Rip’s Newsletter
October 7, 2026
Compiled and Edited
by
Jim Reynolds
Articles in This Issue
Victor Davis Hanson - Are We Becoming Gondor?
Douglas Andrews Contributor - Justice Finally Comes for Nidal Hasan
Michael S Kochin - Daddy Healthbucks Strolls the Midway
Jim Reynolds - The Payrolls Fight Back
Overview
I see the same fight running through this set: a West under pressure, institutions that took years to rot, and the slow, ugly return of accountability.
Nidal Hasan’s long-delayed execution approval is not closure so much as a reminder that justice in this country often arrives after the damage is done.
The Title IX rollback shows how much money and power got built around gender ideology, and why pulling that machine apart will be a real fight.
Even the piece on medicine lands in the same place: Americans are tired of being lectured by systems that fail to deliver the basics, and they want results, not excuses.
Are We Becoming Gondor?
By: Victor Davis Hanson American Greatness
Date: 2026-10-06 · Words: 1,987
Victor Davis Hanson argues that Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, though not intended as allegory, was shaped by the catastrophes of the 20th century and offers a useful lens for judging the modern West.
He portrays Gondor as a once-great civilization in demographic, military, and cultural decline, then compares it to Europe, Canada, and the United States, which he says are weakened by open borders, elite nihilism, postmodernism, Islamism, socialism, and strategic complacency.
Hanson says Europe is especially vulnerable because of mass immigration, weak defense, collapsing fertility, and self-damaging policies, while Canada and the Biden-era U.S. are presented as additional examples of Western rot.
He also warns that antisemitism, campus radicalism, and anti-Western politics reflect a deeper civilizational sickness, even as he criticizes a small right-wing faction that excuses or romanticizes authoritarian enemies.
Yet he ends on a note of guarded optimism, arguing that conservative leaders, a Western counterrevolution, and a younger generation rediscovering pride in civilization could still avert decline.
This story frames today’s political and cultural conflicts as a civilizational test of whether the West can recover before its decline becomes irreversible.
🅱️ Hanson isn’t just writing an essay; he’s sounding a klaxon. He uses Tolkien to map the rot, turning a fantasy trope into a grim reality check for a West that’s forgotten how to hold a line.
Read the full original article here
Justice Finally Comes for Nidal Hasan
By: Douglas Andrews Contributor The Patriot Post
Date: 2026-10-07 · Words: 945
Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter who killed 13 soldiers and an unborn child and wounded 32 others in 2009, has finally been approved to face execution by firing squad after years of appeals and delay.
The article frames the case as a symbol of systemic failure, arguing that Hasan’s trial, self-representation, and prolonged legal process exposed a broken military justice system.
It also condemns the Obama administration’s decision to classify the attack as “workplace violence” rather than jihadist terrorism, saying that mislabeling denied victims proper recognition and benefits until Congress intervened in 2015.
The piece credits the Trump administration and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for restoring honesty and accountability, while arguing that the government’s earlier euphemisms and appeasement enabled the attack and prolonged the families’ suffering.
It closes by insisting that justice should have been swifter and more forthright from the start.
This story highlights how political euphemism and legal delay can compound a terrorist attack’s damage long after the shooting ends.
🅱️ This isn’t just a news report; it’s an autopsy of a failed bureaucracy. It hits hard on the cost of political cowardice, though it occasionally leans too heavy on the outrage to let the facts breathe.
Read the full original article here
Daddy Healthbucks Strolls the Midway
By: Michael S Kochin American Greatness
Date: 2026-10-07 · Words: 1,110
The article argues that American medicine should not be judged primarily by life expectancy or cost per quality-adjusted life year, because the real thing Americans buy is responsiveness: fast access, immediate attention, and the right not to be told to wait.
It uses the VA as proof that the central political outrage in U.S. health care is delay, not aggregate longevity, and says even state-run systems are expected to answer quickly.
By contrast, other rich countries ration care, accept gatekeepers, and spend less while often achieving better population-health metrics, but they do so by trading away access.
The piece contends that America’s high prices subsidize global drug innovation, since U.S. consumers and insurers pay the returns that make new medicines possible and then other countries buy them cheaply.
It frames the system as a “meta-responsive market” that lets households choose among longevity, communal thrift, and agency, with the American default prioritizing patient power over efficiency.
This story reframes U.S. health care as a deliberate tradeoff between access, innovation, and cost rather than a simple failure to match foreign systems.
🅱️ A sharp pivot from the usual ‘healthcare is broken’ whining. It reframes the bloat not as a failure, but as a feature of American impatience. It’s a heavy truth: we pay the premium to avoid the waiting room, and the rest of the world is happy to let us foot the bill.
Read the full original article here
The Payrolls Fight Back
By: Jim Reynolds www.reynolds.com
Date: 2026-10-07 · Words: 2,441
Linda McMahon’s repeal of the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rule and restoration of the 2020 framework is presented as more than a regulatory correction: it is a test of the sprawling economy that has grown around gender policy.
The essay argues that once Title IX expanded to cover sexual harassment, gender identity, and related disputes, it generated layers of compliance work, specialist staffing, legal fees, advocacy, and media coverage across universities and schools.
Higher education’s long administrative boom is used as evidence that ambiguity and federal obligations create jobs, offices, and constituencies that persist beyond any single rule.
McMahon’s move may reduce some investigations, training, and consulting demand, but it will also trigger new litigation as the boundary shifts.
The core claim is that public policy does not just settle disputes; it builds institutions that learn to defend their own existence.
This story matters because it shows how a federal rule can grow into a durable political and economic ecosystem that resists being unwound.
🅱️ This isn’t a lecture on gender; it’s a blueprint of the machine. It moves from a single rule to a massive payroll, showing exactly how the circus stays in town. Sharp, clinical, and hits like a heavy door closing.
Read the full original article here
Nice word. Incisive.
Always trenchant commentary. Thanks!