Friday morning links

The Nixon tapes make clear that Nixon and Kissinger were well aware that the Vietnam War didn’t have a military solution. But they kept on with the carnage for political purposes.

QUOTE:

Nixon: because I look at the tide of history out there, South Vietnam probably can never even survive anyway…

Nixon: It’s terribly important this year, but can we have a viable foreign policy if a year from now or two years from now, North Vietnam gobbles up South Vietnam? That’s the real question.

Kissinger: If a year or two years from now North Vietnam gobbles up South Vietnam, we can have a viable foreign policy if it looks as if it’s the result of South Vietnamese incompetence. If we now sell out in such a way that, say, within a three- to four-month period, we have pushed {unclear} Thieu over the brink– we ourselves– I think, there is going to be– even the Chinese won’t like that. I mean, they’ll pay verbal– verbally, they’ll like it–

Nixon: But it’ll worry them.

Kissinger: But it will worry everybody. And domestically in the long run it won’t help us all that much because our opponents will say we should’ve done it three years ago.

Nixon: I know.

Nixon and Kissinger undermined a Vietnamese peace in 1968, sending word to the South Vietnamese they would get a better deal under Nixon if he won the election, undermining the peace and undermining the Democratic candidate. After hundreds of thousands more deaths, the South Vietnamese got a worse deal—as did the Cambodians.

#1 Zachriel on 2023-12-01 11:03 (Reply)

You're delusional about the VN war. Kennedy and Johnson widened the war with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. Johnson tried to micromanage the war with his choice to keep McNamara.
Nixon used the operation Linebacker bombing to get the North to the table. After reaching an agreement the US left VN but helped the SVN military with funding. At the end, the US effectively quit funding the SVN defense and Ford did not have the Cahoones to bomb the NVN troops that massed across the border in the south. The south fought valiantly but without enough munitions the NVN used armor to successfully invade the south.
Your version is the typical academic progressive tale.

#1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2023-12-01 14:44 (Reply)

I was in the military from 1964 to 1984 and you are dead wrong about Nixon. On the day he took office he began the withdrawal. It wasn't fast and in the end it wasn't pretty but he was committed to ending it with the minimal advantage given to Hanoi. And of course that is the problem. When you choose to walk away from a war like that the enemy has all the advantages and Hanoi did everything they could to maximize the damage to the U.S. and the South Vietnamese people. What they did was gross and disgusting and didn't get enough coverage by our press. But that is what you can expect from communists and North Vietnam (LOL).

#1.2 OneGuy on 2023-12-01 16:18 (Reply)

OneGuy: you are dead wrong about Nixon.

Um, it's a direct quote. It’s on tape.

#1.2.1 Zachriel on 2023-12-01 18:30 (Reply)

"Um, it's a direct quote. It’s on tape"

Ah, you must be confusing a politician's words with events that actually happened. I'll have to dial down my expectations of what an AI is capable of if you can't tell the difference.

#1.2.1.1 eeyore on 2023-12-01 19:23 (Reply)

"But they kept on with the carnage for political purposes."

On the day he took office he began the withdrawal.

#1.2.1.2 OneGuy on 2023-12-01 21:23 (Reply)

OneGuy: On the day he took office he began the withdrawal.

Which prolonged the carnage, believing South Vietnam couldn’t survive, and did so for political reasons.

#1.2.1.3 Zachriel on 2023-12-01 22:06 (Reply)

Re: The ‘American Dream’ is not about getting rich

No. It's about being left alone to make your own life.

#2 mudbug on 2023-12-01 12:04 (Reply)

Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

amen

#3 maddog on 2023-12-01 12:05 (Reply)

Amen

Apparently that is too much to ask for from the Left.

#3.1 B. Hammer on 2023-12-01 13:48 (Reply)

I was once a regular consumer of Mark Steyn's writings and then I lost track of him. I had no idea of his current condition. Sad.

#4 RetiredSOF on 2023-12-01 12:35 (Reply)

Regarding carbon passports...

"Climate change" has attained the status of religion. Thus all laws enacted to address "climate change" are ipso facto in violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

Of all the issues that concern me, "climate change" is not one of them. I could not care less about it.

#5 Pete on 2023-12-01 12:51 (Reply)

"Of all the issues that concern me, 'climate change' is not one of them. I could not care less about it."

I'm with you.

#5.1 JJM on 2023-12-01 16:03 (Reply)

The current "climate change" hysteria is a scam designed to increase the "elite" control over us plebs. Live in Canada; we could turn off the lights and shut the door, and the earth wouldn't notice. Then China would move in, turn the lights back on and start extracting our resources with minimal care for the environment. The world would be worse off, but because of real pollution, not CO2.
Do I "believe" in climate change? Given I have - very much back in the day - a BSc (Hon) in Geology, I KNOW that climate change is a fact. Has happened, is happening, and will happen in the future. i also know - from geological records - that the planet has been considerably warmer and has had higher CO2 levels than now but survived.
One last point: CO2 is plant food, not pollution.

#5.2 Frances on 2023-12-01 23:56 (Reply)

Frances: I KNOW that climate change is a fact. Has happened, is happening, and will happen in the future.

What will those crazy scientists come up with next?!

Frances: i also know - from geological records - that the planet has been considerably warmer and has had higher CO2 levels than now but survived.

On the other hand, humanity may not want to suddenly plunge the Earth into the climate of the Jurassic.

Frances: CO2 is plant food

That is correct. Plants act as an important sink for atmospheric carbon. The greening is of great interest to climate scientists, who have launched satellites to study the effect. However, plants are not sufficient to limit the concentration of atmospheric CO2. The simplest and most direct evidence of this is that the concentration of atmospheric CO2 continues to rise far above levels not seen in a thousand millennia.

#5.2.1 Zachriel on 2023-12-02 08:35 (Reply)

Where’d the deer go? Hunter frustration grows in Minnesota Northwoods

QUOTE:

Where’d the deer go? That’s the question being asked by frustrated hunters across northeast Minnesota after years of falling populations, culminating in a near record low harvest this season.

The lack of success seems to have both hunters and deer agreeing on an ultimate enemy. Wolves.

Calls to remove them from protected status have never been louder,

. . . But the project’s most surprising research shows something many hunters will find unthinkable.

Gable says when wolf numbers are highest, deer hunters tend to have the great success.

Gable says that was also proven true when the deer harvest fell all three years wolf hunting was legal in Minnesota, from 2012 to 2014.

. . . DNR leaders say climate change could continue to impact deer numbers here, with an increase in mild, wet winters leading to very deep snow near Lake Superior.

https://www.northernnewsnow.com/2023/12/01/special-report-whered-deer-go-hunter-frustration-grows-minnesota-northwoods/

#6 feeblemind on 2023-12-01 14:15 (Reply)

Michael Mann led the way to ensuring us that AGW was always narrative. Michael Mann was always a master grifter.

#7 indyjonesouthere on 2023-12-01 14:52 (Reply)

Kissinger and O'Connor in the same week?
What's not to like?

#8 Mark Matis on 2023-12-01 15:18 (Reply)

At western rifle shooters today. Pt 2- end times review

Posted from wilderwealthywise.com

More Turchin on defining the dragon

#9 indyjonesouthere on 2023-12-01 15:55 (Reply)

Well the Republicans bent over for the Democrats and expelled Santos. But not Jamaal Bowman!! And no impeachment of Mayorkas!!

But we got rid of Santos! He lied about his life story. God knows Dem Blumenthal would never do that.

He used donations to his campaign improperly. Hillary Clinton got a chuckle out of that one.

Don't get me wrong. None of that should be excused. Santos should have cut the best deal he could and resigned. But there are dozens of Democrat congressmen who have done the same things and worse things. Where is the equal justice? Why are Republicans so stupid? Why do most congressmen become multimillionaires and why doesn't the "free press" ever look into this?

Irish Lives Matter.

#10 OneGuy on 2023-12-01 16:30 (Reply)

There are still many uniparty politicians. Nothing changes until they are gone. Start in your state by cornering them and putting a light on them. Like roaches they prefer the dark.

#10.1 indyjonesouthere on 2023-12-01 18:26 (Reply)

The lesson from Mark Steyn. Don't go to DC, don't even go near DC. Don't go to New York. Begin and keep your career in the mid West in a small town with conservative values. Incorporate there and never say a word outside of there. You cannot win in a DC or NYC court. And a dozen or so other cities and states. If it is your intent to speak the truth about the left they will come after you with lawfare and destroy you in court. Plan accordingly. Make them come to court in YOUR jurisdiction.

#11 JustMe on 2023-12-01 16:40 (Reply)

Lets not forget, this shit show all began with a phony birth certificate from Hawaii.

#12 Anon on 2023-12-01 21:25 (Reply)

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Friday, December 1. 2023

Friday morning links