The Morning Briefing: Never Forget, Florence Update, Trump Economy, and Much, Much More

Happy Tuesday morning!

Rosh Hashanah ends tonight, so Liz will be back tomorrow. It’s a Jewish New Year, but also the anniversary of…

Never Forget

Seventeen years ago this morning, four coordinated terrorist attacks claimed the lives of 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 more, and changed the New York skyline forever.

James Woods tweeted the picture of the World Trade Center’s last sunset.

The last sunset, September 10, 2001 pic.twitter.com/yLXyvzw1vq

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 11, 2018

I’ll always remember the bus ride to school that morning (I lived in Colorado at the time), and seeing a rough sketch of the twin towers drawn on a napkin. Only when I finally got to school did I see footage of the World Trade Center crashing to the earth.

Naturally, the attacks didn’t just hit New York City. American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, now about two miles away from my apartment. Last, but not least, brave Americans helped derail Flight 93, which many have suggested was heading toward the White House.

September 11, 2001, was the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement in the history of the United States, with 343 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers killed on that day. My father, a volunteer fireman, is returning from a trip preparing for wildfires in the West. Had we lived in the New York City area in 2001, he may not have come home alive.

These attacks were inspired by radical Islamic terrorism, a vile and evil ideology of terror in the name of spreading Islam. For eight years, America had a president who would not say those words. His FBI actively obscured this terrorist ideology, and altered the transcript of a phone call from Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen to read “God” instead of “Allah.”

Obama orchestrated the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, leaving a divided country that fostered the Islamic State, which has inspired terrorist attacks across the globe.

Under President Trump, America will not fear to utter those words. Instead, the Resistance fights tooth and nail against a temporary travel ban from countries of terror concern (which included non-Muslim countries), calling this a “Muslim ban.”

Islam is a diverse religion. Even so, its founder pushed expansion by the sword, and Islam spread across the Middle East through conquest in a mirror image of the way Christianity spread through conversion and ministering to the sick and dying. (Christianity did also spread through conquest, but not for the first 300 years of its remarkable growth in the Roman Empire.)

Fighting radical Islam and fostering a peaceful, patriotic Islam that accepts the separation of sharia (Islamic law) and state are fundamentally important. So many American Muslims want nothing to do with terrorism, but the link between radical Islam and terrorism cannot be denied.

On another September 11, defense contractors fought for their lives against a horde of terrorists in Benghazi, Libya. Over the weekend, Kris “Tanto” Paronto was suspended from Twitter.

On September 12, 1683, the Ottoman Turks suffered a historic defeat at the hands of Polish King Jan Sobieski. In this second great Siege of Vienna, Islam’s expansion into Europe was halted once ~~and for all~~. It is feasible that the terrorists chose September 11 to reverse the historical resonance of that great defeat.

Hurricane Florence

Even as Americans remember a tragic moment in history, we are also preparing for an impending tragedy on the East Coast. Hurricane Florence is set to make landfall on Thursday morning, but the first effects of the storm will hit the East Coast tomorrow night.

Don't concentrate on the exact forecast track of Hurricane #Florence. Significant effects will extend outside the cone, and will arrive at the coast sooner than the eye. For more information about impacts at your specific location, go to https://t.co/SiZo8ozBbn pic.twitter.com/EXWr4Cb4NC

— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 10, 2018

A storm surge, flooding, and hurricane-force winds will hit the Carolinas and the Mid-Atlantic. Be prepared for power outages, damage, and reduced mobility, especially if you live near the coast. Turn to local media for more information.

Our prayers are with you, and I fully expect a Carolina Navy to emerge from the wreckage. Let’s show the world how America responds to tragedy.

The Trump economy.

Former President Barack Obama has taken credit for the strong economy at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s term, so Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, came out to disprove these claims at yesterday’s White House press briefing.

Since Trump took office, new business applications have surged, business conditions have improved sharply, capital goods orders and shipments have increased sharply, business investment has spiked, and blue-collar jobs grew 3.3 percent in the year through July, the fastest rate since 1984. Prime-age workers are re-entering the labor force and finding jobs.

Let’s just say that a lot more is going on than a “continuation” of any positive Obama trends.

Video of the day.

The Siege of Vienna in 1683 was the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s battles in The Lord of the Rings. In honor of that great victory over the Turks, here’s one of my favorite clips from the Peter Jackson film trilogy.