Hi there, !
Today Sun 11/10/2019 Sat 11/09/2019 Fri 11/08/2019 Thu 11/07/2019 Wed 11/06/2019 Tue 11/05/2019 Mon 11/04/2019 Archives
Rantburg
532935 articles and 1859807 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 65 articles and 258 comments as of 16:30.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Extremist outfit Allahr Dal banned in Bangladesh
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
2 19:18 Lex [3] 
6 14:07 Warthog [3] 
22 15:47 Crusader [4] 
9 14:54 Rambler in Virginia [5] 
5 15:07 Lex [2] 
0 [6] 
7 13:36 Silentbrick [4] 
0 [7] 
9 15:32 g(r)omgoru [3] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
1 02:29 g(r)omgoru [11]
0 [4]
1 11:28 Sonny Black [10]
0 [3]
0 [12]
0 [8]
0 [3]
0 [10]
2 17:42 jpal [4]
2 09:59 Mullah Richard [8]
0 [1]
2 08:30 M. Murcek [3]
Page 2: WoT Background
5 15:35 Lex [10]
1 06:51 Besoeker [11]
1 02:31 g(r)omgoru [7]
4 16:11 Clyde Dribble8052 [2]
4 09:23 DarthVader [8]
5 13:39 Mercutio [5]
3 18:42 SteveS [11]
0 [5]
0 [10]
7 12:11 AlmostAnonymous5839 [5]
1 07:07 M. Murcek [12]
0 [2]
0 [7]
0 [10]
0 [7]
0 [3]
3 06:33 Besoeker [4]
0 [8]
1 06:45 Uleck Spererong9442 [8]
12 17:36 swksvolFF [2]
Page 3: Non-WoT
2 16:03 Procopius2k [7]
3 09:04 Dron66046 [12]
13 19:36 Lex [12]
13 19:02 Rambler in Virginia [6]
3 19:25 Lex [7]
5 19:19 Lex [9]
7 19:22 Lex [4]
0 [7]
3 12:48 Unosh Hupinelet8756 [3]
0 [5]
2 13:42 Mercutio [8]
15 23:39 trailing wife [3]
0 [3]
11 17:24 3dc [5]
Page 6: Politix
6 21:44 magpie [7]
2 09:53 Mercutio [3]
5 05:35 M. Murcek [7]
19 17:09 DarthVader [5]
3 15:03 Lex []
5 08:00 M. Murcek [3]
1 10:13 Glenmore [8]
6 15:00 Lex [3]
9 19:37 Lex [2]
10 14:59 swksvolFF [3]
Home Front: Politix
Warren's Medicare Plan Will Cause National Debt Clock To Roll Over
We've crossed a frontier here: I've read the article and still can't tell if it's the Bee or not.
[Babylon Bee] Warren has since explained, though, that that mind-boggling cost is actually a part of the plan to pay for it. "If anything, I want it to cost more," Warren told the press. "Because here is how we are going to afford it all: We are going to roll over the National Debt Clock to zero, wiping out all our debt!"

Posted by: Matt || 11/07/2019 09:35 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Since odometers went digital it's not easy to roll them back, but I'm old enough to remember when people got busted for doing it.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 11:26 Comments || Top||

#2  $hit$how, Economics Tent
Posted by: Lex || 11/07/2019 19:18 Comments || Top||


ABC News Claims Story On Epstein Was Accidentally Thrown Out Then Shredded Into Tiny Pieces And Incinerated
[Babylon Bee] NEW YORK, NY‐An ABC News spokesperson claims the story on Epstein they sat on for three years was accidentally tossed out with some old paperwork, then shredded into tiny pieces, and then finally incinerated into a pile of ash.

"There was some kind of mix-up with the papers," said one man standing out by ABC News's official incinerator. "A janitor must have tossed it out while he was cleaning. Then, I guess it got fed through a paper shredder somehow, fed through a second paper shredder by mistake, and finally incinerated at 4,000 degrees."

"These kinds of things just happen sometimes, you know," he added, shrugging.

Station representatives also believe the pile of ashes was then pulled out of the trash, stuffed into a briefcase, set inside a block of solid concrete, and dropped off the end of the docks near a seedy warehouse.

ABC News assured everyone the janitor has been fired, his mop has been confiscated, and he's been tossed outside like a bag of moldy tangerines.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/07/2019 02:30 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Soooo Eptsein story was on FBI's Clinton and/or Weiner hard drive?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/07/2019 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Like the whistleblower's name, it was known all over DC.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 10:40 Comments || Top||

#3  ♫ For a good time ♫ for a good time call ♫...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 10:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Life imitates Bee. Really hard to tell the difference these days.

Look at that photo, for example. It looks like a Saudi architect's demented imitation of the Disneyland theme park's castle. Or something photoshopped.

In the realm of the Shitshow, who can say what's real and what's fake with any certainty?
Posted by: Lex || 11/07/2019 12:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Think that is the Bacha Bazi Bouncyhouse.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/07/2019 12:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Hard to tell this was the Bee given the 302 mix-up on authors the Feds claimed in the Flynn case. Sounds equally realistic.
Posted by: Warthog || 11/07/2019 14:07 Comments || Top||


Virginia is now a solidly Blue Democratic state and here's WHY it happened…
BLUF:
[Washington Compost via Right Scoop] Federal judges have selected a Virginia House of Delegates redistricting map that appears to heavily favor Democrats, redrawing the lines of 26 districts and moving several powerful Republicans into unfavorable configurations.

Six Republicans would wind up in districts where a majority of voters chose Democratic President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election, according to an analysis of the maps by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. No current Democrats would see their voter majority change to Republican, based on those election results.

If the court’s map selection stands, it would create a favorable environment for Democrats seeking to take control of the House of Delegates in elections this fall, according to the analysis. All 100 seats in the House are on the ballot, and Republicans hold a 51-to-48 majority.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/07/2019 01:54 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here I thought the reason was that the Virginia GOP a few election cycles ago backed RINOs and actively campaigned against conservatives who won primaries.
Posted by: Airandee || 11/07/2019 6:05 Comments || Top||

#2  How many seats were not contested?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/07/2019 7:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Dems outspent Rep by 3-1 in hard open money and also had lots of dark money as well as labor 'in kind' and the WaPo and big tech.

Also a number of pro criminal county attorneys were elected (Soros contributions made this possible.

Republicans did not contest in the heavily Dem districts in the Tidewater and center city Richmond.
Posted by: lord garth || 11/07/2019 7:49 Comments || Top||

#4  How many seats were not contested?

Instapundit says it was a lot, like 1/2 of the seats.
Posted by: Raj || 11/07/2019 8:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Also, Bloomberg put beaucoup $ to elect anti-gunners (AKA Democrats).
Posted by: Mercutio || 11/07/2019 9:41 Comments || Top||

#6  California of the east coast.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 9:42 Comments || Top||

#7  I could be wrong but I thought most of the politicians and staff that worked in D.C. lived in the suburbs in Virginia.

Cut the bureaucracy and the problem will diminish somewhat.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/07/2019 10:01 Comments || Top||

#8  For a majority-rule, 2-party electorate that's divided on a knife edge, a small swing will explain a large shift in partisan outcomes in any given year. But that's not evidence of a lasting realignment. Cases in point: 1992 swung the WH to the Dems, and 1994 swung the House to the GOP, then in 1996 the Dem POTUS was easily re-elected, then impeached, then the 2000 election was a tie. Rinse and repeat.
Posted by: Lex || 11/07/2019 12:47 Comments || Top||

#9  re #7: rj, just move the bureaucrats out to where they belong - Agriculture to Kansas, CIA to McMurdo, Antartica, etc, - and the problem will also be solved.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/07/2019 14:54 Comments || Top||


California Dems Show Us the Future. Run For Your Lives.
[Townhall] In this column, I will prove that Democrats: 1) Don't care about "Russians," (Ukrainians?) or anyone else interfering with our democracy; and 2) they also don't give a crap about guns.

Let's begin by looking at the Democrats' Platonic ideal of a democracy: California!

California is wholly controlled by the Democratic Party. The governor is a Democrat. The lieutenant governor is a Democrat. The attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer are Democrats. All these positions have been held by Democrats since the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger (who was a Democrat). The state Senate is just under two-thirds Democratic, while the assembly is more than two-thirds Democratic. Both U.S. senators are Democrats, as are 46 of 53 members of Congress.

And what a paradise they've created! For the last several years, with a direct pipeline to the fifth-largest treasury on the planet, California has been waging war on decent people in favor of drug addicts, the mentally ill, criminals, the homeless and transgenders.

In the last century, every great thing started in California: surfing, jeans, Disneyland, tax revolts, McDonald's, movies, car culture, the Grateful Dead, right on red turns, Merle Haggard, skateboarding, Apple computer and the last two elected Republican presidents not named "Bush."

Big political movements used to begin in California. Proposition 13's cap on property taxes led to President Ronald Reagan and a nationwide tax revolt. Proposition 209's ban on affirmative action was followed by Supreme Court rulings restricting the government's ability to discriminate on the basis of race. California's anti-crime rebellion, including a massive prison expansion and the voters' removal of liberal lunatic Rose Bird from the state's highest court, foreshadowed an anti-crime pushback across the country.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/07/2019 01:49 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where are you going to run that they won't fallow?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/07/2019 4:27 Comments || Top||

#2  California is wholly controlled by the Democratic Party.

By design. They want a single party system like any authoritarian or totalitarian. You exist to server them. Everything in the Party, Nothing outside the Party, Nothing against the Party.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/07/2019 7:04 Comments || Top||

#3  This is what happens when you fail to control the border and illegal immigration. California demographics have changed radically in the past few decades. It could happen to your state too and I don't care which state is yours. It could happen anywhere but my guess is that Texas is being targeted. When Texas turns blue the game is over and we lose.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/07/2019 12:33 Comments || Top||

#4  ^ Very right. Texas is in their crosshairs. Remember the antifa poster about Texas ? The recruitment rally ? If the orders come from the DNC, then it stands to reason, that the plan for Texas was being initiated right then and antifa were just the terriers. A test vehicle ? In Texas they'll have to be extra careful they must have realized.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/07/2019 12:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Almost unbelievable to consider that, as late as the early 1990's, California was a competitive state with a long history of Republican governors and state officials.

Yes, it can happen to Texas. It will happen to Texas unless we get control of the border and end the amnesty & sanctuary city madness.
Posted by: Lex || 11/07/2019 15:07 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Should Israel Be Concerned That Russia Might Have An Israeli Missile?
Referring to this article.
[Jpost] Almost a year and a half after Israel first fired a David’s Sling interceptor missile and watched as it crashed in Syria, Chinese media reported that the advanced missile is now in the hands of the Russians who are reportedly working to reverse engineer it.

According to a Western expert on missile defense who requested anonymity, not only is the SINA news agency report full of inaccuracies, but Israel takes into account that "all parts of attack systems from aircrafts to missiles, might end up in the hands of adversaries."
What a weird report. And what odd timing.

The report, carried by the Chinese SINA news agency, was referring to a July 2018 incident where Israel operated the David’s Sling system against two Russian-made SS-21 Tochka tactical ballistic missiles launched by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) as part of Damascus’ offensive against rebels along the border with Israel’s strategic Golan Heights.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/07/2019 00:35 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  an advanced Israeli-American interceptor missile

Russians couldn't get the data from the Chinese?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/07/2019 4:34 Comments || Top||

#2  the version of the missile the Russians have probably sets itself to Windows 98 after lying idle
Posted by: Whuns Panda4675 || 11/07/2019 11:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Or worse yet, Windows ME.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/07/2019 11:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Russians couldn't get the data from the Chinese?

The Chinese and the Russians don't trust each other any more than they trust us.
Posted by: Lex || 11/07/2019 12:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Russian mil systems are being reconfigured to a proprietary Linux OS, the BIOS on most military geoloc and even some control modules are the reasonably secure MAKSIM-M1 through M4 architecture. It was tested in China last year, I don't know what on. Maybe transports.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/07/2019 12:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Or worse yet, Windows ME.

That's just downright mean.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/07/2019 12:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Now if the Israeli's were /really/ feeling squirrely, instead of Windows ME, OS/2. That abomination never should have seen the light of day.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/07/2019 13:36 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
The Scientists Are Muttering About Population Control Again
[PJ] The one thing that all environmentalists have in common is a hatred of humanity. They loathe mankind and feel guilty for being part of it. As noted cultural critic Sonny Bunch has noted, environmentalists make good movie villains because they want to make your life worse. For example, in the 2014 action-comedy Kingsman: The Secret Service, an insane tech billionaire played by Samuel L. Jackson wanted to kill off most of the population of Earth to save us from ourselves. In the Marvel movies, a tyrannical despot named Thanos wiped out half the universe to save the other half. I think the bad guy in Aquaman was an environmnentalist too, but I can't really remember much about Aquaman. Anyway, the point is that authoritarian lunatics make good villains.
Graphic narrative - Wilson's "I don't like the looks of that."
And the best part is that they think they're the good guys! Eric Roston, Bloomberg:

More than 11,000 experts from around the world are calling for a critical addition to the main strategy of dumping fossil fuels for renewable energy: there needs to be far fewer humans on the planet.
"We declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency," the scientists wrote in a stark warning published Tuesday in the journal BioScience...
The scientists make specific calls for policymakers to quickly implement systemic change to energy, food, and economic policies. But they go one step further, into the politically fraught territory of population control. It "must be stabilized‐and, ideally, gradually reduced‐within a framework that ensures social integrity," they write.

And they want to know why we won't give up our guns.

If these 11,000 scientists really want to "stabilize" the planet by getting rid of humans, I say to them and everyone who agrees with them:

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/07/2019 02:04 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fine. Sterilize all the people in the world’s sh*t holes immediately.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 2:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Betcha the same "scientists" are all for unrestricted immigration & humanitarian aid
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/07/2019 3:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Bet implies chance. That's more of a fix.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 3:38 Comments || Top||

#4  "A real gambler only bets on a sure thing" - Gordon R. Dickson (Lulungomeena)
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/07/2019 4:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Keep pushing socialism & communism and population will begin to decline without much additional effort.
Posted by: Airandee || 11/07/2019 6:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Tom Clancy wrote that book.

Billionaire leftist creates bio-weapon Ebola strain to kill almost everyone while he and his go to special hideout in the Amazon......Rainbow Six.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/07/2019 7:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Hmmm... so Global Grifters tell us we need to take in MRI this country tens of millions of additional peasants from Mexico & Central America because, per sages like NYT's Bret Stephens, of all that empty space he sees when looking down from 30,000 feet upon the flyover country.

But these same buffoons tell us there are too many people, making too many problems, as Phil Collins sang.

Not enough serfs. But too many people. Right.

It's all so very... confusing.
Posted by: Lex || 11/07/2019 7:41 Comments || Top||

#8  "But, doc, I'm concerned!" Came the answer,
"Just let out your belt and your pants, sir.
Your burden is light...
Quick injection... All right?
You've got plenty of room for more cancer!"
Posted by: Bigfoot Crereger4396 || 11/07/2019 8:01 Comments || Top||

#9  "See you next April!"
Posted by: Bigfoot Crereger4396 || 11/07/2019 8:02 Comments || Top||

#10  I would be more impressed with their arguments if they all committed mass suicide a la Jonestown.

Usually people who say there are too many people mean there are too many other people.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/07/2019 8:15 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm okay with population control, as long as all of them go first.
Posted by: Raj || 11/07/2019 8:31 Comments || Top||

#12  It's just them having angst over the artificially high numbers of people in cities due to the way incomes are taxed rather than land title.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/07/2019 8:52 Comments || Top||

#13  Sterilize all the people in the world’s sh*t holes immediately.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/07/2019 9:53 Comments || Top||

#14  AlanC, I thought that book was too far beyond reality when I first read it. Not so much now.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/07/2019 10:02 Comments || Top||

#15  Say what you want about Thanos, at least his method was random.

These people want to kill those who do not agree with them.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/07/2019 10:36 Comments || Top||

#16  Fine, as soon as these brave scientists lead the way by being first to step into the suicide booths, we'll consider it. Til then, they need to shut the hell up.

We'll even make it painless, flood the booth with N2, drop the corpse into refrigerated pod for transport to the organ banks. See, we're recycling!"
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/07/2019 11:26 Comments || Top||

#17  Until the people that push this bullshit kill themselves to show their dedication, I'll continue to ignore it.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/07/2019 11:27 Comments || Top||

#18  Exactly. The only reply worthy is "apres vous".
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/07/2019 11:30 Comments || Top||

#19  Reminds me of Paul Ehrlich's 1968 book "The Population Bomb." It was the first "the sky is falling" book on population control that I recall. The book pushed birth control and abortion as a means of population control. Now, it seems like the recommended solutions are becoming crazier and crazier.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/07/2019 11:32 Comments || Top||

#20  ^ The Club of Rome effort in 1970 was the original global alarmist clownshow. IIRC they predicted the planet would run out of food in a decade or two.
Posted by: Lex || 11/07/2019 12:10 Comments || Top||

#21  Getting rid of these 11,000 people would really give the earth a lot more time.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/07/2019 12:11 Comments || Top||

#22  Its the same with all of the socialism/communism/"green" bullshit. None of the "elites" REALLY want to do away with limousines, private airplanes, firearms, etc--they merely want to do away with OTHER people's access to those things. They'll never lead by example.
Posted by: Crusader || 11/07/2019 15:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Enjoy The Glorious 'Epstein Didn't Kill Himself' Meme
heeeeere's Kurt
It’s hard to miss the myriad of memes out there declaring that "Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself." A Navy SEAL busted it out on Fox like a boss. Even my dog Barkey got in on the craze. And this phenomenon should be encouraged because it demonstrates our healthy contempt for our garbage ruling class.

Now, did Jeffrey Epstein actually wack himself? Maybe, maybe not. On the self-off side, it’s not like the guy had a huge incentive to ‐ pardon the expression ‐ keep hanging around. But on the "Epstein didn’t kill himself" tip, there’s pretty compelling evidence. A noted pathologist thinks he was wacked. So do people who think that it’s super convenient that a dude with the 411 on the pervo peccadillos of so many mostly Democratic poohbahs just happened to check out before he could start talking. And it’s really weird the cameras went off just before he got perma-cancelled.

Plus, what about the guards? Are we supposed to believe government flunkies were utterly unable to perform their most basic task of making sure that their suicidally-inclined inmate didn’t stretch his neck on their watch? Well, I totally believe it. Let’s add "incompetence of federal workers" to the ledger in the "He Did Himself" column.

Remember, this is our federal government which, in the best possible interpretation of this event, failed so completely that its failure went beyond failure into an extra-dimensional realm of hyper mega-failure. And our garbage elite now wants to put it in charge of our health care. The same people who ‐ again, best case ‐ were unable to keep a guy in a concrete room with cameras on him from throttling himself with a blankey are now supposed to handle your doctoring.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/07/2019 01:13 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Twitter bows to threats from Congress and finally bans Hamas and Hezb'allah
Hard to know which section to put this under. My best shot
[American Thinker] Twitter sanctimoniously announced this week that it suspended the accounts of Hamas and Hezb'allah. "There is no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups," said Twitter's spokesperson.

Really? Then why did it take until November 2019 for Twitter to notice that Hamas and Hezb'allah are illegal and violent? Why did it take threats from four congressmen to force Twitter to ban two of the most infamous terrorist organizations on the planet?

Hamas and Hezb'allah are two Iran-proxy terrorist groups that have killed Americans, murdered Jews, bombed Israeli civilians, tyrannized normal Muslim citizens, coerced children to become suicide-bombers, and worked night and day to destroy Israel.

Twitter never noticed until November 1, 2019?

Twitter has no trouble noticing and banning all sorts of speech its woke employees don't like. They suspended Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell for posting the vicious attacks of woke activists harassing his family; Trump's favorite meme-maker, Carpe Donktum; a GOP Senate candidate in Missouri; conservative commentators across the web; the producer of the Ben Shapiro Show (his sin was a joke about Brussels sprouts); and even an Ocasio-Cortez parody.

But for years, Hamas and Hezb'allah had a place on Twitter to spread their vile teachings and recruit killers.

This stopped only because four congressmen threatened Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey with being hauled before Congress to explain why Twitter was flouting U.S. law by supporting designated terrorist organizations.

Twitter did not comply without a fight. The first response was a statement from Twitter's director of public policy and philanthropy that Twitter "draws a distinction between the political and military factions of these organizations" and would not suspend the accounts. Twitter, the congressmen were told, bases its decisions on its "own violent extremist group criteria." The Twitter spokesperson boasted that the company's decisions were "additionally informed by national and international terrorism designations," not by United States' designations.

Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.Y.), Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), Max Rose (D-N.Y.), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) were having none of that nonsense. They wrote CEO Dorsey:

If you believe that Twitter is better at determining violent extremist content than the United States Government's interagency process, then we urge you to come testify before Congress to explain your own process and how it differs from that of the State and Treasury Departments.
Posted by: Frank G || 11/07/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Government
Towards a More Prudent American Grand Strategy
[RC Public Affairs] Bottom Line: The Trump administration has disrupted the foreign policy status quo. American leaders should take advantage of this moment to enact a foreign policy of restraint.

Since the Cold War, conventional wisdom has held U.S. power to indispensible.

Foreign policy experts have long asserted that global trade depends on U.S. military presence, that our allies around the world rely on U.S. power to deter threats from China, Russia, and other powers, and that U.S. military intervention is the solution to many problems. But neither trade nor international peace rely on U.S. power, and intervention is frequently impractical and rarely popular.

President Trump has thrown the foreign policy establishment into a tizzy.

"The expert community is engaged, for the first time in a long time, in a healthy conversation about the future of U.S. grand strategy." Many Democrats and Republicans have begun pushing for a more isolationist stance in response to the unilateralism of the President’s "America First" attitude. Conversely, many others have adopted a hawkish demeanor in response to the President’s perceived isolationism. But the United States should look beyond these positions to a third alternative.

America and the world would benefit from a more restrained foreign policy.

U.S. leaders should adopt "a foreign policy of restraint" that sets and is guided by "modest, achievable objectives." This foreign policy should privilege diplomacy and trade over intervention, and seek to apply the liberal norms the U.S. follows at home in foreign affairs. Such a foreign policy would keep the U.S. out of costly, unpopular entanglements abroad, and help rebalance the international arena to be more collaborative and rely less on a single power.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've not figured out in line comments, so here it is:

The forever wars against everyone else are designed to distract you from the gummint's forever war against you.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  "The expert community is engaged, for the first time in a long time, in a healthy conversation about the future of U.S. grand strategy."

Too bad that our best schools have made their flagship Grand Strategy course into an Alinsky-soaked identity-politics Shitshow....
Posted by: Lex || 11/07/2019 1:02 Comments || Top||

#3  In a huge, shocking story, a career diplomat was fired
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/07/2019 1:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Trump doesn't have a strategy or a policy.

He has principles and a arsenal of "opportunities" for use when his enemies make their moves.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/07/2019 7:19 Comments || Top||

#5  ^ Yep. We can't close down the "School of Foreign Policy" business fast enough.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 7:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Grand Strategy for the cold war slowly mutated into we can't win, then Reagan appeared and crushed the Soviets in three terms.

Grand Strategy since the cold war was never properly developed beyond thousand points of light which appears to mean letting bad guys be bad and sending US troops to die in sandy hell-holes. The strategy could use a bit of work.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/07/2019 9:51 Comments || Top||

#7  which appears to mean letting bad guys be bad and sending US troops to die in sandy hell-holes.

Yes, and recognizing the spark of divinity in every MS-13 member, too.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/07/2019 11:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Grand Strategy can be taught to young people without the frou-frou of calling it a School of International Relations.

Read the old books, by the masters-- Thucydides, Machiavelli, Sun-Tzu, Hobbes etc-- and supplement with tons of historical examples studied in great depth using old-fashioned historical analysis of contingency, human error, the complex interplay of human choice and material constraints across time.

The problem is the globalist nonsense that infects the minds of the people who for the past 25 years or so have dominated this profession. There's really nothing related to foreign policy that can't be taught either in a well-constructed, rigorous history program or a traditional law or economics program.

The Koch Brothers of all people--to their credit-- have actually done something good (for once) with their philanthropic dollars, by funding research into a more restrained, realist foreign policy by Barry Posen and his colleagues at MIT, Michael Desch at Notre Dame and several other leading researchers.
Posted by: Lex || 11/07/2019 15:25 Comments || Top||

#9  Polybius
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/07/2019 15:32 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
35[untagged]
5Moslem Colonists
4Arab Spring
4Govt of Iran
4Govt of Iraq
2Sublime Porte
2Islamic State
1Govt of Syria
1Hamas
1al-Qaeda
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
1Govt of Qatar (MB)
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Palestinian Authority
1Govt of Saudi Arabia

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2019-11-07
  Extremist outfit Allahr Dal banned in Bangladesh
Wed 2019-11-06
  Mexico Deploys Forces to Northern State After Nine US Mormons Killed
Tue 2019-11-05
  Three American Mormon mothers and six of their children are EXECUTED
Mon 2019-11-04
  Report: Turkey-backed militia attacks American troops in Syria
Sun 2019-11-03
  Three people detained in connection with Swedish explosion
Sat 2019-11-02
  Iraqis pour into streets for biggest protest day since Saddam
Fri 2019-11-01
  Iraqi President Salih says PM Abdul-Mahdi willing to resign, vows early polls
Thu 2019-10-31
  Confirmed: The Emir is dead! Long live the new Emir!
Wed 2019-10-30
  Islamic State Promises Big Announcement
Tue 2019-10-29
  Trump: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s number one replacement has been terminated by American troops.
Mon 2019-10-28
  Baghdadi's aide was key to his capture - Iraqi intelligence sources
Sun 2019-10-27
   ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Killed
Sat 2019-10-26
  Pentagon chief: US troops, armored vehicles going to Syria oil fields
Fri 2019-10-25
  DOJ Review of Russia Probe Origins Is Now Criminal Investigation
Thu 2019-10-24
  California authorities seize enough fentanyl to make 4 million lethal doses


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.15.221.67
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (12)    WoT Background (20)    Non-WoT (14)    (0)    Politix (10)