Friends, Elon Musk, wise man, is warning us that we may be careening towards World War III -- and, what's more, it could be the last war that humans ever fight. Alternatively, it could be a war that America loses, given the massive changes in the economic/industrial balance of power that have transpired in the last few decades. Complacency is enemy number one, for the Israelis and for us.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/elonmusk-war-ukraine/2023/10/24/id/1139490/
In other news, the progressives' fever dream of EVs for everyone is running up against some very practical constraints and limitations. It gives one pause, and it makes it hard to believe that this massive transition could be made in the record time that lefties' have in mind.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Since you've been so considerate about allowing me to digress from the subject of a post, I'm going to presume its ok to go ahead. Well, if one wants to know how it was in the middle to late 60s: its baaack! The elect, the all "feeling", the unchallengeably just college student elite has risen again in righteous wrath. And just as it was then they deny any hint of actual sympathy with the subhumans, like commies and terrorists , with whom they yet make common cause. "Why we just wanted peace back then and so NVA General Giap says we kept them going; why that's "irrelevant. 'Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh!' Oh that was just a catchy phrase which inspired us while we were trashing taxpayer supported universities; fie on you for thinking us remiss!"
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Today: " how dare you think us antisemitic? Yes, the marxist antiamerican left of which we are essential cadre has well documented " problems" with Jews. And though "colonialism" has long been a sore point with us, this present situation really gets our goat. Of course our now aroused intensity in this matter has no hint of antisemitism in it even though we do 'tolerate' signs saying 'death to Israel' and 'kill the Jews' in our midst; after all our devotion to free speech is well known. And the certainty that the subhumans we succor today would if they could, be pleased to administer medieval justice to us for our impassioned stands on matters of sex and gender; why that again is 'irrelevant' ( our standard expression of dismissal, from our glorious past).
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Of course the goals for adoption of virtuous electricity in transportation being forced on us by the "environmental" crowd are unrealistic and undoable. They are the stuff of dreams. But the chaos they create is an ancillary benefit welcomed by the antiamerican marxist left. They are convinced that collapse of our erring civilization, necessarily attended by, uh, disorder, is indispensable in clearing the path for their permanent totalitarian accension.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I am glad to see the increasing attention being paid to the close relationship between Iran and China. As for an "axis" of Russia, China and Iran, I dunno but if we keep needlessly provoking Russia we might drive them into such an arrangement.
ReplyDeleteJack, so you see a lot of continuity between the self-satisfied, pedantic, politely anti-American academic crowd then and now? Fair enough. Maybe the key difference is that these days the radicals on campus enjoy the active connivance of university administrators!
ReplyDeleteTo be sure, there is a degree of tolerance on the Left for anti-Semitism, insofar as it often emanates from Muslims, who are, by definition, beyond reproach...
Oh, I think the obsession with EVs can be, and will be, dialed down, if it becomes truly toxic to the economy. For now, it's just a great way to enrich the Dem donor class. As long as money grows on trees, why not?
I don't see any "Axis" of China, Russia, and Iran forming anytime soon. And, even if it did, how could these countries offer one another meaningful support? it's unthinkable that Chinese soldiers would find themselves fighting in the Donbass, no?
Dr. Waddy from Jack: The administrators of the 60's, being of the WWII generation,were probably stunned beyond measure by the unprecedented vicious ingratitude and antiamericanism of so many of their boomer charges.Today's administrators are the children and grandchildren of radical boomers and carry on in the disgraceful tradition.
ReplyDeleteestablished by their marxist captured boomer scions.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Chinese soldiers in Ukraine? Unlikely.But Chinese military aid of some sort to Iran: much more of a concern I think. Iran is very important to China; it has been plausibly described by a well informed commentator as the western terminus of a new Silk Road. China may well see Iran as the keystone to its ever burgeoning commerce with Africa and the Middle East It may also see it as a means of militarily flanking India should that become necessary.
ReplyDeleteBoy, Jack -- you ascribe way more importance to the strategic value of Iran than I would. I would guess that China is happy to sell Iran arms and buy its oil, but otherwise couldn't care less about it. And oil really is the bottom line: Iran wants to sell it, China wants to buy it, and, at the end of the day, we want Iran to sell it and China to buy it, because an interruption in the global supply of oil would be catastrophic for everyone, including us. I foresee no major changes in Iran's position in the world economy or in global affairs. Maybe the mullahs will get a rap on their knuckles, but I doubt even that will happen.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I would recommend to you Robert D. Kaplan's The Return of Marco Polo's World (c 2018) to see an intriguing argument as to how important Iran is to China.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jack. Can you give me the Cliffs Notes version? What, besides oil, would China be after?
ReplyDelete