Friends, we at WaddyIsRight wish to extend our kudos and admiration to French President Emmanuel Macron who, despite being an establishment tool 90% of the time, has chosen to expend enormous political capital pursuing landmark pension reforms, bucking a massive tide of protests that have swept across "la belle France". The French people have been accustomed to retiring early, but in 2010 the minimum age to receive a state pension increased from 60 to 62. Macron has now further increased the age minimum to 64. Technically, this puts Frenchmen at a disadvantage to Americans, who can receive Social Security as early as age 62. The upshot for me, however, is that the current American system, while popular, is fiscally unsustainable, as everyone knows, but as politicians simply refuse to admit, because to "mess with" Social Security or Medicare would be electoral suicide. My view, therefore, is that the French are tackling a very serious problem, and Macron is taking the heat for performing this ultimately noble service to his nation, while we bury our heads in the sand. What's especially impressive is that leftists are routinely using violence and "civil disobedience", worldwide, to forestall policy moves and even speech that they disdain. Very often, they get away with it, because the media covers for them and sympathizes with their agendas. No doubt that is true in France, too, but Macron has decided to press on. Bully for him! If only we had statesmen of his caliber here. Instead, we'll sail nonchalantly over our own fiscal cliff, and in the end the cuts to Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid will be far more severe than they needed to be. But that, I suppose, is "democracy" in action, right?
There are some exciting things happening in space exploration and rocketry these days. Take note!
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/spacex-musk-starship-launch-test-flight/2023/04/16/id/1116330/
Lastly, these two articles are a perfect demonstration of where we stand today in American democracy. Both sides are accusing each other of being fundamentally undemocratic and vile. Both sides have a point, but the blindness of the Left to its own violations of democratic norms is more complete, simply because leftists can burrow themselves much more deeply in an ideologically pure cocoon. There is no need for any progressive ever to engage with alternative viewpoints, given the control over the media and popular culture that the Left enjoys, and most of them relish this myopia. Note that Reich admits that the only way to beat American "fascism" is by adopting some of its methods. How far will the Left go in jettisoning democratic restraints? The question ought to be: how far does it need to go, to keep its grip on power? Probably not very far, since they seem to have at least half the electorate in the palm of their hand. The rest of us they can more or less bully into submission.
Dr.Waddy from Jack: I know its not the main issue but I am much encouraged by the use of powerful lights to temporarily disable rioters without injury(?). That said: for a country with as consequential a history and culture France often seems unable to keep its head on straight. How many republics since Napoleon in addition to the restoration of a monarchy overthrown with catastrophically wrongheaded mayhem and even a comical Bonaparte encore?! Two more years in the work force is justification for playing with fire? The disorder may well be the work of marxists who seek societal collapse on any terms in order to establish their vindictive, insane dictatorship. Macron has guts.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: The space travel developments described in the article are close to incredible.I' d love to hear from other boomers at this site about the wonders we have seen in space. Our living perspective will disappear in the foreseeable future. So many of us have followed the astonishing debut and progress of mechanical and manned space exploration reaching even beyond the solar system!It was all scifi to us in the '50s; Disney knew that!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: The dems have no shame. Surely one as intelligent as Reich cannot sincerely assert that his is the only democratic party left. It takes real crust to say that. Oh my; the GOP has become the party of any means necessary yes;perfidious reflexive expedition heartlessly enacted by fanatics . Imagine: Gov. DeSantis has arrogated that Disney be stripped of the no doubt profitable self governing arrangement with the people of Florida it has long enjoyed. Why, the pity and the shame! What's next: the summary abrogation of the Constitution? Ehh,the Disney outfit which received that benefit was far different from today's politically correct factotum of the american far left, which presumes to engage in partisan politics on the tax payer's dime.Disney was a national cultural treasure and its descent is a shame. It bows to cultural marxists now.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Yeah but the Reich is a Clinton man isn't he and Slick Willy trained him well in disingenuous preemption of issues. "Why Ah've allus ben a small guvmint man; shoot, the tahm a big guvmint is ovuh, dontcha know!" With the empowerment of Donald Trump and the
ReplyDeletemobilization of a real America increasingly convinced of the open totalitarian intent of the dominant cultural marxist mob which has cuckooed the dem party, why its time to do it agin, yessir! "That GOP is just a bunch of nasty fascists". Yeah but don't be throwin me in that there briar patch now".
Jack, to paraphrase Spiro Agnew, I prefer the good, old-fashioned truncheon myself.
ReplyDeleteI rather suspect that these hotheads and street thugs will ultimately strengthen Macron's hand. The pension reforms were not popular, but mayhem isn't a crowd pleaser either.
Good point that those for whom space travel is a novelty will soon be six feet under (or, as the case may be, much further down). My generation takes it almost entirely for granted. It's very sad to me how little excitement our latest space exploits generate.
Jack, I think the only thing that Reich and his ilk care about is bamboozling the Democratic base into voting blue no matter what, and as though their lives depended on it. If vilifiying the opposition party serves that purpose, then so be it. The long-term damage it does to democracy itself doesn't seem to trouble them. I still believe that people who think like Reich and his followers would do virtually anything to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president again, and that scares me even more than the prospect of losing the election. Long story short: there's a chance that 2024 will be our last genuine, competitive, multiparty election ever.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Re boomers and space: we are lucky to have this possibly unique viewpoint. For our traditional Disney generation it was Tomorrowland come true and alot earlier than we expected in the mid 50's. I know the events like the moon landings got everybody's attention but for people like me, space developments continue to be sources of astonishing and unending wonder.Telescopes in space, landing on comets, actual composite pictures of the solar system, EXOPLANETS, a space station, the promethean Voyagers, that big oblong object they know came from outside the Solar System;hell that new booster has over twice the power of Saturn V. You see at first the Russians had bigger boosters than us because, for example, they were using tubes when we already had transistors. Saturn V was our eventual answer; 7.5 million pounds of thrust just eight years after our peashooter Vanguard. I read that if Saturn had exploded on the pad it would have been with the force of a small nuke. We may get to see a Mars landing and maybe, just maybe even on Europa or Titan and they would be fascinating in themselves but our unmanned probes have already done much glory. "Human forming" Mars though? Why? Better Antarctica. Nonetheless, its all fantastic and greatly enhances the wonders we see on a clear dark night.Again, would love to hear from other boomers on this. The two greatest things I've seen are the fall of communism in most of the world (excepting its rump contamination of the democracies) and space exploration.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Your suggestion of an end to fair elections in the foreseeable future is appalling. Your points are always are always
ReplyDeletecreditably made and that lends this prospect a grim plausibility.
Jack, that's an excellent review of the wonders we've seen in space, and the marvels yet to come. There are those who think space exploration is one giant waste of time and money. Those people lack imagination!
ReplyDeleteAs for "fair elections", there are many ways to game electoral politics and to render them essentially uncompetitive. Some are more blatantly underhanded and brutal than others. The most subtle method is to replace an uncooperative electorate with one much more cooperative...and the Dems are doing it (in spades)!