Iran upped the ante Wednesday when it attempted to seize a British oil tanker, the Heritage, as it was passing through the Strait of Hormuz. This attempt at piracy comes in the wake of threats of retaliation by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani after the Royal Navy impounded an Iranian tanker that was violating U.S. and UN sanctions.

According to the British Defense Ministry, three gunboats operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard attempted to force the Heritage into Iranian waters, where it likely would have been boarded and seized. 

Fortunately for the crew of Heritage, the British frigate HMS Montrose was nearby. The Montrose positioned itself between the tanker and the Iranian vessels, and threatened to open fire. An American aircraft was also on the scene. Outgunned, the Iranians backed off. 

This flagrant violation of international law is a dangerous escalation by Tehran, and an unacceptable threat to global shipping and energy supplies. As shocking as this event is, I am thankful that no lives were lost this time.

But the Iranians have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to attack tankers. We should brace ourselves for far more disturbing headlines in the days to come.

Taking on Big Tech

President Trump met with a select group of conservative activists and leaders at the White House yesterday to discuss ways to combat the bias of Big Tech. It is a well-known fact that the social-media giants — Facebook, Google, and Twitter — not only lean left like the traditional media but sometimes aggressively use their power to censor and silence conservatives.

These companies have aligned themselves with the SPLC, a radical left-wing hate group that equates pro-family groups with the KKK. Big Tech is letting the SPLC and other far-left groups dictate online speech codes. I have been working with Brent Bozell and our friends at the Free Speech Alliance to fight this blatant bias.

This fight to defend free speech is going to have tremendous implications in the weeks and months ahead. Big Tech was in the tank for Hillary Clinton in 2016. And it is even more determined to defeat Donald Trump in 2020. 

If you’re looking for a social-media alternative, allow me to introduce you to AllSocial. You can easily post on other platforms, you won’t be censored, and your data is secure!

You can follow me on AllSocial here.

Carlson & Pelosi

What do conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have in common? Not much. But both are being attacked by out-of-control progressives playing the race card.

Cries of “Racism!” are the bazooka the Left has deployed for years against conservatives. The progressive movement, fueled by rapidly changing demographics and an academic elite that believes America is evil, is increasingly resorting to charges of racism whenever it is losing a debate (which is often). It’s nonsense.

If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley were white, I would still oppose them. It has nothing to do with the color of their skin or their country of origin, but everything to do with their radical ideology. 

The positions they are taking, if implemented, would turn America into the kind of mess that many immigrants, such as Omar’s family, are desperate to escape.

Wednesday, AOC pulled out the bazooka and trained her sights on Nancy Pelosi. As we noted, Pelosi told the “Progressive Squad” during a closed-door meeting to stop attacking their fellow party members and airing the caucus’s dirty laundry on social media. 

Ocasio-Cortez was furious. Once again airing her party’s dirty laundry, she told The Washington Post that Pelosi’s “persistent singling out of newly elected women of color” was “just outright disrespectful." 

Again, this has nothing to do with race or "color." 

Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar, who spent the Fourth of July downplaying America’s greatness, was challenged by Tucker Carlson in his nightly monologue. Among other things, he said she was a "living fire alarm." 

Predictably, Omar played the race card by calling Carlson "a racist fool,” and is now leading a campaign to pressure advertisers to drop Carlson’s show.

Wednesday night, Carlson responded to Omar’s slander and the Left’s attacks by calling out their increasing anti-Americanism. Here’s some of what he said:

Like many of you, we’ve been watching with amazement and alarm as the leaders of the Democratic Party, day after day, attack the country they say they want to govern… That should worry you.  No country can survive being ruled by people who hate it.  We deserve better…

Americans like immigrants, but immigrants have got to like us back. That’s the key, it’s essential. Otherwise, the country falls apart… We made that point last night… Needless to say, the left went berserk…

Ayaan Hirsi Ali would, by the standard of identity politics, seem to have everything in common with Ilhan Omar.  She was born in Somalia, moved to Kenya and eventually came to this country.  Unlike Omar, she loves and cares about the United States. She believes this country is superior to the country she came from.  For saying that, the left despises her.

Two Somali immigrants, one among the most impressive people in America. The other, among the least. It’s not about race.

Kudos to Carlson for his unapologetic defense of America and his clear call for commonsense immigration reform and assimilation!

More Debates, Please

Emerson College released a new poll conducted after the Democrat primary debates. Compared to their June pre-debate standings:

• Biden dropped four points.

• Sanders dropped 12 points.

• Elizabeth Warren moved up one point.

• Kamala Harris moved up seven points, nearly doubling her support.

The result is Biden leading at 30%, with Sanders, Warren, and Harris all bunched together in a three-way tie for second at 15%. No other candidate received double-digit support.

But there was another very telling result. According to Professor Spencer Kimball, Emerson College’s polling director:

It looks like Trump was a winner from the Democratic debate, as his head-to-heads tightened by about 5 points against all the leading Democratic candidates.

By the way, Emerson College isn’t the only polling outfit finding that President Trump’s ratings are suddenly going up. The latest ABC/Washington Post poll, also conducted after the Democrat debates, found that the president’s approval rating surged to “its highest level since he took office.”

In other words, the more the voters see and hear the Democrats, the better Trump looks! In view of these results, I am calling for NIGHTLY Democrat debates.