“Japan on High Alert Following North Korea’s Attack”.
It will be interesting to watch both China and our President here.
As well as Glenn Beck and SEK, I suppose.
Developing…
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Perhaps not a prelude to invasion, but Kim Jong Mentally-Il is up to something nefarious alright, thinking China has his back. I wonder what would happen if Beijing told him, “You’re on your own, chump”…
I haven’t decided yet whether this is very serious or if Kimmy is having a bad day and was feeling ignored by the national community. I don’t mean to make light of people dying, but when you have a nation lead by a leader like him, it’s difficult to know just what the heck is going on.
I’m inclined to blame this not so much on the ronery dwarf than on his Number Two Son, who was recently given some power in preparation for the day when Firesign Theater gets handed the pliers.
Beck’s word for what’s in our future is “The Perfect Storm,” although that term always bothered me for its positive connotations.
China won’t leave the Norks twisting in the wind. It’s more important to them to let the Norks continue to provoke while the visibly impotent U.S. wrings its hands and does nothing.
Oh, I see what’s going on: Yeonpyeong Island has been part of a territorial dispute for years. Expect the usual suspects on the Left to back the North on this…
(yeah, I know it’s Wikipedia, but that’s what the lefties will based their indignation on)
here’s a cool hyundai building
South Koreans would be cross with the US should the US take the decision to glassify Pyongyang you’re saying hf? If that, I think I’d agree with you. It’s a nasty fix they’re in, those Southies.
They’re trolling for attention. Since Jeff implemented comment registration, they’ve lost their usual outlet for validating their existence.
I said a boatload about it here ( http://tiny.cc/nork ) early this morning. Not much has changed since then, really, save for the President convening a boatload of brass at 1600 Penn to hash out our response.
Seems to me like a good time to have the folks at Whiteman AFB get some of those B-2’s prepped for flight.
Of course, the Geaorge Washington carrier group is on station, so there’s that.
I have no opinion really. South Korea has outsourced what instinct they may have for self-preservation for many many moons and their #1 ally is an economic basket case.
Sucks to be them.
There are 32,500 US military personnel in South Korea and another 42,000 in Japan, plus families. I hope for all their sakes this is just saber rattling, and that Obama doesn’t do anything stupid.
It is always 3:00 a.m. somewhere.
Almost surprising that the usual suspects have waited this long.
I’m not sure it’s fair to say that one reason this is happening is that Obama has shown himself to have no desire to keep things like this from happening. It’s impossible to demonstrate whether this is true.
I’m saying it anyway.
I cannot keep up with this stuff… first I have to fight the war on the war on Christmas, now Korea?! I am sure this is somehow the fault of one George W. Bush, ne?
I’d swap them a hole-in-the-ground where their nukes used to be for this island shelling. But I can talk big since I’d never be at risk….oh, wait.
Can we haz a few 2000 pounders center mass on the USS Pueblo, now?
…that’s probably hatey of me.
Word.
Maybe do a swap with the Chinese instead, along the lines of sending an envoy to deliver the message: “We’ll trade you our decision to glassify [x] portion of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (hands the Chinese a vague target list) for your decision to remove the Kim family from power there and allow the gradual opening of that nation to an escape from tyranny. We’ll be happy to wait here an hour or two while you make your decision; then perhaps a day or two after that decision see the Kims hanging by their necks before we act.”
I’m still confused, I thought the world was supposed to heal when Obama became President. Its almost like the Left lied to get him elected.
Here’s a swap I bet the Chicoms would go for:
1) Chinese “peacekeeping” troops enter NK.
2) Chinese gently encourage Kim family to accept exile.
3) We gently encourage Taiwanese who don’t want to reunify with China to move (maybe to NK). Chinese promise to let any Taiwanese leave peacefully who want to.
4) SWAP: China gets to take over Taiwan, Republic of Korea gets to take over Norks. Everybody happy now, except for those who wanted to keep Taiwan independent.
right now I just figure the least likely outcome is a decisive one
– The NK has been sniping and causing 38th parallel “incidents” continuously since the month after the treaty signing back in the early 50’s. There is absolutely nothing “new” about this. The Legacy MFM just does not cover it, Never really has, except in instances like this that are so blatant they can’t afford to get caught ignoring it.
– China has told the North repeatedly they’re not going to get drawn into an all out war, and the North is on its own if it gets hammered for some stupid move.
– These sorts of things generally happen when the North is running out of money so badly they can’t afford caviar and Resse’s for the dear leader. Sort of foreign aide by blackmail. Give us some aide or we’ll start some shit.
– The border has been mined for all these years with limited Nuclear mines. Any attempt by the North to invade the South would simply be a total disaster for the NKV.
– Now, that torpedo did not explode, and I was never here…..
O/T:
Jeff, I don’t know if anyone has this emailed to you but:
The Originalism Blog
I hope ……………… that Obama doesn’t do anything stupid.
Makewi, you might just as well roll your hope up and light your cig with it.
– In other news…..
– Seems the lady who voiced her unhappimess over the promised Utopia of the Golden Urkle has lost her job…..imagine that….
– But she remains a supporter, because well, once you’re a victim of the state, what else can you do….
The Nikkei 225 isn’t tanking. Gapped down about 150 though.
Yeah, I’m with BBH on this. This isn’t saber-rattling this is tin cup rattling. The North will get shot a one-time grant of a couple of billion and will calm down after that.
We cant do crap politically, economically or strategically. NoK knows this; they can do 100-times less, so there is that.
Unlike Germany, there is little organic movement for reunification on any side of the South Korean culture. They have a fear of war; they are terrified of having to absorb a sovereign basket case and its 8 million soup kitchen residents.
Japan has no cred for the next 100 years because of their beastly showing ca. 1933-45. China is the SK/Japan enemy and is feared and loathed, save for NoK, who looks to it for $5s and $10s to get high every so often. In turn for having a retarded cousin with a mean streak to its south, the Chinese keep them in their boxes. China does not want aggravated US military action on its borders for a host of reasons–least of all is nukes–and is horrified at being drawn into Sarajevo 1914 all over again. The next confrontations with the US will be seaborne in 25 years, when our economic degradation and dependancy will be thorough and a sharp, short action will force a reconsideration of Eastern Pacific strategy for a nation that at that point, bets Beijing, has no political will to get another X killed for some place our public schools dont even indicate exists.
[The people watching our ME silliness most closely over the past 8 years has been the Chinese. They were profoundly shocked we stayed the course in Iraq and even managed to cobble together something of a functioning…state. Afghanistan has played right to type in their view. Quick, initial victories, followed by strategic degradation and loss of social cohesion and political will.]
Gentlemen,
While you may be right about the “cup shaking” nature of this action, one motivation I didn’t consider in the link I posted upthread, I have to point out that prior to today’s exchange no civilian deaths or towns/villages were involved. That’s what makes todays action unique, regardless of motivation.
I look forward to a peaceful resolution, of course, like most people do, but confess that I wouldn’t see much wrong with a few of the NoKo submarines going sinker…
For accidental reasons, of course…
Roddy – changing fail narratives to Af from Iraq are we?
I rather imagine the Chinese are a bit puzzled by our staying in Afghanistan so long – but they don’t get their intel from the WaPo or NYT or DKos, so they probably are not all that puzzled. They are using NK to their advantage quite well. Like having a really mean, half starved dog roaming around that will only obey them – “gosh, maybe if you help me out here, I can call it off…”
“I have to point out that prior to today’s exchange no civilian deaths or towns/villages were involved. That’s what makes today’s action unique, regardless of motivation.”
– With all due respect Bob, that statement is only true by the narrowest of definitions of “attack”. The NKV know any all out attack along the border is fruitless, so they look for isolated targets. This particular island has been shelled on countless occasions, along with others you’ll not likely hear about. The only real difference is this time they got lucky and hit some targets, mainly because they used more armaments for a longer period of time.
– Here’s an article, that although it makes the same erroneous statement, shows the South Koreans are fully aware of the North’s motivations.
I read the Yahoo article, but also made the mistake of reading the comments and lost a couple of IQ points in the balance.
– You’ve been cautioned about that in the past Frontman…
So what are we supposed to do about this, other than what we already have?
BBH,
No disrespect taken friend. While there have been many artillery duels across the DMZ, and around 600 US and Korean KIAs since the armistice, this is the first time civilian target, or casualties, were involved. ( http://tiny.cc/DMZNOKO )
I don’t doubt that isolated, uninhabited, areas may have also been shelled, along with indiscriminate shelling of the “occupied” sea itself-a wasteful, blustering, practice I can’t understand at all; as well as the sinking of the Cheonan in March of this year. But civilians weren’t previously targeted as part of a traditional attack.
I can’t say for sure about attempted infiltration of commando-like operatives.
Let’s hope that this is the end of South Korea’s Sunshine Policy with the North. Li’l Kim played SK and U.S. like a pawn shop Les Paul in a Pete Townshend impersonation contest for the last decade, thanks to that retro-detente abomination. Now, I wouldn’t be averse to bombing the perimeters of their giant concentration camps, China be damned.
And I also hope that the U.S. will untie South Korea’s hands when it comes to defending itself. For decades, for the sake of “stability”, the U.S. has stiffed the South’s attempts to develop a rocket program. So they turned to Russia, with sadly craptastic results.
I have a couple of nephews-in-law in the SK military. Fortunately, they are not stationed near Yeonpyeong Island, though who knows what the hell will happen now…
I forgot to add that the NoKo’s motives were well known to most everyone in the world-except me! The tin-cup angle was about all I didn’t consider in a post I put up at POWIP early this morning, and linked to in the first 10 comments.
LtC John, no I havent.
Thats just the reality of the situation: Iraq is static, if not under control while Afghanistan is giving us heartaches.
Perhaps I should clarify that the Chinese were stunned by the degree to which the US populace took casualties in a war–Iraq-that Chinese Intel thought of secondary importance to the American people.
Afgahnistan being OBL and AQ/Taliban were, they had us figured for justly wanting to devote our national honor to complete victory there first.
Why is the drumbeat that China is our enemy and North Korea is its proxy? Is that new?
Yes it is. It’s only been true for the last sixty years or so. If you blinked it’s no wonder you missed it.
China needs the Norks as a buffer.
The Norks need food.
The Chinese would rather not feed their buffer. They have over fifty years of experience watching Western democracies do that job for them. They also have food problems of their own, and are just now waking up to the fact that the Stalinist Paradise they thought served them is in fact a case of geographic psychopathy and they are sitting on the same bench with it.
I think they’ll watch Obama crumble for a few weeks before they do anything. If the Norks do collapse in a fit of suicidal offensive action, it may be enough to remove the ROK as a problem once the Norks are in the history books.
Hell, even if the Norks shoot their WMD wad, and the U.S. actually acts on our published policy (I’d not bet that we would… given our lack of leadership) prevailing winds mean more trouble for Japan than for China. Win win for the Klingons.
Brinksmanship is a high art as practiced by the Norks, yes. But after the sinking of the corvette, even they must be somewhat abashed at the refusal of the Free World to do SOMETHING… shelling civilians on an island is the last provocation that doesn’t involve combat on the peninsula.
Last call.
Hope! Change!
I wasn’t taught that.
So what are we supposed to do about this, other than what we already have?
– The best action is no action cynn. We effectively boxed the NK in with the mining of the DMZ, and frustrated any sort of direct action on their part.
– Problem is, if they get desperate enough they may just say the hell with it and take a chance.
– Only answer is to keep them just below the breakout point with aide from various sources, including us.
So this is just a hair-pulling match between the skinny sister and the buxom one. Go back to sleep.
Frontman,
The most ignorant and illiterate of the trolls we see here are the best and brightest of those who post comments at mainstream media websites.
Also, read the comments at ESPN or Fox Sports at your peril…
Go back to sleep.
– Well no. We need to always be vigilant, because although the NKV would be wholesale slaughtered in any outright war*, such an event could put us in direct confrontation with China.
*(The kill ratio was running about 30 to 1 near the end of the war, and that was 50+ years ago. Imagine what it would be now with today’s weapons in a linear combat setting.)
cynn-
The number one problem facing any “response” is that militarily and diplomatically, there really aren’t any. The only think that Kim Jong Il wants is to be God for another day. He keeps a few hundred enablers paid up and spends his time grooming a son to take over and twisting the world’s collective tale to keep him in brandy, cigars, and bad suits.
You did know that aside from unreliable weapons, the only capital exports from North Korea are counterfeit U.S. currency and fake pharma, right?
Seoul, Korea is a truly magnificent city. I don’t know how many million people live there, or in its environs, but it is a world class metropolis. In the hills to the north and north east of Seoul there are literally ten thousand hardened artillery bunkers. Interspersed with the conventional artillery tubes (many dating from WW2 eastern front battles – the Soviets shipped thousands of pieces to their fraternal socialist allies) there are the dumb battlefield rockets and some SCUD knock offs. Many of these weapons aren’t even on wheels any more; over the years, the carriages have been put on steel rails.
One word from lil’ Kim, and all those lanyards get pulled or the buttons get pushed and bang, a city of millions is destroyed.
ROK pride led them to concentrate political, finance, and manufacturing power in Seoul.
The Norks won’t be stopped at the DMZ. But those little guys (average height in the eighties, when I was there, was reported by intel as 5’4″ and three decades of cyclical famine won’t have brought that number up) are right out of central casting under the file marked “brainwashed cannon fodder” and they will come south. They won’t win. But tens of thousands of South Koreans will surely die, along with millions of Norks.
No easy answers from me. I am just observing that God is old and sick, his heir apparent has less policy experience than your typical Illinois community organizer, and maybe crazy is about to do as crazy is.
Just sayin’. It is my earnest wish that The Won mutter some platitudes and then just shut the hell up. It’s what he knows how to do.
Hope that one of Kim’s enablers gets ambitious. And hope that he shoots straight.
Well said. In times of international crisis, there’s only one right thing for Democrats and Republicans to do. FUND-RAISE!
EMailblast – Prepare to fire!
Maybe we can transition to a campaign driven economy?
*(The kill ratio was running about 30 to 1 near the end of the war, and that was 50+ years ago. Imagine what it would be now with today’s weapons in a linear combat setting.)
BBH –
Where was your computer manufactured? Your cell phone?
Bought any home appliances lately? Ever ask yourself how much access to elected officials a nation that holds thirty percent of our debt might have? Go surf our crown jewel institutions of higher learning and look at their hard engineering
Fighting China in 2010 would be a horse of a different species than was fighting China in 1950. I think it won’t come to that. Not over North Korea. Chinese “peacekeepers” occupying North Korea? I’d not be too surprised.
In 1950 we were turning out green – painted machines three shifts daily in Detroit, Los Angeles, etc. Making our own steel in Pittsburgh, etc… not so much these days.
If we fight a land war in SE Asia, it will be Biblical. Norks or Chinese. If the Norks, they’ll stop when they are dead. If the Chinese… no bets. I can’t begin to imagine what that would look like given our… regime conditions. I’d rather our kids not pay for our mistakes.
But they always do.
– China yes, NK no.
Nice try Alex, but there’s an actual historical record from recent time.
Remember, “Boooooooosh! lied, people died!”? The rallying cry of the nutroots in their giant paper mache heads burning images of Dubya in effigy? And the campaign rally slogan for the John “Winter Soldier-demonstratively stage a press op where I throw my medals over the WH fence” Kerry? Or wanting to turn Bush in to the Hague for “war crimes”? How about the recent applause for that asshat Assange?
Or better yet, “The War in Iraq is LOST!”, while our troops are fighting the enemy in the field, showing more restraint, more concern for collateral damage, than any fighting force in history?
Another from your hit parade: “The Surge Isn’t Working!11!1!”. A throw away bit of demagoguery tossed about by Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, as well as many others, for cheap electoral benefit. Again, while brave men were fighting in the field, actually accomplishing their mission, ensuringthe surge a success and putting the lie to the bad-faith, hate-America crowd.
Or how about this golden oldie; Ted Kennedy reaching out to the KGB, trying to help them out with some intel for their propaganda campaign against Reagan in the 80’s.
Democrats have cornered the market on scoring cheap political points by siding with, and in some instances with, our enemies in decrying American foreign policy initiatives. Your attempt at a cheap moral equivalence is pitiful and contemptable.
If Obama announced tomorrow that he was goin’ in, you can be sure it would be the Republicans behind him, while the nutroot left wrung their hands and rended their garments.
– And even in the case of China, the response would be necessarily very measured. Remember, everything changed in ’75.
I think the Iranians are watching what we do (or don’t) with a great deal of interest.
I also expect that they’re far more likely than the current denizens of the White House and Foggy Bottom to draw the right conclusions from this incident.
– Yes, it’s true. Those damn Boomers out there in every ocean of the world are a total bitch for the Left and their totalitarian comrades.
– All the hair pulling, clothes rending, propa-screech in the world won’t wish them out of existance.
“I wasn’t taught that.”
So much for independent thought…
I guess this was a really weird time to be offered a battalion command…
Little things can sometimes spin out of control. China won’t go to war for North Korea, but they may try to scoop up South Korea, if all things go wrong. I don’t think they want to, but it’s their backyard.
So much for independent thought…
Or maybe it’s just one those identifiers for telling apart who came of age during the Cold War and who came of age after the Cold War.
China’s increasingly of the opinion that everything west of Hawaii and north of Australia is their backyard.
Sounds like 30s Japan.
Ernst – I too have noticed that younger people don’t understand the nuclear face off that most of us lived through. Global Warming has nothing on a 40 mgt bomb landing a few miles down the freeway. It did focus your mind – at least temporarily.
Global Warming has nothing on a 40 mgt bomb landing a few miles down the freeway. It did focus your mind – at least temporarily.
Or unfocus it, as the case may be.
Ernst – Our Physics teacher told us all the fun things that would happen to us. He was a very practical guy. Got a date? – Act like it was your last. The girls liked it. We made out at the local NIKE anti-missile battery site.
Jeez, I am old.
I had a history teacher who was similar. Later in the Cold War, in my case. That dinosaur ridin’ cowboy Reagan was going to get us all killed!
((I wasn’t taught that.))
Cynn. Seriously? If they didn’t teach it to you, what? It didn’t exist. It didn’t happen. It is a conspiracy?
Try using your fingers instead of waiting for the spoon.
My Dad still has some old maps from Korea. The “X’s” usually denote places where particularly nasty dumps were taken. Mines were all over the place so there seemed no point in marking them with an X.
LTC – How long does a Marine Corp dump last?
EMailblast – Prepare to fire!
Maybe we can transition to a campaign driven economy?
Obama should credit that mentality for his presidency. He turned campaigning into an art form. It’s been his entire career.
I think they’ll watch Obama crumble for a few weeks before they do anything. If the Norks do collapse in a fit of suicidal offensive action, it may be enough to remove the ROK as a problem once the Norks are in the history books.
I can only imagine what type of mess there would be there to clean up should the Norks go down. I read somewhere that the long-term poor-nutrition over there has lead to a less than capable citizenry. Even finding men mentally able to serve in the military has been a challenge.
“So this is just a hair-pulling match between the skinny sister and the buxom one.”
Jeesh
Open up another box of wine,cynn.
Tell that to the dead.
And spike it with bleach.
Says here that Bumbles is gonna “pressure the Chinese” to curb their Korean mad dog. Yeah, I’ll hold my fuckin’ breath for that, huh?
Like I said before: pussy boy, straight up.
“LTC – How long does a Marine Corp dump last?”
Good Lord, I neither know, nor want to… (shudder).
#50 – Must we really do this dance?
I say “Republicans and Democrats politicize crisis to fundraise”
You say, “Oh Huh! ONLY Democrats do. How dare you! See what I’ve cherry picked here, here, and here.”
I’ll say, “Well you left out when the Rebpublicans did it here, here, and here.”
You’ll say, “See! You a Dem loving Prog!!! And your example are like totally different than mine. Totally. It’s an Apples and colostomoy bags comparison. Nice try!”
Interspersed is lots of drivvel about “intellectual lazyness” and “won’t argue in good faith” Hypocracy squirts from every orrifice as the regulars chime on. Should that be pointed out, Ann Coulter gets cited. More than a few Irony Meters cook off.
Must we do the dance?
That’s a lot of words to say not a fucking thing, Alex.
No dance Alex, and my comment transcended fund raising to point out that by and large it’s been the Democrats, a group that has totally embraced transnationalism and moral relavatism, who have sided with our country’s enemies for political gain. Often employing the same false equivalence that you did in your assertion.
What do you want to hear me say? The both Messers Bush and Clinton screwed the pooch vis-a-vis Korea as well as Iran? Or that Reagan played on American’s perception of the weakness of Carter’s foreign posture? All true.
But does that rise to the level of “The War is Lost!”, or, “The Surge isn’t Working!”, or Teddy reaching out to the KGB to aid them in vilifying Reagan? I don’t think so.
So no dancing, and no false equivalences either.
And I think you’d be surprised by the support Mr. Obama would recieve from conservatives should he decide to get tough with the North Koreans.
Alex is a tedious critter, arguing with cardboard characters. We’ve seen his like before, and we’ll see more like him again.
Boooring!
You know what, alex, you don’t have to read here. Seriously, there are a truckload of blogs out there, and I’m sure you can find one that suits you.
#74 – and I’ll happilly agree with you, and even chime on that when Obama wanted to send more troops to Afghanistan, the Republicans cheered, and the Dems were the biggest opponents. When I said “both sides do it” the issue that was top of mind was the Republican reponse to the attemtped xmas bombing last year. There was plenty of politicizing that came out from the Republican side. Chenny practically launched a whole media tour to celebrate.
Now saying “it happens on both sides” isn’t the same as saying it happens *equally* on both side. Yes, Democrats are where you’ll find steadfast the self-loathing of America. But mark my words, if we get hit, Republicans will use it to raise money.
There was plenty of politicizing that came out from the Republican side. Chenny practically launched a whole media tour to celebrate.
Really? Politicizing the fact that Bobby Gibbs was talking about how they thwarted the attack by the bomb not going off? You know, read the incompetent bomber his rights then take credit for his incompetence. That’s the Obama plan, and that should not be politicized?
Should the Republicans have said, “We can laugh about it, we’re OK.”?
So wait…Are you talking about the underwear bomber, Alex?
And, in addition to floating one of HuffPo/DU/FDlake/SodaHead greatest meme hits by us, you know, to prove that both sides are equally vile, are you really going to equate a fundraising email letter to pronouncements broadcast by a compliant and subservient MSM in order erode public support of a successful strategy; regardless of whether those same cynical statements would undermiming the moral of our soldiers in the field.
These are equivalent? Or Cheney criticizing the administion is the equivalent of Teddy the K trying to partner with the KGB to defeat Reagan in 1984? It’s all the same..?
All I can say is that our worldviews are completely different. Speaking as one who’s been in harms way a few times, I’ll just say that I was lookin’ out for the United States, not any political party, nor any untopian transnational UN order.
Sorry if I set off your PTSD. I specifically said:
Apparently you cite “a fundraising email letter” (your own words) as evidence that Republicans don’t use this shit to fund-raise. I see that you’ve gone berserk and want to rant about the MSM, dead Kennedy’s, and whatnot, but I my point (still. for the third time.) is that both sides will politicize a crisis to fundraise.
my point (still. for the third time.) is that both sides will politicize a crisis to fundraise.
Has it not occurred to you (in your three stabs at making this assertion) that regardless of whether you’re write or wrong, it’s an inconsequential – dare I say, moronic – point?
Crises are inherently political. Nothing “extra” need happen to make them so. Positions taken can either be in the plain national interest or not, as the various parties to the discussion see fit as they make their choices. Fundraising after the fact is an ancillary question, unless, again, the various parties to the discussion decide to foreground it as their primary motivation. That is a very unusual stance for either of the two primary parties to take.
write = right
Is playing sophist really all you have to do around this time of year, “alex”? And on a “wingnut” site, to boot?
I feel badly for you, I really do. If I may, my advice is for you to stop being such a condescending prick every time you comment. Not only is it off-putting, but frankly, you haven’t earned the right to condescend.
Yes, you’ve now walked back a bit your initial implied bi-partisan equivalency concerning fund raising in a crisis. So why you feel you deserve some sort of credit for implying a false equivalency in the first place confounds me. The degree to which such fund raising is done by which party is what the initial push back to your claim was about. Your responding by pointing to anything else but the degree, thus, is disingenuous — and transparently so, around these parts.
Also, I suggested yesterday that you might be the little elfin boy who used to post here under multiple names, including RyanBacon, Yelverton, etc. If that was you, please just fess up and put all your cards on the table. If you want people to respect your opinions and treat you sincerely, come clean about who you are and under what identities you used to post. Then we can all move on.
Much obliged.
yea i’ll give the communists and the cocktail party. the rest of us your feces
you be dealing with your feces for the foreseeable future
Wait… what?
I think I said, “In times of international crisis, there’s only one right thing for Democrats and Republicans to do. FUND-RAISE!”
You apparently think I packed a phenomenal amount of information it that one quip. But OK, since you’re stuck on it, are you saying that Republicans don’t use national crisis for political gain (esp of the monetary variety?) Or is it OK, as long as they just don’t to it nearly as much as Democrats?
sdferr not only agrees they do, but he feels it’s meet, right, and salutary that both sides do. A point I’ll remind him of the next time he squeals about it.
Wow…Biting wit and withering condescension there Alex. And no, I wasn’t citing a fundraising letter to refute your point about fundraising. What I’ve been saying since the beginning is that the equivalence between the parties, with respect to “exploiting overseas crisis”, you’ve been trying to imply is false. There is no comparison between fundraising and actually siding America’s adversaries to score political points; they differ by orders of magnitude.
You know what I’ve been getting at, but instead have tried to appear clever. Sophistry isn’t clever.
Oh, and I’ve been AKA RyanBacon or Yelverton.
I agree! And if you ask me which party is the more treasonous, by far, it’s the Democrats. No argument at all. It’s a fine point, it’s just not what I was talking about.
oh noes but the donkey and the elephant suxs.
I’m getting a headache. Fund raising is an internal function of political parties, hence, it has not a wit to do with the act of politicization which is an inherently external activity.
Why so many different identites Alex? Just curious…
With the exception of some playful sock-puupeting as famous public figures, I have always used my name and proudly displayed the symbol of my beloved VF-84.
No. I think you packed a lot of equivalency into it.
And I’m not stuck on it. I’m stuck on your insistence that there’s even a fight.
Also, what sdferr says is that political moments are by their nature politicized. So if you want to call him on having described the ontology of the event, have at it. But I don’t think it carries the punch you imagine it does.
In the strong form of the argument, Alex presents false equivalency. In the weak form, he offers an observation that ranks right up there with water is wet and the sky is blue.
What was it that Gertrude Stein said about Oakland?
(If I could sockpuppet, I’d probably have used Alice B. Toklas to make a rude joke that compared Oakland to Ms. Stein’s seldom used lady bits.)
Whatchoo talking ’bout, Willis?
Why on Earth would you want to be Yelverton? Ewwww.
Ah. Meant to say *never* been aka ryanbacon or yelverton.
Then what identities did you use here?
You got me. I’m actually JD. I just got tired of always playing the part of the dumb blond.
BBH –
Way back up there on comment 48 I think I may have sounded confrontational or disrespectful without intending to. I also bollixed editing.
My intent was to point out that the Chinese have invested hugely in becoming a manufacturing powerhouse, educating their science/engineering/political classes, and penetrating U.S. higher ed and governing entities and by all standards have been quite successful.
Up until the mid nineties it was taken for granted that the Chinese were generations behind us in information processing and communications technology. Then the administration stripped the State Department of the brief to enforce export controls to China and assigned it to….the Department of Commerce.
That would be under the late Mr. Ron Brown.
Five years later China owned the satellite launch business. And they were building whole new classes of ships, aircraft, and land war weapons systems.
I’d really, really like to know what they know about our sonar technology. They have noisy nuke subs but very quiet diesel/electric boats and are building more. Our stuff is better. Our people are better trained. Our cause is just.
Unfortunately history showed that no matter how awesome a Tiger tank was, it still didn’t survive when facing a hundred T-34’s. Quantity has a quality all its own. The Chinese have thirty MILLION extra males of military age right now. If they decide to employ force, they will fight on their home turf.
We can’t afford to lose fifty ships defending the ROK, or Taiwan. The Chinese have built that many ‘phibs twice over in the last ten years or so, plus a cruiser/frigate mix to support them commensurate with a mission of theater domination.
They can be a successful brown water navy if they don’t have credible opposition. Credible is not a word I associate with any aspect of this administration.
Squeals about it? Fuck you asshole.
This is a simple lie written by a simple liar. I’ve neither said nor written anything of the kind. In fact, I disagree as to all of that, seeing as how I don’t take any of that sort of behavior as necessarily meet, right or salutary, but merely described without editorial comment what may happen in some few examples, and that only secondarily in the vast majority of instances it can even be found — on either side of the political divide. Foregrounding fundraising as a primary motivation would be a shameful use of issues of crisis, which is why I’d expect to see next to no such behavior by anyone anywhere. Further, far from there being a “next time” for this lying asshole to remind of things I’ve not said, I’ve never written in complaint of fundraising in the first place.
test
Why does cynn feel the need to get drunk and post here?
What are we?
Like the last guy standing when the bars close we get invited to her place for a quick shag and don’t wake me on the way out?
Never an invite to dinner.
Never get to meet any of her friends.
Always the phone call at 8:pm on Saturday night.
Frankly cynn if we’re good enough to post at we’re good enough to post at sober.
Thank you very much.