Under Continual Assault

The Far Middle episode 109 follows Father’s Day and arrives with the tip-off of summer. Nick dedicates this installment to “Pistol” Pete Maravich, who was born the day after episode 109’s release (back in 1947), and who also had a special relationship with his father and coach, Press Maravich. Nick calls Pistol Pete “one of the brightest of shining lights to ever dribble a basketball.”After reflecting on Pistol Pete’s stellar collegiate career and Hall of Fame NBA career, Nick says you could apply the same nickname to the Chinese Communist Party and China itself as they, “have a geopolitical gun aimed at the heads of the US, the EU, and the G7, and we gave them the gun with climate change policies.” Nick proceeds to discuss China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which “significantly broadens China's economic and political influence,” and now the G7 is waking up to a three-part nightmare.“Climate change policies are killing us, along with their distractions,” continues Nick, highlighting the Fed's new obsession with tackling climate change. However, Nick has some surprising news to report coming from Fed Governor Christopher Waller. While Governor Waller offers a rational and logical take on climate change, unfortunately, America has become a place where “free speech is no longer protected unless it fits with the ideology of the Left, and even left of center and liberal thought leaders are picking up on the obvious troubling trend.” Nick says writer Salman Rushdie knows how this works far too well.What's doubly troubling is that free speech isn't the only vital foundation of our Western republican democracy that's under attack by the Left. “Everything and anything that is vital to what is the essence of America is under continual assault. From the poorest to the most successful segments of society.” Nick connects that argument to what’s happening in America’s major cities—the area of America that's been under the control of the Left for perhaps the longest and the deepest.Nick takes the conversation to San Francisco, examining the murder of tech CEO Bob Lee, who is a potential microcosm and singular example of what's going on across our culture today. “I sense the individual is bringing less self-discipline and personal accountability than what was expected or demanded a decade ago, and certainly a generation ago,” says Nick.In closing, Nick notes episode 109’s release also coincides with the anniversary of Japan’s defeat at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Nick uses the Battle, and World War II in general, to reinforce the drive and courage of the Greatest Generation. “We know we have what it takes because we demonstrated we had what it took,” says Nick. “Let's make sure we do all we can to protect the ‘it’ factor that makes America special and that we rebut the insidious elements that are out there working constantly, to erode the specialness that is the USA.”