So apparently, The New York Times best seller list is professional wrestling for college grads. Tip to Instapundit.
Citizens of Hartford, CT are starting armed civilian patrols to battle crime. "The mayor added that the city did not need people being trained to walk the streets with guns and trying to take the law into their own hands." Apparently the city needs exactly that. Tip to Instapundit.
If based on the public AI available, I'm shocked it doesn't always conclude America is a war criminal: "Project Maven scrutinizes large quantities of video and still photos of a combat zone, or potential combat zone, looking for patterns that identify or indicate the possibility of combat or violence occurring."
In space, nobody can hear you speak Russian.
I've often observed that I'm not shocked when our leaders break the law. I'm shocked at what is legal: "Something short of the law should restrain their greed. Call it shame,
stigma, patriotism, or even self-discipline. Call it common morality." Justifiable loss of confidence in our senior military leadership, eh?
Somalia West: "The U.S. military said Sunday that it had flown in forces to beef up security at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti and allow nonessential personnel to leave."
I see Britain is aspiring to Kuznetsov-levels of humiliation: "The UK's $3.7 billion flagship aircraft carrier caught fire in yet another embarrassment for the Royal Navy." I had assumed an enemy would need to do something to harm Britain's one-hit fleet.
Explain to me again how Trump is unwilling to confront Russia. There is a lot of left-wing panic going on here and in Europe that relies on forgetting Trump's record when he was president.
But I'm continually told Biden doesn't need media fact checkers. Always check the Definitions Section, I say. Tip to Instapundit.
How long has MSNBC had this tech? "Hundreds of AI-powered sites mimicking news outlets have cropped up in recent months, fueling an explosion of false narratives -- about everything from war to politicians ...". Rest assured, TDR remains author-generated. Tip to Instapundit.
From the "Well, Duh" files: "A year after restoring diplomatic ties, Saudi Arabia and Iran still experience tensions. [There are no] significant agreements due to ongoing regional conflicts and deep-seated distrust, especially concerning their allies and the situations in Yemen and Lebanon." Restoring ties was a warning.
Ah, experts: "The top U.S. intelligence official on Monday warned that the war in Gaza could embolden terrorist groups, which are aligned in their opposition to the United States for its support of Israel." Why don't our enemies worry about pissing us off? We're always advised to "let the Wookie win."
Logistics: "Despite large orders from Russia for weapons to use against Ukrainians, shortages of raw materials and electrical power have left some North Korean arms factories only able to produce 30 percent of their full capacity."
The F-22 will be retired by 2030.
Why do Democrats hate America so much? "FBI Director Confirms Prison Gangs and Islamic Terrorists Are Exploiting the Border[.]" To be clear, that means the lack of a border for all practical purposes. Tip to the Morning Briefing.
This follows France's suggestion that everybody put their missile-launch keys in a bowl and randomly see whose missiles go where: "Britain has offered Germany a swap of cruise missiles that could allow the German government a way to overcome concerns over a suggested delivery of missiles to Ukraine[.]
At some level this method of "finding" money bothers me: "National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. will use a surprise $300 million in savings it found while buying supplies for Kyiv." But if legal, good.
Mowing the jihadi grass: "The U.S. military said Tuesday it conducted an airstrike in southern Somalia that killed three al-Shabab militants."
Building a pier for Hamas is just the start of the Smart Diplomacy® shift to punish Israel: "Congressional action to block U.S. arms sales to Israel is 'certainly something that’s on the table' if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launches a large-scale invasion of Rafah, a top senator said Tuesday."
LCS without the crew? Large Unmanned Surface Vehicles: "1,500-ton vessels that are about a hundred meters long and cruise at 48 kilometers an hour for up to 6.500 kilometers. Up to four shipping containers carrying weapons can be carried. Missiles can be transported and fired from standard shipping containers."
In basic training I remember our company yelling out "Duty, honor, country, freedom!" to end our day of training. Old mottoes never die. But they can be allowed to fade away. In this day and age, obscuring the motto is a symptom of the disease. Tip to Instapundit.
Ominous: "The Kremlin continues to assert its right, contrary to international law, to enforce Russian federal law on officials of NATO members and former Soviet states for actions taken within the territory of their own countries where Russian courts have no jurisdiction[.]" Distance from Russia is your friend.
According to our media fact checkers, the buck absolutely does not stop here, in the White House, when it comes to mass illegal immigration. To be fair, Biden is a confused old man who may not understand what has been done in his name. Tip to Instapundit.
Well of course Russia would need to use nukes to stop a Chinese invasion. I've been droning on for decades about that threat that Russia bizarrely ignores to pretend NATO is the threat.
If America can't protect freedom of navigation from the Houthi and their Iranian sponsors, what hope do we have in the face of a major power's anti-ship capabilities? We refuse to seriously attack the Houthi. Why?
I saw some news that claimed Israel's war on Hamas is the reason jihadis will kill Westerners. Just stop. The Iraq War liberation of Iraqis radicalized Moslems who absolutely loved America before 2003. Face it, we know anything at all, big or small, sets off the Easily Excitable. Let's kill the jihadis before they kill us.
A LAW by any other name: "In terms of size, LSM is expected to be 400-feet long, have a beam of 55 feet, displace 2,522 long tons and have a 12-foot draft. Marine Corps leadership has previously stated the service will need at least 35 ships[.]"
The Army currently rotates two armored brigades through Europe to counter Russia, but should permanently deploy one again. Remember when we cancelled the insurance policy?
Oh? "An influential group of former military and political leaders are
calling for the U.S. to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea, in an effort to spur the country’s interest in deep-sea
mining[.]" To Hell with their advice. Our Navy--not a flawed treaty China ignores--secures our rights.
The Army is refocusing on INDOPACOM logistics. The Army got overly focused on Northeast Asia. You have to crawl before you can run.
Good to know: "When it comes to Army Prepositioned Stocks (APS), for example, the list currently includes APS-1 designated for the US, APS-2 for Europe, the ocean-roaming APS-3 afloat, APS-4 for Northeast Asia, APS-5 for Southwest Asia, APS-6 for Army South and APS-7 for Army Africa."
Law professors overwhelmingly donate to Democrats. I'm sure conservatives are in the clear minority. But I'd bet conservatives are far more likely to avoid making political contributions to avoid a hostile work environment. Which is a worse form of bias, to be sure. Tip to Instapundit.
Danger: "the AP reported that the Houthis slashed four (not three, as the headline suggested) undersea data center cables buried in the depth of the Red Sea. If true, then the Houthis have just found 'the cloud' and realized how much disruption damaging these cables can cause to the global economy[.] Indeed.
The death of Karl Marx really should be a celebration. I mean, I'd go just to make sure he's really dead. Tip to Instapundit. As I've observed:
LOL! "The U.S. military has prepared its naval station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for a possible influx of Haitian migrant[.]" Democrats have spent two decades saying Gitmo is too cruel to keep jihadis there.
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/americas/2024-03-14/haiti-marines-southcom-guantanamo-bay%C2%A0-13318964.html?utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sailthru&SToverlay=2002c2d9-c344-4bbb-8610-e5794efcfa7d
Source - Stars and Stripes
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/americas/2024-03-14/haiti-marines-southcom-guantanamo-bay%C2%A0-13318964.html?utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sailthru&SToverlay=2002c2d9-c344-4bbb-8610-e5794efcfa7d
Source - Stars and Stripes
I raised this notion: "Johnson told senators that the House will send a Ukraine aid package to the Senate but floated the idea of making it a loan or lend-lease program so U.S. taxpayers would not be shelling out tens of billions of dollars without any expectation of getting a return[.]" Although the return is clear.
EU sanctions on Russia are leaking militarily useful items.
Ef-Up Fairy: "The original withdrawal plan was for a thousand or more U.S. and NATO
troops to remain to advise and train [Afghan] security forces and monitor
the corruption. ... The Americans got a new government in early
2021 and that led to fatal changes to the withdrawal plan." Our allies felt abandoned.
Well sure, Putin has more territorial ambitions.
LOL: "At the previously unreported meeting, [Hezbollah's] Nasrallah reassured [Iranian terror leader] Qaani he didn't want Iran to get sucked into a war with Israel or the United States and that Hezbollah would fight on its own, all the sources said." Hezbollah told Iran not to help them?
North Korea counted on a Kooks, Spooks, and Nukes strategy. The nukes aren't reliable. But saving money on conventional arms "worked": "About half the artillery shells purchased [by Russia] were duds. That was because of sloppy manufacturing practices."
Ukraine's drone branch. Also, Russia has knocked out three Abrams tanks: "The M1’s had not been equipped with enough overhead screens or proper electronic defense systems that the Ukrainians use on their tanks and other armored vehicles." I wondered why there was no overhead screen. I still wonder.
We should not assume we can keep swatting down the Houthi's Iran-supplied anti-ship weapons. We should be relentlessly hunting and destroying Houthi assets--including Iranian targeting assets--not just "retaliating" for Houthi strikes. We're just guaranteeing video of a burning American destroyer.
So who was flying drones around Langley Air Force Base? One day somebody will knock down our planes.
Own goal: "Ukrainian and Western officials are increasingly warning about both significant Ukrainian materiel shortages and a new large-scale Russian offensive this summer." I'll ask again, why is Biden dooming Ukraine in order to keep our southern border open to mass illegal immigration?
Will Ukraine be able to protect two new corvettes from Russian air and missile power?
Yeah: "Back when the federal government was much smaller, say in the 1940s,
1950s, and even the 1960s, there was less call to influence it, and so
the opportunities for people to earn big salaries by moving from
administrating to lobbying were much less. But that changed." The federal government is too damn big.
