Subscription

Friday, September 30, 2022

Big Brother Is Watching

 


Friends, imagine a world in which the federal government coordinates the suppression of online speech it doesn't like, outsourcing this violation of the people's rights to private companies, which are then rewarded with federal contracts once the "right people" win in "free elections"...  Scary, huh?  This isn't science fiction, though.  It's honest reporting on what happened in 2020, and what continues to happen today, in the dystopian Age of Biden.  Read on, and prepare to have your blood curdled!

 

https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/biden-administration-rewarded-private-entities-got-2020-election 


One of my conservative pals wrote this fine article, which documents the decline of free speech on college campuses, and the steps that college administrators could take if they were interested in fixing the problem.  Unfortunately, they're not interested, and so the questions that inevitably arise are: can they be forced to care and to protect our First Amendment rights, against their inclinations, and, two, if they stubbornly refuse to tolerate dissent, how much longer will decent Americans continue sending these corrupt, Orwellian reeducation camps yearly donations, and, more importantly, how much longer will they keep sending their sons and daughters (and children of other, miscellaneous genders) to these so-called educational institutions to be brainwashed?  Those are the questions.  I wish I had answers.


https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/09/30/restoring_free_speech_at_our_universities_148260.html

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Toxic Elites

 


Friends, today brings us interesting, if predictable, news on the Italian front: Giorgia Meloni's motley band of "fascists" won the middle class and workers (!), but not the wealthy and the well-educated.  This continues a trend throughout the West whereby, the more materially well-off and highly educated one is, the more likely one will vote for, and donate generously to, leftists.  In a nutshell, the Western elite has turned against the West itself: its values, its traditions, its honor, its religious heritage, and its demographic majority.  How can a civilization endure when its leadership class holds it in contempt?  Answer: it probably won't.


https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/09/29/italy-election-polling-finds-wealthiest-voted-left-working-and-middle-voted-right/

 

In other news, while the future looks bleak, the immediate electoral prospects of the GOP are brightening, and even the MSM polls are reflecting it.  Elections are largely about who has the momentum going into the final stretch...  Right now that's us.  Do the Dems have an evil plan to change the conversation, yet again?

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/2022-generic-congressional-vote-7361.html 


Signs are accumulating that the economy continues to weaken, and the case that we are already in a recession grows stronger.  Are the American people paying attention?


https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/final-gdp-reading-shows-us-economy-shrank-spring-cementing-start-recession

 

Finally, Russia's formal annexation of parts of Ukraine may seem farcical to most Westerners, but technically this action escalates the terms of the conflict considerably.  That's because further Ukrainian offensives will be seen by Russia as attacks on Russia itself.  If they fail, or if they produce derisory results, the war may grind on as before.  If those attacks hit home and threaten Russian security, or the stability of Putin's regime, however, then Russia may well respond with nuclear weapons -- and then we're all in a heap of trouble!

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/29/europe/russia-ukraine-annexation-intl/index.html 

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Mercy Begets Mayhem

 



Friends, this happy-go-lucky fellow you see before you went on to make quite a splash in mid-20th century history, or so I'm told, and all because, unlike millions of his compatriots, he wasn't killed in World War I.  He came mighty close, though!  A British soldier once had him dead to rights and chose to let him go.  A fateful decision, no?  You'll find out more in this week's Newsmaker Show.  Historically speaking, we also cover Fidel Castro's 1965 decision to allow dissidents to leave Cuba, and William the Conqueror's notable visit to the British Isles in 1066.


In addition to historical trivia, Brian and I tackle current events, including movement in the rightward direction in the polls, the victory of the "far-right" in Italy's general election, the grinding war of attrition in Ukraine, the softening housing market, and more!


It's another tour de force of political commentary -- don't miss it.


https://wlea.net/newsmaker-september-28-2022-dr-nick-waddy/

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

"Fascism" Ain't What It Used To Be

 


Friends, as the U.S. and European establishment frets about the victory of the "far-right" in Italy (and, yes, Meloni's party is "far righter" than most of its critics), it pays to remind ourselves how empty much of this criticism is, and how little Giorgia Meloni resembles a "fascist".  I include for you Wikipedia's defintion of fascism, which apparently no leftist has ever read.


https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/26/is-italys-next-prime-minister-giorgia-meloni-a-fascist-hardly/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism 


In other news, Congress is shoveling yet more money in Ukraine's direction.  The amounts that Ukraine has received from the West as a whole are staggering, and underline the fact that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is indeed a proxy war between Russia and the West, which naturally raises the stakes for Putin considerably.


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/27/congress-unveils-stop-gap-spending-bill-with-12-billion-in-ukraine-aid/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign_aid_to_Ukraine_during_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War 


Finally, what's a young black actor to do when he notices that his white co-stars have more Twitter followers than he does?  Cry "Racism!", naturally!  That's the only reason I can think of why anything bad, or, in this case, slightly less good, would ever happen to a black person.  Case closed.


https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2022/09/27/nolte-stranger-things-star-caleb-mclaughlin-blasts-shows-fans-as-racists/

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Break Out the Chianti!

 


Friends, we here at WaddyIsRight wish to convey our hearty congratulations to the Italian "far-right", which has won that country's general election.  The scale of the victory is still being determined, but the fact that the right-wing coalition has prevailed can no longer be denied.  How sweeping a political sea change this will be for Italy is unclear.  Giorgia Meloni, the probable new P.M., has been called a "fascist", but she has also moderated her rhetoric enormously in the last few months.  Italy's freedom of action is also strictly limited by its economic weakness and by its dependence on EU handouts.  Ergo, we right-wing extremists might want to temper our expectations, but there's no question that Italy now has a golden opportunity to renounce socialism, Eurocracy, and open borders.  Good luck, Giorgia, and good luck, Italians!


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63029909

 

https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-election-exit-poll-far-right-giorgia-meloni-brothers-of-berlusconi-salvini-mario-draghi/ 


In other news, Liz Cheney is promising she'll leave the GOP if Donald Trump is the party's presidential candidate in 2024.  Yet another reason to support Trump!  Can we get that in writing, Liz?


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/liz-cheney-gop-donald-trump-2024-nominee-tribune-festival

 

Finally, there are a lot of polls out there predicting the outcome of the midterms, but suffice it to say that these polls, in the aggregate, are once again taking a turn in the Republican direction.  Today's ABC News/Washington Post poll, in particular, makes for depressing reading for Dems and lefties.  Enjoy!

 

https://docs-cdn-prod.news-engineering.aws.wapo.pub/publish_document/62135712-e40d-4c38-9ec3-d3b9218cad1d/published/62135712-e40d-4c38-9ec3-d3b9218cad1d.pdf 

Saturday, September 24, 2022

He's Like Hitler Times A Thousand!

 


Friends, you're probably sick of hearing it, but lefties are convinced -- you're a bunch of Nazis, and Trump is the new Hitler!  It's just so obvious...Well, it is to Hillary Clinton, anyway.


https://www.newsmax.com/politics/hillary-clinton-adolf-hitler-nazi/2022/09/24/id/1088898/

 

Some of you may appreciate the boldness of this contrarian view of the progress of the Russia-Ukraine war.  According to this analyst, the Ukrainians are fighting their way to abject defeat.  We shall see.

 

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/holding-ground-losing-war/ 


Many mainstream media polls have the Democrats ahead in the midterm elections.  McLaughlin sees it differently.  Personally, I believe there's still a good possibility of a sizable Red Wave.  It may interest you to know, however, that, given the vagaries of redistricting and the extreme concentration of Democrats in urban areas, the GOP could fall short in the national popular vote and still win control of the House, and possibly the Senate as well.  Generic ballot polls that have the two parties tied, in other words, are effectively conceding that the GOP is plausibly on course to victory.


https://www.newsmax.com/politics/donald-trump-polls-mclaughlin-and-associates/2022/09/24/id/1088896/

 

Finally, gird your loins, fellow fascists, because our favorite pin-up girl, Giorgia Meloni of the "Brothers of Italy", is set to become Italy's next Prime Minister after tomorrow's general election.  Could the polls be wrong?  Might the Italian establishment find a way to block her path to the premiership?  Stay tuned, because history is about to be made!

 

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/09/24/meloni-establishment-left-is-afraid-of-right-wing-election-victory-this-weekend/ 


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63022408

Friday, September 23, 2022

Outrageous!

 


Friends, today I came across a statistic -- in the Washington Post, no less -- that really made my eyes bug out.  The percentage of Democrats who viewed Donald Trump's election in 2016 as illegitimate was about the same as the percentage of Republicans who now view Joe Biden's election as illegitimate.  As a matter of fact, Republicans are currently more inclined to give Biden the benefit of the doubt than Democrats and Hillary Clinton supporters were re: Trump in 2017.  Let that sink in.  Democrats have been clutching their pearls since November 2020, amazed than anyone would have the temerity to question the results of a U.S. election...and yet they did it themselves in the recent past.  And, as we all know, they have a long history of doing it, too.  

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/01/post-poll-january-6/ 


Anyway, check out this quotation from the Post article: "Republicans’ rejection of Biden’s victory is not novel. In a fall 2017 Post-UMD poll, 67 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Hillary Clinton voters said Trump was not legitimately elected president."  BUSTED!!!

 

In other news, is the Biden recession finally impacting the markets?  It looks that way:


https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/09/23/stocks-sell-off-on-friday/

 

And, finally, Gov. Ron DeSantis got a lot of kudos on the political right for his gambit of sending "migrants" to Martha's Vineyard, but Republicans remain solidly supportive of a potential Trump candidacy in 2024, and they seem to view DeSantis as decidedly second-best.  Ergo, as I've said a million times, if Trump wants it, i.e. the nomination, it's his.

 

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/gop-voters-donald-trump/2022/09/23/id/1088797/ 

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Hands in the Air, Trumper!

 


Friends, this New York Post article about an FBI whistleblower makes for very interesting reading.  He describes an agency that's been weaponized to attack Republicans, conservatives, and Trump supporters -- and a cadre of rank-and-file FBI agents who are disgusted with the corruption of what was once a respected and highly professional law enforcement organization.  If what he says is true, then the leftist leadership at the FBI is doing its best to purge free-thinkers from the agency to ensure that its primary political objective -- the eradication of the GOP -- is achieved.  If Republicans do well in November, agents like this whistleblower may get some relief.  If, on the other hand, Republicans lose in 2022 and 2024, there may be no conservatives left in federal law enforcement or in the military by 2030.  No joke.


https://nypost.com/2022/09/21/fbi-hero-paying-the-price-for-exposing-unjust-persecution-of-conservative-americans/

 

In other news, you know COVID is passé when even the hyper-vigilant Canadians are ready to shrug it off.  I guess this means leftists aren't completely bonkers, and there are limits to how much virtue signaling they're willing to do.


https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/virus-outbreak-canada/2022/09/22/id/1088663/

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Is the China Bubble Close to Bursting?

 


Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show isn't just an American tour de force; it's a truly global triumph.  That's because, sure, Brian and I get to the bottom of American politics, including our perverse national obsession with "diversity, equity, and inclusion", plus the kerfuffle over the migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard, but we ALSO reveal the truth about the stagnating and sputtering Chinese economy, and how it could threaten the stability of the global order.  You thought China was scary when it was fat and happy?  Try the Chicoms on for size when they get nervous and cranky!  I don't know about you, but, when China starts to teeter, I don't know whether to laugh or cry...


When Brian and I turn to "This Day in History", we talk over the life and legacy of Benedict Arnold, the twists and turns of the French Revolution, and the sly maneuvers performed by FDR to guide the U.S. into WWII, mostly against the wishes of the American people.


The Newsmaker Show's coverage of the news and of history is broad, therefore.  Broad enough to bring you, quite literally, the world!  You're most welcome.


https://wlea.net/newsmaker-september-21-2022-dr-nick-waddy/

 

***

 

In other news, Russia is taking (arguably long overdue) steps to bolster its forces in Ukraine by partially mobilizing its reserves.  Many in the West talk about Russia as though it's a spent force.  On the contrary, a major power with a population close to 150 million and nuclear weapons isn't to be taken lightly.

 

https://www.ft.com/content/fc1413ee-0900-479d-84c3-403bc7e42979?segmentId=b385c2ad-87ed-d8ff-aaec-0f8435cd42d9 


Also, in a move that will surprise precisely no one, New York Attorney General Letitia James is following through on her threats to sue Donald Trump, Trump's kids, and his company for fradulently inflating the value of their properties.  This add's to DJT's legal headaches, and in all likelihood it redoubles his determination to run (and win) in 2024.


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/21/ny-attorney-general-letitia-james-sues-trump-his-three-children-for-alleged-fraud/

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

"Tough Guy" Biden Rattles His Saber, Yet Again

 


Friends, for the fourth time, President Biden has contradicted U.S policy on Taiwan by promising direct U.S. military intervention there, while his administration simultaneously claims that no policy change has occurred.  Wow!  And, just for clarification, we're crystal clear on the fact that, for Ukraine, which we recognize as an independent country, we won't intervene, but for Taiwan, which we recognize as a part of communist China, we will intervene if those impudent Chinese dare to take even one step into their own territory!  Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?  This guy Biden gets it.  Now, following his (flawless) logic, all the Ukrainians need to do if they want U.S. Marines fighting in the streets of Kherson on their behalf is to voluntarily surrender their sovereignty to Russia.  Then we'd have to invade!  Oy.  Sometimes you just have to scratch your head...


https://news.yahoo.com/u-forces-defend-taiwan-against-060053302.html

 

Meanwhile, scumbag lawyers (is there another kind?) have convinced some of the migrants who were flown to Martha's Vineyard by Gov. Ron DeSantis to sue him.  Could federal charges against DeSantis be around the corner too?  Don't be shocked if it happens.  The Dem plan for victory in 2024 is fast revealing itself: put ALL the Republicans in jail, or at least tie them up in legal knots, and Team Blue wins by default!  I mean, that is the purpose of the law, right?  To harass your political enemies?

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/migrants-flown-marthas-vineyard-sue-desantis 

Monday, September 19, 2022

What -- Me Worry?

 



Friends, President Biden just laid out the progressive/Democratic platform for November: inflation, and everything else that bothers you, is no big deal, so CHILL OUT!  In an interview with Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, Biden claimed that inflation had only risen "an inch" in August.  Isn't that comforting?  So lighten up, America!  Crime is barely up a centimeter.  The border is totally secure..."ish".  All's well, so stop your complaining and vote blue, already!  Get it?  We'll see if this degree of condescension is something that the American people will put up with.  Maybe it is.  Stay tuned.


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/19/joe-biden-inflation-rate-month-to-month-was-up-just-an-inch-hardly-at-all/

Friday, September 16, 2022

Diversity, Equity, and Insanity

 


Friends, my latest article is about the current fashion for "diversity, equity, and inclusion" and how its perverse logic is infiltrating corporate America.  Trust me, identity politics isn't just for woke eggheads anymore!  My take is that the right desperately needs to fight back and shame corporations that promote discrimination and race-baiting.  If we don't, we may find ourselves alone on a little right-wing island in the midst of a vast, Marxist sea...

Here's the article, kindly published by American Greatness:


***

In other news, The Democrats' hopes in November rely on framing the election as a referendum on Trump (yet again), on "abortion rights", and on Republican "extremism", all while they downplay issues like inflation, crime, and border security.  This has required increasingly absurd mental gymnastics on their part, which of course the mainstream media will never call them on.  Will the voters?  We shall see.



Finally, while throughout the West there is something close to unanimity in condemning Russian aggression and praising Ukrainian resistance, we should realize that the world feels differently, and our insistence on pushing a harsh sanctions regime, regardless of the economic effects for us and for poorer countries, may be doing fundamental harm to the global order, and to the world's perception of the West.  Read all about it here:

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Commies...in Space!

 


Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show covers so many scintillating topics that frankly my mind was blown.  Your comparatively smaller minds might simply be vaporized!  Nonetheless, I advise you to assume the risk and listen in.  


In terms of current events, Brian and I cover the transition from Elizabeth II to Charles III, the persistence of inflation and its political consequences, Russia's reversal of fortune (?) in Ukraine, the DOJ's expanding dragnet focused on Trumpers of all stripes, NASDAQ's fondness for quotas, the insurrection (if I may call it that) at the New York Times, and more!


When we turn to This Day in History, Brian and I tackle the Soviet moon landing in 1959, Napoleon's conquest of Moscow (talk about an anti-climax!), and one of the bloodiest and most costly phases of the war in the Pacific in World War II.


Hot damn, what a show!


https://wlea.net/newsmaker-september-14-2022-dr-nick-waddy/

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

The Golden Parachute

 


Friends, this handsome buck is Brian Stelter, formerly of CNN, and about to become a Harvard Fellow focused on "threats to democracy".  How about that!  I know many conservatives were chuffed when this Trump-hating loon was canned, but apparently he's landed on his feet, and that should surprise precisely no one.  The Left takes care of its own.  Okay, occasionally it eats its own, but, for the most part, if you serve "the Cause", you can bet your bottom dollar that no meaningful legal, physical, professional, or financial harm will come to you.  As a matter of fact, the more strident and reckless you are in your condemnations of "right-wingers", the more richly you will be rewarded.  Disagree?  Then, please, name for me one prominent figure on the Left who EVER got his just desserts...  Seriously.  I'm waiting.  And we wonder why these people are so shameless?  Life has taught them to be!


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11204307/Woke-media-hall-monitor-Brian-Stelter-gets-new-job-Harvard.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus

 

In other news, here's an interesting, if unnecessarily long, exploration of the foreign policy arena, and the many challenges the U.S. and the West face moving forward.  I agree with parts of this analysis and strenuously disagree with others, but the fact remains that things are about to get hairy internationally, and we're not in a very strong position -- militarily, economically, or politically -- to face these obstacles and overcome them.  That could create a dreaded "power vacuum".

 

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/dangerous-decade-foreign-policy-world-crisis-richard-haass 


File this one under: LOL.  The New York Times is facing an uprising among its employees, because A) they don't wanna go to work, and B) they charge that the Gray Lady is -- gasp! -- a racist old hag.  It's always fun to watch these woke a**holes turn on each other...


https://www.nationalreview.com/news/1300-new-york-times-staffers-refuse-order-to-return-to-office/

 

Of all the stories today that might have a determinative effect on the November elections, this one stands out: inflation remains distressingly high.  The Dems will respond by boldly ignoring the problem and waving their arms and encouraging us to "save our democracy(!)", but it's hard to imagine how an economic environment this adverse could be good for Team Blue.

 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/inflation-rose-august-prices-gains-slow-remain-near-record-high 


We now know one way that Russia is responding to Ukraine's advances on the battlefield.  They're switching off the lights in much of Ukraine.  Frankly, I'm stunned that they didn't obliterate Ukrainian infrastructure a long time ago.


https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/09/13/blackouts-across-much-of-ukraine-as-russian-missiles-blast-power-plants-waterworks/

 

Finally, don't look now but there's political violence in Italy...against conservatives!  In other words, there's nothing to see here, so move along.  Expect the usual media snow job.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/09/13/italy-elections-surge-of-violence-and-threats-to-meloni-salvini-bloc/ 

Monday, September 12, 2022

Dragnet!

 


Friends, the DOJ isn't messing around.  In case you haven't heard, Trump isn't the only ""right-winger" to fall victim to one of their raids.  Many of his high-level supporters and aides have also been targeted.  The Justice Department appears to trying to assemble a case that Trumpers were conspiring to overturn the election results in late 2020 and early 2021.  Now, I have to wonder, will the DOJ also target all those Democrats who were trying to cajole Trump electors into switching their votes in 2016/2017?  I mean, that would seem to be "anti-democratic" too, no?  No!  Of course it wasn't.  Only "election interference" by Putinists and Trumplicans is worthy of DOJ scrutiny.  And don't be suprised if federal prosecutors put on some show trials either.  These people have decided to go for broke.


https://www.newsmax.com/us/doj-donald-trump-january-6/2022/09/12/id/1087123/

 

In other news, "equity" quotas are becoming more and more common, and the NASDAQ stock exchange is now trying to force them on corporate boards across this country (but not overseas -- that would be high-handed!).  Make no mistake: quotas are back in fashion, and if we don't get on top of this problem soon they will be determining winners and losers in every phase of endeavor.  That's a scary, and profoundly un-American, thought.

 

https://nypost.com/2022/09/11/nasdaqs-board-diversity-rule-pits-corporate-elites-against-the-constitution/ 


Don't look now, but changes are afoot at CNN, and "progressives" are not amused.  I suspect this article exaggerates the "objectivity" of CNN in its current incarnation, but any movement back to the political center would be a welcome change from the network's relentless Trump-bashing.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/10/objective-cnn-rightwing-week-in-patriarchy

 

The arrogance of leftists knows no bounds.  I probably don't need to tell YOU that.  Nonetheless, look at the self-adulation that Charlie Crist is engaging in as part of his campaign to unseat Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida.  Crist isn't just a blowhard -- he's a blasphemer!

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/12/watch-charlie-crist-deems-himself-savior-bashing-desantis-some-people-call-him-desatan/ 


Finally, while the fog of war may becloud our ability to perceive correctly everything that's now happening on the battlefield in Ukraine, there's no denying that Russia has been pushed back in some areas.  One wonders what the Russian response will be...  Nuke 'em all and let the ghost of Karl Marx sort 'em out?  We shall see.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62879363

Saturday, September 10, 2022

Stamp of Approval

 


Friends, it may seem trivial, but the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and the accession of King Charles III, will necessitate numerous cosmetic changes.  Among other things, all the money and all the stamps will have to be redesigned with the image of Charles's smiling face (or, more likely, his gravest visage).  Won't that be a trip?


https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59596996

 

In other news, we've talked about it before, but increasingly in higher ed one needs to demonstrate, actively and affirmatively, one's abject submission to the gods of DEI if one wants to, uh, remain employed or get ahead.  And the high priests of DEI are making no bones about the fact that advocacy of color-blindness ain't cutting it!

 

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/higher-ed-new-woke-loyalty-oaths-dei 


Finally, leftist Big Tech is working hard to maintain its steely grip on digital discourse and to ensure that upstart apps like Truth Social are strangled in their cribs.  And there's a good chance they'll succeed, too.  If you ask me, social media companies like Facebook and Twitter may or may not be effective monopolies requiring anti-trust interventions, but the Apple and Google Play stores truly are in a monopolistic position and they need to be put in their place.  In essence, app stores function as public infrastructure these days, so maybe it's time that the public took them over.  Of course, we should be careful what we wish for, because if these stores were in government hands they might be even less "free", tolerant, and pluralistic than they are now.


https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/08/google-keeps-truth-social-banned-from-app-store-over-content-moderation-while-facebook-instagram-broadcast-shooting-spree/

Friday, September 9, 2022

Long Live the King!

 



Friends, tributes and accolades are pouring in for the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II, and I certainly encourage you to share your admiration and your reflections here, but I am going to pivot right away to a celebration and an analysis of the new sovereign, King Charles III.  Charles is 73, so he's had an extraordinarily long wait for the throne.  He was, as I just read, the first royal to receive a university degree, and he embodies modernity in many other respects, perhaps most notably (and least endearingly) in his self-absorption, which played a significant role in ending his marriage to Diana.  I'm less concerned with Charles's character, however, than I am with his fitness for the role of King.  Charles has been, as you'll read below, outspoken about his views on certain issues, or at least much more outspoken than his mother ever was.  For her, upholding her dignity and her perceived neutrality was infinitely more important than self-expression.  Indeed, for her, self-negation was her chief duty.  We can expect Charles to be less scrupulous in this respect, and thus we can also expect that the British monarchy may face considerable headwinds.  Charles is personally a lot less popular than his mother, and his penchant for progressive/elitist pontificating could easily drive those numbers even lower.  I hope that won't be the case, and I hope he acquires a renewed sense of sobriety and self-restraint, but I frankly doubt that he'll maintain either at all times.  What this means is that the very future of the monarchy may be cast into doubt, and, frankly, conservatives, who are temperamentally and ideologically the most likely to revere the monarchy, may be among those least enthused about their new monarch.  I fear, therefore, for the institution of the monarchy, especially given our modern obsession with "cancel culture", equality/"equity", and social transformation.  Everyone looks on the royal family with sympathy now, but how will they look at the (admittedly dysfunctional) Windsors in five years, or ten, or twenty?  Charles should think long and hard about this question, and he should do everything in his power to buttress confidence in the monarchy, but not at the expense of cheapening it with casual or superficial rebranding.  In a nutshell, therefore, Charles has a difficult job ahead of him.  Chances are he's always known that.  At least now he can get on with it.  Godspeed!


https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/britain-queen-elizabeth-new-king/2022/09/08/id/1086684/


In other news, an Irish schoolteacher appears to be auditioning for the role of martyr in the struggle against transgenderism.  Read all about it here:


https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/09/09/i-will-never-leave-mountjoy-prison-man-who-refuses-to-use-trans-students-pronouns-jailed/


Finally, Ukrainian security forces appear to be making gains against the Russians.  Exciting and encouraging, you say?  Think about how Russia may react...  Some of the possibilities are a lot less exciting and encouraging than the latest news reports.  In fact, some of them are downright horrifying.


https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/09/09/ukraine-claims-military-breakthrough-against-russia-as-u-s-pledges-more-aid/

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Fascists At The Gates

 


Friends, as you all know, Sleepy Joe woke up extra grumpy from his nap and decided to inveigh against "MAGA Republicans" and the terrible threat they/we represent.  Democracy is hanging by a thread!!!  And DJT is attacking that puny thread with a set of over-sized garden shears!!!  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!  Have you soiled yourself yet?  If so, then you might be ready to...vote blue in November.  And, if you do, armageddon might be held at bay, at least until the next election cycle.  Whew!


This brand of "anti-fascist" alarmism has become the stock in trade of Democrats since Donald Trump rode down the escalator back in 2015.  In fact, they've doubled down, and re-doubled down, so many times we've all lost count.  The effectiveness of this strategy, politically speaking, is what Brian and I investigate on this week's Newsmaker Show, in addition to several other pertinent issues, including Britain's new P.M. Liz Truss, the state of the polls, the appointment of a "special master" to review documents seized from President Trump's home, Gorbachev's warts (but not his port-wine stain), and more!


Seems like IF you were a decent, non-fascist American, you'd tune in, no?  Oh, heck -- even the fascists should give this week's show a chance.  What have you got to lose?


https://wlea.net/newsmaker-september-7-2002-dr-nick-waddy/

 

***

 

In other non-news news, Bill Barr thinks the DOJ has what it needs to indict President Trump.  How exactly would he know this?  Presumably because he reads the New York Times.  Based on its coverage, I'd say the DOJ has a pretty good case against Trump for kidnapping the Lindbergh baby...  Bear in mind, though, that this RINO was TRUMP'S CHOICE for Attorney-General.  What chance did a guy like Trump ever have if his own cabinet and closest advisors were plotting against him?

 

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/09/07/bill-barr-doj-very-close-to-having-evidence-to-indict-trump/ 


Finally, Americans' satisfaction with the public school system is low and declining, so I have to ask the question: when will Americans be ready to embrace an alternative -- ANY alternative -- to socialized education?


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/most-dissatisfied-with-k-12-education-system-poll

Monday, September 5, 2022

Truss But Verify

 


Friends, ready or not, the U.K. has a new prime minister, Liz Truss.  Conservative Party members have chosen her in a bruising contest that made many of them second-guess their decision to cashier Boris Johnson.  Some call Liz "Theresa May 2.0", which is, in case you're confused, by no means a compliment.  She loves killing Russians (indirectly), she likes tax cuts and deregulation, and (somewhat incongruously, given her alleged Thatcherism) she's got ambitious plans to intervene in the energy market to spare the British people the agony of paying market rates.  Most would say she's taking on a thankless job, since steering the ship of state through such troubled economic, financial, and international waters will be darn near impossible.  Time will tell.  One thing's for sure, at any rate: her hairdo won't make small children cry, as Boris's unruly mop sometimes did.


https://www.ft.com/content/7021fec4-814b-4013-abad-043aea9ce17a?segmentId=b385c2ad-87ed-d8ff-aaec-0f8435cd42d9

 

In other news, Russia is escalating its economic warfare against its key European customers for gas and oil, and it's a strategy that might bear fruit, because Europeans are already paying through the nose for energy.  Not to worry, though -- the Eurocrats will solve this problem with (you guessed it) SUBSIDIES galore!  That might work in the short term, but spending yet more money won't cool inflation any.

 

https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/russia-gas-europe/2022/09/05/id/1086035/ 


You probably don't know much about it, but in recent years Colombia, Mexico, and Chile have all succumbed to leftist leadership, at least at the presidential level.  We need to do everything in our power to prevent Latin America from embracing Venezuelization.  I, for one, applaud the people of Chile who recently rejected an effort to impose a new leftist constitution on the country.


https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2022/09/05/chile-votes-reject-proposed-far-left-constitution/

 

Finally, DJT won a small but potentially significant victory in his legal battle against the DOJ and FBI: a federal judge agreed to his request to appoint a "special master" to go through the items seized from Mar-a-Lago to determine if the feds have carted off anything they shouldn't have.  Seems a bit late for that, mind you.  The G-Men have probably photocopied everything of interest, up to and including Melania's underwear.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/news/judge-grants-trump-bid-for-special-master-in-document-search/ 

Slim Hope?

 


Friends, here in my home state of New York, we're all bracing for another statewide win by a lamentable leftist loon, Governor Kathy Hochul, in her re-election bid.  The Republican candidate, Lee Zeldin, is way, way behind in the vast majority of polls.  The vast majority, but not this one...  Trafalgar has Zeldin behind by just four and a half points.  Do I believe it?  I dunno.  Trafalgar has a good track record, and many fundamentals favor the party out of power in this election cycle, but New York has become incredibly, some might say terminally, blue...  We shall see.  In any case, if you keep track of the midterm polls as a whole, you'll notice lots of inconsistencies.  Polling really is an art as much as it's a science, and there's ample room for ambiguity, such that we genuinely have no idea who will (credibly) claim victory in the wake of November 8th.  Hold on to your hats!


https://www.thetrafalgargroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/NY-General-Poll-Report-0902.pdf

Friday, September 2, 2022

Be Careful What You Wish For

 


Friends, the death of Mikhail Gorbachev got me thinking about the man's legacy and about how the West's victory in the Cold War was, arguably, a mixed blessing.  My latest article explores these themes.  Check it out:


Gee, Thanks, Gorby!


The death of the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, has, understandably, triggered an avalanche of tributes to the man who oversaw the dénouement of the Communist Bloc, and America and the West's victory (by default) in the Cold War. What so many of these commentators forget is that both outcomes were entirely accidental, from Gorbachev's perspective, and by no means are his leadership and legacy praised as fulsomely in his native land as they are in the West. For us, Gorbachev's failures amount to his most signal virtues, but, since the Cold War was a zero-sum contest, that is only to be expected.

Gorbachev's most important contribution to world history, it can be argued, was his stewardship of the Soviet Union in its death throes, when he narrowly beat back a coup launched by communist hardliners, and when the dangers of autocratic regression, and even military aggression, were very considerable. A cornered animal is, by all accounts, a dangerous one. A cornered and wounded animal is the most dangerous of all.

The purpose of this article is neither to praise nor condemn Mikhail Gorbachev, however, but to reconsider the consequences of the Soviet Union's almost universally unexpected demise, and of America's greatest triumph: the crushing defeat of not one, but two, totalitarian ideologies in the 20th century.

Once the Soviet Union had been toppled, Americans and people throughout the West were inclined to celebrate, and indeed we did for a while enjoy lower defense costs, less exposure to the threat of nuclear annihilation, a tenuous monopoly on moral rectitude (amid a surge in the worldwide popularity of representative democracy and free enterprise economics), and a chance to refocus ourselves on meeting domestic challenges. For those in the USSR and Eastern Europe who were freed from communist misrule, the gains were even more notable, even if the transition to Western-style democracy and capitalism was not always smooth.

What we tend to forget, however, is that 40+ years of Cold War tensions, anxieties, and burdens also came with major upsides. The technological advances that arose as a side-effect of Western versus Soviet competition in space exploration and weapons manufacture are well known, but the chief advantage of our adversarial Cold War posture is rarely admitted: we were, for roughly two generations, largely united in facing down the threat of communist aggression. Americans and Europeans, who could agree on little else, could and did come together to defend the West's values, institutions, and territorial integrity from an odious form of imperialistic collectivism that was rightly seen as an existential threat, and all the more so when it acquired nuclear weapons and the capacity to deliver them on a gargantuan scale anywhere on the globe. And not only were America and Europe united in this noble quest, but so were, by and large, the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S., and the liberal/progressive and conservative movements.

The Soviets gave us a very precious gift, therefore: a common enemy, and one which was tailor-made to capture our attention, to hone our focus, to motivate us to achieve new and evermore marvelous feats in the technical, industrial, economic,social-cultural, and political domains, and to distract us from the centrifugal forces that might otherwise have overwhelmed us.

And therein lies the tragedy of Gorbachev's accidental obliteration of his very own “evil empire”. Its consignment to the dustbin of history left triumphant Westerners like ourselves with no one to strive against, and, just as importantly, no one to hate. No one, that is, but ourselves.

True, bloodthirsty Islamic terrorists and rogue state tyrants gave us a slight but scrumptious aftertaste of the moral certitude and sense of purpose we had enjoyed during the Cold War, but they were no substitute for the likes of Stalin, Mao, and Brezhnev. To a large extent, therefore, since 1991, we Westerners have turned against each other to satisfy our moralistic and combative urges, and against even our own institutions, values, and erstwhile heroes.

The rapid progress and popularization of cultural Marxism, the denigration of Western societies as racist, sexist, homophobic, and systemically unjust, and the low esteem in which Western Civilization, the U.S. Constitution, Christianity, and capitalism are now held, all point to an insidious sickness permeating Western society.

We live in a time when young Americans view socialism more favorably than capitalism, and Gen Z is the most atheistic and agnostic in American history. Meanwhile, the professors and college administrators charged with inculcating the accumulated wisdom of the West, and sound moral values, in the rising generation are veering further and further left – left of Marx himself, in certain respects. Self-described conservatives are essentially absent from the leadership structures and faculties of higher ed, and elementary and secondary education is scarcely any better. Wokeness, cultural Marxism, and identity politics are increasingly the dogmas on which our new civic religion is based. This kind of civilizational rot threatens to demolish the West far more effectively than Soviet tanks and apparatchiks ever could.

In short, the Soviet Union and communism's defeat and destruction, and the triumph of America and the West in the Cold War, ironically stole from us our greatest strengths: our unity and our self-belief. Much as the USSR collapsed fundamentally because its own elite no longer believed in its foundational ideology, nor in the wickedness of its ideological foes, we too face obliteration, because our elites have also turned their backs on the institutions, values, and principles that made the West what it is today.

When we are finally done celebrating communism's downfall, therefore, we will have to face the unpleasant reality that, without an evil empire on which to fix our gaze, all we have left to look at is our own reflection. And, at least to our current ruling class, the picture that emerges is every bit as terrible and hideous as what they once perceived on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Their judgment is atrocious, needless to say, but that will be little comfort as they lead us to perdition.


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 World Net Daily:

 

https://www.wnd.com/2022/09/cold-wars-end-precipitated-ruin-west/ 

 

In other news, Yours Truly stars in a hard-hitting Sputnik News piece about the absurdity of President Biden's recent efforts to demonize "MAGA Republicans".  Sleepy Joe doesn't scare me one little bit!

 

https://sputniknews.com/20220902/analyst-bidens-speech-left-democrats-are-genuine-threat-to-us-democracy-not-maga-or-trump-1100323537.html