The Patriot Post Digest 11-24-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-24-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Daily Digest

Nov. 24, 2015

EDITOR’S NOTE

Your Patriot Team members will be taking a few days off to spend much-needed time with our families over Thanksgiving. Our regular editions will return Nov. 30.

THE FOUNDATION

“If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws — the first growing out of the last.” —Alexander Hamilton, 1794

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Cracks in Obama’s ‘Feel-Good Story’1

We’ve known for some time that Barack Obama was receiving cooked intelligence2 on the Islamic State. We also suspect he wasn’t an unwitting recipient, but rather he wanted to hear only how awesome his national security policy is. And he’s still lying about all of it. “One of the things I insisted on the day I walked into the Oval Office was that I don’t want intelligence shaded by politics,” he pontificated this week. “I don’t want it shaded by the desire to tell a feel-good story.”

That’s an absurd claim. This is the same guy who repeatedly told us al-Qaida was “decimated” and “on the run,” the Islamic State was the “JV team,” and Benghazi was attacked over a video — all lies told in a bid to win re-election. And he still downplays the threat, dismissing the Islamic State after the Paris attacks as just a “bunch of killers with good social media.”

Meanwhile, the Pentagon inspector general’s investigation into manipulated intelligence continues, and new evidence has surfaced that CENTCOM analysts were pressured to “cut it out” and “toe the line” when it came to intelligence reports. And Obama ignored anything3 contrary that did make it through. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who ran the defense agency at the time, put it this way: “It was disregarded by the White House. … Frankly, at the White House, it didn’t meet the narrative.”

Finally, speaking of the narrative about Obama having the Islamic State “contained,” his State Department just issued a worldwide travel warning due to jihadi terrorism. And the warning extends for three months. Happy Thanksgiving from Barack Obama.

How About a Trade?4

According to5 Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, “Sheltering even 10,000 refugees, of any faith, would have mostly symbolic value. Four million Syrians have fled, with even more internally displaced. Half of all Syrians have been forced from their homes. For that, the Obama administration bears some responsibility — and the reasons should be something voters think about in 2016.”

Some responsibility? Let’s be clear: The primary reason for the Syrian exodus is the rise of the Islamic State6. And the primary reason for that is Barack Obama’s profoundly nescient retreat from Iraq in order to keep his 2012 campaign pledge. But even a critical Washington Post editorial won’t connect those dots.

This is not about “American inaction,” this is about Obama’s actions. His legacy is now secure — and it’s defined by an epic and catastrophic human crisis7. Their blood is on his hands.

So we propose a compromise. We’ll take 10,000 Syrian refugees if Syria will take Obama.

Ahmed’s Cash for Clocks8

Remember Ahmed “The Clock Kid” Mohamed? The 14-year-old Texas student who was interrogated for bringing a homemade “clock” to school that looked more like an explosive? His story begat sympathy and remorse from fellow Muslims and Islamic sympathizers all around the globe. Not long after the incident, Ahmed and his family moved to Qatar to escape supposed discrimination in America. Well, he’s back in the news, this time seeking reparations — to the tune of $15 million.

According to The Washington Post, Ahmed’s family is “seeking not only financial reparations but written apologies from the city’s mayor and police chief.” The Post continues, “The letter of demand alleges that officials at Ahmed’s school never really thought that his homemade clock, assembled from ‘spare parts and scrap pieces he had around the house,’ was a bomb. Attorneys claim that Ahmed showed it to another teacher earlier in the day without consequence. But in his English class, a teacher told him it ‘looked like’ a bomb.”

Ahmed’s attorney Kelly Hollingsworth says the family is experiencing cognitive dissonance: “Qatar is nice, but it is not Texas. … Are [the Mohameds] devout people devoted to their faith? Absolutely. But they are Texans, too, and they want to come home. What we are seeking is for them to be able to do that with their heads held high.” That’s interesting. At the very least, the family quietly concedes that America, despite its “discriminatory” demeanor, is still a better place to live than a predominately Muslim country. But why do they need $15 million to keep “their heads held high”? National Review’s Ian Tuttle writes, “The City of Irving and Irving ISD should refuse them a single red cent. If the Mohameds want reparations, then they ought to have to make their case — not before a gaggle of cameras, but in a court of law.” Maybe, just maybe, this legal lottery was the plan all along.

Don’t Miss Patriot Humor

Check out ‘Container’ in Chief9.

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Reflections on Thanksgiving, Past and Present12

By Paul Albaugh

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, a day when we set aside time to give thanks to Almighty God for the blessings He has bestowed upon us, it’s worth reflecting on the early days of our country and assess where we are now.

Our celebration of Thanksgiving13 is rooted in the first “harvest feast” in 1621 following the establishment in 1620 of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts by a group of religious refugees known as Pilgrims.

These Puritan “separatists” had originally fled to Holland in 1608 to escape religious persecution by the Church of England. They had suffered persecution and imprisonment for their beliefs and were seeking to worship God freely as they chose to, rather than being dictated by the effectively state-run church. They found this freedom in Holland, but the culture there was corrupt and degraded, so the Pilgrims returned to England and subsequently arranged for travel to the New World.

After an extremely difficult eight-week voyage on the Mayflower, they dropped anchor on Nov. 11, 1620, at Provincetown Harbor off the coast of what is now known as Massachusetts. On Dec. 11, they signed the Mayflower Compact14, which is America’s original document for civil government. This document introduced self-government and became part of the foundation upon which the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were built.

The winter of 1621 proved to be catastrophic for the Pilgrims as only 53 people survived. Despite their tragic loss of life and the hardships of building a new way of life, they persevered and the summer proved to be productive as their crops flourished. Having learned new skills from the Indians and storing up their excess, they were able to set aside a three-day “harvest feast” upon which they shared with the Indians and gave thanks to God for providing them with so much.

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-24-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Over the next 20 years, 25,000 more people came to the New World, many seeking religious freedom. Their desire to be free from the oppression of the Church of England led to the Declaration of Independence and later the Constitution. Particularly noteworthy in this heritage is the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” These first restrictions on the government were and are necessary for a free people to live.

But we have come a long way since the Pilgrims landed. In present day America, our college campuses are rife15 with “speech zones” and “safe spaces.”

At Yale, students protested because a faculty member suggested the administration shouldn’t dictate what an appropriate Halloween costume is. At the University of Missouri, students protested and eventually ousted16 the school’s president because he supposedly failed to resolve racial tensions on campus. At Dartmouth, student protesters mobbed the library shouting profanities at studying students for supposedly committing racial oppression. At Princeton, student protesters stormed the president’s office and demanded that all references to President Woodrow Wilson be removed17 for his racism and segregation support.

The examples are numerous. These universities that were once bastions of free speech, free thought and free expression have now become the epicenters for limited speech, limited thinking and limited expression due to concerns of offending someone. Political correctness rules the day, and we are quickly devolving into a society of people who are intolerant of tolerance. Indeed, we are rapidly moving toward the kind of society that George Orwell warned of in his classic novel 1984.

But it’s not just the mobs on these college campuses that want to limit free speech, thought and expression. A recent Pew survey shows18 that 40% of Millennials (those between the age of 18-34) are in favor of allowing the government to prevent statements that are offensive. Furthermore, 35% of Democrats want the government to stop speech against minorities while only (only!) 18% of Republicans favor doing so. So we don’t just have a problem with college campuses, we have a problem with an entire generation of people and progressive-minded “thinkers.”

Let’s be perfectly clear: We are not advocating for people to offend minorities or use racial slurs or show hatred to one another. But we are advocating for the preservation of free speech, of free thought and the freedom to worship as our forefathers recognized as being essential to Liberty.

We are already experiencing a government that disregards the liberties of our people. Our government is forcing nuns to pay for birth control and taxpayers to fund abortions. Christian churches around the nation are hunkering down for the legal ramifications of the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision19 and the inevitable lawsuits. It has already happened to bakers20, photographers and florists, and it’s naïve to think that our churches won’t be experiencing it soon.

So while 40% of Millennials advocate that the government should have the power to limit “offensive speech,” we can be thankful that they remain in the minority. And we should continue the effort to educate our fellow Americans on our rich history of Liberty. We can be thankful that, despite the relentless attack on Liberty from those who hate it, we still are the freest nation on earth and we will continue to be as long as there are Patriots who are willing to stand and defend it.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

ANALYSIS: The Syrian Refugee Program: Shortsighted and Dangerous21
Jihadis' Ability to Evade French Intelligence Bodes Ill for the U.S.22
Moscow to Obama: Assad Stays23
Labor Dept. Hosts Tailgate; Redskins Logo Unwelcome24
That Time When Democrats Missed George Bush25

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Stephen Moore: Who Created These Campus Whiners?26
Thomas Sowell: The Disappearing Governors27
Todd Starnes: VA Christmas Tree Ban Causes Yuletide Uprising28

For more, visit Right Opinion29.

TOP HEADLINES

Turkey Shoots Down Russian Warplane30
Illegal Minors, Non-Mexicans Cross Border at Record Rate31
Chicago Cop Expected to Be Charged in Black Teen’s Death32

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report33

OPINION IN BRIEF

Stephen Moore: “At one recent visit to the University of Massachusetts, I asked a few kids what their plans were for Thanksgiving. They practically spat at me for even mentioning this white-supremacy holiday, which only trivializes and glorifies the genocide of the Native Americans by the pilgrims. Wow. Sorry I brought it up, especially in your "safe space."I can’t help contrasting these attitudes with a recent meeting I had with a group of soldiers who had returned from Afghanistan. These brave men and women risked their lives every day. They had real bullets shot at them, not the verbal ones that the campus leftists find so offensive. They have genuine and, in some cases, life-changing injuries: ringing in the ears, post-traumatic stress disorder and broken limbs. They served so that campus leftists can remain sheltered in their cocoons and protest the wounds to their fragile psyches from having to listen to a point of view they disagree with. The horror. Can you imagine the tyranny you would bring upon yourself by actually hiring one of these self-righteous complainers? … A generation that has been drilled since pre-kindergarten that the highest virtue in life is tolerance has suddenly become the least tolerant in history. What they lack most is gratitude. It’s something to think about this Thanksgiving.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” —Edward Bernays (1891-1995)

Demo-gogues: “I think it is absolutely vital for every country, every leader to send a signal that the viciousness of a handful of killers does not stop the world from doing vital business.” —Barack Obama on the UN climate summit

The BIG Lie: “Some of us were saying 20 something years ago that if we didn’t tackle these issues [related to climate change] you would see ever greater conflict over scarce resources and ever greater difficulties over drought… There’s very good evidence indeed that one of the major reasons for this horror in Syria, funnily enough, was a drought that lasted for about five or six years.” —Prince Charles

Getting it right: “I don’t think [Obama’s] approach is sufficient to [do] the job. … I’m concerned that we don’t have the time, and we don’t have years. We need to be aggressive now, because ISIL is a quasi-state. ISIL has 30,000 fighters. It’s got a civil infrastructure. It’s got funding. It’s spreading in other countries. And it’s a big, big problem.” —Dianne Feinstein, ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee

Good advice, but how?: “Your options are run, hide, or fight. If you’re in a position to try and take the gunman down, to take the gunman out, it’s the best option for saving lives before police can get there.” —Cathy Lanier, police chief in DC, who rarely approves gun permits

Annals of the absurd: “Yes, we should have free speech. Yes, we should have diversity of ideas. Yes, we should be encouraging vigorous debate and all kinds of things. But when young people don’t feel safe, feel absolutely isolated, feel absolutely intimidated, made to not feel welcome — that’s something else. We have to make sure that kids feel they belong on campus, that they belong in this world. And we have some work to do.” —Education Secretary Arne Duncan (These remarks are exactly the problem.)

And last… “How to tell when another terrorist attack has occurred? Obama is on TV expressing his anger at Republicans.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest

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.