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KJT (left); RFK JR (right)
With Steve Hayward back in the host chair this week, the 3WHH actually breaks some real news with special guest Kelly Janes Torrance, the op-ed editor of the indispensible New York Post. This week Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is attracting surprising interest from many conservatives, visited the Post for a grilling from the Post‘s editorial board, and Kelly Jane opened up her reporter’s notebook to share previously unreported statements RFK Jr offered at their 90-minute meeting. You won’t want to miss her scoops shared exclusively with the 3WHH podcast.
John Yoo was late joining us—apparently he got stuck in an extra long McDonald’s drive-through line right before show time—but did manage to break down the Durham report, and also gets in on the sequels with Kelly Jane, who has a lot of thoughts on the Ukraine situation from her experiences as an election watcher in recent years.
Since KJT is Canadian, we decided to honor her guest turn with exit music from the Barenaked Ladies, “New Kid on the Block,” since we’re definitely going to have her back on 3WHH. As mentioned early in this episode, she may not be a neat whisky drinker, but she has an epic cocktail game.
We’re got a short pre-roll excerpt from John on the Ricochet podcast that we think is appropriate to share with our listeners, though I think Rob Long was not amused!
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Hey–I love McDonald’s too! Back off man!
Steve, I found the video from one of your faculty meetings. I now know why you go abroad so often..
https://youtu.be/moWe3rk7LzQ
I think I found a fix for that, I’m sure Lucretia would approve:
Though I disagree with your analogy (I do wish it was that simple, I would be with you if it was!) I do appreciate your comments, they have highlighted a tendency I have for absolutist language. Thanks for that Taras!
What are you talking about?
Truman became president in April of 1945 and authorized the use of the atomic bombs in July 1945. Japan surrendered in August 1945. As far as missteps by Truman, how about ceding Eastern Europe to the Russians?
“… the Truman administration’s arms embargo on Nationalist forces signaled the end of America’s alliance with Chiang. U.S. policies during the next few years practically guaranteed a Communist victory.
“To be sure, Chiang’s regime included corrupt officials and was not democratic in any sense. But its flaws paled in comparison to the Communists, as history would demonstrate. But Mao and the Communists benefitted from their cheerleaders within the U.S. government and the media. We now know that the FDR-Truman administration had been infiltrated by communist agents, fellow travelers, and useful idiots who promoted the notions that Mao and the Communists were agrarian reformers, and that a communist China would not join the Soviet bloc and, therefore, would pose no threat to U.S. interests.”
https://www.realclearhistory.com/articles/2020/04/29/history_can_be_unkind_fdr_truman_and_china_490428.html#!
Of course, the reason I brought this up is because a new generation of “useful idiots” is now deploying shaky corruption allegations against Ukraine.
When American Javelin missiles destroyed his tank columns heading for Kyiv, at the beginning of the war, Putin may have bitterly regretted that Ukrainian corruption isn’t what it used to be!
Oh, I got confused because you wrote that Truman didn’t support the Nationalist Chinese fight the Japanese.
Would you have still misunderstood if I rearranged the last part to “refusing to help the Nationalist Chinese, our brave allies against Japan”?
OK, now I understand what you meant. The Nationalist Chinese were allies in WW2 against Japan, but after Japan capitulated, Truman didn’t support the Nationalists and then the Communists won.
That’s what some think happened with the invasion. Putin thought he had people bought off in high places in Ukraine. They were supposed to rollover. Either the money didn’t make it to Ukraine because of Russian corruption or the Ukrainians doesn’t stay bought.
The problem with being a murderous dictator is that people around you are afraid to tell you anything they know you don’t want to hear: like that you’re wrong about something. So when Putin told them, “But for the machinations of an evil Jewish cabal, Ukrainians really want to be Russians,” the yes-men praised Putin for his wisdom.
With 50 years of experience under his belt, negotiating with psychopaths and megalomaniacs at the highest levels of politics and business and law and sports and entertainment, Trump knew how to manipulate dictators. He petted Putin with one hand, telling him what a great little dictator he was; while with the other hand he sent weapons to Ukraine, instead of Obama’s blankets and MRE’s.
And the people around Putin did not dare tell him he was being played for a fool.
Interviews with Mike Pompeo in the last few years have been good on this topic. He’s talked about the ways the administration put the screws to Russia behind the scenes while being amicable in public.
And, of course, Trump could never say what he was doing — or the scam won’t work. I only figured out what Trump was doing with Putin, after Trump had left office.
This is the problem of doing foreign policy for show, versus doing foreign policy for real.
For example, it’s fun to pander to your public by calling the Saudi leader a murderer. But don’t be surprised that, when you need his help, he does the exact opposite.
Baggage – Trump has baggage.
–J. Hinderaker, Power Line blog.
Such baggage.
Trump has the advantage that any other Republican candidate will be called “worse than Trump” by the media.
Yes, some news outlets came dangerously close to jumping the gun and putting Trump in the “Strange new respect” stage of his career.