An online journal of commentary, analysis, and dignified rants on national security issues. Other posts on home life, annoying things, and a vast 'other' are clearly marked.
I live and write in Ann Arbor, Michigan. University of Michigan AB and MA from Eastern Michigan University. One term in the Michigan Army National Guard. Former American history instructor and retired nonpartisan research analyst. I write on Blogger and Substack. Various military and private journals have published my occasional articles on military subjects. See "My Published Works" on the TDR web version or under the mobile version drop-down menu for citations and links.
The LCS was intended to replace 30 larger Perry class frigates and 26
smaller mine warfare ships. That did not work out as planned because of
delays in completing the task-specific mission modules that enabled an
LCS to quickly install specialized equipment, which was accompanied by a
team of specialists to operate it. This enabled an LCS to handle mine
warfare, surface combat, air defense and so on. While the first LCS
entered service in 2008, the first Mission Modules didn’t arrive until
2018 and none of these modules worked as originally planned. Not only
were the modules all late, some were cancelled and all were way over
budget because of a variety of problems navy planners did not
anticipate, but could have if they had paid more attention to all the
potential problems with developing these modules.
Training for new Marines will become more rigorous as troops start to
conduct more complex operations in smaller units, the commandant told
senators Thursday.
“Through [a Marine’s] entry-level training to [his or her]
first unit, we have to raise the bar because we’re going to expect
noncommissioned officers and junior officers to make decisions that two
levels up, they make today,” Gen. David Berger said during a Senate
Appropriations Committee hearing on the Navy and Marine Corps budget for
2022.
The major point of an article I wrote for the USNI Blog in 2018 was that technology is going to erode the marksmanship advantage the Marines have counted on to dominate infantry combat. "Every Marine a rifleman" is no longer going to cut it.
New weapons that any militia can use to aim with high accuracy should force the Marines to drastically change training to emphasize leadership and tactical skill to maintain tactical dominance. Because even when Marines have those super weapons, enemies will have them too, or at least versions good enough to greatly erode the Marine marksmanship edge.
Is this training change a reaction to the technology change that I described? Or it could simply be that the new model of small dispersed Marine detachments directly supporting the Navy sea control mission is the driving factor. That's actually my guess.
Still, it is a good change for my reasons for wanting it.
Yet, the seemingly never-ending succession of battlefield setbacks that
suddenly accelerated this weekend is beginning to create a perception of
inevitability about a Taliban takeover. It is a perception that, unless
quickly reversed, risks snowballing into a self-fulfilling prophecy,
Afghan officials warn.
On paper, the
Afghan government can hold. But in the real world, fear of death is
heightened by the American-led withdrawal. If enough time passes without
a general collapse of government morale, the paper balance will win
out.
But the Taliban have a window of opportunity when fear of the
unknown without America holding the hand of government forces makes
government officials and forces scared enough to preemptively give up.
Yet here we are doing nothing to bolster the Afghan forces' morale until the sense of panic and doom can pass.
America could slow down its withdrawal from Afghanistan amid rapid
battlefield gains by the Taliban which have raised alarm in Nato
capitals, the Pentagon said.
Ashraf Ghani's forces have been swept
out of many rural areas since the insurgents launched a nationwide
offensive at the start of May.
But the real solution is to halt--not slow--the withdrawal and remain to help the government kill jihadis.
The State Department and the Pentagon are working on plans to evacuate
thousands of Afghan citizens who worked for the United States during the
20-year war in Afghanistan, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed Thursday at a news conference.
For the United States, Raisi’s election, viewed through
the prism of
ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, heightens the Biden
administration’s sense of urgency to conclude a deal before an
inevitably more rigid Iranian administration is inaugurated on August
8.
Of course, the author of the initial article is part of the problem.
The author complains not that Raisi is a butcher and religious
fanatic--but that Republicans will "pounce" on that to oppose Iran's
butchering theocracy as it seeks regional dominance and nuclear weapons.
The latter is the real problem for Biden. FFS.
Still, that
author has some sense of reality:
As long as Iran’s security forces
remain united and willing to kill en
masse, and Iran’s society remains disunited and unwilling to die en
masse, the tipping points will continue to tip in the regime’s favor.
If only that understanding could be generalized to appreciate that deals
with such a regime are pointless delusions. Rather than being an incentive to hurry to a deal, Iran's election of an open nutball is bad:
Mr Raisi’s election and his subsequent public hardline stance shows
the regime’s implacable intent. It appears to see no reason to make
peace with its neighbours, to restrict its hegemonic tendencies, to
refrain from obstructing the development of nations that have long been
tormented by geopolitical ambitions, all for the purpose of projecting
its power. [para] The only difference now is that the false mask of
diplomatic niceties
of the outgoing Iranian administration has also been cast aside.
This
is bad for the Biden administration because it will increase the degree
of difficulty for Iran's Democratic fanboys (and fangirls) to bribe Iran to accept a new Iran nuclear deal that doesn't stop Iran from going nuclear.
But the Biden team is up to the task with their trademarked Smart Diplomacy:
The lack of an interim agreement between the U.N. nuclear watchdog and
Iran on the monitoring of atomic activities is a serious concern that
has been communicated to Tehran, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
said on Friday.
Claiming the IAEA is the key to a deal subcontracts responsibility for inevitable failure to an amorphous international entity rather than putting it squarely on Biden (and Obama before him).
These
improvements to the tank’s gun, ammunition, armor, sensors,
communications and other features haven’t just kept the Abrams relevant,
they have left planners with little basis for imagining what could
possibly replace the nation’s premier armored combat vehicle.
Although
my understanding was that the platform is reaching the limits of
upgrades.
Perhaps that has changed? Maybe the limits of upgrading are bypassed with technology that allows a new turret and drone
"wing men" within a surveillance and kill web extend the reach of the tanks
and make them completely different to the current main battle tank
platforms, as I hinted in this essay on future warfare, akin to "heavy M11A1 Legion main battle tandems" that are a system of linked platforms.
The specter of the dread Russian threat once mocked by Democrats but suddenly embraced by them from 2016 to 2020 is ending. So two pandemics are winding down.
Now comes Biden, making moves in Russia policy that areessentially
conciliatory — freezing a military aid package to Ukraine, ending U.S.
sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Germany to Russia, a
return of ambassadors — and setting up a summit that can reasonably be
regarded as a modest propaganda coup for Putin.
Even if the government isn't suppressing free speech, someone is. The answer will likely be that people will eventually rebel against the control that social media is exerting. For free information and debates, these people will migrate to other platforms. Those who remain in the censored platforms will be the ones most comfortable with being spoon fed nice soft soothing information. And for cat and painful groin injury videos plus posting your vacation photos, as God intended.
After repeated beatings from the flaming clue bat, California gets a clue: "California is now directing $500 million dollars on forest management to reduce the risk of fires after a devastating wildfire season." I guess there was a decent interval between Trump and the decision. And yes, believe your own damn eyes and see that California is getting hotter and drier. The funny thing about global warming is that it is an average of global regional temperature trends. And regardless of that, as governor Newsom has a duty to mitigate the problem--even if Trump advocated it--and not just pray to Gaia for salvation.
Ordinary people will suffer from a premature bet on green energy. The well off won't experience any change in lifestyle and will be able to feel morally superior for their so-called "green" lifestyle. Nobody will mention that their "green" lavish lifestyle could sustain 10 (or whatever the ratio is) blue collar families who must now use the dirty and sinful fossil fuels available at higher prices. And nobody's sense of superiority will be dirtied by understanding how windmills and solar panels are produced and disposed of when worn out and broken.
In related news on the frigate aspect of the LCS failure that led to buying the French-Italian FREMM design: "Normally the U.S. Navy does not buy foreign ships or ship designs. In
this case the navy wanted something that was a proven design and met the
requirements for its Constellation class. FREMM did this best and the
U.S. Navy will let the European builders do their thing[.]" In a longer war with China or Russia, replacing losses will only involve ships already under construction and the smaller ships like the frigates which could be built faster than capital ships. If the Europeans can build them during a war, we've done a lot to cope with our lack of shipbuilding and repair capacity.
A reminder that the constant leftist complaint that "fighting jihadi terrorists just makes more terrorists" is BS. Killing terrorists works: "Some critics say this approach motivates more Moslems to support
terrorism. This ignores what media, and popular opinion in Moslem
nations, has been preaching since the 1980s. The Arab message was
consistently very anti-West and pro-Islamic terrorism. That opinion only
changes when the terrorists lose. That's when Islamic terrorists
eventually become unpopular in Moslem majority countries. Despite more
opportunities to attack non-Moslems, over 90 percent of their victims
are Moslems. This is unpopular with nearby Moslem civilians, as it was
for over a thousand years whenever there was an outbreak of fanatic
'defend Islam' activity where the deaths were about 99 percent Moslems.
These people know that Western tactics kill far fewer Moslems than those
of Islamic terrorists but have long been reluctant to dwell on that." As I've written, only fighting jihadis ineffectively makes more jihadis. I worry our retreats from the frontlines of this fight reduce our ability to kill jihadis. Which could simply make more jihadis.
By that logic, taxpayer money going to turn out the vote in big cities is not tax-exempt because big city dwellers overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. Wow! This game really is fun to play! Tip to Instapundit.
I'm going to need more than speculation to think the FBI had a hand in the January 6, 2021 Capitol Building riot. But to be fair to the FBI, stings on even moron jihadi wannabes discourages others from trying to join cells out of fear. This is a useful tactic. Also, moron jihadis only look sad when they fail. When they succeed their prior idiocy and sinfulness under Islamic rules becomes irrelevant.
Committing the reserves: "Last week China announced plans to release government reserves of some key commodities
– including copper, aluminium and zinc (but not iron ore) – to counter
high prices and some supply shortages that are driving up raw material
costs for its manufacturers." The author believes it is a futile gesture to dampen commodity price inflation. Beats me. But does it indicate China has no plans to initiate a war that might lead to a blockade of Chinese raw material imports?
I repeatedly mention hopes that we will reach peak stupidity with leftist insanity. I'm starting to think there is leftist "systemic stupidity."
I worry that there is a window of danger after NATO is out of Afghanistan during which government morale is vulnerable to cracking and shattering. Given time, Afghan government supporters and security forces will gain confidence they can fight and win without our direct presence and support. But the Taliban are working hard to get the cracking going: "'We strongly believe the U.S. military was terribly defeated in
Afghanistan,' Khalid Zadran, a Taliban media official, told The Daily
Beast. 'And they’re running away from Afghanistan in a hurry.' An
ex-minister of the militant group described similar reactions: 'Today
the Taliban are in the highest military morale,' he said. 'And Afghan
soldiers are losing the enthusiasm to fight with the Taliban.'" The Taliban may be wrong. But the recognize an opportunity to shape reality.
Critical Race Theory tells us that white people are evil and that people of color are helpless losers. This is appealing and helpful ... how? Feel free to think you are evil. But leave me out of it. I'm not playing your stupid guilt-trip game that is so horrifyingly condescending to minorities and cruel to white people that I am nearly speechless. Really, I'm Super Anti-Racist. Which means I refuse to discuss race issues with self-described racists. Such monsters would delete the first half of this video to portray a vicious hate crime as a racist white toddler chases down a victimized Black toddler.
The Biden administration will lust after Iran even more after the newest nutball plays hard-to-get prior to taking office: "Ebrahim Raisi, formerly the chief of Iran’s judiciary, said on Monday
that he is unwilling to negotiate over the proliferation of his
country’s nuclear weapons program, something the United States and close
regional ally Israel seek to slow, and urged the U.S. to ease pressures imposed on top officials and the Iranian economy."
Well, the shutdown of Iran's only energy-producing nuclear reactor could be from "technical issues".
Thankfully, Biden's strange desire to embrace Iran will run into regional opposition: "Israel’s new foreign minister will head to the United Arab Emirates next
week for the first known visit by a top Israeli diplomat to the Gulf
Arab country, the ministry said Monday."
I didn't think Trump's outreach to North Korea would work to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions. I have less hope that Biden's outreach will succeed in anything but persuading Kim Jong-Un to take our money.
Is Nigeria sliding toward civil war? And if so, how much will it fracture? And if it fractures, will there be massive population movements to join "their" territory? If so, will it be bloody? And if the northern Islami-dominate region goes its own way, who on Earth will even try to control the jihadi impulses up there?
Russia sinks roots in their Syria bases. Why on Earth Russia thinks this is valuable to them is beyond me. Is it really buying influence? To what end? And in war with NATO, forces there would lead a short but exciting life against NATO naval forces that would be unlikely to leave the Mediterranean Sea anyway.
Spotting a stealth plane is just one step to locking on to them and shooting at them. Are military UFO sightings actually evidence we are working on that? Hmmm. Seems far more likely than actual aliens. Of course, if it is something else entirely, it's kind of fun to make the Chinese and Russians worry about this countermeasure, eh?
Killing drones with area effects. Now we're talking. If the Army can put a mobile version to cover the forward line of our troops, the scourge of small explosive drone swarms will prove to have been a fleeting threat. Indeed, our persistent recon and conventionally armed drones worked spectacularly great against terrorists. But was it a revolution in warfare or only a lucky coincidence because the enemy that existed when the technology matured lacked air defenses? I guess we'll see if the drone swarms can be adapted to air defenses focused on these low-altitude aerial vehicles. Also, not to flog a dead horse, but the war in Afghanistan is not ending because we are leaving the war as the article on our drone warfare states. We are only ending our ability to decisively influence whether our friends or our jihadi enemies win the war that continues.
I mentioned the Biden administration decision to withdraw air defense assets from Arab states. George Friedman speculates it is about reaching out to Iran. This makes sense from the Obama perspective. You may recall that Obama wanted to "balance" Iran and our allies on the theory that strengthening Iran compared to our friends would enable Iran to make a peace deal and become a responsible regional power. Once more into the moron breach, apparently.
The UN's only fighting force. But it is just whack-a-mole in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But as long as the Presidential Guard stays in its hole rather than coming out to support the former president, the death toll is kept at a dull roar that doesn't disturb us during our evening meal.
The Biden administration has been good on the Navy's symbolic Taiwan Strait transits. Another one took place.
More information on the possible high-level Chinese defector to the United States. If true, at some point after getting the bulk of useful information out of Vice Minister of State Security Dong Jingwei in debriefings, I imagine we'd want to leak the information of the defection to see where the Chinese rats scurry out of fear of being outed by the defector. I assume. The signals path mapped out alone would be informative, no?
The Russians want to record our missile defense test at Hawaii. This Russian naval deployment is so unusual that I wonder if the Russians are under orders from their Chinese masters. I hope we either spoof the Russians or delay the test long enough to require the decrepit Russian ships the chance to record our Coast Guard rescue capabilities. Tip to Instapundit.
The European Union wants the power to tax. Of course it does. The suspense is killing me over how the EU will find a work-around to mere legal obstacles: "Any attempt seriously to impinge on national tax laws still requires unanimity among member states. This irks Euro-federalists." But there are now cracks in the wall keeping the EU away from that power. The EU will by hook or crook break the wall. The power to tax is the power to destroy. And the EU wants to destroy all opposition to removing the prefix from the proto-imperial EU project.
We should pull out Afghan translators now because of Vietnam? "In the chaotic, final hours of the Vietnam War, the U.S. evacuated
thousands of South Vietnamese who supported the American mission and
were at risk under the communist government." Oh? I hate to bring up history of the actual war, but American troops left in 1973 after signing a "peace" treaty. The final chaotic hours were the results of a North Vietnamese armor- and artillery-led offensive in 1975 that conquered South Vietnam after we cut off logistics and air support to South Vietnamese forces. Is the argument that Afghanistan is doomed now? We're not even going to wait a couple years to see what happens? We should just assume defeat now? If that's the case, maybe we shouldn't be leaving the Afghan forces on their own to fight murderous scum bastards who will not hesitate to come after us when they win. Maybe--hear me out, now--maybe we shouldn't risk defeat by pulling out completely and demoralizing our allies by pulling out the people who worked for us as we go. For fuck's sake people, are we this stupid?
Sure, it's satire. But it is 100% accurate: "'You'll Never Beat The Government With Just Guns,' Says Party That Also
Believes Government Was Almost Toppled By Unarmed Mob On January 6[.]" Nobody who entered the Capitol Building during the riot had a firearm, let alone nukes or 4th generation warplanes.
China says its Wuhan Flu lab deserves a Nobel Prize. Well, it took almost 12 years to tell Obama "Hold my beer", but it happened. In related news: "U.S. lawmakers are demanding an investigation into the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan, China,
where athletes complained of COVID-like symptoms and described the city
as a 'ghost town' weeks before authorities admitted the spread of a new
virus." I remember the Chinese accusation that American troops introduced the virus to China. But I never read until now that two months before China announced it had a new virus on the loose that there was such an illness apparent. Why is this in the news only now??!!
Democrats turn blue cities into violent Hell holes and their solution is to deny firearms to law-abiding citizens. I guarantee that if the government got rid of 99% of the civilian-owned firearms in the country that 99% of the remainder would be in the hands of criminals. And crime would be worse because of it. But hey, never let a crisis you caused go to waste, I guess.
I suspect the Delta variant of the Xi Jinping Flu pandemic is media hype. If you are vaccinated you'll likely be fine, I suspect, even if the virus is more contagious. [sarcasm] All I know for sure is that because the variant is named after a Greek letter that the Goddamned Greeks are responsible and should be attacked on our streets wherever we find them. Which is very clever of India, where the variant was identified. [/sarcasm]
If General Milley is just trying to understand potential enemies of the United States, he's on solid ground. But his understanding of racist BLM/CRT thinking doesn't seem like he is trying to know our enemy. I hope Milley is just as insistent that race education not turn into racist education that divides American troops. On that I'm not about to rush to his defense. Good grief, he seems to think the riot was an insurrection. That's nuts. And Milley's description of the Three-Fifths Comprise is just 180 degrees wrong. Although it is true Milley is obligated to obey the orders of his civilian superiors, I am worried about his leadership despite my generally good opinion of him up to now. Jesus, the fact that leftists in the media are praising Milley should be setting off alarm bells all throughout the Pentagon! Is his leadership creating a hostile work environment for potential white recruits? Is his leadership going to get minority recruits to believe that the military is not a meritocracy where they can rise to the limits of their capabilities? I mean, just how large is the recruiting pool of daughters of lesbian parents? (Mind you, I thank the young soldier for her service and thank the parents for raising someone who wanted to join. That's great.) Just who will join the military now? The woke? Please. And actually, that's the only continuing good news. This will not turn out well for America. Or for those who rely on our strength. Our enemies no doubt can't believe their good luck.
Jen Psaki isn't a very good liar. But she's persistent: "Jen Psaki on Wednesday tried to pretend it was actually Republicans, not
Democrats, who attempted to defund the police, [which] was easy to call
hogwash." Optimist that I am, at least some Democrats are willing to say it was a bad idea.
I find it fascinating that Democrats blame white "science deniers" for not getting vaccinated against the Xi Jinping Flu at rates the Democrats think are necessary. And then Biden makes excuses for why people of color understandably don't want to get vaccinated. The implicit racism of Biden in denying minorities agency is astounding and revolting.
And again, Twitter is leftist-garbage for other leftists to read. And for the media and corporations to pretend reflects the actual country.
To help General Milley in his job, allow me to repeat this:
Iran showed how drones can evade air defenses to strike targets in Saudi Arabia. Somebody returned the favor: "[A drone] attack reportedly hit a facility linked to Iran’s nuclear weapons
program. The site being used for manufacturing nuclear centrifuges
suffered major damage in the attack, the media reports on Wednesday
suggest." Tip to Instapundit.
If Americans saw candidate Biden during the campaign the way we are seeing him now as president, not even the media's full-court press to prop up his image of lucidity would have gotten enough people to vote for him. Between what our enemies see of him and what is being in his name to our military's cohesion and morale, it will be a miracle if one or more enemies don't decide they have a window of opportunity to strike their highest priority target while we are hobbled. Or maybe just an easy target to test the waters. Maybe Biden and Congress should decide what we are doing in eastern Syria, eh? If not, we'll just drift along on autopilot until there is a crisis and body bags of Americans flying home.
Oh yeah, complete mystery: "Scientists using computer modeling to study SARS-CoV-2, the virus that
caused the COVID-19 pandemic, have discovered the virus is most ideally
adapted to infect human cells—rather than bat or pangolin cells, again
raising questions of its origin." Maybe one day we'll know the origin of the Xi Jinping Flu that arose in Wuhan, China; and how the virus is so adapted to infecting humans, which might be something the Wuhan Institute of Virology could handle. Fingers crossed!
Wow. Big tech went all in to harm Republicans and help Democrats. Yet with Democrats in charge of the White House and Congress now, the move to break up big tech accelerates under Democrats. Big tech learns you can't buy politicians--just rent them.
An odd thing about this whole Xi Jinping Flu pandemic struck me. It seems highly likely that the Covid-19 virus was engineered in a Chinese lab and then accidentally escaped. That which was once verboten to say is now okey dokey. But the Chinese vaccine seems to be the most ineffective vaccine out there. So is it really true that the Chinese quickly smothered this virus inside China? How is that possible when the Chinese vaccine is so poor? Will we find out that Chinese casualties are much higher than the Chinese Communist Party admits? And if we find that out, will death rates in the upper reaches of the Chinese Communist Party reflect the wider death rate? And if not, did the CCP elites rely on the Chinese vaccine for protection? Or did they get their hands on Western vaccines somehow? Or make better vaccines for their elites? I only speculate on the trail of speculations because the CCP has a major problem of taking care of a rapidly aging population without the systems to support them. The government doesn't have a safety net and the government destroyed extended family safety nets with a one-child policy. And given the treatment of the Uighurs especially, is it out of bounds to wonder if the CCP wants to kill off even Han Chinese when they are an obstacle to CCP supremacy? Will we ever know what happened inside China? Again, this is sheer speculation based on motive and history. I'm almost certainly wrong. But I wouldn't be shocked to find I'm closer to being right than wrong.
Sure, but the problem is the Plan B in place, which even Democrats seem to be shying away from. Tip to Instapundit.
The idea of a National Guard quick reaction force is a bad idea. I think it is a bad idea and is just Democrats trying to stage Insurrection Theater. And the very idea of a Guard QRF to protect Congress undermines the Democratic belief that the military is a hotbed of white supremacists. The riot was bad and those who entered the Capitol Building should be appropriately punished. And the police force that Congress controls should not be caught flat-footed the way it was that day. But let's not pretend that January 6th was an insurrection.
"White rage" is just a stupid framing. I'm so old that I remember when leftists reacted to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks with earnest questions of "why do they hate us?" as if America deserved the hatred and we have to change rather than the terrorists.
This is horrifying: "Suspected suicide attempts in girls increased 50.6 percent, compared to a 3.7 percent increase in young men." The Xi Jinping Flu pandemic was serious. But the reaction to it was, too. I think an honest review of the full costs and benefits of our reaction to the pandemic will conclude we overreacted with broad restrictions on people.
I don't like the framing of our Afghanistan withdrawal as "Afghans are going to have to decide their future" as Biden stated. A generation ago "the Afghan people" decided to tolerate a Taliban government which hosted al Qaeda, the Islamist terror group that killed nearly 3,000 of us at home on September 11, 2001. But now? Whatever. Kill us or don't. We don't care.
As if jihadis in the north aren't a big enough problem: "The U.N. World Food Program says southern Madagascar is in the throes of
back-to-back droughts that are pushing 400,000 people toward
starvation, and have already caused deaths from severe hunger."
Communist (but really fascist now) China continues to display its determination to crush free and democratic Taiwan: "Any Taiwanese move toward independence would also spell 'war' for the island nation, Beijing said." Why would Taiwan resist China when it sees how well Peking treats Tibetans, Uighurs, Hong Kongers, or even all of its Han subjects under the Social Credit system of surveillance and control? It is not an "inevitability" that China will control Taiwan. If such a thing is true, how do any small or weak states survive next to larger ones? Yet that is true all over the world. And true around China, where North Korea exists. As does Mongolia. And Kyrgyzstan. And Tajikistan. And Nepal. And Bhutan. Vietnam is putting up a successful fight so far. At least Taiwan has a nice 100-mile wide anti-tank ditch to help out.
That's effing insane: "More than 15 months into the coronavirus pandemic, tens of thousands of
seafarers vital to the global shipping industry remain stranded at sea
or in ports, unable to leave their ships or get to new assignments due
to global travel restrictions." Criminals in America aren't even being arrested and charged. But sailors doing vital work are still serving time after 15 months? This is effed up.
The Biden administration says that inflation is a fleeting symptom of restarting the economies around the world and that inflation-driving shortages will eventually ease and restore low inflation. I want to believe that. But the administration says a lot of things that just aren't so. Which means I worry about inflation.
I suspect the media hyping of the Delta (Indian) variant of the Xi Jinping Flu Covid-19 virus (which began in Wuhan, a city in communist China) is part of media virus panic porn to sustain their post-Trump ratings and to bolster Democratic calls to spend more money we don't have. Not that I think the variant is nothing--this engineered virus is more of a problem than a wild one would be--but I think the progress in vaccines, treatments, and the lack of more vulnerable victims to fuel surges in deaths will make this variant a blip rather than a reason to retreat to lockdowns and panic.
Why the Palestinian leadership periodically try to kill Jews with rockets or whatever is at hand: "Angry demonstrators clashed with Palestinian security forces for a third
day Saturday during a protest in the West Bank over the death of an
outspoken critic of the Palestinian Authority who died while in custody." Can't have Palestinians getting angry with the corrupt rulers who actually wreck their lives on a daily basis, now can they?
Well, yes: "A new report published by the Air Force Research Laboratory suggests the
U.S. Space Force has to prepare for a day when the moon and the volume
of space around it could become the next military frontier." Who knows what challenges we'll face in this region, eh?
Guilty: "An American research scientist reported on Tuesday that Chinese
researchers deleted genetic sequencing data for COVID-19 samples from a
U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) database. The deletions
highlight the extent of China’s efforts to stymie research into the
beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic." It's not that I'm furious with virus research. I'm sure everyone does that. I'm not even furious with the lab leak. Stuff happens. Although the lax security procedures get it close. What really angers me is that the Chinese Communist Party lied about the virus and took steps that made it possible for a local epidemic to become a pandemic. If the world doesn't decouple from Chinese manufacturing, we're all just too stupid to win. What more do we need to see if the rest of the CCP horror show of genocide, oppression and aggression isn't enough? These people are evil. Tip to Instapundit.
Please notify the Biden administration: "The two attacks on Natanz were very damaging to Iranian claims that they
do not have a nuclear weapons program. In the aftermath of both attacks
it became clear that Iran was using powerful new centrifuge designs to
create nuclear material that was far more refined (above 20 percent)
than needed for a nuclear power plant. Iran needs a lot of nuclear
material refined to 90 percent to make nuclear weapons. The data Mossad
made public in 2018 and the aftermath of the 2021 attack demonstrate
that Iran is still seeking nuclear weapons." The 2015 Iran nuclear deal did not end Iran's drive for nuclear weapons and a new one will fail, too.
Biden spoke of our Xi Jinping Flu death toll: "That’s more than every life lost in World War I, World War II, the
Vietnam War, Iraq, Iran, across the board — Afghanistan. More lives lost
in a year than every major war in the 20th century and the 21st
century." I guess Democrats spent so much effort claiming Bush 43 was plotting to go to war with Iran that Biden internalized that accusation and made it history. This is fine.
To be fair, how can Westerners and Moslem-majority countries excuse their inaction on China's multi-generational genocide of Uighurs unless platforms like YouTube censor the evidence of the crime?
Well, I read Marx and Soviet practitioners--but I did so because I wanted America to defeat the evil bastards. I'm not going to try to read General Milley's mind. But what he said is disturbing enough without trying to go that route.
So Lebanon is on the brink of really bad things: "Sporadic protests were reported throughout Lebanon on Saturday as the
country’s 20-month economic crisis worsened. The World Bank described
the crisis as one of the worst the world has witnessed in 150 years. It
is coupled with a political deadlock that has left Lebanon without a
government since August."
German police may never figure out the true motive of this mysterious killing spree, eh? Although I admit that it is fair to wonder if mental illness is the cause. Still, there is danger that for the left it becomes standard practice to conclude that if a Moslem man (but not other classes of people) kills people he must be mentally deranged. Because what else could explain that crazy act? Case closed.
So there's this: "Everyone in North Korea is heartbroken over leader Kim Jong Un's
apparent weight loss, said an unidentified resident of Pyongyang quoted
on the country's tightly controlled state media, after watching recent
video footage of Kim." Of course North Koreans are heartbroken. Actually they are probably terrified. If Kim Jong Un has lost weight, what the Hell is going to happen to them?!
On the bright side for Afghanistan, "Pakistan’s foreign minister said Sunday that violence and lawlessness
could [rein] in Afghanistan after the United States' withdrawal, and that
Pakistan would shut its border to the country if the Taliban takes
control of it." The good news is that Pakistan is no longer a backer of the Taliban as Pakistan was before 9/11 and for a long time since then.
I have simply stopped caring about what Portland is doing to itself. Let the city collapse and die under Antifa assault. That appears to be the will of the majority of the citizens there.
I've been watching Warehouse 13. I haven't seen that in ages (since it was on originally?). By chance I noticed it was about to expire on the streaming service in a week! luckily I was close enough to the end to make an actual binge push rather than just give up. I'm pretty close to finishing it now.