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« on: January 08, 2016, 07:21:29 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 1-8-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest
Jan. 8, 2016
THE FOUNDATION
“It is necessary for every American, with becoming energy to endeavor to stop the dissemination of principles evidently destructive of the cause for which they have bled. It must be the combined virtue of the rulers and of the people to do this, and to rescue and save their civil and religious rights from the outstretched arm of tyranny, which may appear under any mode or form of government.” —Mercy Warren, 1805
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Let’s Have a Town Hall to Compromise on Liberty1
Barack Obama held his much-ballyhooed town hall last night on guns, as a follow-up to his tear-jerking2 and totally ineffective gun control measures3 announced earlier this week. “We should politicize this,” Obama said of gun control in October. In 2008, he criticized those who “bitterly cling” to guns. And yet he supposedly wanted to rise above all that last night for an open and civil discussion about why every American should agree with him on restricting gun rights.
He skillfully insisted that all he wants to do is “make progress” with “modest” proposals, not “solve every crime.” He tried hard to appear to be the reasonable adult in the room, only wanting to protect us from awful things. (Perhaps he should try enforcing the laws on the books then instead of writing new ones.) But his demeanor was a thin veil for the emotional appeal of his nonsensical, illogical, and, most importantly, unconstitutional approach to the issue.
He couldn’t completely conceal his ideological colors, either, resorting as he often does to drawing caricatures of his opponents. “The way it is described is that we are trying to take away everybody’s guns,” Obama said. “Our position is consistently mischaracterized. … If you listen to the rhetoric, it is so over-the-top, it is so overheated.” He dismissed as “a conspiracy” any desire he has to take guns. It’s probably true that he wouldn’t actually try to confiscate guns, knowing that would likely spark outright civil war, but he’s the one who has repeatedly praised4 Australia’s gun confiscation as a model we might want to look at5. He’s also the one hawking the ban on so-called “assault weapons,” which number in the millions. Besides, no one thinks he or the Left will stop with a little “progress.” It will never be enough; we’ll always need more “common sense” gun control, eroding Liberty incrementally.
As we note often, Justice Joseph Story once called the Second Amendment6 the “palladium of the liberties of the republic.” In other words, owning guns isn’t primarily about hunting, sport shooting, or even stopping criminals. Bearing arms secures all of the rights of a free people against tyrannical government. That’s why Obama and his ilk hate guns so much, and that’s why no town hall will ever find common ground between tyrants like him and the Patriots who hold Liberty so dear.
Election-Year Economic Outlook7
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' jobs report8 for December is in: The job growth is decent, but wages remain low. Before the report, economists hoped for 200,000 jobs added to the economy, a slow, plodding increase that has become the hallmark of the Obama recovery. What we got was 292,000 jobs. The BLS also revised the job numbers up for October and November to 307,000 and 252,00 respectively, a net increase of 50,000 jobs for those two months. This is heartening news for investors9 after the stock market in China tumbled in the first 30 minutes of trading Thursday, affecting the U.S. stock market — and thus millions of Americans. And it seems the U.S. economy made a small recovery. After all, the headline unemployment rate is holding at a low 5%. The fuller unemployment number, the seasonally adjusted U-6 measure, held steady at 9.9%. As American Enterprise Institute’s James Pethokoukis tweeted10, full employment would have the U-6 skimming along at 8.9%. But the problem is these headlining numbers are not felt by most Americans going to work and putting a bit away in their retirement accounts. The downturn in the stock market shows that there is distrust in the U.S. economy. What gives? This could probably be explained by the sluggish increase in the average hourly wage, which as the BLS reports “changed little” when it edged down one cent to $25.24. With most paychecks staying the same month after month, year after year, it’s no wonder Americans are dissatisfied with the economy. And that, heading into the November election, will influence votes. It’s time for Republicans to make a case for how the free market can make Americans' efforts worth more.
For Now, Green Lobby Is Dead Meat in Dietary Debate11
Every five years, the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services revise nutritional standards for what is considered a balanced diet. The new edition, released Thursday, contains most of what you would expect — a recommendation to drastically reduce artificial sugar intake and consume more fruits, vegetables and grains. But the guidelines retained one surprising element that was thrust to the forefront of the debate last year: Red meat. It all ties back to a controversial proposal that was weighed by a panel of nutritional experts who appear to be covertly working to do the environmental lobby’s bidding. The Hill explains12:
The recommendations for what Americans should and shouldn’t be eating … created unprecedented controversy in 2015 when the federally appointed panel of nutritionists that helps draft them considered environmental concerns in recommending that people should eat less meat. The USDA and HHS relented to industry outrage and promised the environment would not be considered, but congressional leaders wanted to be sure, adding language to the year-end $1.1 trillion spending bill requiring the agencies to conduct a ‘comprehensive review’ of the guidelines and the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee within 30 days. Groups in the meat industry were relieved to see that lean meats had ultimately been left in the description of a healthy diet.“
That’s not to say the meat industry was given a free pass. "The guidelines note that there is strong evidence to support that eating less meat, including processed meats, reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease,” The Hill adds. Nevertheless, Americans can keep chomping away at modest proportions of red meat with the government’s blessing. But for how long? Writing in The Wall Street Journal in November, Julie Kelly and Jeff Stier discerned13 how the meat-cancer link was conveniently well-timed and may have been a clever ploy ahead of the Paris climate talks. And it’s possible now that those talks are over and considered successful by most environmentalists that USDA and HHS have a little leverage to back off the pedal for a time. But rest assured, the proposals will be back. After all, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change proposes14 no less than a 25% reduction in global meat consumption, and maybe up to 75%, arguing that fewer livestock means less methane emissions escaping into the atmosphere — rather ironic considering livestock is nature. The war on meat is a coordinated effort that won’t be easily overcome. On the bright side, the dietary guidelines also put a positive light on caffeine. Which is great news. We’ll need all the coffee we can get to expose behind-the-scenes fraud like this.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Democrats Party Like It’s 199915
By Michael Swartz
It’s been a quarter-century since Bill Clinton arrived on the scene as a hip, young, centrist Democrat from a Southern state, and with wife Hillary Rodham in tow they were the essence of a Washington-bound power couple. Those of us who’ve achieved a certain age, however, can recall the “bimbo eruptions” that kept the Clintons and their political hacks on defense throughout their years in DC.
Indeed, it was 17 years ago yesterday that Bill faced the Senate to answer the charges of perjury relating to his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Fast-forward to the present day, and Hillary is the one running for president — yet Bill’s serial sexual predation is once again dogging them. Led by Donald Trump16, who called Bill Clinton “one of the great abusers of the world,” a man with “a terrible record of women abuse,” the narrative has shifted away from Hillary’s record and back onto the former president. |
