The silence is deafening.
I've mentioned that a lot of PhDs seem like partisan credentialed idiots. Is it because they have become the priesthood of the left? Which would make colleges state-supported religious schools. I had 12 years of Catholic education. Yet I was educated and not indoctrinated. It's a funny world.
The Navy is apparently aiming for a radical restructuring in light of the almost assured lack of funding to reach 355 battle fleet ships and subs. Will unmanned vessels bring us the numbers and capabilities? Maybe. Unless the unmanned ships see their costs escalate as much as the LCS which gave us expensive and weak ships. I guess the Navy gave up on trying to build conventional ships faster and under budget.
Robotic mine sweepers go after robotic attackers (that's basically what mines are). How long before this is a land warfare feature?
The "failures" of Trump. On trade with China creating a democratic China, one can only say that it hasn't worked yet. Clearly, if we are on a path to a democratic China based on a large middle class demanding political rights, before we get there we have to deal with a Chinese Communist Party with far more power as a result of economic growth we fostered. While we must deal with that power now before it does harm to America, our regional allies, and the world; don't forget that we really have introduced a Trojan Horse of a large middle class through the Great Wall of China. That may yet doom the CCP. Of course, if the Chinese are truly as patient and far-sighted as so many Westerners (wrongly) claim, the CCP will understand that further economic progress will lead to a large upper class that will call itself progressive and demand socialism.
Wait, I will comment on one more thing from the above article. The Trump "trade war." It is no such thing. As I noted nearly two years ago in a data dump about the American policy in the post-World War II era when the rest of the world was wrecked, "we made trade rules that benefited our allies in order to get them on their feet and make them better able to be allies capable of defending themselves and buying our stuff (if World War II ended the Depression, the worry was that the end of war would bring back the Depression). That imbalance made sense economically and strategically. It is fully fair to re-examine the trade rules long after our war-ravaged allies have recovered from World War II. So wait before you panic." Trade wars are bad. Renegotiating trade terms is normal. And it is normal for those who benefit from the existing rules to scream "trade war!" to retain them. I suppose we could get a trade war. But it would require other countries deciding that a trade war is better than un-tilting the trade terms that benefit them.
If America ever gets a full-blown dictatorship, it will not be from a loud orange man on a horse. It will arrive as a package of socialist poverty and oppression wrapped with pretty ribbons and bows. ACK! really is an idiot. But she may be a useful idiot for some.
I'm not happy that Thailand's military has wrecked their democracy. Thailand is an ally and has been so for a long time. But freedom there should not be forgotten.
Trump re-upped our support for the non-UN peacekeeping force in the Sinai that we established to reassure Israel and Egypt that their peace treaty would hold. Good. I think the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) is useful. My worry about the force's existence spans parties. But it is a dangerous neighborhood.
Afghanistan.
One less "American" able to help the thug regime North Korea survive.
We may be at Peak California.
Modern times are actually pretty good. Which is not news to me. Why some people are determined to be miserable has long been a mystery to me. Tip to Instapundit.
Let me note that when I refer to Chinese Uighur "concentration" camps I am not referring to Nazi "death" camps intended to commit mass murder. The Chinese have something closer to classic concentration camps designed to concentrate people to better control (or protect, so they can be used for good) them and deny their ability to support (voluntarily or coerced) actual insurgents. Add in communist urges to brainwash and it might be better to call them "reeducation" camps. They are still awful. But understand the distinction.
Representative Schiff sure is unwilling to let that "whistleblower" Eric Ciaramella blow his whistle after he fulfilled his designated role for Schiff. Tip to Instapundit.
A press conference on Space Force. I missed it because for some reason it went to my spam folder. Apparently some bases will be renamed for Space Force. May I suggest James T. Kirk Space Force Base as the first one.
Hong Kong protesters look prepared to carry their campaign into the new year.
Good if true.
Mowing the jihadi grass in Somalia.
The Army is updating training and standards to make our troops better marksmen. That's good, but what happens when the rifles the troops are issued get them 90% of the way there? Especially if enemies have such weapons?
I fear that Peak Stupid will last far longer on our college campuses even if we finally see it peak in the real world society. Tip to Instapundit.
How the Soviets bugged a typewriter in our Moscow embassy. How much easier do we make it by carrying around super computers with cameras and microphones? And I'm not even getting into Secretary of State Clinton setting up a private server in a bathroom to bypass whatever security we can manage to achieve these days.
China was involved in that attempted smuggling of biological samples out of America? No. Way! I know I mentioned it earlier.
In a warning over Iran's proxy attack on our Baghdad embassy, Senator Graham raised the possibility of attacking Iran's oil refineries (this is nothing new). Well, Iran did set the standard that attacking oil facilities is okay.
Why do Trump supporters "still" back him, a comedian asks? That's an odd question to ask given that Trump opponents have never given him a chance. Shouldn't the question be why Democrats who predicted Putin-Trump collusion, tyranny, concentration camps, and economic ruin "still" oppose Trump given that their feverish predictions did not come true? But a man gives answering the comedian's question a try (tip to Instapundit) and I could have written his preface to answering that question: "I didn’t vote for Trump the last time around. I had no electoral love for Hillary Clinton, but I feared Trump’s Republican persona was an elaborate con. Plus, he had no chance of actually, you know, winning." Heck, a year and a half ago I did write that letter. The author has seen Trump be better on policy than he feared he might be and has seen the Democrats get so much worse than Trump or even past Democrats. To me the question isn't why we still support Trump. The question is why anybody could choose today's unhinged, turn-it-to-11 Resistance Democrats over a Trump whose policies are generally good. Do I like Trump's "tone?" No. Nor do I like all his policies. But Democrats have been so much worse in tone and in their relentless attacks on Trump that they have never given him a chance to dial back his tone. Funny enough, I really do think that the relentless Democratic attacks on Trump had a role in making him act more like a Republican on policy than he would have otherwise done on his own. Democrats may have been key in making Trump a candidate I can vote for this year. So ... yeah.
India's indigenous tank sucks and their imported Russian tanks using 40% local content kind of suck because of the Indian-made parts. Naturally India has signed a contract for more Russian tanks--but this time India will make 80% of the parts. China smiles at India's corrupt and dysfunctional defense industry.
It saddens me that people otherwise pro-victory argue that Iraq is too much of a mess to try to win. Their position reminds me of Democrats who said the Afghanistan was the "good" war we should fight instead of Iraq. But when Obama ordered surges into Afghanistan those Democrats said it was "too late" to win after all that so-called distraction and mistakes. We should want a stable Iraq that kills jihadis, rejects Iran, and stands as an example in the Arab world of democracy as an alternative to mullah rule or autocracy. We have a start on all three of those things. Work the problem people. We already did the heavy lifting and now we only need to expend little relative to our past effort to defend what we've achieved. Our enemies fight very hard to win. That alone should tell us that the objective is important.
There is a theory that Russia is stoking baseless health worries about 5G technology to slow it down in the West so Russia can catch up. Well, Russia weaponized Democrats in 2016 to cause division in America. Why wouldn't they try again with our health loons, too? And Russia tried to kill the F-35 before it could be built with attacks on the technology and cost, so this is hardly far-fetched. Russia is a firehose of falsehood, after all.
I will repeat what I've long said: I think as a general rule United States Senators--of either party--should not be president. Their background leads them to Kerry-esque statements that they were "for a bill before they were against it (or vice versa)" while thinking that is a brilliantly nuanced thing to say. Although a 15-year-old mayor still not shaving daily is not the proper alternative to gas bag senatorial thinking.
Sometimes I run across things while looking for other things. Just a reminder that our strategy in Syria made it predictable that Assad would survive. Not that we wouldn't have problems with my focus. But we'd have different problems and one wouldn't be enabling the survival of a murderous thug ruler.
Keep in mind that false patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
JSTARS will be upgraded and kept in Air Force service.
While we in America like to think our fracking is the cause of stable energy prices, don't forget that our alliance with Saudi Arabia contributes. Saudi Arabia could drive up prices by cutting oil production but does not in order to put pressure on the common enemy of America and Saudi Arabia--Iran. And it harms Putin and Maduro, too, of course. With a side effect of pushing Saudi Arabia to reform to wean itself off of dependence on oil revenue. Which in the long run will reduce jihadi resources.
The answer to their headline question is "no." I guess people like that author are shocked that Iran is trying to win. The mistaken notion that Iranian resistance automatically means America is losing is why these people liked the awful 2015 Iran nuclear deal so much. By giving in to Iran and giving them less reason to fight us, these people could think they achieved peace (and victory). I resent the time I lost just reading that dreck.
Note to Fox News Channel. No matter how much I like one of your shows, when I see Marie Harf is on it I will almost always turn off that show rather than hearing that lying ex-State Department spokeswoman offer her view on anything. Sadly the link of the video of what torqued me off that day died in that post. But I made the effort to find it, added it to that post, re-watched it, and rekindled my absolute contempt for that woman. One expects a certain level of evasion from spokespeople. She seems unique in her ability, which visibly annoyed even media people who were likely Obama fans. You're welcome. My contempt for her developed before I even knew her actual name.
My Christmas decorations always go up the day after Thanksgiving. Because Santa comes to town in the parade. And they live on borrowed time after January 1st. By the 2nd this year, they passed their "use by" date.
That's neat--and impressive. I am a map geek. But what with computers and printers this is more art than practical. Tip to Instapundit.
I see someone is going after the vital Anally Probed demographic.
The votes are out there.Britain's Ajax seems more like a more heavily armored M-113 and its many variants than something Stryker-like. But perhaps that's just me.
President Obama's overly enthusiastic outreach to the Islamist world really didn't work. Tip to Instapundit.
I was going to read this article on Russian pipeline diplomacy but when the author compared Trump's popularity unfavorably to Putin's--as if the opinions of Americans free to express their view can be compared to Putin's autocracy--where opponents are arrested or killed with poison gas--is outrageous. I leave the link in case you are a more forgiving person than I am after reading that nonsense.
I'm always a little hesitant about Zero Hedge (tip to Instapundit), but the basics seem accurate of China carving out "colonies" across Africa. China can buy their way in. But I suspect they'll have to fight the locals to remain.
In the next Democratic debate, I'd pay good money to see a moderator ask the candidates to raise their hand if they understand that the 2020 presidential election will be decided under Electoral College rules. Because that basic fact seemed to escape Democrats in 2016, leading to pointless whining about the race rules since then.
Democrats are saying that bombing raids in Iraq are the president's way of distracting from impeachment? Wrong president. Although that was pre-blog, I did think the air campaign was justified by the foreign policy alone even if Clinton had some parallel personal interest. But hey, I'm apparently a knuckle-dragger lacking nuance. Also, the claim about Trump is ridiculous given that Pelosi hasn't sent the impeachment charges to the Senate. Are Democrats saying that as long as that hangs over Trump's head he can't do anything they find problematic? That's pretty convenient.
To be fair, the 2003 DOD climate study (tip to Instapundit) didn't actually "predict" catastrophe by 2020--it was a thought experiment--"an abrupt climate change scenario"--on what the world would look like to a DOD defending America if such an outcome took place. Sadly, it was reported as a DOD prediction. It seems like a lot of the "science" we read about is actually something more mundane (and scientific) twisted into a catastrophe (for political purposes). Nor should it be twisted as proof that climate change science is off. This was not a predictive study proven wrong. Not that I think the climate change activists are correct in their fantasy doomsday predictions or in their fantasy solutions. But fair is fair.
The left always says that anti-Semitism is descending on white (male) Americans. But it seems to be landing ... elsewhere. So never mind. Move along. Nothing to see. Tip to Instapundit.
The V-22 Osprey is a good aircraft. But a bit temperamental when exposed to the elements. And difficult to fly.
What it looks like at Iran's Arab-manned front line with Israel. Iran is willing to fight its enemies to the last Arab.
Good Lord people, calm the ef down. About the only scenario I envision that would require restarting the draft is a general war with China that involves American preparations to invade and conquer large portions of China. Which isn't likely.
I don't want to hear one Goddamned word from Ben Rhodes on the confrontation with Iran.
Credentialed partisan fools. Or to be charitable, as the author is, partisan groupthink victims.
You'd think that Russia's recent recognition of Chinese espionage and technology theft could get Moscow to agree with America that China sucks. We're natural allies but so far Russia fears China's power too much to break with Peking.
Democrats wonder if Trump thought through the ramifications of killing the Iranian terror master Soleimani. Did Democrats consider the ramifications of letting him live all these years? To be fair, Bush 43 left him alone. But Democrats would have impeached Bush for killing Soleimani, if you recall the hysteria of the time. Some people like to think only actions have consequences. Non-actions have consequences, too.
The current Iraqi prime minister paid his respects to the thug terrorist Soleimani. Keep in mind he is on his way out, being viewed by angry Iraqis as an Iranian puppet.
What is wrong with these panty-flinging Soleimani fanboys (and girls)? Disgusting. They really seem to be honored to be our enemies' victims.
I just noticed the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer. I see that in the century since the last movie the Amazons didn't learn anything from their horrible kill ratio with their own superbly trained cavalry and archers up against German navy conscripts armed with bolt action rifles. After that experience and all that time, the Amazons should be kitted out like Delta Force.
For Democrats claiming our strikes in Iraq against Iranian targets are illegal, they are wrong. We are in Iraq legally and are legally able to protect our forces with lethal force. As for the War Powers Act, Obama killed that if you recall. And that 2011 war clearly demonstrated that the international community is no barrier to going to war, with Obama jumping from an Arab League no-fly zone request, to a UN resolution authorizing bombing regime forces to protect civilians, to--without any Congressional approval--being the rebel air force to affect regime change and help them kill Khadaffi, which Clinton laughed about.
Iran helped al Qaeda before and after 9/11 and likely aided future 9/11 hijackers. This is not the same as saying that Iran helped al Qaeda commit the 9/11 terror attacks. There is no evidence in our possession that supports that. Although given the ties and Iran's terror record it is a possibility. Tip to Instapundit.
Another aspect of my decision to vote for Trump in 2020 is that I don't follow the writers who are full-blown Trump cheerleaders. I have never had political heroes--not even Reagan. I have politicians I support. I would surely be revolted by that level of idolatry--or whatever you want to call it. Instead, I see far more of the anti-Trump hysteria that revolts me. So again, good job, lefties. You made yourself far worse than Trump fanboys (and girls).
The United States forces defending our embassy in Baghdad reacted relatively gently to pro-Iran actors overrunning non-critical parts of the embassy and outer grounds--using just tear gas. But we warned that any actual assault on what we are defending would be a "buzzsaw" for the attackers. Our restraint is a nice point of comparison to the Iraqi government's violent and deadly suppression of anti-Iran protests this last fall. As is the ease of pro-Iran elements entering the Green Zone to attack our embassy in contrast to the lethal force used against anti-Iran protesters.
A little tour of how the Russians are really just bastards. Starting with the GRU's Unit 29155.
American and Kenyan forces repelled an al Shabab attack on a Kenyan base in Kenya. The base is used for operations against al Shabab jihadis in Somalia. There is no word on American or Kenyan casualties. I have a suspicious mind. Iran is busy across the Red Sea in supporting Houthi rebels. If I had to bet money I'd say the Iranians convinced/paid al Shabab to attack our forces to retaliate for losing Soleimani.
There was a terrorist knife attack near Paris.
Our killing of Soleimani will drive a wedge between America and European states? If Europe decides to stand with an Iranian murdering terrorist rather than with America, I don't want to hear another damn word about how Trump is destroying trans-Atlantic relations.
Are people really worried that the Soleimani strike is the start of world war three? I heard the bizarre news that on Twitter #worldwarthree (or some variation, I heard the report) is trending? Why? Iran is not capable of waging a world war. Is there an assumption that China or Russia will join Iran if it comes to an America-Iran war? People, calm down. For God's sake, I've already heard the word "quagmire" thrown out. The troops we sent to the region or alerted are simply to protect our diplomatic and military facilities out there. But then again, this is a Twitter (and so media) panic so may have no relation to the real world. Let's hope people aren't that panicky.
Trump's threat to Iran that included targets important to Iran's culture is wrong. Worse than that, it is counter-productive. He should be focused on the Revolutionary Guards. Unless he meant things important to the mullah "culture." If so, he should have been more clear.
Denmark has arrested about 20 Islamist terror suspects.
The bright side is that De Blasio's confused pizza obsession demonstrated that Democratic voters are not totally brain dead by their complete and decisive rejection of his bid to be president. Sadly, New York City now needs to take a spear for the team by letting him back into the mayor's office. Of course, they did that to themselves. Enjoy.
Sweden is facing more and more bomb attacks used by criminals. Oddly absent in the story is the role of Moslem immigrants introducing this new intra-criminal gang tactic. Once the knowledge of and experience with that tactic spreads, it will be used for political/jihadi purposes. Best to face the problem squarely now while it is "just" a criminal problem.
China and Hong Kong protesters continue to battle on the streets.
Iran says it will no longer abide by the 2015 nuclear deal. I'm glad it is formal now. Maybe the Europeans will stop trying to "save" the deal. The deal was not meant to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. The deal was meant to shield Iran from American or Israeli attack while the West helped Iran develop "peaceful" nuclear technology, from Iran's point of view. And from Obama's point of view that decade of the deal would allow Iran to stop being a jihadi nutball state and become a responsible and successful regional power. Obama's hopes were a fantasy. The fantasy is over. Good.
Who cares if Soleimani's presence in Iraq indicated an "imminent" threat? He is an ongoing threat and that standard for justifying action is just--and forgive me for using a technical term--stupid.
Sorry, but the left is all about group identify and group guilt, and you reached strike three by being white, male, and old. If you have money that's four you're already canceled, I think. God help you if you are cis-male and heterosexual. So either turn yourself in to Twitter Police now or renounce your liberal identity (that the radicals have moved well beyond into oppressive leftism) and join the people who reject the nonsense. Tip to Instapundit.
CSI: Star Wars. Tip to Instapundit.
I don't think Iran really offered an $80 million reward for the killing of our president. I think the cheapskates said "if" every Iranian chipped in a buck each that they'd pass that money along to the murderer. So it's like a nutball GoFundMe account. I do think this is pretty much a contribution to the president's reelection campaign. Will the Democratic presidential candidates and members of Congress condemn Iran's threat?
