Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show masters the American political scene, as per usual, as we discuss the reemergence of the gun control issue (surprise surprise!), and the declining political fortunes of Joe Biden. We also, however, take a good look at Boris Johnson's political predicament. A lot of Conservatives are resigning from his cabinet in an effort to convince him to resign in turn. So far, no success, but how long can Boris survive the onslaught?
When we get to "This Day in History", Brian and I talk about several weighty issues, such as: Nixon's policy of Vietnamization, Hitler's role in the Holocaust and the character of the Nazi leadership, and the legacy of Sandra Day O'Connor.
What a wide-ranging and stimulating discourse, you say? Then take the next logical step, and listen in...
https://wlea.net/newsmaker-july-7-2022-dr-nick-waddy/
And here's additional context on Boris Johnson's woes, which seem to be escalating by the day!
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/boris-johnson-parliament-england/2022/07/06/id/1077595/
RAY HERE And speaking of The Holocaust, the WW 2 German Army cooperated extensively with the SS in the murder of the European Jews. On that note, especially since the 1960s, when the post-WW 2 West German Army came into existence, a lot of effort was made by the U.S. to clean up the WW 2 image of the Germany Army as the good guys, plot against Hitler, Rommel and all that claptrap.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, German Army cooperation with the SS/SD was on display when the mass killings of Jews began after the German Invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Those killings were mostly by machine gunning, and were in broad delight, and also with the willing cooperation of Ukrainian pro-Nazi militia.
Keep in mind that members of that same Ukrainian militia willingly served as guards when the Death Camps were set up in Poland.
Dr.Waddy et al from Jack: Ray has provided a timely reminder of the terrible persistance of Eastern European murderous antisemitism! Re: the broadcast: you are spot on in predicting ever increasing "american" leftist advocacy of laws incipiently productive of complete disarmament of lawful gun owners coupled with excuse for gun using criminals! First, the resolute gun grabbers who fuel their movement and mislead so many of good will who mistakenly believe that gun control = security from crime using guns, have one ultimate goal. That is: to remove gun owners and their very powertul organizations ( eg even though beleagured NRA, which through its heretic NY state affiliate intiated the present Scotus defeat of gun owner hating NY gov't's presumptuous handgun licensing law)from the great power they exercise by supporting candidates, lawmakers and office holders who are conservative on on a very wide range of social issues (including civil rights, which surely include 2nd Amendment guarantees of fundamental historical and natural law principles). The left hopes to decisively discourage gun owners with relentless attack! Public safety from violence using guns is a tertiary advantage for them
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The "american " left welcomes violent crime enabled in places like NY and CA by its opposition to lawful gun owning because they think such offense is deserved by the lawful public in recompense for their disdain for the sincere concerns of gun wielding thugs. The "american" left, thoroughly Marxist, sees street trash as a revolutionary class. Of course, in fine far leftist tradition, they will eliminate these yegs in order as short of which only they are capable, when they prevail. That is historically supportable and predictable!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: I know little about that which drove Johnson from office but I am convinced of this: he did his country a lasting good by empowering its expressed will to depart the EU. He did it courageously, in the face of now characteristic vicious undemocratic leftist opposition!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack:So Pino Biden thinks his party has nobody fit for the challenges of his job. Well, it does: that is Joe Manchin, whose common sense flies directly in the face of Pino Biden's controlling coterie!
ReplyDeleteRay, I'm no Holocaust expert, but everything you've said tracks with what I've read. The SS had a lot of help in perpetrating genocide against the Jews, and moreover the Nazi dragnet ensnared a lot of people who weren't Jews, and that's often forgotten. Yes, the Ukrainians were among those most welcoming of and supportive of SS death squads. Then I suppose we could get into a debate about the moral equivalence of German mass killing versus Soviet mass killing. All in all, I'd say the upshot is: killing is nasty, and mass killing is extra extra nasty!
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Jack: the leftist onslaught against gun rights will never stop. I remain hugely impressed by the American people's dogged resistance to this propaganda offensive, waged over decades. It gives me hope!
Joe Manchin for President? Ha! If only the Democratic Party were willing to consider such a sensible, middle-of-the-road candidate. We both know it would recoil in horror if he actually ran. Manchin stopped being a Democrat a long time ago. He just hasn't realized it yet.
RAY HERE Nick you are right about the killing of non-Jews. The Nazis killed at least 3 million (documented) non-Jewish Poles. When it comes to Stalin, his regime probably killed more people than Hitler's regime ever did.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, don't forget that in 1940 Stalin signed the order that "liquidated" 20,000 non-Communist Polish officers in the Katyn forest and other locations. Every victim in this atrocity was shot in the back of the head. The British and Americans covered this up, because Stalin was an "ally".
Dr.Waddy from Jack: After the recent Scotus decision outlawing NY's handgun permit law requiring applicants to show a good reason to carry, NY responded with unseemly haste. It passed a law forbidding carrying in any of a list of locations so extensive as to make carry almost impossible for even already lawful gun owners!. Included also is a requirement that store owners post an affirmation that they allow carry on their premises. Lack of this automatically makes carry illegal. Of course the common sense posting of a notice that guns are not welcome, as is a business owner''s right, was deliberately shunned. The intent of such legislation is blatantly obvious. It is to obstruct and discourage lawful gun ownership and our Constitutionally affirmed right to carry. I know the now proven formidable NY gun rights lobby and the NRA will also make haste , that is to subject this deeply offensive legislation to timely judicial review. Meanwhile NY state will continue its neo Cuomoesque drive toward dictatorship!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddyfrom Jack: President Reagan was no apologetic conservative but he did sometimes do counterintuitive things he thought to be tactically wise. In 1976, while trying for the nomination, he "selected" Sen Richard Schweiker, reputed one of the most liberal of Senators, to run with him. Didn't work; just confused his supporters. Justice O'Conner's empowerment might well have been similarly well intended. I wonder: I think President Reagan opposed abortion but at that time did he believe it even possible to eventually overturn Roe v. Wade? Was Justice O'Conner's eventual support for Roe v Wade predictable? I'm sure a similarly qualified Alexander O'Conner would not have had a chance at nomination.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: A photo of Himmler strutting past fenced in starving concentration camp inmates with a no doubt previously satisfied gustatory mien, is beyond horror. It enters into a world perhaps incomprehensible but to any who have seen it, heard it, smelled it!! This is completely typical of the work of totalitarians. That the same who are determin
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: . . . to breach American doors have similar motivation is very , very plausible!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: I meant this comment to precede the above on Himmler: Re: Your observation that Hitler's fingerprints were hard to find on the Holocaust: like so many subhuman thugs, pore ol' Adolf had him a "sensitive" tummy. And like so many of that ilk, once he reached the top he preempted the mannerisms of the upper class.Oh you know, the fine suits, the wee teacups meant to be held with thumb and finger with the superfluous fingers prominently banished outward, and of, course, disdain for the ehh, "hands on" details of atrocity. Best leave that to chinless Himmler, who, had Hitler won, he would eventually have expunged. It was said of Hitler that his train once drew abreast of a train carrying traumatized and physically broken German Eastern front veterans., for a brief stop. When he saw him looking at him with amazement he simply pulled his window curtain. He had nothing inside him besides filth!
ReplyDeleteRay, as you well know, the Katyn Forest Massacre was pretty much all in a day's work for Stalin and his henchmen. The numbers of Soviets and non-Soviets "liquidated" by the Stalinist regime are simply stunning. Even today, many leftists are covering for Stalin by under-reporting the crimes of communist regimes and constantly implying that violence is an exclusive preserve of right-wingers. Nothing could be further from the truth.
ReplyDeleteJack, New York's "quick thinking" on gun control is entirely predictable, and we'll see a lot more of this type of obfuscation unless the federal courts quash it very aggressively.
Jack, I'm sure you're right that Reagan thought of the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor as a practical move that would bring big political benefits. One also has to consider the context: summer 1981. Reagan was more or less fresh off his big win in 1980, and Republicans held a majority in the Senate for the first time since the 1950s. That could mean that Reagan ought to have pressed his advantage by selecting a solid conservative...or it could mean Reagan was wise to tread lightly. You make the call.
Good point, Jack, that Hitler recoiled from cruelty and suffering himself, and cocooned himself in bourgeois normalcy and respectability. So too, I suspect, did many of the men who administered the Holocaust more directly!
Dr.Waddy from Jack: The book Lenin's Tomb provides almost unbearable first hand accounts of the suffering of newly arrived Gulag slaves. Dante could not have envisioned anything as hellish.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: If it were my call: O'Conner was his first Scotus nominee . Clearly he was determined to fulfill his campaign promise to appoint a woman.But he had also pledged to attack abortion. How much did he know about O'Conner's attitude to abortion? One would think a viable woman jurist or office holder with proven anti abortion convictions could have been found. Perhaps he thought appointment of a moderate woman to Scotus would show him to be sensitive to "women's issues" when future anticipated openings gave him a chance to form a lawful Scotus. As far as I can see, he never had more than two sure votes against Roe v Wade: Rehnquist and Scalia. Had he first appointed a female Scalia and if Bork had survived his Kennedy led onslaught, he still would not have had enough.Of course he cannot have known that in 1981. My take: identify a proven antiabortion woman first. Maybe he got bad advice on O'Conner.
ReplyDeleteJack: it's quite possible that it was VERY slim pickings for Reagan in 1981, in terms of the search for viable conservative female nominees for SCOTUS. Then I would argue he should have waited to appoint a woman. I would also argue that the totality of Reagan's four appointments to the Court indicate that he was simply not as dedicated to the task of shaping the Court ideologically as subsequent Presidents would be. Dubya, for instance, though he can be criticized as a RINO in many respects, appointed outstanding, and strongly conservative, Justices. Maybe Reagan received bad advice from his inner circle? Could be.
ReplyDelete