By  Rick Boettger

We’re living in the Chinese “curse,” but I’m enjoying it. Will we win in Iran?  Will the Dems take Congress?  Will Russia hold onto the Donbass?  I’ve been a strong, confident Yes, Yes, Yes!

But on all three, Western media are sure I’m wrong.  The arguments against me sound pretty strong.  What do you think? 

It baffles me that Trump continues to try to negotiate with Iran, whose long-teased ‘fair’ offer was an insulting joke: we pay reparations, they control Hormuz, no mention of their nukes.  They might as well have gone to the Oval Office for a national TV event, turned their backs on Trump, and taken a huge dump on the Resolute Desk.  And he keeps the negotiations on “life support”?  Meanwhile, on the field of battle they’re still attacking tankers and bombing our new Arab allies like Qatar.

I can’t make any sense out of this unless we really have run so low on our best bombs and interceptors that we’re saving what’s left for Taiwan.  Especially if, unbelievably, the NYT report is true that Iran still has 70% of its pre-war ballistic missiles, and plenty of uranium for nukes as well.

I can easily believe the first, as Big Business under Trump with their beloved hedge-fund leveraged buyouts self-gutted our bomb and artillery-making industries–hooray, fire a thousand skilled bomb-making employees to boost their stock prices, buybacks and dividends for those clever capitalist rogues!  And 4 years of sending our best stuff into the black hole of Ukraine.

And sorry, Taiwan, but you have the same chance of continued independence that Hong Kong had.  Your hole card in this poker game, chip factories, is shredding as new chip factories are starting up in preparation for your impending demise.

If we were smart enough to use our immense ordinance and military might to attack our only threat, I don’t see how Iran could survive our extended “mowing” of their “lawn.”  And again, just bots on the ground (AI robots), drones, and eye-in-the-skies could slowly break them down.  Such would NOT be a ‘Nam of Afghan debacle, if we do it right–we have had millions of troops actually on the ground in Korea, Japan, and Europe for decades, where, despite their being useless, no one seems to mind.

Both left and right media are trying to make a horse race out of the November congressional election.  Scaring the Dems is the state gerrymandering and the continuing idiocy of the Party bosses: Kamala? Firing David Hogg to protect their 80+ year-olds?  Keeping the autopsy secret?  Chasing Fetterman out of the Party?  Squashing a primary vote again?  

But the gerrymandering would only matter if it were close.  On the pro-Blue Wave side is not only the normal mid-term switch, but a special No Kings fervor by the majority FkTp wing of the Party, but higher prices and a complete lack of MAGA enthusiasm for Trump’s main accomplishments.  The Red Wave fizzled only once since 9/11, because the Blues were madder about Roe v. Wade being overturned, than Reds were against Uncle Joe.  I still can’t see the Reds holding onto anything.

Ukraine is getting interesting!  The first time I’ve seen Putin dour was at this year’s tiny May 5th celebration, shrunken out of fear of Ukrainian drones bombing Red Square.  Ukraine is holding on NOT due to anything NATO has done.  Our hundreds of billions in bombs, planes, tanks, artillery shells, cluster bombs, and provoking nuclear retaliation by our personally killing Russian civilians in Russia.  No, the Ukrainians have done it themselves.  They are as smart as the Russians, at least in drone warfare.

Bad for us is that Russia’s drone development is outpacing ours for the usual reason: an actual war leads to more urgent development.  War gave us the A-bomb, moon, GPS, lasers, the internet.  Who knows how far ahead are their highly motivated drone and anti-drone capabilities due to their active war.  Russia may still ‘win,’ but now this has gotten . . . interesting.

On general principles, I must be wrong on at least one, against such overwhelming opposition.  And I’m pretty sure I must have been wrong before about something in my 20 years of Keys public opining,. . . . although (blush) I can’t remember when. . . . 

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]