DEMOCRATS DEMONSTRATE HOW THEY’VE BECOME THE ANTI-AMERICA PARTY
Sitting on their hands as Trump proclaims record low black unemployment
It is difficult to imagine a more galling demonstration of incivility than the Democrats in the House Chamber for Trump's SOTU speech last night (1/30).
They scowled, frowned, and sat on their hands throughout the speech. They could hardly be bothered to acknowledge the heroes in the audience when they were introduced. While the Dems brought illegal immigrants, Trump invited actual paragons of American character and the families of victims of illegal immigrant crimes, as well as a victim of North Korea.
It was embarrassing, like watching the anti-Semites in the UN stomp out of the room when Benjamin Netanyahu speaks. How is it any different? Our Democrats behave exactly like the most racist, intolerant people on the planet, and in their own Capitol.
Besides blind hatred of Trump, Democrats have one issue and one issue only, the prioritization of illegal immigrants. The Democratic Party is today the party of illegal immigrants. That is their core constituency, that is who they represent over and above Americans.
THE HIDDEN HOLY LAND
If there is one place on more TTPers’ bucket lists than any other, it’s the birthplace of the two founding religious traditions of Western Civilization, Judaism and Christianity.
You could spend a lifetime in the Holy Land and not see it all, for under every rock there’s 4,000 years of extraordinary history. Yet millions of visitors come here and see so little.
They go to the famous places, take a lot of pictures, hear a lecture most of which they forget once they’re back home, and that’s about it. Israel, the Holy Land? Yeah, been there, done that.
So how about doing it for real? That means:
*Experiencing all those famous places to get an in-depth understanding of what actually happened there and why.
*Experiencing places you never heard of, yet are equally fascinating.
*Experiencing Israel on a personal level, making friendships that last a lifetime with people who live here.
*Gaining a revelatory grasp of modern Israel that’s deeper than has anyone you know.
*Having all of this sink into your bones so you never forget it as long as you live.
Isn’t that what’s on your bucket list? If so, consider joining me on an unparalleled experience of the Hidden Holy Land this coming April.
WIPING OUT ON THE BLUE WAVE
Every day now we hear Democrats talking about their “Blue Wave” that will put this Alzheimer’s sufferer back in the House Speakership:
Yet, as all surfers know, riding a big wave risks what they joyously call a “wipeout.” So let’s do a thought experiment.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/26/18
The HFR is called such because we’re optimists – the glass is half-full, not half-empty. It was not easy to do this during our long eight-year Nightmare of Zero. It’s been enjoyably easy for the past year of MAGA.
There are still weeks, however, that are not as easy as others. This week is one of them. Yet we’ll manage to be more than full by the end.
Yesterday (1/25), I wrote Mad Dog on the Porch – how SecDef Mattis appears to be wimping out in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria.
Today, (1/26), we ran two opposing views on this with regard to Turkey: David Goldman’s Tinpot Turkish Dictator Humiliates the United States, and Caroline Glick’s The US Quietly Sidelines a Turkey in Decline.
I have tremendous regard for both David and Caroline. I want to Caroline to be right – and thus me to be wrong about Mattis, and by extension his boss – but I’m afraid David may be right. We’ll find out soon.
That said, the news will get better as we go along…
MAD DOG ON THE PORCH
Secretary of Defense, and 4 Star Marine General (ret) James Mattis is called “Mad Dog” for a reason.
When asked last May what keeps him awake at night as SecDef, he responded, “Nothing. I keep other people awake at night.” When reporters asked him at the start of the year (1/05), what his biggest military concern was for 2018, he replied, “I don’t have concerns. I create them.”
Mad Dog Mattis is the biggest and baddest of the big dogs – nobody should even think of messing with him, right? Then why is he on the porch, staying meekly and quietly on the porch, instead of running with all the other big dogs and showing them who’s boss?
Three tragedies are simultaneously occurring in the world right now – and where the heck is Mad Dog? Staying on the porch.
TINPOT TURKISH DICTATOR HUMILIATES THE UNITED STATES
De Facto border of Northern Syria-Rojava (Western Kurdistan)
Over explicit American protests, Turkey this week attacked an American-allied Kurdish-led militia in the northern Syrian town of Afrin, killing nearly 300 fighters.
The Kurdish YPG militia were America's boots on the ground in the successful war against ISIS, and the Department of Defense earlier this month announced a plan to support a 30,000-strong force. That plan is in shambles now after Turkish fighters and tanks crushed their strong point in Afrin.
Vice President Pence's Middle East trip was one of the ultimate feel-good moments in American diplomatic history. But before we feel too good about ourselves, we should take stock our strategic humiliation in Syria.
The Turkish attack, cynically labeled "Operation Olive Branch," had Moscow's open approval, as the Russian press reported. Russian permission was required for Turkish warplanes to fly in Syrian air space. “Turkey and Russia are waging proxy war against the United States in Syria," Cengiz Çandar wrote yesterday in Al-Monitor.
With the support of Russia, China, and Iran, Tinpot Tayyip Erdogan flipped the bird to the United States of America, and got away with it.
THE US QUIETLY SIDELINES A TURKEY IN DECLINE
Erdogan at the White House May 2017
On Wednesday (1/24), President Donald Trump had a long talk with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The telephone call came in the wake of Erdogan’s most recent demonstration of the fact that under his leadership, the Turkish-American alliance has become an empty shell.
The White House read-out of Trump’s conversation with Erdogan can be read in several ways.
Trump’s conversation with Erdogan appeared to be an attempt to bridge the yawning gap between the US’s policy of supporting and working with the Kurds in Syria and its deference for Erdogan and his regime.
The read-out of their conversation also reflected the distinct possibility that the Trump administration is implementing a sophisticated strategy for contending with Erdogan’s Turkey and its open and growing hostility to the US and its allies.
To understand that strategy it is first imperative to understand the present state of Turkey’s military.
WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT THE FBI?
Lubyanka – KGB Headquarters in Moscow
Suppose what many are now suspecting is completely true -- that the FBI, or parts of it, exonerated Hillary Clinton and her cohorts with a mock investigation, attempted to swing our presidential election against Donald Trump and then continued to undermine the new administration after they had won with illegitimate claims of Russian collusion orchestrated by sleazy political lowlifes?
While this is not quite Stalinist -- no one was tortured in Lubyanka or sent to the Gulag for life -- it's not all that distant. It's tantamount to an internal coup d'état that is still ongoing.
And just as in many coups throughout history, many of the participants are convinced they are doing the right thing, that they are on the side of justice, even though they are bending it, especially because they are bending it. The ends justify the means, as the old homicidal slogan goes.
The inside of the FBI, particularly at the higher reaches, seems to have been filled with a band of smug, self-righteous ideologues who would do anything, erase or rephrase anything, to get their way. And then lie about it. Either that or quote scripture. Or form "secret societies."
Put another way, should "lying to the FBI" be a crime, when the FBI itself lies? That's not a zen koan. That's reality.
So if -- and it's not that big an if anymore -- this story out of a spy novel (the density of Le Carré coupled with the outlandishness of Fleming) is indeed the truth, what do we do about it? The answer is not easy.
MYTHOLOGIES OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
[Note by JW: this is the best explanation of illegal immigration into the US extant – every American needs to read it.]
The illegal immigration debate has come to a head once again.
Until yesterday (1/22), Congress was at an impasse over a temporary spending bill that Senate Democrats refused to support unless it included a provision allowing several hundred thousand illegal aliens to remain in the United States without fear of deportation.
It’s a tiresome ploy by the Democrats, abetted by their allies in the media, using deceptive language to paint a false picture that blurs the distinction between legal and illegal, citizen and foreigner, justice and injustice.
Enough obfuscation. Here are some of the most pernicious myths of illegal immigration, debunked. For example, the vocabulary surrounding illegal immigration is both politicized and weaponized—as we have seen with “Dreamers.”
Illegal immigration is conflated with legal immigration in order to smear critics with charges of biases against the “other” rather than of simply expressing concerns over legality and sovereignty. By progressive prepping of the linguistic battlefield, some conservatives feel a continued need to “prove” they are not racists by granting more and more exemptions from immigration laws.
THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAMERS
Dreamers. You hear so much about them. Who are they?
Let’s not play word games. “Dreamers” are illegal aliens. Harsh but true. There are more than 1.3 million Dreamers living in the United States, of which 800,000 or so had registered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
They really shouldn’t be here. So they need to face the music, and start packing to leave. Shouldn’t they?
Oh, right -- we’re told they’re in this pickle through no fault of their own. “No fault of their own” is the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card. And someday it will gain them an E-Z Pass to oodles of special privileges.
Before we give away the store, however, we might want to think this through. We seem to know what it means to be a Dreamer. But are Dreamers really Dreamers? Or could it be that some are actually DINOs (Dreamers in Name Only)?