BIDEN CHANNELS STALIN:
Related: Stalin: “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”
July 13, 2021
THIS IS BIG, IF TRUE: The Cuban regime Police decide to move away and allow the passage of a demonstration in Camagüey. “A video that is being disseminated on social networks, one of the few that manages to circumvent the internet blockade installed in Cuba, shows a manifestation against the communist regime passing the police cordon that tried to stop them. A crowd advances down one of the main streets of Camagüey. While supporters of the Castro regime, next to a police cordon with several agents, make gestures to them not to continue, the hundreds of people who are advancing do not back down and continue on their way shouting ‘yes, we can!’ At the moment in which the head of the demonstration reaches the line of police agents, when the worst is feared given the history of violent repression that the Cuban security forces have, it is possible to observe how the agents step aside to let them pass. Something that the protesters celebrate with glee. Various testimonies on Twitter speak of some police stations that have abandoned the defense of the regime to join the people.”
If so, let’s hope this spreads, like the Cossacks who let protesters escape under their horses.
THE FBI CLOWN SHOW CONTINUES: FBI Calls for People to Rat Out Friends and Family, Gets Clown-Slapped on Twitter. The Lego jokes are my favorites. Though the actual clown car video was a nice touch.
THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S 100% SOPHOMORICALLY POLITICAL BULLSHIT: Critical Race Theory has no idea what to do with Asian-Americans.
DON’T WORRY, WITH BIDEN’S ECONOMIC POLICIES SOON $200 FRIES WILL BE NORMAL: New York restaurant’s $200 fries certified as the world’s most expensive.
LAUNCHING IN A WEEK: With Virgin Galactic’s launch of Richard Branson in the books, all eyes are on Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos.
I wish them both well, and want to see competition in this field grow. But really, they’re so far behind SpaceX that it’s hard for me to get as excited about this as I would have a decade ago.
IT’S COME TO THIS: Bidenflation is so bad, even Wolf Blitzer noticed. “Every baby boomer knows this is bad because we came of age in the 1970s when Carter was president and inflation ate through our paychecks. 40+ years later, it’s ba-a-ack.”
NOW OUT FROM MARK LEVIN: American Marxism. #1 on Amazon.
RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The Crumbling Global Tower:
The “international community”, already hard-pressed by their own domestic concerns, is in no mood to donate more aid, send troops or accept more refugees from the Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, or Afghanistan. The well is running dry. Even before the latest trouble, the left-wing Nation wrote: “Haiti Has Been Abandoned—by the Media, the US, and the World.” It underscores how deep the fatigue is: when the media gives up who’s left?
It’s hard to say who wanted it to happen, but now it’s been decided nobody minds.
Plus: “More likely this could be the end of the old global world, the vanished landscape of old norms that Joe Biden was supposed to restore. Not all of social media nor Hollywood could save it. It died under the rise of China, the corruption of Washington, the stasis of Europe, and the madness of Woke culture. Covid when it came was simply the coup de grace for the whole teetering edifice.”
It turns out that a ruling class that doesn’t much like the countries it rules doesn’t do a very good job. This is a problem in the United States, and throughout most of the West.
ANOTHER BOGUS “RACIST” INCIDENT: The Thompson Bodycam.
St. Paul police have released the bodycam footage of the July 4 traffic stop of state representative John Thompson. I have embedded it below. The first minute and the last minute. He was driving with a Wisconsin driver’s license at a time when his driving privileges had been suspended as a result of an unmet child support payment.
The officer asks him “Why in such a hurry?” Thompson responds: “I don’t think I took off like a bot out of hell. I just drove off.”
Thompson tells him he’s “a state representative in this district right here, man.” The officer responds: “With a Wisconsin license?” Good question!
Thompson puts his racial hustle into overdrive when the officer returns with a ticket for driving with a suspended license. Tom Hauser adds that he has Minnesota addresses outside his legislative district (tweet at bottom). R-a-a-a-cism!
As predicted, bodycams work in favor of cops at least as often as against them.
HMM: FDA adds warning to J&J COVID-19 vaccine over links to rare autoimmune disorder. “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a new warning for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine over its association with an increased risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder where the immune system damages the nerve cells.”
This is a well-known (though generally rare) side effect of many vaccines. The rushed Swine Flu vaccine of the 1970s had a higher rate than most, if I recall correctly. And, doing the search, it turns out that I do remember correctly, though the rate was still low: “The vaccine caused roughly one extra case of Guillain-Barré for every 100,000 people vaccinated. The seasonal flu shot is associated with roughly one to two additional cases for every 1 million vaccines administered.”
FINANCIAL QUESTIONS NEEDED: Korving and Co, financial advisors and retirement planners are one of Helen’s Page advertisers and publishers of Before I Go and the Before I Go Workbook. Recently they answered questions about retirement. Now, they are answering your general financial questions for free. If you have a financial question you would like answered, put it in the comments (or contact them here) and they will choose a few to answer on Helen’s Page. Thanks very much. (Bumped)
FROM INSTAPUNDIT READER, FARMER, AND AGRONOMIST BART HALL: “PSA for anyone who eats in the US or Canada. This year’s wheat harvest is shaping up as dreadful. Durum, used for pasta and bread flour, looks to be the worst in at least 60 years. Soft White Winter wheat, used for pastry flour, and Hard Red Winter [all-purpose] are facing the worst harvests since the 1988 drought. This is a good time to stock up and hoard, since the news is not widely known. Pasta keeps just about forever and a doubling in price is not inconceivable. Same with assorted flours if you bake at home, except flours should be stored in a freezer to prevent damage from Indian Meal Moth and other bugs. Bread also freezes quite well, and will do just fine for at least a year, probably two. Canola oil is also likely to see a price jump, as the crops across Alberta and Saskatchewan have also been clobbered. It also keeps well for years.”
We don’t eat much pasta, and avoid canola oil, but maybe I’ll put away some farfalle and penne.
Related: Cheap Eats.
MARK PULLIAM: No-Fault Divorce And Its Discontents.
THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT BEIJING GOT THE MONEY: WHO Squanders Cash on Shoddy Chinese Vaccines.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Fourth Circuit Rules Federal Law Banning Handgun Sales to Adults Under 21 is Unconstitutional. “Our nation’s most cherished constitutional rights vest no later than 18. . . . we refuse to relegate either the Second Amendment or 18- to 20-year-olds to a second-class status.”
The full opinion (which I haven’t read yet) is here.
UPDATE: Here’s more from Eugene Volokh.
BIDEN WELCOME CENTER A ‘COMPLETE SH–HOLE:’ One might think the State of Delaware would make sure the roadside rest center named for its most famous citizen would be suitable for human use. Alas, not so much, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Get Off The X.
HE’S ENJOYING HIS ICE CREAM: ‘Where’s President Biden?’: Officials Sound Alarm As ‘Socialist Shock Troops’ Deployed On Cuban Protesters.
GLORIOUS NEWS, COMRADES! FULL COMMUNISM HAS FINALLY BEEN ACHIEVED: North Korea Faces Another Terrible and Totally Avoidable Famine.
DON’T BE EVIL: How Google Translate deceives you. “Now, I don’t know if Google Translate omitted that damning reference because it obviously provokes the question I raised — why are oppressed Palestinians inspired by the land-grabbing oppressors of history? — before or after I cast the spotlight on it in my article.”
HMM: AG Barr’s Handling of Election Fraud Claims Slammed by Ex-U.S. Attorney in Letter Released by Trump. “On Election Day and afterwards, our Office received various allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities. As part of my responsibilities as U.S. Attorney, I wanted to be transparent with the public and, of course, investigate fully any allegations. Attorney General Barr, however, instructed me not to make any public statements or put out any press releases regarding possible election irregularities.”
OLD AND BUSTED: “The Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with live turkeys. Film at 11!”
The New Hotness? Who says fish can’t fly? Aerial stocking places fish in Utah lakes via airplane drop:
“They’ve been using airplanes to drop fish into the water since the 1950s, and it’s estimated that over 95% of the fish survive and thrive after their plunge from the air. ‘Using this method, so it’s actually really efficient and it is, believe it or not, less stressful on the fish because we can get them into that higher, you know oxygenated water sooner,’ Utah DWR outreach manager Phil Tuttle explains to ABC4.com, adding that a single flight can drop up to 35,000 fish into a natural habitat.”
HMM: Hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir fail to improve COVID-19 outcomes in study. I’m not sure about remdesivir, which I think was supposed to be given to people who were already quite sick, but it’s been known for a while that the time to give HCQ is as early as possible, not when people are already hospitalized. Yet we keep seeing studies where it’s given to people who are already very sick.
But, hey, the Administration wants you to know you saved 16¢ if you treated your family to the lamest Independence Day cookout ever (without driving anywhere).
The big guy won’t notice until his 10% cut no longer buys him enough ice cream.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Cornel West quits Harvard with blistering letter attacking racism and ‘spiritual rot’ at university.
STOP CORPORATE TYRANNY: If you are on a corporate board, or know someone who is, or you own corporate stocks, or know someone who does, then you need to know about this new effort and Sarah Lee has the details.
Some real powerhouse groups are being Stop Corporate Tyranny, including Alliance Defending Freedom, the Center for Economic Opportunity and Americans for Limited Government, among others.
THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS PUSHING COMPETITION POLICY. I hadn’t noticed the specifics on the alcoholic beverage industry until I read this. “They direct the Secretary of the Treasury (with the Attorney General and the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)) to look at the impact on small business from the consolidations occurring in all three tiers and direct the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to undertake new rulemaking on trade practices to update the regulations, rescind current regulations that unnecessarily impede competition, and reduce any barriers (within TTB’s legal authority and control) to market entry by smaller and independent distillers, wineries, or breweries.”
This all sounds positive. The small/independent businesses in this field were flourishing pre-Covid and seem to be bouncing back, but there are a lot of barriers to entry and many of them are regulatory. And, as I’ve mentioned before, our alcohol regulatory structure dates back to a Prohibition mindset.
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: You Won’t Believe Who Bought a Ticket on Branson’s SpaceShipTwo.
Plus:
- Progressivism is miserablism, Exhibits #1, #2, #3
- Masks are for the little flyers
- Can’t Hide Love (Of Election Fraud)
So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
ROGER SIMON: Will Cuba Be Biden’s Iran?
Remember in November 2009, when thousands of freedom demonstrators in the streets of Tehran, Iran, were chanting “Obama, Obama, you are either with us or you are with them [the Islamic Regime]!”?
If not, click on the link and see for yourself. It was the moment then-President Barack Obama revealed himself as the hypocrite (with a totalitarian soul) that he was and is.
He, of course, did nothing for the suffering people of Iran then for fear of undermining his nuclear deal with the mullahs that they had no intention of actually adhering to in the first place, and didn’t.
I can’t help but believe Obama must have known that too (most of us did), but went ahead anyway. I leave his motives for you to decide.
Now, Joe Biden is confronted with an oddly similar situation. For the first time in decades, the Cuban people are rising up against their communist masters. Will our president stand up for democracy and freedom or will he crumble (or bow to other interests) like his “former” boss?
There’s a lot riding on how President Klain handles Cuba: Democrats Start to Panic After They Realize They’ve Screwed up in Florida.
BILL PRESS, PROVIDING THE IMPORTANT ANALYSIS: Ice cream’s back — thank you, Joe!
WELCOME BACK, CARTER: Inflation Surged to 5.4 Percent in June in Biggest Jump Since 2008.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LAY DOWN THE ‘WELCOME’ MAT: Illegal Immigrant Deaths Soar During Heat Wave.
AT HELEN’S PAGE: From Terry R. Lacy’s Savannah 1.0: The Quest for Love.
THIS IS A BIG DEAL, NEW YORK MAGAZINE FINALLY ADMITTING WHAT MILLIONS OF US HAVE KNOWN FOR MONTHS AND MONTHS: Why now is the time to rethink COVID safety protocols for children — and everyone else.
All told, 80 percent of American deaths have been among those 65 and above. According to the White House, 90 percent of American seniors are now fully vaccinated. Which means that while more cases are likely and some amount of hospitalization and death, as well, vaccines have eliminated the overwhelming share of American mortality risk, with the disease now circulating almost exclusively among people who can endure it much, much better — kids especially.
The country’s whole risk profile has changed. But our intuitions about risk tolerance haven’t — at least not yet.
You don’t say.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. The Left wanted a culture war. It got one. Now it’s upset.
To be fair, lefties are always upset when they don’t get their way. Also when they do. Because being upset is their only reason for living.
PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.
Matt Margolis: Matt Damon Gets a Valuable Lesson About Conservative Folk. “These people were wonderful to us, they really helped us. It was eye-opening for me.”
Stacey Lennox: Dr. Fauci’s Latest Comments on Vaccine Hesitancy Are Disingenuous and Wrong. “The irony of people politicizing the virus, framing those choosing not to be vaccinated as ideologues, cannot be overstated. It is not remotely based in reality.”
Yours Truly: Richard Branson and the Retro Future of Spaceflight. “I’ve often wondered what might have happened if the Soviets hadn’t had so many early successes with their space program. Ours could have looked less like Mercury-Gemini-Apollo, and more like Chuck Yaeger climbing aboard whatever spaceplane might have come after the X-15 and saying, ‘I think I’m gonna fly into orbit today.'”
SQUAD MEMBERS JUST AREN’T THAT INTO HUMAN RIGHTS: Omar and Tlaib Mum on Whether Palestinian Aid Should Be Conditioned on Human Rights Abuses.
THEY SHOULD BE RANKLED: Unions’ Focus on Woke Over Work Rankles Rank and File.
People focus on “woke” politics because it’s easier than doing their actual jobs, and earns easy plaudits from their peers. If you’re a union member, the people running the unions don’t think of you as their peer.
IT WOULD TAKE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH: CRT Wars Are Taking A Toll On Lefty Administrators. The best way to influence bureaucrats is to reduce their quality of life when they do things you don’t like. Leftists have known this forever. Expect a sudden revival of interest in “civility” now that people on the right are picking up their playbook.
STILL POPULAR: The Weightless Ribbon: Rolling with Ease in Seven Lessons.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Marketing And PR Are Corrupting Universities.
To be fair, they’re not the only thing corrupting universities today.
THE ARKANSAS LAW NAMING SCANDAL CONTINUES: All in the name.
The controversy over quietly renaming an endowed professorship to honor Bill Clinton at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Bowen Law School has provided fodder for legal blogs and now prompted a state hearing.
At issue is how in an unannounced change after 20 years, the “Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy” at Bowen inexplicably became the “William J. Clinton Professor of Constitutional Law and Public Service.”Valued readers know the resulting conflict among some on the Bowen faculty has been the subject of two previous columns.
The matter has now led to a joint hearing by the Senate and House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committees, set for 10 a.m. Aug. 10.
The committees requested that Professor Robert Steinbuch and Dean Theresa Beiner of the law school provide testimony and answer questions over circumstances involved in renaming the professorship.
Best known for his staunch and uncompromising defense of transparency in government, Steinbuch told me he believed that the questions raised by his colleague Tom Sullivan in an email Sullivan sent to the Bowen faculty are in need of complete and honest answers.They include: “Why didn’t Bowen’s administration announce at a faculty meeting, by email (or in any other fashion) the re-designation of this long-standing professorship in the name of William J. Clinton? Why was this done in secret?
“Were the actions taken by Bowen’s administration in re-designating a professorship in the name of Clinton discussed with–and approved by–the UALR chancellor, Christy Drale, and the UA Board of Trustees prior to their implementation? Or was this re-designation withheld from the chancellor and the board, in addition to the law school faculty and general public?
“Does the law school’s administration believe it appropriate to re-designate a professorship in the name of Clinton given that: President Clinton was disbarred from practice before the United States Supreme Court and suspended from Arkansas courts for five years by plea agreement; he was involved in the mass incarceration of Americans, particularly poor and African American communities; he has a troubling history of allegations over abusing women physically, as well as threatening them to remain silent during his run for the presidency?
“Why didn’t the Bowen administration believe it was the legitimate authority of the faculty to, even at minimum, offer advice and consent on re-designating an established professorship in Clinton’s name, particularly given such a decision might have significant consequences in terms of Bowen’s mission and reputation?“Was the recent re-designation in Clinton’s name done solely to satisfy the political interests of the dean, or a group of advisers or supporters who answer only to the dean?”
Finally, Steinbuch seeks to understand what changed in the last year that warranted adding Clinton’s name to an endowed professorship without his name attached for 20 years.
I’m surprised that anyone thought this wouldn’t raise eyebrows, even in Arkansas.
THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP: Google angers employees with ‘hypocritical’ remote work policies. “Employees were already stirred up over opaque policies on remote work. Then a senior executive announced he’s moving to New Zealand in what some workers consider special treatment.”
HEH: “So as I understand it, Democratic legislators fled the state of Texas to prevent the large legislative majority from enacting a voting reform bill. They flew to Washington, D.C., where they rallied for ending the filibuster so that Democrats’ slim majority can pass a voting ‘reform’ bill.”
Comment: “Yeah, last night the BBC was saying both those things at once, with no consciousness of any contradiction.”
WAS IT EVER? Is Haiti Governable Right Now? The only time it was ever successfully governed was by the U.S. Marines, and that collapsed as soon as they left. Are there really people talking about repeating that experiment?
SALENA ZITO: Seeing America from the Ground.
A couple of weeks ago, a native Long Islander who has called New York City his home for half a dozen years took his first trip to the Midwest for a news assignment to discuss what he found different about the way of life out here.
He flew to both Chicago and Detroit to learn about this foreign land.
The social media criticism of the resulting story was swift and brutal. The piece wasn’t any worse than the typical story flyover country folk read about themselves. But the oddest thing was that he tried to find the “Midwest” solely in the big cities of Chicago and Detroit. The true measure of the Midwest begins somewhere near the Pennsylvania state line.
Had he driven the 21 hours and 18 minutes it would take on the back roads between New York City and Chicago, he would have had one heck of a story to write about the country and the Midwest.
A mere one hundred miles from his front door, he would have found himself culturally beginning to understand what lies ahead.
Too much work, unless you’re a real reporter like Salena Zito. Who at one point was accused of making up quotes (she didn’t, she had recordings) on the ridiculous basis that flyover people couldn’t possibly speak that articulately.
GOOD IDEA, BUT BAD EXECUTION: JustTheNews has a report about Wisconsin state Sen. Julian Bradley (R-Franklin) proposing a new piece of legislation that would force the tech companies to show their algorithms and explain the policies that decide who gets blocked and who gets to post freely.
I’m all for it in concept, but Bradley makes in part, a fundamental error in saying:
“Bradley is quick to point out that judges have ruled lawmakers and other elected officials cannot block or ban people from commenting on their posts, even if those comments are negative or ugly. The courts have ruled, essentially, that social media is the new public town hall and some online speech is protected.”
Bradley’s error is reading the caselaw a little too broadly. The courts have not ruled essentially, that “social media is the new public town hall.” What they have ruled is that when public officials (be they Trump or AOC) use these platforms, their accounts are “official” government business and Freedom of Information or “Government in the Sunshine” laws, as well as the First Amendment prohibit blocking any segment of the public from reading those communiques. That’s not the same as declaring social media a “public square.”
Unless and until Congress drafts a law (or the Supreme Court rules, I suppose) declaring these platforms a “public square” the Tech Barons will still have filtering control. Given the current make-up of Congress, it inures to the Dems’ benefit to keep letting their donor Tech Barons filter out contrarian voices, so I would not look for this kind of law soon. For the record, I do think these platforms are already a de facto public square.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Democrats Want All Elections to Be Lawless Fraud-Fests. “Chaos and an election riddled with irregularities worked out well for them last year, so one can see why they’d like that to be the norm. That’s what H.R. 1 is all about. It’s federal oversight that perversely makes sure that states and municipalities can’t do much in the way of, you know, oversight.”
WHY DO MOST LEFTISTS WANT THE CUBAN PEOPLE TO TOIL UNDER A DICTATORSHIP? Obama-Rhodes Legacy In Shambles as Cubans March Against Communism.
EMBRACE THE HEALING POWER OF ‘AND’: Is failure a byproduct or an aim of Democratic policy?
Everywhere one looks, it’s impossible to recruit staff. A local grocery has posted a notice asking customers to be patient with slow service because the place is short-staffed. A builder who’d like to take on more projects amid the real estate boom is frustrated because he “can’t hire people to do the work.” The local YMCA has lost 30 lifeguards because it can’t keep them on the wages it can pay. A lodge catering to whitewater rafting groups on the Kennebec River turns customers away because its diminished staff can’t cope. In its restaurant, tables are left uncleared around other diners because it’s impossible to hire busboys to tidy up. The frazzled manager says bluntly that his inability to match what Joe Biden pays people to stay idle “has something to do with it.” A hostess in another understaffed restaurant put the issue with succinct completeness, saying, “Until the unemployment runs out, no one wants to work.”
Paying people not to work saps morale, slows wealth creation, and becomes a habit of idleness — a malaise even. Does anyone think this is good for the country? Why would one persist in such folly when evidence abounds of the harm it does and the good it thwarts? It’s almost as if the Democrats want not only a torpid public dependent on central government but also actively want America to fail — which is the theme of our cover story by Peter Savodnik.
Here’s a chicken and egg question about which came first. Was it the Left’s wish for American failure and thence its adoption of a deleterious ideology of government interference? Or was it an ideological antipathy to freedom and thus its tenacious embrace of policies that don’t work? Sadly, the answer appears to be that it’s a lot of both.
Read the whole thing.
When you cancel pipelines and try to eliminate fracking, gas prices go up. Blitzer should know that. The Biden Administration certainly does.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: ‘It’s unavoidable:’ Marc Lamont Hill says all white people are inherently racist.
YOU JUST THOUGHT HR1 WAS DEAD: It’s back but this time it’s HR4 and the Democrats are calling it the Voting Rights Act. Capital Research Center’s Hayden Ludwig warns in The American Conservative that “if anyone thinks the flood of mail-in ballots the country witnessed in 2020 was just a one-off fluke, they haven’t been paying attention.”
FROM SENATOR TOM COTTON, ET AL.: A Report on the Fighting Culture of the United States Navy Surface Fleet. “The results of this project are unambiguous. There was a broad consensus across interviewees on numerous cultural and structural issues that impact the morale and readiness of the Navy’s surface force. These include: an insufficient focus on warfighting skills, the perception of a zero- defect mentality accompanied by a culture of micromanagement, and over-sensitivity and responsiveness to modern media culture. Structural issues identified include lack of resources and consistency in surface warfare training programs, and the Navy’s underwhelming commitment to surface ship maintenance—a problem that spans decades. Concern within the Navy runs so high that, when asked whether incidents such as the two destroyer collisions in the Pacific, the surrender of a small craft to the IRGC in the Arabian Gulf, the burning of the Bonhomme Richard and other incidents were part of a broader cultural or leadership problem in the Navy, 94% of interviewees responded ‘yes,’ 3% said ‘no,’ and 3% said ‘unsure.’ And when asked if the incidents were directly connected, 55% said ‘yes,’ 16% said ‘no,’ and 29% said ‘unsure.’ This sentiment, that the Navy is dangerously off course, was overwhelming.”
Plus:
Sailors increasingly see administrative and non-combat related training as the mission, rather than the mission itself. “Sometimes I think we care more about whether we have enough diversity officers than if we’ll survive a fight with the Chinese navy,” lamented one lieutenant currently on active duty. “It’s criminal. They think my only value is as a black woman. But you cut our ship open with a missile and we’ll all bleed the same color.”
Just as concerning is the assertion by interviewees that, when combat lethality and ship fighting are emphasized, they are treated in a box-checking manner that can seem indistinguishable from non-combat related exercises. “The Navy treats warfighting readiness as a compliance issue,” said one career commander. “You might even use the term compliance-centered warfare as opposed to adversary-centered warfare or warfighter-centered warfare.”
One junior surface warfare officer, still on active duty, confessed “I don’t think that the [surface community] see themselves as people who are engaged in a fight.”
More here:
The impetus for the report was a series of recent catastrophes—a ship burning in San Diego last year; two destroyer collisions in the Pacific in 2017. Were these isolated events? Or did they indicate “larger institutional issues that are degrading the performance of the entire naval surface force”? The report surveyed active and recently retired service members of various ranks, conducting 77 candid hourlong interviews. A key finding: “Many sailors found their leadership distracted, captive to bureaucratic excess, and rewarded for the successful execution of administrative functions” rather than core competencies of war.
“I guarantee you every unit in the Navy is up to speed on their diversity training,” said one recently retired senior enlisted leader. “I’m sorry that I can’t say the same of their ship-handling training.”
Plus: “After negative news stories, the report found, ‘the senior ranks are perceived as quick to sacrifice junior personnel’ to save their own tails. Discipline is ‘bent to the unsteady whims of public perception, not the Navy’s own standards and regulations.'”
PUTIN’S NOT SCARED OF BIDEN, HE KNOWS BETTER: Will the Russians add “crossing US red lines” to the 2021 Olympics?
Flashback:
Ted Cruz notes, “[B]asically what Joe Biden has decided is pipelines in America, bad. Jobs in America, bad. Pipelines in Russia, good. Jobs in Russia, good. And this is exactly backward. It is asinine. And four months into it, Joe Biden is crawling in bed with Putin and Russia and the enemies of America. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Flashback: So is it fair to ask if Biden is on the payroll of Putin? As Walter Russell Mead wrote in 2017:
If Trump were the Manchurian candidate that people keep wanting to believe that he is, here are some of the things he’d be doing:
Limiting fracking as much as he possibly could
Blocking oil and gas pipelines
Opening negotiations for major nuclear arms reductions
Cutting U.S. military spending
Trying to tamp down tensions with Russia’s ally Iran.
You know who didn’t do those things? Trump. You know who is doing those things? Biden.
GLIMMER OF NEW HOPE FOR THE BLACK FAMILY: Focus on the Family’s Tim Goeglein writes in the Washington Times about what might be an encouraging indication that the Black family could be heading for the recovery room:
“Among Black high school seniors, the proportion living with their biological fathers has risen from a woeful 24% to 30%. While this is still tragic, there is a glimmer of hope this upward trend will bring about the eventual restoration of the Black family.
“If we are to truly solve the numerous issues that the Black community faces, the restoration of the family is the foundation upon which those solutions will be built – and that goes for families from all races as well.”
THE GODS HATE SELFIES: Lightning strike kills 18 selfie takers on tourist tower in Jaipur.
To be fair, there weren’t any mobile homes nearby.
OLD COP’S LAST RIDE IS WITH HIS SON, THE NEW COP: Here’s a great story out of Mesquite, Texas, where retiring police officer takes the wheel on his last patrol with his son, a recent police academy graduate, in the passenger seat beside him.
THE ULTIMATE PRONOUN: No identity confusions here! The first of the seven “I Am” studies is up on HillFaith, for those with an interest.
THINK BEFORE YOU POST: Stop Collaborating With The Enemy.
ONLY THING KEEPING ME FROM HAVING THE FULL COLLECTION OF MONUMENTS IS MONEY: LEGO crimes.
Clown shoes. These lunatics are clown shoes. They drink their own ink and think we will too.
THROW THEM IN THE DRUNK TANK: Texas Democrats Consider Abdicating Their Duty–Again.
BE THE AMERICA CUBA THINKS YOU ARE: ‘Down With Communism!’: Thousands of Cubans Demand End to Dictatorship.
WE URGE ANY SANE AND HONEST FBI AGENTS TO STOP THIS INSANITY: FBI Urges People To Report “Family Members And Peers” For “Suspicious Behaviors”.
WE WANT BIDEN SUPPORTERS AND THE DNC TO TAKE THEIR THORAZINE: Report: Biden Supporters, DNC Want SMS Carriers to Monitor Private Text Messages for Vaccine Lies.
Also, seriously guys… How can Biden supporters want anything? The grave is a very peaceful place and no one wants anything there.
Oh, wait, you mean Hunter, who literally supports the Big Guy? Yeah, we don’t care what the crackhead wants.
DEMOCRATS ARE COMMUNISTS: Radicalization: “Democrats have moved left far more than Republicans have moved right”.
They call us fascists because we won’t let them hurt us and take our stuff.
TEACH PRINCIPALS TO KEEP THEIR BIGOTRY OUT OF THE SCHOOLS: White spite: NYC principal ‘conspired to oust Caucasian teachers’.
Racist is as racist does.
WITH A SMALL MANAGEMENT FEE TO THE UN, OF COURSE: UN rights boss urges ‘wide range’ of reparations over racism.
I urge the UN to mind its own d*mn business, and vacate prime real estate in NYC. Out of the generosity of my heart, they can camp on a sidewalk in San Francisco with all the other grifters, beggars, drug addicts and civilization destroyers.
THE WHO DID SUCH A GREAT JOB WITH COVID THAT THERE’S EVERY REASON TO TRUST THEM WITH THIS: UN calls for global database of human gene editing research.
Also no. Make the PRC do its own research for its crimes against humanity!
OH, PLEASE. HOW ABOUT THEY CONCENTRATE ON FEEDING THEMSELVES? Europe’s climate master plan aims to slash emissions within a decade.
BUT, WAIT, I THOUGHT AMERICA WAS RACISSSSS: Hotel in Tokyo apologizes for ‘Japanese only’ elevator.
10% DECREASE IN COVID RISK: Coffee consumption linked to lower risk of COVID-19 infection.
Given my daily consumption, I’m probably a mobile anti-covid zone. I mean, you’re probably as good as vaccinated if you stand next to me for a few minutes.
THE ‘ELITES’ ARE DETERMINED TO CRASH THIS COUNTRY WITH NO SURVIVORS. From Politico:
Democrats for years have pushed the agency responsible for Fannie and Freddie to expand homeownership and narrow the racial wealth gap….
[President and CEO of the National Housing Conference David] Dworkin, and other housing advocates want FHFA to allow Fannie and Freddie to take on more financial risk — meaning more government intervention backed by taxpayers — in the name of expanding access to mortgages.
Among their ideas: Giving Fannie and Freddie free rein to purchase mortgages with lower credit scores, allowing private lenders to make more of those loans…
Dworkin said the companies today have “almost no measurable risk in their book of business,” which includes borrowers who hold “extraordinarily high” credit scores and very few first-time homebuyers with low down payments.
So, 2008 all over again, but this time after we already printed $4 trillion in a single year. Folly of this magnitude simply cannot be chalked up to stupidity. Better grab your original Hunter Bidens if you want to ride out the storm, as they are one asset we know will be made to hold their value.
#METOO ENDED WHEN BIDEN WAS NOMINATED: “Louis C.K. tickets sell out in Madison despite comedian’s sexual misconduct.”
#MeToo was always just political gimcrackery, and it’s expired now that it’s devoured more Democrats than Republicans.
ROGER KIMBALL: Remembering What Was Done to the Trump Administration.
It begins back in 2015, when the resources of the federal government were mobilized to spy on the Trump campaign, and then to frame various people close to candidate, then President Trump, and eventually to launch a full-throated criminal investigation of the Trump administration.
Cooper gets it exactly right: “The FBI/etc spied on the 2016 Trump campaign using evidence manufactured by the Clinton campaign. We now know that all involved knew it was fake from Day 1.”
Remember the Steele Dossier, the fantastical document confected by the “well-regarded” British spook Christopher Steele?
It was the only relevant predicate for ordering FISA warrants against Carter Page and other American citizens.
But the dossier was oppo research covertly paid for by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign. It was a tissue of lies and fabrications.
Everyone involved (but not the media, which gleefully circulated and commented on it) knew all along it was garbage.
But it was nonetheless used to deploy the awesome coercive power of the state against a presidential candidate of whom the ruling bureaucracy disapproved.
It was OK to subject Carter Page and others to secret FBI investigations, to mount dawn-raids (carefully coordinated with CNN so they could televise them) against the president’s colleagues.
Cooper limns the evolution of the story: “We only learned the DNC paid for the manufactured evidence because of a court order. [James] Comey [disgraced former director of the FBI] denied on TV knowing the DNC paid for it, when we have emails from a year earlier proving that he knew.”
Penalty for that? Comey gets a huge book deal and tours the country denouncing Trump to the gleeful satisfaction of his anti-Trump audiences.
Cooper is right: what was true of Comey was true of “everyone, from CIA Dir[ector John] Brennan & Adam Schiff—who were on TV saying they’d seen clear evidence of collusion w/Russia, while admitting under oath behind closed doors that they hadn’t—all the way down the line. In the end we learned that it was ALL fake.”
It was all fake. Recollect that.
One guy who wasn’t a member of the political establishment got elected President, and virtually the entire political establishment — from both parties — united to destroy him. What does that say about the political establishment?
I think it says they’re deathly afraid that the great mass of Americans will find out what’s been done to them.
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