Monthly Archives: December 2015

How Convenient

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The State Department has told Senate investigators it cannot find backup copies of emails sent by Bryan Pagliano, the top Hillary Clinton IT staffer who maintained her email server but has asserted his Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer questions on the matter.

And

State officials told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a recent closed-door meeting that they could not locate what’s known as a “.pst file” for Pagliano’s work during Clinton’s tenure, which would have included copies of the tech expert’s emails[.]

That’s interesting for another reason. A PST file is what Microsoft’s Outlook emailer uses to aggregate and store sent and received emails that are handled by Outlook; it’s not any sort of industry standard. Thunderbird, which I use, uses EML or MSF or…, depending on the vintage Thunderbird being used. Other emailers use other storage means. Why is State carefully looking only for PST files? Outlook is the State-mandated emailer, but State knows full well that other emailers also are used by State personnel and “consultants.”

The second supports my suspicion of the first: how hard is State looking, really?

Allies and Arms

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The Obama administration announced a $1.83 billion arms sale to Taiwan on Wednesday, drawing an immediate rebuke and threats of retaliation from Taipei’s rival Beijing.

To be sure, the stuff being sold to the Republic of China is dated and includes intangibles in addition to hardware; it consists of

two decommissioned US Navy frigates, anti-tank missiles, amphibious assault vehicles and Stinger surface-to-air missiles. There’s also support for Taiwan’s capabilities in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and a weapons system to defend against anti-ship missiles.

These get directly, if in a limited fashion, to the People’s Republic of China’s ability to conduct an invasion of the island.

The PRC’s Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang:

China resolutely opposes the sale of weapons to Taiwan by the US.

If the PRC doesn’t like it, clearly we’re on the right path. Aside from that, and more importantly, the RoC is both a long-standing friend and a critical ally in Asia. We should be supporting them. In spades and with weaponry among a host of support means.

Kudos to Obama for taking this small step toward redressing the shortfall in the RoC’s ability to defend itself. We need to do much more of this.

What’s He Afraid Of?

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Chinese President Xi Jinping called for individual countries to have broad authority to regulate the Internet at home, outlining a digital future in which governments could set online standards and challenge the free flow of information and content across borders.

Why is the leadership of the PRC so terrified of the free flow of information, of free speech?

Oh, wait.

The Contained Daesh

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While President Barack Obama thinks—and says out loud—that he’s “squeezing [Daesh’s] heart and making it harder for them to pump out its propaganda,” the Pentagon is describing an expanding Daesh.

Now it’s Afghanistan. Daesh has become

“more operationally active” there by carving out territory and openly fighting the Taliban.

In particular, Daesh in Afghanistan’s Khorasan Province

has progressed from its initial exploratory phase to a point where they are openly fighting the Taliban for the establishment of a safe haven, and are becoming more operationally active[.]

Even were “containment” succeeding, this is an illustration of why it’s badly insufficient merely to “contain” or to “defeat” this Evil. It must be destroyed, utterly.

It’s a long, dangerous year we have ahead of us.

The Coercive Power of the State

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This is the Progressive Democratic Party of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, as articulated by California Governor Jerry Brown (D). At the just concluded Paris “Climate” Summit.

Tom, you used the phrase “policy.” Good policy. But I want to unpack that term a little bit. Inside the policy, you need a law. You need a rule. You need the coercive power of government to say, “Do this.” Now, you have to be wise and don’t say something stupid or order something stupid but the fact is, the regulations supported by the laws drive innovation.

And

You do have to have, at the end of the day, a regulation, a law. Progress comes from well-designed regulatory objectives that business then follows.

You can be sure California is going to keep innovating, keep regulating. And, shall I say, keep taxing.

All for the very best of causes. This complements the Left’s drive to take our weapons.  All for the very best of causes.  All for political power.  And, we mustn’t neglect Mao Tse-tung’s position:

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.