Darius McQuaid
TRUMP’S REVENGE ON OPEC AND RUSSIA
The United States is flooding the European markets with record amounts crude oil as US producers seize on Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pact to cut output resulting in soaring oil prices.
US crude oil is seen as the cheaper option as the OPEC-Russia pact begins to bite after agreeing to oil output jointly by 1.8million barrels per day (bpd) help rebalance the market and to help elevate the benchmark Brent prices.
Now, the relatively high prices brought about by that pact, coupled with surging US output, are making it harder to sell Russian, Nigerian and other oil grades in Europe, traders say.
A trader with a Mediterranean refiner, who regularly buys Russian and Caspian Sea crude and has recently started purchasing US oil. He said: “US oil is on offer everywhere. It puts local grades under a lot of pressure.” Call it Trump’s Revenge.
PUTIN THE POSER
Pretending to be one of the big boys
Grand geopolitical scheming took a break in Moscow last week. The main news—improbably—turned to the fiasco of the government trying and failing, since April 16, to ban the popular instant messenger app Telegram.
The fiasco exposes Vladimir Putin as a “poser” – someone who pretends to know what he’s doing but doesn’t.
Millions of Russians remain blissfully unaware about this “state failure,” but probably as many others are following it with keen interest; in fact, use of this popular app has actually increased since being “blocked” in Russia (RBC, April 19).
One striking feature of this developing story is that President Vladimir Putin is absent from the picture. As he is in so much else.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/21/18: REPORTS FROM THE FRONT LINES
The Flight 93 Election was only the beginning. We live in an era of total political war, and even outsiders can see it clearly. To fully understand where we stand, read "What Then, Is To Be Our War?" which kind of ate me up this week. This week's HFR begins our answer.
How to beat the Left? Hungary's answer? Or Angelo Codevilla's? Or does it lie somewhere else?
What are Bad Boy vs. Mean Girl political strategies? Why does this matter? Why in the world did Comey decide to take this metaphor so literally, and how many facepalms has it generated this week?
Who is out there building things for us?
Who is out there fighting? Why was Starbucks such a refreshing break this week, and so instructive? In related news, who the heck is "Hotep Jesus," and why is he someone you want to know?
How does a hateful left-wing Fresno State professor illustrate the core problem with libertarianism, and the way forward for a fighting right?
Should David Hogg be hailed as a GOP hero?
Why are the tech firms the most important fulcrum of our current political problems? What 3 principles do we need to focus on going forward, in order to keep liberty alive in an era of social networks + A.I. + pervasive robotics?
How is science about the destroy the core of Leftist religion?
On the flip side, why does science need Christianity? Yes, you read that right.
These answers and more in this week's HFR.
WHAT, THEN, IS TO BE OUR WAR?
I'm going to touch on a few highlights, and offer some resources you can peruse now or later. There is hope. There is always hope. But genuine hope can only begin once you understand where you really stand...
A VERY STABLE GENIUS FOREIGN POLICY
It’s really not that complicated.
President Trump’s Syria strikes have reopened the debate over what defines his foreign policy. Is he an interventionist or an isolationist? Foreign policy experts claim that he’s making it up as he goes along.
They’re not paying attention.
President Trump’s foreign policy has two consistent elements. From threatening Kim Jong-Un on Twitter to moving the embassy to Jerusalem to bombing Syria, he applies pressure and then he disengages.
Here’s how that works. Hint: Regarding North Korea, Trump accomplished more with a few tweets than previous administrations had with billions of dollars.
THE MCCABE REPORT IS JUST THE APPETIZER
What a delicious hors d’oeuvre Michael Horowitz gave the world on Friday!
The inspector general for Department of Justice finally issued his eagerly awaited (eagerly awaited by some of us, anyway) report on Andrew McCabe, the disgraced former deputy director of the FBI.
Note that this is only an appetizer. In the coming weeks, Horowitz will follow up with entrees on the FBI’s partisan activities in the 2016 presidential election and, later, another report on (if I may employ the term) collusion with the State Department.
As of today (4/17), it is unclear exactly what the scope of the inspector general’s inquiries will be.
Speaking for myself, I hope the desert course includes a close look at the January 5, 2017 meeting at the Obama White House.
THE CRIMINAL REFERRAL ON CLINTON, COMEY, AND LYNCH
Congressional lawmakers made a criminal referral yesterday (4/18)to the Department of Justice Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
It was against former senior-level Obama administration officials, including employees of the FBI connected with the unverified dossier alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as those involved in the warrants used to spy on a former Trump campaign volunteer.
The lawmakers also made a criminal referral on former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and threats made by her DOJ against the FBI informant, who provided the bureau with information on the Russian nuclear industry and the approval in 2010 to sell roughly 20 percent of American uranium mining assets to Russia.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Florida, along with ten other colleagues sent the letter Wednesday to Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray criminally referring:
*Obama FBI Director James Comey
*Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
*Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch
*Obama FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
All for their involvement in the investigations into President Trump and alleged violations of federal law. The letter states:“We write to refer the following individuals for investigation of potential violation(s) of federal statutes. In doing so, we are especially mindful of the dissimilar degrees of zealousness that has marked the investigations into Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, respectively. Because we believe that those in positions of high authority should be treated the same as every other American, we want to be sure that the potential violations of law outlined below are vetted appropriately.”
THE MCCABE REPORT IS JUST THE APPETIZER
What a delicious hors d’oeuvre Michael Horowitz gave the world on Friday!
The inspector general for Department of Justice finally issued his eagerly awaited (eagerly awaited by some of us, anyway) report on Andrew McCabe, the disgraced former deputy director of the FBI.
Note that this is only an appetizer. In the coming weeks, Horowitz will follow up with entrees on the FBI’s partisan activities in the 2016 presidential election and, later, another report on (if I may employ the term) collusion with the State Department.
As of today (4/17), it is unclear exactly what the scope of the inspector general’s inquiries will be.
Speaking for myself, I hope the desert course includes a close look at the January 5, 2017 meeting at the Obama White House.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/13/18
Mike Ryan is filling in for Jack Wheeler this week.
President Trump uses an advanced management strategy that has the deep state baffled.
John Bolton joined the White House and was in the hot seat immediately.
Oh no, They Didn’t! Assad used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon. And those missiles are very smart.
Attorney Michael Cohen was raided at the same time a fire broke out in Trump Tower. Coincidence?
Child traffickers dealt a serious blow, and we are back with more fun with Zuck!
All this in this week’s HFR!
WINNING THE WAR AGAINST THE LEFT
Whoever was surprised by the hate-fest against the National Rifle Association and conservative Americans in general that followed the Parkland, FL school shooting must not have been paying attention.
Over the past half century, a ruling class formed by our uniformly leftist educational system and occupying the commanding heights of corporate life, governmental bureaucracies, the media, etc. accuses its targets of everything from murder and terrorism to culpable psycho-social disorders (racism, sexism, and so forth).
When one side rejects persuasion in favor of war, what are the other’s options? To convince our opponents to accept us as equals? To reform them? Fat chance! Decency for ourselves is our objective. Hence, the words and deeds by which we deal with those who make war on us must aim at affirming ourselves, despite them.
Hence, the practical question: what is to be our war?
THE STRONG HORSE IN THE WHITE HOUSE
Lee Smith's seminal The Strong Horse: Politics, Power and the Clash of Arab Civilizations (2010) explains how the Arab world typically follows the leader with the most strength and power, i. e. the strong horse.
This proclivity for the powerful does not restrict itself to the Middle East, however. Xi Jinping these days is a pretty strong horse. Nor does it even restrict itself to dictators. Winston Churchill may have been the strongest horse of the last hundred years, having led the allies from the brink of defeat to victory in World War II, sometimes through sheer force of will.
Now it's Donald Trump's turn.
Russia, China, Syria, Iran, North Korea, among other countries and non-state actors, not to mention a whole host of domestic foes, have all aligned themselves against him (and consequently America) in various degrees.
At the same time, an investigation into his inner circle threatens to sweep up virtually everyone from his personal lawyer to his son while his adversaries chortle.
But these adversaries, ambitious and vengeful as they are, have little idea of the chaos that will ensue in this country should Trump fall, the ruptures that will occur.
THE LIMITS OF AMERICAN PATIENCE
What helped elect Trump was a collective weariness with demands put on a country $20 trillion in debt. America is currently running a $57 billion a month trade deficit.
The poverty of inner-city Detroit, or rural Central California, or West Virginia does not suggest an endlessly opulent nation, at least as a visitor might conclude from visiting Manhattan, Chevy Chase, or Presidio Heights.
Universities and colleges have taken for granted that they can count on massive federal student loan subsidies to increase vastly the number of administrators, pay for an expanding apparat of politicized and nonteaching staff, increase tuition beyond the rate of inflation and not dare to be held accountable for dismal graduation rates, poorly educated graduates, or ossified systems of tenure.
For all this and so very much more, what cannot go on won’t. We have reached the limits of our patience.
WHY OBAMA OWNS THE DISASTER IN SYRIA
Obama owns the disaster in Syria in a way that no one else does. Three of his policies intersected to cause the bloodshed, devastation and horrors there.
- The Iraq Withdrawal
- The Arab Spring
- The Iran Deal
The collapse of the multicultural Iraqi army allowed Al Qaeda in Iraq to seize huge swathes of territory. And ISIS and Iran began carving up Iraq into their own ethnically cleansed dominions.
Iraq’s civil war spread to Syria. Initially Obama backed the Sunni Brotherhood militias. These groups represented themselves as free, secular and democratic. They were actually nothing of the kind.
THE LIMITS OF AMERICAN PATIENCE
What helped elect Trump was a collective weariness with demands put on a country $20 trillion in debt. America is currently running a $57 billion a month trade deficit.
The poverty of inner-city Detroit, or rural Central California, or West Virginia does not suggest an endlessly opulent nation, at least as a visitor might conclude from visiting Manhattan, Chevy Chase, or Presidio Heights.
Universities and colleges have taken for granted that they can count on massive federal student loan subsidies to increase vastly the number of administrators, pay for an expanding apparat of politicized and nonteaching staff, increase tuition beyond the rate of inflation and not dare to be held accountable for dismal graduation rates, poorly educated graduates, or ossified systems of tenure.
For all this and so very much more, what cannot go on won’t. We have reached the limits of our patience.
WHY OBAMA OWNS THE DISASTER IN SYRIA
Obama owns the disaster in Syria in a way that no one else does. Three of his policies intersected to cause the bloodshed, devastation and horrors there.
- The Iraq Withdrawal
- The Arab Spring
- The Iran Deal
The collapse of the multicultural Iraqi army allowed Al Qaeda in Iraq to seize huge swathes of territory. And ISIS and Iran began carving up Iraq into their own ethnically cleansed dominions.
Iraq’s civil war spread to Syria. Initially Obama backed the Sunni Brotherhood militias. These groups represented themselves as free, secular and democratic. They were actually nothing of the kind.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/06/18
Mike Ryan is filling in for Jack Wheeler this week.
Control and use of information technology and the intellectual property behind it has been a significant factor in recent events. The so-called trade war with China and the tariffs on basic materials are really about the future of intellectual property rights.
President Trump is using solid commodities such as steel and aluminum to work towards more favorable intellectual property rights expectations and legalities.
************
Google returned their self-driving cars to the road. They are perfecting information technology that has the potential to impact the 2020 election powerfully.
************
Iranians appear to be on their way towards regime change, using information technology that the Mullahs are having difficulty controlling.
************
At the same time, Facebook’s Zuckerburg proposes turning over access to messaging technology to the US Government in exchange for more favorable press.
************
President Trump’s tweets turned around a horde of migrants, and Hillary still can’t accept that her AI driven election tools were fooled by President Trump. What do these all have in common? Artificially intelligent systems.
Read about all these in this week's HFR! ...
WHEN THE EPA WAS REALLY CORRUPT
Who said this?
“The EPA is one of the most toxic places in the federal government to work. If you don’t get rid of the toxicity of the employees at the EPA, we are doing a great disservice to this country. I have serious questions about [the EPA administrator’s] ability to actually administrate.”
No, those remarks aren’t from one of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s many critics on the Left.
They’re the words of former House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who held several congressional hearings in 2016 to investigate egregious cases of misconduct and mismanagement under the leadership of Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s last EPA chief.
Since official Washington is consumed with Pruitt’s every move, perhaps it’s time to take a little trip down pre-Trump Memory Lane—when all was right in the world, according to incurious elite media—and jolt the faulty memories of these hyperventilating talking heads and editorial boards who insist Pruitt should be fired for spending 50 bucks a night to rent a D.C. condo.
Gina McCarthy should share a place of ignominy in the Obama Hall of Shame, right alongside IRS commissioner John Koskinen, FBI Director James Comey, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She is impossibly corrupt – and here are the examples.
THE FBI NEEDS TO BE DISMANTLED
The FBI, bluntly, is a mess. The level of incompetence mixed with bias is stunning. If the FBI were a private corporation, it would either be in Chapter 11 or fighting off stockholder rebellion or both.
Unfortunately, however, it's our most important law enforcement agency,
Its litany of incompetence is extraordinary -- completely missing the Boston Marathon and Pulse night club terror murderers when they were staring them in the face, grotesquely overlooking the Parkland schools mass killer when his violent psychosis should have been apparent to anyone with a 3-digit IQ, are but three recent catastrophes on their watch.
As for the bias part, well, that is what is being uncovered. The extent of it, it is easy to predict, will be great. It already is.
We have already seen how dishonest the organization is, how desperately they are hiding facts from the public. Documents have to be pried out with a crowbar. The stonewalling is endless, the numbers of self-serving redactions myriad and seemingly rote. It is anti-democratic in the extreme.
THE DEEP STATE POSTER CHILDREN
And McCabe and Rice and Power and Strzok and Ohr and Mueller and….
On March 17, ex-CIA Director John Brennan tweeted about the current president of the United States: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. . . . America will triumph over you.”
That outburst from the former head of the world’s premier spy agency seemed a near threat to a sitting president, and former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power tweeted that it probably was: “Not a good idea to p… off John Brennan.”
If there is such a thing as a dangerous “deep state” of elite but unelected federal officials who feel that they are untouchable and unaccountable, then John Brennan is the poster boy.
Brennan’s record of lies, perjuries, distortions and self-serving flip-flops have gone on for years. Many believe he is the architect of the Trump-Russia Collusion hoax. Brennan is typical of the careerist deep state. Then again, so are James Clapper, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and so many, many others.
THE POSTER BOY FOR WHAT’S WRONG WITH OUR CULTURE
The profane egomaniac whom the Left-media are worshiping at the moment, David Hogg, is the poster boy for the ungracious monsters who characterize a portion of Generation Z, those youngsters born after 2000.
This is the generation that has been the most seriously indoctrinated with leftist ideology rather than actual education. Like the majority of teachers and professors who have indoctrinated Hogg's generation – one of whom is his mother – Hogg feels justified maligning anyone who disagrees with him.
The kid is such a gutter-mouth jerk, such a despicable role model, and yet the Left media cannot get enough of him.
THE PHONY FALSE FRONT OF MARCH FOR OUR LIVES
Dummy David Hogg’s real voice
Follow the money.
It’s a strange political fact, but nearly every major anti-gun group has been a front group. By contrast, the NRA is maligned 24/7 and yet it’s completely obvious whom it represents.
Despite the efforts to tie the NRA to everyone from firearms manufacturers to the Russians (if you can’t tie any random Republican thing to the Russians these days, you won’t be working at the Washington Post or CNN for very long), it represents its five million members.
Anti-gun groups tend to represent shadowy networks. The one consistent thing about anti-gun groups is that that they are usually the opposite of what their name says they are.
March for Our Lives is on every cable channel, but who runs it? The photogenic teen fronts are out front. But it’s obvious to everyone that a bunch of teen-agers in high school don’t have the resources and skills to coordinate a nationwide movement. Instead it’s the experienced activists who are actually running things.
CAN ROSEANNE SAVE AMERICA?
Ever since Donald Trump rode down his escalator and announced he was running for president, a good swath of America, not to mention the overwhelming majority of its media, has been having the collective equivalent of a nervous breakdown.
It got worse when he actually became president and it hasn't stopped since. The ramifications have been, to put it mildly, depressing -- families divided, longtime friendships shattered, the society even more sundered than it was during Vietnam.
This has largely been the Left's doing, to be honest -- they tend to react more emotionally -- but some on the Right (“Never Trumpers”) are responsible too.
Enter Roseanne Barr.
The woman whose sitcom with John Goodman broke ground thirty years ago as a symbol of working class progressivism returned, after a three-decade hiatus, Tuesday night, but this time -- oh, apostasy! -- as a Trump supporter in Roseanne.
THE GATE OF GATES
Late night Friday's (3/16) firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, based on a report from the Office of Professional Responsibility, is only the beginning of what is likely to be the most explosive series of revelations in American history.
Forget Watergate. It will be the distant past once the inspector general's reports—there apparently will be more than one—start to come out. This will be the "Gate of Gates."
From the FBI and across the intelligence agencies an astonishing number of people are going to find themselves accused, one can safely predict at this point, of some atrocious behavior in a free republic. And it will not just be the small change of Peter Strzok (the dimwitted director of counter-intelligence) and his gal pal Lisa Page.
It will include—on one level or another—James Comey, Loretta Lynch, John Brennan, James Clapper, Susan Rice and, almost inevitably, Barack Obama, not to mention others known and unknown.
All these people's reputations will be damaged forever for the pathetic purpose of getting Hillary Clinton elected president and later for their determination to manipulate the FBI and intelligence agencies to wound as severely as possible Trump's presidency.
THE SCANDAL OF ROBERT MUELLER
Sometimes the hysteria of crowds causes them to overlook the obvious. Here is a series of 12 questions that do not seem to trouble Robert Mueller, but the answers to these should expose why so many of the people today alleging scandals should themselves be considered scandalous.
1) Had Hillary Clinton won the election, would we now even know of a Fusion GPS dossier? Would assorted miscreants such as Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Lisa Page, Glenn Simpson, Christopher Steele, or Peter Strzok now be under a cloud of suspicion?
Or would they instead have been quietly lionized by a President Clinton grateful for noble services in the shadows rendered during the campaign?
2) If Clinton had won, would we now know of any Russian-supplied smears against Donald Trump?
Would a FISA judge now be complaining that he was misled in a warrant request? Would likely Attorney General Loretta Lynch be reassigning Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr for his consultations with Fusion GPS operatives?
THE FEDS NEED TO KNOCK ON JOHN BRENNAN’S DOOR
Two ominous tweets, one written by former CIA Director John Brennan, the other by former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, openly threaten a sitting president — President Trump. This must be investigated.
Both of these tweets raise enormous questions, not only about what is meant by these threats, but what kind of inside information these former Obama officials might be receiving from unauthorized sources.
Late Friday night (3/16), after the long overdue firing of Andrew McCabe, the disgraced former acting FBI director, the president tweeted to the American people that McCabe’s termination (and possible loss of pension) marks a “great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy.”
Brennan responded with a tweet of foaming rage that was unquestionably a threat, which Power then supported. The very idea that a Brennan and Power, two former Cabinet-level officials in the Obama administration, are publicly hurling not-so-veiled threats at a sitting American president, is not only beyond the pale, but must be taken seriously by Federal authorities.
DEMOCRATS WALLOWING IN THE ANTISEMITIC SEWER
Obama and Farrakhan 2005
All during his 2008 election campaign and throughout his presidency, Barack Obama diligently obfuscated his associations with Antisemites. Consider his relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Farrakhan is the most prominent and politically powerful Antisemite in America. He has a four-decade record of viciously Antisemitic statements along the lines of the posts at the Palestine Live Facebook group.
Farrakhan has called Hitler “a very great man.” He has referred to Judaism as “a gutter religion,” and to Jews as “satanic.”
Obama’s relationship with Farrakhan returned to the news in January when photo-journalist Askia Muhammad published a photograph he took of the two men together at a 2005 Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) meeting when Obama was a serving U.S. Senator. He had hidden it all these years.
Rather than disavowing Farrakhan, after Askia’s photograph was published, leading Black Democrats in Congress have embraced him. You can’t wallow in the sewer of Hitlerian hate for Jews more than that.
PUTIN’S FAKE VICTORY
No surprises happened in Russia on Sunday, March 18, in the carefully orchestrated voting procedure generously described by the media as “presidential elections.” But many questions loom over the beginning of the new term that Vladimir Putin claimed.
His “campaigning” gained some momentum in the last couple of weeks, but it remained short on message and profoundly boring, projecting primarily the maxim that there could not possibly be any alternative to the 65-year-old leader.
One bottom line is that Russia’s ruling elite has failed to gain any new legitimacy in this manipulated and falsified pseudo-democratic process (Novaya Gazeta, March 15).
Another is that Putin starts his late-autumnal presidential term without a single foreign policy achievement or initiative. Further, he starts with no real friends or allies. That includes Xi Jinping’s China.
OBAMA DNI CLAPPER IS THE LEAKER LAUNCHING TRUMP-RUSSIA
James “The Leaker” Clapper
According to government sources, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper leaked classified information to CNN early last year, prior to Donald Trump’s Inauguration.
He disclosed to CNN the classified briefings given to then President-Elect Donald Trump and President Barrack Obama on the salacious dossier claiming the Russians had compromising information on the president-elect. He was one of four senior Obama administration officials present. The evidence of Mr. Clapper’s leak was collected during the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation.
Yet immediately after CNN ran with the story based on his leaks, Clapper issued an official statement denouncing the leak (January 11, 2017). He stated his “profound dismay at the leaks,” warned that the leaks were “extremely corrosive and damaging” to national security, and denied any US intelligence agency involvement.
Evidently it was thanks to Clapper’s leaks to CNN that “gave the dossier story legs and news agencies began to publish its contents because it had now become official news,” one congressional source told this reporter. Thus the Trump-Russia Collusion story was born.
TO HILLARY FROM WHITE MARRIED WOMEN
Dear Hillary,
Hey, girl. Good to see you up and about these days. I hear India is lovely this time of year. Watch those steps!
So, listen—we need to talk. I think it’s time you heard directly from some white, married women about why we didn’t vote for you.
Your life plan didn’t end the way you wanted it to, and you’re bitter about it. Apparently, you are really ticked off at your sistren; white, married moms like me who voted for Donald Trump instead of you.
During an event in India the other day you ripped us again. The reason we didn’t vote for you, you said: “Part of this is.. a sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should.”
I asked several friends, all married ladies, to respond to your comments. This is by no means a scientific poll, but maybe it will give you some insight as to why you lost our vote. And it might sting:
RUSSIA BECOMES DEADLY POISONOUSLY TOXIC
As Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues to ever more desperately search for new evidence of Russian interference in the US elections, every unscripted tête-à-tête between Americans and Russians indeed turns into a “toxic” compromising liaison (Lenta.ru, March 8).
The real issue about Russia, however, is that it has recently produced an astounding amount of problems that are literarily toxic.
At the top of the list is the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, the United Kingdom, on March 4.
The only reason for this crime, involving the use of the Russian nerve toxin Novichok as a murder weapon, could be Skripal’s past as a double agent. The retired GRU (military intelligence) colonel was convicted, in 2006, for espionage on behalf of the UK secret services and exchanged, in 2010, for the “sleeper agents” exposed in the United States (New Times, March 7).
Moscow engaged in the usual vehement denials, despite the statement of British Prime Minister Theresa May that “either the Russian state was directly responsible for the poisoning or it had allowed the poison, which belonged to the Novichok group of nerve agents, to get into the hands of others” (Meduza.io, March 8; The Moscow Times, March 12).
The headline in British newspapers today (3/14) regarding PM May is: “We’ve Vlad Enough!” Putin’s reaction to British anger? “Don’t threaten a nuclear power!” he sneered.
A NUKE-FREE NORTH KOREA IS CHINA’S BAD DREAM
Picture this: thanks to a combination of diplomatic ingenuity, unique personalities and a historic willingness to see tensions in Northeast Asia disappear, President Donald J. Trump convinces North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to do the unthinkable and give up his nuclear weapons.
While we are a long way from even a meeting between the two taking place, let alone the ending of Kim’s nuclear weapons program, we can stargaze a little.
If the Trump administration can somehow land the ultimate of deals, the geopolitical map would instantly be reset. America’s security, and that of its allies in Asia, would be enhanced dramatically, ridding our planet of one of its greatest security risks.
Not only would President Trump deserve the Nobel Prize, but his place in history would be secure—forever. And few things would keep China’s Xi Jinping up at night more. Here’s why.
TO HILLARY FROM WHITE MARRIED WOMEN
Dear Hillary,
Hey, girl. Good to see you up and about these days. I hear India is lovely this time of year. Watch those steps!
So, listen—we need to talk. I think it’s time you heard directly from some white, married women about why we didn’t vote for you.
Your life plan didn’t end the way you wanted it to, and you’re bitter about it. Apparently, you are really ticked off at your sistren; white, married moms like me who voted for Donald Trump instead of you.
During an event in India the other day you ripped us again. The reason we didn’t vote for you, you said: “Part of this is.. a sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should.”
I asked several friends, all married ladies, to respond to your comments. This is by no means a scientific poll, but maybe it will give you some insight as to why you lost our vote. And it might sting:
Join the forum discussion on this postRUSSIA BECOMES DEADLY POISONOUSLY TOXIC
As Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues to ever more desperately search for new evidence of Russian interference in the US elections, every unscripted tête-à-tête between Americans and Russians indeed turns into a “toxic” compromising liaison (Lenta.ru, March 8).
The real issue about Russia, however, is that it has recently produced an astounding amount of problems that are literarily toxic.
At the top of the list is the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, the United Kingdom, on March 4.
The only reason for this crime, involving the use of the Russian nerve toxin Novichok as a murder weapon, could be Skripal’s past as a double agent. The retired GRU (military intelligence) colonel was convicted, in 2006, for espionage on behalf of the UK secret services and exchanged, in 2010, for the “sleeper agents” exposed in the United States (New Times, March 7).
Moscow engaged in the usual vehement denials, despite the statement of British Prime Minister Theresa May that “either the Russian state was directly responsible for the poisoning or it had allowed the poison, which belonged to the Novichok group of nerve agents, to get into the hands of others” (Meduza.io, March 8; The Moscow Times, March 12).
The headline in British newspapers today (3/14) regarding PM May is: “We’ve Vlad Enough!” Putin’s reaction to British anger? “Don’t threaten a nuclear power!” he sneered.
OBAMA DNI CLAPPER IS THE LEAKER LAUNCHING TRUMP-RUSSIA
James “The Leaker” Clapper
According to government sources, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper leaked classified information to CNN early last year, prior to Donald Trump’s Inauguration.
He disclosed to CNN the classified briefings given to then President-Elect Donald Trump and President Barrack Obama on the salacious dossier claiming the Russians had compromising information on the president-elect. He was one of four senior Obama administration officials present. The evidence of Mr. Clapper’s leak was collected during the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation.
Yet immediately after CNN ran with the story based on his leaks, Clapper issued an official statement denouncing the leak (January 11, 2017). He stated his “profound dismay at the leaks,” warned that the leaks were “extremely corrosive and damaging” to national security, and denied any US intelligence agency involvement.
Evidently it was thanks to Clapper’s leaks to CNN that “gave the dossier story legs and news agencies began to publish its contents because it had now become official news,” one congressional source told this reporter. Thus the Trump-Russia Collusion story was born.
A NUKE-FREE NORTH KOREA IS CHINA’S BAD DREAM
Picture this: thanks to a combination of diplomatic ingenuity, unique personalities and a historic willingness to see tensions in Northeast Asia disappear, President Donald J. Trump convinces North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to do the unthinkable and give up his nuclear weapons.
While we are a long way from even a meeting between the two taking place, let alone the ending of Kim’s nuclear weapons program, we can stargaze a little.
If the Trump administration can somehow land the ultimate of deals, the geopolitical map would instantly be reset. America’s security, and that of its allies in Asia, would be enhanced dramatically, ridding our planet of one of its greatest security risks.
Not only would President Trump deserve the Nobel Prize, but his place in history would be secure—forever. And few things would keep China’s Xi Jinping up at night more. Here’s why.
MY GRIDIRON DINNER ADDRESS
[The Gridiron Club is Washington’s oldest – founded in 1885 – and most prestigious journalistic organization. Its annual Gridiron Dinner has been attended by every President since 1885 with the exception of Grover Cleveland. This is the full text of President Trump’s remarks last Saturday night (3/03). It was written most by POTUS himself and is excruciatingly funny. Note three dots in the transcript - … - indicates audience laughter. TTP has put the best jokes in italics.]
Melania laughing at one of her husband’s many jokes
Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to be here and, I must tell you, that Melania and I are really thrilled. We really looked forward to this. ... I didn't know what to expect, but it's really quality people ... quality people. So, thank you very much.
It’s been really another calm week at the White House. We finally have it running like a fine-tuned machine. It’s fine-tuned, a beautiful piece of work. ... But before I get started, I wanted to apologize for arriving a little bit late.
You know, we were late tonight because Jared could not get through security. ... Ivanka, you’ve got to do something ... but I will tell you, Jared’s a good guy. He has suffered. He is a great guy, he really is.
I know the Gridiron is really an old tradition in Washington, been around a long time, and one that’s important to many of you in the media. So, I was very excited to receive this invitation and come here and ruin your evening in person. ...
WHY JACK KELLY IS RIGHT ON TRADE
Yesterday (3/06), TTP’s Jack Kelly wrote “Why Trump Is Right on Trade.” It really hit a nerve, eliciting a number of excellent insightful comments, both pro and anti, on the TTP Forum. Here is why I think Kelly is right. It’s based on my personal business experience.
I have direct-reduced iron producing clients in 13 nations. These are the first tier beneficiation plants that convert iron ore into iron pellets for further use in steel making. Iron oxide in the ore is reduced to iron metal using coal or metallurgical coke as a reductant in very large rotary kilns. The process consumes a lot of thermal energy and can have a heavy environmental footprint.
I personally know my way around most of these facilities, know their production costs, their production efficiency, plant and equipment life remaining, and the names of the husbands and wives of the executives. I know the union bosses if they have them. I know this industry.
Free trade theory is discussed daily on American heavy industry shop floors. The blue collar guys understand the theory, they understand Milton Friedman and have studied Free to Choose at length. Many subscribe to the Cato Institute letter, FEE, or even that Mises Institute at Auburn. They understand the concepts as though their lives depend on it…because they do.
WHATEVER PROGRESSIVES WANT, IT’S NOT PROGRESS
Not long ago I waited for a flight to board. The plane took off 45 minutes late. One reason: there were only two attendants to accommodate 11 passengers who had requested wheelchair assistance.
Such growing efforts to ensure that the physically challenged can easily fly are certainly welcome. But when our plane landed—late and in danger of causing many passengers to miss their connecting flights—most of the 11 wheelchair-bound passengers left their seats unassisted and hurried out.
It was almost as if newfound concerns about making connections had somehow improved their health during the flight.
Special blue parking placards were initially a long-overdue effort to help the disabled. But these days, the definition of “disabled” has so expanded that a large percentage of the population can qualify for special parking privileges—or cheat in order to qualify.
In California, 26,000 disabled parking placards are currently issued to people over 100 years of age, even though state records list only about 8,000 living centenarians.
As in just about every cause progressives advocate, this is not progress.
HYPOCRISY THY NAME IS OSCAR
Much has been written in the past few days about the balderdash that was the Oscar Awards program that aired Sunday night (3/04). Those who lost those four hours of their lives to what amounted to an interminable, self-aggrandizing celebration by celebrities surely regret the waste of that time.
At least they now know what OSCAR stands for: Overrated Self-congratulating Celebrities Acting Ridiculously Self-righteous.
Has there ever been a more self-obsessed group of narcissists outside Washington, DC? If one were deposited on Earth like the Brother From Another Planet, one would think the creatures in the Kodak theater Sunday night were the kings and queens of the universe.
One can only conclude that they, so blinded by the light of their own reflected glory in film, actually believe they are the kings and queens of the universe. Why else shoot hot dogs at the peons in the cheap seats watching the show on a big screen?
WOLVES, SHEEP, AND SHEEPDOGS
Scene from Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper”
There is a disturbing cycle of violence that occurs when a wolf gets loose among a flock of domesticated sheep. The wolf kills and maims as many sheep as possible as fast as possible — far more than it needs to eat.This “surplus killing” is inflicted only on domesticated animals and is partly responsible for wolves’ reputation as bloodthirsty killers. Such killing sprees are often misinterpreted as killing for sport, but they really represent a wolf just being a wolf. “Surplus killing” is not caused by the wolf but by the behavior of the prey.
In the natural order of things, the taking of prey by a predator is a risky business and wolves often must work hard to cull a single animal from a flock just to survive. But when offered domesticated sheep, who’ve been bred into a state of docile helplessness, no such deterrence exists.
I am struck by how similar our society has become. Wolves are out there whether we like it or not. And wolves will be wolves. The problem is in how much like sheep we have become.
We clamor for yet more gun control, expanded “safe zones” and politically correct appeasement measures that serve only to embolden the wolves. These responses are useless in preventing the next attack and, in fact, only reinforce the vulnerability that virtually guarantees an escalation in the cycle of violence.