The Patriot Post Digest 11-12-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-12-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Daily Digest

Nov. 12, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail-maker.” —Thomas Jefferson, 1795

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Rubio Is Right About Wages1

By Allyne Caan

Just hours after protesters nationwide hit the streets demanding a minimum wage increase, Marco Rubio took to the podium at Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate2 and noted a higher minimum wage isn’t needed but rather an America where hard work and perseverance lead to success. In other words, higher wages don’t come from government.

“Here’s the best way to raise wages,” Rubio said. “Make America the best place in the world to start a business or expand an existing business, tax reform and regulatory reform, bring our debt under control, fully utilize our energy resources … repeal and replace ObamaCare, and make higher education faster and easier to access.”

But he didn’t stop there. Instead, he immediately emphasized the importance of vocational training. “For the life of me,” he added, “I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education. Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.”

Apparently, them’s fightin' words. After all, it’s one thing to say America needs more trade professionals, but dare to question the plethora of philosophers and all of a sudden you’re giving Socrates an extra dose of hemlock.

In truth, Rubio is on to something, in more ways than one. Primarily, he was making a sweeping generalization aimed at a particular audience: minimum wage earners. Want a job that pays better than the McDonald’s drive-thru? Don’t major in philosophy (i.e., shorthand for something not practical) only to be a higher-paid burger flipper. Go to trade school and learn how to weld.

Don’t get sidetracked by literally comparing the earnings of welders with the highest-earning philosophy majors in white collar jobs. That completely misses the forest for the trees.

But there are some numbers that work in Rubio’s favor. Consider, for example, that work in skilled trades — and training for those trades — has significantly declined in America in recent years. For the past six years, skilled trade job vacancies have proven the hardest to fill in the United States, according to Manpower Group3, a human resources consulting firm. Furthermore, as Forbes reported4 two years ago, in 2012, 53% of America’s skilled-trade workers were 45 years and older, while nearly 19% were between 55 and 64.

It wasn’t accidental that Mike Rowe’s “Dirty Jobs” series on the Discovery Channel highlighted the importance of the trades. Blue-collar work is an American tradition — and one that has made the American Dream possible for countless individuals and families. Jobs in the skilled trades are waiting, but we’ve discouraged young people from pursuing them.

On top of that, many trade jobs are now being taken by hard-working Hispanic immigrants. Rubio takes a lot of criticism for his stance on immigration, but it’s obvious here that his message is more Americans should be filling these jobs.

Additionally, the colleges so many portray as the only path to success have too often become knowledge-free havens for leftist drivel — a fact not lost on Rubio. While we dissuade people from honest blue-collar work, we push them towards an education designed to transform them into leftist lemmings, with massive student debt to boot. Rubio’s observation that America could use fewer philosophers clearly hints at the tendency in colleges to teach things that don’t matter rather than real-world marketable skills. At the University of Iowa, for example, students can take a course in “The American Vacation”; at Georgia State, they can study “Kanye vs. Everybody”; and at Occidental College, students can spend an entire semester immersed in “Stupidity.” Thankfully, there is no prerequisite for that one.

Finally, given the philosopher-king in the White House, it’s quite possible Rubio was emphasizing that empty philosophizing may make someone a decent community organizer or phony “constitutional law professor,” but it didn’t transform a particular man with precious little real world experience into an effective leader. Rubio may very well have been intimating that a blue-collar upbringing, such as his own, is more reflective of the fabric of America than the experiences of a narcissistic Ivy League-educated ideologue who does not, in fact, share our values5.

Unfortunately, instead of recognizing Rubio’s comment for what it was (an endorsement of skilled trades) and what it might have been (a commentary on the sad state of higher education today), some conservatives accused him of excoriating intellect altogether. The Federalist’s Rachel Lu, for example, said6 Rubio reserved his “contempt for the intellectual pillars of Western Civilization.” And The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto claimed7 Rubio was the worst offender of the debate in “the bashing of philosophers and philosophy.”

Good heavens, one would think the man destroyed the Republic — both the book and the nation! But apparently his comment, while connecting thoroughly with average Americans, soared over the heads of the wisest scribes. Which, some might say, merely confirms the truth of his words.

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Hillary Pontificates on Betraying Vets8

Hillary Clinton supports our veterans — or so she says. After all, she says she tried to sign up for the Marines earlier in life, right? Never mind the factual questions9 surrounding her tale… Today, she’s trying to take advantage of the scandal10 at the Department of Veterans Affairs to bash Republican plans to fix it through privatization. “Today we are failing to keep faith with our veterans,” Clinton said, adding that her administration would have “zero tolerance for the kinds of abuses and delays we have seen.” Clinton hurriedly put together a VA solution to give veterans VA insurance that they could use with private providers. She also focused on prominent services for women and homosexuals.

Meanwhile, Republicans have proposed to offer veterans a choice of services within the system or vouchers to receive services in the private sector. Of course, Democrats oppose vouchers for veterans' health care just as they do vouchers to help kids get out of failed government schools. And much for the same reason, Democrats want to maintain a stranglehold on every sector of services they can. They certainly don’t want to offend their government and school union constituents.

But as for GOP proposals, Clinton declared, “As we work to improve the VA, I will fight as long and hard as it takes to prevent Republicans from privatizing it as part of a misguided, ideological crusade. I will not put our veterans at the mercy of private insurance companies. Privatization is a betrayal, plain and simple, and I’m not going to let it happen.”

No, betrayal is allowing 300,000 veterans die11 while waiting on the VA.

Germany’s Emissions Blitzkrieg12

The German agency tasked with regulating that nation’s automobiles announced Wednesday that it was investigating 23 automobile brands for emission cheating, two of them13 American-based Ford and GM. The announcement comes two months after news broke that the EPA found14 software on Volkswagen diesel cars designed to fool emission tests.

Out of 50 models being tested by Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), Germany’s auto regulator, KBA said it has finished testing about two-thirds of them. “Since the end of September KBA has been investigating whether further manipulation of emissions, of nitrogen oxides in particular, is taking place in the market,” said KBA in a statement in German, according to translation by the magazine Foreign Policy15. Because it is announcing its investigation before it has its results, it appears that KBA is trying to lighten the pressure Germany’s car manufacturer is facing over its cheating. In other words, KBA is making the situation political. It matters not if the charges stick — that is, if GM’s Chevrolet Cruze also spews nitrogen oxide at many times the limit set by the EPA — the seriousness of the accusation is enough of a cloud. KBA is protecting Volkswagen by emitting more hot air.

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-12-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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O'Reilly Libels Reagan16

George Will tackled the subject of Bill O'Reilly’s New York Times best-selling “biography” of Ronald Reagan with two columns eviscerating the Fox News blowhard for shoddy work parroting liberal rumors and innuendo about the former president. (And Will isn’t the only one; numerous historians have likewise looked askance at O'Reilly’s work.) “Styling himself an ‘investigative historian,’ O'Reilly purports to have discovered amazing facts that have escaped the notice of real historians,” Will notes in his first column17. The crux of the problem, Will says in his second column18, is this: “O'Reilly ‘reports’ that the trauma of the assassination attempt was somehow causally related to the ‘fact’ that Reagan was frequently so mentally incompetent that senior aides contemplated using the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove him from office. But neither O'Reilly nor [co-author Martin] Dugard spoke with any of those aides — not with Ed Meese, Jim Baker, George Shultz or any of the scores of others who could, and would, have demolished O'Reilly’s theory. O'Reilly now airily dismisses them because they ‘have skin in the game.’ His is an interesting approach to writing history: Never talk to anyone with first-hand knowledge of your subject.”

More damning, Will writes, “Instead, O'Reilly made the book’s ‘centerpiece’ a memo he has never seen and never tried to see until 27 days after the book was published. Then Dugard asked the Reagan Library to find it.” How does one purport to write the authoritative work on a subject one has not even tried to see?

“Tidying up after O'Reilly could be a full-time job but usually is not worth the trouble,” Will concludes. “When, however, O'Reilly’s vast carelessness pollutes history and debases the historian’s craft, the mess is, unlike O'Reilly, to be taken seriously.”

Not that O'Reilly will go quietly (he never does). In a contentious exchange on his own TV show, O'Reilly ends by shouting Will down with the insult, “You’re a hack.” The truth is the other way around.

Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column

Read Veterans Day Valor — T/Sgt. Charles H. Coolidge19, a tribute to a young American infantryman who stared down two enemy tanks and took the battle to the enemy.

If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email, update your subscription here20.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

    ANALYSIS: Catch and Release Catastrophe21
    Could a Sanctuary City Supporter Head Border Patrol?22
    Shadows of Crimea in Syria23
    Near-United Senate Sends Defense Bill to Obama24
    Man Threatens Woman, Hillary Clinton Laughs25

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    Victor Davis Hanson: The Fiction of ‘Truth’26
    Jeff Jacoby: Another TSA Debacle. Is Anyone Surprised?27
    Larry Elder: Ben Carson’s Resume Is Fair Game — but What of Democrats' Resumes?28

For more, visit Right Opinion29.

TOP HEADLINES

    Feds Covering Up ISIS Role in College Stabbings30
    Family of Mizzou ‘Victim’ Is Worth $20 Million31
    What Scandal? VA Workers Awarded $142M in Bonuses32

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report33

OPINION IN BRIEF

Victor Davis Hanson: “Subsequent fact-finding does not seem to dispel … untruths. Instead, what could or should have happened must have happened, given that the noble ends of social justice are thought to justify the means deemed necessary to achieve them. … The legends are created and persist because they further progressive agendas — and the thousands of prestigious and lucrative careers invested in them. ‘Noble lies’ alter our very language through made-up words and euphemisms. In our world of fable, there can be no such people as ‘illegal aliens’ who broke federal laws by entering the United States. ‘Workplace violence’ is how the Obama administration described the Fort Hood shootings, rather than calling it terrorism. American servicemen who shoot and die in Iraq are not supposed to be called ‘combat soldiers.’ The enlightened ends of seeking racial and religious tolerance, equality of opportunity and political accountability are never advanced by the illiberal means of lying. What makes this 2016 election so unpredictable are fed-up voters — in other words, Americans who finally are becoming tired of being lied to.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “When a legislature decides to steal some of our rights and plans to use police force to accomplish it, what’s the real difference between them and the thief? Darn little! They hide behind the excuse that they’re legislating democratically.” —H.L. Richardson (1966-1988.)

Upright: “I saved 15,000 lives in the operating room. And you don’t appreciate my service, but I wouldn’t trade a single one of them for all of your money. Money’s not important to me. It’s not what’s important to most Americans.” —Barry Bennett, campaign manager for Ben Carson, on what the doctor would have liked to tell Donald Trump Tuesday night

Huh? “I am all for private property rights. There’s nobody who wants property taken away less than I do, believe me. I would lose a lot of money if my property were taken away. But when you’re building a road, when you’re building a highway, when you’re building whatever it is you’re building from a municipal standpoint, you may need a corner of a piece of property.” —Donald Trump (Then why did you try using it for your own benefit?)

Getting it right: “Let’s be fair. If somebody had said [something threatening about another candidate25] to Donald Trump and he had laughed, we’d be ripping him a new one… [Hillary Clinton] should have stood up to him.” —Leftmedia loudmouth Joy Behar

Braying Jenny: “As one of just 20 women currently serving in the Senate, it’s important to me to encourage more women to run for office. But equally important is encouraging more men to sometimes just shut the hell up. It’s not that women don’t value your thoughts, it’s just that we don’t value all of them. The world doesn’t need your opinion on everything.” —Sen. Claire McCaskill

Polluted emissions: “The number of extremely hot days has multiplied dramatically. The large downpours, floods, mudslides, the deeper and longer droughts, rising sea levels from the melting ice, forest fires — there’s a long list of events that people can see and feel viscerally now. Every night on the television news is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation.” —Al Gore

Late-night humor: “Obama now has a personal Facebook page where he says he wants to have real conversations about issues. In other words, he’s new to Facebook.” —Conan O'Brien

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.