The U.S. Navy’s Personnel Crisis Is Only Getting Worse

Following the end of the Vietnam War and its accompanying draft, the U.S. military transformed into an all-volunteer force. In the decades that followed, the promise of good benefits, a chance for adventure, and comradery prompted swaths of Americans to give up their civilian lives to defend the freedoms of their fellow countrymen. It’s a sacrifice that has generated much-deserved respect from the nation.

But what happens when the country with the world’s most sophisticated navy no longer possesses the manpower necessary to maintain its status as a global hegemon? It’s a question the U.S. is having to grapple with as its maritime force experiences the worst personnel crisis in recent history.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA

Why Won’t the Media Admit When Mass Murderers are Environmentalists?

Instead, they’re described as “white supremacist,”“white nationalist,” and “racist.”

Last Friday, a federal judge sentenced the El Paso Walmart mass murderer, who killed 23 people and wounded another 22, to 90 consecutive life sentences. He still faces additional charges from Texas, where he could receive the death penalty.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Environmentalists", "Mass Shooting"

The death games of Ukraine

Drone warfare has changed the rules of engagement

Down in a bunker a little way back from the Ukraine frontline, I am watching a key event in modern warfare: a drone attack in real time.

The command centre is a small room with three TV monitors, two of which are divided into four screens. All are showing drone footage from different parts of the front’s 20 kilometres of trenches. Four men sit in front of the screens. Two men sit off at the side — one on a laptop, one manning a two-way radio. In the centre of the room stands Bereza, the Brigade commander, barking into his phone.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Ukraine - Russia"

French riots caused €650 million of damage, say insurers

Rioting in French cities over the past two weeks has left a trail of destruction costing €650 million, according to insurers.

The cost was calculated from 11,300 insurance claims already filed and is expected to rise.

The violence began on June 27 after the fatal shooting by police of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French-Algerian. Rioters used social media to co-ordinate attacks on public buildings that they saw as symbols of the state.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", France, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

Military Recruitment Is Plummeting: Blame the Pentagon

Veterans no longer want their kids to enlist. Here’s why.

Lately, military-age males have stayed away from the military in droves. General officers and senior civilians in the Pentagon blame a poor public education system and decades of video games for creating a generation of young men not mentally and physically qualified to serve — and there is certainly some truth to that.

But if senior Pentagon officials want to get to the bottom of the Biden-era recruiting dip, they should look in the mirror and at the picture of the sitting president on the wall of virtually every office in the five-sided wind tunnel in Arlington, Virginia.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inMilitaria, USA

Politics and the end of private lives

When people make their personal lives public, they hand them to the Left. Cancel culture is nourished by consuming the others’ lives.

Cancel culture, like most of our contemporary cultural revolution, began in China.

Over several years, rural Chinese migrated to massive mega-cities whose impossible population densities were matched by the growing interconnection of the internet. While three quarters of China’s population is now on the internet, in 2006 it grew by a quarter to encompass only 10%.

In these cramped quarters, physical and social, there was no room for the individual.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Cancel Culture"

Poilievre blames Trudeau after Bank of Canada hikes interest rate again

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blamed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the Bank of Canada’s decision to raise interest rates again Wednesday, saying government spending has fuelled inflation.

The central bank hiked its overnight rate by 25 basis points to five per cent — a move meant to tamp down persistent inflation in an economy that’s still performing relatively well despite a series of disruptive global events.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada

Chairman Chow inherits a city in dire financial straits

Toronto is forecasting a budget deficit of roughly $915-million this year, which it plans to address by almost depleting its pandemic reserve fund if other levels of government don’t step in.

The city council’s executive committee is expected to discuss a series of budget-related reports Tuesday, the day before Olivia Chow takes office as Toronto’s new mayor. Ms. Chow, who won last month’s by-election to replace John Tory, will be inheriting a dire financial situation, mostly stemming from reduced transit revenues due to lower ridership and higher shelter costs for people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic.

It’s not going to get better.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

Zemmour: The Link Between Riots and Immigration is Obvious

Zemmour said, “If we continue in this direction, due to demography and democracy, France could one day become an Islamic republic.”

In a wide-ranging interview, the first he has given to the foreign press since the French race riots erupted late last month, Éric Zemmour—the former journalist who now leads the national Right party Reconquête—answered questions relating to Islam in France, the future of the country, the nature of the civil insurrection, its source, who is to blame, and what measures must be taken to prevent subsequent catastrophes.

The interview, conducted by Jose Maria Ballester Esquivias for the Spanish digital newspaper El Debate, gave Zemmour ample opportunities to speak his mind on the perilous issues facing France, and as usual, speak his mind he did.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", France, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

George Soros’s Bad Bet

The billionaire funded a series of experiments in the U.S. criminal-justice system—with disastrous results.

As George Soros exits the public stage, handing over control of his central nonprofit operation, the Open Society Foundation, to his son, it’s a good time to examine the results of the experiments he funded in the American criminal-justice system.

Soros famously made his fortune by massively shorting the British pound, leading to more than $1 billion in profits for him and economic calamity for the United Kingdom’s central bank. With his riches, Soros eventually became politically active in America as a major donor. He funded high-profile Democratic candidates for national office, and then shifted gears to focus intently on criminal justice.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inGeorge Soros

Electric vehicles are the least effective way of satisfying consumers’ needs

Big government mandates are forcing the national transition to electric vehicles. Consumer demand doesn’t appear to matter.

Government is doling out billions in special loans and subsidies to select companies and twisting tax policy to make EVs appear cheaper. At the same time, heavy-handed mandates are making traditional, reliable cars more expensive and harder to produce.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"EV's - Electric Vehicles"

The mega-strike that could take down Hollywood

Hollywood’s writers have been on strike for two months and soon the actors may join them, swapping the red carpet for the picket lines.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) contract expires at midnight local time on 12 July, following a deadline extension that delayed the possibility of a mega-strike by almost two weeks.

They would join the Writers Guild of America, which went on strike on 2 May after failing to reach a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), an umbrella group representing studios like Disney, Netflix, Amazon and Apple.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inHollywood