The French are putting cruise missiles on their nuclear attack submarines (SSNs).
I expect Trump to score a win in Pennsylvania, Georgia, or Wisconsin. It would not be shocking to get two wins. But can he flip all three? Seems unlikely. If there was fraud or error, I want that exposed in time to make a difference. The amount of time it is taking Trump to really publicize evidence or grounds to suspect significant fraud or (deliberately engineered) error makes me doubt he can get the hat trick. Yet the examination should still go on while we have time before the Electoral College votes and makes election night official. If there was no decisive fraud or error, I want that known, too. Both to increase Biden's legitimacy for the good of the country and to prevent fraud and error from getting worse in the next election. The media's credibility which tilted the playing field heavily to Biden is beyond saving. Sadly, we don't count that as election fraud. You have to admit it is odd that Republicans gained seats in the House and at the state level, while losing just one Senate seat (barring setbacks in Georgia runoffs) despite defending a disproportionate number of seats, yet lost the presidency. That could be the reality, as odd as it seems. But it should be a flashing red light that something might be wrong. Did we really have a blue wave for the presidency and a red wave for the rest? Or was the blue wave really a wave of fraud and (engineered?) error?
American special forces exercised with the Swedes in the Baltic Sea region. Is this for defending Sweden? Or is it for contesting islands in the Baltic Sea?
Trump is planning to take actions to lock in America's push-back against China. But remember, the Obama-Biden administration's "reset" with Russia took place the year after Russia invaded Georgia. I assume nothing. The Chinese whiff of relief that Biden apparently won might be short-lived.
Is it a coincidence that another clusterfuck with a UN seat--Somalia--is right across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen? Take care of business Eritrea, that neighborhood is rough.
If hospitals are in danger of being overwhelmed by new cases of Xi Jinping Flu, I don't mind stricter lockdowns. But I hope they are targeted. I hope they are temporary. I hope they are balanced against the harm of lockdowns. And I hope that they aren't based on rising cases alone. That metric can be misleading if mild cased dominate or if the cases are really just positive test results which could be inaccurate.
East coast Marines practice for war in Europe.
Things can change with a persuasive revelation, but thus far the Trump campaign doesn't seem to be offering persuasive evidence of the level of fraud or error that would shift the election. Although it annoys me at some level that Democrats demand evidence from Trump. In a fair world, Trump only needs to present credible accusations that the responsible authorities and the media would investigate to find evidence. I do wonder if the amount of time it is taking to resolve challenges to the election serve a purpose by getting everyone used to the ultimate result. Trump supporters will know the effort was made to see if there was fraud. And Trump opponents will have had their hair-trigger urge for vengeance diluted. My best-case hope is that the high emotions over this election will convince people that the federal government is too powerful and that states should reclaim the powers they once had. Make the federal government a smaller prize and the polarization to control it will be defused. I am an optimistic sort, aren't I? The Antifa/BLM communists (And yes, yes, of course "Black lives matter." The sentence naturally follows from our Constitution. But the organization called BLM is a garbage group of violent nuts.) are another thing altogether. We'll see if they shift to attacking Democrats, too. And how Democrats react without Trump around.
I watched the SpaceX launch last Sunday and was worried throughout hoping for success:
I watched Apollo as a child and really expected more by now. Go! You magnificent bastards! Go! Take us to space! At long last take us to space to stay!
Yes, the FBI spied on Trump despite word games to obfuscate that reality.
Is France being abandoned by its allies in France's new struggle against Islamism within France? America kills jihadis on an ongoing basis, so I assume America can't be counted in that hall of shame.
Was the Xi Jinping Flu coronavirus in Italy as early as September 2019? Egad. If confirmed, just how long did China know about this pandemic yet kept quiet?
Trump plans to draw down American troops in both Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 each by mid-January. I'm uncomfortable with numbers that low. I'd love to be proven wrong.
Introducing artificial intelligence to America's OPFOR first to give American troops a painful lesson in how it can beat our units to teach them how to exploit it when they have it is such a good idea that I'm horrified it didn't occur to me already. Like other things, even if we achieve it first eventually an enemy will have it, too. And we might not be first to field.
People continue to protest election that the outcome clearly indicates they lost.
Rules are, of course, for the little people.
Oh yeah, Obama owned Putin. Riiight. I can totally see that steely resolve.
It amuses me that people are furious at Trump's ego when they worshipped for eight years a man whose ego is so huge that he can't bear to let his number 2 man get the spotlight now. The story is in regard to Obama's Volume 1 in his Encyclopedia Obamaca series.
I don't blame Trump for asking for attack options on Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Given that a Biden return to the Obama approach would protect Iran as it seeks nuclear weapons. Trump is still the president with the duty to protect America until January (assuming he has lost).
I assume Democrats are eager for Trump to concede and leave because they know how much damage Obama did between Trump's election and inauguration.
Hahahahaha! "Brian Stelter — two parts potato, one part experimental estrogen replacement therapy gone tragically wrong... ." That's all I really want to highlight from that post. But seriously, when jihadis killed nearly 3,000 of us on September 11, 2001, many liberals lamented "why do they hate us?" as if America did something to deserve the terrorism. Will nobody at CNN ask "why Republicans hate them?"? Of course not. You hater.
The Trump era was the culmination of the "othering" of conservatives by liberals. Unless it happens in the Biden era, of course. It can always get worse.
I have no idea if Trump's charge of voting system software problems are any more valid than the charges the Kerry camp alleged in 2004. But this will be settled when the Electoral College votes in December. Either evidence will be presented or it won't. Just calm down.
An Iowa police department is under fire because its griffin emblem allegedly resembles a KKK dragon. Oh FFS! Michigan better look out! I wore one of those on my shoulder for many years. Tip to Instapundit.
Biden has claimed a mask mandate will save 100K+ lives in the next few months. But I've heard that the study this claim is based on assumes a far lower mask-wearing rate than actually exists. I don't want mask police and would rather leave this up to people to figure out. If a business requires it to enter their property and you don't want to wear a mask, don't go in. Same with your friends' standards in their homes. I think masks are a good idea. I think a state capable of enforcing masks is a very bad idea. Not with this pandemic, anyway.
There should definitely be red lines on a number of issues for Senate confirmation of Biden appointees. Democrats set the standard for obstruction the last four years. Efforts should be made to get appropriate nominees confirmed for national security positions, of course. No need to match the Democrats on that score. But the Senate needs to dust off the "advice" portion of advice and consent. Not that we should go down the path of parliamentary system practice of requiring executive-legislative matching. And we sure don't want the system that provides that.
And he won't be hounded by reporters until he answers, either.
Somehow that was Trump's fault, I assume. Tip to Instapundit.
Just in time for a Biden administration, dissent is no longer the highest form of patriotism. Via Instapundit.
I'm basically for trade. But I was on board revising deals that were tilted against America. So I was not alarmed by Trump's "trade wars" even though I am against actual trade wars. That said, America does need some type of trade deal in the Indo-Pacific region. I'm sure there would have been one in a second Trump term (assuming Biden officially wins). There will be one whoever wins the next four years.
Boko Haram has risen from near defeat some years ago. Nigeria has responded by pulling troops into larger bases to avoid being overrun by the jihadis. This would normally let the terrorists run free in large parts of the region away from bases. But Nigeria is also using local defense forces that seem to be working, plus more responsive air power for strikes and recon.
A needed examination of the ignorant BS that is the 1619 Project.
I think that we should have some sort of celebration over this promotion from being an oppressed and disadvantaged minority. Who says America is systemically racist with this kind of progress?
I mentioned (but a quick search failed to find it) the Chinese kidnapping operation inside America that grabs Chinese dissidents and takes them back to China. Strategypage goes into it. How long before the Chinese go the assassination route which Russia uses in Europe?
Hahahaha! "A study has found a strong connection between believing Russia rigged the 2016 election and now suddenly believing elections are entirely foolproof, trustworthy, and unhackable."
I really don't think we need a new 1st Fleet wedged between 7th Fleet in the Pacific and 5th Fleet in the Gulf region. If Middle East issues truly are receding, why not simply shift the center of gravity of 5th Fleet east? Why add more command and control when we need actual shooters so much? Work on shipbuilding quality control and surface fleet training in a larger fleet before we add another fleet headquarters.
Somalia could become another jihadi sanctuary if America can't cut the terrorist grass because we pull our small troop contingent out of that jihadi incubator with a UN seat. Much like Epstein, jihadis don't kill themselves.
Can Biden repair the rift with Turkey? Well, the rift isn't America's fault. I think we can eventually repair the rift with Turkey. The problem is we can't repair the rift with Erdogan. So we can only contain the damage and wait.
If Biden cancels the college loan debt of people from well off families who went to elite schools for bullshit degrees while I worked my way through college with little debt--7-1/2 years for my double-major AB from the University of Michigan--and when I put away money for both my children to help them avoid borrowing money (plus grants and working, for my son so far), I will join the ranks of the chumps--people who played by the rules and were responsible, who saw other connected people avoid those rules and prosper. I could have spent the money I saved for my kids' college and just went wild. Save me oh great federal government! I have no money! Don't be so heartless about my plight! What about the children? But I guess I was raised better than that. And now I find that people who were irresponsible will get my tax money? To Hell with these people. Who do they think they are? People who borrowed money to go to college should pay their student loans. Period. I certainly did. Why aren't more people outraged at this subsidy for irresponsibility? Student loan forgiveness is simply a taxpayer-funded gift for wealthy Democrats. Seriously, it is a bad idea all around.
Substandard counterfeit products a problem for the military--and others.
Do ten percent of people who catch the Xi Jinping Flu experience long-term health problems? Well, we can't know long-term, of course, because this is a new virus. But we do know that some people continue to experience problems after the virus is gone. So I am not trying to minimize this by stating the obvious. Do the examples--horrifying, really--represent a large portion of that 10% or the worst case that is very small? Fatigue is called the largest long-term problem. It seems to affect mostly women 20-40. Hasn't mystery fatigue ailment long been a problem? As bad as it is for those suffering from any of this it would be good if the worst was a rare event. Better not to get the virus and risk this, of course. Stay careful.
Marketing genius, it seems. Makes Vegemite sound more appealing.
I assume the media counter for Biden lies starts now, right?
Republicans won at least 160 state legislature seats across the country. It's an odd blue wave that only pushed Biden over the finish line. Odd things happen, of course. Perhaps that is all that happened. After all, the Obama era saw massive losses at the state legislature level for Democrats. Still, it is worth tightening up our election process to increase confidence in the honesty of elections. That isn't the only odd thing, after all. Tips to Instapundit.
After many years of trying to avoid confronting their pilot "officer and a gentlemen" bias while fighting a pilot shortage, the Air Force will open pilot training paths to enlisted personnel. But this isn't doing what would make sense--letting enlisted personnel become pilots. The enlisted personnel on this path must ultimately become officers in order to be a pilot. The Air Force was unable to take the step of just letting enlisted personnel fly. How many officer pilots will this really produce? Still. Baby steps, I guess. It's a big bias that has to be overcome. Until artificial intelligence that eliminates pilots altogether. Perhaps they'll be commissioned, too.
Trump screwed up America's response to the Xi Jinping Flu so badly that The Atlantic judges that the end of the pandemic is now in sight. When this covisd-19 virus starts to dissipate next year, nobody in the press will credit Trump's policies that accelerated vaccines. It will be fully credited to President Harris. Hell, in the article there is no mention of Trump or Operation Warp Speed. Fancy that. Although Stalin would understand.
Did Trump really ruin the Republican brand when Republicans made gains in Congress and at the state level, while avoiding a bloodbath in the Senate and setting a record for Republican voters for the president? Because all I've hear the last four years is that Trump was wrecking the party. The supposed point of the Lincoln Project was that they had to destroy the party in order to save it. To me it seemed insane to throw an election now in order to supposedly guarantee an election win the next time. Who on Earth could promise that sort of thing? I wasn't worried about Trump wrecking the party and I don't think it happened. Trump made the left--including their media operatives--more blatantly and intensely anti-Republican. Scarily so. But that's a different issue altogether.
China's change of policy to put pressure on Taiwan's hold on Pratas Island. Is this telegraphing a Chinese attack on the small garrison and perhaps effort to capture the island?
Burkina Faso will arm militias to resist jihadis, which this article calls a "gamble." Setting up local defense forces is also standard operating procedure in counter-terror or counter-insurgency. The gamble is that the government will fail to disband the militias when the jihadi threat is defeated and on the decline, and allow the militias to evolve into private armies and criminal gangs. But it is a gamble to think you can win without local defense forces providing the first line of defense that the armed forces can maneuver around, reinforce, and count on for better ground intelligence to defeat the jihadis. What are you going to do? Risk losing now out of fear of post-victory problems? One thing at a time.
Armenia put its military deaths in the recent war with Azerbaijan at 2,425. That's quite a lot for a short war between small countries. For quite some time it didn't seem that intense but that was the fault of nearly non-existent media coverage.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched a so-called aviation warship that is only useful for propaganda purposes. It would be sunk quickly in a fight, whether it leaves port or not.
The Trump lawyers' press conference on voter fraud/error to elect Biden didn't impress me. It certainly gave reason to wonder about the results in key states that were decisive in putting Biden over the top unofficially in the Electoral Count battle. But Trump is running out of time to prove fraud and/or error of sufficient magnitude and across enough states to win. I have no doubt there is fraud in Democratic cities. But you have to prove it existed at a scale to switch the results. Could the presented evidence convince enough governors and/or state legislatures to exercise their power to refuse to certify and seat Electors even if courts don't do that? The proof had best be more clear than what we've been shown to justify that step. It is a legitimate step in our system that the Constitution provides. But it has been a long time since we've used it and we'd damn well be right about it before pulling that trigger. Maybe next election Republicans should get courts involved to make sure there is enough oversight to reduce the election-day corruption before the votes are cast.
South Korea needs armored rear-area security vehicles when you consider that the North Koreans rely on infiltrating light infantry into South Korea's rear areas via the sea, small low-flying aircraft, and tunnels under the DMZ. Whether North Korea could pull that off is another question. As is the question of whether North Korea's rotting armored forces could exploit any disruptions that the rear-area operations might achieve.
Digging up the death toll of the USSR. Why Communism doesn't have as bad a reputation as Nazism is a crime. Well, loving media attention has a role.
Japan launched a new multi-mission frigate class.
Aircraft readiness rates needs to be a lot better to fight a peer competitor. Good grief, we had problems reinforcing Afghanistan without defeating ISIL in Iraq. We can't afford that kind of shortfall in an age of great power competition. The readiness is measured over 9 years, so I'm not sure if it is better right now.
Are resupply quadcopters really worth the price to resupply Army units in contact rather than the GPS-directed parachute gliders used in Afghanistan? Unless the idea is to provide resupply to troops in the middle of a firefight, the simpler parachute glider seems more affordable. But I'm just asking.
CENTCOM says that Iran's destabilizing activities have increased over the last year, but they are avoiding risking clashes with America that could escalate. As an aside, I don't believe the figure of 10,000 ISIL fighters still in Iraq and Syria represents 10,000 full time fighters. I suspect this includes part-timers and/or family members of fighters. That's my position until I see better defined numbers.
If Biden opens the spigot to immigration and puts a mask mandate in place, will he deport immigrants who don't wear masks?
A Marine experiment with volunteer recruits found that tightly enforced quarantine didn't stop the spread of the Xi Jinping Flu compared to a control group. This seems counter-intuitive. And it makes me wonder about China's supposed success. Did China really control the spread with extreme lockdown quarantines of large populations? Or is China's approach exceed even the Marine approach in severity of control? The Marines were training during this, after all. Which is a different environment altogether. Via Instapundit.
The F-117 is only semi-retired. It appears that some of the 51 "retired" planes are used as a stand-in for enemy stealth aircraft in training; to put them up against potential foes' radar systems, and for recon missions in dangerous areas. The latter is interesting because it denies potential enemies experience trying to track our best stealth planes. And really, the F-117 should be called the A-117, because it is a light bomber and not an actual fighter aircraft.
Honestly, while I think Trump deserves reelection, he has not proven enough fraud or error to flip the results. That could change, I suppose, but he is running out of time. The election process will go on to inauguration day, and while I have urged patience as the process goes on, the process must go on. And it will go on despite Tyranny Porn that Democrats are still producing and consuming. The alliance between the media, significant segments of the federal bureaucracy, and Democrats was too strong and painted a highly misleading portrait of the president that did too much damage to him. And despite all that I still think Trump would have won but for the Black Swan event of the Xi Jinping Flu pandemic. It sucks that we elected a cognitively damaged president who is just a cardboard cutout waiting for Harris to take over. But we will go on. Luckily the Democrats set the standard for what is allowable in resisting a new president's policies. Work the problems. Prepare for the next elections on process integrity and on issues. It is possible (via Instapundit).
Heh:
Over the years I've read stories about America working to reduce dependency on China for rare earth elements. Here's another story.
Good riddance and rot in Hell. Sadly, until Islam resolves its civil war with a win by the people willing to live and let live over the Islamists who spawn jihadis and their fanboys, replacements will be plentiful and just as hate-filled and intolerant.
Fifth Corps forward is officially activated in Poland. As an aside, contrary to the article Poland does in fact border on Russia--their Kaliningrad exclave. But their point about not being near the main Russian western frontier at the border of Belarus is taken.
Remember that in this point in 2000 Al Gore was still three weeks away from conceding his defeat to George W. Bush. And it was his second concession--because he rescinded his first one.
Remember, we can't have civility in our political process until the left are rapped on the nose over how they acted so badly the last four years. If leftists think "civility" is a synonym for "passively accept liberal rule" they will never stop acting badly when conservatives win.
A portion of the climate change models that say some rain forests are vulnerable to drier air is wrong. That's good news, people.
Remembering how states changed voting rules "because of the pandemic" fear. Funny how rules for celebrating your candidate's win in massive, alcohol-fueled street gatherings weren't changed "because of the pandemic," too.
The CH-47 is a damned good design, it seems.
For all the talk about how Trump wages war on the press--which is ridiculous given how they wage war on him--we can now see that for the incoming Biden team, if you aren't with them you are against them.
Huh: "U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday defended his tour of Gulf Arab states and the Trump administration's continued efforts to squeeze Iran, even as a new U.S. administration led by Joe Biden prepares to enter the White House in January." Pompeo, the actual secretary of state, has to "defend' doing his job which continues until January (presumably)? That's a big change from four years ago when it was deemed a crime for incoming Trump appointees to reach out to foreign counterparts when there were existing American officials still doing their jobs.
What these people will do when they can't panic over every damned thing Trump does is beyond me. We'll be fine. Or is this basically an argument that no incoming president can replace the former president's senior officials? Ever?
If it turns out that Trump was right about decisive voter fraud putting Bidenharris in the White House, the only option will be impeachment and/or resignation of Biden and Harris under pressure. Which would then be the central issue of the 2022 Congressional election. Because the Speaker of the House would become president if both were impeached to correct that crime.
Apparently, International Emmy Awards are decided on nursing home body counts now.
Does the AP even remember that Clinton spent three years after that statement claiming Trump was illegitimate; and does the AP remember the spying and fake Russia collusion that Obama generated during the transition that arguably denied Trump a fully functional first term? To Hell with these activists posing as journalists.
Prime Minister Johnson is preparing to push a final Brexit trade deal with the EU. This might be one area in which the Xi Jinping Flu pushes sanity. Who needs more financial difficulties than the pandemic caused alone by risking a trade war?
The Ethiopian government claims their troops are moving to encircle the Tigray regional capital, Mekelle; but Tigray officials claim to have stalled the advance. How much weaponry does the claimed 250,000 paramilitary and militia troops available to Tigray have to oppose the 130,000-strong active Ethiopian army? Equipment is not modern but apparently reasonably maintained. Are government troops recruited from Tigray reliable?
Criminalizing political differences in Michigan. Democrats are getting a head start on the January cancellation of "dissent is the highest form of patriotism." Via Instapundit.
More on China's modernization plan for their army.
Yeah, I didn't bite on the vote machine rigging charges. Something big will have to drop to make me believe that. I think the charge will fade like the 2004 Diebold claims of a similar nature from Democrats. Still, I'd rather have paper ballots counted by hand. How much longer would that really take compared to the computerized system that invites challenges to the black box nature of the output?
Yes, Lee Harvey Oswald was a communist. Thirty years ago I discovered that the history profession was too leftist to endure. I discovered that fact at a convention of the American Historical Association. I let my membership lapse and never regretted it.
Womenfrei zones in France. Faster, please. Since I've been blogging I have been puzzled by the failure of feminists to be the most hard core supporters of the war on terror. Don't they know that in the Victims Olympics, women will never outscore Islamists? While Americans may perhaps be forgiven for not realizing we have the Statue of Liberty and not the Statue of Unrestricted Immigration, the French gave us the statue without the poem that we added later, and so should know better.
While I have not seen evidence of decisive election fraud--and it doesn't have to be widespread to be effective, just targeted in the right locations (Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, for example), I get annoyed when the media says that they see no evidence because they--unlike me--have the resources to look into the question but refuse to. If you don't look, of course you won't see it. Tip to Instapundit.
Let's at least celebrate that Trump didn't steal mailboxes and otherwise prevent mail ballots from getting through the system, as Democrats hyperventilated about before the election.
