Friends, the credulity of lefties sometimes defies belief. They will swallow ANYTHING that fits with their agenda, or which fulfills their stated desires or subliminal wishes. Case in point: in the last few days numerous "intellectually superior" (by their accounts) progressives have speculated that, because Donald Trump hasn't made any public appearances in days, he must be dead. No doubt some of them speculated further on what had killed him. A Russian spy satellite fell out of the sky and squashed him? An oversized bronze eagle fell off his mantle and impaled him with its beak? He spontaneously combusted due to insufficient consumption of mRNA vaccines? All plausible scenarios! But no: El Presidente is alive and well. The lefties will have to move on to the next fever dream...
In other news, Vice-President J.D. Vance has called out a specific Politico reporter for her scurrilous lies. Well done, I say! Tackling the press person-to-person and in detail is a somewhat unusual tack for a Vice-President, but in this case the excoriation was richly deserved. Politico should fire this hack pronto.
https://x.com/JDVance/status/1961416107924787497
Finally, here's an interesting analysis of the rise of Red China's navy. It has already bested us in total number of ships, but of course that is a very crude measure of naval strength. My guess, in fact, is that ships won't matter much in the next big naval war, in the sense that missiles will make quick work of many of them. The country that has the better missiles and the more sophsticated and robust targeting systems will rule the waves, if you ask me.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: The left, even those of good will among them, suffer unbearable and futile hope that this all unlooked for advent and continued reign of this opponent who knows them so well, does not fear them and has their number, can be summarily ended. It is unthinkable to them that their irrefutable wisdom, their undoubted justice, can be so slandered! Surely its a nightmare from which they will awake to a land embraced by Marxist beatitude. NOT!
ReplyDeleteThey should consider this: it has been over 100 years since their Marxist doctrine was first empowered in the government of a terribly unlucky country, Russia. Since then: China, Cambodia, Vietnam, most of Eastern Europe, some African nations and Cuba. In every one of them Marxism affirmed , IN PRACTICE, its essential inhumanity and virtually limitless ability and commitment to OPPRESS.
This isn't 1917, when Marxism could be discussed by reasonable and knowledgeable people as a possibly humane alternative to the obvious shortcomings of capitalism. Since then the Marxism which informs a very viable candidate for Mayor of N.Y. and actual members of our national legislature, has been catastrophically and thoroughly discredited by its execrable record. We can only assume that the "American" far left's continuing motivation by this hellish doctrine means they approve of it, thinking that it is worth it in order to bring about the perfect world they actually think is possible.
There has never been any use in trying to dissuade them. They are immovable except by force. Their minds are closed. In our democracy, the force necessary to stop them from "fundamentally transforming " America to one satisfying their uhh, "discriminating" tastes is fully available to us if we do but use it! The left's unrelenting campaign to reduce our polity to one tethered by their totalitarian rule show's how very much they hate and fear our democracy, knowing that under the right leader it can deny them their heartfelt life's desire. Well, against all odds , we have the right leader and I don't blame the far left for being terrified of him and wishing his immediate demise.
On one level, Jack, I agree with you, but the lefties would be wise to consider what would happen if Trump were, in fact, to die. We would have PRESIDENT VANCE!!! They could awaken from one "nightmare" and immediately be thrust into another...potentially far worse!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Yeah, and we could have Pres. Vance for fully 7 1/2 years. But the Dems are so emotionally captured by insane Trump hatred that they would probably still celebrate if we lost him. DJT must have an iron constitution to thrive as he has in the pressure cooker he has been in since he dared to invade the political scene .
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Xi summed up China's fundamental foreign policy motivation quite frankly and accurately , I think. The dolorous history of 1840 to 1949 is a terribly galling memory for a civilization as old and proud as is China's. But it is a matter of speculation for us as to what China believes to be necessary to ensure its national integrity. More on their Navy . . .
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: There is another factor to be considered and it necessitates a look back at Great Britain's once invincible fleet. In the late 19th and early 20th century Germany attempted to build a battleship fleet which could threaten the Royal Navy. They knew they could never hope to out produce Britain' shipyards but their strategy was to build rugged ships and use them to manuver the Royal Navy so as to trap portions of it into piecemeal destruction and thereby reduce its power to an extent which would enable German victory in an all out fight. They tested this at the Battle of Jutland in WWI and though they prevented another Trafalgar and did maul part of the British fleet , they retreated soon enough and never reemerged in force. I think the well deserved mystique of the Royal Navy's eventually inevitable triumph was a debilitating psychological burden for the German command, including the ultimately timid Kaiser.
ReplyDeleteI think the U.S. Navy commands a similarly intimidating and deterrent reputation. The Japanese made a massive effort to take it on and they were crushed. The Soviets tried it too and it helped to bankrupt them.
I think the Chinese fleet is intended to do just what Xi said its for, the defense of China. But of what that objective consists, in Chinese thinking, may be unclear.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I made another, extended comment on the Chinese Navy just before the above. It looks like I did not properly send it. I'll reprise it tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Ok , I'll try again. I looked at a list of Chinese Navy ships by type:
ReplyDeleteThey have 85 amphibious ships , including helocopter carriers, which are vital in doing vertical envelopment. But do they know how to use them? To my knowledge they have no experience of amphibious combat. The best amphibious Navy ever, the U.S. Navy in WWII, went through much bloody on the job training before it got really good at it. After awhile the Japanese conceded them the landing beaches without contest.
Taiwan is the apparent objective of such a force. Just now it is a "fleet in being" and may be used as such to keep Taiwan from getting uppity.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: They have three attack aircraft carriers. These could provide air support for an invasion of Taiwan. They might also be intended to intercept Japan based U.S. carriers which might contest it. China has no experience of carrier warfare but China itself is an unsinkable carrier with plenty of planes and missiles on its China Seas littoral.
ReplyDeleteWe have made carriers a traditional instrument for projecting our power to virtually any location within range of its aircraft. We can concentrate ferocious firepower , including nuclear, with despatch. I do not know of China yet having sent its carriers much beyond its nearby waters .
They have over 100 destroyers and frigates. A modern destroyer is akin to a WWII cruiser: a large heavily armed fast vessel used for commerce raiding, fighting other ships of its type, antiaircraft protection for the carriers and now , antisubmarine tasks. Like ours, Chinese destroyers probably have very advanced surveillance and combat electronics. Frigates are smaller versions of destroyers perhaps intended by China to protect their prolific Indian Ocean commerce with the Middle East and East Africa.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: China has created a 'blue water navy" ( as opposed to a purely coastal defense force) which could be capable of transporting credible force to any coast.
ReplyDeleteIt is reported that a Chinese naval force recently circumnavigated Australia. China faces a potentially hostile crescent of naval nations including Japan, S. Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan (the keystone), Indonesia, Australia and India, not to mention the omnipresent U.S. Navy. Perhaps this epic voyage was meant to send a message that China's fleet may ready for projection well beyond China's coast. I thinks its main purpose remains the defense of China and the prevention of any reprise of the foreign oppression China endured from 1840 to 1950. But China may regard the potentially worldwide use of a "blue water fleet" to be vital to that purpose.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I did not include Singapore and Malaysia in the crescent flanking East China because I think neither has more than a coastal defense Navy. What they DO have though, are the Straits of Malacca. Traditionally this has been an extremely important military and commercial passage. It was one of the major reasons the U.S. did not want to see commie takeover of S.E. Asia; we feared that they would eventually control that passage, even though the Brits had defeated a commie insurrection in their Malayan colony after WWII.
ReplyDelete