EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (CHINA EDITION): Xi Jinping moves to silence Covid Zero critics in sign of brewing tumult. “Our pandemic prevention-and-control strategy is determined by the party’s nature and principles. Our policy can stand the test of history, and our measures are scientific and effective.”
Author Archive: Stephen Green
May 12, 2022
OK, GROOMERS: ‘Woke’ Target Peddling ‘Trans’ Clothing to Teens.
FROM OUR OWN SARAH HOYT: DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!
Look, I know that some of the regulars — and heaven help me, one or two times a year, me, myself — will fall into doomer mode at times.
Standing on the ramparts is tiring work, and not only are the slings and arrows painful, what hurts the most is the HOWLING incoherence of the opposition. For a certain type of odd, who seems to congregate here, to be honest, we prefer to be called bad names than to be screamed random slogans at. Because we don’t so much mind being hated, but we’d like it to MAKE SENSE.
Sometimes we all fall into doom.
But you have to realize, if you’ve read military history that when the enemy’s main tactic is yelling at you to shut up and give up, they’re losing.
They’re losing big.
To an extent the leftist/collectivist project always was losing. You can’t fight reality. She’s a stone cold b*tch.
But they controlled the mass media, and therefore their shouts made many people give up. Most people, really, including a lot of the “opposition” who became the loyal opposition in the hope of being killed last.
Well, Thank G-d Almighty that time is past.
Read the whole thing and remember that “Get’em skeered and keep the skeer on ’em” is a game both sides can play.
MACKUBIN OWENS: The Very Model of the Modern Russian General.
The current U.S. doctrine originated in the 1970s and ’80s when American planners concluded that we lacked the conventional capability necessary to defeat a Soviet offensive against NATO and that our threat to escalate to the nuclear level rang hollow. Led by young Army officers at Fort Leavenworth and elsewhere, U.S. land and air forces developed a battle-winning operational doctrine that came to be known as AirLand Battle or AirLand Operations, which represented a true doctrinal revolution. The success of that doctrine was based on developing the tactical instrument, to include well-trained and educated officers and men, flexible command and control, and operational planning. It proved its worth in both Iraq wars.
Conversely, Russian operational doctrine relies on a brittle top-down approach to command, which means that when (not if) a plan encounters unexpected setbacks, subordinates lack the flexibility and initiative to adapt to the new circumstances. Without a professional non-commissioned officer (NCO) corps and subordinate commanders who are expected and trusted to adapt to changing circumstances, senior Russian commanders, fearful of being sacked, have been required to expose themselves to hostile fire to direct tactical details rather than focusing on strategic or operational concerns. But the progress of the war thus far suggests that Russian problems are systemic and cannot be corrected by even the presence of senior officers doing the job of colonels and majors.
The relief of Russian commanders, which set this entire sequence into motion, has led some to suggest that a U.S. shortcoming in recent years has been our failure to fire unsuccessful generals. In the words of one critic, “a private who loses his rifle is subject to greater punishment than a general who loses a war.”
Worse: We spent two decades trying to get our military to perform nation-building missions for which it, and the patience of the American people, are both ill-suited. All the Woke nonsense hurts, too.
Still, the results so far in Ukraine show that when it comes to the fundamental mission of breaking enemy formations, that the American model, even as adapted by Ukraine, remains formidable.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Democrats’ Baby-Killing Bill Gets Aborted. “The Democrats wanted this to be a single issue that would throw votes their way in this year of desperation but one of them helped save the unborn.”
HOW (NOT) TO BEAT THE HIGH COST OF LIVING: Biden administration cancels oil and gas lease sales in Alaska, Gulf of Mexico.
BIDEN’S BULLIES: FBI Whistleblowers Claim Agents Investigated Parents Accused of Threatening School Boards over Mask Policies.
The FBI’s counterterrorism bureau reportedly created an internal “threat tag” in fall 2021 to track alleged threats against school boards following an October 4 directive from Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland released his directive after the National School Boards Association called on the Biden administration on September 29 to investigate parents who allegedly threatened boards over policies on school masks and critical race theory, and to determine whether the parents had violated the Patriot Act or hate crimes laws. (The NSBA subsequently apologized for releasing the letter.)
The FBI labeled “dozens” of investigations with the threat tag “EDUOFFICIALS,” Representatives Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and Mike Johnson (R., La.) claimed in their new letter on Wednesday, citing FBI whistleblowers. Jordan and Johnson wrote that the new revelations contradicted Garland’s congressional testimony denying that parents were intentionally targeted under counterterrorism procedures.
One investigation allegedly began after the FBI received a tip that a mom had told a local school board, “We are coming for you.” The complaint “alleged that the mom was a threat because she belonged to a ‘right wing mom’s group’ known as ‘Moms for Liberty,’ and because she is a ‘gun owner,’” the congressmen wrote. An FBI agent reportedly interviewed the the mom, who said she was upset about a school mask mandate and wanted to elect new board members.
It sure looks like the FBI is engaged in a conspiracy to deny Americans their civil rights to speak, vote, and run for office.
PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.
Matt Margolis: Content Warnings for ‘Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Content’ in Children’s Shows? Yes Please. “It’s hard to believe that, as a parent, I have to be concerned about the content available on Disney’s platform, but sadly that’s where we are.”
Cameron Arcand: Look No Further Than Nashville’s ‘Suicide Squad’ to See How Bad the Border Crisis Is. “Recent news from the Justice Department should help people understand that the message sent by a seemingly open border has emboldened wannabe drug smugglers throughout the United States.”
Yours Truly: The iPod Is Gone but Not Forgotten, Still in My Car’s Center Console. “Just don’t ask what I sing along to in the car, alone and with the windows rolled up tight.”
THE LEFT ASTROTURFS, ALWAYS: Who Is Funding Pro-Abortion Protests at the Homes of Supreme Court Justices?
May 11, 2022
THE SWAMP LOOKS AFTER ITS OWN: ED Cancels $6.8 billion of Public Servants’ Student Debt, Launches Appeal Process for Denials. “The Education Department announced Wednesday that recent changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program had improved the accessibility of the program. The department has canceled $6.8 billion in student debt owed by federal employees and public servants through the improvements.”
It’s good to be the nomenklatura.
I SWEAR THIS IS SAFE FOR WORK: Madonna Scanned Her Whole Body for Charity, Including Her… You Know. “Feeling merciful — and as a columnist for a family-friendly website — I’ll keep the details trimmed down to this bare essential: Madonna is selling naughty NFTs of herself giving birth to not-babies in the name of art.”
BUT WHO STILL LISTENS? The Elites Have Spoken.
HE’S PRIVATIZING WORLD PEACE: China ‘Deeply Alarmed’ By SpaceX’s Starlink Capabilities That Is Helping US Military Achieve Total Space Dominance.
The article notes the SpaceX Starlink’s role during the Russia-Ukraine war, where Elon Musk provided Starlink terminals to restore communications in those parts of the country where internet or phone connection had stopped following the shelling by Russian troops.
”Starlink was the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine in the wake of the invasion,” claimed SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
However, there have also been reports of Starlink aiding the Ukrainian armed forces in precision strikes against Russian tanks and positions, which has not been unnoticed by Chinese military observers.
Plus there’s this from a commenter to yesterday’s Insanity Wrap when I first mentioned this story:
I think you are missing the big deal with Starlink, Steve. 12k satellites up now, moving to 42k? Musk could use Starlink Sats as anti-sat weapons and probably take out every other satellite in LEO, without significantly degrading Starlink’s capacity. China and Russia together have less than 2100 satellites in orbit.
If I were Xi or Putin I’d be terrified of Musk.
And nobody can even remotely match Musk’s launch capacity to deliver replacements.
ONCE IS HAPPENSTANCE, TWICE IS COINCIDENCE…: There’s Been Another Supreme Court Leak … No One Will Be Happy About This One.
A POSTCARD FROM THE PROPRIETOR:
I’m jealous.
TO BE FAIR, HE’S UNDISGUISABLY AWFUL: Biden Is Polling Worse Than Trump at This Point in Presidency. “Donald Trump could have only dreamed for the kind of media coverage that Joe Biden gets.”
CHANGE (IT BACK): Elon Musk says he would lift Twitter ban on Donald Trump after deal closes.
But would Trump come back to Twitter?
In his Monday speech, Wallace said Russian vehicles “are frequently found with 1980s paper maps of Ukraine in them” and that soldiers were using “pine logs as makeshift protection on logistical trucks” and attaching “overhead ‘cope cages’ to their tanks.”
I can’t vouch for the GPS story, but the rest has all been confirmed.