Weekend Data Dump

It is too soon to say that Trump's foreign policy has been a triumph. Certainly, it is fine to say that it hasn't been a disaster as critics charged he would create by abandoning long-standing leadership in the world. And it is fair to say that he has put our foreign policy on a sounder foundation for future success. But that is obviously in the future. And given that enemies get a vote, too, as well as plain bad luck, even a superior American foreign policy than we've had doesn't guarantee success. Just saying.

I still find it amusing that liberals say that "if not for the Electoral College, Trump wouldn't have won." Sadly, the Electoral College is the way we elect our president.  That's the contest Trump waged and won. Why wasn't Clinton playing the same game rather than running up her irrelevant popular vote tally in California?

On a related matter, I never argued or believed that people who voted for Obama were stupid or evil. I explicitly said that Republican failure to make the case for McCain or Romney better than Obama made his case was the reason for Obama's victories. So Democrats need to stop trying to persuade voters to side with them by accusing those who didn't back Clinton of being deplorable people.

So the HBO documentary is a comedy? Regrets. She's had a few. But too few to mention. She did it Obama's way. With apologies to Frank Sinatra and a hat tip to Instapundit. I'm guessing that documentary will be popular on the right.

Drill, baby, drill. This was the result of fracking which went around the government's road blocks. Imagine what we could have done if President Obama hadn't stood in the way of conventional drilling. Recall that Obama said this couldn't be done; and note too that Obama lied in ways the media didn't mind, as opposed to Trump's lying which offends them. And let's not even get into the Clintons' way of lying, which taught us about "parsing" language ("it depends on what the meaning of  the word 'is' is").

If a speculated Chinese laser designed to destroy space junk in orbit can't also be used as a weapon to create more space junk, they're doing it wrong.

Why can't America be more like France? Tip to Instapundit.

It disturbs me that some people can't understand that Mark Steyn isn't defending white supremacists but pointing out the obvious fact that while we can't do anything about white supremacists who, as American citizens, have the right to be here despite being completely awful people; we can do something about illegal aliens who can be legally ejected. Any group of odious American citizens--including HuffPost writers--have a superior right to be in America than any illegal alien, no matter what their status in the process of granting sainthood. And this basic fact doesn't dispute that the vast majority of illegal aliens are no doubt far better people than the white supremacists. What part of "You're stuck with them" is unclear? That obvious observation is "going off the rails?" Is Mazza unhappy that the federal government doesn't have the power to eject citizens deemed odious? Add into this comparison that there are a lot of illegal aliens but very few actual white supremacists. Bias really does block the path from ears to brain.

I've noticed that I'm putting a lot more domestic policy rants in the weekend data dump. Yes, they are reactions to what I consider to be unfair portrayals in the media and so are really about media bias in my mind, which I've long commented on. It is now a target-rich environment now. But still, I'm not trying to be an all-purpose blogger so I think I'm going to try to stop. The one-year mark of the Trump presidency is here and I think I've explained enough that I don't like Trump personally, despair that he can pivot to being presidential, and don't trust that he won't stray to his liberal roots; but I'm not worried he is a budding tyrant, am pleased about his appointments and policies, and still pleased that he isn't the corrupt Hillary Clinton; and that I am frustrated by the "turning the dial to 11" full opposition mode of Democrats and our very partisan press that largely considers itself the public relations arm of the Democratic Party. Okay? Perhaps this is a good commentary to end what I feel was my defensive and reactive foray into domestic politics.

I'm not on board the notion that we are actually living in a simulation. Although it is a fascinating thought experiment. It occurred to me that Groundhog Day could be a story not about a time loop but of a simulation where the player keeps saving at the same point to try different strategies and when they don't work, restarts the simulation at the save point. Just a thought.

I never saw any of the fake news that Russians generated through Facebook. Because I rarely used Facebook and never used it as a news source (and finally deleted my account last year). Which leads to the question of why you would even rely on Facebook for your news if you are worried about fake news? Just get off the Hamster wheel, people.

I agree that focus on the southern border wall ignores visa overstays. I've noted before that a "wall" (more accurately border barriers that can include walls)--properly defended because any unguarded barrier can be defeated by determined people (which is why I really hate that 10-foot wall versus 11-foot ladder nonsense)--must be accompanied by efforts to stop people who come in legally but stay longer than they are allowed . So E-verify for employers is a good idea and consistent with an active defense. And while it might very well be more relevant as a solution for job-seeking immigrants, "the wall" is still important for border security (national security and law enforcement) as well as restricting illegal immigration. I'm just not sure why it has to be a choice. And if we find employers can't hire workers even offering higher wages without illegal immigrants to hire? Well, Congress can debate how to allow legal immigration in numbers necessary to provide employees. People who favor unrestricted immigration like to say that America was built by immigrants. I basically agree (and believe as a nation of ideas that anybody can become an American). Isn't being able to control immigration a way to make sure the immigrants who arrive do build something, including building a new life as an American?

A border wall? Islamophobic, racist haters. I've been told that's the explanation, anyway.

I've noticed a major change in my blogging over the last nearly 16 years. I once used to routinely critique in detail foreign policy or defense pieces by analysts I have no respect for: Korb, Friedman, Zakaria, Carpenter, and Krugman, for example. Now I hardly ever bother with them. I think it reflects growing confidence in my own analysis rather than relying on picking apart what I saw as the errors of others. Or maybe I got bored with them. It is quite possible that the urgency of winning the Iraq War was my motive and that after we won on the battlefield my motivation to refute voices arguing for defeat dissipated. Or maybe I'm wrong to have more confidence. I'm biased on that issue, I admit.

Rats might not have been the cause of the spread of the Plague, based on models of various causes compared to death rates. One historian says it is plausible but expresses concern that the study focused on Europe rather than including Asia and Africa. Good grief, was this study a micro-aggression, or something?

This article argues against the West (that is, America) intervening in Yemen. I'm on board with that. I'm fine with backing the Saudi effort and a parallel effort to kill jihadis when we identify them. But as I've said before, Yemen is a clusterfuck of problems that I'd rather avoid directly entering.

It should go without saying that a college professor shouldn't have their own brown shirt street thug gang. Local defense forces can be useful tools when needed to defeat a threat to peace and security, although they must be disbanded when the threat passes lest they become a threat to peace and security. In America there is no need to justify such a risky scheme in the first place. Tip to Instapundit.

It's a relief to have our government understand that North Korea could sell nuclear missile technology to Iran. Yes, that could spark a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race if not a global race in response. I've long worried that any deal with Iran would fail to stop Iran's paths to nuclear weapons outside of Iran. (And that was before Israel destroyed a secret North Korean nuclear reactor under construction in Iran's client Syria.) Indeed, I worry that North Korea could even sell Iran complete nuclear weapons. It's weird. It's almost as if they are part of some, oh I don't know, axis of evil, or something. Understanding the problem is not solving it, but it is a start.

You know, I'm sympathetic to letting DACA people stay in America legally. They were brought here as children illegally but it wasn't their fault. But if they want my support to stay, they should ask me and not demand it like it is their effing right. Tip to Instapundit.

The world discovers that Trump's economic policies aren't so bad after all. I have worries about his protectionist instincts but didn't believe he would really unravel free trade deals. Some will be renegotiated but the basic reality is that trade is good for us and our trading partners. That will not change.

Mali remains in bad shape although thanks to the French it is better than when jihadis controlled the north.

"Green" Europe in order to meet (on paper) their renewable energy mandates now allows their energy companies to burn wood grown and harvested for that purpose rather than wood scraps. Which is worse than even coal as far as the carbon footprint is concerned. But that's okay. On paper they will look good on renewable energy. And remember too that Europe established baselines for measuring their carbon emission goals that include East European inefficient heavy industry that would have been shut down anyway after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact.

A lot of things look bad in regard to government actions during the 2016 campaign, but I don't assume they are as bad as they seem. Heck in high school the Coalition Against Fascism that I set up as a joke organization (those eligible to join the National Honor Society but who refused to join the elitist group) was viewed as an actual subversive group, or something. I used Nazi and Fascist symbols combined with Communist slogans. I put flyers in the NHS case and booby-trapped the computer room to spit out CAF propaganda. It was a joke. Sadly someone cracked the glass on the NHS case and suspicions fell on the CAF. So that brief mention of a FBI "secret society" resistance group in text messages could be humor. It is likely that it is. But if things are as bad as they are described (by admittedly partisan people), rule of law in our own country is endangered if this is not corrected. I go on about rule of law fairly often as an important factor in reducing conflict in other countries. We should prioritize it at home and not assume factions can undermine it to their own advantage without destroying it.

Critics complain that the Taliban are demonized in the movie 12 Strong. The "good war." The war that Iraq distracted us from waging. The war President Obama escalated dramatically, sending American troop levels to 100,000 and driving up casualties. The war what has enemies of cartoon-level black and white levels of evil brutality. But we've always had Americans who admire scum. Hitler had his per-Holocaust admirers as did Mussolini. Stalin had admirers who simply ignored the known gulags. Mao had admirers despite his body count. And there were those even when the ruins of the 9/11 attacks were still smoldering who blamed America for provoking the terror mass murder, asking "why do they hate us?" as if we deserved the rage. Even Putin has his admirers today. That is all shameful. So it is no shock that there are movie reviewers who might think the Taliban were demonized. To Hell with those people. I always knew they would change their mind about the good war.

The argument that Trump will dump the horrible Iran deal because of rampant American "Islamophobia" is so breathtakingly stupid that it boggles the mind that someone with a PhD could espouse it. Iran has institutionalized "Death to America!" as their national motto. America remains friends and allies with virtually every Moslem-majority state on the planet but for revolutionary Iran (and we were allies when the Shah ran Iran recall) and Syria, yet somehow "Islamophobia" is rampant and the reason America could want to ditch the horrible Iran deal sold to the American people with deception. Jesus, some people are just dumb as rocks. Many thousands of Americans died to save Moslems in Iraq and Afghanistan. Note too that the author talks about virtually everything but Iran's behavior. He'd have to, eh? So he can take that Islamophobia charge and shove it up his tenure.

Heads should roll over the MSU criminal sexual conduct scandal. But I too was struck by the judge's horrific notion that prisoner justice should kill the man found guilty and that her narcissistic speech was all about her. I'll add that I worry that the judge's speech and comments will offer defense attorneys ample opportunity to appeal and overturn the conviction or get a mistrial declared.

Britain needs to get out of the European Union with whatever deal they can put together and figure out how to fix problems later once safely out. Pro-Brexit quibbles over details play into the hands of Remainers who would love nothing more than to cause chaos to foment public regret that will be seized upon to slow down and cancel Brexit. There will be no more referenda on the issue if that happens.

The Navy claims to be puzzled about why the Iranians are no longer harassing American warships in the Gulf. Politeness may require that claim. Strategypage notes that many decades ago when the Soviets played "chicken of the sea" with our forces, we quietly told them we'd shoot if that continued. It scaled way back after that. But who knows what happened between Iranian harassment and Iranian non-harassment in August.

America won't chase the Palestinians to beg them to consider a peace deal short of killing every Jew on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Indeed, we are willing to cut the subsidy that long allowed the Palestinians to hold the title of most stupid, self destructive people on the Earth despite a real run for their money by Iraqi Sunni Arabs during the Iraq War. America's ambassador to the UN Haley isn't impressed with Palestinian outrage (Abbas damned our money--your wish is granted?) which probably stems from their sudden and very recent dethroning as queen of the victim prom.

I'm just going to say that if false rumors of an affair with a woman started up that I'd appreciate it if the woman simply denied the rumor rather than saying the rumor is "disgusting." Not that my ego is fragile. Just saying.

After the fruitless search for presidential candidate collusion with dangerous foreigners in 2017, it is nice to finally see credible accusations of actual collusion--with terrorists, no less! I guess somebody didn't hear about the queen of the prom dethroning, eh?

Let them eat Nutella. American liberal disdain for fly-over country "deplorables" is nothing compared to French elite views of their non-"successful people."

I'm skeptical that he's an "ex-communist."

Does Poland really want America's commitment to their defense to be that they are in NATO--like Belgium is--by throwing away their status of an outpost of the free West under threat from Russia?

So these State Department employees claim that they are being punished for being pro-Obama? Really? That's their claim? Aren't they supposed to be nonpartisan servants of whoever is president? Isn't complaining about that bias grounds for dismissal?