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L i k e U s ! ! !

THE TRUTH ABOUT CARLY

The consensus is clear: Carly Fiorina won both the first and now second Republican Primary debates. As a result she is climbing in the polls and into the top tier of candidates. Her rise has led pundits to speculate about her tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

I was a member of the HP Board of Directors much of the time Carly was the CEO (1999-2005). I was in the room for many of the decisions she made. I can attest to the strength of Carly’s leadership, the accuracy of her vision and the quality of her management.

Carly was an excellent CEO. She led HP through one of the worst economic times in decades. While other Silicon Valley icons like Sun Microsystems disappeared, Carly’s vision and execution not only helped to save HP but made it a strong, more versatile company that could compete in the changing technology sector.

Critics often claim was fired at HP because she was unsuccessful. As a member of the board, I can tell you this is not true. Here’s what really happened.

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FROM A BLACK GLIB EGOMANIAC TO A WHITE GLIB EGOMANIAC

In a country with more than 300 million people, it is remarkable how obsessed the media have become with just one — Donald Trump.

What is even more remarkable is that, after six years of repeated disasters, both domestically and internationally under a glib egomaniac in the White House, so many potential voters are turning to another glib egomaniac to be his successor.

No doubt much of the stampede of Republican voters toward Trump is based on their disgust with the Republican establishment. The fact that the next two biggest vote getters in the polls are also complete outsiders — Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina — reinforces the idea this is a protest.

It is easy to understand why there would be pent-up resentments among Republican voters. But are elections held for the purpose of venting emotions?

An election is not a popularity contest, or an award for showmanship. If you want to fulfill your duty as a citizen, then you need to become an informed voter. And if you are not informed, then the most patriotic thing you can do on Election Day is stay home.

Otherwise your vote, based on whims or emotions, is playing Russian roulette with the fate of this nation.

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THE WAR GAME

Can’t anybody around here play this war game? 

Russia is sending troops into Syria, alongside the Iranian forces that have been fighting long since, to shore up the Assad regime. 

The Iranians are convincingly accused of creating terror cells in Kuwait and Thailand and waging cyberwar and conventional terror attacks against Saudi Arabia

We know that Iran organized a scheme to blow up a restaurant in Washington, another to bomb a passenger train between Canada and the U.S., and yet another to destroy Kennedy Airport.

They are all acts of war.  Yet, the president and his followers insist that if there is no deal with Iran, “the only alternative is war.”

You’d think a blind man could see that the war was on, but no.  War is instead described – by the Democrats – as A Very Bad Thing that only would happen if Congress didn’t follow President Obama’s orders.

Meanwhile, opponents of The Deal insist that war is actually more likely if we approve all the concessions granted the Iranians at Vienna.  They, too, fail to see the war already ongoing in front of their noses, and engage in the heated debate over a fantasy. 

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A NATION TO EMULATE

Zurich, Switzerland — When you think of Switzerland what comes to mind?

Beautiful lakes surrounded by the Alps; a rich country with happy people; the home of milk chocolate, expensive watches and discrete bankers; a peaceful country that has not been at war in more than two centuries?

All that is true, and even more. Switzerland is at or near the top of almost every measure of a successful country, including the just released Human Freedom Index compiled by the Cato and Fraser Institutes, and others.

The world would be far better off if a majority of its countries were run like Switzerland. And in this way too: almost no one knows who the president of Switzerland is. Do you? That’s also something to emulate.

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EASY STEPS TO UPDATE YOUR PAYMENT INFORMATION

UPDATE YOUR CREDIT CARD INFO FOR TOTHEPOINT

If your credit card has recently been changed by your bank:

This notice serves as a request for you to update your credit card payment information in our site so that we may SUCCESSFULLY charge your membership in our new TTP Payment system when renewal time is due.

**THIS WILL ENSURE UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT**

All you have to do is log into the website, which brings you to the Membership Details Page:

UpdatePayment_TTP

  1. Then, click on the Update Payment Info link (shown in image above)
  2. Enter your Credit Card Info and
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HALF-FULL REPORT 9/11/15: 14 Years Later, They’re Winning

"I wish none of this had happened."

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

-- J.R.R. Tolkien, the Fellowship of the Ring

Fourteen years ago, the world changed. What we didn't fully realize was the nature of the change that was coming. But come it has. Come it will. From Iran and Europe to Bergdahl and Bernie, Trump trolling to economic engineering, Culture wars, Catholicism, and Whiskey Firenados - I bring you the Half-Full Report. Tragedies, thoughts, hopes, and triumphs await...

 

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THE LAST SHANGRI-LA

Shangri-La

Lo Manthang, Kingdom of Lo, Mustang, Nepal. “Shangri-La” is, of course imaginary, the fictional invention of an “earthly paradise” by author James Hilton in his 1933 novel Lost Horizon.

Shangri-La in the minds of millions epitomizes the spiritual serenity and wisdom of the exotic Orient. That’s why the Tibetan Kingdom of Lo with its 600 year-old medieval walled capital city of Lo Manthang in an almost inaccessibly remote region of Nepal called Mustang, on the border with Chinese-occupied Tibet, is so often described as the real, or the last, Shangri-La.

But is it such an earthly paradise that you would want to live here? No. Besides living so utterly isolated from the rest of the world with very few “mod-cons” (modern conveniences of daily life), you’d also be living in that four-letter word that Zero is so full of.

 

The Lo-pa live with their animals. You might be able to handle sheep pellets, albeit they are in uncountable numbers. The cattle cowpies splattered along every alley in Lo Manthang is another matter. Any walk you take in the ancient walled city is a hopscotch.

Thus the Kingdom of Lo is not Shangri-La. Is there another? One place left on our planet, the Last Shangri-La?

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WHAT IF IRAN REJECTS THE DEAL?

Congress is back, and we will now have round one of the fight over the Iran deal. The White House having organized enough votes to block an override of the anticipated presidential veto, there are now multiple schemes to kill the deal anyway. Maybe some of the Democrats who have promised to vote with Obama will change their minds in the face of mounting public opposition. Maybe the Corker-Cardin law contains the seeds of its own distruction, and, surprise, surprise, can actually be used to force the Senate to treat the deal as a treaty rather than an executive agreement. I will confess that I can’t keep up with all the fine print, and anyway the central issue – Iran policy – is not going to be debated, at least for now.

The central issue is the war waged against us by Tehran and its allies, and whether we are going to continue to pay the Iranians billions of dollars to kill Americans and others. You would be amazed at the number of famous legislatures and their top staffers who do not know that we are presently giving Iran $700 million a month, as you would be amazed at the tiny handful of so-called leaders who publicly asked, “why would any president want to pay Iran hundreds of billions of dollars to kill Americans?”

It’s a question than answers itself, or so you would think.

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EUROPE’S CAMP OF THE SAINTS CRISIS: A 3-WAY STRATEGIC FULCRUM

TheCampOfTheSaints-220pxThis article has been given a major update. It includes an overview of recent events to give readers a sense of the ground truth, and looks more deeply into the strategic fulcrum around Islam. Note esp. the time conjunction with al-Qaeda's 20 Year Plan.

The biggest immigration issue on the globe has very little to do with America. Its resolution will change the world.

European debates about immigration - or more accurately, the demographic replacement of local populations to benefit political elites - have been suppressed for a long time. As European economies falter, and huge waves of new refugees pile up on its shores, the elites are losing their ability to control the debate. Anti-immigration parties are rising, some countries are flat-out insisting on Christian refugees only, and the EU's erasure of internal border controls is under fire. Glenn "Instapundit Reynolds" ddid a great job laying out recent developments. That's your shot. "Germany's Muslim Demographic Revolution" from The Gatestone Institute is your chaser. What these briefings don't fully explain is why Americans need to pay attention.

This "Camp of the Saints" refugee wave is a strategic fulcrum - in 3 different ways...

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THE SYRIA CRISIS IS NOT A TEMPORARY PHENOMENON

The flood of refugees into Europe from the Middle East and Africa has only just begun as states disintegrate in a maelstrom of religious war, the United Nations has warned.

"We cannot comfort ourselves that this is a temporary phenomenon," said Peter Sutherland, the UN's special envoy for migrants and refugees.

Quite apart from Syria, much of the Sahel across sub-Saharan Africa is hanging by a thread, and ISIS is expanding into every country of the Maghreb.

Here's the EU migrant crisis explained in a 90 second video ...

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PROMISES, LIES & THE WAYS OF WASHINGTON

Would you vote for someone who you believe knowingly lies to you? The problem for the American people is that candidates from both parties lie on a regular basis, and so it is all too rare that a voter has a choice between someone who will honor his or her promises and someone who will not.

A substantial majority of the American people believe that Hillary Clinton is not a truth-teller — for very good reasons. The fables about Benghazi, her private email server, and the conflicts of interest with the Clinton Foundation are so transparent that only those who live in an alternative universe find her statements the least bit believable. Mrs. Clinton is only unusual among the Washington political class in that her fibs are so blatant and obvious.

More typical are the less-obvious broken promises of many Republicans.

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TEMPTATION AND SELF-MASTERY

Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, called it akrasia – a weakness of will, acting in a way contrary to our consciously held moral values. It’s the quality that most distinguishes criminals from the rest of us; and the quality that most distinguishes less successful people from those who are more successful.

The ability to resist our short-term impulses and desires and to focus instead on our long-term values and goals is the most important capacity for living well.

In the late 1960s, Walter Mischel, a professor at Stanford University, conducted one of the most important experiments in psychology. It’s now called The Marshmallow Test, but marshmallows were only one of a variety of treats used to tempt young limbic systems to indulge in their immediate desires.

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Europe’s Camp of the Saints Crisis: 9/11/15 Update

Per Brant's recommendation, we are making this update its own article. TTPers who want to understand the 3 strategic fulcrums linked to this crisis should read the original anchor article

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As of September 11, 2015, "Refugees" continue to pour into Europe. This is only the start. European reactions to date ensure the flood's continuation, and so does the sheer number of likely entrants. Violence is guaranteed to accompany any reversal of this flow, via riots and terrorism. The same is true for any non-reversal.

As things stand, Al-Qaeda's 20-Year Plan seems ready to hit the Total Confrontation phase and include Europe more or less on schedule. That phase was planned to begin around 2017. This update clarifies the scale and scope of both the flood, and the effects it's having within Europe. It also looks at the real political mechanism behind the crisis, and offers some projections into possible futures.

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