Assassination attempt via drone on Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro fails.

President Nicholas Maduro. NPR/AFP/Getty

An assassination attempt on Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro has failed as the drone used in the attack missed its target. NPR. Two drones were supposedly used in the attack and seven soldiers were injured during the event where Maduro was addressing the economy. Video taken shows Maduro reacting to the drones and hundreds of soldiers breaking parade formation. Maduro blamed the attack on Columbia, the United States and far right factions in Venezuela. Columbia called the accusations "absurd". A little known group called "National Movement of Soldiers in T-shirts" took credit for the attack and said they will attempt to assassinate Maduro again. 

#URGENTE #VIDEO Aparente explosión en acto donde estaba el presidente Nicolás Maduro genera confusión pic.twitter.com/NYi21vok7T

— NTN24 Venezuela (@NTN24ve) August 4, 2018

My Comment:
Disturbing news out of Venezuela to say the least. I am no fan of Nicholas Maduro but an assassination attempt on him is fairly important news. Anytime a world leader is attacked is a huge story and one that deserves coverage. And this attack has regional and global significance as well.

I also have to say that I am not surprised that drones were used in this attack. Ever since ISIS started using drones in attacks in Syria and Iraq I knew that someone would eventually use the same method to attack a world leader in an assassination attempt. Given how successful those ISIS attacks were it is somewhat shocking that this attack failed. It was going to happen sooner or later and it's kind of surprising that it took this long.

Indeed, this should be a wake up call for security officials globally. The threat from drones is real and one that needs to be addressed. We need countermeasures against drones and we needed them yesterday. It also makes me wonder if the continued legality of drones will not be challenged. I am guessing that the news coverage this story is getting will encourage copycat attacks so something is probably going to change.

The political implications of this attack are huge. If Maduro is right or believes he is right that this attack was from Columbia it could be a prelude to war. There have been rumblings that Venezuela might invade their neighbor Guyana and a fight against Columbia would be inevitable in that case. An assassination attempt might be the push to take Venezuela off the path of peace and into war.

Venezuela's economy is in shambles and they only have a few ways out. Invading their neighbors is one of them as they can loot and plunder them and take back land they think is theirs. Doing so without a valid casus belli would ruin Venezuela in the international community but an assassination attempt would give them more sympathy and a real cause for war.

Which makes me wonder if this isn't a false flag. It just seems fairly convenient for this to happen now when Venezuela is in a death spiral and war is one of the only ways out. Plus I would think that an actual attempt would have succeeded in killing or at least wounding Maduro.

Of course this could have been a valid assassination attempt from local rebels. Venezuela has draconian gun control laws so there aren't too many other ways to fight back. Drones are legal, cheap and easily fitted with explosives. It's not like they need foreign help to use them in attacks. And a local group seems more likely the screw up an attack like this than any foreign government. They are desperate and may not have been able to try the attack out before they did it.

I guess it is possible that an international conspiracy is at play here but I kind of doubt it. President Trump doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would order this kind of mission. Despite his bluster, Trump is more of a diplomat and would much prefer to talk things out with Venezuela instead of trying to assassinate their president. Plus, to be blunt, if Trump wanted Maduro dead, he would be dead. No question. 

Columbia was cited as a main suspect as well, but I doubt they would want to take out Maduro. They don't like him and hate what he is doing to the country, but right now Columbia is already dealing with Venezuelan refugees and border crossers. The last thing they want to do is provoke a war that will make both of those situations worse and could even lead to the fall of their government since their is no guarantee that they will win against Venezuela's powerful military.

We need to keep a close eye on Venezuela. It is very possible that this will be the spark that lights the tinderbox. Though war in South America isn't really on anyone's radar it should be now. I have no idea if this attack was legit or not but it is going to have consequences no matter who is responsible. Let's hope that the consequence isn't war.

Sunday gunday a day early.

As you can see, I was a bit busy this weekend. I took a trip to the range and fired a few rounds off. My accuracy left quite a bit to be desired but it was a fun time anyways. I won't go into too much detail about where and what, but I did have a fun time. I figured I could post a photo just to let everyone know what I was up too. 

New York Times defends hiring Sarah Jeong after her racist tweets resurface.

The New York Times. The Hill/Getty.

The New York Times has stuck with new technology editor Sarah Jeong despite a long list of racist tweets. The Hill. Jeong was hired on Wednesday but tweets by her that were blasting white people were found. The Times defended the hire saying the tweets were in the past and were in response to "harassment". Conservative media and pundits pounced and called both Jeong and the Times racist and hypocritical. 

My Comment:

At the same time as this the media is blasting the Trump administration for calling the news media (at least the fake news media) an enemy of the people. It's hard to argue against that when the most prestigious and long standing newspaper in the country hires someone like Sarah Jeong who said some horrible things about the largest racial group in the country. It's hard to interpret this as anything other than trying to inflame racial tensions. And it is going to do nothing to alleviate concerns of bias at the New York Times. 

Do I think what she said is racist? Yes. Obviously. It's very easy to see if someone replaced every incident of the word "white" in her tweets and replaced it with "black", "Muslim" or "Asian" that person would be beyond fired. It wouldn't even be a question that someone who said that about any other racial group in the country would be gone. Saying that about white people isn't excusable. 

I have never bought the social justice warrior definition of racism. They have always said that racism is prejudice + power and I have always said that racism is hating someone based on the color of their skin and not anything else.  But even by their definition Jeong is now a racist. She's obviously very prejudiced and given she's now an editor at one of the most powerful news organizations in the world, she has some very obvious power. I can't see how you can't call her racist unless you just think that racism isn't something an Asian woman can do, which is stupid, but is something I think the other side honestly believes.  

I also think that this was a deliberate move by the New York Times. There are hundreds of journalists that they could have hired that would have similar abilities and politics that wouldn't have the Twitter history that Jeong had. Many of them might have thought the same things that Jeong was saying but would have never said it, saving the Times a headache. Hiring her anyways shows that either the New York Times didn't think anyone would care, which means they are totally out of touch, or that it's a deliberate middle finger to everyone that would be offended (ie half the country). 

My guess is that it is the second option. The fact that the New York Times has kept her on and all the usual suspects on Twitter are defending her makes me think that they knew there was going to be an outrage and continued anyways. I think that the agree with her and want to use her as a test case so they can be as openly racist as she is. The fact that I haven't seen to many of the usual suspects doing anything but defend her isn't helping the case any. 

Despite all of this do I think she should be fired? No. I really don't like outrage mobs getting people fired and if we are to have free speech we need to defend even the most odious of people. I did support the James Gunn firing because I think there is a decent chance that he is both a pedophile and child molester which isn't really a free speech issue, but outside of that I don't support any of the firings on either side of the political spectrum. I'd rather have a world were both Rosanne and Sarah Jeong have a jobs than a world where anyone who says anything racially controversial gets fired. 

Unfortunately we don't live in that world. Right now were are in a full blown culture war and since scalps are being taken it would be foolish to expect that the right would just lay down and die without fighting back. If Rosanne can get fired I am not going to feel bad if Jeong does as well. It's a bad situation all around but I honestly don't know how we stop this from continuing.  

I also have to say that Twitter seems to be a huge contributing factor. Though Twitter is a great place to learn about breaking news or promote your company, it's also an absolute garbage fire for anything else. It incentives bad arguments and saying stupid stuff. Jeong probably would have said similar things in real life or even on other social media websites, but only Twitter allowed those tweets to reach a massive audience. Had she not been trying to get Twitter attention this would have been a non-issue. And without a bunch of her followers reinforcing her beliefs, she probably would have never said it in the first place.  

My personal belief when it comes to Twitter is that I don't censor myself, despite the danger. I may say some controversial stuff on there sometimes but I'm also a tiny account and semi-anonymous. I also don't pick fights on the platform at all and if anyone does I simply block and move on. Doing so has greatly improved my twitter experience compared to the people getting burned by it. That being said, if it wasn't for the purposes of promoting this blog and breaking news I probably would have deleted my account years ago. It's the main culture war battlefield and nobody should visit it without realizing the danger. If Twitter were to disappear tomorrow the world would probably be a better place.

North Korea sends home the remains of 55 Americans from the Korean War.

A UN color guard recivies a box containing remains. ABC News/AP..

North Korea has sent home the remains of 55 Americans left over from the Korean War. ABC News. Vice President Mike Pence welcomed the remains home as they were delivered to Hawaii. The remains will undergo forensics testing to confirm their identity. The UN hosted the delivery ceremony since the Korean War was an UN effort. 

My Comment:

Very good news out of North Korea. The political implications first. This repatriation shows that North Korea is at least keeping some of their promises. They had agreed to repatriate some of our war dead and now they have followed through. This stands in direct contrast to other reports that say North Korea isn't getting rid of their missiles. I think that this is pretty good evidence that North Korea is serious about peace. 

As for the repatriation itself, it is a good thing that these men are being brought home. Given how long ago the war was it is possible that some of these men do not have living relatives. But many of them will and I am sure that those people will be very glad to have their remains back. And even the ones that don't will be appreciated by the people of the United States. 

Some might question why these men had UN flags over their coffins rather than US flags. Remember, the Korean War was an UN effort. Though the United States and South Korea made up the bulk of forces, many other countries sent troops and forces to help with the war. 

It also makes me wonder if any of those other countries will get their men back as well. I am sure North Korea has he remains of people from other countries but I haven't heard of them sending anyone else back. 

I also have to say that it was nice to read a positive article these days. The subject matter itself was good but we also didn't have any jabs at President Trump or his administration. That kind of real journalism is almost dead in this country and it's great to see it when it actually shows up. 

Video shot inside the plane shows the Aeromexico plane crash.

The above video was shot inside of the Aeromexico flight that crashed last Tuesday. Apparently the flight crashed due to a gust of wind in bad weather. Everyone survived the crash largely because it landed upright. The video doesn't show much but the audio is horrifying. It's a miracle that everyone made it out ok. 

Not much else to say on this one, but I did want to share the video because it was interesting. It's also a rare chance to post a positive story since everyone survived.