Happy New Year, Premium Members! Bill’s podcast today was about stories that will tell everyone what's going to happen over the course of the next 12 months. 

The first big story is the midterm election in November. Donald Trump has got a razor thin, one-vote margin in the Senate. If the economy stays at the pace it is, the House will be safe for the Republicans. But it is very possible that the Republicans could lose the Senate.

Bill moves on to talk about the deadly protests in Iran. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tried to downplay the significance of the violent protests across his country that began on Thursday. The protests have left at least 20 people dead in the biggest challenge to the authority of the Tehran regime since mass demonstrations in 2009. 

The protests were sparked by concerns about rising living costs and a stagnant economy, but developed into a broader outcry against the regime. 

In all, about 200 people have so far been arrested in Tehran since the protests began. 

Bill’s second biggest story for 2018 isPresident Trump withholding $255 million in aid to Pakistan, as he accuses the country of giving a 'safe haven' to terrorists.

On Monday, President Trump, in his first tweet of 2018, said that the United States “has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.” 

“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” the president tweeted. 

Shortly after President Trump’s tweet, Pakistan's government held an emergency security meeting. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired the National Security Council meeting, attended by the country's Foreign, Interior and Defense Ministers, along with chiefs of staff of the army, navy and air force. 

Meanwhile, around 200 members of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council, a coalition of Islamist parties, demonstrated Tuesday against Trump in Karachi, holding "Dump Trump" placards and burning the American flag. 

The Pakistani government has yet to issue a formal response, though on Monday, US Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the foreign ministry to meet with senior foreign office officials, a US Embassy spokesman confirmed. 

Another big story this year will be the media’s continuing jihad on President Trump. Bill says that it’sCNN who has taken over the mantle of attacking President Trump. Instead of analyzing Iran and Pakistan, they're back to focusing on Russia. So, it seems like 2018 is facing a lot of anti-Trump media again. 

Bill brings up the crime statistics of New York City versus Chicago.Last year, there were 644 murders in Chicago which is down from 754 murders in 2016. So, while that number is decreasing it’s still astronomical. During 2017, in New York City, there were 284 murders, which is a record low.

In New York City in 2017, 774 shootings were reported. In Chicago, there were 2,785! 

While Chicago is doing a little bit better than 2016, their crime rates still surpass most cities. So what's the difference? In New York City police officers are doing their job. They have units called Gun Suppression Units which are full of New York City detectives whose only job is to suppress guns. 

Now, what people need to understand is that if you go to Chicago and you’re having dinner on Rush street, you're not going to get shot. The crime is happening in the poor, black neighborhoods, So, what do you do? Bill says calling for the National Guard would have already put a stop to this, but Chicago hasn’t done that. The Midwestern city is putting more police in the neighborhoods where adults and children are being shot, which would explain why their crime statistics have decreased. Hopefully, the statistics will continue to go down. 

Going into 2018 a huge story was the frigid temperatures that swept the nation. Over New Year's weekend in Embarrass, Minnesota it was -45 degrees. In Bangor, Maine, it was -24 degrees. In Wausau, Wisconsin, -4 degrees. Flint, Michigan was -11 degrees. New York City, was a toasty 9 degrees. In Boston, it was 5 degrees, and Buffalo was 8 degrees. Now, that's without the wind chill. That's just temperatures. 

There is a difference between winter and climate change. Bill believes in climate change because he says that he’s seen the temperature difference. Now, it doesn't get any colder up in the Northeast than it is right now, but the thing is that we don't know whether this is a natural cycle of the planet or not. This has happened many, many times before, as every scientist knows, the climate gets colder, it gets warmer, or because of all of the gunk we put in the air, particularly India and China, the two worst offenders on the planet. 

Bill then brought up the controversy over the Drexel University associate professor, George Ciccariello-Maher. On December 24, 2016, the professor tweeted, "All I want for Christmas is white genocide." The tweet went viral, with many conservative websites calling for Drexel to fire Ciccariello-Maher. Drexel condemned the tweet at the time, but didn't fire him. Then, in March of 2017, Ciccariello-Maher tweeted, “Some guy gave up his first-class seat for a uniformed soldier. People are thanking him. I’m trying not to vomit or yell about Mosul.” 

George Ciccariello-Maher, who taught politics and global studies at Drexel University, announced his resignation Thursday on Twitter, writing that “After Dec. 31, 2017, I will no longer work at Drexel University.” 

Ciccariello-Maher has been teaching his class at Drexel remotely via video conference after the university put him on administrative leave in October.

Ciccariello-Maher tweeted that, "After nearly a year of harassment by right-wing, white supremacist media outlets and internet mobs, after death threats and threats of violence directed against me and my family, my situation has become unsustainable," he wrote on Twitter. "Staying at Drexel in the eye of this storm has become detrimental to my own writing, speaking and organizing."

Finally, a federal court has ruled that a high school football player in California can't be forced by his school district to stand during the national anthem before football games. The student, identified as a Native American football player and referred to in court documents as "V.A.," was emulating NFL players who protest police brutality and racism during the national anthem before games, the news outlet reported. 

The San Pasquale Valley Unified School District passed rules banning protests during the anthem after students at a majority-white neighboring school yelled racial slurs at San Pasquale Valley High School students when the player knelt during the anthem before a game, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

The federal court granted a preliminary injunction stopping the school from implementing its rules, finding that they violated V.A.’s 1st Amendment right to political expression. Schools have the authority to curb speech only when the expressions threaten to disrupt a school’s educational mission, the ruling said. 

V.A.’s attorneys will now be seeking a permanent injunction. It was unclear whether the school district would appeal. School district officials could not be reached for comment on Friday. 

Bill agrees with the ruling saying that if V.A. wants to protest and not stand up for the anthem, as an American, it doesn't have anything to do with education. It's an extracurricular activity. He has the right to do it. Bill says that he would have ruled the same way. Now, is V.A. being disrespectful to the flag? Yes, he is. Absolutely. He should be engaged in conversation at that level. You're being disrespectful to your country, disrespectful of the flag, you're insulting a lot of veterans and lot of police officers who may come to our games at San Pasquale high school. So you know what you're doing, you can do this in another way that wouldn't be as in your face or offensive.

Mail Time!

• "Bill, we need the Talking Points Memo. Come on. Not the same without it, taking our show back."
• Every segment is the talking points memo. I don't brand it talking points memo, but that's what we do. This is a half hour talking points memo. I mean, I just segment it out into different stories. But I don't say this is the talking points memo. What I lead with is the most important thing I think you should know about that day. But the whole thing is a talking points memo. And that's the fun of it for me.
• "Mr. O, Happy New Year to you and your staff. I, as most concerned citizens, would really like to know what the real beef is with the news media and President Trump."

• Two things. President Trump has moved into the conservative precincts and obviously that is anathema, word of the day, anathema, to the media chieftains, particularly people like Jeff Bezos, the New York Times Sulzberger clan. They are devoted liberals. So when you move into the conservative areas, they don't like you. The second thing is style. You know, everybody has a certain view of what a president should be and how they should behave. The press thinks that Donald Trump's a vulgarian. And so, the combination of ideology and style has got them into a frenzy. 

• "I just listened again to the Bernie Goldberg Skype session for December 19th. You're a thousand percent correct, Bill, in calling the press omission of the Lisa Bloom and other stories intentional. This is the style I miss on cable but now enjoy as a Premium Member. Keep calling things out."
• I will. I mean, we don't have any compunction about doing that. You know, we tell you the truth. You know, it's why I want you to spread the word with your friends and everybody you know, you're not getting the truth in the main stream news. They call it fake news, not so much fake, it's just partisan news. That's a better word than fake.

Word of the Day: Witling