Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- China is killing the fish. And not in China either (you'd think they'd learn after their killed all the birds in their own country).

- From the archives: Letter from a self-made merchant to his son.

- New investigation launched into Epstein's 7,600 acre Zorro Ranch.

- Russia's middle-aged, poor, to the grinder.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

-Really like this idea. 

- From the archive: Tyler Cowen's 12 rules for life.

- Flight of Innocents. "Child please; when has the USN not been a global force for good?"

- Morgan Housel - Pure Independence.

About Face

"Still, to me it came second in importance to what I considered the most significant thing I did at the Pentagon, which was a study of U.S. friendly fire casualties in the war and my tour with Slam told me anything, it was that the U.S. Army was its own worst enemy in Vietnam."

"Some changes were implemented immediately and some took a little longer, our recommendation that the Colt .45 pistol be eliminated and replaced (having caused since WW I, more friendly casualties than enemy) probably took the longest, at some eighteen years."

"But the main problem of friendly fire casualties - unrealistic, over supervised training -was never resolved, and of the some 58,000 American who died in Vietnam, on the basis of our calculations, between 8,700 and 11,600 of them shouldn't have."

This was perhaps the most shocking thing I learned about the war. A study David Hackworth took part in showed between 15-20% of the casualties were caused by friendly fire

"...old blood-and-guts leadership was neither needed nor desired by an Army that now placed management and executive skills well above those essential to inspire men or turn around an army on the ropes, even in the middle of a war In 1967-68, Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, Patton, Gavin, Ridgeway, and Van Fleet wouldn't have stood a chance."

David Hackworth at the Pentagon:

"...judging by the unmarked 'due date' form on the front of each book, not one of these French after-action reports had ever been checked out. Neither had Modern Warfare, the insurgency treatise of one of my renegade mentors, French colonel Roger Trinquier, available in English since 1964."

Pride goeth before a fall. And the Army certainly fell in Vietnam. We never learned. 

More Linky Links

More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- A major reason why manufacturers are looking at places like India and Vietnam as alternatives to China. (Via)

- Cool resource - the Biodiversity Heritage Library has around 150,000 illustrations available free for download.

- Marc Andreessen - On the Candlemaker's Petition. Be sure to read the footnotes as you go.

- "I worked on Google's AI. My biggest fears are coming true." Key line to me, "there's no way of knowing the side effects of this technology." We're potentially opening a Pandora's box.

Djokovic, Irving, and Rodgers as Modern Day Muhammad Ali's?

Clay Travis makes the argument that the refusal to get vaccinated in the face of great public pressure makes Novak Djokovic, Kyrie Irving, and Aaron Rodgers modern day heirs to Muhammad Ali and his protest against the Vietnam War.

At first I thought this comparison to Vietnam was ridiculous but now I think Travis has a better point than maybe he even knows.

• The were 53,220 US servicemen killed in Vietnam. The excess total mortality deaths from vaccines in the US may well eclipse that number. The increased all cause mortality in Israel for after when vaccines were introduced in 2021 and 2022 (up to July) is almost 6,000. And Israel is about the size of New Jersey.
• During Vietnam men could get deferments by going to college or flee to Canada. Now colleges required proof of vaccination to attend and Canada's restrictions were even harsher than the US's.
• Just like PTSD from Vietnam continued to claim many lives after the war was over - science has no idea how many additional deaths could be traced back to the changes brought on by the introduction of mRNA into the body or from psychological damaged caused by lockdowns

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

During his speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention - LBJ never once mentioned Vietnam. Guessing the MSM of the day never pressed him on it either. The more things change the more they stay the same... Rudolph Diesel is a man who doesn't get enough credit for his contributions to the modern world... Funny how this works out but L. Ron Hubbard was able to create a cult while Charlie Sheen failed in his attempt. From the outside you'd think that "Tiger Blood" and "Winning!" would be more attractive than space aliens but go figure... Did McDonald's skip the Shamrock shake this year? Never saw any ads for it... Heh heh - "Oral Roberts has more wins over Ohio State than Jim Harbaugh." - Ross Tucker...

Kissinger on Kissinger

A review copy of Kissinger on Kissinger: Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership by Winston Lord was sent to me. Winston Lord is credited as the author but the book is really a compilation of some discourses between Kissinger and Lord who was Kissinger's right hand man for many of the events talked about in the book.

It was a short book, just 140 pages, but well worth the time as it gave tremendous insight into the period of time where Henry Kissinger was on center stage in world events.

One of the core tenets underlying much of the events and strategies laid out by Kissinger during the Nixon years was the Nixon belief that "since you pay the same price for half-measures, you should adopt bold moves." And that when it came to leadership that the qualities most needed are character and courage." And with the hindsight of history you can appreciate how bold some of these moves by Nixon and Kissinger really were.

The partnership between Nixon and Kissinger was partly remarkable when you consider that the two had never met prior to Nixon appointing Kissinger to the NSA in 1968.

One thing that is forgotten by history is the fact that in 1969 Russia and China were very close to an all-out war. It was this fact that spurred much of the US's policy towards both counties with Nixon supporting China because he "decided that it was against American national interest to have China defeated." The side benefit was that "the opening to China facilitated the opening to Moscow and vice versa."

The first few years after the opening to China the biggest fear on the part of the Chinese was still an attack from Russia which made the nascent relationship all the more important as a counterbalance against Soviet aggression. It is mind-blowing to wonder what would have been the course of history if Nixon did not open China to the West (a path made possible by the groundwork of Kissinger). Today we worry about China as an economic rival but if that Nixon trip never happened we could easily today be worrying about the possible military aggression from a nation of 1.4 billion starving people.

The summit between Nixon and Brezhnev in 1972 was a direct result of Nixon opening China to the US. The book also goes into some detail about the Paris Accords and Vietnam as well as Kissinger's Shuttle Diplomacy in the Middle East. Well worth the read.

Kissinger also makes an interesting observation about the incivility that has invaded politics. "When I was a graduate student in the fifties, Harvard was 90 percent Democratic, as it has remained and maybe increased, but when Republican Cabinet members showed up at Harvard, they were treated with respect. The political debate in America in the fifties and early sixties was about the adequacy of policies. Sometime in the sixties, the political debate turned into a debate about the motivation of leaders and their inherent moral adequacy."

We have gotten away from discussing policies and solutions to our current issues. That has to change and in a strange twist President Trump may be making that possible. He takes so many hits on the personal level but shrugs them off. His supporters point to his policies and accomplishments and the debate sooner or later has to turn to address those because discussion about Trump's many personal failings are falling on deaf ears. The majority have tuned those out "scandals" out.

Let's Talk Some Politics

"North Korea will freeze and dismantle its nuclear program." - Bill Clinton 1994

"I won't rule out direct talks with Kim Jung Un. I just won't. As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that's his problem, not mine." - Donald Trump 2018

ABC News has a brief on the US-North Korean summit in Vietnam. Michael Cohen is mentioned five times in an article about potential historic denuclearization talks. But there was one word glaringly missing in the article - the word China.

The editors at National Review are glad President Trump walked away from what would have been yet another bad deal for the US. But again there was one word glaringly missing in their article - the word China.

To Trump the North Korean Agreement is just part of a larger trade Agreement with China. It is no coincidence that the summit in Vietnam came at the same time the US and China were holding trade negotiations.

I have to hand it to Niall Ferguson - he called it last March. He pointed out China tariffs are directly linked to the negotiations with North Korea. And why not? North Korea to the US is a problem. To China it's a market potentially as large as South Korea. President Trump is directly pressuring China to help "solve" the North Korean problem as part of the larger US-China trade deal. Smart.

Oh and speaking of trade - Boeing secured $15.7 billion in Vietnam orders during Trump's visit to Hanoi. Did you happen to catch mention of that in the MSM?

Let me finish with one last quote. A quote that you should remind yourself of when talking politics these days: "All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions." - William Butler Yeats

Hal Moore

American hero Lt General Hal Moore has passed away. He would have been 95 tomorrow.

If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, We Were Soldiers Once (And Young) you really should. Hal Moore was the real deal and our nation is poorer for his passing.

Christmas Flotsam and Jetsam

Christmastime miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

What has ruined Christmas music more for you? Radio stations that start playing Christmas songs 24/7 since Thanksgiving or Yoko Ono's back-up "singing" on John Lennon's Happy Christmas (War is Over)... A very touching Christmas Bloom County... Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Pud Galvin was born Christmas 1856. He was nicknamed Pud because he made hitters look like "pudding" at the plate. Not because he was a dick... Dear Jack Edwards - we wish you a merry Christmas too... History factoid: The official signal for the scramble to evacuate the US Embassy in Saigon 40-years ago was the playing of Bing Crosby's White Christmas... They were trying to kill each other again the next day...

How Many Dongs for a Dollar?

...dollars are being swapped for dong in Vietnam’s vigorous black market.

Yeah - sometimes I can be a real child. Here we are with a potential monetary crisis in Asia and I'm thinking of ways to make some sort of 16 Candles or dick joke. I know it's serious - but come on - their currency is called a dong!

I know it's serious but you would think that investing in the banking or currency of a Communist country would seem like a huge risk in the first place. No matter how much progress toward a market-oriented economy is made in Vietnam – it’s still a Communist country. Plus - over 21% of the country’s exports go to the US (the largest export country) but a very small percentage of their imports come from the US (even less than the 4.2% of imports that come from Malaysia).

Vietnam has over 86 million people which puts the country at about 30% of the population of the US jammed into an area about the size of New Mexico. What’s interesting is that according to the CIA Handbook the migration rate is “-0.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2008 est.)” That means as bad as things are in Vietnam slightly more people are moving in than moving out. With a thriving black market for US dollars – I think you’ll see more Vietnamese in the US sending back money to the “old country”.

I don't pretend to be versed in monetary theory or Asian economic thought but I do know that for a long time I've been hearing people complain about how weak the US dollar has become. Now the US dollar is become strong against another nation's currency and it is considered a crisis? If the US dollar becomes stronger against the Canadian loonie - or any other currency - will that too be a crisis no matter the circumstance?

HT Instapundit