TIPPING POINTS ☙ Wednesday, October 16, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS
Kamala yells cognitive 'wolf', gets clipped; more Musk election interf.; Israel, at tipping point, falls on Ukraine; Zelensky victory plan fails to impress; Kamala copied!; happy doggy ending; more. JEFF CHILDERS
Good morning, C&C, it’s Wednesday! As we head into the final stretch, your morning roundup includes: Kamala campaign effort to place a Biden brain damage filter over Trump backfires; Musk accused of more election interference for donations while corporate media silent on Soros funding and ActBlue smurfing; Financial Times discovers tipping point in Iron Dome failure and its bad news for Zelensky; Ukraine’s president for life unveils awesome victory plan for beating Russia which promptly lands with a thud; Kamala plagiarism scandal draws friendly fire; and Florida hurricane-dog-abandonment story reaches happy ending.
WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY
They thought they had him this time. After Monday’s’ Trump Town Hall event in Pennsylvania, the Harris Campaign released a viral video they claimed proved Trump had a Biden-like ‘cognitive brain freeze’ and couldn’t speak:
The video energized Kamala supporters like an electric shock ran through the Kamala campaign’s lifeless corpse, momentarily animating it with a saccharine simulacrum of life.
But, alas, it was fake! They edited the clip. ABC News, of all places, debunked Kamala’s fraudulent claim:
At the rally Trump spoke for about a half hour. After taking a couple questions, two people fainted and needed medical attention. So Trump told attendees, “Let’s not do any more questions.” Instead, he played nine of his favorite songs, went into the crowd, shook hands, and generally hung out. That was it.
Quite by chance, I can offer more background. I visited Mar-a-Lago two years ago. While there, I met a friendly member (there’s a Mar-a-Lago club) who gave me an informal tour around the property and told me that, whenever Trump is at home, he often surprises guests by coming down to the outdoor restaurant area, where he holds court at his special reserved table, chats with folks, and plays his own music playlist.
So, President Trump likes playing DJ. As ABC correctly pointed out, there was nothing unusual about the Town Hall except the format.
It’s only election interference when conservatives do it! Yesterday, the Financial Times ran a story headlined, “Elon Musk gives $75mn boost to Donald Trump’s presidential run.” The subheadline ominously warned readers, “World’s richest man aims to sway outcome of November election with donation.” Interference!Where, you might ask, are all the Financial Times articles about George and Alex Soros and their election-swaying donations? It would seem all the Soros swaying stories are printed in Chinese calligraphy on grains of rice launched into the Sun.
And how about that sub-headline? World’s richest man aims to sway outcome of November election with donation. First of all, Elon’s donation wasn’t even the biggest donation of the season, or even close, or they’d have trumpeted that fact. Second, doesn’t everybody who make a donation, however small, “aim to sway the outcome?” Otherwise, why donate?
I mean, even the little old ladies on Social Security who make 8,235 untraceable small-dollar donations in three days on ActBlue hope to sway the election. (Or somebody did.)
Deeply ironically, while trying to assassinate Elon’s character, the Financial Times accidentally published his message, resulting in free political advertising for the space billionaire.
Maybe those two paragraphs land differently for Democrats, but I was persuaded. Thanks, Financial Times!
Coincidentally, the next story also appeared in the Financial Times under the headline, “Israel races to supply anti-missile shield.” To set the table, as hard-to-get information trickles out, it appears Iran’s recent, massive missile strike on military targets in Israel was shockingly successful. Israel’s famous Iron Dome missile technology proved about as effective at stopping Iranian missiles as Lindsay Graham with a badminton racquet. In technical military jargon, an unforeseen development like this is called a “Charlie Foxtrot” or, if you prefer the acronym, a “SNAFU.”The primary Proxy War news this week was the U.S.’s delivery to Israel of a top-tier THAAD air defense package. You could be forgiven for missing the connection to Ukraine, which isn’t obvious at first blush, though the Financial Times circled around to it quickly enough.
Though garrulous generals chatted up the mystery drones flying around over Langley Air Force Base like a swarm of extraterrestrial mosquitos, they said nothing about why THAAD is heading to the Middle East. But we can glean a couple things. First, if Israel is asking us for air defense, it is in an understandable panic over the alarming failure of what used to be considered the world’s most advanced defense system, Iron Dome.
Second, this explains why Israel has still not retaliated against Iran over the strike. The delay is not from any wisdom of avoiding escalation. Instead, Israel is clearly upgrading its missile shield before starting something with Iran. Even the public-facing reason admits part of the problem: Israel’s supply of anti-missile missiles is dwindling fast:
In other words, it’s an arms race, also known as a war of attrition. Which will run out first: ballistic missiles or missile interceptors? It won’t surprise you to learn that interceptors are much higher tech and much more expensive than ballistic missiles are. So the attrition calculus favors the missile-firer.
Guess how much a single interceptor costs?
According to online estimates, a single interceptor costs between $15 million and $75 million dollars. One THAAD system sets the Pentagon back a billion bucks. But of course, who’s counting? That’s not the trouble, since the Pentagon has lots of billions and an opaque, slushy budget. The real problem is that building air defense equipment is not like building cars. Air defense systems and their interceptor rockets are fantastically complicated. It might take Lockheed years to build a single new system.
As for the missiles, the most generous estimate I found was Lockheed can only build about 200 THAAD interceptors a year. Worse, that miniscule production volume must be spread around, to satisfy the entire U.S. military as well as all our allies. So.
In other words, the supply of air defense equipment and interceptor missiles is excruciatingly limited. Which is why our old friend Zelensky popped up in his green sweatshirt later in this Financial Times article, which is ostensibly about Israel’s looming war with Iran.
What does Ukraine have to do with it? Behold, we are nearing the tipping point, and somebody in a green sweatshirt will get squashed when it all falls over:
Uh oh! If the US can’t continue supplying them both, which will it choose to supply? My guess is Israel. Maybe the Europeans will pick up the slack in Ukraine.
However dire this seems for the former comedian and dictator for life Zelensky, it could get worse. Imagine China (or one of its proxies) threatening Taiwan with drones and missiles. Would the US send unimaginably expensive and perilously rare THAAD and PATRIOT systems to Taiwan? If so, the pressure to de-supply Ukraine would be even more intense.
What Zelensky needs is an airtight plan to win the war, super fast. Oh, wait.
Overnight, the Kyiv Independent ran a much-hyped and much-anticipated story headlined, “BREAKING: NATO, long-range strikes, deterrence — Zelensky unveils Ukraine's victory plan.” Ta-da!Zelensky’s secret-squirrel victory plan to defeat the wily Russians, which the green-shirted dictator privately showed Joe Biden a couple weeks ago, was dramatically unveiled in public yesterday. The made-for-TV resistance leader presented the non-classified parts of his Victory Scheme to his entire Ukrainian parliament.
His clever strategem was all dressed up with yellow and blue ribbons and bows, but in sum, Zelensky is haggling harder than a Turkish rug merchant the day before the fiscal year end. His ‘victory plan’ is, at bottom, an offer to buy some armies from NATO to fight Russia with, in exchange for exclusive sweetheart deals on Ukraine’s valuable uranium, lithium, and titanium deposits.
Resource-rich Ukraine is up for sale, and all you have to do is light the fuse on World War III.
As Zelensky sees things, it’s win-win. His oligarchs and our oligarchs could get rich together. But the problem with Zelensky’s grade-school logic is that mining will become intensely difficult after the ground starts glowing from the inevitably high radiation levels that will exist across Ukraine shortly after NATO joins the fight.
Tellingly, the Kyiv Independent did not quote one single member of Ukraine’s parliament about what they thought of their Glorious Leader’s vaunted victory scheme. Not one quote. It didn’t even say they clapped.
A story in three headlines! First, anti-DEI warrior Chris Rufo, who took down Harvard’s gay black president for plagiarism, published this Substack article two short days ago:On the same day, the New York Times, leaping to the plagiarizing vice president’s defense, ran a classic “Republicans pounce!” story. Admitting that Kamala cut-and-pasted parts of her 2009 book, ironically titled “Smart on Crime,” the Times framed the scandal as conservatives taking advantage of a poor, misunderstood — but joyful — Vice President who merely lapsed.
It was just a lapse. It can happen to the best of us! Kamala lapsed into something all right. Amusingly, the increasingly poorly written New York Times overlooked the fact that “lapse” means something someone did before but stopped.
So ironically, the Times accidentally accused Kamala of being a serial plagiarist. In other words, friendly fire.
Finally and third, this morning’s (not paywalled!) Washington Post headline:
In other words, Kamala might have done it on accident. The Washington Post’s attempt to cover for Kamala was even more accidentally destructive than the Times’ “lapses” argument. According to WaPo, Kamala’s not a plagiarist, she’s just stupid:
More friendly fire! The WaPo’s quoted “plagiarism experts” did their best to soft-pedal the scandal — it’s nuanced — but were forced to admit that, technically speaking, Kamala did in fact plagiarize several parts of her awful book:
All in all, with all that friendly fire, Kamala probably felt like she was being attacked by a swarm of indignant bees. And this is how desperate the Kamala campaign is getting: behold yesterday’s headline from Bloomberg:
Reviewing Reparations! So.
Finally, in good news for dog-justice lovers, ABC News ran a canine rights story yesterday headlined, “Man arrested for animal cruelty after dog found tied to post in floodwaters ahead of Hurricane Milton.”In the fast-paced scramble to evacuate for Hurricane Milton, Giovanny Aldama Garcia, 23, of Ruskin, Florida made the incredibly poor decision to leave his bull terrier tied to a fence in a deepening pool of water right off Interstate 75. What can I tell you? It’s a dog’s life.
Fortunately for everyone, Florida Highway Patrol rescued the soaked but hale canine, which is now appropriately named Trooper.
On Monday, after a high-stakes statewide manhunt (they stopped by his place), police located Garcia after he showed up at the animal shelter trying to get his dog back. (Mr. Garcia surrendered his property rights on assurance that Trooper would be re-homed.) Yesterday, Florida cops arrested Mr. Garcia, and charged him with felony animal cruelty. He was released on a $2,500 cash bond and has wisely decided not to talk to the media.
Some folks worry that the young man deserves some leniency under what was a perfect storm of bad options. Based on my analysis of Florida Statute § 828.12, it’s unlikely Mr. Garcia will be convicted of felony animal cruelty. Assuming it’s his first offense, I would predict at most a misdemeanor plea and parole, probably with a healthy amount of public service time.
Between the horrific media coverage, his arrest and criminal charges, and the inevitability he’ll be spending hours and hours volunteering in an animal shelter among sour animal advocates who take a very dim view of Mr. Garcia’s life choices, I think justice has probably been served. But opinions will probably vary. Sound off in the comments!
Have a wonderful Wednesday! Tune in again tomorrow morning for the next installment of essential news and commentary.
