Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz -- Context for “Tech Titans of China – How China’s Tech Sector is Challenging the World by Innovating Faster, Working Harder and Going Global” by Rebecca A. Fannin

Question 1

Is our author, Rebecca Fannin, probably the world’s foremost expert on China’s “Silicon Valley” and how it is now on a par with California’s Silicon Valley?

Answer 1

Yes – after clicking on the following link (for Tech Titans – Original Proposal), please scroll down to Author Bio – http://discussingliberally-saltlake.org ... 556&t=1824.

Question 2

Does her 9/8/2019 article for Forbes explain that her new “Tech Titans of China” is NOT a mere update of her first book “Silicon Dragon: How China Is Winning The Tech Race” (McGraw-Hill 2008)?

Answer 2

Yes.

The article is available at http://discussingliberally-saltlake.org ... 558&t=1830.

Question 3

After devoting 4 chapters to how China has overtaken Silicon Valley in “bread and butter” areas, does she devote the next chapter to how China’s venture capitalists have overtaken Silicon Valley’s, and then spend 5 chapters on how China is outpacing Silicon Valley in future technology such as artificial intelligence, drones and robots?

Answer 3

Yes.

**********
[The following questions were outside the focus of “Tech Titans” but were conjured for context.]

Question 4

Is it necessarily a bad thing for China’s Tech Industry to leave America’s Silicon Valley “in the dust”?

Answer 4

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 5

In other words, isn’t it a good thing that scientific and technological advances are being made to benefit humankind? Even if some, or many, of them are invented by the Chinese to whom royalties, etc., must then be paid?

Answer 5

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 6

In other words, aren’t “1 billion minds better than one” as the old saying can be paraphrased?

Answer 6

One would think the Las Vegas odds would favor it.

Question 7

Especially when it comes to inventing something?

Answer 7

One would think the Las Vegas odds would favor it.

Question 8

In this regard, did the Head of the U.S. Patent Office send his resignation in 1899 to President McKinley urging the closing of the office because “everything that could be invented has been invented”?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

So isn’t the only real issue in all the talk about China vs. America whether China might develop superior weapons to U.S. weapons? An issue outside the scope of “Tech Titans of China”?

Answer 9

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 10

What was William Manchester’s thesis in “The Arms of Krupp” (Little Brown & Co. 1964)?

Answer 10

That virtually all wars throughout history have been decided by which side had superior weapons.

BTW, Manchester also said that when neither side had superior weapons, there was a proverbial “meat grinder” (please forgive the crassness of the term) in which millions of combatants were killed – citing as examples, the American Civil War and World War I trench warfare.

Also BTW, Manchester cited as an interesting variation the Franco-Prussian War. France had superior weapons in every category EXCEPT LONG-RANGE ARTILLERY as a result of which the French army never got close enough to use its superior weapons in all of the other categories.

Question 11

Isn’t the fear that China might develop superior weapons legitimate if William Manchester is correct that virtually all wars have been decided by which side had superior weapons?

Answer 11

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 12

And isn’t it conceivable that new weapons could be invented that would make obsolete all of the weapons that have been invented so far? After all, if you don’t think so, aren’t you thinking like the 1899 Head of the U.S. Patent Office?

Answer 12

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 13

What do you think the world would be like today if Hitler had obtained nuclear weapons before the U.S.? Or if Stalin had done so?

Answer 13

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 14

And yes, do critics argue that the U.S. has been the only country to use nuclear weapons?

Answer 14

Yes.

Question 15

But couldn’t America have quickly enslaved the entire world with nuclear weapons in 1945 if it had been as ruthless as Hitler or Stalin MIGHT HAVE BEEN???

Answer 15

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 16

In other words, not shrinking from causing 60 million deaths (Hitler during WW-II) or 12 million deaths (Stalin during solely his farm-collectivization program in the 1930’s) – or how-many-ever deaths it takes???

Answer 16

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 17

Do you think America’s government can be trusted today???

Answer 17

Please read on.

Question 18

Do you think China’s government can be trusted today???

Answer 18

Please read on.

Question 19

In thinking about Questions 16 & 17, is democracy relevant???

Answer 19

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 20

If you think so, doesn’t democracy depend on a free, honest and intelligent news media???

Answer 20

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 21

Was Hitler democratically elected in 1933???

Answer 21

Yes.

Question 22

By the time Hitler began annexing/invading other countries (Austria – March 1938, Czechoslovakia – October 1938, Poland – September 1939), did his “Minister of Propaganda” (the official title of Joseph Goebbels!!!) have such a tight grip on German media that virtually every word reaching the German public had to be approved by him???

Answer 22

Yes.

Indeed, Goebbels whipped up German public opinion to support the invasion of Czechoslovakia with zillions of stories in the German media about how ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland were being mistreated by Czechoslovakia.

The Sudetenland was the western part of Czechoslovakia that the Versailles Treaty ending World War I had taken from Germany and given to Czechoslovakia.

It was thought by the WW-I victors who imposed the Versailles Treaty on Germany that creating a Czechoslovakia with a “spear head” extending into the heart of Germany would help to avert another world war.

Unfortunately, the geniuses behind the Versailles Treaty who gave the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia did not evict the ethic Germans from the Sudetenland, virtually guaranteeing a future conflict.

The same mistake was not made again following WW-II – the ethnic Germans were forced to leave the Sudetenland.

[Just like portions of Eastern Germany that were given to Poland following WW-II saw their ethnic German inhabitants forced to leave.]

Question 23

Indeed, when Britain and France declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland, did Hitler not even bother to send American war correspondents home because he knew that Goebbels had such a tight grip on German media that Hitler knew nothing the American war correspondents would report could ever get back to the German public???

Answer 23

Yes.

Question 24

Was William Shirer (author, inter alia, of “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”) one of the American war correspondents who “had the run” of Nazi-occupied Europe during the 2-plus years after Britain/France declared war until Pearl Harbor???

Answer 24

Yes.

Question 25

Did William Shirer keep a diary of those experiences which he published, with a bit of editing, as a famous book entitled “Berlin Diary”???

Answer 25

Yes.

Question 26

BTW, did William Shirer’s “Berlin Diary” document that the British news media accounts about “brave R.A.F. pilots fighting the Luftwaffe” during the “Battle of Britain” was nothing more than a propaganda hoax???

Answer 26

“Berlin Diary” is probably the only place you will find the truth about this propaganda hoax!!!

Hitler did not want war with Britain and France.

So after Britain and France declared war on Germany in September 1939 following Hitler’s invasion of Poland, there ensued an 8-month period (9/3/1939 - 5/10/1940) during which there were no military hostilities!!!

The so-called 8-month “Phony War” came to an abrupt end with Hitler’s tanks racing through Holland, Belgium and Northern France so that within a mere 7 weeks, France had surrendered. [And all surviving British forces had been evacuated at the Battle of Dunkirk – actually, Dunkirk is the British spelling for Dunkerque, the last half of which is spelled the same way as Albuquerque (New Mexico) and derives from the Latin word for oak tree.]

At that point, Hitler decided to invade Britain.

But Hermann Goering (Hitler’s Deputy in all of Hitler’s offices and Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe) convinced Hitler that it would NOT be wise to invade Britain until Germany had complete control of the skies before launching the cross-channel invasion.

That was the aim of the so-called “Battle of Britain” (7/10/1940 - 10/31/1940) during which the Luftwaffe “bombed the hell out of” primarily London.

Goering’s theory was that since the Luftwaffe so outnumbered the Royal Air Force (RAF) due to Neville Chamberlain’s nearly-fatal policy of NOT arming to meet the Nazi challenge, it did NOT matter how badly the RAF might destroy more Luftwaffe airplanes contrasted with the damage the RAF might sustain BECAUSE AT THE END OF THE BOMBING CAMPAIGN THE RAF WOULD BE COMPLETELY DESTROYED AND THE INVASION COULD PROCEED SAFELY.

William Shirer’s “Berlin Diary” records that since he had “the run of Nazi-occupied Europe" (as explained above), he haunted all of the bars along the English Channel in the vicinity of all of the rivers and estuaries that were jammed with Nazi cross-channel invasion craft.

And the bars near the airfields the Nazis were using to stage the “Battle of Britain” bombing campaign of principally London.

And he discovered that the Luftwaffe pilots were “swearing a blue streak” about how the RAF pilots were NOT “gentlemen” because THEY WOULD NOT FIGHT TO DEFEND THEIR WIVES, SWEETHEARTS AND CHILDREN AS GOERING HAD PREDICTED!!!

After 3.5 months trying to provoke the RAF into fighting, Hitler/Goering gave up trying to get the RAF pilots to “behave like gentlemen” and defend London, and began looking east once more for military conquest.

William Shirer was so fascinated by what he had learned that following World War II, he researched the British War Archives.

And Shirer documented that Churchill was wise enough to realize what Goering was trying to do – destroy the RAF so Germany could invade Britain with control of the skies.

So Churchill had instituted two policies – (1) dispersing all of the RAF planes to airfields around Britain so that the Luftwaffe would NOT be able to molest more than a handful at a time if the primitive radar failed to warn of the Luftwaffe approach, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, (2) making it a court-martial offense for any RAF pilot to engage Luftwaffe fighter aircraft -- if RAF pilots happened across unescorted Luftwaffe bombers, a rare occurrence, they were permitted to engage, but otherwise they were required to turn tail and run.

Meanwhile, Churchill had directed a propaganda hoax about the heroism of RAF fighter pilots engaging the Luftwaffe in order to salvage as much as possible of British civilian morale.

Question 27

But back to Hitler and Goebbels, do you think it would have made any difference to how World War II unfolded if Germany still had democratic elections during the annexations/invasions of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland since Goebbels had such tight control of German media???

Answer 27

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 28

Doesn’t this prove that (assuming you think democracy is relevant to Questions 13-19 of whether the American or Chinese governments can be trusted with “the ultimate to-be-invented weapon”) a free, honest and intelligent news media is essential to democracy???

Answer 28

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 29

Isn’t it true that every time we have discussed the mainstream American news media, we have always concluded that it is NEITHER honest NOR intelligent – discussing the issue of “the mindless howling mob” each time in terms of a sports example so that nobody would feel her/his “ox was being gored” though inviting our members to propose alleged examples of honesty and/or intelligence in public-policy contexts???

Answer 29

Yes.

Whenever we have focused on news media dishonesty and incompetence, we have always discussed the issue in terms of the “lynching” of New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady so that by putting the issue into a sports context, nobody feels her/his “ox is being gored.” The most thorough discussion of the “lynching” of Tom Brady is available at http://discussingliberally-saltlake.org ... d168#p1951 in a posting labeled “Indictment of the Amn News Media - Tom Brady = Exhibit A” and the two postings that immediately follow it entitled “Indictment of the Amn News Media - Krauthammer vs. Brady” and “Original NFL Report Proved Scientifically Tom Brady Innocent.”

In the face of that, very few of our members have ever been inspired to defend the Mainstream Media, even in a public-policy context.

Question 30

Even if you think America has a free, honest and intelligent news media – usually posited by political science professors as a NECESSARY but not SUFFICIENT prerequisite for democracy – do you think the U.S. has a democracy in the wake of our 4 meetings on “Authoritarian Rule By Our Intelligence Services” on 5/10/2017, 12/13/2017, 5/16/2018 and 10/31/2018?

Answer 30

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 31

After all, didn’t the U.S. Government DEFY the most-important recommendation of Graham Allison, the Founding Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government???

Answer 31

Yes.

Dean Allison’s recommendation was contained in “Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe” (Times Books 8/9/2004) dealing with Osama bin Laden’s fatwā to nuke 4 million Americans (amended almost immediately by Osama to nuke 10 million Americans) – a fatwā whose execution is the solemn religious duty of every member of Al Qaeda, ISIS (formerly Al Qaeda in Iraq), etc., and which can NOT be revoked now that Osama is dead (a principle the Brits learned in 1989 when trying to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the course of which The Brits requested the revocation of Khomeini’s fatwā to assassinate Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses).

Question 32

And wasn’t that recommendation championed by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman 1987-1995), U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman 2003-2007) and Messrs. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton (Chair and Co-Chair of The 9/11 Commission)???

Answer 32

Yes.

Question 33

And weren’t those efforts publicized by Tim Russert with numerous appearances of Nunn/Lugar/Kean/Hamilton on Meet The Press???

Answer 33

Yes.

Question 34

And didn’t Tom Brokaw help to publicize those efforts with his participation as himself in a Docu-Drama produced by Nunn/Lugar/Kean/Hamilton???

Answer 34

Yes.

Question 35

Was this MOST-IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATION that the U.S. Government DEFIED -- that the only way to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists while preserving democracy would be to control fissile material the way we used to control gold at Fort Knox???

Answer 35

Yes.

Question 36

And instead, didn’t the US Government (WITH THE COMPLICITY OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA) decide to deal with Osama’s fatwā to nuke 10 million Americans by VASTLY INCREASING THE POWERS UNDER THE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT (“FISA”) to spy on everyone, INCLUDING AMERICANS WITHOUT any warrant from a FISA Court provided the Attorney General or the Director of National Intelligence declared an “emergency” pursuant to FISA Sec. 702(c)???

Answer 36

Yes.

Question 37

So why is anyone surprised that THE INTELLIGENCE SERVICES WOULD SOON BE WEAPONIZED for use against political opponents???

Answer 37

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 38

Or that the intelligence services WOULD THEMSELVES soon by running our government with politicians nothing more than pawns in their Kabuki Theatre???

Answer 38

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!