Should President Trump run in 2024?

 

President Trump at CPAC. Reuters. 

As you know President Donald Trump spoke at CPAC today. I didn't have the opportunity to watch it but from what I gathered Trump hinted that he would run in 2024. In addition, he ran away with the CPAC straw poll with only Florida Governor Ron DeSantis coming close, with Trump getting 55% of the vote. 

It's pretty clear that President Trump still commands the Republican Party. Even Mitch McConnell, who falsely blamed Trump for the January 6th counter-coup has said that he will support him if he is the candidates and the handful of Republicans who supported impeachment are facing primary challenges. His base loves him and supports him. 

I think that President Trump has the loyalty of most of the Republican Party and that if he decides to run he will win. I don't even think that's a controversial statement. Indeed, now that the news isn't 24/7 against him I think he will only gain in popularity. And if Biden continues to screw up the country I think a lot of people will reevaluate the Trump presidency, realizing that the time he was president before the pandemic hit was pretty damn good. 

But I do have a couple of questions. The first is whether or not he can win. The Democrats pulled out all the stops in the 2020 election and aren't even pretending that the election was legitimate and transparent. Voter fraud and bias cost Trump the election in 2020 and I don't see that problem being better in 2024, though it might be if there is someone else running. 

Barring that though I do think he could win. The 2020 election was decided by just a few votes in swing states and Trump could easily pick up more voters, especially if Biden screws up even worse than he has now and if Kamala Harris is the candidate in 2024. Honestly, if she is the candidate pretty much anyone the Republicans run will beat her. 

My second question is should President Trump even run. I think that he did a good job as President and I really wish he was in charge right now instead of Joe Biden. But some of the same concerns I have with Biden might be relevant with Donald Trump in 2024. Trump is 74 years of age and in 2024 he will be 78. Though he is in good health now, even beating back the Coronavirus, he might not be in 2024. Hell, as sad as it is to day, he might not make it to 2024. 

If Donald Trump does decide to run, it's going to be very important that he pick a good VP. I don't think Mike Pence is going to be the VP this time around. He burned a lot of bridges with Trump, the Republicans and the base of the party when he certified the election. President Trump will have to pick someone who is young enough to fill in if the unthinkable happens. 

Will Trump run? I think he wants to. He certainly feels he was cheated out of the election and doesn't want his legacy to end with him getting screwed over. He wants a do over and can you blame him? But again, just because he may want to run now does not mean he will be willing and able to do so once the primaries start in 2023. 

Will I support President Trump if he runs? I can't imagine not doing so. He was the best president in my lifetime and I don't think anyone from the neocon wing of the party can win. And it's not like there are any better choices, only Ron DeSantis is a credible candidate in my view. Cruz might have had a chance but his recent scandals may have sunk him. And as much as I love Rand Paul I can't see him winning the primary. Trump's family members probably could have a chance but it would be insanity on their part to try and run against him. 

I also think it's going to very hard for anyone in the GOP to run against him. Trump has the support of most of the GOP electorate and will probably gain more as time goes on. And if there is one thing that the GOP base is sick of it's people bashing Trump but how else would they run against him? I think there might be a couple of John Kasich types that try and fail to run against him but that's about it. 

But if Donald Trump doesn't run and is still around in 2024? His endorsement is going to be the most sought out one in the GOP race. Trump is the kingmaker right now and he has already shown he is willing to throw his weight around. The people that voted for his impeachment are all likely to be primaried out and if President Trump doesn't want to run he can basically pick the GOP nominee. 

2nd staffer accuses New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment.

 

Andrew Cuomo. Delta News Hub.

A second staffer has accused New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment. Politico. Charlotte Bennett, a 25 year old staffer who started working with Cuomo last March, claimed that Cuomo made "inappropriate" comments to her. They included comments on her personal life and questions if she had ever been with an older man. Bennett claims that Cuomo wanted to sleep with her, but did not allege anything physical happened. Cuomo was also accused of sexual harassment by another staffer who claimed he kissed her without her consent. Cuomo denied making advances to Bennett.

My Comment:

The last time I wrote about this I mentioned that there was likely to be a flood of new accusation as Cuomo's name has been tarnished. Well I guess the floodgates have been opened as there is now a 2nd accusation of sexual harassment. 

However, the 2nd claim is even weaker than the 1st. It's clear that there was no sexual assault in this case and only accusations of unprofessional conduct. In the first case there was at least a kiss without consent, which goes beyond simple harassment, but in this case there isn't even that. And it's another he said she said case without any witnesses to confirm or deny them. 

And even if the accusations are true they are minor to the point of being a joke. It's possible that Cuomo was indeed trying to sleep with his staffer but his comments were ambiguous enough that he might not have been and may have just been making small talk. And it's not like we have seen any evidence that Cuomo actually made any comments in the first place. I don't think it would hold up in a court of law at this point. 

And if the accusations are true is it scandal worthy? If Cuomo was a normal person hitting on a subordinate I think he would get taken to HR, perhaps even fired. I do agree that people shouldn't have to be put into the position that Cuomo supposedly put his staffers in. But as far as political scandals go this one is very minor. 

I also think it's probably well past time that most politicians (and men in general) make use of the Mike Pence rule where you don't spend any time alone with women you are not in a relationship. Cuomo appears to be a sex pest but I also think these accusations are pretty weak. Had they been made against Mike Pence though they would be laughed at as Pence famously stuck to his rule.  

Still, as I said before, these accusations aren't really about sexual harassment. People smelled blood in the water because of Andrew Cuomo's much more serious nursing home scandal. This is less about sexual harassment and more about ensuring that Cuomo's career is over. The left takes sexual harassment seriously to a pathological degree and the mere accusations of misconduct is enough to sink a leftist political candidate like Cuomo. It doesn't matter how weak those accusations are, all that matters is the fact that they have been made and the powers that be can safely wash their hands of Andrew Cuomo. This is just the Democrats signaling that it is now ok to hate Andrew Cuomo. The man's political career is done. 

FDA approves third Coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

 

BBC.

The FDA has approved a third vaccine against the Coronavirus from Johnson & Johnson. BBC. The vaccine is not as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine with it only being 66% in preventing infection. However the vaccine is effective in preventing serious illness in 85% of cases. In trials there were zero deaths to people administered the vaccine and no hospitalizations after 28 days. However, the vaccine seems less effective against other strains of the virus. Johnson & Johnson's vaccine has a couple advantages over the other vaccines in that it only requires one dose to be effective, and does not require cold storage. The vaccine also uses more traditional vaccine technology and is not an mRNA vaccine.

My Comment:

Fairly big vaccine news today. I wasn't sure if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was going to be approved. I had read the reports from South Africa and Brazil where they said the vaccine simply wasn't effective against the strains there, compared to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are effective against the new strains. 

And even in the main studies it's clear that this vaccine isn't anywhere near as effective as the other two vaccines. Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines are 90%+ effective while Johnson & Johnson only got 66% effectiveness in preventing infection. Sure, preventing severe illness was at 85% and you are less likely to die if you get it but it still seems like it's a lot worse then the other two vaccines. 

But the advantages the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has are major. Having it all be in one dose is a huge advantage. It will make it much easier to fully vaccinate people as they won't have to wait around for a 2nd dose. This will also reduce costs dramatically. I know a lot of family members who are frustrated too that they have gotten their first dose and had to wait around for weeks for a 2nd dose and this vaccine would solve that problem. 

Having it not require cold storage helps with the logistical nightmare that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have caused. Those vaccines require very cold temperatures and can spoil easily while the Johnson & Johnson one does not. This means the vaccine will be a lot easier to administer. 

I think another advantage the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has is that it is a more traditional vaccine technology. A lot of people don't trust the experimental nature of the mRNA vaccines and have been hesitant to take them. With Johnson & Johnson being a more traditional vaccine perhaps people will be more willing to take it. On the other hand, you do not have any choice in which vaccine you get to take, it all depends on what is available. 

I personally would like to weigh the three vaccine options as to what makes the most sense for me. As a low risk person in a secondary critical worker role I think I would prefer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as it probably has a lower chance of side effects down the line. The lower effectiveness probably doesn't matter too much as I was at a low risk of severe illness anyways. But that isn't an option right now and I don't think it ever will be.  

As for the virus itself it seems clear that infections are slowing down. The vaccines are a part of that but it's also the case that there just aren't as many people to infect at this point. I have always thought that total cases are a lot larger than what is reported as so many people get the virus without getting symptoms. My guess is that, combined with the vaccines, mean we are close to herd immunity. 

Fishing...

 

No normal blog post today. There doesn't to appear to be any actual news other then the aftermath of the Biden airstrikes and the Jamal Khashoggi thing (which I still don't care about at all). So I figured I would do something a little different and talk about one of my hobbies. 

I've been a fisherman all my life, ever since I was a kid. I always enjoyed catching panfish when I was growing up and my family and I even took a couple trips to Canada for a fly in fishing trips. I have always enjoyed it but in recent years I haven't gone as much. Indeed, I think I only went twice last year, hardly enough to justify the price I paid for my license. 

This year is going to be different. For one thing, my other major outdoor hobby, shooting, is going to be difficult at best or even impossible. I still have quite a bit of ammo at home but not so much that I can go more than once or twice this year. And considering the shelves were bare today when I was looking for ammo at the sporting goods and hardware stores I don't think I will be getting any 9mm or .223 anytime soon. 

This means I needed to find another outdoor hobby and since I still have a ton of fishing stuff and live in one of the best parts of the country for the sport I have decided I am going to significantly increase the time I go fishing. 

The picture above is what I picked up recently. I live in Northeast Wisconsin and we have one of the most productive walleye fisheries in the world and it's about time I started trying to catch some. I usually go for panfish and bass but I've caught a few walleyes in my day and it's time I did so again. Since most of my stuff is for panfish I had to pick up some new crankbaits and larger jigs. 

Later in the year I might try and go for catfish or maybe even gar and bowfin. These aren't fish that I have gone after before and I might like to try a new kind of fishing that I am not used to. It wouldn't cost too much to get the gear for it and it's not like I am spending my money on anything else. 

I also think that I am going to try and learn how to clean fish. I have tried it a few times in the past but never quite got the hang of it and mostly just do catch and release. I am thinking if I catch any "trash" fish, like sheepheads (freshwater drums) that aren't going to make it I will keep them just to practice. Plus I always wanted to try drum simply because so many people disdain them (probably unfairly).

My big disadvantage is that I don't have a boat. Thankfully there are a ton of places up here that are good for shore fishing. I know that the mouth of the Fox River in Green Bay has some great shore fishing and there are all kinds of places near the rivers that feed into Lake Michigan and the Winnebago pool lakes that allow for shore fishing. Plus I know a few people with boats. 

Will this effect my blog at all? Perhaps. The nights I go fishing might be nights that I don't get a full post up. If there is interest and I actually catch anything I might post my catch but that might be it on those days. 

Joe Biden launches air strikes against Iranian militias in Syria.

 

Joe Biden. Politico/Getty.

Joe Biden has launched air strikes against Iranian militias in Syria. Politico. The strikes hit a border control point used by those militias. Fighter jets dropped 500lbs smart bombs on targets near the border of Iraq. The US military carried the strike out alone without help from allies or permission from Syria. The strike is in response to attacks on US interests in Iraq, including the Balad air base where US contractors work on Iraq's small fleet of F-16's. It is unknown how many casualties the strikes caused but they are expected to be low. 

My Comment:

As far as I know this is Joe Biden's first major military operation. It is sure to be controversial and a lot of people on social media are already condemning this airstrike. Very few people want war with Syria or Iran and this incident could in theory cause that. 

Part of that is the media not really covering international issues. I am aware that these Iranian militias have been attacking US interests in Iraq ever since Biden took power. That news has largely been buried by other current events and I think Biden is a victim of his own media domination. Most people aren't aware of these attacks because the media is still obsessed with culture war issues like the January 6th incident. 

Is the strike justified? I don't really think so. It seems pretty disproportionate compared to the minor strikes that have been hitting these bases. Plus I don't know if they have conclusively proven that these militias were the ones responsible for it. I also don't like violating Syria's sovereignty but we have been doing that for a long time now. 

This will probably anger Iran. Biden has been trying to normalize relations with Iran and get ack into the nuclear deal but that might not happen now. Blowing up one of their proxy army bases will not get them in their good graces. It could torpedo Biden's effort to get back into the Iran deal. 

Domestically I don't see this playing well for Biden. Basically nobody wants further wars in the Middle East other than Biden's neocon and neoliberal allies. It's one of the rare things that both Trump supporters and the far left agree on and that is we shouldn't be bombing Syria. Indeed, I think one of the only times I saw widespread criticism of President Trump from his supporters was when he bombed Syria. And at some point Iraq is going to have to be responsible for their own security situation. 

But then again, Biden has a tame media that will praise him no matter what he does. He could bomb France and CNN would go to bat for him. Plus I think the media isn't going to cover this story for very long either. It's too bad because I don't think the people that voted for Biden legitimately voted for more war in the middle east. 

Former aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo claims he sexually harassed her.

 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 

A former aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo is claiming that he sexually harassed her. The Hill. Lindsey Boylan, who is now running for Manhattan borough president, said that Cuomo had made remarks about her appearance and said they should play "strip poker" during a flight. Cuomo had three witnesses that said that nothing happened during those flights. She also said that Cuomo would regularly touched her and had even kissed her without her consent. The accusations are not new but were not detailed by Boylan until now. 

Boylan's post on medium can be found here. 

My Comment:

I'm of two minds on this incident. On the one hand it's very clear that everyone is turning on Andrew Cuomo, including people in his own party. On the other it's also pretty clear that this accusation is very weak. 

Far be it for me to actually question an accusation of sexual harassment but this is hardly proven. Not only did Boylan not provide any witnesses or physical proof of bad behavior Cuomo had three witnesses saying that he didn't do anything. It's not even a he said/she said incident it's a she said/he said +three witnesses. 

That's not enough for me to cancel Andrew Cuomo. It doesn't clear him, not by a longshot, but it does not convict him either. It's clear that Boylan was angry with Cuomo but that doesn't mean she is telling the truth. 

Indeed, this fits the pattern of the media trying to assassinate someone's reputation. We saw the same thing with President Trump and Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh. Very weak accusations of sexual misbehavior that aren't easily proven or disproven by their very nature. It's a very powerful weapon because people hate accusations of sexual misconduct. 

But could they be true? Of course. Cuomo is a rich powerful man with a huge ego. It's very possible he sexually harassed Lindsey Boylan. Plus he's a Democrat who supports woman's rights, a group of people that have a very bad track record of harassing people. I wouldn't be surprised if the incident did happen, even if that I don't think it's right to convict him without evidence. 

What is clear though is that the media and the Democratic Party has totally turned on Andrew Cuomo. The nursing home scandal is a career ender and it's clear that Cuomo pissed off the media and the Democrats when he lied about what happened there. Threatening people in his own party was a huge mistake and I don't blame the Democrats for turning on him. 

But I think it more is about Cuomo not living up to the hype that was built up around him. He was supposed to be a presidential front runner later in his career (2024 maybe?) but he did not live up the legend the media built him out to be. He was supposed to be the man who single handedly ended the Coronavirus in New York but instead he killed grandma in the nursing homes. Not living up the image the media built him up to be was more damaging than anything else because if there is one thing the media hates it's being made a fool out of. 

I think Cuomo is done. The nursing home scandal isn't going away and I am guessing more women will come forward with sexual misconduct accusations of various levels of seriousness and believability. There are already calls for Cuomo to resign, even from his own party. It's possible he can turn things around but I think his political career is done. 

Canada declares China's treatment of the Uighur minority a genocide.

 

Guards outside of a reeducation center. BBC/Reuters.

Canada has declared China's treatment of the Uighur minority a genocide. BBC. The motion passed 266-0 with Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and many members of his cabinet abstaining. Canada has become the 2nd country to call the treatment of Uighurs as genocide after the United States (which occurred under President Trump). China condemned and rejected the motion. Prime Minster Trudeau did not vote for the measure and said that the word "genocide" was a loaded term. China calls the camps they hold the Uighur's reeducation camps but critics call them concentration camps. Critics also claim that the Uighurs have to face atrocities such as forced labor, rape and torture. 

My Comment:

Kind of surprised that Canada actually showed a spine here. Though a few members did not vote, the vast majority did and those that did unanimously supported the resolution. I honestly didn't think Canada had it in them to actually stand up to China.

Of course Justin Trudeau didn't stand up for his country. That doesn't surprise me, the man only makes evil choices. It has nothing to do with what China is doing, it's all about Trudeau not wanting to anger China because they probably own him. 

This is obviously a symbolic gesture. All it will do is anger China but it won't actually change anything in China. Indeed, there is pretty much nothing anyone outside of China can do to prevent them from doing what they want with the Uighurs. But it does show that the Chinese don't have the power to control how other countries react to them. 

More could be done both by Canada and other countries. I think sanctions could do something. Hitting China in the pocketbook might actually do something to alter their behavior. But I doubt that will happen. Everyone else's economy is so tied up with China that they can't really disengage without destroying their own economy. Plus China has corrupted a lot of western politicians, including Joe Biden. 

With all that being said, does what the Chinese are doing count as genocide? I think so. The Uighurs are being forced to abandon their religion, put into camps, and aren't being allowed to practice their culture. Even worse abuses are being reported by activists but I don't know how true they are. But even if the reports of rape and torture are false I still think forced conversions and targeting people because of their ethnic group is pretty obviously geocide. China doesn't want the Uighurs to exist and just because they aren't enacting a final solution to them does not mean that this isn't a genocide. 

But does anyone care about the Uighurs? The one thing most articles don't point out is that the Uighurs are Muslims and have committed several terror attacks. That doesn't justify genocide but it does make them a lot less sympathetic. 

On the other hand, the Uighur's Muslim faith is about the only thing that got them any attention in the first place. China also discriminates against other religious groups, most notably Christians and Falun Gong but you rarely hear about what they are doing to them. Indeed, to the woke left Christians are public enemy #1 and Falun Gong is nothing but a cult. 

Regardless, it is good to see people finally starting to stand up to China. They have had a terrible government even before the Communists took over. They are terrible on human rights, are utterly destroying their environment and are a corrupting and damaging influence on the rest of the world. And the sad thing is that I think they are winning. Even this effort to condemn their actions won't do a damn thing to stop them... 

Italy's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo killed in an attack.

 

UN Peacekeepers at the site of the attack. Reuters. 

Italy's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was killed in an attack in the country along with an Italian body guard and Congolese driver. Reuters. The ambassador, Luca Attanasio was hit in the abdomen during a gunfight. The attackers shot and killed the Congolese driver and then tried to kidnap the ambassador but park rangers arrived and engaged the kidnappers. No one has taken responsibility but Congolese authorities have blamed Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) a Hutu militia that was founded by people responsible for the Rwandan genocide. Ambassador Attanasi was working on a food program. 

My Comment.

Whenever an ambassador is murdered it is a huge deal. Ambassadors are the way to prevent wars and make sure that lines of communication remain open. It's an affront to everyone when an ambassador is killed and it's almost guaranteed to draw a response. The government in Congo will have to do something as Italy is going to be furious that one of their diplomats was killed.

It's unclear how ambassador Attanasio died, at least based on what the article said. It seems as though this was a kidnapping attempt that went bad and that the kidnappers weren't indenting to kill him at first. But when the park rangers showed up Attanasio died in the gunfight. It's unclear if he was killed by the kidnappers or friendly fire but I guess it doesn't matter too much. The kidnappers set this into motion so they are responsible for it. 

I don't know much about the FDLR. They are a militia and they were made up of people of who were responsible for the Rwandan genocide. They are bad people but I didn't know they were murdering an ambassador bad. 

Killing people trying to feed your country seems like a pretty evil act even if there wasn't an ambassador involved. The ambassador was working with a food program that fed children so killing him is an exceptionally evil act. 

I am not sure what the motivation was for this attack. My guess is that it was an attempt at kidnapping for profit. An ambassador would probably netted quite a bit of profit, assuming it could have been collected. 

In practice though it's a bad plan. Most governments don't negotiate with terrorists and even if they did the attackers botched the kidnapping. But had they pulled it off my guess is the kidnappers would have ended up dead in the end. 

Polling suggests that if President Trump formed a third party much of the GOP base would follow him.

 

President Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell. USA Today.

A new poll suggests that if President Trump formed a third party much of the GOP base would follow him, showing his popularity among Republican voters. USA Today. GOP voters were asked if they would leave the party if President Trump formed a third party and by a 46-27% margin said they would with the rest being undecided. They also express more loyalty to President Trump then to the party at a 54-34% margin. 80% also said that they would not support representatives who voted to impeach President Trump and believed that the Senators that voted to convict did so for political reasons, not because they actually thought President Trump did anything wrong. 59% of GOP voters said they wanted President Trump to run again while 75% would support him if he did run. On Joe Bide, 73% of GOP voters do not believe he was elected legitimately. 

My Comment:

I don't know if I trust the numbers coming from the USA Today as they seem extremely low to me. I would have assumed that the number of GOP voters that would follow President Trump out of the party to be around 95% or higher. Then again, it is a national media poll and I didn't see their sampling or methodology. 

Regardless, even if the poll numbers are a bit off it does show that President Trump maintains the loyalty of much of the GOP base. Which makes sense. Unlike a lot of politicians President Trump largely kept his promises. He kept us out of new wars, destroyed ISIS and made a major impact on immigration. His brand of populism is extremely popular as well and if the Republican Party was fully on board with it, it probably would have done better in 2020. 

I think part of his popularity too is the fact that he isn't on social media anymore. Without his occasional dumb statements on Twitter the media has run out of things to talk about with him. Yes they are still focusing on January 6th, but I don't think anyone outside of the beltway even cares about it, or if they do, are only sad that it failed. Ironically, muzzling Trump might have made him an even bigger threat to the establishment. 

I do think this poll shows that the fools in congress that opposed President Trump and supported impeachment made a huge mistake. I always thought that was political suicide to attack a President that was extremely popular among his party. Not only did it show that they didn't care about what their base wanted, it showed that their loyalty was to D.C., not the party. 

The big question now is what President Trump decides to do. I honestly don't think he will form a third party. Why would he? All he has to do is run for President again and he will win the nomination. And even if he doesn't want to run he can ensure that his political opponents fail. I am guessing he will endorse primary challengers to the GOP senators and representatives that voted against him and I am guessing they will lose. Why start a new party if you can be the kingmaker of the Republicans? 

But does President Trump even want to run in 2024? I have no idea. Part of me says he will want to run just for the sake of revenge against the people that betrayed him. On the other hand he will be fairly old at that point and even then he would probably want to retire at some point. And why would anyone ever want to put himself through what the media did to him? 

As for Joe Biden it's clear that the media propaganda for him isn't working. Nobody on the right thinks the election was legitimate and even the few that do think he is a terrible president. The problem for the media is that they have blown away all of their credibility and nobody on the right is listening anymore. 

Armed citizens stop a shooting at a New Orleans gun store/shooting range.

 

Police and ATF at the site of the shooting. AP. 

Armed citizens stopped a shooting at a New Orleans gun store and shooting range. Fox News. The shooting left two people wounded and three people dead, including the suspect. Police say the suspect shot and killed the first two victims and then was engaged and killed by multiple people. It is unclear if the people who stopped the shooter were employees of the gun store or customers. 

Local sources say that the shootout began when a clerk confronted the gunman for having a loaded and unholstered pistol outside of the gun range, which is against the rules of most gun stores and ranges. The local source, WDSU, also claims that the two shooters that engaged the suspect were customers at the range and were the ones wounded by the attacker. 

My Comment:

The way certain news agencies are framing this is pretty ridiculous. Most headlines have no mention that this shooter was put down by armed citizens and they are trying to paint this as a mass shooting instead of a prevented mass shooting. Indeed, that's all I heard about the case before I got home and could actually read an article. Fox News had it right, this was a case where Good Samaritans took down a criminal.

I also think that this was not a planned act. It seems like the shooter was a customer with a bad attitude who reacted poorly when confronted after he had his gun out of his holster while loaded. My guess is he was offended by that, got angry and then fired. 

The employees were right to confront the shooter though, having your gun out, loaded and unholstered is against the rules at pretty much any gun range, gun store or even a place where they sell ammo. Doing so is essentially declaring that you are there to rob the place and will be interpreted as such. Even if that isn't what the suspect had planned it was how it was going to be interpreted and I can't fault the employees for calling him out on that. 

It almost makes me wonder if this was some kind of suicide by combat attempt. Any reasonable person would think that an unholstered gun at a firing range outside of the actual range itself is a robbery attempt and by pulling his gun the suspect must have known he was in danger of being shot. 

Unfortunately it seems that the employees that got shot weren't prepared as they should have been. I am guessing they were armed and they probably should have had their guns out the second they saw this guy and one of them should have been calling the cops. It's possible it happened to fast and I don't want to second guess the dead too much. 

The good news is that the other people at this gun store were able to stop this guy. I don't know if he was a threat to anyone else in the store but since he had already killed two people I suspect he was. It's very possible he could have killed more people, either employees or customers or the cops when they came to arrest him. Thankfully they were able to put this person down and I hope they make a speedy recovery. 

If there is a lesson to be learned here it's the following: Keep your gun cased when you go to the gun range until you are ready to use it. And always be aware of your surroundings, you never know what kind of idiot will show up. That's especially true when firearms are involved. 

Coronavirus cases and deaths are declining in the United States.

 

Syringes loaded with the Moderna vaccine. NBC News/AFP.

The average number of Coronavirus cases and deaths are declining in the United States. NBC News. New daily cases fell below 100,000 for the first time this year. In the past 14 days the virus has declined in all 50 states and US territories. 10 states and Puerto Rico saw cases decline between 10 and 25 percent and 40 states plus DC and other US territories fell by more than 25 percent. California, which had a massive outbreak, saw a 48 percent drop. Despite the encouraging news officials are worried that new strains will cause a 4th wave of infections. 

My Comment:

This reduction in Coronavirus cases is not just a US phenomenon, cases are down globally. The United States is one of the leaders but they are far from alone. Most counties are seeing a major drop in cases. The question is why.

The most obvious is the fact that the vaccine is being rolled out at various rates of success. Some countries, like Israel are doing a very good job which would explain why they are having less cases. Other countries have not been anywhere near as effective, such as Canada. In the United States it's on a state by state basis but even in states where the rollout has been terrible has seen a decline in cases. 

I don't think it is the weather though either. Supposedly the weather was supposed to have a major effect with cases being much worse in winter than in Summer but I doubt that is the case. We had the 2nd wave in Summer and it seems too early for it to be the effect of Spring. Indeed, most of the United States is in a massive cold snap right now so it's not like the effects of the weather would have kicked in yet. 

I think that the most obvious solution is that there aren't that many people left who have been exposed to the virus. There are 27 million total cases in the United States and that number is probably massively low. Given that a lot of people catch the virus and either have no symptoms or minor symptoms and never get tested it means that it's probably double or even triple that number of cases. That, plus the fact that people are getting vaccinated means that there are less people that can be infected. It does seem that people can be infected again but those people usually have mild cases.

Unlike the experts I am not too concerned with the threat of new strains. The vaccines seem effective in fighting those viruses or at least making sure they don't spread as well or end with severe cases. And usually when a virus mutates to spread more easily it correlates with a lower case fatality rate.  Eventually these new strains will die out as well. 

I also think that the lockdowns and other restrictions don't really matter that much. States with strict lockdowns like California and New York had bad breakouts while states that didn't lockdown as hard, like South Dakota, didn't. Indeed, I don't know if these restrictions do much of anything at all. 

I do hope that this trend continues and that the virus will be a bad memory by the end of the year. I think fears of a 4th wave are overblown and that the virus will continue to decline despite the fear of new strains. I know that I am ready to go back to a normal life and ditch the facemasks. 

Ebola virus returns to Africa, raising concerns about new outbreak.

 

A child receives a vaccine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reuters.

The Ebola virus has returned to Africa with outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea. NBC News. The WHO has confirmed that there are new cases of the disease in the city of Butembo in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That city was the epicenter of the 2nd largest Ebola outbreak in history, which was declared over last June. Cases were also found in the southern part of Guinea, which was one of the countries hit hardest by the worst Ebola outbreak in history back in 2014. Ebola is a much deadlier disease then the Coronavirus with a case fatality rate averaging 50%, but does not spread easily, requiring contact with infected blood or bodily fluids. 

My Comment:

Looks like Ebola is back in Africa. While the world is dealing with the Coronavirus, another major viral outbreak could be a major problem for Africa. They might not get the help they need to fight back against the virus. 

I would say that Ebola is a much bigger threat to these countries then the Coronavirus is. Unlike the Coronavirus, Ebola kills healthy young people. Given the demographics of Africa they are largely immune to the worst effects of the Coronavirus but they can not say the same for the Ebola virus. 

It's pretty clear that the World Health Organization screwed up when they declared the outbreak over. The article said that this isn't a new outbreak, just a continuation of the old one. How it managed to spread to Guinea is unclear, but I guess it only takes one person. Both outbreaks are related with the same virus. 

I don't know if there will be a larger outbreak. I think that the chances of it happening were bad in the first place but now with Coronavirus restrictions it seems very unlikely. Most flights are restricted and everyone is already being tested for sickness. Someone with Ebola would either have to be in the early stages of the disease or be very lucky to spread the virus outside of Africa. I doubt we will see the small minor outbreaks we saw in the 2014 outbreak. 

There is more good news. A vaccine has been developed to fight the Ebola virus and it is effective against this strain of Ebolavirus. That means that if people can be vaccinated they will be protected from the virus and it will have a difficult time spreading. It will also protect the front line health workers that were so devastated during the 2014 outbreak.  

The main problem is logistics. The instability of the Democratic Republic of Congo made fighting the latest outbreak very difficult and it is not like the situation is any better now. They had to deal with various militias threatening people and the virus was able to spread longer then it should have. Guinea is comparatively calm but it's still Africa, getting the people vaccine and treatments may be difficult. 

But the biggest problem is the Coronavirus. I don't see much aid flowing into these countries and the world's attention will be focused on the Coronavirus. That makes sense because even a widespread Ebola outbreak won't be as deadly as the Coronavirus due to how easy the virus spreads and how poorly Ebola does. But even if it makes sense it's going to push an already strained medical system in Africa to the brink if the virus cannot be brought under control. 

GOP senators Romney and Cotton propose minimum wage hike.

 

Senator Mitt Romney. NBC News/Getty.

Senators Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton have proposed a minimum wage hike in addition to immigration enforcement. NBC News. Raising the minimum wage has been a major priority for the Democratic Party but bills have stalled in congress with Republican opposition a major factor why. Bernie Sanders bill for a $15 an hour wage would not pass a Republican filibuster while being unlikely to be approved constitutionally under budget reconciliation. Romney and Cotton's bill has not been revealed but it would tie minimum wage to inflation while making it illegal to hire illegal immigrants. 

My Comment:

I've got mixed feelings about this one. For one thing I don't trust Mitt Romney at all. As far as I am concerned he is a Republican in name only and not someone that has anyone's interests in mind but his own. He doesn't care at all about raising the minimum wage or blocking illegal immigrants and he cares everything about staying in power. 

Indeed, I feel this is probably a cynical attempt to position Mitt Romney for a 2024 presidential run, which would be doomed to failure even if President Trump decides not to run. Romney failed miserably back in 2012 largely because he had the typical neocon policies which were not popular back then and are toxic today. I see this effort to raise minimum wage as an attempt to steal President Trump's platform of economic populism and immigration enforcement. 

But there are things that I like about this. For one it seems like it's an honest effort at compromise. In the past instead of just having Democrats force everything they want through congress, daring the Supreme Court to do something about it, there was a thing called compromise where both sides got something they wanted. This seems like an easy case for that. The Democrats absolutely demand a higher minimum wage and the Republican base is determined to have more restrictions on illegal immigration so it should be a win win. 

I also think that the minimum wage has been stagnant for too long. I think trying to raise it to $15 an hour is insane and would cost millions of jobs and do massive economic damage to red states but I also think that $7.25 is really too low. Tying the wage to inflation would be a good compromise position and I really never understood why the Democrats insisted on $10 or $15 instead of settling at $8 or $9 and then working from there. 

Will the bill pass? Almost certainly not. I can't imagine enough Democrats going along with the immigration restrictions to go for this and even if they didn't care about that they are in full revenge mode and won't work with Republicans on anything, even if it gives them something they want. 

Plus fixing the minimum wage takes away one of the Democrats major issues. If they actually did something about the minimum wage then they wouldn't be able to use the issue as a campaign issue and given how popular it is, it could cost them seats in 2022. They care more about staying in power than anything else. 

As for the Republicans there is a decent chance they won't go along with it either. Part of it is because Romney is toxic but it's mostly because many in the GOP really don't want to see any raise to the minimum wage. Though I agree that $15 is too much I also think that not raising the wage at all is just as dumb. 

Free speech social media platform Parler is back online.

 

A screenshot of Parler before it returned. Reuters. 

The free speech social media platform Parler is now back online. Reuters. Parler was kicked off of Amazon's services after the January 6th protests due to claims they didn't do enough to stop violent posts. Parler was unable to return until now and now claims that it is now independent from big tech. Parler is back online for most users and will open up new registrations in a week. Parler's old posts, videos and pictures did not survive the transfer. Parler replaced their CEO John Matze due to the site being taken down with Mark Meckler taking his place. 

My Comment:

As you might be aware I have an account on Parler. I'm @Politicswarblog on there, just like I am on Twitter and Gab. If you are on there feel free to follow but just be aware that all my old posts there are gone. Though Parler wasn't my main social media site it was a decent source of views for this blog and I am glad to see it back.

That being said, I am not too confident with the leadership of Parler. Unlike Gab, they did not harden themselves against big tech. There was absolutely no reason to have the site hosted on Amazon given the obvious political bias at the company. Leftists are just as furious about Gab as they are about Parler but Gab was able to survive and even thrive while Parler lost a month of user growth and much of the confidence their userbase had. 

Indeed, I think Gab probably won out as the leading Twitter alternative. After all they have gotten the biggest prize of them all, President Donald Trump. Though Trump hasn't made many posts he has put a few posts up which means that if you want to see his posts you pretty much have to go with Gab. 

I do think that John Matze deserved to get fired. Amazon's actions may have been deplorable but they were also predictable. He also failed to protect his users data and it damaged the credibility of the company. Meckler is going to have an uphill battle now. 

Still, I think that having more than one alternative to Twitter is a good idea. Twitter's moderation is out of control and they will ban you for just about anything. Parler also has the advantage of not having as many actual out and out racists as Gab has. Parler is pretty mild in comparison. It's good to have multiple choices. 

As for Parler itself it appears to be working for me. I will go back to cross posting everything I post on Twitter on Parler, just like I do on Gab. My account there is not huge but it was growing fairly fast before Amazon nuked it. I hope that my account there continues to grow in order to replace some of the followers I lost on Twitter. 

Joe Biden calls for draconian gun laws on anniversary of the Parkland shooting.

 

Joe Biden. BBC/EPA.

Joe Biden has called for draconian gun laws including universal background checks, a so called "assault weapon" ban and magazine limits on the anniversary of the Parkland shooting. BBC. Biden also called for an end of immunity for gun manufactures, a move that would utterly destroy the industry. Nancy Pelosi, in a separate statement, said she was reviving the universal background check bill that failed during the Trump administration. 

My Comment:

The real trick here is to figure out of Biden and Pelosi are serious. They made the same kind of noise back during the Obama administration but absolutely nothing happened. Indeed, we actually got some of rights back under Obama, unlike under President Trump where we lost bump stocks for no reason. 

My guess is that Biden knows that this effort has little chance of passing. Most of congress understands that passing a gun control law now is an act of utter lunacy given that 2020 was the best argument against gun control ever made. Millions of new people are now gun owners, including many people on the left. Background checks, which are a decent but not perfect indicator of gun sales, have been setting records every month for about a year now, coinciding with the Coronavirus and the Black Lives Matter riots. 

I also know that when a party has control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency they really only have time for one major issue. For Obama it was Obamacare and for Trump it was the Trump tax cuts. For Biden it's almost certainly going to have to be Coronavirus response and recovery. There just isn't time for anything else and to ignore it to focus on gun control, which nobody wants, would certainly ensure that the Democrats would lose in 2022 (assuming they don't rig the election. Again). People are already furious that the Democrats focused on impeaching Trump again (for no reason. Again) instead of handing out those $2000 checks and will be even angrier if they go after guns instead of Covid relief.  

I think that Biden probably understands what Obama did too. Any push on gun control would almost certainly lead to violence. The last gun control push obviously did as Ruby Ridge, Waco and the OKC bombing showed. And that was during the 1990's, a much less polarized time. Given that the half of the country that owns the vast majority of firearms already believes that the election was stolen, it wouldn't take much to start a 2nd American Civil War if Biden is dumb enough to push this. 

That alone makes me think that this won't happen. Biden may be senile but he and his handlers aren't that stupid. They aren't going to make an actual push because they know what would happen if they did. Biden doesn't want to be known as the President who incited a 2nd civil war, especially when he surly knows that his side would likely lose such a conflict. 

That doesn't mean that gun owners should laugh this off though. Now is the time to send a message to your member of congress and your senators. They need to know that if they do this it has a major chance of destroying pretty much everything. Doing so would probably remind vulnerable Democrats and Rino's that at the very least they would be risking their seats, if not more. And don't forget your state and local representatives as well! You can find contact information for all of your elected officials here. 

I don't think people should rely on the Supreme Court bailing them out either. In theory the court has a 6-3 split but in reality it's a 5-4 as Chief Justice Roberts is a coward and fool who cares way more about how the court looks as opposed to actually upholding the constitution. He didn't do a damn thing to protect President Trump from the impeachment witch hunt and has prevented the court from hearing other gun rights cases. If this nonsense passes we can't rely on the court to do anything about it. 

I also think it's time to revive the 2nd amendment sanctuary plan. There are many counties, cities and some states that have already said they will not enforce any more gun control laws and some have gone as far to say that if the feds try it the feds will get arrested and charged. That is something we need more of and I think I will be contacting my local officials to demand they do so. 

What happens if Biden goes through with this and gets his damn "assault weapon" ban, magazine ban and all the other crap he is suggesting here? Well, millions of people will become felons overnight and the new gun laws will become the most widely ignored laws in the world, right up there with Wisconsin's obsolete law on adultery. 

If Biden is lucky that would be the end of it until he invariably loses in 2022. But in this political climate? I think a lot of gun owners would understand that they have nothing left to lose at this point and if they are going to go to prison anyways they might as well rebel. That's not something I am calling for, for now, but it is probably going to happen if an assault weapons ban happens. 

Finally, I have to admire the utter hypocrisy of Biden using the Parkland shooting as a political talking point. It was the Obama administration that was solely to blame for that attack. Nikolas Cruz was able to purchase his firearm because he was diverted from the criminal justice system because of Obama's school policies. It was also Obama's FBI that ignored warnings about Cruz. Had the Obama admin had a sane policy on schools Cruz would be in prison, all those kids would still be alive and nobody would have ever heard of David Hogg. Biden has the blood of those kids on his hands so it's utterly disgusting he's trying to use the shooting as a political talking point.  

News media turns on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after evidence of a coverup regarding Coronavirus deaths is found

 

Andrew Cuomo. Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is in hot water after new allegations of a coverup of the state's nursing home deaths have been found. New York Times. Cuomo received fawning coverage and praise from the news media and the Democrats for his handling of the pandemic but new information has come to light that suggests he lied about the deaths in nursing homes due to fear of a federal investigation. An aide for Cuomo, Mellissa DeRosa said that they were not sure if they were going to cooperate with a possible federal investigation or with the state legislators demands for more information. Democrats have since accused Cuomo of hiding the number of deaths in nursing homes. Bipartisan outrage from both the Democrats and Republicans has been fierce with Cuomo facing losing his emergency powers and even being called on to resign. 

My Comment:

I don't usually use The New York Times as a source not only because they are biased but because they are usually locked behind a paywall. This article was not (perhaps because I am using a different computer?) and I think that the fact that it was the New York Times reporting this is significant. 

As you may remember Cuomo received fawning coverage from the news media during the earlier days of the pandemic. While they were ripping into Trump for making decent decisions Cuomo was getting people in nursing homes killed. The media, however, was making it seem like New York had a good handle on the virus and that if Cuomo was in charge nationally we might have avoided the virus. 

The fact that the media has turned on Cuomo is the big news here. Many people thought of him as a 2024 front runner and it looked like he had a long political career ahead of him. That seems to be over now as it will be lucky if he survives this scandal. 

Why the change? I just don't think the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) wanted him to be an albatross around their necks anymore. Though Cuomo has a higher approval rating than New York City Mayor Bill De Blassio, he is slipping in popularity. And his actions are pretty much impossible to defend. 

The decision to house sick Coronavirus patients in nursing homes was one of the most unimaginable "mistakes" we have seen during this pandemic. It is such a violation of common sense that it beggars belief to the point where you wonder if Cuomo and the other Democratic governors who did it were trying to get people killed. There was no excuse for doing it and it's not something that can be defended.   

Covering it up afterwards was even worse. Had Cuomo just came clean and admitted that deaths in nursing homes were his fault he would have looked criminally incompetent. But now he looks incompetently criminal and there is a real chance he could be forced out of office. He did it in a way that not only managed to anger Republicans, he enraged his own party by lying to them as well. It was a terrible political move. 

I think Cuomo's political career is done and that we won't be seeing much of him after his term ends. I don't see how he survives this scandal, the families of the dead are furious, his own party is cutting him loose and anyone that runs against him will have a built in advantage of facing a guy that screwed over his own constituents and got them killed. 

Still, it's pretty frustrating that the media only decided to throw Cuomo under the bus now in 2021. It was pretty clear last summer that the guy was lying through his teeth and that he shouldn't be governor anymore but if the media doesn't report something then it basically doesn't exist. To them it was worth it to prop up Cuomo if it meant making President Trump look good on the issue. As far as I am concerned the news media is an accomplice here. 

Major ISIS terror plot broken up in Europe.

 

A police officer takes evidence in the raid. AFP.

A major terror plot was broken up in Europe as 14 were arrested on bombmaking and weapons charges in Denmark and Germany. Euronews. The attackers appear to have been motivated by radical Islam as an ISIS flag was found along with their weapons and explosives. The suspects had collected several firearms and had 10 kilos (22 pounds) of black powder along with other explosive chemicals. 13 of the suspects were arrested in Denmark while 1 more was arrested in Germany. Their target was unknown and very few details of the plot have been released. 

My Comment:

Looks like a fairly major terror plot was broken up in Europe. It's unclear how far along these ISIS sympathizers were in their plot but it seems clear that one of them screwed up and got them all arrested. Thankfully that means that the plot was foiled and these people will likely go away for a long time. 

Had they been able to pull this off it could have been a very major attack. The presence of both firearms and explosives, along with quite a few people to use both, means they may have been trying to pull off a Paris-style attack and we all know how bad that one was. That kind of combined attack puts enormous pressure on police and are very hard to defend against.

The obvious problem with those kinds of large scale attacks is that they require absolute secrecy to pull off and the more complex a plan is the more chances you have to be exposed. Either someone talked to the police, the suspects were already under surveillance or their arms/explosive dealer was a cop. That blew up the whole plot.

This was always al-Qaeda's problem. They would plan huge 9/11 style attacks and so often they were broken up. ISIS used to have a lot more simple plots where one guy did as much damage as possible with only limited support from their core organization. Those plots are a lot harder to disrupt and can end with similar casualties. Thankfully, ISIS seems to think that bigger attacks are better and it has been their downfall. 

I guess I shouldn't claim for a fact that these people were actually members of ISIS. Just because they had the ISIS black flag doesn't mean they were getting support of the organization, even if they were sympathizers. My general feeling is that ISIS as an organization is mostly done and they aren't able to finance attacks this large. My guess is that this was a domestic organization without much outside help.

Islamic terrorism is obviously still a major threat, both here in the United States and overseas but the media coverage is nowhere near it once was. ISIS being defeated on the battlefield has a lot to do with it, but it doesn't help that the media is distracted by other things. 

I do now expect that Islamic terrorism is going to make a comeback. With Biden in the White House I fully expect him to return to the failed policies of Bush and Obama that led to a lot of suffering and caused a huge expansion in Islamic terrorism. I wouldn't be surprised if we return to the levels of violence we saw in the lead up to the election of President Donald Trump due to the awful foreign policy of Biden. I just know that Biden is going to do stupid things like overthrow a middle east government and funding "rebels" who are either going to throw down their weapons for ISIS or other terror groups to pick up or are terrorists themselves... 

I'm back!

 

Futurama. 

As you are almost certainly aware, I have been gone for about a week now. My computer had an issue with its cooling fan and I had to take it in for repairs. Since I didn't have a backup computer I wasn't able to post and was almost silent on social media, despite a lot going on in the world. 

Though my laptop hasn't been fixed I did decide to buy a new one while I am waiting for the part to arrive. Just a cheapo HP windows machine. My other laptop is a higher end gaming PC which I never should have been using as a daily computer regardless. I will get my other laptop back soon and it will return to it's proper role as a gaming pc and not a web browser. 

This was probably the longest time I have gone without making a blog post since I made this blog. It's funny though, my blog was still getting hits while I was gone, perhaps people wondering where I was? Still, five days is a long time to go without a blog post so it's good to be back. 

I will probably have a normal post up tonight, either talking about current events or about things I missed earlier in the week. Getting back into the swing of things might take me a bit and I still do have a bit of setup to do with my new computer but going this long without a real post was not acceptable to me. 

I do have to say that the last week or so has been crap. Outside of my computer issues and the fact that I couldn't blog, I also had to deal with Wisconsin in February. One of my cars died and I will have to replace the battery and it's just been terrible outside due to the extreme cold. And it's isn't quite done yet. 

Thankfully, I had enough cash to take care of all these problems. I never spent a dime of the stimulus money I was given so that will pay for all these unexpected expenses. I guess it's good that I am stimulating the economy a bit! 

Editor's Note: Computer issues...

 Posting might be light for the next couple of days. My laptop is having issues. The cooling fan seems to be broken and is making a horrible grinding noise. It's functional yet (it's a gaming laptop so it has multiple fans to keep the temps low) but the noise is so annoying I can't imagine trying to write for an extended period of time with it doing this. Plus I want to minimize the threat of overheating my laptop, even if the threat is low. I will have to take it in for repairs (I'm terrible at anything involving repairs) so it will be until at least Monday night, probably longer, before I will have a normal post up. 

I'm probably going to buy a 2nd computer, most likely a chromebook or other low end PC. Doing so would reduce the stress on my main computer and give me a backup for situations like this. Though I could probably make a blog post via my phone the very idea is insane to me, I hate phones and tablets for doing actual work. 

Turkey blames the United States for the 2016 failed coup against Tayyip Erdogan.

 

File photo of Turkey's interior minster Suleyman Soylu. Reuters.

A Turkish minster has blamed the United States of being responsible for the 2016 coup against Tayyip Erdogan. Reuters. Turkey's interior minster Suleyman Soylu said that the United States managed the coup. Erdogan has long blamed the coup on Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who is now based in the United States. The State Department denied the claims. Ties between Turkey and the United States have been frayed after the United States sanctioned Turkey for buying Russian missiles. 

My Comment:

I'm not sure what to think about this one. On the one hand Turkey is a dictatorship and have pretty much zero credibility. Many people think that Erdogan staged the coup himself just to get rid of his enemies and even if he didn't the tendency he has to blame Gulen for everything that goes wrong in his country makes me think he has zero credibility. 

On the other hand the United States has overthrown many a government in the past and getting rid of Erdogan might have been a goal at some point. At the very least they are providing sanctuary for Fethullah Gulen, who is hated by Erdogan. I don't think he actually had all that much to do with the coup but we still let him live here.

That being said, overthrowing a NATO ally seems like a little much even for the Obama Administration, who was still in charge at that point. Doing it would be a total betrayal of an ally. It would also put hundreds of US troops at risk and jeopardize the then relevant operations in Iraq and Syria. 

We would also gain almost nothing. There is no guarantee that coup plotters would be any better than what they replaced and the instability would damage our efforts in the region. Erdogan is a terrible ruler but part of the reason he is so bad is due to paranoia due to this coup attempt. I just can't see the US wanting any of that. 

I also don't understand why Turkey would be making this claim. The Biden administration is in theory more open to Erdogan then Trump was and this is the kind of thing that might piss Biden off. After all he was VP when this went down and Turkey basically accused him of an act of war. 

How is that supposed to cool relations between the United States and Turkey? It will have the exact opposite effect. Indeed, it might anger Biden enough that he might actually go along with what President Trump was doing. If their goal was for better relations with America then they failed miserably. 

All that being said, I do kind of wish the coup had succeeded. Getting rid of Erdogan would be a good thing even if we aren't sure what would replace him. Civil rights in Turkey have faded after the coup and Erdogan himself seems to have come a bit unhinged. It would be better for everyone if he was gone but it doesn't look like he is going anywhere. 

China is attempting to make its men more "manly".

 

Chinese troops exercise in the snow. BBC.

China has caused internal controversy due to a plan to make its men more "manly". BBC. The Chinese government has been critical of their celebrities with many of them being fresh face younger men and not sports icons or soldiers. The government says that this is leading to "feminization" of men. Many Chinese are raised by their mothers and grandmothers and do not have strong role models. In an effort to promote better role models, China will promote soccer and other sports. 

My Comment:

The backlash against this is pretty predictable but I figured it would be from western sources. The BBC article did quote a bunch of supposedly Chinese people that are upset with this as well. You can never quite trust western media when it comes to China or Russia, so it's possible this is more popular than it seems. But having said that I am guessing that more than a few Chinese people are upset about it. 

It's not like this is unprecedented though. Russia has a similar program and in the past western countries did as well. Encouraging people to be in good shape and have good role models is a pretty universal program that only became controversial in the past few years. 

Will China's efforts succeed? I don't know. It seems like every country has problems with obesity and soft men so if promoting soccer works it would be a surprise. But I do have to say that I think China has at least identified a problem. Most other countries don't seem to want to admit the problem exists so China has a leg up on everyone else. 

It also shows me that China is probably preparing for war, probably to retake Taiwan. If they go to war they will need strong young men to invade and right now they don't seem to have that right now. They have an obesity problem and despite their surplus of young men they might not have enough of them to actually take Taiwan (not like that is likely in the first place).

I would think that such a program would help in America as well but I can't ever see the Democrats going along with it. They are so woke right now that they honestly don't consider masculinity to be a good thing and any proposal in this direction would be laughed down a best and might even draw criminal charges for whoever proposed it (as it would be considered hate speech). Given that many of our younger boys are not even fit to join the military that is going to put us at a disadvantage if China's program is successful. 

The sad thing is that to many on the left, the idea that there is a value in masculinity is completely forbidden. Indeed, something as simple as being physically fit is seen as suspicious on the left as it's something the alt-right advocates. 

As evil as China is I do have to admire them a little bit. They seem to both have a plan to win and are willing to put that plan into place. Our leadership here in America is so confused and distracted by nonsense that if it does come to a war with China I don't think we will win, even though we have the military advantage for now. 

Biden will end military support for war in Yemen.

 

Houses destroyed in an airstrike in Yemen. MSNBC/Reuters. 

Joe Biden will end military support for the war in Yemen. MSNBC. The US has not played a direct role in the war but has supported Yemen's government and their ally, Saudi Arabia in their efforts to defeat Iran's proxy army, the Houthis. The support will end and Biden will also cancel relevant arms sales, most notably precision guided weapons. Biden announced new diplomatic efforts to end the fighting. However, actions will still be taken against al-Qaeda's affiliate in the region, AQAP. 

My Comment:

Always trust in Democrats to make a bad situation worse. This move is going to have major consequences in the region and could even lead to a larger war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. It's a terrible decision and one that the country will likely regret. 

What the article fails to mention is how big of a threat the Houthi rebels actually are to Saudi Arabia. They are not just some militia, they have been supplied by Iran with extremely modern weapons. After all, what rebel group do you know of that regularly launches ballistic missiles? They have launched massive drone strikes against Saudi Arabia and done a lot of damage. 

Stopping the sale of guided missiles is just asinine. The best case scenario is that the Saudis now have to rely on "dumb" munitions instead. This will, of course, lead to many more civilian casualties as instead of surgically striking a single house they will likely be destroying an entire block with regular bombs. More likely though they will buy from foreign sources like Russia, which means American companies lose out on money.

About the only good thing in this announcement is that we are still going to target AQAP. That particular terror group is one of the more powerful and dangerous ones and they have funded major terror attacks abroad, most notably the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France. Letting them off the hook would be an act of insanity given how big of a threat they are. 

I do worry that this, along with Biden's reversal of the general peace movement in the Middle East will lead to war. After all, we have essentially abandoned the Saudis to their fate here. Sure, we shouldn't be fighting their wars for them but they are an ally against Iran and we appear to be cutting them loose. Our support was limited in the first place and was mostly a message to the Saudis saying "yep, we are on your side against the Iranians". And now that is gone.

With the Saudi's and other gulf states feeling isolated and it being fairly obvious that Biden will be making overtures to Iran it seems likely that the new Israeli-Arab alliance could be tested soon. The Trump administration was doing a good job getting all of these players together to face the Iranian threat. I would not be surprised at all if there is a shooting war over Iran's nuclear program and general hostility. 

What would have been my policy on Yemen? Status quo ante. No need to deploy combat troops or directly support the Saudis but we certainly could sell them arms and give them intel. Doing so keeps them happy, makes Iran mad and keeps anyone from doing anything too stupid. With that restraint out of the way I fear that Saudi Arabia might end up doing something drastic. 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has proposed fining big tech companies for censoring political candidates.

 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. State of Florida.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has proposed fining big tech companies for censoring political candidates. The New York Post. DeSantis cited the censorship of President Trump, the removal of Twitter alternative Parler and the killing of the Hunter Biden story. DeSantis proposed a fine of $100,000 a day for tech companies that ban a political candidate or use algorithms to favor one candidate over another. He would also force tech companies to allow people to opt out of big tech algorithms which are seen to be biased against conservatives. 

My Comment:

I have been saying that one of the biggest mistakes the GOP made during the early days of the Trump Presidency is not moving against big tech. They were in the position that the Democrats are in now where they had control of the Presidency and both houses of Congress but they did nothing. Their main goal was the tax cuts which didn't help them in the long run when compared to the obvious and massive damage tech bias has caused. 

And it wasn't just President Trump who was hurt with this. Laura Loomer, who is admittedly a kook, was banned from all of social media outside of Gab despite the fact that she was running for Congress in Florida. She was a long shot candidate in the first place but regardless, she may have won if the tech companies had allowed her the same rights as the Democrat she was running against. 

This effort is long overdue. It's very clear that the tech companies are in the bag of the Democrats. They are doing everything in their power to ban anyone to the right of AOC from the halls of power forever. And they are waging war on the very idea of truth itself. If you post anything that goes against their agenda you can get banned, not just from the social media sites, but from banking, employment and perhaps even arrested. You can't even suggest now that the election was suspicious as hell and that the media and government blew the capital counter-coup completely out of proportion without risking getting banned. Hell, I am at risk of having my blog banned just for pointing that out. 

What DeSantis plans to do would curtail a lot of that. If people like President Trump and Laura Loomer were able to reach the voters both of them would be in power right now. If people could actually use search engines without having to deal with the biased algorithms they could form opinions based on facts, not propaganda. If people could opt out of all the terrible things big tech does the world would be a better place. 

The problem is that the tech companies could fight back. They have already shown that they have more power than the government and they could do what they are threatening to do to Australia. There the Australian government is threatening to make Google and Facebook pay for news which means they are threatening to leave the country. Could they do the same thing to Florida? If they do I honestly think that it would be the best thing to happen to Florida. 

As for Ron DeSantis I have to say that I am impressed with him. He has been a good governor for Florida and has handled his state's Coronavirus crisis very well. If he wants to run for President in 2024 and President Trump doesn't I could very easily see myself voting for him. He's the direction that the GOP has to turn to. He seems to realize that if the GOP doesn't fight back they are doomed.