A WORLD GONE MAD
A Progressive Liberal News Podcast
Veteran Television, and Radio Broadcaster Jeff Alan Wolf offers his Observations on the issues (many issues) of the week with a fearless liberal bent. His solid delivery, and dry common sense approach sets him apart from other liberals that populate Talk and Commentary Podcasts”
Jeff Does NOT Pull Punches.
He does NOT Make comments that are “SAFE”.
He tells the Truth.
(He Tells It As He Sees It)
He Is Very OPINIONATED!
He says the things Out Loud YOU’RE
already thinking.
Jeff is Unfiltered, Unspun, A little Unhinged, but offers a lot of Common Sense.
This Podcast could make you MAD.
This Podcast could make you SMILE.
Regardless, it WILL make you THINK!
A WORLD GONE MAD
Russia Launches Major Assault, Europe To Rearm Itself, Musk And Rubio Fight!
Chaos reigns as the Trump administration's erratic foreign policy sends shockwaves across the global stage. Russia has launched a devastating aerial assault on Ukraine—nearly 70 missiles and 200 drones targeting critical infrastructure—mere days after the US suspended vital military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv. President Zelensky continues pursuing peace while caught between Trump's unpredictable stance and Putin's aggression.
Trump's diplomatic approach has European leaders frantically preparing for a future they once considered unthinkable—defending the continent without American support. With the US president casting doubt on NATO commitments, the EU has proposed an unprecedented $862 billion defense plan, what French President Macron called a response to an "existential threat." This dramatic pivot represents Europe's reluctant acknowledgment that American security guarantees can no longer be taken for granted.
Domestically, the administration's plans to dismantle the Department of Education have created uncertainty for the $1.64 trillion student loan portfolio, while HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promotes unconventional measles treatments despite scientific consensus. Meanwhile, the arts community faces upheaval as the Kennedy Center—historically bipartisan—sees Trump installed as chairman, prompting "Hamilton" to cancel performances through 2026. These stories, alongside reports of America's disappearing butterflies and a heated Musk-Rubio confrontation during a cabinet meeting, paint a portrait of institutions under pressure and norms being challenged at every turn. Want to join the conversation about these developments? Call my 24/7 voicemail at 833-399-9653 or email wolfpacklistener@gmail.com with your thoughts on A WORLD GONE MAD.
AWorldGoneMadPodcast@gmail.com
There is chaos in the world, can't you see? And we need to stand up and preserve our democracy. Well, this is a world gone mad. This is a world gone mad, mad, mad, mad, mad. Welcome back to another episode of A World Gone Mad, season 2, episode 73. I'm your host, jeff Allen Wolfe, and I give my commentary on national and world news, plus politics. So let's not waste any time. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Russia launches a major aerial assault on Ukraine days after US shuts off military aid. Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine in a major overnight attack, zelensky said Friday, as the Ukrainian president renewed his plea for a partial ceasefire, at the end of a week in which the United States suspended military aid and intelligence sharing with Kiev. And Russia's assault targeted several regencies, or rather regions, across Ukraine, using nearly 70 missiles, almost 200 drones, zelensky said on X, adding that the massive attack was directed against infrastructure that ensures normal life. Now, following the strikes, zelensky again stressed his desire for a partial ceasefire. This is a plan first floated by President Emmanuel Macron of France and since discussed by Ukraine's European allies, who met Thursday in Brussels for a crucial European Union defense summit. Echoing the plan outlined by Macron, zelensky said he hoped there could be silence in the skies, banning the use of missiles, long-range drones and aerial bombs, as well as silence at sea, a real guarantee of normal navigation at sea a real guarantee of normal navigation. Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine is ready to pursue the path to peace, a point he has stressed repeatedly to the Trump administration this week, following his explosive dressing down in the Oval Office last Friday.
Speaker 1:Now, although Kiev has since attempted to patch up relations with Washington, and US and Ukrainian officials are due to hold talks in Saudi Arabia next week, the Trump administration has dealt further blows to Ukraine this week, like I said, pausing military shipments to the country and cutting off the intelligence sharing. Zelensky continues to try to stop this war, while Trump and Putin are trying to play the big bullies on the block. Trump threatens new sanctions on Russia. After weeks of conciliatory statements towards Moscow, now President Donald Trump on Friday threatened new sanctions on Russia, including on its banking sector, in response to Moscow's continued bombardment of Ukraine a significant warning as he seeks to end the conflict Now. The new threat was notable after weeks of conciliatory statements toward Russia and its President Putin, including saying he was open to lifting sanctions. Now Trump says he could slap new, tougher sanctions on Russia in his bid to end the war, based on the fact that Russia is absolutely pounding Ukraine on the battlefield right now. I am strongly considering large-scale banking sanctions, sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and final settlement agreement on peace is reached. Trump wrote on Truth Social To Russia and Ukraine get to the table right now, before it's too late. Thank you, he went on. Now this comes one week after an Oval Office blow up among Trump and Zelensky and Vice President Vance, which resulted in Zelensky being told to leave the White House.
Speaker 1:The US has since paused intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine, and now Trump says supposedly he's against Russia and what they're doing. Trump's policies and diplomacy are whiplash for America and the world at large and creates instability in the world. Now, while all this is going on, europe scrambles to rearm as Trump threatens security guarantees and Russian threat looms, european leaders have vowed to rearm the continent at historic emergency talks held after the United States threatened to rip up 80 years of security guarantees over the trajectory of Russia's war in Ukraine security guarantees over the trajectory of Russia's war in Ukraine. Since taking office in January, us President Donald Trump has fundamentally changed transatlantic relations, suspended the military aid like I said intelligence sharing to Kiev and again cast doubt that the US would defend its NATO allies if attacked, with Russia posing what French President Emmanuel Macron called an existential threat to Europe. The continent is now scrambling to prepare for the once unthinkable prospect of defending itself in a potential future conflict without the help of America. And as the European Union leaders pushed for Ukraine and Europe to herd in peace talks, they were joined by Zelensky in Brussels.
Speaker 1:On Thursday, at an extraordinary meeting of the European Council in Brussels, the EU leaders agreed to plans that could free up billions of euros to ensure Europe's security, boost defense spending and shore up support for Kyiv. Now the EU's executive arm presented leaders with a proposal that could mobilize up to $862 billion to bolster defense on the continent. Part of the rearmament plan would provide countries with loans totaling up to $162 billion. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it a watershed moment for Europe, said detailed legal proposals will be studied ahead of another meeting at the end of the month. A senior EU official told CNN they expect the bloc's leaders to give a green light allowing the defense plan to be moved forward very swiftly. Macron also announced the EU will give Ukraine more than $33 billion in assistance taken from Russia's sanction by Europe. Now, in 2025, the EU will provide Ukraine with $32 billion financed by Russian assets, macron said. The leader said that Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine constituted an existential challenge for the European Union and that Europe must become more sovereign, more responsible for its own defense, better equipped to act and deal autonomously with immediate and future challenges and threats. Personally, I love it that Europe is talking about rearming and solidifying their defense, because they surely can't rely on Donald Delusional and his misunderstanding on how the world at large operates. Donald and his whiplash diplomacy has caused this understanding and reality for European leaders.
Speaker 1:Dismantling of Education Department puts future of trillions of dollars in student loans in question. Now, as President Donald Trump prepares to order the dismantling of the Department of Education, the financial arm of the agency, which makes loans directly to borrowers and manages trillions of dollars in student debt, faces an uncertain future, with steep staff cuts. Lack of communication exacerbating the uncertainty. According to interviews with more than a dozen current and former department employees, the $1.64 trillion of financial portfolio is managed separately from the department's policy apparatus, the latter of which Trump has sought to wind down or reassign to other agencies, but Trump acknowledged Thursday that the massive loan balance was a complicating factor in his effort to shutter the agency. We've actually had that discussion today. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, suggesting that the debt could land at Treasury, commerce or the Small Business Administration. He said SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler would really like to do it. And then there is the question of whether the government will stay in the business of lending money to students directly. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation effort that was authored by many Trump allies though Trump tried to distance himself from it during last year's campaign suggested a new agency should be established to extend loans going forward, run by a Senate-confirmed leader and board of trustees, but the government would get out of the business of making the loans directly, instead reverting back to a role as guarantor of loans underwritten by other companies. The new agency would be ruled by, or rather funded by, congress, with a goal of treating taxpayers like investors. So, basically, the students who hold these loans are going to get screwed by Donald and his policies.
Speaker 1:Senators, including some Republicans, caution against dismantling the Department of Education. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have cautioned about the ramifications of eliminating the department. Here's what they're saying. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Health, education, labor and Pensions Committee, called Trump's order to dismantle the education department a disaster for working-class families and children with disabilities. There are programs in the Department of Education which provide substantial amounts of help to low-income and working-class communities, communities where it is hard, where the tax base is very, very low. The independent Vermont senator said Through the Department of Education, kids with disabilities and there are millions of them in America get the help they need.
Speaker 1:Republican Senator Susan Collins told reporters that she does not support eliminating the education department, pointing to critical programs for children with disabilities and those who come from low-income families. Just like Senator Sanders said, the senator from Maine also argued that Trump does not have the authority to eliminate the department. There are synergies that occur, having them all in one department. There may be a case for spinning off some programs, there may be a case for downsizing the department, but those are decisions that the new secretary should make. Collins said, and GOP Senator Tom Tillis told reporters he learned in his experience in the North Carolina legislature and in a parent-teacher association that the federal government has an outsized influence over controlling the classroom. He said Trump is trying to return power to state and local governments, which he supports, pointed to current missed opportunities for states to be laboratories of education, adding but they've got to be careful Asked if he thinks the Trump administration can dismantle the education department without congressional action. Tillis said he thinks most of it is going to require statutory authority, but not all of it. But not all of it. Let's hope some of the Republican senators do the right thing here and not dismantle the Department of Education.
Speaker 1:Rfk Jr touts unconventional therapies for measles linked to Discipline. Texas Doctor. A team from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in Texas this week to aid in the response to a growing measles outbreak, and US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr pledged that they would talk to frontline doctors, see what is working on the ground and learn about therapeutics ignored by the agency. There is a highly effective vaccine that prevents measles, but no specific antiviral to treat it. Kennedy has previously pushed the use for vitamin A and in an interview with Fox News this week he endorsed an unconventional treatment regimen for measles, including a steroid, an antibiotic and cod liver oil which is rich in vitamin A. In the interview, which was posted in full on Fox Nation. Kennedy praised two West Texas doctors who, he said, were using this remedy on their patients and had seen almost miraculous and instantaneous recovery. And I'm telling you this in sarcasm because of RFK Jr's stance on vaccines. Kennedy said that these doctors had treated most of the patients in the current outbreak, which has now reached 159 reported cases. One of the doctors Kennedy is apparently taking cues from has a troubled history. He was disciplined by the Texas Medical Board in 2003 for unusual use of risk-filled medications. Kennedy said HHS would do a clinical trial on the steroid butasonide, the antibiotic clarithromycin and cod liver oil therapies and said we recommend to local physicians that they consider vitamin A and their protocols. He also suggested that vitamin A may work as a prophylaxis, although doctors say it does not prevent measles. However, kennedy says measles vaccination, which can prevent most cases, is a personal choice and at this point we are recommending that people in those under-vaccinated communities get vaccines. We understand a lot of them will not and we're trying to make sure that they're taken care of, Though the best therapeutic interventions that we can provide them or recommend for them we'll propose, kennedy said in a Fox interview. Sorry, I'm still of the belief that RFK Jr is not the right choice to head up the HHS the health department and that he is a danger to the health of this country.
Speaker 1:Did you know? America's butterflies are disappearing at a catastrophic rate. America's butterflies are disappearing because of insecticides, climate change and habitat loss, with the number of the winged beauties down 22% since 2000,. A new study finds the first countrywide systematic analysis of butterfly abundance found that the number of butterflies in the lower 48 states has been falling on average 1.3 percent a year since the turn of the century, with 114 species showing significant declines and only nine increasing. According to a study in Thursday's Journal of Science, butterflies have been declining the last 20 years, said study co-author Nick Haddad, an entomologist at Michigan State University, and we don't see any sign that it's going to end. A team of scientists combined 76,957 surveys from 35 monitoring programs and blended them for an apples-to-apples comparison and ended up counting 12.6 million butterflies over the decades. Last month, an annual survey that looked just at monarch butterflies, which federal officials plan to put on the threatened species list, counted as a nearly all-time low of fewer than 10,000, down from 1.2 million in 1997. Many of the species in decline fell by 40% or more. David Wagner, a University of Connecticut entomologist who wasn't part of the study, praised its scope and he said while the annual rate of decline may not sound significant, it is catastrophic and saddening when compounded over time. In just 30 or 40 years, we are talking about losing half the butterflies and other insect life over a continent. Wagner said in an email. The tree of life is being denuded at unprecedented rates.
Speaker 1:The Kennedy Center was built with a bipartisan mission. The room where art happens is now divided. For decades, the Kennedy Center has come to symbolize freedom of expression, representation and creativity in the performing arts. Since the Kennedy Center opened its doors in 1971, as both an arts complex and a living memorial to President John F Kennedy, performers from all over the world in dance, theater, music and more have graced its stages. As a partially federally funded institution, it has had historically bipartisan support and no sitting president has ever served as its chairman, until now, that is.
Speaker 1:President Donald Trump was elected chairman by a board that excluded the 18 Democratic appointees who were purged by the president after he announced an aggressive plan to reshape the center's programming, telling reporters last month that we're going to make sure that it's good and it's not going to be woke. There's no more woke in this country, trump said. Going to be woke. There's no more woke in this country. Trump said the move prompted Jeffrey Seller, producer of the hit musical Hamilton, to cancel the show's upcoming run through 2026 at the Kennedy Center, writing in a statement posted on Wednesday to the musical's X page that Trump's purge of Kennedy Center staff and events flies in the face of everything this national center represents. We cannot presently support an institution that has been forced by external forces to portray its mission as a national cultural center that fosters the free expression of art in the United States of America. Seller added. Artists included Issa Rae, shonda Rhimes, ben Folds have also resigned from their leadership roles or canceled events at the space, while the center has canceled performances, including the children's musical Finn Hamilton. Backing out, however, marks one of the highest profile shows to remove itself, while directly citing Trump's sweeping changes.
Speaker 1:The US State Department is moving to close nearly a dozen consulates. The State Department is moving to close nearly a dozen consulates around the world. According to a source familiar with the matter and a congressional aide. The moves come as the agency eyes broader organizational changes and significant reductions in its workforce both domestically and abroad. The Trump administration, spurred by Elon Musk's D-O-G-E doggy, has taken drastic steps to shrink the federal workforce.
Speaker 1:As outposts of US diplomatic missions, consulates provide services like visa processing and other services for American citizens in need. They also serve to collect information to send back to Washington DC from areas away from nations' capitals. Officials say they are an important diplomatic tool as the US looks to counter nations like China. Most consulates do not have a large workforce. A memo was circulated within the State Department identifying a number of consulates the agency was looking to shutter, mostly in Western Europe, one source said. According to a congressional aide, the State Department informed Capitol Hill last month that it was looking to close 10 outposts Leipzig, hamburg, dusseldorf in Germany, bordeaux, reims, lyon and Strasbourg and Lyon my apologies Strasbourg in France, ponte Delgado in Portugal and Belo Horizonte in Brazil. On Monday the State Department said it was moving forward with the closure of the consulate in Gaziantep, turkey, a base for humanitarian work with Syria. A State Department spokesperson, asked about the closure, said the agency continues to assess our global posture to ensure we are best positioned to address modern challenges on behalf of the American people.
Speaker 1:More dismantling internationally from Trump and the ramifications and damage will not be immediately known, but will certainly cause problems for decades to come. And finally, there was a blow-up in the White House during a cabinet meeting and the people that went after each other were Elon Musk and Marco Rubio. The New York Times reported that Musk tore into Rubio, scolded him for not firing enough of his workforce, telling Rubio you're pretty good on TV, but basically, other than that, you're not. You're pretty good on TV, but basically, other than that, you're not. Rubio, meanwhile, privately, has been furious with Musk for some time, particularly after the Department of Government Efficiency, doge, said its sights on shuttering the US Agency for International Development. Rubio, the Times report, has been privately livid at Musk since he tore apart an agency supposedly under the Secretary's control. That was the US Agency for International Development, usaid, which Musk has effectively eliminated in his bid to take a chainsaw to federal spending.
Speaker 1:Now the top foreign affairs official fired back that Musk was wrong. Rubio pointed out to Musk that more than 1,500 State Department staff that had taken the early retirement offer Didn't that count, he asked. Matching Musk's own sarcasm, rubio reportedly asked whether the Doge head wanted to rehire those employees so that Musk can fire them again and take credit. The president, donald Trump silently watched back and forth, sitting back with his arms crossed. It dragged on for an uncomfortably long time. Finally, trump stepped in to play peacemaker and he took the side of Rubio. He said that Rubio was doing a great job. Everyone needed to work together, he added, before turning his attention to Rubio in the meeting Musk, then an unelected tech billionaire handpicked by Trump turning his attention to Ruby on the meeting Musk.
Speaker 1:Then an unelected tech billionaire handpicked by Trump had taken shots at other top members of the president's cabinet. Musk and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy got into their own quarrel on how the latter was managing the Federal Aviation Administration. The Times reported Duffy complained that Doge's youngsters were trying to fire air traffic controllers, which Musk responded was a lie. The tussle ended with Trump intervening to tell Duffy to hire geniuses from MIT as air traffic controllers. The cabinet meeting laid bare tensions between Trump's inner circle. While the president's team of officials largely approve of Musk's goal to reduce the federal government's spending, some don't appreciate his chaotic approach to doing so. According to the Times, and after the meeting, trump publicly announced his intention to rein Musk in. He wrote in a Truth Social post Thursday that the next phase of Doge's cuts would be made with a scalpel rather than a hatchet. He added that Doge was nevertheless an incredible success, and the children in the room are still waiting for an adult to show up.
Speaker 1:You can leave me comments about this or anything else on this podcast today wolfpacklistener at gmailcom or 833-399-9653, 24-7 voicemail box or on Blue Sky. Leave me a comment if you're there. I will be back Monday night with another episode and more chaos on A World Gone Banned. I'm Jeff Allen Wolf sitting in a room talking to myself. Stay hopeful. There is chaos in the world, can't you see? And we need to stand up and preserve our democracy. This is A world gone mad. This is a world gone mad, mad, mad, mad. Yeah.
