The Patriot Post Digest 4-4-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-4-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Apr. 4, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness.” —George Washington (1793)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

A Year Later and Iran Is More Dangerous Than Ever1

Saturday marked the anniversary of the day the West established the framework of the nuclear deal with Iran2 — the deal the Obama administration claimed would ensure peace in our time in exchange for reduced sanctions and a whole lot of unfrozen assets. It didn’t work out the way Barack Obama promised. Iran can destabilize the region through more than just an underground nuclear program. Its capture of U.S. sailors3 and continued missile tests4 in violation of UN sanctions are two recent examples.

“It is now clear that one year since the framework for the deal was agreed upon, Iran sees it as an opportunity to increase hostilities in the region,” Yousef Al Otaiba, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, wrote5 in an editorial. “But instead of accepting this as an unfortunate reality, the international community must intensify its actions to check Iran’s strategic ambitions.”

Meanwhile, lifting sanctions has hit a snag. According to Iran, it isn’t yet feeling the effects of lifted sanctions. But Obama the community organizer accused Iran of not following the “spirit of the agreement6,” and in doing so alienating banks and other countries. At the same time, congressional staffers were briefed7 on a U.S. Treasury plan to give the state sponsor of terrorism better access to U.S. dollars.

On a final note, Congress recently notified8 the State Department that it’s investigating to determine if the administration deliberately misled lawmakers on the nuke deal. This colossally foolish deal is an appropriate signature foreign policy “achievement” for Obama because it’s an abject failure.

Hollande Censored for Daring to Say ‘Islamist Terrorism’9

There’s an old joke mocking the French for perennially surrendering under pressure. But, once again, it was the Muslim sympathizers in the White House who were caught surrendering to political correctness. And the French were the bold ones.

A transcript on the White House website shows French President Francois Hollande, who was sitting across a table from Barack Obama, remarking, “But we’re also well aware that the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq.” But that’s not what you’ll hear in the video version. According to the Media Research Center, “The White House website has censored a video of … Hollande saying that ‘Islamist terrorism’ is at the ‘roots of terrorism.’ The White House briefly pulled video of a press event on terrorism with Pres. Obama, and when it reappeared on the WhiteHouse.gov website and YouTube, the audio of Hollande’s translator goes silent, beginning with the words ‘Islamist terrorism,’ then begins again at the end of his sentence.”

Hot Air’s Allahpundit makes this critical observation10: “It’s [Obama’s] prerogative to choose his own words. It’s not his prerogative to choose someone else’s words, particularly when that someone is a foreign head of state whose country is dealing with a more severe jihadist threat right now than the United States is.”

But here’s the other thing, he says: “You know what the worst part is? Hollande didn’t say ‘Islamic terrorism,’ which is the supposedly objectionable term. He said ‘Islamist terrorism.’ ‘Islamist’ was … a term that came into use precisely because it gave the speaker an efficient way to distinguish between ‘moderate Muslims’ and the more jihad-minded. ‘Islamic’ describes all things Muslim; ‘Islamist’ describes a supremacist view in which Islam is the highest authority of the state.”

But even that was too much for Obama’s minion editors. It seems any iteration of the word “Islam” in the context of terrorism is altogether banned. You can’t exercise a strong foreign policy when you’re in denial about what defines your enemy.

They That Do Not Work Will Not Receive Food Stamps11

Years since the Great Recession was declared over, states are finally beginning to amend their food stamp programs. This year, 21 states reapplied the requirement that any food stamp recipient who isn’t caring for children or disabled must find a job and work 20 hours a week. It’s estimated that up to one million people12 will leave the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The rule stipulating Americans on food stamps must also work was dropped when the Great Recession hit and millions of Americans turned to the program. But now, with month after month of slow but steady job growth13, it’s certainly time to reinstitute the rule.

When states such as Maine reinstituted the requirement, thousands of people dropped the assistance14, saving the state money for the recipients who truly needed the aid. Currently, the job market is returning to normal (or at least the new underperforming normal), but one of the last holdouts of high unemployment is the long-term unemployed. At the beginning of 2016, more than 46 million Americans took SNAP, the same number of people on food stamps back in September 201115. Leftists have a history of making people reliant on the government dole. The Obama administration dramatically increased the food stamp program. Now that fiscal conservatives want to scale back the growth of that program, the Left clamors with cries that the move is somehow immoral and heartless. But the whole point of the program is to get Americans back on their feet. Encouraging them to depend on the government is wrong.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Peggy Noonan: Trump’s Mess Has Become His Message16
John Goodman: $15 an Hour. Why Not $30? Why Not $100?17
Burt Prelutsky: Why the Electoral College Matters18

For more, visit Right Opinion19.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Religious Liberty in an Age of Immorality20

By Robin Smith

The state legislatures of Georgia, North Carolina and Mississippi have been busy in recent days responding to concerns that the rights of business owners, organizations and individuals are being subjected to leftist intolerance. The Rainbow Mafia seeks to force everyone to condone their beliefs regarding sex and same-sex marriage — even if those beliefs are in conflict with one’s own religious teachings — through the forcible participation of a transaction or delivery of a service that could be seen as demonstration of support.

Plainly, those who hold Judeo-Christian values don’t want to participate and/or enable what is defined as sin by their God, Yahweh, of the Bible. And, that’s exactly where all things become complicated. Who sits as Judge or judge — Yahweh or a black-robed individual appointed by a politician?

Let’s take a quick review of each state’s legislative offerings and then posit a few questions and thoughts.

Currently, Republican Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi is considering signing a bill, described in Section 1 of the proposal as the “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act.” The proposal speaks to marriage as a monogamous union between a man and a woman; identifies that “sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage” in Section 2; and declares one’s chromosomal biology to drive gender in Section 3, “Male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”

Georgia’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act”21 went through quite an amendment process that diluted down its provisions, only to be vetoed anyway by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal. According to22 The Heritage Foundation’s Ryan Anderson, it would have “safeguarded clergy from having to officiate same-sex weddings, prevented faith-based organizations from being forced to hire someone who publicly undermines their mission, and prohibited the state government from discriminating against churches and their affiliated ministries because they believe marriage is between a man and a woman.”

In North Carolina, the state legislature passed legislation overruling a Charlotte city ordinance23 that would have mandated that businesses provide transgender people “special admission privileges in selecting dressing and restroom facilities.” The simple law “requires people to use multi-stall bathrooms that match their birth certificates at state agencies, schools and universities.” Birth certificates that, by the way, can be changed after sex-reassignment surgery.

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-4-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Georgia Gov. Deal vetoed the Peach State’s bill after enormous economic threats issued from corporate giants like Disney and Apple, as well as sports leagues like the NFL and NCAA. The narrowly written bill was still labeled by critics — the Rainbow Mafia that includes Hollywood, corporate interests, the Leftmedia, etc. — as legalized discrimination.

In the “Magnolia State,” Gov. Bryant has not committed to signing the legislation just yet. Big-dollar boycott threats are taking their toll.

Over in North Carolina, Republican Governor Pat McCrory signed the “commonsense” protections into law for citizens using public restrooms and doesn’t seem to fret about demands from the Left — even governors and mayors blocking official travel to his state. San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee, the mayor of a sanctuary city that ignores our federal immigration laws to harbor and protect illegal immigrants, even when they murder their own law-abiding citizens, has prohibited travel to the Tar Heel State because of public bathroom access.

More important, the Obama administration is considering ways to deny federal funding to North Carolina.

Just a few questions to the corporate bullies who threaten to pull jobs and investments from these states: Apple, when will you move your operations out of China for its “legalized discrimination” against simple human rights? Disney and Apple, when will we read of your departure from the Middle East, refusing commerce from the Saudis and other devout Muslims who throw accused homosexuals off of buildings?

Then, to Republicans — Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana and Gov. Asa Hutchison of Arkansas, included24 — who seem to have a difficult time with legislation regarding religious liberty: Why is it difficult to establish that liberties of both those with and without faith must be protected? Just as certain manufacturers, marketers and retailers voluntarily accommodate those of devout faiths with dietary restrictions (i.e. “kosher” or “halal”) without boycotts and threats based on a unique consumer demand, why are the overreaching demands of those with same-sex preferences treated as sacred and universally observed?

Finally, a few thoughts for those writing these pieces of legislation. What is the role of government on this issue? Clearly, the balance of rights is critical without the “establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Yet, diminishing one’s hallowed beliefs to pacify a political agenda or to receive financial gain exposes the corrupt nature of the very institution of government meant to defend “the Supreme Law of the Land” — our Constitution.

While the desire for a good and decent culture is unsatisfied, is the government the best vehicle for such a state of order? Sadly, our houses of worship have become less institutions of teaching and training up, rebuke in love and the confession of sin — saying the same thing about our iniquities as Yahweh — and more social groups of self-esteem, entertainment and “community.”

The Left is determined to shift the responsibility of morality and acceptable mores to the government-sanctioned secular gospel and thus “fundamentally transform” our nation. Therefore, the center-right must be guardians of institutions that form the foundation of our unique constitutional republic and oppose the transfer and blurring of the roles of civics, faith and family.

John Adams once said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” He was not conferring the role of morality nor religion to our government. Instead, Adam’s truth observed a very limited form of government with enumerated powers would be adequate only for a people governed by a moral compass.

The role of our American government is to protect the genuine expressions of faith of our citizens rather than define and redefine them.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

ANALYSIS: Truth Is Not Subjective25
Girls and Guns26
Clinton Denies She Took the Oil Industry’s Money27
Decline in Fracking Support Is Shortsighted28
Shall We Try the Main Street Tax Plan?29

TOP HEADLINES

Did Obama Nix CIA Plan That Could Have Stopped ISIL?30
New Evidence Suggests Russia Is NOT Leaving Syria31
Greece Begins Deporting Migrants32

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report33

OPINION IN BRIEF

Peggy Noonan: “The Mess is something a candidate occasionally brings with him that voters can tell is going to cause trouble down the road. The Mess is a warning sign; it tells potential supporters to slow down, think twice. The Mess might be a pattern of scrapes with the law, a series of love affairs or other scandals. Voters will accept normal, flawed human beings but they don’t like patterns of bad behavior. They don’t like when they see a Mess, because they don’t want to elect trouble to high office. Donald Trump’s Mess is his mouth, his indiscipline, his refusal to be … serious. At the same time Mr. Trump doesn’t even seem to be trying to do the one big thing he has to do now. He is the front-runner for the nomination. At this point it is his job to keep the support he has and persuade those who don’t like him to give him a second or third look. To do that he only has to be more thoughtful, stable and mature in his approach — show he may be irrepressible and fun and surprising, even shocking, but at bottom he has within him a plausible president. Instead, he is stuck at nutty. Rather than attempt to win over, he doubles down. In the process he shows that what occupies his mind isn’t big issues, significant questions or the position of the little guy, but subjects that are small, petty, unworthy. Instead of reassuring potential or reluctant supporters, he has given them pause. Instead of gathering in, he is repelling. This is political malpractice on a grand scale.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.” —Martin Luther King Jr. (Jan. 15, 1929 — April 4, 1968.)

Upright: “Why on earth, you might well wonder, didn’t the Founding Fathers allow the popular vote to determine the [election] outcome? It’s because they, who had suffered under the rule of King George III, were constantly on the alert against despots, even when they happened to be in the majority. … Very wisely, as it turns out, they didn’t want those in predominantly urban states to have absolute supremacy over those that were rural. … So for all the high-sounding flapdoodle of one man/one vote or — in the case of Chicago — one corpse/one vote, the Founders knew better.” —Burt Prelutsky

The victim: “Look, I signed a pledge. [The GOP] wanted me to sign the pledge. And I’m the one that’s being discriminated against.” —Donald Trump

Braying Jenny: “Well, under our laws currently, that is not something that exists. The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.” —Hillary Clinton (The only surprising thing here is that she used the word “person.”)

Alpha Jackass: “I do agree with the Secretary [Clinton]. I don’t believe there’s any constitutional protection for the unborn.” —Bernie Sanders

Non Compos Mentis: “There is a lot of frustration [about the economy], and frankly a lot of anger. Many people are feeling left out and left behind in our great country. … We need more good jobs with rising incomes because we fell back the last 15 years because of the terrible economic policies of George W. Bush.” —Hillary Clinton

Late-night humor: “Hillary Clinton said Republicans are trying to act like President Obama’s not still president. Also doing that: President Obama. He’s going to Cuba, doing the tango in Argentina. He’s basically checking off his bucket list.” —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.