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L i k e U s ! ! !

IF ONLY HILLARY HAD WON

hillary-gazeThere are lots of possible counterfactuals to think about had Hillary Clinton won the presidency as all the experts had predicted.

The U.S. embassy would have stayed in Tel Aviv. “Strategic patience” would likely still govern the North Korea dilemma. Fracking would be curtailed. The — rather than “our” — miners really would be put out of work. Coal certainly would not have been “beautiful.”

The economy probably would be slogging along at below 2 percent GDP growth.

China would be delighted, as would Iran. But most important, there would be no collusion narrative — neither one concerning a defeated Donald Trump nor another implicating a victorious Hillary Clinton.

In triumph, progressives couldn’t have cared less whether Russians supposedly had tried to help a now irrelevant Trump; and they certainly would have prevented any investigation of the winning Clinton 2016 campaign.

In sum, Hillary’s supposedly sure victory, not fear of breaking the law, prompted most of the current 2016 scandals, and her embittering defeat means they are not being addressed as scandals.

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REVOLUTION IN IRAN AND THE RETURN OF REZA SHAH

Time Magazine April 25, 1938
Time Magazine April 25, 1938

The apparent discovery last week (4/23) of the mummified remains of Reza Shah (1878-1944) by Iranian archaeologists must have sent chills up and down the spine of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Reza is the symbol of the kind of government most Iranians want: secular, tolerant, modern. His name has often been chanted in the nationwide demonstrations that have continued unabated for weeks.

We don’t get anything approaching a decent picture of the national tumult -- foreign journalists are forbidden to travel outside Tehran -- but I asked a well-informed Iranian if he could tell me where the demonstrations were going on, and he said “it’s easier to tell you where there aren’t any.”

The country is convulsed, and the “return of Reza Shah” will be widely taken as an omen.

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PUTIN IS NO LONGER A GEOPOLITICAL CHESSMASTER

putin-troubledThe end of April was extraordinarily rich in high-profile international events—and Russia was conspicuously absent from all these dynamics.

The president of South Korea and the North Korean dictator planted a pine tree of peace just to the south of the ceasefire line that still divides these two states.

French President Emmanuel Macron paid a state visit to Washington, DC (an oak tree was duly planted), and his overtly friendly talks with United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday (April 24) were followed-up by the visibly less cordial exchanges with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who traveled the same route on Friday.

Foreign and security ministers of the G7 met in Toronto, Canada, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held a ministerial meeting on Friday, greeting the newly confirmed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Putin had no role in any of this and much much more.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 04/27/18

north-south-shake-handsHave a napkin handy. The glass this week is filled to overflowing.

Democrats are tearing their hair out because we got very strong evidence yesterday that North and South Korea are burying the hatchet, the Norks will give up their nukes and ICBMs.

After CNN went to great lengths to give the credit for the historic meeting at Panmunjom between Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in to the Norks, South Korea’s foreign minister told Christiane Amanpour that “clearly credit goes to President Trump.”

If the Norks keep their word, this will be the greatest diplomatic triumph in modern American history, acknowledged Trump hater James Fallows.

Senate Dems tried to block the nomination of CIA Director Mike Pompeo, the key negotiator with the Norks, as Secretary of State, because they’d rather have Americans under the threat of a nuclear strike than permit President Trump a diplomatic triumph. They failed.

************ Possibly even more consequential news is the cultural revolution sparked by Kanye West and Chance the Rapper as they blaze a broad, smooth trail for blacks to follow as they walk away from the Democrat plantation.

“Big things are happening and eyes are being opened for the first time in decades,” President Trump tweeted today.

************

The muh Russia narrative suffered fatal blows. The DNC punched itself in the nuts trying to breathe life into the corpse. The end of the Mueller probe is imminent.

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THE LEFT WANTS ANOTHER FRENCH REVOLUTION

french-revolutionWhen legal bloodhounds and baying critics fail to take out Trump, what’s next? The Left’s “Resistance” wants Trump’s head — on the chopping block.

On the domestic and foreign fronts, the Trump administration has prompted economic growth and restored U.S. deterrence. Polls show increased consumer confidence, and in some, Trump himself has gained ground.

Yet good news is bad news to the Resistance and its demonic continued efforts to stop an elected president in a way it failed to do in the 2016 election.

As the Resistance goes from one ploy to the next, it ignores its string of failed prior efforts, forgetting everything and learning nothing.  Are we reaching a point in the so-far-failed Resistance where little is left except abject violence in the manner of the French Revolution?

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THE REVOLUTION OF KANYE WEST

kanyewest-tweet-on-candace-owensHell hath no fury than libtards spurned by blacks.

With just seven words, a seismic shift in the cultural and political American landscape this weekend emanated from an unlikely epicenter: superstar rapper Kanye West.

Nothing triggers leftist anger quite like blacks thinking for themselves, and not like they are told to be lefties. So when Kanye tweeted a  endorsement of black conservative commentator Candace Owens, the left erupted with predictable fury toward both West and Owens.

Kanye, whose ubiquitous wife Kim Kardashian was a prominent supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, has drawn leftist fire before.  But with those seven words, he may have started a revolution – because he has 22.5 million Twitter followers

If blacks and other minorities start getting the subversive idea that they can think for themselves and thrive on their own off the Democrat plantation that has kept them under the Party’s thumb for half a century, then the Democrat Party is finished.

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THE SCANDAL OF THE IGNORED HOUSE IT SCANDAL

trump-tweet-042018Russian meddling? Campaign collusion? Forget that. That “did they or didn’t they” story has nothing on the ongoing saga of cybersecurity breaches with the possible involvement of a foreign government taking place in the House of Representatives.

The story has all the features of a political spy novel: stolen servers, access to confidential congressional files, claims of “controlling the White House” and $12,000 in a suitcase.

Compared to the rampant speculation over yet-unproven claims of Russian collusion in the Trump campaign, the events in the House have received minimal attention from the mainstream press (the exception is the impressive level of coverage from the Daily Caller News Foundation’s investigator Luke Rosiak).

Now President Trump has raised public questions about the issue, in the tweet above on April 20.

The unwillingness of major news outlets to devote significant coverage to the story is all the more noteworthy considering the presence of clear indications of wrongdoing by congressional staff, Members of Congress who are actively delaying the investigation, and a number of critical questions that remain unanswered.

Here are the basic facts.

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TRUMP’S REVENGE ON OPEC AND RUSSIA

trump-revenge-on-opec-and-russiaThe 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.

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PUTIN THE POSER

Pretending to be one of the big boys
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.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 04/21/18: REPORTS FROM THE FRONT LINES

starbucks-megaphone-gender-studies 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.

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WHAT, THEN, IS TO BE OUR WAR?

When we enjoyed this back in 1984, and began to understand black criticisms of our dancing, we had no idea it would be prophecy. More people are waking up to the fact that the civil war is here, and it's real. The Thing is under the boat, and it's beginning to rise. If you aren't woke to that reality yet, recent events should wake you. After that, we face a question that was old when Thyucididies chronicled it: what then is to be our war? Recent times offer us more than a few pointers. So do ancient times.

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...

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THE WORLD’S WORST IMPERIALISM

danger-minesGolan Heights, Israel.  Today, April 17, is Israel’s Memorial Day, when all Israelis pay homage to those who died fighting to preserve Israel’s freedom and very existence.

At precisely 11am, sirens sound for two minutes.  Everyone in the entire country stops whatever they are doing to stand silently in this homage.  This includes anyone driving on the streets and roads.  Cars and trucks stop wherever they are, people get out to stand silently on the road.  We stood here on the Golan Heights.

We looked down upon the Hula Valley, where Syrians aimed their artillery, mortars, rockets, and sniper rifles upon the farmers below in their fields and villages.  The snipers would even fire into the windows of homes to murder men, women, and children inside.

There is a profound lesson here to be learned for America, for we – indeed all of Western Civilization, formerly and what should still be known as Christendom – is threatened by the world’s worst imperialism in the history of mankind.

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A VERY STABLE GENIUS FOREIGN POLICY

very-stable-geniusIt’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.

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