Friends, remember how elated we were when Elon Musk took over Twitter and turned it into a platform where conservatives wouldn't be treated like pariahs and psycho killers? We saw it as a mighty victory over the censorship complex that the Left and its fellow travelers had built, and we were right. Well, the ongoing transformation of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., into a company that respects free speech and treats Donald Trump like the global statesman he is, rather than a carnival huckster/insurrectionist, is equally significant and, in its own way, even more remarkable. A few years ago, Facebook banned Trump indefinitely. Now Mark Zuckerberg is dining with Trump, donating to his inauguration, and appointing a Republican (!) to head his global policy team. Wow! What a difference a few years makes. Is all of this a response to Trump's big election victory? Yes and no. It's also, I would argue, a response to the growing popularity of conservative ideas, as well as the escalating alienation of leftists from popular opinion, simple decency and open-mindedness, and objective reality. In any case, whatever improves conservatives' access to these critical online forums and to public discourse in general is a very good thing.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/02/tech/meta-nick-clegg-stepping-down-joel-kaplan/index.html
Listen in to this week's Newsmakers show and you'll learn my thoughts on the recent terrorist incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas, the reelection of Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House, Liz Cheney's latest honor from the leftist establishment, the upcoming MAGA rally before the official presidential inauguration, the ramifications of Chinese hacking, the debate over H1B visas, Sleepy Joe's commutations of most federal death sentences, the prospects for U.S. territorial expansion, the impact of Jimmy Carter on American political life, the challenges involved in "making America healthy again", and the degree to which some MAGA goals may or may not be a "lost" cause. Wow!
When we get to This Day in History, Brian and I also consider LBJ's "Great Society" programs and the proper role of government in our lives.
That's about half an hour of pure, unadulterated Waddy!!! Man, oh man! Can you have too much of a good thing? We're about to find out...
https://rumble.com/v65togg-wlea-newsmaker-january-4-2025-sheriff-jim-allard-dr.-nick-waddy.html
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteDon't trust The Zuck! All he is doing by pretending he is a Leftist who "has seen the light," is drawing out who the conservatives are, so he can destroy them later, when the Leftists are in power again. The man has had no conversion whatsoever, even though he is doing a great job at convincing many that he has.
Beware of the Zuck! He is like the Boomslang, an African snake that pretends to be harmless and playful, and even looks like it is. Many mistake it for a docile garden snake, until they get bitten, after which chances for survival are slim to zero. The Zuck is a master of deceit.
Remember how the late Mao in China "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom" where everyone could express an opinion, and were later crushed by The Red Guard if they were deemed as unreliable. Don't get Sucked In By The Zuck!
Ha ha. Ray, I will not succumb to Zuckery. Fear not. I certainly don't regard Zuckerberg as a conservative. But the fact is that, the more he moves right (even tactically), the more the Left will disdain and attack him. And the more that happens, the greater the likelihood that Zuckerberg and many others like him will be pushed into our arms, despite their own inclinations. It happened to Musk. It could happen to others.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I would suggest that the very fact that Zuckerberg has been so motivated, very probably painfully against heretofore leftist convictions, is indicative of the power of America's rejection of the far left. A successful businessman probably knows a loser when he sees one.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
DeleteHowever, I hope that Americans on The Right realize that The Left always comes back, like a chronic skin disease that needs constant attention and treatment. As it is, it will take Trump and his team at least four years to clean up the mess that Biden and his gang have created, and if The Right does not retain power after that, The Left will create an even worse situation, once again, like untreated venereal disease.
Ray from Jack: Mao believed that ongoing relentless revolution was good fun and if it needed a jump start he was eager to provide it as long as he didn't get savaged. I don't know what the rationale for the "Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend" campaign was; probably just another characteristically arbitrary marxist whim. Trouble is, such humbug results in ruin and death for many innocents. "Oh just give us another chance; we'll get it right this time!" marxists everywhere bleat. Uhh, no says the common sense school of thought; a hundred times NO!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Re the Newsmaker broadcast: The awards given by Biden to Soros, Hillary and Liz Cheney. These were pathetic gestures.
ReplyDeleteCheney's antiTrump anticrusade was as you noted, utterly futile . Soros is a highly discredited figure. He is old enough to have been aware of how marxists raped his native Hungary but he is devoted to directing huge sums to the perpetuation of neomarxism in his adopted country. "Nuff said.
Hillary: the redeeming thing about her receiving this ostensible honor is that it is a CONSOLATION prize. Her lifelong quest, to achieve the executive power to enable her to work vindication upon all men for the abominable treatment she got from her amoral "husband" was for NAUGHT and she has only aristocratically exclusive Westchester Co., Chardonnay and occasional mutual admiration society gatherings to do reassure her. She is a definitive, exemplary man hater of the sort produced by the early, rawly hateful radicalized feminist movement of the '70s.
Can't blame her for regretting her political alliance with Slick Willy but as an irredeemablely biological male I'm glad she never got a chance to work her intended comprehensive revenge. She came so close, she almost had it all! She thought she was entitled and well, she wasn't.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I have thought it might be DJT's intention to serve as Chairman of the Board after an ordeal which would have exhausted almost anyone. But your suggestion that MAGA would benefit greatly from his continued spokesmanship of rallies make a lot of sense. Its going to be a hell of a fight and his active physical participation will be terribly encouraging. Also, it will give him a chance to gradually boost candidates to succeed him in the continuing campaign to drive neomarxism, wokeism and overall America hatred from our body politic once he takes his richly deserved place as an elder statesman.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I've always thought that modern China's compelling international purpose is to ensure that China never again be forced to endure the humiliation and destruction visited upon it from without in its bizarre 1820 - I945 interlude of insolent intrusion by culturally inferior, temporarily technologically superior interlopers on their yes, great civilization.
ReplyDeleteQuestion is, what do they consider to be such security in today's shrunken world? What you have noted as a widespread perception of China as an aggressor may reflect an ever more expansive concept on their part of what would guarantee their national integrity. Does it contemplate world domination?!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: A union between all of Canada and the U.S. would be a bad idea to pursue. Canadians ought rightfully be repelled by our shameful tolerance of crime and criminals.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I have misgivings about an organized government effort to "make America healthy again" . It smacks of the nanny state and in the wrong hands might lead to feckless
ReplyDeletevirtue signaling like NYC's efforts to limit consumption of soft drinks. Gimme a break!
I revere America's rural culture and I know the family farm is an honored essential of it. Yet, corporate agriculture has generated the miraculous abundance of food which distinguishes our country from most others in history. What indescribable horror there is in want of food!
RFK Jr. probably retains much of the reflexive anticorporate outlook of the left he came from. I'm glad Musk has enough influence to serve as a possible brake upon intemperate, ultimately destructive action to artificially overlimit big agriculture. . Should RFK's efforts be counterproductive (eg. resulting in much higher food prices) the popular reaction might be as hostile to perceived undeserved benefits to small farms as that RFK sees coming from agricultural corporations today.
Giant corporations have at times overreached their power as much as to necessitate gov't intervention (eg. antitrust legislation and FDR's unfettering of the great industrial unions).
But power abhors a vacuum and without the continued political power of corporate America the door might be opened for far left absolutism. The corruption of the corporate boardroom by antiamerica tends to support a view that it actively intends to supplant the power free enterprise's organizational structure wields. Which would we rather? Musk or AOC calling the shots? The "business of America" must still be business, despite its many faults.
I feel that Zuck and Meta have a few angles at play and are pandering to conservative business people and politicians, mainly because they have money too.
ReplyDeleteSelling Advertising - Demonizing Trump means cutting out the pro-Trump business money that their advertising platform could be bringing in otherwise.
Breaking into AI - The past few years, Meta has been breaking into the AI segment. Or at least they've been trying. One of the challenges they could be facing in doing so is funding via investments. Trump and his friends do have money and giving them some respect could mean earning some investment $$$'s from them. I think Elon learned this early on after being exiled by the left and then saw a bump in market cap for Tesla and Space-X.
Controversy and Ad $$$'s - As I explained in my comments on the previous post, controversy indirectly translates to targeted advertising revenue. Through angry comments, which collect data, target ads better, and increases click-through rates; causing companies who advertise to have to pay more.
I also feel that some of the political pressure to ban Trump off of social media platforms has died down, since they haven't been able to officially charge him with the events of January 6th, despite trying.
Even though I'm not a Trump fan, I do like to see said restrictions lifted, especially on social media platforms. To me he's just like any other President we've had. Some of his policies I agree with (border control, 2A, States' rights, national competition for health insurance) and some I disagree with (not considering single-payer healthcare, tariffs, lowering corporate taxes more w/o closing tax loopholes). So I'm officially "meh"/mixed feelings on President Trump.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Yeah you are right about the Great Society program having motivated some states to imitate it.
ReplyDeleteIn NY, Gov. Rockefeller built a state capitol more on the order of Brasilia than one appropriate to a mere state. He needed it to accomodate the gargantuan bureaucracy with which he intended to out LBJ LBJ. In his mind, no aspect of public and private life was beyond the purview of the state. Its authority ought to be comprehensive, he casually concluded from his rarified perch. "Taxpayers? Why, how many divisions do they have!?"
One consequence of the War on Poverty has been a constantly expanding redefinition of the term poverty. In the 30s , absolute destitution and starvation actually obtained in some American settings. FDR set an example in dealing with this horror which LBJ found exemplary.
But the 60s were a period of widespread prosperity, quite unlike the 30s. And the antipoverty program was hijacked by the far leftists the 60's propelled into government. Now its purpose is to force "income equality", an unattainable goal, short of Pol Potism. Human nature guarantees that unequal individual motivation and ability largely determine living standards. As long as Peter can obtain the material necessities of life, why should he bristle when Paul buys a yacht?
And of course the far left, which embraces an empirically unverifiable future as a standard for today, will never be satisfied that "poverty" has been even mitigated. Jack
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack:Populism , personified in our country by Maga, ha s claimed another victory. Reflexive leftist PM Trudeau in Canada has apparently PCed ( eg. only: "oh fie upon any country as primitive as to reject any female candidate for leadership; I myself am a devout feminist and would always support a female office seeker)(or words to that effect)himself as much as to be compelled to gracefully admit his inability to govern. Will his momentarily decapitated Liberal Party find another capable of maintaining their disdainful leftist domination of the common sense Western provinces? Let us hope, as observers only, that it is POLICY rather than personality which has made Trudeau's continued tenure untenable.
ReplyDeleteTraditional, too often apologetic, conservatism is under harrowing attack in the mother of democracy, the UK ,from their Reform Party and from an already historically decisive (Brexit)Nigel Farage .It has been eclipsed by truly and courageously conservative MAGA in the US, though it has wisely but perhaps yet reluctantly acceded to MAGA's proven winning ways. Perhaps it is now in retreat in Canada.
Is all this, together with the advent of common sense government , repelled by demonstrated far leftist incompetence and incipient totalitarianism,in Hungary and perhaps France and Italy, indicative of a general tendency in Western Civilization to renounce its pusillanimous tolerance of far leftists who despise it and make common cause with its murderous enemies, such as the militant faction of Islam?