Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show is not be missed! Me and Brian O'Neil cover the latest developments in the Senate trial of Donald Trump, which is destined to leave the Dems crestfallen. We also talk about the looming consummation of Brexit and its world-historical importance. Perhaps most importantly, Brian and I preview the Iowa Caucuses, coming up next Monday, which will set the tone for the Democratic race for President. It looks quite possible that the race will emerge as a two-man contest between the near-octogenarians, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. I argue that Bernie would be a disaster as a candidate. He's a non-Democrat, an admitted socialist, and his proposals are, while not quite Marxism-Leninism warmed over, totally unrealistic and out-of-sync with American political realities. I don't believe the Dems are dumb enough to nominate someone like Sanders, but I sure would like to see them try!
In terms of "This Day in History," Brian and I cover the Challenger disaster in 1986, and we talk about George W. Bush's very poor decision in 2002 to brand Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the "axis of evil".
Tune in, why don't ya?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGFZOVUaopQ&feature=youtu.be
Another great Newsmaker Show. In 1986, I was in Junior College in Ocala, Florida and actually was standing outside and saw the shuttle blow up. It was an unusually cold, bitter January morning. Back then, the race to space was a great one. What a sad, sad day it was. There are very fond days of the shuttle program; I was there for the first one and very last shuttle launch (for my sons 13th birthday we traveled back to Florida to watch it).
ReplyDeleteAs for the farce of impeachment- Time for McConnell to pull the plug. You are right, the democrats are going to believe what they want to believe and the same for Republicans. Reality is, as long as President Trump is the leader of the free world, the democrats will be impeaching, it is the sad reality we live in. The hate is real, period.
The hearings have been on in our household. I wish I could take a class with Professor Dershowitz, he is a principled man who admitted that he was wrong on some law issues. I find him very interesting, and a constitutionalist.
The Iowa Caucuses. I am quite sure those candidates who have to spend their days in the Senate impeachment are not too happy (grin). I still say somehow-someway Hillary will be entering the race.
Wow! You were present for the first and last shuttle launches... I guess that's one of the benefits of living in Florida! How neat. I love the space program. Its loss of momentum since 1969, and especially since 2011, is profoundly regrettable. Theoretically, we might be juicing up the program in 2020 with the first launch of the Orion capsule and the SLS. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm afraid you're right -- the Dems will keep pursuing Trump as long as he's President (and probably long after, just for good measure). They will think twice about impeaching him again, though, once they fall flat on their faces this time around.
And good point that the Senate trial is keeping Bernie and Liz out of Iowa at a critical moment. Could that be part of the Dem establishment's plan? I think so. They're inferring in their own election! Ha ha. So be it. It still looks as though Bernie may give Joe Biden a run for his money. And Hillary? My my. If Bernie looks like he might capture the prize, and Biden isn't cutting it, you might be right that they'd take her out of mothballs. Stranger things have happened.
HA! I keep telling anyone that will listen, I am older than dirt (well, not really, lol. But at times, close).
DeleteI am hoping beyond all hope that this impeachment will be over sooner than later. I have had enough. I do believe the Nation as a whole has had a enough and healing has to be soon.
Dr. Waddy: I haven't listened to the broadcast yet but let me indulge in a snide retort to the title of the article. For years now I've been getting a good laugh over how my boomers, who put soooo much arrogant stock in our youth. are now getting OLD. I love the irony. Oh yeah, Bernie is a little bit farther along than pore 'ol Joe (no baby boom going on in the early '40's) but I'm sure he sang right along with Nobel Laureate Dylan "please get out of the new world if you can't lend a hand", for our parents' edification. Good gravy, he could reprise that out on the trail today though there are a fair sight fewer of the Greatest Generation left to disparage.
DeleteDr. Waddy and Linda:I listened; here are my thoughts: I agree the "Impeachment" (what does that mean after all; perhaps - a creditable expression of doubt as to the conduct of an official sufficient to consider disempowerment of that official?). As such, this "impeachment" fails the test; it is but the exercise of temporary power by a body nominally Constitutionally empowered to enact it, to direct this honored procedure to a purely partisan end.
ReplyDeleteThe Dem primaries: oh who will prevail (to their eventual undoing?). Dr. Waddy, I'd respectfully suggest that the Dems may not be the "big tent" they say they are. A more disdainful ,bigoted and totalitarian crowd then them would be hard to find.
And I think that supports your view that many of those many Dems of good will be alienated by whoever their party's nominee turns out to be.To them I would say: you thought us for so long to be intolerable but think now; your livelihoods,your houses, your savings, your children's future as the "privileged" spawn of the "unjustly advantaged", your consummate and inescapable political incorrectness: what chance do you think you will have under Bernie and his unelected bureaucrats, even unto your level??!!
Dr. Waddy: Ah dunno. You suggested a President Bernie with a Dem Congress might yet be unable to put Utopia into law enforceable by Federal bayonets. But Andrew Cuomo has enacted a so far dictatorial command on his subjects (not citizens to be sure) in his principality of NY. Could not Comrade Bernie try the same? If you say the real America would resist, I agree and that would mean resolute resistance, very much beyond that of the 2016-2020 left.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: If "impeachment " is as Pat Buchanan says, the"ultimate weapon of the left" then the left has failed and catastrophically so. It was, as you assert, a huge overreaction by the Dems. Nominally it was, I agree; a visibly trivial attack and as such was emblematic of the American left's juvenile onslaught on that which prevented their 2016 celebration and the showering glass fragments. Oh so sad.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: And I agree with the perception of what I perceive to be the real America's wrath at the left's breezy dismissal of our views. The left will find out!
ReplyDeleteLinda, I totally agree that the nation is weary of impeachment, and to some degree of Trump-hatred. Of course, it may also be weary of Trump! Time will tell.
ReplyDeleteJack, you're preaching to the choir on impeachment. I think there's little doubt that a phone call to the President of Ukraine, unless it involves an obvious shakedown -- "Transfer $500 million to my personal account tonight, or I'll nuke your hometown" -- would not qualify as something impeachable/removal-worthy. We ought not to CANCEL elections unless there's overwhelming justification, right? A more interesting question for the next few years might be this: will the Dems double down on impeachment and try again, or are we witnessing impeachment's last gasp? It's a head-scratcher, but I lean towards option B.
As for the "big tent," time will tell. Right now I'd say that what unites the Dems is contempt for Trump and Republicans. And, to be fair, those are widely held sentiments. Are they enough to motivate a majority of the American people to vote the same way? I doubt it. The Democratic nominee will advance specific proposals -- probably outrageous proposals -- that will challenge many Americans to decide: even if Trump isn't perfect, is Bernie/Joe/Liz any better?
Jack, I firmly believe that Congress, EVEN if the Dems controlled both Houses, would fail to support Bernie's agenda. The courts would also be a major source of vexation for him. And remember, he's never administered ANYTHING in his life. The difference between theory and practice can be stark, as we all know. I believe that, in practice, a Bernie presidency would be a train wreck.
Dr. Waddy: Yeah, a Bernie Presidency would quickly engender true Constitutional crisis as he seeks to redeem Salvatore Allende as the first elected Marxist (by definition of course, a dictator)to prevail. Still, I cannot doubt that most Dems would support him; their party is disgracefully compromised and can be neutralized only by their marginalization. Only resolutely exercised power can disenfranchise them. President Trump,once reelected, will carry this out by securing the erstwhile leftist fortress of SCOTUS for the rule of law.
ReplyDeleteThat widely held contempt for the President is largely attributable to the lies presumptuously advanced by the Dems and their media shills. I listened as long as I could hold down my gorge to Sanders and his patronizing concern for "working people".I remember when Nikolai Podgorny, the then President of the Soviet Union, was bade refrain from a visit to Britain even by leaders of Britain's Red unions. "All Podgorny knows is how to kill and enslave workers" was their refrain. The same to Red Bernie!
Red Bernie -- I like that! "Comrade Bernie" perhaps? You're right that most Dems would rally around Bernie, at least as long as their bugaboo Trump is still on the scene, but I truly believe a Bernie candidacy would mean the Dems would bleed moderates all over the place. A third party alternative that they could vote for is a possibility, but it's more likely that many would stay home. I've always thought that Trump would struggle to get a majority of the vote, but, with Bernie's help, all things are possible!!!
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