doubleplusundead

I watched much of Trump’s Afghanistan speech and I liked it, lots of Never Trumpers didn’t and, of course, Ralph Peters. Ralph is a military genius, just ask him.

We can justify a limited presence in Afghanistan, perhaps 3,000 to 4,000 troops total, for the purpose of killing international terrorists. And we need not stop providing arms to Kabul. But it’s time to stop giving blood.

I hope I’m wrong. I, too, want our casualties to have meaning. But no matter how we reinterpret our mission, there’ll be more American blood. And the only Americans who’ll benefit will be contractors, who love impossible missions that never end.

We cannot save a country that won’t save itself.

So what did Trump say about nation building?

I share the American people’s frustration.  I also share their frustration over a foreign policy that has spent too much time, energy, money, and most importantly lives, trying to rebuild countries in our own image, instead of pursuing our security interests above all other considerations.

That’s a funny way to say we’re going to ‘rebuild’ Afghanistan.

How about ‘making sure our casualties have meaning!!!!!’?

A core pillar of our new strategy is a shift from a time-based approach to one based on conditions.  I’ve said it many times how counterproductive it is for the United States to announce in advance the dates we intend to begin, or end, military options.  We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities.

Conditions on the ground — not arbitrary timetables — will guide our strategy from now on.  America’s enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out.  I will not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will.

Allowing the military to figure out how to perform their missions and not shout it out to the world? I imagine there are a few people in the military who like that.

First, our nation must seek an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the tremendous sacrifices that have been made, especially the sacrifices of lives.  The men and women who serve our nation in combat deserve a plan for victory.  They deserve the tools they need, and the trust they have earned, to fight and to win.

The worst thing that happened in Afghanistan was that the Obama admin had absolutely no plan for actually trying to win or any clue what actual victory would be.

Finally, my administration will ensure that you, the brave defenders of the American people, will have the necessary tools and rules of engagement to make this strategy work, and work effectively and work quickly.

I have already lifted restrictions the previous administration placed on our warfighters that prevented the Secretary of Defense and our commanders in the field from fully and swiftly waging battle against the enemy.  Micromanagement from Washington, D.C. does not win battles.  They are won in the field drawing upon the judgment and expertise of wartime commanders and frontline soldiers acting in real time, with real authority, and with a clear mission to defeat the enemy.

The second worst thing was the Rules of Engagement, the ROE were based on politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers. Getting rid of those will mean our military can do something useful.

Third and finally, I concluded that the security threats we face in Afghanistan and the broader region are immense.  Today, 20 U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan — the highest concentration in any region anywhere in the world.

Pretending countries like Pakistan and the oil ticks on the Arabian peninsula are our allies is very counterproductive. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have tried to make them true allies, but they all say one thing in English and another in their language. It’s time to start letting them know we aren’t playing their games. We simplisme Americans expect our allies to not actively fight against us. We’re weird that way.

So yeah, I’m all in on this.

Tell the military what victory means and then let them achieve it. I don’t know what he means by victory, but I hope it means killing a bunch of terrorists, scaring the living shit out of the rest and leaving a bunch of troops, like Marines and maybe some 10th Mountain, some Apaches, A-10s and some serious artillery to make sure they remember who they’re most afraid of.

We have our own poofy-haired maniac, let’s use him!

 

We do have one thing going for us, the rest of the world is getting rambunctious.

Three decades later, Chinese and Indian soldiers find themselves in a similar situation in Doklam today, locked eyeball-to-eyeball in a potentially combustible situation. The crucial difference this time is that India is reacting in a third country’s territory – Doklam is disputed between China and Bhutan – which only makes India’s intervention even more provocative to Beijing…

This violated mutually agreed standard operating procedures, which require patrols encountering each other in disputed territory to maintain a physical distance and unfurl cloth banners (that every patrol carries) emblazoned with a dual-language message: “This is our territory; kindly return to your side”. After doing so, patrols are required to disengage and return to their camps…

But as tensions have escalated unchecked, this useful procedure with banners that has ensured peace since the Wangdung incident has degenerated into jostling and pushing and now stone-pelting. Both patrols were armed but, fortunately, neither opened fire. Such restraint cannot be counted upon to continue forever. Sooner or later some soldier, perhaps injured by a stone or a body tackle, will fire his weapon, killing or wounding an adversary and unleashing an escalatory spiral, fuelled by a storm of nationalism in both countries.

China’s in a serious expansion phase right now and have been for decades so I’m sure they’re working hard to get some serious provocations. I mean, if they’re gonna mess with us why would India give them pause?

Except for supplying arms to India, I would be against getting involved in a land war between India and China. I would be all for blowing up China’s navy if they try to get frisky anywhere but sending Americans into a cauldron of war between countries with more than a billion people would just be stupid.

If the world does blow up, I’m not sure what will happen in EUnuchstan but I say we convince Trump to Executively Order that whoever conquers France has to keep it.

 

My claim to fame was my Letter To The Editor about Elian Gonzalez made the NY Times. It was something like, “I’d say his mother chose where she wanted him to live.” I’m surprised they printed that, their editorial stance was much closer to this, that Babalublog calls “Horrific”

Get ready: CNN is airing a two-hour documentary on the “rescue” of Elian Gonzalez.

Rescue. Condemning that poor bastard to life in a commie shithole gulag is a ‘rescue’ so far as CNN is concerned.

Although…. maybe we could rescue the NYTimesWashPostCNNABCCBSNBCetc. and send them to Cuba! It would be easy, we could have a party on an island for the Elite Who Fakenews and send a 747 to pick them up and take them, we could make it for global worming. Then, we hijack to plane to Cuba! Brilliant!

 

Hillary is still making excuses for her loss, obviously eyeing 2020.

“This is not OK, I thought,” she wrote. “It was the second presidential debate, and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage, and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. It was incredibly uncomfortable.

I’m sure she would have been able to stare down Putin! Actually, since what she said is a lie I wouldn’t say she was too weak to be POTUS for that reason, I mean, she’s married to the Groper in Chief, what made her uncomfortable was that Trump refused to accept his role of Good Loser the way a candidate who didn’t fight back would have. Like….ohhhh….. say… the last two Electable Candidates!!!.

Which makes me think of what a bullet we dodged. The fascist Anti-fa fascists would have been very useful for her as we tried to protest her gun-grabbing and money-grabbing actions as Congress Held Hearings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We’d be in a very dark and dangerous place right now. The place where the fascists in the armed wings of the Dems are pretending we are.

Which reminds me of something I read last week. Someone noted how ironic it was that the new armed wing of the Democratic party (BLM, Anti-Fa, Charlotte Police et al.) were hating on the old armed wing of the Democratic Party (The KKK). That’s funny and endy!

 

Let’s take a break from that crap to take a look at the what the Worst President In the History Of Ever is doing now.

 Lost amid all the political name-calling last week, President Trump’s infrastructure reforms would actually go far toward kick-starting many badly needed projects. And they’ll do so without spending massive amounts of money.

The media made a big deal of Trump on Thursday disbanding his infrastructure advisory board. Given the poisonous politics of the day, it’s not surprising.

But, once again, the media largely missed the far more important story of infrastructure reforms that Trump signed by executive order on Tuesday. While not perfect, they are an enormous improvement on the current wasteful and inefficient federal system.

The good stuff he does isn’t “lost” so much as “hidden”, “Buried” and “denied!!!!!!!!!!”

I watched some of his speech last night, whenever I came in to get a drink of water I listened. At one point he called out the media as the liars they are. I’m sure all Right-Thinking people thought that was gauche and uncouth but it’s fucking necessary.

If he doesn’t nobody else will. All the Right People are against what Trump’s doing far more than against him as a person. I mean, he’s been their friends for decades. The best kind of friend to those venal assholes, he gave them large bribes. Now he’s threatening their corrupt, venal positions so He Must Be Destroyed.

 

I’m sure this will be “lost” too.

Lithuania purchased a large shipment of natural gas Monday from the U.S. to stick a finger in the collective eye of Russia, which has effectively monopolized energy production in former Soviet countries.

The move was likely a political tactic, one meant to show Lithuania and other former Soviet countries are willing to strike out against Russia. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 put the Baltic states on the defensive.

Russia backfired so anything Trump does to mess with Russia must be hidden, denied and lied about. It’s just good journalism.

 

I don’t like clicking PJ media clickbait because they’re usually idiotic and/or trite, but this one is news at least.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Republicans are “fully committed” to passing “pro-growth” and “pro-jobs” tax reform “this year.”

How can I call that news? Aren’t newspapers called fishwrap and isn’t that story wrapped around the fish the GOP is flinging at us?

Get Ready To Honk For Tax Reform Fish!!!!!!!!! Sure, it’s stinky, but it’s Tax Reform!!!!!!!

Tax reform polls well. Almost as well as repealing Obamacare but they’ve about played out that genre of Failure Theater.

 

I saw some people acting upset about this, but I don’t really see a problem.

Riders who are found doing any of the following are subject to a fine of $75 per offense and could be escorted off the train or bus:

Eating, drinking, smoking, vaping;
Playing loud music;
Disturbing others;
Disorderly, lewd conduct;
Placing chewing gum on seats;
Loitering;
Fare evasion;
Occupying more than one seat or blocking a door; or
Riding a bicycle or skateboard in a station.

I’ve never ridden LA’s metro, but I’d bet they’re doing this for two reasons. There’s an epidemic of rude assholes on their metro who agree with me that the rule of law is dead, they’re just reveling in it instead of upset about it and the Los Angeles gov’t is working a new revenue stream.

This is so California.

It’s not the first time Metro has tried to teach better social etiquette to its riders: in 2003, the agency had “Metro Manners” trading cards designed for presentations to schools in LA County.

Yeah, so how’d that work out for you? Well enough that now it’s at epidemic status!

 

Via Dave Barry we find this bit of….ummmmm…. We’re Not Afraid Enough Of The Japanese.

Sexy Japanese actress strokes turtle head in tourism promotion video drawing complaints

That doesn’t do the vid justice. The idea that they’re upset only about stroking a turtle head just adds to the idea that we’re not afraid enough of the Japanese. It doesn’t even look like a…ummmm…. what is often called a “turtle head”.

 

How do you say WTF? in Japanese?

 

Speaking of hilarious videos, I didn’t go to the riots yesterday, I got lazy. I’m glad I didn’t as I would have gone early afternoon and nothing happened until after dark. The local broadcast was very funny. “We don’t know who started the problems (masked anti-fa assholes running in the background) but protestors were yelling at each other (leftist with bullhorn screeching at Trump people walking into the arena, the only reaction was one guy who put his hands up as he walked. Made me laugh it did), violence at Trump Rally just like last year (when lefties attacked Trump supporters)”

 

They interviewed this one guy who claimed to be hit by a projectile and, to their credit, when he said that he threw the tear gas into traffic they asked him WTF dude? hat guy was all, “We were walking away when the cops got violent!!!!.” The reporter tried to play it up but even they realized his story had more holes than a Clinton lie so they just dropped it.

It’s not the same guy in this link with the top 5 remixes of him getting hit in his non-gender-specific-genitalia.

Pretty darn funny.