The Patriot Post Digest 1-18-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 1-18-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

Jan. 18, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” —Declaration of Independence, 1776

Democrats Have Made the Dream a Nightmare1

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ … I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. … And if America is to be a great nation this must become true.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

Of course, today’s Democratic Party2 has turned the wisdom of this iconic sovereign inside out, as if King had said, “I have a dream that my children will one day be judged by the color of their skin, not the content of their character.” They’ve turned it from a dream into a nightmare3.

King’s 1963 address from the Lincoln Memorial was his most famous, but you have likely never read King’s 1966 assessment of racial violence in Obama’s hometown of Chicago back: “This is the most tragic picture of man’s inhumanity to man. I’ve been to Mississippi and Alabama and I can tell you that the hatred and hostility in Chicago are really deeper than in Alabama and Mississippi.” King added, “Those who are associated with ‘Black Power’ and black supremacy are wrong.”

So you thought racism was just a “deep south problem”? That is what the Democrats and their Leftmedia sycophants would have you believe.

“Black supremacy” is precisely what was drilled into Barack Obama’s psyche by his Marxist mentor Frank Marshall Davis4 and his religious mentor Jeremiah Wright5.

Two years ago, Obama dismissed his low approval ratings as being due to racism: “There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president.” Yes, Obama used the anniversary of King’s birth to establish that his true legacy is being a half-black president who is nothing more than a race-bait political hustler6.

Regardless of one’s conclusion about King’s proper place in history (given the historical account of his sometimes-lacking personal integrity and character), his letter from a Birmingham jail7 is well worth reading.

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Iran’s Powerball Jackpot8

Great news, everyone: Barack Obama has saved the world through “smart, patient and disciplined” diplomacy once again. The occasion for his Sunday boast9 is two-fold: Iran released several American hostages and the U.S. lifted $100-$150 billion in sanctions on Iran.

Former Marine sergeant Amir Hekmati, Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, Christian Pastor Saeed Abedini, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari and Matthew Trevithick were all held by Iran but released over the weekend — timed to coincide with sanctions relief — though the whereabouts of former FBI agent Robert Levinson remain unknown. At least Obama promised, “We will never forget about Bob.” But Iran got even more in return. Obama noted Sunday, “In a reciprocal humanitarian gesture, six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian serving sentences or awaiting trial in the United States are being granted clemency.”

As The Wall Street Journal notes10, “Iran gets back men who were assisting its military ambitions while we get innocents. This is similar to the lopsided prisoner swaps that Mr. Obama previously made with Cuba for Alan Gross and the Taliban for alleged deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.” Nonetheless, the emotionally appealing saga and release of our hostages will trump the consequences of this bad deal in Leftmedia coverage.

Meanwhile, we all know Obama’s grand nuclear deal is really the sum of all lies11, but that didn’t stop Obama from bragging more Sunday: “Under the nuclear deal that we, our allies and partners reached with Iran last year, Iran will not get its hands on a nuclear bomb. … Now that Iran’s actions have been verified, it can begin to receive relief from certain nuclear sanctions and gain access to its own money that had been frozen. And perhaps most important of all, we’ve achieved this historic progress through diplomacy, without resorting to another war in the Middle East.” Again as if it’s his way or war.

Notably, Obama announced new sanctions that applied to 11 persons and companies involved in Iran’s missile program — months after two ballistic missile tests that violated UN resolutions. But this too is a smoke screen. Finally, as if it could get worse, the U.S. will pay Iran $1.7 billion (most of which is interest) to settle a 35-year-old disputed bill on military equipment we never delivered — because Iran happened to be holding more than 60 Americans hostage at the time.

So to recap, we get a few captive Americans (which is good), while Iran can detain 10 American sailors12 and exploit them for propaganda just before receiving nearly $2 billion in exchange for finalizing a deal preserving its nuclear program. Obama sure knows how to drive a hard bargain.

Don’t miss Contrasting Views on Taking Sailors Hostage13

Bernie’s Health Plan Is Logical Step for Demos14

Hours before the Democrat debate in Charleston Sunday night (another weekend debate that nobody watched, by the way), Bernie Sanders released his final solution for fixing the problems ObamaCare wrought: Instituting a single-payer health care system by giving “Medicare for all.” The cost would be tremendous. The Wall Street Journal reported15 the socialist candidate’s plan would increase government spending by $14 trillion over 10 years and would be “funded” by instituting a 2.2% increase tax on income, a payroll tax on employers, oh, and Sanders' go-to promise that the rich will pick up most of the bill. Since the beginning, some Democrats planned to use ObamaCare as a stepping-stone to single-payer health care. Sanders is just taking that logical next step and demanding what the Left has really wanted all along.

Hillary Clinton responded in the debate16 by attacking Sanders' consistency, arguing that he flipped on several issues to make himself more compelling to Democrat voters — such as becoming a more ardent supporter of gun control and tweaking his health care plan. Clinton’s biggest critique of Sanders' plan is that it would dismantle ObamaCare, an evidently unforgivable sin after how hard Democrats wheedled and worked to get that failed institution passed. At one point, Sanders said many of his supporters implored him to make a “vicious attack” against Clinton, but he hasn’t done that because he’s “trying to run an issue-oriented campaign.” And Sanders is overtaking Clinton in the polls, leaving the woman who regularly reads the political winds and changes tack accordingly to try to win voters by harkening back to Obama administration nostalgia. At least Sanders has the integrity to say he is a socialist.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Mauling MLK’s Legacy17

By Arnold Ahlert

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday celebrating the man who in 1963 dreamed18 that “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Fifty-three years later, leftists, especially those indoctrinating our children in public schools, are making an utter mockery of that concept.

Illinois' New Trier High School is but one example. While most Americans are enjoying the federal holiday, New Trier has made today a mandatory school day, during which they will marinate their students in a series of seminars exploring black victimhood, inherent biases against people of color, and white guilt and privilege — “to better understand how we can all work to counter the impact of systemic racism in our lives,” the school’s website states19.

More than 60 workshops are a compendium of leftist talking points. Some of the session titles and descriptions are as follows:

“One Person, One Vote: Can the Voting Rights Act be Saved?” It posits that “more and more Americans have found their ability to vote restricted by new voter ID laws, limits on early voting, inadequate election day facilities, and voter disenfranchisement.”

“Why Do I Have to Feel Guilty for Being White?” explains that discussions of race don’t “usually feel good for anyone. White people often walk away feeling guilty and thinking, ‘But I didn’t do anything!’ In this workshop, we’ll explore how white guilt can become a roadblock in our journeys toward becoming white allies.”

“Disney and the Creation of Racial Identity” will focus on Disney films “and discuss how these films influence childhood development of racial identities.”

“Yer' A White Wizard, Harry: Whitewashing in Cinema” is a discussion “about white dominance in the film industry,” that will be “taking a look at different cases where the voices of People of Color were silenced by the industry and how we can change it.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 1-18-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Aside from these and other equally pernicious sessions, students will be required to attend a “special presentation” by Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of the late Malcolm X. Shabazz once stated that “anyone who says ‘by any means necessary’ is a violent statement is violent themselves, because it is a comprehensive statement. … It could be political, social, [or] religious.”

Students will also be required to attend a keynote address by Isabel Wilkerson, who supports the Black Lives Matter movement, and has declared20 that the outcomes in “Staten Island and Ferguson and elsewhere signal, as in the time of Jim Crow, that the loss of Black life at the hands of authorities does not so much as merit further inquiry and that the caste system has only mutated with the times.”

Several parents expressed their concerns21. “They are supposed to be a neutral environment. Yet they are pushing all this ‘white guilt,’ using our kids for their own agenda, twisting their minds — whether it be sexual or racial,” one wrote. Another added, “These ‘workshops’ and ‘classes’ seem likely to breed within the kids a sense of guilt and shame — as if they are at fault for the misfortune in the world and it is their responsibility to make amends.”

These seminars seem to violate the policies of the New Trier Township High School District, which charges faculty members “to help our students identify arguments or preachments which are demonstrably unbalanced by bias, hate, calumny, distortion of facts, or ignorance of or indifference to the laws of evidence and the requirements of proof.” District personnel are also warned to “refrain from using school contracts and privileges to promote partisan politics, sectarian religious views, or personal agendas of any kind.”

Regardless, Dr. Linda Yonke, Superintendent of New Trier Township High School District 203, remained fully supportive22 of this indoctrination session, saying on New Trier’s website, “Current events show us that there is still much work to be done toward creating a world in which people are judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.”

Unfortunately, Yonke and her ilk are breeding another generation focused on just the opposite.

This is what passes for an education at a school ranked number four23 in the nation last year by Business Insider (BI). New Trier HS is located on Chicago’s North Shore, a very upscale community. The student body is more than 90% Asian and white, an inconvenient reality that earned it a C+ for diversity from BI that stood in stark contrast to the magazine’s A+ rating for the district’s academics and teachers.

It cannot be said often enough: Schools are the primary battleground for the nation’s soul, and for far too long, the Left has controlled them. That is why we get legions of young Americans well-versed in social justice, environmental radicalism, micro-aggressions and trigger warnings, and shamefully lacking in math, writing, history, civics and constitutional knowledge.

One suspects Martin Luther King would be embarrassed by New Trier’s utter bastardization of his legacy, courtesy of the racial arsonists, the grievance mongers and the bean-counters who fancy themselves as keepers of King’s flame. Igniters of the social unrest and racial division thoroughly rejected by King himself is more like it.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

ANALYSIS: Predictable Petulance24
Gulf War Started 25 Years Ago Sunday25
What’s Hillary’s ‘Core’ Message?26
‘Risk Corridors’ Paid Off for Big Insurance Companies27
Millennials' Hopes and Dreams28
Chicago Starts Off 2016 With a 200% Increase in Shootings29
Obama Targets Coal on Federal Land30

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Rich Lowry: The Great Humiliation31
Peggy Noonan: The High Cost of a Bad Reputation32
Paul Kengor: Planned Parenthood and Hillary Clinton33

For more, visit Right Opinion34.

TOP HEADLINES

Baltimore Officer Was Nearly Acquitted on Most Serious Charge35
Iran to Boost Oil Exports by 500,000 BPD, Complicating Already Saturated Market36
Taiwan Elects Nationalist President, Threatening China Relations37

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report38

OPINION IN BRIEF

Rich Lowry: “The Obama administration was right when it insisted that the capture and release of 10 American sailors by Iran showed the benefits of a cooperative relationship with Tehran. The crux of the arrangement is simple: The Iranians agree to humiliate us (and pursue their long war against the United States and their hegemonic ambitions in the Middle East), and we agree not to care. It is, as Secretary of State John Kerry says, diplomacy at its best. What Vice President Joe Biden called ‘standard nautical practice’ involved the Iranians making our sailors get on their knees on their captured boats, eliciting an apology from the commander, and photographing and videotaping all of it to broadcast for propaganda purposes — in clear violation of international law. This obviously wasn’t another Carter-era Iranian hostage crisis (it wasn’t even a hostage crisis), but it was another national humiliation to add to a sour public mood that President Barack Obama doesn’t get, let alone understand his own role in creating. … Obama may fancy himself above the old Thucydides trinity of motives — honor, interest and fear — but most people aren’t. Many of them, as a certain presidential candidate puts it, want to win again. They look at the photographs and videos of those American sailors, and it feels like a punch in the gut. The Obama administration looks at them and says to the Iranians, thank you very much.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.”

“Racist” cops: “There needs to be a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system. And that requires a very clear agenda for retraining police officers, looking at ways to end racial profiling, finding more ways to really bring the disparities that stalk our country into high relief.” —Hillary Clinton

For the record: “[Margaret Sanger] extolled Stalinist Russia’s birth-control policies, and urged after a fact-finding visit there in 1934: ‘We [in America] could well take example from Russia, where there are no legal restrictions, no religious condemnation, and where birth control instruction is part of the regular welfare service of the government.’ That’s exactly where Clinton and modern progressives stand today: they demand that birth control be part of the regular welfare service of the government, and funded by taxpayers regardless of religious objection. If you disagree, the Obama administration will take you all the way to the Supreme Court. Just ask Hobby Lobby, Conestoga Wood Specialties, and the Little Sisters of the Poor.” —Paul Kengor

Ya don’t say… “There should be no bank too big to fail, and no individual too powerful to jail.” —Hillary Clinton

Alpha Jackass: “I think the only people unhappy about [Iran releasing 10 U.S. sailors] are the Republicans for some reason. … If we followed the advice of some of the Republican critics of the administration, we’d probably be in a bloody war with Iran right now over our sailors.” —Josh Earnest with the usual false choice

Even a broken clock is right twice a day: “A great many Muslims around the world are for Sharia law. You know what is in Sharia laws? Cutting off the hands for thievery. Putting women to death for adultery. Killing people for leaving their religion. Women are not equal citizens. These are not criminal activities in Muslim society, these are activities. So the idea that when Syrian refugees come to European countries or to America that they are going to completely fit in is a fantasy.” —Bill Maher

Make theology great again: “I have a great relationship with God. I have a great relationship with the Evangelicals. In fact, nationwide, I’m up by a lot [in the polls]; I’m leading everybody. But I like to be good. I don’t like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good. I don’t do a lot of things that are bad. I try to do nothing that is bad. I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think.” —Donald Trump

And last… “My favorite story about MLK is when he chanted ‘pigs in a blanket fry 'em like bacon’ and then torched an Autozone.” —Twitter satirist @hale_razor

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.