CATS! Coming Soon to a School Near You

 

Friends, do you often find yourself wondering whether you've taken a wrong turn and entered a parallel dimension, in which up is down, right is wrong, and the Democratic Party platform masquerades as "common sense"?  Well, don't discount the possibility that you may be right!  Witness this story, about a substitute teacher fired because she reacted with befuddlement (and mockery) to a student who insisted on being "identified" as a cat.  Yes, you heard that right.  Male and female aren't the only choices on your menu anymore, folks!  You don't even have to settle for homo sapiens, in fact.  The sky's the limit!  And anyone who doesn't play along is, naturally, the scum of the earth.

https://thepostmillennial.com/teacher-alleges-fired-not-meowing-student-cat?utm_campaign=64487

 

In other news, the People's Republic of Australia has finally decided to deport tennis star Novak Djokovic, on the theory that his unvaccinated status might encourage anti-vaxx sentiment.  I must say, their logic holds up rather well: if you let even one person dissent, others may feel emboldened to speak their minds and follow their hearts too -- and we can't have that!

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-60014059 

Glenn Youngkin has been sworn in as Governor of Virginia, and we here at WaddyIsRight are officially tickled pink!  Congrats to Youngkin and to the good people of the Commonwealth of Virginia, who have long deserved better than demi-socialist misrule.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/youngkin-inauguration-virginia-republican-sworn-in-governor

 

The battle over the future of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to rage in the Republican Party.  RINOs like Mitt Romney adore him.  DJT continues to trash him.  In the meantime, McConnell is doing great work in blocking the Dem agenda in the Senate and building bridges with moderate Dems like Manchin and Sinema.  If the GOP retakes the Senate in 2022, though, McConnell may well have to go hat in hand to Trump and ask for forgiveness for some of his past statements.  Otherwise, the Republicans in the Senate will need to look elsewhere for leadership -- and would that really be such a bad thing?

 

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/01/16/romney-full-support-for-mitch-mcconnell-continuing-leadership/ 

Few lefties are more passionate and (devilishly) persuasive than Robert Reich.  I met this little Marxist troll once upon a time.  He didn't impress me, but the simple fact is that his artful demonization of Republicans, conservatives, and Trumpers is having a profound, if thoroughly toxic, effect on millions of our countrymen.  Take this article, for instance.  Reich pivots from condemning Republicans in Congress as "seditionists" to accusing any corporation which doesn't support the Democrats EXCLUSIVELY as seditionist too.  Sure, we all know that corporate America leaned heavily left in 2020, and in fact $400 million from Mark Zuckerberg was almost certainly the difference in the election, but to Reich that's not even close to good enough.  Corporate America must renounce the fascistic GOP entirely, or else it risks incurring the wrath of the progressive mob.  Corporate fat cats, you've been warned!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/16/corporate-sedition-capitol-attack-democracy-political-financing-donations-sinema-voting-rights

 

Speaking of corporate America and its anti-GOP, anti-Trump bias, President Trump, in his recent Arizona rally, drew attention to AT&T/DirecTV's decision to stop airing One America News.  Luckily, cable is slowly dying and most of us can access the news we prefer online, but the efforts to silence conservatives continue nonetheless.  They are insidious and unAmerican!

 

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/oan-att-t-trump-woke/2022/01/16/id/1052628/ 

Don't Worry, Be Trumpy

Friends, yet another thing to be thankful for: you're not a depressed, self-loathing leftist!  Studies are backing up what you probably already know -- that "progressives" are angry, intolerant, and profoundly unhappy people.  I mean, if you watched CNN all day, you would be too!  So spare some pity for these melancholic mopers.

https://amac.us/the-science-proves-it-conservatives-are-happier-than-liberals/

 

No doubt you've heard about the 11 men being charged with "seditious conspiracy" because of their alleged misdeeds surrounding the January 6th "insurrection".  Now at least one of them is speaking out, denying any involvement in sedition OR conspiracy, and vowing to prove his innocence.  Interesting!  Could federal prosecutors fall flat on their faces?  Stay tuned!

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/01/14/veteran_lt_commander_thomas_caldwell_on_being_charged_today_with_conspiracy_to_commit_sedition.html

 

Finally, check out this fascinating poll.  As you'll see, support for vaccine mandates has slipped recently, as has confidence in "President" Biden's anti-COVID policies and the leadership of Dr. Fauci.  Nonetheless, a majority of Democrats still support draconian measures to stamp out (ha!) the dreaded virus, including confining the unvaccinated in their homes!  Yikes.

 

https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/partner_surveys/jan_2022/covid_19_democratic_voters_support_harsh_measures_against_unvaccinated 

Get the Jab...Or Else!

 

Friends, the pressure on Americans to get vaccinated has been intense.  As you can see here, even the Statue of Liberty is swaddled in face masks and eager to jab everyone in sight.  Now, though, the vaccination mafia has experienced a notable legal/constitutional setback.  The Supreme Court has blocked the Biden Administration's vaccine/testing mandate for large employers.  Granted, many employers will probably still require vaccination, and, granted, many states and localities may impose their own blanket mandates, which are likely to be upheld.  Be that as it may, the federal government isn't empowered to force every worker to get jabbed, according to the Supreme Court.  I approve of this ruling!  As you know, I'm vaccinated myself, but I see no compelling justification for forcing the vaccines on unwilling Americans.  Please yourself, I say!

https://www.axios.com/supreme-court-biden-covid-vaccine-mandate-1dc48f8a-1f37-4af1-aecd-0f6625afd5c4.html

 

Breaking news: federal prosecutors have filed the first "seditious conspiracy" charges against January 6th defendants.  This is interesting!  Of course, charges don't always produce convictions, but these legal developments will give the "insurrection" fairy tale a shot in the arm.  The political implications?  Expect the hue and cry from the Left to intensify...and expect the Dems to go down in flames in November 2022 regardless.

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/oath-keepers-capitol-attack-jan-6/2022/01/13/id/1052310/

 

Finally, more and more studies are underlining the virtual non-existence of omicron fatalities.  There are increasingly strong arguments, therefore, for why we should declare victory over COVID, or at least dial down our pandemic anxieties and countermeasures.  Will this happen?  It's hard to say.  It depends on political calculations as much as it does on medical judgements.

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/deaths-from-omicron-91-less-compared-to-delta-study-finds 

Catfight!!!

 

Friends, this week's Newsmaker Show covers a lot of ground, because there was a lot of ground to cover!  We dissect the growing movement on the Left to declare Republican candidates for federal office ineligible because of...INSURRECTION!  We also talk about the political implications of the omicron outbreak, the odds of (and alternatives to) a Trump presidential run in 2024, the Biden-Abrams spat, and the prospects for the Dems' "voting rights" bills in Congress.

When we arrive at "This Day in History", Brian and I discuss the Siege of Leningrad, the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, the failures of the Paris Peace Conference, the decision of the U.S. to rely on nuclear deterrence in the Cold War, and the 1981 premiere of the primetime soap opera Dynasty.  Were those the days or what???

Listen in!  I dare you!

https://wlea.net/newsmaker-january-12-2022-dr-nick-waddy/

Speaking of efforts to exclude Trump-supporting Republicans from federal elections, look at what's being said about and done to one of the earliest targets: Madison Cawthorn.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/voters-move-to-block-trump-ally-madison-cawthorn-from-re-election/ar-AASErvO?li=BBnb7Kz

 

And this poll ought to send shivers down your spine: most Democrats favor online censorship to ensure that "some people" (probably Democrats!) aren't "offended".  Democracy isn't likely to survive THAT!

 

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/polling/most-democrats-want-social-media-censorship-poll 

One of the biggest threats to our democratic system is the private funding of elections, which the Left would ordinarily find mortifying, but, since most of this money boosts their favored candidates, for the moment they say, "Corporate sponsors, we love you!"

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/01/12/the_escalating_nationwide_battle_over_private_millions_to_help_run_public_elections_811521.html

 

Finally, this poll is extremely interesting.  Its questions about January 6th are "leading", to say the least, but its most critical finding is this: only 33 percent of Americans approve of the job Joe Biden is doing.  Dems, think insurrection fever will save you from those kinds of numbers?  Dream on!

 

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/biden/2022/01/12/id/1052170/ 

Defaming Democracy

 

Friends, I think we can all agree that American democracy peaked with Nixon-Agnew's 49-state landslide victory over McGovern-Shriver in 1972.  Since then...eh.  We've been limping along.  Now, though, the denouement of American democracy is gathering pace.

Witness the flurry of alarmist articles from leftists below.  In shrill, panicked tones, they declare that our constitutional system is on its last legs because of Republicans' "deceitful and violent effort to end American democracy".  Only David Brooks injects a note of rationality: he points out that a lot of Democratic talking points are focused on matters like voter ID, which survey after survey show has little effect on voter turnout or the outcomes of elections. Brooks, though, finds the efforts of Republican legislatures to take control of election administration and the certification of election results deeply troubling.  He needn't.  State legislatures and Governors have always had important powers over our elections.  Almost never do they exercise those powers to try to influence the outcomes of the electoral process.  And, lest we forget, none of them did so, or tried to do so, in 2020.  That's because what undergirds the integrity of our elections is not the laws and procedures that govern them, but their widely heralded legitimacy, and the force of public opinion, which, up until now, has seldom doubted that the person who gets more votes is the rightful winner of any election.  What's different about America in the 21st century, however, is that suddenly neither party has real confidence in the electoral process -- and thus the true believers in both parties claim (with a straight face) that the opposing party is gaming the system, at best, and subverting democracy itself, at worst.  Ergo, it is just a matter of time before one of our parties contests an election more successfully than Trump did in 2020, and at least some state legislatures, judges, and Governors actively participate in a "scheme" to overturn an election.  And then all this handwringing about the fate of "American democracy" will seem a lot more relevant than it does now!

https://recentlyheard.com/2022/01/09/david-brooks-why-democrats-are-so-bad-at-defending-democracy/

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/10/republicans-election-democracy-seven-ways-trump 

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/588937-juan-williams-american-democracy-will-die-unless-voting-rights-are

 

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/01/08/georgia-republicans-are-scheming-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters/ 

https://www.newsmax.com/us/georgia-voting-reforms-speech-atlanta/2022/01/10/id/1051831/

 

Republicans, to their credit, are starting to push back hard against Democrats' claims that their election integrity bills are designed to prevent minorities from voting.  If that's true, then such efforts have been spectacularly unsuccessful over the last couple of decades, since voter ID measures have proliferated, but minorities have voted at increasingly high levels regardless.

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-gop-pushes-back-on-democratic-big-lie 

https://amgreatness.com/2022/01/09/stop-calling-it-a-voting-rights-bill/

 

In other news, future House Speaker (?) Kevin McCarthy is saying that he'll boot several Democrats off their committees should Republicans take over the House in January 2023.  That's an understandable reaction to similar purges initiated by the Dems under Nancy Pelosi, but I believe that "tit for tat" is bad policy, in this particular case.  I say the voters get to choose who will represent them in Congress, and if they select incompetent, boneheaded hacks, so be it.  Those hacks should be representing their constituents, not only by voting on legislation but also by serving on committees.  If we continue to follow the logic of stripping certain Congressmen of their rights, it's only a matter of time before controversial members are simply unseated altogether, and then our democracy will look even more threadbare than it already does.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/kevin-mccarthy-im-kicking-3-democrats-off-their-committees-if-republicans-win-back-house-in-2022

 

And here's a little food for thought: in 2020, we managed to virtually abolish the phenomenon of rejecting absentee/mail-in ballots because they failed to meet all the criteria established under law.  In other words, EVERY ballot, no matter how flawed, was counted, because most of those ballots (duh!) were bound to be votes for Joe Biden.  Now, though, that the dynamics have shifted, the rejection of mail-in ballots is once again occurring much more often, and in some cases at amazingly high rates.  This should make any sensible person think twice about the legitimacy and fairness of the process in 2020...and today!  The counting of votes ought to be CONSISTENT from one election cycle to the next, after all.

 

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/01/10/1-out-of-12-ballots-rejected-in-alaska-election/ 

Democracy Dies in Dumbness

 

Friends, concocting false narratives to make Republicans, conservatives, and Trumpers look bad is what some people are good at.  It's their passion in life, not to mention a pretty decent livelihood.  For a while, the lefties had a field day with "Russia collusion".  The new flavor of the month, however, is "insurrection".  It's the buzzword that's on every progressive's lips.  The scary part is not so much that the Dems are at it again, making mountains out of molehills, but that they genuinely believe their own nonsense, i.e. that democracy came close to collapse on January 6th, that thousands of Trumpers pre-planned an "insurrection" but somehow forgot to bring their guns, and that DJT's (alleged) failure to condemn the Capitol Riot soon enough and vociferously enough is the same thing as staging a rebellion.  The worst delusion of all that has gripped the Left, though, is this: they claim that even to question an election is the same thing as, say, braining a policeman with a fire extinguisher.  Ergo, every Republican who supported, in any way, shape, or form, Donald Trump's effort to contest the 2020 election results should be thrown out of Congress (if they currently sit there) and prohibited from seeking federal office ever again.  Because "insurrection", in case you haven't heard, is a VERY BIG DEAL!  The BIGGEST, in fact!  Well, my latest interview with Sputnik News reveals the asininity of all this pearl-clutching.  Read it and judge for yourself:

https://sputniknews.com/20220107/why-dems-use-of-civil-war-era-amendment-against-trump-over-capitol-riot-spells-danger-to-democracy-1092095909.html

Elon Musk's Tesla: Driven to Enslave?

 

Friends, the world's richest man might seem like an unlikely cheerleader for Maoist tyranny, but these days commerce makes for some strange bedfellows!  My latest article, soon to appear at American Greatness, takes Elon Musk's electric carmaker to task for its "see no evil, hear no evil" policy re: potential genocide in China's mostly Muslim Xinjiang province.  Sorry, Elon -- I calls 'em as I sees 'em!

Elon Musk: Leading Candidate for Slave-Driver of the Year?

Many conservatives cheered Elon Musk's recent recognition as Time's “Person of the Year”, especially since Musk has been outspoken in refuting pandemic orthodoxies, criticizing big government, and even brazenly insulting “Uncle Joe” Biden. Musk's willingness to speak freely and think outside the box, in an age of cancel culture and rampant censorship, is laudable, but his business practices often leave much to be desired. And Musk is, lest we forget, a businessman, first and foremost. His leading-edge tech companies are among the world's biggest and most influential.

In addition to relying heavily on government largesse and dodging tax obligations that mere mortals like you and me have no choice but to pay, Musk and his companies are under increasing pressure because of his and their cozy relationship with communist China. Recent articles have exposed how deeply invested Musk, Inc. is in Red China, and how extravagant Musk has been in his praise of China and its leadership.

On one hand, none of this should come as a surprise. Since the toppling of President Trump and his replacement with Washington insider par excellence Joe Biden, our political, cultural, and economic elite has distinguished itself by its fecklessness and its indifference re: China's misdeeds.

For instance, despite the fact that it is increasingly obvious that the Wuhan virus was engineered in a Chinese government-run lab, and accidentally or intentionally released at the cost of millions of lives worldwide, and untold trillions in damages, few Western leaders have been willing to call out the Chinese for their role in the catastrophe, and their shamelessness in denying responsibility – not to mention their propagation of conspiracy theories to shift the blame elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has mostly kept promises to deescalate America's trade war with China, and major media organizations, social media companies, and big corporations like Disney, Nike, and Coca-Cola have been toadying to the Chinese communist elite and shielding them from criticism. In this day and age, therefore, the coddling of Red China is not the exception, but the rule, and that's throughout the Western world. Musk embodies this pernicious trend perfectly.

The most recent sign of Musk's tone-deaf approach to Chinese outrages is the decision by his electric car company, Tesla, to open a showroom in China's Xinjiang province. This is the same province now legendary for an allegedly genocidal, and certainly cruel and tyrannical, government program to intimidate, reeducate, and even enslave the local Muslim population.

China's violations of human rights in Xinjiang are so flagrant that the U.S. Congress recently voted, on a bipartisan basis (!), to adopt Senator Marco Rubio's proposed ban on the importation of goods produced by forced labor in Xinjiang. President Biden, surely no enemy of Red China, even deigned to sign the bill into law.

Musk, however, and his avaricious electric car company, see only dollar signs (or is it yuan signs?) in Xinjiang. And so, for Musk, it is business as usual as he looks the other way and profits indirectly from Chinese communist barbarity. And it isn't the first time, by any means. Tesla and its suppliers have been accused of benefiting from slave labor in China and elsewhere before.

Considerations like these place in a new and troubling light Elon Musk's supposedly irresistible impish charm. Musk may well have the world of commerce on a string, and he may have dazzled much of the global elite with his faux-nerdy magnetism, but the bottom line is how real human beings are impacted by Musk's technologies and his business practices. In Xinjiang, at least, it appears that Musk is part of the problem, and is in no way part of the solution.

More and more, American consumers are asking themselves whether the capitalist enablers of communist rule and Maoist oppression are people we want to do business with – and whether it's necessary to build every vital piece of modern tech in the world headquarters for slave labor and genocide. If you believe the answer is an emphatic “no”, then think twice before you buy a Tesla, or hitch a ride on the next SpaceX rocket.

Actions have consequences, after all – for Musk no less than for you and me.

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 American Greatness:

 

https://amgreatness.com/2022/01/08/elon-musk-leading-candidate-for-slave-driver-of-the-year/ 

The Worst Thing Ever

 

Friends, every day the Left thoughtfully reminds us that the events of January 6th were the WORST THING EVER to befall America's ever-so-fragile democracy, and furthermore Donald Trump is the WORST PERSON EVER for fomenting the "insurrection" that occurred on that fateful day.  Now, though, on the first anniversary of the Capitol Riot, the Dems and their fellow travelers are outdoing themselves.  They're saying the exact same things they say each and every day, but LOUDER, and with more verve.  The really committed insurrection fantasists among them may even manage to shed a tear or two.  Quite a few them may need counseling after today's solemn commemorations are done (although, to be fair, these are people in a constant state of nervous exhaustion anyway).  We on the right, in any case, need to take a deep breath and understand today's theatrics for what they are: a blatant, shameless effort to milk January 6th for maximum political advantage, and to delegitimize and ultimately silence all forms of dissent.  Again, the Dems are right that democracy hangs in the balance.  They just don't realize that their own soaring egoism, blistering intolerance, and frightful myopia are some of the chief dangers that it faces.

Speaking of which, Uncle Joe is leading the charge against us lousy insurrectionists, and of course he's putting most of the blame on DJT:

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/biden-blame-january-6-trump/2022/01/06/id/1051257/

 

https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-capitol-siege-biden-congress-3dd8fd804c857c23f8e0fe2324c9d8a4 

DJT, for his part, is accusing Biden of "deflecting" from his own failures.  Ouch!  That's gotta sting...

https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1479118041430388738

 

Of course, Trump is 100% correct.  The Dems are choosing to talk endlessly about January 6th, and to "investigate" it ad infinitum, because they don't have a record to run on in 2022.  Their only hope is to disqualify the opposition.  It's a "Hail Mary", though, because we've already seen in November 2021 that such a strategy is a political loser.

 

https://tippinsights.com/unabashed-milking-of-january-6-for-political-gain/ 

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/01/06/fncs-carlson-january-6-was-not-a-violent-terrorist-attack-pretending-it-was-a-failed-coup-is-dems-midterm-election-strategy/

 

The nuclear option for the Dems would be (drumroll, please!) not just rhetorically and morally disqualifying Trump and Republicans as candidates for high office, but literally making it impossible for anyone to vote for them.  Throwing us all in prison is the easiest way to make that happen, but the lefties have achieved very meager results so far on that score.  So why not declare virtually everyone in the GOP ineligible for federal office because of their ties to "insurrection"?  Brilliant!  As I've said before, the Dems have left this far too late to be a workable solution to their problem (and make no mistake, the underlying "problem" is the Dems' own unpopularity), but that won't stop some true believers from batting the idea around.  And, in the final analysis, whether Dems embrace such wild stratagems is ultimately a factor of how desperate they get, and their desperation is still rising...  Stay tuned!

 

https://nypost.com/2022/01/06/democrats-hope-14th-amendment-can-bar-donald-trump-from-holding-office/ 

You may have noticed, though, that Trump's scheduled news conference for today was cancelled.  That's a little odd, and a sign of arguably erratic judgement on DJT's part, but in my opinion rubbing Trump in America's face on January 6th was never a very good idea anyway...and doing it with the mainstream media in the room was bound to be something akin to a P.R. catastrophe.  Lindsey Graham says he helped dissuade Trump from holding a press conference today.  If so, he did America, and Trump, a service.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/lindsey-graham-warned-trump-of-peril-of-holding-jan-6-anniversary-press-conference

 

So how did we get here?  How did the Democratic Party become captive to a narrative that claims that the opposition party is defined by "insurrection" and treason?  Watching CNN and MSNBC every day explains most of these delusions, but in addition the Dems' frantic efforts to refocus the attention of the American people are simply a consequence of the deplorably low poll numbers "President" Biden and Congressional Democrats are currently generating.  Some rats flee a sinking ship.  Other rats shove Adam Schiff in front of the cameras and hope for the best!

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/biden-approval-drops-35-percent/2022/01/06/id/1051303/

 

You may have heard that reports that Joe Manchin has resumed negotiations over the Build Back Better legislative monstrosity are false.  Thank heavens for that!  Also false is the idea that the Dems can piece together a Senate majority for ending the filibuster or strong-arming their election takeover bills through Congress.  Senator Sinema says, "No way, José!"

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/01/05/sinema-to-senate-dems-absolutely-no-nuclear-option-or-filibuster-change-n439518

 

Lastly, as the danger that the Dems will pass their most insidious bills recedes, is the threat of COVID waning too?  You wouldn't know it, if you watched the MSM these days, but indications are strong that the omicron variant of COVID is much, much less debilitating and deadly.  It's going to be fascinating to see how the Dems and their journalistic errand boys handle this development.  They are more or less addicted to COVID hysteria at this stage, as is their base, but is writhing in pandemic agony a winning strategy in an election year???  I wouldn't bet on it!

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/risk-of-icu-admission-or-death-from-omicron-83-lower-than-delta-study 

Sad Old Man Prepares to Wrestle Russian Bear

 

Friends, today I bring you another very special treat: a guest essay by our very own Jack Stengel.  Jack is well known in these parts as the Bard of the Southern Tier.  He's articulate, his knowledge base is encyclopedic, and his adamantine conservative convictions put us all to shame.  Let's see what he has to say about the current brouhaha over an impending (?) Russian invasion of Ukraine...  See if you agree with his POV.

 

I think here are two fundamental certainties in this situation: 1. Russia will never tolerate what it may in the near future regard as the CERTAINTY of Ukrainian membership in Nato. It need not be formalized; if Russia is convinced it's a done deal it will commence decisively intended military action.  2. Nato has a very favorable defense for Central and Western Europe in place already. We do not need Ukraine for that and we must not let sympathy for ethnic Ukrainians motivate us to present Russia with an unendurable affront.                                     

   

As to #1: One of monstrous and amoral Stalin's main reasons for enslaving the subsequent Warsaw Pact nations was to provide a barrier to invasion for a Russia which had just suffered the worst incursion ever suffered by a country at the hands of another. Now Nato encompasses that barrier, including Poland, an historical invader and victim of bordering Russia. Consider Russia's deep historical ties to Ukraine, its prototypical heartland (Kievan Rus) and in that sense perhaps roughly analogous to Mass. or Va. for us. I understand it is customary in Russian weddings to visit the WWII memorial treasured in every city and town. Much of that deadliest of all wars was fought in and for Ukraine. Because it has done the world much evil we may be loath to sympathise with Russia but we MUST objectively perceive how they view their present position! Russia has displayed remarkable restraint in reacting to Nato's eastward advance after the fall of the USSR. I was born in 1947 and this is still almost beyond belief to me, especially when considering that Nato's anchor is an incredibly united Germany. But Ukraine in Nato? Surely Russia cannot BUT react forcefully to such an egregious (in their eyes) offense.                                                   



As to #2: Is it worth our taking that chance? Is it of vital interest to the security of the West that Ukraine be incorporated into our alliance? When the USSR unwisely placed nuclear IRBMs at our very threshold in Cuba in 1962 we came within a day of invading Cuba and engaging Russian forces we now know had tactical nukes and local authority to use them. Russia would surely hazard the same should Nato bring Ukraine into its fold.         



Nato sits atop the northern European plain - great tank country - all the way to Russia's border itself. Nato need not withdraw from any present position in a member country. It need not give Putin the "legally binding" agreement he wants that Nato will not welcome Ukraine. But Nato should, led by the US, at least through informal channels, assure Russia that Ukraine will not be admitted. Without such an assurance Russia may believe that Ukrainian membership is in the works. Whether mistakenly or, worse, realistically, seen as so by Russia, then the abyss yawns! Such an informal deal on US IRBMs in 1962 helped to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis. Should Russia invade Ukraine on its own again, sans any reason to think Ukraine in Nato is imminent, then sanctions may well be appropriate.     



Russia will never countenance the accession of the historically and geographically vital Ukraine to an alliance obviously aimed at Russia. It would be exceedingly dangerous to ask such a humiliating concession from this proud and rugged nation!   

Alarm! Alarm!

 

Friends, our lefty countrymen aren't messing around: they've declared a full-blown RED ALERT in response to our fascist, white supremacist, terrorist master plan to end American democracy.  Their rhetoric grows more alarmist by the day.  This stuff matters, people!  By posing as the defenders of democratic norms, the Left gives itself the perfect excuse to override those norms, if need be, to stave off an even greater threat.  Emergencies are precisely when democracies are in the greatest peril!  As you'll note here, establishment voices in the Democratic Party, like those of the New York Times and Chuck Schumer, are fully on board with this over-heated rhetoric.  Again, they're right about one thing, even if they're wrong about everything else: a nation in which the people have no or little confidence in the fairness of elections is one in which ALL BETS ARE OFF.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-fix-the-filibuster-to-rescue-the-republic-20220102-wyt2ztlqzbaxhgtrs5kquqc5su-story.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/01/opinion/january-6-attack-committee.html 

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/587943-juan-williams-american-democracy-is-in-peril

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/schumer-vows-vote-on-changing-senate-rules-if-gop-continues-to-block-efforts 

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/01/03/schumer-new-republican-party-under-trump-viciously-against-voting-rights/

 

A funny thing happened this past year in polling.  The mainstream media and major polling organizations decided that they're no longer interested in who the "most admired" person might be.  In Britain, this was because the likely winner was J.K. Rowling, who believes there are only two genders.  What a fascist!  In America, it's because the top dog in popularity is almost certainly DJT.  A double fascist!  The remedy for this problem?  Just stop asking people what they think.  Start telling them what to think.  Way safer.

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/brad-wilmouth/2022/01/02/did-gallup-end-most-admired-74-year-polling-tradition-avoid-trump

 

Just when you thought Joe Manchin had forsaken the Dark Side of the Force, it seems he's still negotiating with the White House to pass some of the elements in the "Build Back Better" plan.  Say it ain't so, Joe!  Manchin really is all over the place.  Don't be surprised if the Dems pass something -- anything! -- in 2022 just to make it seem like they're not a total trainwreck of a governing party.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/01/02/report-manchin-resumes-negotiations-build-back-better/ 

Lastly, in one more sign that the U.S. economy is cooling, manufacturing growth is tepid.  Does this mean we're on the express train to recession-ville?  Not necessarily.  Omicron might liberate us from COVID, and that's guaranteed to give the economy a shot in the arm (as it were)...

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/01/03/u-s-manufacturing-slumps-to-weakest-since-2020-as-shortages-hit-production-and-delays-depress-orders/