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« on: July 10, 2015, 06:09:10 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 7-10-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest
Jul. 10, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.” —George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Hackers Stole Data on 8% of U.S. Population From OPM1
The data breach at the Office of Personnel Management feels like some kind of twisted auction. In early June, it was the data of four million2 federal employees. Any higher? Hey, it’s the middle of June and the number has risen to 14 million3 and the applications of everyone seeking a security clearance. Going, going… Wait, OPM announced Thursday there was a second hack4 affecting 21.5 million Americans who worked for the government, contracted with the government, or were married to or friends with someone who was. Not only were Social Security numbers, names and birthdates taken, the hackers (probably from China) have addresses, mental health history, some financial records and fingerprints of a significant percentage of the American population. The breach extends to people like FBI Director James Comey, who admitted he, too, had his data stolen in the breach. OPM said taxpayers would foot the bill for three years of identity-theft protection from a private company for those affected. But for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, it’s not enough. In a statement5, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said he wanted OPM Director (and former National Political Director for Obama’s campaign) Katherine Archuleta gone. “The technological and security failures at the Office of Personnel Management predate this director’s term,” Warner said, “but Director Archuleta’s slow and uneven response has not inspired confidence that she is the right person to manage OPM through this crisis.”
Oregon Bakers Must Pay Fine by Monday6
The state’s assault on the Oregon bakers7 who declined to make a cake for a lesbian wedding isn’t over. Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) has ordered Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of the now-shuttered Sweet Cakes by Melissa, to pay their $135,000 fine by Monday, July 13 … or else. “We have asked that they get in touch with us by July 13th either to make a payment in full, or an arrangement for partial payment, or as they know, they can contact our agency and seek what is called a stay of enforcement,” BOLI said through a spokesman. If the Kleins seek a stay but are denied, they can appeal through the Oregon courts, but given the thorough smackdown they’ve already received a reprieve is unlikely. “Basically,” said Aaron Klein, “the state of Oregon is saying we can kick you out of your house and make you homeless. They have no qualms about the fact that they’re doing this to my five kids as well.” That’s because the Kleins committed the ultimate sin of crossing the Rainbow Mafia. The good news is the couple has raised more than $200,000 through a funding campaign8 (their first fundraising effort was shut down by GoFundMe, which claimed the Kleins' purpose was “discriminatory”). The bad news is their income has been halved since being forced to close their bakery. Aaron now works as a garbage collector to put food on the table for his family.
ObamaCare ‘Death Panels’ Resurrected9
When Democrats can’t get their agenda through the legislature via legitimate means, they turn to federal agencies to implement it instead. Case in point: ObamaCare. Leftists scored big with its passage in 2009, but fierce opposition to what became known as “death panels” forced them to abandon a provision that would have granted financial incentives to physicians providing counseling to aging Medicare patients. Now that ObamaCare is “the law of the land,” as the Supreme Court has twice wrongly affirmed, the Department of Health and Human Services is taking matters into its own hands. This week, with the support of the American Medical Association, HHS put “death panels” back on the examination table. Advocates quickly noted it isn’t a mandate. “Rather, the proposed regulation would allow medical providers to bill Medicare for ‘advance-care planning’ should a patient want to have the discussion,” according to the Los Angeles Times. But we were also promised that we could keep our insurance plan if we liked it. The way some conservatives presented death panels in 2009 — ask your doctor if death is right for you — was somewhat of an exaggeration, but it maybe wasn’t so much hyperbole as it was a prediction. Just five years ago, few thought same-sex marriage would be legal in 2015. In fact, Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who now embrace same-sex marriage, once opposed it. For leftists, progress means moving the goal posts when the opportunity is convenient. That’s why the idea of the government making life-and-death decisions isn’t anything to scoff at. Just ask our nation’s veterans.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Carter’s Wrong — America Is Not in Inevitable Decline10
By Lewis Morris
As the worst U.S. president of the 20th century, Jimmy Carter’s prognostications about foreign policy should be taken for what they’re worth — nothing. But that didn’t stop MSNBC from asking the former president his thoughts on the state of America in the modern world. Carter’s response was predictably pessimistic.
America is “in an inevitable relative decline,” Carter said, “not because of any fault of ours” but through “the combination of China and India and Brazil and South Africa and others” exercising “economic and cultural influence [that] will replace a lot of the power and preeminence that the United States enjoyed in the past.”
“It’s just happening,” Carter explained, “in the historical evolutionary, unavoidable circumstance.”
At least he didn’t use the word “malaise.”
Carter’s mindset is shared by the leftist intelligentsia. They have predicted and, more importantly, sought to bring about our nation’s downfall for decades, rolling out a string of would-be superpower replacements ranging from the former Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, Japan, the European Union and now China. Carter joins the likes of Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, serial plagiarist Fareed Zakaria and former Enron adviser Paul Krugman in wistfully speaking of America’s bygone status, but their views are tainted by a raw disdain for the U.S. and what it stands for.
They pretend to lament the days of American greatness, but they often rail against the U.S. for being an international “bully” standing athwart some socialist utopia. Simply peel back Carter’s words on MSNBC or one of Krugman’s New York Times columns, and lurking just below the surface is contempt for capitalism, individual liberty and the republican form of government that made this country great.
As Investor’s Business Daily pointed out11, American decline is no more inevitable than its rise as a world power. And who’s to say that America is in decline anyway? Despite the best efforts of Carter, Obama, Krugman and friends, America remains the world’s preeminent power. No other country, or combination of countries, can do what we do, because they don’t have what we have.
This nation’s wealth rivals that of China, Japan, the UK and Germany combined. It is home to by far the richest and most robust consumer market. And our military still holds sway the world over despite recent and unwise cutbacks.
Carter’s assertion that other countries stand ready to replace America is overselling it a bit. The oft-cited bogeyman China just suffered an economic shock this week that wiped out a third of its stock market’s value. And years of forced abortion and social engineering are destined to send that country into a demographic tailspin that could unravel its social fabric in the coming decades.
The European Union is constantly on the brink of unraveling because of debt issues from member states like Greece and Portugal. The nations that make up the EU can’t even agree on a defense strategy, despite the fact that the two bloodiest wars of the last century were born there. |
