President Trump announced yesterday that the ceasefire in Syria between the Turks and the Kurds is holding and appears to be permanent. In addition, the president strongly defended his approach and fought back against critics who suggest we should continue to occupy parts of the region. Here’s what he said:

Turkey, Syria and all forms of the Kurds have been fighting for centuries. We have done them a great service … and now we’re getting out… Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand…

American forces defeated 100% of the ISIS caliphate during the last two years… Now Turkey, Syria and others in the region must work to ensure that ISIS does not regain any territory…

There were some political pundits who responded to Turkey’s offensive in Syria by calling for yet another American military intervention. I don’t think so… The same people I have watched and read giving me and the United States advice were the people … [who] got us into the Middle East mess but never had the courage and vision to get us out…

And then the president nailed the swamp’s hypocrisy with this statement:

The same people pushing for these wars are often the ones demanding America open its doors to unlimited migration from war-torn regions, importing the terrorism and threat of terrorism right to own shores. But not anymore. My administration understands that immigration security is national security.

The Speech Police

You may have noticed that the president was being attacked all day Tuesday. That’s nothing new given the left’s state of perpetual outrage. But what triggered Tuesday’s outbursts of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” was the president’s reference to the impeachment inquiry as a “lynching.”

Leading the charge was Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who has also been leading the impeachment charge since the earliest days of Trump’s presidency. Here’s what Green said Tuesday:

How dare the president compare lynching to impeachment. How dare he do this… It makes you no better than those who burn crosses. It makes you no better than those who wear hoods and white robes.

Predictably, some Republicans ran to microphones to condemn the president. If only they weren’t so desperate to prove to the press that they are not like Trump, they might not look so foolish today.

Within hours, there were multiple reports of Democrats referring to Bill Clinton’s impeachment as a lynching. For example:

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) accused Republicans of running “a lynch mob” in 1998.

Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) said, “I will not vote for this lynching in the people’s House.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-IL) said, “What we are doing here is not a prosecution. It’s a persecution. And indeed, it is a political lynching.”

And then there was this golden oldie: “Even if the president should be impeached, history is going to question whether or not this was just a partisan lynching…” That was from then-Sen. Joe Biden.

Incredibly, Biden apologized Tuesday night for saying the word “lynching,” and insisted that Trump chose the word “deliberately” to “stoke racial divides.”

But the only ones stoking racial divides are the hypocritical left-wing speech police! Democrats can say “lynching” but Trump can’t? Sure, that sounds rational — just like Pelosi’s impeachment charade.

By the way, 30 Republican congressman yesterday “stormed” a hearing room where Adam Schiff was again taking testimony in his kangaroo court. They staged a “sit in” and forced Schiff to shut down the hearing. Good for them! Keep it up!

Strings Attached

We also just went through another 24-hour debate about the meaning of quid pro quo, triggered by Tuesday’s closed-door testimony in the impeachment inquiry.

The thrust of the Democrats’ main charge appears to be: The president held back aid from Ukraine unless they agreed to investigate corruption in 2016 that might touch on some Democrats, including Joe Biden.

Not every American realizes this, so I want to say it clearly: Anybody who thinks that foreign aid does not come with strings attached does not understand how the system works. In fact, it would be an outrage if the government was giving aid (your tax money) and didn’t try to get something beneficial for the U.S. in return as a condition of the aid.

Democrats certainly attached a lot of strings to our foreign aid. In fact, the strings attached by an administration speak volumes about its priorities.

For example, Obama ordered his diplomats to make “women’s reproductive rights” (abortion) and the promotion of gay rights a condition of foreign aid.

In contrast, President Trump has said, “I’m going to cut aid to NATO unless NATO nations start paying their fair share for their defense.” Trump has said that his administration will look at violations of religious liberty when deciding whether we give foreign aid to countries.

The irony is that in the case of Ukraine the president did not insist on a quid pro quo, but he did ask for assistance in the corruption probe regarding what happened in Ukraine in 2016. And the Ukrainian leaders have denied feeling pressured or threatened.

It’s a non-story that Obama pushed countries to redefine marriage or embrace the killing of unborn children as a price of U.S. aid. It’s a non-story that Joe Biden made an explicit quid pro quo involving $1 billion of U.S. aid for the firing of a prosecutor investigating the company that employed his son.

But it’s an outrage, an impeachable offense even, that Trump wants to get to the bottom of the corruption that occurred in 2016.

NBA Feels the Heat

Tuesday night was the opening night of the NBA’s 2019-2020 season. I am pleased to say that the NBA got an earful from thousands of fans regarding its craven appeasement of communist China and its sellout of American values.

Thousands of pro-Hong Kong T-shirts were handed out at the Toronto Raptors/New Orleans Pelicans game. The same thing happened at the Lakers/Clippers game.

I’m also pleased to report that Shaquille O'Neal is speaking up for free speech. Asked about the controversy triggered by Rocket’s general manager Daryl Morey, O'Neal took a veiled shot at Lebron James, who suggested Morey was uninformed. Here’s what O'Neal said:

One of our best values here in America is free speech. We’re allowed to say what we want to say. We are allowed to speak out on injustices and that’s just how it goes…

You’ve got people speaking when they don’t know what they’re talking about. Daryl Morey was right. Whenever you see anything wrong going on anywhere in the world, you should have the right to say that’s not right.

Is She Running?

Whenever similar stories appear in both The Washington Post and The New York Times within 24 hours, it’s usually a clear sign that someone has planted the “news” and is trying to get their narrative out.

Both papers have stories about anxious Democrats fretting over 2020 and looking for new candidates. Really? Democrats only started out with two dozen candidates and have “narrowed” it down to about 10. Now they want more.

But who else could possibly still be out there waiting in the wings for a shot at the White House? Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton said it was really important for her party to “nominate the best candidate.” She is reportedly telling friends that she would do it again if she can find an opening.

Other names being mentioned include: Michelle Obama, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.