China's Navy Is Studying the Battle of Guadalcanal. Here's Why It Matters.

National Interest

In lieu of real wartime experience, the PLAN is drawing from history.

"China's military has not had much combat experience in recent decades, and this is recognized among Chinese military leaders as a potentially serious problem. The reasons for this scarcity of battlefield know—how are obvious and might even be praise-worthy. It has been nearly four decades since Beijing undertook a significant military campaign, so how would its armed forces have attained this knowledge? As I have argued many times before in this forum, nearly four decades without resorting to a major use of force represents very impressive restraint for any great power.

"By contrast, the U.S. military has been at war almost continuously since 2001 and fought several smallish wars during the 1990s as well. But for all the innovations that these recent American wars have spawned (e.g., aerial drones, heavily-armored vehicles), it remains unclear that the lessons learned from small, counter-insurgency wars, such as Afghanistan, are actually applicable to high-intensity warfare of the type that might occur in a great power showdown.

"China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has sought to remedy its lack of actual combat China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has sought to remedy its lack of actual combat experience by the careful study of military history, including the bloody Pacific War as I have noted in other Dragon Eye columns. August is steamy in the South Pacific and so the Guadalcanal campaign that began in August 1942 was hell. It was through that campaign that the fate of the Pacific was decided. While the dazzling miracle of Midway gets infinitely more attention, the grinding attrition battle just a few months later of Guadalcanal, which could be termed the “Verdun” of the Pacific War, ultimately proved to be the turning point. Losing 38 ships and perhaps over 700 aircraft proved devastating for Japan, although these losses were quite similar to those suffered on the American side. The difference, of course, was that America could replace these losses quite easily." . . .

Lyle J. Goldstein is a research professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) at the United States Naval War College in Newport, RI. In addition to Chinese, he also speaks Russian and he is also an affiliate of the new Russia Maritime Studies Institute (RMSI) at Naval War College. You can reach him at goldstel@usnwc.edu. The opinions in his columns are entirely his own and do not reflect the official assessments of the U.S. Navy or any other agency of the U.S. government.

CNN caught red-handed fabricating fake news, fake sources

The upshot of all this is that once again, CNN confirms it is not merely “fake news” but deliberately deceptive fake news. The network routinely fabricates fake sources and fake “facts,” and when it gets caught, it attacks the accusers rather than leveling with its own audience and admitting to its serious violations of journalistic standards.

Intellihub  "In a bombshell media scandal that’s growing by the hour, the tag-team of CNN and Watergate-fame journalism legend Carl Bernstein have been caught red-handed fabricating utterly fake news in a desperate effort to cast criminal blame upon President Donald J. Trump.

"The scandal is exploding across the media, with the Washington Post and other media outlets now retracting their original reporting based on CNN claims — now proven false — that attempted to assert the President had prior knowledge of a Trump Tower “meeting with the Russians,” an event that now appears certain to have been a deep state setup to ensnare Trump associates.

"The journalistic lies of CNN and Carl Bernstein are so blatant and disturbing that even Glenn Greenwald, who helped break the Edward Snowden story, has published a scathing piece exposing the gross journalistic misconduct that now appears to be routine at CNN and other Trump-hating “news” outlets." . . .

Talk about cross-checking our press sources!

"All puppets reading the same scripts !!!  This has been extremely dangerous to our REPUBLIC !!!!"   Video link.

Did Sarah Palin really deserve that?

But just the fact that Palin is being excluded pretty well puts the lie to the idea that McCain was all in for civility and inclusiveness, let alone gratitude.  Despite his distant war heroism, which was real enough, McCain also comes off as spiteful, petty, and mean in his treatment of his former running mate, the worst aspects of him out there. 

Monica Showalter  "I can't think of anything more spiteful or "mean-spirited" than the exclusion of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin from the funeral of the late Sen. John McCain.

According to Breitbart News, not only was she not asked to come to any of the numerous McCain events where she could have been present, but she was actually asked to stay away.

"Who the hell did that?

"Since the Breitbart report, the McCain camp has backtracked a bit and now says Sarah would not be bounced by the security guard at the door if she actually came.  According to People Magazine, the exclusion of this woman, who was so significant in the career of John McCain, was the decision of Cindy McCain, not John McCain.  But its sourcing was anonymous, and that sounds like a possible attempt to paper over a public relations disaster, which would tell us that that is what it is, a black mark on McCain, who, up until now, has been drawing a lot of praise.

"What supports this theory is that the New York Times reported earlier that McCain planned every aspect of his funeral beforehand, every single aspect, every detail, meticulously excluding President Trump and featuring his opponents for effect, all of whom would praise "civility" in contrast to Trump.  The Times didn't get around to asking about Palin, but something tells me this Palin exclusion was McCain's doing and the family wanted to honor it, so they're letting Cindy take the flak.  Sarah Palin is the only one who really knows, and she's not saying." . . .

Pretty much all the liberal media has become CNNed.

Rick Moran  . . . "In 1932, there was a presidential election in Germany.  More than a million brown-shirted storm troopers took to the streets to "battle communists" and "protect democracy," they said.  One can imagine Lemon rationalizing the behavior of these "protectors of democracy" for the same reason he rationalized Antifa violence.

"Did you get what t[CNN's Don Lemon] is saying?  Because "anti-fascist" is in its name, Antifa, the group can pretty much beat up whomever it wants, destroy as much property as it wishes.  Because "no organization is perfect."

Holy mother.

"The left immediately praised Lemon for his "rational" defense of violence." . . .

 . . . "Besides, Antifa's loose definition of who is a "fascist" includes just about anyone it disagrees with politically.  That Lemon doesn't point out that basic fact of Antifa's existence – its misidentification of political opponents as "fascists" – proves that he, too, is unable to grasp opposition as legitimate. 

"I would say this would ordinarily disqualify any journalist from holding a job, but this is CNN we're talking about.  He'll probably get a promotion and a raise." 

Who's coordinating the sudden loony leftist lionization of Stormy Daniels?
. . . "But following the Times, the lionization spread to CNN, which is praising Daniels in its broadcasts with a straight face.  Look at this gush:

The pair spent over five minutes dubbing Daniels as merely a "fun," "working mom" who posed for Vogue "like you have never seen her" as she grapples with "the psychological and personal toll" of being President Trump's "perfect adversary" but a "beacon of The Resistance."

Washington Post uses despicable old MSM trick to falsely impugn Trump

. . . Thanks to eagle-eyed Mike Brest, writing in the Daily Caller, we have a classic example of this technique in the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post:

The Washington Post published an article about the U.S. government choosing not to renew the passports of people born near the border, as they are skeptical that those people were actually born in the country.  It's not until the ninth paragraph that the article begins to address that the policy began under the Bush administration and continued under Obama.

"Everyone in the news business knows that a large portion of readers never make it nine paragraphs into a story.  Many glance only at the headline and a subhead or two.  Another big group reads the first few paragraphs.  These two groups account for a big majority of newspaper readers, unless the topic in question is of highest concern – say, an epidemic breaking out locally." . . .

Hall Monitor Nation

It's not as if the left has ever shown any particular commitment to free speech. They love "transgressive" ideas and "controversial" speech -- but only when they're in the minority. As soon as they get control, no more free speech for you! Just look at the universities. 

Ann Coulter  "Apart from building the wall, President Trump's most important act as president so far was his attack on internet censorship this week. 
   "The left controls all the cultural institutions -- the establishment media, corporate America, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, public schools and universities. The only breach in their total dominion of the flow of information is the internet. 
   "So now they're fixated like a laser beam on private citizens talking to one another online. 
   "Why can't people accept the officially certified news as delivered by respected truth-tellers like Brian Williams, CNN and NBC -- the network that censored Juanita Broaddrick and illegally leaked the "Access Hollywood" tape? 
   "Liberals assessed the situation and correctly concluded: People are learning facts on the internet that we've been withholding from them, so now they don't agree with us. THIS MUST BE STOPPED! 
   "The media relentlessly lied to the public about Hillary's health, denouncing conservatives as "conspiracy theorists" for mentioning it. Then an alert citizen with an iPhone captured Hillary having to be carried to her car at the 9/11 memorial service in 2016. 
   "Mainstream media outlets painted a cherubic picture of Michael Brown after he was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. He was a "gentle giant," gunned down like a dog as he plaintively cried, "Hands up! Don't shoot!" 
   "HEY! Wait a second! How did that video get out of Brown manhandling a tiny Indian man while robbing a convenience store? That should have been suppressed like the Broaddrick interview! 
   "Would we ever have known about Monica Lewinsky, but for the Drudge Report publishing the blockbuster story that Newsweek had killed? 
   "Currently, the establishment media are in a rage that the public has found out about the modern genocide being waged against white South African farmers." . . .

The #AbolishICE fringe is now the Democrat Party center

"And when will these noble 21st-century abolitionists be stepping up to open their homes to the members of the ICE Most Wanted list, which includes illegal aliens wanted for murder, aggravated homicide, narcotics and human trafficking, and membership in terrorist organizations?"

Michelle Malkin  “ 'No ban. No wall. No borders at all.”

"That is the radical rallying cry of the Democratic Socialists of America. Waving desecrated U.S. flags, grubby fists and ratty anarchy banners, DSA’s professional protesters are targeting Trump administration officials, threatening immigration enforcement agents, and blockading detention facilities and processing centers nationwide.

"On a similar note, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., proudly marched in a parade last week with a T-shirt emblazoned with “Yo No Creo En Fronteras” — Spanish for “I don’t believe in borders.”

"These are abjectly unserious people, operating in bad faith, who pose a serious threat to our nation’s well-being.

"In New York, DSA rabble-rousers took over a loading dock used to transport immigrants at an ICE processing center on Varick Street. Genius move. Now, detainees whose bond hearings were canceled because of the protest disruptions face another six or more extra weeks in detention.

"In Portland, Oregon, DSA operatives shut down a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office after preventing workers from exiting the building.

"In Detroit, organizers disrupted ordinary processing and appointments at a downtown ICE field office and plan to camp out there 24 hours a day until the end of the month. “Our short-term goal is to shut down operations at this particular center,” ringleader Robert Jay explained.

“ 'Our long-term goal is to abolish ICE entirely.”

"This reckless, simpleton sentiment doesn’t belong to the fringe of the American left. It is the center. Across the country, supposedly mainstream Democrats, activist groups and entertainers are pushing to “Abolish ICE.” To be clear, if the hashtag didn’t clue you in: They don’t just want to reform or reduce the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which was created by merging existing immigration entities after the 9/11 attacks to better coordinate enforcement against alien lawbreakers inside the country." . . .