The Patriot Post Digest 9-25-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 9-25-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

Sep. 25, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.” —Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 21

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Boehner: Going, Going, Finally Gone1

In a moment long awaited by conservatives around the nation, House Speaker John Boehner announced Friday that he will resign both his post and his seat at the end of October. An aide claims Boehner had intended to resign at the end of last year, but he delayed the transition after then-Majority Leader and presumptive successor Eric Cantor lost his seat in a huge primary upset. The trouble with Boehner is that he failed to lead — perhaps not surprising given that his entire goal seems to have been merely winning the position of speaker2. Donald Trump’s rise in the presidential field is almost directly proportional to failed GOP leadership. As Mark Alexander noted recently3, “Trump’s support reflects very little about his qualifications, but a lot about his message and how dissatisfied millions of disenfranchised grassroots conservatives are with Republican ‘leadership.’ The status quo represented by Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has, in effect, underwritten Trump’s rising stardom. Despite greatly increasing the numbers of conservatives in the House and Senate in the historic ‘Republican Wave’ elections nationwide in both 2010 and 2014, the much-loathed ‘establishment types’ still hold the reins and they have failed to counter Barack Obama’s socialist policies. GOP leaders continue to marginalize or ignore the concerns of the conservative/Republican base — grassroots conservatives — and we are rightly outraged.”

Resigning now means Boehner loses nothing from stopping a shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding. And while it’s likely that Majority Leader and close Boehner ally Kevin McCarthy will step in to the speakership, he will undoubtedly be under pressure to move Right.

Your move, McConnell.

Pope Doesn’t Say Much About Climate After All4

Many observers feared (or hoped) that Pope Francis would pontificate on man-made global warming and the need for government solutions in Thursday’s address to Congress. But it wasn’t to be. Here’s the extent of his remarks on the topic:

This common good also includes the earth, a central theme of the encyclical which I recently wrote in order to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concerns and affects us all. In “Laudato Si,” I call for a courageous and responsible effort to redirect our steps and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States — and this Congress — have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies, aimed at implementing a culture of care and an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.

At first hearing, there’s really not much for conservatives who are conservationists to disagree with there. But there are two key problems: the pope’s assertion that climate change is “caused by human activity,” and who he addressed his comments to — Congress. The science is far from settled on the cause or reach of climate change (humans do impact the environment, but how much is the question), and most proposals before Congress involve hampering economic activity — i.e., exacerbating and not “combating poverty” — to fight a supposed menace we don’t fully understand.

EPA Finds Opportunity in Volkswagen Scandal5

How long has this policy been sitting in the wings, waiting for the opportune moment? In response of the revelations that Volkswagen cheated on its emission tests, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will change the way it tests the emissions of vehicles. The EPA will now test vehicles as they drive the roads, in addition to lab testing. For seven years, Volkswagen installed software in its diesel cars that sensed when a vehicle was hooked up to a test. That changed when the cars hit the road, where the cars started emitting many times the legal emission limits for gasses like nitrogen oxide in the name of fuel economy. And for violating an unconstitutional regulation6, Volkswagen will pay — possibly to the tune of $18 billion. “When there is this kind of deception, we’ve got to get these agencies to be able to cut through it and catch it,” said7 Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). In the name of catching companies that decide to cheat the government, the EPA will pry further into the automobile industry, bringing more regulation in the name of clean air. (Because this is evidently a far worse crime than killing people8, like Government Motors and Toyota did.) No doubt the EPA will decide to impose more regulation and more control because of climate change, too. A crisis has come, and the EPA is going to take this as a mandate to make the quality of vehicles worse for everybody.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
China Flexes Muscle With State Visit9

By Michael Swartz

In part two of a particularly whirlwind week in Washington, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived for his first visit to Washington since becoming president in 2013. And Barack Obama is welcoming Xi for an official state visit at a time when that’s not the signal the U.S. ought to be sending to China. Let’s just say that, in terms of our interests, the Asia pivot10 isn’t quite working as Obama billed it.

Yet while some observers gush over the prospect of a formal state dinner for Xi that features Maine lobster11, others fret about how Xi is eating our lunch. A series of ceremonies usually reserved for close allies12 is the reward for the president of a nation that’s recently been accused13 of hacking sensitive data (a hack that we found out the day of Xi’s arrival netted 5.6 million fingerprints14), manipulating its currency and being more aggressive with its military. China has also detained American businesswoman15 Sandy Phan-Gillis, who’s been held since March on accusation of “spying.”

And that’s on top of Xi ushering in what some consider the worst religious repression16 since Mao’s “cultural revolution.”

Obama, though, seems oblivious to the problems between our nations, and in some part it could be because he gets along well with the Chinese leader. Recall that Obama’s visit to China last November led to the framework of a greenhouse gas pact in which we begin working to reduce greenhouse emissions now17 while China starts in 15 years. It was finalized during a five-hour private dinner between the two men.

Fighting climate change is always a work in progress with Obama, and the two nations plan to announce China’s new cap-and-trade plan to crack down on emissions today, though the plan evidently won’t alter last year’s emissions targets. An agreement with China on the issue is a key piece of Obama’s climate change agenda18 ahead of the Paris climate summit in December.

China also has a tremendous amount of pull in the business world. When China wanted captains of Silicon Valley industry to meet while Xi was in Seattle, these businessmen were “absolutely expected to be there19.” So a meeting intended originally for mid-level executives became the “summoning” to kiss Xi’s ring. When China’s centrally controlled economy makes an offer, companies find it hard to refuse. Obama didn’t have that same effect20 back in February, when he attempted to sell the industry on cybersecurity and privacy in the computer world.