Weekend Data Dump

Going to the AHA convention in 1991 told me the history profession was hopelessly left wing--so this blindness is not shocking.

In Congo, fear of the former thug ruler leads people to accept his hand-picked successor in the election the former thug ruler rigged while he was the thug ruler. The actual winner isn't happy about the rigging or acceptance. And of course, there are a lot of problems there that rank higher than a rigged election. So there's that. It is interesting that democracy is so important that thug rulers try to simulate the voting part of it even when it obviously doesn't exist (because of the lack of necessary rule of law along with voting). If democracy is such an alien, Western-imposed notion, why do thug states pretend to have it?

Self-impoverishing Venezuela is still run by thugs, and now a criminal enterprise with a UN seat. It still amazes me that liberals here would praise the socialist model there, oblivious that the so-called success was merely the momentum of pre-socialist success not yet wrecked by socialist policies. The momentum ran out. For some reason my thoughts turn to California.

American company commanders are over-burdened with work. And yeah, PowerPoint is still a problem. In that sense going to war must seem like a relief.

The Army tactical network is a necessary backbone for my reachback for the squad idea in Infantry magazine.

I know I've mentioned this before--but I'll be darned if I can find it--but China places propaganda in the Washington Post and New York Times designed to look like news articles rather than the paid propaganda it is. Fake news of the worst kind.

The age of popular revolts. Add in America, Britain, Lebanon, and France. Although only Lebanon and France have actual demonstrations rather than managing the revolt with votes.

Germany says that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany will only be delayed a matter of months by our sanctions before completion. So Germany is only delayed a bit in letting Russia freeze Ukraine in the winter without harming Germany. Thanks Germany!

For me, after the Betsy Ross shoe cancellation, the company is dead to me.

Russia steps on a rake this year. I'm not impressed with Russia.

Hong Kong protesters stood up for the Uighurs. Why can the NBA still defend working with Chinese concentration camp guards?

Russia is casting a giant energy shadow with their planned pipeline to China. It will have too little volume to give leverage to Russia over China. And Russia should be glad it doesn't. If it was that important to China, China would have reason to develop plans to seize the source of that energy should Russia cut China off. And Russia seems unlikely to make money on this project.

Damn those Nigerians for intervening in Iraq and the Middle East in general! Hey, I'm told that is what motivates jihadis to kill. So just go with it, eh?

The new defense appropriations act limits the Navy to 35 LCS, preferring a new frigate given the problems in getting the LCS to the fleet. The LCS made no sense for its original purpose and in an age of great power competition where sea control is the mission, the expensive, vulnerable, and poorly armed LCS is harder to justify.

Well, America and South Korea sent a little Christmas present to North Korea, as it turns out.

Well, I'll present this as another take on the so-called Afghanistan Papers (my post here), but I don't understand how you can argue the Afghanistan War was and is unwinnable. We took a Taliban state that hosted jihadis who attacked us on 9/11 at home, and turned it into an allied country that kills jihadis every day. Our troop strength and direct ground combat role is now low. We won that war. Now we have to help local allied Afghans win their war against the Taliban and other jihadis. Just what do people expect a victory to look like?

Putin will never be our friend. I agree. And I wouldn't trust him if he pretended like he wants to be our friend. I've long worried that we have to wait for Putin's cohort to age and pass on power. Remember, it would be nice if Russia was our friend, but Russia needs us more than we need them. So there is no need to offer concessions to get friendship.

I'm just saying, if Burkino Faso hadn't taken such a forward role in invading Saddam Hussein's Iraq and generally interfering in the Middle East, jihadis would have no need to slaughter so many women. Because that's "why they hate us" I'm told so often.

It would be helpful if the Chinese Communist Party lost the mandate of Heaven, as this poster promises. Brave woman. That is Resistance.

Turkey's budding friendship with Russia faces friction with the Russian-backed Syrian offensive against Turkish-backed forces in Idlib province.

Syria threatens American forces helping Syrian Kurds control eastern oil fields. Like I've said, we have to decide what our objectives are in Syria. We decided to strike a king without killing him. Which is usually a mistake.

I've been unsure of why Pelosi is holding off sending the impeachment articles to the Senate. It is possible that Pelosi is trying to cover a gap in the vague Constitutional provisions to see if she can preclude the Senate from dismissing the charges without receiving them from the House. That is, by doing something that raises the question of whether Trump has been impeached she may be throwing out a red herring to the real question of whether the Senate needs the House to transmit anything at all to conduct the trial or otherwise deal with it. That's not my original thought, but it is interesting and explains things without also having to wonder if Pelosi is--contrary to her record--a political idiot.

China sent a new carrier through the Taiwan Strait in an effort to intimidate Taiwan, which dares to be a free republic despite Chinese claims to control them. I hope the Taiwanese see this as an opportunity to track the carrier in case they want to fire a barrage of missiles at the ship. China doesn't think it is immune to A2/AD, does it?

Iraq's president is unwilling to name an Iranian proxy to be prime minister. Good. He does not have the power to reject the nomination, but he can resign rather than carry out his job.

North Korea is working hard to collect more taxes from the hated elite hundredaires and thousandaires. Note that female-short China is now encouraging North Korean women to escape North Korea by offering a haven in China as an alternative to being sent back to North Korea (those sweet-talking devils!). I think that is a very troubling development for the North Korean regime.

France is rather divided these days (and that's on top of their Islamist problem). Perhaps being a province in the proto-imperial EU isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Getting what you voted for on the left and right. On the minimum wage issue, remember that this is big on the left not because families need to be supported by a minimum wage earner--that's rare--but because Democrat-supporting unions will base contracts on getting wages at some multiple of the minimum wage. Of course, it would be good to know how much of the latter news is actually from the former news. Although it still wouldn't undercut the basic logic of the former that only the surviving employees of the job losses get the benefits.

I've mentioned that liberals should be outraged over liberal news coverage for getting their hopes up so often about Trump's imminent doom as much as conservatives are upset about the fake news angle of being wrong in a left-wing way so often. So why shouldn't liberals be as interested as much as conservatives in knowing why the New York Times is wrong so often? Of course, as a business model it all makes sense. As I've noted before, a fiction book I read in the 1970s had priceless words of wisdom from a French diplomat who was sending back nonsense to his superiors in Paris. He explained to the American who questioned him on reinforcing their wrong theories, "Nobody gets credit for being right when your boss is wrong. It is much better to be wrong in the same manner as your boss." The Times will survive if it is wrong in the same way as its readers are wrong. And perhaps that's the way the subscriber bosses want it, I suppose.

Seriously, why aren't liberals the most outraged people over Rachel Maddow's obsessive Steele dossier coverage that got progressive hopes up so much over so little?

Wait, isn't calling for a resignation obstruction of justice, or something? Tip to Instapundit.

It is sad that California has such big problems with homelessness, illegal aliens, unaffordable housing, and income inequality. You'd think having very progressive government for decades would have cured that with the overflowing concern their officials display. Can't their big brains tax and regulate themselves into Heaven on Earth? Or maybe it is cause and effect. But end that talk of administering the state for them. They voted for their policies and they should get to enjoy them until they decide otherwise. Still, can't blame the earthquakes on them.

The Taliban kidnapped a convoy of peace activists from the People's Peace Movement of Afghanistan. Somehow it fills me with hope that the West isn't the only place to have dopey peace activists who think reality doesn't apply to people who really, really care.  Although honestly, the name just screams "communist" so they just may be clever revolutionaries.

It's nice to know you can cure someone who is "woke." But the fatality rate is still pretty high. We can do better, people.

Yes, buh bye murderous idiots. Still, the flame is alive in the Democratic primary contest, with Warren, ACK! (in a supporting role only, thank God), and Bernie waving the blood-red flag proudly.

Interesting negative correlation between regions with higher gun suicides and higher gun homicides. Gun availability isn't the key factor in deaths, apparently. So a policy designed (if we can design something that works without bad unintended consequences) for one problem isn't necessarily a solution for the other. Tip to Instapundit.

And she stole Hillary's charisma, too. Tip to Instapundit.

The Navy wants to cut production of Burke destroyers by 5 ships? What would the money go for? More but smaller ships to have a high-low mix? Subs? Aircraft? Or does the Navy want to spend the money elsewhere and just assumes that Congress will appropriate more money to the Navy to keep those 5 ships in the pipeline?

Ukraine will order more Javelin anti-tank systems.

Just bask in the male privilege.

Not to pick on one Yale historian, but his take on impeachment shows that many with higher degrees are just credentialed partisan idiots.

Frankly, despite being Moslems, the 76 Somalis killed by that truck bomb no doubt deserved jihadi rage. Perhaps Somalia's invasion of Iraq in 2003 or other insults or attacks on Islam justified the jihadi hatred and murderous rage. I'm told that's how it works. All I know is that we can't blame the jihadis. I think that's "Islamophobic," or something.

Well that was a high pucker-factor wake up, for sure.

Again, under the rules set by Democrats, isn't Biden's assertion obstruction of justice?

American warships have patrolled the Black Sea despite a claim that Trump ordered them stopped. Well, Democrats should be happy given their sudden conversion to hating all things Russian. Although I expect their unexpected self-identification to end just as soon as Trump leaves office.

REFORGER is reborn, the Army takes over a major exercise in Africa, and a Stryker battalion will deploy by air to Chile for exercises.

Crime isn't down in New York City. What happened is that a lot of crimes have been defined as not being crimes. They call that "reform." As I say, always check the "definitions" section. Tip to Instapundit.

It is good that the Air Force shot down a drone with a fairly cheap guided rocket, but the drone wasn't a small drone that can be used in swarm attacks by even low-level enemies. I still think Army air defense drones are the way to go for that problem.

A reminder that Iran is an empire. Yeah, I've been saying that. But the Western Left only gets worked up by former Western overseas empires and not existing land empires like Iran, China, or Russia (with the EU aiming for that status). I protest. The idea that the Iraq War enabled Iran to dominate Iraq is incomplete. Iran already had influence. Defeating Saddam gave America far more room to improve our influence in Iraq than his defeat gave Iran. But we have to fight for that influence and fight to reduce Iran's influence. Every victory is the entry ticket to the next problem.

Apparently there aren't as many of those "jobs Americans won't do" as we've been told.

My children use Amazon Prime with one-day delivery potential. When I was a child ordering something by mail it took 6-8 weeks to deliver.

France continues to experience unrest.

Trump has been getting the views of enlisted personnel on the Afghanistan campaign. Which is a good perspective. I was an enlisted man. But enlisted personnel are at ground zero of the clusterfuck that any military operation seems like while it is going on. So as long as Trump remembers that the enlisted people are providing one perspective rather than the truth that the officers presumably hide, it's fine.

Huh, the Navy wants a new dry dock in Pearl Harbor--which would be the first built since 1943. The existing ones have been maintained, of course.

The United States is thinking about reducing our small military commitment in West Africa. Be careful. Yes, this is an economy of force front. We have bigger problems elsewhere in Europe and Asia. But AFRICOM is trying to prevent potential big problems from developing. And keeping the French actively killing jihadis there is a good mission to keep. We have a small footprint to do that. Don't risk bigger problems in a shortsighted move to deploy relatively small forces to higher priority fronts.

And at year end, after coming up with nothing on their explosive and insane accusation that Trump entered office as Putin's stooge, House Democrats have had to settle for an impeachment on the amazing charge that Trump has not gone along with their series of explosive and insane accusations--and that he'll do it again(!) if left in office. They give even moonbats a bad name.

Fake "regretful" Trump voter in Pennsylvania and subject of two New York Times articles. I've heard a similar commercial in Michigan. Tip to Instapundit.

Leftist privilege: You can be as racist as you want if the alternative is a conservative. Funny how that works.

British troops helped move endangered rhinos from South Africa to Malawi. That's different.

Nearly 500 Iraqis have been killed since October for the crime of protesting their government and its tilt toward Iran. Although the reporter manages to slam America as the source of the protests for "imposing" their form of democracy on Iraq after destroying the evil and dangerous Saddam regime.

Speaking of racist governors using gun control to regain leftist support: "Virginia Governor Northam Increases Corrections Budget In Anticipation Of Jailing Gun Owners[.]" There is a West Virginia, you know. It split from Virginia when the state tried to secede from the country. Maybe there should be another split to get South Virginia because the main state is trying to secede from the 2nd Amendment. Again, tip to Instapundit.

Japan will send a destroyer to Middle East Waters. 

The Chinese can't afford to build, fuel, or man as many aircraft carriers as they thought they could.

Ukraine exchanged prisoners with the Russian hand puppets in Russian-occupied Donbas. This seems more about making a conflict palatable over time than it is about winning. Ukraine is much weaker than Russia, so it is at least understandable. What is Russia's excuse?

When I started college, there were more professors than administrators. I could afford to work my way through the University of Michigan on mostly minimum wage jobs. And even as a 17-year old freshman, I was smart enough to turn down almost all financial aid that was in the form of loans. I think I graduated with about $2,500 in debt. Since then, administrators have multiplied like bunnies, adding greatly to the costs that tuition has to pay for; and students take on too much debt for BS degrees because working your way through college isn't possible for a lot more schools. To use a technical term, this is "stupid." And forgiving "loans" or pretending that college can be "free" is a stupid response.

I sincerely doubt Russia has an actual working hypersonic missile in their arsenal. They try to cast a giant shadow to conceal their basic weakness. So they are good at lying.

Stunning news from the mysterious land of cause and effect.