Oh, and while I think I toned down political commentary last week, I didn't do it enough even though technically I may have succeeded in avoiding direct political commentary. So I'll try harder this week. It's for my sake, not your sake, remember.
The Nile River water flow issue. Egypt wants Ethiopia to fill its new GERD dam more slowly and worries about the flow in general--which is vital to Egypt. Sudan also has an interest. Ethiopia could be a major hydro-power exporter once this is completed.
This is a seriously something that requires people to do hard time. Rule of law and our traditional of peaceful transfer of power require full disclosure of the extent of the actions, prosecution, and conviction.
A reminder that the media and social media don't reflect the country despite their megaphones that make it seem like they reflect the country.
As I suspected, Trump's comment on Xi Jinping Flu testing was said as a joke and taken out of context by the media. I didn't watch the rally but should have assumed that the media went nuts with the literal words without noting that no reduction in testing has taken place, indicating perhaps Trump wasn't serious. Although why Trump said he wasn't joking is beyond me, unless he was standing by the undoubtedly true aspect that more testing reveals more cases.
Iran's economy is in deep trouble and even a Biden presidency might not be enough to save it.
Two American B-52s flew over the Sea of Okhotsk, drawing a Russian fighter reaction. I wonder what kind of sensors the bombers carried, given that Russia likes that sea for a SSBN bastion.
When people give a prestigious prize to a moron, the prize is no longer prestigious. And the people giving the prize are revealed to be morons, too, naturally.
But would it be okay if the participants ran through the streets burning and stealing?
May Professor Jacobson emerge from the Red Guard cancellation effort intact and stronger.
Yemen took a step back from the Saudi-UAE clusters in that clusterfuck with a UN seat. No doubt it won't last and the Houthis, Iranians, jihadis, and competing factions stepping back now will get all agitated about something soon and make things worse again. But until then, the good news is that the interest and ability to fight is down. The bad news is that there is little interest in negotiating an end to the hostilities.
Street violence in Germany. It isn't even jihadi violence.
In any other year the plagues of locusts in Africa would be big news.
Iran is sending food to set up Iranian stores in Venezuela. This isn't aid to the poor people of Venezuela but to the regime whose supporters will be the only ones with money to buy the Iranian food.
How the "milkshake hoax" developed. Well, an error more than a hoax. RUMORINT is unreliable. Tip to Instaundit.
Reviving satellites that run out of fuel. Via Instapundit.
North Korea has problems. And BTW, remember when Kim disappeared recently? Yeah, he almost died.
Precision grenade launchers.
Should the Navy pick up Army ships for use as its proposed LAW amphibious ships?
In terms of logistics and voter integrity, there is a vast difference between absentee voting by mail and pure by-mail voting. And reporters pretending that there isn't is a partisan exercise.
What is wrong with Germany? Priority should be on economic recovery, but Germany will hold it hostage to prioritizing a "green" recovery in the EU that will leave working people behind while those who never felt pain from the economic shutdown can feel virtuous? Will other European countries go along with this?
The Saudis said they shot down ballistic missiles and drone-bombs fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis.
Just say no to the woke Red Guards.
And a reminder that of course Xi Jinping Flu cases are going up as economies are brought back online. Lockdown was never meant to end the pandemic--just allow us to endure it without overwhelming our medical system. Work the problem.
The French--who eagerly pushed to launch the NATO 2011 Libya War that overthrew Khadaffi--and Turkey--which has intervened on the jihadi-friendly side in the Libyan civil war to keep them from losing--are in a war of words over the chaos in Libya. At least the NATO allies aren't shooting at each other.
I unsubscribed to Jonah Goldberg's Remnant podcast. Not because I don't like him despite my disagreement with him on some issues. But because my phone downloaded every podcast from the past and I got tired of deleting them one at a time. Very annoying. I'll probably resubscribe when this annoyance passes through my system.
China is building a much bigger coast guard vessel capable of intimidating with tonnage to push vessels out of the South China Sea that China claims. And it can evacuate garrisons of their artificial islands in case of typhoons. I've long assumed those islands are vulnerable to typhoons.
The Red Guard purges and the silencing effect they have should be resisted for the threat to freedom they are. TDS has mutated into a far more deadly fever. We're under threat from violence-prone morons.
Pelosi tries to blame Republicans for the killing of George Floyd despite Democrats being in control of the chain of command from the city police to the state level. It is a despicable charge that the media lets her get away with. At long last have they no shame?
People have become morons and "leaders" are following the morons. Wait until they find about this "link." It has as much relation to actual offensiveness as the first link. Why isn't our national descent into moronic thinking "problematic?"
#CancelYale. If you disagree you're an awful person and should also be cancelled.
Shutting down schools hurt kids already behind academically. That should not be a surprise. The lockdown panic that now says we can't open up until the Xi Jinping Flu is cured has hurt kids from poorer families harder. Will this continue into the fall and really cripple their future?
Well that's a take. I suppose real misogynists don't show women on trampolines, too.
Civil war commemoration data. Commemorating the South as a means to support segregation gets no support from me.
"When Hell freezes over" being the benchmark for action, I believe.
An American destroyer conducted a freedom of navigation operation near Venezuela.
Morons should not be in charge of which statues stay or go.
Okay Europe, good luck with that. Doesn't this just mean Americans will spend tourism dollars in America instead? But Europe was hit earlier and is further along the recovery than America, so in one sense it makes sense rather than being a judgment on America's effort.
Yes. Yes I have noticed that. The media doesn't seem to notice the dramatic decline in pandemic deaths. Even if our method of determining the cause of death is the Xi Jinping coronavirus is too broad, the decline in the rate is significant.
The Turks move into Iraq to fight the PKK who fight inside Turkey; and the Arabs notice that Turks are fighting Arabs in Syria, Iraq, and Libya now.
LOL! Enjoy your virtue signal.
Could the Italians or Spanish take advantage of the loopholes in the Montreux Convention Russia is using that in theory bans non-Turkish submarine transit of the Turkish Straits? Would Russia enjoy NATO subs in the Black Sea?
If woke Peak Stupid gets any higher (although the statue picture is, I believe, one of Teddy Roosevelt and not the Lincoln statue in question) we can use it as a space elevator.
In light of the Woke Riots of 2020, looking back at Smells Like Woke Spirit and How Do You Know He's a Nazi (Before You Punch Him)? seems appropriate.
To be fair, communists enslave and kill everyone regardless of race or religion. Tip to Instapundit.
Well that's $1.8 billion down the sewer. Well, figuratively speaking. I imagine most will go into secret bank accounts. But the donors feel good about themselves and who knows? Maybe some good will come of it. Sometimes people just get tired of the decades of fighting. To be fair, the odds aren't nearly as bad as they were a couple years ago.
I'm not sure what the UN can do, but yeah, a "humanitarian tragedy" in Hong Kong is coming under orders of Xi Jinping.
Never get out of the effing boats.
Remember that the polls showing Biden leading seem to be of registered voters which leans to Democrats. Don't really pay attention until it is a measure of likely voters--which isn't really possible to predict this early. And God forbid don't bother with all adult polling. Really, it's just too early to follow the general election horse race because only the most interested minority is following politics closely at this point.
Well, the UN Security Council will consider the Ethiopian Nile River dam project.
Have ten times as many American as we think caught the Xi Jinping Flu? Does that really mean lockdowns were futile? I'm open to the former but I'm not sure if the latter follows from that. This does highlight that we had to make momentous decisions on health and our economy with very little firm information. Tip to Instapundit.
Apparently the Israelis discovered some vulnerabilities in the F-35 code, which were then fixed. I was worried about such issues.
This author writes that while Russia and China have certain common foreign policy objectives, the so-called alliance that some outsiders call the relationship is basically Russia selling energy to China. And that's a step down from the Russian arms sales in the past since China has reverse engineered so much and moved beyond the need to buy Russian arms.
Yes, everyone knows this is how arms production works, but you aren't supposed to say it out loud. I don't know why anybody worries about Trump. Even if he had a secret conspiracy to make him a dictator he'd brag about it at some point.
It is painfully clear that Democrats in Congress want an issue rather than a solution--and the media will cover for them, I have no doubt. Progress on this could have cooled the passions that have led to insanity on our city streets this summer. But I guess broken eggs are the price to pay for the omelet they want to serve America.
Central and East European countries will finally need to replace their old Soviet-era armored vehicles. What surprised me is the statement that Britain can no longer produce its own armored vehicles. How did that happen? But on the replacement, when does that need to happen? Ukraine seems able to upgrade and keep their old Soviet armor going during a war. How long will the Soviet armor fade take?
Despite the uptick in Xi Jinping cases in the south, the death rate may not follow because hospitalizations are not going up to match cases. Which makes me wonder if stories about hospitals getting closer to bed limits is more about reopening to handle a backlog of non-covid19 patients.
LOL!
And now, ROFL:
Oh come on, this petition to remove the statue of Lincoln has got to be a prank by college Republicans at the University of Wisconsin to get gullible leftists to sign it, right? I mean, this is like getting people to sign petitions to ban the scourge of dihydrogen monoxide in the environment, eh? Tip to Instapundit.
Really? Tip to Instapundit.
Worse-casing fleet size. The problem of course is sunk costs. Do you really deactivate ships you've already built with decades of life left even if a clean-slate fleet build would tell you don't build those ships?
So elements of the left say America is: A) an evil and racist society; and is B) evil and racist to put up a wall on the border with Mexico to keep out masses of illegal immigrants who are eager to come here. Huh? Aren't those contradictory? I really don't get nuance. In the real world, America is a great country--with problems that we strive to fix--that is better than any other country. No matter what race, religion, ethnicity, or gender you are, if you were born in America in this era you hit the Goddamned lottery of life. That's why people from all over the world want to come to this allegedly racisthole country.
It is good news that the Xi Jinping Flu isn't as deadly as we feared early in the year. I'm not going to complain about decisions made in February and March when we knew so little and feared the worst. But let's not lock ourselves into medical and public health courses based on political leanings. Let's look at the right metrics when deciding how to go forward from here. Yes, we still need to behave with care. But behavior should be based on better calculations for risk balances. Don't let panic make stupid decisions now. We had an excuse in February and March. What's our excuse now if we screw up? Tips to Instapundit.
Italy is solidly in NATO. But why American withdrawal from WHO over the body's fealty to China would have any effect on NATO solidarity is beyond me.
It breaks my heart that in 2020 judging a person by the content of their character is a "problematic" way of looking at people.
A sane ACLU would be fighting on Flynn's side hammer and tong against this banana republic-style prosecution. And remember, while Flynn was fired--rightly--for lying to Pence, that was not a crime. Too many people conflate that with the so-called lie he pled guilty to under duress.
The Washington Post fact checks Trump and concludes he is wrong--because he was only 95% correct. Do you really wonder why I don't trust the judgment of our media giants? Good grief, they couldn't even say he was "mostly" right, which I believe is the official style manual way of putting things in the best light for their side.
America's ambassador to Lebanon is on double secret probation by Lebanon's judiciary for stating the obvious truth that Iran-controlled Hezbollah is "seditious and a threat to social peace." As if the Lebanese people need her to tell them that. The only reason the Lebanese foreign minister has summoned our ambassador is because the FM is rightfully afraid that Hezbollah will kill him and his family if he doesn't defend Hezbollah.
Let me know when they mount it on a friggin' shark.
Wait. What? Jesus in blackface is good?? The son of God can be whatever color people want to portray him as, I think.
