Despite living in the age of universal deceit, people still tend to believe that our political system works as advertised. This is most obvious with Europeans who comment upon American politics. They can be terribly jaded about how the world works, but still insist that Joe Biden is the guy driving administration policy. They may even acknowledge that he is a vegetable, but still insist he is the shot caller.

We just went through an election and people are stunned to learn that no one in Washington noticed it. It is business as usual in the imperial capital. The only change is they will have to throw sand in the gears of the Trump transition, but the purpose of which is to make sure it remains business as usual after January. Exactly no one cares that the people have spoken.

The main reason for this is elected office holders have little say in how anything is done, not even in how legislation is passed. This is done by an army of staffers, agency people, lobbyists and the semi-permanent political class. The people in charge are the people you rarely see on television or in the news. They are the people who make up what Sam Francis called the leviathan.

That is the show this week. The stuff we learned in school about how our political system functions has been reduced to nonsense. It sort of worked that way decades ago, but the full flowering of the managerial state has put the system in the control of the army of people who make their living running the leviathan. Elections are just something they now hold to distract us.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• The Elected Representative
• The Pol’s Life
• Legislation
• Policy Making
• Trump Challenge

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Contents

• 01m28s Trump’s Labor Secretary
• 13m08s Killing Hong Kong
• 19m56s The late-Biden Rush
• 26m18s Andreessen on Rogan
• 33m40s War, what is it good for?
• 35m15s An ocean of loneliness
• 37m41s Problems with reincarnation
• 40m56s Feeling Seeing the Earth move
• 43m28s Signoff  with Black Metal

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01 — Intro.     And Radio Derb is on the air! Greetings, listeners, from your tenebrously genial host John Derbyshire, bringing you news of the hour seasoned with conservatism, nationalism, and pessimism.

The birthday of a great living dissident is coming up next week — I’ll get to that in a segment or two. Sir Winston Churchill’s birthday is more immediately upon us: the great man was born 150 years ago tomorrow, November 30th. If you think Sir Winston was not a great man but an alcoholic psychopath in the service of international financiers, we’ll have to differ; but at least look up what I said on the topic two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, what’s happening in our domestic politics? Well, the nominations continue apace. Continue reading →

This Week’s Show

Contents

• 02m01s Musk, Friedman, and Milei
• 06m44s The Uniparty strikes back
• 13m56s Masculinity past, present, east, and west
• 20m24s Report from Jim Snow America
• 24m03s The Penny Trial
• 27m29s Jussie off the hook?
• 29m13s Nations of the mind
• 31m47s Advice from the Duke
• 34m45s Signoff  with the King

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01 — Intro.     And Radio Derb is on the air! Welcome, listeners; this is your suavely genial host John Derbyshire with edition number 972 of America’s longest-running National Conservative podcast.

I should of course commence by wishing Happy Birthday! to our President Joe Biden, who turned 82 on Wednesday.

No, I didn’t vote for him. I think his Presidency has been a disaster and I think the leading elements of the Ruling-Class faction who made it happen should all be incarcerated and put to hard labor.

Joe Biden’s the President, though; we only get to have one at a time; umpteen millions of my fellow citizens voted for him; so he’s entitled to some respect. Happy Birthday, Sir!

President-Elect Trump’s nominations to cabinet and other senior posts in the coming administration proceed apace. Of the 27 that need Senate confirmation, 17 have already been named, although of course none yet confirmed.

I’ll take a look at one recent development. First, though, some general observations on our federal government Continue reading →

With the holiday season upon us, it means I clean out the podcast attic of topics I thought about doing but did not do for some reason. One topic is the categorization of the political tribes and subcultures in this age. Despite the billions of words spewed forth by the internet every day, we lack a sensible way of describing our politics. We still fumble with antiquated terms like left and right.

It can be frustrating for people with a speaking role in politics, as you are often lumped in with people with whom you have little in common. An example in the show is Keith Woods, who claims to be a leader of the dissident right, even though the term was invented before he was born by and for people in a country with whom he shares little in common in terms of politics.

Of course, the reason he embraced the label “dissident right” is that the prior labels he used got a bad odor about them. His politics have not changed as the labels changed, so the labels only confuse things. This is why the term “dissident right” has lost its meaning and is no longer useful. As with citizenship, if anyone can join the dissident right, then there is no reason for it to exist.

This is not unique to the dissident right. “Conservative” has been a meaningless label in the United States since the Cold War. At one point, Bill Kristol, Bill Buckley and Goth Fonzi were all on Team Conservative. The only thing they had in common was the guys signing their paycheck. Conservatism became a land of unwanted toys and now it is just a punchline.

That is the show this week. It is a disorganized mess as I was mostly thinking out loud about the obvious political categories. At some point I would like to create a map like the one done years ago for the so-called right. Maybe something not tied to individuals who come and go, but to more permanent categories of political thought. It would also be nice to have some useful labels for these things.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• The End Of Dissident Right
• Labels & Ideology
• Naming Names
• Dissidents

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The first couple of weeks after an election, the winning side spends the time imagining all the good things that will come. The euphoria fades as political reality sets in with the roll out of nominations to the new administration. We see this with Trump, as he announces who he plans to nominate to certain posts. The good feelings are now giving way to varying levels of concern.

The big area of concern is his foreign policy team which looks like the amen corner of the Israel lobby. The only skeptic of foreign adventurism is Tulsi Gabbard, who he will nominate for the director of national intelligence. This should not come as a complete shock since Miriam Adelson provided a third of his campaign budget. She is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, who is buried in the Mount of Olives.

A reality of political life in America is that the Israel lobby wields an enormous amount of power, going back to the Johnson administration. Even Truman complained about these people, when they were in their infancy. Since the Six Day War, Israel has played an outsized role in American politics, which means being in good standing with the Israel lobby has been essential to victory.

It is not all bad news. Trump has sidelined the neocons, which are not a part of the Israel lobby, despite what some people claim. The neocons have drafted on the Israel lobby at times, but as we saw in the Biden administration, their agenda can fall afoul of the Israel lobby. Prioritizing Ukraine over Israel is probably what spelled the end of the Biden presidency and the defeat of Harris.

Trump also seems to be serious about swinging a wrecking ball through the corrupt Department of Justice. Nominating Matt Gaetz, a guy with good reason to seek some retribution, says bad times are coming for the crooks. His pick for the top assistant and the solicitor general is also a good sign. If fixing the Justice Department means more of the same in Israel, that is not the worst trade.

That is the show this week. I am heading out for the weekend, so it means everyone and his brother has demanded time from me this week. As a result I had not time to prep a show, so I just did an out off the top of my head on the trade-offs were are starting to see in Trump 2.0. That is the thing to understand. It is all about trade-offs that can advance the ball down the field.

Edit: I am told that Adelson did not come up with the full $100 million, but Tim Mellon, of the Mellon family, kicked in $170 million. I checked this and I cannot verify the former claim or the latter claim, but Mellon did give at least $100 million. This post from the NYTimes lists the major donors. Regardless, the Israel lobby played a major role in getting Trump elected, so they get paid. That is politics.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• Appointments Signal Priorities
• Political Reality
• The Issues
• The Road From Here

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Contents

• 02m57s Victory for the normies
• 08m59s Bonfire of the talking points
• 14m32s Window of opportunity for troublemakers
• 18m21s The squirrel election
• 25m37s Compulsory voting? Strewth!
• 32m50s Landscaper wars
• 34m49s Sci-Am editor speaks
• 38m03s The Amish vote
• 40m21s Signoff with the Chairman

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Transcript

01 — Intro.     Yeah yeah, I know: it’s a little early for Christmas. I just wanted to come in with jubilation, and there’s nothing quite as jubilant as the Hallelujah Chorus. That was the London Philharmonic conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, whom I once saw conduct in person.

This is of course your jubilantly genial host John Derbyshire, on the air with edition number 970 of Radio Derb. The previous 969 podcasts — audio and text transcripts both — are all archived at my personal website johnderbyshire.com. From the “Navigation” box on my home page just click on “Opinions” and then, at the “Opinions” page, click on “Radio Derb.” There they are, hours of happy listening.

As Master of the Metadata I can in fact tell you precisely how many hours: 621, plus 39 minutes and 22 seconds. Sit back and enjoy!

Also on my home page are instructions on how to support my work using snail mail, PayPal, or crypto, or via Zelle direct to my bank. To make a tax-deductible donation, earmark a check with my name and mail it to: The VDARE Foundation, P.O. Box 211, Litchfield-with-a-“t”, CT 06759. Thank you!

The occasion of my jubilation is of course the triumph of my party, the Republican Party, in this week’s general election. I shall open with some comments about that.

Continue reading →

It has been roughly fifty years since Nixon was forced from office. Watergate has largely slipped from our collective memory as most of the main players have slipped loose from this mortal coil. At the time, it was considered the greatest political scandal in American history, maybe even a near death experience. Nixon was not denounced as Hitler, but you can see the beginnings of that impulse in this period.

Another thing forgotten is that Nixon remained a bogeyman for the people we call the left long after the scandal. Reagan was compared to Nixon. The Democrat Congress relentlessly investigated him, sure that he was doing Nixon stuff. The Iran – Contra affair was supposed to be his Watergate. Bush I got the Nixon treatment as well with the whole October surprise business.

The election of Bill Clinton seems to have put an end to the Nixon stuff, as it boomeranged back on the Democrats. This also may turn out to be the high-water mark for the forces behind the toppling of Nixon and the aftermath. The managerial state has been in decline ever since. We are now at the final chapter of a period that started with FDR, climaxed in Watergate and may now be coming to an end.

The managerial system that was born under FDR, or at least came into practice, finally took control of the political system during Watergate. It was the “deep state” that took down Nixon and the “deep state” is just a spooky word for the permanent set of institutions that now govern us. The election of Trump in 2024, roughly fifty years after Watergate, may signal the end of managerialism.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• Nixon To Trump Fifty Years
• The way To Think About Nixon
• The Managerial Super Cycle
• Nixon To Trump
• Revolt Of The Economic Elite?
• The Decline Of Managerialism
• Managerialism Has Failed

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Contents

• 02m09s Is the West waking up?
• 12m48s The Hanns Johst reflex
• 20m12s America’s can’t-dos
• 29m11s What’s up with Koreans?
• 32m12s New Yorkers don’t vote
• 34m12s Garbagegate
• 37m09s Trick-or-treat fades
• 39m23s Signoff: Halloween Hank

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01 — Intro.     And Radio Derb is on the air! Greetings, listeners. That was a snippet of Haydn’s Derbyshire March No. 2 and this is your awesomely genial host John Derbyshire with news of the hour.

Nothing much of any interest is happening here in the U.S.A. right now, so this week’s podcast will lean heavily on foreign topics. And no, this does not mean that Radio Derb is shedding our isolationist convictions. We remain as opposed as ever to foreign entanglements. Events beyond our shores, though, have an abstract interest of their own, and may have things to teach us.

So let’s go scanning the world. Before we do, though, let me direct you once again to my personal website johnderbyshire.com where, along with much fascinating reading and listening matter — including, just posted, my October Diary — you will find instructions on how to support me using snail mail, PayPal, or crypto, or via Zelle direct to my bank, or with a tax-deductible donation by a check earmarked with my name and mailed to: The VDARE Foundation, P.O. Box 211, Litchfield-with-a-“t”, CT 06759. Thank you as always for your encouragement. Continue reading →

Every four years the media tells us that this is the most important election in our lifetimes, maybe in the history of the world. It is always nonsense, of course, but even if it does turn out to be important, few people realize it. Hardly anyone realized that the 1992 election, for example, would be an inflection point. The Cold War was over, and it felt like politics was not all the important.

This time may be different. Trump is a unique figure and has come to define the first quarter of the 21st century. To understand him and his time on the stage, you must start with the election of the execrable George Bush and then follow the chain of events that flowed from that moment. Trump was the delayed response to the hollowing out of conservatism and the Republican Party by the neoconservatives.

What the Trump era has come to be about is who is going to run the country, Americans or a collection of alien weirdos? For their part, the alien weirdos have made it clear since Trump came down that escalator that they would rather blow up the world than allow normal Americans to rule themselves again. The election next Tuesday is the last battle in the fight between Trump and the alien weirdos.

By all accounts now, Trump is favored to win. If the riggers steal another election, then any hope you have for a soft landing is gone. The country plunges into the darkness and whatever comes out decades from now will bear little resemblance to what everyone understands to be America. This may happen even if Trump wins, but there is at least the hope that not all the lights go out.

That is the show this week. This is, at the minimum, a very important election, but also the last election for a uniquely American figure. No other country could produce a politician like Donald Trump. Even by American standards, he is a singular figure, a force of nature who has changed everything during his time in the arena. Enjoy the last few days of his last election. You will never see this again.

For sites like this to exist, it requires people like you chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the lights on and the people fed. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, make a one time donation via crypto. You can send money to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 1047 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-3047. You can also use PayPal to send a few bucks. Thank you for your support!

This Week’s Show

Contents

• Intro
• Enjoy The Ride
• The Case For Trump
• The Case For Harris
• Fraud Factor
• The Big Mo
• State Predictions
• How To Watch

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• Intro
• How Low Will They Go?
• A Consequential Endorsement
• Republics And Empires
• Certifiable Lunacy
• Miscellany
• Signoff

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01 — Intro.    And Radio Derb is on the air! Greetings, one and all, from your inclusively genial host John Derbyshire, here to bring you reflections on the week’s news.

Ten days to the general election and the anti-Trump rhetoric is heating up. Did you know that Trump is a Hitler Hitler Hitler, Nazi Nazi Nazi, fascist fascist fascist? In case you didn’t, all sorts of Ruling Class front men have been stepping up to tell you: John Kelly, for example, Trump 45’s Chief of Staff, and Bob Woodward, one of the hack journalists who helped bring down the great Richard Nixon fifty years ago.

How will it all end up? I don’t know any better than you do, but I’ll speculate.

Before I get to speculating, though, just my weekly reminder that my website johnderbyshire.com is there for your reading and listening pleasure with links to my entire print and online output all the way back to 1966.

On the cover page of that website are instructions on how you can help keep me afloat using snail mail, PayPal, or crypto, or via Zelle direct to my bank, or with a tax-deductible donation by a check earmarked with my name and mailed to: The VDARE Foundation, P.O. Box 211, Litchfield-with-a-“t”, CT 06759. Thank you for your help. Continue reading →