Georgia lost a soldier in Afghanistan. That is the price Georgia is willing to pay to get into NATO. Pity that many of those already in don't have the same incentive to truly help.
China compelled Vietnam to back down from energy drilling in the South China Sea which China claims as their own in defiance of international law (even the Law of the Sea). On the bright side, maybe a victory there reduces the need for China to get a victory at India's expense at the Bhutan-India-China border.
North Korea says our ban on travel their is a "'sordid' attempt to limit human exchanges." Well, duh. We don't want North Korea trying to exchange our humans for money or diplomatic gain; nor do we want them to kill them as they did recently with Warmbier.
If you want to operate in the littorals, vessels like this are far better than the large, vulnerable, and expensive
Some Americans seem to be fantasizing about Canada's prime minister as our president. Why aren't Canadians begging for citizen of the world Obama to be their prime minister? Indeed, why don't any countries beg our first post-American president to be their leader? Surely somebody has thought of this, eh? I think Venezuela will have an opening soon if those poor souls want to give socialism another shot with a super genius.
I'm inclined to keep McMaster in the government; barring something damning that goes beyond the current rumblings.
I'm out! I've overlooked a lot of obvious political bias at Google. But if they are going into full Red State Scare by purging an employee for daring to dissent from leftist orthodoxy, to Hell with them and their defense of the freedom of their employees to speak as Google wants them to speak and think. I'm cutting out use of Google as my search engine of choice. I already barely use Gmail or Chrome. Blogger I will continue to use. Little choice for that right now. You do what you can.
Drinking beer improves your problem-solving by a fifth. No proof that a fifth improves your problem-solving by a beer.
Don't Canadians know that the American Left's image of Canada doesn't allow for actions like this? Next you'll be telling me the CN Tower isn't a beacon for unlimited immigration! Well, not until someone slaps a poem on it and the ignorant call it statutory guidance.
Weapons-grade stupid, indeed. The echelon above reality lives in the university sphere these days.
An American destroyer conducted a "freedom of navigation operation" in the South China Sea in defiance of Chinese territorial claims. No details to confirm the operation was a true FONOP rather than innocent passage. Under Trump there have been true FONOPs while under Obama we had innocent passage masquerading as FONOPs.
Obviously, a bombing of an Islamic Center in America should be investigated and prosecuted. The bomb was small and ineffective. Fortunately there were no injuries. No word of who was responsible.
Obviously, there would be a lot more media interest if Karl Rove had been involved rather than Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. This has national security implications. What were the House Democrats up to?
The difference between Nazism and Communism is that when someone notes how evil and bloody Nazism was, nobody argues that "real" Nazism hasn't been tried yet. Yes, wherever socialists take power and fail, the Left claims that the failure is proof that real communism--which is the end state that formally communist but practically socialist governments aim for--was not actually tried. Convenient, that is.
North Korea is extremely upset with the latest round of sanctions. I will repeat what I've said before that sanctions sufficiently damaging are likely to be taken as an act of war little different than a military attack that justifies military action in return. That's the problem of sanctions. They tend to be ineffective until they are effective enough to be the equivalent of an act of war. Then the question is, does the target of sanctions have military options in response.
Good Lord, so now Hillary Clinton's backers are blaming her election defeat on the Romans? Tip to Instapundit. Funny, I thought liberals hated all that Christianity stuff. Remember, she's not the messiah, she's a very naughty girl.
Cuban government wrecks hearing of American diplomats. Reset! Effing communists can't be reset. The Obama administration erred in trying.
NATO countries in eastern and central Europe do not have effective command and control of their military as established NATO countries are used to. That was not on my radar screen.
I find it funny that American diplomats are upset that the president thanked the Russians for kicking out so many of our staff in Moscow because it would save us money! Was Trump supposed to cry in public about the Russian action? Wouldn't that feed Putin's ego and sense of power? Blowing it off in a joking manner as insignificant and possibly a favor is a slap at Putin, really. Seriously, are these complaining diplomats unclear about their job? And are they unaware that Russian staff employed at our embassy who have been fired actually will reduce our payroll? Heck, if we did it right we fired the Russian spies who worked in our embassy.
Headlines that North Korea may have 60 nuclear weapons are wrong. North Korea has enough nuclear material to build as many as 60 nuclear missiles. What the intelligence says is that North Korea can now build a warhead for the missiles; and that North Korea is on the path to having nuclear missiles when they have refined and integrated and tested the missiles and warheads. But we have a bit of time yet.
Venezuela could be on the verge of civil war. I worry that Maduro might want to strike the Netherlands (in their Caribbean territories) to distract their people from civil war.
US troops (Rangers, I think) near Manbij in Syria have come under fire. We need to get them out of there or really hurt whoever is attacking our troops before some of our troops are killed needlessly.
A Romanian soldier in Afghanistan shot an Afghan who was trying to carry out a "green on blue" attack against NATO training forces. Could be jihadi. Could be anger management issues. Hard to say in that part of the world.
Let me add on the immigration issue is that after we've gained control of our borders (including the visa process that really allows people to enter freely and remain after they are supposed to leave), which should include punishing employers who hire illegals, I'd be fine with an amnesty process for those who made it here illegally to eventually make them legal if our conditions for staying are met. Amnesty before immigration control is insane.
Fire one and it has the effect of teaching the rest to just shut up and row. That's Autocracy 101, really. Tip to Instapundit.
COSTCO lawyers are the last step of this educational path.
It isn't totally loony tunes to ask if we should shoot down inert North Korean missiles test fired near Guam (or Japan or South Korea). The question is, will we learn more about shooting down missiles than North Korea will learn about how we shoot down missiles (to figure out counter-measures)? I don't know the answer to that question so I can't say with certainty what we should do. Of course, if we shoot them down that might mean it is practice for a strike on North Korea to be prepared for any leakers that survive the strike campaign. North Korea wouldn't learn anything they could use in time.
What a complete moron. Do liberals really want to encourage our military to stage coups against presidents they don't like? Would Comrade Bernie, for example, pass that military test? Or any likely Democrat who can survive the social justice primary gauntlet?
While North Korea threatens nuclear war and America warns North Korea they'll not live to regret such acts, North Korea has a way out via quiet talk. As I've said, I think we could deter a nuclear North Korea if I didn't have to worry about North Korea selling nukes or technology to Iran. Is there some way to put China in charge of North Korea's nuclear arsenal--dual key the launch process--and nuclear infrastructure (with China fully in charge to put responsibility for proliferation fully on China) to rule out that worry?
I know liberals like to defend their hatred of Trump and his supporters by proudly proclaiming that they will not tolerate the intolerable. But who gets to decide who is intolerable? Liberals? I think jihadis who try to kill us or wreck our freedoms are intolerable, but liberals seem to have far more hate for Trump supporters than they have for jihadis who they constantly make excuses for by asking why do they hate us? As if we've done something to deserve that brand of hatred. I think my basis for tolerance--if you aren't trying to kill us or kill our society (freedom and rule of law) we should tolerate (not necessarily embrace, of course) your speech--is defensible while the liberal definition that changes on their whims is indefensible as the standard for who we don't tolerate. See also liberal tolerance for North Korea in contrast to Trump. How long before lunatic leftists are volunteering to go to North Korea as "human shields?"
Debbie Does Pakistan. That's what I'd call it, anyway. Tip to Instapundit. Seriously, what is it with Democrats and shoddy email security?
The UN gave a genocide warning about violence in the Central African Republic. Egad. I'm sure the New York Times will have an article out about how global warming is the real threat there.
Who is this "we" you speak of? Stupidity is an amazing thing to observe.
More dead jihadis: Somalia Edition. Short but exciting lives should be our objective for those killers.
I should hope that it goes without saying that I despise the white nationalist hate groups as much as other hate groups. Embracing individual freedom requires a rejection of all calls for subgroup unity. Tribal politics is awful and our nation should not go down this path. Both sides came prepared to fight, it seems. Really, it was the Iran-Iraq War (a pity they both can't lose). Three dead, including 1 dead from the car attack and 2 state troopers who were trying to contain this hate-fest brawl by true deplorables when their helicopter crashed.
I have to ask why the Democratic governor of Virginia ordered state police and National Guard troops to stand aside while the street battle raged.
Remembering when an American president threatened North Korea with nuclear destruction. Oh, that was okay? Tip to Instapundit. Honestly, when I heard "fire and fury"from Trump I did not think nuclear weapons. I thought of this. North Korea should worry about a lot of little booms and not a few big booms.
The New York Times says women had better sex under Soviet socialism. Of course they do. And really, the Soviet state did figuratively screw all people each and every day. But that claim can't be literally true because I've been assured by our Left that the failure and brutality of the USSR means that the Soviets didn't try real socialism.
