Weekend Data Dump

Lonestarophobia. All the bravery and anger the left should reserve for our beheading, misogynist, homophobic jihadi enemies directed at people who won't kill them. With a special observation that the Houston victims live in areas that voted for Hillary. Note to southern Democrats: Your accent makes you a Deplorable American regardless of your vote. Discuss among yourselves. Tip to Instatpundit.

I never explicitly said there would be no math here.

I would like to point out that firing Director Comey did not stop the FBI investigation into Trump for the simple reason that the FBI--not Comey--was investigating Trump. We know this lack of direct investigation role because Comey apparently drafted his decision not to indict Clinton long before his investigators finished their inquiry. Well, I suppose President Obama is why Comey acted as he did.

Just because they call themselves anti-fascists ("antifa") doesn't mean they aren't violent totalitarian wankers.

Walls (that is, border barriers) work--if defended. I note this only because I tire of the silly claim that the existence of 11-foot ladders nullifies a 10-foot wall.

A reminder that ISIL has not been destroyed in Libya.

I can never be called a "Beltway Clerk," at least. So I've got that going for me.

Hillary Clinton in her new book identifies more Deplorables: "'Some of [Bernie Sanders'] supporters, the so-called Bernie Bros, took to harassing my supporters online. It got ugly and more than a little sexist,' she wrote." It's everybody's fault but Hillary that she lost an election to Donald Freaking Trump, of all people. Clearly, none of us are worthy of her exalted leadership. She should seek refuge in Canada where a more enlightened people might vote for her.

I imagine liberals are truly shocked by this cause and effect. I have never been able to understand why Democrats could simultaneously pose as defenders of the working poor and unemployed while defending unrestricted immigration which reduces wages and jobs for the former groups. Tip to Instapundit.

The latest "we're all doomed" predictions says food will run short in 10 years. Yawn. The end is always nigh because of one thing or another; and that's how a lot of people apparently like to live. But the tiny country of the Netherlands is the second largest food exporter (in value and not volume, mind you. But that is still impressive).

Kenya's supreme court has invalidated as way too corrupt the recent presidential election that John Kerry certified as meeting the exacting standards of the liberal technocrats of the Carter Center. All I know for sure is that the idiot Kerry and the worthless Carter Center should be kept as far away from the new election as possible.

Everybody must get stoned: Using drugs (including alcohol) is nothing new to get troops to walk into Hell yet again. The World War II eastern front witnessed this on both sides. Apparently, the appeal of Paradise isn't enough for ISIL jihadis who are jacked up on a lot of drugs to do battle.

Don't be silly, just tell the young British rape victims of mostly Pakistani gangs to lie back and think of diversity.

Yemen continues to be a war where people fight for ... whatever. I don't pay much attention to Yemen. It is a place where fighting seems more like politics by other means and when deals are cut the fighting dies down--until the deal is broken or seems bad to somebody. Only the ability of jihadis who want to kill us at home from there--and now the Iran connection to the Shia Houthi--make it of interest to America. So we try to contain the collateral damage from spilling over the borders and wait for the deals to be struck. That's my view, anyway.

Immigrants commit fewer crimes than citizens? Well, screening legal immigrants obviously lowers their crime potential because we can reject applicants. Illegals have no such screening. Which is an argument for good screening and stopping those from bypassing that screening, no? Nor do citizens born here get screened. And older immigrants leave out the more crime-prone younger brethren. So the comparison is apples and oranges. Further, statistics aren't very good for illegals given that many liberal regions forbid police from asking those arrested about immigration statistics. So this statistic conceals more than it reveals. You aren't anti-science, are you?

I sometimes think we'd be better off if we'd beaten the communists in our colleges rather than the Soviet communists. Tip to Instapundit.

A tour of Afghanistan. The Afghan Air Force is part of the army; a new railroad to Iran reduces Pakistan's leverage (if only Iran was pro-American rather than nutball, we could use the line of supply); and a reminder that increased American air strikes began in 2016. And more, of course.

A primer on the law of the sea treaty. I don't like it but honestly my knowledge of why has faded with time. I'd have to find and review older posts. Although one problem is that China violates it and we'd be expected to obey it anyway.

An example of why I've found it ridiculous that Democrats have turned the opposition dial to 11 rather than trying to work with a president who is at heart basically a Democrat with a populist kind-of-conservative veneer. Republicans need to start passing needed legislation before Trump forms a working majority with smart Democrats the way Reagan managed that with the now virtually extinct Blue Dog Democrats.

Parts of the "reality-based community" believes religious conservatives are planning to make "The Handmaid's Tale" come true in America. Just when one off-base "birther" conspiracy movement fades away, another one rises.

American Infantry is getting portable direct firepower with an upgraded Carl Gustav recoilless rifle (the M3E1) to replace the Carl Gustav-based one-shot AT-4 that improved on the old LAW.

I've certainly mentioned that I remain grateful that Trump kept Hillary Clinton out of the White House (and every time Hillary emerges from the woods I am reminded of my gratitude). I haven't mentioned lately that I remain grateful that Trump kept Jeb Bush out, too. Not that I have anything against Jeb. He would have been a fine president, I imagine. But I really protest having two dynastic families contesting for control of America like we're some banana republic. It is time to move on. Please tell me that the apparent dullard Chelsea isn't being groomed to run.

I have no problem with a DACA law that keeps people brought to America illegally while minors (who may now be quite old adults) to our country, provided there is no chain-immigration allowed. But you have to admit they are here illegally. You have to admit that the presidential order keeping these so-called "Dreamers" here is itself illegal. And you have to accept that we can and should control entry into our country with the full right to determine who can immigrate here legally, and how many (as Canada does). The idea that agreeing to those things is racist is outrageous. Rule of law is the foundation of preventing racism. I've long believed that anyone can become an American as long as the immigrant wishes to adopt our ideas. The sad fact is that too many immigrants coming in at once hinder that kind of assimilation. Turning the outrage dial to 11 over Trump's order is just nonsense. The original DACA order was illegal and a dead policy walking. Trump didn't kill it--he is allowing it to be made legal. We're at the point where mobs claim you are a racist because you look like one. Here's one, for example. It's mass hysteria.

What was once a joke is now a basis for bullying people for thought crime.

If parents can't get their child to bed early enough for a good night's sleep prior to school now, what makes you think that the child won't stay up later if school start time is pushed an hour later? And what of the kids who stay up late to finish homework? My opinion is that a later start time just makes it tougher for a parent with a job to take a child to school before going to work.

Even CNN has taken pains to explain why the hurricane models can't predict the path of Hurricane Irma just 2-3 days out from potential landfall in Florida. But models that predict our entire climate at the end of the century are totally legit.

My opinion is that any white person who drones on about white privilege should donate all their income above the national median income to the IRS. Because they didn't build that paycheck, apparently.

If there are so many Nazis in America, why fake a hate-crime rather than just wait until the masses of goose-steppers commit one?

Hillary Clinton's new book What Happened expands on all the things Hillary blames for her 2016 loss. Normally, you avoid standing too close to someone with that much bad luck and so many enemies.

The Nancy-Bloviate Non-Aggression Pact. So it is okay for Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to cut a deal with that Putin/Nazi/Klan/Confederate Trump? Okaaay. The rules of decency change so quickly these days. Tip to Instapundit.

Americans losing faith in college degrees? Why? Because crybaby bully snowflakes apparently have way too much time on their hands and still manage to graduate? The vast majority of students study. But the social just worriers give all of them a bad name. These serious students (and alumni) should pressure administrators to control those fools before the actual students have their investment cheapened. Because I assume the administrators don't have the interest or stomach to defend the worth of their product--which they clearly don't value--without heavy prodding.

I was assured that this kind of failure in our election system isn't possible.

The Air Force X-37B mini-shuttle has gone back into orbit. We might not hear of it until it comes down again. Maybe in 2019?

The Argentinian air force and navy are rotting away. The army is neglected, too, but in theory infantry can train with lower levels of money if the leadership is there, and lessen the impact that is felt by the equipment-focused sister services.

Of course the European Union can't be a nation. The people in the actual nations that make up the EU are too diverse to become one nation with one loyalty. But what it can be is a multi-ethnic imperial state with the power to suppress difficult provincial subjects. I think Brussels would be more than happy to be that. It is not in America's interest to support the expansion of EU powers. It should be a free-trade zone and not much else of significance.

President Xi Jinping is making sure that the military leadership is loyal to him, power growing out of the barrel of a gun and all that. Remember that the Chinese Communist Party considers the supremacy of the party rather than the security of the nation to be the top objective that the military should fight for. I have to wonder if these moves make it easier for Xi to decide to control an increasingly uncooperative and potentially hostile North Korea with military force if necessary. (And I see someone else wonders about the same thing.)

I don't want to sound paranoid in light of two recent Navy collisions, but the Chinese are suspected of hacked the steering of a troublesome Chinese billionaire's yacht in the Hudson River that could have resulted in a collision with a merchant ship. It is just a suspicion. And we say this isn't a vulnerability in our Navy. And why would China reveal the capability if they have it rather than save it for war? Of course, if we discovered the vulnerability the Chinese might have figured they should use the capability before they lose it. I just don't know enough to judge this, but it bears watching, I suppose. Tip to Instapundit.

Mexico and Central America apparently dodged a bullet on Friday with an 8.1 earthquake off the Pacific coast that missed the mainland and appears not to have created a tsunami. But Mexico's death toll is climbing as reports come in. Not as much of a dodge as I'd hoped.

Basically, the Southern Poverty Law Center considers anybody to the right of Bernie Sanders to be a Klansman or Nazi. Figuratively and not literally, of course. Although it is on the path to being literally. SPLC has squandered any moral authority it once had as a civil rights organization. Their "hate group" compilation has morphed from "groups that hate" to "groups the SPLC hates." Tip to the Instapundit Borg.

Calling illegal aliens here "undocumented citizens" is so dumb I can't believe it. They are not citizens of America and no documentation can change that. They are citizens of their country of origin and no doubt there is documentation for that. What we do about illegal aliens here is another question altogether from that statement of the bleeding obvious. After so many failures of past attempts to have a deal on this, I'm only certain that enforcement of immigration laws, including the end to sanctuary city nonsense has to come before any form of amnesty. And some form would come. It should. But step one has to take place. A step Democrats used to be fully on board at least in theory, rather than calling that step "racist." Tip to a chain that led back to Instapundit.