Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show with me and Brian O'Neil covers some fascinating historical phenomena, including the Hindenburg Disaster in 1937; Gorbachev's reflections on the Cold War in 1992; and the surrender of all U.S. forces on the Philippine Islands in May 1942. The explosion of the Hindenburg was a dramatic moment in the history of the U.S. broadcast media as well as in aviation history. I frankly believe that our skies would be filled with dirigibles today if it weren't for that star-crossed voyage of the Hindenburg.
But that's not all! In terms of current events, Brian and I also chat about the steady progress in reopening our state, our nation, and the whole Western world. We talk about the extent to which the federal government can afford to bail out the states, the impact of the Tara Reade allegations on the Biden campaign, the curious candidacy of Justin Amash, and President Trump's injudicious attacks on the Swedes.
Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGEDl0W4LUY&feature=youtu.be
Dr. Waddy: So very much to discuss, thanx!Dirigibles: Early versions were sent over England in WWI and did some damage but were also much vexed by WWI era fighters. Against Spitfires and Hurricanes?No chance at all.
ReplyDeleteThey played no part in the astonishing evolution of offensive air power in WWII. And that is directly relatable to post war air commerce ( eg. massive propeller passenger transports and very soon, jets, the product of WWII). That, as you say, the Hindenburg disaster ended the brief elegant era of trans Atlantic refined and elegant air travel,I do not disagree. Its Nazi origin,at least in part not significant to the public at large. But that it could not have survived WWII I would respectfully suggest: Soon after it, expeditious transatlantic airplane flight was widely available.
During the War itself, the offensive use of airships was ruled out completely by their vulnerability to 4oo mph fighters.
There never should have been a shutdown in the first place, period. The actual threat this virus posed was deliberately exaggerated by our left wing controlled media to accommodate the political agenda of our Marxist infested, so called "Democrat" party. First, to have to blame Trump for, and secondly to see how much control they could have over the "herd" of Americans. This was carefully encouraged and cultivated by foreign sources. Looks like we have been had doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteWith only six (6) more months to go until Presidential elections, my main question is, what b******t are the damn leftist trash going to think up next?
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I would guess that China's main interest is the security of China. But how far are they willing to go assure it now? What they may see as defensive the rest of the world may see as aggression.
ReplyDeleteIn noting that the states which have the least favorable stats in this pandemic are Dem states the President wisely hoists the left on its own petard and does it ever deserve it.The left has used statistical discrepancy as proof of injustice requiring massive, presumptuous, counterintuitive and incipiently totalitarian measures like affirmative action and all manner of discrimination against "politically incorrect" groups, regardless of individual conduct.Equality of result, no matter how wrongheadedly achieved, is all. OK,using that reasoning, state governments like those of CA, NY and Illinois stand condemned; I mean numbers don't lie do they lefties?
Jack
DeleteChina's main interest is to become a super power and kick the United States of America out of Asia, period. This has already been explained very well in "Fire On The water....." (longer title) by Robert Haddick (Naval Institute) about six years ago, as I recall. Regrettably, our government (beginning with Nixon and regardless of Democrat, or Republican) has enabled them to proceed with that plan, by allowing our greedy corporations to ship our entire manufacturing base to China ! The United States of America has allowed the most ruthless Communist Dictatorship in the world, the PRC, to become a power. What we got in repayment when Trump called their hand, was the Corona Virus, aided and abetted by our stinking left wing in this country.
Dr. Waddy: Gorbachev was wrong and possibly disingenuous in attributing the origin of the Cold War to both sides. It was caused by the free world's legitimate fear that the most inhuman regime in history posed it a very real threat. NATO wasn't founded on a whim and a world already savaged by a completely untrustworthy monster cannot be blamed for seeing him reprised in Stalin . Yes both sides did benefit from the fall of communism but it was a victory for a Western Civilization determined never to be bamboozled again. You are so right, it was our resolve (yes, including in Vietnam)which won the day (s).
ReplyDeleteAs you may have guessed, I do believe in Conspiracy. Most people do but won't admit it. Does anyone believe The Warren Report regarding the Kennedy Assassination? I doubt it. Most people now know it was a conspiracy of some sort, but no one can prove it because all of the evidence has disappeared, to include more than a few people beginning with Oswald and Ruby. No one will ever be able to prove that the Corona Virus PANICDEMIC with the emphasis on Panic is a conspiracy either, because the conspirators are not fools, and leave no evidence. I firmly believe that a lot of nasty things are done behind the backs of the public. This is historical reality, and this is the way elites have always acted. I'm all done ranting and raving about this. Take my comments for what you want.
ReplyDeleteRay: I think your comments very plausible. What is the difference between "conspiracy" and determination, cooperation and planning done in confidential circumstances?. History provides many examples of that.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy et al: In having said that airships were not used for offensive purposes in WWII I may have erred in not considering the fact that the Allies did use them against Uboats. I don't know if it went beyond observation alone (Uboats carried powerful guns perhaps capable of deflating an airship).
The Japanese onslaught on the Philippines, both in 1941-42 and 44-45. What a contrast in some ways. Japanese fighting ability was widely doubted in the West prewar and their success must have been a stunning blow to both America and Britain. The post war vantage point proves it to have been a strategic mistake since it helped to mobilize and inspire the unbeatable US. I suppose if they thought going for complete domination of the Western Pacific had any chance, it made sense to the Japanese but they stood no chance against American power.
I love Japan fro my experiences there but they revealed an exceedingly ugly side of their culture in the treatment of POWs and occupied peoples. The measures taken against such as Tojo, Homma, Yamashita and the Japanese commander at Nanking. after the war were just. To their credit, I think the Japanese people by and large recognized the evil their country had wrought, accepted the profound suffering it brought them and then moved on with their consequently positive civilization.
Jack: you're right that airships made for very poor offensive weapons in WWII, but that doesn't mean they weren't used to good effect. I believe our Navy had large fleets of them that were used for reconnaissance, and you can see why: they would have exceptional "endurance". As for the commercial victory of the passenger jet after 1945, naturally airships could never have competed for speed. If dirigibles had stuck around in any capacity, I believe it would have been for pleasure cruising -- which is, lest we forget, a massive industry, or at least it was until the coronavirus had its say...
ReplyDeleteRay: I tend to agree that there never should have been a shutdown at all, at least not of the sort we got. What there should have been, much earlier, was testing to see if we had a problem with this virus, and then much more ruthless isolation of the most affected areas, like NYC. If the media wasn't based in NYC, I almost think we might have gotten exactly that. Truth be told, President Trump's response to this crisis has NOT been optimal. We might as well admit that.
Well said on the Cold War, Jack! I think it's pretty clear that one man is primarily responsible for the Cold War: Stalin. He made any number of bone-headed moves after 1945 that drove the Western powers together and fostered a sense of threat in the West. But for his idiocy, communism might have expanded much further!
Ray, I don't believe that the coronavirus and the lockdown are conspiracies, precisely, but I do believe that the elite saw ways to profit from this opportunity, and they moved in lockstep to capitalize. Same with the Trump-Russia hoax, in my opinion. It's not so much that the Dems got together in a smoke-filled room. They didn't have to. A chance came along to smear the President-elect, and they took it. That they came to believe their own propaganda was just icing on the cake.
Dr. Waddy: I see your point, I see it! I think you propose a very plausible alternative to that followed by reflexive and hopeful totalitarians like Newsom and Cuomo in response to this pandemic. And I think the resolve to assert it, should either of these incipient dictators seek ultimate executive power thereby, is key, ardently and massively repeated, to discrediting these hopeful dictators.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: Your reminder that the MSM is New Yawk based is VERY supportable and considerable. Believe me, we in enslaved upstate NY comprehend it.
ReplyDeleteJack, NYC is a strange land indeed, and let's be honest: the rarefied penthouses and corner offices occupied by the media moguls have virtually nothing in common with the slums of the recent immigrants, or the suburbs filled with working class Catholics. Can you imagine the howl that would have come out of the elite if Trump had locked down the captains of industry, the stars of stage and screen, and the bigwigs at the major networks? That was our first real chance to "bend the curve", and we missed it, because we were afraid to mortify the Big Apple.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: First, a very unimportant point. Airships could not ever have carried the numbers easily and so enjoyably accomodated by Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth or their worthy successors, yes? And those waves; how impressive they were!
ReplyDeleteIn many ways it would seem futile for the President and Trump Nation to pay heed to the influence of NYC, bent as certainly as it is to his destruction. But it does function as a nexus of MSM power we must regard.
NYC should be the Hong Kong of America: a bemusing entity, beneficial and useful in its ways but denied national influence due to its cultural disdain for the rest of the country. Benighted NY state, electorally dominated by the Amoeba on the Hudson, is a telling case of how it is with any who are commanded thus. And "commanded" is the guiding concept since myopic New Yawka Cuomo exercises dictatorial control over our entire state, the western reaches of which despise him!Their disdain is of no moment at all to him . He is a leftist, incipiently totalitarian dictator and responds only to preventative power. And that is now only in the hands of President Trump.
Jack, I couldn't agree more that President Trump and all right-thinking Americans should ignore the cultural sludge and leftist propaganda that emanates from NYC...but sadly we're a long way from giving the Big Apple the cold shoulder. Trump, among his faults, is clearly extra-sensitive to what the media says. He would be better off throwing his television set out the window and getting his news and analysis from WaddyIsRight instead!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: Surely our President is a canny and courageous player and of course knows NYC. He has demonstrated very much empathy , I think, for the real America and who can gainsay his resentment toward a (liberal only)Gotham which rejected him in his Presidential campaign of all things. In doing so , its shameful faction has invited Nemesis.They threaten consummate domination but they cannot effect it against his insolent resistance. His moxie is fully equal to theirs and they cannot abide even that concept! Their leftist psyches are far too sensitive!
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