Overnight Open Thread (7-13-2016)

Quote of the Day I

I estimate about a dozen unarmed black men are killed by police each year, but only a small portion of them were not resisting arrest. How many were completely innocent is difficult to determine, but let's say half. That means the threat of killer cops ranks up there with spider bites. The number of cops killed is over eight times higher.

-- Gavin McInnes

Quote of the Day II

The cop who shot Philando Castile was a Latino named Jeronimo Yanez. But for our "racial justice" crowd, it's always 1963 - but a 1963 in which Bull Connor is a Republican instead of the Democratic National Committeeman he actually was.

-- Glenn Reynolds

Quote of the Day III - What Passes For Journalism These Days

Naturally, bootlickers across the globe are unquestioningly celebrating the slain officers as heroes, innocents, and protectors. But what if one of those dead cops was a white supremacist - is he still a hero? And I don't mean a white supremacist in the sense that all cops are enforcers of a classist white supremacist order, which they are.

-- Huffington Post writer Jesse Benn attempting to smear one of the dead Dallas police officers

Quote of the Day IV - Down Under Edition

They're a common sight at race tracks all over the world. Rich old guys in Ferraris who want to discover what their expensive Italian toys are capable of on a closed circuit.

They quickly discover that howling into corners at speeds beyond 200km/h is a little more challenging than second-gear posing around Double Bay.

For one thing, the hot younger wife isn't in the passenger seat wearing $400 Prada sunglasses and surrounded by bags of designer shopping. Instead she's trackside in a designer parka watching her husband get overtaken by kids in cheap but rapidly driven hostabacks.

Even with their silver hair concealed by brand-new crash helmets, these wealthy older types are easy to detect. In slow corners they're always too fast. In fast corners, way too slow. They miss apexes and braking points. They cannot judge the moment at which grip turns to slide.

That's why there is another common sight at racetracks all over the world. Rich old guys standing next to their wrecked Ferraris, wondering how much it will cost to repair all that panel damage.

Our Prime Minister is a lot like some of those cashed-up weekend track warriors. Malcolm Turnbull looked great when he was tooling around Sydney's eastern suburbs late last year behind the Liberal Party's wheel, waving to all of his fans at Fairfax and the ABC.

Even many senior Labor figures privately conceded that there was no way the great Mal could be beaten.

They forgot the last time Turnbull was at the Liberal Party's controls, as opposition leader from September 2008 until December 2009. Initially, Turnbull enjoyed substantial goodwill from voters.

Less than one year later, however, Turnbull had slammed the Liberal machine into a fence. It took Tony Abbott four long years and two election campaigns to straighten the frame and get things tracking square.

At which point Turnbull again took over.

-- Tim Blair

Anonymous and #BlackLivesMatter Declare Friday July 15th a 'Day of Rage'

With riots peaceful protests planned in dozens of cities.

The rest of us declare Friday July 15th to be Concealed Carry Day. As well as StayTheHellAwayFromThere Day.

FBI Agents Involved In Hillary Clinton Email Investigation Required To Sign Special Non-Disclosure Agreements

Everything involving Hillary Clinton has a foul and treacherous stench that threatens to suffocate any remaining decency in the halls of government. It almost seems as if her sole mission in this life is to force the masses to be reminded of the brutal, unyielding truth that amassed power in the hands of the few will ultimately cost us our freedom.

Philadelphia Airport Workers Have Voted 461-5 To Walk Off Their Jobs in Protest During the Democratic National Convention

Good times.

The Guardian Frets Over Cake in the Workplace

And you know what the Left always calls for when it doesn't approve of something.

Thomas Sowell: The Farce of Gun Control

That is not an esoteric question, nor one for which no empirical evidence is available. Think about it. We have 50 states, each with its own gun control laws, and many of those laws have gotten either tighter or looser over the years. There must be tons of data that could indicate whether murder rates went up or down when either of these things happened.

But have you ever heard any gun control advocate cite any such data? Tragically, gun control has become one of those fact-free issues that spawn outbursts of emotional rhetoric and mutual recriminations about the National Rifle Association or the Second Amendment.

If restrictions on gun ownership do reduce murders, we can repeal the Second Amendment, as other Constitutional Amendments have been repealed. Laws exist to protect people. People do not exist to perpetuate laws.

The Odd Couple: Warthogs & Growlers in the South China Sea

On Wednesday, a temporary detachment of four US Navy EA-18G Growlers deployed to the Philippines. According to Pacific Command, the aircraft will engage in bilateral training with Philippine Air Force pilots and "will support routine operations that enhance regional maritime domain awareness and assure access to the air and maritime domains in accordance with international law."

This deployment follows on the heels of a recent US Air Force detachment of five A-10 Warthogs. These temporary air contingents were established in the wake of the Philippine Supreme Court's final approval of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) and the identification of five bases to which US forces would newly gain access.

...Taken together, the Warthog and Growler deployments in the Philippines send an important message to China: Your Spratly possessions are vulnerable. We can blind you at will. Should you declare an Air Defense Identification zone, we can make it impossible for you to enforce it.

Total System Failure: The Navy Releases Its Report on the Iranian Capture of Two American Boats in January

And it's damning.

According to the Navy report, the crews of the two patrol boats had no idea where they were.  That admission is stunning in the GPS era, but let's assume for a second (as some intel analysts have suggested) that Iran was jamming that navigation system at the time.  Whatever happened to old-fashioned navigation, using the sun, stars, charts and a sextant.  The junior officer in charge of the boats is an Annapolis grad; at last report, midshipmen were required to take courses in navigation and master the operation of small craft before graduation (emphasis ours).  Perhaps the Naval Academy ought to ask for their diploma back. 

Likewise, many service members (current and former) are scratching their heads over the crew's willingness to cooperate with their Iranian captors.  That raises serious questions about the level and frequency of Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training provided to riverine crews.  Most naval personnel who go into harm's way (aviators, SEALs, special warfare small craft operators and EOD teams) receive specialized training in those critical skills.  Based on the video released by Iran--and the Navy report--the patrol craft crews captured in January either didn't receive that training, or forgot everything they learned at SERE school.  One Navy contact suggested that riverine crews are only required to complete an on-line SERE course, despite the fact they operate in hostile waters and may be subject to capture by the enemy.  If that report is accurate, it is a damning indictment of Navy leadership and its training system. 

And senior commanders--above the task force and squadron level--should also be criticized for their reaction to the incident.  Back in January, reports suggested the Navy commanders somehow "lost track" of the two patrol craft; indeed, the just-released report suggests that a control element assigned to keep tabs on the transit failed to perform its mission, and had no idea the boats were drifting into hostile waters.

You also had an enlisted man refuse a direct order to evade the Iranian boats and an officer order his crew not to defend the boat against the enemy:

Heavily outgunned and outnumbered by members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Navy commander - whose name was redacted from the report - told investigators he calculated that Tehran's desire to keep the nuclear deal with the U.S. alive would also protect the 10 American sailors if they surrendered.

"I didn't want to start a war with Iran. . I didn't want to start a war that would get people killed," the commander said.

"I guess this was a gamble on my part. . I made the gamble that they were not going to kill us. I made the gamble they were not going to parade us around like prisoners of war because they want this nuke deal to go through."

Mr. Obama, the unidentified commander said, would not want me to start a war over a mistake, over a misunderstanding."

And CDR Salamander chimes in:

I highly encourage everyone to read this. There is a lot to rage about from a leadership, seamanship, training, maintenance, and crew planning perspectives, but I'm not going to do that. I don't need to - and here is when things get positive.

I don't need to because the report does so for me. This is a good report. Open and clear eyed, and at my first reading in line with how things should be done. It is the only way we learn from these things, and it says a lot about the best parts of our service culture that we have this out in the open for all.

Read it. Learn from it. Be glad you serve in a navy that would publish this.

War Pr0n: Iraqi Helicopters Decimate ISIS Fighters Fleeing From the Recent Battle of Fallujah

And the Oscar for best improvised camouflage goes to....that guy.

Rule 34 Watch: Don't Even Want To Know

In China Lottery Winners Collect Their Winnings in Costume To Stay Anonymous

 

This Christmas Give the Gift of Love: Kidney Transplant Gift Vouchers

The Group knows your sins but doesn't care.

Tonight's post brought to you by Bo Diddley and the Clash:

Notice: Posted by implicit permission of AceCorp LLC. Good news for you procrastinators - the drawing for this month's Premium raffle has been postponed until next week.

posted by Maetenloch at 11:23 PM

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