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For all the talk of walking and chewing gum vis-a-vis America's looming threats to national security, have you ever asked whether China is the walking part or the chewing gum? Elbridge Colby has. He joins Rob, James and Charles to explain why the analogies to multitasking are divorced from our current defense strategy — such as it is — and why even thinking back to the Cold War can only do so much for us.

Our hosts get into lousy speeches and wonder if ChatGPT could make for an improvement; plus they say farewell to the essential Burt Bacharach.

Hosts:
Charles C. W. CookeJames LileksRob Long
Guest:
Elbridge Colby

Discussion (18)

  • Leslie Watkins@LeslieWatkins
    I am a big fan of Charles C. W. Cooke and of his American mindset. And I agree that some congressmen and -women acted like barnyard animals in response to Biden’s truly despicable lie about Social Security and Medicare—I say screw any representative who balks at having to vote regularly for legislation they claim to support. I think it’s a great idea. And I would love to have statesmen and -women at the fore on both sides, but that’s not where we are. We’re in a vicious street fight over reality: the meaning of melanin, of sex, and, most importantly, what is and is not owed by one group of American strangers to another. California cities and places like Boston are setting up committees on reparations. (The mind spins almost out of its socket!) I don’t know if it’s more funny or more absurd, but it’s definitely tragic, cynically pitting group against group, one against the other in the name of justice. I say the outbursts (though unattractive) were an understandable and perhaps necessary release for people who have been continually slandered by this president while the media lets him get away with it. It’s true; the Republican boo-ers were crass. But at this point I say, as a citizen and taxpayer, so be it.
  • kedavis@kedavis

    Was "we'll need fossil fuels for another 10 years" actually from the written speech? I haven't seen any clips for a while but I thought the "10 years" was something that Biden just pulled out of his own... what passes for his mind.

  • kedavis@kedavis

    I can see how economic sanctions against a place like North Korea might not be effective because North Korea doesn't have much of an economy to start with. The regular people are already in the toilet, and even tough sanctions might leak enough for the top people to live in luxury, and that's all North Korea cares about.

  • Taras@Taras
    ReplyingtoEJHill

    EJHill (View Comment):

    This week’s money quote from our guest:

    A big part of Reagan’s strategy was helping freedom fighters around the world, helping anyone willing to fight our enemies, even when “our” side was a little unsavory.

    It’s unlikely Reagan would stand around and let Vladimir Putin undo his greatest achievement, liberating the European parts of the Russian Empire or, as it then styled itself, the Soviet Union.

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