Taiwan wants more land-based mobile anti-ship missiles that will supplement their coastal defense missile vessels. Taiwan hopes to smash a Chinese invasion fleet. That's good. But what of this aside? "Everyone expects any such war to be short." Why? Is the choice really either Taiwan smashes the invasion fleet; or China lands and conquers Taiwan before America can intervene? I don't assume that the war will be "over by Christmas" one way or the other.
When companies pull out of Black-majority neighborhoods because of such threats, it will be because of "racism" people issuing the threats will say.
While I'm glad rioters are being charged for their actions, I'm not so sure that "terrorism" is an appropriate charge. I don't like overcharging criminals with crimes intended to punish terrorists more severely than normal criminal violations would allow. I believe I've mentioned my discomfort of charging criminals who set off bombs with using a "weapon of mass destruction" intended to cover nuclear (including "dirty" bombs), biological, and chemical weapons use simply because WMD is defined in the statute to mean killing multiple people--which any conventional bomb is intended to do. Tip to Instapundit.
Was President Obama hip deep in assaulting our long tradition of peaceful transfers of presidential power after elections?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
I'm sorry, but surrounding the police car and pounding on it was not "mostly peaceful." Were the officers supposed to just sit there, call for help, and risk dying?FYI, I grew up a block from that park and played tennis there and swam at the pool there. And I spent a lot of time on the street mentioned. The Detroit chief of police defended the officers. Good.
The sequel is never as good as the original. Uh oh. Thanks China. The first pandemic wasn't good enough? Let's see how WHO behaves with this one.
Colleges need to rediscover free and open debate rather than continue their clear role as leftist indoctrination centers.
At the same time ASEAN rebuked China for its expansive claims in the South China Sea, American and Japanese warships exercised there; and two American carriers exercised in the Philippine Sea. Carriers may be at risk during wartime, but in peacetime they are still a great symbol.
Trying to communicate with subs.
This is stealing and I have never--not once--done any of this at the self-checkout line. And I'm really offended by the cited author saying stores are partly to blame for making stealing easy. Wrong. The stealers are 100% at fault for taking advantage of a system that doesn't assume customers are thieves. Is that how we want to be treated?
Good news--if true, of course. Tip to Instapundit.
I really don't know if Democrats will go all-in with Biden despite his perceived mental sharpness issue, whether they will pull a switch at the convention, whether they'll keep him as virtual puppet for a full term, whether they'll 25th Amendment him early after swearing in, or whether Biden himself will step down at any point in that range of possibilities. This is all just so odd. Imagine how Bernie Sanders feels losing to Biden.
The media has lost its effing mind. Reporters should be asked if they are happy the Soviets lost the Cold War.
Good--round up the communist scum inciting and carrying out violence.
Well yeah, that's what China does to any who dare oppose them--or just be different. The communists who run China now are just more enthusiastic about it.
Bearing the
The Lebanese judge who banned interviews with our ambassador has resigned. The judge won't be missed. I mentioned the fracas in the last data dump.
What have the Russians done this time? Tip to Instapundit.
I never panicked over it and the people who do panic over it are unlikely to change their minds.
How many times do police go on a call not knowing it will turn violent at no notice? Unarmed first responders will die with this police-replacement policy. Count on it. It's a wave of mass hysteria and madness.
When I signed up for YouTube TV it was $35 per month. I loved it. It went to $50 with new offerings I couldn't care less about. But it was acceptable. The price is going up next month to $65 because they've added a lot of channels--that I never watch. So ...
I'm not even going to examine options before I drop it. I'll deal with alternatives after I stop payment. Maybe I won't miss any of it given that sports are so iffy. And since Netflix lost their Marvel lineup and went woke, they're on the bubble, too, if they raise their price again.
What the Hell is wrong with California?!
That's how you do it--without burning and looting.
North African states are considering war against Turkey to keep them from returning to North Africa?
China can't be trusted. Act accordingly.
Russia has built an advanced artillery system that not even they want. I suppose it can go to the phantom Armata brigades.
Space Force gets organized.
"Senior military retirees who chose to castigate the president must remember: If you get involved in politics, politics will get involved in you."
I think Germany is a necessary ally, but the idea that Trump is losing Germany by the latest in a long line of troop reductions in Germany since 1990 is nonsense. Germany has been doing just fine all on its own well before Trump--and indeed even during the Cold War they were way too friendly with the Warsaw Pact--in pulling away from participating in NATO defense efforts. Still, I endorse the idea of keeping Germany in NATO and interested in defending NATO. And heck, I'm all on board reinforcing our troop presence in Europe.
If Trump's planned reduction of 9,500 American troops down to 25,000 in Germany could propel "Europe" (that is, the EU) to defend itself more energetically, we'd have seen European defense efforts skyrocket as America's presence in Germany collapsed since 1989 when we had a quarter million troops there (see data base through this link)?
The real purpose of EU defense initiatives is to downgrade NATO and eject America from Europe so the proto-imperial EU can shed the prefix.
You'd think this would be good news, if verified. Instead, a purge for badthink was launched. Tip to Instapundit.
Cyber-Fifth Column.
The French are reducing their NATO role in the Mediterranean Sea because of tensions with Turkey over Turkey's intervention in Libya. If Turkey provokes resistance from Arab states Turkey can't claim NATO protection, which protects against being attacked. More here on the French-Turkish tensions. This pales in comparison to the sometimes very heated Greek-Turkish hatred. It amazes me that American can be blamed for the French-Turkish tensions.
Wow, is Seattle's "summer of love" over so soon? I'm confused. Even with a body count it still stands as "mostly peaceful" doesn't it?
The SpaceX Starship could hold two standard shipping containers. I guess it could be a space modularized auxiliary cruiser capable of taking a Space Marines Orbital Detachment (SMOD) to orbit!
I think the Russian bounty story is likely BS based on current information. And the left-pushed scandal is even more ridiculous. That said, Trump should be fully engaged in his presidential daily briefing. But I thought Obama should do that, too. And again, I don't want to hear a damn word from Democrats of all people about confronting the Russians.
Russian voters by a large margin approved changes to their "constitution" that would allow Putin to stay in office until 2036. I don't know about you, but the suspense was killing me.
Your feel good story of the day. I'd also like to thank Hollywood for perpetuating the idea that you can shoot a lock open. Tip to Instapundit.
There are sadly a lot of a-holes with college degrees who see their education not as an opportunity to better their lives but as a credential to Lord over those who don't and look down on them.
The head of the UN told Hiftar (or Haftar) "there can be no military solution to the conflict he launched in April 2019 against the U.N.-supported government in the capital [of Libya], Tripoli." Well, sure, not now--after Hiftar granted his enemies the precious gift of time. Now we see if Hiftar can exploit the time he has been given.
Making the case for rebuilding the Army (Drone) Air Corps for organic air support to ground units. Which applies to Marines, too. Or the NECC.
Taiwan needs a new approach to their small Aba and Pratas islands? Taiwan can't really hold their South China Sea islands if China tries to take them. All Taiwan can do is make it take as long as possible, inflict as many casualties on the PLA as it can, and publicize the attacks as much as possible live as they happen in the hope that the combination will compel China to back off before capturing the islands.The article mentions armed drones. Sure. Add in the original drones--sea mines--and toss in land-based robotic defenders as I've mentioned for the Japanese in their own struggle with China over small islands, and then we're on the right path.
The ALE-50 is a reminder that stealthy aircraft are not invisible and still give off heat and can be seen.
Don't be too eager for a "new normal." If you can work from home, your employer can hire somebody from a home in a much cheaper job market overseas--or even in a cheaper state here in the U.S.--to do the job. Just saying. Another hit to big cities from the Xi Jinping Flu pandemic.
Good job news. We have a long way to go but this is a good start.
The idea that America under Trump or states under Republican governors have botched the response to the Xi Jinping Flu is utter nonsense. I really don't get how the death rates--if we can trust them across countries because of different standards--bolster either false belief firmly held by those on the left here.
Oh FFS! Surrendering and curling up into a fetal position is a way of life now for too many Americans. I say this because I'm damned sure there are no Orc-American civil rights groups out there demanding change! Honestly, I had to go check this one. Surely conservatives are exaggerating. Nope: "Throughout the 50-year history of D&D, some of the peoples in the game—orcs and drow being two of the prime examples—have been characterized as monstrous and evil, using descriptions that are painfully reminiscent of how real-world ethnic groups have been and continue to be denigrated. That’s just not right, and it’s not something we believe in. Despite our conscious efforts to the contrary, we have allowed some of those old descriptions to reappear in the game. We recognize that to live our values, we have to do an even better job in handling these issues. If we make mistakes, our priority is to make things right. Here’s what we’re doing to improve: We present orcs and drow in a new light in two of our most recent books, Eberron: Rising from the Last War and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. In those books, orcs and drow are just as morally and culturally complex as other peoples. We will continue that approach in future books, portraying all the peoples of D&D in relatable ways and making it clear that they are as free as humans to decide who they are and what they do." So they're saying that the Orcs and Drow (see how woke I am? I capitalized them) chose to be evil all these decades? Good to know. Oh, and would the good people at the company explain which real world people they've been stereotyping all these decades? Scandinavians perhaps?
Having a domestic source of processed rare earth elements is good. Via Instapundit.
Who says withdrawing from WHO is self defeating? Already WHO is throwing China under the bus after covering for them all these months of the Xi Jinping Flu pandemic: "Contrary to claims from both Chinese officials and the World Health Organization, China did not report the existence of the coronavirus in late 2019, according to a WHO timeline tracking the spread of the virus. Rather, international health officials discovered the virus through information posted to a U.S. website."
Speaker Pelosi asks whether it was over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. The poor woman is well past her "sell by" date. Tip to Instapundit.
We screwed up trusting the Xi Jinping Flu model projections. And I don't think that they were wrong because our reaction worked that well (or are you abandoning your position that Trump screwed up?). Not that I want heads to roll. We made decisions early with a lot of unknowns and the models pretended to be a known. We effed up. We trusted them. I just want to make better decisions going forward. And in the future I want model output to be treated as fortune telling and not as data.
The U.S. is using legal measures to try to stop Iranian exports of gasoline to oil-rich but Socialist-plagued Venezuela.
Obama ignored the rise of ISIL. Did he not know about them? Did he really think they were the junior varsity team in the jihad? I know I was practically begging Obama to do something as jihadis gained ground in Iraq. In June 2013 I was begging for action to stop Iran, having noticed the rise of Sunni Arab jihadis as well. Indeed, Obama's profession of ignorance was appalling given my repeated warnings of the need to take action in Iraq after we left in 2011. If we're going to talk about dereliction of duty, I mean.
I hope Russian military procurement is in worse shape than Germany's.
The Saudi coalition struck back at the Houthis in Yemen after the Houthis launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia.
While the leftist tactic hasn't affect me in that way, it makes sense that diluting the "racist" label by misuse makes the label less odious to those being labeled that way. After all, those labeled wrongly know they aren't bad so other ideas so labeled--even those rightly labeled that way--must not be so bad. Conservatives should be careful about similar tossing of the word "communist" around, although that misuse is rejected by popular media and culture so it isn't fully applicable.
The professionals and experts in the permanent bureaucracy didn't cover themselves in glory responding to the Xi Jinping Flu pandemic. Sure, Trump should have whipped them into shape, in theory. But so too should have Obama. And the Resistance inspired the permanent bureaucracy to not work with Trump; and Congressional Democrats put roadblocks in the way of passing Trump nominees to lead the bureaucracy. So I guess we have a whole-of-government failure here. On top of a once-in-a-century crisis that nobody expected this year.
An interesting aspect of Turkey's new foreign policy that the Libya intervention highlights is the division in the Sunni Moslem world. Already, Shia (and non-Arab) Iran would like to be in charge of Islamic holy sites in Sunni Arab Saudi Arabia and so lead Islam. The Saudis reject that. But Turkey is a non-Arab Sunni state that once defined the Islamic world through the Ottoman Empire. Saudi Arabia is home to Islam, but until the discovery of oil and alliance with America, the Saudis were a backwater in the Islamic world. Now the Saudis are the home of Islam. Would Turkey's success in reclaiming influence in its old imperial reach restore Turkish dominance of Islam? You can see reasons for Saudi Arabia to oppose Turkey in Libya and elsewhere. And if Turkey could try to take the leadership role, why couldn't a large majority-Islam state like Indonesia not make a claim to lead Islam? It is interesting.
Iraqi troops set up outposts in northern Iraq to contain the extent of Turkish incursions into Iraqi territory where the Turks are hunting anti-Turkish Kurdish forces.
The following is a TDR PSA: When you see a Trump reelection design that consists of an American eagle clutching a circle with an American flag in it, it is okay. I know you think it looks scarily similar to a Nazi design of an eagle clutching a circle with a swastika in it, but it is not a "dog whistle." What makes the Nazi symbol a symbol of Nazism is not the eagle. It is the swastika. Get a grip people. And a clue.
I keep saying I'm open to the experts on pandemic related things because it is outside my lane. I've kept an open mind about hydroxychloroquine as studies said one thing and then another. A lot of people seemed to reject the drug because Trump touted its potential and not because of the science. The deniers may have some explaining to do. Here's another story on a study from Michigan.
Just what is the major malfunction of the media people these days?!
I saw a chart of new Xi Jinping Flu cases for the U.S. and for the E.U., and the European line has dropped and is staying low while the American line eased off and has shot up again. It seems odd. What I haven't seen is an explanation of why. Is Europe's economy still shut down? Do they wear masks while we don't? Did they not have mass protests and riots to spread the virus? What? And while our deaths don't seem to be shooting up to match cases is that only because deaths take more time than cases because people with cases need to get worse over time before dying? Or is the death rate declining and so more cases aren't as big a deal? And do we have a choice but to accept this? We really can't afford to stay shut down until we have a vaccine. As I've said, I'm out of my lane on this.
My first impression is that this is a good idea.
But in 2020 are we sure we want to open that hornet's nest?
When the word goes out to change their view on a subject, the ability to switch on a dime is amazing.
Two American carriers exercised in the South China Sea. Again, carriers may be at risk during wartime, but in peacetime they are still a great symbol.
If the Russians complain that moving American troops to Poland somehow violates the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, may I suggest that Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2014 killed the founding act. I'd expect the Russians to traffic in such BS. Germans should be ashamed of raising it. As long as moving troops from Germany doesn't harm our ability to receive troops for the defense of NATO or to project them into the arc of crisis from West Africa to Afghanistan, the exact footprint in NATO is less important. Although as a rule, I'd rather have more Army troops in Europe.
This meme never gets truly old, does it?
Obviously, this is humor. Whatever Obama and his cronies have done illegally, they aren't Nazis.
I saw a replay of Trump's speech Saturday morning before seeing this media's slant. The speech sounded good to me. It was not "dark." It was not racially--or otherwise--"divisive." It was a July 4th speech defending our values of freedom and liberty that we proclaimed in 1776 that is only suddenly "problematic" because the loyal opposition in and out of the media has gone stark raving mad in their zeal to divide America and undermine our freedoms with street violence. What is their major malfunction?
Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan resumed talks about Ethiopia's new dam project. The latter two have worries over filling the dam too quickly. But have little leverage, really. Sure, Sudan could allow Egyptian aircraft to stage there to bomb the dam. That would have to be a big effort. But what then? Ethiopia could then position air defenses and rebuild--and damn the opposition to the speed of filling it. And if Egypt and Sudan continued to make things ugly, as the upriver state Ethiopia could probably poison the water to sicken those you draw it for drinking if it wanted to and there's little the downriver states could do? Even just occasional and deniable events would wreak havoc with the people who rely on that water.
Hahaha!
I don't actually think Epstein was killed, believing government ineptitude is the far more likely cause of death. But as a meme it is funny. And it takes a shot at a deplorable woman who doesn't deserve the wealth she's accumulated.
Is it just me or has there been almost no information coming out of China about their Xi Jinping Flu pandemic conditions? You'd think "journalists" might try to find out.
Oh, and this is fully endorsed:
Unknown jets--could be Egyptian, UAE, or Russian, bombed a GNA airport in Libya as GNA and Turkey seem to be massing to attack LNA-held Sirte.
Iran's hand puppets in Iraq continue to take shots at Americans--and managed to wound a child.
WHO stopped a trial of hydroxychloroquine and another HIV drug for hospitalized Xi Jinping Flu patients. It does seem like there is a difference in preventing the covid19 virus, treating it early, and treating it late.
North Korea supports Iran's missile research. Duh, and nukes, too. You may recall the Big Hole Incident.
Stealthsky. I have never been worried about Russian stealth technology. I'm not that worried right now about Chinese stealth technology. In time the Chinese could be a worry, however.
Kenya's locust problem is the worst it has been in 70 years. Effin' 2020.
A brief overview of recent India-China tensions.
The surge in big city crime recently will likely remain a mystery to our journalists, I guess.
