ALERT🚨: Your complimentary 90-day trial of paid subscriber benefits for War Notes expires TOMORROW!!!!!
What this means‼️: You will lose access to my daily First Dispatch videos, “Things I Tell My Friends” weekend note and being able to share your thoughts on my post.
Congrats to Jason for correctly identifying my weekly homage to Ike: “I believe it’s from the tagline of your email, ‘Things I Tell My Friends.’” Ike had a book called “At Ease: Stories I Tell To Friends.”
The War Notes newsletter will always be free!
What to do☑️: Make sure you upgrade by tomorrow so you don’t miss out on anything
Subscribing to War Notes will make you smarter — and help you impress, surprise and delight your friends at parties with all the knowledge you’ve gained from reading it.
📃Here’s what our readers have to say:
Chris: “Thank you for being exactly how you are and what you are in terms of journalism and reporting. I was looking for an alternative to network news due to its blatant partisanship and I found out with both Bill O and yourself. I am a traditionalist, love America, and thus(especially in today’s political climate) normally a Republican on most(not all) issues. I love how having said that you(who I view similarly) critique, criticize and disagree with at times Trump and GOP......rightfully so. Moderation is needed… Thanks for your hard work and efforts, I’m happy to pay to subscribe!”
Shelley: “I admire your balanced approach, and see you as a true journalist! Right vs wrong; common sense. I see your honest passion for this.”
Lucy: “You are able to tell the truth without being afraid to do so, love your sincerity without being a partisan hack.”
Bill: “I’ve subscribed to War Notes because I value you and your team’s dead-on, unbiased reporting. Your analysis is thorough, and you always maintain a professional, balanced product. And you do it with professional grace and style.”
🙏Thank you for the notes! We want to hear from you about why you are part of the War Notes community.
Programming alert 🚨: “On Balance” will be live from Dallas, Texas, tonight and tomorrow for the Republican Midterm Convention.
Texas-Sized Problems ‼️‼️‼️‼️
‼️Everything is bigger or better in Texas — even the sandwiches — see above from the meat shop in Dallas.
☑️By all measures, Texas is a Texas-sized Republican success
Economic boom
Banishing Woke
Low crime
Massive migration from blue states
The Mexican strawberry and sugar frozen popsicles in every gas station
🤦Yet that’s not the story Donald Trump wants to talk about here in Texas — he wants to talk about Donald Trump
And since he’s president — they will
Look back🔙: Yesterday, I told you about the anger from Republican operatives over Trumpapalooza
“Trumpapalooza is beyond frustrating to guys like me working day and night to win these races!” he wrote in a text message and then went on to bash the two-day affair
This is a story repeated over and over.
Be fair⚖️: Trump became president two of the three times by being himself, making the election about himself and defying every pundit — he knows his supporters.
On the ballot📃: Like Obama voters, Trump supporters are “low propensity” voters — they only turn out for the man.
Trump believes he can convince them to turn out by putting himself on the ballot
Watch tonight📺: Bill O’Reilly on what the midterms are REALLY about — watch his talking points memo here
He makes the point that “no one is voting for a person”; they are voting for a “movement”
So compare the movements — Republicans vs. Democrats — and make a decision
👀In other words — the best thing Republicans have going for them is “un-American” Democrats.
‼️There is a Texas-sized civil war in the Democratic Party over America
Half still says they believe America is a force for good
Half aggressively support policies that are diametrically opposed to American exceptionalism
Watch tonight📺: Marc Short, Corbin Trent and Christian Pascucci on whether Democrats can stop fighting each other long enough to focus on things Americans care about.
Turning up the Heat 💣
💥US forces struck Iranian oil tankers today around Kharg Island.
This is a two-pronged approach — squeeze Iran economically while opening the Strait of Hormuz to traffic America wants and needs to go through.
From a movie‼️: US Navy SEALS spent the last four months secretly blowing up all the mines Iran placed in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Mostly at night, it sent Navy Seal divers, robot boats and specialised underwater craft into the perilous strait for a four-month mine-clearance mission, said people familiar with the operation. The fraught process of explosive device disposal was carried out underwater and in darkness in an attempt to eliminate a crucial factor deterring ships from carrying vital cargoes through the strait since the US and Israel attacked Iran in February,” writes the Financial Times.
Must read📰: The Financial Times headlines: “The risk mission to de-mine the Strait of Hormuz”
Dig deep: This was leaked for a reason —
They’re trying to send a message to Iran ahead of the midterms.
Tonight📺: Vice Adm. Robert Harward on what it’s like doing this kind of mission and why it is being released now.
NAME WARS‼️
🤦Republicans and Democrats have finally figured out how to solve our most important problems — change the name!!!
President Trump gave us the latest example — changing Lake Ontario to Lake America and now wanting to do the same to New Mexico.
Must see📱: “South Park” was quick to jump on it — renaming their show to “South America”
📺Cue the freakout — Democrats and the media have spent the last week freaking out over Trump’s renaming
But guess it becomes all okay when Seattle gunmen are now called “trigger pullers”
Reality‼️: Changing names to change minds has long been a favorite tactic of the Left.
Look back🔙: The Biden administration thought stripping the names of men who’d been dead for 150 years from military bases was going to somehow cure racism.
Or changing the House chairman to “chair” was supposed to cure sexism
Names feed culture wars and do nothing to solve the problems that Americans say over and over they care about.
Tonight📺: My sister Liberty Vittert Capito and NewsNation’s Batya Ungar-Sargon on why our politicians continue to fail us.
If it were possible, I would like to remain a subscriber, but I don't have funds available to pay for your news. I'm a retired Superior Court judge who had to stop practicing as a result of a stroke, and I've not had any income for the past 25 years. But certainly do appreciate what you provide to our society. Secondarily, I'm an advocate for a severely autistic boy and have been fighting for him for the last five years. Regards, Mark Collins
Yeah living on a very tight budget as retired. Husband has pension but no frivolous spending. It is needs not wants. I also don’t like paying for news. After Erik Erickson I like war notes. Good luck.