The Patriot Post Digest 8-8-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 8-8-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Aug. 8, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another.” —Thomas Jefferson (1821)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Another Judicial Rebuke for the IRS1

Normally when someone is caught in a blatant violation of the rules and they are given the option to cease or be punished, the choice would seem an obvious one. For those leading the IRS it would seem that they are loathe to cease their discriminating behavior2. On Friday, the District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed a lower court ruling now allowing those conservative groups who were targeted by the IRS to continue their suit against the agency.

The court found that the IRS had committed “unconstitutional acts against at least a portion of the plaintiffs … [who] were subjected to extended delay” and “were not receiving the same processing as those of other organizations.” The court added that it was “absurd” for the IRS to suggest that they had eradicated the behavior “when two of the appellant-plaintiffs' applications remain pending.”

Upon hearing the ruling, True the Vote, Inc., one of the plaintiffs in the case, said it “welcomed the ruling as a positive step toward justice after its First Amendment rights were violated by the IRS, dating back to 2010.” This ruling is separate from the Justice Department’s investigation that ended in October of last year, with no charges brought against the IRS3. At least some avenue for justice is still available for those who were targeted by the IRS, but at the same time, the institutional corruption is going to be extremely difficult to eradicate.

Regulation Nation: Obama Hits Major Rule #6004

We noted last week5 that if Barack Obama’s fantastic economic recovery had been even average, the U.S. would have another $2.2 trillion in GDP. The reason for that is his regulatory bonanza. What do we mean by that? Well, The Wall Street Journal reports6, “Obama’s regulators have completed their 600th major rule. A major rule imposes costs of more than $100 million. For those keeping score, that’s an average of 81 big ones a year, or roughly one every three days the government is open. Who says our bureaucracies are inefficient?” Team Obama has issued 100 major rules in the last year, and the regulator in chief still has nearly six months left with his phone and pen.

What are some of these rules? For example, The Washington Examiner provides a list of the seven most expensive climate regulations7. Among them: $156 billion for lower vehicle emissions, $27.3 billion for refrigerator efficiency and $13 billion for florescent lights.

As is implied by the cost to GDP, regulations are a form of taxation. These 600 rules have cost $743 billion, or nearly $2,300 for every American. As the Journal notes, “This eventually shows up in higher prices, or fewer jobs created, or reduced profits and wages.”

Obama promised to “fundamentally transform” our nation, and his regulations are a big part of doing that. The end result is economic growth of a paltry 1-2%.

America Shoots First Gold at Rio8

Nineteen-year-old U.S. Olympian Virginia Thrasher won the first gold medal awarded at this year’s Olympic games in Rio, Brazil. She won her gold in the 10-meter air rifle shooting competition — and set a new Olympic record while she was at it. Thrasher, who was not expected to contend for a medal at this year’s Olympics, stunned the field by beating out the heavily favored and previous gold medal winning Chinese contender.

Thrasher who had been previously training to become a figure skater, got hooked on shooting five years ago after going on a hunting trip where she killed her first deer in one shot. From then on she decided to switch her focus and has been hitting the mark ever since.

Predictably, when anti-gun activists heard the news, they were apoplectic and cynical. Piers Morgan was typically off target, tweeting, “LEAST SURPRISING BREAKING NEWS EVER: America’s 1st Olympic Gold Medal is for Shooting.” The Brit just can’t seem to keep his odious and ridiculous opinions to himself. USA Shooting’s response, “Thanks for trolling. Realize it was a pellet gun, she defeated heavily favored Chinese, & 6 proud @GBShooting reps are in Rio2.” Well, we in our humble shop offer our heart-felt congratulations to Virginia Thrasher on her gold medal performance. We didn’t become the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave because our forefathers didn’t know how to use rifles. Go USA!

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    Gary Bauer: World Vision and Hamas9
    Peggy Noonan: The Week They Decided Donald Trump Was Crazy10
    Rich Lowry: The Ransom That Dare Not Speak Its Name11

For more, visit Right Opinion12.

TOP HEADLINES

    Did Clinton Email Lead to Iranian Spy’s Death?13
    Another Islamist Attacks Police in Belgium14
    ISIL Claims Capture of U.S. Weapons in Afghanistan15

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report16.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Ransom or Not, Obama Still Funds Iranian Terror17

By Arnold Ahlert

The Obama administration is funding Iranian-fueled Islamic terrorism.

Forget all the double-talk and the dissembling by perhaps the most arrogant individual to ever occupy the Oval Office. Despite Barack Obama’s insistence that the latest revelations about the $1.7 billion accord reached with the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism amount to the “manufacturing of outrage,” the stench of a heinous quid pro quo, at best — and the outright payment of a ransom for hostages at worst — cannot be avoided.

The agreement, which closed the books on a failed weapons deal reached just prior to the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during the 1979 Iranian revolution, was originally announced18 in January, and even then it was criticized as a ransom payment in exchange for five Americans held by Iran. Obama also asserted it was not part of the nuclear accord. “With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well,” he said at the White House on Jan. 17 — without mentioning the deal included $400 million in cash19 denominated in euros, Swiss francs and other currencies procured from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland.

And not released prisoners. Exchanged prisoners, as in the release20, or pre-trial pardon, of seven people of Iranian descent, three of whom had been imprisoned for attempting to provide Iran with advanced technology, along with the dismissal of arrest warrants against 14 others.

And along with the prisoners, the bundles of cash, courtesy of a secret airlift in unmarked cargo plane. Cash White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest insisted was necessary because “we all know there is no banking relationship between the U.S. and Iran,” and only a story now because of “political attacks that are being made by people who are trying to justify their opposition to the deal.”

Obama was equally dismissive. “It is not at all clear to me why cash as opposed to a wire transfer has made this into a new story,” he stated21. “Maybe because it feels like some spy novel or some crime novel because cash was exchanged.”

Or maybe, as former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey revealed22, sanctions that prevent engaging in dollar transactions with Iran remain in place, making it necessary to use other currencies. And why cash? “There is principally one entity within the Iranian government that has need of untraceable funds,” Mukasey explains. “That entity is the Quds Force — the branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps focused particularly on furthering the regime’s goals world-wide by supporting and conducting terrorism.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 8-8-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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It gets worse. America has a money laundering statute, but it only applies to transfers to or from U.S. territory. Mukasey notes, “This transfer occurred entirely abroad.”

Nonetheless, the resolution of a 37-year-old dispute with a nation that has maintained a war footing against American interests throughout that entire period, and the simultaneous implementation of a nuclear accord, is being framed as strictly coincidental. “As we’ve made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim … were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home,” State Department spokesman John Kirby insisted. This despite U.S. officials admitting the Iranian prisoner negotiators wanted cash to show they had gotten something “tangible” for their efforts.

And make no mistake: Even officials in the Obama administration’s corrupt Justice Department objected to the cash transfer, but they were overruled23 by an equally corrupt State Department. “People knew what it was going to look like,” stated one of the objectors, “and there was concern the Iranians probably did consider it a ransom payment.”

That’s because they did. “This money was returned for the freedom of the U.S. spy and it was not related to the [nuclear] negotiations,” declared Mohammad Reza Naqdi, Brigadier General of Iran’s volunteer Basij Force. That assessment was echoed by released hostage Saeed Abedini, who stated he was told by police “we are waiting for another plane and until that plane doesn’t come, we never let you go.”

The State Department could have confirmed or denied Abedini’s allegation. Instead they chose to stonewall, with State Department deputy spokesperson Mark C. Toner telling AP diplomatic reporter Mike Lee he hasn’t “gotten clarity” on whether the plane loaded with cash landed before or after the hostage plane took off, but the agency is “still looking into it.”

Those familiar with the Obama administration’s modus operandi should expect State to be “looking into it” long after the media’s increasing disinterest diminishes to zero.

The administration’s reflexive stonewalling, and Leftmedia efforts to bury it, continue. “White House officials have declined to say whether the rest of the $1.7 billion payment … was also made in cash,” The New York Times reported24 Friday — buried in the 13th paragraph of its article.

That’s an astounding revelation, but Times will undoubtedly be joined by the rest of the calculatingly disinterested Leftmedia, eager to reduce this story to one of semantical distinctions, or “old news,” as Hillary Clinton called it.

So what’s not old news? “In sum, the Obama administration has provided Iran with $400 million under circumstances in which it well knows that at least some of this cash will be used for terrorism,” writes25 former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy. Thus columnist Mark Steyn’s searing assessment26 of Obama remains germane: “If he were working for the other side, what exactly would he be doing differently?”

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

    What Welfare Work Requirements Accomplish27
    Pastor, Raffle, Rifle, Prison?28
    Clinton ‘Cannot Be Our Commander in Chief’29
    Put Your Feet Up30

OPINION IN BRIEF

Gary Bauer: “A big and very disturbing story has erupted in Gaza involving the Christian charity World Vison and Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group. After a comprehensive investigation by the Israeli government, the director of World Vision’s Gaza operation, Mohammed el-Halabi, has been charged with diverting aid funds meant to help children to Hamas and its military operations. Apparently, el-Halabi has been a Hamas member since his youth. Investigators discovered that he created fictitious humanitarian projects that provided ‘cover’ for the transfer of funds to Hamas. One example cited was a greenhouse project that was then used to hide sites where Hamas was building tunnels to launch terror attacks in Israel. The list of projects that ended up benefitting Hamas is breathtaking. $1.5 million a year from World Vision’s budget was given in cash to Hamas combat units, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Another $2 million earmarked for education and health in Gaza went instead for payments to the families of Hamas terrorists. The World Vision money used in this Hamas plot originated in aid money from the United States, England and Australia. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has suspended funding of World Vison programs in Palestine. The U.S. should do the same.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”

Upright: “Why do we state any red lines? We just had the secretary of defense on the other day, telling the world essentially which towns we were going to conduct an enveloping movement against Mosul. I mean it’s just insane. We keep telling people how many troops we’re going to send in, where they’re going to go. I mean we’re the best enemies in the world. Our enemies love when we telegraph what we’re doing.” —Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn

Just a little misunderstanding, that’s all: “I may have short-circuited, and for that I will try to clarify, because I think [Fox News'] Chris Wallace and I were probably talking past each other.” —Hillary Clinton when asked if she was “mischaracterizing Director Comey’s testimony”

Shameless: “100 out of 30,000 emails … contained classified information, but again, [Director Comey] acknowledged there were no markings on those 100 emails. And so, what we have here is pretty much what I have been saying throughout this whole year and that is that I never sent or received anything that was marked classified.” —Hillary Clinton, still lying, in the same speech

Belly Laugh of the Week: “I know that this is something that she’s learned from, and we’re going to be real transparent, absolutely.” —Tim Kaine on Hillary Clinton’s email scandal

And last… “Don’t worry, we can re-pay the tax payers the $400 million ransom payment we sent to Iran. We’ll have the Clintons do about three speeches.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest

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.