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Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Switcheroo

 


Friends, me and Brian O'Neil got back in the groove today with another fine Newsmaker Show.  Naturally, we discussed the remarkable transformation of the race, with Joe Biden's (somewhat mysterious) exit and Kamala Harris's abrupt coronation.  "The King is dead!  Long live the King!"  We also ponder the polls and Kam-Kam's potential running mates.  In addition, Brian and I hash over J.D. Vance's controversial comments about childless women, the potential for a debate between Trump and Harris, the Democratic Party's emerging consensus on "reforming" the Supreme Court, the putatively blasphemous Olympic opening ceremonies, and the looming conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.


When we get to "This Day in History", we consider the heyday of the mafia in the 1970s, the logistical and organizational dimensions of the Holocaust, the incredible career of the Marquis de Lafayette, and the horrific Battle of Passchendaele in WWI.

 

 Did we just set a new standard in broadcasting excellence???  Silly question!  We do that every week.


https://wlea.net/newsmaker-july-31-2024-dr-nick-waddy/

 

***

 

In other news, we're starting to get a sense of how Kamala Harris will run her campaign for president: in a highly scripted, insular fashion.  The last thing she wants is to engage with the media, which will of course give her a pass as long as possible, but will eventually want to sink its hooks into her.  It will be most interesting to see whether Harris can hide in her metaphorical basement as effectively as Joe Biden hid in his actual basement four years ago.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/07/31/hiding-kamala-no-press-conferences-10-days-after-announcing-presidential-run/ 

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Oh La Vache!

 


Friends, I, like many, watched most of the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics last night.  It was...weird, to be sure.  To say it was "avant garde" would be an understatement.  I didn't care much for many of the post-modern elements, but I have to say, in the organizers' defense, that I didn't perceive any reference to the Last Supper as I watched.  It's now being claimed that the show included mockery of the Last Supper, by inserting drag queens and the like into a vaguely similar tableau, but that might be overinterpreting the matter.  I saw no explicit reference to Christianity at all.  Be that as it may, one would be hard-pressed to name any Olympic ceremony that interpreted gender norms quite so loosely and creatively.  My favorite part was the end, when Celine Dion sang, the Eiffel Tower was lit by a spectacular light show, and the Olympic flame ignited a great big cauldron at the base of a hot air balloon, which then ascended into the heavens.  Neat trick, that.  My takeaway: it's a shame the damage that wokeness has done to "high culture", but that damage is not yet quite so severe that the pageantry and esprit of the Games has been entirely eliminated.  Thank heavens for that!


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13678321/christians-slam-paris-olympics-opening-woke-supper.html

 

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2024/07/27/meet-the-french-theater-director-behind-the-olympics-drag-queens-same-sex-foreplay-queer-last-supper-opening-ceremony/ 


In other news, lest we forget, the stakes in the 2024 elections are high, not just in presidential terms, but in terms of the future of our courts and our system of separation of powers.  More and more Democrats want to pack the Supreme Court to negate the power that Trump-appointed justices now have there, and realistically they are just one highly successful election cycle away from doing it.  If they were to capture the White House, the House, AND the Senate, with a better than nominal majority in both chambers, they would probably push ahead and subordinate the Supreme Court to their whims once and for all.  At that stage, "democracy" really would be a dead letter.  A leftist Supreme Court would give even less heed to what the voters think than, oh, the Democratic National Convention, for instance.  So do what you can to prevent Kamala Harris from becoming president, sure, but don't neglect the importance of a strong Republican showing in House and Senate races as well.


https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jul/26/democrats-renew-push-to-expand-supreme-court/

 

Finally, DJT is reaching out to crypto enthusiasts and to the cryptocurrency industry, which is most interesting.  It demonstrates, among other things, just what a critical innovation crypto is and how integral it has become to "the market" as a whole.  I personally think there's no danger that crypto will ever displace the U.S. dollar, but it's a valid investment vehicle, and the U.S. government certainly has no business regulating it into oblivion.  And, yes, I have invested in crypto, so my motivations here are almost entirely ulterior!

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cne4n2xdylvo 

Thursday, July 25, 2024

The Walking Joke That Isn't So Funny

 


Friends, we conservatives have a tendency to underestimate politicians like Kamala Harris, because we find it so hard to imagine why anyone would want to support them and vote them into office, but taking your opponent lightly is the best and most efficient way to lose elections, so let's not go down that road, huh?  My latest article tries to put into perspective why Kam-Kam would be a disastrous leader for this country.  I only scratch the surface, but see if you don't agree with one or two of my arguments...


https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2024/07/25/kamala-harris-could-be-your-worst-nightmare-n2642503

 

In other news, both DJT and Kam-Kam agree that there must be a debate between them, but how many, when, and where is yet to be determined.  What fun!  Do you suppose that, if Harris underperforms, the Dems will replace her too?  Wouldn't that be a trip?

 

https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/07/25/kamala-harris-agrees-to-debate-donald-trump-im-ready/ 

Biden: The Cognitively Dissonant Candidate to the End

 


Friends, Biden gave his big speech yesterday explaining why he exited the race, and it left more questions unanswered than answered.  Basically, Biden said it was time for new, fresh, younger leadership (but for some reason it wasn't time last week?), and a change was also needed to "save democracy".  Funnily enough, "saving democracy" was the very reason Biden was running in the first place.  I guess it's a handy catchphrase that, for a Democrat, can be deployed in any situation, especially those involving the direct invalidation of democracy -- but there's nothing new in that.


https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c047281jj8do

 

In other news, a slew of polls have been published since Kamala Harris became the heir apparent, and by and large they paint a picture of a race that hasn't changed all that much.  Trump remains in the lead nationally, by a slim margin, and in the swing states, by a slim margin, and he enjoys slightly bigger leads when the race is considered a five-way contest instead of a head-to-head matchup.  What's more, Harris may be enjoying her "honeymoon period" with voters, and especially with the media, so one has to wonder if she's found her ceiling yet, in terms of public support.  The stark reality is...no one knows.  This race has been, statistically speaking, a lot less dynamic than it has been in the sense of bullets flying, candidacies imploding, etc.  The best guide to the future is indeed the past, but even that is an imperfect guide, to be sure.

 

https://www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls 

Monday, July 22, 2024

Musical Chairs

 


Friends, the selection of a running mate is the first substantive, high stakes decision that a presidential nominee has to make -- and, for Kamala Harris, it could just come just days after she becomes the presumptive frontrunner for the nomination, giving her very little time to weigh her options.  Who might Harris pick?  Who should she pick?  The smart choice would probably be a moderate, Southern white male Governor, but Harris isn't smart, so except something completely different.  Keep your eye on "Mayor Pete", our fearless and mostly clueless Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg.  He's Midwestern, white, male, and a military veteran...but he's also gay, which makes him palatable, and even exciting, to leftists.  In the end, though, when one asks "Who will Kamala pick?", the answer is a simple one: whoever the people who picked her tell her to.  That ain't the voters, that's for sure!


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/who-could-replace-harris-as-the-next-vice-presidential-candidate-meet-her-potential-choices/ar-BB1qnOA8

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/07/22/harris_vp_pick_could_make_or_break_her_chance_at_beating_trump_151305.html 

Sunday, July 21, 2024

So Long, Gramps!

 


Friends, in sign #3,727,841 that I have no idea what I'm talking about, today Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.  Wow!  He's been doggedly claiming that OF COURSE he's running for president, and only "God Almighty" could shift him out of campaign mode.  Well, it would appear that we've seen two instances of divine intervention in the presidential election in less than two weeks: Trump's narrow escape from death in Pennsylvania, and now Joe Biden's epiphany, leading to his departure from the race.  Holy moly!!!  What else can you say???  Obviously, Biden's crumbling support within the Democratic Party -- among Congresspeople and Senators, among donors, and perhaps most damningly among the gentlemen (and ladies) of the Fourth Estate -- dictated his miserable fate.  It all goes to show you what a farce the Democratic primary process was, which Biden won hands down, and how grossly irresponsible the media's suppression of candid discussion of Biden's physical and mental deterioration was.  Seldom have we seen a clearer demonstration of the fact that these people are, to be blunt, full of sh**!


Having said all that, now the country, and the Democratic Party, must move on.  Joe Biden issued a bland statement about his decision to resign, which it is fairly clear he didn't write himself, and he apparently has no plans to talk directly to the American people or the press about the matter until several days have passed. Shortly after he announced that he would not be running, he further declared that Vice-President Kamala Harris had his "full endorsement and support".  This statement, however, felt like an afterthought, and Biden's endorsement was not developed with, for example, any reasons why anyone would want to vote for her.  I would say, therefore, that it would be more accurate to say that Harris has Biden's half-hearted endorsement and support, and that describes how a lot of Democrats feel about one of the least popular vice-presidents in recent history.  

 

Needless to say, fierce battles are, as we speak, being fought in smoke-filled rooms to determine the shape of the process that will decide the new Democratic nominee, with an eye to ensuring that the "right" candidate emerges.  Who is that right candidate?  That depends largely on how much more uncertainty the Dems can stand.  Coronating Kamala would be the easiest, most straightforward thing to do, but that risks leaving the election stuck in a Trump-friendly groove, given Harris's obvious weaknesses.  If various candidates are permitted to announce their interest, and to campaign for the support of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, then a better, stronger candidate might emerge -- or the party could tear itself to shreds and large portions of the party elite and rank-and-file might come away from the process believing that it was misguided or even illegitimate.  The new Democratic standard-bearer might be fatally wounded before he, or she, even took the field against Trump.  

 

To make a long story short, therefore, the Dems are now -- still! -- in a position where they have no good options about how to move forward.  They've just disencumbered themselves of Joe Biden, yes, but they've simultaneously taken on a host of other challenges and burdens.  They're lucky, though, that they have a compliant media to help them pick up the pieces, which must give them some hope that, when all this chaos has ended and the party has settled on a candidate, the talking heads will do their best to make us forget that Joe Biden ever existed, or that the Democratic Party has ever been anything but united, focused, and ever so disciplined.  In other words, expect a campaign, come September, October, and November, straight out of 1984, in which the Democrats ask us to love and obey Leader X, and to fear and hate Donald Trump, without engaging in any unnecessary critical thinking, and certainly not with the aid of our faculty of memory, which, they might point out, isn't nearly as sound and trustworthy as, say, the judgement of the editorial board of the New York Times...

 

What an election year this has already been, and what an exciting finale we have in store!  The prognosis for the country may not be great, friends, but at least it's been a fun ride and not boring in the least.  Bullets flying, geriatric presidents retiring mid-campaign -- what will happen next???

 

https://x.com/JoeBiden 


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/president-joe-biden-drops-2024-presidential-race-rcna159867

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/jul/21/biden-drops-out-presidential-election 

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Peace in Our Time

 


Friends, in a very intriguing development, the West's favorite wind-up doll, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, made a non-collect call to none other than Donald J. Trump, to congratulate him on winning the GOP nomination and to express his outrage about the "heinous" attempt on his life.  Well well!  Trump said he appreciated the gesture, and both men referenced the possibility of peace talks with Russia.  Why is this interesting?  You would think that establishment leaders in the West would want their man in Kyiv to play along and help them ward off the threat posed by the wild-eyed populist/quasi-isolationist, Trump.  By speaking respectfully with and about Trump, Zelensky undercuts the Biden Administration's claims that electing Trump would lead, ipso facto, to the appeasement of Russian President Vladimir Putin.  In any case, Zelensky is being realistic, in the sense that Trump is now likely to win the election, and Ukraine will need to build a working relationship with him if it hopes to, well, survive as a country.  This is just one more sign, therefore, that the powers-that-be are coming to terms with the possibility, and even the probability, of a second term for Trump.


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/20/donald-trump-speaks-with-zelensky-vows-to-end-russian-war-in-ukraine/

 

And, just for fun, you might want to check out what the talking heads at MSNBC have been saying about Trump, Vance, and the Republican National Convention.  It's pretty unhinged stuff, which just goes to show you that these people are reaching very deep into their bag of tricks for a way to scare the Democratic base into ponying up more cash for Biden's failing candidacy.  You gotta feel for these shills, no?

 

https://nypost.com/2024/07/19/opinion/msnbc-has-gone-completely-crackpot-this-summer/ 

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

The Rats are Abandoning Ship

 


Friends, I hate to compare something as detestable as a Democrat to something as adorable and cuddly as a rat, but here the parallel is apt, I feel.  Today Adam Schiff, smarmy establishment Democrat par excellence, announced that Joe Biden should step aside and let someone else be the Democrats' presidential nominee.  Ouch!  I find the timing odd, because the Trump assassination and the RNC have really taken the wind out of the sails of those Dems who were plotting against Biden.  In fact, all Biden needs to do now is coast for a couple of weeks, and he'll be the OFFICIAL Democratic nominee and that's that.  Schiff's gambit therefore seems highly speculative, and, since he's no idiot, I assume he knows that.  What this tells me is that, plain and simple, Schiff no longer fears Biden.  Either he doesn't think he'll be around much longer, because he's older than dirt, or he doesn't think he'll be around because he's going to lose.  On the latter point, I tend to agree.


https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy9473edpeeo

 

Speaking of which, the political transformation of Elon Musk, from progressive to outspoken conservative and Trumper, was consummated in just the last few days.  Most importantly, Musk has committed to injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump's get-out-the-vote efforts.  This is big, people!  Musk, because he's super-rich AND because he controls one of the world's leading social media platforms, can be an immensely powerful ally.  What's more, he's at the leading edge.  His conversion will make it easier for other techies, billionaires, and former progressives to jump on the Trump bandwagon.  All the momentum, in short, is with Trump -- although, make no mistake, the election is still fundamentally competitive.

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-announces-x-spacex-headquarters-to-relocate-to-texas-from-california/ 


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/elon-musk-s-final-straw-moment-marks-political-transformation/ar-BB1q8wdi

Monday, July 15, 2024

Advance with Vance!

 


Friends, it's hard to believe that the selection of a vice-presidential candidate and running mate wouldn't be the top story of the day, but you can argue that today Trump's pick of J.D. Vance has been somewhat overshadowed by ongoing discussion of the failed assassination attempt, as well as the dismissal of the documents case by Judge Aileen Cannon.  Let's start with Vance.  I don't know much about him at all, but from what I can tell many consider him to be a conservative populist, a la Trump, and an intellectual, which is not an easy combo to pull off (just ask me!).  Many view him as the sort of fellow who could conceivably assume the mantle of MAGA leader after Trump exits the scene.  That's saying a lot, because Trump's shoes are notoriously hard to fill.  What's most heartening about this pick is the fact that Vance isn't just a mindless Trump puppet.  He's a man of substance, and his selection suggests that Trump takes seriously the future of the movement and the future of the country -- which would come as a surprise to those who think that Trump cares only about himself.  In fact, Vance probably doesn't help Trump win the election in November at all, unless you think that maybe he can appeal to working class whites in the Midwest, and maybe he can.  He certainly won't help with women or minorities, and those are pretty important demographics that Trump may regret failing to target more directly.  To me, in short, the Vance choice indicates that Trump regards himself as the favorite in 2024, and he's planning for the future, and he believes that Vance is the guy who can guide us into that bright future, when The Donald himself has faded away.  I hope and pray that he's right.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/07/15/donald-trump-announces-jd-vance-as-running-mate/ 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn07dv4mrg2o 

 

Meanwhile, in a severe blow to the lawfare gambit, the classified documents case against Trump has been thrown out by a federal judge.  Good!  Unfortunately there's plenty more legal jeopardy on Trump's plate.  Still, the legal system has very rarely given Trump a win, so this is one to savor!

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/15/donald-trump-dismissal-lawless-florida-indictment-should-be-first-trashing-witch-hunts/ 


Lastly, there are a lot of serious questions swirling around the Secret Service's bungling of the security for Trump's Pennsylvania rally.  To leave such an obvious area of vulnerability open to exploitation by a would-be shooter is totally unacceptable.  Do I think this suggests incompetence or malice?  Well, I tend to believe that, if the Deep State wanted Trump dead, they would have found themselves a better marksman, but that's just me.  To put the pieces together, we really need to know more about Thomas Crooks and what drove him to do what he did.  Let's hope he was a lone nut, because if he was anything else our country is in much deeper trouble than we thought!


https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/07/14/dan_bongino_the_secret_service_failure_here_is_catastrophic.html

Sunday, July 14, 2024

Bulletproof

 


Friends, it's early days, but I invite your comments on the attempted assassination of President Trump.  I want to know more about the assassin, needless to say, and what motivated him.  I want to know why he was allowed to scale a building so close to the rally.  I want to know whether any of these formulaic statements by Democrats and world leaders convey genuine sympathy and regret -- or secret disappointment that the shooter missed.  Overall, I expect Trump will emerge from this trial (which I think many of us saw coming) stronger than ever, and that ought to scare his enemies to no end! 

Saturday, July 13, 2024

Big Tech Gets Trumpier

 


Friends, I'm a long, long way from claiming that DJT has this election in the bag, but there are plenty of hopeful signs.  Here are two: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has officially cancelled its persecution of Trump, allowing him full use of all of its platforms; and Elon Musk, lord of X and CEO of SpaceX, has overcome his distaste for Trump and plowed an unspecified but massive amount of money into one of his SuperPACs.  Musk could, needless to say, be a powerful ally, indeed.  So cheer up, my fellow fascists!


https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4ngj2x5638o

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/12/elon-musk-worlds-richest-man-comes-off-sidelines-begins-to-spend-vast-fortune-to-elect-donald-trump-president/ 

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Elections Have Consequences (!!!)

 


Friends, my latest interview with the incomparable Brian O'Neil considers in depth the predicament of the Democrats, as they ponder which memory hole to shelve the sitting president and erstwhile leader of the party in, the predicament of the European establishment as it attempts to fend off a "far right" movement gaining in strength, the predicament of Congress as it considers the mental and physical fitness of the Commander-in-Chief, and a bevy of other predicaments, up to and including your predicament in deciding whether to listen to the broadcast once, twice, thrice, or possibly an infinite number of times until your own mental and physiological reserves give out...  In short, it's a show that may give your life meaning and purpose that hitherto it has (by all accounts) lacked.  Hard to pass up an offer like that, wouldn't you say???


https://rumble.com/v56d38i-wlea-newsmaker-july-10-2024-dr-nick-waddy.html

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Democracy? Never Heard of It!!!

 


Friends, my latest article exposes the bitter irony in the fact that leading Democrats excoriate anyone who questions or undermines an election...but they would like to forget that the Democratic primaries that chose Joe Biden as the party's presidential candidate ever happened.  Neat trick, that!  See what you think...


Democracy Dies in Dementia?


In the wake of President Biden's subpar performance in the first and most important presidential debate on June 27th, top Democratic lawmakers, left-leaning newspapers, and major progressive donors are calling on him to step aside as his party's presidential candidate. Given the way American politics works, and the difficulties involved in running an effective campaign without robust institutional/elite support, these leftist grandees may well get their wish: Joe Biden, liberal stalwart, may be ground down by internal opposition and forced to accept (early? or late?) retirement.

The irony here is that all these leading voices of the Democratic Party establishment have been telling us for four long years that it is the people, not politicians and their hangers-on, who get to decide who runs this country, and the two parties that rule it at the people's behest. Their main line of attack against Donald Trump and “ultra MAGA” Republicans has been that to question or undermine an election is a sort of civic sacrilege – it is, for believers in democracy, an abomination that disqualifies the relevant “election denier(s)” from running for office or earning the public's trust.

In fact, these guardians of democracy have gone further. They have asserted, through their creatures in the justice system, that undermining an election is a criminal offense. It is a form of fraud, since all American elections are demonstrably bulletproof and all claims to the contrary are presumptively mendacious, and it is a violation of Americans' civil rights, since the right to vote apparently includes the right never to have one's vote, or any vote, called into question.

Lest we forget, Donald Trump is currently being prosecuted by the special counsel Jack Smith for the very crime of, in layman's terms, “election interference”. His election denial was so serious, according to Smith, that one of the charges against him can even carry the death penalty. And remember that Trump's alleged crimes against democracy consisted entirely of words, rather than any actions which meaningfully obstructed anyone's ability to cast or count a single vote. One has to wonder, therefore, whether any of these prominent Democrats who today call on Joe Biden to step aside, and thus for the nullification of the expressed, democratic will of the millions of Americans who voted for him to become (again) the Democratic Party nominee for president, are even vaguely aware of the heights of hypocrisy to which they have ascended.

Make no mistake – Joe Biden won, fair and square, in primary elections that no one has question the integrity of, 98.8% of all the delegates who will choose the Democratic Party's nominee for president in Chicago in August. For the progressive elites now to shove Biden aside would be a gross miscarriage, therefore, of democracy. It would lay bare for all to see how fundamentally undemocratic the “Democratic Party” is, and how it is ruled not by voters but by self-interested insiders and arrogant billionaires.

These lordly liberals would probably claim, in response, that, well, yes, the voters did choose Joe Biden, but look at the polls – now they, and we, are having second thoughts. No kidding! One could say the same thing, however, about Joe Biden's presidency writ large. If the American people now had the opportunity to undo their choice in November 2020, and remove Biden from office, they probably would. But they have no such choice, because elections have consequences, as the Dems love to remind us, and America, imperfectly but irrevocably, elected Joe Biden as its president in 2020. We're stuck with him for four long years, like it or not, unless he chooses to resign, or his cabinet of cronies decides to eject him for mental incapacity. No one, though, seriously suggests that, because of the public's distaste for Biden now, discernible in polls, the election that elevated him to the office in the first place can be, or should be, ignored. And yet that is precisely what leading Democrats are saying about the dozens of primaries that chose Biden as the 2024 nominee of his party. They want a “do-over”. They want to wave a magic wand and make another, better candidate appear – preferably not Kamala Harris – to rescue them from what is essentially a predicament of unpopularity.

Let us reflect on that. Joe Biden has not been medically diagnosed as suffering from dementia or any other condition except being a “healthy, robust 81-year-old”. His debate performance evinced signs of confusion and foot-in-mouth syndrome, true, but these are problems that have afflicted Biden for years, probably decades, and which the public was well aware of before it elected him president in 2020. These are not characteristics that are desirable in a president, to be sure, but there is no objective or clinical sense in which one can say that Joe Biden now is in a fundamentally different state of health or mental acuity than when he was elected or when he took office. If Biden's mental sharpness has suffered, it is by degrees, and none of this deterioration appeared to trouble either Democratic primary voters or Democratic opinion leaders in the least until his politically disastrous appearance in the June 27th debate. It is hard not to conclude, therefore, that Joe Biden's newly-discovered Achilles' heel is not his robotic gait or his blank stares or his senseless rambling – it's his low poll numbers, which threaten the Democratic Party's, and therefore the Democratic elites', grip on power. And that, apparently, is a cause that trumps mere democracy every time.

What is happening now in the Democratic Party is one of the greatest demonstrations of situational ethics that Americans have ever beheld. It is confirmation that the Democrats' hyperventilating about Donald Trump's “insurrectionary” and anti-democratic outrages was hollow from the start. It is a sign that the only kind of election that a Democrat wholeheartedly supports is the sort that goes his way – and even if it does go his way, he reserves the right to nullify it, moment to moment, and start over, perhaps graciously allowing the American people a small voice in the matter, until such time as they should vote correctly, and then all voting can cease.

The Democrats may well succeed in purging the party of its own presidential nominee and starting over with a fresh face, but, if they do, let no American forget the contempt in which this party holds the people, the voting process, and even its own avowed core principles. The hypocrisy, not to mention the incompetence, of the Democrats, ought to be disqualifying. Let's hope that We the People get to decide whether it is or it isn't.


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 Townhall:

 

https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2024/07/10/democracy-dies-in-dementia-n2641618 

Sunday, July 7, 2024

Joe Biden is Bidener Than Ever!

 


Friends, Joe Biden recently sat down with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, an alleged journalist, to quiet Democratic and global anxiety over his, uhhh, diminished capacity.  Reactions were mixed, but it's fair to say that plenty of Democrats were unmoved.  They were especially troubled by Biden's assurance that, if he lost to Trump, he'd still feel okay about it, as long as he "gave it [his] all".  Well, given the unrepetant fascism of his opponent, quite a few lefties were aghast!  Be that as it may, Biden himself has made a rather profound point about the Democratic nomination for president: the American people, in the form of primary voters, generally to get to make that selection -- not talking heads, not top donors, not members of the Democratic National Committee.  And the people, lest we forget, have spoken: all across Blue America, they chose...Biden!  So maybe, just maybe, the guy who won 99% of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention should be the Democrats' nominee?  A crazy notion, I know, but I support this logic completely.  I mean, for once, Joe Biden, the Democrat, is actually thinking...democratically!  That's the kind of intellectual coherence we should want to encourage in our doddering old Commander-in-Chief, no?


https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/07/07/scott_jennings_biden_refuted_the_entire_thesis_of_his_campaign_on_friday_admitted_saving_democracy_is_just_a_talking_point.html

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/07/07/to_biden_2024_is_up_to_the_voters_not_democrats_on_capitol_hill_151220.html

 

https://edition.cnn.com/election/2024/primaries-and-caucuses/results/democratic-party/president?election-data-id=2024-PD&election-painting-mode=projection&filter-key-races=false&filter-flipped=false 


In other news, presidential frontrunner Donald J. Trump is in the last stages of picking his running mate, and apparently the top contenders are J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio.  I'd be extremely happy with either of those choices, personally.  How about you?


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-running-mate-decision-nears-with-vance-rubio-at-center-of-talks/ar-BB1pxlGu

Friday, July 5, 2024

Red Dawn

 


Friends, we here at WaddyIsRight wish a hearty congrats to all the socialist devils in the U.K. who today are celebrating a big win for the Labour Party, which trounced the Conservatives.  Interestingly, in the popular vote, Labour's victory doesn't look nearly as decisive, but in seats the Tories got walloped.  Oh well.  Better luck next time.  Nigel Farage's Reform Party got at least four seats, and Farage himself got elected to Parliament for the first time, meaning he'll be a thorn in the side of both Labour and the Conservatives.  Interesting times ahead!  What's more, Britain's fiscal picture is mighty bleak, so Labour may rue the day it won the right to govern the country...  We shall see.  In any case, my main interest is in seeing a fundamental realignment of the British right, such that its goals of maintaining Britain's sovereignty and territorial integrity, its traditional Christian culture, and the people's rights, are properly served.  That process begins...today!


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nglegege1o

 

And heartfelt apologies for not posting this week's Newsmaker Show sooner, but I was busy yesterday taking in the action at Wimbledon!  You know how it is: noblesse oblige...  Anyway, it's a great show, which considers in detail the Dems' predicament re: Biden, in the wake of his miserable debate performance (and his scatterbrained remarks since then).  Brian and I also ponder the Supreme Court's ambiguous immunity ruling, the disbarment of Rudy Giuliani in New York State, whether the Left is trying to engineer a financial and cultural collapse, the rearguard efforts by the French establishment to maintain its grip on power, the decline and fall of the Chevron doctrine and the new balance of power in the federal government, and the primary defeat of Jamaal Bowman.  Not a bad lineup, eh?

 

https://rumble.com/v559x4a-wlea-newsmaker-july-3-2024-dr-nick-waddy.html 


https://nypost.com/2024/07/04/us-news/biden-loses-train-of-thought-in-fourth-of-july-speech-to-vets/

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

The Black Eminence

 


Friends, things are moving quickly in Dem lala-land, where everyone and his brother are talking about the future of Joe Biden, and what becomes of the party if Sleepy Joe can be put out to pasture.  I still believe it's most likely that Biden will ride out this storm and be the Democratic nominee, but, if he isn't, then the heir apparent is none other than...Kamala Harris.  Some Biden backers are (predictably) using this realization as a threat designed to keep other Democrats in line: fire Joe, and you get Kam-Kam, i.e. ABANDON ALL HOPE, you lefty losers!  Meanwhile, according to the betting markets, Harris is already more likely to be the Democratic nominee than Joe Biden is.  What???  My suggestion, that Harris should be given the heave-ho so that Biden can run with an understudy in whom Democratic bigwigs and ordinary voters would repose some confidence, has been roundly rejected by Team Blue.  They appear to be more afraid of offending black people than they are of losing an election!  Personally, I think black people are grownups, and they would understand the need to refresh a presidential/vice-presidential ticket that isn't viable.  Anyway, if you want my two cents, I believe Kamala, for all her faults, probably would be a more formidable candidate than Joe Biden.  At least she's demonstrably alive.  That's always a plus.  The bottom line for me is that the whole Democratic Party, and its cheerleaders in the media and in our other leading institutions, have gone from complacent to frantic in just a few days.  Frankly, this doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in their political judgement, or their collective grip on reality.  It's been obvious that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were unpopular for quite some time, and Joe's mental and physical deterioration is not exactly a state secret either.  To say that the Dems have backed themselves into a corner here would be a gross understatement.  Their enabling of old man Biden, and their stubborn loyalty to a dunce of a Vice-President, looks like a clear case of political malpractice, especially in retrospect!


https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/07/03/report-biden-weighs-dropping-out-of-presidential-race/

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kamala-harris-joe-biden-debate-2024-election-democratic-nominee-e53856f1?mod=opinion_lead_pos2 


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/03/follow-the-money-harris-overtakes-biden-as-favorite-democratic-candidate-in-betting-markets/

 

https://www.realclearpolling.com/betting-odds/2024/president 


https://www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls

Monday, July 1, 2024

The Next Shoe to Drop



Friends, my latest article isn't about shoes, but it is about the fate of the nation, which is almost as interesting as footwear.  More specifically, I ask the question: if the Dems are stuck with Biden, and Biden looks like a clunker, then how can they possibly turn this race around and avoid losing to THE EVIL ONE?  I argue that there are a variety of extremely crafty, underhanded ruses that they could try, up to and including gifting The Donald an involuntary dirt nap.  See if you think that any of these desperate ploys might be feasible...


The Nuclear Option(s)


After President Joe Biden's abysmal performance in the first debate, Democrats and progressives are sweating bullets. They have been in denial for four years about Biden's...limitations, but now his obsolescence has become impossible to ignore. Some Democrats, sensing the danger that the party is in and the likelihood of a Trump victory, have reached the obvious conclusion: it's time for Sleepy Joe to climb into his '67 Corvette and ride into the sunset (or, better yet, be chauffeured into the sunset – in the interests of public safety).

For a wide variety of reasons, however, Biden is unlikely to bow out, and, even if he did, the complications this would create for the Democratic Party might be fatal to its near-term prospects. Let's assume, therefore, that Joe Biden will remain the Democratic nominee for president and ask the natural followup question: what else can the Dems do to rescue themselves from what they assume would be an extinction level event, i.e. a second term for Donald Trump?

While right now all the focus is on Joe Biden and what will become of him, if he digs in his heels, there is another “Hail Mary” play that the DNC could try: dumping Kamala Harris as V.P. One of the challenges that Dems face is that, in Harris, they have an understudy to Joe Biden who is, if anything, even less popular and viable than Biden himself, which is saying something! Joe Biden, wily old coot that he is, probably picked Kamala Harris as his running mate and Vice-President because of, not despite, her weaknesses. He knew that no one would relish the thought of pushing him aside in favor of Harris. Unfortunately for the Dems, this means that they are stuck with Biden not only now, but, if he wins the election, until Sleepy Joe reaches the ripe old age of 86.

The solution?

Assuming Dem grandees are willing to risk offending some of their base, namely black and feminist voters, they could keep Joe on the ticket, give Kamala her walking papers, and elevate a new running mate who was more likable, articulate, intelligent, and above all presidential. If they did so, they could even assure the American people, openly and directly or more subtly, that Sleepy Joe would only be around a little while longer. Soon – very soon! – he would step aside and allow his second-in-command to take the helm. And this might give enough voters the necessary confidence to pull the lever for the Biden-Dreamboat ticket that old man Biden would be carried over the finish line.

But what if the Dems don't have the guts to cashier Kamala Harris, or what if she refuses to go quietly into the night? Then they have to get considerably more creative.

Since, in Biden-Harris, the Dems are trying to sell the American people a bill of goods that they adamantly refuse to buy, the only sure-fire remedy is, as the Dems have been trying, to make the alternative – Trump – grossly unacceptable. 91 felony charges, and now 34 felony convictions, were supposed to do just that, but there's no evidence that the lawfare gambit has worked. Yes, Judge Juan Merchan could pull the “save democracy” rip cord during sentencing and throw DJT in jail, but there's no guarantee that he would stay there long enough to matter, or that incarcerating him wouldn't improve his poll numbers still further. This would be a risky tactic, indeed. And that, in turn, leaves the Left with a very short list of even more desperate and extreme options.

Assuming leading Dems have watched and paid attention during House of Cards, they will know that the democratic process can be massaged in an infinite number of ways to achieve one's desired result. For instance, false flag or disinformation operations could be conducted to paint Donald Trump as a traitor, a foreign agent, or an insurrectionist. About the only charge that hasn't been flung at Trump at this stage is murder, so why not frame him for that, too? Alternatively, his supporters could be portrayed as insane, bloodthirsty, terroristic, and/or seditious. Since leftists already believe most of these charges against Trump and Trumpers to be true, and journalists are primed to expound on these narratives anyway, “evidence” to support these lines of attack could be incredibly thin, but still widely believed and potentially politically decisive.

We cannot rule out the possibility that political violence or civil unrest will be used, by either side or by both, as a tactic to achieve victory, or as an excuse to take other extreme anti-democratic measures. There is, by some accounts, a growing acceptance of violence by Democrats, Republicans, and independents, and a rising expectation that the democratic process will be fraught with violence. Whether riots or terrorist attacks or acts of intimidation or insurrections would ultimately work to the benefit of one party or the other, however, is harder to predict.

Many conservatives have quietly speculated that, in the last instance, the Dems and their Deep State cronies would have Trump bumped off, and this would, without question, definitively end his White House bid, but the DNC's supply of concrete galoshes and/or sniper rifles may not be as ample as many conspiracy-minded Trumpers suppose, and, like the prison option, top Dems may view assassination not only as impractical and far too risky, but also as morally and legally insupportable. There are, believe it or not, still norms in American democracy, and no one has (yet) been willing to use lethal force against their primary political opponents to win an election, or to avoid losing one – unless, of course, you believe the January 6th Committee, which half the country does.

Having said all that, with respect to a potential assassination of Donald Trump, there is, as almost anyone with friends on both sides of the aisle can tell you, no shortage of rack-and-file Democrats who openly desire the death of Donald Trump, and it would be surprising if some elite Democrats did not share their sentiments. Transforming idle talk into murderous action, however, is another matter. Of course, even if 99.999% of Democrats disavow all talk of assassination, it would only take one, with the means and opportunity, to pull it off.

Assuming the worst happens, from a Dem perspective, and Trump looks certain to win it all, the election could conceivably be canceled, based on concocted “national security” concerns, or it could go forward up to election day itself, when, for some specious reason, the ability of voters in certain areas to head to polling places could be curtailed. Republicans, more than Democrats, rely on traditional voters voting on election day, and any diminution of those vote totals, which did not affect the counting of mail-in and early votes, would almost certainly lead to massive victories for Joe Biden and all swing state and swing district Democrats. Pursuing such electoral chicanery might, however, require Biden and the Democrats to override the legitimate objections of the courts, including the Supreme Court, which is a path that no Democrat would go down lightly. Of course, leftist propaganda has been cultivating contempt for the high court for years now, so this stratagem cannot be ruled out.

Similarly, the Dems could contest the results of an election they lost – and count on either the courts or the Commander-in-Chief and his woke military allies to back them up. Rank hypocrisy would dent the credibility of such a move, true, but, if there's one thing that Democrats have shown repeatedly, it is that they believe that legal technicalities and moral scruples should never be an obstacle to the pursuit of the liberal Prime Directive: “get Trump”.

Lastly, what if Trump did win the election, but the Dems, believing their own overheated rhetoric about him, decided that any action, no matter how undemocratic, would be justified to “save democracy”? They might, in this instance, consider not only action against Trump personally, but against his electors, whose affirmative votes would be needed to make him president. Could those electors be detained, or in some other way coerced or persuaded to withhold their votes from Trump? We saw skullduggery along these lines already in 2016, albeit at a very amateurish level. Who can say that Democrats won't up their game in 2024? Stranger things have happened in the history of democracy – or sham democracy, to be more exact.

These are just a few outside the box ideas that Democrats and progressives may be tossing around to “save America”, and themselves, from the cataclysm of another Trump presidency. Maybe, just maybe, their incendiary rhetoric about Trumpian dictatorship, tyranny, and fascism is just that – hot air. In that case, they may, at the end of the day, take a deep breath and accept Trump's victory in November, secure in the knowledge that they tied him up in political knots for four years before, and they can probably do it again.

The alternative is that the Dems and leading leftists believe what they say about Trump, in which case every desperate measure chronicled here, and quite a few that we have yet to think of, will be on the table between now and January 20th, 2025. After all, if Trump=Hitler, then what expedients would not be justifiable to avoid Hitler 2.0?

There are, in short, two parallel dramas unfolding in this country: a high-stakes election campaign, sure, but also a complex psychodrama roiling inside the heads of elite Democrats, progressives, and Washington insiders. The outcome of this election, and even the outcome of the American story writ large, may hinge on how these heads of the liberal establishment perceive Trump, and the degree of danger that he poses to them and to this country. If at any point they decide that “losing is not an option”, then, as the saying goes, all bets are off.


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/2024/07/nuclear-options/

 

***

 

In other news, the most recent polls paint a very bleak picture for Biden and the Dems, with even the mostly blue state of New Hampshire starting to lean red.  I suspect DJT will emerge from this debate flap with roughly the same national lead he had before, and roughly the same advantage in the swing states, but that's hardly good news for the guy who was and remains behind, i.e. Sleepy Joe.  Understandably, the Dems are beginning to worry that Biden might not simply lose the presidential election, but he might also drag down his fellow Democrats in a number of Senate and House races.  It's a legitimate concern!!!  Expect more and more wealthy donors and corporate leaders to back Trump in the weeks ahead, because what they care about, above all, is who is likely to win, and increasingly that man is Trump.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/01/trump-takes-two-point-lead-over-biden-new-hampshire-poll/ 


https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/HHP_June2024_KeyResults.pdf

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/01/report-democrats-wonder-bidens-dazed-debate-performance-will-cost-them-senate-house/ 


Lastly, there's a lot of lefty outrage over today's presidential immunity decision by the Supreme Court, but I view it as an equivocal, ambiguous ruling.  The line between official and unofficial acts is by no means clear and sharp.  The bottom line is that the Dems' lawfare strategy is alive and well.  Whether it's working is another matter!


https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/01/democrats-warn-trump-immunity-decision-will-let-him-go-after-political-opponents/