How they can teach the US Navy how to defeat China.
Ummmmm…OK.
Category Archives: War Commentary
Trump, And Anti-Semitism
Yes, like Bethany Mandel, I’d take them a little more seriously if they’d ever shown any concern about it when it comes so abundantly from the Left:
The increased focus on anti-Semitism has, of course, only been borne out of the fact that the supposed offender and his supporters have a capital R after their names. Would the media have been so concerned about an outbreak of hatred against a religious group had it originated out of a Democratic campaign? Given the water-carrying the media has been willing to do for Democrats who on one hand breathlessly warned about a “War on Women” in 2012 while still eulogizing Ted Kennedy, a beloved Democrat who killed an actual woman in 1969, it would be a good bet to wager that maniac supporters and a few campaign dog whistles would’ve been hastily ignored from a different party.
Also:
I suppose it's possible that Bannon is a racist, but I'm not going to take the word of the usual "boy who cried racists"' word for it.
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) November 17, 2016
How Short Our Memories
This is great.
In Flanders Fields
It’s hard to believe that in two years, it will have been a full century since the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when the armistice was signed, silencing finally the guns and ending the Great War. Almost a century ago, my paternal grandfather, a recent immigrant from what is now Poland, was sent back to Europe to fight in it. Unfortunately, the war’s end only planted the seeds for another worse one, and a little over two decades later, his only child, my father, at the age of eighteen, flew in a B-25 Mitchell bomber to Italy via Ascension Island to man a radio and waist gun in it.
No one who fought in the first one is any longer with us, and the ranks of those who fought in the second one are rapidly diminishing, as it too passes out of living memory. I didn’t serve, but if I had, I’d have wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force (my prescription for eyeglasses in the third grade put an end to that). But I remain grateful to all who have.
I hope that one of Trump’s highest priorities is to fix the VA system, the lack of addressing which is one of the many things for which Barack Obama would be ashamed, if he had any shame. And if you want to see how a single-payer government healthcare system would work, just ask a vet.
[Update a while later]
The Washington Examiner agrees with me on the latter point:
Now that the long, bitter 2016 election is over, Americans are free to stop thinking about the VA scandal as a partisan issue. It’s a new day, and partisans need not become defensive about the agency’s disgraceful treatment and broken promises.
Vets will now turn to President-elect Trump with their concerns. He won many of their votes because he was willing to shine a light on the problem, rather than dismiss it, as his opponent did, as “not widespread.”
“The VA is, really you could say is almost a corrupt enterprise,” Trump declared at one point. At another: “Our vets, our most cherished people, thousands of people are dying waiting on line to see a doctor.” His simple promise: “We are going to make it efficient and good.”
Let’s hope he does. Bold words will not be enough. We sincerely hope Trump follows through ruthlessly on this promise. If so, he will have done the nation a true and necessary service, and he will deserve the gratitude even of the tens of millions who voted against him.
We’ll see.
Syria’s Civil War
It’s over. Russia won:
Putin and his ministers have acted cynically and cunningly in Syria, to good effect for Russia. However, it would be wrong to portray Moscow as strategic geniuses here. It’s much more about the staggering, unprecedented foreign policy incompetence of President Obama and his White House than anything else. Time and again, Obama and his coterie of self-proclaimed foreign policy masterminds on his National Security Council have been bested by the Russians, who view them with undisguised contempt.
And justly so.
A Never Trumper
I am not of the mindset that any vote not for Trump is a vote for Hillary, but a vote for Trump is a vote against Hillary. And I need to vote against Hillary. I need to vote against the media.
Yes.
As I’ve written before, there are three reasons to vote for Trump (and really, they’re the only ones).
1) He’s not her
2) Unlike her, he can be impeached and removed, and having him in the White House will (finally) rein in the Executive.
3) It will issue a huge F**K YOU” to the Democrat operatives with bylines.
But read the whole thing. It pretty well sums up my own thoughts.
[Update a while later]
“Only Trump has a chance to bring this country together, and it’s a slim one.”
[Update a while later]
Bob Wright on the media: “Well, my concern is that they are so ham-handed about it — they’re so obvious about it — that it won’t work.”
His concern is my fervent hope.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Democrat corruption is much worse than Trump.
Why yes. Yes it is.
[Update a few minutes later]
Only one presidential candidate has actually “wielded the sledgehammer of government against personal enemies.”
Yup. And hint: It’s not Donald Trump. Not that I’d put it past him, of course. But he can be impeached and removed. She cannot.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Richard Nixon could only wish he’d gotten Hillary’s FBI treatment.
Yes. But he was a Republican. And for impeachment and removal purposes, so will Trump be.
[Early-afternoon update]
The rage of the Hillaryite bullies:
I’ve been trying to figure out what common trait binds Clinton supporters together. As far as I can tell, the most unifying characteristic is a willingness to bully in all its forms.
If you have a Trump sign in your lawn, they will steal it.
If you have a Trump bumper sticker, they will deface your car.
if you speak of Trump at work you could get fired.
On social media, almost every message I get from a Clinton supporter is a bullying type of message. They insult. They try to shame. They label. And obviously they threaten my livelihood.
It’s what they do. It’s who they are.
[Update a few minutes later]
“One way to bully is to call the other person the bully. Chelsea could be said to be part of that activity.”
As I’ve often noted recently, this is an election in which the worst things that both campaigns say about the other are generally true.
Bob Hoover
Rest in peace. One of the all-time great pilots. A lot of friends at Rockwell got a ride in his Mustang.
Here’s a good story from AOPA.
[Afternoon update]
Here’s the story from Air & Space. I’ll be interested to hear what, if anything, General Yeager has to say.
Steven DenBeste
He was one of the greats of early blogging, and a brilliant man in many fields. I have to confess that I feel partially responsible (though I’m sure I was far from alone) in chasing him away from blogging with an ill-thought email. I think I later apologized, but if I didn’t, Steven, if you can read this, please accept my deepest apologies.
[Tuesday-morning update]
More thoughts from Jim Geraghty.
We’re At War Around The World
…but our campaign is about groping.
Because issues in general, and the foreign-policy record in particular, are disastrous for her. Not to mention her lies and corruption.
The Internet
Someone is learning how to take it down.
Ironic, considering that the original purpose of Arpanet was to prevent exactly this sort of thing. https://t.co/mYDqxbWGaA
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) October 21, 2016
[Update a few minutes later]
Oh, goody, a vulnerability in the Linux kernel that’s been there for nine years.