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
India And Pakistan Powder Keg?, Trump Says We Don’t Need China, Our Bad Economy Is Biden’s Fault!?
The world appears to have gone mad with escalating tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, while Trump continues dismantling democratic institutions and blaming others for economic problems. Our resistance to these troubling developments must remain strong as we navigate increasingly dangerous geopolitical tensions and domestic threats to democracy.
• Pakistan claims to have intelligence that India will strike within 36 hours following a tourist massacre in Kashmir
• Nuclear-armed rivals have already fought three wars over Kashmir, with fears of another major conflict looming
• Trump dismisses tariff concerns saying "maybe children will have two dolls instead of 30" as retailers warn of disruptions
• Federal Election Commission loses enforcement powers through commissioner resignations and Trump's firing of Weintraub
• 90-year-old Barbie Keel provides inspiration by…
Without your comments, feedback and engagement, I am just sitting in a room talking to myself and feeling lonely. Email me, call me, or find me on Blue Sky and keep the conversation going.
AWorldGoneMadPodcast@gmail.com
This is a world gone mad. This is a world gone mad. Hello, I'm Jeff Allen Wolfe and I give my commentary on national and world news and politics. I think you'll all agree this is definitely a world gone mad and if you're listening to this podcast, then you are a part of the resistance and I welcome you. Okay, let's get right to the heart of things.
Speaker 1:Pakistan claims it has credible intelligence India will strike within 36 hours. Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated further after a top Pakistani official claimed early Wednesday to have credible intelligence that New Delhi will carry out a military action against Islamabad within the next two days. Now the claim came as both the United States and China urged restraint. Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends carrying out military action against Pakistan in the next 24 to 36 hours. Pakistan's information minister, attawullah Tarar, said in an unusual middle-of-the-night post on X. He did not elaborate on what evidence Pakistan had used to make the claim. Tarar's comments came just one week after militants massacred 26 tourists in the mountainous town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, a rampage that has sparked widespread outrage. Now India has accused Pakistan of being involved in the attack, a claim Islamabad denies. Pakistan has offered a neutral investigation into the incident. Pakistan has offered a neutral investigation into the incident.
Speaker 1:Kashmir, one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints, is controlled in part by India and Pakistan, but both countries claim it in its entirety. Now the two nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars over the mountainous territory that is now divided by a de facto border called the Line of Control, since their independence from Britain nearly 80 years ago. Last week's attack sparked immediate widespread anger in India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under tremendous pressure to retaliate with force. India conducted airstrikes inside Pakistan in 2019 following a major insurgent attack on paramilitary personnel inside Indian-administered Kashmir. It was the first such incursion into Pakistan's territory since a 1971 war between the two neighbors. The latest attack on tourists in Kashmir has sparked fears that India might respond in a similar way Now. Modi vowed to pursue the attackers to the ends of the earth in a fiery speech last week. The massacre set off an escalating tit-for-tat exchange of hostilities between the two countries over the past week. Pakistan's Tarar on Wednesday claimed any military adventurism by India would be responded to assuredly and decisively. Us Secretary of State Marco Rubio is urging calm and planned to speak to his counterparts in India and Pakistan. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday. Now Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif's office said he received a call from Rubio on Wednesday in which the Pakistani leader spoke about recent developments in the region since the Pahalgam incident.
Speaker 1:Now New Delhi is considered an important partner for Washington as it seeks to counter China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Pakistan is also considered a key US partner. China, which also claims control of part of Kashmir and has grown closer to Pakistan in recent years, has also urged restraint. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to Pakistan's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, ishaq Dar last week, saying any conflict between Pakistan and India would not serve the fundamental interests of each side and posed a risk to regional security. State broadcaster CGTN reported you know more trouble in this part of the world. Certainly not what's needed right now, and of course, that's an understatement. Now, the one thing that would make matters worse is for Donald Trump to come out and claim I can solve this in 24 hours. Trump needs to be quiet and let real leaders handle this volatile situation.
Speaker 1:Trump says the United States doesn't need most of China's goods, as he warns children may not get as many dolls. Yes, trump said that, president. Donald Trump said Wednesday that Americans may need to adjust their spending and consumption habits as he wages a trade war with China, even as he sought to downplay the interruptions caused by his new tariffs on Beijing. He also said Americans didn't need cheap Chinese items. You know, somebody said oh well, the shelves, they're going to be open. He said Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. Trump went on. Last week, major retail CEOs who met with the president warned of potential supply chain disruptions as early as this summer. Now Trump's comment about the dolls was a stark example.
Speaker 1:As the president has warned about disruptions as a result of his trade war, he has argued the end result will be worth it. Trump said US consumers don't need the products China is shipping, despite wide consumption of cheap Chinese-made goods in the US. We're not talking about something that we have to go out of our way. They have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much of which not all of it, but much of which we don't need. Trump said he called China the chief ripper offer of the United States over the past decades.
Speaker 1:Okay, is it me, or do you also listen and agree with me that Donald Trump is one of the worst presidents ever to hold this office. He can't put a sentence together. He doesn't have an educated, clear thought when he says something. His logic is ridiculous. So sorry, children, you may not have a lot of dolls, you may only have two, and it'll cost a couple of bucks more. Help us, please. I just want an intelligent, thoughtful human being back in the White House again, not this train wreck named Donald.
Speaker 1:The Senate will vote on resolution to symbolically rebuke Trump's tariffs. The Senate has set to vote on a bipartisan resolution that would effectively block President Donald Trump's global tariffs by revoking the emergency order he's using to enact them Now. The chamber is expected to vote later tonight and the tariff vote is the first in the two-vote series. Even if the resolution passes the Senate, however, it is dead on arrival in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this year tucked a provision into a rule to prohibit consideration of the measure until September 30th. By the way breaking news as I'm recording this it didn't pass. It was a tie. Jd Vance had to break the tie to table this resolution and the reason why Republican McConnell, mitch McConnell and Democrat White House were absent for the vote and those two, mcconnell and the White House, supported this bipartisan bill, but it's no longer because it was shot down, because it was a tie. The Senate is spinning its wheels, in other words wasting time, with these stupid resolutions, even if it's bipartisan.
Speaker 1:Can we get real movement in our government, real things to change for the better? I guess I'm asking way too much everyone. We need action. We need definitive steps against Trump, not symbolic gestures. Trump again blames Biden for bad economic numbers and says the former president may be at fault for the next quarter if the news on the economy is bad. Damn you, biden, for screwing us. I had to sarcastically throw that in.
Speaker 1:President Donald Trump once again blamed former President Joe Biden for a slew of discouraging economic indicators, telling reporters during a cabinet meeting I am not taking credit, nor am I going to take discredit for the stock market. Oh wow. I'm just saying that we inherited a mess. I don't view the stock market as the end all. It's an indicator, trump said. But what the stock market really tells you and what you, when you look at the stock market in this case is, it says how bad a situation we inherited. As CNN reported, the Dow is on a six-day winning streak, its longest continuous rally since July. Yet the blue-chip index is on track to finish down 3.5% on the month because the stock market has been recovering from a steep slump caused by Trump's tariffs.
Speaker 1:Domestic product, which measures all the goods and services produced in the economy, registered at an annualized rate of minus 0.3 percent in the first quarter. According to the Commerce Department, it's worst quarter since 2022. But Trump indicated he'd blame Biden for the economy's poor showing for the first quarter and potentially next quarter if it's just as bad. This is a quarter that we looked at today and I took we took all of us together. We came in on January 20th. So this is not me. Trump said, this is Biden, and you could even say that the next quarter is sort of Biden, because it just doesn't happen on a daily or hourly basis, but we're turning it around.
Speaker 1:Obviously very typical on how Donald Trump operates Blame everyone else, no matter what the situation, no matter what the time frame. I'm so sick and tired of reading this bullshit from Donald. It's not me, it's never me. Donald says and if it's bad now, it's not me. And if a month from now or two months from now it's still bad, it still won't be me. How many friends and family members do you know who keep buying this crap from this man? Some of my friends are absolute idiots, I will say it, and some of my family members are absolute idiots if they still believe in Donald Trump.
Speaker 1:Election watchdog loses enforcement powers as Trump seeks to exert control over its decisions. Now the agency charged with policing federal campaign finance laws is losing its enforcement and policymaking powers with the resignation of a Republican commissioner. Alan Dickerson's departure today, combined with President Donald Trump's February firing of long-serving Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, leaves the Federal Election Commission, the FEC, with just three members, and that's lacking a quorum. The six-member commission needs at least four members to pursue high-level business. Another commissioner, republican, sean Cooksey, resigned in January. Dickerson announced his resignation during an open meeting of the panel today. His four-year term expires this week, but previously some FEC commissioners, including Weintraub, had remained with the agency well after the expiration of their terms. The White House did not immediately respond to a CNN inquiry about Trump's timeline for nominating replacements to the FEC, which operates with three commissioners from each party. The post requires Senate confirmation.
Speaker 1:The FEC, which often gridlocks along partisan lines, has lost its enforcement ability several times before, including for months-long periods during the 2020 presidential campaign. Now a legal battle is ongoing over Trump's efforts to shape the agency's decision-making. In February, he issued a sweeping executive order mandating White House review of regulations at the FEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other independent agencies, as he advances a controversial theory that presidents should have near complete control over the executive branch. The order also bars any employee of the executive branch from interpreting laws in a way that contravenes the views of the president or the attorney general. The Democratic National Committee and the party's congressional campaign arms have filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's order, arguing his move imperils fair elections and could allow Trump to determine the outcome of any FEC complaints against Democrats, of any FEC complaints against Democrats.
Speaker 1:More and more changes are happening in our government by Donald to undermine fair elections. Some of you have written and texted me before stating and I've seen this on the internet people writing wait till the midterms, wait till the midterms when we get control again. Do any of you listening truly believe the midterms are going to make a difference in our country? Do you actually believe the results are going to be in the Democrats' favor? I don't and I think, no matter what happens in the midterms, republicans will say they won and that's that. And the longer this garbage goes on without any stopping of Donald, the harder it will be to reverse things and finally stepping away from the negative stories, the things we can't control. I'll share this uplifting story with you. This is from the Good News Network, with their permission.
Speaker 1:A 90-year-old English woman who owns an animal rescue sanctuary has reportedly rescued 10,000 animals from abuse or abandonment. Barbie Keel has dedicated 54 years to running the Barbie Keel Animal Sanctuary in Sussex, uk Now a long journey that she admits won't come to an end anytime soon, provided she could stay on her feet. Keels' story began in the 70s when a British army soldier stationed in Northern Ireland asked her to watch his dog while he was deployed. Whatever gravitational pull attracts animals to certain individuals, keels was so strong that the dog decided to stay. She took in another dog before a charity called the Bexhill Cats Club when they asked her to take in some cats more than 600 animals, including 160 cats, 16 pigs, 8 dogs, 6 horses, 100 chickens and 80 rabbits. Before long I had about 40 cats, started taking in farm animals like sheep, cows, pigs and goats, she told this SWNS media outlet. Some of the animals are rehomed, like the cats, dogs and some rabbits, but the majority of them will stay on the farm and live out their days here.
Speaker 1:The 12-acre sanctuary, which she ran for 20 years all by herself but now manages with a motley crew of volunteers, provides a refuge for hundreds of abandoned, rescued or abused animals from farms, kennels or private owners. Kiel tends to the animals daily and only leaves the sanctuary every few weeks to go shopping or play for the local male darts team. In fact, despite her advanced age, she never takes a day off, despite having battled cancer three times. The animal lover says she has no plans to slow down or retire. Some days I'm shattered. It's hard work, she admits. But then I get a little nose boop from one of the animals where a face peers up at me and I remember why I'm doing this. My animals come first and always will. She said that promise, including ending a long-term relationship on their behalf, after her ex-partner gave her an ultimatum me or the animals. Winner, winner, chickens and the rest.
Speaker 1:The Barbie Keel Sanctuary is a non-profit organization, runs entirely on donations. It has recently reopened to the public, will be free to visit every Sunday until October 2025, where guests can see the animals or visit the cafe, souvenir shop or vivarium. We also run a shop on site. She said I buy bulk food with my pension money, sell it for cheap so people can afford to feed their pets. She said it was packed for the reopening, which was amazing, said I know I'm getting older so I know my limitations. I don't deal with the big animals anymore, but I still get up every morning and feed all the cats and see them all. It's a good life. Okay, listeners, I don't care what age you are, but if you're feeling down, think what this lady is doing and let's all be inspired by her actions. Most of us should not feel helpless with our own situation in life. After hearing about this lady dealing with her age, her health and still having time to help all these animals, I give a big bow to this lady still growing strong at 90.
Speaker 1:If you have any comments on this or today's episode or any feedback at all, say hello. Love to hear from you. You have the email. You have the phone number. You can reach me on Blue Sky. I'll be back again Friday. This is definitely a world gone mad. I'm Jeff Allen Wolf. Without your comments, your feedback and your engagement. I am sitting in a room talking to myself and feeling lonely. Stay hopeful To stand up and preserve our democracy. This is a world gone mad. This is a world gone mad.
