Algeria's rulers don't want to risk Islamist rule by allowing democracy, which protesters want. It seems to me there is a middle ground of democracy with Islamist parties banned.
Well that's a damn shame she has been hurt by the rules her side wrote. To be clear, I don't think she is racist. But a lot of people she intensely dislikes have been accused of racism for less. And heck, a governor she probably likes got away with the exact same thing. Tip to Instapundit.
As I've said, the only bipartisanship in Congress is about spending more.
Yes, Iran and the Houthi are the winners of the Saudi-UAE split on Yemen, which has seen UAE-backed faction capture Aden, splintering the government side even as the government side had been slowly defeating the Iran-backed Houthi.
The quick answer to the question is "not nearly enough." Of course, if the Navy won't escort the ships, anything we do to correct the logistics problem will be sent to the bottom of the seas rather quickly.
At some point haven't they made enough money?
Even if China adds patrols in the Persian Gulf region on top of their base in Djibouti to secure their oil imports, I don't think China can run the gauntlet from the Persian Gulf all the way back to Chinese ports.
Iran's foreign minister nutball complained that America is selling too many weapons to Arab states in the Gulf region. Well, given the many astounding technologically advanced wonder weapons Iran has developed, can you blame us? Storming Area 51? If you want to find advanced tech, storm Iran's military research centers! We're just trying to help foes of Iran catch up, eh?
When speaking of China's determination to control Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang, one shouldn't forget Macao. Although I thought it was thoroughly dominated by Peking. But perhaps I'm wrong.
Huh. Good to know.
As if Africa doesn't have enough problems.
Really? Apparently Chris Cuomo is offended on behalf of all morons everywhere. It wasn't enough to be rightly annoyed by someone being rude to him, as an individual. And Heaven help us, but CNN backed Cuomo on the idiocy. "Fredo" is not the same as the "n-word." Maybe the "c-word." Maybe. Sure, the man who called Cuomo "Fredo" was a jerk. But again, hasn't the Left set the rules that one should publicly confront your political opponents? Is it wrong now? Can't we all just get along? Moron Americans aren't a dangerous "other." They are our family. They are our friends. Tolerate them. Help them.
I was listening to Jonah Goldberg on his Remnant podcast. He noted--in relation to the conspiracy theories rising up around the Epstein suicide-that fewer people would believe in conspiracy theories if they were in government at some level and could see how government actually works. Those people are not engaged in some deep conspiracy. Not to insult them. They are like us. My experience in "government" was a couple decades working for the Michigan state legislature. I worked with these people and with people in the executive and judicial branches to a lesser extent. They're just doing their jobs. They have political leanings that affect their work of course. But that's different. Indeed, I always enjoyed the new legislator orientations. Oh, they were a pain in the butt. But I was always impressed about the eagerness of new legislators to come to Lansing and do something good. Whether I agreed with them or not, they mostly wanted to make a difference. That was refreshing. Or maybe I was just there to explain the situation and give them their Illuminati pin. Maybe.
The bubble around Pyongyang that North Korea built to keep out the effects of their idiotic economic policies in breaking down. And the secret police are corrupt. Which has been a fact of life for a while that undermines that pillar of the regime. But North Korea is getting nukes to protect them from an invasion that nobody wants to carry out. Bravo. The long collapse is taking way too long.
China has denied American requests for port visits by a couple Navy ships this month and next month to Hong Kong. To be fair to China, symbols of freedom's top defender are not welcome when people are protesting for freedom in Hong Kong.
Boom! "[Secretary of State Pompeo at the Arctic Council] scorned China's claim to be a near-Arctic state, saying, 'There are only arctic states and non-arctic states. No third category exists, and claiming otherwise entitles China to exactly nothing.'" Yeah, legally it means nothing. But as an early indicator of ultimate ambitions? It means a lot. America should claim to be a "near-Hong Kong state" and see how China likes that. Russia didn't escape attention, either.
Vietnam wants a better navy to resist Chinese claims in the South China Sea. Alone, Vietnam would have little hope of exercising any control of areas they claim--area denial is a different question. But if a lot of countries resist China in the South China Sea that's a contribution to the total. That's where America comes in.
I've mentioned that France is involved in combating jihadis in Mali and the rest of the Sahel. Good for them. We help. But while the original French intervention blunted the jihadi offensive, France is barely holding the line these days. For France as well as America, holding the line is necessary while the Islamic Civil War over who defines Islam is resolved in favor of the normal folks and not the killer jihadis.
Yeah (although I strongly disagree about there being no actual news right now--just gaze around the world), they "really do believe that Trump is a colorful amalgam of Satan, Hitler, the KKK Grand Wizard, and some hysterical television evangelist who wants to kill gays." One result is that they are dividing our country with incessant charges along those lines, amplified by the media who are part of "they." It's insane. Trump is surely a jerk. Period. I long for the days when the unhinged on the right thought Obama was a secret Moslem literally born in Kenya. At least the media ridiculed and dismissed such charges. Now the unhinged on the left think Trump is a secret Nazi figuratively born in Russia. But the media amplifies that charge. And so here we are.
Strategypage looks at the Army navy. I noted my relief at its survival.
The idea that you have to really understand the culture of your enemy to truly win rather than just win on the battlefield is off the mark in my view. Sure, you do want to understand your enemy to come to grips with what is logical for them, rather than mirror-imaging them with our own rationality. But if such empathy is so important, explain the victory over Japan in 1945 and the subsequent events. Did we really understand the Japanese in World War II? Please. We crushed them and then turned them into a democracy. I doubt if we understand the Japanese after more than sixty years of being allies.
The fakiest of fake news. I've long mistrusted the competence of the news to report accurately. Silly me. I thought the news industry wanted to report accurately. Ironically enough, our news people have more in common with the European elites who labeled those poor people yearning to be free "wretched" except that today those people are called "deplorable" by the elites. Can't have those sorts living free, eh? Tip to Instapundit.
The federal government is too big and does too much that states should do. It is clear when a member of the House of Representatives sees herself not as the representative of her formal district but the representative of Progressives wherever they live. But how will her actual constituents who are the only ones who can vote--as opposed to contribute--think of that job description?
With an eye on Iran, the U.S. has increased military aid to Azerbaijan to better control their borders. Israel has also reached out to Azerbiajan with an eye on Iran.
That's not racism. Because reasons. Tip to Instapundit.
Seriously, when did Max Boot go completely nuts (Remember, TDR is not a licensed psychologist. Nor even a psych major. I've just noticed Boot used to be lucid. Now it is The Savage Wars of Trump 24/7)?
My how the flighty have fallen. I'm trying to look away from the sad spectacle. He just can't seem to get out of the Beta testing stage.
There is no way this art program will cure jihadis--but it might be a violation of their Geneva Convention rights. How long before the jihadis dream of waterboarding for some relief? Of course, there is one way to get some enthusiastic participation in the program.
Yeah, I'm suspicious when I hear the media call European parties "far right." It is wrong to assume that only in America is the false "Nazi" charge flung so easily. It is wrong to call decent people "Nazis" just because they disagree with you. It is also wrong because if you call decent people "Nazis," a lot of people will start to think that actual Nazis are just as wrongly tarred with that label. When everyone is a Nazi, nobody is.
So where is all the analysis of dog whistles and common language for these violent attacks?
This is a reason why, when push comes to shove, I favor "bake the cake" laws. I'd rather we settled these things without laws. If a baker doesn't want to make a specific cake for a gay wedding or if a Moslem taxi driver doesn't want a service dog in his cab, accommodation can be made by having another baker eager for the business or another taxi driver who doesn't care about a dog provide the service. But we don't live in that world. So yeah, if we're such a-holes that we won't go to someone else and insist that everybody has to do everything for everybody, make it a law. But why do I think that if the first cake controversy had been about a Moslem baker rather than a Christian baker that the Democrats and Republicans might have reversed positions on the issue?
State-run cradle-to-grave health care has an incentive to hasten the grave part.
"Green" energy's most holy relic. Grant me that this is funny. Somebody better go back an recalculate their
Actual war on women: Inconvenient Edition.
One can't rule out the possibility that Syria shot down an inbound missile.
Yes, you morons, military exercises are by definition a "rehearsal for war." North Korea just hopes that sending their troops out to collect grubs and berries is a rehearsal for war. South Korea may be "impudent" but North Kore is just sad.
If boat people flee Hong Kong when China begins to seriously crush the protests, we should provide refuge for those next victims of communism. Hong Kongers are absolutely on the "right side" of history. But China has the guns, the willingness to use them, and the determination and economic power to stare down foreign critics until they get over their short-term outrage. Unless the protester demands help inspire a revolution in China itself, the protesters are doomed. The poor dumb bastards. My heart is breaking over what will happen.
Her faith in expert planning would almost be cute if such faith didn't lead to concentration camps because forcing people to act as the experts want is often the only way to make their expert projections "work." Tip to Instapundit.
It certainly is a mystery.
The Army Futures Command should not repeat the errors of the Army After Next venture that tried to build science fiction weaponry. Yeah, I was all over the folly of thinking the Future Combat System could build the "wonder tank" (in Military Review, starting on page 28).
If you can get by the idiocy of saying Russia was trying to put a puppet Trump into the White House (rather than trying to harm the hated but presumed winner Clinton, in addition to generally sowing division), the author is right that Russia is effing up by siding with China rather than the West. And the brief discussion of how the West tried to bring post-Soviet Russia into the West with a lot of money and advice refutes the idea that the West was out to destroy post-Soviet Russia.
Ah, the "myth" of American military dominance. Yes, Russia defeated the bulk of the German and Japanese armies in World War II. But the former would not have been possible without American aid and diversion of Germany's air force; and the defeat of the latter was irrelevant. Ultimately, the author says our record of victories is too tarnished to claim dominance in battle. I call BS on that claim.
Well, it would certainly be a nice balance with Alaska, you have to admit. Sadly, the Danes aren't selling. Despite the mockery from the left, it isn't an outlandish idea given the importance of the large island to our defense. Fortunately Denmark is a NATO ally. Tip to Instapundit.
As I understand it, some group has to be responsible for this man's hate. So who would that be? Tip to Instapundit.
No. Way! Tip to Instapundit.
Does Trump lie? Sure. But that doesn't distinguish him from other politicians. The difference is that instead of being reporters our media people are mostly liberal partisans who will provide enough "context" (although to be fair, a number of fact checkers did call the Democratic politicians on their statements as the first link shows) so that nobody on their side actually "lies" when they say something that is not true. Still, when statements aren't so obviously wrong, more are willing to provide the "context" needed to clear Democrats.
Why are there so many shootings in Chicago? I don't know. But what I do know is that the editors who ask should be condemned as racist for using the dog whistle word "thugs." Tip to Instapundit.
China brought out a pro-China rally in Hong Kong to rival the anti-government protests going on. Although the article's description of the protests as "often violent" misrepresents the protests where the violence is almost entirely started by pro-government thugs or the police.
HAHAHA:
Tip to Powerline Blog.
Iraq has ordered the grounding of all aircraft, suggesting anything airborne will be shot down. Odd, that is. ISIL will be glad to have a little peace, I suppose.
Sure, that's nice (tip to Instapundit). But the best way for Marines to protect Navy warships in the Persian Gulf is to take Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf.
