HALF-FULL REPORT 01/03/20

What a way to start 2020!!  A gigantic shock-and-awe Win-Win for America and the World, Lose-Lose for the America-haters of Iran and the Democrat Party.  Can’t say that POTUS didn’t give them a heads-up:

Here’s the runup:  Last Friday (12/27), an American contractor was killed and several US soldiers wounded in a rocket attack on the Iraqi military’s K1 base near Kirkuk in Iraqi Kurdistan.

In response, less than 48 hours later on Sunday (12/29), POTUS authorized airstrikes on five encampments of the attack’s perpetrators, Kataeb Hezbollah (Brigades of the Party of Allah), a Shia Jihadist militia designated as a terrorist organization by the Obama State Dept. in 2009.  The rocket attack last Friday was the 11^th such attack by KH on US and Iraqi forces in the last two months.

Kataeb Hezbollah is “the central nervous system of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) in Iraq.” It is commanded by Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, nom de guerre Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.  While “Kataeb Hezbollah’s members see Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as their own spiritual leader,” Muhandis takes his orders directly from IRGC-QF General Qassem Soleimani.

Muhandis (right) conferring with Soleimani (left)

On Tuesday, New Year’s Eve (12/31), Muhandis personally led a KH attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad.  While the terrorists never reached the embassy itself, they did manage to burn down its exterior reception area:

The DC foreign policy elite quickly brushed aside POTUS’ threat, tweeted above.  Michael Knight, “Iraq military expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy,” explained to Voice of America:

“KH [Kataeb Hezbollah] can shoot dead policemen on the streets of Baghdad and refuse to surrender the murderers to Iraqi justice. KH can threaten ministers, can take over the Civil Aviation Authority of Iraq, and nobody will stand in their way. As a result, KH is very unlikely to face any negative action as a result of either the killing of a U.S. contractor or the blockading of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.”

Big mistake, Michael, confusing our current POTUS with his predecessor.  Maybe now, Michael, you might consider extracting your head from its rectal insertion and wake up to the reality of 2020?

And perhaps Iran’s head terror-master, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei might do the same – after taunting the President of the United States on New Year’s Day (01/01) about his “This is not a Warning, it is a Threat” tweet:  “There is not a damn thing you can do.”

So, the very next day, yesterday (1/02), Soleimani had the pathological chutzpah to fly from Iran to the Baghdad International Airport to be greeted and embraced by Muhandis.  They and their aides got into two cars to go off and plan their next attack on America.  They never got off the tarmac.

An AGM-114 Hellfire missile fired from a whisper-quiet MQ-9 drone turned Soleimani and Muhandis into grease.  Here’s the Baghdad Airport CCTV recording of the strike:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwYZUQk3R5o

The only thing left of Soleimani was his ring.  There was nothing left of Muhandis at all.  How bout that for a “damn thing” Mr. Ayatollah?

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There’s a twitter storm on POTUS’ feed up now, too many to post here so a short sampling:

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Let’s add to the above:

As Secretary of State Pompeo explained on Fox News:

“We didn’t send pallets of cash to the Iranians. We didn’t pay for hostages. We didn’t create a deal which would have given them a clear pathway to a nuclear weapon. We have taken a very different approach. We believe it’s the one that will ultimately lead to success and stability in the Middle East.”

If you scroll down @SecPompeo past all the tweets of foreign leaders he talked to about the airstrike, you’ll find him posting this video clip of Iraqis – Iraqis – dancing and celebrating Soleimani’s death on the streets of Baghdad last night (12/02):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om1M1Z3pWII%20

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But there are nothing but tears of grief on the Left for the murdered terrorists.  One must-read is Robert Spencer’s Iran’s al-Quds Force Chief Killed; U.S. Foreign Policy Establishment Hardest Hit.

Why?  Because with Trump’s terrorist takeout, “the Obama team and the entire U.S. foreign policy establishment sees all of its core claims and principles proven false, and its recommendations rightly disregarded.”  Then POTUS adds insult to injury with his poke-in-Obama’s-eye tweet about Iran never losing a negotiation.

So no wonder there is a “Hair On Fire Pundits’ Reaction to Soleimani Killing,” gleefully reported by Fox as “pearl clutching.”

Yet no group of folks clutches their pearls better that the Dem candidates.  Read their statements – without exception they are at pains to denounce Soleimani as an American-killing terrorist, yet are at equal pains to denounce Trump as “reckless” for taking him out before he could kill more Americans.

The truth is that Trump’s hit was a terrifying shot across the Democrats’ bow – announcing that the ruthlessness he is showing against Iran’s terror-masters will be aimed at them from now on.  Welcome to 2020, Dems.  Your fate does not look good.

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For the caveat, let’s turn to Aeschylus (525-455 BC), the great Greek playwright whose play, The Persians, was revered by his countrymen because he actually fought the Persians in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) and at Salamis (480 BC).  He attributes the defeat of the Persians to their hubris, particularly that of their King, Xerxes.

Hubris is the pathological overconfidence and arrogance the gods use to drive men insane and destroy them.  It is possessed by the leaders of Persia (Iran) today – and by those of the Democrat Party, together with their media poodles.

It is precisely this sort of insane arrogance that got Soleimani destroyed by tugging Superman’s cape – and it promises to destroy the Democrat Party for the same reason.

Promises because there is this horrific ineluctability about hubris.  Those in the grip of it are driven to their doom, as they somehow cannot come to their senses and escape from it.  And that will be the story of 2020.

The Democrats and the Fake News Media will stop at nothing to sow chaos and ruination upon America this year – culturally, socially, politically, and economically.  Their specific insanities such as “climate change” and “transgenderism” will get worse, much worse, while they will desperately try to foist newly invented insanities upon us.

Their partners in crime – the social media giants, Twitter, Facebook, and Google/YouTube – will make every effort to accelerate this.  Which is why we must take Tucker Carlson’s and Ted Cruz’s dire warnings to heart.

On December 21, Tucker denounced the biggest conservative groups in Washington like The Heritage Foundation for being massively bribed by Twitter, Google et al to support them.  Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCAthni15RI

Tucker is absolutely right about this.  At the heart of the matter is Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act of 1996, which makes the social media giants a “platform” giving them immunity from any liability regarding what they publish, rather than a “publisher” which doesn’t.

Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-MO ) S.1914, “Ending Support for Internet Censorship Act” corrects this, by requiring that the Internet giants do “not moderate information provided by other information content providers in a manner that is biased against a political party, political candidate, or political viewpoint.”

A big supporter of Hawley’s is Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has now alerted US Trade Negotiator Robert Lighthizer to the danger that the USMCA (US Mexico Canada trade agreement) includes an Article 19.17 protecting the Internet giants and demands its removal:

“I ask that you remove Article 19.17 an Article that mirrors Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—from the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)… Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides technology companies with immunity enjoyed by no other industry: a near-blanket legal immunity for the third-party content that they host on their platforms…

 

Big tech companies have become some of the most powerful censors the world has ever seen. They routinely censor lawful—overwhelmingly conservative—speech with which they disagree. Given (that we should) hold big tech companies to the same standards as other content publishers, it is inappropriate to commit the United States in the USMCA, the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement, or any other trade agreement, to continue to provide special protections to big tech.”

Bottom line: if Article 19.17 remains in the USMCA and the treaty ratified, and Hawley’s bill not passed, the social media giants will be free to make every possible effort to rig the 2020 election with their fanatic leftist bias.

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The other caveat preventing Dems from regaining sanity is their total dedication to massively humongous voter fraud with illegal alien voting.  There is an emerging awareness of the threat.  Reported yesterday (1/02): Trump Administration to Go After States Allowing Illegal Immigrants to Obtain Driver’s Licenses.

It’s a start – no mention, though, of the real solution of designating an “official purpose” of The Real ID Act – Public Law 109-13 Title II Section 201 (3) – to be able to vote in a federal election, as discussed in the HFR of 12/20/19.  I’m told, however, it will be coming “when the timing is right” sometime in the next few months.

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So 2020 is starting off fabulously.  There’s a lot more to come in January alone – a landmark trade deal with China to be signed in Washington on the 15^th, BoJo putting Brexit in the bag by the 31^st, McConnell kiboshing Pelosi’s shampeachment – the clue to how just dropped by POTUS this afternoon (01/03):

And while you can’t dismiss the mullahs being crazy enough to attack us again, the odds are decidedly against it now.

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Before we go, I must at least provide a short list of What to Read 2019.  Let’s cut to the chase with the three most important.

*The War for America’s Soul: Donald Trump, the Left’s Assault on America, and How We Take Back Our Country, by Sebastian Gorka.  There is simply nothing more important than taking back our country from the Trump-hating, America-hating, Civilization-hating Left.

*The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity, by Douglas Murray.  A masterpiece of explanation by a British conservative who is himself “gay.”

*The Switch: Ignite Your Metabolism with Intermittent Fasting, Protein Cycling, and Keto, by James Clement.  Just published this week, this book will change your life, your health, and your longevity for the better, even if you don’t follow all diet suggestions.  On a personal note, it’s dedicated to my dearest friends, Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw.

And for those interested in business (which you should be!), TTPer Dan Thayer recommends the Soundview Book Summaries’ Best Business Books of 2019.  Thanks, Big Dan!

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That’s a wrap.  We close with this statement by President Trump delivered this afternoon (1/03).  It is magnificent.  America is truly blessed by Providence to have this extraordinary man as President at this crucial moment in history.  No Dem stands a ghost of a chance against him in an honest election this November.  2020 is going to be a historical year.