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You can tell a lot about a crowd by the things they do and dont chant at a given rally. In 2016, following Hillary Clintons loss, the streets of Denver Colorado chanted not my president or her body her choice. Not bad, right? But when I and a group of friends began a chorus of black lives matter at the same rally, it didnt catch on. We would get looks, maybe two or three supporters, then a swell of pro-choice or pro-Hillary chanting. They would shout their frustrations for Hillary Clinton but racism was apparently a bridge too far. I knew then what crowd I was in.

My personal favorite chant goes like this. No justice, no peace, over and over. Its a chant like this that the world needs to hear. But its just the sort of thing Im sure would get drowned out in a crowd of well-meaning folks.

NO JUSTICE NO PEACE, AND I MEAN THAT.

You can tell a lot about a crowd by the things they do and dont chant at a given rally. In 2016, following Hillary Clintons loss, the streets of Denver Colorado chanted not my president or her body her choice. Not bad, right? But when I and a group of friends began a chorus of black lives matter at the same rally, it didnt catch on. We would get looks, maybe two or three supporters, then a swell of pro-choice or pro-Hillary chanting. They would shout their frustrations for Hillary Clinton but racism was apparently a bridge too far. I knew then what crowd I was in.

My personal favorite chant goes like this. No justice, no peace, over and over. Its a chant like this that the world needs to hear. But its just the sort of thing Im sure would get drowned out in a crowd of well-meaning folks.

For most people, Donald Trump is more of a psychological problem than a physical one. Hes a tangible threat, but thats not what bothers people. Just think, what are his policy positions that bother you? The wall, with all its pomp and vitriol, as a psychological reminder of an inhumane America? How about the quiet but dogged and systematic removal of environmental protections? Do you hate the caging of children on the border as a stain on American idealism more than how legal immigration has been decimated? Are you mad that things feel bad, that the chaos of the world is spilling over into your living room every day, or are you mad about the facts on the ground? I know there are many people that feel upset about both, but I surmise many Americans are not unsettled by the injustice but by a sudden disturbance in what was once a peaceful life.

How can we know when calls for justice arent genuine? Part of it is the chants at protests. But another part is what makes it on television and which candidates are appealing to voters. As of now, Joe Biden is in the lead, followed by Elizabeth Warren, then Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden has promised nothing would fundamentally change proving to be a perfect example of my point. There is a disturbingly large amount of people content with anyone but Trump because they dont care about change but simply about going back to Obama era brunch and bliss. Elizabeth Warren also reflects this ethos. Warren gives people the hope that there could be change, but she is promising to do it within Washington using the best plans and compromises. She isnt the yelling old man the media has often portrayed Sanders as and shes not demanding people become re-engaged in the political process. Shes planning on going to Washington to fight for us not with us.

Sanders, however, is the media-described Trump of the left. And while its flat wrong to compare them in demagoguery, they do share populism. Sanders is calling for a fight, promising to be in our faces asking us for something. Hes asking people to get mad, but for liberal voters who have strung themselves from one high-rage CNN headline to the next, thats the last thing they want. People are exhausted, they want a break.

The left often totes that Obama was the least scandal-ridden president in history, and theyre right, but that does not say anything about the amount of justice achieved. Never mind that he continued mass surveillance, proliferated natural gas exploitation, was the deporter-in-chief to many, or rained hellfire on the Middle East every day of his administration. Everything was okay because nobody had to hear about it. This quiet peace is the goal of the modern democratic party, as Martin Luther King declared it would be long ago in his letter from a Birmingham county jail. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negros great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice;

The world yearns to go back to its negative peace.

The problem with this path to peace is that it will never come. Peace does not come through denial but by facing your demons and winning. America will not have peace because it does not deserve peace. Even if voters elect a peace-promising candidate, the news will still be a frenzy, the streets will be a frenzy, and the world will be a frenzy. The time is not coming where your kids can go back to school worry-free of shootings or the coming ecological collapse. That time is many years from now, and the only way itll come any faster is if you get to work now. Trump was elected in 2016 because all is not well on the Western front, and we cant pretend it is. We wont get justice, and when Trump wins in 2020, we wont get peace either. So next time you hear me chanting, dont ignore it, decide to join me. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace.

For most people, Donald Trump is more of a psychological problem than a physical one. Hes a tangible threat, but thats not what bothers people. Just think, what are his policy positions that bother you? The wall, with all its pomp and vitriol, as a psychological reminder of an inhumane America? How about the quiet but dogged and systematic removal of environmental protections? Do you hate the caging of children on the border as a stain on American idealism more than how legal immigration has been decimated? Are you mad that things feel bad, that the chaos of the world is spilling over into your living room every day, or are you mad about the facts on the ground? I know there are many people that feel upset about both, but I surmise many Americans are not unsettled by the injustice but by a sudden disturbance in what was once a peaceful life.

How can we know when calls for justice arent genuine? Part of it is the chants at protests. But another part is what makes it on television and which candidates are appealing to voters. As of now, Joe Biden is in the lead, followed by Elizabeth Warren, then Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden has promised nothing would fundamentally change proving to be a perfect example of my point.

There is a disturbingly large amount of people content with anyone but Trump because they dont care about change but simply about going back to Obama-era brunch and bliss. Elizabeth Warren also reflects this ethos. Warren gives people the hope that there could be change, but she is promising to do it within Washington using the best plans and compromises. She isnt the yelling old man the media has often portrayed Sanders as and shes not demanding people become re-engaged in the political process. Shes planning on going to Washington to fight for us not with us.

Sanders, however, is the media-described Trump of the left. And while its flat wrong to compare them in demagoguery, they do share populism. Sanders is calling for a fight, promising to be in our faces asking us for something. Hes asking people to get mad, but for liberal voters who have strung themselves from one high-rage CNN headline to the next, thats the last thing they want. People are exhausted, they want a break.

The left often totes that Obama was the least scandal-ridden president in history, and theyre right, but that does not say anything about the amount of justice achieved. Never mind that he continued mass surveillance, proliferated natural gas exploitation, was the deporter-in-chief to many, or rained hellfire on the Middle East every day of his administration. Everything was okay because nobody had to hear about it.

This quiet peace is the goal of the modern democratic party, as Martin Luther King declared it would be long ago in his letter from a Birmingham county jail. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negros great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice;

The world yearns to go back to its negative peace.

The problem with this path to peace is that it will never come. Peace does not come through denial but by facing your demons and winning. America will not have peace because it does not deserve peace. Even if voters elect a peace-promising candidate, the news will still be a frenzy, the streets will be a frenzy, and the world will be a frenzy. The time is not coming where your kids can go back to school worry-free of shootings or the coming ecological collapse.

That time is many years from now, and the only way itll come any faster is if you get to work now. Trump was elected in 2016 because all is not well on the Western front, and we cant pretend it is. We wont get justice, and when Trump wins in 2020, we wont get peace either. So next time you hear me chanting, dont ignore it, decide to join me. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace.

See the rest here:
Without Justice There is No Peace, and We Must Remember That - The Sideline Observer

The Washington Redskins are performing so poorly this season that tickets to their game this Sunday against the Detroit Lions are selling for as little as $5.

GameTime Tickets is selling standing-room only tickets to the game for $5 each, a slight increase from the $4 they were selling for on Thursday. WUSA9 reported that StubHub and Vivid Seats are also selling tickets at such a low price, while even Ticketmaster has tickets available for just $6.

The Redskins have won just one game this season against the Miami Dolphins. At the time the two teams played each other, neither had won a game. The Dolphins have now won two games, while the Redskins remain 1-9. The only NFL team with a worse record this season is the Cincinnati Bengals, who havent won a single game.

The Lions may not be one of the top teams this year (again), but they have at least won three games (and tied one against the Arizona Cardinals).

WUSA9 also reported that this is one of the Redskins worst seasons in franchise history, and is on track to be their worst season of all time. In 1961, the team had their worst season, winning just one game and tying in another.

Observant news consumers may recall that $5 is even cheaper than what Hillary Clinton sold tickets for during her disastrous post-election loss tour with husband and former president Bill. As The Daily Wires Emily Zanotti reported in May 2019, tickets to the couples joint book tour were selling for just $6 at one point. Tickets for the event at some venues originally cost as much as $1,700, but by the end of the tour, venues struggled to fill seats, slashing prices by huge margins. Those expensive seats were dropped to about $800 for the Seattle event. More from Zanotti:

Secondary ticket marketplace, StubHub, has tickets for Saturday evenings show in LAavailable for a mere $6 and thats for a floor seat. Similar-priced tickets are available in the arenas first and second bowls. The best ticket currently available on StubHub a third row, middle, floor section seat is just $47.50.

Parking at LAs Forum Theater may actually cost you more than seeing the main event.

Zanotti also reported that attendance was so poor in Toronto that organizers of the event began reassigning seats and blacking out empty sections with curtains to make the event seem more crowded. People who bought cheap tickets were even moved up closer to fill in gaps in the audience.

Clintons tour came after a blockbuster tour by former First Lady Michelle Obama, which sold out venues and was hailed as a success. Clintons, by contrast, was a massive failure for the two-time presidential candidate and former secretary of state.

Congratulations, Redskins, youre the Hillary Clinton of the NFL.

As WUSA9 reported, blame for the teams failure can be reliably placed on team owner Dan Snyder and fired coach Jay Gruden. Clinton continues to blame everyone but herself for her own failures.

Read the original here:
Redskins So Bad Their Tickets Are Cheaper Than A Hillary Clinton Speaking Tour Event - The Daily Wire

It was a real honour to be part of a tremendous panel at Swansea University last week.

The event was called Gutsy Welsh Women.

Now, Ive been called a lot of things in my life and this is one of the kindest, so Im certainly not going to complain about the gutsy label.

The gusty women on the platform included the Welsh Government education minister Kirsty Williams, who recalled the young girl from Carmarthenshire who joined the Liberal Democrats at 15, was one of the first intake of AMs in 1999 and rose to become party leader and a government minister.

Also, the indomitable lawyer and academic Professor Elwen Evans, who led the prosecution in the April Jones murder case and the defence in the Gleision mine disaster case. Elwen talked about her early years at the bar when she was told by a senior male colleague that women were good for just two things in life. Yes, honestly...

But this panel was no feminist moan fest. I hope its not immodest to say that all four panel members have managed to carve out successful careers, despite the deep-seated sexism and entrenched misogyny that poisons most sectors, from sport to law to politics.

It struck me that we all said rather similar things about our career paths and the role models who had influenced us. We talked about the self-belief that our families had given us as small girls that, in turn, instilled in us the ambition and confidence to follow our dreams.

The football-mad young girl growing up in Bridgend never dreamt she would captain her country for the simple reason that there was no recognised womens international team at the time.

Meanwhile, the wait goes on for a woman President and a female First Minister. The truth is, in seeking to achieve our goals, women have had to campaign to create or change the structures constructed by and for men. Thats simply not true for most boys and men.

Of course, it was Hillary Rodham Clinton, lawyer, senator, defeated US presidential candidate, gender and human rights campaigner, who was the magnet for the huge crowd in Swansea Bay last week.

Now, Hillary (it seems right to use her first name here, given the warmth and genuine interest and regard she displayed for the people she met there) isnt everyones cup of tea and thats an under-statement! In the current climate, it hardly needs saying that most prominent politicians divide opinion pretty starkly.

But Hillary is in a different league. Shes admired, adored and revered by plenty, positively reviled, abused and detested by others. Im less interested in the claims and counter-claims of what she did or didnt do.

The political power game is a filthy, brutal business, as we have witnessed everywhere these past three years. And we are in no position to slate US politics. We might be on the brink of electing a prime minister whose comments and behaviour would have seen him summarily dismissed from many workplaces. People, stones, glass houses?

Whats more interesting for me is trying to assess how Hillary Clinton has been treated compared to men who have trod similar paths in public life. In a recent In Conversation with former Australian Prime Minister and Barry girl Julia Gillard, she described the very narrow path that women leaders are expected to tread.

This means a very delicate balancing act - stray too widely off the path and a woman will be accused of overambition, arrogance and abrasiveness. Stick too narrowly to the centre of the path and she is stale, uninspiring and unsuited to leadership. Wow, that 2016 presidential path must have felt like a tightrope over the Grand Canyon for Senator Clinton and all with hungry sharks prowling underneath.

Up against a gigantic, puffed-up, ultra-alpha male with limited political experience, a big mouth and multiple allegations of wandering hands to his name, its hardly surprising that Hillarys navigation of the route to the top was dissected so brutally.

I watched again the video of Trump physically stalking Clinton on stage in that notorious presidential TV debate. That has to be one of the weirdest and most disturbing things Ive ever observed in modern politics. Even scarier was that the behaviour seemed not to have been denounced by everyone. Apparently, the US public was evenly split as to who won that debate.

So, clearly, these are the new operating rules of the political game. But there is a very thin line between that kind of posturing intimidation and much more sinister types.

There was lots that resonated in the Gusty Women panel.

Hillary talked about the tightly-restricted expectations of women in power. This is a wholly one-dimensional DNA, an uncomfortable straitjacket for how women should behave, how we should speak, how we should relate to the men already there.

It doesnt take a genius to work out this is deliberate - a way of conditioning and controlling women. Regrettably, in my experience, its also a strategy that some women have bought into. Behaving in public office like an emotional IQ-deprived man or pulling up the ladder behind us feels even more unforgivable when it comes from a female leader.

Hillary talked about the influence of her family, many of whom on both sides came from Wales, and especially how there had been a huge focus on education that she felt came from her mothers lack of schooling.

In these increasingly troubled times, education is our only hope as far as I can see. Id be happy to see an Assembly election in 2021 that focuses entirely on schools and how to better invest in and improve them. Surely this is our best strategy for a better future, where theres a chance of creating the rounded, critical, engaged, healthy, active, interested citizens of the future who vote, who can dissect fake news and political lies, and who can challenge authority and power.

Hillary also talked about the importance of basic values like respect, empathy, kindness and compassion. All of this is blindingly obvious and sounds a little trite, but these are fundamentals for good leadership, especially in divided times.

Its very easy to spout good words from a platform, much harder to walk the walk. Its a rudimentary and impressionistic measurement, of course, but what I liked best about Hillary Clinton was that she displayed these human values in spades as she engaged with the students, staff and guests at Swansea.

So whatever you think of her (to be honest, in a week when we qualified for our second successive European championships, her comment that her election campaign slogan stronger together was a secret tribute to the Welsh football team would have been enough for me!), Hillary Clinton is the ultimate gutsy woman.

Since that panel discussion, Ive reflected on why Hillary generates such strong feelings (affection and admiration, but anger and abuse in equal measure). Ive tried to be as dispassionate and objective as anyone can be in my assessment but, you know, to paraphrase Ali G, I think its because she is a woman.

Develop resilience and do what you have to do when you have to do it, Hillary told the audience.

Thats revealing as, while its what most of us have had to do to be successful in our fields, its still a million times more acceptable a behaviour code for men than it is for women.

Three years ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton was on the brink of breaking the highest, thickest, toughest political glass ceiling there is. And there lies the problem. Gutsy women are tolerated when they toe the line, know their limits, stay firmly on that narrow path and dont get above their station.

Hillary didnt heed this advice and tried to break out of the gender straitjacket and look what happened. But that absolutely mustnt stop us from encouraging other girls and women to follow in her footsteps if we are to ultimately widen that path to power.

ALSO BY LAURA:

Read more from the original source:
Breaking out of the gender straitjacket: Hillary Clinton gives a masterclass on women and power - Wales Online

Former FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok agreed to avoid treating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton harshly in a 2016 interrogation about her private email system, over concerns Mrs. Clinton might retaliate after becoming president.

Mr. Strzok was fired by the FBI for unprofessional conduct, including text messages criticizing then-candidate Donald Trump and supporting Mrs. Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. He is suing the Justice Department claiming he was improperly fired. As part of the suit, the department released an August 2018 letter from the FBI to Mr. Strzok outlining the reasons for his dismissal.

Mr. Strzok was the leader of both the Clinton email investigation and the FBIs counterintelligence investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia.

Both the FBI inspector general and U.S. Attorney John Durham are investigating whether the FBI acted improperly in conducting the Trump campaign probe.

One text message revealed an exchange between Mr. Strzok and his mistress, Lisa Page, on how to approach interview of Mrs. Clinton.

One more thing, [Clinton] may be our next president, Ms. Page stated. The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for bear. You think shes going to remember or care that it is more [Department of Justice] than FBI conducting the interrogation?

Agreed, Mr. Strzok replied.

The letter said in a footnote that the discussion was related to the number of people who would take part in the Clinton interview that was conducted on July 2, 2016.

Mr. Strzok later told the FBI that the text did not mean that we should treat [Clinton] differently because shes our next president and claimed he made no decision based on anything Clinton might be or [might] become.

Despite finding 81 emails containing classified information ranging from confidential to top-secret, then-FBI Director James B. Comey announced in October 2016 that the Justice Department would not prosecute Mrs. Clinton for mishandling classified information.

The FBI reviewed more than 40,000 text messages between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page, an FBI lawyer at the time, messages that were sent on their FBI cell phones.

Mr. Strzok also speculated that the Clinton email probe helped Trump get elected and that the special counsel investigation headed by former FBI Director Robert Mueller would lead to impeachment.

For me and this case, I personally have a sense of unfinished business, Mr. Strzok said. I unleashed it with [the Clinton email investigation]. Now I need to fix it and finish it. Who gives a [expletive], one more A[ssistant] D[irector] [vs.] an investigation leading to impeachment?

DNI restricts open source intel

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has imposed new restrictions on an open source intelligence agency and a congressional China commission wants the limits removed.

The CIA-based Open Source Enterprise (OSE), which translates and disseminates news and documents from around the world, recently imposed a ban on accessing the online service from outside the government.

Access to OSE was limited earlier this year to people in government agencies who must log in to the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System. JWICS is a Defense Intelligence Agency network used by the military, Pentagon civilians, and employees of the State, Justices and Homeland Security departments to access classified information.

Before the restrictions were imposed, OSE was accessible to a wider range of government officials and government contractors.

Information supplied by the OSE is unclassified and is used by members of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The commission is opposing the restrictions because it limits access to the OSEs repository of translated Chinese-language material.

One recommendation in the latest annual commission report urged Congress to direct the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to restore the unclassified Open Source Enterprise website to all of its original functions for U.S. government employees.

Access to the Open Source Enterprise should also be expanded by making appropriate materials available to U.S. academic and research institutions, the report said.

OSE was once known as the CIAs Foreign Broadcast Information Service and made most its reports available to the public.

A DNI spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Larry Wortzel, a member of the China commission, said the OSEs restrictions are hampering work on China.

To work on China using Chinese open source documents, if you are not on JWICS, you need to read Chinese, Mr. Wortzel said.

Steven Aftergood, an open-government advocate with the Project on Government Secrecy, said he supports the push for wider access.

The commissions recommendation is exactly on target, he said.

The great virtue of open source intelligence is that, in most cases, it can be widely shared without the classification restrictions that limit the distribution of other forms of intelligence, he added. So recent moves to curtail access to the products of the Open Source Enterprise make no sense. In fact, they are counterproductive.

Mr. Aftergood said OSE should go beyond the commission recommendation and allow the public to access some open source intelligence.

At a time in our country when even some of the most basic facts seem to be in dispute, the [U.S. intelligence community] has a responsibility to help inform the public whenever it can do so without compromising its primary mission, Mr. Aftergood said. Sharing open source products is one of the most promising ways of doing that.

China watcher on Hong Kong violence

Willy Wo Lop Lam, the Hong Kong journalist known for breaking major stories on Chinese affairs, is warning that Beijing likely will impose stricter controls on the restive region.

Beijing has seized upon the growing unrest in Hong Kong as evidence that the Special Administrative Region (SAR) should introduce more draconian laws on national security, which would enable the SAR administration to rule with an iron hand, Mr. Lam told Inside the Ring. One country, two systems is being undermined as never before.

The Chinese government allowed Hong Kong to keep its capitalist economic system and relative democratic political system as part of the 1997 handover from British rule to Beijings control.

It is possible Beijing has also deployed more police from nearby Guangdong Province into Hong Kong, Mr. Lam noted. The Hong Kong police have apparently been given authority by Beijing to treat protesters with what many consider to be an unnecessarily high degree of violence, so as to provoke more anger on the streets.

Police have stepped up the use of violence to counter protesters who confronted police with bricks and Molotov cocktails.

A key battle between police and protesters in recent days was centered on Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Thousands of protesters were holed up there for several days, surrounded by police who fired tear gas at protesters who three gasoline bombs. More than 1,000 protesters who left the campus were arrested and small group remained as of Wednesday, according to press reports from the region.

So far we see no endgame to the confrontation between protesters and police with Beijing refusing to grant any concessions in the way of genuine political and electoral reform for Hong Kong, Mr. Lam said.

Contact Bill Gertz on Twitter @BillGertz.

Original post:
Inside the Ring: Details of FBI counterspy bias revealed - The Washington TImes

If you were like me, you spent most of 2016 convinced Hillary Clinton was gonna win the election handily, that Trump didnt have a prayer, the Supreme Court would be lost, every insane policy and executive order of Barack Obama would go unchallenged, and essentially become permanent, and America as we know it would continue its descent toward socialism.

Except that didnt happen. Thanks to Donald Trump, we didnt get a President Hillary. We were spared a third Obama term and the nation now has a chance. I fully admit that my vote in 2016 was more a vote against Hillary than it was a vote for Trump. Saving us from the disaster that would have been a Hillary presidency is more than enough reason to be thankful for Donald Trump, but his record as president gives us plenty of reasons to be happy he won, aside from just saving us from a Hillary presidency. So, on this Thanksgiving, I thought it would be appropriate to compile a list of reasons to be thankful for President Trump. There are certainly more reasons than the ones below, so before you feast with your families today, feel free to share your own reasons youre thankful for President Trump.

It seems like such a simple thing, to follow the rule of law, but for too long, presidents from both parties have seen some form of amnesty as a solution to fixing our immigration system. Not Trump. Hes ended catch-and-release and has been enforcing our immigration law at the border and in the interior of the United States. He even successfully managed to get Mexico to use their law enforcement to prevent caravans of migrants from getting into the United States and has reduced the quota of refugees to a more manageable amount.

That Barack Obama got two Supreme Court picks was painful enough, but the mere thought of Obama choosing a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia after his death in February 2016 was truly devastating. That Mitch McConnell was able to prevent that from happening was a miracle in itself, and Trumps election meant that the gamble would pay off. Or would it? Many on the right werent entirely convinced that Trump would govern like a conservative or nominate conservatives to the courts. His choice to fill that vacancy was his first test, and he passed it with flying colors with the nomination of Neil Gorsuch and since then hes proven himself over and over again, nominating conservatives to lower courts, changing the balance from liberal to conservative. One out of every 4 active judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals have been appointed by President Trump, said Adam Kennedy, deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of communications at the White House, in an interview with The Daily Signal. Make no mistake about it, Trumps impact on the judiciary will be felt for generations.

The unprecedented smear campaign against Trumps second Supreme Court pick would have had any other Republican president throw in the towel. Not Trump. A target of endless smears himself, Trump knew that giving in and withdrawing Kavanaughs nomination over uncorroborated accusations from people being groomed by powerful people on the left would not only damage his presidency, but it would further empower the Democrats. Trump stood behind Brett Kavanaugh unflinchingly against the smearsas did the GOP.

Whenever theres a change in power at the White House, the new president attempts to make his mark by reversing achievements of his predecessor, but Trump has done so better than anyone could have anticipated. Trump has gotten us out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Iran Deal, and the Paris Climate Accords. Hes rolled back Dodd-Frank, dismantled Obamacare, ended burdensome regulations the list goes on and on.

Barack Obama cut military funding and turned his back on our veterans. President Trump has given them the support they should expect from a commander-in-chief. Hes rebuilt and modernized our military, increased defense spending. His change in strategy in the Middle East saved us from embarrassing defeats in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hes made more progress in achieving a denuclearized North Korea, and is actively confronting Iranian aggression. And, of course, defeating ISIS is an accomplishment that cant be understated.

Im not sure whose interests Obama had in mind while he was in the White House, but America was at the bottom of his list. Trump, however, has been very clear about advocating for Americas interests above those of other countries. Whatever his enemies want to say about his so-called trade war, hes successfully managed to negotiate new trade deals that better serve Americas interests. Hes also managed to cut spending to the United Nations and get NATO allies to contribute spend towards defense.

Trumps willingness to stand up to Democrats has rubbed off on the GOP in ways I never expected, Senator Lindsey Grahams epic slam of the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee changed the trajectory of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. With few holdouts, the Republican Party has defended President Trump against endless smears by the left, starting back with the Russian collusion hoax. Despite a flurry of negative media coverage, the GOP has stood with near full unity, crushing Democrats hopes of a bipartisan impeachment, or perhaps a successful one, as moderate Democrats are starting to get cold feet. Had Democrats made a serious attempt at impeaching George W. Bush, I highly doubt GOP unity in opposition to those efforts would have been as strong as it is today. Republicans have believed for a long time that if they play nice with Democrats theyll be paid back with some reward. With the exception of Senator Mitt Romney, and a couple of others who have retired or jumped ship, the rest of the GOP has abandoned this fantasy.

How often have we experienced a politician running a campaign on big promises who fails to deliver? All the time, right? Well, Trump has proven himself to be the genuine article. When he makes a promise, he follows through. Americans on both sides of the aisle agree. Even his harshest critics cant deny itCNN actually called him a keeper of promises. What more proof do you need? And since you asked, yes, hes been building the border walland its working. To be fair, hes not always succeeded in fulfilling promises, due activist judges stopping various efforts like ending DACA (though he did get rid of DAPA) but his list of promises kept is easily the most impressive of our lifetimes.

Barack Obama spied on Trumps campaign and abused the FISA court system to do it. Do you think there would be an investigation of this abuse if Trump hadnt won? Not a chance. The lawlessness that defined the Obama years will get exposed. According to Senator Lindsey Graham, the DOJ Inspector Generals report on FISA abuse will be stunning and damning. Others predict it will ruin careers. One thing is for sure, had Hillary won, none of this would be getting looked into at all, and corrupt liberals in the Deep State would be operating in full force without concern of accountability.

Thanks to Trump, the economy is on fire. After years of stagnation, Trumps election got things moving again. The stock market is at a record high, unemployment at a historic low, consumer confidence is strong, GDP is beating expectations, the manufacturing industry (once thought to be in trouble) is creating jobs. Thanks to Trump, the middle class is seeing a boom stronger than his predecessors ever saw. The Trump economy is so good women and minorities have never done better, and there are more job openings than unemployed workers to fill them. The economy is doing so well that Democrats have tried to give Barack Obama credit for it.

_____

Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama's Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis

Read more:
Ten Reasons to Be Thankful for President Trump This Thanksgiving | News and Politics - PJ Media