Archive for August 21, 2021

DaTechGuy Short Commentary: McDonald’s Charlie Baker Hurricane Henri & Mitt Romney (vs Joe Biden)

Posted: August 21, 2021 by datechguy in DaTechGuy's Quick Thoughts, politics
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A quick commentary on the difference between having a good administrator and not

Give all of our allies the bomb

Posted: August 21, 2021 by ng36b in News/opinion, Uncomfortable Truths
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The explosion from Operation Canopus, France’s first hydrogen bomb

There are only a handful of nations that possess the ability to manufacture and deliver a nuclear weapon. The US, Russia, China, UK and France are all members of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), which is designed to stop countries from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for using nuclear technology for peaceful ends. That hasn’t stopped countries like India, Pakistan and North Korea from developing their own weapons, and given this, its probably time to reconsider the NPT, because it might not be in the United States’ best interest to stay in this club.

The first obvious consideration is that no country that is pursuing nuclear weapons is friendly to the US. Iran continues to pursue nuclear technology despite having signed the NPT. Iran is probably receiving assistance from Russia and/or China, mainly as a way to undermine the U.S. in the Middle East. North Korea certainly hasn’t followed through on any nuclear promises. None of these are friendly to the US.

There are a number of countries that could develop nuclear as a real deterrent to real threats. Japan and Taiwan continue to be threatened by China. Both of these countries possess the people and resources to build nuclear weapons. What about South Korea? Rather than continuing to negotiate with North Korea, South Korea could easily build more nuclear weapons than North Korea ever could.

In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait could simply buy nuclear weapons as a defensive measure against Iran. Even better, the U.S. could develop a leasing option for weapons. Those countries could pay money for the U.S. to maintain weapons in a secure facility in the region for defensive purposes. The lease keeps the technology out of their hands while maintaining a legitimate threat of nuclear response.

Now, one might argue that this scenario is exactly what the NPT was trying to prevent. We don’t want to lower the threshold for nuclear weapon use to the point they become commonplace. But will this actually happen? India and Pakistan have still not yet exchanged nuclear weapons despite their hatred and both not having signed the NPT. I also find it hard to argue that countries like Japan and South Korea wouldn’t develop nuclear policy consistent with current U.S. policy.

The NPT worked when the countries of the world chose to follow it. Much like the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, when Russia and China continue to find ways to undermine the treaty, it doesn’t make continued sense to stay in, especially when it places our allies at risk of invasion. Dropping out of the NPT and arming our allies might be the simplest way to bring countries like Iran and North Korea to the negotiating table.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. You can purchase my new book, To Build a House, through this link at Amazon.

Don Surber notes the “What” Glenn Reynolds provides the “Why”

Posted: August 21, 2021 by datechguy in media, News/opinion
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At Don Surber’s site in a piece titled Taliban may take down Biden he notes an interesting change in terms of the coverage of the Biden Administration:

There is no way to spin Biden’s desertion of 38 million people in Afghanistan, including 15,000 Americans. We left billions in weaponry and vehicles to terrorists.

But it is the images of helpless people trying to flee Afghanistan that sticks in the public’s mind. 640 people wall-to-wall in a C-17 shows just how awful this abandonment of Afghanistan is.

For once, the press is actually doing its job.

Emphasis mine

Noting that the press is doing it’s job is to me the key line to Surber’s piece which like all his pieces is worth reading. However the what said piece doesn’t address is the key question that is raised by it namely: Why is the press actually doing it’s job?

After all they had no problem covering for him during the steal of the election, during the border crisis, during the spike in inflation, skyrocketing gas and food prices, the move to make us more dependent on foreign energy and kowtowing to China and Russia. and from racial division. Why would Afghanistan suddenly be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

The answer comes from something at Instapundit that was sent to Glenn Reynolds from an acquaintance of his with as he puts it: “experience and connections”:

Biden’s statement that he has seen ‘no question of our credibility from our allies’ has said allies furious. Every NATO country has people trapped in Afghanistan and they tend to be trust fund babies or friends of trust fund babies. Every prime minister’s phone is blowing up with VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE asking how they’re going to get their kids or their kids’ friends out of Afghanistan and every ally is blowing up the phones of the White House and State Department and getting jack shit from them.

And they’re all blaming ‘America’ but they also know it’s on Biden.

actually it’s on whoever is actually running the show a 2nd friend of Glenn mentions the press:

Reporters are only calling BS re the airport because their own ox is being gored. I call BS on their belated, situational flailing at accountability. Now they’re indignant, how many lies later?

You see for the pols and the connected and the sons and daughters of the connected and the friends of the sons and daughters of the connected things like CRT or Inflation or gas prices or Urban Crime or Race issues in schools or mask mandates don’t affect then. They are not going to public schools, living in inner cities or needing to worry about their personal budget. They send their kids to private exclusive schools and don’t seem to have mask mandates applied to them.

This attitude includes the elite press who long ago abandoned this good advice:

The people we cover, we move in their world, but it is their world. You can’t live like them. You’ll never keep up.

The Paper 1994

Those elite press members and the younger reporters who have ambitions of being members of the elite press who are allowed entry to said world for the price of the right coverage. As for those problems of race, inflation, violence etc..all those are for lesser folk to wit:

“I — I couldn’t take a blow, sir. I suppose I’ve been too long with gentlemen”

Among gentlemen a blow could be wiped out only in blood; among the lower orders a blow was something to be received without even a word.

C. S. Forester: Hornblower and the Hotspur 1962 p 301

To all of them it’s still 1805 and we’re the lower orders who are to take these blows without complaint.

Alas Afghanistan is a different matter:

You see hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in Afghanistan and not just on the military. There have been all kinds of programs going on there, many of them very high paying and carrying a lot of prestige and those positions have been filled by elites, family of elites and friends of families of elites who saw it as a stepping stone to higher positions back home and resume enhancers.

When the Biden administration decided to let things collapse without warning suddenly it wasn’t a problem that affected the common people back home, in fact most ordinary Americans, other than the families of troops there are likely not affected by it at all except for the increased threat of terrorist down the line,

However it DID effect all of those elites in all of those nations and all of those NGO’s that have been feeding off the American Taxpayer while in Afghanistan putting in their time and it of course affects all of those reporters who are stationed there and find themselves in danger of their lives (There’s a reason why western women reporters have suddenly discovered the joy of head coverings.)

It’s sort of like this scene from the Movie Casino where Sam Rothstein (Robert DiNero) meets with Pat Webb (LQ Jones) whose brother in law he has just fired :

As long as his own were being taken care of Webb (Jones) didn’t care what was going on in the Casino, but once his own ox was being gored things changed…

Pat Webb: Has that man even filed for his license yet?

Board Investigator: I don’t know. We’ll have to check the files.

Pat Webb: Well, without gettin’ your shorts in a knot, would you do that? And kinda check closely, ’cause we may have to kick a kike’s ass out of town.

From that moment in the movie the downfall of Rothstein and company began.

As long as the Biden administration’s moves only hurt the common voter and the elites were taken care of the elites didn’t care about what was done, but now their incompetence is affecting them and theirs it can’t be allow to stand.

That’s why the Media has suddenly started doing it job and is why the plan to replace Biden with Harris might be accelerated before January of 2023.

Unexpectedly of course.

Closing note: If it happens It won’t change who is in charge, it will just change the figurehead for those who stole the last election.