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Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show covers, as you would expect, all the stories that the talking heads are, well, talking about, but it also covers some of the critical developments that don't appear on most so-called experts' radar screens. In other words, we go where many news analysts fear to tread!
For instance, Brian and I discuss the deployment of Indian Navy vessels to the Red Sea to help deal with Houthi extremists. Is the Indian Navy about to rule the seas? No, but they've got two aircraft carriers, which is two more than I've got, so keep an eye on India, I say! In addition, Brian and I cover the upcoming Iowa caucuses and their likely significance (or lack thereof), where we stand in the Russia-Ukraine War and the West's prodigious investments therein, Nikki Haley's hawkish stance on foreign interventions, the thorny question of presidential immunity from prosecution, whether the legitimacy and influence of the Supreme Court would survive a potential intervention in the 2024 election, whether the U.S. has become a "banana republic", whether New York Governor Kathy Hochul can placate leftists and average citizens simultaneously on issues like crime and spending, the problem of rogue prosecutors who won't file charges against common criminals, and the career prospects of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Wow! What a smorgasbord of analytical delights. Dig in!
https://wlea.net/newsmaker-january-10-2024-dr-nick-waddy/
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In other news, Chris Christie has acknowledged the hard truth that he won't be president as of January 20th, 2025. In other words, he's decided to suspend his campaign. He didn't, however, throw his support behind either Haley or DeSantis, both of whom he seems to despise (although not as much as Donald Trump). Good riddance, I say! Probably the main beneficiary is Nikki Haley, who now has a better chance to win New Hampshire...but only if she can get past DeSantis in Iowa first.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Those two carriers are modern and I believe the Indian Navy had them built. They used to employ surplus British tubs. China, I think, is the country most likely to be concerned about the rise of a powerful Indian Navy. Their Indian Ocean commerce to Africa and the middle east is of vital importance to them. In developing what is sometimes described as the new Silk Road, China has inclined toward cooperation with Iran. Could this lead to a clash at sea with India over Iran sponsored threats to commerce in that area? China might also be concerned over conceivable Indian participation in a crescent of countries defensive against China. It could also include Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, S.Korea, the Philippines and Japan (and us). I'm very glad to see the rise of India from destitution and hopelessness; its a miracle. I saw bad poverty among S. Asian ethnics even in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Your very plausible view that the Ukraine war could drag on and your mention of WWIII: yeah , what if Russia decides that enough is enough and ups the ante? The longer this tragic denial , this wishful thinking ,of Russia's absolutely fundamental security concern lasts, perhaps the more the possibility of conflagration.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Ramaswamy has expressed some pleasing Trumpian resolution but DeSantis has carried out measures that DJT would probably endorse were he not in a tussle with DeSantis. In doing so DeSantis has attracted the dread basilisk gaze of the antiamerican left, with the attendant certainty of a lawfare onslaught.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Its so simple; if you enable criminals they commit more crime, PERIOD. That presents an unjust threat to the innocent and it will persist as long as NY state government do gooders persist in coddling cynical victimizers, sometimes even with the intent of "schooling" the law abiding. Incarceration can be avoided by purposeful refrain from the commission of crime. Perceived high incarceration is a direct reflection of conscious decisions to do crime.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: One way to cut down on crime of all sorts is to make it legal to use force to protect both your person and your property. Fat chance in NY I know but some civilized states may decide to act on the verity that criminals do bad things from which the law abiding must be protected and that criminals deserve to have bad things happen to them.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
DeleteRemember that TV series, about 35 or 40 years ago called "Shogun"? One of the best morbid "humor" lines is that in medieval Japan, almost every crime was punishable by death.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Above I meant Iranian threat to nonChinese commerce. Iran would be mad to threaten China.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
DeleteWe had a chance to take very good care of Iran back in 1979 when they invaded our Embassy in Tehran, and we we did O. Of course Carter was president, so that explains everything. Right around that time we also had a chance to clean up on North Korea when they killed two of our Army Officers with axes on the DMZ. Again, 0. Again, Carter was president. Carter was also the one that gave official recognition to PRC China. He also wanted to be buddies with that asshole Fidel Castro.
Ray and Drt. Waddy et al from Jack: I think modern Japan is mostly free of the casual criminality which shames our country. I saw the Japanese police in action 50 years ago when my friend tried to tear up a Japanese bar. They were very firm and fair. I doubt they have changed .They simply say NO!, to street crime and they display consummate contempt for any who threaten the law abiding. .I think they despise us for our pusillanimous, frivolously over idealistic prioritizing of the "rights" of victimizers over the certain protection any any sound, self respecting civilization affords to the lawful.Children and senior citizens face fearful dangers in our country; the Japanese would never dream of countenancing that!
ReplyDeleteJack, a potential clash between India and China would be fascinating to observe...but it seems to me that both countries require freedom of the seas, especially in the Persian Gulf. They both depend totally on imported Middle Eastern oil and would be destitute without it.
ReplyDeleteI certainly worry about the possibility of escalation in the West's proxy war against Russia, but, fortuitously, we seem to be losing the war, which makes it less likely that Russia will feel the need to use nukes. No thanks to Biden's "strategery", mind you.
Ray, I would rate the "loss" of Iran with the "loss" of China among the greatest ever failures of U.S. foreign and defense policy. We didn't see the Shah's fall coming either, which was inexcusable.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: A wonderful Chinese history prof I had, who was a former Nationalist officer, said "Don't think we Nationalists opposed change and reform but we did not realize how much was needed. For true revolution to occur, a nation must hit rock bottom and China had done so". Though the Reds took it way too far, I doubt that we could have stopped it. The loss of China to civilization for decades was, I think, not due to anything we did or did not do. Iran perhaps not so. The Shah was authoritarian for sure but not a totalitarian like the mullahs.
ReplyDeleteJack, "nationalist" China was prostrate -- that's for sure -- but I refuse to admit the inevitability of a communist takeover. The West dropped the ball in a legendary fashion!!!
ReplyDelete