Dr. Jack Wheeler
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/22/11
It's Good Friday! My wife and I always personally celebrate Good Friday, because that was the day we met almost three decades ago. It sure was a good day for us! Sunday, of course, is Easter, a celebration of renewal, rebirth, and resurrection. The Resurrection itself was 1,978 years ago (33 AD). Today, America is being crucified on a Cross of Debt, and Congress will soon be faced with a choice to resurrect her or let her die. By the time the House returns from "Spring Recess" on May 2nd, federal spending will have exceeded the debt ceiling. Expect to see a tsunami of enemedia scare stories predicting an apocalypse if the House doesn't cave and vote to raise it - such as this one in Politico. The article encapsulates all the outright lies of the parasite class: "the full faith and credit of the United States" hangs in the balance, the House GOP will "plunge the nation into default" if it doesn't cave, blah blah. This is willful lying. The federal government will continue to have plenty of tax revenue to service its old debt, to pay the military, but not for, say, Planned Parenthood or the EPA. What really will "send global markets into a tailspin" is if the debt ceiling is raised and Uncle Sam continues his fiscal insanity. So here we are, the moment has arrived, and it's ironic that it comes at Eastertime.
ARE THE FEDS PLANNING HYPERINFLATION?
Earlier this week, TTPer "deighv" asked: "I have always wondered something regarding the dire economic predictions for our country. When the dollar does crash and/or the economy totally collapses, the ‘powers that be' will continue to want to make exorbitant amounts of money, using methods such as taxes, profits, extortion, etc. "How will they achieve this money making during and after such a crash? I am positive that they will not allow this crash without having a plan to make money. Any thoughts?" That is a very good question! Here's my answer.
GOOD LUCK, GOODLUCK!
My talk at the TTP Rendezvous is always entitled The Map of the Future. With the invaluable help of Google Earth wizard Dan Barak, we travel across the globe in search of those countries whose future is in doubt, and discuss how the map of the world may look very different tomorrow than it does today. Thus the same title but ever-changing content. That is especially true at this moment, as global change is accelerating so quickly. It's coming at a pace that can be disorienting, that can be either frightening or exhilarating depending on your perspective. We all know that history doesn't stand still, but now it's pedal to the metal. So here's a preview of the ride around the world we'll be taking at Rendezvous X in Vegas. Let's start with a country run by a guy whose real name, believe it or not, is Goodluck. That's President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria.
Chapter II: THE NATURE OF THE THREAT
The Main Enemy: Islamism Chapter II: The Nature of the Threat Whether it is called radical Islam, Islamism, Salafism, or Islamo-fascism, the adversary we face, even as we often refuse to identify it for what it is, is clearly on the march. The reason we fail to see that is because its objective is not terrorism, but the imposition of an uncompromising totalitarian interpretation of Islam worldwide by means of proselytism, subjugation, and violent jihad as need be. Purely terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, which rely on terrorism as a first and only resort, however murderous, are a rather marginal factor in this essentially ideological struggle, and the fact that we have bestowed on them the status of principal enemy has prevented us from really understanding the nature of this war. So let's be clear on the real nature of the threat.
PLATINUM RENDEZVOUS UPDATE AND SCHEDULE
If you can't wait for May 6th, you're not alone. This will be TTP's 10th Rendezvous - Rendezvous X - and we plan to make it our best yet. Miko has the full hour-by-hour schedule - from opening at 6pm Friday May 6 to closing at 12:30pm Sunday May 8 - below. Let me fill in the details. We have a program I think is a real mind-blow. Here we go.
GAME ON!
[Sarah Palin's incredible blockbuster speech in Madison, Wisconsin yesterday (4/16) in the cold and sleet with a union thug rent-a-crowd trying and failing to disrupt her. Here is the full video, then the full text.] {youtube}C5cZWRx_AMs{/youtube} Hello, Madison, Wisconsin! You look good. I feel like I'm at home. This is beautiful. Madison, I am proud to get to be with you today. Madison, these are the frontlines in the battle for the future of our country. This is where the line has been drawn in the sand. And I am proud to stand with you today in solidarity.
HALF-FULL REPORT 4/15/11
"I missed lunch for this?" That's how Texas Republican Congressman Jeb Hensarling dismissed with disgust Zero's fiscal policy speech on Wednesday (4/13). This was, by general consensus, the worst speech in modern presidential memory. "A new standard for class warfare rhetoric," Hensarling described it. Arizona's Jeff Flake simply said it was "weird." The best observation of all was that of Illinois Republican Joe Walsh: Zero "is irrelevant right now. It's like the train has passed him by." Walsh is not dumb, he knows how much juice the Oval Office has. He means that no one is paying any attention to Zero's policy proposals because he hasn't got any - that Zero's only power is to block Republican objectives, maintain the status quo, and thus continuing to bankrupt America while enriching his cronies and supporters. In other words, all Zero is, like the Corruptocrat Party in general, is in the way. They are nothing but obstacles, objects to be gotten around. Let's hope the Pubs remember this when it comes time to raise the debt ceiling next month. * * * * * * The utterly asinine budget deal that Boehner said was the best he could get does not inspire the slightest confidence, however, in Republican courage. Pathetic enough at $38 billion in phony cuts, the CBO then revealed it was actually a microscopic $352 million cutback. Yet this turkey sailed through the House yesterday (4/14), 260-167. How could this happen?
IT’S TIME TO SHUT DOWN THE IRS
Tax Day, April 15, Washington DC. As the government edged closer and closer to a shutdown last week, administrators in congressional offices and federal agencies were tasked with determining whether they and their employees provided "essential" or "nonessential" services. Those employees deemed to be essential are allowed to continue working during a shutdown; those deemed to be nonessential are sent home. This determination of essential versus nonessential probably sent a ripple of fear through employees of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In my opinion, the IRS is one of the least essential agencies in the federal government. If I had my way, we would shut down the non-essential IRS forever. This is why I am an advocate for (and co-sponsor of) legislation that does just that. The FairTax Act (H.R. 25/S.13) seeks to reform the tax structure of the United States by replacing the inefficient income tax with a pro-growth consumption tax and would eliminate the need for the IRS.
LIFE AFTER SUICIDE
Ever wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat of anxiety over something? Something you feel such dread over you can't shut your brain off and stop fretting so there's no way you can go back to sleep? That was me last night. No matter how much I tried not to, I couldn't stop thinking about suicide. Not mine. America's. I am scared out of my mind for my country. I never felt this way before, I've always looked upon America's glass as half-full all through this nightmare presidency of the last 27 months. No longer - for there was an act of evil perpetrated by that presidency a few days ago that has caused my hope for America to falter. The Nov. 2nd election last year of Republican control of the House gave us - pro-Americans who want their country to survive - an ace in the hole. Only the House has the constitutional authority to spend federal government money. If the House refuses to spend money on any given federal program or agency, it is "defunded" and they cease to exist. And that's all we needed to save America. All we need is to get the government out of the way by defunding its fascist regulations and agencies, by refusing to let the fascists borrow more money, and America could once again be solvent and free. Then came last night, when I woke up seeing the face of the Grinning Monster who currently occupies the Oval Office, and listening to his contemptuous laugh at any House threat to defund or shutdown his fascist government. Then the Grinning Monster looked at me and said, "Don't you realize I have an ace in the hole of my own?"
THE MAIN ENEMY: ISLAMISM
[This is the Introductory Chapter of Alex Alexiev's masterful study on Radical Islam's Threat to the West and the Moslem World to be published later this year by The Hudson Institute. Subsequent chapters or chapter sections will be a weekly feature in TTP for the next several weeks.] The Main Enemy: Islamism Introduction It is the starting premise of this study that the United States government's focus on what came to be known as the "war on terror" after 9/11 has been fundamentally wrong. The main enemy is not "terror." Nor is it al-Qaeda, despite President Obama's assertion in January 2010 after the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt that "we are at war against al-Qaeda, a far-reaching network of violence and hatred." No, the main enemy is radical Islamist ideology or Islamism. A change of emphasis would allow us to see clearly that defeating this enemy cannot be accomplished by counterterror strategies and kinetic means alone, but requires a sophisticated strategy to defeat the ideology of Islamism by delegitimizing it in the eyes of its current and potential supporters in the Moslem community. The essential prerequisite to achieving this objective is to understand the nature of the threat presented by radical Islam, its ideological underpinnings, and its strengths and weaknesses. Here is an outline of what we'll be discussing in the coming weeks.
OUR AWOL COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
Yesterday (4/07), the House passed H.R. 1363, which funds our Department of Defense and our military for the rest of the year at their current levels. It allows for the continuation of current military operations, which is pretty important when you're fighting three wars. It also funds the government for another week and cuts $12 billion in wasteful spending. So why would the Commander in Chief declare that he will veto this? Why would he play politics at the expense of our troops who are putting everything on the line to protect us? Memo to the President: I doubt the insurgents will stop and wait for a government shutdown to end before resuming actions. You need to fund our troops, sir. Our troops who are putting themselves in harm's way deserve a Commander in Chief who is not AWOL.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/08/11
Aren't Prelims just so exciting? Every boxing fan knows the preliminary bouts are where the real action is - who cares about the Main Event, right? So - the entire gaggle of DC elite and pinkostream enemedia punditry is going ga-ga-goo-goo over The Shutdown looming over them at midnight tonight - and while this is going to be really exciting to watch, baby, they ain't seen nothin' yet. As we discussed last month in A Tsunami of Insanity, the only chance we have to divert the insanity from sweeping the US economy away is for Congress next month to refuse to raise the debt ceiling. As we saw in last week's HFR, one Senator who realizes this is Marco Rubio. This week, Reuters/CNBC revealed the numbers. Brace yourselves, hold on tight. For the federal government to continue spending at current levels for the rest of FY2011 - i.e., for just the next six months - Congress will have to increase the federal debt ceiling by over one trillion dollars. Yes, it will take a trillion dollars of more debt just to keep the federales going to the end of September. To keep them going through November 2012 will take well over two trillion. Gasping for breath? Feel you need three fingers of Famous Grouse? Better keep the bottle handy because this is coming fast.
FOOD CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY
I'm resisting the temptation to engage in black humor and entitle this How To Profit From The Coming World Starvation. While we don't need to go apocalyptic, it's obvious to anyone who goes grocery shopping that food prices are skyrocketing. And while we may complain about this here in the US, it's getting worse around the world - in many places a lot worse. This is more serious than the price of oil, and that's bad enough. Gas in the US is headed to $5 a gallon, while in many European countries such as Portugal it's already close to $9. It's easier to cut down on driving than eating. We can scrimp and save on food as this report shows, but no one wants to starve. That's why food riots are taking place across the globe. From December 2008 to February 2010, global food prices have risen more than 60% -- and research by IMF economists is showing that with every 10% increase in food prices comes a 100% increase in antigovernment protests. This is particularly true in low-income countries - such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, which is why antigovernment revolutions there started with food riots. The IMF researchers found much less of a correlation between food prices and political unrest in high-income countries - but that's going to change, certainly in the US.
PICTURING COLLAPSE
A particularly disturbing aspect of the accelerating rush to a very possible near-future fiscal collapse of government at all levels - bankruptcy, default, the destruction of the dollar as a currency, the increasing dysfunction of markets under increasing loads of regulations and taxes - is that none of the potential Republican candidates for President in 2012 have provided a vision that impacts the emotions of this destructive scenario. People see what things look like now -- not so bad, even for the worst off if nobody in the U.S. is starving to death, people still get their Social Security checks, etc. -- but they are not being warned of what their lives will be like under rapidly approaching desperate conditions that will be very different from now. All Republicans give you is numbers, like the x fund (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) will run out of money in y years, the amount of the GDP going to pay just the interest on the national debt will be x in only y years. People are unlikely to be frightened by dry numbers because they can't imagine what the end results will look like, so there's no emotional impact. Unless the emotional brain is involved, nobody is going to care enough to seriously consider what needs to be done to avoid disaster. What is needed for any possibility of change or at least to help people prepare for the (coming soon) unimaginably bad years is for the general public to have a vision that impacts the emotions of what the world of Americans is going to look like in a collapsed America.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/01/11
Well, he had to crack under the pressure sooner or later, and thank heavens it's sooner. Everyone on Capitol Hill this morning can't stop talking about it. Boehner and Reid have just been told to expect a momentous announcement from the White House. At 9pm EDT this evening, the President will announce on national television that, due to the overwhelming difficulties the nation faces which have proven impossible for him to solve because Republicans refuse to cooperate, he is resigning the presidency effective immediately. Good luck, America, he will say, you'll have to solve your problems without me. And yes, today is April Fool's Day. * * * * * * So let's talk about fools - and their luck. Zero just might pull Libya off. He'll have David Cameron to thank for it, and MI6, which is disintegrating Gaddafi's regime via defections. Conservative contempt for Zero is so bottomless that many don't want him to succeed even when it's in our clear interests that he do so. He was right in saying the US could not stand by while Gaddafi perpetrated genocidal slaughter upon his own people, and wrong in not solving the problem immediately by an assassination strike on Gaddafi. So now he owns this war which has to be won - for if Gaddafi stays in power he will "return to international terrorism and resume his nuclear weapons program," warns John Bolton who is nobody's fool. When asked about the rebels fighting Gaddafi and if they might be radical Islamists, John responded, "Yes, there is uncertainty about them - but when there is Muammar Gaddafi on one side and uncertainty on the other, you pick uncertainty."
LIBYA IN AMERICA
In 1930, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made a film entitled Another Fine Mess... 
... in which Hardy famously informs Laurel, "Well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into!" (Actually, he says "nice," but everyone remembers him saying "fine" due to the movie title.) It's pretty easy to imagine him, speaking for America, saying that to Zero today, isn't it? Or would he say, this is a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into? After all, Zero didn't get us into this all by himself. So let's talk about Libya in America. That's a place called Wisconsin and all the Wisconsins to come - but we'll talk about Libya first.
REQUEST FOR REMOVAL
Fellow Americans, I have sent this letter, in my capacity as Unites States Senator from Florida, to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. You are welcome to call my Washington office at 202-224-3041 to let me know what you think. ****** Dear Senators Reid and McConnell: I am writing to seek your support for bringing a bi-partisan resolution to the Senate floor authorizing the President's decision to participate in allied military action in Libya. Furthermore, this resolution should also state that removing Muammar Qaddafi from power is in our national interest and therefore should authorize the President to accomplish this goal. To that end, the resolution should urge the President to immediately recognize the Interim Transitional National Council as the legitimate government in Libya.
STALL, BABY, STALL
It's unbelievable (literally) the rhetoric on "America's Energy Security" coming from President Obama this week. This is coming from he who is manipulating the U.S. energy supply. President Obama is once again giving lip service to a "new energy proposal"; but let's remember the last time he trotted out a "new energy proposal" - nearly a year ago to the day. The main difference is today we have $4 a gallon gas in some places in the country. This is no accident. This administration is not a passive observer to the trends that have inflated oil prices to dangerous levels. His war on domestic oil and gas exploration and production has caused us pain at the pump, endangered our already sluggish economic recovery, and threatened our national security. The reality behind the president's rhetoric is that instead of "drill, baby, drill," it's "stall, baby, stall."
DON’T SQUANDER SYRIA
Amidst the many dangers posed by the political conflagration now engulfing the Arab world, we are presented with a unique opportunity in Syria. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, like his father from whom he inherited the regime, is an unadulterated rogue. He is an illicit nuclear proliferator, has a large stockpile of chemical weapons including Sarin gas and blister agents, and is a major sponsor of terrorism. If the Assad regime is overthrown, it will constitute a major blow to both the Iranian regime and Hezbollah. In turn, Lebanon's March 14 Democracy Movement and the Iranian Green Movement will be empowered by the defeat. This is an opportunity we dare not squander.
HALF-FULL REPORT 3/25/11
Week after week after week - when will this torrential deluge of news stop or at least slack off? It hasn't let up for a couple of months now. Well, let's jump in and go with the flow. We'll start with a follow-up to Islam in Libya, since everyone's so focused on what Zero is doing there. What's confusing us all is Zero's state of confusion regarding no clearly stated end-game. As Sarah Palin told Greta Van Sustern on Fox Wednesday (3/23), "Be in it to win it, or if there's doubt we get out." Palin sees the purpose of the mission in Libya is for Gaddafi "to end up dead," or the mission is a failure. That would be the best outcome (see Roger Simon make the case), but there better be a Plan B. Here it is. From the history discussed in Islam in Libya, we saw that Libya has from its inception 2,600 years ago been divided in two: Greek Cyrenaica and Punic Tripolitania. The two were unified by King Idris only in 1951 - and even then there were two capitals: the parliamentary one of Tripoli and the royal one of Benghazi. This bifurcation has emerged once again today, with the Libyan Opposition controlling Eastern Libya or the old Cyrenaica, and Gaddafi controlling Western Libya or Tripolitania. So obviously, Plan B is to split the country in two, with "reunification" a la East/West Germany a goal of the future. Who gets the oil? Here's the map:
PREPARING FOR ARMAGEDDON
In response to Jack's article last week, A Tsunami of Insanity, in which he described the Financial Armageddon bearing down upon us, I was asked on the TTP Forum: "OK, Skye, do you have a list of things you are doing to prepare for the storm?" Yes, I do. I'll be discussing this in detail at the Las Vegas Rendezvous, but here are a few of the high points: *Don't live in a city. A small town in a small county will be much safer - so long as the town and county aren't populated with a lot of Progressives. Check the voting data for both the town and the county. A small conservative/libertarian town in a low population gold mining county will do relatively well as the dollar depreciates. A town where 40% of the income is dependent on the continuation of corn ethanol subsidies would be a very risky location, no matter how rural.
ISLAM IN LIBYA
Remember this scene in many a John Wayne movie? He's walking down the street of a Wild West town when he sees a gang of bad guy thugs beating up a young kid and molesting his mother. He walks right on by, saying to himself with a shrug, "That's none of my business." In another version of the scene, he rushes off to get approval of the town council before he dares intervene. Don't remember? That's because there never was such a scene. We know exactly what Wayne would have done - gone to the victims' rescue without hesitation. That's what makes him a hero. Any comparison between John Wayne and President Zero is obscene. Nonetheless, imagining this faux movie scene should give conservatives pause regarding Zero and Libya. After all, when the world's scum - like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Robert Mugabe, Louis Farrakhan, and Michael Moore - denounce Zero as a "warmonger," and moonbat fruitcakes like Dennis Kucinch and Ralph Nader are demanding his impeachment, it has to mean that Zero for once is doing something right.
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/18/11
It's great to be back in the HFR saddle again - yet I'm so grateful to Jack Kelly for doing such a marvelous job in my absence. Thanks, Jack! And we have an additional reason for gratitude to Mr. Kelly this week - for he was able to prevail upon his friend, LtCol. Ralph Peters, to fly all the way from Washington to speak to us at the Vegas Rendezvous! You all know what a fantastic, pull-no-punches LtCol. Peters is as a writer. Wait ‘tll you hear him in person explain the jeopardy our national security is in. It will be memorable. Also memorable - particularly for your pocketbook - will be famed wealth preservation expert Hank Brock. Hank conducts seminars all over the world costing thousands of dollars per person on how survive the coming Financial Armageddon we're facing (see A Tsunami of Insanity this week). Rebel and I have gotten to know Hank as a friend, and are so appreciative of his graciousness in coming to speak to us. There's no one better to learn from regarding how to come out of this mess financially alive than him. You also really don't want to miss Dr. Dave Janda explain what happens to our healthcare system as ObamaCare is dismantled, Alex Alexiev brief us on how these Arab revolts are going to turn out - or TTP's resident genius Skye hold forth on any issue of science and technology in the world. Yes, there'll be Jack Kelly, Joel Wade, yours truly, and a surprise or two - plus, best of all, your fellow TTPers! So be sure and call or email Miko - 703-992-4529, [email protected] - to sign up right now for The Platinum Vegas Rendezvous May 6-8. * * * * * * Is Hillary making her move, as the HFR has been predicting since December 2009? Is it a coincidence that all of a sudden the pinkostream enemedia is chock full of stories targeting Zero's ineptness, just as HRC announces she won't serve in his putative second term? Her run for the White House roses may have begun, folks.
2012 CAN’T COME SOON ENOUGH
Is it really any surprise that oil and gas prices are surging toward the record highs we saw in 2008 just prior to the economic collapse? Despite the President's strange assertions in his press conference last week (3/11), his Administration is not a passive observer to the trends that have inflated oil prices to dangerous levels. His war on domestic oil and gas exploration and production has caused us pain at the pump, endangered our already sluggish economic recovery, and threatened our national security. The evidence of the President's anti-drilling mentality and his culpability in the high gas prices hurting Americans is there for all to see. The following is not even an exhaustive list:
A TSUNAMI OF INSANITY
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Sitting with friends here, we are stupefied and silent as we watch video news footage such as this of the truly unbelievable destruction of the Japan Tsunami: {youtube}w3AdFjklR50{/youtube} Until I break the silence. Watching the gargantuan mud and debris-filled wave sweep into oblivion everything in its path, I mutter, "That's just what Barack Obama is doing to America." An Emirati fellow asked, "Jack, what do you mean by a tsunami hitting America like what we just saw in Japan?" "It's a tsunami of insanity, caused by an earthquake of insanity. Countries can go crazy just like people. It was clinically deranged of the American people to elect a man with absolutely no qualifications or experience whatever, and who they knew attended a church for 20 years listening to a preacher praying for God to damn America. "Yet they did it anyway. A majority of American voters placed their livelihoods and security in the hands of this man - so now a tsunami of economic and national security destruction is bearing down upon us." He absorbed this, stroked his beard, then asked, "So... is this Obama's tsunami or America's tsunami upon itself?"
CONSERVATIVES FOR CORPORATE WELFARE
Cutting spending in Congress is so difficult because every area of the budget is defended by an army of special interests and perverse alliances that often defy reason and common sense. Nowhere is this more evident than with the federal government's ludicrous $6 billion subsidy of ethanol, which I and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-MD, have proposed to eliminate. This week on March 09, we introduced in the Senate a Bill To Repeal the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. Within hours on that very day, the senior political columnist for a conservative newspaper, The Washington Examiner, condemned our bill as "Tom Coburn's Tax Hike." This illustrates why the ethanol subsidy endures despite widespread opposition from the Left and the Right. On one hand, the Examiner columnist declares, "government support for ethanol is among the most destructive and wasteful giveaways to special interests today." Yet, on the other hand, he says doing away with the subsidy is a "tax-hike" that would leave money in appropriators' pockets, at which point many Republicans run for the hills. This analysis is inaccurate and destructive on several levels.
GORILLAS, SAVAGES, AND REDEMPTION
Hotel Mille des Collines, Kigali, Rwanda. Ever see the movie Hotel Rwanda? It's about the manager of a hotel in Africa who did his best to provide a refuge from one of the greatest atrocities in history - the slaughter of over 800,000 innocent people in 100 days. I'm writing this from that hotel. This is a story of grotesque horror and magnificent inspiration. Let's start with a question: Which one is the murderous savage? 
Hint: gorillas are vegetarians. I took the bull silverback gorilla's picture two days ago on the slopes of the Gahinga volcano in the Virunga mountains of Rwanda. He paid almost no attention to me at all. The picture of the guy with the "panga" knife was taken in 1994 by a journalist who was lucky he wasn't hacked to death - like hundreds of thousands of others butchered by this guy and his buddies. Sure enough, he's the savage. Yet the savages of Rwanda are not all natives, for this is a story of Belgian and French savages as well, with one of the latter being the president of his country at the time.
THE PLATINUM VEGAS RENDEZVOUS
It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it - somebody from TTP had to spend a week in Vegas figuring out among the myriad of choices the best hotel deal for the May Rendezvous. And only SuperMiko could resist being plied with all sort of exotic libations and amenities to come up with what's truly #1 for TTPers. So he did it. The Vegas Rendezvous, Friday May 6 to Sunday May 8, will be at The Platinum at the Strip. Just a block away from the Strip itself right behind Bally's & Paris, and a half-block from the monorail that takes you along the entire Strip, The Platinum is a no-smoking, all-suite, casino-less boutique hotel that has gone all out to welcome TTP. The room rate for TTPers is $119 a night. This is for a suite with a king size bed and pillow top mattress, living room and sofa, full gourmet kitchen, 42-inch plasma tv, double-size whirlpool tub and walkout balcony. Of course, The Platinum has a great bar where TTPers can gather, and we have our own dining and meeting rooms. The food is great too - Miko can attest to that. All of you who attended a Rendezvous before well know what an extraordinary experience they are. If you've never been - now's your chance. TTPers are a community of rational pro-Americans and we love each other's company. You simply have to be there!
THE NEWEST AFRICAN FARCE
Juba, South Sudan. The first thing you see upon arriving here are huge billboards declaring, "Welcome to Africa's Newest Nation." Yes, the giant country of Sudan - the size of the entire USA east of the Mississippi - is splitting in two, between the Arab Moslem north and the Black Christian/Animist south. It's a teachable moment in the lunatic history of African geopolitics. There are make-believe countries, colonial constructs that have no unifying or historical basis for legitimate nationhood - such as Pakistan. Africa is a make-believe continent. Few people grasp the enormity, the sheer size of Africa. Take a look at a world map. It is as far from Casablanca, Morocco to Mombassa, Kenya as it is from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok in Russia (4,000 miles). You could fit the largest country in the world, Russia (6.6 million square miles or msqm), the second largest country in the world, Canada (3.85 msqm), and the largest island in the world, Greenland (840,000 sqm) all into Africa (11.7 msqm) with room left over. Yet until around 150 years ago, it was called the Dark Continent not just for the skin color of its inhabitants but because, save for a handful of ports and coastal enclaves, it was unknown, terra incognita to the West. Then, in 1859...
THE COUNTRY THAT DOES EXIST
Berbera, Somaliland. I originally called this place the country that doesn't exist, because no other country in the world will diplomatically recognize it as a sovereign nation even though it's been so for 20 years. Nonetheless, this is a real country with a sovereign functioning government. This is no pariah-outlaw state. That's Somalia, the truly non-existent failed state that Somaliland seceded from. The story of Somaliland is a heroic saga, epically inspirational. Let me tell you the story.
THE BLACK NORKS OF ERITREA
Asmara, Eritrea. I came here to see if the rumor is true, that Eritrea is the North Korea of Africa. Strategically situated at the entrance to Red Sea, it's ruled by Isaias Afewerki (ah-for-key), ranked by international agencies as one of the world's worst dictators, in the same league as Robert Mugabe, Kim Jong-il, and the Castro brothers. The Heritage Foundation's Index of World Freedom ranks Eritrea #176 out of 179 countries. Transparency International's Index of Corruption ranks it as one of the world's most corrupt countries. Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index ranks it as having the least press freedom on earth along with North Korea. There are a number of exile opposition groups, in Europe, the US, and elsewhere in Africa that are clamoring and hoping for a Tunis or Cairo in Asmara - a popular revolution that will do to Afewerki what happened to Ben Ali and Mubarak. Possible but exceedingly improbable. And therein lies an important lesson for us as we try to recapture our freedom in America.
DYLAN IN YEMEN
They'll stone you when you're trying to be so good They'll stone you just like they said they would They'll stone you when you're trying to go home They'll stone you when you're there all alone But I would not feel so all alone Everybody must get stoned Bob Dylan wasn't thinking of Yemen when he wrote Rainy Day Woman #12 and #35 for his Blonde on Blonde album in 1966 - but might be now. "Everybody must get stoned" is the motto of the country. I'm in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where all those anti-government demonstrations are taking place according to the media, where the next Arab Dictatorship is going to fall as the Great Arab Revolt sweeps ineluctably across the Middle East. Except there are no demonstrations here. No tension. No palpable anger. There is peace and calm instead. Everywhere I go, I'm asked where I'm from, and when I say "America," everyone smiles, nods, and says "Welcome." Yemen's culture is one of the world's oldest, going back 4,000 years. Yet it is tragically nearing extinction - because everybody must get stoned. Yemen is killing itself with addiction to a drug called qat.
CELEBRATING RONALD REAGAN
This Sunday, February 6, 2011, is the centennial of the birth of the Greatest American of the 20th Century, Ronald Reagan. Annually on this day, TTP runs our ode to him, The Great-Souled Man. For his 100th birthday, however, we thought that it's worth spending time watching him and listening to his words. Yes, it's Super Bowl weekend, but taking a break now and then to watch one of the following will give you such an appreciation for this extraordinary human being. It will commemorate him in your mind in a special way. We begin the celebration with his hilarious appearance on the What's My Line television show in 1953 - yes, 1953.
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/04/11
This has been a week both sobering and thrilling, depressing and hopeful, serendipitous and its antonym. (Serendipity is finding something where you least expect it. Strangely, there is no word expressing its opposite: not finding something where you most expect it.) In other words, it's a truly half-full week. Might as well look at why it's half-empty first. This is not going to be easy, because it involves conservatives who are friends and whom I admire - yet who have allowed their limbic brain to be paralyzed with fear and shut down their prefrontal cortex. I am ashamed of them. I hope they soon regain their capacity for rational and moral thought. I am referring to the host of conservative pundits in print, the Web, on talk radio and TV news - no names here, it's easy to figure out who they are - who are so freaking out in support of Mubarak they want to see Mubarak's thugs commit mass slaughter on the demonstrators in Cairo peacefully demanding freedom and democracy. They have gone so morally insane that they seem to actually want Tiananmen Square-style bloodshed in Tahrir Square. Why aren't conservative leaders proclaiming their support for freedom and democracy in Egypt, proclaiming their solidarity with the protestors, and are instead siding with Mubarak's thugs? This is beyond disgusting.
WHAT RUSSIA HAS LOST
Last week on January 24, a suicide bomber attack at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport killed 36 people. According to Russian intelligence, the terrorist act was perpetrated by someone from one of the predominantly Moslem areas of the North Caucasus region. It's been nearly 12 years since Putin began building his reputation as a tough, no- nonsense leader by promising rather crudely to pursue terrorists everywhere, catch them in airport toilets and "waste them in the outhouse." By picking Domodedovo Airport for the ninth serious terrorist attack in Moscow since then, the terrorists are telling the Russian people that Putin can talk all he wants but is incapable of protecting them. This latest tragedy highlights a number of conclusions about Putin's policies and the fate of Russia that were already discernable - for what's now crystal clear is that Russia under Putin has not only lost its war with terrorism, but more than that, it has lost its way as a civilized state and society and faces a very uncertain future.
THE OPPORTUNITY OF EGYPT
It's a sign of age when you see pictures of two million people massing in Cairo's Tahrir Square, and the very first question that occurs to you is: How do they all go to the bathroom? It's a puzzle. What isn't a puzzle is the next question: What do these masses of Egyptian demonstrators want? Let's start the answer by recognizing that it's very clear what they do not want, what they are not chanting and demonstrating for: Radical Islam and an Iranian-type Islamic theocracy. Sure they are 90% Moslems (about 10% of Egypt's 80 million are Coptic Christians), and when the muezzin calls out prayer time, the demonstrators kneel en masse to pray. Yet whenever someone starts shouting religious chants over a loudspeaker, the crowd shouts back for him to stop. Yes, this is all a moving target. Yes, thugs from Napoleon to Lenin to Mao to Khomeini succeeded by taking over, not starting, an already ongoing revolution. So yes, Egypt could go sideways and we could have a Islamic mega-disaster. But there's never opportunity without danger, for dangers are what make opportunities possible. Therefore - will all the doomsaying handwringing conservatives please stop their ceaseless worry-worting about the Iqwan - Iqwan Muslimi, the Moslem Brotherhood - and focus on how we can take advantage of the Arab Revolt instead? Focus first on three basic facts.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/28/11
Wasn't that just the greatest State of the Union speech ever? All that pent-up expectation that Zero was going to channel Bill Clinton as The Comeback Kid pivoting off the humiliation of facing a newly-elected Republican Majority to join them in declaring "The era of big government is over" - well, he certainly burst that balloon, didn't he? What a turkey of a talk - so bad it may be right up there with Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech. It's being ridiculed as his Sputnik Speech for his stupid "Sputnik moment" shtick, and his WTF Speech for his witless "Winning The Future" slogan that deserved the acronym everyone knows has another meaning. The HFR prefers to entitle Zero's 2011 SOTU - in honor of his paean to "solar shingles" as an example of "tomorrow's energy" as opposed to "yesterday's energy" of filthy hydrocarbons - as his Solar On A Shingle Speech. Even better, he phoned it in. It was a going-through-the-motions, desultory, listless performance with no fire. "I struggled to keep my eyes open, Jack," one Congressman told me. "He droned on and on, blathering about what he wants when he knows there's not the slightest chance we'll vote it. He even said he wants us to revive the dead DREAM Act! What a space cadet... we're all calling him President Sputnik now."
AMERICA CAN NO LONGER AFFORD BARACK OBAMA
Americans are growing impatient with a White House that still just doesn't get it. The President proves he doesn't understand that the biggest challenge facing our economy is today's runaway debt when he states we want to make sure "we don't get buried under a mountain a debt." That's the problem! We are buried under Mt. McKinley-sized debt. It's at the heart of what is crippling our economy and taking our jobs. This is the concern that should be on every leader's mind. Our country's future is at stake, and we're rapidly reaching a crisis point. Our government is spending too much, borrowing too much, and growing too much. Debt is stifling our private sector growth, and millions of Americans are desperately looking for work. So, what was the President's response? At a time when we need quick, decisive, and meaningful action to stop our looming debt crisis, President Obama gave us what politicians have for years: promises that more federal government "investment" (read: more government spending) is the solution. What he is really promising America is a bullet train to bankruptcy. Our country can simply no longer afford Barack Obama.
WHY THE LEFT BLOOD LIBELED SARAH PALIN
A primary goal of the American Left is to attach a sense of criminality and violence to the American Right in order to make it socially and otherwise unpalatable to support or otherwise identify with it. By calling the Left out for its behavior, Sarah Palin exposed its agenda. But the logic of the blood libel remained. Trusting the public's ignorance and the liberal Jewish community's solidarity, the leftist media in the U.S. immediately condemned Palin for daring to use the term, hinted she was an anti-Semite for doing so, and argued that by defending herself, she was again inciting violence. Many conservative thinkers and politicians have long viewed Palin as a liability. By remaining in the spotlight, they allege, Palin is helping the Left. They argue that the media have already destroyed her ability to communicate with non-conservatives. Since she is viewed as a conservative leader, by failing to shut up she is making it impossible for other potential leaders whom the media don't despise to connect with the swing voters they will need to unseat Obama in 2012. This position does more than harm Palin. It matter not whether these conservative thinkers support Palin. What matters is that by telling her not to defend herself from libelous attacks, they are accepting the Left's right to criminalize all conservatives.
GAY TYRANNY IN BRITAIN
If you live in Britain, here's a question shortly coming to an examination paper near you. What have mathematics, geography or science to do with homosexuality? Nothing at all, you say? Zero marks for you, then. For, mad as this may seem, British schoolchildren are to be bombarded with homosexual references in maths, geography and science lessons as part of a UK Government-backed drive to promote the gay agenda. In geography, for example, they will be told to consider why homosexuals move from the countryside to cities. In maths, they will be taught statistics through census findings about the number of homosexuals in the population. In science, they will be directed to animal species such as emperor penguins and sea horses, where the male takes a lead role in raising its young. Alas, this gay curriculum is no laughing matter. Absurd as it sounds, this is but the latest attempt to brainwash children with propaganda under the camouflage of education. It is an abuse of childhood.