Anti-Trump Lincoln Project co-founder exposed as a serial sexual harasser.

 

John Weaver. 

The co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project has been exposed as a serial sexual harasser. The Hill. The Lincoln Project is an anti-Trump group that endorsed Joe Biden for president and is made up of supposed Republicans. It was co-founded by John Weaver, who has been accused of sending explicit messages to many young men, including one who was 14. He also offered those men career advice, jobs and money. Weaver is married to a woman and has two kids. The Lincoln Project disavowed Weaver and claimed he had limited involvement with the groups. They also say they had no knowledge of his behavior until the accusations hit social media. 

My Comment:

The Lincoln Project has been around for awhile now but I have never bothered to mention them as they are so obviously astro-turfed. They are a very small group of neoconservatives who have largely been pushed to the wayside. They still claim to be Republicans but they have never even shown once that they are conservative on any issue and the idea that any Republican would endorse Joe Biden, the corrupt, senile and far left candidate over President Trump is just stupid. 

It is not surprising that a group founded on the idea of betraying the voters who put President Trump in office would have such a man as John Weaver founding it. Weaver was a staffer for several political campaigns, including John McCain and John Kasich so he's been around for awhile and I doubt that his behavior was unknown to the Lincoln Project and to the campaigns that he worked for. 

Weaver's actions weren't that uncommon. He was sending messages out to basically anyone who he thought he had a chance with. That alone isn't too bad, it's pretty common in politics, though obviously wrong. But he crossed a line when he sent those messages to boys under the age of 18. His behavior outside of that was sexual harassment at worse but doing it to minors bumps it up in seriousness quite a bit. 

Another of Weaver's victims were his family. He was married with two kids and in addition to founding one of the most hated and ineffective political groups in America, he also betrayed their trust. He looks like he cheated on his wife and now he has embarrassed both his wife and children with his behavior. 

I don't think it matters too much if Weaver is gay. This is not the old Republican Party where being gay got you kicked out. Indeed, President Trump is one of the people that changed that, being more pro-gay than Barack Obama was. Had Weaver came out and told everyone he was gay nobody would have a problem with it. It was the fact that he messaged children sexually that got him into trouble. Not that Weaver counts as a Republican anymore anyways. 

Of course the other major players in the Lincoln Project are just as messed up as Weaver. George Conway is famous for his tabloid homelife along with his pro-Trump wife Kellyanne. Their family is blowing up right now and neither side is without blame. And Rick Wilson is famous for calling Trump fans anime porn watching weirdos while also being caught with anime porn (tentacles specifically) in his browser history. 

To say that I am pleased that the Lincoln Project is dying is an understatement. I always hated them as traitors are a lot more dangerous then even the enemy. They were always completely ineffective and struck everyone I know as the equivalent of Tokyo Rose or Axis Sally, the enemy claiming to be one of us. 

Even more hilarious to me is the fact that the left has turned on the Lincoln Project. The non-Republicans I see tweeting about the Lincoln Project today are condemning them, some for Weaver's behavior but more for George Conway not being anti-Trump enough! Just goes to show that there is no forgiveness on the left and anyone trying to serve two masters is going to get burned by them. 

Finally, I have to say that for a group of people that were ostensibly concerned with President Trump's personal behavior it's pretty clear that they had zero high ground whatsoever. Weaver and Rick Wilson were perverts, George Conway home life is a mess and none of them had any right to complain about Trump's various personal issues when their own lives were a mess. I am very glad that these people are probably done in politics. 

A few thoughts on this blog and tech censorship.

 There isn't much going on in the news tonight so I thought I would write a little about tech censorship and the effect it has had on this blog. As you are almost certainly aware social media has been an absolute mess this month. 

I started this month with accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Gab, Parler and MeWe and I still technically have those accounts. However Parler was nuked, Gab was unusable for several weeks and I lost almost a quarter of my Twitter followers. 

So, how badly did this effect my numbers for this month? Not as much as I would have thought. The numbers are down since last month (which was an outlier regardless) but given I lost hundreds of followers and had difficulty reaching hundreds more, it's pretty amazing that I was able to keep my views and income up. 

However, I do fear that this might not be the case in the future. Facebook has always been the most important source of my views for this blog and if they ever decide to pull the same kind of nonsense that Twitter has done then my views will probably never recover, even if Parler comes back and I get a bunch of new Twitter followers. It's responsible for the vast majority of my views and is why my blog did ok this month despite Parler getting nuked and Twitter banning or driving away a huge number of users.

This leaves me in a precarious position. If Facebook does go full fascist and start banning anyone to the right of Mao then my blog is essentially done. I might get a few views from what is left of Twitter and Gab but it won't be anything near what I have gotten from Facebook. 

Will that happen? I don't know. I tend to not rock the boat on Facebook with my page as, unlike my other accounts, I don't crosspost my tweets there. I basically only posts links to this blog which means they should have little reason to ban me. But I also see the direction the tech companies are going and it is not a good sign at all. 

My Twitter account is probably at a much higher risk to be banned. I have been shadowbanned on their before and was forced to verify my account once. Given how much of a ghost town Twitter is these days and the danger of being doxxed by some dangerhair blue checkmark social justice warrior getting banned would honestly not be that bad since Twitter was never a major source of my views.

Still, if you care enough to be reading this there is something you can do if you only follow me on Twitter or Facebook. I don't think my Gab account is going anywhere. Unlike Parler, they were pretty hardened against attacks from big tech. The main problem with Gab is some of their user base actually is the crazy far-right extremists that the media claims are everywhere, it's not a place for the easily offended. I'm @politicswarblog there if you have an account.

Perhaps though this is just paranoia. Unlike a lot of people that get banned from Twitter, I don't engage when confronted by the Twitter pile on. Just last month I made fun of Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke and it went viral on the left. It didn't effect me at all because I just blocked everyone that tried to bait me into saying something stupid. I also make sure to never violate the terms of service, which are stupid but are fairly easy to follow. I am guessing if I do get banned it will be by the point the service is no longer relevant. And again, all I post on Facebook is links to my blog. 

The peace deal in Afghanistan may be in doubt under Biden...

 

File photo of US troops in Afghanistan. Reuters. 

The Biden administration says that a way forward for the peace deal in Afghanistan may be in doubt due to violence from the Taliban. Reuters. The deal was made last year under President Trump and called for US troops to withdraw in May 2021. The Taliban were to make security concessions and not attack the Afghan army in return but they are reportedly not making those commitments at this time. The Biden administration claims that the Taliban are still close to al-Qaeda. 2500 US troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan, the lowest number since the war began in 2001. It is unclear what the Biden administration will do concerning troop levels. 

My Comment:

One of the less immediately obvious results of Biden stealing the election is that America's forever wars are going to continue. We have been in Afghanistan for 20 years now and under President Trump there was a real hope that we would finally be pulling out. We have lost more than 2000 troops there and spent billions of dollars and have almost nothing to show for it. The Taliban is still strong, the Afghan government still weak and, even worse, ISIS has taken the place of al-Qaeda as the dominant terror group in Afghanistan. 

I am losing hope that we will actually withdraw from Afghanistan in 2021, or ever at this point. The Biden administration is a hawkish and neoconservative when it comes to foreign policy and I don't expect them to be much different than Barack Obama's presidency. Biden will never pull troops out even if he is under massive pressure to do so as he is a servant of interests that demand war. We will be lucky enough if we don't get into a new war, let alone get out of our current ones. 

I don't think voters had any idea how terrible Biden was going to be on foreign policy because the subject never came up. If we had a fair or even competent media they would be hitting Biden hard on this issue as pretty much everyone outside of the elite class wants us out of Afghanistan and they want it done yesterday. But I still think that more than a few people think that the Democrats are still the anti-war party despite there being no evidence that is the case. 

We really have no reason to be in Afghanistan anymore. Al-Qaeda was the main reason we were there and they have been pretty much been utterly destroyed. ISIS is still a major problem but both the Afghan Government and the Taliban consider them mortal enemies and there is little chance of them taking the county over. 

Afghanistan does have massive mineral resources, which remain locked up in their mountains. They do not have any way to extract them though and I have seen no evidence that the Biden administration even cares about that. I could see keeping troops there if we were actually investing on getting these resources but alas, we are not. 

Did the peace deal have a chance even under 2nd Trump term? I have no idea. I don't think the Taliban actually want a settled peace. But that's besides the point. We should withdraw regardless of what happens to the Afghan government. We have helped them for almost 20 years now and if they can't stand on their own without our help then that's on them, not us. 

And what is the worst that happens if the Taliban come into power? Pretty much the status quo. There is a fear that al-Qaeda could regroup but that could happen regardless. Plus we don't need troops on the ground to bomb the hell out of them if that happens. No, the best thing for the United States would be to pull out our troops and it seems pretty likely that won't happen now... 

Stock trading app Robinhood stopped users from trading GameStop and other short stocks.

 

GameStop's stock prices. CNBC.

The stock trading app Robinhood stopped users from trading GameStop and other short stocks. CNBC. GameStop was being shorted by Melvin Capital, a hedge fund, but retail traders from r/wallstreetbet and /biz/ were buying the stocks, leaving Melvin Capital responsible for the shorted stocks. In response Robinhood stopped users from buying GameStop and other short stocks like AMC theaters and Nokia. Some users were only allowed to sell their shares while others were forced to do so with Robinhood arguing they did not have enough collateral. The move called massive bipartisan outrage from both Democrats like AOC and Republicans like Ted Cruz. Robinhood reversed course after trading ended with new trades now being allowed with some restrictions. 

My Comment:

Again, like I said yesterday I am no expert on economics and stocks. I think I understand what is going on but I could be wrong on some things so keep that in mind. I figured that was a necessary disclosure as unlike most of the topics I discuss here I have some expertise in what I am talking about. Not so much in this case. 

I'm fairly disgusted with what Robinhood did here. For an app that launched saying that they would bring investing to the people, they screwed over the little guy. And unlike the mythical Robin Hood, they were stealing from poor to give to the rich. I don't buy any of their excuses, they did this because they were pressured by the hedge funds and gave in almost immediately. 

They weren't the only investing firm to do this as several of the other big players did the same thing or otherwise restricted trading on the short stocks. Robinhood is getting most of the flack but there was a coordinated effort to try and stop people from trading the shorted stocks and it actually worked. GameStop's stocks lost a lot of money before trading closed.

The good news is that investors have found a way around Robinhood. They are using other apps now and overnight trading shows that GameStop is going up again, along with many other stocks. These people will make money as long as they hold out until the mandatory buyout which should make a lot of people rich. 

Despite noise from both the left and the right I don't expect anything to be done about it. Democrats like AOC and Elizabeth Warren are making a lot of noise but they don't actually want to help the little guy. Instead they want to tax hedge funds to pay for their own projects. And the GOP can say whatever they want but the truth is that they aren't in power. If anything is done it will be a new tax on hedge funds and not punishment of Robinhood. 

I also think that this incident shows that the real divide in this country isn't really Republican vs Democrat it's elite vs everyone else. The second the elite's interests are threatened (and what could be more elite then a hedge fund like Melvin Capital) the elites push back so that the little guy gets screwed over. Indeed, the reason this happened in the first place is that the people from r/wallstreetbets were sick and tired of the big hedge funds were doing and decided to beat them at their own game. 

I think this is just the latest incident in a trend where people are sick and tired of the establishment. That was what President Trump was about, that was what Bernie Sanders was about and that was what the Capitol counter-coup was about. People just aren't having it anymore. I think this country is a lot closer to a civil war than people want to admit. 

And this is a good example why that is the case. The normal people of the country, well as normal as reddit and 4chan autists can get, found a way to finally make some money and the powers that be decided to shut them down. Sure, the hedge funds were losing money but they agreed to that risk when they shorted the stocks. 

But the powers that be? They wouldn't have any of it. Nobody can threaten the elite and get away with it. So they pressured Robinhood and then the stock dropped. Just like when the people tried to stop the theft of the election they arrested everyone and claimed that everyone was a "white supremacist" or "conspiracy theorist". Like they didn't have actual complaints that should have been addressed.

So what happens next? I have no idea. In theory the redditors have won, the stock price is going up in overnight trading and in theory if they keep holding onto it they will get their money. But a lot could happen tomorrow that could change that. It's possible that Wall Street itself will move on the redditors and they will end up losing in the end. I hope that is not the case but we will just have to wait and see what happens... 

The GameStop rebellion...

 

File photo of a GameStop outlet. New York Times.

GameStop stocks have sored after thousands of investors have bought in after a hedge fund tried to short the company. New York Times. The effort, organized on Reddit and 4chan has made thousands of dollars for individual investors at the expense of the Melvin Capital hedge fund. Melvin Capital was shorting GameStop due to the damage the pandemic has done to the company and the shift away from physical media and towards digital downloads. Despite efforts to control the investors, people are still buying stock in GameStop and are also buying stocks on other troubled businesses, like AMC and Blackberry.

My Comment:

Fairly surprised to see a neutral article on this from the New York Times. I had figured they would have been all in on the hedge funds as many of the outlets that are have already branded the Redditors and Channers as "white supremist" for simply doing to the hedge funds what they have done to everyone else.  

As for what is happening, I am no expert on stocks and economics, otherwise I would have made some money off of this. But from what I understand what Melvin Capital did here was pretty scummy. Shorting a stock is legal but extremely dangerous due to this exact scenario. Basically shorting stocks is a good way to lose money if you fail at it. If I was one of their investors I would be furious with them, though it's not likely that anyone would have predicted this.

So what does it mean to short a stock? If you expect a stock to lose value you can then borrow stock from people and sell it at a high price. When the stock collapses you buy it back and pocket the difference. If, for example, you borrowed the stock at $100 a share and then it lowered to $50 when it came due, you would pocket $50.

The problem is that if you are wrong on your bet you can lose massive amounts of money. What r/wallstreetbets and /biz/ have done here is inflate the value of GameStop stock to the point where they are making thousands of dollars. Melvin Capital is REQUIRED to buy back this stock so they have to pay whatever price the stock is worth when it comes due, which happens this Friday. 

Even worse is that Melvin Capital borrowed more stocks than actually exists. That means if they somehow buys every single stock they are screwed. How this is legal is beyond me and for all I know it is not but it made a bad situation for them a lot worse. 

Is this money a sure thing for the investors? Absolutely not. Right now it's a giant prisoners dilemma. If everyone holds onto the stock they are going to get a huge payday. But if they do not than the first people who sell the stock will make out well while everyone else loses money. Of course, unlike Melvin Capital, the losses they will incur will only be what they initially invested, so unless they invested their life savings they should be fine. And even if they price of the stock collapses they will probably still have more money then what they started with. It's a very high risk high reward situation to be sure.

As for GameStop itself, I have mixed feelings. They always had a terrible business model that was mostly focused on screwing over people who sold them used games for pennies on the dollar. They were never a good company and they drove a lot of better companies out of business. 

Though they may have deserved to go out of business they probably didn't deserve to be murdered by Melvin Capital. The company has thousands of employees and killing them would mean that they would be out of work. Plus they might be able to use all this new money to actually improve their business. I don't think they will but at least they will have a chance now in a shaky economy. 

I have almost no sympathy for Melvin Capital. Though they are losing billions of dollars, hedge funds are a joke. They don't let just anyone in and you pretty much have to have 8 figures in wealth to even be considered to invest with them. They have always had an advantage over the little guy and have screwed over everyone else so many times that it's more than a little satisfying to seem them get screwed over for once. 

I think the biggest problem today in America is that the elite have almost zero consequences for their actions. They are hoarding wealth while everyone else suffers. President Trump tried to fix that (with some success) and the elite did everything in their power to destroy him. Taking down one of the biggest hedge funds and embarrassing the hell out of them is a major accomplishment and something I hope we see more of. The people on Reddit and 4chan deserve a lot of credit for this. 

Major riots in The Netherlands over Coronavirus lockdowns.

 

Police respond to the riots. BBC/EPA.

Major riots have struck in the Netherlands over Coronavirus lockdowns. BBC. The Dutch government has issued a curfew in the first stay at home order since the Nazi occupation during World War II. In response there has been riots for the past three nights in 10 cities in the Netherlands. The riots involved many incidents of damage and looting. The government is condemning the riots and claiming that they are not about the Coronavirus restrictions at all. Many have expressed shock that riots have hit the relatively peaceful Netherlands. 

My Comment:

Looks like 2021 is going to be a year of civil unrest. In addition to the problems the United States will likely have, Russia and India also have major riots happening right now. But I don't think anyone was expecting riots in The Netherlands. 

But it shouldn't be a surprise. I think civil unrest is an inevitable consequence for locking down for a disease that kills less than 1% of the people it infects. These lockdowns have such a negative effect on anything that isn't stopping the virus that I am surprised that there hasn't been dramatically more violence. 

Lockdowns eliminate much of what keeps people busy. If people are sitting around, not able to go out, not able to drink with their friends, not able to even try to find a partner, they will react poorly. It's extremely frustrating and we have to remember that rioting can be both entertaining and a way to express anger. 

The economic damage is a big deal too. If people are out of work that's one last thing to keep them busy and it cause a huge amount of anger. People lose their jobs and livelihood and are not able to provide for themselves and their family. Once that happens all bets are off.

The Dutch are blaming these riots on criminals who just want to destroy things. I think there is some truth to that as rioting is almost always an excuse for people to loot and burn things. But like the Black Lives Matter riots in the United States, it was the lockdowns that made this situation in the first place. There is no excuse for rioting (unless an election is stolen) but that doesn't mean that the Dutch government is clean here. 

As for the virus itself, I do think we are close to being the end of the Coronavirus pandemic. The vaccines are slowly rolling out and it won't be much longer before I get my doses myself. With so many people either infected or vaccinated the virus will run out of hosts and will die out. All the lockdowns have done is delay this inevitability and doing it now when the vaccines are coming out just seems foolish. 

Joe Biden reverses ban on transgenders serving in the military.

 

Joe Biden and Sec. Defense Lloyd Austin. AP.

Joe Biden announced today that he was reversing President Trump's ban on transgendered people serving in the military.  VOA. President Trump's ban allowed transgendered people to serve as their biological sex but would not allow anyone who had transitioned or pay for people who transition after serving. Trump cited the high costs of treatment and the disrupting they could cause as reasons for the ban. Biden has lifted this ban which will go into effect immediately. 

My Comment:

Talk about political correctness going mad. Despite the obvious reasons for this ban it was called bigoted by the Democrats and now it is gone. It has nothing to do with keeping our military ready for war and everything with advancing the cause of progressiveness. The original ban was never about hating transgender people, it was about keeping the military protected from the problems transgender people cause. 

So what is the problem with transgender people serving in the military? It's the same as any of the other medical conditions that prevent people from joining the military. If you have to take drugs everyday then they don't let you in and that's what happens with transgender people. Because it's difficult enough to ensure fighting forces have all the equipment the need, if someone needs drugs to function there is a very good chance that they could lose access to it in combat. 

People also tend to underestimate how dramatic surgery is for the transgendered. Both male to female and female to male post-op transgenders have a huge amount of care they need to even function, let alone live as their preferred gender. I'm not going to go into it here but seriously, just google it. It's a mess and in a combat situation I could see these people getting sick or even dying because they couldn't do the things they need to do to take care of their bodies. 

Unit cohesion is going to be a major issue as well. Having someone you know transition is a stressful and confusing situation in the best of times. When it happens in a military unit you are asking people to accept backup from someone who might not be able to handle what they are going through. Not to mention that a lot of people simply don't like transgender people and might be reluctant to work with them. 

But the biggest problem I see is suicide. Both the military and the transgendered are among the groups of people with the highest rate of suicide in the world. Putting the two groups together seems like a recipe for disaster. President Trump's executive order probably saved the lives of several transgendered people.

Of course given how rare transgendered people this new executive order isn't going to have a huge effect. Less than half of a percentage of Americans identify as transgender and that number is probably inflated due to the memetic effect of people talking about transgender people non-stop. I don't think there are more than a couple of hundred people in the entire country that both want to serve in the military and are transgender. In the end this order will hardly effect anyone, just like President Trump's order effected almost nobody. 

Mexico's President confirms diagnosis of Coronavirus.

 

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Amlo) has confirmed that he has been diagnosis of Coronavirus infection. AP. Obrador has said his symptoms are mild but that he is also under medical treatment. Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero will take over for Obrador for his daily press conferences. Obrador is notable for not locking down Mexico and continuing to travel during the pandemic. Critics note that he has also only occasionally worn a facemask. Obrador did not skip in line for the vaccine despite being 67 and having some health issues such as high blood pressure and having heart surgery after a heart attack. 

My Comment:

Amlo joins the long list of world leaders to contract Coronavirus. As far as I am aware none have died so far. Still, given the potential for tragedy here I thought it was important to cover this story. Mexico is an important neighbor and their President has been someone proven to work well with America. 

I am somewhat more concerned with Obrador's health. Unlike most of the world leaders who have gotten sick, Obrador is both older and has some health problems. One or the other would not be a big deal but having both is not great. However, most people in their 60's are fine even when they have some medical problems. It's not like Obrador was on deaths door or something. 

Indeed, I don't expect Obrador to even be come severely ill. Most people who get Covid only have minor symptoms and the Coronavirus seems to be a lot less deadly then it was during the Wuhan days. More people are dying now but that's becuase the disease is so widespread. I still say the virus is a lot less deadly than it once was. 

Despite being a leftist, I do have a certain amount of respect for Obrador, or Almo as his fans call him. He's a patriot and he has helped Americans control the immigration problem. Notably he had a good relationship with President Trump and even delayed calling Joe Biden to congratulate him after he stole the election. I sincerely hope that Obrador recovers. 

As for Mexico itself, the country has had a hard time of it. They chose their economy over lockdowns and it has paid dividends for their economy. But it has resulted in a large pandemic that is largely out of control. 

Complicating things is that Mexico hasn't had much luck in getting vaccines. They have given out around 600,000 which is a drop in the bucket for a country as large as Mexico. It sounds like they are trying to get ahold of Russia's Sputnik vaccine but time will tell how that goes. 

Google is threatening to withdraw its search engine from Australia.

 

BBC/Reuters.

Google is threatening to withdraw its popular search engine from Australia over a proposed law that would force them to pay for news. BBC. Big tech companies like Google and Facebook have come under pressure under foreign governments to help fund local newspapers. The argument is that local and state journalism outlets are both dependent on and in competition with Google and Facebook and that the big tech companies are getting far more then they deserve in terms of profit. Both companies dominate online advertising as well as search engines. Google has threatened to pull out their search engine if the proposal becomes law in Australia, calling the law unworkable. Facebook too has threatened to prevent users from posting Australian sources. It is unclear if Google's other services, like YouTube, Maps, and Gmail would be affected as well. 

My Comment:

As way of disclosure I have to point out that this blog is hosted on Google and relies on Google's AdSense program to fund itself. I also have bought Facebook advertising in the past (but stopped when they changed their requirements). I don't think that would change anything I write here but I thought it was appropriate to point out. 

I'm fairly confused by this story. Though I agree that Google and Facebook are acting as monopolies I don't see how you get from there to forcing them to pay for news. I certainly agree that if you don't have a presence on some of these big tech sites then you simply won't be found. Ever since Parler got nuked and Twitter got neutered my views are way down and if I were to be banned from Facebook as well basically nobody would read my blog. I wouldn't be censored but I would have no way to get anyone to read my blog. 

But I really don't understand the idea of forcing the tech companies to pay for access to the news. Paying for content seems like interfering with the market as many of these news outlets don't deserve to survive. It just seems like the Australian government is trying to prop up a failed business model. 

Plus there are other things they could do instead. They could easily make it illegal to hide search results or blacklist news outlets. Or they could make Google prioritize Australian outlets first over international ones. That would fix much of the problem without the issue of trying to fight with Google over money. 

Still, I don't like the idea that Google is so powerful that they can boss entire governments around. All of these tech companies appear to have more power than governments and that is an extremely dangerous situation. There is no reason whatsoever that Twitter has so much power that they could ban the President of the United States on ludicrous grounds, and now Google is saying "play ball or we ban your entire country". 

The real fix to this situation would be more competition. There are, of course, other search engines out there but the problem is getting people to use them. Google is the most popular and it is is the default if you use Chrome, so it's hard to avoid. People could use Bing, DuckDuckGo or Yahoo, but they just don't even though those search engines do have advantages over Google.

Online advertising is even worse though as pretty much everyone is reliant on Google or Facebook for running advertisements. Again it's due to how popular those outlets are, if I were to run ads on Bing for example, I doubt it would be worth my money. 

I think Australia should call Google's bluff. Doing so would probably force Google and Facebook to make some changes and could even allow their competitors to grow. If that happens much of the problem would disappear and it would be a boon internationally. Even though I think the idea of charging for news is dumb at best it would help foster some competition. 

ISIS takes credit for massive suicide bombings in Iraq that killed 32 people.

 

Iraqi troops stand guard near the site of the bombing. Reuters.

ISIS has taken credit for a massive suicide bombing in Iraq that has killed 32 people and is the first attack since 2018. Reuters. ISIS took credit for the attack on Telegram. Witnesses say there were two bombers and one of them drew people in by complaining of stomach pain before he blew himself up. Suicide bombings were once common across Iraq but since ISIS was defeated in 2017, the attacks have not happened since another bombing in the same market in 2018. The attack bring with it worries that ISIS may be returning. 

My Comment:

This was a fairly major ISIS attack and the worst one in recent memory. A lot of people died and even more were injured. But even more important that the deaths and injuries is the implications. The timing was terrible, Biden has been installed as President and we have a new foreign policy and I am guessing this attack in Iraq will change things.

First things first though, is ISIS resurgent? I don't really think so. They don't control any territory, most of their leadership is dead and they have no real way to gain international recruits. I haven't seen any evidence that they have regrouped enough to become a new threat. They aren't capable of taking territory.

But they were always capable of launching terror attacks, even reasonably major ones like this. For a suicide bombing you only need a few things. A bombmaker, explosives and a couple of people that are willing to die. The latter two are in no short supply in Iraq. 

The bombmaker though? It's a problem. Taking out whoever made these bombs should be the major priority of whoever is in charge of Iraq's military response. Like I said, they are not going to get a handle on the availability of explosives in Iraq any time soon and there are a ton of people there willing to die for the cause of ISIS. But if you kill the bombmaker you greatly disrupt any terror plots as it takes skill to make a bomb without blowing yourself up while at the same time making sure it explodes as planned. 

Much more concerning for me personally is the response from the Biden White House. He and Obama were warmongers and he is likely to want to reverse any and all troop withdrawals from the Middle East. This ISIS attack could serve as a perfect excuse to send more troops into Iraq, perhaps as a precursor to war with Iran or Syria. 

Hopefully it won't come to that but I have zero faith in the Biden administration to even attempt to do the right thing. Though ISIS is bad news they are no longer the threat they used to be. They should not be used as an excuse to send thousands of troops back into Iraq. 

My quick thoughts on the "presidency" of Joe Biden.

 

Joe Biden VP portrait. 

As you are probably aware Joe Biden has been sworn in as President. As expected there was no violence or terror attacks anywhere in the United States today and the changeover went as smoothly as could be expected. With that being said I am going to offer up a few thoughts and comments.

I don't consider Joe Biden to be a legitimist president and will not be referring to him as such. He will either be Joe Biden or VP Biden because he and Obama actually won in 2008. I still believe there was a massive amount of voter fraud in 2020 and even if there wasn't enough to stop Joe Biden the fact that there was no day in court, no audit and no attempt to bring anyone who committed voter fraud to justice means that he was not inaugurated today, he was installed. 

With that being said it's undeniable that Joe Biden is now in control of the US government. No matter what the QAnon people say there isn't going to be an 11th hour counter-coup against Joe Biden where he and everyone else that opposed President Trump is going to get the justice they so richly deserve. Biden is in control and there is very little that can be done in the short term. 

So what is going to happen with the Joe Biden presidency? I am not sure. Joe Biden seems to be set to make the same horrible decisions that Barack Obama made, which is not surprising. Looking at the first round of executive orders it's clear that he isn't even trying to preserve any of the accomplishments that President Trump made. I'm expecting more of the same garbage. 

The good news is that Biden is senile, corrupt and a very poor leader. His ability to actually get things done is limited. And I doubt Nancy Peolosi is going to be able to herd the cats in Congress. I am guessing that the same thing will happen that happened during the period the Democrats controlled all three branches of government back in 2008 (or the GOP in 2016). The Democrats will likely pass one signature piece of legislation and then be done. And given the Coronavirus crisis it will probably be related to that. 

The bad news is that Biden is senile, corrupt and a very poor leader. That is not what America needs right now. Should another crisis happen we could really be in trouble. Our enemies see our weakness I would not be surprised if Iran or North Korea tried something. And there is always the chance of a major natural disaster that Biden just will not be able to deal with in his current condition.

I also think there is a very good chance that Biden does not make it through his 1st term. I fear that he will be assassinated, not by pro-Trump people but by allies of Kamala Harris, who is both totally evil and incredibly ambitious. I don't want this outcome to happen to say the least, for as bad as Biden is, Harris is 100 times worse. Given how paranoid Biden is I am surprised that he isn't focusing on the most obvious threat against him. 

Biden is also in incredibly bad health and is very obviously showing signs of dementia. He may be able to function for a year or two more but after that he is going to be like Woodrow Wilson, a president only in name. It's very possible he simply dies from natural causes fairly soon. 

Will there be civil unrest or violence? That's a moot question as all last summer BLM and Antifa were burning down cities. Given that Antifa attacked Democrats in Portland I think that violence is inevitable. 

But will there be the fabled 2nd American Civil War or the American Troubles? I kinda doubt it. I mean, if Biden does go for a gun control push as his signature issue, then yes. But otherwise? I doubt it. For all the paranoia and fear about right wing violence, the left wing has always been a bigger threat. And they will be busy trying to take out Biden and the Democrats while the right sits back and watches with a smug "I told you so" face...

My final take on the Presidency of Donald Trump.

 

President Donald Trump.

As you are most certainly aware, today was the last full day of Donald Trump's Presidency. Baring something incredible happening tomorrow, Joe Biden will be sworn in as President at 12 eastern. What happens next isn't predictable but what I can do is go over President Trump's victories and defeats.

President Trump's biggest accomplishment has to be winning in the first place. He faced a huge field of Republican hopefuls including some of the most powerful and important members of congress, governors and other major candidates. And, after wiping the floor with them, went on to face Hillary Clinton, who had the backing of the media, tech companies and deep state. Beating all those foes was a huge accomplishment and is something that can never be taken away. 

President Trump had some major victories as President as well. The biggest of these was foreign policy. He is the first president in my lifetime to not start any wars. Indeed, not only did he not start any new wars he drew down our involvement in other ones. Slandered as a warmonger during the election, President Trump consistently chose peace and diplomacy over war. He didn't fall for the Deep States attempts to launch wars against Syria, Iran and Russia and kept American casualties in our current wars to a minimum. 

And it must be stated that President Trump was largely responsible for the total destruction of ISIS. Back in 2016 ISIS was a huge threat, controlling vast swaths of land and launching almost weekly terror attacks across the world. By 2018, two years into his term, ISIS was nothing but a bad memory and Islamic terrorists are not anywhere near the threat it used to be. 

President Trump also advanced the cause of peace internationally. He tried to end the war in North Korea and successfully brokered new peace deals in the Middle East and the Baltic. He was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize several times and was robbed each time. And he of course did not start any new wars. 

Domestically President Trump did well. His biggest domestic accomplishment was the massive tax cut that paid dividends to the poor and middle classes. I know in my case my income increased massively, not only due to the tax cuts but because those tax cuts also helped my company. Had President Trump not been elected I don't think for a moment I would be making anywhere near the amount of money I am now.  

The economy did great under President Trump, at least for the first three years. 2020 was a mess due to the Coronavirus but it has recovered even despite the lockdowns forced by Democratic governors. The economy was completely stagnant under Barack Obama and Trump turned it around almost single handedly. 

Speaking of Obama, President Trump reversed many of his worst policies and stopped his utterly terrible foreign policy. Thanks to President Trump college students have due process again and the worst parts of Obamacare were rejected (while keeping some of the better parts like the preexisting conditions ban and some of the insurance markets). 

He also tried to fix immigration and though he didn't complete his goals he was able to reduce immigration by quite a bit. He built much more of the wall then was up before President Trump and though he didn't complete it he did more than any other President. 

One accomplishment that gets overlooked is how much President Trump was able to change the court system. He and congress managed to secure four Supreme Court justices and hundreds of lower federal court judges, likely changing the makeup of the courts for years. Though the Democrats were able to steal the Presidency, Senate and Congress, they can not do so with the courts. 

All that being said, I think President Trump made some very major mistakes. The most obvious? Not making voter fraud the number one priority of his administration. He should have known that the Democrats cheated in 2016 and would do the same in 2018 and 2020 if given the opportunity. But he didn't do much of anything to stop it. Sure the GOP did not support him in his efforts but that's no excuse. 

I also think he did a horrible job at hiring people. Part of that was the problem of being an outsider. He did not have many candidates to draw from so his only choices were people that agreed with him politically but were inexperienced or people like Jeff Sessions, John Bolton and Bill Barr, swamp creatures that opposed his agenda. He went with the 2nd option and it cost him a 2nd term. Had he had support from the Justice Department, as just one example, Joe Biden would be in a prison cell right now, not a day away from being President. 

His 2nd campaign wasn't as good as the first campaign as well. Trump improved on every group expect the one that put him in office in 2016, white males. Though why this happened is unclear I have to say that focusing on black voters and not focusing on his signature issue, immigration, probably hurt. It might not have been enough to counter Democratic voter fraud but it would have helped. Then again, he did massively increase his vote share so maybe his strategy was the best one and only failed because the Democrats played dirty. 

His response to the Coronavirus was a mixed bag. I think he did about as good as he could have done but his main problem was perception. It was a lose-lose situation regardless due to the media but he could have done some things different. He does deserve a lot of credit for Operation Warp Speed, which managed to get vaccines out and in circulation before the end of his term. 

But President Trump's biggest failure? Allowing someone like Joe Biden to become President. He gave up a lot to be President but he should have given up more to prevent someone like Biden. Biden is an existential threat, almost on the same level as Hillary Clinton. He's senile, corrupt and far to the left. He never should have been allowed to be President. Trump's biggest failure is not crossing the Rubicon and doing whatever is needed to stop him from gaining office. 

The FBI was wrong about widespread violent protests over the weekend.

 

US troops stand guard outside of the Capitol. BBC/Getty.

Reports of violent protests and riots against Joe Biden over the weekend failed to materialize. BBC. The FBI had warned that violent protests would happen over the weekend in response to the election. However, very few protests that happened and those that did were sparsely attended. The FBI claimed that right wing groups had posted on message boards saying that they were going to attempt to overthrow the government but actual right wing groups, like the Proud Boys, said that their people should stay away due to heavy security or the high potential for false flags or government traps. National Guard troops were deployed at all 50 state capitols and more than 25,000 troops have been stationed at the US Capitol.

My Comment:

As I expected there was no violence at the state capitols or in Washington DC. Why was I so confident? Because the right wing isn't stupid. There was very little to gain from violent protests and a whole hell of a lot to lose. 

And the right wing in America? Pussycats. The US capitol raid was the biggest thing they have done in years and even that remained mostly peaceful outside of a few fringe people on the right and Antifa and BLM infiltrators. The right rarely resorts to violence and when they do they don't do it in a stupid way. I can't think of anything stupider than trying to attack fortified positions like the various state capitols. The media always predicts violence at right wing protests and in the vast majority of cases it never materializes. Indeed, during the Virginia gun rights rally, not only did nothing happen, people actually cleaned up after themselves. 

Right wing folks also aren't idiots either. It was very clear from the start that these "protests" were not organic at all. I visit many of the right wing sites and I didn't see anything remotely like what the FBI was claiming. Indeed, all I saw was people saying to stay the hell away since it was so obviously an FBI plot to entrap people. 

After all, that's pretty much what the FBI does. They encourage radicals so they can arrest them in order to claim credit for crimes that wouldn't exist if they didn't create them. This is what they have done for right wing groups for years and it's also what they did with ISIS, with the most notable case being the attack on the "draw Muhammad" contest.

I think it's also clear that the incoming Biden administration is completely unhinged. There has been no specific threat of violence and no organized protest movement. The capitol incident was mostly spontaneous and President Trump has given no indication that he will fight (even though he would be totally justified in doing so). I am guessing that the inauguration will go off without a hitch and Biden will start his joke of a presidency looking like a damn fool. 

But is there a potential for violence? Sure. The Democrats, media and Joe Biden himself have seen to have drawn all the wrong lessons from the capitol raid. Keep in mind that millions of people think the election is stolen and that Biden is out to get them. It's very clear that Biden hates middle America and might move against them. He also might push gun control which more than anything else could lead to widespread violence. 

In the short term though? I sincerely doubt that we will see any violence this week and if we do it's going to be left wingers in some kind of false flag. It's possible we could see some violence from our foreign enemies who know for a fact that Joe Biden is weak, senile and not in control of the country. But there isn't going to be a right wing uprising. 

State Department says there is evidence that Wuhan viral researchers may have gotten sick in fall of 2019.

 

Electron microscope image of  the Coronavirus. Niaid.

The State Department has said there is evidence that Wuhan viral researchers may have gotten sick in fall of 2019. AP. The viral researchers were sick in November with symptoms similar to the Coronavirus. Though the State Department did not go so as far as to confirm that the outbreak was due to an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, it condemned China's secrecy over the outbreak. China has refused to allow outside investigations other than the WHO, and even they have been stymied by China's secrecy. The State Department cited previous outbreaks from viral leaks in Chinese labs as well as noting that the WIV was confirmed to be researching the SARS-COV-2 virus precursor, RaTG13.

The State Departments fact sheet can be found here. 

My Comment:

I think there is a very strong circumstantial case for the Coronavirus pandemic being a man made disaster as opposed to a natural one. However, it's hard to discuss the issue without running into censorship or harassment. China has a large digital army and they will attack people who discuss the possibility and a lot of mainstream media outlets won't cover the theory without calling it a "conspiracy theory".

Honestly, the secrecy and lack of openness from China is probably the strongest evidence of the outbreak being a lab leak. To be fair, China lies about everything so even if the outbreak is natural they have blown away all of their credibility years ago. But the coverup and lack of openness does show that they are scared. 

It's very possible that China doesn't know where the virus came from as well. If the virus did come from a lab they might not have realized that it had leaked. However, that wouldn't change much, if they don't know and covered up the possibility they are still guilty.

I should note that the case for the virus being a lab leak hasn't been proven. It's a circumstantial case that got stronger because people were sick at the WIV. But it hasn't been proven that those people were sick with Coronavirus or if they had the flu or some other disease. But given the fact that the virus became prominent in Wuhan and not somewhere else the case becomes a little stronger. 

Also, the WIV was researching the precursor of the Coronavirus. They were working on making Coronaviruses more transmissionable and have had major leaks in the past. There are also incidents where workers at these viral labs sold infected animals to wet markets or kept them themselves for food. It's not like that it's impossible that the virus escaped from the lab.

And the other theory, that the virus emerged naturally, isn't that strong. The infected bats don't live anywhere near Wuhan and in order to infect the city someone would have to have been infected in the area the bats live and then travel to Wuhan. That is possible but if it happened that way it would be very likely that the sick person would have infected people along the way.

I think both possibilities are possible with the lab release being more likely. However, I don't think we can prove that in a court of law. Even on a preponderance of the evidence standard, I don't think you could prove that the virus was more likely a lab leak. 

I will say that we probably can rule out that Coronavirus being a deliberate leak. Though China did allow the virus to spread internationally (all they had to do was cancel outside travel and the virus likely wouldn't have made it out) I don't think they had any reason to release the virus. Considering that the virus did a major amount of damage to China doing so would have been cutting off their nose to spite their face. It doesn't make any sense so I think it's extremely unlikely. 

I don't know if we will ever find the truth though. No matter what China is going to remain silent about what really happened, even if it was a natural release. China does not want to take the blame for the worst viral pandemic in recent history. They will lie and misinform regardless... 

The NRA files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will leave New York for Texas.

 

NRA Headquarters in New York. Reuters.

America's largest gun rights group, the National Rifle Association, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and will leave New York for Texas. Reuters. The NRA says this move will be used to escape the regulatory environment in New York. The NRA was sued by the state in what they say was a political move, but the NRA was accused of wasting donor funds on the luxury lifestyle of NRA executives. The NRA said that there would be no changes in their operations for the time being and that the group was still financially solvent. New York was seeking the dissolution of the NRA but the move will likely prevent New York from doing so as it would render their lawsuit against the NRA moot. 

My Comment:

Just a quick disclosure, I have donated a small amount of money to the NRA via the Amazon Smile program. The money is not significant but I figured it was worth noting. The NRA has a lot of problems but I loved the idea of forcing Amazon to give money to the NRA, plus there was a small chance that the NRA would use the money for good things. 

I have conflicted feelings about the NRA these days. I do think that the State of New York has a point. The NRA is poorly run and I do think the leadership care more about making themselves rich then they do actually fighting for the cause of gun rights. The best thing that could happen is that Wayne LaPierre and many of the other higher ups were fired and replaced. 

That being said, I don't believe for a second that the state of New York was honest in what they were trying to do. The NRA has obvious and serious problems but it was never about protecting the donors to the NRA. It was about destroying the biggest gun rights group in the world. Thankfully it looks like their plot has failed. 

The NRA has some major problems, not the least of which is that they don't defend gun rights enough. Unlike the 2nd Amendment Foundation or the Gun Owners of America groups, the NRA often compromises on gun rights. Most notably they did not push back against the Trump administration when he banned bump stocks in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting. 

They have also focused too much on being a conservative group, not a gun rights one, and have often been distracted from the cause by irrelevant political issues. This has been bad for gun rights as there are a few centrist, libertarian and even leftist gun rights supporters. Many of them were turned off from the NRA when they realized that the group was more about funding Republicans than actually fighting for gun rights. Gun rights should be a bipartisan issue, especially now after 2020 convinced thousands of new people that guns are valuable and necessary. 

But I also think that the NRA is necessary. Though they have not been effective in protecting gun rights they do have real power. An NRA endorsement during a primary can mean the difference between an anti-gun or a pro-gun candidate. And they also provide a massive amount of training, publicity and insurance for the gun industry that are not easily replaced. Many gun ranges only exist due to NRA insurance and in many states the entire idea of gun ranges would die if the NRA were to fold. 

I am not sure that moving to Texas is the best idea. It's a red state but it's not as solid red as it was in the past. And they don't have the best laws in the country, even my state, Wisconsin, has better laws. I think that the NRA is obviously safer there than in New York but it's not guaranteed that will continue in the future. I would have been happier if they had gone to a deep red state like Kansas or Alaska. 

I am sure that moving the NRA's headquarters will not fix many of the problems that the NRA has. Moving won't change the leadership and it won't change the toxic culture in the NRA. It will allow the organization to survive but that's about it. 

The chaos at the NRA comes at the worst possible time. If the Biden administration actually happens (which looks likely) then the gun rights community will face it's biggest threat ever. Biden is horrifically anti-gun and has said that Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke will be his anti-gun czar. Not only do we need a strong gun rights group to counter that, it's probably the last best hope for the country to avoid civil war as no other issue is more of a tinderbox then gun rights. Too bad the NRA doesn't appear to be up to the challenge.  

Iran films an American attack sub

 

Screenshots showing the attack sub. Warzone/The Drive.

Iran released video showing an American attack sub shadowing an Iranian training exercise. War Zone/The Drive. The submarine is likely an Ohio Class guided missile submarine, most likely the USS Georgia. The sub was likely shadowing the Iranian exercise, which involves much of their Navy, and includes their Fatah class submarine and various other vessels. Ohio class submarines are usually used to launch Tomahawk missiles but are also used to deploy special forces and mini-subs. The video showed the Ohio class ship at periscope depth. The Iranians claimed that they tried to contact the submarine and that the ship left the area after being discovered and warned. 

My Comment:

Fairly impressive video from Iran there. They were able to track that sub and they seem to have successfully drove it off. That's a pretty big win for the Iranian military even though I am sure it was only temporary. 

So what was the Ohio class doing there? My guess is gathering intelligence. Iran deployed quite a bit of their most advanced military technology and learning how they intend to use it would be a boon for the US Navy. Shadowing the exercise was a good chance to learn what they are capable off. 

Learning that the Iranians can actually detect American subs at periscope depth is pretty important to know as well. Had this been a war they actually had a good chance at destroying the USS Georgia. Thankfully I doubt they would have been a periscope depth under these conditions during a war, but it's still fairly disturbing that the Iranians were able to find this ship. 

With that being said I do think that the Navy probably succeeded in their mission here. They likely got intel about Iran's new attack submarine and their new pseudo-helicopter carrier/forward base ship, the Makran. Both of those ships are new and their functions and capabilities are not fully known. 

Tensions are fairly high with Iran right now. Israel just destroyed a lot of their troops and weapons in Iran and it is very possible that they were planning a major attack. They also seem to want to take advantage of the obvious weakness of Joe Biden, should he be sworn in. America is weak right now and I wouldn't be surprised of Iran tries something further. 

Israel launches major airstrikes against targets in Syria, killing 57 people

 

Israeli troops on patrol in the Golan Heights. AFP/Getty.

Israel has launched major airstrikes against targets in Syria, killing 57 people. AFP. The strikes, which were the deadliest in recent history, killed members of the Syrian military, Iraqi militia members and Afghan members of an Iranian militia. The Iranian militia, the Fatimid Brigade, had smuggled Iranian weapons over the border of Iraq, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. The Israelis regularly target Iranian backed militias in an effort to defend their borders. The strikes occurred in Dier Ez Zor and the Albu Kamal region

My Comment:

This is a fairly huge news story that isn't really getting the coverage that it deserves. It is the biggest airstrike the Israelis have pulled off in a long time. They took out a large number of Syrian troops and militia members and likely destroyed several weapons caches. 

I think those militias and weapons are a pretty obvious threat to Israel. If the Iranian militias were to gain a big foothold in Syria and have the weapons they need they could launch cross border attacks into Israel. Israel, of course, has a major military to defend themselves and also the impressive Iron Dome system, but regardless they could face major casualties if they let the Iranians build up in Syria.

I don't expect any major action from the Syrian government, even though they have taken casualties. For one thing they haven't done anything before since Israel has been attacking Iranian militias since 2011. And they are in no position to risk a war with Israel. Though the Syrian Civil War has calmed down quite a bit the Syrian military has been bleed dry. They just don't have the military power to fight Israel. 

As for Iran this is another example of their aggressive foreign policy. They have been a proxy war with Israel for a long time now and they may try to do something given the wide perception of a weak foreign policy American President possibly taking the oath of office soon. I wouldn't be surprised if they actually attack Israel soon.

 But I don't think it will be an actual typical war. It will remain a proxy conflict. They will strike Israel with their proxy forces and rocket strikes. Israel will respond with their own strikes but I don't see them hitting Iran directly.

Keep in mind that Israel, with the help of President Trump, has been normalizing relations with its neighbors. Though a genuine peace movement it was also a new system of alliances between the Sunni Arab states and Israel against the Shiite Muslim Iranians. This means that if the Iranians start an actual war they have to worry about fighting the Gulf States as well as Israel. Hopefully this means that calmer heads will prevail. 

The CIA has declassified thousands of pages of UFO documents thanks to a FOIA request.

 

The CD-ROM that the CIA released. The Black Vault.

The CIA has declassified thousands of pages of UFO documents thanks to a FOIA request. The Daily Mail. The PDF's have been published on a website called The Black Vault, which is ran by an UFO researcher named John Greenwald Jr. Greenwald has been suing the CIA for years and finally secured a major release, which the CIA claims is all their information on UFO's. The CD was released ahead of June, when the US intelligence agencies will be required to release everything they know about UFO's. With so many files, much of the information has not been reviewed, though some interesting files have been revealed. 

The Black Vault and the files can be found here. 

My Comment:

Very interesting. Unfortunately there are far too many files here for me to review. What little was shown in the Daily Mail article was interesting enough. A CIA scientist being delivered UFO related things? Very intriguing. 

The main problem here is that all the files are in PDF form and the downloads are pretty huge. 342 megabits is a big download and the files themselves are 2780 pages. It would take days to go through all those files and I simply don't have the time. 

I have to say that John Greenwald Jr. should be commended for getting these files out there. From what I understand, the man has led an one man crusade sending the CIA hundreds of Freedom of Information requests. Without him none of this information would have been released. 

Do I expect there to be any massive revelations in these files? Probably not. A lot of the files have been massively redacted. Most of the people involved will not be mentioned but some of these files are so redacted that it's impossible to even get an idea of what the files are actually about. 

But it does seem that the UFO phenomenon is getting more exposure and more information is coming out. The US government has released several files and videos and it seems likely, thanks to the Covid relief bill addition, that most of what they will know will be released over the summer, assuming that something doesn't happen between now and then. 

Conspiracy sites are all atwitter, and have been for months now, claiming that disclosure of alien life is going to happen soon. I don't think those folks are right. For one thing I don't think that the UFO's have anything to do with alien life. These UFO's are most likely a combination of natural phenomenon, secret military technology and people just not understanding what they are seeing.

But what if they are right? I don't think it would be as big as a deal as the conspiracy folks think, unless the aliens really are here and running things. But just knowledge that there are aliens out there? Probably wouldn't change too much. People would be really excited for a week and after that things would return to normal.  

Still, I find this stuff fascinating. Though I don't believe that UFO's are aliens, they are still unexplained and it's interesting to think about it. Plus everyone likes to think what contact with aliens would be like, even if that outcome is very unlikely. I am hoping that the intelligence community will follow through with what the law says and release all the information they have this summer. 

US government re-designates Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.

 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Reuters.

The United States government has re-designated the communist nation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. Reuters. Cuba was removed from the list under Barack Obama, but the Trump administration has reversed much of Obama's policies on the communist country. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited Cuba's support of Venezuela's socialist government led by Nicholas Maduro as well as Cuba harboring fugitives and Columbian rebel leaders. The move is very popular among Cuban Americans, who have condemned the Castro regime. Should Biden be sworn in, it would be difficult to reverse the decision as it would take months of review. The move follows similar moves against the Houthi rebels in Yemen and normalizing relations with Taiwan.

My Comment:

This was long overdue. I never agreed with the normalization with Cuba. For one thing, they are a communist regime, which should forever bar them from the international community. Communism is a terrible ideology and should not even exist, let alone be tolerated. 

Is Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism though? I think so. Taking in American fugitives is not the action of a country that cares about justice but it's support of Columbian rebels and the Venezuela's communist government is what is really concerning. Cuba finances a lot of the bad parts of South and Central America and I do think they should be punished for it. 

Though the Cuban regime is different now under Raul Castro they are still brutal dictatorship that crushes all dissent. So they are not too unlike Democrats here in America. That being said it's fairly ridiculous to keep them off the list. That being said there are a lot of other countries that should be on that list based on their behavior but won't because they are either allies, like Saudi Arabia, or because they are too powerful to anger, like China. 

With this designation do much? Probably not. It will make travel to Cuba a lot more difficult and will help prevent Americans sending money to Cuba but other than that I don't see it doing much. This is more of a symbolic move than anything else. 

The good news is that if Joe Biden gets sworn in he won't be able to reverse this quickly. It will take months of review and Biden might not even want to do it considering how precarious his position is. He's already pissing off half the country, making all the Cuban Americans an enemy is a very bad idea. The restriction on Cuba should remain for the time being.  

United States will lift restrictions on diplomatic contacts with Taiwan

 

File photo of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. BBC/Getty.

The United States will lift restrictions on diplomatic contacts with Taiwan. BBC. The move will infuriate China who considers Taiwan to be a rouge province, not an independent country. The United States had self imposed restrictions on diplomacy in order to not anger China. It is the latest move for the Trump administration who has moved to normalize relations with Taiwan. Taiwan is considered a major potential flashpoint as China has considered taking back the island with military force. Joe Biden has said that he would continue the status quo relationship with Taiwan and may reverse this decision if Biden is sworn into office later this month. 

My Comment:

This action was long overdue. China's "one China" policy has always been ridiculous and we should have never recognized China's communist government as legitimist, let alone their claims on Taiwan. China is America's biggest foe and it is long past time we stopped doing what they want. 

As for Taiwan they are a much better government to have normal relations with. They are a major market and have an obvious need for high tech weapons that we should be more than happy to sell to them. And unlike Taiwan they don't interfere with our elections, respect human rights and don't threaten us with nuclear antihalation.  

This move is largely symbolic. If Biden gets in (and I won't be predicting anything on that) one of his first moves will be to reverse this. Biden is beholden to China and will not do anything to upset them. It's really just a middle finger to China, and one that they desperately deserve. 

But it might be too late. China is probably furious that this was allowed to happen. They are furious about this and will probably demand that Biden apologize, which he might not be willing or able to do. This will make a return to the status quo a lot more difficult. 

Is there a risk of war with China over Taiwan? Of course there is. China has always wanted to get Taiwan back and not just because of the obvious economic powerhouse that Taiwan is. It's a matter of national pride and it's a terrible insult to China to imply that they actually don't have any say on what Taiwan says or does. 

The problem I see for China is that they just don't have the manpower and ships to take the island back. Taiwan has a powerful military and China probably doesn't have the ability to defeat them right now even if Taiwan got no help from other countries. That doesn't mean they won't try it but if they do it will likely fail.  

New study shows the Pfizer Coronavirus vaccine is effective against the new South African and United Kingdom strains

 

Live Science/Shutterstock.

A new study has shown that the Pfizer Coronavirus vaccine is effective against the new strains of the virus originating in South Africa and United Kingdoms. Live Science. There had been fears that the new strains, which may spread easier then earlier strains, would be resistant to the virus. Both of the mutated strains are more able to infect human cells due to the mutation, which effects protein spikes. The study showed that despite the mutation the vaccine was able to stop the virus. The study was fairly small, using blood from 20 people who received the vaccine, so more studies will be done to confirm the results. Morderna and AstraZeneca will be conducting studies to see if their vaccines are also effective against the new strains. 

My Comment:

The hysteria over the new strains of the Coronavirus has been out of control and I thought it would be a good idea to point out this study. Since the new strains are being used to justify massive new draconian lockdown orders, with the UK being the latest example, it's important to look at what the science actually says. 

I never thought the idea that these mutations wouldn't be covered by vaccine was a sound one in the first place. The variations aren't that different and these are new vaccines that trigger antibodies fairly effectively due to the m-RNA process which I will admit to not fulling understanding. But it's not like these were flu vaccines which are notorious for not preventing many cases, these vaccines are +90% effective. 

I also haven't really heard any evidence that the new UK and South African strains are any more deadly then the base virus. It's claimed that they both spread easier but that doesn't mean that they will kill more of the people they infect. They may infect more people but if most of those people are younger then it won't matter much. 

Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if these new strains are a lot less deadly then the original one. I think we have already seen that as the virus that hit Wuhan and Italy so hard doesn't really compare to what is going on today. Though we obviously can't trust the numbers out of Wuhan we can do so with Italy and it seems clear that the virus is killing a lot less people then it used to. 

As for the vaccines themselves it is frustrating how slow the role out has been, at least here in Wisconsin. I have seen people from other states getting it but I don't know a single person who lives in Wisconsin who has received the vaccine. Since I know a lot of people who are either front line critical workers, vulnerable older people and 2nd line critical workers (like myself) you would think I would know someone who has gotten the vaccine but I really don't. 

And that's the sad thing. The rollout of the vaccine combined with these new, easier spreading mutations should lead to herd immunity but that won't happen unless the vaccine is rolled out quicker. In some places they are doing just that and they will have the virus under control a lot sooner. But here in Wisconsin it's a mess and it means that it will take longer to return to normalcy here. 

President Donald Trump has conceded the election.

 

President Donald Trump.

Today is an awful day. After patriots stormed the capitol building in a last ditch attempt to right the wrong that was the 2020 election, President Trump has conceded the election to Joe Biden who is now the President Elect. President Trump's statement can be seen below. 

pic.twitter.com/csX07ZVWGe

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021

I had hoped that President Trump would have continued to fight. He was in the right, the voter fraud question was never seriously examined and it was clear that there was a massive coverup. His supporters would have never given up on him, even if he had crossed the Rubicon and thrown up the gallows for the people that so richly deserve it. 

But in the end he gave up. Why? My guess is that the Republicans betrayed him. Even Vice President Pence did not have his back yesterday. Had they come out as one and said "no this election is not valid and yes the people storming this building are right to do so" they would have gained some respect. But they did not and even worse they betrayed both President Trump and the 74 million people that voted for him by not standing by him in their darkest hour. Once that happened it would have been an uphill battle at best and one that had no guarantee that it would have worked.   

I said, after the election results were delayed and it was clear that the fix was in, I would support whatever President Trump wanted to do, regardless of the outcome. He's only one man and he has fought enough, who could blame him for giving up now? The man gave up almost everything to protect his country and his people, why shouldn't he try to preserve what he has left? 

I was optimistic yesterday as I thought that the storming of the capitol would be a clear lesson to both the Republicans and Democrats. I thought they would reassess the risks and outcomes their awful behavior but the exact opposite is happening. They are, in an act of utter insanity, threating to remove President Trump from office. This is an act of pure spite and one that will lead to actual violence if acted upon. 

I still stand by the fact that the Democrats are crippled right now. If they have any sense at all they will stop this madness and acknowledge that they were in the wrong here. At the very least they have to let go of their hatred and not try to punish innocent Trump supporters (the rioters, sure, but not anyone else). If not then this will lead to some kind of military conflict. They have no mandate and they have no right to overturn the will of the 74 million people that voted for President Trump. 

But the Republicans? This might actually kill the party. Only a few Senators and Congress members stayed loyal to President Trump. They don't seem to understand that Trump's 74 million voters were loyal to him, not them. I have seen more hatred for these traitorous Republicans than for even the Democrats coming from the MAGA camp. There is going to be a major movement to primary the lot of them. Time will tell if that effort is successful. If it's not, I don't see how I could vote for any of these people, other then the few that stuck by President Trump. 

I will say that President Trump made some obvious and severe mistakes during his presidency that could have prevented this. His first act in office should have been to fire every Obama holdover, not just the leadership but the rank and file as well. Not a single member of the Federal Government should have had a job after the disaster that was the Obama administration. 

Election security should have been a major priority obviously. It was very clear that there were election related shenanigans in 2016 and 2018. But voter fraud was only given lip service even despite the massive threat it posed. They cheated back in 2016 but they didn't cheat hard enough. In 2020 they stopped caring and pulled out all of the stops. And it cost us everything.

But most of all he should have done something about big tech. His last minute attempt to repeal Section 230 was too little too late. Had he simply forced the tech companies to follow the law and admit they were acting as publishers then the truth could have come out. Biden would have never been elected if it wasn't for the coverup for his massive corruption and personal conduct scandal revealed in the Hunter Biden scandal. 

So what happens next? I have a great fear for the personal safety of President Trump and his family. He should pardon himself, not because he has committed any crime, but because it would prevent any persecution. Doing so would not only protect himself and his family but it would prevent bloodshed.

As for the Biden administration, who knows? At this point I don't even care. America is dead at this point, or at least our elections are. We are Russia now with our own senile and corrupt Vladimir Putin, but without Putin's positive traits. He actually cares about his country and though he uses it to enrich himself he isn't actively attacking his culture and society. Biden and the Democrats are actively trying to sellout our country and destroy everything it stands for and there isn't a option to fix things with elections anymore... 

As for me, I am probably going to take a few days off from posting. Unless something major happens over the weekend or I see something non-election related I want to write about I think I need some time away.