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« on: May 25, 2016, 05:59:23 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-25-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Mid-Day Digest
May 25, 2016
THE FOUNDATION
“The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808.)
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Obama Spent Money on Climate Change Over Zika Emergency1
The vast and sprawling government has funds set aside to deal with all sorts of contingencies, but the Senate approved a $1.1 billion Zika virus spending bill last week that exceeds the constraints of the existing budget. What for? In March, the Obama administration pilfered half a billion dollars from the fund Congress set aside to deal with international infectious diseases and used it to help fund a UN agency recently founded to fight climate change, according to Sen. James Lankford2.
With summer just around the corner and mosquito season near full swing, the Zika virus has become a concern in the United States. As we’ve noted3, the virus only affects a small percentage of the population. But the disease is not well researched, there’s a link between the virus transmitted by mosquitoes and the birth defect of microcephaly, and the virus has spread to the United States. The virus is most devastating among the nation’s unborn — some of the most vulnerable among us.
“Zika is an important international crisis,” wrote Lankford, “but every crisis does not demand new ‘emergency funding’ that is all debt. If there is a way to avoid more debt, we should take that option, it is what every family and every business does every day.”
Obama potentially broke U.S. law4 in giving that money to the UN agency because Palestine — not recognized as a state by the UN — is a member. The move also circumvented Congress because the governing body holding the purse strings declined Obama’s request to fund the UN’s Green Climate Fund. But Obama sees his own legacy surrounding climate change more important than this unknown virus spreading through the states.
The Clintons' $100 Million ‘Blood Minerals’5
In July 2007, the Clinton Foundation announced6 that “Vancouver-based Lundin for Africa … has pledged $100 million to the … Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI), which is aimed at alleviating poverty and building sustainable local economies in developing countries.”
There’s just one major problem with that description. The group that claimed to be improving lives was actually helping fund the insurgents who were disenfranchising fellow Africans. According to a Daily Caller7 investigation, “When the … Lundin Group gave its $100 million commitment to the ‘Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative,’ the company had long been cutting deals with warlords, Marxist rebels, military strongmen and dictatorships in the war-torn African countries of Congo, Sudan and Ethiopia.”
The Caller continues, “The Lundin Group reportedly cut a deal in 1997 with Congolese Marxist warlord Laurent Kabila, with a $50 million down payment toward $250 million they would give to the rebels in exchange for mining rights, according to according to U.N. Inspector Jason K. Stearns. Lundin eventually won majority rights to one of the country’s richest mineral veins.” One could argue that the Clinton Foundation has blood on its hands. Of course, as Hillary Clinton might argue, what difference, at this point, does it make?
TSA Shuffles Leadership in Response to Long Security Lines8
In response to the long security lines9 that recently left thousands of airline passengers stranded, the TSA is shaking things up. According to NBC News10, the assistant administrator for security operations has been given new duties and a deputy assistant TSA administrator named Darby LaJoye is moving into the role. However, the fact no one was fired is cockamamie but not exactly surprising. NBC also reports that terminations at the executive level are exceedingly rare11: “The agency … has terminated one executive in the past five years.” The reshuffling is an effort to do something, anything before summer travel takes off. Remember when a similar move happened in response to the Department of Veterans Affairs scandal in which veterans died waiting for care? The Obama administration brought on former CEO Bob McDonald to clean up the agency. These days, he’s saying waiting for VA care is fun — like waiting in line at Disneyland12.
Part of the problem of the impossibly long security lines is regulation. In the response to the 9/11 terrorist attack, all manner of objects were banned from flights. In 2013, the TSA proposed relaxing the rules governing what Americans could pack in their carry-on bags by allowing small knives back on flights. The thinking was to free up TSA agents to concentrate their efforts on actual threats, like bombs. Yet Democrats and the airline industry fought the proposal because they were scared of the idea of giving Americans the freedom of taking their personal knives wherever they traveled. The TSA withdrew13 the rule change, and TSA agents must continue to jump through all the regulatory hoops — missing real security threats — while the lines snake longer.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Terence Jeffrey: Is America Becoming More — or Less — Free?14
Walter Williams: You Are What You Say You Are15
Star Parker: Religious Freedom in an Age of Secularism16
For more, visit Right Opinion17.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Venezuela: When Free Stuff Runs Out, State Power Remains18
By Lewis Morris
Government forces and protestors have clashed repeatedly across Venezuela in the last several days as the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro tries to shut down attempts for a recall election. The situation has reached such a level of chaos that both domestic and international observers view the country as a time bomb19.
The country that based its economy on oil when the price per barrel was high now struggles to find basic goods. Amidst rising discontent from the people, the socialist state uses its power to keep power — just like Machiavelli advised and Fredrick Hayek warned socialist governments would do.
Last week, Maduro arbitrarily imposed a 60-day state of emergency, an order he is not legally allowed to give without the approval of the national assembly, which is controlled by an opposition majority that would never grant such a decree. The state of emergency allows him extraordinary power to deploy the military and seize control of whatever public and private institutions he so desires. Thanks to protestors who have had quite enough of Maduro’s autocratic rule, order will be increasingly hard to find.
Venezuela has become an economic basket case of epic proportions. The trouble started during the rule of Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez. Chavez was a skilled dictator with a penchant for theatrics and a strong connection with Venezuela’s military, which has always been a major factor in holding power in the country.
Chavez’s iron grip on the country was already starting to slip before he died in 2012. Maduro — who worked his way up the socialist party ranks from bus driver to union leader to foreign minister — was Chavez’s handpicked successor. Since then things have only gotten worse.
Venezuela is suffering the world’s deepest recession and the world’s worst inflation rate, which hovers somewhere between 500% and 700%. (After inflation reaches triple digits, does a couple hundred points one way or the other really matter?) It also has the second highest murder rate in the world and is considered the world’s least free economy.
The political opposition recently called for a recall election of Maduro, and rallies began springing up nationwide demanding a referendum. Thousands of protestors have filled the streets of Caracas, but National Guard soldiers have barred them from accessing Venezuela’s National Electoral Council. This scene has been repeated in other Venezuelan cities and towns.
As would be expected in a socialist government, corruption infects the Venezuelan government like a cancer. The supposedly independent electoral council is no exception, because it’s run by Maduro allies. It’s determined to block efforts to process a recall through proper channels. |
