The Patriot Post Digest 5-27-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-27-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Mid-Day Digest

May 27, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“The duty of an upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing of these family dissentions, and to cherish the good principles of both parties.” —Thomas Jefferson (1805)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Trump Seals His Biggest Deal1

Twelve-hundred and thirty-seven. That’s the number of delegates a Republican presidential candidate must accrue to represent the party in November’s election. For a while the odds of seeing a contested convention in Cleveland looked not just distinctly possible but increasingly likely, particularly after Ted Cruz managed to topple Donald Trump in Wisconsin. But quicker than an email gets deleted from Hillary’s homebrew server, Trump swept five Northeast states on a single night, then cleaned up in crucial Indiana, and the Republican race was all but settled. Yesterday, Trump went from being the presumptive candidate to the candidate after passing the 1,237 threshold. The Associated Press reports that “Trump was put over the top in the AP delegate count by a small number of the party’s unbound delegates who told the AP they would support him at the national convention in July.”

So what now? Regardless of the results on November 8, this week marks a formal turning point for the Republican Party, including likely changes to its platform. As we noted2, “ Come July, the Republican Party will do more than officially name its presidential nominee; the party will also formalize its 2016 platform. … The issue here isn’t that the Republican nominee must adhere to the party platform point by point. But, for better or worse, the nominee is the standard-bearer of a platform meant to unite the party. And right now, the party is anything but united. A wide chasm separates the Trump and #NeverTrump factions — almost as wide as the chasm between Trump and the current platform.” So while Trump represents the party, the all-important question remains: What will the party become?

Perhaps an even more interesting question is who Trump’s opposition will be on election day. Earlier this week the State Department’s Office of Inspector General published what amounts to a smackdown3 of Hillary Clinton regarding her nefarious email practices as secretary of state. An indictment is long overdue, but if the perennially corrupt politician is finally held to account, it raises the prospect of a Biden-Warren ticket4. The Trump freight train5 may have arrived at the GOP station, but we can expect a few more surprises before voters hit the polls in November.

Illusively Edited Film Denigrates Gun Owners6

Under the Gun, a project of longtime liberal talkinghead Katie Couric and Stephanie Soechtig, “examines the events and people who have kept the gun debate fierce and the progress slow, even as gun deaths and mass shootings continue to increase,” according to film’s website7. “Through the lens of families impacted by the mass shootings in Newtown, Aurora, Isla Vista and Tucson, as well as those who experience daily gun violence in Chicago, the documentary looks at why politicians are finding it difficult to act and what is being done at the state and local levels.”

Perhaps a more accurate description would be: The documentary illustrates why politicians are failing spectacularly to enact additional anti-Second Amendment measures — because the mainstream media can’t be trusted to report facts and instead relies on phony narratives and outright deceit. Case in point (via The Washington Free Beacon8.):

“At the 21:48 mark of Under the Gun a scene of Katie Couric interviewing members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights organization, is shown. Couric can be heard in the interview asking activists from the group, ‘If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?’ The documentary then shows the activists sitting silently for nine awkward seconds, unable to provide an answer. It then cuts to the next scene.”

The interviewees' silence makes it appear as if they can’t articulately answer the question. But this insinuation is pure hogwash. A full audio copy of the interview tells us a much different story. The Beacon says that “raw audio of the interview … shows the scene was deceptively edited. Instead of silence, Couric’s question is met immediately with answers from the activists. A back-and forth between a number of the league’s members and Couric over the issue of background checks proceeds for more than four minutes after the original question is asked.”

Despite the anti-gun crusaders' obvious intent, they’ve doubled down on the deception. Nora Ryan, whose network EPIX aired the film, praised the “creative and editorial judgment.” Meanwhile, Soechtig says, “My intention was to provide a pause for the viewer to have a moment to consider this important question before presenting the facts on Americans' opinions on background checks. I never intended to make anyone look bad and I apologize if anyone felt that way.” Couric added, “I support Stephanie’s statement and am very proud of the film.” Neither of them care that law-abiding citizens were grossly misrepresented by the Leftmedia Mafia. In the inimitable words of Captain Louis Renault, “I am shocked, SHOCKED”!

Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Ignores Growing Nuclear Threat9

During his speech at Hiroshima, Barack Obama used his remarks10 to push for a nuclear-free world and to reflect upon the deaths of the Japanese, Koreans and American POWs who perished in the first use of an atom bomb. On Friday, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site, an act that looked dangerously close to an apology for a difficult decision that saved lives and hurried the end of World War II11. For what it’s worth, the White House insisted Obama was not apologizing to Japan. His sentiments were heartfelt but will be soon forgotten, for the world surrounding Hiroshima has long disregarded the lessons in the skeletonized buildings and blackened trees.

“The world was forever changed here,” Obama said12, “but today the children of this city will go through their day in peace. What a precious thing that is. It is worth protecting, and then extending to every child. That is a future we can choose, a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare but as the start of our own moral awakening.”

But as The Wall Street Journal13 opined, Obama should have used the backdrop of Hiroshima to warn the world of a new asymmetric nuclear threat. Jihadists dream of setting off a bomb14 in a U.S. urban center. A president grounded in reality would admit that signing pieces of paper, making international promises and lifting sanctions on countries like Iran in no way ensures nuclear nonproliferation. Heritage Foundation’s 2016 Index of U.S. Military Strength labels15 North Korea as the most severe threat to U.S. vital interests because it threatens to use its nuclear weapons. Currently, China is poised to deploy16 nuclear-powered submarines armed with ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads while America’s military continues to deteriorate17. A true leader would see the future threat and take steps to prevent violence on a nuclear magnitude. It’s a moral responsibility.

EDITOR’S NOTE

We will not publish our Daily Digest or Humor editions Monday in observance of Memorial Day. We’ll return to providing you the web’s best news analysis Tuesday.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Jonah Goldberg: Clinton’s Style of Deception More Insidious Than Trump’s18
Ryan Anderson: 43 Republicans Join Democrats to Support Obama’s Transgender Agenda19
Hans von Spakovsky and Jana Minich: California Refuses to Admit Its Voter Fraud Problem20

For more, visit Right Opinion21.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Puerto Rico, Underwater in Debt, Is a Lesson for Us All22

By Michael Swartz

Once upon a time, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico was a significant manufacturing hotbed23 and a place bondholders liked to invest because returns were tax-free. But the favorable tax laws companies took advantage of went away a decade ago, and the island has since lost both capital and population. Aside from a small decrease in West Virginia, Puerto Rico is the only U.S. territory to lose residents since 2010. Nearly 10% of its population has fled the island to seek better economic opportunity on the mainland.

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-27-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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The result has been this territory of less than four million people, just about the population of Connecticut, racked up a debt of $72 billion24 with little hope of ever repaying it. If Puerto Rico were a state, an idea that has bounced around from time to time, it would be by far America’s poorest — but it would also have the option of addressing its financial situation through Chapter 9 bankruptcy. One proposal to deal with this financial crisis would involve Congress changing the law to allow the island to pursue Chapter 925. Pursuing bankruptcy, though, would be to render the investments of thousands of bondholders nearly worthless.

House Republicans seem more set on providing for an oversight committee26 similar to one that guided Washington, D.C., through its financial crisis 20 years ago, an arrangement that would allow Puerto Rico to restructure its debt yet again and keep creditors at bay. It would also have the ability to approve the island’s budget27, a technique often used by states when municipalities run into financial crises. Otherwise, creditors have little to do but take Puerto Rico to court when the territory misses required payments28, as it will again in July.

The issue with the GOP approach, according to Salim Furth and Rachel Grezler of The Heritage Foundation, is the proposed stay on litigation from creditors. As they write29, “The stay would set a dangerous precedent that future insolvent governments (say, Illinois or California) would find highly attractive. The last thing taxpayers need to give Puerto Rico — or any financially feckless government — is a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

Yet while the commonwealth’s debt is being addressed by Congress, some of the root causes30 of its financial crunch will remain untouched. For example, several other territories controlled by the United States, such as American Samoa, are exempt from minimum wage requirements because their local economies, employment markets, and employee skill levels are not sufficient to support such a wage — but the similar economy of Puerto Rico is not. There has also been an argument made for repealing the Jones Act31, a near century-old restriction allowing only domestic-flagged ships to move goods between the mainland and the island, which drives up islanders' cost of living.

Grinding poverty is nothing new to the islands dotting the Caribbean, a sad irony given that investors have made handsome rewards by opening tropical paradises catering to the well-to-do of the industrialized world. Just a short distance from these playgrounds of the rich and famous are some of the world’s most notorious slums.

Short of staging a series of military takeovers, there’s nothing we can do about how those island nations conduct their affairs. But we can assist Puerto Rico, perhaps through the tough love of letting it learn a financial lesson. Bailing the island out without addressing the underlying problems would not only bring us back full circle in just a few decades. It would also embolden spendthrift state governments to open spending spigots knowing Uncle Sam will be their backstop.

Lesson number one: Don’t make financial promises you can’t keep. As Puerto Rico goes, so shall we follow at some future date without reforms of our own.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

Millennials: A Generation That Failed to Launch32
The Demos' LGBT Gauntlet33
Obama Plans to Stay Close in Post-White House Home34
A Haitian Immigrant, West Point and the American Dream35

TOP HEADLINES

Secret Service Punishes 41 Over Leak of GOP Lawmaker’s Data36
Ohio Shuttering ObamaCare Co-Op37
DHS Defiant, Still Permitting Amnesty38

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report39

OPINION IN BRIEF

 Jonah Goldberg: “From the earliest days of this [email] scandal — and it is a scandal — Clinton has lied. Unlike Donald Trump’s lies, which he usually vomits up spontaneously like a vesuvian geyser, Clinton’s were carefully prepared, typed up and repeated for all the world to hear over and over again. I would think this is an important distinction. Neither of the candidates is worthy of the office in my eyes, but voters might discount many of Trump’s deceits as symptoms of his glandular personality. Much like Vice President Joe Biden, who always gets a pass for launching errant fake-fact missiles from the offline silo that is his mouth, Trump is often seen as entertainingly spontaneous. Meanwhile, Clinton — who lives many time zones away from the word ‘entertaining’ — is marketing herself as the mature and upstanding grown-up. She does nothing spontaneously. And that means all of her lies are premeditated.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.” —Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)

Upright: “In a world where governments fail all the time, avoiding a nuclear exchange through decades of on-and-off warfare might be their most significant accomplishment. … Where our leaders have completely dropped the ball is stopping the use of chemical weapons. … It sounds rather silly to wax poetic about a nuclear-free world when the two sides in the Syrian conflict are defying the ‘red line’ with impunity, launching poisons without consequence, killing thousands and destabilizing Europe with a wave of desperate refugees as well.” —Jim Geraghty

Non Compos Mentis: “There are a number of states where there are significant barriers toward women having contraception access. … If it’s a constitutional right, you should be entitled to seek this kind of medical care and not have arbitrary barriers put in your way.” —Sen. Tim Kaine

Denial: “Personal email use was the practice for other secretaries of state. It was allowed. And the rules have been clarified since I left."—Hillary Clinton (According to the IG report, ”Officials, … did not — and would not — approve her exclusive reliance on a personal email account to conduct Department business, because of the restrictions in the FAM and the security risks in doing so.“)

A vast right-wing conspiracy: ”The appropriateness of the State Department IG’s office conducting this review at the same time when the Justice Department was already looking to this same issue is an open question. There were questions raised about this office during the course of its investigation. There were reports about individuals in this office coming forward and suggesting that there were hints of an anti-Clinton bias inside that office.“ —Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon

Good question: "Here’s the problem Brian. She did the long news conference as all of us remember, answered a whole lot of questions about the email, the email server and all of that. If she had time for the news media and she’s gong to have time for the Justice Department why disrespect the Inspector General of the State Department, the department she ran for four years, and not at least go to a meeting with the Inspector General and answer a whole bunch of questions?” —Wolf Blitzer

And last… “The State Department finally released their report on [Clinton’s] use of a private email server. They found that she did not ask permission, and if she had, the answer would have been no. Which is one of the top reasons to not ask permission, by the way.” —Stephen Colbert

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.