Mowing the jihad grass in Somalia and jihadi slave raids.
America responded late to the Wuhan Flu, as did Europe. But arguing that Trump should have acted earlier contrary to what everyone--including the experts and loyal opposition--was saying about the absence of an active and evident threat is nonsense. Can you really tell me that early decisive domestic action would not have been treated as proving Trump is a dictator at heart and was simply exploiting a non-threat? My Lord, if he had imposed early draconian measures that worked, you just know that we'd be hip-deep in impeachment 2.0 right now. And no, I don't blame Fauci for downplaying the epidemic early. The information that China and its hand puppet WHO were reporting bolstered the view that it was contained to China. Speaking of the BS foundation for impeachment 1.0. Tips to Instapundit.
Slovakia finally ditches Soviet anti-tank missiles and adopts Israel's Spike ATGM.
I appreciate the instinct to attack our Iranian enemies. But I'd rather have the offensive inside Iraq be made by Iraqis and done at the legal and law enforcement method as much as possible. Nor do I wish to take over the Saudi war against the Houthis in Yemen, take over the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon when Israel should take the lead, or start a war against the pro-Iran militias in Syria which would lift a burden that Turkey's Erdogan has taken on.
The Philippines really needs to reinforce and expand their hold on islands--perhaps using information operations as the main effort--that China illegally claims and which China is applying relentless pressure on the Philippines to get an opportunity to take them.
I suppose virtual NATO meetings could make alliance decisions faster. But face-to-face meetings are still very useful and the fact that they are preferred in general may not just be inertia. Also, virtual meetings are easier for Russia to hack and potentially interfere with them.
Better raped than rude. To be fair, the people making the insane policy can continue to feel virtuous even as the proles pay the price of that luxury belief. Tip to Instapundit.
North Korea, poverty, oppression, and the Wuhan Flu. The jewel, of northeast Asia, no doubt.
Interesting. But it is self-reporting. And for many on the left, reporting a mental health issue may be more about claiming victim status than anything else, I imagine. Still, it's nice to see the BS science going after the left instead of the right for once. Tip to Instapundit.
The Tripoli-based government in Tripoli launched a counterattack west of the capital defeating forces loyal to Haftar of the eastern government. I wonder if Turkish forces or mercenaries were involved? I assume so. We'll see if those gains are retained.
The Chinese sent their carrier to nose around Taiwan and Japan. That works in peacetime. Our anti-ship missiles deter the Chinese from getting close to them just as Chinese missiles deter America from sending carriers close to China.
Answer: the same place European defenses were before the Wuhan Flu--reliant on America.
Well that would be just astoundingly weird if true.
California seems to have done a good job of handling the Wuhan Flu. But this crime policy in San Francisco just seems to be begging for blowback. Tip to Instapundit.
So a Wuhan lab escape isn't so far-fetched, after all? This doesn't mean it is a bio-weapon, which analysis says it is not. Perhaps China's propaganda effort to blame America was meant to get people to defiantly push back by pointing to the wet markets in order to shield the laboratory. More here.
I'm just going to guess this effort at faith-based immunity to the Wuhan Flu is going to backfire badly on the Iranian mullah rulers.
You can't say the effing commie bastards in Peking didn't get a good dose of their own medicine in this treatment of their faux outrage over their Wuhan Flu pandemic. Tip to Instapundit.
The only thing that would be odd about this brief seizure of a tanker near the Strait of Hormuz would be if Iran wasn't involved.
China is struggling against an outbreak of Wuhan Flu on the Russian border. One wonders where else the epidemic is popping up that is outside the easy view of foreigners?
Democracy dies in
Signal for everyone and everywhere all of the time. Well, assuming no enemy action, I suppose. Natural disasters at least don't fight back like that. Such an addition is good to build a network--if secured--because it is needed if we are to reach back for the squad as I proposed in Infantry magazine in the proposed new Army infantry fighting vehicle.
Another faked campus hate crime. This isn't proof that racism doesn't exist. But it is clearly an indication that the demand for racist campus incidents far exceeds the supply of racists. And it is why I yawn when I read about one. At this point I assume that in months a much quieter debunking of the claim will take place. And amusingly, Newsweek redacted the racist and ethnic slurs but not B*TCHES. I assume feminists will attack this editorial decision in 3 ... 2... 1 ... Tip to Instapundit.
Just like I refuse to jump on Trump for not acting sooner given the facts known at the time (and given the state of mind of the loyal opposition), I am not going to jump on Whitmer for Michigan's response. Sure, some aspects of the governor are likely overboard. But that is a matter of fine tuning, I think. And note that Metro Airport was not affected by Trump's early travel restriction for China. That hurt. There is no mention of brisk traffic with bordering Canada as a contributor to the sudden and big spread here. Which seems odd, eh?
The White House identified "Anonymous" who now awaits a posting to Saudi Arabia. Presumably because our relations with Russia aren't good enough to send her to monitor oil issues in Siberia.
So what? Americans die routinely to keep the economy going in non-epidemic times. Right now we're just haggling over the price. And factoring in the death toll of a wrecked economy.
Howard Zinn was a partisan hack with undeserved influence. But based on my experience with the American Historical Association, it is not shocking that historians haven't trashed the man's eminently trashable trash history of America. Somebody has finally trashed it. But it is too late, for the damage was done. And besides, the anti-American Left has the 1619 Project to replace Zinn.
I expect our FBI--our counter-intelligence outfit--to be able to resist being useful idiots for our enemies. Sadly, the FBI's role enabled a much broader Russian recruitment of useful idiots here. Tell me that anybody in Russia imagined what their amateurish low-budget effort would achieve.
The Army recognized writing (Ravnitzky) on our dependence of China for rare earth elements, which are vital for our defense industry. I've addressed that rare earths issue sporadically over a long period of time. It is getting more attention given the overall interest in our supply chains in general relying on China.
I have to believe this is satire. Because if I think it isn't for just a moment, my despair over the state of higher education in America will consume my soul. It would make great satire, you must admit.
Like all other information coming out of China, China's defense spending numbers can't be trusted. Remember, everything there supports the Chinese Communist Party monopoly of power. The methodology seems sound and puts China's defense effort not far beyond America's. And America spends to deploy and sustain forces globally in contrast to China's more China-centric deployment.
This author thinks Xi is securely in power in China but has enemies looking for weakness. Is that really being "securely" in power?
Contrary to this author, I think the nation-state will be just fine after the Wuhan Flu passes. I'll pay attention to notions the nation-state is taking second place to some other basis when the United Nations--which legitimizes the nation-state as the basic organizing basis of governance--is renamed the United Entities.
April 15th in Ann Arbor:
I have no problem suspending American funding of WHO for their role in turning an epidemic in China into a pandemic while we review their actions. And I don't buy the idea that they are vital to undo the damage they helped inflict. And if they think they are so vital, maybe they will quickly stop being an arm of the Chinese Communist Party and agree to change how they do business to get America funding them again. This is as good a time as any to deeply probe the body and then break it up and sell it for parts. And if WHO values being a tool of the CCP more than world health? Well, at least China can do is finance their pet organization without our help. If this decision was prompted by the dread "conservative campaign" that is only because only the conservative groups want to do the right thing on this issue. Opponents should be the ones explaining why they want to be the CCP's yapping lap dog.
Within this post they mention that Ethiopia will begin filling their not-quite-completed dam on the Nile River on July 1st despite lack of an agreement with Egypt and Sudan on how fast the reservoir will be filled. Egypt wants a 7-year fill period to avoid water shortages. Ethiopia says 4 is fine.
Japan has put their first submarine with lithium-ion batteries into service. Japan thinks they've overcome problems with the superior performing technology. If this works other subs could have their batteries upgraded and short-range coastal subs could be all-battery with no other source of power.
I don't know what to make of Trump's assertion that he--and not the states--has the final say in opening up the economy. Perhaps in some ways there is a way that the federal government can assert emergency powers (but I don't know what that is and don't pretend to be knowledgeable about that), but my first reaction was that of course this is a state responsibility. Much like my defense of state powers in imposing restrictions and lockdowns under federalism, I think states are the place for that decision. And after outrage in the media the states said they'd do it, and announced plans in regional groupings, and the president quickly backed down, it seems. Did Trump bait them into doing what he wanted them to do? Did he back down? Very odd.
And again, why I don't trust our media. They might be that stupid to make such mistakes. But the pattern indicates they feel reporting news is beneath them when they can make the news.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard small boats harassed American warships in international waters in the north Arabian Sea. Hopefully we practiced targeting a swarm of boats as long as the Iranians wanted to intrude into our exercise.
The Germans arrested four ISIL thugs planning to attack an American Air Force base. Much thanks.
Well, I certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility that the Chinese Communist Party decided that they didn't want to endure the Wuhan Flu epidemic alone while foes escaped it. I mean, I speculated along similar lines. All I'll say is that the option isn't beneath the CCP. And if they were planning to do this, how different would it be than their policy of secrecy and denial to the world?
I think this praise for Germany's meticulous and orderly handling of the Wuhan Flu rests on stereotypes of grim German efficiency rather than the actual statistics compared to other countries. And I honestly don't think we have uniform standards of deaths due to the epidemic or even infections for valid comparison by country. Not that Germany seems to be doing poorly. But hold off on the heel-clicking and saluting. But have no doubt I have my fingers crossed that the Germans can ease out of lockdown successfully. Will their reputation shape reporting of this, too?
Speaker Pelosi really has no perspective on how important it is for most Americans to reopen our economy as soon as humanly possible, does she? I've noted that I'm riding this out just fine--if not in style. Hey, at least I haven't had to break into the cans of Spam. But at least I have the awareness that most people aren't in my situation. And I have the foresight to recognize that my situation won't be fine for long if the country's situation doesn't get dramatically better sooner rather than later.
The Russians really are d*ckheads. #WhyRussiaCan'tHaveNiceThings
I don't remember if I knew this, but Marines will quarantine new recruits for 14 days before training. The Army, too, from this briefing. I assume all the services will do that.
Wait, this isn't actually funny.
Norway looks at their new defense needs and plans.
While I think the captain of Theodore Roosevelt had a good motive for sending a letter up the chain of command regarding the Wuhan Flu outbreak on his ship, the details seem inappropriate. I'm not so sure that possibly putting him back in the mix of command officers at sea is a good idea. But my knowledge is obviously very limited. And experience. Still, it is possible that reinstatement is simply for his formal record which will be followed by his retirement. Even with reinstatement I find it hard to believe that his path for promotion is dead.
As the possibility of justice nears for the overly ... enthusiastic ... investigation of non-existent Russian-Trump collusion, note that early I saw the Russian effort as trying to discredit American democracy and undermining the assumed victor Clinton. I did not suspect Russia would create an unhinged Resistance to continue the campaign of disruption. But That's surely the biggest effect. And surely Putin didn't expect to turn the Democrats into Russia-hating fanatics.
Nationalism and xenophobia in response to the Wuhan Flu. But it's okay because it is taking place in reasonably enlightened China. So never mind.
Seriously, what the heck happened to Jennifer Rubin? The blinding hatred she displays should embarrass her, but apparently doesn't. I would never argue that Trump should be free from criticism on the Wuhan Flu response or in general. But she makes it easy for Trump loyalists to ignore valid criticism by pointing to idiocy like Rubin peddled there.
They have to be effing kidding, right?
Is anybody really surprised that we have something like this in place to make sure the federal government can can continue to operate if things go even more bat shit crazy?
South Korea has cut their 2020 defense budget by 2% to cope with the Wuhan Flu's effects. Will any of our foes be forced to do this?
The Army continues to try to cope with the Wuhan Flu, including testing and vaccine research. That's always been a thing the Army does. I still don't know what I was injected with in my buttocks when there was an epidemic on the permanent station side of my basic training station in 1988. Here's the Army briefing on actions to combat the Wuhan Flu.
Serbia is trying to decide whether China or Russia should be their best friend? The stupidity! It burns! #WhySerbiaCan'tHaveNiceThings
It's April 17th and the snow is coming down and covering the ground around here.
When you figure in lower costs within China and account for the value of Chinese theft of Western military technology, China's military spending is darned close to America's. We still have the edge from decades of superior spending but that edge will erode over the next couple decades. And America's military is deployed globally. And a good amount of our spending is focused just on moving and sustaining combat forces far from our shores. Remember, we need allies to face China in these circumstances.
I suppose I should preserve for posterity my pandemic chic look:
The Philippines continues to battle Abu Sayyaf jihadis.
The Chinese are bullying the Malaysians in the South China Sea as if any law at all allows China to claim the region as their own. America's position has long been that the claimants can negotiate what they want but that China should not simply take what the want; and that the South China Sea is an international waterway.
Don't forget, the Chinese Communist Party lied and people died. Globally. There certainly should be a reckoning for those rulers. The Chinese are only now starting to adjust their death count closer to reality--which is about four months too late to do any good. But the Chinese communists still don't want anybody asking questions or even looking around--they seem like such nice people, eh? I doubt the CCP will ever tell the real truth about their death count.
Well, I'm limited to what I have. Does that count?
I'm just going to note that the short-lived faux scandal fanned by media and partisan hyperventilating that states had too few ventilators and that Trump was a war criminal for failing to provide all that the states asked for has ended with no state apparently ever short of ventilators to deal with their surges of Wuhan Flu patients.
California appears to want to exploit the Wuhan Flu to open up a more socialist economy. Well, the Wuhan Flu at least gave them a head start on reaching the poverty that socialism always produces if left running long enough. And no, Scandinavia no longer has socialism. They have free market systems with extensive welfare systems. Which has its own problems but is not socialism. Tip to Instapundit.
A reminder that when we help allies with light attack aircraft, pilots, and ground crews, that a system of air power usage is required to make those necessary but insufficient assets an effective contribution to the war effort.
Huh. What are the odds of that happening? Tip to Instapundit.
China has turned down the flow of the Mekong River, inflicting record low water levels in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam [link fixed]. China denied this and falsely claimed they too were suffering from a drought. I assume at some point Peking will change their story and claim they shut off the water to protect Southeast Asia from the Wuhan Flu--you're welcome, you ingrates. One can understand why Egypt and Sudan have worries about Ethiopia's new Nile River dam.
There is just one An-225 super large air transport and Ukraine just put it back in service. Russia has the slightly smaller An-124 in service. Which are useful for moving stuff between European Russia and the Far East. But that can't be a substitute for the questionable railroad link.
I think we really need to look into whether the Wuhan Flu--just its existence--causes stupidity and paranoia. Yes, people with advanced degrees can be dumb as rocks.
The Army wants a new 20mm cannon for future scout helicopters. Does this imply that it will be a single-barrel weapon rather than the multi-barrel Gatling gun-style weapons used now?
At some level I don't mind that states will have radically different opening up policies after we reach peak deaths from the Wuhan Flu. What I worry about is that left-wing theories will fail miserably and blue state people will flock to red states but bring their failed blue state thinking with them because they don't recognize cause and effect.
Badthink is doubleplus ungood. Tip to Instapundit.
Japan hasn't done as good a job as it appeared on containing the Wuhan Flu. Crap. Maybe we need to send our hospital ships and excess ventilators to Japan.
On the bright side, the media did this without any government coercion!
Wait. Did I say bright side?
To be fair, the Chinese Communist Party did wait quite a while to see if the Wuhan Flu would do its dirty work to suppress freedom advocates in Hong Kong for them. America and Britain condemn the arrests of the activists.
I assumed this was a parody account. I was wrong. So much for this spirit in adversity:
Tip to Instapundit.
To be fair, increasing prosperity in China may yet one day lead to a more free China--over the objections of the Chinese Communist Party. And if countries fall into China's debt trap with their Belt and Road project (New Silk Road), why wouldn't those countries consider simply nationalizing (seizing) Chinese assets the way countries did with Western assets decades ago? Are those countries more willing to be colonies now than then?
China's nuclear arsenal and missiles. We think their nuclear arsenal is pretty small, but is it? It just seems odd to me that with all their extensive missile testing and building plus their general massive military modernization that they seem to have fewer nukes than credited in the not so recent past. On the bright side, most of their missiles are shorter range missiles aimed at Russia or India (or at least intended for them, if not technically targeting them as they sit there).
Once again, the story is not about the new information that makes Democrats look bad and possibly criminal, but about the fact that Republican Party "seizes on" that information to attack the Democrats for what they did. Amazing. This is how it works. If a Republican does something wrong the story is about what the Republican did wrong. With bonus stories about how that reflects badly on all Republicans. When you have Democrats to defend, this is how CNN goes. And the way they write it up is fascinating. Yes, the initiation of the probe into Trump and Russia was probably (barely) justified. The story seems to make that the key point. What was not justified was the ... overly enthusiastic ... continuation of the probe long after the so-called evidence justified the probe. That is the potential crime if the probe went on and on just to get a domestic political opponent. You wonder why I don't trust the media at face value? And every decade during my adult life time they've gotten worse. Tip to Instapundit.
Crap. The French report over a thousand cases of Wuhan Flu on their aircraft carrier.
As China continues to be a bunch of lying SOBs about the Wuhan Flu--which started in China and then spread because the Chinese lied about the spread along with WHO--the Chinese are looking the other way (if not cooperating with) at the North Korea regime in evading sanctions over Rocket Man's nuclear ambitions. And that's on top of their East China Sea and South China Sea shenanigans and Hong Kong repression noted earlier. The Chinese really want to erase all doubt in the world about the desirability and wisdom of decoupling from the Chinese Communist Party's police state.
Hoover tried hard to end the Great Depression and FDR continued those policies and made it worse.
Yeah, that kind of attitude is the most promising method of convincing me to vote for their side. Tip to Instapundit.
