The Patriot Post Digest 2-5-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 2-5-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Daily Digest

Feb. 5, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” —Cesare Beccaria

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

A Big Win for the Second Amendment1

It’s been a bad week for What’s-His-Name. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley dropped out of the Democrat presidential race Monday night after a predictably pitiful showing in Iowa. Then on Thursday, the Fourth Circuit Court struck down his signature “assault weapons2” ban, rammed through in Democrats' exploitative gun-grabbing frenzy after Sandy Hook. The Maryland law — a ban he promised to replicate at the national level if elected president — prohibited some semiautomatic rifles and so-called high-capacity magazines (by which they mean standard capacity). But the court concluded those instruments meet the Supreme Court’s measure of being “in common use by law-abiding citizens,” and the three-judge panel sent the case back to U.S. District Court with instructions to apply “strict scrutiny.”

Here’s the money quote from the ruling: “In our view, Maryland law implicates the core protection of the Second Amendment — ‘the right of law-abiding responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home,’ District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 635 (2008.), and we are compelled by Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), as well as our own precedent in the wake of these decisions, to conclude that the burden is substantial and strict scrutiny is the applicable standard of review for Plaintiffs' Second Amendment claim.” In other words, though other appeals courts have failed to uphold the Constitution, the Fourth Circuit says the Maryland ban clearly violates the Second Amendment, and the lower court needs to figure that out.

Gun writer Bob Owens explains the significance, writing3, “If the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision stands (it will almost certainly be appealed) and the courts hold that strict scrutiny should apply to Second Amendment cases as they do every other law restricting constitutional rights, then most of the gun control laws in the United States will eventually fall like dominoes.”

Like Cheap Gas? How About a New Oil Tax?4

Accompanying his proposed budget for the Department of Transportation, Barack Obama will issue a plan to increase the government’s investment in “clean energy” infrastructure by 50% with a $10 tax on each barrel of oil sold by the nation’s oil companies. The plan would supposedly fund high-speed rail, public transportation and research into self-driving vehicles in hopes of reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. It follows the formula that the government uses when it taxes cigarettes. Higher prices will mean fewer people pick up smoking, and the revenue, in theory, goes to anti-smoking initiatives. A White House fact sheet5 on the transportation plan read: “By placing a fee on oil, the president’s plan creates a clear incentive for private sector innovation to reduce our reliance on oil and at the same time invests in clean energy technologies that will power our future.”

This is the man who, just a month ago in his State of the Union Address, took credit6 for the nation’s low gas prices. Don’t think for a minute that the oil companies would simply absorb this tax, either. For the last year, the oil industry has been sloughing off jobs. It’s not exactly a profitable business to be in at the moment, so the tax on oil companies will be picked up by everyone driving a car.

Taxes are like nicotine: Once the government is hooked, it’s hard to funnel the money into programs that will destroy the flow of money. While cigarette taxes are supposed to fund anti-smoking programs, much of that money has simply flowed into governments' general funds. Obama’s plan will do more to handicap the economy on which Americans currently rely than to create a green transportation infrastructure.

Sanders Attacks Clinton’s Corruption, Round Two7

Was it Groundhog Day? Thursday night, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders took the stage for a debate ahead of the New Hampshire primary next week. The two covered much of the same ground they did the night before at a forum hosted by CNN8: Sanders attacked Clinton’s Wall Street connections and Clinton once again tried to defend herself.

“I just absolutely reject that, Senator,” Clinton said9 to Sanders regarding his claim that special interest groups corrupted her, “and I don’t think these attacks by insinuations are worthy of you. … But you will never find that I’ve changed my view or my vote because of any donation I ever received. And I’ve stood up and I’ve represented my constituents to the best of my ability. … I think it’s time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out in recent weeks.”

This is part of the tussle the two have been having on who is the most progressive. Sanders is most ideologically pure. Clinton says she is a pragmatic and realistic progressive. But there are several instances where Clinton has changed her vote because of money. In 2004, then-professor Elizabeth Warren said10 that, at the end of Bill Clinton’s term, she met with the then-first lady to discuss a bill that would have reformed bankruptcy law. After her talk with Warren, Clinton got her husband to defeat the law. But when she turned senator, Clinton voted for the law. Warren said Clinton was swayed by money. And let’s not forget the pay-to-play culture fostered by the Clinton Foundation. Thanks to a donation to the Clinton Foundation, this is probably why Russia controls11 20% of uranium production in the United States. Both candidates would damage the nation. Clinton would do it through corruption.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Perhaps Peace Hasn’t Broken Out Everywhere12

By John J. Bastiat

Well, so much for the “Pacific Pivot.” That was the term coined for the Obama administration’s attentive shift to the Far East in light of saber-rattling by China and North Korea. The “pivot” is yesterday’s news: It’s less a pivot now and more like a full-on spinning top. After seven years of his relentless onslaught against American military might, Mr. America’s-Not-Exceptional has done everything in his power to ensure that America is not, in fact, exceptional. Now we learn the tab for this disturbingly naive worldview is coming due even while Barack Obama still occupies the Oval Office. All we can say is, God help the next commander in chief.

Acting as the better-late-than-never voice of reason for the administration, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced a 2017 budget request of $3.4 billion to better defend Europe. The request more than quadruples the current budget for the region, and not a moment too soon. The money will fund weapons, armored vehicles, supplies and personnel to provide an increased U.S. military presence in Central and Eastern Europe, in an attempt to finally counter the largely unchecked Russian aggression in the region. The administration’s stated goal for the increased budget is to ensure NATO has the ability to maintain a full combat armored brigade in the region. And just think: It only took one downed, fully-loaded Boeing 777, the takeover of two sovereign nations and an ongoing war against another to spur Team Hope to action. Who said Obama is slow to act?

Obama’s listless war on the Islamic State also would get a shot in the arm — a 35%, or $7 billion, increase. The European increase is ostensibly a “one-time request,” but we’re pretty sure that’s how all these efforts start out. It’s hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Our (ahem) “strategic partner” — Russia — was also quick to remark that Carter’s announcement is “destabilizing and detrimental to the European security.” That’s rich. Russia of course knows a thing or two about the subject — just ask Ukraine, Georgia or Crimea. In any case, it’s good that the White House stated the increased budget would allow for “continuous armored brigade rotations” in Central and Eastern Europe because at the rate we’re going, we’ll soon need continuous armored brigade rotations.

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The Patriot Post Digest 2-5-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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“Reset” for the win.

The sad truth is that our nation is reaping exactly what the Obama regime has sown. While Russia was spending $730 billion over the last 10 years to modernize its military, the social engineers in Obama’s Defense Department have been more concerned with integrating transsexuals into military units — never mind utterly destroying unit cohesiveness and combat effectiveness. While Russia, China, North Korea and assorted radical Islamists have been gearing up over the last decade, U.S. military leaders have been forced to become keenly focused on how to covertly lower physical standards enough to put more women into frontline combat roles.

And while these same rogue states and their proxies have been spinning up war machines posing existential threats not just to regional but to global security, our meek and clueless commander in chief has been parading around the country calling global warming the nation’s “top security threat.” Sure it is.

Indeed: God help the next president — and God help us all if the next president is a Democrat.
Ronald Reagan’s Birthday13

Saturday, Feb. 6, marks the 105th anniversary of President Ronald Wilson Reagan’s birthday, or, as he would have phrased it, the 66th anniversary of his 39th birthday.

Either way, we’re grateful beyond measure for his service to our country, the shining City on a Hill, and his steadfast devotion to Essential Liberty14.

In honor of his birthday, we remember “The Speech15” — his 1964 address that vaulted him to national prominence: “The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing. … You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right, there is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream — the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order — or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.”

“It’s time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, ‘We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government.’ This idea — that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power — is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”

He concluded, “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.”

We also invite you to visit The Patriot Post’s vast collection of commentary and resources on our nation’s 40th president.

Mark Alexander’s essays:

The Reagan Centennial16

The Reagan Model for Restoration17

Ronald Reagan: North Star of the Conservative Revolution18

The Twilight’s Last Gleaming — God Bless Ronald Reagan19

And, of course, Reagan2020.US20

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

ANALYSIS: Toyota Burned Again in Gov’t Witch-Hunt21
Coming Soon: Drafting Women22
Number of Classified Clinton Emails Even Higher Than Thought23
Rand Paul: Of Libertarians and Republicans24
Kasich’s Lack of Self-Awareness25
Red States in the Majority26

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Charles Krauthammer: The ‘Establishment’ Nonsense27
Mona Charen: An Open Letter to Jeb Bush28
Ed Feulner: America’s Declining Economic Freedom29

For more, visit Right Opinion30.

TOP HEADLINES

U.S. Added Just 151,000 Jobs in January31
Rice Aides, Powell Also Got Classified Info on Personal Emails32
Obama Reinstates ‘Catch-and-Release’ Policy for Illegals33

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report34

OPINION IN BRIEF

Charles Krauthammer: “The reigning idiocy of the current political season is the incessant tossing around of ‘establishment,’ an epithet now descending into meaninglessness. … The threat to the GOP posed by the Trump insurgency is not that he’s anti-establishment. It’s that he’s not conservative. … There’s nothing wrong with challenging the so-called establishment. Parties, like other institutions, can grow fat and soft and corrupt. If by establishment you mean the careerists, the lobbyists and the sold-out cynics, a good poke, even a major purge, is well-deserved. That’s not the problem with Trump. The problem is his, shall we say, eclectic populism. Cruz may be anti-establishment but he’s a principled conservative, while Trump has no coherent political philosophy, no core beliefs, at all. … The Iowa results clarified the dynamic of the Republican race. There are only three candidates in the race and, as I argued last week, each represents a different politics. The result is a three-way fight between Trump’s personalized strongman populism and two flavors of conservatism — Marco Rubio’s more mainstream version and Cruz’s more uncompromising take-no-prisoners version. We can now read the Iowa results as they affect the Republican future. Trumpian populism got 24 percent, conservatism (Rubio plus Cruz) got 51 percent. … What Iowa confirms is that whatever beating the ‘establishment’ takes during this campaign, Republicans are choosing conservatism over Trumpian populism by 2 to 1. Which means their chances of survival as the party of Reagan are very good.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “We are so concerned to flatter the majority that we lose sight of how very often it is necessary, in order to preserve freedom for the minority, let alone for the individual, to face that majority down.” —William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008.)

Observations: “Sanders is a candidate of pure conviction. Clinton is a candidate of pure ambition. That — not the finer points of how to socialize U.S. health care or whether Barack Obama is a true progressive — is what the 2016 Democratic primary choice really comes down to.” —Jeff Jacoby

Good question: “[Barack Obama] talks about how awesome Islam is all the time. … My question is, given all this, why did he choose to become a Christian? I’ve always wondered that. He’s such a defender and promoter of Islam, and, on the other hand, he and his party are constantly denigrating Christians.” —Rush Limbaugh

The BIG Lie: “I went to Wall Street before the crash. I was the one saying you’re going to wreck the economy because of these shenanigans with mortgages.” —Hillary Clinton (So Wall Street handed over $675,000 just so you could scold them?)

Non Compos Mentis: “If it weren’t for Ted Cruz — he’s the one that got Justice Roberts onto the United States Supreme Court. … Justice Roberts approved ObamaCare twice when it should have been rejected. His vote got it over the top. Ted Cruz did that. Ted Cruz gave us ObamaCare, believe me.” —Donald Trump

Braying Jenny: “The tax breaks that we all voted for on Nov. 15 is spending, people. It’s spending. You can say we’re putting monies back into our constituents pockets, whatever you want to say. It’s spending.” —Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) explaining why all the money belongs to the government, and anything you get to keep is “spending”

Late-night humor: “This Sunday is Super Bowl 50, between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. Of course it’ll be weird when they do the coin toss before the big game, and the winner is still somehow Hillary Clinton.” —Jimmy Fallon

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.