The Elephant in the White House

 

Friends, don't miss this week's Newsmaker Show, featuring a fascinating discourse on the massive success that was the Republican National Convention, the harsh reality of mail-in voter fraud, the political calculus of rioting and unrest in our biggest cities, and President Trump's very presidential and bridge-building visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

In terms of "This Day in History," Brian and I cover Japan's (unlikely?) surrender in August/September 1945, the career of Ho Chi Minh and the issue of his nationalism versus his Marxism, and the character and war record of George Herbert Walker Bush.

What a show!  You'd be INSANE to miss it!

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-september-2-2020-dr-nick-waddy/

American Carnage

 

Friends, the news is full to the brim with fascinating stories these days.  For one thing, the tide seems to be turning on the issue of riots.  Even the Dems are starting to notice them!  And disapprove!  The wonders never cease.  Of course, their calls for law and order ring massively hollow, given the fact that they've excused a seemingly endless cascade of unrest for months.  But hey, even leftists can read the polls.  They're running scared now.

One reason the tide is turning is because leftist violence is getting harder and harder to obfuscate, and harder and harder to blame on shadowy white supremacists and/or Trump.  This profile of the "model citizen" who appears to have shot a right-wing counter-protestor in Portland is worth a read.  The venomous hate that's being spewed on the Left can really be startling at times, and note that it's not a black man, infused with BLM fervor, who pulled the trigger.  It's an unstable white guy with a crush on Antifa.  This shouldn't shock us.  The most unhinged anti-fascists and anti-racists are often those who have no personal experience with either fascism or racism.  They learned to hate in Ethnic Studies 101, or maybe they were just born that way?

 

https://nypost.com/2020/08/31/man-suspected-in-deadly-portland-shooting-is-100-antifa/ 

 

In other news, according to this riveting account from the New York Post, mail-in voter fraud isn't a fantasy of the right.  It happens, and on a scale that can swing elections one way or the other.  The mechanics of it are most interesting, and one has to wonder how widespread these tactics are.

 

https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/political-insider-explains-voter-fraud-with-mail-in-ballots/ 

The NFL is apparently clarifying the degree to which it will knuckle under to BLM.  The answer: a lot!  Allowing players and teams to display political messages is, if you ask me, a pretty bad idea.  I mean, we don't watch football for political enlightenment, do we?  And yet, it would be one thing if the teams and players were allowed to promote the causes of their choice, but naturally they aren't.  Only approved messages will be seen, and the only messages that are approved are BLM-friendly.  One wonders whether anthem-kneeling will be obligatory?  Why not skip the national anthem, I say, and just sing the Internationale instead.  It's a catchy tune.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/nfl-reveals-more-in-game-social-and-racial-justice-plans

 

So, we all know that good news about the coronavirus is NO NEWS, because only bad news fits the master narrative that America is coming apart at the seams, and it's all Trump's fault.  Well, there IS good news about the virus.  Cases and hospitalizations are down, even in the "hot spots," and we should get set for a massive decline in daily deaths, because it's on the horizon.  You better believe the media will find a way of spinning the pandemic into an accelerating cataclysm, however.  What else have they got?  It's either that, or pull another Trump scandal out of a hat.  Better yet, do both, and then throw in some rioting, just for good measure.

https://www.foxnews.com/travel/florida-governor-people-visit-commercial-flights-coronavirus-decrease

 

Lastly, this is a very interesting and potentially critical analysis.  I've been thinking along the same lines: that Trump would be sitting pretty on election night, and then the Dems would dig in their heels and try to count their way to a come-from-behind victory.  The dynamics would be fascinating -- politically, legally, journalistically.  When, for example, does Trump declare victory???

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/09/01/democratic_data_group_warns_election_night_could_look_like_a_trump_landslide_until_mail-in_votes_are_counted.html

Biblical Biden

 

Friends, wonderful news: Joe Biden, a.k.a. Saint Joe, plans not just to save America from Trump -- he's also ready and able to save your soul!  Just ask Joe himself.  If you listened to his acceptance speech recently, you'll recall that a "battle for America's soul" is underway, and the surest route to redemption runs straight through Wilmington, Delaware!  No surprise there.  And this nonsense, believe it or not, is the theme of my latest article.  See what you make of it.

Biden the Blasphemer

President Trump delivered a lot of memorable lines in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Among the best was his assertion that “Joe Biden is not a savior of America's soul.”

It was a reference to a key moment in Biden's own acceptance speech, in which the former Vice-President called on voters to “join a battle for the soul of this nation.” He declared, “This campaign isn’t just about winning votes. It’s about winning the heart, and yes, the soul of America.” Governors Kasich and Cuomo, among others, echoed this idea that America's “soul” is on the ballot.

In his speech, Biden framed his campaign as one of “hope and light and love.” Trump, by contrast, is “darkness” personified.

Biden particularly drew attention to President Trump's alleged observation in August 2017 that there were “very fine people” among the violent white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia — a smear that has been discredited and disproved on countless occasions. Trump was not referring to white supremacists, as he made clear at the time, and as he has been at pains to remind people since. This imaginary outrage in 2017 nonetheless marked the exact moment when, according to Biden, “I knew I'd have to run.” The “soul of America” demanded nothing less.

Trump is absolutely right to condemn Biden's sanctimonious and intentionally deceptive rhetoric. He is right, because of the emptiness of Biden's words. He is also correct, however, because Biden's arguments represent, at their core, a refutation of the Christian faith that Biden professes to hold. Biden is proposing himself as the savior of the nation, and of Americans' souls, when any true Christian knows that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ.

It is one thing to claim that one candidate serves, or would serve, the American people better than another. It is one thing to claim that the current leader has failed to perform, and another could do the job better. Such arguments are de rigueur in electoral politics.

Biden, however, goes far beyond this, asserting that his campaign stands for “hope and light and love,” while President Trump has brought a “season of darkness” upon the land. This is strikingly moralistic, even pious, rhetoric for a party that claims to embody rationality.

What's worse, Biden, despite his Catholic roots, doesn't suggest God as the force — the only force — that can restore America to spiritual health. He nominates himself as America's redeemer. He claims that he, Joe Biden, can “Give people light.” He, the career politician, can and will illuminate the path back to righteousness.

This rhetoric isn't merely grandiloquent. It is blasphemous. It belies Biden's entreaty to the Almighty at the end of his speech, “And may God bless you,” for it is not God from whom Biden anticipates blessings, but from himself.

Sadly, this moral-spiritual fog, in which it is so easy to confuse oneself for God, is a persistent feature of left-wing ideology. Leftists are humanists: they are believers in the excellence, even the perfectibility, of humankind. They believe that a utopia can and will be built on Earth, if only the ignorant will heed the calls of the enlightened.

And who are the enlightened? Why, they are, of course — they, the left-leaning, “progressive” vanguard of a new age. It is from their glorious minds that the shape and structure of the promised utopia will spring, even though the Bible and common sense teach us that human beings are imperfect in their knowledge, their judgment, and their character, by definition.

Does any of this mean that Donald Trump, rather than Joe Biden, is God's candidate in 2020? No.

What it does mean is that, for all his bloviating, Donald Trump acknowledges that he is beneath God, and so are the rest of us. “In America,” he declared in his acceptance speech, “we don't turn to government to restore our souls. We put our faith in Almighty God." As we should.

Joe Biden is also a man of faith. The difference is that, when it comes to saving souls and redeeming a nation of 330 million people, Biden thinks that he is the key. Not God.

Joe Biden and many Democrats are fond of quoting Scripture. Let them heed, therefore, Matthew 15:9, “In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Simply put, Joe Biden is not Jesus Christ, and the platform of the Democratic Party is not the Scriptures.

If the American people cannot tell the difference, then sadly our “season of darkness” is only beginning.

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears weekly on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.

 

And here it is at Townhall:

 

https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2020/08/31/biden-the-blasphemer-n2575332 

A Trumpian Celebration

 

Friends, the RNC is now in the books, and it's time to reflect on what we've seen.

First, I give both Vice-President Pence and President Trump high marks for their speeches.  They delivered a lot of crisp, hard-hitting verbal salvos that are sure to land squarely on the Democrats and Joe Biden.  Frankly, neither man presented his ideas in what might be described as a "pithy" fashion.  Both made an expansive case for the GOP, and against the Democrats, instead.  That's okay.  Political speeches tend to be meandering, and both men had a lot of issues to cover and interest groups to placate.  The use of personal anecdotes to encapsulate larger themes is now a tried-and-true practice in American political rhetoric.  They used these anecdotes, usually supported by the presence of guests in the audience, to good effect.  I have no doubt that, overall, a great many Republicans and independents will be fortified in their resolve and/or won over because of what they saw and heard this week.  This is especially true given that, the mainstream media being what it is, much of the time the Republican message isn't even accessible to many voters.

If I had to fault the RNC and the Vice-President and President for anything, it would be the sheer breadth of their message(s).  The voters do like simplicity, and it seems to me that so many issues are in play in 2020 that it could be hard for Trump voters to boil down, for their neighbors, just why they're voting red.  Is it law and order?  Is it China?  Is it socialism?  Is it "cancel culture" and liberal intolerance?  Of course, it can and should be all of these things, but we need to be able to abbreviate our pitch into a slogan, or at least a number of bullet points.  That's a work in progress.

I have to say, I missed many of the secondary speakers, but I saw quite a few on night three, and many of them were outstanding.  How many undecided voters were watching?  A lot, I hope!  It strikes me that, for a party beholden to "white supremacists", the RNC featured a ton of minority and women speakers, and it made a herculean effort to overcome the notion that Republicans are "racist" and "sexist".  To Trump's credit, from day one he has reached out to black voters -- sorry, "Black" voters -- and with some success.  Polls consistently show that, while Trump's support in the black community is not vast, he can easily exceed the 8% of the black vote that he received in 2016.  This has to make Democrats nervous.  In fact, Trump looks set to expand his percentage of the black, Hispanic, and Asian vote.  Is it any wonder, then, that Democrats are playing the "race card" as if their political lives depended on it?  No.  They will try everything they can think of to try to shore up their minority support.  Now, it's not inconceivable that Trump could lose in 2020 simply by getting a smaller majority among white voters.  Be that as it may, step one to victory for the Trump-Pence ticket, it seems to me, is to convince as many people of color as possible to vote for Trump, and, if that fails, convince as many of them as possible NOT to vote for Biden.  Kanye, anyone?

Lastly, I think we ought to reflect on the fact that the Biden-Harris ticket got no discernible polling bounce whatsoever from the DNC last week.  Interesting.  For my money, that means that the Dems have hit their ceiling.  Enthusiasm for Biden isn't likely to surge any further.  It can, however, and probably will, diminish.  This is, despite what the media tells us, a very evenly divided country, politically speaking.  That means that Trump can win.  It also means that Biden can win.  It certainly means that neither candidate is likely to win in a landslide.  

 

And that means, as we've noted before, that our election will probably be contested.  Ergo, everything that's happened at these conventions, and all the votes that Americans will cast in September, October, and November, may ultimately come to nought.  That's because the election may well be decided by the Supreme Court, by gamesmanship, by skullduggery, by will (or the lack thereof), by public protests, or even by force.  None of us prefers a messy victory to a clean one, naturally.  But we may have little choice.  Circumstances this year are just not conducive to a "normal" political process.

The World's First ICBM: A Real Attention-Getter!

 

 

 

Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show will blow your mind -- if it doesn't blow you away entirely.

First, Brian and I talk current events, including the well-scripted but ultimately insubstantial Democratic National Convention.  Brian and I also speculate on who will really be running the country, should Biden prevail in November.  In addition, we discuss the first few speeches at the RNC, and why this week is a golden opportunity for the Republicans to make polling gains.  We also cover the Dems' obsession with the postal service and their desire for mail-in ballots.  It appears they're playing a "long game" that involves counting and counting and counting (under the supervision of several thousand lawyers, of course) in November/December that leads, ultimately, to a victory for their side.  If Republicans are left feeling cheated, well, the Left can put up with that.  Winning is the bottom line.

In "This Day in History," Brian and I talk about the chaotic Democratic National Convention of 1968, held, as far as most historians are concerned, in the mean streets of Mayor Daley's Chicago.  We also ponder the presidency and legacy of LBJ, one of the greatest champions of big government in American history.  In addition, we cover the dawn of the age of the ICBM, in 1957, which altered the strategic balance in the Cold War permanently, and lastly we even make a nod towards the Battle of Tannenberg, which prevented a quick Allied victory in World War I.

Don't even think about not tuning in this week.  Our missiles are target-locked on your location!  Don't make us start a countdown...

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-august-26-2020-dr-nick-waddy/

 

***

 

In other news, check out this story on a professor placed on "administrative leave" for blaming China's communist government for the global pandemic.  Was his rhetoric inflammatory?  You bet.  Would a professor similarly be accused of "xenophobia" if he, say, claimed that the President of the United States was a Russian stooge?  Of course not.  "Bigotry, hate, and intolerance" are all good, as long as they serve the Left.  For shame.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/syracuse-university-professor-disciplined-for-calling-coronavirus-wuhan-flu-chinese-communist-party-virus 

"Don't Be Evil" Used To Be Google's Motto -- No More!

 

Friends, with the rise of socialism, private property isn't what it used to be, especially in the eyes of many leftists.  Well, there's a major case before the Supreme Court that could erode our property rights even further.  Read all about it in my latest article, published in the hallowed electronic pages of American Greatness:

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/25/google-is-getting-grabby/

President Pelosi??? Just When You Thought Things Couldn't Get Any Worse

 

 

 

Friends, President Trump painted a sobering picture on the first night of the RNC: of a Democratic Party determined to win in 2020 at all costs, and willing to play fast and loose with electoral norms and democratic values to do so.  Check out this article, which forecasts some of the confusion and gamesmanship that could follow in the days and weeks after Election Day, November 3rd.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/08/25/mail-in_ballots_what_could_go_wrong_144045.html

 

While it's not especially likely that the electoral college will be stymied as late as January 20th, 2021, and thus Nancy Pelosi might make a play for the Oval Office, let's be honest: stranger things have happened!  

 

Now, couple that analysis you just read with recent statements from Hillary Clinton:

 

https://news.yahoo.com/hillary-clinton-urges-biden-not-135350203.html 

Don't concede under ANY circumstances?  What does that tell you?  It suggests to me that the Dems are playing a long game.  They don't expect to win on election night.  They expect the counting to go on and on...and they expect that protracted struggle to work to their advantage.  They expect innumerable court challenges, and presumably they expect to win many of them, perhaps because they assume that even many "Republican" judges will jump at the chance to rid the country of President Trump.  In all these assumptions they may be correct.  

 

Bottom line: it will take extraordinary vigilance on our part, as conservatives and as patriots, to ensure that the Dems don't game the system in 2020.  We also have to face the reality that there's a good chance that the election won't produce a CLEAR, undisputed winner...and then what?  The Left and the media will try to bully Trump out of office, under those conditions.  Undoubtedly street violence will be part of their playbook.  How will Trump respond?  How should Trump respond?  I know many of you will eagerly reply, "Declare martial law!  Arrest the troublemakers!"  Realistically, though, we have to anticipate that any effort by President Trump to enforce public order, in the wake of a disputed election, will be seen by the Left -- and its journalistic acolytes -- as fascism run amok.  In any case, we need to start imaging the various horrific turns this election season could take, and we need to prepare to safeguard whatever tatters of democracy are left to us after November 3rd.

Sorry, God -- You've Been "Cancelled"

 

 

 

Friends, there are lots of jaw-dropping developments these days.  Among the most shocking stories to come out of the Democratic Convention last week -- well, "shocking" if you haven't been following the collective delirium that's descended on the Dems -- was the decision of several of their meetings to omit "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.  Is God keeping score?  He tends to do that.  If so, the Dems may be in big trouble in November!

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/22/donald-trump-democrats-dnc-removed-god-pledge-allegiance-purpose/ 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/democrats-under-god-pledge/

 

In other news, our heroes and heroines in law enforcement are getting pretty tired of being the Left's whipping boy du jour.  Morale is sinking.  Meanwhile, Joe Biden has the gall to claim that it's President Trump who wants to "defund the police".  Ha!  As if anyone would believe that the Dems are the champions of law enforcement!  Sleepy Joe: that dog won't hunt.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/police-defund-new-york-biden-trump-harris-will-cain-weekend 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-says-trump-seeks-to-defund-the-police-through-proposed-cuts

 

In addition, have you seen the stories about the rolling blackouts in California?  What a state!  Not only are you forbidden from leaving your home, but you also have to contend with periodic power outages.  As this article explains, part of the problem is the Golden State's antipathy to nuclear power and fossil fuels.  Alternative energy!  That's the answer.  Sure, it is the answer, if the question is, "How can we turn America into a Third World country?"

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2020/08/17/democrats-say-california-is-a-climate-model-but-its-blackouts-say-otherwise/#72eb30f96fc8 

Finally, this article is a bit "blue" in verbiage, but it makes an outstanding point.  Joe Biden claims that he knew he had to run for president as soon as President Trump announced his support for the white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017.  Well, the only problem is that Trump never did that.  In fact, he did the opposite.  The mythology of Trump's "white nationalism" is now so accepted on the Left and in the media, however, that such whoppers go unnoticed.  Outrageous!

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/08/21/scott_adams_brain-dead_race_hoaxer_joe_biden_is_the_biggest_asshole_in_america.html

Sleepy Joe Defers His Nap to Inspire America

 

Friends, the Democratic National Convention is now in the books, and it's official: it will be Trump-Pence versus Biden-Harris.  I watched the addresses by Sleepy Joe and the Kamster, and I have a few thoughts.

 

For one thing, we have to acknowledge that neither Biden nor Harris "dropped the ball" and humiliated themselves.  Kamala Harris is a smart woman and a smooth talker.  She didn't miss a beat, and she kept things positive and optimistic -- usually a smart move in American politics.  She also defied my expectations.  I assumed she would be Sleepy Joe's "attack dog," and maybe she will be, but she wasn't at the convention.  She seemed like a nice, patriotic lady introducing herself to America.  That sort of speech will do the Dems no harm.

 

Second, Joe didn't crash and burn either.  He exceeded my expectations, insofar as he read his speech without tripping over it or having a stroke.  He was even coherent.  The miracles never cease!  And that, I think, is a danger for the GOP: the bar for Joe Biden has been set so low that it won't be that hard for him to meet it, and even rise above it.

 

Third, Kamala's address was almost entirely lacking in policy prescriptions of any kind.  Joe Biden did address policy, but only in the broadest, most schematic terms.  He promised to fix every problem, and protect every (popular) interest group, but he said almost nothing about how he would do it.  Well, that's par for the course.  The American people expect empty platitudes.  They got them this week, and how!

 

Fourth, the DNC was designed to pitch the Democratic Party as a moderate party, despite the fact that it has advanced some of the most radical proposals in our nation's history.  The tax increases and curtailments of liberty that the modern Dems would inflict on us would be punishing, and yet you'd never know it listening to their rhetoric, which is all Trump-hatred, on one hand, and sweetness and light, on the other: "compassion", "empathy", "equality", "justice".  How nice!

 

In a nutshell, the DNC was carefully scripted, and it was expertly enacted so as to, well, mislead the American people.  It will do the Dems no harm, and, assuming that any undecided voters were watching, it should even do them some good.

 

The challenge, then, is to confront the voters with what the Dems truly are, and what they truly believe in, when the cameras aren't running, and to expose the emptiness of so much of what they have to say.

The best case scenario, my friends, is that the street thugs who are battling nightly with the brave men and women of law enforcement -- some of them BLM, some Antifa, and some just miscellaneous left-wing nutjobs -- will become the real public face of the American Left.  The media wants to avoid that, but let's face it: sometimes Molotov cocktails speak louder than desiccated Delawareans.  This may be one of those times.

We shall see.  The Dems have thrown down the gauntlet.  For the most part, they are going to "play nice", it appears, and let the media do their dirty work for them.  Not a bad strategy.  We just have to hope that the American people are one step ahead of them.

Bring Back the Shah!

 

 

 

Friends, President Trump might want to start thinking of the Shah of Iran as a role model (for when he institutes a dictatorship, that is).  I mean, just look at that throne!  On the other hand, the Shah didn't exactly live long and prosper, so maybe "President of the United States" is...good enough?

 

This week's Newsmaker Show with me and Brian O'Neil focuses on many of the top stories capturing the headlines.  We discuss the Democratic convention and its remarkable lack of interest in the Democratic candidate for President, Joe Biden.  We're apparently supposed to vote for Biden by default, once we exclude Trump as a possibility because, well, he's Beelzebub and all...  In addition, I fulminate against the Dems' obsession with postal reform and call it what it is: the propagation of a baseless conspiracy theory.

Historically, Brian and I analyze the life and legacy of Bill Clinton, the effect of the U-2 incident in 1960 on the trajectory of the Cold War, the 1953 coup that ousted the nationalist Mosaddeq in Iran, and Hitler's accession to the "office" of Fuehrer after the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934.

It's quite a show!  Can you imagine what your life would be like if you missed it?  All that regret, shame, despondency...  Perish the thought!  Tune in now.

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-august-19-2020-dr-nick-waddy/