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« on: March 02, 2016, 07:07:50 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 3-1-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Daily Digest
Mar. 1, 2016
THE FOUNDATION
“The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” —James Madison (1788.)
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Time for Us to Vote1
It’s Super Tuesday, and that means those of us here in our humble shop will be voting in either the Tennessee or Georgia primaries. And just in case it hasn’t been clear, we will not be voting for Donald Trump. Not that we don’t expect him to win “yuge” today, maybe even sweeping all 11 states — in addition to ours, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Vermont and Virginia will vote. But America’s First Principles aren’t always guided by a majority, or even a dominant plurality. It wasn’t a majority that fought for American independence, but, as Sam Adams described it, a “tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” All we can do is our best to light those brushfires, and to defend Liberty at every turn.
None of the states today are winner-take-all, which means strong second- or third-place finishes for Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio will still net them some of the 595 delegates up for grabs. (Trump currently leads 82, 17, 16, respectively, needing 1,237 to win.) Regardless, Cruz and Rubio face incredibly long odds as things stand. John Kasich and Ben Carson will also be on the ballot.
“We’re getting people into the party that they’ve never had before,” Trump boasted Tuesday. “I can tell you the one person Hillary Clinton doesn’t want to run against is me.” The first claim is probably true; the second … perhaps, perhaps not. Mark Alexander speculated yesterday2 that “it’s likely that some of Trump’s primary voter support is coming not from Republicans but from Clinton crossovers, who want to ensure Trump is her opponent.” There’s evidence of the switch, if not the motive, at least in Massachusetts, where 20,000 Democrats quit the party to vote GOP3.
On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton is likely to win big almost everywhere, but that may not mean Bernie Sanders packs up and goes home. He’s what National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru calls4 “a cause candidate” whose motivation isn’t winning but sending a message. It’s likely the only thing standing in Clinton’s way now is an indictment over her email.
Final Batch of Clinton Email Released5
The State Department released the last batch of emails from Hillary Clinton’s homebrew email server Monday. It marks the last of the 52,000 emails now in the public record. In total, more than 2,000 emails were redacted6 at some level. While State says none of the documents were marked classified, figures in the intelligence committee said the information was classified at the time7. It’s a distinction Clinton likes to exploit against low info voters.
In this last batch of 3,900 emails, 261 were redacted by State. Those redacted emails described8 meetings Clinton had with world leaders, including Mid-East leaders after the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 — sensitive information that should have been protected from foreign spies. Most importantly, these emails show Barack Obama knew of Clinton’s private email and Clinton was well aware that she handled classified information through it. One email was classified because it was because it was an exchange between9 the chief executive and his cabinet member. On April 22, 2012, Clinton emailed her staffer Jacob Sullivan about a document that was emailed10 her: “If it’s not classified or otherwise inappropriate can you send to the NYTimes reporters who interviewed me today?” She had to ask, implying that she never fostered a culture where sensitive information was automatically forbidden from the technology.
At the beginning of this email debacle, Clinton admitted that her team deleted an additional 30,000 emails, saying they were personal. But if the vetted emails have 2,000 classified emails, what do the 30,000, which were recovered by the FBI and are being reviewed, reveal about the woman who wants to run this country?
Justice Clarence Thomas Speaks11
“Ms. Eisenstein, one question.” And with that, Justice Clarence Thomas broke his 10-year silence on the bench. The last time Thomas asked a question during oral arguments was Feb. 22, 2006. He reportedly keeps silent out of respect for the lawyers presenting their cases. Perhaps he spoke up because of the recent death of his longtime colleague and friend Antonin Scalia12. The two were ideologically close, and perhaps Thomas felt he needed to be a louder conservative voice on the bench.
The court was hearing the oral arguments to Voisine v. United States, a challenge to the law forbidding anyone convicted of domestic violence from owning a firearm. Assistant Solicitor General Ilana Eisenstein was presenting the state’s defense, about to wrap up, when Thomas piped up. “This is a misdemeanor violation,” Thomas said13. “It suspends a constitutional right. Can you give me another area where a misdemeanor violation suspends a constitutional right?”
Thomas long has been a quiet supporter of the Second Amendment. For years, government has argued it could curtail the right to bear arms for the sake of public safety. A domestic violence incident might not have anything to do with firearms. A felony might not have anything to do with violence. Yet a conviction in either results in the loss of Second Amendment rights. As Reason’s Jacob Sullum notes14, Thomas is implying legislators have been too quick to strip self-defense rights from citizens. For the record, Eisentein couldn’t think of another example where a misdemeanor resulted in the permanent loss of a constitutional right.
Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column
Read Trump’s Most Taxing Questions2 — it’s not “What is he worth?,” but “Who and what has he supported?”
If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email, update your subscription here15.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Thomas Sowell: Last Chance for America?16
Cal Thomas: Sewer Politics17
Rich Lowry: Welcome to Europe18
For more, visit Right Opinion19.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Trump University: A Model for Making America Great?20
By Paul Albaugh
For all of the self-hype about Donald Trump’s great successes as a businessman, his business failures are even more instructive. While failure in business can certainly be overcome and there can be valuable lessons learned from mistakes, there are also instances when the business itself becomes more important than the people it’s supposed to be helping or serving. One such example is Trump University.
Thankfully, during the last Republican presidential debate, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz finally started going after the frontrunner21 instead of each other. Rubio landed a good punch, sarcastically conceding that he didn’t “know anything about starting a fake university.”
Naturally, Trump defended his creation of Trump University. During an interview22 with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he insisted he would do it all over again because, he boasted, “98% of the people who took the courses approved the courses” and “said they were great.” As usual Trump left out many, many details.
What exactly was Trump University? David Marcus notes23, “To understand what Trump University was, it is important to understand what it wasn’t — namely, a university.” In fact, a lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general in 2013 forced Trump University to change its name to Trump Entrepreneur Initiative. It turns out that Trump U was operating illegally as a non-accredited university and did not offer any degrees or well-rounded curriculum. Trump ignored warnings dating to 2005.
What did it offer? It offered educational products, some with a price tag of $35,000, which were designed to teach students how to make big profits in real estate. At the lower levels, seminars were offered to teach students how to flip properties but they were designed to upsell the student to the next higher level course. Indeed, upselling was the name of the game, and many students were coaxed into paying a hefty price for useless information.
It was a classic bait-and-switch scam24 — a lie, a fraud. People paid generous sums of money to attend these courses that benefitted not the students but the businessman Donald Trump. And his outfit is now the defendant in three lawsuits. |
