Friends, this week's Newsmakers show basks in the reflective glory of some of DJT's big wins of late, including the Supreme Court's decisions abolishing universal injunctions and upholding the president's power to hire and fire executive branch employees. Long story short: the ability of leftist judges to stymie the wishes of the American people, expressed via that great big presidential election we had not long ago, has been dramatically and probably permanently curtailed. Hooray! Brian and I also discuss Trump's growing frustrations with Russia, which adamantly refuses to make peace with Ukraine; Trump's tariff threats vis-a-vis Brazil; the prospects for "green energy" in Trump's second term; where we stand with the once famous "Yankee work ethic"; the mixed messages sent by the retirement of North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis; and more! You won't want to miss this action-packed episode of your favorite talk show, starring ME!
https://wysl.podbean.com/e/newsmakers-7-12-25/
In other news, we're learning more about what caused that Air India flight to crash in Ahmedabad recently. Apparently, both fuel cut off switches were activated shortly after takeoff, starving both engines of, well, fuel, and thus thrust. The pilots just didn't have enough time to recover. Did one of the pilots intentionally flip those switches? Did he do it by accident? Or did a mechanical fault trip the switches without any action from the pilots? Hopefully, the investigation will get to the bottom of this mystery.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: The prospect of death in a plane crash seems to me to be especially hideous even though it usually happens very quickly. Perhaps its because passengers cannot do anything about it, unless to exit as calmly as they can if that possibility exists. Maybe its because passage to distant places often means much enjoyment upon arrival and the sudden denial of all that is such a shocking thought. Frankly, with the astonishing volume and dispatch of air travel it amazes me that most of it goes so well. Alot of skill there in those responsible for this.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteLots of real airplane disasters, and airplane disaster movies out there. One I saw recently is a 2021 French production (with subtitles), "Black Box". Held my attention. Good plot. Check it out.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Now that Scotus has reaffirmed a President's power to cut Federal employment the dems are in full "bleat" mode. "Oh how can you be so cruel!!"
ReplyDeleteWell, they are the champions of the gross overspending which has finally made deep cuts unavoidable , at least by a common sense Administration like that of DJT. The dems reaffirmed this yet again, ad nauseum, during the Biden days.
I was a government employee and I would have been disadvantaged for a time by being laid off but I think, in retrospect at least, that I would not have seen it as an injustice. Frankly, my job as a state prison professional librarian was superfluous.Prison inmates won't change their stripes from the tender ministrations of the most sympathetic of librarians and changing them is the nominal purpose of "Correctional Facilities". And they can subsist on a room full of contributed Reader's Digest Condensed books. There is no use giving them more; they will only sneer at it. There are myriad other government jobs which are equally badly conceived and dismissable .
A recent NY Post editorial effort revealed a typically egregious attitude about the use of tax payer funds free of any consideration for the wishes of the taxpayers: The "principled" use of such funds (2.5 BILLION no less) in renovating a Federal building was defended by the imperious Federal Reserve Chairman by his protest that "there will be no VIP dining room, there is no new marble and no special elevators. There are no new water features" (in a an office structure fur the luvva a . . . ) " there's no beehives and no terrace gardens" . But gee, the building's approved renovation plan called for such rigorous austerities. Included were "vegetarian roof terraces which will welcome 'urban wildlife and pollinators' ". Their investigation led the Post to conclude that the project's cost still reflects that original intent . Sen. Tim Scott compared it to the Palace at Versailles and l the suggest the Hanging Gardens of Babylon would be a credible analogy for such imperial presumption.
The truth I learned as a government worker is that that mostly liberal government bureaucrat decision makers don't give a tinker's damn about the credibility or practicality or freedom from ideological bias their expenditures reflect.
There is ONLY one way to stop this; take their funding away!. Left to their own devices they will never relent. Unfortunately for many dutiful government workers, such defunding must of grim necessity, due to past customary leftist profligacy, include elimination of many of their jobs. Leftists who reflexively deny this reality owe so many of those laid off direct apology to them for the recklessness they so casually exercised.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I remember the games Prince Cuomo played when he was insolently called as Governor to initiate cuts in NY state spending. "Oh, you want cuts in state spending do you? Ok distant Western NY , expect reduced replacement of equipment worn out by fighting your "impressive" winters. Other politically negligible expenditures will be cut. OK!?"" Well, you said you wanted cuts didn't you? "
ReplyDeleteI think we can expect many outraged middle level Federal Administrators and decision makers to bring this attitude to the fray. Those defenders of traditional Federal waste who answer directly to MAGA supervisors will have to depend on subordinates to carry out their intended resistance to reform. But I'm certain that a canny hombre businessman like DJT knows this. He's turning over so many undisturbed rocks so that the complacent bugs are forced to scramble!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Your observation that in using the threat of tariffs as a negotiating tactic President Trump is putting on pressure so as to get desired results before he has actually to enforce them, makes very much sense.That's the art of the deal, at which he is so competent.
ReplyDeleteBut I do regret strongarming Canada. Its a good country and has been a special friend of ours. I'm fully confident that President Trump and perhaps the Canadian leadership understand what he's doing but I wish we could do it without confronting Canada. Oh well, its probably for the best; Canadians are toughies, they can hack it.
You are so right that all previous Administrations have allowed the world to take advantage of our self dismissive and apologetic tolerance of their tariffs. That's over folks.
Subsidies for "Green" energy cut by the GB3 bill, now law: good point that some believe these unproven, emotionally driven measures cannot survive cuts. I'm reminded of the dysfunctional economy of Communist Cuba which was sustained only by massive infusions of Soviet aid.
100 years from now I'll bet we will have efficiently harnessed the incalculable power of that thermonuclear generator in our skies and that it will serve most of our energy needs. But we can't do it yet so we are going to require traditional energy sources (including nuclear, I mean it is 80+ years old). And we don't need frantic idealists trying to force us to relinquish all our proven sources now. So its best that those who intend this be forced to step off and step back for awhile.
Imagine an 1870's U.S. government which had become convinced by an influential faction that air power would become decisive trying to force comprehensive massive government spending and public sacrifice to build great fleets of hot air balloons or six winged cloth and wood contraptions with great haste. Or consider Mao's actual Great Leap Forward with its "backyard blast furnaces" and its consequent famine. A long, careful, reconsideration of a demagogue N.Y. bartender's "Green New Deal" is in order and it should be done by private enterprise. Defunding our country's prospective climate dictators is a good start.
Yes, the statistical rarity of aviation deaths and disasters is nothing short of a miracle!
ReplyDeleteRay, I will examine your Black Box. No need to thank me.
Jack, I will disagree with you on one point: I support the expenditure of public funds on truly beautiful and magnificent architectural projects. The Fed ought to have a glorious edifice in which to meet (actually, I think it already does). I hope Trump can churn out a few more lovely buildings and stately monuments in the next four years. These are the sorts of achievements, after all, that stand the test of time...
Good point, Jack, that the shape of things to come in the energy industry won't be decided by politicians and bureaucrats, at least not if we're lucky! For now, for all practical purposes, natural gas is the greenest and most commonsensical power source we've got. It would take a generation at least to change that.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Yeah, I think your opinion on the desirability of having impressive public buildings makes good sense. Certainly the Capitol, the White House, the SCOTUS building ,the Pentagon, the State Dep't and perhaps some embassies should be so. But I would draw the line at the workaday buildings of the bureaucracy. Let them be architecturally attractive but not magnificent would be my opinion. How many citizens are going to visit the Federal Reserve Building(s)?
ReplyDeleteThe most egregious example of such casually munificent spending of tax payers' funds on unneeded public edifices is to be seen in all of its ostentatious glitz in the state government Albany Mall fortress in NY's pedestrian state capitol of Albany. Before that Gov. Nelson Rockefeller , an ignorant "swell" if there ever was one ( I do not resent the rich at all unless they try to bring airy patrician standards into government . American "Noblesse presumption", in modern government , untempered by the "noblesse oblige" pounded into the gradually much civilized British upper class in their demanding upbringings, often redounds to the disadvantage of the productive American middle class): Rocky thought it just peachy to build a neo Brasilia , a national rather than an American state capitol , on the taxpayers' dime and BTW, to demolish a historic Albany neighborhood. Its quite a site (or sight); the toilet bowl building is especially telling. I always thought Rocky, who had Presidential ambitions, meant to build a backup National Capitol there in case DC got nuked under his "inevitable" Presidency. Its just a state capitol fur the luvva. . . . ! BTW also, Rocky was the prototypical RINO and he got shouted down at the '64 GOP convention because he deserved it as such.
A little "American Gothic" plainness is a redeeming and very American thing , I think.
You are right; in the common sense economic and free enterprise view, it would take a generation at least to supplant sensible (not perfect, to the horror of the far left) natural gas. But such organic progress is anathema to"American" Marxist/Leninists who insist that we need not wait for the future - "we can force it now!" Of course the history of the 20th century, which they contemptuously dismiss, is that such conviction, in the absolute power it requires, is productive of incalculable evil.
Dr. Waddy from Jack : Re your Newsmaker comments again: I went to state college in the mid '60s and there were plenty of indolent goofs, including me in my sophomore slump.
ReplyDeleteBut that was nothing compared to the ideologically motivated resistance to a modicum of academic standards I saw at a very left wing state college in '72 after I returned to college after five years in the Navy.
We had a mostly outstanding faculty but many of them were hesitant to require much of their students. One told me" I used to require two papers per semester but I can't do that now. Nobody will take my courses and I'll lose a chance of tenure". The resistance appeared not to come from "Animal House" types but from students naively convinced by cynical far left faculty that any "traditional" standards were by definition "oppressive" . I saw a student turn in a "research" paper written in pencil on torn out notebook paper and that to a very distinguished Professor. The change from '67 to '72 was striking and was perhaps the prototype of the entitlement attitude displayed by some modern students(?).
Dr. Waddy from Jack: How will DJT be regarded by history on his Ukraine policy? IF the discipline is dominated by doctrinaire far leftists as it is now it may take a future Ron Chernow (whose biography of Grant helped to boost Grant's theretofore unfavorable Presidential reputation) to give him his due.
ReplyDeleteI think the apparent 2 steps forward, 1 and 1/2 steps back of his effect on the Ukraine war is characteristic of his "art of the deal" . I think he knows that prevention of prospective Ukrainian membership in Nato is Russia's sine qua non position. And I think he will, when he is satisfied with the ancillary conditions , concede on that , which he can do with a one sentence declaration that we will never vote for Ukrainian membership in an obviously anti Russian alliance. Putin has his concerns even beyond that, for obvious reasons, but I would predict they will reach an agreement.
A fair and objective history will credit DJT for this achievement. History's overall opinion of DJT will be I think, after much prevarication, , nevertheless for much accomplishment , that he was a great President.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I was wrong to say Rocky deserved to be shouted down at that convention.Our side has taken of that baloney that no one of us should advocate it for anyone.
ReplyDelete". . . enough of that baloney. . . . " Jack
ReplyDeleteJack, I'm less scandalized than you are by the plasticky majesty of our state capitol. Mid-century modern isn't my cup of tea, but Rocky did give us a fine and rather grand example of it. Most of the billions he spent went right down the drain, but the buildings still stand. Would I rather have a minimalist state government, all in all? Sure, but faint hope of THAT in NYS!!!
ReplyDeleteIf you thought academic standards were low in the 70s, you wouldn't care for what higher ed has become since the pandemic struck. It's a (highly subsidized) business, at the end of the day, and turning people away doesn't pay the bills.
Oh, I think it's clear by now that Russia is looking for more than just a Trumpian pledge that Ukraine won't join NATO. Any such pledge would only be worth as much as the credibility of the current NATO and Ukrainian leadership dictated, i.e. not much at all. That leadership could change, and then Russia would be back in the same predicament. Clearly, territory is also going to be a major sticking point. Whether Russia can live with the current regime in Kiev is also an open question. And what "guarantees" of its security could Ukraine extract from the West? No, ending this war will be hard, unless the Russians bestir themselves to win it outright.