The Patriot Post Digest 3-3-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-3-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Daily Digest

Mar. 3, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“Falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Clinton’s Secret IT Staffer Granted Immunity by FBI1

The Clinton machine has ways to deal with people who squeal. Will Bryan Pagliano2 suddenly die in a mysterious accident? In the next couple months, the FBI expects to wrap up its investigation into whether then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a homebrew email server and her mishandling of classified information constitutes criminal wrongdoing. The bureau has granted3 Pagliano, the Clinton staffer who set up the contraption, immunity in exchange for his cooperation with law enforcement. He previously pleaded the Fifth. As noted by Ted Cruz, who knows a thing or two about law, “This suggests that the investigation is moving to a whole other level.”

This revelation comes as the State Department released4 the last of Clinton’s emails, redacting more than 2,000 because they were classified at some level and withholding dozens of others because they were so highly classified as to be damaging to national security even in redacted form. Naturally, the Clinton campaign has downplayed the investigation, saying it’s a simple security review. But the fact that federal investigators have granted the man who created the system immunity suggests they are pursuing someone bigger. Perhaps they are zeroing in on the fact that Clinton ordered the system created, and hid the system from the State Department. But Clinton may still slip away. Former CIA Director David Petraeus leaked sensitive information to his biographer, lied about it to the FBI, and was hit with a $100,000 fine and probation for two years. Clinton may be under the law, but barely.

Trump Is the Last Person You Want to Pick a Judge5

Donald Trump will make America great again, or so he says. Certainly, the next president will leave a lasting mark on American jurisprudence, as he or she will nominate anywhere from one to four Supreme Court justices. (Barack Obama is currently vetting a possible nominee6.) With his outsider appeal and appearance of a high rolling successful businessman, Trump promises that he’ll turn this country around, clean out Washington and guild it with his gold-colored trademark.

“I’m sorry,” columnist David Harsanyi asserts7, “but ‘support the American Putin because he’s the only one who can save SCOTUS and the Constitution’ is deeply unpersuasive.‘”

Not only is it unpersuasive, it’s downright worrying. Because he hasn’t held public office and therefore been on record demonstrating support for the Constitution, Trump’s views and how he interprets the Founding Document are ambiguous, at best. (Not that it would matter — his views on anything change whenever he changes ties.) However, we do know, as George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin writes8, that Trump conducts his business in such a way as to undermine Rule of Law, free speech and property rights.

Trump sued journalists he thought gave him unfavorable coverage in order to bully them into silence. As we pointed out9, our nation’s libel laws were established before the American Revolution. They are part of the jurisprudence that helped build this country, and Trump wants to fundamentally transform it. Trump has also spoken in favor of expanded eminent domain powers that would allow the government to seize property from private citizens and then give it to private developers — developers like Trump.

These positions are neither grounded in precedent, nor do they respect Rule of Law. In fact, they are views held by a man who does not understand the basic duty of a judge. At the GOP debate before Super Tuesday, Trump said judges “sign” bills10. Any fifth-grader should be able to tell you judges are to interpret the law created by presidents who sign the bills the legislature creates. And yet some discontented voters are willing to give him the responsibility of vetting who will become the next Supreme Court justice.

Net Neutrality a Year Later11

This is a legacy of the Obama administration: The growth and innovation that came with a free Internet ceased after the government decided it would treat the net like a utility, regulating it like landline phones. It’s been a year since the Federal Communications Commission, at the behest of Barack Obama12, instituted net neutrality, declaring that Internet providers needed to treat equally every packet of information zipping through the fiber optic, whether it’s Netflix streaming thousands of shows a minute or someone casually browsing Facebook.

The result, The Wall Street Journal explains13, is that Internet companies are investing less into building up infrastructure. In 2013, the industry increased capital expenditures by 8.7%; last year, those investments shrank by 0.4%. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told The Daily Signal14, “I think what you are seeing is companies less willing to spend money building broadband that is faster and better and cheaper to your homes and businesses. This is the first time that year-over-year investment in broadband has gone down, outside the tech bubble bursting in 2001 and the Great Recession of 2008. The fact it coincides with the FCC adopting these heavy-handed regulations, I think, is directly related. And that’s unfortunate for American consumers, especially in rural areas where the business case for building our broadband is already tough as it is.”

The FCC’s newfound powers are being challenged in the courts — and it might go to the Supreme Court. But if the FCC prevails, then it will have the power to tax the Internet, further freezing the innovation and creativity that the Internet fostered.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Vijay Jayaraj: Indoctrination, Population Control and Climate Change15
Thomas Sowell: Last Chance for America? Part II16
Victor Davis Hanson: Log Cabin Candidates17

For more, visit Right Opinion18.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Trump Taps Something That’s Long Been Ignored19

By Allyne Caan

If Super Tuesday proved anything, it’s that a large number of American voters will, indeed, pull the lever for Donald Trump — and for valid reasons. No, we haven’t suddenly jumped on the Trump Train20 (and don’t expect us to any time soon), but it’s clear Trump has found a trigger point among many voters. And he’s hitting it with incredible consistency.

“My market is the people in the country who want to see America be great again,” Trump explained. “It’s very simple. That’s a lot of people. That’s not broken down by age, or race or anything.”

While it’s all too easy to judge Trump supporters by the candidate they follow, Trumpmania’s real appeal goes much deeper than political theater — and it’s worth understanding.

As much as we despise politics via class stratification, that’s where we must begin. For it’s working-class Americans — blue-collar, lacking political power and without friends in high places — who believe they have at last found an ally, an advocate, a voice in the man who proudly claimed to “love the poorly educated.”

In an astute explanation of “Trump’s America,” Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute writes21 of “the emergence of a new upper class and a new lower class and … the plight of the working class caught in between.” Populating the new upper class are the elites — politicians, professors, cultural icons, business moguls. They shape policy, wield power, and are heard simply by nature of their status. The new lower class includes those “who have dropped out of some of the most basic institutions of American civic culture, especially work and marriage.” Meanwhile, the working class is left in the middle. “Trumpism,” Murray writes, “is the voice of a beleaguered working class.” And “the central truth of Trumpism as a phenomenon is that the entire American working class has legitimate reasons to be angry at the ruling class.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-3-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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We’ve noted that he is the ace of anger affirmation22 before.

And indeed, it’s the so-called working class — not the ruling class — that has borne the impact of the exportation of millions of manufacturing jobs and the influx of illegal aliens who now hold many working class jobs.

Peggy Noonan describes23 it as the rift between the “protected” and “unprotected.” She writes, “The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it. The unprotected are starting to push back.”

And if today’s “protected” make up the “ruling class” — those who create the world in which the rest of us live — is it any wonder the “unprotected” have grown disillusioned?

As Claremont Institute Fellow Angelo Codevilla writes24, “Ordinary Americans have endured being insulted by the ruling class’s favorite epitaphs—racist, sexist, etc., and, above all, stupid…. No wonder, then, that millions of Americans lose respect for a ruling class that disrespects them, that they identify with whomever promises some kind of turnabout against that class, and that they care less and less for the integrity of institutions that fail to protect them.”

A look at who actually supported Trump on Super Tuesday bears this out. Residents of economically distressed communities were more likely to vote for Trump25 than voters in prosperous areas.

Need more convincing? Just listen to what a recent caller told Rush Limbaugh: “It’s kind of like a few callers ago said that us guys are low-informed voters. I mean, just 'cause we didn’t march out of somewhere with a Harvard degree or whatever, I guess we’re not qualified to vote for the president of the United States. I feel like that’s the whole thing. It’s like we’re not important, yet here we’ve been carrying the country on our back with taxes for years and years and we get no appreciation whatsoever.”

We in our humble shop are hearing the same. A reader recently wrote, “The Patriot Post needs to quit bashing the best chance of defeating Hillary: Donald Trump. Support the guy who’s winning over the American People.”

Another says, “I am tired of the elite running my country into the ground. I served a career defending what used to be the USA, only to see the socialist and RINOs take and trash her.”

It’s for this reason Trump boasts, “I’ve brought in millions and millions of people into the Republican party.” That’s true, but with big caveats26. As we’ve also argued, Trump’s supporters are right to be tired of the elite., and they’re asking the right questions. They’re just coming up with the wrong answer27, and that’s true in part because he hurts those he’s supposed to be for28.

No matter what we think though, the fact is Trump supporters aren’t necessarily voting for Trump because he’s someone important. Trump supporters are voting for Trump because he says they’re someone important. And they’ve been missing that for far too long.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

ANALYSIS: Hollywood’s Obsession With Faux Diversity29
This Day in American History — In God We Trust30
After Seeing What’s in It, Many Dislike Single-Payer31
South Transgendered Dakota32
The Harvest of Immorality33

TOP HEADLINES

Romney to Lay Out Case Against Trump34
Ben Carson Calls It Quits (Kind Of)35
SCOTUS Closely Divided on Abortion Case36

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report37

OPINION IN BRIEF

Vijay Jayaraj: “There is no ethical basis in a naturalistic framework to limit the growth of human population. The naturalist and the atheist invoke theistic moral values (specifically from the Judeo-Christian worldview) to hold humans responsible for the supposed depletion of the environment. The Christian perspective, on the other hand, calls for a responsible stewardship of earth by humans, based on the Biblical mandate. The Christian worldview promotes human life — to develop and promote activities that will address the livelihood of humans, the flourishment of human life and the utilization of the resources to aid in the same. It also lays the ethical principles for stewarding the creation — thus discouraging abuse of the environment and the creatures therein. Indoctrination in education is a cancer that kills the inquisitive and renders the intellect paralyzed. It’s unfortunate that the scientific methodology is being dominated by political entities. There will never be a conflict between science and my faith. But the perpetrators who have twisted the scientific system to their gains will always be a challenge to my moral values regarding truth, integrity, justice, equality and desire to have an educational environment that is free from indoctrination.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Nations that have pursued equality, like the Iron Curtain countries, I think have finished up with neither equality, nor liberty. Nations, which like us, in the past have pursued liberty, as a fundamental objective, extending it to all, have finished up with liberty, human dignity, and far fewer inequalities than other people.” —Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013

This: “Trumpism, as destructive as it is, is also unsustainable. It’s not to say the 2016 revolt isn’t real; it’s a genuine reaction to discontent. But surely Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot also imagined they had enduring movements on their hands. Trump isn’t going to erect an infrastructure for a lasting party. He will not be recruiting or cultivating lower-tier Trumpian candidates. He won’t be spending millions furthering a set of ideals, because he doesn’t have any to offer. Apple will not assemble phones in Milwaukee. There is no Trump after Trump.” —David Harsanyi

Observations: “The prospect of a Trump-Clinton matchup … remains very real. That at this moment, with the country struggling to come to terms with its 21st-century circumstances, the two parties would reach for two 70-year-olds to save them from the future — both of them intensely unpopular, reckless with power, blinded by nostalgia, and devoid of vision — is awfully discouraging. And it leaves me wondering if the baby boomers, as voters and leaders, will ever stop wrecking the country.” —Yuval Levin

Upright: “I hope she does [go to prison]. If I’m gonna believe, and I don’t have any reason not to believe, that she gave classified information on hundreds if not thousands of emails on a public server after what happened to General Petraeus, she should buried under a jail somewhere.” —former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling (No word yet on how long ESPN will suspend him this time…<)

Braying Jackass: “Right after this came out, it was massive news for three days, he jumped 10 points in the polls. … It didn’t hurt Donald Trump.” —David Duke

Faint praise: “I have some degree of respect for [Ted Cruz] because he believes in something. He has a set of values.” —Harry Reid

Late-night humor: “Hillary Clinton’s childhood cat was named ISIS. This is the most shocking political pet news since Jimmy Carter revealed his childhood cat’s name was Ayatollah Katmeini.” —Stephen Colbert

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.