Camelot, or Camelittle?

 

Friends, it looks like RFK, Jr. has decided to cross the Rubicon: he's abandoning the Democratic Party (which long ago abandoned him) to run for president either as an independent or as a libertarian.  Interesting!!!  This race gets more intriguing by the day, doesn't it?  I can't wait to see the first polls that give the voters the choice of Trump, Biden, RFK, Jr., or Cornel West.  Wowee!  I'll be honest: I would strongly consider voting for RFK, Jr. myself.  Of all the candidates in the running, he's the one I most respect as a man, as a thinker, and as a citizen willing to risk his own comfort, security, and reputation to serve this country, as best as he's able.  Of course, I don't agree with him on a lot of key issues, and that may ultimately make supporting him impossible, but we'll see.  In any event, it's the Dems who will be most worried and chagrined at the news that they'll have both West and Kennedy threatening them on their left flank.  Things are looking up, in short!

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/rfk-jr-2024-election-joe-biden/2023/09/29/id/1136464/

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/29/report-robert-f-kennedy-jr-to-exit-democrat-primary-run-as-independent/ 

Trump, Like It Or Not!

 

Friends, many Republicans are beginning to ask themselves: has the Trump train already left the station?  That is, is Trump destined to be the GOP nominee, or is there someone else who stands even a remote chance of usurping the nomination?  Of course, technically, we're a long way from knowing who the Republican presidential candidate will be, but it's increasingly hard to imagine what dynamics could change between now and early 2024 that would upset Trump's solid grip on the Republican base.  Incarceration?  Alien abduction?  Defection to Mother Russia?  In many ways, the adversarial prosecutions of Trump are the greatest thing that could have happened to his reelection campaign, so...thanks, Demo-rats!  Smooth move.

This is just one of the scintillating topics that Brian and I cover this week on the Newsmaker Show.  We also consider whether Joe Biden's outreach to the UAW will make him any more viable in 2024, whether Tucker Carlson is right that politics is one big lie, if the second Republican presidential debate will be more or less consequential than the first, the looming debate between Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis and what it means for 2024, whether Trump is vulnerable on the issue of his age, the role of emotions in modern politics, why Bob Menendez's legal troubles are so significant to the future of the country, the prospects for RFK, Jr. as a potential Libertarian Party candidate for president, and the souring national mood on the economy and why it may doom Joe Biden.  We even tip our hat to "This Day in History" by analyzing some of the key developments of 1938-39.

Gosh golly!  Radio hasn't been this informative and uplifting since "Amos 'n' Andy", am I right?  Oops -- I just got banned from the internet for life!  Oh well.  It was nice knowing you.  Ha!

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-september-27-2023-dr-nick-waddy/

***

In other news, Donald Trump has been found liable for business-related fraud by a New York judge.  Gee, how shocking!  The no-holds-barred campaign of lawfare being directed against Trump by the Left and its creatures in our "justice system" is, alas, only just beginning, but already it's having an impact.  Whether that impact will ultimately be helpful or hurtful to Trump himself, politically, remains to be seen.  Another case in point, as you'll see in the second article, is a potential "gag order" that a federal judge may impose on Trump -- as a prelude to holding him in contempt and throwing him in the clink.  That's how democracy works in these United States, in case you hadn't heard...

https://www.breitbart.com/news/judge-rules-donald-trump-defrauded-banks-insurers-as-he-built-real-estate-empire/

https://news.yahoo.com/column-federal-judge-finally-impose-230949712.html

Lastly, even woke Target is sounding the alarm about the rise of theft and violent crime in our biggest cities.  They're closing nine stores in areas where doing business has become essentially impossible, and literally unsafe.  Will the Dems finally wake up and address the crime wave?  I wouldn't count on it -- not unless or until they start losing elections.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/26/target-says-it-will-close-nine-stores-citing-violence-and-theft-.html

Buyer's Remorse?

 

Friends, it wasn't so long ago that the mainstream media was gushing about how "cool" Joe Biden was, how effective and competent, and how easily he might sail to reelection, given Trump's obvious insanity and criminality, and due to the economic miracle of "Bidenomics".  Well, all that crowing is a thing of the past, as the media has just begun to notice that, for some strange reason, people don't seem to like Biden all that much.  They actually believe some of the "right-wing" smears made against him, in fact.  What gives???

Take a look at these two polls, published today.  The ABC News/Washington Post poll really grabs your attention.  It has Trump ahead of Biden nationally by 9-10 points.  Wow!  The NBC News poll is more pedestrian, on the face of it -- it shows Trump and Biden tied, in a head-to-head race, and Trump with a small edge in a multi-candidate field -- but it also indicates major headwinds for President Biden.  What's almost more interesting than the raw numbers is how the "journalists" at ABC and NBC make sense of them.  You can see that they're incredulous and bemused.  After all, how, from their perspective, could the American people be so stupid as to express more or less equal regard for Joe Biden, grandfatherly progressive statesman, and Donald Trump, traitorous, felonious windbag?  And yet they do.  Given these realities, you can tell that the pollsters are very, very nervous about having Biden as the Democratic candidate.  And they should be!  What will these nerves ultimately mean for the 2024 race?  They could mean that, by and by, the Dems will dump their albatross and find a better candidate.  To forestall this calamity, I recommend a Republican impeachment inquiry against Biden...STAT!

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/troubles-biden-age-reelection-campaign-poll/story?id=103436611

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/first-read/poll-overwhelming-majorities-express-concerns-biden-trump-ahead-2024-r-rcna111347 

Trans-itory Success?

 

Friends, in a sign that opponents of transgender ideology and "gender-affirming care" for minors temporarily enjoy the upper hand in terms of public opinion, leftist stalwart and presidential hopeful California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would require a parent's "affirmation" of their child's "gender identity" to be part of custody considerations.  Wow!  I would expect California to execute summarily any parent that didn't dance a jig at the news that their child wanted to get his/her/its genitals removed.  Why, though, do I, uhh, affirm that this victory might be illusory and temporary?  Read the A.P. story below on the declining availability in red states of "gender-affirming care".  It's the furthest thing from objective news reporting you could imagine.  Our progressive elite is "all in" for transgenderism, and they tend to get their way, don't they?  Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but, if they want your child's genitals on a silver platter, I predict they'll get 'em!

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/newsom-transgender-courts/2023/09/23/id/1135657/

 

https://www.breitbart.com/news/some-providers-are-dropping-gender-affirming-care-for-kids-even-in-cases-where-its-legal/ 

In other news, Jimmy Carter is still alive!  Who knew?  I applaud him for the long, fulfilling life he's led in presidential retirement.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/jimmy-carter-rosalynn-carter-plains/2023/09/23/id/1135656/

 

Finally, file this one under: "Duh!"  Democrats and progressives are increasingly non-religious, or, as they prefer to call it, "spiritual".  Religious identification and belief has become one of the biggest fault lines in American politics and American life, as a matter of fact.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/23/losing-faith-religious-identification-among-democrats-crashes-20-points-in-20-years/ 

Semi-Free Speech, And Only For People We Like!

 

Friends, a lot of the most interesting news stories today have a consistent theme: our right to free speech, and the various ways in which that fundamental right is imperiled.  For one thing, it seems increasingly likely that the Biden Administration will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court to try to maintain its ability to...persuade/cajole social media companies into persecuting and silencing those who dare to refute deep state orthodoxy.  Talk about a high stakes case!  Also, there's a poll that reveals what we already knew: Democrats and liberals/progressives are much more comfortable than conservatives with the idea of restricting speech.  In many cases, lefties don't even care what's being said.  Their urge to proscribe has more to do with who's saying it!  Scary stuff.  In addition, we have below an account of a man who was locked out of all of his Amazon devices, and "the cloud", simply because a black delivery driver erroneously reported that his doorbell (I kid you not!) was racist.  He had to prove his innocence, but the scariest part is that Amazon's devices are in our pockets and in our homes, and the company is thus in a position to surveil us indiscriminately, and to persecute us or cut us off altogether if it doesn't like the cut of our jib.  Lastly, I offer you the Wall Street Journal's defense of Rupert Murdoch and his legacy.  Whatever you may think of Murdoch and Fox, he did completely revolutionize the news business and make Republican/conservative news, opinion, and analysis, well, possible.  Fox and News Corp may not be on the frontier of conservative thought anymore -- in fact, they may have defected to the establishment in important ways -- but they blazed a trail that many others, including myself, are still pursuing, even as I write these very words!

https://nypost.com/2023/09/20/how-dr-jay-bhattacharya-beat-biden-administration-censorship/

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/real_clear_opinion_research/poll_is_censorship_a_partisan_issue_149790.html

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/man-amazon-erased

https://www.wsj.com/articles/rupert-murdoch-retire-news-corp-wall-street-journal-fox-news-bc053f0?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

 

In other news, Senator Bob Menendez (D - New Jersey) has been indicted on charges of corruption.  This puzzles me, because he's a Democrat, and isn't the purpose of our system of justice to protect "democracy"...by persecuting Republicans?  Very odd!

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/nj-sen-bob-menendez-and-wife-indicted-on-bribery-charges-prosecutors/4702810/

 

Nikki Haley has gained some momentum of late, due perhaps to her strong performance in the recent Republican debate.  She's criticizing DJT for his wishy-washy position on Ukraine.  Certainly Trump has been more willing to criticize Ukraine and the West's lavish support for that country than most Republicans, but whether, as president, he would fundamentally change our (adversarial) relationship with Russia is questionable.  The establishment kept President Trump on a short leash last time (think: Trump's failed attempt to pull us out of Syria), and, as someone suspected of "collusion" with Russia, he might feel a lot of political pressure to stand firm against Putin.  In any case, Trump's position on the Russia-Ukraine War only matters if he becomes president again, and I personally don't regard that as very likely.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/22/nikki-haley-criticizes-trump-hes-weak-knees-it-comes-ukraine/

 

Here's an extremely interesting analysis of what ails Western Civilization and civil society by Christopher Rufo.  He suggests that we are now dominated by an elite afflicted by a range of psychological abnormalities, and which exults in its collective psychosis.  He puts much of the blame on the feminization of modern society and women's tendency to elevate victimhood and grievance over all other possible standards of rectitude.  There's much truth in what he says, but, as always, we might also question how many of these pathologies afflict us, as conservatives, too.

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/09/20/christopher_rufo_welcome_to_the_cluster_b_society_public_life_has_been_consumed_by_hysteria_and_narcissism.html 

Finally, there are signs of dissension amongst the Chicoms, which, as per usual, we in the West might be tempted to applaud as a sign of China's impending decline, but on the other hand we might also find deeply troubling, since an unstable superpower is, almost by definition, a dangerous one!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-66875526

Death to America (But Less So When You Pay Up)!!!

 

Friends, everyone can agree that paying the Ayatollah not to murder us is a masterstroke of U.S. foreign policy.  Well, everyone can agree on that when Biden does it.  If Trump did it, presumably consensus would be more...elusive?  I expect so.  This is just one of many hard-hitting analytical flourishes that Brian and I pursue on this week's Newsmaker Show.  We also discuss the practicalities of potential Chinese aggression against Taiwan, the absurdity of the inflated rhetoric of Ukrainian warlord/President Zelensky, the growing Dem jitters about Candidate Biden, the acquittal of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the politics of abortion in the Republican Party, the significance of the demise of the Senate's dress code, and the establishment media's contempt for the public's concerns about the strength of the U.S. economy.

Golly!  Can one twenty minute interview really get to the bottom of ALL of those hot-button issues?  Yes!  Yes, it can.

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-september-20-2023-dr-nick-waddy/

 

***

 

In other news, check out some of the early state polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, i.e. polls from Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.  There's one clear theme: Donald Trump is way ahead.  There's another clear theme: the majority of voters in these critical states aren't sold on Trump, but, of those, they are dividing their support between a number of different contenders.  If that keeps up, DJT will sail to the nomination.  On the other hand, if the anti-Trump, or Trump-skeptical, wing of the GOP ever coalesces behind a single candidate, he/she could make a race of it.  In short, it ain't over yet!  In fact, it hasn't even begun.

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/ 

Here's an interesting analysis of international aid to Ukraine.  Of course, the U.S. tops the list, but many European countries are forking over many, many billions to support the Zelensky regime.  It's been a long time since the West was so united in advocating and funding any cause -- in this case, a rather dubious one!

https://www.bbc.com/news/66870559

 

Arguably, Americans won't care much about the progress of the Trump trials in 2024, or even their outcomes.  They might write all this off as "politics as usual", even though there's nothing terribly "usual" about 91 felony indictments against a former president.  Be all this as it may, the most important aspect of the Trump prosecutions may be efforts by prosecutors to muzzle Trump, which could limit his effectiveness as a candidate, or even incarcerate him for critical periods during the campaign.  Note the moxie of Special Counsel Jack Smith's stated reason for a gag order against Trump: he "has an established practice of issuing inflammatory public statements targeted at individuals or institutions that present an obstacle or challenge to him".  Oh really?  And Biden doesn't???  Every politician trashes those who "present an obstacle or challenge" them.  It's called...politics!  It's also called free speech.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/trump-smith-gag-order/2023/09/20/id/1135261/

Question: How Many U.S. Senators Can You Fit in a VW Bug?

 

Friends, today's query is more germane than ever, now that Chuck Schumer has announced that the Senate's dress code is a thing of the past.  Of course, norms and rules and laws only mean anything to Democrats when they can obtain some advantage from them...and, darn it all, John Fetterman wants to wear gym shorts to Joe Biden's impeachment trial, so why shouldn't he?  From the Dems' perspective, dressing down, or hurling profane insults at their enemies, is a good way of expressing oneself, "speaking truth to power", and undertaking "social justice action".  In the process, our nation's esteemed legislators will, perforce, look more and more like the patrons at a laundromat, if we're lucky, and like court jesters, if we're not.  But perhaps all this is fitting, given the increasingly farcical nature of our politics.  After all, if you can't get a good laugh out of a U.S. Senator, what can you get?

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/18/come-as-you-are-schumer-gives-thumbs-up-to-end-of-senate-dress-code/

Here's a reasonably honest, if noncommittal, analysis of where Ukraine stands in its offensive versus Russian occupying forces.  The upshot: Ukraine isn't making much progress, but it can continue to feed young Ukrainians into the meatgrinder indefinitely, as long as Joe Biden remains president and U.S. dollars continue to flow.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66796358

Would You Like Fries With That, Sonny?

 

Friends, dining at McDonald's is one of the greatest delights that America has to offer -- no one questions that!  But is working at McDonald's what every senior citizen dreams of?  Alas, more and more elderly Americans are coming up short on their retirement savings, and, thus, they are compelled to work way past 65.  A little foresight goes a long way, of course, and, if more people were to start saving for their "sunset years" earlier on, we'd all be in a better place, especially considering that Uncle Sam is on the hook when oldsters fail to plan ahead.  My latest article is about an intriguing new trend at the state level that's encouraging private retirement savings.  I think it has real promise.  See if you don't agree.

https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2023/09/16/americas-most-popular-retirement-plan-shouldnt-be-work-til-i-drop-n2628306

Godliness is Making a Comeback...in Florida Schools

 

Friends, the presidential campaign of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis may be going nowhere fast, but many people don't even know that his administration has notched one of the most important victories won by conservatives at the state level in decades: it has created a nearly universal, state-funded school choice program.  As a result, parents are choosing where to send their kids to school, and many are opting for religious education over neo-Marxist indoctrination in the public schools.  I say: bully for Florida!  What's more, we need many more states to implement these far-sighted and life-changing programs.  They're, incidentally, the best and maybe the only hope of saving the next generation from slavery to "progressivism".

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2023/09/15/florida_scholarship_programs_are_a_smart_investment_979804.html

In other news, this article suggests that the DOJ's indictments of Hunter Biden are all smoke and mirrors, and I agree!

https://thespectator.com/topic/beware-the-dojs-hunter-biden-distraction/

How bad can our porous borders get, and is the danger to Western Civilization and law and order existential?  Yes!  Sadly, even when a Western country elects a sensible leader, like Giorgia Meloni in Italy, she often can't do much to stem the flood of humanity coming from the developing world.  That's because the whole legal and bureaucratic infrastructure of the deep state wants unchecked migration, and is a long way from crying uncle.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/14/lampedusa-italy-shows-america-the-future-of-lawless-immigration/

Fox News's latest poll reveals plenty of good news for Donald Trump, which is ironic because his negatives are about as high as ever.  The bottom line is that doubts about Joe Biden are so strong that many Americans would vote for Trump regardless of their distaste for the man.

https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/09/Fox_September-9-12-2023_National_Topline_September-14-Release.pdf

Here's an interesting story about Ukraine (and Democrats) complaining because Elon Musk's Starlink satellites can't be used to kill Russians.  Why, failure to kill Russians is the most monstrous thing of which Musk has ever been accused!!!

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/elon-musk-ukraine-starlink/2023/09/15/id/1134622/

Lastly, the Trump Administration accumulated what could best be described as a mixed and ambiguous record on COVID.  Trump argues that, in the fog of biological warfare, as it were, he couldn't be expected to get everything right the first time.  On this score, I agree.  Needless to say, Trump got a lot of bad advice during the pandemic, and he followed way too much of it, but who among us understands COVID in all its complexities, and knows for sure what the best way to defeat it is?

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/09/15/trump-on-if-hed-like-do-over-on-supporting-mask-mandates-nobody-knew-what-covid-was/

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?

 

Friends, the vast majority of this week's Newsmaker Show, featuring me and Brian O'Neil, covers current events, but we briefly get into the lessons of history, and I reflect on the significance and legacy of the Berlin Wall.  Now, everyone remembers the Wall as a nasty feature of totalitarian communism, and it was, but it was also a cynically useful device for maintaining the stability of East and West Germany, which stood on the fault line between democracy and communism, NATO and the Warsaw Pact.  In a perverse way, the Wall may even have made life better (and possible!) for all concerned.  Well, most.  Not the several hundred who died trying to cross over (or under) it...

In terms of breaking news, Brian and I dissect the efforts to remove Donald Trump from the presidential ballot in 2024, and why they may have legs; Russia's newfound coziness with North Korea, and how China may be involved; the chronic inability of both parties to practice fiscal responsibility; and the looming impeachment inquiry re: Joe Biden and its likely political fallout.  

Now that's some top-grade radio commentary!

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-september-13-2023-dr-nick-waddy/

***

But that's not all!!!  You also have access to Herr Professor Doktor Waddy's latest article, which discusses the fiscal crisis we now face, and the irony that young people, who are most impacted by our indebtedness, seem least bothered by it:

https://www.wnd.com/2023/09/red-ink-u-s-risks-falling-off-fiscal-cliff/

***

But there's more!!!

A prominent left-wing columnist is calling on Joe Biden to step aside and let someone else represent Team Blue in 2024 -- and for one simple reason: he wants the Dems to win rather than lose.  Does it matter?  That's up to Joe Biden and the Democratic Party establishment.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/12/biden-trump-election-step-aside/

A new Iowa poll shows Trump way ahead of Biden, but it also shows Biden performing worse when voters are given the additional choice of Cornel West.  I still haven't seen any poll giving voters the choices of Trump, Biden, West, Kennedy, or Manchin.  Now that would be interesting...

https://emersoncollegepolling.com/iowa-2024-biden-and-trump-remain-frontrunners-in-caucuses-but-both-losing-ground/

Finally, the Dems are scratching their heads, wondering why we aren't all in love with Bidenomics.  Well, this article might provide part of the answer: last year, real incomes fell, and by a lot!  Why would people feel good about an economy in which their real purchasing power is in decline?

https://fortune.com/2023/09/12/real-household-income-inflation/

Crazy Is As Crazy Does

 

Friends, as ludicrous as it may seem in the circles in which you and I move, there is a decent chance that Donald Trump can and will be excluded from the ballot in some states or localities because of his participation in an "insurrection".  But there was no "insurrection", you howl!  Well, what's an "insurrection"?  Answer: it's whatever a judge says it is.  There's a group trying to eject Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado, and they believe that it's obvious that their interpretation of the 14th Amendment is correct.  And "top legal minds" agree!  What's more important is that a January 6th "insurrectionist" (actually, he was a trespasser, at most, and never even entered the Capitol) has already been removed from office and forbidden from ever running again.  This happened in the state of New Mexico, and the State Supreme Court has upheld the use of the 14th Amendment for this purpose.  Now, inexplicable to me is why the enforcement of the federal constitution would be the business of a county or a state judge in the first place, or why this alleged "insurrectionist" hasn't appealed to a federal court to overrule this capricious, anti-democratic action at the state level.  I mean, what's to prevent judges in a deep red state from removing Joe Biden from the ballot in 2024?  I mean, he's given "aid or comfort" to America's enemies on countless occasions.  Presto!  He's disqualified.  What's to prevent this?  A) Republicans' sense of fair play, and B) federal oversight.  My view is that the federal courts, and ultimately the Supreme Court, better weigh in on this issue soon, or else the 2024 election might be over before it's started.  I hasten to add that, even if Trump was only removed from the ballot in a handful of states, or a handful of counties, depending on which states and which counties did it, it would render the 2024 election completely meaningless and certainly unwinnable for Trump.  And that, naturally, is the idea.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/colorado-voters-want-ban-trump-2024-lawsuit-rcna104176

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-faces-14th-amendment-suits-cuoy-griffin-speaks/story?id=103009491

Why is such radical, unprecedented, irresponsible, undemocratic action necessary?  It's obvious, from a leftist perspective: they simply can't abide another four years of THE EVIL ONE, and they have declining confidence in the ability of Joe Biden to win a fair fight -- and for good reason!

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/van-jones-joe-biden-age/2023/09/11/id/1133982/

Do people (especially Americans) ever learn from history?  Well, if we study the lessons of history, we'd have to say...NO!  This article suggests that we're afflicted with some serious tunnel vision when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine War.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/afghanistan-war/

Taking a Header for Waddy

 

Friends, it has only now occurred to me that I forgot to post this week's Newsmaker Show interview between Brian O'Neil and myself.  Quelle horreur!!!  I feel indescribably crestfallen about this, especially since I can only imagine that, for many of my most ardent fans, a week without Waddy renders them (or you) a danger to themselves (or yourselves).  My deepest apologies!  I doubt very much that this oversight will ever be repeated, but, if it is, I implore you to delve deep into the Waddy archives as an alternative to self-harm.

 

This week's show, in any case, covers some deeply engrossing topics, like: what Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump have in common, whether the deep state can ever be tamed, our "least bad option" democracy, the staying power of Joe Biden, the terrifying growth in deficit spending, the prospects for Fani Willis' witch hunt versus Donald Trump, the politics of redistricting, the foreign policy advice of Viktor Orban, the death throes (?) of Ukraine, and the degree of Chinese control over the Panama Canal.  Historically, we also remember Germany's failed gambit to bully Britain into submission during the Blitz of 1940-41.

Can you believe I almost neglected to share these various analytical gems with Waddy Nation???  Oof!  Boy, do I have egg on my face.

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-september-7-2023-dr-nick-waddy/

"Saving Democracy" Comes in Many Flavors

 

Friends, perhaps the biggest piece of breaking news is RFK, Jr.'s declaration that the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is effectively "rigged" (no kidding!), and that therefore he might need to "look at other alternatives".  What does that mean?  It's hard to imagine it could mean anything except running for president as an independent, or forming a breakway faction of the Demcratic Party itself and then running for president as its candidate.  Either way, this could spell serious trouble for Sleepy Joe and Co., and could help to make the 2024 campaign one of the wildest and most unpredictable in history.  Bring it on, I say!  Giving voters more choices is, from one perspective, the very essence of democracy.  From the Democrats' point of view, however, the best form of democracy is that in which voters can choose from a maximum number of one candidate.  And they're steadily reframing American democracy to make it so!

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/09/08/robert_f_kennedy_jr_dnc_rigging_primary_for_biden_i_may_need_to_look_at_other_alternatives.html

 

A case in point: the rules of the game, in terms of how elections are run, have been turned upside down since 2020, and there's little sign that we're ever going back to the way things were.  Tens of millions of "low-propensity" Democratic voters will be voting by mail in 2024, and the only way to beat the dastardly Dems, therefore, is to find plenty of low-propensity Republicans and conservatives to match them.  And it can be done!

 

https://themessenger.com/opinion/democrats-2024-magic-bullet-mass-mail-in-voting 

Robert Reich is a loony, to be sure, and he equates guaranteeing Trump's loss in 2024 with the safeguarding of "democracy", which means, in other words, that he hasn't a clue what democracy is!  Be this as it may, he has some excellent advice for Democrats and Trump-haters.  Winning elections comes down to taking action, and, especially for our side, taking the right kind of action that won't shoot our cause in the foot.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/06/election-2024-beginning-how-to-stop-trump

 

There's one very good sign for 2024, and that's that the social media environment should be less hostile, or at least less uniformly hostile, to Republicans and conservatives than it was in 2020.  That's because of Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, and it's because the federal courts are getting serious about curbing the federal government's sponsorship of censorship.

 

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-administrations-policing-of-online-content-likely-violated-free-speech-rights-court-rules-302cd37d?mod=hp_listc_pos3 

The stakes could not be higher!  We know that in part because recently a sitting U.S. Senator very narrowly escaped prosecution for merely asking questions and doing his job.  Fani Willis decided not to charge Lindsey Graham with any crimes related to the attempts to overturn the election results in Georgia in 2020, but you better believe that, if the trial of DJT and his codefendants creates a precedent that political speech can be recast as organized crime, many, many Republican elected officials will soon find themselves fighting off adversarial prosecutions.  We need to win this fight, or the dam will break and dissent itself will soon be criminal.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/sen-lindsey-graham-surprised-grand-jury/2023/09/08/id/1133781/

 

Finally, the integrity of our constitutional rights is facing a stern test in New Mexico, where a Democratic Governor is suspending the right to keep and bear arms.  She cites an "emergency" related to gun violence.  Well, "emergencies" come and go, and they can be manfactured on demand, as we all know.  One wonders, by the way, whether this Governor and her aides will be prosecuted for conspiring to subvert the people's democratic and constitutional rights...  Sounds like a good RICO case to me!  I rather doubt any Republican prosecutor has that much imagination.  Prove me wrong!

 

https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2023/09/09/new-mexico-gov-michelle-lujan-grishami-ssues-order-suspending-concealed-carry-self-defense/ 

Biden Fatigue

 

Friends, believe it or not, this post is not about how tired, old, and senile Joe Biden is.  Instead, it's about how tired America is of Joe Biden.  His numbers look increasingly shaky, even among Democrats, and, according to CNN, a long list of Republicans look like they could beat him, including Donald Trump -- especially when you consider that Republicans can win the electoral college even should they lose the national popular vote by a point or two or three.  And they aren't losing the national popular vote, according to the polls, at all.  The bottom line is that Biden is not in a strong position.  Is it time for the Dems to hit the panic button?  That's up to them.  I say...it's time to wheel out the impeachment battering ram and attack Joe Biden frontally.  That will draw Democrats closer to him and saddle the dastardly Dems with a dud of a candidate, which is okay by me!

 

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23940784-cnn-poll 

Judgement Day? Psh! Not Likely

 

Friends, it now appears that the DOJ will indict Hunter Biden for...something.  That doesn't entirely obviate the possibility that a future plea deal will let him off the hook, but it does suggest that Hunter will face criminal proceedings around the same time that Donald Trump is slammed by multiple trials in early 2024.  Gee, color me shocked!  The same justice system that seeks to OBLITERATE a former president for having the temerity to exercise his right of free speech is also, to its IMMEASURABLE credit, willing to try a guy for tax and weapons violations, and maybe even for failing to register as a foreign agent.  The logic is pretty straightforward, it seems to me: the prosecution of Hunter Biden will make the DOJ look like it pursues the privileged and powerful based on the principles of blind justice -- and therefore the multiple prosecutions of DJT will have enhanced credibility.  Only a fool would be taken in by this tortured logic, mind you, but elections have been waged and won based on less creditable schemes before.  Plus, the beauty of United States vs. Hunter Biden is that everyone, including Hunter, knows that the outcome of the trial doesn't matter, because, assuming his Dad wins reelection, he'll never face any form of punishment regardless.  One day after the election is over, Joe Biden can and will pardon his son.  Count on it.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/06/court-filing-david-weiss-intends-indict-hunter-biden-before-end-month/

 

How did the U.S. budget deficit double in the last year?  That depends on who you ask: Democrats or Republicans.  Here are two competing analyses.  My take: both are deeply flawed, because they barely mention entitlements, the biggest driver of government expenditures.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/us-deficit-explodes-even-as-economy-grows/ar-AA1gaEkm 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/democratic-deficits-could-doom-us-economy

 

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58888 

Choking on Red Ink

 

Friends, no one questions that Bidenomics is the greatest form of -nomics that the Biden family has ever been associated with, but be this as it may we do have a bit of an economic/fiscal problem in this country: spending is way, way up, and revenue is simultaneously down.  Now, sometimes when there's a giant war, a pandemic, or a recession, these things happen.  This year, though, nothing of the kind occurred, and yet the deficit is expected to double!  The only thing that happened to cause this calamity is...Bidenomics.  Theoretically, our brave Republican representatives and Senators are scrambling to plug these fiscal leaks and get us back on solid ground (to mix metaphors, unless you happen to be Dutch), but in reality neither party is prepared to risk committing electoral suicide by suggesting serious cuts to entitlement programs, like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  Without a reassessment of these runaway costs, things will only go from bad to worse.  In the short term, inflation looks like it's coming down, but interest rates are still rising, and they may have to stay high just to keep inflation in check.  This means government borrowing costs will be oppressive...and possibly that even bigger deficits will be required to service the debt and keep spending at a high level as well.  Of course, Joe Biden neither admits that we're in a quandry here, nor does he care, so long as the Dems can spend their way to victory in 2024.  If they can do that, then, most Dems assume, the GOP will self-destruct or become unelectable, or both, the Supreme Court will be packed or cowed or sidelined, and, in the fullness of time, the country's fiscal and economic oblivion won't matter, because "the right people" will oversee it and make sure that it works out to their advantage.  Sad to say, but all these assumptions are probably correct.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/joe-biden-inflation-spending/2023/09/04/id/1133153/

 

In other news, Elon Musk is taking aim at the (Jewish) "Anti-Defamation League", which is generally a bad idea, because, uhh, the ADL is always right and I love it to pieces!  Please don't squish me like a bug, ADL!!!  I swear, I'll never eat pork again.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/elon-musk-adl-x/2023/09/04/id/1133176/

 

Some people think that a new Georgia law will be used against Fani Willis, the Fulton County prosecutor who has Donald Trump and 18 other Trumpers in her sights.  Among those who think Willis is in danger of losing her job, however, is NOT Georgia's Governor Brian Kemp, who apparently believes that jailing politicians for saying things that hurt his feelings is a-okay.  It's probably more likely that the federal courts will come to Trump's aid than that Georgia legislators will.  In any case, the line taken by this article is pretty laughable.  It suggests that efforts by Georgia legislators to remove rogue prosecutors are "undemocratic and unconstitutional".  Prosecutors should have full discretion to do as they please, obviously!  Now, wasn't the Georgia legislature...elected?  I think so, last time I checked.  And what's so "constitutional" about giving prosecutors carte blanche to override important constitutional principles, like freedom of speech (not to mention denying the voters the opportunity to choose our next president)?  If Fulton County voters have authority over Fani Willis, and they do, because they can remove her, then why shouldn't Georgia voters have a say as well?

 

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nysun.com%2Farticle%2Fcould-a-new-georgia-law-defeat-fani-willis-before-she-tries-trump 

"Democracy" Means I'm Right and You're Wrong!

 

Friends, "democracy" is one of the most popular terms in political discourse these days (and has been ever since 1776), but its meaning is surprisingly slippery.  The amusing analysis below points out that leftists love "democracy", but they aren't quite sure that the people can be trusted to take charge of it -- which is to say, they like their "democracy" from the top down.

https://www.racket.news/p/tracking-orwellian-change-democracy

 

Meanwhile, check out this A.P. story, which is a shining example of the absolute contempt that the Fourth Estate has for democracy in action.  In a nutshell, a Florida judge has struck down the (admittedly gerrymandered) Congressional redistricting plan approved by Florida's legislature and its Governor Ron DeSantis.  The story does not contextualize this development in any way, except to describe it as symptomatic of Republican racism and skullduggery.  What context is missing?  Well, who is this Florida judge, and what are the chances that the State Supreme Court will uphold his ruling?  Answer: he's nobody, and he ain't going to be upheld.  Do Republicans gerrymander in a vacuum, or, perhaps, has any blue state ever engaged in the same practice, and, if so, has the A.P. ever cared one bit about it?  These questions answer themselves.  More to the point of this post, the A.P. never considers the obvious problem that the current redistricting plan became law because the people of Florida elected the current legislature, and the current Governor!  That's called, last time I checked, "democracy", but the LAST thing the A.P. would want is for a Republican legislature and a Republican Governor to govern, because that wouldn't be, you guessed it, "democratic", would it?  Uh huh.  Sure.  I hope the existing map remains in force, because it advantages Republicans, yes, but also because it's the kind of political order that the people of Florida voted for.  And, if they don't like it, well, they can elect Andrew Gillum as their Governor next time, can't they?

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/florida-redistricting-politics-gerrymandering-desantis/2023/09/02/id/1133034/