The Patriot Post Digest 5-25-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-25-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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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.

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-25-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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According to Venezuelan law, 1% of the electorate in each of the country’s 23 states have to sign a petition to begin a recall election. The opposition says it already has 1.8 million of the four million signatures needed, but those signatures have to be verified by the board. Good luck on that one. On top of that, the government says that it will fire any public employee who signs a recall petition.

Undeterred, the opposition is continuing with marches and demonstrations. Maduro has responded with stronger tactics, and there have already been a large number of injuries and arrests reported.

Many Venezuelans are so poor they don’t dare risk missing work to join in the demonstrations. Others remember the crackdown of 2014 in which over 40 people were killed during anti-government protests.

This time around, the opposition has momentum. Even among some traditionally loyal Maduro strongholds, people have had enough20. Years without basic services like electricity and running water have melted the loyalty once felt for the government.

“They have been telling us for years it’s about to get better,” one protestor told reporters. Another said, “You want to know what happened to the money that they should have set aside for electricity and water? They stole it.”

Maduro blames the United States as being behind the protests. He’s even called for the largest military exercise in the nation’s history to prove his point. But that story won’t stick. Even his former leftist allies in Latin America are beginning to distance themselves from him.

Former president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, said that Maduro was “mad as a goat.” The secretary general of the Organization of American States said Maduro will go down as another one of Latin America’s “petty dictators” if he blocks the recall referendum.

If the opposition can keep its momentum, then Maduro may be in big trouble. The country’s largest beer company had to cease production due to a shortage21 of barley. Coca-Cola ceased production of soft drinks due to a shortage22 of sugar. People are tired of being told everything’s great while living in a country where everything is running out.

The best thing that could happen to Venezuela would be for it to radically change course and adopt some serious economic reforms. Chile made such a radical change in the 1970s and is all the better for it.

The Chilean economy grew 287%23 between 1975 and 2015 thanks to a focus on creating a free economy. Venezuela’s shrunk by 12%. Chilean income per capita went from being 31% of that in Venezuela to 138% during that time period. Infant mortality in Chile was 33% higher than Venezuela in 1975. In 2015, Venezuela’s infant mortality rate was nearly twice as high as that in Chile. And in Chile, as a higher quality of life and a rising life expectancy took hold, a peaceful transfer of power to a democratically elected government soon followed.

Venezuela cannot expect the positive transformation to a more prosperous, free society like in Chile so long as Nicolas Maduro insists on holding onto his office through force. The failure of his policies is proof that he should step aside. Unfortunately, he thinks he just needs to squeeze harder to achieve the desired result of prosperity. As history repeatedly tells us, the only way to cure the problems of the Left is to turn toward the Right.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

Obama: The Regulation Man24
House Republicans Move to Impeach IRS Chief25
Facebook: Only a Few Workers Squelched Conservative News26
Database on Gun Owners Coming to Hawaii?27

TOP HEADLINES

Dems Discuss Dropping DNC Chief28
Anti-Trump Protests Turn Violent Outside New Mexico Event29
Taliban Names New Leader30

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report31

OPINION IN BRIEF

Terence Jeffrey: “Speaking this week in Ho Chi Minh City in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam … Barack Obama complained about the lack of cooperation he gets from the U.S. Congress. The president was responding to a question posed by a Microsoft Vietnam executive who wanted to know what Obama would do to get the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal — which Microsoft endorses — approved in the United States. Toward the middle of his long answer, Obama gave the audience in Ho Chi Minh City his assessment of the reasonableness of American politics. ‘The bad news is politics in the United States is not always — how would I put it — reasonable. That’s the word I’m looking for,’ Obama said. Toward the end of his long answer, our president gave the audience in Ho Chi Minh City his more specific assessment of Congress. ‘So nothing is easy in Washington these days,’ Obama said. ‘But despite sometimes the lack of cooperation with Congress, I seem to be able to get a lot of things done anyway. It could have been easier. I would have less gray hair if Congress was working more effectively.’ Obama presumably would deem American politics consistently ‘reasonable’ — and Congress to be ‘working more effectively’ — if the legislative branch gave him everything he wanted. The truth is Congress — and the Supreme Court — gave him too much. The question Americans should ask today is: Are we more or less free than we were eight years ago?”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” —Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Upright: “We saw this at Occupy Wall Street; we saw this in Black Lives Matter. Heck, you can go back to the anti-war protests and the WTO protests in Seattle. There seems to be this sense in some newsrooms that left-wing protests are somehow inherently less violent, and if there is violence, it’s somehow justified or understandable as a reaction to provocation from the Right.” —Jim Geraghty responding to last night’s anti-Trump protests

Dezinformatsia: “The Post conducted a poll of American Indians, 9 out of 10 of whom32 said they were not bothered by the team’s use of the name. … If there were an important principle of free speech at stake in holding on to the name, we would say, by all means, ignore the one-fifth to one-quarter of Indians who say the word is disrespectful. … But no public purpose is served by holding on to a slur.” —Washington Post editorial board

Quandary: “If we have a Republican governor in any of those states [whose senator was tapped to be Clinton’s vice president], the answer is not only no, but hell no. I would do whatever I can [to stop it], and I think most of my Democratic colleagues here would say the same thing.” —Harry Reid

Spread the wealth: “The prosperity that we are starting to see is not fully shared, and … we still have a stacked deck where too much of the rewards of the improved economy today are flowing to the top. … That’s what [Clinton’s] … tax proposal to incentiv[ize] profit-sharing by corporations is all about.” —Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon

Braying Jenny: “Yes, I get paid a lot less than my colleagues. I don’t complain. I’m not going to whine about it. It’s like being born a slave. It’s like, ‘Aw, damn, darn my luck.’ You know? I wish I was born somewhere else or maybe some other way, but it is what it is.” —actress Michelle Rodriguez

Non Compos Mentis: “If [Christians] really did as they claim to do, they would quickly see that Jesus must be, by their own exegetical rules, the first transgender male. … In his person, and in his salvific actions, Jesus is truly the first and forever trans man.” —Suzanne DeWitt Hall in The Huffington Post

Late-night humor: “The White House went into lockdown … after several balloons drifted onto the property. Even worse, Bernie Sanders' house was attached to them.” —Seth Meyers

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.