Friends, purchasing a Tesla automobile was never the practical choice. It was always about image and making a statement. That statement used to be: "I'm cool and futuristic and care about Mother Earth and you apparently don't, you disgusting fossil, you!" Now, though, that Elon Musk has revealed his capacity for bucking the progressive norm lefties are turning against him in a big, big way. Driving a Tesla is no longer a form of virtue-signaling. Now it's a mark of shame. Long story short: you could get some great deals on second-hand Teslas in the near future!
https://news.yahoo.com/op-ed-bought-tesla-help-110254125.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
In other news, poor Ukraine is still getting pounded, and the West is still making sympathetic noises about how Ukraine is ever so brave and Russia is sure to buckle under any day now. So...nothing new in the news, in other words.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64114784
Will the Biden White House cooperate with efforts by the Republican House to engage in genuine oversight of executive branch functions? Uhhhh, maybe. They're fully on board, so long as all requests are made in "good faith". No wiggle room there, clearly!
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/biden-administration-white-house-jim-jordan/2022/12/29/id/1102305/
Finally, the full-fledged Democratic and establishment Republican assault on George Santos, incoming New York Congressman, is interesting, because it demonstrates the determination of the in-crowd to retake control over the House ASAP. Make no mistake: the GOP majority in the House is going to be a major headache for Democrats and for Joe Biden. They'd like to chip away at that slender majority any chance they get. Now, does Biden himself tell daily whoppers about his own past? Sure, but that's adorable. Everyone agrees on that. It's different when Republicans do it. Then, why, it's positively criminal! The real question is why so many Republicans are amplifying these leftist attacks on Santos. I presume the reason is because they get their news from the same sources!!!
Dr.Waddy from Jack: Assuming now that article about Teslas is not the parody I thought it was at first: I rejoice to see the discomfiture that the politically correct may now be enduring. They cause very much trouble for the common sense majority with their casual presumptions and their intense antipathy to any who doubt. EG: New York State is well on the way to BANNING gas heating; no matter that we sit here on an ocean of relatively clean burning natural gas and that replacing our natural gas infrastructure in our homes will bring untold hardship nevertheless unregretted by the woke. "That it is woke, that it is deemed CORRECT is to say it is unassailably just!" Maybe this Tesla contretemps may give them the suggestion of pause in others of their smoky dreams!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: It is a common and self serving view among criminals that it is the society as a whole which is truly criminal. The present obvious" mutual admiration society " between the lawless and the left is yet another manifestation of the assured and characteristic tactic of the left in declaring all who doubt them to be outlaw. Had they the means, they would bring the full power of law enforcement on any person or entity which thwarts their arbitrary and totalitarian sway. In taking Santos to task for apparent violation of well established standards of integrity, those GOP ers who do, while having good intentions, end up serving the ends of a proven amoral incipiently totalitarian American left. The left took the gloves off long ago; we will never stop them from destroying our world without ours off!
ReplyDelete". . . without skinning ours off too!" Correction from Jack
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Russia gives no sign of relenting on the conviction that made them start this war: " Ukraine in Nato is absolutely intolerable". Ukraine understandably shows no willingness to give Russia what it wants and it is fighting remarkably well. Military defeat and or collapse in either country appears to be the likely resolution (?)Russian brutality makes moral equivalency impossible ubut whether we like it or not Russian intransigence on this is objectively plausible, given its history and Ukrainian loathing for Great Russia cannot be gainsaid.
ReplyDeleteJack, amazingly, that article WASN'T parody! Leftists really are that childish and neurotic. On the other hand, they're also that relentless, and sheer will often carries the day.
ReplyDeleteJack, you're right, in the main, that Ukraine shows no sign of giving in, but they have, in point of fact, telegraphed a willingness to take NATO membership off the table. That's the irony here: the cause of the war was a fever dream never likely to be realized in the first place, and not all that important to anyone, save the Russians, who view further expansion of NATO as an existential threat. Maybe we shouldn't have poked the bear?
Dr.Waddy froJack:How plausible to Russia is Ukraine's willingness to forego Nato ?Russia will require guarantees going beyond Ukraine's stated intent. The Rus have paid a deservedly heavy price but the west did push the rugged and proud Russians too far in courting Ukraine. Nato is strong enough already to contain a Russia which after all never violated a Nato nation. Perhaps if Ukraine renounces Crimea (which was part of Russia even before the USSR and Ottoman before that) and Nato gives Russia to believe it has learned its lesson ( do not present Russia :surely NOT Russia ,with what it plausibly sees as an unbearable affront and a true fundamental threat) Russia may withdraw from Ukraine and "grant" Ukraine its independence. But if factors beyond Ukrainian membership in Nato now obtain, then who knows what Russia may need to be "persuaded"to relent?
ReplyDeleteJack, you raise an excellent point that any and all undertakings made by Ukraine, Russia, and NATO are not necessarily trustworthy. A country might agree to almost anything to end a conflict, if it feels the conflict has become unsupportable, but that doesn't mean that the same demands won't arise again under more propitious circumstances. If I were Russia, I would probably take a pledge from NATO seriously (that it would forego Ukraine), but only because I've never thought it likely that every NATO country would agree to Ukrainian membership anyway. At this point, though, both Ukraine and Russia must regard one another as very potent threats, and thus a cessation of hostilities won't fundamentally change the calculus of risk. I fear this war will go on until one side or the other cries uncle.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Very good points, yours. Perhaps Nato should actually go through the public process of voting on Ukrainian membership (while secretly assuring Russia that the vote cannot but result in rejection of Ukraine; this to prevent Russia from panicking). Nato has gained Sweden and Finland, both hard fighting nations with geographic positions highly favorable for containing Russia, especially a Russia which now appears far less conventionally imposing. Russia ought never again to task a now proven resolute Ukraine and lacking the motive of imminent Ukrainian
ReplyDeleteAnonymous from Jack:. . .membership in Nato, might not have the heart to ever venture it again. No country wants nuclear war, so let both sides be as wise as to defuse it, as happened in '62. In its gallant defense Ukraine has earned incalculable respect and though it deserves physical revenge against a Great Russia which has repeatedly done it terrible wrong, would do the world, some of which has risked Russian ire to help it,much good by accepting territorial restoration which nonetheless respects the wishes of ethnic Russian Ukrainians and leaves Crimea be.
ReplyDeleteJack, the future is an open question, as always. but one thing I believe we can take for granted: Ukraine will never again take Russia lightly, and conversely Russia will never take Ukraine lightly. Thus, this horrible conflict may do its part to deter future wars. That would be a blessing!
ReplyDelete