Cockpit View from U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress (VIDEO)

Following up, "Take a Peek Inside the Massive 'Stratofortress' B-52s Currently Doing Laps Around Eastern Europe."

Happy New Year

From Pasadena's Rose Bowl opening ceremony minutes ago:

Iconic. pic.twitter.com/OzV8Mk3D1d

— Rose Bowl Game (@rosebowlgame) January 1, 2022

ADDED 1/2/2022: More here, "2022 B-2 Stealth Bomber Rose Bowl Flyover Pasadena California (VIDEO)." 

More, "WHITEMAN AIRMAN CONTINUES FAMILY’S LEGACY WITH FLYOVER AT ROSE BOWL," and "HOPALONG CASSIDY'S GRANDSON, CAPTAIN, KYLE CASSIDY, REMEMBERS HIS GRANDFATHER, DISCUSSES ROSE BOWL FLYOVER."

Instalanche!

Actually, I received not just one, but two!, in the past few days, for my post, "Biden, Harris, Psaki and Other Top Staffers Afraid to Appear in Sunday News Shows (VIDEO)."

On Sunday, Ed Driscoll, one of the main co-bloggers at Instapundit, linked my post, probably just moments after I tweeted it to him. 

And then Stephen Green, also one of the other main stalwart co-bloggers over there, linked it again this morning. 

It's pretty gratifying, especially since I've had little time to blog, and I sure appreciate getting tons of traffic, and I welcome the Instapundit readers. 

But I want to thank MY loyal readers most of all, who number probably just in the hundreds, and if the number's over a thousand, that's on a good day. So thank you again for your all your support, for coming here to read, and to shop occasionally at my Amazon links. 

I've been doing this a long time, and some of the the greatest blogs from back in the day, at the height of the blogosphere, probably around the time from the Iraq war in 2003 (or maybe a little earlier, like 9/11) to the years of both the Obama administrations, are long gone; and back then, blogging was bigger and way more influential, than, say, social media (and especially Twitter, which itself was better back in the day, around the first part of the Obama years, before they starting f*cking with all the stupid "algorithms").

So, thanks for reading. This blog isn't going anywhere, but the volume of posting will rise and fall, perhaps a lot, depending on how things are going right here at home, with my wife and two sons, because, like everybody else, this godforsaken pandemic has messed everything up, including not just income flow, but the way the world works, how people literally "go to work," and how people engage and socially interact. It's killing people, literally, with the rise not just deaths from Covid-19, which are horrifying, but perhaps even more dangerously long-term, from the increasing social despondency and isolation people are enduring, particularly young people, whose life chances have been set back years, and even decades, if this economy flounders, or inflation surges, and the national debt keeps growing, and on, and on.

So, thanks again, dear readers, I appreciate the support. 

I'll be back with more later, probably in the late afternoon or early evening. 

The Air Force is Buying New F-15s

This is really cool.

At Popular Mechanics, "The U.S. Air Force Is Buying New F-15s After All: The F-15X will complement the F-22 and F-35 in tomorrow's aerial battlefields."

The U.S. Air Force Is Buying New F-15s After All: The F-15X will complement the F-22 and F-35 in tomorrow's aerial battlefields: #USAirForce #Boeing 🇺🇸👍 https://t.co/JbS1Rhl3Dv

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 21, 2019

Simpler Times

I found another "American Power" guy on Twitter, lol.

Simpler times . . . we could use a little more straight talk in America. pic.twitter.com/hkQN4zh9Ui

— AMERICAN POWER!! (@_Pax_Americana_) December 3, 2018

MAGA: Americans More Satisfied With Their Country Than They Have Been in a Decade

Bad news for the Democrats?

At Gallup, "U.S. Satisfaction Jumps to Highest Since Trump Took Office."

Americans’ mood improves: 36% satisfied with the way things are going in the country now compared to 29% in January. @GOP satisfaction at long-term high. https://t.co/eFQ2F642Hz pic.twitter.com/LyL7cn8QGC

— GallupNews (@GallupNews) February 14, 2018

The Next Revolution in Military Affairs

Eliot Cohen published the classic piece on the topic in 1996, at Foreign Affairs, "A Revolution in Warfare."

I don't worry about the U.S. being overtaken in the military technology realm anytime soon. But just in case, here's this at the National Interest, "The Next Revolution In Military Affairs: How America's Military Will Dominate":

The Next Revolution In Military Affairs: How America's Military Will Dominate https://t.co/PC4T8XPKVm

— National Interest (@TheNatlInterest) January 2, 2018

A Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) is a theory about the evolution of warfare over time. An RMA is based on the marriage of new technologies with organizational reforms and innovative concepts of operations. The result is often characterized as a new way of warfare. There have been a number of RMAs just in the past century.

An example of an RMA is the mechanization of warfare that began in World War I with the introduction of military airpower, aircraft carriers, submarines and armored fighting vehicles. Out of these advances in technology came independent air forces, strategic bombardment and large-scale amphibious operations. Another occurred with the invention of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles leading to the creation of new organizations such as the now-defunct Strategic Air Command and new concepts such as deterrence. In the 1970s, the advent of information technologies and high-performance computing led to an ongoing RMA based largely on improved intelligence and precision strike weapons. The 1991 Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 are considered to be quintessential examples of this RMA.

According to the theory of dialectics, all revolutions give rise to counter-revolutions. The counter to the precision strike revolution arose in the form of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities. These included weapons systems such as sophisticated air defenses, long-range precision fires and unmanned vehicles. But more significantly, the A2/AD counterrevolution seeks to exploit new means of combat -- electronic and cyber warfare, in particular, and operations in domains such as outer space -- to attack the sensors, networks, and command and control systems on which the precision strike revolution was based.

A still new RMA could be imminent. It is a function, first and foremost, of the proliferation of sensors and so-called smart devices, the creation of increasingly large, complex and sophisticated information networks, and growing potential in automated systems and artificial intelligence. The first step in this revolution, now evident in the commercial world and our personal lives, is the rise of the “Internet of Things.” But it is the marriage of ubiquitous information collection, virtually unlimited data storage, advanced computational analytics and global, near-instantaneous communications that will truly revolutionize the world.

This emergent RMA is also driven by the need to address the A2/AD challenge and to more fully exploit the opportunities presented by new technologies and concepts of operations. Electronic and cyber “weapons” can be employed both offensively and defensively. Sensors and weapons in each of the domains of warfare (land, air, sea, outer space and cyberspace) can be employed in all others.

The current overarching concept encompassing the various aspects of the new RMA is Multi-Domain Battle (MDB). Although the MDB approach to future warfare is still evolving, one reasonable definition of it can be found in the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command draft document, Multi-Domain Battle: Evolution of Combined Arms for the 21st Century, 2025-2040: “a new, holistic approach to align friendly forces’ actions across domains, environments, and functions in time and physical spaces to achieve specific purposes in combat, as well as before and after combat in competition.” The key to the conduct of MDB is something called “convergence.” This is defined in the same document as...

Disneyland

Here's your humble blogger, yesterday at Disneyland, for my young son's 16th b-day.

A good time was had by all.

Mengo Aluma Air Vent Magnetic Phone Holder

Cool unit.

At Amazon, Mengo Magnetic Air Vent Car Mount – Aluma Magnetic Phone Holder – Universally Compatible for iPhone Samsung HTC LG Phones – Strong Magnetic Vent Mount.

BONUS: Michael Mandelbaum, The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's Government in the Twenty-first Century.

Blog Slow Loading in Chrome

As noted, the blog's not been loading.

So, I checked my browsers. I'm still having problems in Chrome (and will update when I get it fixed).

But I fixed the problem on my iPhone 7. Check this piece, at iGeek Blogs, "Safari Running Slow on iPhone or iPad? Five Tips to Speed It Up."

The full blog, not [just] the mobile URL, loads in about 2-3 seconds 1 second on my iPhone after implementing the fixes at that piece, so I know there's something going on in Chrome that I can't figure out.

I haven't had complaints, and the traffic's been better than normal this week, so I'm not too worried about general accessibility. I'd just like to my own reading to be enjoyable and blog performance to be good.

More later.

Thanks for reading.

Chrystia Freeland's a Bloody Idiot

Canada's reorienting its foreign policy, claiming that the U.S. is no longer the leader of the free world.

Oh boy, I'd love to let Ottawa have a piece of my mind. No extended deterrence for you!

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Good Manners Backed by Muscle Mark Canada’s Approach to the World, Chrystia Freeland Says."

So, #Canada's gonna "lead the world"? That's a laugh riot alright. https://t.co/MXsJeJvRcl

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 6, 2017

Key section of Canada foreign minister's speech: we'll work with the US wherever possible, but the US might not lead the world anymore, so. pic.twitter.com/LOwEH8SBs3

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 6, 2017

President Trump's Best Week in Office

Spread the counter-narrative people. President Trump is killing it.

Does Trump want the next four years to be like his foreign trip, or like the week before he left for Riyadh? https://t.co/Bc8mGp2RBi

— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) May 31, 2017

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Says Europe Must Take its Fate Into its Own Hands (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Angela Merkel's Germany No Longer a Reliable Alliance Partner."

Paint a little Hitler mustache on her. Pretty soon she'll be calling for "lebensraum."

Watch, "Europe can no longer rely on allies: Merkel."

Angela Merkel's Germany No Longer a Reliable Alliance Partner

Germany's getting pretty freakin' cocky.

If Trump pulls the U.S. out of NATO, Merkel's going to be down on her knees as soon as Moscow threatens German interests. The German people are pacifist. They'll fold in a crisis in a second. Remember, "America is from Mars, Europe is from Venus," even more so with the Trump administration.

Screw Merkel.

At Agence France-Presse:

Merkel warns US, Britain no longer reliable partners https://t.co/f02eQ0r95D

— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 28, 2017

Barrett Tillman, On Wave and Wing

*BUMPED.*

I love this!

Available Monday Out now, at Amazon, Barrett Tillman, On Wave and Wing: The 100 Year Quest to Perfect the Aircraft Carrier.

Should We Bring Back 'Big Stick' Dipomacy?

Professor Eliot Cohen's out with a new book, at Amazon, The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force.

And here's his op-ed at LAT from last week, "Should the U.S. still carry a ‘big stick’?":

To the extent that President-elect Donald Trump has articulated a coherent view of foreign affairs, it appears to be that the United States needs to reject most policies of the post-1945 period. NATO is a bad bargain; nuclear proliferation is a good thing; Russian President Vladimir Putin is an admirable fellow; great deals that advantage only us should replace free trade.

In his unique way, Trump is forcing a question that probably should have been up for debate 25 years ago: Should the United States stay a global power that maintains world order — including by force of arms, what Theodore Roosevelt famously called “the big stick”?

Curiously, the death of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War did not immediately occasion that debate. In the 1990s, keeping a global leadership role for the United States looked cheap — other nations, after all, paid for the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In that conflict and America’s succeeding interventions in the former Yugoslavia, costs and casualties were low. Then in the early 2000s, Americans were understandably absorbed by the consequences of 9/11 and the ensuing wars and terror attacks. Now, for better or worse, the debate is upon us.

It is worth keeping some history in mind as we decide whether to reject the posture that the United States has maintained abroad for more than half a century.

*****

President Obama hoped to end the wars he had inherited in 2008. Instead, he launched America’s third war in Iraq, ramped up our deployments in Afghanistan, expanded by an order of magnitude our campaign of counter-terrorist assassination and ordered an air campaign against the Libyan government. He deployed warships near China’s man-made islands and began redeploying American forces to a frightened Eastern Europe. Reality, not ideology, overcame his principled reluctance to exerting American power.

The choice between global engagement and America First is bogus. As in the last century, our choice is whether to lead wisely, firmly and usually peacefully while we can, or to send men and women into harm’s way belatedly and bloodily when we must. Let us hope that the new president comes to understand that we need the “big stick” not “to make America great again,” but to keep a peace that is precious, fragile and worth protecting.

RTWT.

Eliot A. Cohen, The Big Stick

*BUMPED.*

This looks outstanding!

See, Eliot A. Cohen, at Amazon, The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force.

Dennis Prager: America is in Jeopardy (VIDEO)

I love Dennis Prager.

I met him briefly at the David Horowitz West Coast Retreat in 2011.

I missed the 2016 PragerU Dinner, however. I'm sure that'd be a treat.

But don't miss Prager's outstanding book, Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph.

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought a Lexmark Black Print Toner Cartridge

As I always say, I blog for the fun of it, but certainly it's nice getting the Amazon affiliate fees.

Here's the product, Lexmark X651A11A Return Program Black Toner Cartridge.

Thanks so much for shopping through my links. That affiliate payment alone is almost enough to buy a new book!

And thanks to all my readers for checking in at the blog, sharing my posts, shopping though my links, or just generally lurking around these parts. It's greatly appreciated.

For Enemies of the United States, the U.S. Navy is a Frightening Adversary

The "silent service," via Theo Spark: