The Patriot Post Digest 4-29-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-29-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Apr. 29, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” —Samuel Adams (1749)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Who’s the Establishment Candidate?1

Anyone who wants to stop Donald Trump is just carrying water for the establishment2. At least that’s what we’re told. But there’s a big problem with that narrative: The establishment is lining up behind Trump3 because party elites hate Ted Cruz.

How much do they hate him? Cruz is “Lucifer in the flesh,” according to former House Speaker John Boehner4. “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a b— in my life.”

On the other hand, Boehner calls Trump his “texting buddy” and promises to vote for him but not Cruz, even against Hillary Clinton.

Ironically, arguably no one has done more to drive voters toward Trump than Boehner.

Rep. Peter King went one step further, saying that he agreed with Boehner, though “maybe it gives Lucifer a bad name by comparing him to Ted Cruz.”

Those might be the best two endorsements Cruz could ever ask for. On the other hand, and unfortunately for Cruz, this sort of lashing out can only be expected for a guy who’s made a career of actually opposing the establishment. While Trump was busy giving money to Clinton, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, and Boehner was cutting backroom deals with them, Cruz was shutting the government down and calling Mitch McConnell a liar on the Senate floor. That, far more than campaign donations from a deal-making billionaire, will anger the establishment, and it’s why party poohbahs haven’t rallied to push Cruz ahead of Trump. They can handle an erratic dealmaker who by all accounts is actually likeable. They can’t handle a prickly but principled conservative.

Exit question to Cruz from Fox News' Megyn Kelly: “How could you possibly unite this party coming out of a contested convention?” At this point, how could anyone unite this party? Gen. James Mattis5, call your office…

Tenn. Latest State to Pass Conscience Protections6

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a provision this week that gives therapists the legal right to reject clients based on ideological and religious objections. According to The Tennessean7, the measure “says no licensed counselor or therapist must serve a client whose ‘goals, outcomes or behaviors’ conflict with the counselor’s ‘sincerely held principles.’” The law furthermore “shields from civil lawsuits, criminal prosecution and sanctions by the state licensing board counselors who refuse to provide services — provided they coordinate a referral of the client to another counselor who would serve them.”

An “extremely disappointed” spokesman for the American Counseling Association, Art Terrazas, says the law marginalizes individuals suffering from gender disorientation pathology8 and charged that “Haslam has ignored the lessons learned in North Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi and has elected to sign this dangerous bill into law. Plain and simple, this bill codifies discrimination.” In reality, discrimination is what Tennessee outlawed.

Recall a few years ago California banned gender conversion therapy — a ban the Obama administration would love to repeat nationwide. Last April, Obama senior aid Valerie Jarrett ridiculously claimed9, “The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm.” Actually, studies show the vast majority of children struggling with gender identity and homosexuality eventually accept the created order even without outside help. Nevertheless, Jarrett added, “This administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors.”

The administration’s position encourages discrimination by forcing counselors to agree with their clients' viewpoint — as if gender disorientation pathology shouldn’t be just socially acceptable but also considered normal. As Gov. Haslam put it, “The substance of this bill doesn’t address a group, issue or belief system. Rather, it allows counselors — just as we allow other professionals like doctors and lawyers — to refer a client to another counselor when the goals or behaviors would violate a sincerely held principle.” How is that discriminatory?

    That isn’t the only good news from Tennessee. The Volunteer State is working to end the last vestige of income taxes10.

North Korea’s Disregard for Human Life11

In recent weeks, North Korea has rattled its sabers with more menace. In addition to a recent nuclear test, the hermit kingdom may possess mid-range nukes12. More such tests are scheduled in the near future. It’s a threat so worrisome that even Barack Obama suddenly became an advocate13 for a strong missile defense system. But lost in this high diplomatic drama is the nation’s threat to life. North Korea measures the value of a human life by how much it can help the state.

Just today, North Korea sentenced naturalized U.S. citizen Kim Dong Chul to 10 years of hard labor after Kim allegedly confessed he was a spy for the U.S. and South Korean governments. Last month, U.S. student Otto Warmbier, 21, was captured for attempting to bring a propaganda sign back home. It’s all an effort by North Korea to exert leverage upon the United States.

But let’s not forget the case of David Sneddon14. While hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan Province of China in 2004, Sneddon disappeared. The Chinese government first told Sneddon’s family he likely fell into a river while hiking and died. But eyewitness testimony emerged saying Sneddon completed his trek. A crazy theory emerged: Sneddon, who spoke both Korean and English, could have been captured by the North Korean government in order to train its intelligence community.

In February, Sens. Orrin Hatch, Deb Fischer, Ben Sasse and Marco Rubio introduced a resolution15 directing the State Department and U.S. intelligence to more vigorously investigate what happened to Sneddon, who would currently be 35 years old. Circumstantial evidence points to the theory Sneddon is still alive. First, the Chinese government is known to help North Korean police, even capturing and sending back North Koreans who try to flee the country. Second, North Korea has abducted foreigners ever since the 1970s to make them teach its intelligence community language and customs they could better use to spy. North Korea even did this with a U.S. soldier who deserted to the country in the 1960s. In this case, Sneddon was regarded by North Korea as more than just a political pawn. His language skills made him more valuable to the communist state, and if it captured him, they wouldn’t be telling.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    L. Brent Bozell & Tim Graham: Transgender ‘Fact’ and Fantasy16
    Mona Charen: Reaganism Is Dead17
    Charles Krauthammer: The World According to Trump18

For more, visit Right Opinion19.

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-29-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Regulations Are the Ties That Bind20

By Allyne Caan

It might not have its own government, citizens or flag, but the world’s fourth largest economy has become a force — and a threat — to be reckoned with. What constitutes this mysterious economic might? None other than the $4 trillion in federal regulations imposed by the U.S. government. You read that correctly. If the cost of government regulations were its own country, it would boast the fourth-largest GDP in the world — bigger than the economies of Germany, France, Brazil, Russia, Italy, and the United Kingdom. And it’s just a couple of hundred billion away from matching the entire federal budget.

This bombshell comes courtesy of a new study21 by the Mercatus Center, which analyzed data from 1977 through 2012 to discover the cumulative costs of regulations (or, more accurately, taxes by a different name). While most studies of the economic impact of regulations have focused on select industries and/or specific regulations, the Mercatus study looked at data across 22 industries.

The picture ain’t pretty.

The study found that regulations, “by distorting the investment choices that lead to innovation, [have] created a considerable drag on the economy, amounting to an average reduction in the annual growth rate of the US gross domestic product (GDP) of 0.8 percent.”

In plain English, if regulations had remained steady at 1980 levels, our economy would have been 25% — or $4 trillion — larger in 2012 than it was. This represents a whopping $13,000 loss per person in just one year. All to ensure every aspect of our lives is compliant with Uncle Sam’s Big Government Guidebook.

Unfortunately, President Ronald Reagan wasn’t joking when he quipped, “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

Just how many regulations are we talking about? As of December 2015, more than 81,000 pages-worth22 of federal rules, proposed rules and notices. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), these pages included23 3,378 final rules and regulations, of which 545 affect small businesses. And this didn’t count 2,334 proposed rules.

Regulations have become such a behemoth that CEI created tenthousandcommandments.com24, which looks at “the other national debt — the cost of regulation.” (In case you’re wondering, as of last week, 2016 already has 1,001 new federal rules.)

Not surprisingly, the regulatory landscape only grew worse under Obama. As Investor’s Business Daily notes25, Obama’s administration foisted 172 “economically significant” regulations on Americans in his first term, and 200 more since, thus far outpacing both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. And Obama’s rules include things like, oh, the government takeover of the health care industry and the EPA’s coal-killing carbon emissions rules.

It’s little wonder our annual GDP growth has been sluggish at best. So sluggish that in 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics called26 slower GDP growth “the new normal.” GDP growth in the first quarter of 2016 was a woeful 0.5%, the weakest in two years. (It was an anemic 1.4% in the previous quarter.) And Obama is on track to be the only president in U.S. history without a single year of 3% growth on his watch — he’ll be doing well to average 1.55%.

Remember those wondrous numbers while Obama’s sycophants at The New York Times' feature their puff piece in which he “weighs his economic legacy27.”

“I actually compare our economic performance to how, historically, countries that have wrenching financial crises perform,” Obama mused. “By that measure, we probably managed this better than any large economy on Earth in modern history.” Go back and read the aforementioned numbers and see if you agree that he “managed this better.”

What’s the solution? For one thing, eliminating thousands of pages of federal regulations. It’s straightforward but hardly palatable to the government elites who believe they’re most qualified to run your life.

Frighteningly, the alternative is the continued growth of the regulatory nation that keeps our economy in chains.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

    ANALYSIS: Two Years Too Late28
    The Looming Demographic Cliff29
    Hollywood Creating Movie Mocking Ronald Reagan30
    Sanders Previews Economic Plan for America31
    Tennessee Works to Dump Last Income Tax10
    Cruz Signed the Communist Manifesto32

TOP HEADLINES

    Green Beret Who Accosted Afghani Rapist Is Absolved33
    Brother of San Bernardino Terrorist, Two Others Arrested34
    ICE Releases Another 20,000 Felonious Illegals35

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report36

OPINION IN BRIEF

L. Brent Bozell & Tim Graham: “The liberal opinion site that calls itself PolitiFact insists it’s just a fact-checking website. … When it comes to humans, there is probably not a fact more verifiable than one’s gender. But guess what? On April 26, the website Mediaite carried the eye-grabbing headline: ‘PolitiFact Rules It’s Now Objectively False to Call Transgender Women Men.’ … ‘It’s not entirely accurate to say that transgender women are men, as PolitiFact Texas has reported,’ PolitiFact writer Linda Qiu harrumphed. ‘Medical experts typically agree that a transgender woman is a woman who identifies differently from her assigned sex at birth, though there isn’t universal agreement on this point.’ In short, a transgender woman is a woman and not ‘a grown man pretending to be a woman.’ There isn’t ‘universal agreement,’ but it’s ‘objectively false’ not to call a transgendered man a woman. It’s like global warming. Silence, you knuckle draggers! … On so many issues, liberals insist there is no debate and should be no debate, that there is only sense and nonsense; truth and falsehood; and fact and fantasy. When it comes to ‘non-conforming’ to the immutable facts on gender, they are the moral deconstructionists embracing nonsense, falsehood and fantasy, insisting all the sane and sensitive ‘medical experts’ agree with their negation of fact. No one should settle a political debate with PolitiFact. On this issue, they’re simply so liberal they’re Politi-False.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.” —Voltaire (1694-1778.)

Upright: “There is still startlingly broad opposition to capitalism, and I can’t help but wonder if part of it springs from the same well-spring of risk aversion that gives us safe spaces, micro-aggressions, and trigger-warnings. Actual free markets are risky. Companies can fail. Entire industries can vanish. Entrepreneurial dreams are crushed every single day. Free markets don’t care for your feelings, your ethnicity, or your gender identity. Is it any surprise that when millions of people demonstrate an extraordinarily low tolerance for emotional risk that they’d be hostile to an economic system that can so callously disregard their wants and needs?” —David French

The BIG lie: “The president has spent years making the case to Republicans in Congress that there is more that could be done that would strengthen our economy, expand economic opportunity for the middle class and lay a foundation for our nation’s long-term strength for the decades ahead. And that includes investment in infrastructure. … It’s unfortunate that years have gone by where that opportunity has been missed.” —Josh Earnest absolving Obama of any fault for our measly economic growth (GDP in first quarter of 2016 came in at just 0.5%)

Belly laugh of the week: “Sometimes both Josh [Earnest] and I probably have our disagreements with the press corps and feel picked on and misunderstood.” —Barack Obama

When you can’t legislative it, sue: “Another piece of our agenda was to promote marriage equality in our country. Legislatively, we couldn’t really succeed, but from the courts and the rest, and public opinion, of course, in the actual courts and in the court of public opinion, that victory has been won.” —Nancy Pelosi

Late-night humor: “Now that the election is narrowing to a two-person race, Donald Trump said he will have to get used to Hillary Clinton’s shouting. After hearing this, Bill Clinton said, ‘You never really get used to it.’” –Conan O'Brien

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.