Friends, the conflict with Iran is creating some intriguing disruptions and relignments in international trade and travel. For one thing, an airport in South Korea (???) is now the world's busiest, and, unsurprisingly, Dubai's airport is rather quiet. The world's second busiest airport is Heathrow, which I know well from my visits to the U.K., and because my beloved aunt lives in its flightpath.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr49p1279n0o
In other news, the GOP isn't raising the white flag for the midterms, even though the political environment seems highly adverse this year. A lot can change between now and November, of course, and the Dems are shooting themselves in the foot (feet?) in multiple marquee matchups. Don't despair!
https://www.axios.com/2026/08/13/house-republican-american-action-network-midterm-ad-campaign
Dr. Waddy : Newt Gingrich thinks the DSA/Dems are going to take it on the chin in the midterms. Its plausible but I think the results will be indecisive (its easiest to say that I suppose).
ReplyDeleteIf the "American" Bolsheviks are put in their place in the election they will have to find it in their "hearts" to resist their inherent emotional urges and regroup. Would they then go all out in '28? I think maybe not; JD is going to be a formidable candidate.
If the midterms are a draw, they may decide to ride the still significant advances they have made while they retain their novelty. AOC may "feel" that the time has come to have her demagogic skills brought to national contest and must not be wasted. If she is nominated it would present the most stark choice since 1860.
If the DSA America haters win many midterm seats, then clear the decks and fasten your seatbelts because that may assure an AOC candidacy.
Who else do they have? Newsom is a glitzy fop who exemplifies the reflexively counterintuitive values which make California a pariah in the views of myriad Americans. PA Governor Shapiro may be the closest thing to a common sense leader the Dems have but he is Jewish and we all know the ehh, "problems" DSA marxists have with Jews. Deceitful Comrade Gov. of Virginia no doubt has national ambitions but she might even lose her own state for the way she played Virginia's moderates. MD Gov. Moore? Don't know any reasons why; don't know any why not. Senator Booker? Gets riled too easily; JD would tie him in knots.
Dr. Waddy: I assume the approach to that S. Korean airport is not over the "Workers' Paradise" just to the North. They get kind of sensitive about being reminded about freedom, free enterprise and its resulting prosperity . Since Marxist doctrine says that is impossible, then such obvious commercial vigor is simply inexplicable and therefore contradictory to the unimpeachable proof of "Dear Leader's" infallibility.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong about this, but my understanding (however misguided as an Infidel), is that the airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is the most holy.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of airports, I was absolutely devastated when I heard that DFW airport was having some problems with Muslim foot-washing stations.
Dr. Waddy: Our tolerant democracy is precious beyond measure yet we should be fully cognizant of the sometimes onerous price we pay for the protections it affords all. Excessive deference to foreigners with doctrines and demonstrated behavior plainly hostile to our civilization is pusillanimous and ungrateful. Luckily we have a President who recognizes this.
ReplyDeleteIs there any country besides the UK and the US which welcomes and grants residence to people who are frank about their intention to help destroy it?We even tolerate some who have taken the oath of citizenship and who have achieved governmental executive and legislative office but who assert their vicious disdain for their host country ;eg. ones who seek refuge here from the anarchy of their homelands but fully intend to support the reduction of the US to the same, yes Rep. Omar?
We should keep this sometimes clearly counterintuitive and counterproductive fact in mind when foreigners who have been given the often incalculable benefit of our political, economic and legal largesse make presumptuous demands on us. Most countries simply would not stand for it. The UK is, I think, closer than we are to cracking down on it. We must at least insist that those we grant residency of any length refrain from subverting our country. Soon we may have to decide whether we are willing to risk national suicide; democracy still has its experimental aspects. I think the British reform movement has already made that choice.
RAY TO JACK
ReplyDeletePlease expand on why you think "the UK is closer than we are to cracking down on it." How so, please. Thank you.
Ray: My understanding is that widespread immigrant unwillingness to assimilate is perhaps the premier cause of the rise of the reform movement in the U.K. Loud and massive public demonstration of an apparent demand that the UK, rather, assimilate itself into cultures inimical to British civilization has generated flaming outrage. If Labour wants to have any chance of avoiding marginalization it will have to pay some grudging executive and legislative action to right this wrong. Since this would anger Labour's significant far left faction such action would probably not be enough.
ReplyDeleteCrime committed by immigrants some of who come from countries where the law is a thoroughly corrupt, counterintuitive and oppressive institution is a factor greatly exacerbating the the intense resentment of Brits to this often unfriendly invasion. And it ties the immigration issue directly into the next most infuriating factor for Brits: the insane deference paid to violent criminals by an overidealistic judiciary at the expense of the law abiding. Examples are myriad and terribly unjust. And just as in NY state it profoundly degrades the morale of those many in law enforcement who know from all important experience the force which must be used against criminals. Expecting that they may well be held criminal themselves (an especially mortifying sanction for anyone in police, border guard or corrections duty) forces them to relent from the use even of plainly mandated regulations and training, in understandable self defense. Criminals are of course delighted with such serendipitous opportunity.
I am not aware of any significant action having been taken by Labour to alleviate these concerns but I think Reform and other reform devoted parties plus a completely fed up British public are overwhelmingly set on forcing Labour's hand and eventually disempowering them for their myopic misgovernment.
Ray: Maybe I misspoke in saying the Brits are ahead of us in cracking down on this unwise succoring of hostile immigrants. President Trump closed the border with dispatch and in doing so put the lie to the DSA/Dems' sundry prevarications. And he and gutsy Tom Homan are courageously enforcing our Immigration Law by deporting or prosecuting those foreigners who have violated it, especially those who have committed vicious crimes, or by good willed motivation of those free of crime to depart, by humanely and generously offering them the chance to return legally.
ReplyDeleteI think though that our public may have a larger percentage of those who want unfettered immigration and pardon for those who have presumed it already then does the frazzelled UK polity. Ours are supported by some Mayors and Governors who imperiously arrogate to themselves the power to violate the rule of Federal law by taking affirmative actions to benefit illegal immigrants and even protect them from our country's laws. These rogue executives should be prosecuted by the Feds. Instead of pursuing democratic remedies for what they consider the injustices of our Immigration Law, the ever opportunistic "American" far left chooses instead to put those whose duty it is to enforce those laws at hazard for their livelihoods and even their lives. A surging DSA exemplifies their anarchic convictions and "fundamentally transformative " ultimate goals.
I think in the UK most of the public and the dynamic Reform parties are for cracking down whereas in the U.S, the presently bustling DSA and a significant public faction are not only opposed to the present administration's crackdown but want treatment of illegals much surpassing in taxpayer largesse that of the Biden administration's catastophic policy. And when this policy were to manifest highly predictable unfavorable consequences for law abiding Americans , well, they would chant , "que lastima ,pero de nada!
RAY TO JACK
DeleteThe Great Britain you admire so much passed into history after World War 2. As you know, after they (The Brits) had to give up all those colonies, the inhabitants of those colonies, colonized GB. The same happened in France, when all those Algerians flooded that country. I hope the way I am phrasing that is not too much of a mess, and that some meaning will seep through. Would Churchill not be turning over in his grave to see things like a Muslim Mayor of London, not to mention the disintegration of The Church of England?
RAY TO JACK
ReplyDeleteThanks for your explanation. It makes sense.
Ray: Yeah, Churchill was essentially Victorian in his upbringing and temperament . He once said "I was not elected to preside over the dissolution of the British Empire." But he was also possessed of intense pride in British civilization itself.
ReplyDeleteHe must have known that Britain had been so maimed and exhausted by two world wars that it would have to give up the empire and recognize US leadership of the free world. But he would certainly never have countenanced the recklessly generous immigration policies of very leftist Labour.
Its said that he could remember having, as a young adult , conversed with witnesses to the bonfires celebrating the victory at Waterloo. And yet he lived long enough to share the front page with the Beatles! I expect though he would have been highly disturbed by now by the cultural debauchery of much of Western civilization.
RAY TO JACK
DeleteChurchill will always command my respect. And speaking of Great Britain, there are two (2) TV series I always liked a lot, both about WW 2. If you have never seen them, they are: "Foyle's War" and "Wish Me Luck". Both held my attention, and my guesses about what various characters believed, or did not believe about what.
Ray: My .02 cents: I would disagree in part in considering the emigration of people from countries formerly and formally colonized by France and Britain to those two countries to be itself colonization. These peoples do not actually rule France and Britain though some factions of them aspire to do so.
ReplyDeleteI think "cultural relativism" is absurd; some cultures and civilizations are objectively superior to others. By that I mean they are better than others in fostering prosperity, justice , security and well being for their populations.
Some historical phenomena tragically transcend moral evaluation; they were probably inevitable. Colonization was one of them. Forceful conquest has , until perhaps after WWII, been a constant, an essential , virtually worldwide . Given that grim reality in human nature , better that a vulnerable area be invested by a relatively considerate power than by one of essentially ruthless demeanor. Better to have been colonized by Britain or France than by Japan, Russia, Germany , Spain or Belgium.For 19th century India it was inescapably either Russia or Great Britain and India was fortunate that it was the latter. There is only one great historical power I can think of which purposefully refrained from the extensive foreign conquest of which it was capable: 15th century MIng Dynasty China . It built fleets far more capable than those of Europe but deliberately withdrew them after astonishing voyages through the Indian Ocean to Africa which were technically capable of going MUCH further The subjection of N.America by products of English civilization: given Latin America's travails it was far preferable to Spain. And the brief history of US colonial administration compares favorably with that of any other country.
You don't see Filipinos hastening to emigrate to Japan or Poles to Russia or Eastern Europeans to Russia. Many of the peoples drawn to the UK from former British colonies bring with them cultures less advanced than that of Western Europe. Were they to actually colonize the U.K.they would impose their dysfunctions on it. An important exception is India, a country rapidly exiting the third world but partly because it benefitted from British administration.
. . . and British protection.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
ReplyDeleteYour point is well taken. Looking at everything realistically, thank God we (The United States of America), were originally colonized by The British. Thanks for reminding me of this.
Jack, I agree with you that the midterms are likely to be indecisive in terms of the fate of the DSA. Some of its luminaries will win, some will lose. I continue to assume that, if the Dems take either house, they will declare themselves winners and be just as insufferable as ever, if not more so.
ReplyDeleteCory Booker would be an interesting choice as a Dem presidential nominee. I've always thought he was quite intelligent and well-spoken...for a Democrat. The Dems could do a lot worse.
Ray, I assert that the most holy airport is the one with the most potholes in its runway. Detroit, perhaps? Kiev?
Just some context: in recent years, both the U.S. and the U.K. have massively reduced net migration figures. That's good, but it's also a very fragile achievement, and the numbers could very easily shoot up again if there was, say, a change in political leadership...
Jack, you are right that many Brits are "fed up". You may be wrong that a sufficient number are prepared to vote accordingly.
Ray, I think you're right, in large measure, about how Churchill might feel about modern Britain. Islam isn't dominant there by any stretch, but it's far more dynamic than the Church of England, as you point out! And the latter point may be the crucial one, since societies can survive big demographic changes. What they can't survive is virulent self-hatred.
Jack, just for the record, Third World immigration to Britain peaked under the Tories, not under Labour!
Agreed: we (Americans) were blessed to be "tyrannized" by the King of England. Indeed, the tyranny was so severe that, when we shook off the British yoke, barely anything changed, including our relationship with Britain (especially in a cultural and commercial sense).
Dr. Waddy: I stand corrected on your point about third world immigration to the UK peaking under the Conservatives. Perhaps that reality helps make Reform a prospect preferable to the Tories.
ReplyDeleteI think that until the 20th century much of America viewed Great Britain with suspicion and hostility. Certainly the Irish and probably nthe Scotch-Irish did.Some of the brick fortifications facing Lake Ontario at Fort Niagara were built during our Civil War in case the Brits came in with the Confederacy. I believe our Navy right up to WWI trained and built to fight the Royal Navy if necessary. Had the Nazis acquired both the Royal and the French fleets and had they combined them with their own and the Italian menagerie, our Navy might have had to review those earlier plans. If Lord Halifax had become PM in 1940 it could have happened. Just finished reading a bio of Paul Revere and it reminded me of how much disdain for Perfidious Albion obtained among a considerable minority of the colonists. I've faced redcoats in reenactments and they are still a sobering sight.
Jack, if Lord Halifax had his way, Britain might have made peace with Germany, but it would not have been absorbed into the Reich, and neither would its navy.
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