Archive for 2021
August 6, 2021
A LOOK AT THE HAGUE ARBITRATION COURT’S 2016 RULING AGAINST CHINA: A column of mine published July 20.
In blunt language, the Court concluded China’s communist government had robbed the Philippines and launched a slow, calculated and highly illegal invasion of the SCS. The ruling dismissed Beijing’s ridiculous “Nine-Dash Line” claim to own roughly 85% of the SCS’ 2.2 million square miles.
The ruling is very valuable. But: “Ultimately, navies enforce maritime law, not courts.” Read the entire essay.
CATCHING UP WITH POSTS: How Politicians Fiddle With The Military. The focus is on American politicians. It’s another StrategyTalk that should have been posted two weeks ago.
IF IT MOVES, TAX IT. IF IT KEEPS MOVING, TAX IT SOME MORE. IF IT STOPS MOVING, COLLECT A DEATH TAX: Biden Deals Blow to Crypto Industry, Backs Plan to Tax Proof-of-Stake. “In a surprise move, the Biden Administration threw its support behind an amendment to a major bill in the U.S. Senate that would subject a broad segment of the crypto industry to onerous or even impossible tax reporting obligations.”
DENIAL AIN’T JUST A RIVER: They can spin it all they want, and some folks have bought the gaslight that “we never said defund the police” but the DNC needs to stop peeing on our legs and telling us it’s raining. There’s no viable, coherent — or honest — “but Trump” applicable here. Let pal Judy Miller explain in this interview.
Meanwhile, a screen grab above from this morning. This woman parked her car, turned on the 4-way blinkers, calmly walked out and blew the other woman’s brains out in broad daylight.
GEORGIA REPUBLICAN INSIDERS BEARISH ON HERSCHEL WALKER SENATE RUN:
Opposition research on Walker first surfaced from the Associated Press in mid-July in the form of “documents detail[ing] accusations that Walker repeatedly threatened his ex-wife’s life, exaggerated claims of financial success and alarmed business associates with unpredictable behavior.” The most notable and disturbing story is that of his ex-wife, who has alleged that Walker aimed a gun at her head and said “I’m going to blow your f’ing brains out.”
Erick Erickson, a prominent Georgia radio host and conservative pundit, reacted to the AP piece by pouring cold water on the idea that the damaging stories emerged because of partisan ugliness.
“Folks thinking the Democrats dropped that oppo research on Herschel Walker. HAHAHAHA. No. Nope. Wasn’t them,” he tweeted, instead implying that we were all bearing witness to Republican-on-Republican violence.
In interviews with National Review, a number of Erickson’s fellow Republican insiders confirmed that much of the Peach State’s political class is bearish on Walker.
“There is a growing sense that the Herschel Walker candidacy is a vanity project for President Trump and a gold-mining expedition for a few consultants,” worried one such senior Republican strategist. “The sentiment’s very pervasive that Herschel can’t win a general. He just can’t.”
It’s also their opinion that the situation is very much out of the hands of party insiders and strategists.
“Trump’s gonna do what he’s gonna do. . . . We’re all just kind of sitting here with this pit in our stomach like, ‘Is he really gonna go through with this?’ We all know about Trump’s infatuation with Georgia, and we all know his ability to engage with the primary electorate here. If he wraps his arms around Herschel Walker, it’s going to be really tough,” the strategist said.
No word yet if Georgia Republicans will trade Walker to Minnesota for 12 GOP congressmen to be named later.
DO YOU HAFF YOUR PAPERS? De Blasio says vaccine passports are ‘the shape of things to come.’
I AGREE. TIME TO SHUT IT DOWN LIKE A CONFEDERATE STATUE. Higher education is based in ‘racist and classist assumptions,’ education nonprofit CEO says.
THE VIRAL (AND FAKE) FRONTIER FLIGHT ATTENDANT INTERVIEW: “All of this is a prelude to the ‘interview’ making the rounds today with the male flight attendant who subdued Berry and tied him to the chair. Except this guy isn’t really the flight attendant; he’s a comedian, and a good enough one to have caught the attention of TMZ with this clip. *If* this had been the actual guy, he’d be the most famous flight attendant in America by tomorrow morning. Enjoy.”
OUT: WASHINGTON POST. IN: ACME POST. Glenn Kessler’s hit-piece-in-progress on Christopher Rufo blew up in his face.
LET THE GOVERNMENT PUT ITS MONEY WHERE ITS MOUTH IS AND COVER SIDE EFFECTS/REACTIONS GENEROUSLY: My New York Post column: Incentives, not bullying, are the way to get vax-hesitant to take the jabs.
COLLUSION AND COVERUP: Four months later, UCLA has not released contract with Chinese government. If they’re hiding this stuff, it’s not because it will make them look good.
WOW: 9 years on Mars! Curiosity rover marks another anniversary. “During its nine years on Mars, Curiosity has traveled a total of 16.14 miles (25.98 km). And its odometer could keep ticking over for a while to come. The rover is in good health despite its relatively advanced age, mission team members have said, and its nuclear power system is designed to operate for a minimum of 14 years.”
PUNCHING DOWN, WAY DOWN: Gigantic Teachers’ Union Sues Mom for Asking What the Local Public School Is Teaching Her Daughter.
MARK JUDGE: Welcome to the United States of Resentment.
DAVID HARSANYI: The ‘disinformation’ deception. “Setting aside First Amendment concerns, the state has no moral claim to dictate the veracity of speech. As we’ve learned during the coronavirus pandemic, health officials have trouble conveying truth. The oscillations, obfuscations, and confusing messaging of the CDC and other health officials have done more to corrode trust in science and government than any conspiracy theorist could ever hope to.”
DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: Greg Abbott Puts the Kibosh on the Texas Democrats’ Victory Lap.
OUR OWN JOHN TIERNEY: The Panic Pandemic: Fearmongering from journalists, scientists, and politicians did more harm than the virus.
The United States suffered through two lethal waves of contagion in the past year and a half. The first was a viral pandemic that killed about one in 500 Americans—typically, a person over 75 suffering from other serious conditions. The second, and far more catastrophic, was a moral panic that swept the nation’s guiding institutions.
Instead of keeping calm and carrying on, the American elite flouted the norms of governance, journalism, academic freedom—and, worst of all, science. They misled the public about the origins of the virus and the true risk that it posed. Ignoring their own carefully prepared plans for a pandemic, they claimed unprecedented powers to impose untested strategies, with terrible collateral damage. As evidence of their mistakes mounted, they stifled debate by vilifying dissenters, censoring criticism, and suppressing scientific research.
If, as seems increasingly plausible, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 leaked out of a laboratory in Wuhan, it is the costliest blunder ever committed by scientists. Whatever the pandemic’s origin, the response to it is the worst mistake in the history of the public-health profession. We still have no convincing evidence that the lockdowns saved lives, but lots of evidence that they have already cost lives and will prove deadlier in the long run than the virus itself.
One in three people worldwide lost a job or a business during the lockdowns, and half saw their earnings drop, according to a Gallup poll. Children, never at risk from the virus, in many places essentially lost a year of school. The economic and health consequences were felt most acutely among the less affluent in America and in the rest of the world, where the World Bank estimates that more than 100 million have been pushed into extreme poverty.
The leaders responsible for these disasters continue to pretend that their policies worked and assume that they can keep fooling the public. They’ve promised to deploy these strategies again in the future, and they might even succeed in doing so—unless we begin to understand what went wrong.
The panic was started, as usual, by journalists.
As usual, indeed.
ERIC BERGER: Blue Origin’s powerful BE-4 engine is more than four years late—here’s why.
The BE-4’s delayed development has, increasingly, been the subject of keen interest. This is partly because ULA has been working on its new Vulcan rocket for a number of years, and that rocket is important to the future of the company. The military is also eager for this delivery, as ULA is a primary provider of launch services to the Department of Defense alongside SpaceX. They hope Vulcan provides lower cost launch services with engines manufactured in the United States. Finally, many in the space community are genuinely curious about the cause of the delay.
Despite this widespread interest, however, Blue Origin has said almost nothing publicly about the engine development. Therefore, this story attempts to provide some context for why the BE-4 engines are late. It is based on anonymous sources at the company’s headquarters as well as industry officials, some of whom would likely be fired if they were named.
In response to questions for this article, a spokeswoman for Blue Origin, Linda Mills, offered only a single-sentence reply. “We’re on track to deliver the engines this year,” she said.
I certainly hope so — ULA and our military launch capacity have a lot riding on BE-4.
More great space reporting from Berger so do read the whole thing.
WELL, SHE’S NOT WRONG: Marjorie Taylor Greene letter to Capitol Police: Pelosi used you as ‘political pawns.’ I don’t think the Capitol Police have seen such a wave of suicides under any other Speaker.