MAKE THE WORLD GREAT AGAIN
Coimbra, Portugal. How ironic to be here with my fellow TTPers where the great hero who brought freedom to his country from Moslem conquest lies at rest, at a time when the world’s achieving freedom from Moslem terrorism may be taking place.
For as I am writing this, another heroic liberation from Moslem horrors is taking place – against the Islamic Terror Masters of Iran.
The effort is in its infancy, starting a scant five days ago last Thursday (12/30) in Shia Islam’s holy city of Mashhad. Within a day or so, it spread to most every big city in the country, then medium-size communities, and by now to hundreds of small towns.
The outcome is far from certain, the struggle of the Iranian people for their freedom may fail. Yet it is not too soon to discuss the immensity of what is happening in Iran at this moment, and the enormity of the consequences should their struggle succeed.
The first consequence has already occurred – the exposure of the global Left as a disgraced fraud in its claim to advocate liberty and women’s rights. That exposure includes that of our President’s pathetic predecessor, whom the Iranian people despise.
Our media and the global media refuse to support the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom because their hero is not Zero but President Trump.
AT LAST AMERICA HAS REAL PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP
There could be no greater contrast in leadership on the world stage and in interpreting reality than President Obama’s “lead from behind” model in Iran versus President Trump’s “lead from the front” model.
When the Iranian people demonstrated against the nation’s dictatorship in 2009, President Obama was weak and quiet. He was so interested in getting a nuclear arms deal with the dictatorship that he did not want to irritate Iran’s leaders
President Trump represents a remarkably different view of reality. He believes weakness begets weakness. He believes bad regimes are bad. He believes leaders look for opportunities and move aggressively and courageously to advance their vision of the world. He believes America is big enough and strong enough to provide real leadership.
Now that as courageous Iranians are risking prison and even death by standing up to the dictatorship, President Trump is once again proving that he represents the opposite of President Obama’s passivity and weakness.
Further, the huge difference in the sophistication and sense of reality between the President Obama’s advisers and the President Trump’s advisers is astounding. We have genuine presidential leadership at last.
WHO WILL PREVAIL IN IRAN?
Is it a revolution? Can it succeed? Should we support it, and if so, how?
Surely this tumult is very different from the protests of 2009. It’s different in at least two ways, geographical and demographical.
Geographically, whereas the 2009 protests were mainly limited to Tehran, today’s phenomenon covers the whole country, from major cities to smaller towns and even rural villages.
The demographic difference is class: the 2009 demonstrators were Tehrani bourgeoisie (bazaaris, for example). Today’s masses are proletarians: workers, unemployed, failing farmers and the like.
Then there is ideology. Just listen to them and watch them as they burn posters of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Watch them as they burn down religious centers, schools, and living quarters for those in or entering the ranks of the clergy.
Which brings us to the present and pending street battles for the future of the country, and, in many important ways, the world. And the question: Who will prevail?
TRUMP HUMILIATES OBAMA ON IRAN
Back in those pre-9/11 days when I identified as a liberal, the one thing I was sure drew all my then cohort together was opposition to fascism, whether secular or religious.
Boy, was I wrong -- and never was that more clear than in June 2009 when the Green Movement demonstrators were marching through the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities, demanding freedom from the mullahs.
The students and others marching in the streets to overthrow these tyrants desperately wanted America's help, specifically the support of our "oh-so-liberal-progressive" president. They shouted, "Obama, Obama, are you with us or are you with them?"
Obama was silent.
I can't think of a moment I was more disgusted by the acts (inaction actually) of an American president. What did he stand for? What did we stand for? Now at last we have a president who humiliates Obama’s despicable silence.
WILL NUCLEAR NORTH KOREA SURVIVE 2018?
For good or evil, we may s
ee radical changes in North Korea in 2018.
The beefed-up United Nations sanctions by midyear could lead to widespread North Korean hunger, as well as the virtual end of the country's industry and transportation.
In the past, the West had called off such existential sanctions and rushed in cash and humanitarian aid on news of growing starvation. Would it now if the bleak alternative was a lunatic's nuclear missile possibly striking San Diego or Seattle?
China has always been unwilling to give up pit bull North Korea as its client. The Kim dynasty has proved especially useful over the past 30 years for aggravating and distracting the Chinese communist government's archenemy, Japan, and its chief rival, the United States.
Beijing's sponsorship of the rogue nuclear regime in North Korea could increasingly become bad business, given global anxieties over the many possible trajectories of North Korea nuclear missiles.
What are some likely scenarios for 2018? Here are five.
CHINA’S ENERGY CRISIS
Northern China is facing an energy crisis this winter due to shortfalls in heating gas. Many schools have not had heating since November 15—though the average temperature during the day has been close to, or below freezing. These schools were required to remove coal-fired heating ahead of the winter season as part of a larger initiative to reduce smog and CO2 emissions.
As the world’s top consumer and producer of coal, this is no easy task. In fact, China consumes four times as much coal as all of Europe (including Russia) and Central Asia combined.
By contrast, Chinese consumption of natural gas in 2016 was eight times its level in 2000. However, the attempts to smoothly transition from coal to gas appears to have failed and are the root cause of the current gas shortfall. Across China, the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has risen by 300 percent. This is having significant downstream effects and has led to rationing.
The effects of the shortages are spreading. This is because the shortages and accompanying spike in prices are manifestations of a larger problem.
THE UNRAVELING OF EVIL
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/29/17
Welcome to the Happy New Year HFR! 2018 here we come. It’s going to be a triumphal year with our Happy Warrior in the White House…
How can you not love a guy like this? No President in US history has ever been deluged with so much hate, obstruction, and lies – and he’s overcoming it all with a smile.
That he has accomplished as much if not more in his first year in office as any of his predecessors is extraordinary. That he accomplished all that in the face of such unhinged hate is miraculous. And with a Cheshire cat grin.
Yet as we close the book on 2017, it’s not the time to look back but to look forward. We learn from 2017 only as clues to what the odds for 2018 may be.
Predictions about human behavior are only about possibilities. We can know 100% for sure about things in the physical future, such as there will be a Full Moon on May 29, 2018, but not with our human future as it’s undetermined – too many decisions that have yet to be made, too many black swans that come out of nowhere. The Crystal Ball is always cloudy.
So with that yuge caveat, let’s look at what 2018 futures are more likely than others.
THE ANATOMY OF HILLARY’S MONEY-LAUNDERING SCHEME
In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of my client, Alabama engineer Shaun McCutcheon, in his challenge to the Federal Election Commission's (FEC) outdated "aggregate limits," which effectively limited how many candidates any one donor could support (McCutcheon v. FEC).
Anti-speech liberals railed against McCutcheon's win, arguing it would create supersized "Joint Fundraising Committees" (JFCs). In court, they claimed these JFCs would allow a single donor to cut a multimillion-dollar check, and the JFC would then route funds through dozens of participating state parties, who would then funnel it back to the final recipient.
Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer claimed the Supreme Court's McCutcheon v. FEC ruling would lead to "the system of legalized bribery recreated that existed prior to Watergate." The Supreme Court, in ruling for us, flatly stated such a scheme would still be illegal.
The Democrats' response? Hold my beer. What SCOTUS declared illegal in McCutcheon is exactly what Hillary and the Dems did – and we can prove it.
THE PARTY OF THE RICH WILL PAY IN 2018
Just before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 passed last week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told us what she thought of the bill in the proverbial "no uncertain terms" –
“In this holy time, the moral obscenity and unrepentant greed of the GOP tax scam stands out even more clearly... This GOP tax scam is simply theft, monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class and from every person who aspires to reach it. The GOP tax scam is not a vote for an investment in growth or jobs. It is a vote to install a permanent plutocracy in our nation.”Did Pelosi actually believe this hortatory bilge or was she just banking on the stupidity of the American public and the unyielding support of the Democrats' ever-loyal media claque?
Well, the latter is almost always reliable – for when it comes to "permanent plutocracy in our nation" few should know more about that than Nancy. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, she has a net worth of $196 million.
Truth is, it’s the Democrats who are now the Party of the Rich – Silicon Valley, Hollywood, media, much of Wall Street – and they are going to pay for it Big Time in 2018.