Friends, over the weekend I read a fascinating article that argued that climate change and other environmental problems are so potentially catastrophic, and the political response so feeble, that environmental activists and their fellow travelers need to rise up in "rebellion." The fruits of that loose talk are now playing out on the streets of many cities, especially London, where arrests are skyrocketing. Now, I do not subscribe to the notion that human beings or the Earth face any "existential" threat, but it does interest me that so many leftists are becoming violent and/or unlawful in response to what they see as the failure of the political class to heed their calls to action. Mark my words: the more agitated, unhinged, and "rebellious" these left-wing activists become, the more conservatives will win elections...and that's a good thing!
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47945397
Also check out this article about the Vietnam War overtones of Bill Barr's interest in whether illegal or improper "spying" occurred against the Trump campaign:
https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/news-opinion/in-this-corner-bill-barrs-key-statement-was-overlooked
Will Republicans take back the House in 2020? I believe it's a real possibility, and Democrats, by their wild and irresponsible actions and rhetoric, are making it easier and easier:
http://www.rollcall.com/news/house-democrats-not-task-leading-country
Finally, check out this fascinating take on illegal immigration. It's happening on such a vast scale that it can't help but have a severe impact on some communities. I feel for those on the firing line. On the other hand, I think Hanson's idea that America will become so dysfunctional that "migrants" won't want to come here anymore is a pipe-dream. If we don't take action to stop this tidal wave of humanity, we'll be swamped -- pure and simple.
https://amgreatness.com/2019/04/14/are-there-any-limits-to-illegal-immigration/
Dr. Waddy: OK, lets consider the history of this kind of powerful insanity. What did the disruptions of the 60's and 70's engender? Jimmy Carter growing the fringe of his hair over his ears, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher putting paid to the Marxist unions which would gladly have delivered their members to Soviet slavery.
ReplyDeleteIn disrupting the every day life of the city what do these presumptuous and unestablished ecodreamers think they are doing? Unless they can point to very, very obvious physical, meteorological, volcanic or tectonic manifestations of their Chicken Little cluckings, they have little chance of popular support and much chance of popular disgust. Of course the spineless bureaucracy will defer to them but the voters and those by them subsequently empowered? They may well vote into office those beholden to their common sense and not to the airy exudations of gaseous idealists.
Dr. Waddy: In response to K.S. Bruces' article. The left has ever subscribed to the efficacy of withering ridicule of its opponents and has
ReplyDelete,in this, ensnared multitudes of the naive. But first, J. Edgar Hoover was very much right in his perception of poisonous and cancerous communist influence in our government and he was redeemed, I think, first by the eventual confirmation that #3 in the State Dep't Alger Hiss was a toady for the monster Stalin and by the advent of, in the high reaches of our federal and even some state governments, over the last decades,declared and reasonably assumed Marxist totalitarians like Van Jones and the Obamas.
AG Barr's concerns have precedent which leftists cannot in good faith deny. But then, when was principle ever of importance to them? Outcome, that of their dreams, is all.
Dr. Waddy: The journey from Central America to our country is perhaps analogous to that described in The Grapes of Wrath. A return to that which they fled seems unlikely. Their living conditions in the U.S. would have to deteriorate to a very unlikely level of third world desperation to motivate them to flee. Once here they will want to stay and with good reason.
ReplyDeletePoverty and the experience of completely corrupt law enforcement in Mexico and Central America is productive of cynical institutions like organized crime among those who illegally cross into our country. What are we to do? Welcome this?
No border, no country. No enforcement, no border. No country, no peace.
Dr. Waddy: Tom Emmers' comments prompt in me this response: The Dems have always been motivated by the conviction that their beliefs are unquestionably just and inevitable in enactment. Accordingly, they see their present House majority as but an irreversible step back to their assured takeover of America,after an unanticipated setback. But in their truly startling nakedly leftist outbreak since 2016 and 2018 they have rejected their boomer exemplified elders' caution not to overreach until triumph is assured. In doing so they may have sown their lasting marginalization in 2020 and the unendurable reaffirmation of President Trump's authority. And that, we can be sure, will be directed to their destruction.
ReplyDeleteThe truly stunning blow they received in 2016, with all its moral attack upon their unassailable "feelings" has freed them to rage like frantic spoiled children, who see in any hope of the fulfillment of their desires, assurance! May they persist in that vein, to their deserved repulse and utter confusion.
Jack, I agree that civil disobedience is normally counterproductive. On the other hand, the media is strongly sympathetic to the cause, so who knows. It depends on how the "rebels" play their cards, and so far they're playing them badly.
ReplyDeleteI concur that the Dems will never care a fig whether norms were flouted or laws broken in the inquisition against President Trump...unless, that is, Dems start going to jail. That is the only point at which some on the Left might start to cry "Uncle!", in my view, and I would sorely like to see them do it.
I totally agree about the need for an effective, credible border. I don't believe the gulf in living standards between the U.S. and Guatemala will ever go away -- and thus the incentive to migrate will remain, as long as those who undertake the voyage are assured a hearty welcome from the courts and the Dems. I fear things may get worse before they get better.
I hope you're right about the Left's "overreach." I hope that the American electorate sees it for what it is, I hope the Dems lose big in 2020, and I hope they draw the appropriate conclusions and self-immolate, either literally or metaphorically (almost certainly the latter). The Left is beset with self-destructive tendencies. We just need to help that seed germinate into a beautiful flower.
Dr. Waddy: Dec. 1862, May 1940, Nov. 7, 2016 - it helps to remember how grim things sometimes looked before victory for justice was realized. Its comforting to think that we may well be in the midst of one of those times now; there is a very real chance that sanity will prevail and that this truly bizarre eruption of tragically wrongheaded idealism will subside of its own unworkability and the resistance it necessitated.
ReplyDelete