Friends, DJT has made a big decision: he has nominated Kevin Warsh as the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Opinions differ about whether Warsh would deliver the kind of changes at the Fed that Trump has been pushing for, such as more accountability and lower interest rates. Time will tell. All I know is that Warsh played tennis in high school, which shows promise, in my book!
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx1qrx5jgzo
In other news, a "massive armada" of U.S. warships is steaming towards the Persian Gulf, but to what purpose? Trump is hinting that strikes against the mullahs may be in the offing, but a lot of key players in the region are advising caution. I say: MAN UP!!! This is the best opportunity to topple the regime in decades, and it would be unforgivable to let it pass. Frankly, it may already have passed, and that is most unfortunate.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-iran-armada-mideast-allies-turkey-oman-qatar/
Lastly, don't miss this week's Newsmakers show, featuring moi! Brian and I discuss a number of intriguing historical topics, as well as Trump's war of words against the Fed, the incredible shrinking Conservative Party in the U.K., the prospects for a shutdown in D.C., and more!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Why, its well known that having played tennis is an indispensable prerequisite for the office for which this man is nominated. Therefore, have no doubt about your evaluation of him.
ReplyDeleteI am almost completely ignorant on economics but its enough for me that our canny President needs this man to greatly enhance the benefit he, the President , is doing already for our material security and well being. I think DJT's devotion and close attention to this is very wisely taken and is in large part the antidote to the Marxism which still plagues our free country.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: This news just having broken I'll be as presumptuous as to comment on it and then return to the content of your posting and broadcast:
ReplyDeleteNY Gov. Hochul has proposed a new law forbidding NY state localities from entering into the legally established 287(g) agreements with ICE which endorse localities working with ICE. She justifies this by expectorating that "This is about a rogue federal (sic) agency that's been unleashed on American streets with the sole purpose of creating chaos, carnage and fear" . My, my but these are serious charges . . . in their literal sense anyway . . . but they shame and offend our state beyond measure. They are hyperbolic as much as to be absurd. Why would President Trump want to create disorder?
On the other hand our Governor, who betrays her common sense Western NY origins (as far away from NYC as you can be in our state) is subjugated by and obsequiously subservient to, the NYC and "American" far left. And those openly treasonous factions most certainly do seek to foment societal dissolution to pave the way for their totalitarian takeover. Our Governor obviously subscribes to the Slick Willy school of unapologetic preemption of theretofore opposite policies. "Wha, ah've allus bin a small gov'mint man" ,so please reelect me, he amorally slimed. Our NYC , pardon me, NY nominally (state oriented Governor is running for reelection and must secure her NYC far left base. This latest decree ( when you have a one party far left/Dem legislature to "propose" legislation to, that's what it amounts to most of the time) is a sincere and heartfelt gift to them.
But she must be careful. At present NY "allows " despised ICE access to state prisons and local jails. She cannot go as far as to eliminate this "injustice" now lest she be compared to hapless Gov. Walz of shamefully misrepresented Minnesota. But should she be reempowered at the polls I do think she will summarily act to end that "arrangement". (Witness the deceitful betrayal of her heretofore claimed "moderation" by Virginia's new far left interloper Governor). The result would be thefully intended daily spew of illegal immigrant recidivists upon the most unlikely of citizens to experience the "keep NY Safe " maxim she touts - the LAW ABIDING! She clearly shares the Marxist ( though we cannot credit her with intellect sufficient to define the term)principle that criminals are victims and those who obey the laws are their victimizers and should accordingly be held so, both by the thugs and the state which succors them.
For out of NY state readers of this site , please take heed of what has already engulfed our state; it could come to you next! When our legislature meets and our Dem Governors assure it of their approval, our common sense people wait only to learn not what is in our interest but what common sense defying strictures are being forced on us this time. Majority rule is not always just, especially when it is disdainfully imposed by a lala land multitudinous outlier like dreamy, now commie ruled NYC.
Dr. Waddy from Jack : Re the latest Newsmaker broadcast: Last things first: The Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. I think it is right to view it as an effort on the part of the commies mostly meant to very negatively public opinion in the U.S. (In the event they actually got their asses kicked on the battlefield). Certainly it had an effect on our politicians but mainly , I suggest, through our MSM (which then was the ONLY influential mass media ) but equally importantly by radicals empowered by the extensive cynical Marxist corruption of so much of the massive and massively naive baby boom generation which flocked to university and the embrace of long deservedly suppressed commie faculty in the '60s ( I was part of it in'65, I saw it first hand).
ReplyDeleteBeloved CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, with probably good intentions and possibly even misleading information, told the American public that Tet was a military defeat which levelled grave doubt on the further prosecution of the war. He was supported by Dan Rather , who has long since demonstrated his willingness to mislead America. "In country " veterans of the war told me that they knew that MSM on the spot reporters were lying about them and the military success they knew they had achieved and that some of those "bastards" disserved to have been "fragged".
N. Vietnamese murderous commie General Giap later chortled " it was those protestors in the U.S. which kept us going" . Those who helped to create that tragically wrongheaded and often America hating reality deserve everlasting shame for what they wrought: 300, 000 Vietnamese sent to "reeducation 'camps' " ( eh, not like summer camp in the U.S. ) where they were tortured, starved , deprived of family and home and , why yes boomer radicals, even killed. Ethnic Chinese in Saigon were savagely attacked for age old racial animi, and the Hmong Mountain people were massacred. Many , many thousands of "boat people" (who knew full well that they were outlawed and condemned by the triumphant Marxist saviors) , were treated to extended luxury cruises in the sultry S. China Sea (the questionable comforts of which I had extended experience but not in the leaky open tubs the boat people desperately used to save their lives from Marxist savagery). THAT was the product of the "antiwar movement" together with the emotional and mental anguish imposed on so many returning dutiful Vietnam veterans ; years and years of bad morale in our armed forces and the shameful election of a draft dodging President.
Subsequently, America has returned to its senses and its fundamental values by honoring Vietnam vets and all following vets; it has reasserted its respect and gratitude for our military and assured those of us who endured the viciousness so characteristic of the Marxists who still threaten all we cherish and value , that they will never again be tolerated.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Re Newsmaker cont. : taken by themselves the votes of individuals may be of miniscule importance but that friendly neighbor Dem party office holder is part of the foundation upon which the now nationally disgraced far left/Dem party sits . Their one vote eventually helps to empower some pretty unsavory people at the head of that once loyal institution.
ReplyDeleteAgain I am much encouraged by your observation that the UK's Conservative Party is being gutted by very significant defections to the Reform Party. The Conservatives, especially under Churchill and Thatcher did so much good for the UK but now they are too willing to countenance unrelenting far left woke imposition on the freedoms of Brits. Its time for them to step aside for those who, like Pres. Trump, understand that that incipiently totalitarian far left cannot be dissuaded; it must be overpowered! I think much of the UK has caught on to this existential threat. Looks like Reform and Farage are just the ticket to reaffirm the integrity of the cradle of democracy.
Also looks like voters in several European countries you mentioned are fed up with their far left's increasingly obvious tyrannical intentions. That's good news; the far left always and everywhere seeks to force "fundamental transformation" on countries which do not need or want it , thank you.
Soviet defense policy of the 70's and 80's was dominated by a school of thought which held that a nuclear war was winnable. Perhaps its vast geographical reaches encouraged them to think it.
It is reasonable to think that if say, the US and/ or China's and /or Russia's nukes were all detonated, that the world would be enormously damaged. But maybe a lot of them would be intercepted, off target , malfunctioning or held back in horror. I visited ground zero in Nagasaki 23 years after the bomb dropped. You would never know that it had happened but for the monument there. Yes. that bomb was about 20 kilotons and H bombs generate many megatons but at ground zero conditions were no doubt of a hellish degree comparable to that of an Hbomb. And now its a verdant park.
The Soviets were not stupid and many of them manifested a fierce affection for their much savaged country. Maybe there was some realism in their strategy, unthinkable as it seems.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Newsmaker broadcast cont.: Methinks Guy Fawkes did himself well by summarily precipitating himself into the hereafter. The punishment for treason was prolonged and hideous in
ReplyDeletethe 17th century and even beyond. And if he was perceived to have Catholic connections he was probably doubly condemned.
D day : Allied fear of Russia making a separate peace was intense .In WWI the separate peace Russia made with Germany loosed many hundreds of thousands of Boche onto the Western Front and they came within 70 miles of Paris in their final all out offensive.
Too, the allies anticipated needing Russia's aid against the Japanese. I think the key to the success of D day was Ike. His skilled diplomacy may well have helped keep FDR and Churchill from allowing Stalin to play his horrid games. ( FDR made some brilliant choices for military command : Marshall and Eisenhower were inspired appointments) . I guess Stalin's "reasoning" was that the sooner the Allies were engaged in Western Europe the more time he'd have to enslave Eastern Europe and maybe more (?) Eg. The Red Army almost did take Denmark, the key to the Baltic. Maybe my guess is counterintuitive. But Stalin, who we know was ridden by anxiety, was frantic for a Second Front. My guess is that Ike could not have been ready by late 1943 and Churchill's reputation, rightly or wrongly, probably still suffered because of Gallipolli.
Ike was right in the middle of the hugger mugger, subordinate , yes ,to the President and in effect to those foreign leaders with whom FDR had to get along and to General Marshall but also carrying a very grave command responsibility himself.The German Army was reeling but it remained a harrowingly competent and hard fighting force, as Ike had learned in N.Africa. Churchill wanted Field Marshall Lord Alanbrooke to command on D day but would Alanbrooke have manifested the patience, affability and yes, humility Ike did? ( Alanbrooke would have been directly subordinate to Churchill, who could at times be "adventurous" and was certainly decisive). In his personal qualities Ike in command reminds me very much of Washington.
He is criticized as not having been President in trying times. Perhaps that was in part because of him. I think he belongs in close company with other highly celebrated Americans.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteHad Carter done a MAN UP!!! when the mullahs took over in 1979, we might not have to deal with Iran in this manner today. Our embassy in Tehran was invaded, and the staff was taken hostage, an act of war, and a violation of international law if ever there was one. Maybe if we had bombed a city or two in Iran to demonstrate our displeasure, the hostages would probably have been released. Of course there was the aborted rescue attempt.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I wonder if Stalin so vehemently urged a second front because he expected that a thus not completely prepared Allied force would be so mauled that it would pose no threat to his takeover of very much of Europe. He proved time and again that he had no compassion for his soldiers or for "Mother Russia" so I think that relief for them was of little moment to him.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
DeleteYou might already know about this book, but if not, it's "Stalin's War: A New History of World War II": by Sean McMeekin (pub. 2022). The author argues that Stalin was the primary instigator of World War II. It's over 800 pages. I did read it, but it took me a long time, with repeated renewals at my local library. I thought it was well written, just my opinion of course.
Ray from Jack: Thanx; that book sounds really interesting ; its premise is intriguing; I'm going to read it. It may well touch on some of the questions I've expressed above . Stalin is a horridly engaging subject and was, I think, capable of unlimited inhumanity. I'm also going to reread one of Stephen Ambrose's several books about the US Army in Europe after D day. As I remember he expressed strong misgivings, based on the soldiers' opinions , about Ike's leadership ; I just can't remember why. I have lauded Ike at this site but I do want to review criticism of him and Ambrose was a creditable critic, I think.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
DeleteI have not read anything by Ambrose for a long time, but I remember him as a good author and historian. Hope you enjoy reading "Stalin's War...." I might have mentioned this in the past. but my own personal library contains a book by the late John Lukacs titled "1945: Year Zero, The shaping of the modern age". Lukacs came over from Hungary after WW2, so he was a personal witness of many things that happened there. I think his portraits of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Truman are outstanding, in my opinion of course. The book is a little over 300 pages.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: A couple of days ago some 100 impassioned demonstrators graced the "ice box" in our little city in the name of "The Voices of the People Movement "and some of our rural counties' self described "Liberation Collective" . They demanded that some specifically named communities refuse further adherence to lawfully drawn agreements for their police dep'ts to cooperate with ICE and the Border Patrol in enforcing our Immigration Law.
ReplyDeleteBut gee, I don't have any compelling need for "liberation" ,nor do I see any mass demand for it in our pastoral region. But I do know that word was cynically used to justify communist oppression in many countries.
But gee , what, pray , do we need to be liberated from ? I mean , I'm one of the "people" which the "American" far left purports to represent and lead. And their valiant and self effacing sacrifice to redeem our ignorance was very evident in their presumptuous invasion of our unforgivably common sense area. Dang, I don't think these invaders ( who are such even if they live here)are much like most of us around here so what are they trying to do here? I mean, we believe in the rule of Immigration Law and the common sense which affirms that that "rule" involves enforcement.
Besides, who are these political fringe dwellers to demand that certain localities, which have complied with recorded law and procedure to make formal agreements of cooperation with Federal Immigration Law Enforcement , now abrogate these agreements ? Funny isn't it: a nationwide Federal effort is now underway to undo the grimly purposeful and egregious effort, supported, enabled and defended by the far leftist captured Biden administration, to bring many millions of completely unexamined illegal immigrants into our country. Could it be that these oh so "righteous " activists mean to hamper that effort? What, do they want the illegals to remain in our country? With all the fuss they are making they must have some pretty firm intent. What is it? Can it be that they think that unlawful immigration is a powerful tool for the political disintegration and consequent "fundamental transformation" of what they do touchingly consider an erring and evil America? Oh most of the foot soldiers, the worker ants , of this resistance have little understanding of the "revolutionary" goals of those who coordinate and finance their mutual admiration societies. Many of them think they are doing good. Shaw had his French King in his play St. Joan allow as how "its you 'good' people who do all the big wrongs". Witness the sailors of Sevastopol , who , when they belatedly realized what the Bolsheviks they had supported at great risk, were really about, repented. They were slaughtered by Trotsky and the always benevolent Red Army.
My my, these tiresome "idealists even thought to transform our down to earth area. But no matter I suppose. Maybe they are just venting. They trust they'll be included in the deluge of "justice which will follow the national triumph of their "inspirational' big city dissemblers. Why sure they will; witness how everyday people fared under the past proven inhuman regimes they exalt!
Dr. Wady from Jack: And oh yes; they also demanded the abolishment of ICE and the Dep't of Homeland Security! Gracious! Oh well, its been so cold around here that we may have gained a degree of heat from all the hot air they spewed. Come to think of it , that may be what causes all this "human generated global warming" that these very same "Communards" are so het up about.
ReplyDeleteRay from Jack: Thanks; I'll be looking for the Lukacs book too. What an intensely dramatic time that was: the democracies vs the hellish totalitarians so very much strengthened by what Churchill termed "perverted science" (including , I'd opine, the "science" of Marxism).
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I thanked the Police Chief in our little town for his department's cooperation with ICE and the Border Patrol. Our town was one of the ones denounced for heresy by the far left Inquisition I've described above. I know a border patrol agent who is understandably hesitant to wear his uniform when off duty in the city. I'm reminded of how Vietnam vets were savaged by the same kind of vicious totalitarian worker ants. Let's not let that abomination be reprised on our dutiful Immigration Law enforcers all the way up to our President. We should all act affirmatively to voice our support and gratitude for them and our resentment of these radical "liberators".
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Our ICE and Border Patrol soldiers are - surprise , surprise to the far left horde - human beings with feelings and families. One of the most devastating(even, for some guys, to this very day) of the betrayals our Vietnam veterans endured was the lack of determined public resistance to the scraggly anarchists who savaged them upon their return( often the disembarking vets were ordered not to react to this unforgivable offense). We all know that would be utterly impossible today, as our war veterans are afforded redeeming thanks and very widespread gratitude .
ReplyDeleteToday, within living memory of those injustices in the '60s and '70s, our local law enforcement (those respectfully engaged to by their superiors and those who would do so but fear for their jobs when Mayors and Governors are antiAmerican far leftists) and our Federal ICE and Border Control defenders of the rule of law need our VERY APPARENT VERY PUBLIC support, encouragement and thanks. Naturally we cannot intervene in their operations even should it be in good willed intent to help them but we can cooperate in many ancillary ways. Eg. apprising them of all we may know or observe about the anarchic worker ants who so seek to harass and counter them. BUT , perhaps most important , we MUST make sure to keep our rule of law enforcers assured that most Americans are with them and unshakeablely opposite to these lawless thugs and their effete "comrades".
As I am a Vietnam vet, please believe me, we would have been most glad for such affirmative support; it would be of great shame to fail our forces engaged now in this cynically made controversial ( by treasonous "American" Marxist commies)conflict. Faithfulness to the rule of law is VITAL to our democracy and opposition to totalitarians who defy it with force is entrusted first to human beings who we MUST , with action, ENDORSE!
Jack, Ray -- I am sorry to have been so distracted lately by my tropical adventures, but rest assured that I am back now and fully engaged! If either of you would like to submit a book report on any of the erudite tomes you mentioned above, I would be very happy to publish it here. And that ain't no joke!
ReplyDeleteJack, to your last point, I would LOVE it if conservatives/Republicans stepped up and publicly demonstrated their support for ICE/Border Patrol agents. They must feel like whipping boys at the moment, and far too few GOP politicians have their backs. It will be up to the rank and file patriots to bolster their spirits, therefore. Sure, once in a while the campaign to rid America of illegal immigrants must be prepared to make a tactical retreat, but the overall momentum of deportations and enforcement must not be allowed to flag. Onward!!!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Ditto, ditto, we are doing a part in this vital effort.
ReplyDelete