Weekend Data Dump

From the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence file: Millennial women find that the career track isn't as joyous as they expected. What? Being the one who has to get up and go to work each and every day no matter what you might really want to do because other people rely on you to earn a paycheck is stressful? Get. Out! Tip to Instapundit.

If "Dreamers," people brought into America illegally while they were children, are so much more law-abiding than Americans, why are so many crimes ignored when considering when they are law-abiding? As I say, always check the definitions section. And this is apart from actions by sympathetic sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to prosecute illegal aliens for crimes that would run afoul of the lax standards. I've noted the latter issue before. Also, beware the dreamwashing of the population through the filter of the chosen few put forward as representative. With better definitions to kick out criminals, actual immigration security (including visa controls and not just border defenses), and no "chain migration," I have no problem with letting these illegal immigrants become legal residents. But the level of pro-dreamer propaganda disturbs me.

Germany isn't close to meeting their greenhouse gas emission reduction goal in 2020. Just loudly caring isn't enough, I guess. And let me remind you that the base year of the reduction was established as 1990. Why 1990? Because that year includes lots of East German Soviet-era heavy industries that massively polluted but which could not survive as part of a western state after reunification of West and East Germany. So the ambitious goals rested on the elimination of factories that would not have survived competition regardless of emission goals. Tip to Instapundit.

Vanguard of the race, vanguard of the proletariat. What's the difference, really? Again, tip to Instapundit.

It will be interesting to see if a series of serious hurricanes hitting Texas, Florida, and the WDC-NYC region (predicted) in a relatively short span will allow the hysteria witch-hunt atmosphere in America to break based on having people working together in adversity, belying the Twitter-based image of deep divisions and hatred; or whether we will return to category 11 politics once the crises pass. Really, it's okay to simply dislike President Trump as a politician rather than make him the embodiment of all you hate. Really, it's fine. And it doesn't make you an enabler of evil that you have imagined sanity to be.

A Syria-centric survey by Strategypage, including a comment that Turkey is trending toward leaving NATO. Which seems right. With Russia pushed back from bordering Turkey, Turkey's reason to put up with NATO hectoring about human rights and democracy is greatly reduced. Turkey wouldn't qualify to join NATO given its authoritarian tilt. And is the multi-war in Syria basically over with an Assad victory imminent? Assad is winning. No doubt. But his forces and supporters are fragile after the heavy losses to get this far. If the rebels could get their act together and get foreign support, this could end differently, I think.

Apparently the Pope can now claim infallibility on issues of faith, morals, and climate science. I really don't like this pope much. And I'm so old I remember when the Left derided the opinions of religion on science matters.

Huh. Cyberwar isn't ruled out yet for the recent Navy collisions near China. While no evidence of an attack has been found, it is significant that an inquiry is ongoing because it means that it is possible to hack our ships. If there was not path into the systems, there would be no reason to investigate. I don't worry that my couch might be hacked. Why is it possible to get into the system online, anyway? Are the peacetime benefits really important enough to risk such a wartime vulnerability? Or does the focus on cyberwar indicate the merchant ship was hacked? All just speculation at this point, of course. The simplest explanation remains that training standards were inadequate and that operational tempo is too high.

And yet America destroyed al Qaeda's Afghanistan sanctuary, continues to kill the scum wherever we find them, and killed and dumped the dead carcass of their swine leader into the sea like it was a bag of garbage.

The Dutch, solid allies that they are, have renewed their commitment to fight jihadis in Mali, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. So thanks for standing on the line with us. Watch your Caribbean possessions in case the idiot Maduro wants a war to rally his people around his autocratic rule.

Unless Jordan hopes to establish a friendly militia in southern Syria that keeps Assad and the Iranians out as a buffer zone, I'm not sure what the point is of truces ("deescalation zones") that simply allow Assad to transfer force to other fronts to defeat Assad's enemies. And another one may go into effect. Does this effectively partition Syria (with an Assad core plus 4 Russian-brokered rebel regions in the west, plus a US backed Syrian Kurdish region in the northeast and a US-backed Sunni Arab region in the east) or make it easier for Assad to isolate and attack rebel sanctuaries?

Next you'll be telling my my ink cartridge isn't really empty when the computer tells me it is.

A tour of Colombia and Venezuela.

You could see this joke coming a mile away, but I still nearly spewed a beverage across my screen laughing. Although I protest that Trump supporters accused her of breaking the law; and Bernie's supporters believed she committed heresy. Tip to Instapundit.

In a way, Leftists who say "property is theft" are right--private property steals power from would-be tyrants. Tip to Instapundit.

Turkey looks like it will buy Russian S-400 air defense missiles. The missiles in theory are vulnerable to NATO learning about them, but with Turkey sliding away from NATO the chance of NATO learning something new pales in comparison to what the Russians can learn about NATO air defense systems and procedures. If the Russians are smart they will sell Turkey a "monkey version" to reduce the chance of NATO learning anything of use. How long before Turkey formally leaves NATO, inspired by dreams of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire (in influence if not in territory) and becoming a great power in Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Middle East? Which doesn't mean we treat Turkey like a foe. But it does mean we don't treat them as an ally.

Britain needs to do whatever it takes to get out of the European Union while it can. If that means granting their prime minister the power to change laws as needed to be compliant with EU regulations for the purpose of negotiating terms of exit, so be it. Parliament can always change those later once Britain is safely out of the EU. Will Britain really refuse to escape the EU on the mistaken notion that for the moment granting a British government the powers that the alien EU has over Britain right now and forever if Brexit fails is really the same? Remember, the EU bureaucrats want to preserve their cushy lifestyles built on phoney baloney jobs and are vulnerable with the loss of British money to prop up the proto-empire's apparatchiki.

Australia intends to upgrade their army with new equipment. While Australian defense of the homeland relies on air power and submarines; fighting somewhere north of Australia at the side of American Marines now deployed to Australia requires a better army. And homeland defense requires a mobile army to defeat anybody that makes it past the shield of the navy and air force to land on the continent, of course.

Persistence pays off. It looks like an article I have tried (off and on) to get published since just prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks will be published next year. I have updated it repeatedly, expanded and shrank it, and ultimately rewrote it completely. I think I still have an early version of it that was irradiated--or something--in the post-attack Anthrax scare. The paper copy was returned to me quite yellowed. I think it was that paper. Might be another. But this one is originally just as old. Trying to verify a source that I apparently threw away with an online version was quite the challenge!

How is it possible to cancel a speech because you believe a violent, totalitarian group will respond to the speech with violence? We will get more of these violent threats if we reward those threats by violent scumbags. Tip to Instapundit.

Unclear on the concept of honoring and helping veterans returning from the war: Nordic edition. This is so far beyond moronic that I have difficulty accepting that sentient beings can really think this is a good idea. If I was an Islamist there, I'd be pretty sure God was on my side, too.

Reason Number N that I will forever remain grateful that President Trump (and even President Obama before him) prevented Hillary Clinton from being president.

Antifa "activists" say violence is necessary. These geniuses do realize that President Obama passed a drone "kill list" to President Trump during the presidential transition, right?

Oh good grief you've got to be kidding me. Why?! What possible value does Manning add? This is the university equivalent of a small dog carried around in a purse. Just a fashion accessory. In a pre-publication update, Harvard has reversed their decision--because the CIA didn't like it. So let's add to the oddity of this whole episode, eh? Wait. Harvard only cancelled the title--not the invitation. I guess the substance is more important than the title. Which is kind of funny considering all the fuss over getting the "correct" pronoun for Manning. Well, perhaps the traitorous Manning can self identify as a "visiting fellow."

Plan Rabbit has failed in Venezuela. Plan Grubs and Beetles is next. Ah, socialism!

A woman's right to choose really doesn't extend beyond the abortion issue, does it?

Truly, Joe Biden is an idiot. Seriously.

Terror attack in London subway Friday. No word as of writing this about who is responsible or the motive. But a betting man would say a jihadi.

Friday morning I saw that North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan again. Unless we go to full land and sea blockade, I don't think economic sanctions will stop North Korea. It would be worth trying before we have to make a shoot/don't shoot decision.

So what mission did Jimmy Carter complete?

Science!  Gaydar is real, apparently.

I eagerly await liberal condemnation of religious-based anti-science policy: "Turkey has announced an overhaul of more than 170 topics in the country's school curriculum, including removing all direct references to evolution from high school biology classes." Who am I kidding? Liberals let that whole patriarchy thing slide. This will escape the outrage machine, too.

"[The] Pentagon accused Russia this week of bombing U.S.-backed forces on the [Euphrates] river's eastern bank." Russia needs to be reminded to stay on their side of the emerging DCZ.

Three more years of this ailment and Trump will take California's electoral votes and the get the popular vote win.