Weekend Data Dump

Happy New Year! May it be happy and prosperous for you and your loved ones. I have nothing to complain about.

Illegal aliens are disproportionately represented among foreigners in federal prisons. Open border advocates have conflated the good record of legal immigrants--who are by definition screened to weed out those with criminal records--with all immigrants to argue illegal immigrants are law-abiding. That is incorrect even if you ignore illegally crossing the border as part of their criminal record. And how many criminal foreigners are deported rather than being housed, which would make the problem seem smaller?

Idiot: useful, one ea. Green presidential candidate Jill Stein regularly appeared on Russian propaganda network RT. As I've said, Greens are just socialists (or communists) who recycle.

The idea that America is hypocritical for defending our sovereign rights in defense of our Israel embassy decision while denying that right to others in the UN General Assembly by threatening consequences for voting against America, as former Obama spokesman Kirby argued on TV, is nonsense. Those countries clearly had the right to vote against us. We didn't deprive them of that right. We just said that there could be consequences for exercising that right to screw us after all the help we've given. When Kirby switched to a suit from a uniform, he went off the rails, as far as I can tell.

And thanks to Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Togo, Honduras, and Guatemala, who voted with us (in addition to Israel, of course) in the Jerusalem resolution. Luckily they are small countries so rewards will be relatively inexpensive. Let's see how this incident transforms the State Department into a soft-power element of national power rather than a dispenser of money with no strings that make sure the money benefits America.

Here's your dose of despair for the last day of the year: Escaping the effects of Europe by carrying out Brexit to escape the European Union is only the first step to curing Britain. After that Britain has to escape what Britain has become.  Remember, Venezuela is not and never was in the European Union. Yet they mucked up an oil-wet dream. Thatcher managed to escape that path. Can Britain's future rulers do the same?

The Defense of Holy Legacy is kicking into high gear. President Obama's national security policies were poor overall, indicating a flexibility provided to all of America's enemies even if we only have it recorded being offered to Russia's Putin.

Is the sale of sniper rifles and related equipment to Ukraine no big deal? The State Department says we've sold light weapons before. But Russia is upset and Ukraine thanked us. Is it possible that past sales were on the order of pistols or other weapons not at the scale of military items?

The United States will spend money to repair and build air fields in Iceland, Norway, and Eastern Europe. Which will be handy in case America and NATO has to move reinforcements east and, in the case of Iceland and Norway, contain the Russian navy from operating freely in the North Atlantic and Baltic Sea.

Russia will have bases in Syria to project power into the eastern Mediterranean and into the Middle East for decades to come. No surprise there. Assuming Assad wins the multi-war there. Assad with his Iranian allies continues to wage war there against rebels: "The army and the Shi'ite forces advanced east and south of the Sunni-rebel held bastion of Beit Jin backed by some of the heaviest aerial bombing and heavy artillery shelling since a major assault began over two months ago to seize the area, rebels said." The war goes on without the Islamic State.

Remember this when California politicians demonstrate their moral superiority by droning on about global warming, pardoning illegal alien criminals, or "resisting" the Trumptatorship. Tip to Hot Mic.

Arab states are finally tired of Palestinians naming themselves queen of the prom to monopolize their own agenda. Tip to Instapundit.

I recently heard General Keane say that the war against ISIL took far longer than it needed to. That's nice to hear because I didn't understand why it was taking so long to defeat what was essentially a small light infantry army. I initially figured victory over ISIL in 2015 on the Iraq front with Syria following the next year (and that delay was for the purpose of building up non-ISIL rebels to continue the war against Assad once ISIL was crushed. Remember, from the ISIL conquest of Mosul in June 2014 to the offensive that eliminated ISIL's territorial control in Iraq took 42 months. From Pearl Harbor to the defeat of Nazi Germany (and that included building an American army, air force, and navy capable of landing in France)--the priority front in World War II--took 41 months.

India's procurement bureaucracy continues to be China's best air superiority weapon.

Both South Korea and Japan are thinking of using the V/STOL version of the F-35 on their large-deck helicopter carriers. These are small carriers--and right now each has but one--with a limited air capacity. But it is better than nothing. And operating under the umbrella of shore-based air will help in a fight around the region from Taiwan to South Korea to keep sea lines of communication open in the face of Chinese threats. China won't like this. They'll like nuclear-armed Japan and South Korea even less if China doesn't help solve the North Korea problem. Japan already has a good fleet--if short-ranged. And South Korea has a blue water ambition as their economy grows and North Korea's conventional military rots away.

Russia will expand restrictions on American aircraft conducting "open skies" recon flights over Russia. This is in retaliation for America blocking Russian flights over Alaska and Hawaii. Which was done in retaliation for Russia stopping American flights over Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. As a rule, I like having these--as long as they are reciprocal--in order to reduce fear of the unknown. In the face of the unknown, worst-case scenarios of the other side's capabilities will guide your own programs. Of course, I don't know if the flights are as important as they once were. I suspect they are still important, but don't know. Also, until North Korea is resolved, I like blocking Russia from viewing Alaska and Hawaii which will be key staging areas if we fight North Korea.

Occupational licensing is often about protecting a guild's profits for their members rather than protecting the health and safety of consumers. But the guilds donate to politicians who enact such rules and enforce them. So they won't easily be repealed. Tip to Instapundit.

More on the clusterfuck with a UN seat: Yemen, including added American pressure on ISIL and al Qaeda there.

Military readiness goes away when nobody is looking. You can polish a non-functioning plane and photograph it on the tarmac, recall, after the towing vehicle is out of the frame. This isn't only a French problem. I suspect America over the last year has been focused on fixing this. I hope our foes have worse problems in this area.

American troops won't save Venezuelans from their corrupt and brutal socialist rulers, but the American dollar is doing its best to help those people cope. Funny that while Maduro wants to create a virtual currency that he already has one--the "bolivar" that nobody uses in the physical world. As if Venezuelans don't have enough problems. Heh.

Huh. That's amazing. And consider the wildly contrasting media environments that each had in their first year, with one being demonized and the other granted God-status.

This country has nuclear weapons. What could possibly go wrong?

Putin promises Assad that Russia will defend Syria's "sovereignty." It is unclear to me whether that is just a justification for retaining bases in Syria, a promise of continued support in the west against rebels, or a promise of further support to defend Syria's pre-multi-war authority throughout the country.

Two actresses mocked those who question the climate change consensus by saying denying climate change is like denying gravity. But that isn't accurate. Of course the climate changes. It always has. And of course humans contribute CO2 to the atmosphere that is a factor in warming. The controversy is over how much humanity affects the climate; whether it is bad if the climate warms; and if so, how and when to respond. And given that we are two decades into a "pause" in global warming notwithstanding increased human inputs on to the warming side of the scale, the very first portion of the consensus is surely in doubt. If humanity's contribution is decisive, why have natural factors overwhelmed human effects to lead to the plateau the planet has experienced? So isn't the actress comparison more accurate if they compared belief in man-caused climate change to a belief in man-caused gravity? Huh. That is pretty funny, after all.

As the year ends, I still don't like President Trump as a person. But for all his flaws (including his long-time liberal status that has been restrained by the weight of Republican staff) I remain grateful he kept the fully corrupt Hillary Clinton out of office (and I should throw a thanks to President Obama for doing that, too). And his policies have for the most part been fine and well within political boundaries. I always rejected the hysteria that leftists and many opponents of Trump generated about tyranny, Russian "collusion," disasters, and horrors rising up in his wake.  So this is a welcome development as we prepare to enter 2018. Dial it back from "11," people. Life is pretty darned good, and 2017 was a good year despite your panic attacks brought on by Trump Hysteria Condition. And my personal life would still be pretty good if Hillary had won. If you doubt that I'm sincere, please review my non-panic on this blog during the Obama era. One can oppose someone without believing they are pure evil. Really. Try it. Your mental health will improve.

A new soldier, Emmanuel Mensah--not even fully trained and home for the holidays after basic training before going on to his MOS school--died trying to bring a fifth survivor out of a burning Bronx building. Because standing between civilians and danger is what an American soldier does. May PFC Mensah rest in peace. Tip to Instapundit.

No. Way! #MeToo$ Tip to Instapundit.

Dave Barry's always hilarious year in review.

And one last comment for 2017. Millennials will be fine. I tire of the constant condemnation of them. Remember that younger generations can seem like an alien tribe. But that involves forgetting what you were like at the same age. Stop condemning them for not having the knowledge and experience (and for settling down with age!) you have at your current age.  They'll be fine despite the out-sized footprint of the a-holes who fill social media with their demented ravings (way different than dignified rants, if I do say so myself). Recall that after 9/11 people wondered how those youngsters would handle war against jihadis. They stepped up, volunteering. I stopped worrying about younger generations years ago after I read complaints by the World War I veterans that the youngsters who we now call "the greatest generation" couldn't possibly have the guts and hardiness to fight Hitler. Seriously people, your lawn will be just fine.