Allen's Weblog

Having taken a hiatus from politics for several weeks, whilst reading a lot of historical mystery novels, I return to the political fray only because my newspaper Editor requested a column.
You don’t know how much more interesting the novels were. I read more than 20, and enjoyed it immensely!

The kerfuffle of Ann Coulter at Berkeley — now the kerfuffle of Anne Coulter not at Berkeley — makes me bookmark my place, electronically of course, and comment.

We see the subject of “Mob Veto” is glorious action, not for the first time of course, conservative speakers on college campuses have frequently been abused, but this was apparently one bridge too far. Finally, after years of silence, celebrity liberals are fed up. When Bill Mahr and the ACLU speak, liberals listen, but this has been a long journey.

Today, the “AntiFascists” — read Anarchists– are planning to riot on the Berkeley campus of U of California regardless of the cancellation of the Coulter speech, but the tide of liberal support is waning quickly. This support, active and tacit, is support the Progressive Movement has counted upon on college campuses.

We shall see further today. If any protestors show up, at all. And how the Berkeley police respond. Last time they responded with a donut and coffee run.

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This strike on Syria reflects Trump’s personality…and it sends a more overarching signal than just to the Syrian military. Putin heard it loudly, Iran, China and Kim Jong Un heard it as well. 
Any president has the power to strike if they have a timely need. The timely need this time was to tie the nexus between the gas attack and our reaction. I can only hope that Trump continues by establishing a US protected sanctuary for the millions of displaced Syrians, and, if Trump really wants to exercise our overwhelming power in the region, he might try a “No Fly” zone.

There is a new Sheriff in town!

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It is not normal in this modern world to initiate a “First Strike” — but if any nation deserved it, that would be North Korea. Apparently, that is the message that the White House is delivering to China.
China gets the opportunity, the first right of refusal as it were, to save their client state. Of course we have made such requests/threats before, but we have never had an irrational and unpredictable leader. That is a plus for our side. Maybe.
We don’t know Kim Jong Un’s mind, but we have to look to the intersection of rhetoric with opportunity. Fat Kim has threatened American bases in Japan, but that would hardly be worth dying for. The American fleet in Pearl Harbor, or San Diego, or perhaps San Francisco as a population center.
I fear Fat Kim’s isolation. He may believe his Generals, or his press clippings concerning his power relative to that of the United States, much like Saddam Believed his Generals that he had weapons of mass destruction. Of course North Korea would become a parking lot that glows at night, but that would not save San Francisco.
I have often thought that I would live to see an American city struck with a nuclear or chemical/biological or radiological weapon, and even at my advanced age I still believe that. Unfortunately. My only question is a non-nuclear weapon of mass destruction from the East, or a nuclear weapon from the West.
So do we intercept the NK by striking first? Can we neutralize the 16,000 artillery pieces aimed at Seoul without first evacuating the city, and would such an evacuation trigger the guns before we do any strike, nuclear or otherwise. Right now Seoul is the hostage that has thus far limited us to cyber warfare, but so little of the NK is on the internet that limits our reach.
No, at some point we must go kinetic, or China/NK must believe that we are serious enough to go kinetic. That alone would be a change!
It is pretty easy to describe the problem but damn near impossible to solve the problem. A surprise attack on the artillery would require a full compliment of B-1 and B-2 bombers from the U.S. and you can’t do that in this age without alerting the Russian/Chinese satellite network and therefore North Korea.
‘Tis a puzzlement! I can only hope that China acts to defuse this crises, quickly

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