Friends, the golden age of print journalism is behind us now -- way, way behind us. One of my conservative amigos has written a great piece on the evolving (devolving?) mass media, and I recommend it to you highly:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/08/04/the_decline_and_fall_of_newspapers_147991.html
I applaud Josh Hawley for being the only U.S. Senator to vote against NATO expansion. Too many other Senators -- including Republicans, it seems -- are caught up in jingoistic Russophobia right now, and can't see the inherent risks in doubling down on an alliance that has never amounted to anything but a blank check U.S. security guarantee to most of Europe. How dumb can we be??? Pretty dumb, apparently!
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-votes-support-finland-sweden-joining-nato/story?id=87900093
Finally, the establishment is circling the wagons, trying to shield Liz Cheney from Republicans' wrath, so as to make it a little less likely that the mega-ogre DJT will be the GOP nominee in 2024. I say: good luck to them! No one cares what Dick Cheney thinks anymore, and it's just plain sad how much the party's old guard is openly in revolt against the populism and nationalism that now -- rightly! -- define conservatism.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/election-2022-wyoming-dick-cheney/2022/08/04/id/1081829/
Dr.Waddy from Jack: The Real Clear Politics article opened my eyes on why newspapers are dying. My reflexive answer would have been: "because of the disgraceful leftist biases practiced by far too many journalists". The author says that is significant but that the major reason is technological advance.His argument makes sense to me.
ReplyDeleteFROM RAY TO NICK AND JACK
ReplyDeleteWhen talking about most Members of the U.S. Congress, we are talking about people of average intelligence who are able to spin enough b.s. to get elected. Very few have a real understanding of what is going on in the U.S., and very often even in their own states. They are certainly not bright enough to understand other countries, and what is going on internationally. Of course there are always exceptions, but not very many. Also, expanding NATO has to do with big money in contracting, so at least our MC people have enough sense to know the goose that lays the golden eggs. In addition, most of the MCs get sucked in by that superficial and artificial environment of Washington, D.C. Finally, once they get up there they develop a sense of their own worth which is far lower than what they think it is. The dumbest ones get dumber the longer they stay up there. To be fair, there are good and decent people in Congress.
Dr.Waddy from Jack: But don't you think Nato kept the Bear in his cage from Nato's founding until now? The Russians must have seen Nato as a credible threat.Of course the prospect of Ukraine (!!??) in Nato would have been unimaginable. Sweden and Finland greatly enhance Nato's power, yes, but the Rus have a now forcefully demonstrated absolute intolerance for Nato in Ukraine. Would we go war with the Rus for Latvia or Moldova? Do the Russians think we would? Surely it presents much risk in their eyes. I do not think they could beat Nato; do they think this?What could motivate them to take that risk? Ukraine or Georgia, I think. Should the Rus accomplish something they might see as a reasonable guarantee of no Nato membership for Ukraine(eg permanent possession of Donbas and Crimea, )they might think it enough. But without such a (to them) defacto assurance or a credible formal agreement perhaps with Eastern Ukraine as a hostage, Russia will do what it thinks it must to rid itself of this undurable outrage and physical threat!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: "american" left contempt for the real America is intense, reflexive, presumptuous and unreasoning. They are fully capable of thinking Liz Cheney any threat to President Trump's candidacy. They are getting desperate and retreating ever further into druggy lala land, where pain becomes pleasure, " with a little help from (their) friends! "
ReplyDeleteJack, there is certainly more at work in the decline of print journalism than mere technological change. I mean, technology can't dictate who and what we TRUST, can it? I think not.
ReplyDeleteRay, I agree that there are "good and decent" people in Congress, but they generally express their goodness and their decency in conventional, poll-tested ways, and not by providing visionary or truly insightful leadership. But hey, that's a weakness of democracy, but it may also be a weakness of all human artifice. What political or social system has RELIABLY produced outstanding leadership? Now, there's a question that would certainly stump me, as a historian...
Jack, I don't believe that Sweden and Finland would "greatly enhance NATO's power" at all. NATO's power, for all intents and purposes, is limited to the willingness of the U.S. to expend blood and treasure to defend a long list of pipsqueak countries in Europe. The second that our security guarantees lose their credibility, the NATO treaty wouldn't be worth the paper it's printed on. That's my opinion, of course.