Welcome to the official blog for Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy, political commentator, historian, patriot, novelist, and wise man extraordinaire! Here you will find Dr. Waddy's latest musings on the political scene, as well as links to published articles, tv/radio appearances, and more...
Friends, the Trump-Musk friendship seems only to deepen with time. In fact, Trump is now apparently referring to Elon as his "adopted son"! On the surface, these men seem so different in terms of temperament, so how is it that they've developed such synergy? I don't pretend to understand it. I just find it endlessly amusing and...hopeful, since the mental and corporate resources of Musk, allied to the political genius of DJT, could make the world a far better place.
Happy Thanksgiving, fellow right-wing deplorables! We have so much to be thankful for this year. Most of all, each other! Also, the election, of course, and the wide vistas of opportunity it has opened up. Success is not guaranteed, and our achievements may fall short of our expectations, but then again at least we have opportunities in store rather than, say, four years of lamentation and lunacy, as may be the case with some of the other people sitting at our Thanksgiving dinner tables. I say give them extra cranberry sauce this year. They're gonna need it!
Here are DJT's Thanksgiving wishes to the nation:
And here is a story about Mark Zuckerberg, who came on bended knee to dine with The Donald. This too is probably a good sign!
Friends, we live in exciting times. Old verities and ossified institutions are falling by the wayside, and I couldn't be happier! Rumors that MSNBC might be sold by its parent company, Comcast, have Elon Musk and Joe Rogan speculating on what it might be like if the former bought the cable news network and turned it into...something that doesn't spew toxic leftist propaganda. I, for one, would love to see this happen. Indeed, it can't come soon enough! MSNBC has turned millions of our fellow countrymen into woke zombies, and it's about time someone -- maybe Elon -- came to their rescue.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/joe-rogan-take-rachel-maddows-job-elon-musk-buys-msnbc
Although the leftist monopoly on higher ed is mostly holding, there are subtle signs that the winds of change are beginning to blow in academia. Witness this innovative new college in Austin, Texas:
Finally, now that the Democrats have blown it in '24, they have to circle the wagons and come up with a strategy for success in '26 and, more importantly, '28. A surprising number of them seem to think the best path forward involves...the exact same path as before. I'm referring, of course, to Kamala Harris, whose presidential ambitions remain unsatiated, and who is thus considering another run for the presidency. I say: YES YES YES!!! A thousand times yes! Please, Democrats, double down on Kam-Kam. I don't see what could possibly go wrong...
Friends, the Newsmaker Show is back after a brief hiatus, and it's better AND Trumpier than ever before! This week Brian and I digest Trump's incredibly bold cabinet picks, and we consider the risks and opportunities inherent in each of them. Also, is WWIII imminent? You might want to listen in and find out. This week only: a special bonus!!! Operation Uranus. And no, that isn't a double entendre. Get your mind out of the gutter!
Friends, perhaps like me you saw this one coming: Matt Gaetz will not be America's Attorney General. He withdrew himself from consideration because he said he was becoming a "distraction" from Trump's MAGA magnificence. Well, I guess that's true, but I also suspect that Gaetz would have stuck it out if he thought he had a chance to be confirmed in the post. In all likelihood, he didn't. This makes one wonder what Trump was thinking when he nominated him. Was Gaetz a feint all along? Did Trump nominate him only to pry him out of Congress, where he might have been a nuisance to the slim Republican majority in the House, and especially to Speaker Johnson? Maybe. Was Gaetz meant to attract the incoming fire that might otherwise have been directed at RFK, Jr., Pete Hegseth, et al.? Maybe. If so, he served his purpose admirably, although not for very long. In any case, ole Matt will now have to reinvent himself as a private citizen. My guess would be that he'll have a bright future in talk radio. He sure knows how to lob a rhetorical hand grenade!
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8511148187940933062/1551732021359088213
In other news, this article gives us some needed perspective on how Republicans, and Trump specifically, managed to transform the playing field of American politics this cycle. They may have been at a financial disadvantage, but for a change they weren't necessarily at an organizational and tactical disadvantage. That's extremely important.
Friends, last time I checked the Doge was the head of state in the Venetian Republic, but now, all of a sudden, DOGE is the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and it's promising to cut government waste in legendary fashion. Can it? Many people, including me, have profound doubts. No one has ever succeeded in slashing the federal bureaucracy and federal regulations before, and that's because there are massive legal and institutional obstacles to doing so. Nonetheless, Musk and Ramaswamy sound like they've thought this conundrum through, and they expect both President Trump and the Supreme Court to uphold their decisions. I wish them well! There are hundreds of billions of dollars to be saved, for sure, but more importantly the culling of the bureaucracy will effectively restore democracy itself, as power is returned to the people and their elected representatives. Godspeed, super-nerds!
Ever wonder how our most esteemed and "trustworthy" professional pollsters got three presidential elections in a row wrong, and how, even after that miserable performance, they can look down their noses at the small number of pollsters who consistently got it right, or right-er? This article will blow your mind. The malpractice in the polling business is simply stunning. It mirrors, not surprisingly, the malpractice in "journalism" itself.
https://www.racket.news/p/how-americas-accurate-election-polls
Friends, my latest article, which appears in the Olean Times Herald, is an updated version of my plea to Republicans, conservatives, and Trumpers to express some kind of remorse for their (largely evidence-free) questioning of the integrity of the U.S. election system. We'll see if I get any hate mail in response!
In other news, Ukraine has used its U.S. missiles -- which, in all likelihood, may well be U.S.-operated too -- on targets deep inside Russia, and Russia has already updated its nuclear doctrine in a manner meant to suggest that it could nuke Ukraine -- or the U.S.! -- in response. We'll see about that, but there's no question that Joe Biden is going out with a bang in terms of our stance in Ukraine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mzjm7knw7o
Ole Sleepy Joe, who we've grown to know and love as our bumbling Commander-in-Chief, has made comical headlines for apparently wandering off into the Amazon rain forest. I fully expect some indigenous tribe to acclaim this fine specimen of a man as their god!!!
Finally, in a sign that a tiny amount of sanity might return to the nuthouse that is MSNBC, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski made a pilgrimmage to Mar-a-Lago, potentially presaging a reconciliation between Trump and two of his bitterest critics. Personally, I see no evidence that the MSM is laying off Trump, but I see plenty of signs that the American people and corporate America may be sick and tired of the MSM.
Friends, Trump made a triumphant return to Madison Square Garden last night, alongside his entourage, of which Elon Musk is now an integral part, apparently! My man RFK was there too. Trump's visceral connection with ordinary Americans was on full display, and I'm sure the progressive intelligencia hated every minute of it. Expect a lot more crass populism in the years to come!
Was the 2024 election symbolic of a profound "realignment" in American politics? The short answer is yes, although elements of that realignment have been percolating for years, and sometimes decades. For instance, the growing rift between the working class and Democrats is something that's been a persistent theme going back at least to the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon. Republicans have been making inroads with minority voters since the presidency of George W. Bush, although periodic backsliding has sometimes obscured that fact. Perhaps most interestingly, the most affluent and highly educated voters have drifted decidedly towards Democrats, making the party vulnerable to charges of elitism. It's a rich tapesty, indeed! Also note the sanctimonious New York Times piece about how "Republican" pollsters aren't to be trusted. Guess what? Those pollsters were a lot more accurate in this cycle than the alleged professional pollsters working for the mainstream media, and that's been true for a long time -- the New York Times just doesn't want to hear it. With any luck, though, fewer and fewer people will be reading the Times as well as watching CNN and MSNBC. It appears that MSNBC's ratings are circling the drain already, which is extremely good news. Meanwhile, ad revenue is starting to flow back to X, after a concerted effort by lefties to smother the platform. Let's hope more corporations see the writing on the wall and shift their ad spending from the mainstream media to social media, especially X, and alternative media. It would be the smart thing to do, surely.
https://www.patrickruffini.com/p/the-realignment-is-here?r=cyqk&triedRedirect=true
https://x.com/ggreenwald/status/1857897129076777108
https://www.adweek.com/media/advertisers-returning-to-x/#
https://apnews.com/article/trump-democratic-states-blue-states-346dbbd11111f9558b69ed137321c630
Friends, President/President-Elect Donald Trump is off to a fast start in naming his new cabinet and key advisors. Of course, good ole Elon is in the mix, but some of the other names are downright obscure -- suggesting that Trump is more concerned about loyalty, competence, and ideological synchronicity than he is with star power. In particular, early signs are that he means business when it comes to enforcing our border laws and deporting illegal immigrants. Fine by me! Also reassuring is the fact that he plans to move aggressively to prohibit federal government interference with free speech. Amen to that, I say! The toxic marriage between the bureaucracy and media and social media censors has to end, once and for all.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2m1ey10rxo
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/nov/11/editorial-trump-takes-censorship/
Friends, the good news is that Trump won the election, and he's already calling on some excellent people to join his incoming administration. Elise Stefanik, a fellow New Yorker, is one of them. She will be Ambassador to the United Nations, which is a great honor, assuming you think the U.N. does anything important. The bad news, however, is that Stefanik, and some of Trump's other picks, are current Republican House members, and the Republican majority there is mighty slender. Every Republican who resigns his (or her) seat must be replaced via a special election, and every special election is an opportunity for the Dems to snag another seat for themselves. You better believe they'll be giving it their all and spending ungodly amounts of money in the attempt. So, to summarize: we've got a magnificent opportunity to change Washington, the nation, and the world in the next few months, but also a rather small margin for error legislatively. Gird your loins, right-wing warriors!
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/11/11/2024-republicans-take-control-house-representatives/
Friends, this matronly lady doesn't look like the spearhead of fascism...and she probably isn't. Susan Wiles, who effectively ran Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, has been named as his Chief of Staff. I've read up about her, and she does not appear to be an ideologue or even a MAGA true believer. She's a loyal, highly competent Republican who happens to like Trump, and Trump happens to like her. Does this mean that we're in for four years of bloodless moderation? Not necessarily. It means the Chief of Staff won't be propelling the Trump presidency in any particular ideological direction, but maybe other people will? Trump, for instance? It also means there's a good chance that his second administration will be a lot better run and more stable than his first.
https://news.sky.com/story/who-is-susie-wiles-americas-first-ever-female-chief-of-staff-13250419
In other news, the blame game is well underway on the Left, and Nancy Pelosi says it's all Biden's fault for not getting out of the way sooner. There's much truth to that, but what about Biden's enablers -- like Pelosi -- who made excuses for him long after his diminished capacity was clear to objective observers?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn7m24zg85eo
Many of us are wondering how many lefty bureaucrats will jump ship in D.C. to avoid DJT's wrath, and how many liberals will follow through on their idle boasts and flee America to find progressive sanctuary in Canada, or Cuba, or Venezuela? My expectations are low in this regard. I don't see many leftists behaving as though their rhetoric was for real and America truly is about to succumb to fascism. Instead, they're overwhelmingly adopting a "wait and see" attitude, and possibly they're sharpening their pitchforks for Insurrection 2.0, which of course won't be called an insurrection, but instead will be labeled a "peaceful protest". So many unanswered questions at this stage!
Friends, the exit polls we've seen so far are flawed -- for one thing, they seem to indicate that Harris won the popular vote, which she didn't -- but they're still instructive. Amongst the biggest surprises for Democrats is Trump's massive gains with Hispanics. He won Hispanic men and got 46% of the Hispanic vote overall, an all-time record for a Republican. As this article suggests, this is inexplicable from a MSM perspective, because so much of what Trump says is "racist". Well, I guess that's in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? Clearly, Democrats and progressives have made some racist assumptions about Hispanics (and others) that have turned out to be untrue. And thank heavens for that!
https://www.axios.com/2024/11/07/trump-new-record-latino-voters-exit-poll?
How much is DJT's win a repudiation of lawfare, and, if it is, will lawfare actually die, or will it simply morph into something different? We don't know. My guess is we haven't seen the last of it, because the law is a powerful weapon, or it can be in the hands of people who aren't bumblers.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4976533-trump-prosecutions-lawfare-end/
The shape of the Trump administration will come down to the nature of the people who Donald Trump chooses to surround himself with. In his first term, let's face it: he made a lot of bad choices in this regard. In 2024, he ran a disciplined, effective campaign, or rather Susan Wiles ran it for him. Running the federal government, on the other hand, is a very different challenge. Men like Elon Musk and RFK, Jr., who are full of great ideas, have nonetheless never tackled an enemy as formidable as the federal bureaucracy. Anyway, it's fun to speculate on who will be whispering in Trump's ear, no?
https://nypost.com/2024/11/06/us-news/donald-trump-expected-to-be-in-meetings-after-victory/
Friends, I naturally have a lot of deep thoughts to share about the outcome of this election. Of course, the counting isn't over yet, and not all the results are known. It now looks like we won't make a clean sweep of the vulnerable Senate seats, but we should scoop up a few, and that's a cheerful thought!
I do have two cogitations to share off the bat, and here's the first: Republicans, conservatives, and Trumpers ought to be circumspect about claiming that Trump's win represents victory in the culture wars or the complete repudiation of wokeism, socialism, identity politics, lawfare, and the like. Yes, the ideological excesses of the Democrats have helped to produce their humiliation, in the short term, but, if we're to be honest, none of this would have happened if inflation hadn't spiked to 9%, the numbers of border crossers hadn't surged, and certain types of violent crime hadn't proliferated. These developments are partly due to Democratic ineptitude, sure, but they're also due to bad fortune. We can't be certain that the economy will be strong under Trump, because no president has total, or even predominant, control over the economy. The reverse side of this realization, however, is that Biden and Harris weren't personally responsible for everything that went wrong in the last four years. They got the blame, though, as one would expect. My point is that practical, pocketbook issues drove most swing voters to support Trump -- not fundamental enthusiasm for DJT or conservatism, per se. The pendulum has swung our way, for now, but it could easily swing back in favor of progressivism. We shouldn't kid ourselves about that. Thus, Trump needs to perform better in office in his second term than he did in his first. He needs to deliver results, and he needs to circumvent the vehement efforts of Democrats and the Deep State to kneecap him before he even takes office. The challenges should not be minimized.
My second brainstorm is this: I've been shocked by how many of my fellow Republicans and conservatives, in the lead-up to this election, expected to lose, because they expected the Democrats and their allies to cheat. Now, as I've discussed on countless occasions, our election system is vulnerable to certain types of fraud. What there has never been any significant evidence of, however, is fraud in the counting of votes by election officials. Donald Trump claimed, at times, that this was the determining factor in the 2020 election. It was convenient for him to make this claim, and it was also convenient for his supporters to believe it at the time (and since). The problem is that it has never been a claim with a strong evidentiary basis. In fact, Trump is still telling us, with a straight face, that he has reams of "papers" that prove massive fraud, and, when we see them, we'll be mightily impressed. Well, I'm not impressed, because, if we haven't seen this evidence by now, it doesn't exist. Sure, there are suspicious things that happen at some boards of elections, and there may even be a certain amount of malfeasance, but as an explanation for Trump's defeat in 2020 it doesn't hold water. It never did. The math doesn't add up. Trump was behind in the polls leading up to the election...and he lost. In fact, he lost more narrowly than expected, but he still lost. Whether every vote cast was actually cast by the relevant voter is a separate issue, but here too we have insufficient evidence to overturn an election, so there's not much point in bellyaching about it.
Fast forward to 2024, and many conservatives, Republicans, and Trumpers were still obsessed with fraud. Many, according to polls, had low confidence in the administration of the upcoming election. A shocking number expected it to be stolen. This wasn't just a counterfactual conceit, however -- it was arguably self-defeating. Why would anyone bother to participate in an election when the outcome is predetermined by cheating? It makes no sense. Luckily, enough of these fraud-fixated Republicans showed up to vote anyway -- apparently, reaching a level of comfort with cognitive dissonance that I've never possessed -- and Trump won regardless. Thank heavens!!! This doesn't change the fact that far too many conservatives, Republicans, and Trumpers fell in the first place for what was essentially a hoax. For shame!
The relevance here is that, for any of you who went into the 2024 election expecting to be cheated out of a rightful victory by treacherous Democrats and their fellow travelers, you were wrong! You were factually incorrect, and you were and are morally culpable for impugning the integrity and the patriotism of election officials of both parties, and sometimes of neither party. You told, in many cases, your friends and family members that these Deep State rogues would surely swindle you, and the country, and they didn't. The vast majority of them never had any such intention, let alone the means to carry it out. So my view is that conservatives, Republicans, and Trumpers should start out the Second Age of Trump right: with humility, honesty, and self-abasement. If you are guilty of any of the sins I've outlined here, admit them to yourself, and apologize for them to anyone whom you may have offended by your intemperate remarks. Signal to your friends, family members, and neighbors on the other side of the aisle that you have a sense of decency, and that you're not going to vilify, libel, and abuse them in the same way that, all too often, they have vilified, libeled, and abused us. Be the better man, in short, and resolve to tell the truth and admit when you're wrong, and when you may have wronged others. It's the Christian thing to do, surely.
Food for thought!
Friends, to all of you who have hoped and prayed for a Trump victory in 2024, and who may have expected that it would come "the hard way" in a squeaker...well! The American people had different ideas, didn't they? It now looks as though Trump will win the electoral college AND the popular vote AND a popular vote majority AND the Senate majority AND the House majority. Wow! What we're looking at is the best case scenario for Trump, for Trump supporters, for Republicans, for conservatives, and -- let's face it -- the American people. It's a clear, unambiguous, incontestable victory, and as close to a "mandate" or a "landslide" as a modern American presidential candidate is likely to obtain. We don't know what this will mean in terms of policy in the next four years, but we do know what it means for Democrats: abject defeat, humiliation, and a long process of introspection and some very hard decisions to make about future strategy. For America's sake, I hope the Democrats, at least in their current, neo-Marxist form, have reached a dead end and that they will never again assume power in this country. That remains to be seen, but this is a very good start!
Friends, I have an inkling of what's on your mind. You're wondering: who's gonna win this all-important election? Does Waddy know? I mean, he seems to know everything. Surely he knows this...
Well, I do have a prediction: I believe Trump will win and reasonably handily. I believe he'll win the national popular vote and almost all of the swing states. I base that prediction on...data, and lots of it.
Now, I could get into the weeds, but instead I'll let this guy do it, as he's done all the legwork and set it down in one very long but deliciously detailed article. See what you make of his analysis.
Friends, today I bring you my latest interview with Sputnik News, which details my theory of why Democrats love immigrants, especially illegal ones. It isn't because they plan to transform these "newcomers" instantly into voters, but it is because they plan to bank their votes sooner or later.
In other news, we've got our "November surprise", but it's pretty underwhelming. DJT criticized Liz Cheney for being a warmonger, and the media twisted his words to make it sound like a death threat. Oh, MSM...will you never learn??? Of course, they will succeed in one sense: they will dial up Democrats' and progressives' sense of moral superiority and indignation to psychotic levels, but let's be honest: that's like shooting fish in a barrel. And, let me be clear, I was not intending to threaten the lives of any fish with that remark. Some of my best friends are fish.
The Tories have a new leader, and it's...a black woman! I don't know much about her, but I hope the British Conservatives aren't playing identity politics (again) and assuming that no one would dare criticize a black woman, because -- trust me! -- the Left hates no one more than a woman or a minority who dares to contradict them. This woman is about to be ripped limb from limb. I hope she's ready for it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0qdnewgx19o
Finally, the latest polls haven't budged much. Trump remains very slightly ahead in polls of the national popular vote, and slightly ahead in most of the swing states...but there are plenty of polls that give the edge to Kamala. It all comes down to polling bias, really. If the polls are doing what they tend to do -- tell Democrats what they want to hear -- then Trump is in great shape. If the polls are giving us a snapshot of reality, on the other hand, this election is going to be a squeaker!
Oops! Looks like I posted this Halloween missive in entirely the wrong place! I must be getting senile. Hey, it happens to the best of us, right? Even presidents!
Friends, I wish you a very Happy Halloween!!! Kinda ironic that Samhain secrets itself in the dark heart of election season, isn't it? Anyway, I have a treat for you: this week's Newsmaker Show! As you'd expect, it's full to the brim with election analysis, including rumination on Joe Biden's "garbage" remark and the self-destruction of the Washington Post. Not surprisingly, there was so much to digest in the news that we didn't make it as far as This Day In History.
Meanwhile, President Trump, legendary showman that he is, is capitalizing on the pile of "garbage" that this campaign has become by appearing in a garbage truck. You have to hand it to this guy: populism comes naturally to him. Good luck getting Kamala Harris anywhere near a garbage truck.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/10/30/trump_how_do_you_like_my_garbage_truck.html
The Dems, true to form, are trying to use lawfare at the eleventh hour to embarrass Elon Musk and force a halt to his $1 million/day sweepstakes in Pennsylvania. Thanks for the timely reminder, dastardly Dems, on why you can't be permitted to win this election!!!
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cx2n4l79dn7t
Finally, as you know, I'm a generally tolerant guy. On the abortion issue, I can see both sides, and I respect most points of view. When it comes to eating babies, however, I draw the line. Sleepy Joe -- back off!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14022815/biden-joe-jill-panda-halloween-white-house.html
