The protests are getting more intense in Hong Kong and aren't going away any time soon, it seems. Michael Yon has moved his videos to YouTube.
Verdict first, trial later.
I really don't think America is heading to civil war--whatever that means. The late 1960s and early 1970s were much worse violence-wise and divisions. What we have is a persistent even split without a consensus forming in the electorate yet. I concede that the previous era of unrest didn't have the Internet to allow the fanatics to organize and bolster fanaticism; and to make the fanatics look like a larger part of the population. I personally don't feel the need to stockpile guns, ammo, and canned goods.
Germany may be tilting toward the Boeing F-18 over the Airbus Eurofighter Typhoon as a replacement for aging Tornado fighters because of the nuclear mission. I will be shocked it that factor wins out in the selection.
I'm
Heh.
Morocco continues to be a quiet bastion of pro-Western stability in the Arab world (albeit on the periphery).
From the "Well, Duh" files. This has been going on well before Obama formalized it with his Pacific "pivot."
So Gandhi is problematic with his flaws? That's fun. Now do Mohammed.
Better dead than rude. I really don't get nuance.
Hearing someone talk about the bad timing of getting an MA in Soviet studies in 1991, just when the Soviet Union disappeared reminded me of my wisdom of refusing to major in Soviet studies. I focused a lot on the Soviet Union but thought majoring in Soviet studies was rather defeatist. It would be saying that the USSR would be around my entire career. So I stuck with an AB (that's BA for you non-Michigan people) in history and political science and an MA in history, in 1986 and 1989. Good call.
I never like Shepard Smith on Fox News. He always seemed obviously left-leaning and his departure affects me not one bit. Oh, and am I the only one not to know he is gay? Not that it matters, of course.
The Marines aren't prepared for great power warfare. The Marines have long been less ready for this kind of conventional combat than the Army because of the Marines' lack of armor.
Algeria never experienced the Arab Spring. Perhaps because the memories of the 1990s jihadi insurgency were too strong to risk unrest. But as the old ruler has faded and departed, the people of Algeria seem to want their spring, belated as it is. I don't say I have hope this effort will work. I'm just saying stuff is happening there. One can hope. Perhaps if it does work, the memories of the jihadis is strong enough to keep Islamists from hijacking the spring as Islamists did in Egypt with ballots, and as Islamists did in Syria with bullets. More here.
I hope this Air Force Base incident is just an over-eager pizza delivery guy, but that's not the way to bet.
This is nothing but theater. No barrier is impassable. I've always said the key is that barriers slow down people and give defenders a chance to mass enough strength to stop the "attackers" before they reach their objective.
Don't be dim, that was Obama's parting gift. Trump may not be able to take that back diplomatically and unwilling to use force. But this path isn't on him.
I'm not going to argue against the idea that our priority should be a modernized and ready military with expansion coming later. But arguments for the former by those on the left side of the aisle, as those in the Brookings Institution are (although I admit that my opinion of O'Hanlon skyrocketed when he was honest enough to recognize that the Iraq surge was working), are tainted by the ease with which lack of modernization and readiness (maintenance and training) can be slighted without people really noticing--as happened in the Obama administration. The British have the same situation--although worse, I'm sure. The army is a particular mess. And they are amongst the best resourced in Europe. Recall I was unhappy about their plans for their army.
Remember, if we're so determined to get to the bottom of foreign involvement in our 2016 election, the Ukraine-Democrat connection to the Russia collusion charade is important to know.
People are stupid. When I was in college we played a dorm-wide assassination game called "killer" which involved campus-wide dart gun shootings. It involved a daisy chain of targets. If you killed your target you got their target. I'm sure it is too problematic for modern college students to handle. I'd call this Peak Stupid but the 2020 presidential election campaign lies ahead of us.
I'm going to again tell people so excited about getting Trump's tax returns released to learn of misdeeds that the IRS already has Trump's tax returns.
Are Morning Joe and Maddow poring over the returns line by line going to detect crimes that escaped the notice of the friggin' IRS? Do they really think the IRS attitude is that as long as taxes were properly paid Trump could sell kitten meat to Elbonian restaurants?
The Australians figured out that China was involved in a "widespread" hacking effort against Australia.
Basically, Booker is saying Biden can't defend himself. That's a sweet attack disguised as Democratic solidarity, you must admit.
I'd take Democratic complaints that Trump is pulling out of northern Syria and abandoning Kurdish allies who helped us fight jihadis if I didn't remember Obama pulling out of all of Iraq in 2011 and abandoning Iraqis who helped us fight jihadis.
Perhaps it isn't appropriate to credit Trump with a continuing drop in most violent crime, including murder. But you certainly can't continue to claim that Trump is encouraging violence.
Remember that even if it is possible to safely deter a nuclear-armed North Korea, North Korea will sell their missile and nuclear technology to other countries. We don't have good options. Note that in that post I didn't even consider that we could negotiate a real deal with North Korea. So far that absence is correct rather than a failure of imagination. I'd like to be wrong.
Next year the United States will exercise a division in Europe that will command three armored brigades. This will be the largest exercise since the Cold War.
I protested the description of our pull out from the Turkish border region as being a pull out from all of Syria. We're talking 50-100 American troops moving out of the border region to other areas in Syria. And I ask again, are we to go to war with Turkey? I want to help the Syrian Kurds. But not by going to war with Turkey, which is still a formal NATO ally.
A reminder that it is perfectly legitimate for the president to ask foreign governments for help in criminal investigations. Democrats are conflating Barr's work with presidential requests for
foreign help against the Biden family. That is questionable--although hardly an impeachable matter. Although the Obama administration set the precedent with its cooperation with foreign governments and the Hillary campaign--sometimes via private individuals as agents--in the fake charge of Trump-Russia collusion. Let's just say that it is mighty convenient for Democrats to be all-in on investigating the 2016 election right up to the moment Mueller exposed the accusations of Trump collusion as hollow. I say keep going to find out what happened in 2016.
The king is not amused. I'm not happy with the Thai royal family. We have a long history of friendship and alliance, but their suppression of democracy is troubling, to say the least. I'm hoping for better days ahead.
Poland and America have forged closer defense ties that enable American reinforcements.
Russia, Ukraine, Syria, and Venezuela.
Russia's opposition groups. I wonder if China and Russia would coordinate crackdowns on Hong Kong and Russian protests to dilute the focus of world protests against either crackdown?
In news sure to annoy China, 7th Fleet staged large exercises in the South China Sea.
The F-117 is only partially retired--with much better jobs than greeting store visitors.
I'd like to help the Syrian Kurds. I'm unwilling to go to war with NATO ally Turkey to do it. So I'm not unsympathetic about Americans complaining that we shouldn't abandon allies who fight with us against jihadis, the way the complaints have rolled in about pulling out 100 troops (max) from the long Syrian Turkish border region east of the Euphrates River. Still, it is just the border region which makes my Turkish war caveat apply. More broadly, we aren't abandoning the Syrian Kurds. But after the outrage of supposedly abandoning our Kurdish allies there, now do Iraq and Afghanistan where our allies with our help kill jihadis every day. Yet somehow those campaigns have gone on long enough to reach their expiration date, I guess.
If Iran and Hezbollah where smart, they'd use the drone and missile capability demonstrated in the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure to hit Israel's Iron Dome anti-rocket batteries prior to initiating a massed rocket barrage on Israeli civilians from Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. Which would definitely trigger an Israeli march to Baalbek.
Could Russian-Western relations be repaired? I hope so. Russia would be wise to ally with the West to jointly confront China which endangers both of us. But Russia is the side that needs to offer the most concessions to repair the damage Russia inflicted on our relations. Throwing Ukraine under the bus to get "better" relations pretty much ensures that relations aren't actually going to get better.
I returned from Las Vegas where I went with a couple friends from college. I lost less money than I was prepared to lose. And we saw three shows. A very funny comedy show and a good comic magician. Plus the Atomic Saloon show was very entertaining. I was pulled into participating. Think Lady and the Tramp. And I waited more than a half hour for my moment to get my (good humored) revenge. Much needed fun. Also, I can never look at hula hoops the same again. OMG Ailona is gorgeous.
I was sitting about five feet from her. Which obviously made an impression.
The Turkish invasion of Kurdish territory in Syria is complicated. The Syrian Kurds have been our allies against ISIL. That was a common interest. But as I've said all along, the Kurds were not about to help us topple Assad which was the logical next step after defeating ISIL. So who bailed on who? Mind you, I think we should help the Syrian Kurds by pressuring Turkey to stop their attacks. Erdogan is not our friend even though Turkey is a NATO member. Going to war with Turkey over the Kurds is never going to happen. And I don't hold it against the Kurds that they don't want to die to overthrow Assad when someone else will take over if the effort succeeds, and the Kurds will retreat to their homeland anyway. We have decisions to make about Syria. Also, if ISIL fighters have escaped because of Turkish attacks, we should hunt them down and kill them.
So Iran says this sort of thing should be punished? Huh.
China is losing the trade war that America has organized.
I've mentioned that moron professors for stupid notions that they speak out loud have debased the value of the PhD, right?
Electric cars in large enough numbers may be ecological disaster (they'll run on coal and other fossil fuels, essentially); Oh, and solar power has a pollution problem, too. And in related news, Extinction Rebellion is an upper middle class nutcase suicide cult.
If there really isn't a college loan "crisis" the massive Democratic spending proposals are just legal bribes to young voters, no? Tip to Instapundit.
The media war on Trump. The media is spreading the darkness. Via Instapundit.
