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Title: The Patriot Post Digest 6-21-2017 Post by: nChrist on June 21, 2017, 03:41:34 PM ________________________________________ The Patriot Post Digest 6-21-2017 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription (http://patriotpost.us/subscription/new) ________________________________________ Mid-Day Digest Jun. 21, 2017 IN TODAY’S EDITION Despite record spending, Democrats still couldn’t pull off a special election win in Georgia. What massive voter fraud? Oh, that massive voter fraud. The Supreme Court is going to look at a gerrymandering case. That’s really unusual. Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts. THE FOUNDATION “It behooves you, therefore, to think and act for yourself and your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors.” —Thomas Jefferson (1775) TOP RIGHT HOOKS Georgia ‘Deplorables’ Tossoff Ossoff1 Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in Tuesday’s special election for Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District, in what was both the most expensive and most watched congressional campaign in history. The victory is astounding given the “pollaganda effect2” — the heavy media coverage in the last two weeks giving Ossoff the lead. It’s a replay of how wrong the DemoMSM propagandists3 were in 2016. Astoundingly, there was more than $50 million spent in this election by the candidates and special interest groups — $20 million more than the previous congressional record. Ossoff, who collected most of his funding from rich liberals in California and Massachusetts, outspent Handel 7-1 — and still couldn’t pull it off. Democrats insisted, right up until Handel’s victory, that this election was a referendum on Donald Trump4, but it is more a referendum on the Democrats’ failure to understand Americans outside the Beltway and their elitist East Coast urban centers. Yes, this was Dr. Tom Price’s district (now Trump’s HHS Secretary), but if this was just about Trump, his low approval rating should have opened the door wide for a Democrat win — especially given that Trump only won the district by a narrow 1.5% margin last year. But Handel defeated Ossoff with a 5% margin — so much for the Democrats’ blustering about “narrowing victory margins.” Political commentator Tucker Carlson nailed it: “Democrats still have no idea why they keep losing elections. If they did, they would have run a real candidate, with a real job who understands the constituents he is attempting to represent.” Meanwhile, in a little watched House election in South Carolina, Republican Ralph Normal defeated Democrat Archie Parnell. Demos are now 0 for 4 in special elections since 2016. The ‘Voter Fraud Doesn’t Exist’ Claim Is on Shaky Ground5 In January, our Thomas Gallatin explored a deeply troubling question that threatens the integrity of this nation’s electoral system: “Just how much voting fraud does exist?6” Nobody can say for certain. As Gallatin pointed out, “If no comprehensive investigations are done, then the argument merely continues to be the spitting contest it currently has become.” That’s what prompted Donald Trump to form the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity7. The commission is evaluating both voter fraud and voter suppression. Democrats clamor a lot over the latter, with Hillary Clinton even going so far as to blame voter suppression for November’s humiliating defeat8. (That and the Russians, of course.) But leftists don’t share the same concern when it comes to voter fraud. No wonder then there was an uproar when Trump suggested that somewhere between three and five million illegal votes were potentially cast during the 2016 election. There’s no immediately available proof, of course, but that’s a claim the commission can and should examine. After all, independent evidence suggests Trump’s assertion is not rooted in hyperbole. According to The Washington Times, “The research organization Just Facts … revealed its number-crunching in a report on national immigration. Just Facts President James D. Agresti and his team looked at data from an extensive Harvard/YouGov study that every two years questions a sample size of tens of thousands of voters. … He estimated that as many as 7.9 million noncitizens were illegally registered [in 2008] and 594,000 to 5.7 million voted. … For 2012, Just Facts said, 3.2 million to 5.6 million noncitizens were registered to vote and 1.2 million to 3.6 million of them voted.” Assuming these statistics are anywhere near accurate, it’s not a stretch at all to suggest, as Trump did, that up to five million illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton. It’s possible it was even higher. This is the kind of information the Left wants kept in the dark. There’s no telling what the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity will conclude. But based on what a growing number of studies are discovering, don’t be surprised if it finds that significant voter fraud exists to the extent Just Facts suspects. Top Headlines9 Judicial Watch: Susan Rice’s unmasking documents of Trump team now sealed at Obama Library. How convenient. (CNS News10) Shake-up underway: Sean Spicer leaving White House podium for behind-the-scenes role. (The Washington Times11) Humor: Trump picks Alex Jones as new press secretary. (The Babylon Bee12) ISIS setting up support networks to move terrorists to Europe and Asia. (The Washington Free Beacon13) Jihadi shot dead during terror attack in Belgium. (The Guardian14) Poland shuts border to Islamic migrants to keep terrorists out. (CNS News15) 67% of Hispanics in U.S. 15 years or more are functionally illiterate. (Washington Examiner16) Philando Castile dash-cam footage released. (National Review17) Colin Kaepernick: The cops are pretty much like fugitive slave patrols, you know. (Hot Air18.) Chelsea Clinton takes first step toward political run. (The Washington Free Beacon19) Policy: The constitutional crisis that almost was. (American Enterprise Institute20) Policy: North Korea must pay a massive price for Otto’s murder. (Hudson Institute21) For more, visit Patriot Headline Report22. FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS The Supreme Court to Vote on Gerrymandering23 By Louis DeBroux In somewhat of a surprise announcement, the Supreme Court agreed Monday to review a Wisconsin case to determine whether gerrymandered congressional district maps24 violate the Constitution’s 1st and 14th Amendments. The Court has traditionally avoided such cases, deeming them the purview of the political branches. The outcome could have a tremendous impact on the American electoral process. Those who are not political or history wonks may be unfamiliar with the term “gerrymandering.” The term was first used in the March 26, 1812, edition of the Boston Gazette. A portmanteau of “Gerry” and “salamander,” it was used to describe the Massachusetts state Senate districts that were drawn by the Democratic-Republicans under Governor Elbridge Gerry, in which his party successfully created election districts that stayed in his party’s hands despite losing the state House and governorship. One of these districts resembled the shape of the mythical salamander. In the Wisconsin case, a dozen plaintiffs from across the state claimed “Republican legislative leaders authorized a secretive and exclusionary mapmaking process aimed at securing for their party a large advantage that would persist no matter what happened in future elections.” A three-judge panel ruled last year in the plaintiffs’ favor, declaring the Republican redistricting plan was partisan enough to effectively disenfranchise some voters. The state of Wisconsin has appealed this ruling to the Supreme Court. Title: The Patriot Post Digest 6-21-2017 Post by: nChrist on June 21, 2017, 03:42:42 PM ________________________________________ The Patriot Post Digest 6-21-2017 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription (http://patriotpost.us/subscription/new) ________________________________________ Notably, this case was not brought before the federal courts until July 2015, after Republicans had taken control of state government from the Democrats. Wisconsin has long been a Democrat stronghold which, until Donald Trump narrowly won in 2016, had not voted for a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan won the state. Wisconsin’s state-level gains for the GOP are a microcosm of America generally, where Republicans made tremendous advances. During Barack Obama’s disastrous tenure, the GOP picked up nearly a thousand state legislative seats, control of two-thirds of state legislative chambers, 63 House seats, and 10 U.S. Senate seats. The Democrat Party is at its weakest electoral position25 in nearly a century, and is desperate for a way to reverse these losses. The courts have largely refused to intervene in gerrymandering disputes26 in the past, primarily because the drawing of such districts is an inherently political act. For the courts to intervene would be to substitute the opinion of the judiciary for the opinion of the elected branches. As Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter warned in Colegrove v. Green (1946), “Courts ought not to enter this political thicket. … The fulfillment of this duty cannot be judicially enforced.” When the Court has chosen to invalidate redistricting lines in the past, it has generally done so based on the claim that the lines in question disenfranchise minority voters — that was the case just last month with two North Carolina districts27. However, these cases have been few and far between. In the other most recent case — 2004’s Vieth v. Jubelirer — a 5-4 majority rejected plaintiffs’ claims, unable to delineate where normal “to the victor goes the spoils” redistricting stopped and disenfranchisement began. Interestingly, members of the minority party often work with the majority in gerrymandering districts. While the minority party will stay in the minority, its members are drawn into increasingly safe districts, protecting them from general election challenges. It should also be noted that both parties have engaged in such gerrymandering for more than two centuries. Even now, in addition to the Wisconsin case, a challenge to the congressional districts drawn by Maryland’s Democrats is being heard by the lower courts. Gerrymandering doesn’t always work out for the victors though. Following the 2000 census, Georgia Democrats — with absolute control of state government since Reconstruction — gerrymandered congressional districts so “nakedly partisan” a three-judge panel modified them. In 2002, voters, furious at Democrats28, elected Republican Sonny Perdue as governor, and awarded the state Senate to Republicans. The next election saw Republicans win the House. Republicans now hold supermajorities in the state House and Senate, and control every constitutional office in the state. In these gerrymandering challenges, a move is being made to have the courts strip the power to draw districts from the elected branches and hand it to an independent panel, such as a board of retired judges equally representing both parties. Both sides have valid arguments. On the one hand, gerrymandering has led to safely partisan but politically polarized districts where both parties tend to cater to their base. This has made it increasingly difficult for parties to find common ground on any issues. While the Republican Party has its share of moderates, it is generally a conservative party. The Democrat Party is even more partisan, and virtually no politician supporting tax or spending cuts, or declaring themselves pro-life, can expect to survive long in that party. On the other hand, the Constitution grants power to draw district lines exclusively to the elected branches, and to change the foundational structure of our government is not to be taken lightly. MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST The Escalating Tension in Syria29 — U.S. shoots down first enemy fighter in nearly 20 years and Russia issues its own threats. Republicans Seek Reciprocity in DC30 — Rep. Massie introduces bill that would force Washington to accept gun-carry permits from every state. BEST OF RIGHT OPINION Michelle Malkin: The Double Murder of Otto Warmbier31 Gary Bauer: The Real Danger32 Star Parker: How We Can Start Taking Back Our Country33 For more, visit Right Opinion34. OPINION IN BRIEF Michelle Malkin: “We may never know what brutal torture and malign neglect American student Otto Warmbier suffered at the hands of North Korea’s dictatorship before losing his life this week at the age of 22. But it wasn’t the first time the free-spirited Ohio native died. More than a year before succumbing to the unknown illness or injury that left him in a coma thousands of miles away from home, Otto Warmbier’s own countrymen murdered his reputation. His character. His humanity. Click-hungry media ghouls knew nothing about Warmbier’s small-town upbringing, his family life, politics, personality, disappointments or dreams. But they gleefully savaged a young man who made a mistake on a doomed trip to a totalitarian hell. … Otto’s saboteurs engaged in the very same bigotry and stereotyping they recklessly accuse everyone else of at every turn. … Utterly consumed by malignant identity politics, the left-wing intelligentsia have become the intolerantsia. They are bent on dehumanizing individuals, fomenting racial, ethnic and class division in the name of ‘progressivism,’ and never taking responsibility for the damage done.” SHORT CUTS Insight: “The intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of these two forms: force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force.” —Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) Observations: “You have to look very hard — and you have to spend a long time looking — to find a genuinely happy or content left-wing political person. … The bottom line is: You just don’t encounter happy, laughing liberals. Even their comedians are consumed by hatred. The Democrat Party’s become the largest hate group in this country. Even their comedians are angry and enraged, and that suffices as comedy. I think it’s one of the reasons why left-wing comics have become primary sources of news for other left-wing liberals.” —Rush Limbaugh A blind squirrel finds a nut: “To realize the single-payer dream of coverage for all and big savings, medical industry players, including doctors, would likely have to get paid less and patients would have to accept different standards of access and comfort. There is little evidence most Americans are willing to accept such tradeoffs.” —The Washington Post editorial board in a piece titled, “Single-payer health care would have an astonishingly high price tag” Political futures: “I think if Democrats learn a lesson from this election, it’s that the euphoria that they felt for the last several months as Donald Trump has fallen in the polls and they began to believe that this would be not easy but doable to take over the House of Representatives and eventually replace Donald Trump, that euphoria is gone and it’s replaced with reality. And the reality is, it’s going to be a long twilight struggle.” —UVA professor Larry Sabato For the record: “Democrats are looking almost incapable of translating the energy of their core supporters into actual election wins.” —Associated Press And last… “Nothing preps you for next election more than concluding your team is too virtuous to win & voters are too evil or dumb to see the truth.” —Jonah Goldberg Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis Managing Editor Nate Jackson Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. |