Friends, we used to take it for granted that politicians from both major parties would celebrate America, its Constitution, and its people and their traditional values. No longer. Constitution Day is a great reminder of all the blessings our system of government has bestowed on us, but it's also a time to reflect on how fragile that system is, and how much it depends on the character and judgement of the American people to sustain it. This is one of the topics that Brian and I cover in this week's scintillating Newsmaker Show.
In addition, Brian and I talk about the critical Israeli election, the last Democratic debate, the prospect of U.S.-Saudi retaliation against Iran, Washington's Farewell Address and its endorsement of isolationism, the latest shameless onslaught against Brett Kavanaugh, the credibility (or lack thereof) of the Democrats' anti-corporate rhetoric, the proper legal standard for "libel", and the life and legacy of Mao Zedong.
Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP3OzHIjqC8&feature=youtu.be
I am awaiting the History 406 American Revolution class to begin, so I will have to come back to this. Let me just say, sitting here listening to the students talk to one another, it is scary on how many think it is just fine and dandy to circumvent the Constitution or change it "willy nilly". I am looking forward to the Newsmaker Show later today.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Have you ever heard of the Ben Franklins World podcast? Interesting stuff on there. https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/
Dr. Waddy and Kinda: So very much to consider and to venture comment upon:
ReplyDeleteSo Facebook at the time of the Israeli election was disrupted as much perhaps to interfere with pro Netanyahu expressions. Were Palestinians responsible for this? Plausible but was Facebook responsible? Given the aborrent extent of antisemitism on the American left, should that poison have effected Facebook, perhaps plausible too. I don't know but I sgrongly respec
Dr. Waddy and Linda: To continue: I strongly suspect it.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Warren ( from here on EW due to her ascent into prominance): I fully agree: her threat to capitalism is open, honest and characteristically presumptuous and self righteous. And it should be taken very seriously- she means it.
Hillary welcomed corporate support but would of course have turned on corporate America in office. EW appears to think that Hillary's disingenuousness served her badly and thinks that what she is convinced is consummate loathing for corporate President Trump alone will deliver her to ultimate power. That demonstrates her dismissive contempt for the real America.
EW is very careful with her words but not with her MANNER. With her '60's style Granny Glasses and her consistently dismissive tone she bids fair to infuriate the great and real American interior. She appears to think that of no matter because she counts on the foo-foo coasts to enthrone her and she knows her consistent demeanor as a SCOLD appeals to that righteous faction. As a former janitor and steel worker, I scoff at her presumptuous "identification" with physical workers. She's a SWELL, with no understanding of blue collar America! She is just a Mass. liberal and we know what to expect from that sort.
Dr. Waddy:What more is needed to demonstrate to all of good will that the American left is DETERMINED to force its way, no matter what? And after it has succeeded? More of the same, much more, of course!
ReplyDeleteThe latest attack on Justice Kavanaugh? That silly billionaire's consequently enabled hard to establish yet probably libelous attack on a human being who, well, offends him. One would think his attack on our President, funded by (gasp!) personal wealth, would be denounced by the left. Not so!
Dr. Waddy: Why need we react militarily to Iran's probable attack on Saudi Arabia? Haven't we given advanced weaponry to the Saudis? We are no longer dependent on them for oil and it may be possible that we could make up for other country's shortfall should they be denied some Saudi oil.
ReplyDeleteIt was a humiliating thing to have to defer to a medieval era potentate like King Faisal during the 1974 embargo. We were ready to go the wall for Israel, a country light years beyond the Arab world in civilization, in the Yom Kippur War and for that had to do obeisance to those who atavistically hate Israel. But perhaps we don't have to help them anymore; if they fear Iran, let them use their oil wealth to defend themselves.
Our Constitution is almost incalculably precious and the cavalier attitude toward it by the left is yet more proof of their absolute determination to use ANY means to destroy our country.
Very much agree that the key feature in Washington's Farewell was its confirmation of his voluntary step down from power. George the III (really, on balance, a good King) was amazed. What an exceedingly great man Washington was.
I was told by my Chinese history Prof., a former Nationalist Officer " do not think that we in the Kuomintang were opposed to change, we did not realize at the time how much change was needed. A country must hit absolute rock bottom before revolution is justified. China had hit it but we didn't understand that." Mao apparently did and was a brilliant revolutionary fighter but what a tragedy it was that he didn't drop dead on Sep't 1, 1949. Perhaps someone relatively humane (and sane), like perhaps Chou En Lai, Teng Hsiao Ping or Liu Shiao Chi could have risen and saved so many for China's eventual redemption (?)
Thanks for the recommendation, Linda! A podcast, huh? Sadly, like Joe Biden, I'm still learning how to work my record player... ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity the Israeli election ended in another "tie". I know Trump holds Netanyahu in high regard, but could it be time for Israel to turn the page? It wouldn't be the end of the world.
Jack, I agree that EW must be taken seriously as a (closet) socialist and would-be wrecker of corporate America. On the other hand, her hostility to business might make her a weak candidate, might cause a lot of big money to flow to Trump, and might also make her an exceptionally weak President, if she were ever fortunate enough to capture that high office. Perish the thought.
I totally agree about Warren's inability to connect with working class, ordinary Americans. She's a Massachusetts liberal, yes, and that's bad enough. She's also a PROFESSOR! That's the kiss of death. No one likes professors!
Jack, your views on Iran are highly defensible. Iran's attack was indeed an "act of war" -- against Saudi Arabia, not us. The Saudis must be capable of retaliating. We may, however, be restraining them, because we fear escalation. You make a good point, though, that the Saudis, as one of our best customers in terms of advanced weaponry, probably ought to use some of their shiny new missiles and bombers one day... It would appear our strategy is to keep turning the other cheek, thus confirming that it is the Iranians who are the aggressors. There is some international political currency to be earned by the exercise of patience, it's true...but there have to be limits. Iran is testing them.
Yes, it's intriguing to contemplate what a different place China could have been in the 50s, 60s, and 70s with saner leadership. A Chinese Khrushchev would have been a big improvement on Mao!
Dr. Waddy. If you can work the internet, you can work the podcast, smiles. They are informative, smiles.
ReplyDeleteThe Debate: It was nothing new to see or hear (not that I watched it-unfort. it was on too late). I did get a chance to catch up on that topic. I agree, she does represent a real threat. Her threat to capitalism is real and I find her self righteous attitude nauseating. I don't think her identifying as a Native American will be taken seriously, too many people think that is ok-especially the younger generation.
Has it been a year already since Kavanaugh became a Supreme Court leader? The dems are really going out on a limb with the impeachment issues going on. I am afraid they will continue on with this until the president leaves office.
Saudi Arabia: I would urge the president to take a step back. Something is quite off with this, what I just don't know. We are not the worlds policeman (well, we shouldn't be). I was reading that Great Britain will not back us up regardless of who did what. I am not sure if I agree that we are holding Saudi Arabia back (per your response to Jack). I think Saudi Arabia is more than capable of holding their own, per say. I do agree, Iran is testing us and my bottom dollar is Russia and China might have something to do with this testing of the allies as well. We shall see, we ought not be in a hurry to retaliate, there just is not an appetite for war.
I am afraid the Constitution is under attack from many entities. Like I have said, there are many people who want it to be a living and breathing thing. I agree, we should follow it more so now than ever.
George Washington: Was a great man, regardless of what the left might say. Nor am I a warmonger, I am a Nationalist and a Constitutionalist; both a textualist and a originalist (which can coexist by the way). According to Emperor Cuomo that could be a red flag. wink
Mao Zedong: Sadly, I don't know too much about Chinese history since I elected to stay in the America/Latin American and European studies field. However, I did take a Chinese Art History class and it did touch on Mao and a brief Chinese history. I gather Chinese history is just as difficult to understand as Africa is (so I am finding out-needed a 480 class and that was the only one available. I will not be a African historian, sad to say. smiles). My understanding is that Mao was a horrible human being who followed the Marxist ideology.
Another great Newsmaker, Dr. Waddy. Jack, as usual, your comments were great and often cause me to reflect and research your history "lessons". grin
Linda: Sorry for having carelessly misspelled your name above and I'm very grateful for your endorsements of my views. A very well written history of China is to be found in the book The United States and China ( cannot recall the author). And I do intend to follow up on some of the books you have cited, especially the one about the world the colonial Minutemen lived in. I know that would help me to better understand what they did.
ReplyDeleteJack, lolol--its all good...my three year old niece calls me Kinda or Winda--I'm use to it, smiles. I knew you were referring to me, smiles. If I ever find the time to read something other than textbooks or journal articles, I will look for the book, smiles.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I wouldn't be so sure about the Pocahontas brouhaha. We conservatives can laugh it off, but, for the liberals, pretending to be a person of color is practically a capital offense!
ReplyDeleteLinda, I see you agree with Jack that we should let the Saudis fight some of their own battles. That seems to be Trump's inclination too. I wonder if the Saudis have the mettle, though...
Ha! Linda, you jest about Cuomo's "red flags", but you're probably right that, for many liberals, devotion to our Constitution constitutes "white nationalism" and hate speech. Very sad.
Dr. Waddy and Linda: It would be the act of one dismissive of repeated warnings to minimize the real possibility of Cuomo attempting to pioneer the legal interpretation of conservative opinion as the "hate speech" the left already considers established criminal behavior. He will never be elected President/Dictator and he knows it by now (I think). But his monstrously consuming ego requires that he have some decisive effect on our national history; oh, NYS is not enough!
ReplyDeleteHis obvious and contemptuous attacks on the Constitution, using the vehicle he thinks most promising, the 2nd Amendment, confirms his disdain for any part of the document with which he disagrees. Surely, freedom of speech is directly in his totalitarian sights and that will be manifested in his presumptuous equation of opposition to his increasingly tyrannical gun laws with "red flags" and as expression of the "white supremacy" he so obsequiously laments.Express opposition to his decrees? You raise a "red flag" because your views are decreed "bizarre" and you hazard confiscation of your yet Constitutionally protected firearms and sure close thereafter, your liberty. "So sue me "says New Yawka Andrew.
Your fears are not unfounded, Jack. Conservative thought has already been equated to mental illness, "terrorism," white supremacy, etc. Is it imaginable that, in the age of political correctness and "cancel culture," the ultimate aim of liberals will be to make conservatives, well, shut up? Oh, I think so. A vigorous conservative media is one way we can avoid that miserable fate.
ReplyDeleteOn that point, good luck on trying to shut us/Conservatives up. While I agree most of us will probably do so just to keep our guns, there will come a point when one can no longer just shut up.
ReplyDeleteThe Saudi's ought to defend themselves. Have we forgotten that the men who flew the planes into the towers, the Pentagon and the field in PA were from Saudi Arabia? I still stand with my original thought that this whole Iran issue --something doesn't sound right. I hope the President continues to just take a stance of backing off. Way to many warmongers out there.
So far, Linda, there don't seem to be many Americans "shutting up" about anything -- unless perhaps you count conservatives on college campuses. They truly have been intimidated into silence, in a lot of cases. And if it can happen there...
ReplyDeleteI don't trust the Saudis either, but I think we can rely on them to be anti-Iranian. That's a start!