President Biden celebrated Fascistivus 2024. Has it been a year already? I barely got my Christmas decorations down in time!
Ponder that Biden, that malevolent mediocrity, condemned the faux insurrection at the site of the low point of Americans waging an actual insurrection against an autocrat who erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. So ... Valley Faux?
Strategy Page's first of the year review of wars and near-wars. But don't be too depressed: "Thanks to modern tech, mainly ubiquitous access to cell phones and the Internet, any mayhem anywhere on the planet easily becomes another news item for a global audience. This gives the impression of more violence when it is nothing more than unprecedented general access to violence that until recently was never broadcast worldwide and accompanied by video. That gives a false impression that has not been widely acknowledged." I've pondered this paradox.
Dave Barry's always funny year in review: "In entertainment news, the Rolling Stones announce plans for a new tour, to be sponsored — really — by AARP (Official Motto: 'AARP! It’s the Last Sound You Make Before You Die')."
Strategy Page looks at the problems of empires: Fascist China, militaristic and nostalgic Russia, Persian Iran, Islamist Turkey, and transnational Islamic radicals pining for the caliphate. And it adds the anti-American EU as a supposedly "kinder and gentler" proto-empire incorporating the prior European claimants for imperial status.
Of the regional players discussed by Strategy Page, the one that worries me the most is Islamic terror-friendly, nuclear-armed, populous, and economically crippled Pakistan.
Again in the SP post, South Korea wants nukes to deter North Korea. I've noted the breakdown of American extended deterrence for South Korea and in general.
Again in the SP post, good news on the jihadi front: "Since 2020 the Islamic terrorism groups faded away while tribal violence became responsible for most casualties."
Where are the fighter drones (via Instapundit)? I wrote about that need in Army magazine in 2018. I recognized but may have underestimated the difficulty of overcoming the recoil problem.
Critics of free market capitalism are stupid (via Instapundit). As I've noted before, the cause of greed isn't capitalism. The cause of greed is people. Greedy socialists--who also use capital (money) rather than the labor of the land to make stuff--simply grab more of a smaller and eventually shrinking pie. Also, the "price" of goods and services under socialism is more about who you know than the money you can earn.
Wait. What? Land airfields can be sunk? "'Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, which will remain the most survivable and versatile airfields in the world, provide long-range, persistent sea control, power projection and organic sensing in contested seas, as well as flexible options across the spectrum of conflict,' the Navy’s recently released shipbuilding plan says." Huh. I stand corrected?
Also, "To advocates, [super carriers] are '90,000 tons of American sovereignty, deployable anywhere on the globe' while critics see them as soaking up too much of the defense budget for 'increasingly vulnerable monuments to a naval age gone by.'" The problem--as I've long identified--is that advocates and critics are arguing apples and oranges.
Ford will come home after an extended deployment in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. I assume this order awaited the reunion of an entire amphibious ready group in the region last week.
Good: "Flight tests using a ship-based hypersonic missile launcher will start in 2024, according to Lockheed Martin." That's what the Zumwalt class is for--sea testing.
More testing: "The landing ship medium, formerly known as the light amphibious warship, is the service’s first modern stern-landing vessel. Marines will test out the shore-to-shore connector at the Army’s Project Convergence event in early 2024, Defense News reported." It's a barge with pretensions.
That 2023 Chinese spy balloon "used a U.S.-based internet service provider, according to NBC News,
which declined to name the internet company to protect the identities of
their sources." FFS.
The current president globally with the best credentials. Also, Biden will never get that honor. Tip to Instapundit.
I got very concerned in the third quarter of the Michigan-Alabama game. I feared that we failed to capitalize on our clear dominance to get a bit enough lead to withstand an Alabama counter-attack. Mostly our special teams gave Alabama that chance. Given the OT win after a last-minute TD, perhaps I should have been encouraged that Michigan had a small lead at the half given all our mistakes.
A good start: "Israeli troops killed a Hamas commander who helped lead the Oct. 7 terror attack that killed some 1,200 people and saw about 240 others taken hostage." But the man was just a company commander.
Other Marine regiments won't change this much, but are still designed to be smaller and lighter: "The third, and as far as force design plans currently note, final Marine littoral regiment in the Pacific, is expected to launch in 2025, likely based on Guam, according to a March 2023 Congressional Research Service report." The MLR's have up to 2,000 Marines and sailors.
More about that Pennsylvania Army National Guard battalion going to Djibouti to secure the base. I wonder if this unit provides the regional rapid reaction force or if another infantry battalion does that?
Fighting "cultural appropriation": "North Korea continues to pass and enforce laws against those who adopt South Korean fashions, clothing, and mannerisms. North Koreans defy their government with this behavior." And then we get to the real problems. Also: "North Korea has also exported more workers to Russia, to replace Russian men taken from their jobs by army recruiters."
Early in the Russian invasion I wondered if Putin's threats to use nukes to hold its conquests might scare Russians more than it scared Westerners: "Such a move is also unpopular in Russia and one of the growing number of reasons Russians are losing faith in Putin's promises that Russia will win in Ukraine."
Strategy Page describes how Russian military leaders want to build up a reserve inside Russia to commit to the war as a whole. Putin insisted new troops be fed into the war to create the image of Russia maintaining the initiative with lots of small-scale assaults (and some bigger ones around Avdiivka that were mowed down). I kept worrying that such a reserve would be formed. One day Putin might stop getting in the way.
It was a leftist witch hunt. Leftists know that lack of evidence is just proof of skill at hiding: "The U.S. military isn’t packed with violent extremists. That’s the gist
of a new report commissioned by the Pentagon in 2021 and released
quietly with little notice in December. The result won’t surprise
Americans who have spent time in uniform, but it should calm the media
frenzy about right-wing radicals in the armed forces." I'll say it again:
Volunteers are more effective soldiers. But notwithstanding Germany's difficulties getting recruits, I imagine that this would be for the purpose of building a reserve force of trained soldiers for a long war against Russia: "The Bundeswehr is facing a dramatic shortage in personnel. Now Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rekindled the debate over reintroducing conscription." Ideally the post-service reservists get periodic training to maintain skills.
Good: "South Korean exports to the US exceeded shipments to China for the first time in two decades last month, in a sign of shifting ties amid global tensions over economic security and tech supply chains." That lessens a worry of mine about how U.S.-South Korean ties might weaken with South Korea so close to a powerful China.
If, to "save democracy", you call your opponents deplorable; confuse their dissent with treason; and use lawfare against their presidential candidate; you are the threat to democracy. Stop that. "Be boring instead." Tip to Instapundit.
Rather than worrying us, the Iranians should be puking their meals over the side of the ship worrying about us: "Iran this week moved a warship to the Red Sea in what could be an escalation in the Middle East as the U.S. battles the Iranian-backed Houthis in the region and recently sunk three boats."
Staking out the Lagrange points in the Earth-Moon system. Tip to Instapundit. I wrote a paper in my freshman English class on the uses of the Lagrange points. L2 on the far side of the Moon is apparently especially important.
This does not surprise me: "Economic policy commentator Noah Smith compiles evidence that the today's Hispanics are following a similar path to that of Irish-Americans in earlier eras of American history." As long as the rate of immigration isn't too high, I have had confidence this would happen. Indeed, although I think it is more difficult, I don't assume that Moslems can't follow the same path. Although I think lower densities are necessary because of their peculiar resistance to leaving their Old World behind. Tip to Instapundit.
The alliance of foreign barbarians and the Western woke fanboys and fangirls of the barbarians: "The apologism for Hamas in privileged circles has been mind-blowing. Hamas’s bestial violence against the Jews has been denied, downplayed or outright justified." It's both shameful and frightening. I don't expect much of the foreign barbarians. Just kill them before they can kill us, and get on with our lives. But how did our educational and media institutions inculcate barbarians inside our supposedly advanced society? Why do we hate us? Not long after 9/11, I said this was a war for civilization. I believed that winning the war on (Islamic) terror required the Moslem good guys to win the Islamic civil war. Now I worry the bad guys are winning within the West.
The resignation of Harvard's woke president was due to "their well-executed plan"? What a clown. The "plan" consisted of letting the Harvard president speak her mind in public. How diabolically clever. Tip to Instapundit.
Outpost: "The United States has quietly reached an agreement that extends its military presence at a sprawling base in Qatar for another 10 years[.]"
Will China maintain its subliminal offensive against the Philippines now? "The Philippines and the United States began a two-day joint patrol in the South China Sea on Wednesday, the Philippine military said in a statement, a move that would likely irk China."
The Philippines will build a permanent structure on Second Thomas Shoal that is under siege by Chinese "civilian" forces. I approve.
Yet I never hear how many POWs each side holds: "Russia and Ukraine swapped hundreds of prisoners on Wednesday in a deal reportedly brokered by the United Arab Emirates."
The dying Russian fighter aircraft industry?
The Army has new intelligence collection aircraft in its fleet: "One of these aircraft, using the call sign CL60, started operating from a Romanian air base in 2023 to fly ARTEMIS (Airborne Reconnaissance and Targeting Multi-Mission Intelligence System) missions along the borders of Russian occupied Crimea and reported what it found, in real time, to the Ukrainian military."
It only seems odd until you realize they have no standards of morality and justice--only a lust for victory. Tip to Instapundit. I'll never stop needing variations of this, will I?
About that 2020 plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan: "Instead of a heroic effort by the FBI to safeguard the country from
domestic terrorists, it now appears to have been a broad conspiracy by
law enforcement to entrap American citizens who held unpopular political
views." We're in banana republic territory.
FFS: "The United States military is severely short on high-end and artillery munitions at a crucial and strategic moment." Rare earth elements are key. They aren't really rare. But our willingness to mine and refine them has been. We let China do it. But that's not the only problem. (Although I think saying it takes two years to build a NASAM system means an entire battery--not the missiles) It's been a year and a half since the ammunition alarm bells started blaring. We'd be in trouble if Russia had attacked NATO directly rather than indirectly. Or if China had attacked, of course.
World War II air fields scattered across the Pacific are a potential path east for China. I've noted the need to secure them.
Ukraine adds unguided rockets to USVs. Doesn't seem that useful unless the USV gets very close to an enemy ship; although attacking land targets is plausible. Which the article addresses. That could harm Russian morale even if the damage isn't that great. Ukraine says it wants a group of sea drones to collectively have the capabilities of a single warship. Interesting.
Hmmm: "At least 73 people have been killed by two bomb explosions near the tomb of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his assassination by the US, Iran's state media report." Iran is likely right that this is terrorism, irony notwithstanding. Who carried it out?
Collective procurement: "NATO announced Wednesday that it would help buy up to 1,000 Patriot missiles so that allies can better protect their territory as Russia ramps up its air assault on Ukraine."
Could vehicle APS be adapted to shoot down suicide drones in addition to knocking down rockets and missiles? Heck, could turret-top machine guns in remote weapon stations with an auto-mode shoot down drones?
I imagine this is an ultimatum: "Houthi militants will face as-yet-unspecified 'consequences' if they continue to 'threaten lives' and disrupt trade flows in the Red Sea, the United States and a host of international allies said in a new statement Wednesday." Will Iran consider a temporary "expansion" of the Last Hamas War worth possible diplomatic gains to accept a lot of pain on its Houthi proxy? Of course, I'm assuming the American-organized coalition won't inflict an "unbelievably small" attack worthy of John Effing Kerry.
Regarding Israel's strike on Hamas leaders in Beirut, "Iranian Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani warned that the decision would “backfire.”[63] The IRGC published a statement warning that Arouri’s death will inspire further Palestinian resistance against Israel.[64]" Well sure, nice work if Iran can get it.
Friends: "Andersen Air Force Base on Guam is preparing for potential infrastructure upgrades to host up [to] 12 Singaporean F-15 fighters, following a 2019 agreement between the two nations."
OUT: Thank God for Mississippi! IN: Thank God for California! Tip to Instapundit. But a footnote for long-ridiculed Mississippi is in order.
Job growth is mostly in the government-funded and -controlled sector. These are mostly wealth-spreading rather than wealth-creating jobs. I see most of this funding as a subsidy for middle class voters who support Democrats. The clients are just the reason to keep the racket going. That's why government poverty statistics don't count government subsidies as "income." That way over 60 years of a war on poverty doesn't have an effect--on paper. Talk about "forever wars ... " Tip to Instapundit.
Via Instapundit, the F-35's point of failure in war is lack of spare parts. This is progress, at least. One time we wondered if it could fight. I worried. But that turned out to be influenced by Russian information ops designed to keep it from being built. Well, spare parts isn't the only potential point of failure.
More on Myanmar: "At the end of 2023 there was another unexpected uprising against the Myanmar (Burma) military government. This began in the north, where tribal militias have been fighting the army for decades. That wore down the resolve and morale of the army. Many of the army generals were surprised at how suddenly and quickly the troops in the north lost their will to fight and either deserted or joined the rebels. These attitudes spread quickly. In the capital, Naypyidaw, radio, and telephone calls from army units grew increasingly desperate." Can China keep friendly elites with guns in power?
Big stick: "Aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) began drills in the South China Sea with the Philippine Navy on Wednesday the U.S. Navy announced."
Equity: "From each according to their ability. To each according to what we compensate those with actual ability." You can quote me on that.
Forward defense: In addition to three 7,000-ton destroyers, Australia's naval build up "includes buying SSNs (nuclear powered attack submarines) from the United States and Britain as well as building a new class of nine 8,800-ton Hunter-class frigates in Australia. These will cost $3.4 billion each." Those are large capable warships that can travel long distances to fight. Keeping China from advancing through the South China Sea is key to defending Australia.
Is Iran's "day of reckoning" approaching? Not while Democrats bizarrely looove mullah-run Iran. But I do think Iran should fear us rather than our apparent worry that Iran will escalate its low-level war on us. Although anybody who lazily mis-uses "Neocon" is automatically suspect to me.
There are no such thing as "bad weapons," only "bad users". Good guys can achieve good results without targeting civilians: "The prior 'bad reputation' of cluster munitions has prevented the press from highlighting the significant contributions that cluster artillery munitions, supplied by the allies, have made on defeating the Russian army in Ukraine and helping to save Ukraine." They were great for defeating massed infantry and for use against soft-skin artillery and helicopters. Early on I mentioned their value against infantry in the open and soft-targets. Check out the article for the charts, if nothing else.
Good: "British defence giant BAE Systems is to restart production of the M777 howitzer [for America] after heavy use of the weapon in Ukraine stoked global demand." But first parts to refurbish damaged guns will be produced.
Just going to say Israel would welcome an actual permanent ceasefire: "17 anonymous Biden re-election campaign staffers wrote a letter published on The Medium calling on the president to demand and work toward an 'immediate, permanent ceasefire,' advocate for the release of Hamas hostages and more than 2,000 arrested Palestinians, among other things." But since there was a ceasefire until the morning of the Hamas October 7, 2023 rape and murder invasion, we know that isn't what the staffers want. Tip to Instapundit.
Ukraine is targeting Russia itself in Belgorod.
Why Biden is holding this aid hostage to his refusal to protect our southern border is beyond me: "The U.S. had no funds left to replace weapons sent to Ukraine, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a Thursday press briefing."
Interesting: "Last year was a Chinese bad year. For example, by mid-2023 Chinese manufacturing activity had shrunk for five months in a row. This was one of several indicators that the Chinese economy was in trouble. The problems are largely self-inflicted." If you had to bet, China will muddle through. But: "Leader Xi Jinping has made himself leader-for-life and now screens or makes all key economic solutions. Xi isn’t an expert in economics or aware of the complexity of the Chinese economy or historical examples of similar situations." China is big and has disintegrated in the past when the center cannot hold.
Russian medical care for troops in the field is inferior to what Ukraine gets: "In the combat zone there was poor or nonexistent medical treatment for the wounded. It was the same for diseases that [break out] among troops in the combat zone." Critics of high Russian KIA numbers point to the ridiculously low WIA:KIA ratio required to accept that number. Is poor medical care the cause of that apparent evidence that Russian KIA can't be as high as some claim?
What pirates deserve: "Indian Navy commandos have boarded a hijacked Liberian-flagged vessel in the Arabian Sea and are now carrying out 'sanitisation' operations, the navy said on Friday, without elaborating." Apparently the pirates fled already. India--unlike the West--isn't squeamish about dealing with these predators.
Did it malfunction? Did the Houthis detonate it to scare us without enraging us by trying to--or actually--hit a ship? Or did we detonate it? "An armed unmanned surface vessel launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen got within a “couple of miles” of U.S. Navy and commercial vessels in the Red Sea before detonating on Thursday, just hours after the White House and a host of partner nations issued a final warning to the Iran-backed militia group to cease the attacks or face potential military action."
Diplomacy would require China to back off in its subliminal war against the Philippines. But it is worth a try, even if it is to demonstrate reasonableness: "The Philippines remains open to diplomatic discussions with China and believes the two nations can achieve a resolution to disputes over the South China Sea through peaceful dialogue, its national security adviser said in a statement on Friday."
Good: "New research says that Apple's suppliers including iPhone manufacturer Foxconn have invested $16 billion since 2018, in an increasing plan to move or reshore manufacturing away from over-reliance on China." Tip to Instapundit.
You think you hate and distrust our media enough. You do not.
Leftist insurrection to interfere with government functions at the California Assembly: "Hundreds of demonstrators from Jewish anti-war organizations packed the Rotunda and the Assembly gallery and began chanting, singing and unveiling banners around 1:30 p.m., just as lawmakers reconvened in Sacramento after a months-long recess." No arrests were--or will be--made. In related news: "An increasingly divided America is starting to show support for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters, with over four-in-10 believing that they had a point or acted appropriately in forcefully disagreeing with Congress’s certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory." I remain horrified at the riot. I've become more horrified at the Democrats' response of persecuting rioters as if they were insurrectionists. Via Instapundit.
China trains its sensors: "China has constructed a new aircraft carrier target on a sprawling range in the northwestern end of the country that is a dead-ringer for the U.S. Navy's newest supercarrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford." This is nothing new, of course.
All throughout the raging war on terror I asked why progressives called condemnations of Islamist terror an attack on all Moslems. Wasn't that a claim that all Moslems are guilty for the horrors of the few, I asked? And now we have "Don't mention the war" 2.0: "The Biden administration’s Department of Education opened an
investigation into San Diego State University after an administrator
sent an email condemning Hamas and offering support after the Oct. 7
terrorist attack, according to a school official." Condemning terrorists is condemning all Moslems? Huh. So who exactly are the bigoted haters? And related thoughts in meme form:
I think the idea that North Korea's ruling elite will submit to Chinese (and Russian!) control because they need help to feed and keep warm ordinary North Koreans is laughable. Kim Jong-Un only needs spooks and nukes.
Fingers crossed they get it right: "Marines are experimenting with the new Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept to identify how many people are needed at these temporary, remote posts; what gear they need; and how they can best support the larger naval and joint force." My advice is as little gear as is humanly possible.
Logistics: "Defense Department officials are facing a problem from hell. How can the Pentagon mobilize the U.S. defense industry to respond to not just one conflict or two, but potentially three wars? ... 'We are moving from a just-in-time, just-enough economy model to a peak demand model,' said Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, the chairman of NATO’s military committee" Preaching to the TDR choir.
A DOD briefing on Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea area. The Navy isn't worried about the Iranian ships in the area, which is common. Good. Don't be petrified by concerns--cause concerns.
Exiting the EU hasn't harmed Britain's economy. Exiting energy sanity to live in Green Disneyland did that. Why do Greens hate people so much?
Why does Claudine Gay hate Black men? Tip to Instapundit.
I get whiplash going between stories that say China can easily capture Taiwan and those that say it is impossible. Even more murky is whether China will attack soon or never--preferring to undermine and absorb it without a shot. Here's a Xi Jinping wants Taiwan soon entry.
This RAND study wonders if air power can be replaced with long-range precision firepower. Yeah, I wonder that, too.
The expendable Coyote air-launched recon and suicide attack drone: "This is part of the American LOCUST, or Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology where dozens of these small UAVs can be launched quickly and communicate with each other for attack, recon or electronic warfare missions."
Not all the threats to American security and prosperity are armed, foreign threats. HINT: None of them are improper pronoun usage.
Oh no! Anyway: "Somalia is receiving an outpouring of support following a controversial deal struck between neighboring Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland earlier this week." Little practical help will follow the words. How many have tried to help Somalia be a non-failed state over the last three decades?
Interesting: "[In a secret speech to the Politburo,] Xi admitted that he had repeatedly postponed the Third Plenum of the 20th Central Committee (which according to Party norms should have taken place in October) because he 'could not offer any viable solution for the nation’s problems.' Xi, who is general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and commander-in-chief, went on to blame the other 23 Politburo members and other senior cadres, not only for failing to give him good advice but also for demonstrating signs of disobedience. Reports of Xi’s frank admission of the dire straits of the Party’s leadership were widely circulated on social media." Whether these troubles lead Xi to risk or avoid war is beyond my limited mind-reading and prediction abilities.
Well: "Iran enriching uranium beyond the 60% level is reportedly a red line for Israel and could trigger Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities." Iran is doing that. But what are the odds that Iran knows a certain level of enrichment is a red line? On the bright side, the article notes, maybe Iran's enrichment progress is only to pressure the Biden administration to offer more concessions to Iran to visibly stop that enrichment progress. And Iran has the advantage in being able to ghost-write Biden's response.
The myths of 1948 that bolster the left's hatred of Israel. I won't say the foundation of the hate. That might just be anti-Jewish bigotry. Mind you, today the Palestinians have a sense of tribal unity regardless of how it was created. So that's something that has to be accounted for moving forward. Anyway, the details of the Arab first military force and population in Palestine and why the people left are new to me. As is the initial meaning of "Nakba"--a disaster for the Arab world in allowing a Jewish state rather than the plight of the Arabs displaced by the establishment of that state.
Avoiding being "missile magnets": "The Marines’ command posts, whose tell-tale radio emissions could give away their position to an enemy, were able to execute most tasks through “host-nation Wi-Fi,” Col. Thomas Siverts said in a press briefing Friday. " Yeah, that won't work for scattered Marine MLR detachments on small islands or desolate coastal areas.
If true, war is less likely: "US intelligence indicates that President Xi Jinping’s sweeping military purge came after it emerged that widespread corruption undermined his efforts to modernize the armed forces and raised questions about China’s ability to fight a war, according to people familiar with the assessments." I can't imagine the Chinese would attempt to appear far when near.
LOL:
Welp, scrap it for parts: "We have our first look at the B-1B bomber that crashed at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota last night."
Top stories about Navy operations in the western Pacific in 2023. Part one?
India and China spar over the Bhutan buffer.
So Secretary Austin wasn't on some secret mission. I hope he recovers. That said, is this what an open and transparent government does? We've learned so much from Xi Jinping and Putin.
The Navy Blackfish harbor patrol USV.
Secretary of Defense Austin was in the hospital several days without Biden knowing. And the DOD second-in-command did not cancel Puerto Rico vacation to return to Washington, D.C. We're going to find out that the "elective surgery" will put him in a skirt, won't we? I'm joking, of course.
If I sometimes express suspicion that reports of the humanitarian disaster are exaggerated for pro-Hamas propaganda purposes, I have a recent reason.
January 6th was not an insurrection: "If the January 6th riot was an insurrection are Black Lives Matters protests also insurrections with the result that those who participate in such protests cannot run for political office?" You can't say BLM riots (and yes, just like on 1/6, most people involved were peacefully protesting) don't count because no BLM violence reached the Capitol Building. The Confederates never reached Washington, D.C., after all. The linked article for the pro-side falters most obviously on claiming 5 people were killed (the cited article for that assertion doesn't claim anybody was killed that day) in that riot (only 1 person was killed that day--a rioter fighting to get in the Capitol Building--by police) and on claiming that courts proved Biden won by linking to a report that concluded "Donald Trump and his supporters had their day in court and failed to produce substantive evidence to make their case." That is true. But that does not mean there wasn't fraud in an election virtually designed in key states not to find vote-by-mail fraud. And those are only the two links I clicked on to check. Ultimately, we had to act as if the announced results were accurate because there was no proof offered to deny that outcome. Indeed, even before the election I expected Trump to lose; and felt the real rigging was four years of Democratic propaganda through the media and from within the government bureaucracy that demonized Trump. But we should not have future elections under those conditions that will only anger the losers who will question the results--as Republicans (2020) and Democrats (2000, 2004, 2016, and--prior to winning the election--2020) have done in recent elections. And if the pro-side piece with an expansive definition of insurrection is accurate, a lot of BLM, Antifa, Code Pink, and pro-Democrat union leaders and members are insurrectionists, too. Is that the path we want to go down? The January 6th riot was awful. Let's not make it worse. Things can always get worse without our active help.
My data dump entries are getting larger again. I really need to restrain my commentary on the links or just make all of them independent posts. Okay, my doomed new year's resolution is three lines maximum (on my computer screen in post draft) going forward. This entry easily counts.
