Iran thundered in apocalyptic prose: Israel will be destroyed! Death to America! Destroy the infidels! Kill the Jews! The future is ours!

General Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, smugly told the media, “Iran’s response to the Zionist aggression is definite. We are capable of destroying all that the Zionists possess with one operation.”

At least, Fadavi felt that way on October 31, when he issued that statement. Since then, America had a pretty big presidential election. (You might’ve heard about it.) But if you haven’t, here’s the highlight: The crazy, scary Orange Man is back in the saddle.

And suddenly, Iran’s singing a dramatically different tune.

It was released on Thanksgiving Day, so most people probably didn’t see it, but The New York Times released a fascinating story yesterday: “With Trump Returning and Hezbollah Weakened, Iran Strikes a Conciliatory Tone.”

The sub-header: “As Iran faces domestic and foreign challenges, its bellicose rhetoric on the United States and Israel has given way to signs that it wants less confrontation.”

The contrast is striking: Just weeks earlier, Iran was vowing to utterly eviscerate its enemies. No compromises, no exceptions! And remarkably, the world was largely falling into line: Biden even pressured America’s allies to “respond in proportion” to Iranian missile attacks on civilian targets.

But after Election Day? Even The New York Times noted the Iranian sea change:

In mid-November, Iran dispatched a top official to Beirut to urge Hezbollah to accept a cease-fire with Israel. Around the same time, Iran’s U.N. ambassador met with Elon Musk, as overture to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inner circle. And on Friday, it will hold talks in Geneva with European countries on a range of issues, including its nuclear program.

Get ready for the money quote:

Five Iranian officials, one of them a Revolutionary Guards member, and two former officials said the decision to recalibrate was prompted by Mr. Trump winning the Nov. 5 election, with concerns about an unpredictable leader who, in his first term, pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. [emphasis added]

During the Nixon years, we called it the madman theory: When foreign adversaries cannot predict the actions of a “mad” U.S. president, they’re suddenly risk-adverse. It’s a very old idea: Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in 1517 that sometimes, it’s “a very wise thing to simulate madness.”

But there’s nothing “mad” about it.

All nations make risk-reward calculations. //

Flawed worldviews lead to flawed results.

Iran isn’t motivated by insecurity; Iran is motivated by self-interest. When you’re not a superpower, your actions aren’t driven by utopian ideals, but risk-reward calculations: How much can we get away with before the cost is too great?

During the Obama-Biden-Harris years, they read the numbers one way. With Trump, it’s an entirely different calculation.

It’s not just morning again in America: It’s morning again in the Middle East, too.

Currently, the Navy has more admirals than ships.

John Ʌ Konrad V
@johnkonrad
·
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The U.S. Navy has more Admirals than ships, yet it can’t keep the Red Sea open or deliver new ships on time.

So, how do Navy Admirals spend their time? World travel to 4-star hotels!

Here's their Nov conference list

P.S. The list for Army & Air Force Generals is even longer.
8:08 AM · Nov 8, 2024. //

It's a good thing that he is not a creature of the Navy hierarchy and is not beholden to the military-industrial complex for his next gig. I can't be convinced that either of those groups cares much about winning wars and protecting America. //

NavyVet
7 hours ago
There is a clear pattern in President-elect Trump's cabinet picks: they have proven successful in competitive real-world endeavors, based on merit.

This is a sharp contrast to the last four years, where power was given for pure political reasons, with nary a real success among them.

Because these are not isolated producers swimming in a sea of political incompetence, they will be a force to be reckoned with. //

NavyVet DukeUSA
7 hours ago
My point has nothing to do with the Navy per se, what I am observing is the overall theme of his cabinet picks: proven winners, willing to approach government like a business, rather than corrupt political wrangling. //

Douglas Proudfoot
8 hours ago
There is no accountability for failure in the flag officer ranks of the US Military. The British famously executed failed Admiral John Byng in 1757, to, as Voltaire put it in "Candide," encourage the other admirals. Britania ruled the waves for about 180 years after the execution. In the US, a flag officer's failure on the battlefield or in weapons procurement should, at the very least, lead to retirement after a reduction in grade, at the lower grade. The president should see this done as Commander in Chief. If not, the Senate can refuse to confirm retirement as a 3 or 4 star flag officer. Right now, morale is low. Nobody respects senior leadership, because they take no responsibility even for obvious failure. This has to change. Rewarding failure means we'll get a lot more of it.

Me=USAF Systems Analyst Officer 1972-1976, Meritorious Service Medal 1976. //

anon-x1lc
7 hours ago
Congress's lack of a proper budget since Pres Bush have done great harm to the Navy. Continuing resolutions screw everything up. Can't budget for 5 and 10 years out for repair and refit. Plus the DEI cluster fark didn't help. FOcus on social engineering instead of competent leadership also screws things up. Cpt allowing a Starlink Sat antenna on her ship tels me the leadership is FUBAR and incompetent. If the command doesn't notice an extra antenna bolted on the side of the superstructure, they are complete idiots.

Donald Trump Jr.
@DonaldJTrumpJr
·
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The violent left has been calling in bomb threats and swatting incoming members of the Trump Administration. Enough is enough with this type of deranged crap!

Fox News: Trump Cabinet nominees, appointees targeted with ‘violent, unAmerican threats’
foxnews.com
Trump Cabinet nominees, appointees targeted with ‘violent, unAmerican threats’
11:51 AM · Nov 27, 2024

In their 2020 report, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., exposed how the GSA “secretly handed over the first Trump team’s privileged and confidential information to the FBI” (Federal Bureau of Investigation), even as the FBI played political games with the infamous and unfounded counterintelligence probe into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Grassley at the time served as chairman of the Senate’s Finance Committee. Johnson led the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The report, titled “Don’t Brief the Trump Team: How the GSA and the FBI Secretly Shared Trump Transition Team Records,” details how the FBI and then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office trampled all over the transition team’s private property rights. https://links-1.govdelivery.com/CL0/https:%2F%2Fwww.finance.senate.gov%2Fdownload%2Fcommittee-report_-gsa-and-trump-transition/1/010001936e6d3951-b8b527a2-58d3-479c-9d46-f64e7a7c706d-000000/Kn3v3ppYuup1odtt5SAvm4pzrLUXOBKz0X45tmGIvNw=381. //

On Dec. 19, 2017, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee received a letter from Trump for America general counsel Kory Langhofer. In the letter, Langhofer stated that “the GSA provided Trump for America’s records to the special counsel without giving prior notice, obtaining its consent, or providing it an opportunity to review the records for privilege or relevance.” The committee reviewed and confirmed the information. //

GSA’s creepy conduct led to the Presidential Transition Enhancement Act, a bill introduced by Sen. Johnson that requires advance notice if either party intends to deviate from the memorandum of understanding. Trump signed the bill into law in March 2020.

Chavez-DeRemer has proven that she is not on the side of independent professionals or workers; she is on the side of union bosses and herself. Chavez-DeRemer is simply another union activist trussed up and planted to take control of the levers of power in order to destroy the independent contractor model and economic freedom for all Americans. //

Laocoön of Troy
an hour ago edited
We've had union-friendly Secretaries of Labor before. Even Republican ones. Elaine Chao and Elizabeth Dole were not particularly worker-friendly during their tenures. Former Consgresswoman Chavez-DeRemer is not unique nor is she politically powerful enuf to push a union agenda all by herself. I've never heard of her before this. She's a DEFEATED former Congresswoman from an insane clown possee radical lefty state. Trump is pretty unimpressed with losers...unless they bring something to the table. I'm not at all sure what Chavez-DeRemer brings to the table.

That having been said, Trump would be wise to at least consider the charges people are making against her. Trump might consider avoiding internal political fights within his Cabinet and with the Congress by pulling her nomination. //

ThatGuy81
4 hours ago
I don't want unions. They're unnecessary dinosaurs of the industrial revolution that serve no purpose other than to grift off workers, enforce nepotism, and hide bad workers from reprisal. I refuse to hand over another portion of my paycheck to line some idiot's pocket and if unions gain a foothold in this administration, it'll be the worst thing Trump can do against American workers. They're just the mafia by another name. //

SomeIdeas 2 hours ago

Randi Weingarten's approval confirms C-D is the wrong choice.

“I didn’t understand how a senior executive like George Cheeks could tell me that this was a high priority for the network and for his boss, and yet the executives at CBS News showed producers anchors could refuse that,” she said. //

Here we have yet another news story showing that the press is full of incognito activists posing as journalists. If the details of Herridge’s story are accurate – and there's no reason to think they're not – it is clear that CBS News’ executives were acting more as political operatives and preventing the news outlet from discussing issues that could have reflected negatively on President Biden and Democrats.

Yet, these same people will claim the network is a neutral journalistic outlet when it is abundantly clear that it is little more than a propaganda mill for Democrats. //

Intheknow
7 hours ago
Hunter Biden may have accidentally saved America. By CBS covering this up, it allowed people to see the trainwreck that Biden was and it led to the massive win for Trump. I am convinced that 2024 Trump will be better than 2020 Trump would have been due to what has been exposed over the last 4 years both policy wise and the lengths that desperate government employees will go to to keep their power. I see the Biden WH as a gift. //

Largo Patriot
7 hours ago
"I did everything I could to put CBS first on a story that was not popular among a lot of people in that network."

Journalists with integrity report all the news, not just the news that's popular with network staffers.

“They were both red, white and blue. The difference is in literary style. Trump is like Hemingway and James Joyce, direct and stream of consciousness, Reagan had a more restrained, poetic style,” Davi said.

That's a fair observation; Ronald Reagan was cheerful, optimistic, always smiling and upbeat, while Trump can be short-tempered and acerbic. //

Ronald Reagan, though, is hard to compare to any other president in living memory. Without him, the Cold War may not have ended peacefully or as soon as it did. He oversaw a generation of economic growth and, more importantly, replaced Jimmy Carter's "malaise" and "turn down the thermostat and put on a sweater" austerity with "morning in America."

I remember the Reagan years as sunny and prosperous. That's an America we need to go back to. And, yes, I've already bought my copy of the film. I recommend everyone do likewise.

In other words, the Trump-Vance Transition Team confirms it has the requisite ethics plan and will post it on the GSA website as required under the Act, but oh, by the way, it won't be availing itself of taxpayer funding or government buildings or technology via the GSA. Chalk that up to Trump learning the hard way the pitfalls of trusting too readily in an outgoing administration.

Hans Mahncke
@HansMahncke
·
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Trump says that his transition team will not use government resources because they want to save money. However, this is merely a smokescreen. What's really happening is that Trump has learned from past experiences, particularly what they did to @genflynn during the previous… Show more
4:17 PM · Nov 26, 2024

Rusty
@Rusty_Weiss
·
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Democrats get emotional over the criminal illegal aliens.

Incoming Border Czar Tom Homan gets emotional over their victims (and their families) of their crimes.

That's how you know the right man for the job is coming.

6:15 AM · Nov 21, 2024

“You know, Laura, a lot of people ask me why I get so emotional when I do Fox News and why I scream at members of Congress. Because I have seen so much tragedy," elucidated Homan. "I have talked to hundreds of angel moms and dads who bury their children because they’re killed by illegal aliens. This is the latest."

"I have talked to little girls as young as 9 years old that were raped multiple times by members of the cartel," he said, eyes looking off to the side to fight off tears. "When you look in their eyes, and everything innocent and pure has been ripped from their soul, and their life will never be the same, I’m just — I’m tired of it." //

Homan told Ingraham that the "government failed" the family of Laken Riley, adding her death "could have been prevented."

He suggested Democrat politicians listen to the tapes to understand the pain of the victim and her family.

"This young lady is dead," he condemned. "And I want every mayor, every governor of a sanctuary jurisdiction to listen to that tape, listen to this young girl fight for her life, fight for her breath, trying to survive, terrified. I want you to understand what she went through."

Jesse Kelly
@JesseKellyDC
·
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There’s nothing in the world that would help the morale of the men than to see a flag officer face real punishment the same way the guys on the ground have.

You officers have no idea how much resentment your little club has created in the troops.
Barry R McCaffrey
@mccaffreyr3
Trump plans to recall retired officers to active duty to court martial them for Afghan withdrawal will be a disaster for military morale and a political bomb for him. The Uniform Code of Military Justice is a codified Congressional statute and operates under Federal law…. not…
3:57 PM · Nov 19, 2024 //

You're dang right it's politically-motivated. The general class is infested with left-wing partisans who put politics above the rank-and-file, sometimes with deadly consequences. The purge is coming, and no amount of crybagging from the press is going to stop it. Buckle up.

The files are all exhibits to a motion filed in a defamation case in Florida related to the sex trafficking allegations levied against Gaetz - allegations the US Department of Justice investigated for 18 months before declining to pursue charges because, sources told the Washington Post, the two main witnesses weren't credible. Some of the exhibits, including deposition testimony from a woman who claims she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17, have been sealed by the judge presiding over that case. //

In reply to ABC's "story," Gaetz said:

"These allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress. This false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.". //

As I wrote back then, after Gaetz blistered Wray over the FBI's harassment of COVID whistleblower and Chinese defector Dr. Yan Li-Meng during a congressional hearing:

Is it any wonder that the entire Democrat/Media Complex is trying to destroy Matt Gaetz? Think about when the questions into his supposedly improper relationships with females started flooding the airwaves and which government organization is “investigating” Gaetz. I’m sure it’s all just a big coincidence and not an attempt to silence or intimidate Gaetz.

NASA spent millions on DEI and ‘Environmental Justice’ grants while laying off real scientists doing actual research and innovation. //

In an exclusive report, the UK Daily Mail says NASA staffers want President-Elect Donald Trump’s co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk to ‘clean house’, as insiders reveal the agency squandered millions of taxpayer money on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. //

Paula | November 18, 2024 at 1:19 pm
Democrats fear Elon Musk. And for good reason. He’s half Einstein and half honey badger.

“Nyah nyah nyah” has been the winner’s instinctive reflex, ever since we were all eight years old.

It’s human nature. And yet - and yet. This heavy-handed, partisan response to a major victory, carries a risk that this amazing realignment — MAGA and MAHA — will squander the greatest political opportunity of our lifetimes.

It is also strategically unwise. A good friend, who comes from the same world I do, said recently that he too is concerned that MAGA in triumph is “spiking the football’. //

If MAGA/MAHA did this — that is, walked with maturity and grace through this historic, unprecedented, transpartisan open door — it would revitalize and transform the Republican party, making the MAGA/MAHA movement into a big, unbeatable tent whose mission is to promote core American principles. This mission could replace the always-marginal, always-vulnerable status of the Republican party, which has devolved (as has the DNC) into a checklist of ever more extreme policy itemizations.

people are sick and tired of people in Washington, D.C., doing nothing as these people tried to destroy the country and getting upset at someone who actually might root out the corruption there.

We don't have a Department of Justice.

We have a Department of Injustice, and that's why you get Matt Gaetz as a nominee. //

ConservativeInMinnesota
4 hours ago
The deep state themselves offer the strongest possible endorsement of Gaetz. By all reports they are in a complete panic. We’re not hearing rallying cries of ‘resist’. That means the deep state fears Gaetz.

Gaetz spent years battling the deep state and knows their ways. Trump only asked for recess appointments from a new Senate leader to get Gaetz in. Trump has carefully chosen Gaetz for good reason.

In an op-ed posted to Fox News on Saturday, former Mumford & Sons guitarist Winston Marshall put Trump's historic win into perspective -- including with a bit of humor.

The White House, the Senate, the House, the popular vote, a state legislative and mayoral majority, all on top of the Supreme Court majority... George Clooney retiring from politics and late-night TV hosts like Jimmy Kimmel literally crying on television. It's all too good to be true. //

And already, America has a spring back in her step. Ebullience fills the air. Hope rushes its veins. The land of freedom has embraced those qualities that made it great -- aspiration, entrepreneurship, responsibility. The nation’s eyes are fixed upwards once again. Up to Mars. Up to God. What a pleasure it was to witness history being made, and to see our transatlantic cousins back on their feet. //

Alas, this morning I have walked into a parallel universe. Beneath the heavy clouds of Heathrow, I touched down back in Blighty. You see, my country, Britain, today is what America would be if Kamala had won.

Violent criminals released from prison and replaced by Tweeters and Facebook meme creators. Rioters, let alone if they are a protected minority but given the heavy hand if they are indigenous working classes. Crippling taxes against campaign promises.

Full steam into Net Zero [climate] oblivion while protesting farmers roar tractors down Whitehall. And the hapless relinquishing of the Chagos Islands suggests Starmer’s heart is set on making British self-flagellation as public as possible.

All these decisions make sense if one understands the self-hating anti-human globalist ideology behind them.

Though WaPo acknowledged Trump narrowly won Springfield, it did not disclose that he had lost it twice before //

That changed last week when Trump carried Springfield by a razor-thin margin of roughly 150 votes out of more than 20,000 cast. The flip helped drive up Trump's margin in Clark County to its highest level: Trump won 64 percent of the county vote this time around, the highest margin for a Republican presidential candidate in at least four decades.

In his latest bout of schooling his co-workers, a CNN panel that featured Jennings got onto the subject of RFK. Geoff Duncan said there's "intellectually" no reason by RFK Jr. should be the HHS secretary, and at best should be an "advisor." Duncan said that there's nothing on his resume that qualifies Kennedy.

It should be noted that the current HHS secretary is Xavier Becerra, a lawyer who was once California's Attorney General, who also has no health background, but this is never brought up by the left. The assistant secretary for the HHS is Rachel Levine, a man who thinks he's a woman.

Jennings tried to confront Duncan with this fact by asking what the qualifications of the previous heads of the HHS were, even before Becerra, causing Duncan to reveal his cards.

"RFK Jr. is a nut."

Again, I remind everyone of Rachel Levine, but I digress.

With Duncan's true reasoning now laid bare, Jennings began his offensive.

“Okay, so that's different from what you just said," said Jennings. "You just said he doesn't possess the requisite managerial experience, but then we get to the real issue here, which is you want to insult the man." //

These other panelists, who are clearly on the left, have no desire to put the blame on the institutions or the elitists who run them, elitists that many of these people are friends with. Notice that while they try to blame someone like Kennedy for spreading "misinformation," what they're ultimately saying is that you're still to blame for COVID spreading.

The institutions that told us to do all of these things ended up hurting us even more, as Jennings pointed out, but these elitists can't admit that. Notice they didn't linger on how the masks didn't work, or the lockdowns made it worse; the only attack they have is that "RFK. Jr. is a nut," and that our institutions aren't as trusted anymore because of nuts like him.

Young Americans’ historical and civic illiteracy is a danger to the Republic, and it cannot be allowed to continue. //

Trump created the commission the day before Election Day in 2020 with the purpose of “[establishing] a clear historical record of an exceptional Nation dedicated to the ideas and ideals of its founding.” Its goal was to provide a much-needed corrective to anti-American propaganda masquerading as history such as the “1619 Project,” whose “radicalized view of American history lacks perspective, obscures virtues, twists motives, ignores or distorts facts, and magnifies flaws, resulting in the truth being concealed and history disfigured.” The commission’s report, published two days before Trump left office, sketched out a basic curriculum that balanced American exceptionalism as reflected in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with the darker aspects of our history, such as slavery and Jim Crow.

Rubio has proven himself as a hawk against America’s most dangerous adversary: China. //

Rubio tweeted in response: “Last month China banned me. Today they sanctioned me. I don’t want to be paranoid but I am starting to think they don’t like me.”

The same types of angry diversions that consumed Democrats over the past eight years could easily undo Republican governance. //

The lesson comes in the form of a quote from an individual whose political resurrection closely resembles that of Donald Trump, former President Richard Nixon:

Always give your best; never get discouraged; never be petty. Always remember others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.