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
The Economy, Trump’s Cabinet, More Sweeping Cuts, Putin’s Game Playing, Leonardo The Tortoise
The world spirals further into madness as we witness the first major shake-up in Trump's cabinet.
Equally alarming is the administration's "skinny budget" proposal, targeting a staggering $163 billion in cuts to many important departments.
Perhaps most concerning is the developing situation with Ukraine, where intelligence suggests Putin may have tactically shifted his immediate war objectives.
What role will you play in standing up for democracy in these increasingly turbulent times?
Join the resistance – subscribe for free. Share your thoughts, and help make sense of a world gone mad.
AWorldGoneMadPodcast@gmail.com
This is a world gone mad. This is a world gone mad, mad, mad, mad, mad. Hello, I'm Jeff Allen Wolfe. I get my commentary on national and world news and politics and I think all of you will agree this is definitely a world gone mad. If you're listening to this podcast, well, guess what? You're part of the resistance and I welcome you. Let's get right to the heart of things.
Speaker 1:A couple of quick hit stories for wrapping up the week. In economic developments, china says it's currently assessing proposals by the US to begin trade talks. It comes as the exemption allowing Chinese goods to be shipped duty-free into the US expired just after midnight. President Donald Trump is also calling on the Fed to lower interest rates after a better-than-expected jobs report. And on Trump cabinet changes if you haven't read the news, trump removed Mike Walz as National Security Advisor. Mike Walz, as National Security Advisor, announced his nomination as UN ambassador in the first major staff change since the president took office. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will temporarily replace him. Rubio is now the top US diplomat serving in four count them four roles at once. Here we go the first defection or removal of someone appointed by Trump. Do you remember his first term? Everyone? Do you remember how many people either were fired or left his administration? Look it up. It was a hell of a lot. I think it was like 75%, if I recall. And in the Harvard funding showdown, trump said this morning that Harvard University will be stripped of its tax-exempt status, redoubling his strength as a broader chess match is underway over free speech, political ideology. Students cannot exercise the right to protest. Trump doesn't want anyone against him and if they are, there will be consequences.
Speaker 1:White House budget proposal calls for sweeping cuts in education, environmental and health care programs. This is from CNN's Elena Treen and Kevin Liptak, who reported the White House plans to unveil its budget proposal targeting education, foreign aid, environmental, health care and other non-defense discretionary spending with $163 billion in cuts. Two administration officials told CNN. Now the proposal referred to internally as a skinny budget because it's an outline rather than a comprehensive plan. It calls for 557 billion in non-defense discretionary spending, one of the officials said. Now the official said agencies that would face steep cuts include the Department of the Interior, department of Housing and Urban Development, department of Education, environmental Protection Agency, national Institutes of Health, national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. According to the official, the budget boosts funding for border security, air and rail safety, law enforcement programs that benefit veterans. The budget proposal is essentially a statement of President Donald Trump's priorities to Congress, which must hammer out the details and pass them into law. Now, in his first months in office, trump and billionaire advisor Elon Musk have sought to dramatically slash the federal government, laying off federal workers and eliminating functions that don't align with the administration's political views. The proposed cuts were first reported by the Wall Street Journal. So education, epa, housing, health departments all being ripped apart by Donald.
Speaker 1:The Delusional Intelligence suggests that Putin's immediate goals for Ukraine war may have shifted. New intelligence reviewed by US and Western officials suggests Russian President Putin may have shifted his immediate focus in the Ukraine war toward the shorter-term objectives of solidifying his hold on territory His forces have seized and boosting his country's struggling economy. Multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN. Now this represents an evolution from recent US and Western intelligence assessments, suggesting that the Russian president may be more willing to consider a potential peace deal than in the past. Two US sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Now, however, senior US officials remain skeptical of Putin and his repeated assertions in ongoing talks that he wants a peace deal, even though what is being proposed by the US is incredibly generous to Russia, handling them most of the territory, handing him Putin most of the territory that he's taken in this Ukraine war. There's also a widespread belief that, even if Russia agrees to a version of the agreement on the table, it may look to resume the war and try to seize more of Ukraine in the long term. I think that he may be thinking I don't want to say thinking smaller, but thinking about what a reasonable near-term objective is, said a senior Western intelligence official. The pressure exerted by an increasingly angry Trump and his administration, threatening more sanctions and a struggling Russian economy, have Putin in a potentially difficult position. There has also been strong emphasis and talks on the potential for investments between the US and Russia if the war ends, opportunities the US has called historic. All of this really depends on what is the US willing to put on the table so that he could not just claim victory domestically, the official continued but really feel that he has achieved something that is worth a significant pause and then maybe retake up you know, the fight against Ukraine later on. Now the official pointed to Putin's repeated references to where the Russian people have historically come from, said he maintains a long-term objective to seize more of Ukraine, at least those portions that are the cradle of Russian civilization in Putin's eyes. Moscow is willing to play along with the US, restrict its immediate objectives to improve its relationship with Washington. A senior European official agreed, but clearly hasn't given up on the maximalist war ends. The Kremlin hopes that a better relationship draws the attention away after a tactical pause and that they could then use the mix of military, economic, informational and political tools to achieve Putin's full objectives in Ukraine and beyond, the official said.
Speaker 1:Earlier this year, us intelligence officials cautioned now-senior Trump advisers that controlling Ukraine remained Putin's top priority, next to regime survival, and warned that he was eager to exploit any perceived rush to negotiations by the new administration. Putin's thinking has evolved because he thinks he has a sympathetic US President Trump who doesn't know what he's doing and is more interested in short-term wins, said Democratic Congressman Jason Crowe, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee. Putin, he added, thinks there can be a settlement and it simply just won't be enforced. Ukraine is pleading for security assistance. During negotiations that started under Trump, ukraine's leaders have repeatedly pleaded that the US and Europe provide security assistance and guarantees as part of a potential pact so that, even if Ukraine does cede some land, russia would be deterred from resuming the war to seize more of the country. The Russian objective is to get as much territory recognized as possible and have as weak of a Ukraine as possible, said a senior US official who argued there is zero indication Putin could actually conquer the rest of Ukraine when his forces have been unable to dramatically move the front lines in a long time. So any shift in Putin's thinking comes from that realization and the Trump administration's efforts to get the two sides to negotiate and end to the conflict, said the official. The calculation of what more Putin could achieve at this given stage has probably changed, in part because his desire to end the war. The official said the calculus on the US side has basically changed since the Biden administration, which contributes to the changing calculus of the Russians, presumably Russians, presumably.
Speaker 1:Now, discussions about where territorial lines could be drawn have focused on the five territories where Russia has the strongest foothold, including Crimea, which Putin seized in 2014. Trump has said Ukraine will not get back most of the land it has lost to Russia. Last week, vice President JD Vance indicated the US envisions an eventual truce somewhere close to where the current front lines are with some territorial swaps. This peace deal is about the so-called five territories, but there's so much more to advance. Who has met with Putin four times this year told Fox News after his third encounter. I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very important for the world at large. Now CNN has reported that some European allies are highly alarmed by the framework being proposed, as the US could recognize territory illegally seized by Russia. Trump has said the US is ready to recognize Russian sovereignty in Crimea, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week that Moscow wants international recognition of all five Ukrainian territories Russia fully or partially holds, something Kiev has said it would refuse to do.
Speaker 1:Another senior US official, ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, said Tuesday that the administration is just waiting on Russia to agree to a ceasefire. We've got one side, ukraine. Now you need to come up with the other side, and I think we're close. He told Fox News. This is the last hundred yards to an objective in the military. It's the toughest hundred yards. Trump stated. Maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, meaning Putin he's just tapping me along has to be dealt with differently, through banking or secondary sanctions. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social following a meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky while at the Vatican.
Speaker 1:Look, this, of course, is pure stall tactics by Putin. He has no intention of ending the war and losing out on more territory. He's playing Donald Trump I've said this multiple times during my podcast and there's incredible naivete and lack of knowledge about real world situations with Donald and his negotiating team. World situations with Donald and his negotiating team. This is going to cause major damage to Ukraine and potentially the rest of Europe when Putin gets away with stuff and is rewarded with territory and power plants etc. For starting this war instead of being punished. Instead of being punished. Listeners, you know how to reach me through phone number, email, blue sky. If you have any comments on this or anything at all on my podcast, I hope to hear from you 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, used with their permission.
Speaker 1:In the ancient English region of Cumbria, a woman discovered to her great surprise that Leonardo, her pet tortoise, had fled her house in Ulverston. In Ulverston, rachel Etches will occasionally allow Leonardo, the tortoise, to wander around the garden lawn to his great enjoyment. Now, despite being far from a sprinter, it only took one lapse of concentration for one such play date to go terribly awry. Escaping Leonardo began get this a nine-month trip for a tortoise around town. Right as winter was approaching. Etches set up a social media campaign to try and recruit help in locating a reptile before the temperatures plummeted and the cold-blooded creature froze.
Speaker 1:But after the spring thaw, a dog walker noticed Leonardo the Tortoise, him ambling down the street, proving him capable of facing the North English winter, of finding food and avoiding predators like rowdy shepherd dogs. He's gone on his travels around our little hamlet and he was found about a mile from our house. It was totally my fault, she said. We were out in the garden, we just had our second child. I got a bit distracted and Leonardo just wandered off out of our sight. Etch has told the BBC he's led a very comfortable life for 13 years under a heat lamp in my house, so we didn't think he was going to survive the winter being out for the first time, leonardo the tortoise back safely at home. And that reminded me the reason why I wanted to share this story with you.
Speaker 1:I had a pet box turtle when I was very, very, very, very young. His name was Paladin. He was named after the main character in the television show starring Richard Boone. The show was called have Gun Will Travel. Well, unfortunately for me, paladin vanished from our backyard one day and I never found him. I'll be back again Monday. Everyone, have a great weekend. This is A World Gone Mad. I'm Jeff Allen Wolf and without your comments, your feedback, your engagement, I'm sitting in a room talking to myself. Please send me your comments. I hate 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. This is a world gone mad.
