Archive for 2019
August 14, 2019
THIS IS AN EXCELLENT, FIRST-PERSON, EYEWITNESS HISTORY of the sinking of the Yorktown at the Battle of Midway.
HAS ANYONE FALLEN FASTER OR FARTHER SINCE 2016 THAN MAX BOOT? Charles C.W. Cooke: Max Boot’s Dishonesty: He intentionally misconstrues what others write and then lies about it, knowing that no one will bother to uncover his distortion.
Before yesterday, my primary criticism of the Washington Post’s Max Boot was political in nature. As I wrote in a recent book review, I found it regrettable that Boot’s opposition to the president had not prevented him from “succumbing reactively to Trump’s cult of personality, or from making Trump the origin of every graph onto which he plots himself.” As of yesterday, my primary criticism of the Washington Post’s Max Boot is that he is a narcissistic, dishonest, calculating, manipulative writer who is prone to engaging in precisely the sort of willfully dishonorable conduct that he claims to disdain in others.
Having purposively libeled one of our Buckley Fellows after he had the temerity to argue that one does not fight racism by making lazy racial generalizations, Boot has now moved on to libeling Dan McLaughlin, one of the most thoughtful writers in America, and to making peculiar charges about National Review as a whole. As Oscar Wilde might have said: To lie about one writer may be regarded as a misfortune; to lie about two looks like carelessness.
Or worse. . . . Those who wonder why so few writers are willing to pen long, thoughtful, descriptive pieces that grapple seriously with the opposing arguments and incorporate honest appraisals of what voters actually want need look no further than this incident for their answer, which is: because bankrupt toadies such as Max Boot use their work as launching pads for calumny. In a sensible world, the editors of the Washington Post would have looked at what Boot has tried to do over the last couple of days, and tattooed “hack” on his forehead. But we are not operating in a sensible world.
Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, and Boot is a mess.
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I WAS EXPECTING THE 21ST CENTURY TO BE LESS STUPID: A Woman Got 2nd Degree Burns From Vaginal Steaming, And It’s Really Not Funny.
“PAUSED?” Facebook is the latest tech giant to admit contractors are snooping on your conversations. “Following the example of Apple and Google, Facebook has also ‘paused’ the program, for now.”
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: The U.S. Army Wants To Microwave Drones in Midair. I would have code-named the project “Hot Pockets,” but that’s just me.
COMMUNIST FRONT CORPORATION: Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents.
Huawei Technologies Co., the world’s largest telecommunications company, dominates African markets, where it has sold security tools that governments use for digital surveillance and censorship.
But Huawei employees have provided other services, not disclosed publicly. Technicians from the Chinese powerhouse have, in at least two cases, personally helped African governments spy on their political opponents, including intercepting their encrypted communications and social media, and using cell data to track their whereabouts, according to senior security officials working directly with the Huawei employees in these countries.
In Kampala, Uganda, last year, a group of six intelligence officers struggled to contain a threat to the 33-year regime of President Yoweri Museveni, according to Ugandan senior security officials. A pop star turned political sensation, Bobi Wine, had returned from Washington with U.S. backing for his opposition movement, and Uganda’s cyber-surveillance unit had strict orders to intercept his encrypted communications, using the broad powers of a 2010 law that gives the government the ability “to secure its multidimensional interests.”
Think of Huawei as the electronic wing of China’s imperial “New Silk Road” project to dominate Central Asia and Africa.
THIS REALLY DOESN’T FIT THE NARRATIVE: California: ‘resistance’ state has donated more to Trump than to most Democrats in 2020 race. President has raised $3.2m in California this year, analysis finds – more than Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
Although affluent donors in Beverly Hills, Orange county and San Diego contributed significant sums – and together constituted a majority of California funds in Trump’s campaign war chest – 92.8% of donations came from small donors contributing less than $100. Many of these small donations came from the central region of the state, which tends to skew more conservative.
Trump really needs to shoot campaign commercials in Los Angeles and San Francisco, describe them as Detroit and Baltimore with palm trees, and warn that such conditions are inevitable whenever Democrats are in power.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Olive Garden is a Bad Prepping Strategy.
#METOO DECIDES IT’S PLACIDO DOMINGO’S TURN IN THE STAR CHAMBER. “Women accuse opera legend Domingo of sexual harassment,” AP reports, in an article that looks like it’s been some time in preparation, given the mid-July date on the photo caption of one of his accusers, in a shot that AP very likely took to accompany the story. While Domingo’s photos are melodramatically composed and arranged to make him look as sinister (and at 78, as pasty and old) as possible, his accuser coolly stares down the camera. And it’s accompanied by the now-standard boilerplate:
The AP also spoke to almost three dozen other singers, dancers, orchestra musicians, members of backstage staff, voice teachers and an administrator who said they witnessed inappropriate sexually tinged behavior by Domingo and that he pursued younger women with impunity.
Domingo did not respond to detailed questions from the AP about specific incidents, but issued a statement saying: “The allegations from these unnamed individuals dating back as many as thirty years are deeply troubling, and as presented, inaccurate.
“Still, it is painful to hear that I may have upset anyone or made them feel uncomfortable — no matter how long ago and despite my best intentions. I believed that all of my interactions and relationships were always welcomed and consensual. People who know me or who have worked with me know that I am not someone who would intentionally harm, offend, or embarrass anyone.
“However, I recognize that the rules and standards by which we are — and should be — measured against today are very different than they were in the past. I am blessed and privileged to have had a more than 50-year career in opera and will hold myself to the highest standards.”
Over the past couple of years, I’ve written several times about the ongoing “Great Purge of 20th Century Mass Culture.” As the airbrushing of James Levine of the Metropolitan Opera, and the lack of attention to what would have been the 100th birthday of J.D. Salinger due to his “The Posthumous #MeToo-ing” illustrate, the higher arts and their practitioners won’t be immune to their own purges as well.
HOW LONG BEFORE THIS FAMOUS PROFESSOR IS RUN OUT OF YALE? David Gelernter is a legend at Yale University and deservedly so, as he is, among much else, the author or co-author of many computing tools in wide use around the world. But he recently committed the unpardonable sin of doubting the efficacy of parts of contemporary Darwinism.
The Hoover Institution’s Peter Robinson sat down with Gelernter and two colleagues whose works had huge impacts on his own thinking on the issue. It’s a longish video at 53 minutes, but Robinson is a superb interviewer and the discussion is by turns, fascinating, puzzling and enlightening. In other words, just the kind of thing to get you blacklisted in academia these days.
Related (From Ed): Famed Yale computer science professor quits believing Darwin’s theories, The College Fix adds.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Choppy Seas in the US/China Naval Arms Race.
Everybody’s having trouble with their new aircraft carriers.
IN THE MAIL: From Larry Correia, House of Assassins (Saga of the Forgotten Warrior).
THE EVITABLE NOMINEE: The Democrats’ Amazing Gaffetastic Frontrunner: A Disappearing Act?
MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE ARCTIC: Diplomatically countering Russian and Chinese threats to Arctic real estate. Hey, Communist China now claims to be a “near-Arctic state.” I kid you not. From my column: “…(China) dubbing itself “near Arctic” sounds like diplomatic preparation for taking that (South China Sea fake island) scheme to the North Pole.”
CHINA CONTINUES TO THREATEN HONG KONG: People’s Liberation Army armored personnel carriers move to the border. That’s a mechanized infantry message.
UPDATE: Business Insider publishes a photo of Peoples’ Armed Police armor on the border. Appears the photo came from a propaganda video clip. The site also has some imagery taken by civilian observers. So it’s PAP armor, not PLA. What’s the PAP? Here’s a StrategyPage post from 2012 discussing the outfit’s operations in Xinjiang province.
From that “old” post:
In China, the line between the armed forces and the police is sometimes blurred. A perfect example of this is the 660,000 personnel of the People’s Armed Police (PAP). Technically, the Armed Police is an armed force that undertakes social security duties as well as the enforcement of law and order within the country. It’s not that simple. While there are about 1.4 million local police, for emergencies (a frequent event in Xinjiang) you call the PAP. This paramilitary force will quickly smother the unrest but it won’t solve the underlying problems.
RELATED: Strategypage’s latest podcast on the Hong Kong’s crisis provides background and context. If you like it please subscribe. (bumped)
ALSO RELATED: Hong Kong challenges Xi’s authoritarianism. (bumped)
1ST INFANTRY DIVISION TANKS MANEUVER IN GEORGIA: The country, not the state. This photo shows three tanks preparing for a platoon live fire exercise at a Georgian military training area. Note the rolling, open plains. Nice wild flowers, too.
RELATED: Per a query about the Pentagon’s photo caption, The End of the American Tank Battalion.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, I talk about my book, The Social Media Upheaval, with Christian Toto on the Hollywood In Toto Podcast.
BECAUSE THEY CARE, UNLIKE THE REST OF YOU HATERS: D.C. Mayor Bowser and others are raising alarms at the federal government’s plans for a shelter for unaccompanied migrant children in Northwest Washington.
DO TAXPAYERS GIVE “ENTHUSIASTIC” CONSENT TO HAVING THEIR MONEY TAKEN TO SUPPORT INSTITUTIONS LIKE THIS? University refuses to readmit football player after he’s exonerated of rape: Requires him to prove ‘enthusiastic, affirmative and ongoing consent.’
Why does the University of Wisconsin fear the sexuality of black men?