One year too late, here’s the match-up many on the left and right wanted to see during the 2016 Presidential election: Ted Cruz vs. Bernie Sanders. They debated on CNN on Thursday. If (like me) you don’t have cable, here’s your chance to watch it.
Posts Tagged ‘video’
Ted Cruz Debates Bernie Sanders
Sunday, October 22nd, 2017Debunking the No True Communism Fallacy
Sunday, October 15th, 2017In case you missed it, Jonah Goldberg did a really nice job dismantling the New York Times gauzy, nostalgic take on communism.
It’s an incredibly useful debating tactic to say that every failed socialist country wasn’t really socialist because it had a ruling class. The problem is that there will never be a “true” socialist country because ruling classes are inevitable. The unapologetic reds should spend a little less time reading Marx and read more Max Nomad, Milovan Djilas, Max Schachtman, James Burnham, and other Communists and former Communists who understood that any attempt to create a “true socialist” society runs into the Iron Law of Oligarchy. Every organization requires some small group of people to make important decisions. They may use their special knowledge and power to help people, but it’s also a sure bet that they will use it to help themselves as well. A society without democratic institutions and market mechanisms by its nature will invest bureaucrats with enormous power to make choices about how other people will live.
Read the whole thing. And if you run into any leftists spouting the “No True Communism” fallacy, you could do worse than to point them to that essay and this video:
“How many millions of people have to die before you might admit that you’re wrong? Obviously more than 100 million.”
“Think again, sunshine!”
Rep. Steve Scalise Returns to the House Floor
Saturday, September 30th, 2017It’s a “got nothing” day, so enjoy this short video of Rep. Steve Scalise (Republican-Louisiana) returning to the House floor three months after being shot by a crazed Democrat.
He gets a long standing ovation from the entire House. For once, no one took a knee…
Prototype Laser Weapon Shoots Down Drones
Sunday, September 24th, 2017Lockheed Martin has developed a battlefield laser weapon to shoot down drones. Here’s video of it in action.
Keep in mind all the caveats of corporate-produced weapon test videos (if a test run was a failure, you wouldn’t be seeing that video), and don’t expect these to be deployed in the battlefield anytime soon. But it’s still promising.
Islamic State Near Collapse?
Saturday, September 23rd, 2017That’s what this headline implies. The truth is a little less dramatic: Raqqa is on the edge of full liberation and the Islamic State is in retreat everywhere else.
Static lines of control that held for months in northern Raqqa have collapsed, as seen in this Syria Livemap screen cap:
Compare that to this map from September 5:
Islamic State fighters are running out of territory in Raqqa to defend.
Here’s a video from the battle of Raqqa:
Southeast of Raqqa, Syrian government forces and the SDF are both pushing toward Deir ez-Zor.
SDF also say they have captured Syria’s largest oilfield from the Islamic State near Deir ez-Zor.
Elsewhere in the theater, “Iraqi Security Forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces have cleared ISIS out of about 50,000 square miles and liberated more than 6 million people who were living under Islamic State occupation.”
Here’s a map of Iraqi forces collapsing the pocket of Islamic State forces to the southwest of Kirkuk that have been cut off from the rest of the Islamic State at least since the investment of Mosul.
Everywhere within it’s supposed caliphate, the Islamic State is in retreat, and nowhere is it counterattacking successfully. But it still holds a lot of territory, and there’s a lot more fighting left before declaring it dead.
Bonus video: Royal Air Force drone stops Islamic State public execution:
Demolishing the “Southern Strategy” Myth
Sunday, September 17th, 2017Here’s a Prager University video demolishing the myth of the “Southern Strategy,” the idea that the party of Bull Conner and George Wallace magically became the party of civil rights and the Republican Party took their place as the party of racism.
(Hat tip: Adam Baldwin’s Twitter feed.)
Pat Condell on Europe’s Suicide
Sunday, September 10th, 2017Pat Condell is back! Here he expounds on the foolishness of importing jihadists into Europe.
“Let’s open ourselves up to the most brutal predatory culture on earth, and let in hordes of unemployable, mostly male fighting age welfare parasites who hate us, and have no intention of integrating. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Hurricane Irma Update
Saturday, September 9th, 2017Unlike with Hurricane Harvey, I don’t know the territory well enough to provide any insider insight on the storm. But it’s a big story, and I have a few tidbits of interest.
Current forecasts have Irma sparing the Miami area the brunt of the storm, instead being expected to track up the west coast of Florida. Good for Miami (though it will still get plenty of wind and rain), bad for St. Petersburg and Tampa. It also means people in Tallahassee, Pensacola and Mobile better start prepping for evacuation or riding out the storm, depending on local authorities and how the storm develops.
The Miami Herald has a live tracking page up, as does the New York Times.
There’s also a dedicated @Track_Irma Twitter feed.
More evacuations ordered:
BREAKING: Florida asks another 700,000 to leave ahead of Hurricane Irma; nearly 7 million total urged to evacuate multiple states.
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 9, 2017
But they’ll have to deal with gas shortages.
Power outages:
Over 25,000 people already experiencing power outages in #Florida from #Irma.. and the center of storm is still close to #Cuba. pic.twitter.com/sOCXsDbkj3
— Michael Ventrice (@MJVentrice) September 9, 2017
Miami and Miami Beach have imposed a 7 PM curfew.
Here’s Miami Herald writer Martin Merzer’s classic guide for reporters on what to do while covering a hurricane. “Don’t use your own car. Rent a car. Despite company policy, take every form of insurance offered by the rental company. Don’t park the car under a lovely old tree or in a low spot near the motel.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
And here’s a storm route projection video from Mobile, Alabama weatherman Alan Seals, who’s fast becoming the weatherman of choice for hurricane watchers for his clear, concise, no-nonsense delivery.