LAUGHING WOLF CONTINUES HIS NUCLEAR WAR PRIMER WITH Nuclear 201: Policy, SIOP, and Escalation.

It was long the position of the United States that anyone using any type of WMD (CBRNE, MNOPQRS, or whatever) was effectively using a nuke and would be responded to as if they HAD used a nuke. The policy had the desired effect in that it made rogue states (and others) think twice and at least openly avoid using any type of WMD. It also gave the Soviet Union some pause in regards its doctrines calling for the use of various WMD in military operations. That it may also have helped to lead to some treaties limiting biological and other bits of nastiness is a plus in my book.

However, back in the Obama administration we got the famous “red line in the sand” incident involving Syria and Russia. If you are not familiar with what happened, you do need to look it up. From where I sit, it turns out the lines weren’t red and were indeed written in the sand as there was no real response to the (alleged) use of chemical weapons by Syria and/or Russia.

Which does put the Biden administration in a bit of a bind. If Russia uses WMD in the Ukraine, does it hold to the stated policy or, once again, let it slide? If chemical or other, there is undoubtably going to be a LOT of pressure to let it slide. But, what if it is nuclear? My bet is lots of pressures from a lot of different directions, including from Vladimir with his “escalate to de-escalate” idiocy. Given that Biden reportedly told Vladimir well before the invasion of the Ukraine of his terror at the thought of a nuclear exchange, much less a nuclear war, who knows how either will react.

Not a happy-fun read, but an important read.

MAKE THEM PAY: Students kicked out of sex abuse survivors group over their Jewish identity file civil rights complaint.

EVERYTHING IS RACIST: Not Masking Is Now Racist… Because… of Something.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: College threatened criminal charges for conservatives tabling on campus. A lot of backing and filling after the event by the university.

PODESTA APPOINTMENT BOOSTS CHINA: President Joe Biden’s appointment of veteran Democratic campaign operative John Podesta to oversee hundreds of billions in federal environmental funding puts a long-time China advocate in the White House, according to The Washington Free Beacon’s Collin Anderson.

THE FIX IS IN, IN SO MANY WAYS: Snap Let Democratic Campaign Groups Scoop Up GOP Voter Data. “Several prominent Democratic campaign groups accessed Republican voter data as a result of what Snap, the owner of Snapchat, called an unintentional data leak, allowing those groups to optimize midterm ads.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Not Gonna Lie, Queen Elizabeth Was Kinda Cool. “Elizabeth’s greatest accomplishment was being more than the mere figurehead that she was supposed to be. I will never understand the Brits, but I do know that she mattered to the many I’ve met. It’s a safe bet that none of the King Olafs floating around in the Scandanavian countries are as important to their people.”

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Dems want the midterms to be a referendum on Trump, not bungling Biden — and the media are compliant.

THIS IS FINE. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS DEFINITELY NOT EVIL. If you need me, I’ll be in my demon-proof bunker.

THERE’S OUTSOURCING AND THEN THERE’S STUPID-SELF-DESTRUCTIVE-SOURCING: F-35 Deliveries Halted Over a Chinese Alloy, Pentagon Says.

WELL, YES. THAT’S WHY SOME POLITICIANS DON’T LIKE GUNS. NRA: Over 1 million use firearms to protect themselves yearly. Those politicians want you to depend on the government — and thus to depend on them — for your safety.

HMM: Former FBI Agent: A Law Enforcement ‘Shift’ Is Needed to End the Opioid Crisis.

“WHERE’D ALL THE MONEY GO?” Jackson MS problems are deeper than the water.

Urban machine Democrats can ruin any city, and leave you wondering where the money went. It’s what they do.

Related: Jackson Water Shakedown? Water Pressure Restored Immediately After Army Corps Arrives: Social media users have begun to suggest the Jackson, Mississippi water crisis was merely a manufactured crisis.

DEAL OF THE DAY: NEIKO Rechargeable Cordless Underhood Work Light. #CommissionEarned

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: ‘I am telling you people that the situation in Europe is much worse than many understand.’

LOYALTY OATHS WERE BAD, BACK WHEN THEY WERE ABOUT LOYALTY TO THE UNITED STATES AND THE CONSTITUTION: Higher Ed’s New Woke Loyalty Oaths. “A quick search for academic jobs inevitably yields dozens or hundreds of positions that require diversity statements. In November 2021, the American Enterprise Institute conducted a survey of faculty jobs and found that 19% required them, a number that is likely to grow.”

DRAMA QUEEN: AOC Is Afraid She Won’t Live Through September Because You Hate Women.

HMM: ‘They Are Getting Ready for Trump’s Second Term’: Former Pentagon Brass Encourage Military to Disobey Orders. “The only thing that’s missing from the bulleted manifesto-y letter about the military’s ‘best practices’ is an explanation for why it was written. Is it more (very delayed) fallout from January 6? A response to President Joe Biden’s use of Marine guards as staging for his angry and divisive speech in Philadelphia in which he declared war on Republicans? A warning of things yet to come?”

The Biden Administration, like the Obama Administration before it, went out of the way to politicize the military. Then there was the Afghanistan debacle, which — like all huge, humiliating military defeats — inevitably strained relationships with civilian masters, and for that matter the public. Leaders of previous generations worried about these things; leaders of the current generation are happy to spend all kinds of capital with no thought for the long-term consequences.

Related: Of Coups and the Constitution.

Plus:

The letter is conveniently revisionist in its glossing over of recent military history while attempting to frame the former officials’ legacies in a positive light. Claiming the disaster that was the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan merely “ended without all the goals satisfactorily accomplished” is a rather appalling way to characterize what was a complete failure on multiple levels — one that further undermined Americans’ trust in military leaders.

What’s more, the signatories were at the helm of the U.S. military for the better part of the last two decades — if there are issues with the civil-military relationship, they had a hand in that. They were also on watch as the armed forces barreled toward recruitment, retention, and fitness level failures through multiple administrations.

Then there’s the matter of the signers’ decision to chime in on politics, invoke the events of January 6, and talk about presidential elections.

Well, that’s part of the problem, of course. The demonstrably incompetent and politicized brass is pretty much all in with the Gentry/ruling class with whom they increasingly share a tribal identity as the result of the military’s emphasis on graduate education for senior officers. The rest of the military? Unclear.

But if Trump is re-elected — or if any other Republican is elected — firing the worthless senior military leadership should be a top priority, and not just because they’ve politicized themselves.

FROM MACKEY CHANDLER:   Let Us Tell You Again.  #CommissionEarned

The continuing story of April, Jeff, and Heather after they conspire to rebel against North America and their efforts to find friends and a safe haven in the stars. Continuing to close the time gap to the later Family Law series of books.
Heather and her peers impose a ban on armed ships beyond L1 in the Solar System and a prohibition for explorer ships going interstellar heavily armed. There are continuing stories of future characters still stuck on Earth.
Heather has a lot of help from her friends but it isn’t easy being the queen.

I WAS GOING TO SAY SHE CAN’T BE DUMBER THAN BIDEN, BUT….  No, AOC, there’s a different reason you won’t be president.

GIVEN WHAT CONSTITUTES MODERN COLLEGE EDUCATION, THEY HAVE LESS TO UNLEARN:  New York company hiring high school grads for $47 an hour.

ALL BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO VIRTUE SIGNAL:   Europe is in trouble.

PRETTY MUCH:  Looking around: Biden’s “blood red” speech polls very poorly among independents; WH hypocrisy on “election denial”; California reaps bitter harvest of Potemkin environmentalism; Liz Truss is the new British PM.

US OUT OF THE UN, UN OUT OF THE US:  The UN criticizes the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, in act of supreme chutzpah.

BEHOLD, MY SHOCKED FACE!  Obama Foundation executives earn lavish salaries as fundraising plummets, and it defaults on agreement with city.