Some quick X threads from the last few days. This one is a little longer than usual because I am still clearing out my bookmarks from my days away from writing. For the most part, these posts are about news in National Security. We do the scrolling so you don’t have to! This post also serves as an open thread. I welcome readers to post comments or additional links related to national security or history, even if they are not directly related to the links below.
I hope these first two are not wish-casting.
🇨🇳 CHINA’S PROPERTY COLLAPSE JUST BLEW A HOLE IN ITS FINANCES: LOCAL DEBT HITS A RECORD $18.9 TRILLION
For years, Beijing pretended everything was fine – the growth was real, the 5% targets were real, the developers were solvent, and the cities were flush with cash.
Now the… pic.twitter.com/IAmQGcIPcF
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 4, 2025
All is not well in the Chinese economy. There is doubt that they have been cooking the books, but if this report is correct. These problems go much deeper. Here’s the key quote:
“China’s economy is entering the early stages of a structural unwinding – the kind every economist recognizes but no government ever admits to. Beijing can paper over the cracks a little longer. It can suppress the data, jawbone the markets, and order the banks to pretend“
The new U.S. sanctions are hitting Russia harder than expected, draining billions from Putin’s war budget, crippling Rosneft and Lukoil, and even forcing Serbia and Bulgaria to push Moscow out of their energy sectors.
Eastern Europe is slipping from Putin’s grip, and the Kremlin… pic.twitter.com/0aGiVaYqkS
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 4, 2025
Long thread alert, but it seems like these sanctions are finally taking a bite out of the Russian economy. It is important to remember that this was not possible under the previous administration because one of the goals was to keep gas prices low going into the election. Since Trump won, prices have gone down, which makes a move like this possible. Key section:
“For the Kremlin, this is a painful humiliation [former Soviet states turning West]. Putin’s foreign policy rests on the idea that Russia has a natural sphere of influence across Eastern and Central Europe.”
The entire concept of Spheres of Influence is what a multi-polar world looks like and helps explain the Ukraine war, the South China Sea West Philippine Sea, and the US military buildup in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela.
Did you know that Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist proxy from Lebanon, has had a significant presence in South America since the 1990s? Check out this free Substack article below 👇 pic.twitter.com/vJjbqwlkD6
— Green Beret Nap Time (@GBNT1952) December 5, 2025
Speaking of the Caribbean. Here is an excellent article about Hezbollah’s influence in Latin America. This is very important and has been underdiscussed and overlooked for far too long. If you read one article, this is it. Here are two quotes, but you really need to read the whole thing:
“In plain terms: Hezbollah saw an opportunity to make big bucks through smuggling, trafficking, and shady business deals in Latin America’s more lawless regions, often by tapping into diaspora connections. If fighting Israel was Hezbollah’s day job, these global money making schemes became its lucrative side hustle.”
“Take Venezuela, for example. Under the late President Hugo Chavez (and continuing under Nicolas Maduro), Venezuela cultivated a warm friendship with Iran. This relationship opened doors for Hezbollah. Iran and Hezbollah helped Venezuela establish connections to illicit networks that propped up the Caracas regime.”
Here is a direct link if you don’t have X: https://t.co/igUWVB6RYW
🇮🇷🇱🇧 IRAN JUST LOST ITS MOST VALUABLE COLONY LEBANON – AND NOBODY’S COMING TO SAVE IT
Tehran is watching its 40-year investment in Lebanon evaporate in real time, and the silence from its remaining proxies is deafening.
Hezbollah isn’t just bleeding fighters and prestige; it’s… pic.twitter.com/RobFlbot58
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 29, 2025
Obviously, this is related and illustrates the importance of a coordinated dismantling of Iranian influence and Hezbollah. The importance of the work that Israel did against Hezbollah cannot be overlooked. This is not an understatement, but what they accomplished in the war in Lebanon reached all the way to Central and South America. Hezbollah is on the run, and we need to crush them. Follow the link, read the whole thing. Here is a sample:
“Even Amal, Hezbollah’s nominal Shia partner, is openly negotiating separate security arrangements in the south. Meaning: most of the Lebanese body politic has decided that being Iran’s meat shield is no longer worth the oxygen.”
BREAKING:
Anti-regime protests erupt in Qir and Karzin County in the Fars Province of Iran.
Videos of the clashes, with calls for other cities to join the protests are going viral online.
Via @ShayanX0 pic.twitter.com/OarZC8SDLi
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 29, 2025
This might be on the older side, but if true, it is still important. Honestly, dumping on Iran makes my heart happy.
The river in Sulaymaniyah Province, northern Iraq, near the Iranian border has completely dried up over the past three years. pic.twitter.com/Js1oBX4fgx
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) November 24, 2025
Even God is against Iran. But seriously, the drought in Iran is creating real internal pressure. This, combined with the external pressure of Israel in Lebanon (not to mention the war earlier), and the US pressure on Hezbollah in the Caribbean. I don’t think the mullahs have ever been this wobbley.
Rome basically had no navy, gets wrecked by Carthage, finds a shipwrecked Carthaginian quinquereme, reverse-engineers it plank by plank, and within a few years builds a fleet that dominates the Mediterranean.
That level of “learn it overnight and beat the experts at their own… https://t.co/Y3luFPbxza
— Vox Virtutis (@VoxVirtutis) December 4, 2025
Just some crazy history and the importance of identifying your deficiencies and always working to improve.