Pick Your Poison

 

Friends, the probability of a recession is, by all accounts, on the rise, but, as you'll see in this article, recessions vary enormously in type, severity, and duration.  Will the recession of '22 be a biggie?  Your guess is as good as mine, but "stagflation" might be tricky to rise above, as it was in the mid-70s...  One thing is for sure: even the mildest of recessions will damage the Dems' prospects in November even more than they already are.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/12/investing/recession-shapes-alphabet/index.html

 

In other news, the Dems have decided, as I mentioned before, that Trumpifying the November mid-term elections is the key to victory, and along these lines they've settled on a new epithet to hurl at their adversaries (when "you dirty racist insurrectionist Nazi bastard!" won't do): "ultra MAGA".  What does one have to do or say to be "ultra MAGA"?  Not a heck of a lot.  Just get on Biden's last nerve, and -- presto! -- you're "ultra MAGA".  Will the electorate buy this nonsense?  Highly unlikely.

 

https://thepostmillennial.com/it-took-the-biden-administration-6-months-of-research-to-come-up-with-ultra-maga?utm_campaign=64487 

Finally, Clarence Thomas is asking the $64,000 question in American politics: when Americans no longer respect any of our major institutions, political or otherwise, how long will it be before our current Constitutional republic is replaced by some kind of authoritarian system in which raw power overwhelms and replaces the rule of law?  Many Americans seem ready, frankly, to give up on past norms and stick it to their political/cultural enemies however and whenever they can.  As always, though, you should be careful what you wish for.  The same institutions and rules that may shield your adversaries -- most annoyingly -- also shield you.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/05/14/clarence-thomas-scotus-leak-i-wonder-how-long-were-going-have-these-institutions/

Diversity Directorate Demands Discrimination

 

Friends, we all know how the Left loves diversity...by which it means ABSOLUTE CONFORMITY to its agenda of, among other things, promoting discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc.  One of the tools that leftists in higher ed are using to achieve this level of conformity is the requirement that new hires and/or long-time employees take oaths or write essays to demonstrate their love for "diversity, equity, and inclusion".  In other words, academic employees are expected to show enthusiasm for the DEI agenda, to subscribe to its underlying neo-Marxist philosophy, and to become leaders in the movement to actualize its theories.  Check out this very interesting article on the phenomenon by a friend of mine, as well as an actual "DEI rubric" from Cal-Berkeley.  The rubric comes very close to mandating that academics commit to discriminating against people of certain backgrounds -- in other words, it assumes that anyone who intends to treat people the same, regardless of race, gender, and what not, is a DEI dunderhead who has no place in the academy.  I hasten to add that giving people preferential, or inferior, treatment based on the demographic categories they belong to is illegal.  According to leftists, however, it is also a moral imperative.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/05/12/todays_diversity_oaths_resemble_1950s_loyalty_oaths___147589.html

 

https://ofew.berkeley.edu/recruitment/contributions-diversity/rubric-assessing-candidate-contributions-diversity-equity 

In other news, as I discussed yesterday, the rapid accession of Finland and Sweden into NATO is a potentially game-changing development for European and world security.  One consequence of Ukraine's humiliation at the hands of Russia in 2014 was clearly a massive increase in Ukraine's commitment to modernizing and strengthening its military forces.  Could that be a consequence of Russia's humbling in 2022 as well?  Could Russia become, in other words, the grave threat that we now only claim it is?  I would be shocked if Russia didn't undertake concerted efforts to strengthen its air and land forces, starting now.  Of course, NATO countries are allegedly doing the same.  Will they follow through?  Does any of this even matter, given the unwillingness of NATO and Russia to contemplate war against a nuclear power?

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/12/1098456961/finland-leaders-seek-nato-membership

 

https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/nato-finland-sweden/2022/05/12/id/1069543/ 

When you stop listening to all the white noise generated by the talking heads, in many ways the 2022 election comes down to one overriding issue: the declining purchasing power of the typical American family.  When inflation tops wage increases, as it is doing every single month, Americans feel poorer, because they are!  Biden's only chance of avoiding political accountability is therefore to shift the blame for this depressing development to someone else.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/inflation-erode-american-wages-april-2022

 

Need more evidence that inflation is the top concern for U.S. voters?  Take a gander at this poll.  The top three issues -- inflation, crime, and illegal immigration -- are, in fact, all matters that are likely to help Republicans and hurt Democrats.  Note that "insurrections" aren't a top concern for anyone, except the pundits, of course.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/05/12/poll-voters-more-worried-about-inflation-than-abortion-rights-heading-into-midterms/ 

Finally, as I alluded to earlier, Biden's only chance to is change the subject -- to get Americans to focus on an evil greater than Democratic misgovernance.  "It's Putin's fault" might seem like a promising line of attack, since seemingly no one likes Putin, but the believability of that gem, if one is focused on, say, inflation, crime, or the U.S. border, is questionable.  That leaves Sleepy Joe with only one hope: Trump!  If the 2022 election can be Trumpified, and if the Trump haters can be motivated to turn out one more time to vent their rage at Orange-Man-Bad, then maybe, just maybe, the Dems can avoid an electoral apocalypse.  That's a big "if", of course, but ask yourself this: why is the ACLU suddenly pushing for Trump to be allowed back on Twitter?  The answer may be that quite a few leftists see an upside in increasing the visibility of a man who they perceive to be toxic and offputting.  In other words, in an ironic twist, the Dems are looking to Trump to save their bacon this fall.  Can he do it?  Will he?  Stay tuned and find out!

https://www.newsweek.com/biden-ramps-trump-insults-midterms-prospects-democrats-1705925?piano_t=1

Abortion Mania

 

Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show covers some of the hottest, buttonest issues around, like abortion and the Russia-Ukraine War.  The Left is screaming bloody murder (ironically) because some women are set to lose their "abortion rights".  What's more, many lefties are blaming Christians for this judicial reversal of fortune, and they're demanding that blue states provide more funding for abortion clinics, so that blue areas can service the "reproductive health care" needs of women living in red areas.  As I argue, circumventing the law is a leftist specialty, so don't count the abortion lovers out, by any means.  Re: Ukraine, I argue that all the Western protestations of support for Ukraine conceal an underlying indifference to the fate of the Ukrainian people, and a lack of willingness to sacrifice anything truly precious to the West, like the lives of our soldiers or our access to Russian natural gas.

When we turn to "This Day in History", Brian and I explore an assassination that may have contributed to the outcome of the War of 1812, and thus to the survival of the United States; German resentment of the Treaty of Versailles; President Kennedy's (understandable) determination to bring U.S. military power to bear against the Viet Cong; and the nobility of the U.S. effort in South Vietnam, in light of that country's vulnerability to communist aggression.

It's a fascinating dialogue between me and Brian (and sometimes between me and me).  Tune in and judge for yourself!

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-may-11-2022-dr-nick-waddy/

"Christian Fascism": All Insurrection, All the Time!

 

Friends, today I bring you an article by a slavering Marxist about the dangers of "Christian fascism", which is of course a bigoted screed against God Himself, not to mention any and all believers.  But that's not the main point: buried in all the nonsense is an intriguing analysis of what ails America and the Left.  You'll note that the author is almost as contemptuous towards the Democratic Party and the Biden Administration as he is towards Trump, Republicans, and conservative Christians.  Somehow he manages to blame the Christian right for the constantly escalating war in Ukraine.  That's a neat trick, although he has a point, insofar as many Christians are falling in line with the "get Putin at all costs" POV of the Washington establishment.  In the second link, Tucker Carlson provides some context by talking about the Left's antipathy to Chistianity and religion in general.  Now, if the things lefties regularly say about Christians were, for instance, said instead by conservatives about Islam, you can bet that the censors at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. would swing into action in no time flat.  Anti-Christian animus, though, is apparently far more respectable.  Go figure.  And take note of the fact that the Left is giving Christians an extra helping of surliness these days, because they blame believers for their expected setback at SCOTUS on the issue of abortion.  Sure, Christians are often among those who most strongly oppose abortion, but let's face it: the abortion issue transcends religion, and you don't need to be a fundamentalist to believe that a fetus is awfully close to a person, no?  Be all this as it may, the demonization of all categories of people who stand in the way of Marxist utopianism continues unabated, and, as circumstances grow more adverse for the Left as we approach the midterms, we can safely predict that their epithets will grow progressively more scorching and unhinged.  Get used to it!  One day, you'll look back fondly on the days when the liberals called you a mere "racist".  They'll be doubling, and tripling, and quadrupling down on that strategy of vilification in the months ahead.

https://www.salon.com/2022/05/10/jesus-endless-and-the-irresistible-rise-of-american-fascism/

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/05/09/tucker_carlson_undermining_christianity_is_the_central_project_of_the_political_left.html 

Elon Musk says there's "left wing bias" at Twitter.  Color me shocked!  The question is: what does he plan to do about it?  If he hews to his preferred policy of only banning or censoring speech which is patently illegal, that would be a huge win for free speech and genuine dialogue.  I'll be surprised if he's able to maintain that level of tolerance, though -- and, if he does, expect a lot more wide-ranging laws in blue states about "hate speech" and the like.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/musk-slams-twitters-left-wing-bias-in-censorship-decisions

 

It's "insurrection" to question the legitimacy of U.S. elections, right?  Oh no.  Not when your motives are pure, as is always the case with leftists.  Expect a lot more criticism of our electoral process, in fact, as soon as the Dems go down to defeat in November.

 

https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/09/bidens-new-press-secretary-is-a-stolen-election-conspiracy-theorist-who-called-trump-an-illegitimate-president/ 

Finally, in a worrying sign, there are reports that U.S. and Western military equipment -- and, presumably, personnel -- is showing up on Finland's border with Russia.  Forward deploying NATO forces to Finland to protect that country from Russian aggression might seem prudent, but it's also bound to be seem provocative to the Russians, who are naturally in no position to attack Finland anyway.  The West is increasingly indifferent to Russia's fears, many of them grounded in hundreds of years of history, and generations of vulnerability to the depredations of Westerners.  Again, if we overstretch Russia's conventional capacity to do what they feel is necessary to ensure their security, they do have, lest we forget, unconventional means at their disposal.  Is Russia likely to launch nukes at NATO?  No, but what about non-NATO countries like Ukraine or Finland?  Russia might feel that now is the ideal time to attack Finland, before the West is under any treaty obligation to defend it.  I would add, as I always do, "let's tread carefully", but by now I know all too well that such words of warning will fall on deaf ears.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/nato-finland-russia-threat/2022/05/10/id/1069263/

Avoiding Matrimony Like the Plague

 

Friends, everyone knows that traditional marriage (that's the kind involving one man and one woman, wherein the definition of "man" and "woman" is biologically and culturally fixed) and child-rearing used to be standard rites of passage for Americans.  Getting hitched and popping out babies was all the rage, which put us squarely in the mainstream of human civilization over the past, oh, 100,000 years.  No more!  American society has undergone one of those "fundamental transformations" that the neo-Marxists are always raving about, and as a result we're more solitary, and less fertile, than ever!  Not to worry, though -- watching MSNBC and CNN all day will give us the sense of human connection that we lack because of our fear of more conventional forms of intimacy and commitment, and our population deficit can be made up by the constant importation of Third World economic "refugees".  Be all that as it may, some of you, like me, may still harbor a certain nostalgia for the "good old days".  Hey, that's what makes us MAGA freaks, right?  Freak on!

https://thepostmillennial.com/us-census-bureau-americans-less-likely-to-get-married-and-more-likely-to-live-alone?utm_campaign=64487

Flirting with Armageddon

 

Friends, today I share with you an excellent article that suggests that the U.S. policy of escalation in Ukraine, which ignores Russian warnings that the use of nuclear weapons is on the table, risks putting Ukraine -- and us -- in a truly desperate situation.  Should Russia subject Ukraine to nuclear attacks, needless to say the Ukrainians have no good answer, and neither do we.  Before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, we seemed to believe that Western bravado alone could deter them.  We were wrong.  Now, we seem to assume that we can send Ukraine as many weapons, and as much critical intel, as we please, because the Russians, if they sensed that they were on the verge of defeat on the conventional battlefield, would never dare to use weapons of mass destruction.  Oh really?  Do you trust Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Schiff, Austin, and Blinken to make decisions this grave?  I sure don't.  Let's all take a deep breath, therefore, before we make a bad situation worse.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/ukraine-russian-vital-interest-and-moscow-will-behave-accordingly-202216

Valiant Virtue-Signalling: Profiles in Western Courage

 

Friends, you may have noticed in your neighborhood or among your circle of friends that people are tripping over themselves to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine, and to shake their proverbial fists at Putin and Russia.  As I opine on this week's Newsmaker Show, however, a lot of this support is purely verbal and/or symbolic, and little of it helps Ukraine to resist the Russian invasion.  And, more to the point, there are hard limits to the West's commitment to Ukraine that belie our brotherly sentiments.  We won't fight for or in Ukraine; we won't give the Ukrainians heavy weapons; we won't place sanctions on Russia's most important export to the West, natural gas; and we won't commit to bringing Ukraine into NATO or the EU now, soon, or ever.  Ergo, I conclude, that the West's Ukrainophilia is mostly a face-saving gesture.

In addition to matters Russia-Ukraine-related, Brian and I also cover the hubbub surrounding Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and rising tension between Musk and the Left/media.  We also talk over the shocking leak of a draft Supreme Court decision to invalidate Roe v. Wade and thus to return to the states authority over abortion.  The violation of the norms of SCOTUS is unprecedented, but not unexpected, because the Left seems happy to burn down all of our institutions and our rights if it means they get their way.  As for abortion/abortion rights, I hope the draft decision stands, because it's about time that we breathed some life into our beloved Constitution!

Check out this week's broadcast.  You'll be edified...TO THE MAX!!!

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-may-4-2022-dr-nick-waddy/

***

In other news, do you have Amazon Prime and/or do you buy things or services from Amazon on a regular basis?  If so, then I hope you like Marxism, and I hope you love abortions, because that's included in the price.

https://thepostmillennial.com/amazon-helps-employees-travel-to-get-abortions?utm_campaign=64487

 

Lastly, here's a great article about the meaning of the word "racism" and how leftists are using and abusing it these days.  The author is absolutely correct: we cannot allow the Bolshies to redefine every word in the dictionary to their liking.  According to them, to be "anti-racist", you have to be racist (against whites).  And, if you believe in "non-racialism" or "equality", then you're actually a racist, even if you don't know it.  It's time to stop playing these semantic games and show a little respect for the English language!

 

https://www.commentary.org/articles/wilfred-reilly/racism-ibram-x-kendi/ 

Sleepy Joe's Sleight of Hand

 

Not much in the news these days, friends -- we're just careening towards nuclear armageddon, as per usual.  Speaking of which, the American people remain highly supportive of U.S. humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, but also highly skeptical of any proposal to inject U.S. military forces into the conflict.  And that, I humbly suggest, could play out very interestingly and problematically should Russia decide to escalate by using nuclear weapons against Ukraine.  The Beltway elite is already talking in cavalier terms about responding "in kind".  Would the American people countenance that?  Only one way to find out...

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/washington-post-abc-news-poll-aid-ukraine-russia/2022/05/02/id/1068062/

 

And here's an intriguing analysis of the Dem strategy for 2022.  It's not rocket science, really: the Dems believe they haven't a leg to stand on, so instead they plan on kneecapping the competition, i.e. us.   In other words, they'd like to make 2022 and 2024 into referenda on Trump, because they feel that's their best hope of winning.  The sad part is...they're probably right.  The American people are sick and tired of Biden and his Congressional cronies, but they might be even more averse to DJT.  Now, I don't think this approach will avail the Dems much in 2022, when Trump won't be on the ballot, but all bets are off in 2024.  With Trump-hatred and popular resentment of a "do-nothing" Republican Congress in his pocket, even Sleepy Joe might squeak by and win re-election.  Stranger things have happened.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/bidenworld-midterms-trump-elon-musk-00029106