Friends, the "Big, Beautiful Bill" that's supposed to transform MAGA aspirations into the law of the land is in trouble, as numerous Republicans are squabbling about what should be in it. Some want more tax cuts. Some want more spending cuts. Some want free puppies. It won't be easy to bring all these quarrelsome legislators together, but, if anyone can do it, it's DJT. My two cents? Tax cuts that add to the deficit, and aren't counterbalanced by equal or greater spending cuts, are irresponsible, and make a mockery of the work that DOGE is doing to restore some fiscal sanity to D.C. It may not feel like it, but we're already an undertaxed country, given the size and breadth of our federal government. Don't like paying taxes? No problem -- then get used to a shallower federal trough at which to feed. It ain't rocket science, people!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/big-beautiful-bill-house-budget-committee_n_68274cd1e4b0f10918e323d0
In depressingly related news, Moody's has downgraded the credit rating of the U.S. government. Could animus towards Trump be behind this move? Easily!!! But that doesn't change the fact that our present spending habits are unsustainable, and it's unclear that Republicans can change that, or if they even want to...
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/16/business/moody-us-credit
Former FBI Director James Comey is in hot water for posting a picture of a bunch of seashells spelling out "86 47". Now, I'd say this was a pretty dumb thing for a former FBI Director to do, but it's typically asinine behavior for Trump haters, and doesn't necessarily imply a call for violence. I know it's fun to get the vapors over everything that Dems and lefties do and say, but this time I'm inclined to give ole Jim a good talking to and let him resume his walk on the beach.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you can listen to my latest Newsmakers broadcast simply by following the link below!!! You'll be asked to share a few credit card numbers and your blood type, but don't be alarmed about that. It's all on the up and up!
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteComey's punishment should be a series of ice water/Castor Oil enemas administered by a special medical team selected by the new FBI Director.
Ray, you are as fair-minded as you are merciful!
ReplyDeleteRAY TO DR. WADDY
DeleteI should have added that the enemas would be given without benefit of lubrication of any kind. I was merciful in the sense that the only alternative was a pre-frontal lobotomy. Of course public flogging in front of the J. Edgar Hoover Building did come to mind.
Dr. Waddy and Ray et al from Jack: Lets consider what the reaction would have been had a Maga supporter broadcasted such a symbol, urging hazard to some prominent far leftist. Why, the "hue and cry" would have sounded throughout the land, courtesy of our obsequious and unprofessional MSM.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working as a prison librarian an inmate threatened to cut my throat for sending him an overdue book notice. When I brought a disciplinary charge against him he humbly demurred "oh I was just "kidding" around. But the threat had nonetheless been made! And just like the criminals for whom radicals have such profound sympathy, the far left protests disingenuous lack of any violent intent in its provenance of this handily coded declaration. "Oh no, not us!"
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Many of the processes which resulted in very consequential legislation (or defeat thereof)were troubling to witness in progress, when the results were not at all assured. Eg. the draft bill in 1940, which passed by one vote in the House. If it hadn't had it we wouldn't have a trained core around which to build the Army we needed when war came.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Its democracy at work and like Churchill said" its the worst system ever until you consider all the others." And I agree with your trust in DJT to get good (not perfect) results. He's got plenty of time ,plenty of political capital and lots of MOXIE.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
DeleteDon't forget that the Moxie always has to be reinforced with plenty of Muscle! In any event, the U.S. is supposed to be a Constitutional Republic and NOT a democracy, the latter term being a leftist Peoples' Democracy and all that crap. I know you remember Benjamin Franklin said something like "A Republic if you can keep it".
As for Churchill, the man was basically a product of 19th Century British elitism and preserving the British Empire. Not saying he was not a great leader in his own right, but he was still a British upper class snob. He is/was, in my opinion, highly over rated. Regrettably, he and Roosevelt let Stalin win World War 2 with all kinds of concessions, in which Poland in particular was sacrificed. Read up on the example of The Katyn Forest Massacre, which was buried in order to promote propaganda for our the Soviet Union "ally". What a damned disgrace!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Re the Newsmaker broadcast:
ReplyDeleteI read the letter fromNY Congressional Reps. Stefanik and Tenney to US AG Bondi asking that she investigate NY state for its unrelenting and repeatedly Scotus discredited attacks on the 2nd Amendment rights of NYers. People like disgraced (but nevertheless on the comeback)former NY Governor Cuomo and now NYGov. Hochul would recoil in self righteously reflexive horror at the comparison but NY's blatant contempt for the 2nd Amendment manifests a plausible analogy to the ruthless denial of Constitutionally guaranteed civil rights practiced by several southern states in the late '50s and early '60s . That was stopped only by force backed Federal intervention and NY's current presumptuous injustice on gun rights is just begging for the same sanction. Lets hope the letter to AG Bondi will initiate this much overdue measure. My only slight regret in reading the letter was that Reps Stefanik and Tenney did not emphasize the gross and frantic immediacy of NY's response to the recent Scotus "Bruen" decision which dismissed NY's infamous handgun "permit" regime; NY state simply made haste to make the process ever more demanding and selective! "So sue us!" was its attitude and obvious was the state's assumption that will respond similarly to any judicial setback, knowing of course that such decisions take a very long time. "So sue us!" Time for the Feds to take NY state in hand on this issue as it did those southern states. Our benighted state will not otherwise relent as things stand now.
test from jack
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I see Stefanik shamed yet another disingenuous "university" President (can't recall the name of the "U" ;it wasn't Ivy League but it was one with high repute) in a Congressional enquiry recently. You can't put the bureaucratic humbug over on Stefanik: she'll knock your lights out! I'd love to see her debate Hillary.
ReplyDeleteI assumed DJT's reason in withdrawing her UN nomination was to preserve her seat in the House in order to preserve our majority. It does Lawler credit if DJT holds him in high regard but I believe a Westchester Co. County Exec recently ran for Gov. against Cuomo. Taking one for the cause will enhance Stefanik's already very promising future.
Hochul and the stadium: During an earlier "Bills might be moving" scare a Buffalo commentator said "God help any politician who is seen as having cost us the Bills". It is counterintuitive for those of us who insist on deep cuts in government spending to countenance tax payer finance for the new stadium and we deserve to be criticized for it. Yet. . . . Is it entirely wrong to use taxpayer funds the expenditure of which for this purpose would probably have been approved by a Soviet style majority had it been put to referendum, for the preservation of an institution which has a major effect on the perceived quality of life in Western NY? The day after the first Super Bowl loss a social psychological study of WNY might well have documented a comprehensively and severely depressed community. Some outside observers believe the Bills have a relationship with our area perhaps unique in the NFL for its emotional depth. Its more on the order of that which obtains for great college teams. Eliminating unjustified and presumptuous government spending is a populist issue but in our area the Bills are too. Maybe Hochul promoted the new stadium in order to benefit herself politically but in doing so she probably did our area a nearly vital "good".
Dr. Waddy from Jack: That candidate who lost to Cuomo was Rob Astorino.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The recent Congressional enquiry I referred to was this: Rep. Stefanik asked the President of Haverford if any disciplinary action was taken by Haverford against a group at Haverford which called for the "complete dismantlement" (of Israel) "by any means necessary". One would have to view it on line to reprise all of that President's laughable verbal gyrations as she attempted to hide behind a corkscrew to avoid answering honestly. Stefanik kept repeating, word for word "was any disciplinary action taken by Haverford?" as her inquizatee reenacted the crazy circumlocutions of a terrified water bug. We need a lot more of Rep. Stefanik in our national life. She does our state much redemption for the shame brought on it by such as Schumer, Hochul, Letitia James and Cuomo.
ReplyDeleteRay from Jack: Isn't a republic a representative democracy? But I agree fully; the far left has presumptuously and murderously disgraced the term democracy beyond measure in giving it titular expression. American dems today, though they often don't know what they are doing and some of them are of genuine good will, nonetheless empower the incipient "American"totalitarians who make a cynical mockery of the term democracy, in the far left's historically proven tradition. Eg. Now that we know for certain that Biden cannot have been in charge - who was? I think it was the Obamas, who were able thus, in retirement, to advance their dream of "complete transformation" of an erring and evil US without the hazard they ran had they done so resolutely while in office, with all the scrutiny which attends it. I mean, to all those handy comfortable perks of office. With obsequious Biden as a figurehead they casually played at "revolution" with no personal consequences withal. Democracy "indeed"!
ReplyDeleteRay from Jack: Churchill: I must respectfully disagree.
ReplyDeleteHe had his faults for sure. The Black and Tans , a bumbling Chancellorship of the Exchequer, maybe Gallipoli, probably more. But:
He fought faithfully and courageously in the trenches for a time in "The Great War". And then: he saved western civilization in 1940 by strength of his monumental character! Had he and only he not have ascended to PM , Halifax would have and Britain would have fallen in short order. Had he not persisted, against harrowing and exceedingly painful opposition, in Britain ( a Britain for which he alone fully understood its historical and cultural integrity) in standing for its life against the Nazi monster, Britain would have been invested and have protected the flank of a brutally subjected Western Europe. Without Britain as a base, the U.S., the only power at all capable of defeating that incredibly dynamic German nation, would have had to look on as the Boche swiftly acquired a jet air force and nuclear weapons including a submarine force which have closed the North Atlantic in short order. Yes, undeterred in the West, the Germans would have destroyed the Soviet Union and eliminated it as the counterintuitive aid to the Allies that it was 1941-45, when the immediate and and undeniable threat was the Axis.
Churchill was a perhaps unprecedented or since equalled combination of historical greatness and an exceedingly eloquent ability to describe it and to bring England's worth to then current public comprehension and applicability. I think it cannot but have helped him to understand that in which he played a vital role in WWII. And even out of the power from which he been removed inn 1945 only by arguably the most exemplary objective polity in the world, he yet carried on, despite the the world weariness no doubt his lot after WWII, in opposing a leftist administration the excesses of which returned him to 10 Downing Street.
What a life! He was an exceedingly great man I think (for what my opinion might be worth).
Without Churchill, I think it wouldn't have turned out as it did - yes, an uneasy "peace" with a Stalin even beyond Hitler in inhumanity but lacking Hitler's frantic and presumptuous and ultimately ill informed "opportunism".
I admire the English aristocracy. They have for centuries enforced among themselves a learned and demanding standard of "noblesse oblige" upon themselves , which though offensive to our views now, eventually and incrementally delivered their country to as salubrious a condition as could be found outside of, say, the rest of the English speaking world . As you point out , Churchill was a product of that class but in his Liberal Party days championed such enlightened measures as unemployment insurance. He was no socialist to be sure but that was because he rightly perceived the onerous consequences of unfettered socialism.
In Autumn 1973 I arrived inadvertently in Parliament Square just in time to witness the unveiling of Churchill's statue in that hallowed setting: I really did! When the crowd around the monument dispersed I actually stood just across the street from Mrs. Churchill and Anthony Eden! That had no objective value in my comprehension of Churchill's worth but as you can imagine , it was an indescribably redeeming moment for me.
RAY TO JACK
DeleteHad you stayed around a bit longer, I'm sure Anthony would have spotted you out, and invited you for high tea.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I think Britain's eventually subordinate role in the defeat of Germany made Churchill a partner junior to Stalin and FDR at Yalta and his misgivings about the Soviets, though noted, were not embraced.Britain had, after all, gone to a much unwanted war for the principle of defending one too many victims of Nazi conquest. It had to have retained some determination not to abandon Poland to Stalin's tender graces but by then perhaps it simply lacked the power to assert it.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Now that Ray has described Churchill as an "upper class snob", I've changed my mind and I'm totally into him! Go, Churchill!!!
ReplyDeleteJack, what would it look like for the federal government and/or the courts to "take New York State in hand" to preempt its denial of 2nd Amendment rights? I'm not sure anything would deter our fearless leaders except for...effective prosecution of THEM!
Jack, you're right that nominating a squishy moderate doesn't guarantee New York Republicans statewide success. You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
I hear what you're saying about the Bills, and I love them dearly, but I'm sick and tired of sweetheart deals for industries that are swimming in revenue. Never again!!!
Okay, Stefanik is a great questioner/debater, but that, alas, doesn't mean she'll ever be Governor of New York.
My guess is that Lord Halifax would have been more likely to make peace with Hitler, but I don't believe a successful German invasion of England was in the cards in 1940. How would the world be different if Hitler and Halifax had buried the axe? Very hard to say. Long-term prospects for communism certainly would have been dimmer.
In Churchill's defense re: Poland, he was the one who wanted to invade through Europe's "soft underbelly" and thus forestall a Soviet takeover in Eastern Europe. That brainstorm had merit.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: JFK and Ike used Federal troops who,by their presence, ensured that the civil rights of persons previously denied those rights, would be honored, despite vehement objection from the governments of several southern states. In those cases the troops actually provided protection on the spot of intended unConstitutional state measures.
ReplyDeleteObvious NY state intent to "infringe" (to say the least) the 2nd Amendment rights of its citizen is a statewide phenomenom enacted every day in countless locations so a show of Federal physical force is not workable at least at the scene of the countless daily infractions.
Two possible tactics: a direct order from the President to cease and desist in this willful defiance of the Constitution and the intent of the 2nd Amendment.Previous SCOTUS decisions confirming those rights can provide legal detail and authority. Should NY officials refuse to comply , they should be prosecuted for denying citizens certain civil rights. Freezing of provision of certain Federal funds to NY state could also be proposed to back such an order. The 2nd Amendment is fully state incorporated Federal law and the tactic of nullification was adjudged and suppressed a long time ago.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: In the event, I'd suggest, Churchill's advocacy of a Allied invasion of southern France almost coincident with Normandy served more to protect Western Europe from the Bear. In the month after June 6, the Allies were having a terrible time breaking out of that bocage country of endless hedges. Pre Normandy apparently this had not been anticipated by the Allies, so it probably didn't motivate Churchill to push for a second invasion. The invasion of Southern France may well have diverted enough Boche strength to enable the Allied breakout from that murderous briar patch.
ReplyDeleteI've read that the Brits (perhaps as one consequence of that)beat the Reds to Denmark by a matter of hours.Possession of Denmark would have enabled Stalin to turn the Baltic into a Soviet lake flanking most of Germany and thereby , eastern Europe and posing a terrible threat to Britain. That might well have prevented both the Marshall Plan and Nato, in which a defendable eventual West Germany played a vital role. I never knew until recently how close France actually came to communism after the war, with some prominent French radicals publicly stating they would welcome the Red army!
Without Churchill's invasion, which I believe was opposed by General Marshall, the above could, conceivably, have happened (?)
Jack, federal prosecutions are undoubtedly key to compelling state and local officials to respect the 2nd Amendment. There haven't been any, as yet, as far as I know. Cutting off funding would also be effective, but again, as far as I know, we aren't there yet.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that Churchill was instrumental in arguing for the Allied invasion of southern France in August 1944, but I was referring to his suggestion that the Allies land in the Balkans.