There's a lot of doom in the air, today. I tend to think America won't collapse into chaos. We've had worst times of division in our history. Yet past survival is not a guarantee for the future. Survivor bias should not make us ignore the dangers of our decisions. And I'm living through this time as an adult, so my worry is naturally higher. That said, I worry a good deal about printing money and inflation. Stock prices and real estate are already skyrocketing in price. I assume the wealthy are looking for places to put their money. Hence their prices rise as money chases scarce resources. When ordinary people are free to spend again, will that expand that narrow inflation band to the economy generally? I just don't think our experts know what they are doing anywhere close to what they believe they can manage.
I'm torn between judging this evil or stupid. That said, government incentives and penalties push the companies to act that way.
The Biden administration has pressured Saudi Arabia to scale back its fight with Iran in Yemen. And otherwise made it clear his administration will give Iran whatever it wants to get a deal--any deal, even one worse than the 2015 original--on nukes. Iran responds with a big "f*ck you, we want it all." And the Israeli limpet mine attack on that Iranian mothership in the Red Sea inflicted only minor damage, according to the Strategypage post. Was the attack basically a publicity effort to justify the boarding and seizure of the ship by the Saudis?
Insurrection continues in Portland. But nobody in the woke-media complex pays attention because nobody is wearing animal horns for head gear. I've just decided not to care if people who live in Democratic cities want to tolerate the violence their leftist officials accept in their cities.
Manned UAVs. Essentially.
Sure, in theory a democratic Iran is more important than the nuclear question. I worry that mad mullah nutballs will have nukes. A non-theocracy in Iran may decide it doesn't want nuclear weapons. Or nuclear technology given the cost. But even nukes in the hands of non-nutballs doesn't worry me as much. Squeezing the mullah regime can both slow the nuclear drive and weaken the regime, in my opinion. I worry that a policy that loosens the squeeze on the theory that the regime will collapse first will save the mullahs long enough to get nukes.
I honestly don't understand why a canal that connects the Black Sea and Aegean Sea would undo the Montreux Convention provisions on the Turkish Straits and outside presence in the Black Sea. Doesn't this simply open a new link totally under Turkish control without wider implications?
Has anyone tried arresting them? That Chinese "naval militia" is made up of fishing vessels, basically. That are trespassing. Would China really respond by shooting at a coast guard that goes in to arrest them and/or herd them out? I'm hoping American-Filipino exercises are working out how to evict the Chinese militia ships from Whitsun Reef.
To be fair to that statement of supposed rock-solid support for Israel, pumice is a rock. Repeat after me: "civilian control of the military." No matter what Secretary of Defense Austin's opinion is, he doesn't determine foreign policy. Look who the civilians are and judge accordingly.
You'd think that in an "infrastructure" spending spree as big as the Democrats want, that dam infrastructure would be adequately addressed. You'd be wrong. Everything is infrastructure now except actual infrastructure, it seems:
You might want to be careful about assuming you know where hate lives.
An American carrier and amphibious carrier are exercising in the South China Sea.
Oh FFS: " 'We condemn the [Taliban] attack, and we believe this decision to provoke even more violence remains disruptive,' [DOD spokesman John] Kirby said.'“I can’t deliver a comprehensive analysis of what we believe they were trying to achieve or what message they were trying to send.' " Allow me to apply the clue bat to Kirby. The message the Taliban sent was "We intend to win, as Allah wills it. And we won't pretend to talk to you about peace." What the Taliban were trying to achieve was as many dead American troops as possible.
Sane people who see that hardly anybody attended nationwide white supremacist rallies would conclude that there are few white supremacists in America. Naturally, morons insist the white supremacists simply went underground.
Losing in practice to win in war, hopefully. Actually, to deter war hopefully. But it's not up to us.
American freedom of navigation operations aren't just for China, remember.
Dangerous Write Supremacist urges.
Is Trump the only president whose net worth declined while he was in office?
I'm way less worried than I already was about going about my business vaccinated. I assumed vaccination percentages were about chance to avoid the virus. Wrong! And I should have known that given that we have confirmed that less than ten percent of Americans have caught the Xi Jinping Flu virus. Hearing that a vaccine has 90% effectiveness would basically mimic the whole unvaccinated population, really. The percent number is a comparison between test groups who had the vaccine and those who didn't. So the latter group, the placebo group, might show 1% of people getting the virus. If the vaccine group had nobody getting the virus, it would be rated 100%. It is entirely effective in stopping the virus. If the same percent got the virus the vaccine would get a worthless 0% rating. So a 70% vaccine doesn't mean you have a 30% chance of getting the virus. But like I've said all along, this is outside my lane. And like I've also said a lot about various issues, always check the "definitions" section.
Election trust issues are real and deserve serious attention. For God's sake, people, before the election Democrats claimed Trump would steal the election and even accused him of stealing fricking mail boxes to do so! You don't have to think the 2020 election was stolen to do this. People who lose elections, whether in 2016 or 2020, have to have confidence they lost fair and square. We don't have that. Is the resulting heightened polarization really good for America?
Loughrey is one demented individual.
So ... despite the best efforts of the EU to diversify energy imports, Europe is still dangerously dependent on Russian energy. I guess nobody in Europe thought about reducing rather than increasing the amount of energy Russia can send to Europe via new pipelines. I really don't get nuance.
This had best not be the new normal. If so we need to break up our cities and sell them for parts. Tip to Instapundit.
As I've written, the real vote "tampering" in 2020 may have been the four years of relentless biased media: " 'Look what we did, we [CNN] got Trump out. I am 100% going to say it, and I 100% believe that if it wasn’t for CNN, I don’t know that Trump would have got voted out,' Chester tells the Project Veritas undercover journalist in the sting video. 'I came to CNN because I wanted to be a part of that.' ” Not that voter fraud/error enabled by lax voter verification standards couldn't have played a role, mind you. But the propaganda was decisive.
Seeing stories about donation drives to end "food insecurity" drive me nuts. Apparently, after a year of economic dislocation caused by pandemic lockdowns, Americans have gained weight. Yet widespread food drives persist. I note that the food drives don't say people are going "hungry" The definition of "food insecurity" is probably a wonder to behold. Are you hungry? No. Do you think you will be hungry tomorrow? No. Do you know where you will get tomorrow's meal? No. Well, you are food insecure! The goal posts are moved to continue the crisis. Just as lack of actual widespread racism led to "microaggressions" and now "systemic racism." If you look closely enough with the right definitions, you can be desperate and oppressed forever. No doubt some people get hungry and there are racists. But they don't define our country and people are taking advantage of both gross exaggerations.
If the Biden administration is shutting down use of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine over the threat of 1-in-a-million blood clotting, doesn't that say the virus itself is fairly harmless? Is that the message being sent? Or do we really have enough of other vaccines to make up for that? It's been about five weeks since mine and I'm fine. And do we know if the blood clots were even caused by the vaccine rather than a coincidence? What are the odds of 6 people out of 6.8 million getting a blood clot over the time period since the vaccine has been given out?
The Chinese Communist Party sure likes Thomas Friedman. The feeling is mutual. I stopped reading him since he suggested the bright side of Russia's dismemberment of Ukraine might be higher American energy prices. I'm not saying you can't drown in a pool of Friedman's wisdom. But you would have to be drunk and face down to do so. The man is simply disgusting and I don't know how he sleeps at night.
I was taking a walk one day when I saw a man driving. Alone. On a sunny day. With the top down. While wearing a mask. Because Science!, I suppose.
Inflation. I'm shocked it isn't worse. But I've been shocked it hasn't been worse for a long time, now.
I suppose the bright side of pollsters trying to figure out how they got 2020 so wrong is that it means they weren't deliberately skewing the polls to discourage Republican voters.
Are the Chinese doing in Canada what FDR feared Japanese Americans would do for Japan after Pearl Harbor? If so, do we have any reason to believe China isn't doing something similar in America? I have no way to judge the report. Except to say that the Chinese view overseas Chinese as intelligence assets ("a thousand grains of sand" approach). Just ask Representative Swalwell or Senator Feinstein. So this would not be a ridiculous speculation. But given our important military bases in Washington state just across an undefended border, would a Chinese foothold in Canada be enough?
Iran is broke and in trouble despite Biden eagerness to cut a nuclear deal. And this is interesting: "Despite Iranian orders to threaten and antagonize Israel, not start a
war, Hezbollah did so in 2006 and saw billions worth of past Iranian aid
go up in smoke and Hezbollah suffered an embarrassing defeat." I think Israel screwed the pooch on that war. I scored it a Hezbollah win at the time. But perhaps it was a Pyrrhic victory for Hezbollah in the long run. And bleeding to support Assad may have weakened Hezbollah just as two million Sunni Syrian refugees angry at Shias for the war on Sunnis in Syria's multi-war flooded Lebanon. So the effects of that even longer fight makes it tougher to determine Hezbollah's present based only on the brief 2006 war.
I understand that most George Floyd protests did not involve violence. Seven percent were violent, I believe. I could distinguish between lawful protesters and rioters. Accept the former and prosecute the latter. But the left sees police violence against civilians and can't distinguish between the vast majority of safe encounters and the tiny--many orders of magnitude smaller than the percent of rioters compared to protests. The left wants to tear apart the police that protect all of us based on that tiny percentage of problems. Yet I am the one deficient in nuance.
A Michigan representative wants all local police to be disbanded. That was fun. Now do the Capitol Police who protect her.
Oh my Lord. I respect Holmes. I really do. But the idea that pivoting to the Pacific to face China isn't really pivoting away from Europe because an Arctic-centric view would show ... what? Geographic nuance? Or was the Europe First American strategy in World War II mythical? It is true that America was not in fact turning its back on Europe by giving the priority to Asia. But have no doubt Europe is rightly downgraded on the priority list.
Perhaps we've been hasty in wanting the lockdowns and social distancing to end.
Michigan's legislature works to secure voting integrity and the state's professional teams come out against the bill package. The teams are now dead to me. Basketball lost me to boredom some time ago. Baseball lost me in a strike decades ago. Hockey has lost me temporarily during endless rebuilding. I guess that is permanent. Yet I remained loyal to football. Despite their record. More loyal than they deserve with zero Super Bowl wins and bare familiarity with post-season play. But now? To Hell with them. I'm done. The teams think they can't lose conservatives by sucking up to the left by taking their side in politics? Why? Because Neanderthals must have ball on TV? Guess again. I'll watch European soccer before I watch them again, unless they change their attitudes fast. May they enjoy their new woke fan base.
BLM rioters are the militant wing of big business human resources departments. That sadly makes sense. But do the BLM rioters know they are supposed to just follow orders and be content with their menial role?
The Mali epicenter of jihadi violence. If the jihadis stayed "over there" and didn't bother us over here I wouldn't be interested in wasting time directly fighting them. But sadly, the jihadis have a global view of their hate.
Belgium nurses its ancient F-16s until their F-35 replacement arrives.
Can America continue to advise Afghan government forces after pulling all troops out of Afghanistan? Perhaps we can rely on virtual and commuter advisors. My question is whether vital contractors will stick around without the presence of American troops on the ground sharing the risk with them. Without the contractors Afghanistan can't sustain the logistics behind their trigger pullers out there killing jihadis every day.
The Biden administration is leaning forward in defense of Taiwan so far. Unless this is Resolve Theater because the Biden administration knows that China won't act against Taiwan before the mid-term elections in 2022.
Rather than take a cheap shot I'm going to say that's a really disturbing statistic. And that study is more than a year old. Did a year of pandemic, lockdowns, and riots make it worse? On the other hand, if that spreads to my demographic my dating pool will really shoot up! But perhaps I share too much.
That's certainly a lovely vision for India to defeat China. But will India's dysfunctional weapons procurement industry provide it?
Are governments deliberately inspiring fear of the COVID-19 virus to maintain control? I've never believed that lockdowns in America were motivated by Democrats' desire to control people. I think it was just a byproduct of their view of government's role in solving any problem and not just the Xi Jinping Flu pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China. But the moving of goalposts does make me think Democrats are getting very comfortable with the level of control they've had. On lockdowns, the science is not in fact "settled," as the article notes. And even if it is settled in favor of lockdowns? "But this isn’t just a scientific question. It’s an economic question.
It’s an educational question. It’s a moral question. You have to ask
whether it is worth wrecking our economy, our children’s education and
our social fabric in order to prevent deaths. That is a fundamentally
political issue." Exactly. We've never done in our so-called "debates." Just chanted "science" like it was a religious incantation.
Saying that Russia has "legitimate security interests" in Ukraine's Donbas is ridiculous when Russia decided to secure those interests by invading Ukraine. What is the limit to that kind of excuse-making logic?
I've warned that if America leaves Afghanistan that our allies won't stay without us. The British won't remain and NATO is rushing for the exits, too. America is the last coalition country with "significant force protection capabilities" in Afghanistan, so naturally no allies will stay when America leaves. This is a mistake. And calling Afghanistan the "forever war" is not an argument to quit the fight. A fight that is largely waged by our local allies and not our troops. If it is a "forever war" it is because our jihadi enemies are relentless in their Islamist-inspired hate and determination to kill us. You will not see Moslems driving around with "NO ENDLESS WAR" bumper stickers on their cars to protest the jihad against everyone else. We can't just end this war because we are tired of waging it. We'll see if we learned the lesson of declaring victory in Iraq and leaving too early in 2011.
European Union members continue to punish Britain for Brexit. The EU is on a glide path to evil.
So the Durham investigation hasn't been suppressed? Huh. Tip to Instapundit.
Don't believe your lying eyes.
We've gone from "global warming" to "climate change", with a brief detour to "global weirding" that failed to catch on. And now it is "climate emergency" which the faithful have dutifully embraced. Is it just me or is this like a criminal who changes his name repeatedly as each name is known to the police? And actually, we had "global cooling" before "global warming." Honestly, they can call it "Debbie", for all I care. It's still the same non-existential potential problem of uncertain causes that it has been for decades since mankind first starting putting serious amounts of CO2 in the air in the mid-twentieth century. Tip to Instapundit.
How sad is the German military when it needs second-hand French equipment? "The French Armed Force Ministry has offered four Breguet Atlantic 2 planes to plug a looming gap in the German Navy’s anti-submarine capabilities, provided that Berlin springs for modernizing the planes." Just four planes are significant to the armed forces of the largest economy in Europe! And the French apparently don't have confidence the Germans would pay to update just four planes! What is Germany's major malfunction?
I have to say, I miss the Trump days when America's diplomats were proud to represent America's greatness and the good we do. But at least she said every society on Earth is white supremacist. So she's broadly crazy and not just specifically nuts. Oh, and her personal experience includes being the United States ambassador to the U. N. Whatever obstacles were in her way didn't stop that. Or did she have ambitions of being queen of the world? This isn't just annoying, ignorant, and fundamentally wrong. It is dangerous. Because it fits well into our enemies' propaganda. Tip to Instapundit.
Democrats prepare to destroy an institution. Because when you are losing, change the rules of the game that Republicans played by even when they lost.
Huh: "The Philippines has invoked its mutual defense treaty with the United States." I saw no mention of that before. Is the Philippines going to try something to get around the Chinese naval militia blockade at Whitsun Reef with America in overwatch?
There is simply no way effects have a cause! Tip to Instapundit.
Potemkin Robot. The only reason "Putin is smiling" is because another Westerner reported a Russian press release as if it is fact. Russia's wonder weapon announcements are only slightly more credible than Iran's claims.
Anybody who has sped up to 90 mph to get a spider off the windshield sympathizes. Tip to Instapundit.
The stupidity! It burns! Well done, Lileks. Well done.
Remember the widely reported "news" about Russian bounties to kill American troops in Afghanistan? Well: "Translated from the jargon of spyworld, that means the intelligence agencies have found the story is, at best, unproven—and possibly untrue." Consider the journey Democrats have taken. In 2020 it was intolerable that Trump would tolerate this assault on our troops! This year the troops are white supremacists who must be hunted down and ejected.
The American head of EUCOM thinks the Ukrainians could ultimately stop a Russian attack with the forces Russia has on the border: "U.S. European Command Gen. Tod Wolters told lawmakers Tuesday that he is confident Ukraine could repel a new Russian invasion 'over time.' " The Russians would certainly gain ground in the initial attack. But Ukraine is much better prepared than in February 2014 when Russia took Crimea with nearly no deaths. And much better than in summer 2024 when Russia seized part of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine is weaker than Russia. And will be forever if it doesn't defeat their rampant corruption. But today, would whatever Russia can take before the attack grinds to a halt be worth the casualties Ukraine would inflict on the Russians? On the diplomatic front, the American secretary of state went to Europe to coordinate opposition to Russia, which annoyingly portrays itself as the victim in this crisis.
If we live in a simulation, is this last year of the world on hold for the pandemic a major system upgrade that paused the program? I hope we get flying cars in the new version!
The time it has taken to design, award a contract, build, and fix a new aerial tanker aircraft is depressing. And it is only entering service now. At a rate slower than expected.
This will not impress the Russians: "The Pentagon has scrapped a potential Black Sea transit by two Navy
destroyers this week due to concerns about escalating tensions between
Russia and Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the
plans." We announced the ships would go there. Russia warned us not to go there. And now we won't go there. Winning! A competent administration would have simply not announced the mission in the first place. A tough administration would not have canceled the mission. Whether or not the original mission was intended to send a signal to Russia, the cancellation surely sent a message. Or does this mean we think war is imminent? And if we think Turkey will actively assist Ukraine do we not want to appear to be shielding that intervention? Sheer speculation, of course.
The Army's Stryker Brigades--our motor rifle regiments--will be updated to fight in conventional battles. As I wrote about in Army magazine, I think the most important thing we could do for that mission is give the brigades a tank battalion and really bring the capabilities of a motor rifle regiment.
It would be better if the British sailed through the Taiwan Strait on their carrier group's maiden voyage to the Pacific. But given the horrible fate of Force Z, I'd cut the British some slack on this first mission north of Singapore.
The "bounty on soldiers" story isn't really about Russia. To be fair, it wasn't out of bounds to think the Russians might have done it. But the initial story was so light on facts that it only justified a mention on the news until more evidence came out. And if the media liked the president in office, that is what would have happened. But the media didn't like the president. In fact the media hated the president. And the media thought it was part of the Resistance to take him down. So we got this obsessive reporting instead. "Bombshell" report. What did Trump know and when did he know it? There is no reason to trust the media at all. Via Instapundit.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Mozambique: screwing the locals while developing fossil fuels, and the jihadis who pounced. Islamic State involvement is apparently mythical and local jihadis are the culprits. As is all-too-common, corrupt governance is effing up a wet dream. We'll see if American interest can focus the government on defeating the jihadis. Maybe regional states will try to help. I'll not even get my hopes up for battling the corruption that fuels the whole mess.
SOCOM and JSOC. Yes, special forces did most of the killing of jihadis. But they still need the web of conventional forces to generate information needed to kill jihadis by atomizing the enemy, and denying the enemy sanctuaries and access to the people for resources. Conventional forces in sufficient quantity are needed to enable that killing record. Which is a relevant point now that we've decided to risk losing Afghanistan as an ally that kills jihadis.
Iran continues to fight America: "A drone attack targeted U.S.-led coalition forces near a northern Iraqi airport Wednesday, the Kurdish region’s Interior Ministry and coalition officials said."
Really? "An F-15C Eagle set a record for the longest air-to-air kill, but we won’t know what the record is." It was just a test, of course. But wouldn't the old Phoenix missile the Navy used have the record? Or is this just an Air Force record? How does a "medium-range" missile go farther than a "long-range" missile? Just where is the "definitions" section? Ah, but the Wikipedia entry on Phoenix says the latest American AMRAAM just matches the Phoenix in range. Maybe the military will be like Starbucks and have a "grande" range in there somewhere.
Prepare to be boarded! "To defend U.S. space systems, the military could utilize on-orbit vehicles to physically seize satellites that pose a threat, an analyst said April 15." This is where Space Force SMOD space troops come in, I think.
Norway signed a deal with America that "will let the U.S. build facilities at three Norwegian airfields and one naval base, but will not amount to separate U.S. bases, the government said." Norway's parliament must ratify the deal to go into effect.
Remember, even if Russia starts a war and Turkey closes the Turkish Straits to American warships under the Montreux Convention, our Coast Guard could send ships there. Note that three American Coast Guard ships recently arrived in Europe. Two will go on to the Middle East but one is remaining in European waters. That's not a fighting force but it is a signal, as we did when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008. And if we had The Black Sea Queen, that would work. Wouldn't it?
Russian propaganda in America pales in comparison to what CNN does every day.
What is Fauci's major malfunction?
Woke people are awful people who do tremendous harm.
Sometimes sh*t happens. Even when nobody wants or expects the sh*t to hit the fan.
This is good news for reality and freedom of speech (tip to Instapundit). But it also speaks to the bizarre habit of people claiming to be pro-Islam. These people oddly insist that anything said about Islamist terrorism is an attack on Islam. Why is it "pro-Islamic" to argue that there is no difference between what Islamist terrorists believe and what other Moslems believe? And if so-called defenders of Islamic people insist on that linkage, why wouldn't a lot of non-Moslems accept that there is common belief, too? It's insane.
Don't let China achieve their objectives for the Internet.
When I was a young man, a police officer pointed his firearm at me when he thought I was a criminal. The silent alarm had been triggered when I opened up the arcade, not realizing the alarm was on. When the police responded and entered a loud arcade known for attracting the more criminally prone, I was on my back between two video games working on a problem. I don't remember what the problem could have been since access panels for most things were on the front. Luckily, I instinctively reacted in a manner to make it less likely that he'd shoot me. I showed the palms of my hands and clearly said "I work here." Simple and to the point. And I didn't make sudden moves or cop an attitude. I lived to work another day in a dangerous arcade because I didn't make matters worse and actively tried to make things better. That didn't guarantee my safety. But it helped. People need to help make their safety odds better.
Islamist terrorists send perhaps 65,000 people fleeing in northeast Nigeria.
The Ukrainian military is much better than it was in 2014. Can the Russians say the same of their military?
Remember that the Trump-Russia collusion BS was based on a lot of "bombshell" allegations that turned out to be lies or simply wrong. By fostering this BS the Democrats and their media allies did the heavy lifting for dividing America. So who really colluded with Putin? Tip to Instapundit.
I pick on CNN a lot. They deserve it. But they are just the worst example of leftist bias that could be applied to ABC, CBS, NBC, or PBS--or any number of print entities. As for MSNBC? Well, if you don't already recognize that emotional support network for the left as a clown car careening into a dumpster fire, there's no point.
TV personality Trevor Noah doesn't think rare but highly publicized police shootings of armed African-American males is a case of a few "bad apple" police: “My question, though, is where are the good apples?” he continued. “If we’re meant to believe that the police system in America, the system of policing itself is not fundamentally broken, then we would need to see good apples … Where are the cops who are stopping the cop from putting their knee on George Floyd’s neck? Because there’s not one cop at that scene.” One, some number of those shootings were justified. I don't know what percentage. But the basic premise of his ignorance of good apple police is weird. A man on a major television station wonders why nobody else is showing him good apples. Who pray tell is supposed to do that if not major effing television stations?
The Islamic State monsters continue to act like monsters: slavery. Jihadis need to be hunted down and killed wherever they are. And it isn't just ISIL that uses Allah to justify slavery.
Replacing the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. I get very nervous about having one crew as commander and gunner. I'm nervous enough about auto loaders instead of a crewman in a tank. But fine. Still, I don't think automation can ever get good enough to distract the commander by having to shoot, too.
#WhyRussiaCan'tHaveNiceThings. Interestingly enough, the author says that Russia's "great power" status reflects only the "country’s geographical size (and possibly its nuclear arsenal)[.]" About the latter doubt on Russia's nuclear arsenal, I wonder the same thing. Russia has a history of lying about its nuclear prowess, as I note in this post.
To his credit, Biden is standing up for Taiwan. Words and naval deployments support Taiwan. We'll see if this is extended to material support and the ability to intervene if necessary.
Yes, Pakistan has been crucial to the ability of the Taliban to wage war in Afghanistan. I've long recognized that, and Pakistan's role was the basic reason for why I didn't think Obama's surges were the best course. And why I wanted an American troop presence to counter the Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan. And it does get worse as Pakistan shifts even further away from being a double-dealing ally to being an friend of China. There's a potential alternative to the line of supply to Afghanistan that Pakistan provides. But Biden's outreach to Iran that will strengthen the mullahs is no way to get that supply line.
Yes, we assume that rule of law is part of democracy. But they can exist separately:
To be fair, I might be a Democrat if I too wrongly believed that massive numbers of unarmed African-American males are being slaughtered by police and if I wrongly believed that the chance of being hospitalized from COVID infection is extremely high. I don't deny that we should work on lowering the shooting risk--without rioting and looting. Heck, until the left went fully nuts on defunding the police and defending rioting and looting, I was all on board battling the over-militarization of police forces. Now? Regaining control of the streets to protect people is a way higher priority for me. Although I'm still fully on board on reducing the bullshit regulations that are enforced by police with the authority to kill. And I don't dismiss the threat of the Xi Jinping Flu that has killed more than 500,000 mostly elderly and health-compromised Americans. I have taken precautions from the beginning to avoid getting it. My worry was at maximum early when so much was unknown. The early models were horrifying but thankfully way off. As weeks passed with better data coming in, my worries declined dramatically. I'm just not terrified by the risk. I went to Las Vegas last September, after all. I had fun. I took precautions. I still take precautions. But I'm starting to reclaim my life post-vaccination. I know vaccination isn't a guarantee I won't get COVID. But my odds are lower. And the odds of being hospitalized or dying from the virus are virtually non-existent. That's good enough for me.
Once you eat meat, you never retreat:
No, North Korea has not been building nuclear weapons since the 1990s. North Korea has been building nuclear devices since the 1990s that it can explode with thousands of scientists and technicians supervising the detonation. I don't actually ever see any solid information on how many deliverable nuclear weapons North Korea has. Which might be zero, for all I can tell.
As Iran begins enriching Uranium to 60%, remember that Iran is able to do this because the 2015 Iran nuclear deal both enabled Iran's technology push and shielded Iran's nuclear infrastructure from being bombed. The shield is shaky at this point.
I've said from the beginning, judging national pandemic responses need to wait to the end. Also, it would be handy to have a common definition of cases and deaths for comparing country efforts. And if people focus on the role of the Chinese Communist Party in inflicting this pandemic on the world, China could yet lose big.
I sincerely doubt that the triangle-shaped objects supposedly flying over our ships were alien space ships. If real and not artifacts of the camera or processing, they could be American delta wing drones being tested. I'm just not worried about potential super prober events.
Prison time. Lots of it. Now that would be funny.
I hope Israel keeps releasing information about the Iranian nuclear weapons program that Iran insists it has never had. Biden wants to forge a deal that rests on Iran pretending it doesn't have a nuclear weapons program. But if Biden wants to carry out America's part of pretending to believe Iran, there's no reason to enable that self-destructive fantasy.
When news of North Korean hacking operations first arose, I mocked them. How could their old Radio Shack computers do much? But North Korea persisted, so I was way off. Luckily it has a lot of focus on basic criminal theft of money. In other news, North Korean elites seem to be suffering from a sense of doom. Fingers crossed. But it sure has been a long collapse with no actual impact yet. And one that survived the death of Kim Jung-Il.
It's rather revealing that a left-leaning comedian thinks the role of comedy is to undermine or support politicians rather than to be funny. Honestly, that choice is pretty obvious. They aren't funny. Their audiences clap rather than laugh. If you can't poke fun at Joe Biden you aren't a comedian. "Comedians" on the left are now just preachers rallying the faithful for money, no less than televangelists.
The British plan to detach a couple surface warships from their carrier task force to enter the Black Sea in May. The move is in support of Ukraine under Russian pressure. The carrier will remain north enough to provide air cover if needed.
This isn't inciting insurrection? Yet somehow Trump telling his supporters to peacefully protest the Congressional certification of the Electoral Vote was a "dog whistle" for violence? Representative Waters will face no backlash or consequences. I don't know what kind of privilege she has, but she has it. Tip to Instapundit.
