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Wednesday, December 11, 2019

The Road Not Taken



Friends, on this week's Newsmaker Show, Brian and I review the latest developments in the impeachment saga, and we're aghast at the Democrats' tenacity and imbecility.  What else is new?  Brian and I also talk about the high stakes in the upcoming British election (it's tomorrow!!!), and we delve into two fascinating historical topics: the abdication of Britain's King Edward VIII, and Hitler's declaration of war against the United States.

Don't miss it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8oWtezN4-I&feature=youtu.be

In other news, consider this startling revelation: Joe Biden is considering softening the blow that is his presidential candidacy by promising the voters that he would only serve one term!  If you ask me, that's clear evidence that Biden considers himself "past it".  Such talk will, and should, devastate his campaign:

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/11/biden-single-term-082129

And, for those of you who want closure on New York State's case against ExxonMobil, which I've written about in the past, here it is.  New York lost big.  Will this stop the assault on the energy industry?  Not by a long shot, but it might slow it down a little.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/10/exxon-did-not-mislead-investors-a-new-york-judge-ruled-on-tuesday.html

13 comments:

  1. I finally have time to visit and comment. I am sitting here watching the IG hearing and frankly, I am appalled by the IG Report. I just love Ted Cruz's calling it 'Beavis and Butthead'(and apologies if I offend). I do have to say, all this pontificating by Congress and the Senate is getting on what little nerves I do have left.

    I absolutely believe that this whole situation has been a Coup D'état starting in 2016. I also firmly believe that the Obama administration knew and willingly participated in this coup and I agree, they wanted it to be true. What truly gets me is that the true abuse power is coming from the government and the democrats and if they can do this to a Carter Page, then it can happen to anyone of us. Doing a 302/ Investigation while standing there briefing the elected president, well, that is just wrong.

    My guess is that every democrat will vote for impeachment, just because Pelosi will stomp her feet and threaten them. I just wonder how the upcoming election will play out. Will it be more lies by the democrats? Will it be more MSM lies? etc. It is very sad what this is coming too and I wonder how many people see this charade for what it is or are people just turning off?

    The abdication of Britain's King - Emperor Edward VIII is such a fascination even after all these years. I loved the movie, The King's Speech. Interesting you don't think Elizabeth II has the temperament to be the leader, smiles. I certainty believe she has had such grace all these years. Now, more so than ever with her son Andrew's issues, and with Princess Diana etc. I might not agree with her stance on things, but all in all, I think she has been good for the country and her temperament has weathered many storms.

    I don't have any thoughts or comments about Hitler's declaration of war against the United States, all I know is, maybe if folks should of just let him go to art school like he wanted and maybe things would of been different (that is a joke, by the way).

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  2. Welcome back, Linda! I'm glad you had such a successful semester. You've done Trumpland proud. :)

    I must admit, I haven't watched a Congressional hearing in years. My sense is that most of them are deadly boring, and they have little impact on public opinion, given how few people watch.

    I still believe that the country's fate is largely in John Durham's hands. The Dems have disgraced themselves in their smears and plots against Trump, and unless some them are held criminally responsible there's no doubt in my mind that they'll do it all again, and worse. How many of these plots can our democracy survive?

    I doubt that ALL the Dems will vote for impeachment. I think one has already said he won't. The question will be how many additional Dems will get cold feet. My guess is that Nancy will pass her articles all right -- she wouldn't be moving forward otherwise -- but the numbers might be darn close.

    Oh, I agree with you that Elizabeth II has been a good monarch. What I meant by the fact that she hasn't got the right temperament is less a comment on her performance than on the cost she personally has paid to render that performance. It seems clear that she's naturally a retiring, modest sort of person. Her interest in horses, if The Crown is to be believed, is vastly greater than her interest in affairs of state. That being so, she probably would have been happier as the female equivalent of a country squire. It wasn't to be, though, and so, like her father, she did her duty. God bless her for it.

    And you may be joking about Hitler and art school, but you're absolutely right -- indulging his artistic pretensions would have spared the world a lot of grief, or so it seems. We don't know for sure that the alternative to Hitler wouldn't have been even worse...

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  3. r. Waddy: Let's see: If Biden served one term he would leave in Jan of 2025. How old would AOC be then? Old enough to ascend to the throne the left already thinks her due?But he'd need a VPmeanwhile and he/she might have some say. We will be about halfway to environmental immolation then and the country needs must acclaim the Prophetess and Deliverer from our manifest perfidy.

    Good thing Edward VIII did abdicate; he had some really dangerous Nazi sympathies.He might have have done for England right proper then. A PM might have had to take him in hand. Churchill probably would have.

    Having worked in a law enforcement bureaucracy I know how defensive they can be. IGs are much feared but for the DOJ it may take a political appointee to enable justice in the investigation of the "collusion" travesty.

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  5. Sorry about, (my delete) talk about misspellings, lol.

    Dr. Waddy, I get what you are saying about Queen Elizabeth and I do agree.

    Hmm...about the democrats, I know there are at least 11 and counting now who said they will not vote for impeachment but for censure. I still stand with my original thought; they will vote for impeachment. Yes, the hearings can be boring, I am at the point that 'just get it done already' attitude. I have read somewhere they have spent over 40 million for this farce. That is this real corruption and obstruction, just my opinion of course.

    JACK!!!! I have missed you, smiles. I agree, Churchill might just have. Sigh, I am afraid you are correct about the bureaucracy.

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  6. Hey, it looks like Johnson/Conservative Party is going to win by a very large margin.

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  7. Biden's age will certainly make his choice of a VP an unusually important one (should he be lucky enough to be the nominee). The Dems will already be looking past him. Aren't we all?

    I wouldn't necessarily assume a King Edward VIII circa 1939-40 would have acted differently than George VI. His "Nazi sympathies" were pretty standard at the time he visited Hitler. No one had any great desire to fight another World War, including half the Conservative Party. What Churchill's fate would have been under Edward, though, is an interesting question.

    Yes, the impeachment farce will be over soon. Seems the Republicans in the Senate have decided to frisk it aside quickly. Hunter Biden must be relieved! I wonder if any Dem Senators will defect...

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  8. Dr. Waddy: Your argument that Edward VIII might have acted much like George VI in 1939-40, instead of as did some of the disdainful and fashionable AND those who completely understandably feared a reprise of the madness of 1914-18, is plausible and supportable. Perhaps the crux might have come with the guarantee to Poland: Could or would Edward have persuaded Chamberlain ( who was almost prostrate at the possibility of war) to refrain from that?

    That might have been moot.Would Hitler have driven on France sans the (toothless) guarantee to Poland?. The predator that he was,he might well have done so upon any other pretext; he was so very vengeful toward France for defending it self in 1914.

    Churcill's fate under Edward? A great question. Apparently George expressed misgivings directly to Churchill while , nonetheless, doing his duty by "asking" Churchill to form a government. Would Edward have defied this tradition? Can we assume from the circumstances of his abdication that he lacked backbone or a sense of duty? Maybe. Halifax was certainly a plausible alternative, though his defeatism would have reshaped history.

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  9. Dr. Waddy: Also, Churchill did order British intelligence not to reveal any secrets to the then Duke of Windsor.

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  10. Jack, I have seen it persuasively argued that the guarantee to Poland was a bad idea. It enabled a certain recklessness on the Poles' part that virtually "guaranteed" a general war, without, of course, offering the Poles anything resembling real security. Without the guarantee, it's possible that Germany and Poland might have negotiated a mutually agreeable solution...and then there would have been no Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact.

    Also, I think even Churchill wasn't as Churchillian as you might think. According to the film "The Darkest Hour" he considered a separate peace with Hitler. I believe it. British steadfastness in the cause of anti-Nazism was by no means assured in 1939-40, regardless of who was King, and regardless of who was PM, if you ask me. Some of Britain's pluck was determined by circumstances and by German blunders, I think. And by Halifax's maladies, to be sure.

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  11. Dr. Waddy: Your views are lent much credibility by your historical professionalism and competence. But I'll venture to say this:

    Hitler apparently always had his eyes on European Russian as a German territory. As Joseph Conrad once lamented, Poland's curse is the path for invasion it presents both the German and Russian juggernauts. Any Hitlerian agreement with Poland might well have met the same fate as that of Czechoslovakia (?) Surely Hitler would not have been sated with the Polish corridor. But yes, sans the Pact, how would the Soviets have reacted to a German onslaught on Poland? Would an earlier war with the Soviets have restrained Hitler? Probably not. His intelligence services had to have known how the Soviet Army suffered from Stalin's insane purges. For how long? And would this have affected onslaught on Western Europe? Sans that, how would the U.S. have reacted(?). Would Hitler have stood by his Japanese ally? Had he done so he might have drawn in Britain ", attacked also by Japan, a Britain with a year and a half more to prepare (though under what leadership? It was the Norwegian debacle which empowered Churchill). Who can say.

    But as it is depicted in the movie, Churchill laments to the King
    that if his dwindling support in the Commons mandates it, he must sue for peace.He loathed the prospect and had it come about, I think,he would have resigned and girded his loins, if only at his country redoubt.

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  12. Dr. Waddy: Churchill was a many faceted phenomenom , to say the least. The pros and the cons are many. And each are creditably argued.

    Perhaps Churchill and through him, those he inspired, were lifted by Shakespeare ("This sceptered isle" - Richard II and "This England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror But when it first did help to wound itself ... Come the three corners of the world in arms and we shall shock them.Nought shall make us rue if England itself do rest but true" - King John.

    There can be but little doubt that Churchill's oratory bolstered the nation and his consummate courage in ordering such hard, hard measures as the assault on the French fleet at Mers El Kebir, bespeak an heroic strength of character. In the scene in the film where George VI expresses his support for Churchill he also says why( approx): "Any one who could so scare that man deserves my support. Beat the buggers!"

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  13. Jack, I think the permutations for how WWII might have gone are literally endless. It's the old "butterfly effect". Certainly one of the most critical dynamics is leadership, and ANY of the major leaders could have been assailed by the Grim Reaper long before 1939...and then what? Now, there's a thought experiment for you. If Hitler had died, either of natural causes or of an assassination attempt, before the outbreak of the war, presumably Goering would have taken the helm. The character of the regime would have been totally different. Likewise, the US and British war efforts were dominated by FDR and Churchill, respectively. Either could have been unavailable, and then...the mind boggles.

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