“Get Me Kitchen!”

The Remnant gets wonky today as Klon Kitchen, AEI senior fellow and author of The ...

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The Remnant gets wonky today as Klon Kitchen, AEI senior fellow and author of The Current newsletter for The Dispatch, returns to discuss Russia’s information war in Ukraine. With no end in sight for the conflict, Jonah and Klon explore what America’s intelligence support for Ukraine looks like and what other measures we could take to assist the country. They also touch on the veracity of Russia and China’s COVID statistics, what Putin’s war will mean for Taiwan, and how Klon would advise Joe Biden if he were summoned to the White House. Stick around until the end for obligatory dog discourse.

Show Notes:

– Klon’s page at The Dispatch

– Klon: “Why Russia’s Cyber Warriors Haven’t Crippled Ukraine”

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  1. Joe O

    What is Taiwan's threat to Main Land China? A larger threat is to damage their relationship with Taiwan.

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    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    As a lawyer, I have no objection, nor even any quibble, with those who say, disparagingly and with frustration, "This smells like lawyers" when trying to fix the blame for who's blocking the action that otherwise seems prudent and even essential from military, intelligence, and political points of view.

    I simply observe that the modern American intelligence community was founded and led by William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan. And that would be the same Bill Donovan who was the first-named partner in the long-time white shoe Wall Street law firm of Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine.

    So maybe the lesson here is: Pick different lawyers.

    I'm not joking when I say that! One of a lawyer's jobs in rendering advice to his or her client is to help the client distinguish between questions that do involve weighty legal considerations that it would be imprudent to ignore, and those which DON'T. And even in the very large range of issues in which there are SOME legal issues on which a lawyer's advice should be sought and considered, the lawyer's role also includes helping the client assess how weighty those legal considerations should be, in context and on the spot. That which would be prudent to avoid altogether in civil litigation in an American courtroom may be only a trivial risk, worth considering but then ignoring, in making a wartime decision.

    Suffice it to say that I've met more than a few lawyers who couldn't think outside the law box. Sometimes they reach astonishingly high levels within the profession. I assume that's also true of lawyers within the military and intelligence communities.

    Mr. French, among others, has written about this from a knowledgeable position.

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    jives

    Peeling another layer off of the semiconductor supply chain issue...Here's a good summary of the next layer of supply chain issues for the chip industry: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Chip-industry-s-expansion-plans-at-risk-as-equipment-delays-grow

    A disturbing example is the risk in the supply of neon to the chip industry. 65% of the world's production of neon is sourced from Iceblick with production factories in Odessa, Ukraine and Moscow. https://the-european-times.com/iceblick/

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    Kevin Johnson

    Great one. Concise explanations of why Russia hasn’t destroyed Ukraine w cyber war, how Taiwanese primacy on chips continues, etc. really good. On us population lack of stronger response to massive covid deaths, you both missed, once again, a key player… human nature. Early on J showed understandable disgust w folks he saw belittling the loss of life just cause most victims were old. Taken to extremes, such attitudes are indeed repugnant. But… it is simply undeniable that most folks feel much more upset by people who die young. Whatever press approach, which included downplaying that risk for young healthy people was much much lower, over time human experience was undeniable. The deaths were overwhelmingly concentrated among the old and infirm. It may be immoral or unfair, but it is a fact that such deaths trouble us ( on average) less. Even commentators reveal they get this when they note how crazy folks would be if covid killed kids at a high rate. But here, and often, you ponder a basic question without consider this huge factor. In many parts of the US, by the way, the press/expert failure to stress where the danger was highest (old and infirm) actually led to needless illness snd death. Emphasis on population at little risk took eyes and resources off the most pressing needs. Desantis laser focus on protecting old in Florida, with vaccines prioritized etc. followed the science and common sense. Blind ideological opposition kept others from copying that for months, with deadly results. No matter how heartless it sounds to say “ but he was old and sick” not saying it doesn’t make it any less true to most folks. Thanks.

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    Mark Hunter

    Loved the pod – it is a testimony to the success of The Dispatch that the inhouse staff are not only good enough, but in fact, the best. Good for TD and for Messrs Goldberg & Kitchen. Y'all rock.

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  6. Peter Gessel

    When you were talking about semiconductor manufacture, the best reason you can't replicate it is that the precision is beyond insane. The rooms the manufacture is done in are actually almost perfectly dust-free (1 particle per cubic meter) and the silicon has to be treated so carefully that there has almost never been a wafer (the disc that chips are made from) that returned 100% chip functionality. A popular tech youtuber, Linus Tech Tips, just released a video today where he got the opportunity to visit one of Intel's fabs in Israel. The technology is insane. https://youtu.be/2ehSCWoaOqQ

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      Richard Maxton

      Incredible stuff.

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    Leslie

    Great stuff. So informative.

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    Mike B

    It would be totally cool if Biden did, in fact, bark at his staff, "Get me Kitchen!"

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  9. G Maxwell

    Great Pod. I do want to comment on the whole escalation discussion. I honestly do not know if this is a reason to be careful in what we visibly give the Ukrainians. Putin has a big political problem. He has framed the war as a “special military operation” which means it is not a war where full mobilization is permitted. Because of that he has a real manpower problem. He has equipment in storage but insufficient manpower and has lost a significant portion of his combat ready troops. They are trying to solve that with bonuses and payments which reflects the manpower problem driven by their political problem. We need to be somewhat careful of how we escalate to avoid giving Putin a viable excuse to move to war and full mobilization. (Michael Kofman at CNA discusses this manpower problem extensively). Putin and his regime may be attempting to resolve this problem with the increased regime propaganda including discussion of putting Ukrainians who resist Russian control into concentration camps/re education camps assuming the Russians prevail. Another example of that is the recent testimony in the Duma that Ukrainian children in recently taken parts of Luhanska do not speak Russian fluently enough and require re-education.

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  10. Payette

    Excellent discussion! Thanks to both of you!

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