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HALF-FULL REPORT 03/16/18

happy-st-patricks-day Well, top o’ the mornin’ to ya!  Welcome to the Happy St. Patrick’s Day HFR!  You may think it’s tomorrow, but it’s already Saturday March 17 in much of the world, so why not start celebrating right now like these happy folks in Singapore?

And note, they’re doing it right – with Guinness, not lousy weak beer with green food coloring.  The future King and Queen of England do it right, so should you!

prince-guinness On St. Patrick’s Day, everybody is – or wishes they were – Irish.  You know how The Irish Saved Civilization, right?  Okay, Tom Cahill’s book is over the top hyperbolic, but no one can doubt Ireland’s prodigious gifts to humanity.

At some point, fortified with a Guinness pint or an appropriately made Irish Whiskey (recipe at the end), take a moment to enjoy TTP’s, Beyond The Pale (August 2006).  Then you can regale and astound your friends with your knowledge of Irish history during the festivities.

Before then, however, let’s see what’s been happening this week.  We have all learned by now that a Trump Presidency is never boring, and this week is no exception.

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THE FEDS NEED TO KNOCK ON JOHN BRENNAN’S DOOR

investigate-themTwo 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.

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MAKE AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY GREAT AGAIN

Mike Pompeo
Mike Pompeo

[If I were incoming Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speechwriter, here’s the speech I’d write for him – JW]

The President announced that with his new Cabinet changes, he’s getting the Cabinet he wants.  My job as Secretary of State will be to give him the foreign policy he wants.

We cannot do that without replacing the Obama holdovers who are committed to thwarting the President’s foreign policy goals.  The man to do that will be my new Deputy Secretary of State, John Bolton.

With John at my side, working with the great many patriots in our diplomatic corps and in tandem with other members of the President’s Cabinet, we are going to make American foreign policy great again.

The US Marines gave a great motto.  Marines define themselves as “your best friend, your worst enemy.”  The State Department will now adopt that motto.

This applies in particular with those countries and leaders who wish not only to ally with us, but embody values they share with us, so we have a relationship of mutual respect.  It also applies to those countries and leaders who wish to be hostile to us, and have abandoned the values that were the basis of our respect for them.

An example of the former is Israel.  An example of the latter is Turkey under the leadership of Mr. Erdogan.  Recently (3/15), he had the temerity to have his Foreign Minister say that I and the State Department must “learn how to behave” before there can be good relations between our countries.

So let me explain something to Mr. Erdogan – that it is you who must learn how to behave towards us.

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DEMOCRATS WALLOWING IN THE ANTISEMITIC SEWER

obama-and-farrakhan
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.

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WHY DOES PA-18 MATTER?

pa-18-map What you’re looking at won’t last long.  Here’s what it will look like for the mid-term election in November, redrawn by PA Supreme Court order:

pa-18-map-in-nov Meaning whoever ends up winning Tuesday’s (3/13) special election not only has to run again eight short months from now, he has to run in a very different district.  So did the race for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District matter?

To begin with, if I believed him, I’d have voted for Conor Lamb.

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PUTIN’S FAKE VICTORY

putin-fake-victoryNo 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.

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OBAMA DNI CLAPPER IS THE LEAKER LAUNCHING TRUMP-RUSSIA

James “The Leaker” Clapper
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.

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TO HILLARY FROM WHITE MARRIED WOMEN

woman-slipsDear 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:

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RUSSIA BECOMES DEADLY POISONOUSLY TOXIC

russkie-hit-listAs 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.

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A NUKE-FREE NORTH KOREA IS CHINA’S BAD DREAM

nuke-free-north-koreaPicture 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.

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RONALD REAGAN’S FAVORITE IRISH JOKE

ronaldreaganIn honor of St. Patrick’s Day today, it’s only appropriate to relate Ronald Reagan’s favorite Irish joke, as he was fond of telling it with such exuberance.

An Irishman was walking along Inchydoney Beach in County Cork – Ireland’s most beautiful and not far from my ancestral village of Ballyporeen – when he came upon an old encrusted bottle washed up on the shore.

He picked it up, brushed off the sand, saw it was still stoppered and wondered what was inside.  He carefully broke it open at the neck on a beach rock, and to his great surprise out popped a Leprechaun, an Irish genie.

leprechaun“Oh me man!” the Leprechaun exclaimed.  “I was in that horrid bottle for a hundred years and you be settin’ me free!  Well, I’ll be givin’ you two wishes before I’m on m’ way!”

“Two wishes?” the Irishman asked incredulously.  “Anything I want?”

“Anything – you just name it and it’s yours,” came the answer.

The Irishman couldn’t believe his luck.  He thought for a moment, then said, “Firstly, what I’ll be wantin’ is a glass of the best Irish ale – but a very special glass!” he added quickly – that no matter how much I drink it will always be full.”

Poof!  There was a glass in his hand overflowing with Irish Red Ale.  He took a sip – it was the best beer he’d ever had in his life.  He drank and he drank and he drank, and five minutes later he hadn’t made a dent, the glass was still overflowing with Irish Red.

But by now the Leprechaun was getting impatient.  “Listen me man!” he chastised.  “I appreciate you settin’ me free and all, but I was in that bottle for far too long, I’ve got things to do, so you’ll be makin’ your second wish now!”

The Irishman thought good and hard.  Finally he made his decision.  He held up his overflowing magic glass, looked at it admiringly, and told the Leprechaun, “Ya know – I think I’ll have another one of these!”

There’s no doubt about it – God loves the Irish.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 03/09/18

make-trump-look-bad Oh, the anguish!  The bottomless bitterness.  The Abyss of Hopelessness into which they are hurling themselves with shrieks of rage and lamentation.

Welcome to Realization Week.   To the ice water bath shock to libtards waking up to this headline in the morning news, that legitimately and unavoidably, “President Trump Is Well on His Way to Winning the Nobel Peace Prize.”

To libtards learning the man they hate so much really is a Very Stable Genius, and what he said to his predecessor at his Inauguration is coming true:

when-im-done To libtards forced to face the fact that their hatred for their president and their country has become an actual mental illness, the only cure for which is not political but psychiatric.

We just might also be seeing the flip side – that this could be Capitulation Week, given the stunned reaction by at least some Fake Newsers to what happened last night (3/08).

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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
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. ...

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WHY TRUMP IS RIGHT ON TRADE

trump-tweet-030318Many conservative “intellectuals” responded to President Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum with hyperbole, bromides and cliches, delivered in the tone of a professor lecturing a dense pupil. Here’s an egregious example by Ben Shapiro.

Humbug.

In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith devastated the prevailing orthodoxy of mercantilism, which viewed international trade as zero sum. A nation gained only by screwing its trading partners.

We sing the praises of Adam Smith, but the Chinese are mercantilists. They screw all their trading partners, us especially.

Since the 1990s, our trade deals have been negotiated by people who (a) aren’t very smart, (b) know little about business, (c) don’t care what happens to blue collar workers, and (d) don’t like America very much.

Everyone else wants access to our market. Our trade negotiators hold four aces, but – until Trump – they’ve folded to bust hands.

The most egregious example is NAFTA. We had a $1.35 billion trade surplus with Mexico the year it was ratified. Since then we’ve run deficits totaling $1.069 trillion. What is it Mexico produces we can’t live without? How did we live without it before NAFTA?

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