This past weekend, we were treated to the third installment of nationwide No Kings protests, which are more accurately described as Hate America protests.  As with all political events, we must separate the media propaganda from the facts.

To hear the lap dog media tell it, these No Kings protests were even larger than the two previous versions.  The media shills know this for a very good reason.  The protest organizers told them so.  Here’s one media report:  “Crowds of people protested Saturday against the war in Iran and President Trump’s actions, in ‘No Kings’ rallies across the U.S. and in Europe.  Minnesota took center stage in what organizers said were mass demonstrations involving millions of people in all.  U.S. organizers had estimated that the first two rounds of No Kings rallies drew more than 5 million people in June and 7 million in October.  On Saturday, they estimated that at least 8 million participants took part in more than 3,300 events worldwide.”

Wow, if those numbers are correct, it would appear that the anti-Trump, No Kings forces are steadily growing, indicating that a huge grassroots political movement to the Left is at hand, ready to sweep Democrats back into power.  Lots of people certainly turned out at these protests, but ever-increasing millions?  I wonder.  I suspect that the entity responsible for counting the people in the crowds was the accounting firm of Hamas, Xi Jinping & Soros.

The whole No Kings project is predicated on the false proposition that Donald Trump illegally became president, and is operating as an authoritarian despot, busily working to end democracy and abolish civil rights.  Simply put, if he was what they claim, there would be no protests, and the organizers’ heads would be on pikes atop the new White House East Wing.

And who are these “organizers?”  The usual suspects.  You’ve got your ACLU, your Teacher’s Union, the SEIU, and others.  Like Indivisible.  That’s a group that, according to its website, claims it exists to defend democracy.  How patriotic.  Here’s this week’s Indivisible “To Do List.”  “No war with Iran,” “ICE Out for Good,” and “Reject Deportation.”

Another organizer is the 50501 Movement.  This bunch claims to be defending civil rights.  Here’s one of their recent events: “March 5th: Fighting and Winning Against Trumpʻs Concentration Camps – Mass Call.”  That’s right.  They’ve got two authors who wrote books about concentration camps, one of them focusing on the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War Two.  And I bet you weren’t even aware that President Trump is building concentration camps throughout the country.  He’s not aware either.  This is a fantasy.  By the way, the only president who did put citizens in camps was Democrat FDR.

Yet another organizer is something called Public Citizen.  This group claims it’s protecting Health, Safety, and Democracy.  It’s a globalist group calling for the U.S. defense budget to be slashed in favor of more welfare spending.

Then there’s the No Kings website.  [Warning – If you open it, you may require a flea bath].  The site lists the speakers for Saturday’s No Kings protest in Minneapolis.  The list is a veritable Who’s Who of crazy Commie bastards.  There were the inevitable musicians/psuedo-celebrities – Maggie Rogers and Tom Morello (Don’t ask me, I never heard of them either), and Joan Baez (she’s still alive?).  Then the ever-irritating Bruce Springsteen, who even wrote a new protest song for the occasion.  Then the ever-traitorous Jane Fonda, who stopped by to accuse Trump of war crimes, and to claim the war with Iran is a “climate catastrophe.”  They followed up with Tim Walz, his Lieutenant Governor (how dumb must she be, to be playing second fiddle to that imbecile?), Bernie Sanders, Keith Ellison, and last, but certainly least, Ilhan Omar.

All of the above claim to be interested in protecting democracy, and safeguarding civil rights, that they claim are being eliminated by Trump.  Keep those alleged goals in mind while you consider who’s funding No Kings.

By all accounts, the funders are a group of billionaire Leftist provocateurs, who reportedly have funneled more than $300 million into these protests from the beginning.  The funny thing is, the money men who are funding groups that publicly decry threats to democracy and the elimination of civil rights, espouse positions that are directly contrary to the continuation of the Republican form of government guaranteed by our Constitution, which is what they keep calling “our democracy.”  The funders are seeking to usher in a form of government which, for more than 100 years, has made it its business to deny personal freedoms and ignore civil rights.

The first funder is someone you know, George Soros, and his Open Society Foundation.  If you do a search for Open Society goals, you will get page after page of happy horseshit about its support for social justice, education, and the like.  The search engines are fixed to return only Soros’ line of crap.

The true goal of Open Society was once revealed in The Guardian.  Soros, who gained his fortune by ruthless capitalism, has seen the error of his ways.  He’s a globalist.  A One Worlder, who’s goal is a global government, which Soros claims is the only way to ensure that humanity overcomes the existential challenges of climate change and nuclear proliferation.  One might ask, if he wants to stop nuclear proliferation, why he’s bankrolling people who are trying to stop the U.S. from making sure Iran doesn’t get nukes, but that fact just gets in the way.

In Soros’ opinion, the only way to save capitalism from itself is to establish a “global system of political decision-making” that heavily regulates international finance.  Only one thing stands in his way.  The United States.  That’s why Soros says Americans voted for Trump, “a con artist and would-be dictator,” because “elected leaders failed to meet voters’ legitimate expectations and aspirations [and] this failure led electorates to become disenchanted with the prevailing versions of democracy and capitalism.”

The “prevailing version of democracy and capitalism” is our system of government.  Soros defines “democracy” as a new system, where global elites make all the decisions for the people, for their own good, of course.  That’s a definition of the word “democracy” that the Greeks wouldn’t recognize.  And that’s why Soros has been funding Leftists in America; to crash the system, to be replaced with his new world order.

The second principal funder is American billionaire,  Neville Roy Singham, a tech tycoon and avowed communist, who abandoned the U.S., and is living in China, doing the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party.  Singham has financed a constellation of activist institutions that promote revolutionary Socialist politics and frequently collaborate in protest campaigns, including the People’s Forum in New York, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ANSWER Coalition, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and CodePink, whose co-founder, Jodie Evans, is married to Singham.  Isn’t it funny how all the champions of the poor and downtrodden turn out to be billionaires?

Freedom Road Socialist Organization activists have led aggressive demonstrations targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis.  The group has an image on Instagram, using an upside-down triangle symbol that Hamas used to mark targets during attacks in Israel.  Nice people.

The Democrat Party, thirsting for power, has embraced the Soros and Singham funded groups as a way to defeat Trump and regain control of the government.  There can be but two explanations for this.  Either, the Party now is completely in the hands of wild-eyed Marxists who share the Soros and Singham goal to collapse our government, or they foolishly believe they can use them now to regain control of the government, so they can keep lining their pockets, and then control their actions later.

Both options can lead nowhere but to civil war.  If its the former, then the Democrat Party is evil and dangerous and cannot be permitted to prevail in the next election.  If the latter, then I would remind Democrats that well-meaning German officials thought they could let Adolph Hitler become Chancellor, and they would be able to control him.  You know how that turned out.

The sad thing is that the thousands of geriatric protestors, waving their little signs at the No Kings protests, really believe they’re protecting Democracy.  Too bad they can’t have a moment of lucidity, to permit them to consider whether they should trust George Soros and/or the Chinese Communist Party to safeguard their civil rights.

Whenever the government does something questionable, sketchy, or downright illegal, it gives the enterprise a catchy or exciting-sounding name.  For instance, when the Obama Administration, to include Il Duce Obama, Biden, Hillary Clinton, James Comey, James Clapper, and the CIA’s John Brennan, invented the story that Donald Trump was colluding with the Russians to fix the 2016 election, they called it “Crossfire Hurricane,” or as FBI agent Peter Strozk liked to call it, “insurance.”

Now we’re learning that, after failing to prevent Trump’s 2016 election; after having spies, liars, and turncoats hound and hamper his Administration; after arresting and prosecuting General Flynn; after exposing Trump to a phony Special Counsel investigation; after impeaching him twice; and after indicting him four times in an attempt to imprison him for life, the Democrats still weren’t satisfied.

Throwing caution, not to mention, the Constitution, the United States Code, the Federal Court Rules, and any semblance of fair dealing and decency to the wind, the Democrats set out to further “insure” a victory in 2024, by embarking on a fishing expedition designed to prevent Trump from being a presidential candidate.

The poorly named Biden “Justice” Department, appointed rabid dog, Jack “The Knife” Smith as Special Counsel to investigate Trump.  The appointment was unconstitutional, a fact which District Judge Eileen Cannon later confirmed, as it was made by bypassing Senate confirmation requirements.  Smith went directly to work with a singular purpose in mind, marshaling, and/or fabricating the evidence needed to see that Donald Trump was facing so many criminal prosecutions that he could never again run for president.

Smith and Company came up with a new operational name for his activities, “Operation Arctic Frost.”  The investigation could easily have been given other names, such as, “Operation Enduring Bullshit,” of “Operation Reviving Fascism.”  And Jack Smith was the perfect man for the job, as he embraces the same philosophy as the former head of Russia’s KGB (or NKGB or NKVD) under Josef Stalin, “just show me the man, and I will show you a crime.”

Smith, Merritt Garland, and the rest of Biden’s cronies decided in advance, and without any real evidence, that the protests of January 6, 2021 were part of a nefarious plot to alter the result of the 2020 presidential election.  This, of course was ludicrous, but it was the Democrats’ convenient explanation designed to cover up any irregularities in the 2020 election, of which there were many.  The solution?  The time honored Leftist tactic of accusing your opponents of that which you yourselves have been doing.

For that reason, the Democrats went about prosecuting people, some of whom had been admitted to the Capitol Building that day by obliging guards, including many blameless grandmothers, with felonies, in order to bolster the nonsensical notion that what went on that day was an “insurrection.”

Make no mistake.  A small number of the people who entered the Capitol that day did commit crimes.  I am on record as saying that I would not have pardoned anyone who did property damage, stole something, or put their hands on a law enforcement officer.  Then again, given the fact that only carefully chosen information was released by the highly partisan January 6th Committee, and that volumes of exculpatory evidence were concealed, and later destroyed by that Committee, it’s hard to fault the 2025 blanket pardons.

Democrats shamelessly resorted to their go-to tactics.  Lies and obfuscations.  Democrats still continue to repeat the lie that 5 police officers were killed on January 6th.  Many uninformed people actually believe it.  In truth, there was but one death on January 6th.  An unarmed woman, needlessly shot to death by a Capitol police officer.  The officer faced no criminal investigation, and no grand jury.  He later was given a medal and promoted – by the same people who now relentlessly castigate the conduct of ICE agents in Minneapolis, who were attacked by violent protestors.

But back to Jack The Knife.  In the absence of any reasonable suspicion that they had in any way broken any law, Smith obtained, from friendly (and perhaps complicit) Obama/Biden District Judges, at least 400 subpoenas for telephone information on public officials and private citizens whose only crime was being Republicans who may have communicated with President Trump.

To make things worse, the judges were prevailed upon to issue nondisclosure orders, preventing any of the subjects of the subpoenas from being notified that their telephone records had been seized.  These subjects included at least 20 Republican Senators, including Chuck Grassley, Lyndsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson and Mike Lee.  The subjects also included unelected, private citizens, such as current FBI Director Kash Patel, journalists, tech billionaires, Rudy Giuliani, who is still being prosecuted, and current White House Chief of Staff Susie Wilds.  Smith even went so far as to wiretap a telephone call between Ms. Wilds and her private attorney.

That action was beyond the pale.  As a participant in more wiretaps than I care to remember, the interception of communications between a criminal suspect and his or her attorney is highly illegal.  And Ms. Wilds wasn’t even a criminal suspect.  She was merely one of hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of citizens who were made fodder for an illegal fishing expedition.

As for the elected officials, electronic surveillance of members of Congress is controlled by protocols that require the subject to be notified immediately.  Moreover, absent indisputable evidence, Congressmen are almost never subjected to such treatment.  For instance, Democrat William Jefferson of Louisiana had his office searched, but only after law enforcement found $90,000 in cash in a freezer.  He later was convicted of bribery.  Yet even Jefferson got immediate notice of the law enforcement actions.  On the other hand, Jack Smith thought nothing of making an unannounced, and unnecessary raid on Mar A Lago, to look for classified documents, despite the fact that Trump’s possession of them was not a crime.

The idea that a federal Judge would order nondisclosure of the subpoenas on sitting Senators on the basis that, if notified, they were likely to attempt to flee or destroy evidence, is a transgression of constitutional proportion.  Going back to my experience, I liken the nondisclosure orders to a No-Knock search warrant.

There are two ways to execute a search warrant.  The first is to go to the door, knock, and announce “police officers,” and wait for the door to be opened.  The second is to get a No Knock authorization from the judge, go to the door with a battering ram, a/k/a “a master key,” knock down the door and go inside.  Such authorization is granted only on a showing that the suspect is armed and dangerous or that the evidence is likely to be destroyed.  Using such tactics on  Senators is highly illegal, not to mention stupid.

The revelations of the hundreds of “fishing expedition” communications warrants demonstrates, if we needed any more proof, that the Democrats will stop at nothing to gain or maintain power.

Ted Cruz said it best.  “If Watergate taught us anything, it is that even a single abuse of power carried out by a handful of individuals can shake the foundations of our republic.  But what we confront today, the Biden administration’s Arctic Frost scheme is not a single act.  It is a modern Watergate, trading a break-in at one office for a digital sweep into approximately 100,000 private communications. More than a dozen senators and thousands of individuals lives.”

Jack Smith, the latter day Lavrenti Beria, should not simply walk away from this outrage.  After Stalin died, Beria was denounced, shot dead, and his body cremated.  However appealing that might sound, sadly Jack Smith will be afforded all the legal protections that he denied to so many others.

For Muslims, the Quran imposes the obligation of Jihad on its followers – to struggle in the path of God.  It has come to justify holy war against anyone who fails to submit to Islam.  Indeed, the word “Islam” means submission to God.  Like most religious teachings, over the centuries “Jihad” has been reinterpreted so as to justify violence against anyone labelled “an infidel.”

For fundamentalist Muslims, “infidels” include not only non-Muslims, but also Muslims who fail to adhere to what they believe are the true Islamic teachings.  For instance, Sunni Muslims attack Shiite Muslims because one sect believes the line from Mohammad descends from his cousin, and the other believes it descends from his good friend.  During the Iran/Iraq War, up to a million people died because of this disagreement over doctrine.

Unfortunately, the Democrat Party, an institution that champions unquestioned tolerance for fundamentalist Muslims, who are the least tolerant people on the face of the Earth, has embarked on its own Jihad.  The Democrat Jihad is an unholy war against anything and everything proposed or supported by Donald Trump.

Opposition to the sitting president from the other Party is a fact of life.  No one is criticizing Democrats for the normal quantum of opposition.  The problem is that, throughout our history until 2015, the out-of-power Party was known as “the loyal opposition.”  Not loyal to the incumbent, but loyal to the country, and dedicated to the national interest.  The maxim used to be “politics stops at the water’s edge.”

For today’s Democrats, the maxim has become, “politics uber alles.”  Democrats are dedicated to opposing any action taken by the Trump Administration.  Not so long ago, every prominent Democrat, to include Obama, Biden, Schumer, and Hillary Clinton, supported a secure border and voter identification requirements to prevent non-citizens from voting.  Now they’re bucking 80% of the electorate to oppose these commonsense actions, solely because Trump is for them.

Democrats have shut down the government, and have subjected Americans to hours in TSA lines at airports in support of illegal aliens.  Although 85% of Americans support voter ID requirements, 46 Democrats in the Senate are denying the will of more than 225 million Americans, who support the SAVE Act.

But for my money, the most egregious facet of the unholy Democrat Jihad is their undermining of the Trump efforts to end the half century threat posed by Iran.  Less than three weeks into the war against Iran, Democrats are hard at work undermining the Administration, and our military.

Keep in mind that the same Democrat leaders who are claiming that the war is  “an illegal war of choice,” and that Iran posed no imminent threat to the U.S., are on record for decades warning that Iran posed a nuclear threat to the world.  Bill Clinton said that.  Hillary, in 2016, promised that, if she was elected, she would attack Iran.  Obama recognized the nuclear threat posed by Iran.  Of course, his remedy was to offer bribes in return for empty promises.  Even Joe Biden recognized the problem, expressing growing concern over Iran’s advancing ballistic missile program, long-range drones, and expanding arsenal, all of which, he said, posed significant threats to regional stability.

Lots of presidents talked tough about Iran.  However, until Trump, none of them did anything about it.   Winston Churchill is credited with the saying, “Jaw, jaw is better than war, war.”  In other words, it’s better to talk than to fight.

Trump tried the jaw, jaw for years.  Iran, on the other hand, was practicing lie, lie, and delay, delay.  In the end, Iranian intransigence on the issues of ending their nuclear program, and their production of long range missiles and drones left no alternative other than war, war.  But because it’s Trump who took action against Iran, Democrats must oppose it.

So we attacked Iran.  In record time, several layers of Iranian government leaders were killed.  Their air assets were destroyed.  Their Chinese-made radar and anti-aircraft defenses were wiped out.  Their navy was sunk.  Their ballistic missile and drone assets have been reduced more than 90%.

Democrats, still engaged in their anti-Trump Jihad, are unimpressed.  They say Iran wasn’t really a threat, and that Trump had no plan.  The lap dog media is suggesting that we’re losing the war.  The delusional James Carville just said the situation in Iran is a catastrophe.  To quote one Donald Trump, “These people are crazy.”

The brutal Iranian regime held the world hostage for 47 years.  Recently, it killed tens of thousands of its own citizens.  It’s desperately trying to hold on to power.  Its leaders are being removed daily by U.S. and Israeli attacks.  The Israeli Mossad has reached out and eliminated dozens of Iranian political, intelligence, military, and police officials.  They are now attempting to turn the remaining leaders away from the current regime, and toward support for a new regime led by the beleaguered Iranian people.

This week, The Wall Street Journal reported on the Israelis’ killings of Iran’s security chief and the head of Iran’s Basij militia, who had enslaved the Iranian people for decades.  The Israelis are contacting the remaining Iranian leaders in their hiding places to scare them straight.  The Mossad has placed telephone calls to Iranian leaders, one of whom thought he was safe in a tent in a park.  The message was simple, “we know where you are, and we can kill you unless you bring about change.”

So far, the criminal regime in Iran is hanging on.  It couldn’t stop our attacks.  It struck their Muslim brothers in 12 neighboring countries in a vain attempt to turn Mideast opinion against the U.S.  That didn’t work.  The last card in the Iranian regime’s deck is the attempt to close the Straight of Hormuz to shipping.  Their efforts have caused a price spike in the oil markets, resulting in a temporary increase in gasoline prices.  While the U.S. and other nations plan to escort ships through the Straight, the higher gas prices are causing pain.

Iran is counting on that pain to force the U.S. to end the war.  Some Republicans are very nervous, fearing a backlash in the midterm elections.  My perspective is very simple.  I don’t care.  Screw the midterms.  Suck it up and endure the temporarily inflated gas prices.  If paying a bit more at the pump is all your country calls on you to do to bring about a more stable Middle East, and increased security at home, just pay it and be grateful.  Gas prices were higher under Obama and Biden, while they did nothing to end Iran’s nuclear ambitions and allowed them to threaten the world.

The war in Iran must be seen to its conclusion.  The Iranian attempt to hold the world hostage by stopping oil and natural gas shipments is not a reason to end the war, it’s just the opposite.  The current Iranian regime, being run by murderous, perverted Mullahs, who are operating under the delusion that it’s still the Ninth Century, have no business dictating to world at the point of a gun.

Their Muslim brothers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the U.A.E., and other nations, have figured out how to maintain their devotion to Allah, while still permitting their citizens to prosper in the modern world.    A rogue regime that can’t manage to do so, which relies on the brutal repression of its people, and which threatens the rest of the world with death, cannot and should not be tolerated.

To paraphrase Calvin Coolidge, “the business of the world is business.”  I keep coming back to Paddy’s Chayefsky’s, Network.  “You have tampered with the primal forces of nature Mr. Beale, and now you must atone.”  By holding the World economy hostage, the Iranian Mullahs have tampered with the primal forces of nature.  Unless we break the back of the Iranian regime, it will continue to do what it’s done for 47 years – use energy as a weapon to bring the enlightened world to its knees.  We don’t have to put up with that anymore.  They must atone.

Democrats have lost their way.   Their Trump-hating Jihad is putting each and every one of us at risk.  If American voters are too stupid to understand that in November, then we’ll get the government we deserve.

The outbreak of war in Iran has resulted in the expected immediate denunciation from Pope Leo.  Hear me out.  Religious leaders, and Popes in particular, constantly preach for peace and love – it’s their job.  And that wouldn’t be a bad thing if they’d just keep their Roman noses out of politics.

On March 1, the day after the war began, Pope Leo told worshipers in Saint Peter’s Square, “I am following with deep concern what is happening in the Middle East and in Iran during this tumultuous time.  Stability and peace are not achieved through mutual threats, nor through the use of weapons, which sow destruction, suffering, and death, but only through reasonable, sincere, and responsible dialogue.”

Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn touched on this subject this week, in an article entitled, Homilies Won’t Liberate Iran.  In it, Mr. McGurn argues that “unless the Pope steers the Catholic Church back to its own teachings on this fraught topic, [the Pope’s advice] risks being dismissed, even by sympathizers.”  McGurn quotes Catholic theologian George Weigel, who has written, “The net result of the churches concessions to the political left has been to take religious leaders out of serious conversation with policy makers on matters of war and peace, leaving them to lob minatory rhetorical grenades from the bleachers.”

No one is suggesting that Pope Leo doesn’t mean well.  But the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, even when those intentions are mouthed by the Roman Pontiff.  As Mr. McGurn points out, history refutes the notion that stability and peace are achieved only through dialogue.  Armies can’t solve every problem, but no unarmed nation ever has been able to talk its way to peace.

Pollyanna Pope Leo certainly must know better.  Dialogue with Adolph Hitler did European leaders little good in the 1930’s.  Neville Chamberlain tried a dialogue with Hitler at Munich in 1938, hoping to appease Hitler with a piece of Czechoslovakia.  It ended his career.  The next year, Czech President Emil Hacha, a former Supreme Court Judge and international lawyer, attempted a dialogue with Hitler.  That talk ended with Hitler seizing the remainder of Czechoslovakia, and Hacha died in a Nazi prison camp.

There’s just no talking to some people.  Even Papal history bears out this point. Pope Leo’s call for “responsible dialogue” is a far cry from earlier Papal policy.  During the early 13th Century, the Church conducted the Albigensian Crusade, against the non-Catholic Cathars in France.  Before what became a massacre at Beziers in 1209, concerned military leaders went to the Crusade commander, Papal Legate Arnaud Amalric, with a problem.  Catholic Frenchmen and Cathars looked alike.  “How,” asked the soldiers, “will we know which of the people are the heretics?”  Amalric, the personal representative of the ironically named Pope Innocent III, didn’t advise dialogue.  He instead provided a simple explanation of Papal policy, “Kill them all, the Lord will know his own.”  Of course, he said this in Latin, “Caedite eos.  Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.”

Indeed the history of the papacy is a story of almost continual warfare by the Papal States.  Between 1081 and 1867, the Papal States, and thus a succession of Popes, conducted 31 different wars with neighbors of the Holy See.   In the early 16th Century, Pope Julius II, became known as “The Warrior Pope,” as he repeatedly swapped his holy vestments for suits of silver armor, to lead his troops on the battlefield.  The only dialogue Julius was having at this time was with Michelangelo.  “When are you going to finish the damned ceiling?”

More recent Popes also have understood that dialogue alone is no substitute for dialogue backed up with force or the threat of force.  Pope Pius XII was a virtual prisoner in the Vatican during World War II, as Nazi armies occupied Italy.  Pius knew all about responsible dialogue, but he also knew better than to open a dialogue with, or to criticize, Hitler.  As a result, Pius never denounced Nazi atrocities, even though he was fully aware of the ongoing Holocaust.

Pope John Paul II understood something that Pope Leo apparently has missed. The distinction between a war of aggression and “a just war.”  John Paul II partnered with Ronald Reagan to bring about the end of the Soviet Union.  He had good reason to do so, as he had experienced Soviet domination in Poland, and been the victim of a Soviet assassination attempt.

The present hostilities in Iran are not the result of a war of aggression.  The U.S. and Israel didn’t decide to shoot first before attempting a dialogue.  There were plenty of talks.  The problem is that it’s impossible to conduct a “reasonable, sincere, and responsible dialogue” with people who have proven themselves to be unreasonable, insincere, and irresponsible.

Il Duce Obama tried to talk and bribe the Iranians into pursuing peace in 2009.  He lifted sanctions, and paid them a $1.6 billion cash ransom, in return for their promises to abandon their nuclear program and to permit international inspections of their nuclear facilities.  The Iranians took the money, continued their pursuit of nuclear weapons, and denied access to the inspectors.

While the Iranians for decades funded Middle East terrorists, and supplied bombs that killed and maimed countless thousands, Papal denunciations of their conduct were sadly missing.  When the Iranian government slaughtered tens of thousands of its own citizens, for the crime of protesting government policy, while it was at the same time engaged in a dialogue with the U.S., Pope Leo did not see fit to intervene.

Yet after the Iranians told our negotiators they would never give up their quest for nuclear bombs, leaving warfare as the only option, and then after the Iranians extended the war by attacking at least 12 other neighboring States, Pope Leo decided to weigh in.  His heart may be in the right place, but his words will have no effect.

Mr. McGurn and Mr. Weigel are right.  A Church that has strayed from even its own policies, and that has taken up every leftist cause in recent years, is in no position to pontificate.  There’s no hope that the Pope can act as a detached mediator to end this dispute.  It’s not Leo’s fault.  The Iranians are at war even with their Muslim brothers.  They’re not about to listen to an infidel Pope.

Sadly, the papacy has lost its moral authority.  Its leftist leanings have made it just another one of the usual leftist suspects.  Recent Popes have turned the Vatican into nothing more than the Italian chapter of the Hollywood crowd.  Its pronouncements full of sound and fury, and signifying nothing.

There’s nothing wrong with praying for peace.  But a good prayer, accompanied by a squadron of bombers and some cruise missiles is a lot more effective.

We woke last Saturday to the news that U.S. and Israeli forces had struck Iran with devastating effect.  Despite the pathetic bleatings of Democrats, this action did not come as a surprise.  We’ve been building up our forces for months, while talks went on trying to find a peaceful solution to the problem of Iran.

As you will recall, lat June the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities, devastating their ability to continue to enrich uranium to be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.  Recent intelligence showed that Iran was trying to rebuild its nuclear facilities.  That was the last straw.

Iran has been a threat to the Middle East and to the world for the past 47 years, during which time, they have been at war with us, while we pretended that we were negotiating with them.  A succession of U.S. presidents has talked tough about Iran, and done little to solve the problem.

When the Shah was deposed in 1979, the militant Iranian Mullahs assumed control.  Since that time, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been the most notorious State sponsor of terrorism in the world.  They have sponsored and financed terrorist groups such as Hezzbollah, which have carried out terrorist attacks that have killed thousands worldwide.

Iran was the supplier of the IEDs and other roadside bombs that killed nearly a thousand Americans and maimed countless others.  Despite these facts, our presidents have done little to stop them.

The Ayatollah Komeini came to power under Jimmy Carter.  His supporters attacked and seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages, who were not released for 444 days.  But for an abortive rescue mission that ended in failure, Cater did nothing to stop them.

Under Ronald Reagan, Iran began calling the U.S. the Big Satan, and Israel, the Little Satan.  Reagan talked tough, but when Iran sponsored Hezzbollah terrorists bombed the Marine Barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Americans, Reagan pulled our troops out and did nothing.

President George H.W. Bush served as the Iran-Iraq war ended.  Iran was depleted by the war, and it was a time of relative peace.  Bush took no action against Iran.

Bill Clinton imposed sanctions on Iran, calling them “a rogue nation.”  Clinton bombed an aspirin factory in Sudan, but took no action to stop Iran, and later apologized for the “rogue nation” label.

President Bush 43 famously included Iran in his “Axis of Evil.”  During his tenure, Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad, who coincidentally was killed in this week’s air strikes, began calling for Israel to be “wiped from the map.”  Nice guy.  Too bad he’s dead.  President Bush took no action.

Il Duce Obama had a different method for dealing with Iran.  Bowing down, and paying them off.  Obama, faced with evidence that the Iranians were enriching uranium to weapons grade, decided that bribery was the best course.  In return for Iran’s empty promise not to build nuclear weapons, Obama lifted the sanctions on Iran, delivered some $1.6 billion in cash to them, which they used to further their nuclear program and to support terrorists, and was willing to accept the notion that Iran, which sits atop a sea of oil, only wanted uranium for nuclear power plants.  Obama actually wanted to set up the Iranian terrorists as the leaders of the Middle East.  Iran took the money, and redoubled its efforts to build nukes.

Trump 45 cancelled the idiotic Obama Iranian payoff plan, and killed Iranian supported terrorists Al Baghdadi and Solemani.  In return, Iran dispatched hit squads to America to kill Trump, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton.

Biden tried, and failed, to reimpose Obama’s Iran deal, and otherwise did nothing to stop their activities.  The score was seven U.S. presidents, all of whom acknowledged the threat presented by the Iranian regime, but who did nothing to reduce the threat, and only one who took action.  That random element was Donald Trump.

Democrats like to say stupid shit like calling Trump “TACO,” as in “Trump Always Chickens Out.”  As with most things Democrat, the truth doesn’t count.  If he doesn’t act he’s TACO.  If he acts he’s a warmonger.  There’s really no pleasing these pricks.  Trump cannot be counted among the “all talk and no action presidents.”  If we have learned anything from the last 10 years, it is that, when Trump makes a promise, he follows through.

And the Iranians should have understood that, in Trump, they weren’t dealing with the succession of presidents who were all talk and no action.  Trump did everything possible to avoid war with Iran.  He sent negotiators to Iran to broker a peace deal.  The terms were clearly set out.  Iran was not to get nuclear weapons, was not to have ballistic missiles, and was not to sponsor terrorism.

Even as these talks went on, Iran murdered some 35,000 protestors who challenged the Khamenei regime.  Chief negotiator Steve Witkoff has revealed that, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has sworn it wants only nuclear power and not nuclear weapons, rejected a U.S. offer to provide reactor fuel free of charge, and boasted that they had enough weapons grade uranium to build eleven atomic bombs.  They told us that they would not stop enriching the uranium needed to make bombs under any circumstances.  There was nothing else to talk about.

Add to this, recently obtained intelligence that suggested that the Chinese were about to provide Iran with hyper-sonic missiles, capable of sinking U.S. warships, and the die was cast.  Iran had it coming, and they got it in spades last Saturday morning.  As Louisiana Senator John Kennedy so aptly put it, “The Ayatollah won the coin toss and elected to receive, and he received more than he bargained for.”

The facts I have outlined herein cried out for immediate action by the U.S.  However, Democrats don’t see it that way.  They call Trump’s actions an illegal war, and are seeking a War Powers Act resolution.  Proving that their only talent is talking, and lying, out of both sides of their mouths, Democrats at once concede that Iran is a bad actor, but claim they presented to imminent threat to the U.S.

They falsely claim that Congress needs to authorize any military action.  Of course, they’re wrong, they’re lying, and they know they’re lying.  However, they also know a compliant media will repeat any lie they tell, and that a significant portion of the public will believe them.

Democrats are relying on the confluence of a deceitful media and a maleducated public, the victims of a “progressive” educational system, that 20 years ago, historian David McCollough complained was producing “generations of historical illiterates.”  Polling suggests that 76% of the public supports the actions taken against Iran.  But if the job takes more than a few weeks, it’s a 50-50 proposition.

This is the result of the fact that we don’t teach history, beyond the Marxist ravings in Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of America, which paints the U.S. as an oppressor nation.  We don’t teach civics to instill a love of country, and a sense of duty in young people, and we have given them no sense of national pride, much less an appreciation for the need for occasional sacrifice.

Elected Democrats have proven themselves to be no better that latter day Quislings.  For these bastards, the military action in Iran is just another opportunity to bash Trump.  In this, they are shameful and despicable.   Aptly named House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Trump has embarked on an illegal and endless war, “which is going to end in failure.”

Putting aside the contradiction inherent in predicting the the end result of a war that he first declared to be endless,” this was an anti-American insult to our troops, who are putting their lives on the line to solve a problem that  politicians like him have avoided for 47 years.

Democrats, eager to oppose anything Trump supports, have chosen the side of Islamic terrorists over American troops, and actually are hoping more Americans are killed to bolster their political ends.  This notion, and these Democrats, are despicable.

There’s no telling whether Trump’s actions will result in a more peaceful Middle East.  If he fails, that’s the time to pile on.  in the meantime, all true Americans should be rooting for our troops, who have performed perfectly, so far.  The fact that these pricks can’t restrain their hatred of Trump for even a little while speaks volumes.  They are not to be trusted.