Weekend Data Dump

Canada has a strange noise under the hood that they can't figure out: "Canada's military is investigating a mysterious "pinging" that is emanating from the sea floor in [Fury and Hecla Strait in] the Arctic." Given, Canada's inability to convincingly demonstrate sovereignty over their north, this is hardly shocking.

If Russia has notions of dominating the eastern Mediterranean, gaining an ally in the Balkans would help hold the northern shoulder of that bastion: "Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Belgrade plans on signing an integrated agreement with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)."

Of course, for all their bluster, Russia is much weaker than America, and Europe's potential military power is greater than Russia's. And Russia reduced their defense budget by 30% for 2017. No wonder Russia has resumed arms sales to China despite the rising threat of China to Russian interests in Central Asia and to Russia's physical control of the Russian Far East. There is more on Ukraine and Syria in that post, too.

I warned that Brexit backers shouldn't assume the Remain crowd will accept the results of the vote to leave as final (although it would have been the final word if Remain had won, have no doubt). Prime Minister May has said the right words despite the claim that only Parliament can exit the European Union.

For all the talk of the risk of Trump supporters not accepting the results of the election, pre-election polling showed more Hillary supporters would not have accepted a Trump victory as legitimate, as vice versa.  Although that difference is buried in the article below the title and lead paragraph that imply equal rejection of the other.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. For all that Clinton backers call Trump supporters deplorable and irredeemable,  isn't it funny that her backers expect ex-felons to vote for Democrats?

I didn't actually blog about FBI Director Comey's late "clearing" of Hillary over newly discovered emails. I figured the fix was still mostly in.

A Strategypage tour of Libya where several dozen ISIL members are still holding out at Sirte and where the UAE has set up a base at Marj, which is shared with the French.

Russia's Syrian adventure--with plentiful killing of civilians in its wake--is spoiling Moscow's attempts to get Europe to abandon efforts to punish Russia for their Ukraine conquests. When Putin intervened in Syria, I hoped we would not cooperate with a quick Russian victory that allowed him to return his focus on Ukraine. Whether or not we have actively done anything to complicate Russia's plans for a short and glorious intervention, Russia is still entangled in Syria.

Wonderful, an actual pro-Russian candidate won in NATO Bulgaria and will almost surely be president.

Cue the anti-war Left: No sooner is a Republican elected to the White House than the “antiwar” group A.N.S.W.E.R. is planning protests. President Obama has been at war for his entire presidency, and will break the record when he leaves, but now the communists will come out to protest "endless war."

One problem at a time: we stopped Clinton. Unless Clinton's allies are busy preparing bribery and blackmail material for the Trump Electoral College delegates!

I noted that the same people who constantly asked "why do they hate us?" after the 9/11 terror attacks, as if America did something to deserve the attacks, were unable to fathom why working class Americans are unhappy with our current rulers and their backers in the media. In the aftermath of Trump's victory, some in the media are claiming election day 11/9 was like 9/11. That is deplorable.

After being sent to the back of the queue for post-Brexit trade deals by President Obama, the British find themselves being brought to the head of the line by President-elect Trump, who invited Prime Minister May to America at her earliest convenience.

"Turkey has halted the activities of 370 non-governmental groups including human rights and children's organizations over their alleged terrorist links ..." I've said it before and I'll say it again, if the July coup attempt had as many supporters as the wide-ranging purge being waged by Erdogan indicates, the coup would have succeeded.

I said it before and I'll say it again, if racism motivated the Trump win, why did these so-called racists vote for President Obama (an actual African American man)? Of 674 counties that Obama won twice, Trump won 209. Of the 207 counties that Obama won once, Trump won 194. This is all part of the snobbery of the Left that refuses to see that people can oppose what the Left wants for any legitimate reason--so it must be some deplorable reason.

On another election issue, Republicans who a week ago worried about the party coming apart now see the party as dominant across the entire spectrum? Republicans (like Democrats) failed to even reach half of the voters! Don't speak to me of dominance when not many voters switching votes could have flipped this presidential election.