Mike Pence: The Badgers' Choice!

 

 

Friends, the good people of Wisconsin -- the Badger State -- are in for a treat.  Just as their hopes were dimming, with hundreds of lousy Democrats set to descend on Milwaukee August 17th-20th for their national convention, Mike Pence recently announced that he too will make a campaign swing through the state: on August 19th, the very day that Biden's VP (President-in-waiting) accepts her crown.  That's the subject of my latest article.  Read and enjoy!

 

Vice-President Pence Is Right to Campaign in Wisconsin during the Democratic Convention

Recently, Sleepy Joe Biden made the allegedly “responsible” choice to remain in Delaware throughout the Democratic National Convention, to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 17th-20th. That's right — Biden will be the first presidential nominee since FDR in 1944 (who was at death's door) to skip his own party's convention. He will instead hide in his basement, as is his wont.

Vice-President Mike Pence, however, sensing an opportunity, will campaign in Wisconsin on August 19th, the same day that Biden's soon-to-be-chosen running mate will accept the Vice-Presidential nomination (that's assuming Biden can find someone willing to be his understudy/nurse).

The Democrats' reaction to Pence's announcement was as swift as it was predictable. They called Pence's decision “disgraceful”, insofar as he will be going to Wisconsin despite the fact that COVID-19 infections in the state are, according to them, rising.

Never mind that the actual numbers, according to the 7-day moving average reported by the state's Department of Health Services, are trending slightly downward. And never mind that the Democrats themselves have not canceled their convention in Milwaukee, which, despite being slimmed down, will still draw hundreds of people to the state's biggest “hot zone”.

In fact, recently several workers helping to prepare for the DNC tested positive for COVID-19. Did the Democrats scrap their plans and opt for a virtual convention instead? No, but they expect Mike Pence to hole up in his basement, all the same.

The truth, of course, is that Joe Biden is staying put in Delaware, and making only a perfunctory appearance via satellite at his own nominating convention, because his handlers fear the awful consequences of allowing the public near the ticking time bomb that is Sleepy Joe.

The national convention represents, next to the presidential debates — which more and more Biden allies are advising him to skip — the biggest test the candidate will face on the road to the White House. That Biden and his inner circle do not believe their man is up to the challenge, even if he made his acceptance speech from a Milwaukee television studio or hotel suite, tells us everything we need to know about Biden's fitness for office. It also tells us just how much confidence his key advisers repose, or don't repose, in the “man who would be king”.

Mike Pence, on the other hand, is traveling the nation, doing his utmost to convince the American people that four more years of conservative, God-fearing, liberty-affirming, “America First”, and constitutionalist leadership is infinitely preferable to turning the country over to socialists, anarchists, moral relativists, apologists for criminals and rioters, and “woke” authoritarians.

Even if the Democrats weren't preparing to nominate a ticket featuring a babbling, skeletal has-been, and an unqualified upstart chosen to put a fresh and agreeably non-white face on a party actually run by warmed-over hippies and special interests, it would still be utter madness to vote for the Dems.

Pence knows this better than anyone, and thus he owes it to America and to every one of us to exert himself to ensure that he and Donald Trump succeed in November. His duty, in other words, is to remain in the arena, to campaign responsibly and with due deference to local, state, and national public health guidance, but above all to continue to engage with the American people.

The Democrats appear to believe that the way to win the presidency is to hide from the voters and to rely on the media to do their dirty work for them. Given their stumbling, fumbling candidate and the undisguised Trump-hatred of most journalists, they may be right.

We Republicans, though, cannot afford to hide from anyone. We must work harder than ever to persuade the electorate to do the right thing, which means: to defeat the Left's brand of America-hating Marxism once and for all.

If it takes a trip to Wisconsin to seal the deal, then Mike Pence would be foolish not to go.

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears weekly on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.

Dukakis Redux?

 

Friends, you might want to check out this article.  It notes some interesting parallels between the star-crossed campaign of Michael Dukakis in 1988 and that of Joe Biden in 2020.  What it fails to mention is another important parallel.  Crime, which was at all-time highs in the late 80s, was a major issue in 1988 that worked heavily in favor of George H.W. Bush.  The Dems had been weak on crime since the 1970s, at least, and after 1988 they worked feverishly to shore up this political deficit.  That's why establishment Democrats like Joe Biden embraced crime bills in the 90s, lest we forget.  Well, now a "law and order" election may be looming again.  Will Republicans ride Americans' sense of insecurity all the way to victory once again?  We shall see.  The big difference between now and then, of course, is the Dems' shift to the radical left, coupled with Biden's geriatric foibles.  All in all, I don't believe that 1988 and 2020 bear much resemblance to one another, but still -- we should learn from history whenever we can.

 

https://spectator.org/biden-dukakis-presidential-race/

The Gipper Takes No Guff

Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show whisks you from 1861, to 1914, to 1981 -- all in the blink of an eye.  Brian and I discuss Abraham Lincoln's fateful decision to impose an income tax in 1861, as the Civil War began.  In this way, as in so many others, the federal government tested the waters in 1861-65 for what would turn into its permanent and inexorable expansion in the 20th century.  Then Brian and I cover the German attack on the Belgian city of Liege in 1914, which, if it had gone a little more smoothly, might well have led to a quick German victory in the First World War.  Finally, in 1981, President Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers, landing a solid blow on the labor union movement from which it has never really recovered.

When we get to current events, Brian and I talk about the boneheadedness of big city mayors, who won't take any federal help in the battle against crime...or maybe I should say "crime," because the Democrats seem to have convinced themselves that it's all an illusion anyway.  We talk about the ongoing negotiations over additional stimulus measures, and why the Dems might be happy to let the American worker twist in the wind.  Finally, we ask the question on everyone's mind these days: which zero will Biden pick as his co-loser, or deputy loser, in 2020?  My money's still on Kamala.

Listen in and be informed!

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-august-5-2020-dr-nick-waddy/

Ike Didn't Like the "Asian Flu"

Friends, while many have compared the coronavirus pandemic to the Spanish Flu of 1918-19, this article makes an intriguing case that the "Asian Flu" of 1957-58 is a more apt parallel.  See if you agree.  Horowitz points out that our response in 1957-58 was a lot less hyperbolic than it is today, despite the fact that the toll was arguably higher.  But then no one would accuse the architects of public policy in 2020 of being detached and judicious, would they?  Tsk tsk.

https://www.conservativereview.com/news/horowitz-lost-common-sense-america-lived-asian-flu-1957/

Explaining the Inexplicable

Friends, today we ponder a real brain-buster: how do the Democratic Mayors of our biggest cities, suffering massive rises in violent crime and, in particular, homicides, angrily dismiss offers of assistance from the federal government?  Wouldn't that be a gross disservice to the people who live in these cities, especially to the "Black" and "Brown" people (note the PC capitalizations, thank you very much) who represent the majority of crime victims?  It beggars belief.

The crime wave is no longer in dispute.  Here's just a sampling of the evidence:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/8/1/21350547/chicago-crime-stats-july-increase-murders-shootings

And so...why?  Why rebuff federal cooperation and outreach?  The answer is as simple as it is obvious: Trump-hatred.  Sheer irrational, myopic Trump-hatred.  Check out this article. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/clyburn-trump-election-delay-mussolini-163630617.html

And this one:

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/clyburn-barr-portland-feds/2020/07/20/id/978058/

So South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn views Trump as no different from Mussolini.  I suppose that represents an upgrade from the Hitlerian parallels that the Left usually draws, but, nonetheless, consider the audacity of Clyburn's claims.  He views Trump as a dictator, or at best as an aspiring dictator, and thus he views federal law enforcement as the embodiment of Trump's viciousness and his soaring ambitions.  The Feds, therefore, really are "stormtroopers," and the American people are currently living in fear -- fear not of criminals, who ARE killing them in record numbers, but of federal bureaucrats and law enforcement professionals, who are in fact trying to protect them, but who Clyburn and the Left view as willful participants in, and enablers of, Trump's reign of terror.

The delusional nature of these beliefs is incredible.  The isolation of liberals from reality, it would seem to me, has now reached a very dangerous level.  Their contempt for the President of the United States, for law enforcement, and, lest we forget, for roughly half of their fellow citizens, is TOTAL and UNALLOYED.  They have, in fact, turned on the very institution that they most adore in the world: big government!  They've turned on it because it is tainted by the leadership of Donald Trump.  That is how obsessive and neurotic their Trump-hatred has become.

What are the chances, under these circumstances, that we can hold a peaceful, orderly election in November, and that both sides will accept its outcome?  Slim to none.  President Trump is clearly very worried about our electoral process and its integrity.  He's also worried, so it seems, about the survival of our constitutional system of government and our democracy.  Well, he ought to be.  The sinews of that system and of that democracy are being stretched to the breaking point.

Sweden 1, Coronavirus 0

Friends, it's time to check in with our socialist pals in Sweden to see if their aversion to lockdowns and masking is working out for them.  Aren't you curious?  Well, it turns out that many of the measures we've been taking to protect ourselves from COVID-19 here in the U.S. are, arguably, irrelevant to the trajectory of the pandemic.  Makes you think!  Speaking of thinking, that's what I tried to do before, during, and after I wrote my latest article.  See if my thoughts and yours are on the same wavelength...

2020's Swedish Surprise: Pandemic Fascism Isn't The Answer

2020 has been a year of firsts: the world faced its first (modern) pandemic, killing hundreds of thousands and shuttering vast swathes of the global economy. Along the way, the political world was turned upside down: for the first time in living memory, leftists found themselves castigating, rather than idolizing, socialist Sweden.

The reason? The Swedes, hard-headed contrarians that they are, had the temerity to buck the global fad for strict lockdowns and obsessive masking. They reasoned that such measures would be unsustainable, economically and socially, so instead of shutting businesses and schools, and harassing or fining anyone caught in public without a mask, they advised people to practice sensible social distancing and to avoid unnecessary outings and exposure.

At first, the mainstream media throughout the Western world gleefully reported the high death rate that Sweden's mild model of pandemic control produced, especially among the elderly and nursing home residents. Sweden's “experiment” with liberty (never a concept beloved of left-wingers) had failed, or so it seemed.

Now, though, Sweden's light touch with respect to coronavirus countermeasures is looking sounder and sounder. Sweden's numbers of new infections are low and trending lower. Daily deaths are approaching the vanishing point. There is speculation that, because the disease was allowed to spread more freely among those least vulnerable, Swedes may already benefit from a degree of herd immunity.

Sweden's successes don't end there, however. The toll of the pandemic, while it is often measured in raw numbers of “COVID deaths”, stretches far beyond mortality. Among the worst aspects of the crisis has been the economic carnage it has visited on the worst affected countries. In the U.S., second quarter GDP is down by almost 33%! Unemployment peaked at almost 15%. These are numbers generally associated with a depression, although economists expect that the downturn, sharp as it is, will be brief.

Sweden, meanwhile, was the only country in Europe in the first quarter of 2020 to see its GDP rise. Sweden's overall economic contraction in 2020 is expected to be modest, compared to the EU as a whole and to badly-hit countries like the U.K., Italy, and Spain. Swedish companies are also outperforming expectations, while Swedish unemployment is lower than ours: most recently, it stands at 9.2%.

Lest we forget, economic pain (and the limitation thereof) also correlates to many other factors that govern a country's degree of suffering during the pandemic. Poor economic performance can and usually does foster a rise in suicides, violent crime, drug use, alcohol abuse, domestic disputes, child abuse, as well as anxiety and depression. Moreover, long and rigid lockdowns, combined with scaremongering in the news media, can even produce more sickness and death, because many people in need of urgent medical care choose to defer it, assuming that it is too dangerous to leave their homes. We can safely assume that all of these problems are less pronounced in Sweden, given the tempered nature of its pandemic response, and the shallowness of its virus-related recession.

There are many ways to measure a country's performance in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, but surely the simplest is this: has a given nation managed to minimize the “pain” (and death) afflicting its citizens, while maximizing the “gain” they seek in terms of employment, economic activity, and the preservation of their freedoms and quality of life?

Sweden, it would appear, has struck this balance remarkably well. After a rocky start, especially in nursing homes, Swedish authorities have managed to wrestle the virus into submission, such that it is now almost unheard of for Swedes to die of COVID-19. Simultaneously, Swedes are going to work, going to school, visiting restaurants and businesses, and enjoying normal human interactions without the constant need to wear facemasks.

That sounds, to a mere layman, like a story of success, not failure. And, if the “socialist Swedes” have found a pandemic strategy that works, we have to ask: why are their “progressive” allies around the world afraid to admit it?

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears weekly on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.

And here it is at Townhall:

https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2020/08/01/2020s-swedish-surprise-pandemic-fascism-isnt-the-answer-n2573490

The Shared Struggle...or...Why You Should Avoid Victoria Like The Plague

Friends, the media is working feverishly (pun intended) to create the impression that the chief risk factor for catching the coronavirus is Republican/conservative political leadership.  Well, poppycock!  The surge in cases that is being seen in our Sun Belt is also replicating itself in parts of Europe, as we've seen, and, it appears, in Australia.  Check out this article.  Australians are even dabbling in the sorts of travel bans beloved by New York pandemic warlord Andrew Cuomo.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53589817

In other news, it's official: the U.S. economy got HAMMERED by the virus-related shutdowns in the second quarter.  GDP fell by almost a third.  We can expect considerable expansion in the third quarter, but not as much as we would have liked, because of the persistence of the pandemic as well as the scattershot, often irrational measures taken to contain it.  To give you a baseline, Germany's economy contracted by only 10% in the second quarter.  Granted, Germany suffered less from the virus than we did, but were not their lockdowns also quite stringent?  It sure looks like Germany handled the coronavirus challenge, economically and medically speaking, better than we did.  Is that Trump's fault?  To a point, sure, but most of the key decisions about the U.S. response to the virus weren't made by Trump, were they?  Federalism is alive and well in this country, at least in matters of public health.  Most of the time that's probably a good thing.  In these circumstances, it's a mixed blessing.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/30/us-gdp-q2-2020-first-reading.html

Reaching For The Stars

Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show with me and Brian O'Neil achieves excellence on an intergalactic scale. 

First, Brian and I talk about the latest developments in the leftist crusade to destroy the Trump administration -- and with it, American democracy itself?  The rhetoric against Attorney General Barr and the Justice Department is getting wildly overheated.  The incessant comparisons to Nazism, fascism, dictatorship, etc. are getting tiresome, on one level, and deeply unsettling, on another.  We could say that the Democrats have "taken the gloves off," but that would still imply that something resembling a fair fight is underway, and in no way are they playing fair.  They intend to destroy Trump, his supporters, and the Republican Party once and for all -- and they are making it clear that they have zero respect for the half of America that disagrees with them.

Brian and I also discuss proposals to send Americans a second round of stimulus checks, Antifa violence in Ireland, and the predicament of the federal authorities in Portland, Oregon.

In our look at "This Day in History", Brian and I cover the early days of the U.S. automotive industry, the creation of NASA in the wake of the Sputnik fiasco in 1957, and the elevation of Adolf Hitler to the leadership of the Nazi Party in 1921.

Don't miss a second of the pulse-pounding action!

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-july-29-2020-dr-nick-waddy/

Europe's Evolving Pandemic

Friends, the media would like to create the impression that Republicans and conservatives love the coronavirus and spread it enthusiastically, while liberals, progressives, and "democratic socialists" advance responsible countermeasures to keep everyone safe.  Well, the picture is a lot more complicated than that.  The same surge in cases that is currently gripping the Sun Belt in this country is showing itself in parts of Europe too, even parts that were already hit hard by the virus back in March, April, and May.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/coronavirus-europe-tourism-hits-reopening

Meanwhile, Sweden, which pursued a measured response to the coronavirus and eschewed lockdowns, has seen cases crater.  Note the part of this story where public health authorities advise AGAINST wearing face masks, even on public transport!

https://www.foxnews.com/world/sweden-sees-coronavirus-cases-drop-after-controversially-avoiding-lockdowns

I think the upshot here is that it's very unclear what measures ultimately protect a country from infections and deaths.  Certain risky behaviors are correlated with, well, risk, sure, but do we know for sure that lockdowns save lives, or that masks are effective versus hand-washing and sensible social distancing?  Is exposure to the virus more a case of inherent vulnerability than it is of behavior?  Will the virus ultimately infect all or most of us -- and only the speed of its spread is within our control?  We just don't know.  Hopefully, one day we will.

Should I Buy a Summer Cottage?

Friends, as many of you know, the weekly revenues from the WaddyIsRight commentating empire easily reach into the billions.  This leaves me with a dilemma: what do I do with these gigantic piles of money???

I could, of course, give it all to the poor...NOT!  Have you met the poor lately?  What a bunch of layabouts!  Any money I gave them would be blown on booze, meth, and weed.  No, sir!

Lately, I've been considering the purchase of a summer cottage, as befits a captain of industry like myself.  In the Gilded Age, the well-to-do would "summer" in Newport, Rhode Island, where they would sail, play tennis, dine sumptuously, and generally congratulate one another on being awesome.  Sounds nice!  So I betook myself to Newport this past weekend to do a little real estate shopping.

Now, the grandest and most opulent of the "cottages" in Newport is this one: The Breakers.  Currently it's being run as a museum by the Newport Preservation Society, but for the right price, well...  What do you think?  It's nice, I suppose, but the exterior seems a little bland to me.  Why couldn't they have used colored stone?  Meh.  And I have to wonder: would 62,000 square feet be enough for me AND my entourage?  Hmm.  Some of you might want to stay in a separate guest cottage, and The Breakers can't accommodate that request, at least not yet.  I'm torn.  Maybe if the Preservation Society is MOTIVATED to sell we can work something out, but otherwise...I dunno.

Naturally, I will keep you apprised as I consider all my palatial needs.

Thanks, as always, for your continuing support, and for buying all that WaddyIsRight merchandise, for patronizing Waddy-themed tv shows and movies, and for donating regularly to the cause!