SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH
His name is Zdenek Gazda. He’s from a small Moravian village called Lednice in the Czech Republic. Twenty-four years ago he emigrated to America and lives in Manasquan, New Jersey where he’s a huge fan of the NHL Devils. Three days ago, completely by accident, he changed history.
Zdenek loves America. On Sunday (9/11) he went to witness the ceremony at Ground Zero, taking selfies, photos, and videos with his cellphone like many others in the crowd. He noticed that Hillary Clinton was suddenly leaving unexpectedly.
Curious, he followed – and of all the pro journalists and tv cameramen, of all the horde of onlookers that follow her around, he happened to be the one guy in the right place at the right time to by chance have his cellphone video on and filming when she collapsed getting into her Caddy SUV.
Somehow, no one else noticed. Not a single reporter or cameraman. It was only when Zdenek posted his 20-second video clip on his Twitter page and began going viral that anyone in the media noticed. Her collapse was filmed and twittered at 11:31am. It wasn’t until 3:48pm that the world knew, via the huge siren-blaring headline on the Drudge Report: HILLARY FAINTS AS SECRET SERVICE RUSHES HER OUT OF 911 MEMORIAL
Without Zdenek Gazda, the Enemedia would have been able to continue their criminal coverup of Illary’s maladies – and their demonizing of anyone who shines a light on them (like Dr. Drew Pinsky). You might consider thanking him on Zdenek’s Facebook page.
It is thanks to Zdenek that, now more than ever, America’s fate rides on what happens on September 26.
Join the forum discussion on this postLES DÉPLORABLES – THE REVOLT OF THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT
Hillary Clinton’s comment that half of Donald Trump’s supporters are “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic” -- a heck of a lot of phobia for anyone to lug around all day -- puts back in play what will be seen as one of the 2016 campaign’s defining forces: the revolt of the politically incorrect.
They may not live at the level of Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables,” but it was only a matter of time before les déplorables—our own writhing mass of unheard Americans—rebelled against the intellectual elites’ ancien régime of political correctness.
To repeat: “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.”
Those are all potent words. Or once were. The racism of the Jim Crow era was ugly, physically cruel and murderous. Today, progressives output these words as reflexively as a burp.
What’s more, the left enjoys calling people Islamophobic or homophobic. It’s bullying without personal risk.
Donald Trump’s appeal, in part, is that he cracks back at progressive cultural condescension in utterly crude terms. Nativists exist, and the sky is still blue. But the overwhelming majority of these people aren’t phobic about a modernizing America. They’re fed up with the relentless, moral superciliousness of Hillary, the Obamas, progressive pundits and 19-year-old campus activists.
UNDOING OBAMA’S DAMAGE TO AMERICA
[This essay by former Vice-President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney, Republican candidate for the Wyoming Congressional seat, was published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday, September 9. We are republishing it in full as a public service.]
Fifteen years ago this Sunday, nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the deadliest attack on the U.S. homeland in our history. A decade and a half later, we remain at war with Islamic terrorists. Winning this war will require an effort of greater scale and commitment than anything we have seen since World War II, calling on every element of our national power. Defeating our enemies has been made significantly more difficult by the policies of Barack Obama. No American president has done more to weaken the U.S., hobble our defenses or aid our adversaries. President Obama has been more dedicated to reducing America's power than to defeating our enemies. He has enhanced the abilities, reach and finances of our adversaries, including the world's leading state sponsor of terror, at the expense of our allies and our own national security. He has overseen a decline of our own military capabilities as our adversaries strength has grown. Fifteen years after 3,000 Americans were killed by Islamic terrorists, America's commander in chief has become the money launderer in chief for the world's leading state sponsor of terror. And Iran isn't the only adversary benefiting from the age of Obama.
Undoing this damage will require an effort of historic proportions.
THE DANGER OF JAPAN AND THE EU TO THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
The growth rate of nominal GDP in the US has fallen to 2.4%, the lowest level outside recession since the Second World War.
It has been sliding relentlessly for almost two years, a warning signal that underlying deflationary forces may be tightening their grip on the US economy.
Given this extraordinary backdrop, the violent spike in US and global bonds yields since last week is extremely odd. It is rare for AAA-rated safe-haven debt to fall out of favor at the same time as stock markets, and few explanations on offer make sense.
We can all agree that oxygen is thinning as we enter the final phase of the economic cycle after 86 months of expansion. The MSCI world index of global equities has risen to a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 17, significantly higher than on the cusp of the Lehman crisis.
Nonetheless, the Fed cannot plausibly be responsible for the global bond rout. What is true is that markets fear the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank are reaching their political limits, and may not be allowed to press ahead with their experiments even if they want to.
THE GRAVE DANGERS OF A CORRUPT FBI AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
More than four years ago, To The Point in Jack Wheeler’s Is Obama on Putin’s Payroll? (April 2012), explained that, “Just like the Saudis, the KGB has journalists all over the world on their payroll… Putin has tasked it with demonizing natural gas fracking with life-or-death importance.”
Since then, several independent researchers, investigative journalists and columnists – including yours truly in Putin’s Bribes to Environmentalists Exposed (February 2015) – began providing evidence and reporting on apparent funds from Russian government-controlled entities funneling into U.S. environmental groups.
The Russian intent was to help the political action activities of the environmental lobby to stop, or at least delay, oil and gas development in the United States.
There is evidence that the monies the Russians spent on the U.S. and other environmental groups did indeed slow oil and gas development, thus keeping petroleum products prices higher than they would have been otherwise.
The result — American consumers were raked over to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, thus reducing real living standards — all because a politicized Department of Justice failed to do its job.
Only those oblivious to the obvious have failed to see that the Department of Justice has become increasingly politicized. Examples abound:
LOVE AND ANTHROPOLOGY
San Bushman – photo by Jack Wheeler
In 1988 with Jack Wheeler, I made first contact with a band of hunter-gatherers known as the San people in Africa’s Kalahari Desert.
These people had spent their whole lives completely isolated from the whirling, chaotic, mind-blowingly complex world in which most of us live – having had no contact with any people outside of few other small bands they would occasionally come in contact with.
We were a bizarre lot, the handful of us who camped out nearby – though not too nearby to be intrusive. In turn, their lives were equally strange to us (well, maybe not to Jack – this was his third “first contact”). They wore gazelle-hide loincloths and no shoes, and lived on a very sparse fare of roots, wild melons and whatever game they could snare or hunt. They had huts built out of small branches, but they usually slept outside of them, circled close to the fire.
In the evenings, they would sing and dance around the fire, chanting in a rhythmic call; at times, one of the men dancing would fall into a deep trance. He would be brought back to consciousness by the others rubbing hot coals on his body. The belief is that those who fall into a trance go to the other realm, bringing back wisdom for those who remained.
It was a grand adventure for me. It affected me deeply, helping put some of my priorities in perspective and adding to my appreciation for humanity’s richness. It also inspired me later on to write a children’s book, The San People of the Kalahari.
And it taught me something about marriage as well.
BACK TO BERNIE?
Drudge headline, Friday Sept. 15: Dems Pick Bernie As Backup
HALF-FULL REPORT 09/09/16
In the picture-worth-a-thousand-words department, this sums up the stakes in November:
Which brings us to January. No matter what the outcome in November, you want to be at TTP Rendezvous XV in Vegas, January 20-23.
We’ll have a stellar selection of speakers to discuss all the most likely possibilities of America’s future with the next president and Congress. Plus you get to see your old TTP friends and make lots of new ones.
You cannot not be there! To be in Vegas with us, email Miko, [email protected], or call us at 202-656-3008.
Now for the Funniest News of the Week. Hands down it’s this: We now have absolute proof that Zero is a parasitic worm.
TRUMP NEEDS TO KNOW THAT THE KEY TO ECONOMICS IS NOT ECONOMICS
Yesterday (9/07) in Philadelphia, The Donald gave a rousing speech on building up our military. Heavens knows we need that after 8 years of Zero trying to ruin it. But certainly what’s not needed is just more stuff.
Take the trillion-dollar F-35 boondoggle, for example, “the greatest white elephant in US military history.” The good old F-16 eats its lunch. The new innovative technology like General Atomics’ railgun leaves most big-ticket extravaganzas like aircraft carriers and manned bombers in the dust. Manned bombers? How 20th Century can you get?
The military’s resistance to obsoleting innovation is but one example of legions shot through our entire economy. People are afraid of the new. People are afraid of their jobs ending up making buggy whips. People want to stifle competition, demanding a “divine right to stagnation.” People are envious, they want to “eat the rich.”
Trump can talk all he wants about how to make America “great” again, how he wants to create jobs, how he wants better trade deals, how he wants to bring manufacturing back to the US from overseas. Fine, go for it. Almost anything he does will be better – as in gargantually better – than Hacking Hillary who will do her best to make it worse (except for her cronies).
I believe that Trump’s heart is in the right place, while Hillary’s is in a deep dark hideous hole. Nonetheless, there’s something he needs to understand about economics – namely, that the key to it, the key to whether a society prospers or pauperizes, has nothing to do with economics.
THE FBI COVERUP OF HILLARY CLINTON
If you left a little early for the Labor Day weekend, you may not have heard about the FBI’s data dump Friday (9/02) about its interview with Hillary Clinton on her handling on classified information.
It was remarkable for the new information contained in it, for Hillary’s excuse for violating security rules, for what the FBI didn’t ask her – and for the timing of its release.
Politicians release bad news late on Friday afternoon, because it’s sure to receive less attention. But the FBI is supposed to be non-partisan.
“To release this on a Friday as if (FBI Director James Comey) is an arm of the Clinton campaign, I’m just stunned, because there’s a lot of information in here that’s of great public interest,” said Mark Halperin of Bloomberg News.
It gets worse. James Comey is ruining the FBI.