The Patriot Post Digest 4-1-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-1-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Mid-Day Digest

Apr. 1, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“Thomas Jefferson still lives.” —John Adams (1826)

Editor’s note: Actual quote, but happy April Fools' Day!

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

April Fools' Day Outlawed1

Barack Obama has always been fond of his phone and pen, but this is getting ridiculous. In a new executive order this morning, Obama outlawed April Fools' Day. Perhaps he thought the symbolism was too representative of his own policies. Or perhaps he’s just making the most of his last year in office, checking off things from his self-described “rhymes with bucket” list2. Kind of like renaming Mount McKinley3. Whatever the reason, Obama clearly thinks he can do whatever he wants.

Ok, ok. April Fools'! Obama did not actually issue any such order this morning. But it’s certainly believable, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, his Marxist brothers in China did ban the “holiday.” Or at least that’s what The Washington Post reports4. “As part of a long-running effort to win control of the narrative on social media and deter dissent,” the Post says, “China’s Communist Party launched a campaign three years ago to criminalize the spreading of rumors. Xinhua’s post suggests an April Fools' Day prank that mocked or undermined the Party could have potentially serious consequences.” Those “serious” consequences were pretty darn funny back in 2012, when China’s propaganda machine was duped by a report on North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s devastating good looks — it came from The Onion, a satirical site.

So the current report from China may be true, but take it with a grain of salt. It is April 1, after all.

March Jobs Report: Another Step in Slow Recovery5

During the month of March, the U.S. economy continued plodding along in its slow recovery from the 2008 economic collapse. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' March jobs report6 showed the economy added 215,000 jobs and the unemployment rate edged up slightly to 5%. Wages, which economists worried about because they were not rising, increased by seven cents to $25.43.

But the real story of the economy lies in the percentage of Americans who wake up and go to work every day. Total employment in the Obama economy remains at historic lows. In March 2008, the labor force participation rate7 hovered at 66.1%. Eight years later, in the midst of a “recovery,” the rate rebounded slightly to 63% in March. Meanwhile, the employment-population ratio8 — which only measures people who hold down jobs, not people who are hustling for one — stood at 62.7% March 2008. A year later, that ratio sunk to 59.9% — the same ratio America is experiencing today. Part of the cause could be all the Baby Boomers headed into retirement, but the bigger factor is that Obama has focused more on “fairness” through income redistribution than free-market policies that create jobs.

Economists generally think this jobs report is positive. When Americans are returning to the labor force, they are not necessarily looking for a job for long9, according to FiveThirtyEight’s Ben Casselman. American Enterprise Institute’s James Pethokoukis pointed out10 job gains this strong haven’t been seen since the late 90s. But the economy is nowhere near where it was in the first quarter of 2008.

Obama’s Vietnam Model for Iraq11

Seven years ago, Barack Obama probably never imagined that he’d still be commanding American forces in Iraq during the last year of his second term. He certainly had no intention to. One of the decisions the reluctant commander in chief faces today, however, is whether to send more troops to Iraq ahead of a push to retake the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul. For months, Obama has managed a stealth escalation12 in the country so as not to admit to having put “boots on the ground” there. No American troops were in Iraq thanks to Obama’s stubborn and disastrous withdrawal13 in 2011. Now there are 5,000.

Furthermore, the escalation is so bureaucratically top-heavy, our forces there are in danger of being bogged down in the face of a brutal and fast-acting enemy. The Daily Beast14 headline says it all: “21 Generals Lead [Islamic State] War the U.S. Denies Fighting.” The Obama administration has packed Baghdad full of top brass, just as the U.S. military did when it de-escalated World War II, Vietnam and the Cold War. Thus, Obama is trying to start a war while ending it. To fix this mushy and wasteful strategy, his administration needs some, shall we say, “inherent resolve.”

On a final note, his re-entry in Iraq is modeled after the Kennedy/Johnson slow escalation in Vietnam. The incremental approach allows the enemy to prepare and counter the fight. After all, Democrats like to use the word “quagmire.”

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

David Limbaugh: We Must Not Destroy the Constitution to Save It15
Michael Barone: Will Britain Leave or Remain in the European Union?16
Lisa L. Hosack: A ‘Fixer Upper’ Project of the Heart17

For more, visit Right Opinion18.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Nuking the Obama Summit19

By Michael Swartz

Barack Obama played host Thursday as more than 50 world leaders converged on Washington, DC, for the fourth Nuclear Security Summit. In a Washington Post op-ed20 published Wednesday, Obama cited — of all things — Ronald Reagan’s second Inaugural Address21, telling Americans that, like Reagan, “we seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.” The comparison is not only obnoxious but utterly false.

Obama defined two of the goals of the event: “Nations, including the United States, will make new commitments, and we’ll continue strengthening the international treaties and institutions that underpin nuclear security.”

“Given the continued threat posed by organizations such as the terrorist group we call ISIL, or ISIS,” Obama added, “we’ll also join allies and partners in reviewing our counterterrorism efforts, to prevent the world’s most dangerous networks from obtaining the world’s most dangerous weapons.” (Perhaps, Mr. President, it wasn’t wise to give Iran a huge financial windfall and a head start on building its own nuclear arsenal.)

Unlike the days of the Cold War, today’s nuclear threat is more asymmetric22: anything from the theft by a terrorist group or rogue state of a nuclear device to the detonation of a “dirty bomb.” After the murder of a Belgian nuclear plant worker23 last week, fears of an ISIL-sponsored inside incident leading to a nuclear disaster arose.

More important than the nations that did attend was one that didn’t. In a clear snub to Obama’s failed leadership, Vladimir Putin’s Russia skipped the Nuclear Security Summit altogether. Not only that, but according to a Pentagon spokesman, “The Russians are doubling their [nuclear] warhead output. They will be exceeding the New START [arms treaty] levels because of MIRVing [adding multiple independently targeted warheads to] these new systems.”

The Washington Free Beacon reports24, “The State Department revealed in January that Russia currently has exceeded the New START warhead limit by 98 warheads, deploying a total number of 1,648 warheads. The U.S. level currently is below the treaty level at 1,538 warheads.”

So much for Hillary Clinton’s “reset.”