Things I Tell My Friends

Still Counting in California

Welcome to week 2 of Things I Tell My Friends Sunday evening email – typos are all mine!

See you tomorrow for our First Dispatch video – make sure to leave comments with what you are liking and (not) liking about the move to Substack!

Do your friends a favor and tell them to subscribe at WarNotes.com — they will thank you! Plus if they sign up before Tuesday they get founding member privileges!

Lucky Guy - A big thank you to my wife (Rachel) for a most wonderful first year of marriage - yes, I played golf on our anniversary.

Reality check: we both got a bunch of “congratulations” texts – I feel she deserves congratulations for putting up with me – not sure what i deserve congratulations for?!?!

Plans: We are cooking one of our favorite dinners together – Shakshuka.

Try it yourself — this is a good base recipe

Modify: We use a little butter to saute the veggies, add a couple of fresh chopped tomatoes and strain the canned tomatoes.

Plus: rather than poach the eggs all together make individual servings by putting the veggie base in ramekins and crack 2 or 3 eggs on top – bake till done

Serve with bacon and baguette.

Breaking - Iran hits Israel with a massive barrage of ballistic missiles.

Prediction: This will prove to be a massive miscalculation by Iranian leadership ‘

Middle school rules: the middle east is a sandbox - if you get pushed you must hit back.

For all those who say Israel/Netanyahu control America/Trump please explain trump all but forcing Netanyahu NOT to respond.

Read Trump’s demand from Barak Ravid

Trump continues to claim we are just around the corner to a deal with Iran – there is nothing to indicate Iran is any closer to meeting the basic demands of peace.

Irony: Iran says the attack is in response to Israel bombing Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Be smart: Hezbollah hit Israeli cities to provoke a response and then a pretext for Iran to launch attacks.

For decades Iran claimed no affiliation or control of Hezbollah – now that the organization is dying they are launching missiles to save it.

Go deeper: the Iranian regime is far weaker and more fractured than most cable tv pundits would like you to believe

The iranian regime needs another round of fighting to justification the suffering of its own people

Full coverage tomorrow night – there is LOTS to discuss.

Credit where credit is due - Trump is the first US president to understand Iran NOT the Israel/Palestinian conflict is the root of all problems in the middle east.

Click: Best thing I have read in a while: Everyone is Lying to You

It is a systematic take down of the Palestinian victimhood playbook.

D-Day - It is impossible not to be proud of America when we think back to June 6th and 7th 1944.

The stories of heroism are everywhere but the more I learn about Gen Ted Roosevelt the more i want to know

Read briefly about the only man with general’s stars to land in the first wave.

Preview: We are heading to Normandy later this month for research on a new book.

Personal: My grandfather landed a few days after DDay and spent the war in Eisenhower’s headquarters company – Ike is one of the most remarkable and under-appreciated presidents.

At Ease: the name the weekend email comes from Eisenhower’s book “At Ease: Stories i tell to Friends”

Go Deeper: I have spent much of the weekend reliving DDay as it happened with historian Alex Kershaw’s writing,

California Counting: One thing is clear from the California election – you don’t need to cheat when you write the rules.

The most telling part of the California story is democrats complete lack of desire to reform a system that invites massive fraud in the name of protecting voting rights.

Almost a week since the election:

They still aren’t done counting

Ballots are still coming in

The percentages of newly received ballots are wildly different than before the election

Obama Legacy: Barack Obama’s dividing/demonizing America/Americans while sounding sanctimonious knows no bounds.

Read his treatise ahead of America 250:

There isn’t any dream beyond our reach, any obstacle that can stand in our way, when we recognize that our individual liberty is served, not negated, by pursuit of the common good

My summary: Socialism is necessary to fulfill the American promise – woof.

Opportunity Lost: So many of us watched Barack Obama’s 2004 DNC speech - and had genuine hope for a black president to move America past racial divisions.