Archive for 2016
November 17, 2016
TONI MORRISON: Mourning for Whiteness.
So scary are the consequences of a collapse of white privilege that many Americans have flocked to a political platform that supports and translates violence against the defenseless as strength. These people are not so much angry as terrified, with the kind of terror that makes knees tremble.
On Election Day, how eagerly so many white voters—both the poorly educated and the well educated—embraced the shame and fear sowed by Donald Trump. The candidate whose company has been sued by the Justice Department for not renting apartments to black people. The candidate who questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the United States, and who seemed to condone the beating of a Black Lives Matter protester at a campaign rally. The candidate who kept black workers off the floors of his casinos. The candidate who is beloved by David Duke and endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.
Let the pining begin for America’s just-lost Golden Age of Harmony and Tolerance.
GEORGE KORDA: Grumpy About Trump’s Election? Perhaps You Should Listen To Barack Obama.
Many Clinton supporters or Trump haters – in the news media and in the public – are acting like unhinged parents at their kids’ Little League games, screaming at the umpires, the coaches, the kids in the other uniforms, and anyone they think contributed to their kid’s team losing.
They might take their cues from President Barack Obama, when in 2013 he said of Republicans, “You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don’t break it. Don’t break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That’s not being faithful to what this country’s about.”
Good point.
PROCUREMENT: The Army’s More Lethal M1A2 SEP v4 Abrams Tank Variant Will Start Testing in the 2020s.
This ECP 1 effort also initiates the integration of upgraded ammunition data links and electronic warfare devices such as the Counter Remote Controlled Improvised Explosive Device – Electronic Warfare – CREW. An increased AMPs alternator is also part of this upgrade, along with Ethernet cables designed to better network vehicle sensors together.
The Abrams is also expected to get an advanced force-tracking system which uses GPS technology to rapidly update digital moving map displays with icons showing friendly and enemy force positions.
The system, called Joint Battle Command Platform, uses an extremely fast Blue Force Tracker 2 Satcom network able to reduce latency and massively shorten refresh time. Having rapid force-position updates in a fast-moving combat circumstance, quite naturally, could bring decisive advantages in both mechanized and counterinsurgency warfare.
The M1 Abrams may well be the most lethal, survivable, and adaptable land weapons platform ever devised. Increasing its networking capabilities — the key to modern weaponry and warfare — ought to be a no-brainer.
MARK STEYN PROFFERS ADVICE FOR THE LOYAL OPPOSITION: “Just a thought, but, if you keep insisting that half your fellow citizens are haters, maybe you’re the hater.”
Read the whole thing.
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS… Pluto’s Wandering Heart Hints at Subsurface Ocean.
IN THE MAIL: From David Weber, At the Sign of Triumph.
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NARRATIVE CONTROL: China Really Doesn’t Want Anyone to Call Kim Jong-Un a ‘Fatty’
Chinese websites are censoring a phrase that translates as “Kim Fatty the Third,” a nickname referring to the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un.
As reported by the Guardian, the Chinese phrase “Jin San Pang”, which translates into the comment on Kim’s weight, is widely used across the country’s search engines and social media site Weibo. Searches for the phrase on Chinese search engine Baidu, as well as Weibo, returned no results earlier this week. Reports in the Hong Kong press suggested that the censorship of the phrase followed a complaint lodged by North Korean officials to the Chinese government about the derogatory nickname.
However, according to the Guardian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Wednesday that reports of the prohibition of the phrase did not “comply with facts.”
Uh-huh.
FRACKERS ARE SAVING WESTERN CIVILIZATION: America Is Flush with Shale Gas, Just in Time for Winter.
The United States has never entered a winter with more natural gas at the ready, according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). During the warmer months of the year, countries pump drilled natural gas into storage, anticipating a cyclical spike in demand when temperatures start falling. As we head into those colder months now, the amount of natural gas in storage here in the United States has just hit an all-time high, as the EIA reports. . . .
But while the exact rate at which households and businesses consume natural gas in the United States this winter remains to be seen, we do know that we’ve never been in a better position with respect to natural gas. This abundance isn’t just a boon to energy security, it also corresponds to cheaper prices, a development that is especially helpful for poorer families for whom their heating bills make up a larger slice of the monthly budget.
We’d be remiss to not give credit where credit is due for this unprecedented hoard of natural gas: Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal well-drilling of shale formations around the country are entirely responsible for this resurgence in oil and natural gas production over the past eight years.
Fracked gas has also caused U.S. carbon emissions to plummet — even as environmentalists continue to oppose fracking.
“FAKE NEWS” STORY TURNS OUT TO BE FAKE NEWS: Study showing ‘Fake News’ beating ‘Real News’ looks like garbage. “This study tells us nothing. But that hasn’t kept it from catching on.”
Journalism.
MEMO TO THE FAINTING-COUCH MEDIA: Donald Trump will speak erratically, nearly insanely, before settling on a somewhat-conventional decision, every single time.
The rest of us have caught onto this — why haven’t you?
ISLAMIC STATE ATTACK ON ISRAELI SOCCER TEAM FOILED: The attack was to occur in Kosovo.
Simultaneous attacks by ISIS have been foiled — including one targeting the Israeli national soccer team, police in Kosovo said. According to a statement issued Thursday, 18 people were arrested in Kosovo and six more across both Albania and Macedonia. Police said explosive devices, weapons, electronic equipment and a drone were recovered.
KURT SCHLICHTER: The Democrats Won’t Autopsy Their Own Corpse.
You could try to figure out where you went wrong losing so many voters who you used to have sewn up. The idea is to figure out how you might be able to prevent similar results in the future. Some call it a “post-event analysis.” In the Army – for the goatee n’ scarf gang, that’s the one that fights on the ground – we call it an “after action review.” Coroners call it an “autopsy.”
And you’ll never, ever do it. Why? Because you are liberals and you already have your answers.
Everyone is racist.
Everyone is sexist.
Everyone is stupid.
Everyone but you, that is. You, the ones the racist, sexist, stupid people beat like a NFL player’s wife.
And speaking of the NFL, have you noticed how its own autopsy of its own dying ratings also seems to have a predetermined outcome, one that studiously avoids any unwelcome conclusions?
To be fair, the GOP’s own 2012 “autopsy” was a joke.
FILL ‘ER UP: Navy Fast Tracks MQ-25 Tanker Drone Procurement.
The ability to midair refuel fighters and bombers is a necessary component of defending expanses like the Pacific Ocean — making tankers a likely target for Chinese anti-access/area-denial attacks. Removing the human element from risk makes perfect sense.
CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS MULL GETTING RID OF OBAMACARE BEFORE INAUGURATION:
The plan could entail using a budgetary tool known as reconciliation, which allows legislation to pass the Senate with just 51 votes instead of the typical 60 votes.
Great idea. Do it.
HMM: Rep. Rohrabacher, Afghan expert, knows Putin, emerges as State pick.
With confirmation concerns increasing for President-elect Trump’s top two picks to run the State Department, Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, top officials are now considering California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a top House foreign policy expert, according to sources.
Rohrabacher, once a Reagan speechwriter and a House member since 1989, emerged Tuesday night as a possible Trump pick. His views jive closely with Trump’s on foreign policy, immigration and global warming.
Giuliani and Bolton are being vetted for the job once held by Hillary Clinton, but a major roadblock arose this week when Republican Sen. Rand Paul announced that he would likely oppose both. He believes they back past failed policies in the Middle East.
Hmm. I worked with him in the 1990s on space policy stuff when I chaired the National Space Society’s Legislative Committee. He was excellent on those issues and very smart.
TOO BIG TO SUCCEED: GOP, Business Groups Launch Campaign to Constrain CFPB.
The trade group for credit unions has demanded that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau immediately “cease its pending rulemaking” affecting its members, seeking to give the new administration a chance to cast a more skeptical eye on the proposals than the current Democratic White House would provide. The agency has “stifled” the industry’s ability to serve its customers, Jim Nussle, head of the Credit Union National Association, said Friday.
“I am encouraged that the Trump administration seems eager to combat this regulatory overreach, and I look forward to working with them in those efforts,” Texas GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe told The Wall Street Journal Monday. Mr. Ratliffe last year sponsored legislation jointly with a fellow Texas Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz, to abolish the agency, which was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and championed by Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Aside from enshrining “Too Big to Fail” as a national policy, running roughshod over checks and balances, and cementing the incestuous relationship between Washington and Wall Street, Dodd-Frank has been a smashing success.