Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Iran on the Brink — Hopefully 🙏

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NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight's 9 p.m. ET show, delivered straight to your inbox.

Hello Chicago👋: I want to see you this Saturday, January 17, at Kenilworth Union Church.

✏️The GREAT Ben Bradley of WGN-TV will interview me, and then, I'll be signing copies of "Born Lucky" from 2 to 3 p.m.
- 📚Click HERE to RSVP.

Oprah Obesity: Oprah Winfrey says obesity is something people can't control.

Should we look at obesity as we do high blood pressure — predisposed and have medication?
- 💸Thus, Ozempic should be free for everyone?
- Big money 💰: Tom Brady now has a GLP-1 company
Watch tonight 📺: Fitness great and our friend Jillian Michaels!

And Then What(?)

‼️Few people hate the ayatollah more than me — but it's only fair to ask "AND THEN WHAT?" once he's rightfully delivered to hell.

🎤The ayatollah says he will start hanging protesters tomorrow.
- 🚨More Muslims have died because of the ayatollah than any other reason.
- 🚨Much of the world's evil comes from Iran
- Iran has a long history as a real country and an ally to the U.S. and Israel (i.e., not a genocidal theocracy), so let's get started!
🗣️President Trump is telling protesters just wait.
- 🎤Trump: "Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. "
  - 🤷What exact help?
‼️The only option here is regime change, and then what?
- The world would be a safer place without the ayatollah.
- 🤷But the "Then what?" is at the very least a reasonable question.
Just pathetic 🤦: As we reported last night, college campuses are silent, Zohran Mamdani is off pushing socialism
- 👀Where is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Mehdi Hasan, the Young Turks and everybody else who cares so much about all the slaughter of "innocent" Muslims in Gaza?
  - Best takes 🏅: Former spokesman to Israel's prime minister David Keyes —
    - 🎤Keyes: "92 million Iranians simultaneously apply for Palestinian citizenship so someone might say a f**king word about what's happening to them
  - Debra Lea —
    - 🎤"While Iranian women risk their lives for freedom, white liberal women are calling them Islamophobic. Brainwashed beyond belief!"
  - ✏️UN Watch post on X.

Watch tonight📺: Nazee Moinian, Elliot Ackerman and Jonathan Wachtel on what the day after the regime change in Iran will look like.

Soccer Mom Radicals + Joe Rogan ⚽

‼️The usual blue-haired loons have a new group of radicals on the front lines against ICE — soccer moms. Trump supporter and podcaster Joe Rogan gets it.

🎤Rogan: "You don't want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching up people — many of which turn out to be U.S. citizens that just don't have their papers on them. Are we really gonna be the Gestapo? 'Where's your papers?' Is that what we've come to?"
📰The New York Post headlines "Soccer moms are taking up a dangerous new hobby — becoming ICE saboteurs."
- ✏️The New York Post writes, "Since Good's death last week, there are videos of women punching ICE vehicles in Minneapolis, aggressively confronting agents. Some are acting out for the cameras, obviously hoping for social media cred or perhaps communion with other social justice types in their neighborhoods. One mother, who brought her baby to a protest in Minneapolis, told a reporter she wanted her to 'feel the energy.'
  - ✏️"Angie Vargas, a self-professed 'soccer mom' in California who makes videos of her trailing ICE vehicles in her car, has more than 226,000 TikTok followers and a fawning profile in The Nation. She set up a GoFundMe that's raised over $123K."
- 🤷What are these moms picking up on?
- 🤷These moms aren't blue-haired lunatics; they are soccer moms.
  - What have they been convinced of that isn't true?
  - What are they missing in the story?
  - Moms are feeling something, but what is it?
Hottest take🔥: A friend's text to "War Notes" —-
- "WOMEN SHOWING UP WITH THEIR BABIES AND CHILDREN TO PROTEST ICE IS 💯 CHILD ENDANGERMENT! TOTAL LUNACY ON BEHALF OF THE PARENTS. THEY SHOULD BE ARRESTED AND EVALUATED FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES!!!"

Watch tonight📺: Former acting Director of ICE Ronald Vitiello on how we prevent more people being killed by ICE.

The Autistic Barbie

Barbie is out with a new doll that is autistic – she essentially defines autistic people as those who can't make eye contact, use a fidget spinner and need a board to communicate.

🤷What if they came out with a black doll who ate stereotypical foods or a Muslim doll that was one of multiple wives?
- 🗣️We would be calling Mattel racist and Islamophobic…
  - 😶Ha. I would say what if they came out with a Jewish doll that loved money, but being antisemitic is sadly OK for much of the world ... I digress.
- 🤦But you're allowed to make stereotypes about people with autism?
  - This is coming from people who say we are supposed to be inclusive.
  - ‼️If we teach kids that they can be accepted for their differences, we are lying to them.
    - 🤦Celebrating quirks is not helpful for people.

I have worked the past 40 years of my life trying to make eye contact with people.

📗Yes, this is personal — as you know, I was diagnosed with what we now know to be autism as a child. My book "Born Lucky" is about my dad working to adapt me to the world, not the world to me.
- ‼️Eye contact was a big part of that.
🌎This is how the world communicates — telling kids "you be you" and here is a doll like you doesn't help them want to be more.
🤷It's great to make accommodations, but if we have two people in a job interview and one can't make eye contact and walks in with their fidget spinner — you know who will get the job.

WATCH ON BALANCE WEEKNIGHTS AT 9P/8C

Every night during On Balance, Leland Vittert asks "why?" about the most pressing matters of the day, with an intellectual, balanced and sometimes irreverent take on the news.

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