems more interested in public relations explanations than actually fixing the problem which has become much larger due to neglect.
Herridge’s warning here is not so much a question of if but when we get attacked, and we should all take note.
If you think for a moment that the Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans aren't noticing that this country is divided and is having moronic debates about whether or not you can be any gender other than what you are naturally born as, you would be wrong. They're enjoying the spectacle of this country tearing itself apart with issues like that more than Chris Christie enjoys hanging out at a Golden Corral buffet.
If you have not made a New Year's resolution, one I would suggest you consider is what to do for yourself and your family when the s*** hits the fan.
Once again you don't have to take it from me — take it from somebody who is a stellar reporter and has done National Security work for several years and has excelled at it as the Senior Reporter from CBS has.
The election in November 2024 will not settle this debate because, in my opinion, the wick is lit, and whoever wins the election later this year will not be able to stop any attack that is already in motion.
Prepare accordingly.
