Turkey is trying to kill two birds with one jihadi stone: "Syrian militants affiliated with groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are currently being sent by Turkey to fight on behalf of the U.N.-supported government in Libya, according to two Libyan militia leaders and a Syrian war monitor." As the Assad-Russian offensive continues to crush rebel strongholds in Idlib province over Turkish protests, the last thing Turkey wants are large numbers of defeated Turkish-supported jihadis running loose to cause problems inside Turkey. So sending the jihadis to Libya where they can kill Turkish enemies there while dying or at least going wild far from Turkey is a good idea for Turkey. China did this on a larger scale in the Korean War where they sent former KMT soldiers captured in the civil war to fight and die against the UN forces.
The Navy has been pretty active in conducting Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea in defiance of Chinese territorial claims. But while the article says the FONOPs have not made China back down from their claims, that isn't the purpose. The purpose is to not validate those claims by failing to protest them. We achieve that. Also, contrary to the article many (all?) of the so-called FONOPs in the Obama administration were not true FONOPs.
Strategypage discusses the China virus factory and the China "virus" that scares OBOR pathway states.
Adam Schiff is batsh*t crazy: "Trump could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange for support in the next election, or decide to move to Mar-A-Lago permanently and leave Jared Kushner to run the country, delegating to him the decision whether they go to war." The coronoavirus is nothing compared to Trump Hysteria Condition.
Haha:
Seriously, I've written as much.
Again, for all that Democrats accuse Republicans of being racist, Joy Reid accuses Buttigieg of appealing to Democratic voters with a racist "dog whistle."
The people who think they can run America like a well-oiled machine if only they had the power to control it can't run a single day of vote-counting in a place they've been doing this every four years. This should not just be a lesson for Democratic control, of course. Nobody has the information and wisdom to control our economy as every experiment in socialism shows, whether in benign versions in Scandinavia or in dictatorships like the USSR or Venezuela.
Looking back at liberal privilege a year ago in Virginia.
Strategypage discusses virus generation in China and the democracy virus in this podcast. Interestingly enough they mention the issue of the potential for multiple countries within the empire's current borders if things go really bad for the CCP.
In theory I have no problem with Iraqis government officials wanting to tackle ISIL without American help. In the long run, that's great. But if it makes their counter-terrorism efforts fail or allow Iran to gain or even just retain influence, that's bad. I bet the Iraqi military wants American support since they are at the pointy end of the stick.
Well, this was at least a slight step up the sanity ladder from this:
Romney voted for one of the two impeachment charges. I'm sure he had a binder full of reasons. May he enjoy his rehabilitation in the media that called him a homophobic, Russia-obsessed 1 percenter Nazi in 2012. If he truly voted to convict based on his sense of what is right, I'll grant him a point for courage. But deduct for bad judgment on concluding what is right and wrong under the circumstances. I would not figuratively exile him, because I assume he hasn't gone full "woke" and should be a generally reliable conservative vote in the Senate. Never punish the 80% ally at the risk of getting a 100% foe.
So rather than being a serious effort to remove Trump the impeachment was servicing the fan base of the Democrats? That makes sense. Just think of CNN and MSNBC as competing political porn channels with Democrats as their excited customer base. But despite the stroking Pelosi gave her caucus before the Senate vote, what will the frustrated fans do without a happy ending? Tips to Instapundit.
Afghanistan.
Reading this story about the Iowa caucus imbroglio makes me think of people trying to take control of the bridge of the Democratic ship to sail it to the White House. And then you realize that the ship is the RMS Titanic that hit an iceberg called Shadow whose visible tip concealed the 90% "disorganization and stupidity" that sank the event--and they should be heading for the too-few life boats rather than the bridge.
I really should laugh at this given how their fans sneer at doubters. Tip to Instapundit.
Another university researcher nabbed for working for China. And more keep showing up. Those Confucius Institutes on American university campuses are clearly espionage hubs and not "just" propaganda arms of the Chinese Communist Party. They should be shut down ASAP and their records seized to figure out the extent of their penetration of our society.
Sure, there are a lot of reasons why Iran and America could clash in Iraq. But the basic reason is that the battle with Iran over Iraq is essentially Phase IX of the Iraq War begun in 2003. I'm hoping this phase is less military than past phases. A stable Iraq with rule of law is our best weapon. But mostly I'm hoping we win this phase. If you lose the last phase you've forfeited the prior wins.
No word if Li Wenliang was hospitalized in the same facility that Jeffrey Epstein was held. He doesn't seem to be in the demographic (34 years old) for high mortality, does he? Or maybe he's alive. Hope so. Tips to Instapundit. No, sadly he is dead and the Chinese Communist Party is working hard to eliminate the tributes to his courage in defying--and ending--the cover up. Communists are evil bastards. Treat them accordingly.
The Yemen clusterf*ck continues. Although just because the place is totally screwed no matter which way you look at it, nobody should want Iran positioned along the Strait of Mandeb where it could interdict oil traffic or our sea line of communication to the Middle East.
So who set up Afghanistan's vote-counting system? The Iowa Democratic Party?
Give the Kenyans the college credit and give them immigration priority.
Hahahahahaha! Some influential people are experiencing some consequences for illegal immigration sanctuary policies. Are they having fun yet?
Sad but funny. I've bitterly complained about that deficit and debt issue.
Iran's effort to create a "Shia crescent" across the Middle East is faltering--now that America is opposing rather than enabling mullah-run Iran's ambitions. The article describes efforts supported by America to rein in and tame the pro-Iran militias that I've mentioned in the past. That still needs to be done, of course. And until then we should highlight Iran's desire to fight its enemies to the last dead non-Iranian Moslem.
American pilots flying over enemy territory will have a compact version of the M-4, the GAU-5A, in case they need to hold off enemies until rescue arrives.
The Indian defense budget is dropping after accounting for inflation. Modernization or replacement of aging weapons is reduced to continue to pay personnel salaries and pensions. China smiles. The article mentions that India still hasn't contracted to replace 126 fighters despite deciding to do that nearly a decade ago. I called that the most important Indian defense decision of the last decade. Oh well, what's the rush, eh? What level of disaster will India have to face to fix their dysfunctional weapons procurement industry?
I was never happy that Israel cooperated with China by sharing Lavi technology that was based on the F-16. Israel abandoned the Lavi and China's version the J-10 just can't attract foreign sales.
Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Sistani called on the government to protect Iraqi protesters--which certainly implies that the government or Iranian actors acting in the government's name shouldn't actively murder protesters. I'm amazed Sistani is still alive and just about prayed for his survival during the Iraq War. But if we are in Phase IX the war is still going on.
Trump fired Gordon Sondland from his position as the ambassador to the European Union. I don't think we should have any ambassador to the EU. Do we have an ambassador to the Model United Nations? We should appoint an ambassador to the EU the minute after France gives up its United Nations Security Council permanent member seat to the EU.
Lesbos is a pilot program for the idea that there is no limit to how many illegal immigrants can arrive in Europe without causing problems. What a shock that people turn to radicals for solutions when the "responsible" politicians refuse to do anything to help.
Oh good, another war on wasteful and fraudulent government spending. I'm sure this time for sure it will work. If Trump can succeed, good for him. But bloating the government budget first as he and every other president has done just makes the basic problem bigger.
When Chris Matthews is a voice of cautionary reason--and the loonies bolster his point. I am repulsed by Sanders and his "socialist" ilk, because as I noted in this data dump: Bernie Sanders was having a drunken ball with his Soviet friends in the Soviet Union on June 13, 1988. By contrast, I was having a very bad day on 13 JUN 88--but at least I had grenades to look forward to the next day." Tip to Instapundit.
I listened to and sometimes watched the State of the Union address. It was a good speech and used guests to illustrate themes just as past presidents have done. I have no idea what the heck the media was talking about in their fearful descriptions of the speech. I do not want whatever they're taking, that's for sure. And as I've said, I'd give good money if a president would simply send the SOTU in written form to be read--or ripped up in Pelosi's case--out of the spotlight. But in our video age that isn't going to happen because it is a lot of free advertising for the president and even some for those present but in opposition.
Members of Congress are calling for investigations into the practice of the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece China Daily of putting hundreds of pieces of propaganda into the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times disguised to resemble news articles. The Chinese paid for those pieces, of course. Fake news meddling in our daily life and not just during election season, eh?
The Army wants to build up Army pre-positioned stock (APS) sites in INDOPACOM. Obviously I'm in favor of that.
I've been very worried about the ALIS logistics software that supports all users of the F-35 given what an enemy could learn if it is hacked. Allies weren't too comfortable with this, either. We worried enough to build a replacement called ODIN. Is this just ALIS with a tougher name or does it work?
Hahaha!
The Ukraine crisis where the West battles with Russia. My view is that Russia's 2014 invasion and occupation of portions of Ukraine plus the fact that pro-Russian Ukrainians in Russian-occupied Ukraine can no longer vote in Ukraine has made Ukraine the front line of the West and not just the no-man's land point of contact between Russia and the West. A big battle in that struggle is reducing Ukrainian corruption so that Ukraine isn't just a weaker version of corrupt Russia. Do that and Ukraine can fully take it's place in the West. That first article also notes that Russian control of Crimea allows Russia to project power south. I did say that Russia's direct intervention in Syria in 2015 was not just enabled by Crimean bases, but actually provided a justification for the war with Ukraine.
Russian special forces get an all-weather Mi-8 helicopter.
I'm going to try to draft a succinct description of the whole Russiagate-to-impeachment saga as I see it: "The Obama administration had some reason to believe Russia colluded with the Trump campaign to influence our 2016 election. Rather than investigating and rapidly dismissing such notions as without basis, the administration went too far into its own illegal collusion to find evidence it was true, believing Clinton would win and nothing would come out. After Trump won, the Democrats involved in that illegal collusion of their own have been conducting a spoiling offensive--including impeachment--to remove Trump from office. Or to at least stall and taint Trump administration actions against the Obama administration people for their overly enthusiastic investigation to make that illegal collusion "old news" unworthy of punishment at this late date." There you go.
