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Monday, August 30, 2021

Falling in Line with Red China

 


Friends, today I highly recommend to you this long article, which analyzes how deeply irrational much of the Western response to COVID has been, and how much this response has been inspired by, and sometimes dictated by, communist China.  It's a frightening story of how oblivious and/or craven our political elite has become, and how far we've traveled on the road to totalitarianism in the last year and a half.  Gird your loins, because it isn't easy reading.


https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/masked-ball-cowardice

 

In other CCP news, it turns out that China has made major upgrades to its nuclear arsenal -- so much so that we're in danger of being left in the dust.  Needless to say, you won't hear Biden or Wolf Blitzer talking about that...

 

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2021/08/28/the_chinese_nuclear_breakout_and_the_biden_administrations_nuclear_posture_review_792021.html?mc_cid=edee1e092c&mc_eid=69c0d4694c 


Here's a very interesting piece on the desirability of moving to greener (or, in this case, redder) pastures.  The author argues that living amongst fellow Christians/conservatives can produce a major boost in one's quality of life.  Having said that, it brings with it inherent challenges as well, which one would be remiss to ignore.


https://thefederalist.com/2021/08/30/11-things-to-know-about-moving-cross-country-for-a-better-life-as-remote-work-becomes-the-norm/

 

Cancel culture hasn't let up in the midst of the Afghanistan debacle.  Check this article out.  The "debanking" of Michael Flynn is particularly disturbing, given its peremptory nature.  I encourage all of you to reconsider any business you do with JPMorgan Chase as a result.

 

 https://justthenews.com/accountability/cancel-culture/cancel-culture-chooses-news-filled-weekend-unleash-its-power

 

Hey, guess what?  The feds are now viewing my refusal to wear a mask, for instance, as a violation of your civil rights.  In other words, mandatory, universal masking is a requirement if the civil rights of the medically vulnerable are to be protected.  This is some extraordinary sleight-of-hand, when you think about it: the preservation of freedom now necessitates the abolition of freedom.  Get used to it.  It's clear that the Left intends to beat the drum of authoritarianism, which proved so popular in the age of COVID, much more often from now on.


https://www.newsmax.com/us/mask-ban-civil-rights/2021/08/30/id/1034326/

 

Does it sometimes seem like federal spending is wildly out of control?  Well, it's not all in your head.  The bean counters in DC really have gone off their gourds.  Domestic spending as a percentage of GDP is at all-time highs, and our yearly deficit is over $3 trillion!!!  We're told all these eye-popping numbers will come back down to earth after the pandemic passes us by...but what are the chances of that ever happening?  The powers-that-be are having way too much fun milking our pandemic anxieties for all they're worth.


https://www.19fortyfive.com/2021/08/4-5-trillion-the-democrats-dangerous-spending-spree-in-one-chart/

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2021-08-27/us-projects-312t-budget-deficit-for-this-year-down-555b 

Saturday, August 28, 2021

From Bad to Worse

 


Friends, our headlong retreat from Afghanistan has transitioned from a mere fiasco into an epic tragedy, as 13 American servicemen have lost their lives at the Kabul airport.  We're not out of the woods yet, either.  Interestingly, it's our old foe, ISIS, that's claimed responsibility for the attack.  One has to wonder whether a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan will become a sanctuary for ISIS plotting (with or without the Taliban's blessing).  Any way you slice it, the political costs of Biden's humiliation in Afghanistan just doubled and redoubled.  The news cycle will move on, of course, but Americans' low opinion of our Bumbler-in-Chief may well remain.


https://thehill.com/policy/defense/569848-pentagon-identifies-13-us-service-members-killed-in-kabul-blast

 

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/democrats-biden-afghanistan-inflation/2021/08/28/id/1034160/ 


Compounding Biden's headaches is an historic surge in inflation that shows no signs of abating.


https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/27/key-inflation-gauge-rises-3point6percent-from-a-year-ago-to-tie-biggest-jump-since-the-early-1990s.html

 

Finally, kudos to SCOTUS for slapping down the CDC's dictatorial eviction moratorium, and super-kudos to the Texas House of Representatives, for finally passing common sense election reform, despite the anti-democratic efforts of the so-called "Democrats" in that body, who were determined to block passage of the bill.

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/569761-texas-house-passes-gop-led-election-overhaul-bill 

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

SCOTUS Sounds Off

 


Friends, the Supreme Court was a massive disappointment in the midst of the controversy surrounding the 2020 election.  It refused to get involved in the systemic violation of election laws perpetrated by Biden backers.  For shame!  It's also been fairly quiet since Biden took office.  That may be changing, though, as SCOTUS has ordered the Biden Administration to reinstate President Trump's "Remain-in-Mexico" policy for asylum seekers.  Assuming the Justices succeeded in forcing the current administration to change its approach to border enforcement, everybody could end up a winner.  The flow of illegals could be massively reduced, pleasing both Americans and Mexicans.  Trump would be vindicated.  Even Biden could emerge on the plus side, because it's become painfully obvious that his border policies need to change, but because of pressure from the Left Biden can't act.  If his hand was forced by SCOTUS, however, he could tighten things up at the border and blame conservative judges for it...  It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.  There's a good chance, though, that Biden and his cronies will find a way to weasel out of obeying the high court, in which case it will be business as usual at the border, and those Guatemalans living in your rafters will be impossible to get rid of.  Stay tuned.


https://www.vox.com/2021/8/24/22640424/supreme-court-remain-in-mexico-trump-biden-samuel-alito-immigration

 

In other news, Biden's approval numbers continue to tank!  It's a beautiful thing.  Long may it last!

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html 


Tragically, former dictator of the People's Republic of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has been stripped of his Emmy.  Ouch!  That's gotta sting.  Special thanks to the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for confirming the fact that its awards are just a popularity contest for leftists...


https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/08/24/cuomo-stripped-of-emmy-he-won-for-covid-19-briefings/?sh=1a7eef7b6cd0

 

The state of Oregon is now requiring outdoor masking.  Next will presumably be mandatory masking for babies in the womb.  Personally, I'd much rather get the jab than wear a mask all day, but then again the powers-that-be won't be happy until I do both!

 

https://www.newsmax.com/us/oregon-covid-masks-outdoors/2021/08/25/id/1033701/ 


The Dems' $3.5 trillion "infrastructure" farce has passed the House, but don't despair.  There are many more steps in the legislative process before the money starts flowing, and the political demise of Joe Biden won't help matters.


https://justthenews.com/government/congress/democratic-led-house-authorizes-35-trillion-spending-national-debt-climbs-29

 

In all likelihood, the result in California's recall election will be close, and it's entirely possible, if not probable, that it will be determined by fraud.  The biggest concern is the fact that 20 million ballots will be mailed, and no doubt most will be returned...but by whom?  By the person the ballot was addressed to, or by someone else living at the same address (or not)?  Such fraud is almost impossible to detect and eliminate.  The Democratic machine will be in overdrive trying to get Newsom over the finish line.  No one should be shocked if it succeeds.

 

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/wedvoter-fraud-concerns-mounting-california-recall-election-newsom-poised 


"President" Biden has received the confidential report that conveys the intelligence community's assessment of where COVID came from.  I confidently predict that the upshot of that report will be "we don't know for sure".  And -- presto! -- China will get away with murder and/or manslaughter on a gargantuan scale.


https://www.breitbart.com/health/2021/08/25/joe-biden-receives-coronavirus-origins-report-public-still-kept-in-dark/

 

Finally, here's the REAL test of the courage and convictions of all those "Trump judges": will they uphold Donald Trump's legal challenge against Twitter, Facebook, and Google?  Will they defend the free speech rights of countless conservatives who have been thrown off of social media, in collusion with the censorship regime recommended by the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party?  The biggest victory in the courts that conservatives could win, if you ask me, would be an order forcing Big Tech to reinstate all the accounts of DJT.  Fingers crossed!

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-announces-motion-preliminary-injunction-lawsuit-big-tech-companies 

Saturday, August 21, 2021

The Buck Stops...Where?

 


Friends, behold my latest article, which takes Sleepy Joe to task for his attempts to blame -- you guessed it -- Trump for the debacle in Afghanistan.  Sorry, but that dog won't hunt!


Nice Try, Sleepy Joe, But Blaming Trump for Afghanistan is About as Credible as Blaming Him for Hunter's Latest “Masterpiece”


Our recent precipitous, reckless withdrawal from Afghanistan, ordered by Commander-in-Chief (God help us!) Joe Biden, has plunged that country and its miserable inhabitants into utter chaos, left thousands of Americans and Westerners stranded, and confronted Afghan veterans, their loved ones, and the families of the fallen with a harsh reality: all their sacrifices over 20 years of war were futile, given the carelessness with which the Biden Administration has surrendered Afghanistan to our arch-enemies: the Taliban.

The wrongheadedness and the shame of our cut-and-run policy are one thing, though. The desperate scramble by Biden and friends to deflect responsibility for the debacle, and to try to point the finger at President Trump instead, is another, and in its way is an even more egregious affront to decency and common sense.

Biden is claiming that Trump locked us into a retreat from Afghanistan, and he, newly elected, had no choice but to go along with a flawed plan.

Well! The most obvious retort to this self-serving “logic” is that Biden eagerly abandoned almost all of Trump's policies and plans, especially the ones that were working, like the Wall, the remain-in-Mexico policy for aspiring asylum seekers, and the adherence to a degree of fiscal restraint in order to avoid inflation.

“Screw that!” said Sleepy Joe, the instant he took office. He pointed us firmly in the direction of unchecked (and frankly assisted) illegal immigration and madcap spending/runaway inflation without a second thought. We're supposed to believe, though, that Trump's evil plan to “blow up” Afghanistan was somehow written in stone, so poor old Biden couldn't do a thing? Yeah, right!

The truth, as it was admirably laid out in the New York Post by President Trump's DoD Chief of Staff Kash Patel, is that the Trump plan envisioned only a partial withdrawal of U.S. forces and capabilities from Afghanistan, and only in return for the Taliban's adherence to a number of strict conditions.

Biden did not cleave to the Trump policy at all, therefore. He altered it: to a fixed-date, no-strings-attached total forfeiture of American leadership – not to mention honor.

Biden expected, as we all know, that the collapse of the Afghan government, and the victory of the Taliban, would unfold slowly enough that he, the so-called leader of the free world, could enjoy plausible deniability in the catastrophe. He could shrug and say, “Not my rodeo”.

Instead, the speed of events forced Biden to deal aggressively with the fallout – and to redouble his efforts to find someone else to blame. And who better than “Orange Man Bad”, the Dems' go-to boogeyman?

Pathetic. In fact, there may be few things more pathetic than a flailing, inarticulate near-octogenarian politician trying to blame his erstwhile enemies for his own failures and missteps. No wonder the American people are increasingly viewing Biden with a mixture of pity and contempt. No wonder Biden's approval ratings are tumbling to record lows.

If things keep up like this, we might have to re-invade Afghanistan, just to salvage our Fearless Leader's dignity, because we certainly would never do it to protect the Afghan people and ourselves from the onslaught of medieval savagery. Perish the thought!


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

 

And here it is at American Greatness:

 

https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/22/bidens-blame-trump-game/ 

 

***

 

In other news, here's an intriguing analysis, by a leftist, of the Dem/progressive movement's increasing tilt towards high-earners.  The middle class, in case you've missed it, is mostly Republican, while the poor and the rich are trending blue.  But, you reflexively object, Dems want to "soak the rich", right?  Well...  It depends on what you mean by "soak", and it depends on what you mean by "rich".  By and large, though, the Dems now eschew class warfare in favor of identity politics.  To put it another way, this ain't your father's, or your grandfather's, Democratic Party!

 

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/democrats-rich-party-obama/ 


And here's something to celebrate: Texas Democrats are ending their walkout from the State House, which means the legislature in the Lone Star State can actually legislate again!  You can expect those "Jim Crow 2.0" election reform measures to pass very soon.  Hard cheese, lefties!


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-democrats-special-session-legislature/

Friday, August 20, 2021

The Blame Game

 


Friends, few things are more pathetic than a flailing politician trying to blame his enemies for his own failures and missteps.  Witness Sleepy Joe's recent ramblings about how our retreat from, and defeat in, Afghanistan is all Trump's fault...for proposing a different plan that the Biden Administration decided to ignore.  Now, would we have faced challenges in Afghanistan even if Trump had stayed in office?  You bet.  How Trump would have navigated those challenges is anyone's guess -- but it's Joseph R. Biden, alleged President of these United States, who "lost" Afghanistan.  Deal with it, Dems!  The polls clearly show that no one is buying your obfuscations.


https://nypost.com/2021/08/19/i-ran-trumps-afghan-withdrawal-bidens-attempt-to-blame-us-is-sad/

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/20/poll-biden-job-approval-under-water-following-taliban-takeover-afghanistan/ 


In other news, the Dems keep telling us that "democracy" is on the brink, and unless the Dems can change the rules of the game at the federal level, future elections will be stolen by us white supremacist Republicans.  Yikes!  Of course, GOP legislatures have been fiddling with election laws for years now...and minority voting rates continue to climb, so the Left's concerns about "Jim Crow 2.0" seem pretty far-fetched.  That doesn't matter, though, because "voter suppression" is part of the creed of progressivism now.  "Proof" is redundant.  They have faith in our inveterate (and highly effective) racism, and that's all they need.


https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/dems-voting-rights-act-update-very-good-maybe-too-late-n1277124

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/08/20/jim_crow_20_is_imaginary__and_divisive_146276.html 


What's the answer to the "lies" and "hate" constantly spewed by folks like you and me?  Censorship, of course!  More and more Democrats are pushing for it, and that ought to scare the wits out of anyone who believes in pluralism, free speech, and democracy.  We are headed to a very dark place, and soon, unless people who think this way can be evicted from the halls of power.


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/poll-democrats-increasingly-embrace-censorship-from-the-government-and-big-tech

 

All things being equal, and elections being fair (we hope!), things are looking good for a big GOP comeback in 2022.  Witness our recent success in Connecticut.

 

https://www.newsmax.com/john-gizzi/gop-connecticut-special-election/2021/08/18/id/1032804/ 


Despite all the leftist hyperventilation, what happened on January 6th has been obvious from the start, to anyone with common sense: it was a riot, spawned on the spot by the frustrations of aggrieved Trumpers, but in no way planned by Trump and his allies, and on which Trump had no plans (and no ability) to capitalize.  In short, there was no "insurrection", and people who invaded the Capitol had not the slightest idea what to do with that glorious edifice once they had seized it.


https://www.newsmax.com/politics/fbi-january-6-capital-attack/2021/08/20/id/1033141/

 

Finally, there's new evidence -- from the New York Times, no less -- that plastic dividers, despite their popularity with COVID-crazed virtue-signallers, are not especially effective at preventing the spread of COVID, and may in some circumstances actually do more harm than good.  Hey, that could be the motto of the CDC: "we mean well, but we usually do more harm than good"...


https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2021/08/19/it-turns-out-all-those-plastic-covid-barriers-might-have-made-things-worse-n2594441

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Swan Song of the KGB

 


Friends, the name Gennady Yanayev isn't exactly on everyone's lips these days, but it easily could have been.  He was the leader of the coup attempt against the government of Mikhail Gorbachev back in August 1991.  The goal was to reassert the power of the Communist Party and restore stability and strength to the Soviet Union.  The coup failed, of course, and the big beneficiary was Boris Yeltsin, who eagerly abetted the USSR's total collapse.


And that's just one of many great historical topics that we cover this week on the Newsmaker Show with me and Brian O'Neil.  We also talk about the cancellation of Nazi Germany's T.4 program to euthanize the mentally and physically handicapped, the ratification of the 19th Amendment, and the progress of the Battle of Britain in its early stages.


In terms of current events, Brian and I discuss the U.S. withdrawal from and abandonment of Afghanistan, Andrew Cuomo's remarkable ouster, the indifference of the mainstream media towards our porous southern border, and more!


Don't miss a single second, ya hear?


https://wlea.net/newsmaker-august-18-2021-dr-nick-waddy/

 

***

 

In other news, it looks like those of us who are vaccinated will be getting "booster shots" in the near future.  In for a penny, in for a pound, right?  The microchip in my brain has been on the fritz anyway.  I could use a new one.

 

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/virus-outbreak/2021/08/18/id/1032855/ 


And here's shocking news: if the 2020 election were to be re-waged today, Trump would win easily over Biden!  Plus, 10% of Democrats regret voting for Sleepy Joe.  Hey, those are the breaks.  Being in charge ain't easy.  And let's face it: the Biden Administration has made certain choices, and many of those choices are helping produce exactly the problems -- border chaos, inflation, crime, failure in Afghanistan -- that are dragging down the Dems' poll numbers.  I think some people call that "karma"?


https://thenationalpulse.com/news/stunning-poll-reveals-trump-would-win-election-held-today-as-nearly-1-in-10-democrats-regret-their-2020-vote/

Monday, August 16, 2021

The Emirate Strikes Back

 


Friends, the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", a.k.a. the Taliban, is back!  The dissolution of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and its military forces unfolded a whole lot faster than anyone expected after our decision to withdraw our military contingent, and now Sleepy Joe has egg on his face.  As you'll see in this article, he's adamant that he did the right thing, and the Afghans themselves are to blame for their country's predicament:


https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-afghanistan-address

 

He's not without a point, of course -- our Afghan allies really were screw-ups -- but that doesn't make Biden's withdrawal the best policy choice.  In my opinion, we had a lid on Islamic extremism in Afghanistan, and we were able to prevent Russian, Chinese, Pakistani, or Iranian domination there, with the simple deployment of a small number of special forces and the use of U.S. air power.  Biden gave all that away to save a few billion dollars a year and maybe one or two U.S. casualties over the same stretch of time.  Ergo, I conclude that Biden erred, especially when you consider the immense suffering and death which the Taliban will unleash.  Draw your own conclusions, as this guy does.  He says Biden is Jimmy Carter all over again:

 

https://nypost.com/2021/08/15/this-is-joe-bidens-jimmy-carter-moment/ 


Meanwhile, President Trump remains banned from Twitter for life, while friends of the Taliban are tweeting away like mad.  C'est la guerre.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/tech/trump-barred-from-twitter-but-taliban-spokesman-tweets-away 

 

In other news, the "news" really is in the eye of the beholder.  I mentioned a couple of days ago how lefties simply aren't hearing about the border crisis, because the people who tell them what to think, and what to think about, don't want them to.  It's extraordinary, and here's more evidence of it:


https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2021/08/16/bidens-border-crisis-worse-ever-tv-coverage-drops-96-percent

 

Meanwhile, as concerns about crime skyrocket, you might wonder if another feature of the 70s and 80s will become salient once again: the debate over the death penalty.  Democrats, much as they did in days of yore, are turning against the death penalty.  They say it's cruel and racist.  Most Americans, though, support capital punishment, at least to one degree or another.  As their fears of criminals escalate, their support for the death penalty will rise even higher.  Could Republicans batter Dems over the head with their "softness" on crime in 2022 and 2024, as they did in the Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush I eras?  Maybe...

 

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2021/08/16/new_evidence_confirms_widespread_support_for_the_death_penalty_790058.html 


Finally, speaking of our old friend Dick Nixon, it was he who abolished -- fatefully! -- the gold standard way back in 1971.  This article describes that decision and the circumstances that surrounded it.  Now, up to 2021, it would have been hard to argue that the retreat from the gold standard, and the new policy of relying on "fiat currency" instead, had worked out badly for the West, and the world in general.  Growth has been decent since the 70s, inflation and interest rates have been fairly low, and standards of living have surged.  The danger of relying on a currency backed only by the "good faith and credit" of the government, though, is that politicians may someday raid the "piggy bank" of public debt and printed money too often, and the whole house of cards will come crashing down.  Are we nearing such a financial apocalypse?  I dunno.  You tell me.


https://lawliberty.org/fifty-years-without-gold/

Saturday, August 14, 2021

Border Crisis? What Border Crisis?

 


Friends, the chaos at our southern border is now, polls say, the number one concern of conservative and Republican voters.  It barely registers for progressives and Democrats.  In fact, they seldom hear, via the mainstream media, about any unpleasantness at the border...unless it's stories about how migrants aren't being treated with enough solicitude and indulgence.  The idea that there's currently a flood of illegal immigrants, or of people abusing our asylum laws, would come as a surprise to most lefties.  This is a key reason, of course, why Dems may lose big in 2022: they are out of touch with the concerns not only of conservatives/Republicans, but also independents, who are much more likely to view unchecked illegal immigration with a jaundiced eye.  Sometimes, in other words, Dems' arrogance and myopia works in our favor.  Long may it last!


https://www.foxnews.com/media/mainstream-news-networks-abc-cbs-nbc-ignore-worsening-border-crisis

 

On the other hand, there's a chance -- albeit a small one -- that reality may impinge on the Dems' obliviousness, and the sheer carnage their policies cause may lead them to change course.  That could be the result of political pressure OR legal compulsion, i.e. court orders.  Along those lines, there's reason to be hopeful:

 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-biden-admin-trump-era-remain-in-mexico-policy-texas-missouri-lawsuit 


In other news, here's an interesting analysis of the truly absurd phenomenon of "emotional support animals" and what it says about the proliferation of ideologies of victimhood.  It will make you cringe!


https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/on-the-origins-of-the-emotional-support

 

Everyone's heard of the "Delta variant" by now, but among its ill effects is a major -- historic, in fact -- decline in consumer confidence.  Generally, tumbling confidence is correlated with recessions.  Could one be in store?  It wouldn't shock me.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/13/consumer-sentiment-measure-falls-to-pandemic-era-low-sees-one-of-largest-drops-on-record.html 


Finally, there's a big gubernatorial election coming up in Virginia, and it will be, in many ways, a key test of just how precarious Dems' national dominance may be.  Virginia is a blue state, after all, so if the GOP can win there, it can win almost anywhere!  Why, if we took California AND Virginia, you'd think those lefties would really start to shake in their boots...


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/14/poll-virginia-gubernatorial-race-in-statistical-tie-three-months-from-election/

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Taliban Redux

 


Friends, it's looking more and more like the Taliban -- our country's ultimate boogeymen, not so long ago -- are soon going to be ruling Afghanistan again.  Will that cause a resurgence of Al Qaeda and of Islamic terrorism in the West?  Only time will tell.  History will certainly record, though, that it was Biden's retreat from Afghanistan that enabled...whatever comes next.  Spoiler alert: it probably won't be hugs and free puppies for every Afghani -- man, woman, and child.


https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/08/reports-taliban-close-to-capturing-us-embassy-thousands-of-marines-prepping-to-evacuate-it

 

Inflation has real consequences that can severely impact people's quality of life, at least in the long term.  Americans' buying power is already diminishing.  We're a long way from national impoverishment, of course, but many great countries have been brought low by inflation before.  Let's hope we won't join their ranks.

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/08/12/the_biden_inflation_tax_made_clear_in_one_chart__146231.html 


Specters like inflation, crime, unchecked illegal immigration, COVID, etc. are making the American people decidedly queasy.  The latest McLaughlin poll says that the GOP is ahead on the "generic ballot" for 2022.  If Republicans were to tie in terms of the national popular vote for the House, they would almost certainly take control.  If they win by one, or two, or three points, their majority will be large and healthy.  If they win by even more, then 2022 will go down in history as a slaughter, and the Dems will have been roundly rebuked.  Fingers crossed!


file:///C:/Users/gorco/AppData/Local/Temp/National-Monthly-Omnibus-8-2021-Release-.pdf

 

The Dems appear to be poised to pass both their "infrastructure" bill and their $3.5 trillion "reconciliation" bill.  That would produce a massive expansion of federal spending, at a time when that spending is already running hot (at WWII levels).  HOWEVER, don't assume that either bill is "in the bag".  A lot of details need to be worked out, and as the Dems' poll numbers sag keeping the moderates and progressives in the party on the same page will get exasperatingly hard!

 

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/12/1026184120/here-are-5-hurdles-that-democrats-face-now-for-their-3-5-trillion-budget 


Finally, old Hunter Biden is the gift that keeps on giving.  Here he is having sex with a prostitute and bemoaning the theft of yet another laptop during one of his epic benders.  I mean, can you imagine if this guy was the son of Donald Trump?  Holy moly!!!  What the media is willing to overlook these days, if your last name is Biden, boggles the mind.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9881213/Unearthed-video-shows-naked-Hunter-Biden-claiming-Russian-drug-dealers-stole-laptop.html

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

How the Mighty Are Fallen

 


Well, that was quick!  Today New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation, forestalling efforts to impeach and remove him.  He also forestalled the article I had posted here yesterday, but which had not yet been published.  Ergo, I had to rewrite it!  That makes me one of the most aggrieved victims of Cuomo's misrule!  Anyway, I think the new version is pretty good.  See if you agree...


Was Cuomo Railroaded, And If So Should We Care?


Not so long ago, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was a political rock star, with sky-high approval ratings, a fawning press corps, and even an Emmy Award for his supposedly impressive COVID-related diatribes. Cuomo had his critics, but his political armor was, in those halcyon days, more than strong enough to repulse any and all attacks.

Now, Cuomo's popularity, his legitimacy, and his credibility lie in tatters. He is a soon-to-be ex-Governor, instead of a larger-than-life super-Governor. It begs the question: how did we get here?

Primarily, it was sexual harassment allegations, made by at least 11 women, that made Cuomo's position untenable. It was the sheer number of these allegations, and of Cuomo's accusers, that decided his fate – not necessarily the seriousness of the charges, or their incontrovertible truthfulness. It was the “pile-on” effect, most of which occurred in March, that did the trick.

To be clear, Andrew Cuomo has never been charged with any crime. Only recently did one of his accusers decide to pursue a civil suit against him. He was never formally impeached, and he was certainly never tried in the State Senate to determine his guilt. Instead, a report issued by New York's Attorney General – who is strongly suspected of coveting Cuomo's job – was sufficient to push public outrage over the edge. Cuomo himself made the decision that he could no longer govern effectively, and so he quit.

This confirms what is now a regular pattern in American politics: almost never do charges against a prominent politician result in arrest and criminal prosecution. Almost never does a legislature make it all the way through the process of impeachment, trial, conviction, and removal. Instead, a barrage of charges – of greater or lesser veracity, and of greater or lesser seriousness – pepper the accused, until he (it's almost always a “he”, after all) either resigns in disgrace or girds himself to “power through” and emerge on the other side of the media firestorm. Whether the latter strategy is viable depends first and foremost not on the man's guilt or innocence, but on the degree of support he retains in his own party. President Trump, for instance, although he was accused of countless crimes and misdeeds, before, during, and after his presidency, was never abandoned by mainstream Republican voters nor by most GOP elected officials, and thus he survives as the effective leader of his party.

The problem, however, is that, while most of us may want to believe that Cuomo, for instance, is guilty of sexual harassment, because it is so easy to think ill of a man so widely disliked, this does not necessarily make him guilty of any crime or “misdemeanor” in point of fact. He can be a jerk without being a criminal jerk. The distinction matters.

Keep in mind that, towards the end of “Cuomo-gate”, Democrats in New York wanted Cuomo to be guilty, because if he was then he could be removed – as a political liability to Democrats. Republican politicos likewise wanted Cuomo to be guilty, because their conservative constituents would never have forgiven them if they did not vote to impeach and remove such a hated figure on the right.

For different reasons, therefore, politicians of both parties in New York agreed on Cuomo's preferred fate – it was resignation or removal, period/exclamation point – but the nature of the accusations, and the amount of hard evidence underlying them, never made much difference to anyone's political calculus.

Cuomo's position was a little like that of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Hussein stood accused of the possession of weapons of mass destruction, of which he was in fact innocent. No one outside of Iraq had the temerity to defend Hussein, however, or even the imagination to suggest that he could be innocent, and thus his goose was cooked.

Let me be clear: as a conservative, I won't miss Governor Andrew Cuomo in the least. He was and is a terrible man and an awful leader of my home state.

Be that as it may, I am troubled by the fact that the most well-corroborated allegations against Cuomo were, by and large, the least serious ones. The most extreme wrongdoing of which he stood accused – groping a woman in the Executive Mansion – amounts to a case of “he said, she said”.

In all likelihood, none of these accusations will ever come to trial, and thus a “jury of his peers” will never have an opportunity to decide whether Cuomo is guilty or innocent of criminal acts. Nevertheless, the allegations, in themselves, sealed Cuomo's fate, due to their number, their odiousness, and the wall-to-wall coverage which the media chose to give them.

Did Cuomo really harass 11 women...or were those charges merely a convenient means by which the New York political establishment could rid itself of a man who had become “dead weight” and an impediment to Democratic electoral success in 2022 and beyond? We may never know the answer to these questions, and that is highly unfortunate.

There is another thing about this affair that ought to concern us. The mechanism of impeachment and removal, which used to be reserved for very rare and flagrant violations of the public trust, is now increasingly becoming the default means by which politicians try to effect the removal of their most troublesome colleagues.

President Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in January 2021 without the presentation of any evidence, without the examination of witnesses, and without meaningful deliberation. Democrats just screamed “Insurrection!” and pulled the trigger.

Just recently, there was talk in the New York State Assembly of impeaching Cuomo with similar haste and carelessness, because the political imperative of removing him was so compelling – and, it was said, if he were given time to defend himself, there was a danger that someone might listen to what he had to say. No kidding!

In the years to come, we can expect more and more invocations of the “nuclear option” in our political life: the use of impeachment and public trial (or the threat thereof) for the purposes of ending the careers of elected officials – or, to be more blunt, for the purposes of destroying one's political enemies. And that is an inherently dangerous development: it presages more and more allegations, of varying credibility, and more and more show trials, with less and less connection to the first principle of American justice: “innocent until proven guilty”.

Seen from another perspective, our political elite – officeholders, party bigwigs, news editors, pollsters, and the like – are attempting to arrogate to themselves veto power over the ability of any politician to serve out his term of office. Ordinarily, after all, it would be the voters who got to decide who would be, for instance, Governor of New York, and all New Yorkers would be bound, for better or worse, by their choice. Taken to an extreme, however, our new penchant for scandal- and impeachment-based governance will prevent the American people from choosing their leaders, and will substitute for the people's judgment that of “our betters” in the political and media establishment. The new paradigm will allow our leaders, in effect, to choose themselves. That is hardly what the Founders had in mind.

Cuomo's ouster thus serves to remind us that the defining feature of 21st century American political life is its ugliness – and its growing detachment from time-tested democratic norms. And the smart money says it will get considerably worse before it gets better.


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

 

And here it is at WND:

 

https://www.wnd.com/2021/08/cuomo-railroaded-care/ 

 

***

 

In other news, Twitter has suspended Margorie Taylor Greene yet again, for saying things about COVID that are true but which lefties don't want to hear.  We need a Twitter alternative ASAP!

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/08/10/marjorie-taylor-greene-twitter-suspension-covid-vaccine-tweet-misleading/5550685001/ 


How do you suppose the West would respond to China's culpability in creating and spreading COVID-19 if, say, it and we had a spine?  This guy lays it out nicely!


https://www.19fortyfive.com/2021/08/china-owes-the-world-35-trillion-if-coronavirus-lab-leak-is-true/

Monday, August 9, 2021

Could This Be The End?

 


Friends, I've been skeptical that a flurry of allegations against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo would succeed in prying him out of the Governor's Mansion in Albany, but I'm starting to believe it's possible, mainly because virtually every Democratic elected official in the state has turned his/her/its back on Emperor Andy.  It's looking pretty bleak!  My latest article is a rumination on Cuomo's predicament, which I suggest has a lot more to do with politics than it does with justice.


The Worst News for Cuomo is...He'll Be Judged By a “Jury of His Peers”


Soon the New York State legislature will have to decide whether to impeach and remove Governor Andrew Cuomo. Virtually every elected official in New York is on record saying that Cuomo ought to resign. That, however, does not make it a foregone conclusion that he will be impeached and removed if he refuses to resign. The impeachment and trial process at the state level is inherently nebulous and political, just as it is at the federal level.

Ideally, when legislators are called upon to consider the guilt of an elected official, like a Governor, they would weigh the evidence impartially and come to an objective, fair-minded conclusion about whether the accused has committed the state-level equivalent of “high crimes and misdemeanors”.

Realistically, however, legislators make decisions based on personal prejudices, narrow political interests, and ideological commitments. It would be a surprise, therefore, if Cuomo were to be judged impartially. Therefore, in prognosticating about Cuomo's fate, we should consider only secondarily his guilt or innocence.

Cuomo is accused of a wide range of crimes and improprieties. The fact is that most of the accusations against Cuomo were already publicly known and discussed many months ago – from allegations that he put seniors at risk in nursing homes, to suggestions that he sexually harassed his female staff, to concerns that he abused his office to write and promote his book – but none of these charges were taken overly seriously, especially in isolation.

Not so long ago, Cuomo was also a political rock star, with sky-high approval ratings, a fawning press corps, and even an Emmy Award for his supposedly impressive COVID-related diatribes. Cuomo had his critics – and presumably he had already committed most of the crimes/offenses of which he now stands accused – but his political armor was, in those halcyon days, more than strong enough to repulse these attacks. In fact, only the truly desperate even bothered to mention them. It was self-evidently a waste of time.

Now, however, by a process of attrition, Cuomo's popularity, his legitimacy, and his credibility have been diminished. He is a wounded, and therefore vulnerable, Governor, instead of a larger-than-life super-Governor.

In addition, the more he is accused of wrongdoing, the easier it becomes to believe that each one of the separate accusations could be true. After all, now Cuomo is assumed to be bad, whereas before he was assumed to be good – and, as we are all wont to believe, bad men do bad things, at least presumptively. (Donald Trump knows all about this species of “logic”: his detractors have presumed him guilty, of anything and everything, several million times a day since 2015).

The problem, however, is that, while we may want to believe that Cuomo is guilty of, well, everything, because it is so easy to think ill of a man so widely disliked, this does not necessarily make him guilty of any crime or “misdemeanor” in point of fact. Cuomo may simply be the victim of the same phenomenon that has befallen countless men in powerful positions: an initially modest series of allegations leads to a flood of new ones (a “pile-on”), a media feeding frenzy, a precipitous fall from grace in terms of public opinion, and then a desire by (often vengeful) politicians to drive the final stake through the man's heart. Nothing could be more natural – and, arguably, nothing could be less just.

Keep in mind that Democrats in New York want Cuomo to be guilty, because if he is then he can be removed – as a political liability to Democrats. Republican politicos likewise want Cuomo to be guilty, because their conservative constituents would never forgive them if they did not vote to impeach and remove such a hated figure on the right.

For different reasons, therefore, politicians of both parties in New York can agree on the desired outcome of the present debate over Cuomo's fate – it is impeachment and removal, period/exclamation point – regardless of where the facts and evidence might lead.

And that, in the final analysis, is the worst news, but probably also the most insightful, that Cuomo's advisors can give him: he has become so toxic that no defense that could be mounted in the State Senate would likely override the political imperative that Democrats and Republicans alike feel impels them to remove him. The outcome of the trial is effectively predetermined, therefore.

Cuomo's position is, in this regard, a little like that of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Hussein stood accused of the possession of weapons of mass destruction, of which he was in fact innocent. No one outside of Iraq had the temerity to defend Hussein, however, or even the imagination to suggest that he could be innocent – and thus his goose was cooked.

We can ask New York legislators to judge Cuomo fairly and impartially, therefore, but we might as well ask the stars to stop shining, or the Earth to stop turning on its axis, for all the good it will do. More than anything, Cuomo's poll numbers will determine his fate, and unless he can dramatically improve those he will be soon be an unemployed former Governor. C'est la vie.

Of course, few of us, especially on the right, will shed many tears over Cuomo's fate. He was and is a terrible man and a wretched Governor. Good riddance to him.

On the other hand, one thing about this process ought to trouble us. It is not so much that politicians make decisions for political reasons – that has always been so – but that the mechanism of impeachment and removal, which used to be reserved for very rare and flagrant violations of the public trust, is now increasingly becoming the default means by which politicians try to effect the removal of their most troublesome colleagues. And that is inherently dangerous.

True, the presumption of innocence – the cornerstone of American justice – was never a prominent feature of our partisan politics, but what's new in the present climate is the ease with which we are all sliding into a presumption of guilt that applies to almost anyone we dislike, regardless of the species of crime or wrongdoing of which they stand accused. It is becoming, in other words, increasingly difficult for Democrats to imagine that any Republican could be innocent of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, and vice versa.

Attitudes like these naturally produce a surfeit of self-righteousness. More damagingly, though, they will also produce more and more invocations of the “nuclear option” in our political life: the use of impeachment and public trial for the purposes of ending the careers of elected officials – or, to be more blunt, for the purposes of destroying one's political enemies.

Cuomo is to be congratulated, therefore, for uniting Republicans and Democrats in a headlong rush to judge and condemn him. That's a rare manifestation of bipartisanship in this day and age.

It does not, however, change the fact that the defining feature of 21st century American political life is its ugliness. And, in all likelihood, the worst is yet to come.


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

 

***

 

In other news, COVID is causing alarm, once again.  Here's a great article about how the Chinese are obfuscating and trying to blame COVID's genesis on us...and unfortunately much of the world might be fooled by their con job.

 

https://richmond.com/opinion/columnists/trudy-rubin-column-china-is-pushing-a-big-covid-19-lie-that-makes-a-new/article_56f61344-61ff-5ff9-9a75-841a581b488f.html 


It bears repeating that many of same "woke" politicians who demand masking and vaccination from the hoi polloi are living large themselves.  Newsom is a prime example, and his hypocrisy may well catch up with him in the upcoming recall election.


https://thefederalist.com/2021/08/09/obamas-60th-birthday-party-is-peak-democrat-covid-sanctimony/

 

The Pentagon is cracking the whip on vaccination, ordering every service member to "get the jab" by September 15th.  Is this legal?  It's hard to imagine the courts blocking it...

 

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/567009-pentagon-to-require-all-military-personnel-to-get-coronavirus-vaccine-by-mid 


As the country deals with yet another spike in COVID cases and deaths, Republicans are vexed by the Biden Administration's insistence on disgorging thousands of COVID-positive illegal aliens in communities from coast to coast.  As this article points out, the policy is a secretive one.  You don't get advance warning if the government intends to dump COVID-positive Central Americans on your doorstep.  You just have to deal with the consequences.


https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/aug/9/where-are-the-illegal-immigrants-going/

 

How do elections officials decide what to do with ballots on which voters' markings are ambiguous?  Easy!  They afford all such questionable votes to Democrats!

 

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/georgia-ballot-adjudication-spoiled 


Our old friend Andrew Cuomo seems to be willing to cancel his run for reelection in return for being allowed to serve out his term.  The Dems, however, don't seem tempted by this offer.  They want Cuomo GONE!!!


https://nypost.com/2021/08/09/cuomo-making-last-ditch-attempt-to-avoid-impeachment-report/

 

Apparentlty, should the GOP take control of the House in January 2023, Republicans are considering refusing to give some firebrand Dems committee assignments.  Personally, I disagree with this approach.  The party-in-power traditionally shows a modicum of respect to the "loyal opposition", deferring to the leadership of the minority party in assigning its members to committees.  Moreover, when we start picking and choosing which members are worthy of committee assignments, we put ourselves on a slippery slope that could someday lead to the unseating of many opposition Congressmen.  Can you say "rump Parliament"?  In my view, if the voters in a district elect a bonehead, then that bonehead should represent them.  I call it "democracy".

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house-gop-eyes-removing-swalwell-omar 


Finally, here's an outstanding article by a friend of mine who believes that escalating crime, and the Dems' complicity in fostering it, will be pivotal issues in 2022.  I sincerely hope he's right!


https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/08/09/democrats_defund-the-police_debacle_146216.html

Friday, August 6, 2021

Systemic Racism: It's Not What You Think

 


Friends, all roads lead to Nixon, as you know.  Bear with me.  Now, there's a lot of talk about "systemic racism" against people of color in America.  The truth, though, is that, since the early 70s and the onset of "affirmative action", almost every American institution has been practicing systemic, widespread, and mostly covert discrimination in favor of blacks and Hispanics.  Much of this discrimination is measurable.  A lot of it is pretty extreme.  Check out the average SAT scores of entering white and black freshmen at many of our elite colleges, for example.  The point is that there is ingrained, flagrant, and shameless racism infecting our major institutions, therefore, just as the Left alleges.  The reality, though, is that that racism operates not so as to oppress minorities, but so as to uplift them -- or, to view the matter from a different perspective, American racism routinely denies whites and Asians opportunities that, on the merits, they have earned.  This article exposes the contradiction well:


https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/08/systemic-racism-and-affirmative-action.php

 

In other news, Biden's border policies are a disaster.  Even Biden's allies are starting to admit it.  The lefties are scratching their heads, though, because they can't figure out why so many illegals are showing up at the border all of a sudden...  I mean, it can't be bad policy, right?  It must be...COVID!  The cluelessness of these people is impressive, I must say!

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/05/migration-biden-us-mexico-border-502525 


In the upcoming school year, parents, teachers, and administrators -- not to mention politicians and lawyers -- will be battling over whether classes are conducted in person or online, students are masked or unmasked, vaccination is required or optional, etc.  It could get ugly.  I mean, it will get ugly.  In the meantime, Florida is trying to make it easier for parents to opt to send their kids to private school via vouchers.  We can all see the writing on the wall here: COVID will permanently expand the percentage of kids who attend private schools or are home-schooled, and that's all to the good.  The only question is: how bad will the damage to our public school system be?


https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/566764-florida-approves-school-vouchers-for-families-in-districts-requiring

 

Biden's poll numbers really are sinking.  No doubt the Rod Squad thinks it's all a passing fancy.  We'll see.  Not so long ago, though, Sleepy Joe was hanging in there with 52-53% average approval.  Now he's edging towards the break-even point.  Pretty soon he'll be below it.  Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, needless to say.

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html 


Speaking of polls, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's numbers are looking mighty bleak right now.  Expect an article from me soon about Cuomo's likely fate.  The only good news for Cuomo is that time is on his side, in the sense that the heat from the Attorney General's report is likely to fade.  The bad news, however, is that politicians in both parties now want him gone.  And, as the second article suggests, while his departure from office might actually harm the GOP politically, Republicans are in no mood and no position to help Emperor Andy.


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/06/poll-bipartisan-majority-of-new-yorkers-want-cuomo-to-resign-face-charges/

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/andrew-cuomos-looming-exit-is-bad-news-for-gop-gubernatorial-prospects 


Ever wondered why the West is in terminal demographic decline?  One big reason is abortion.  It's easier than ever to terminate a pregnancy -- many abortions are now do-it-yourself affairs, performed in the comfort of one's own home.  Not surprisingly, therefore, in England about 25% of all pregnancies now end in abortion.  Young women are particularly keen on terminating their pregnancies.  That makes perfect sense to the warped moral sense of the modern age, but young women are also, biologically, the very women who ought to be having the most babies!  These days, black is white, and white is black.  What else is new, huh?


https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/08/06/25-of-pregnancies-in-england-wales-end-in-abortion/

Thursday, August 5, 2021

CNN: The Least Trusted Name in News

 


Friends, your eyes don't deceive you: that's a picture of Anderson Cooper, CNN primetime megastar, sucking a baby's brain out through its forehead.  I mean, really, Anderson -- have you no shame???  To be fair, though, it's a white baby, so this could be seen as a public service...

 

Speaking of CNN, the Devil's own news network, they just fired three staffers for the unpardonable sin of being unvaccinated.  Wow!  Is that even legal?  I guess we'll soon find out.  Leave it to CNN, though, to virtue-signal by leading the charge to vilify and punish vaccine holdouts.


https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2021/08/05/cnn-fires-three-employees-for-refusing-vaccination-largest-purge-since-2017/

 

In other news, as you no doubt know by now, the Biden Administration has said "Screw you!" to SCOTUS and gone ahead and renewed a patently illegal moratorium on evictions.  Expect the Supreme Court to slap that action down soon.  Will Dear Leader Sleepy Joe finally submit to the principle of judicial review?  Maybe.  You never know with this gang.

 

https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/biden-s-rebuff-to-supreme-court-on-eviction-ban-will-backfire 


That recall election in California is getting tighter and tighter, or, if this poll is to be believed, the pro-recall faction is running away with it...  I dunno if I believe that, but it gives me hope!


https://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=36cdcb0b-7cfa-4b55-8704-d1f02a9fe6e5

 

The New York State Assembly seems to be planning to impeach Governor Andrew Cuomo.  My my!  That would be quite a show.  Many Democrats want to impeach Emperor Andy post-haste, it appears, because they're afraid that a more deliberative process might be...survivable for wily old Cuomo.  So much of this is politics: the Dems want to rid themselves of an albatross, but they're afraid to take on a man legendary for settling scores...

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cuomo-impeachment-inquiry-nearing-completion-state-assembly-says/ar-AAMYP2M?li=BBnb7Kz 


Finally, it's becoming increasingly obvious that, if you reward every "unaccompanied minor" who shows up at the U.S. border with the ability to live in the USA for as long as he/she/it likes, more minors will travel to that border!  Gee, it defies logic, doesn't it?  It's almost as if our border hoppers are more rational than our political leadership.  Actually, it's exactly like that.


https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/dhs-migrant-children-humantrafficking/2021/08/05/id/1031310/

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Cuomo-Gate is Heating Up!

 


Friends, it ain't easy bein' Cuomo.  The entire New York State Congressional delegation has now called on him to resign, and so has "President" Biden, in the wake of a report from the New York Attorney General's Office claiming that Cuomo sexually harassed numerous women.  Cuomo, for his part, has been entirely consistent: he says he's innocent of everything, except maybe a few harmless gaffes.  He also refuses to resign.  Will the New York Assembly initiate impeachment proceedings against him?  Perhaps.  Heaven knows that the Dems would love to ditch him long before the 2022 election cycle.  He's become an albatross they could do without.  For that very reason, I hope he hangs in there!  He's the GOP's best hope, after all.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/ny-ag-probe-finds-cuomo-sexually-harassed-multiple/story?id=79240764 

 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cuomo-sexual-harrassment-resignation-calls-democrats-republicans 


In addition to Cuomo's travails, in this week's Newsmaker Show, Brian and I cover such pressing topics as: the tightening restrictions against the unvaccinated, both in Europe and here in the USA; the persistence of Islamic terrorism and the dangers of our withdrawal from Afghanistan; and China's shamelessness in covering up its complicity in the release of COVID-19.  It's a great show!  Check it out:


https://wlea.net/newsmaker-august-4-2021-dr-nick-waddy/


In other news, the CDC is ignoring the federal courts and its own legal counsel to renew, yet again, the national eviction moratorium.  Here's hoping that an upstanding federal judge will throw this moratorium in the dustbin of history where it belongs, and soon.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/566223-cdc-issues-eviction-moratorium-extension-after-democratic-outcry

 

Speaking of COVID craziness, New York City has taken a step well beyond any other American jurisdiction: it is banning the unvaccinated from indoor dining, gyms, and public performances.  One assumes a flurry of lawsuits will follow...  Remember, these vaccines have not even been formally and permanently approved yet!!!

 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/nyc-proof-vaccination-requirement-indoor-restaurants-gyms-shows 


Finally, Governor Newsom, according to the polls, is fighting for his life in California.  I'm glad to hear it, but I'm still less than confident that the voters in the Golden State will do the right thing.  Remember, COVID-era voting procedures are still in place in California as well, meaning that every voter will have a ballot mailed to him/her/it, regardless of whether any ballot is requested.  If the result is close, one could easily suspect that more than a few of those ballots weren't returned by the voter in question.  In other words, fraud could easily make the difference in California's recall election.  And that would be a crying shame, because we all know who that fraud would/will benefit...


https://www.breitbart.com/podcast/2021/08/03/vote-to-remove-gavin-newsom-within-margin-of-error-hispanics-favor-recall/

Monday, August 2, 2021

The COVID-19 Virus: Add It To A Long List of Communist Mass Murderers

 


Friends, I'm ticked!  Scientists, journalists, academics, politicians, intelligence experts -- everyone, seemingly, is coming increasingly to the conclusion that COVID-19 originated in a lab in China, and that it was accidentally released.  China denies it, of course, but it's also been burying the truth from the start and obstructing meaningful, independent investigations.  What riles me, though, is not that the Chicoms are lousy liars and mass killers, but that the response of the West to these revelations has been so utterly weak.  In fact, Western leaders have exerted themselves more to shield and protect China than they have to hold China accountable.  That's the subject of my latest article.  Here goes:


Thank You, China! May We Have Another?


Since late 2019, the COVID pandemic has killed at least 4 million people worldwide. It has shaved a year and a half off of U.S. life expectancy. It has necessitated, or at least excused, the expenditure of trillions of dollars, the accumulation of massive amounts of public debt, and the simultaneous destruction of large portions of the private sector economy. It has kept family and friends apart, even at poignant moments like births, marriages, and deaths. It has upended life as we know it, in short, when it didn't snuff that life out altogether.

For all these reasons, you might think that the genesis of the virus, and the moral and legal responsibility for its spread, would be at the very top of every political, social, and economic leader's agenda. Surely, if ever there was a mystery worth solving, a wrong worth righting, it is the question of how COVID came to be, and who, if anyone, inflicted the dreaded virus on the world.

As it happens, with the recent release of the Addendum to “The Origins of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic” Report from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we are closer than ever to knowing where COVID came from, despite concerted efforts by authorities in China (and America!) to hide the truth. The report concludes that COVID originated in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It was developed by scientists as part of “gain of function” research that intentionally made the disease more infectious. And it was released accidentally by Chinese “experts” who were as reckless in their methodology as they were sloppy in their hygiene.

This is the same conclusion to which an increasing number of medical and scientific experts, intelligence analysts, academics, journalists, and politicians are bowing – and yet no one in a position of authority seems remotely inclined to do anything about it. Extraordinary!

No serious sanctions against China have been levied or proposed. No ambassadors have been recalled. No treaties or billion-dollar business deals have been abrogated. No Chinese influence operations in Western countries have been curtailed. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

This all seems shocking, but, on the other hand, the powers-that-be have for years shown a remarkable level of disinterest in China's misdeeds, writ large – a blind spot about three thousand miles wide, in fact.

We are told, for instance, that climate change represents an “existential threat” to humankind and the Earth's ecosystem, but the world's biggest emitter of carbon, by far, gets a pass, even as those emissions climb inexorably. In fact, China gets fulsomely complimented on its “green” rhetoric, as though posturing alone could “save the planet”.

China meanwhile commits gross human rights violations in Hong Kong, and by many accounts commits genocide against its Uyghur population, and the world says “Tut tut!” and carries on buying Chinese-made iPhones and smart TVs.

China threatens its neighbors, especially Taiwan, and systematically appropriates large portions of the South China Sea. It spies on Western countries and corporations; it hacks our computer systems; it even infiltrates the inner circles of our political leaders...and the best that these leaders can do by way of a response is to rebuke (toothlessly) the Chinese communist government and declare that we in the West will remain watchful, but hopeful – always hopeful – that relations will improve...

The truth, of course, is that the Western political, cultural, and economic elite is so thoroughly compromised by its own ties with China that it cannot bear to bite the hand that feeds it. Moreover, our leaders know that the Chinese exercise so much overt and covert power worldwide that any politician or opinion leader who directly confronts the PRC – like Donald Trump – can expect a chorus of voices to condemn him (or her), and to label his (or her) anti-Chinese rhetoric “racist” and “xenophobic”. And that is the least that might befall an iconoclast who dared to divert from the party line.

What is the only approved narrative re: China? Why, it's that China is a land of wonders, a wellspring of limitless wealth, a fount of ancient wisdom, a far-sighted and visionary place where the technologies and policies of the future are incubated, a rising superpower destined to displace the tired old USA, and, above all (though this part is usually said in a whisper), the ultimate paymaster of hack journalists, up-and-coming academics, and toadying politicians everywhere.

It makes all the sense in the world to mollify such a country. It makes no sense at all to challenge or confront it.

And here we are. By its negligence, the Chinese regime has facilitated the deaths of millions of people worldwide, and more than 600,000 Americans. It has brought our economies to a standstill and buried us under a mountain of debt. It has disrupted our daily lives and our livelihoods. The Chicoms have done all this, while suggesting – with a straight face – that the disease actually came from America, and was an invention of the U.S. military!

The refusal of the U.S. government, and of all Western governments, to stand up for themselves, and for the millions of COVID victims who we have already lost, by confronting China and taking real action to punish the regime and to curtail the one thing that it values in its relationship with the West – trade – is the ultimate condemnation of the fecklessness and incompetence of our leadership class. It is a clear sign that we value electronic doodads more than we value our own self-respect, and more even than we value our own lives.

It is pathetic.

It is shameful.

It is the most bizarre and surreal instance of civilizational suicide history has ever witnessed.

Sadly, it will also embolden the Chinese to do even worse, while our own leaders troll new, even more frightful depths in obsequiousness and treachery.

Why would they sink even lower? Because, lest we forget, our elite has found ways to profit from its own humiliation, and from the wave of terror and death that has washed over us in the last seventeen months. For our “betters”, COVID has in many ways been not a curse, but a blessing. Their power and authority wax ever higher, thanks to our soaring anxieties (and our short attention spans).

They may have good reason, therefore, to exclaim “Thank you, China! May we have another?”


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

 

Here it is at Townhall:

 

https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2021/08/04/thank-you-china-may-we-have-another-n2593502 

 

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In other news, here's a much more extensive analysis of the disturbing new trend involving the "debanking" of conservatives.  You've been warned!

 

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/get-ready-for-the-no-buy-list 


Twitter is now working with Reuters and the AP to snuff out "misinformation".  And the definition of "misinformation"?  Information that offends Democrats, of course!


https://www.newsmax.com/us/twitter-media-misintormation-conservatives/2021/08/02/id/1030879/

 

This one comes as no surprise: California is a sucky place to live, especially if you don't happen to be rich.  It's not quite sucky enough, however, for housing prices to tumble...  That will be the next shoe to drop.  Someday it will.

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-9-of-the-10-worst-cities-for-first-time-home-buyers-are-in-california 


Finally, businesses are starting to respond to calls from woke politicians like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who advises them to require their employees and/or customers to be vaccinated.  It's a fairly modest trend thus far.  Will it spread?  Will it survive the legal smell test?  We'll see.


https://www.breitbart.com/health/2021/08/02/equinox-soulcycle-proof-vaccination/