The Patriot Post Digest 8-10-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 8-10-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Aug. 10, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.” —George Washington (1795)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Trolling Trump Over Second Amendment1

Political spin is what makes politicians famous and infamous. It is the art of spinning one’s own words to play positively and one’s opponent’s words negatively. And it really helps when the Leftmedia is your partner.

Enter Donald Trump. He’s passionate regarding the serious issues facing the nation, yet, with his politically unorthodox manner, he often finds himself having to refute the continued political spin his untamed tongue has brought to bear. Yesterday, Trump attempted to make the case for just how dangerous a Hillary Clinton presidency would be, saying, “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. … If she gets to pick her judges, [there’s] nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.” Cue the spin that Donald is calling for Clinton’s assassination or armed revolution. Oh, come on. But this is how the political spin game works.

Remember back in 2008 when Hillary Clinton was asked why she had not yet conceded the race to Barack Obama? She made the following remarks: “I don’t [concede], because, again, I’ve been around long enough. You know, my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary. … We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.” Did Hillary really intend to suggest that she was waiting for Obama to being assassinated? You can bet that if she had been running as a Republican, that would have been the story.

Fast forward back to today, and clearly Trump was referencing Second Amendment defenders, who are quite a political force for the preservation of Americans' right to bear arms. Clinton and her campaign are simply using Trump’s off the cuff remark as another means of trolling him, seeking to spin everything he says against him. But let’s be honest — Trump’s lack of speaking discipline, while refreshing to some, has made him an easy target. His task is to stay on message, like the hard-hitting economic speech2 he gave Monday.

NeverTrump Lives in Neverland3

Donald Trump faced such stiff opposition in the primaries that some of his opponents became known under the collective moniker “NeverTrump.” We opposed his nomination too, but at some point NeverTrump had to give way to NeverClinton4. Well, some ideas die hard, and, having failed to stop his nomination at the convention, a handful of NeverTrumpers have the next “best” idea: A completely unknown third-party candidate who can, they apparently hope, throw the election to Hillary Clinton.

Evan McMullin is their man. Who? Ed Morrissey writes5, “McMullin worked for the CIA and Goldman Sachs prior to his most recent job as a senior national-security policy analyst for the House Republican Conference. He has no experience as an officeholder, executive or otherwise.” By all appearances, McMullin is a Patriot who served his country honorably, but beyond being the lone guy agreeing to run for this particular niche, what does he bring to the table? Nothing at all in more than half the states, because he’s already missed the ballot deadlines.

So why run? We suspect that it’s the same story as the 50 GOP national security experts who trotted out a letter6 this week still opposing Trump. Most of them are former aides and advisers to George W. Bush, which leaves us wondering if this is part of Jeb’s retribution. His slogan was that he can “fix it.” Did he mean the election?

There are plenty of good reasons of conscience not to vote for Trump. But voters already have third-party options who will actually be on the ballot. Moreover, as we’ve said before, one of two people is going to be the next president. McMullin isn’t one of them.

‘Clock Kid’ Takes Adversaries to Court7

You’ll recall the account of Ahmed Mohamed8, a young teen of Sudanese lineage who made the unwise decision to bring a self-made “clock” to his school in Irving, Texas, last September. Understandably, the unconventional-looking clock — which appeared more like a caricature of an explosive device — prompted the school and local authorities to assume the worst and investigate the matter. After it was determined there was no threat, the ensuing response elicited a firestorm of allegations of Islamophobia.

It’s worth noting that even college students9 who evaluated a picture of the device during impromptu interviews were initially unconvinced it was a clock. It doesn’t help either that Ahmed’s father is a 9/11 truther10. The suspicion was justified. Still, despite the fact most ordinary people would have taken the same precautionary measures — particularly in this day of escalating terrorism right here in the United States — the Mohamed family decided to use the situation as leverage to promote the emotionally effective “anti-Islam” narrative and make a few bucks in the process.

The financial ruse got underway in November11, when the Mohameds requested $15 million in reparations — or else. Well, this week, the Irving Independent School District, MacArthur High School principal Daniel Cummings and the City of Irving were handed an official lawsuit12 alleging the “Defendants violated Ahmed’s rights under the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States.” It also claims, “Because of all of the lies and conspiracy theories thrown out about Ahmed and his family, he has received not just hate messages, but death threats.”

Which brings us to a somewhat related story — that of Ibtihaj Muhammad, “America’s first hijab-wearing Olympian,” as The Daily Beast described her13. The Beast quotes Muhammad as saying, “[I feel unsafe] all the time. I had someone follow me home from practice and try to report me to police. And this is right on 28th and 7th in New York City.”

What happens to Christians who complain in a Muslim country? They lose their jobs, their belongings and even their lives. Muslims who complain in America get to visit the White House14 and represent our country in the Olympics. As a moderate Muslim, which nation would you rather live in?

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Ben Shapiro: No, Barack Obama Isn’t a Feminist — He’s a Self-Aggrandizing Tool15
Walter Williams: The Decline of Civility16
Rich Lowry: A Pointless Anti-Nuclear Gesture17

For more, visit Right Opinion18.

TOP HEADLINES

DOJ Probe Finds Baltimore Police Racially Targeted Blacks19
Judicial Watch Uncovers New Batch of Clinton Emails20
Speaker Paul Ryan Annihilates Primary Competitor21

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report22.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
The 2016 Rio Olympics: ‘Welcome to Hell’?23

By Louis DeBroux

Pestilence. Disease. Roving bands of criminals. Unfinished buildings dotting the landscape.

No, this isn’t the backdrop to the latest installment of The Hunger Games or The Maze Runner, this is the reality facing the city of Rio de Janeiro24 during the 2016 Olympic Games.

In 2009, Brazil was awarded the bid for this year’s summer Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in part by using guilt over the fact that Brazil was the only one of the world’s 10 largest economies to have never hosted an Olympic Games — North America, Europe and Asia had all hosted the games a number of times. Brazil desired mightily to prove that it was no longer an underdeveloped Third World country, but instead a model socialist utopia.

Mission most certainly not accomplished.

Like South America’s own Baghdad Bob, the host country and the IOC have desperately tried to deny and dismiss the massive problems facing Rio in the months leading up to the opening of the games. And boy, are there some serious problems.

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The Patriot Post Digest 8-10-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Brazil is in the midst of an outbreak of the Zika virus, which is carried by mosquitos and can lead to serious illness and even death. It has caused deformities and death in the babies of infected pregnant women. The outbreak is so concerning (despite the IOC and World Health Organization promising that everything will be fine) that a group of 200 doctors and bioethicists signed a letter25 months ago urging the games be postponed or moved to another city. Many athletes pulled out of the games rather than risk infection. Understandable, considering one athlete had to have emergency surgery after a minor cut26 became infected in Rio’s waters.

Zika is not the only infection risk facing athletes in Rio. Massive amounts of pollution and raw human sewage, including feces, continue to be dumped into the river27 and waterways where athletes will be competing in the sailing, rowing and open-water swimming events. The level of dangerous viruses in the water is astonishingly high — so much so that Dr. Valerie Harwood, Chair of the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of South Florida, warned athletes not to put their heads under water, lest they accidentally ingest some of the polluted water and become “violently ill.” The situation is so bad that athletes and visitors are being warned that even the sand on the beach contains dangerous levels of viruses. The beaches have also been found to contain drug-resistant bacteria.

If you attend the Olympics and manage to survive the polluted water, deadly viruses and drug-resistant bacteria, you are still at significant risk to your life and safety. Because of a strike by the police, the Brazilian military has been brought in to provide security. At the Rio airport, visitors are greeted by police holding a banner reading “Welcome to Hell: police and firefighters don’t get paid, whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe!” That’s comforting.

Rio is also plagued by heavily armed criminal gangs roaming the streets28. These gangs have committed nearly 100,000 violent crimes in the first six months of this year, including 31 victims killed during attempted robberies. Already, Olympic athletes have been robbed, news crews have been attacked and had their equipment stolen, and one athlete was kidnapped and driven around the city, forced to withdraw money from ATM’s. These criminal gangs also seem to prefer international visitors, with an average of 15 foreign tourists targeted for attacks each day since the opening of the athletes' village on July 24. All of this is on top of the political unrest that was already present before the start of the games, as well as the ever-present danger of terrorists targeting such a high-profile event.

And if you manage to avoid the deadly viruses, polluted water, roving criminal gangs and terrorists, you are still at mortal risk from the infrastructure itself. Last month, the New York Times' Vanessa Barbara revealed that, with just weeks before the start of the Olympics, the city looked like a “huge construction site,” stating that “almost all venues are still under construction.” Even as the games were getting underway workers were still lazily working on these unfinished projects. The quality of the work is extremely suspect as well. In April, a bike path collapsed and killed two people.

The construction debacle is reminiscent of Beijing’s 2008 games, which our own Mark Alexander attended and recounted29.

The people who suffer most may be the people of Brazil themselves. The final cost for hosting the Olympics looks to be $12 billion, while revenues are projected to be just $5-6 billion — and half of that will go to the IOC. This is a difficult burden to bear for a country struggling through its worst financial crisis and recession in a quarter century. And if history repeats itself, within just a few years these infrastructure investments will be abandoned and dilapidated30. Just 20 years after Atlanta hosted the 1996 summer Olympics, the only Olympic structure still standing is Turner Field, which will no longer be hosting games after this season since the Braves are moving to suburban Cobb County. The city of Boston turned down the Olympics31 after refusing to put its taxpayers on the hook for the inevitable cost overruns. City leaders were onto something.

It may be amusing in the abstract to sit back and look at this massive comedy of errors on display by a nation trying to highlight the grandeur and majesty of its socialist utopia, but the dangers facing the Olympic athletes and the tens of thousands of visitors is not the least bit funny. Here’s praying that we make it through this Olympiad with no deaths or injuries from disease, crime, terrorism or collapsing infrastructure.

And yet for all the doom and gloom, it sure is fun to watch American athletes win so many gold medals. Indeed, the glory of it all is what makes countries and cities fight through the problems to host the quadrennial spectacle.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

The Unimpeded Rise of the Islamic State32
Only Gender Neutral Pronouns, Please33
VA Wastes Millions on Designers and Solar Projects34
America’s Universities Become Man-Hater Clubs35

OPINION IN BRIEF

Ben Shapiro: “I fully believe in the basic notion of original feminism: that women should be able to make whatever career choices they want, based on merit. I grew up in a home in which my dad was a stay-at-home dad and my mom ran television and film companies. My wife is a doctor. I’m certainly at home with the kids more than she is, but she took time off for both of our kids. I want my daughter to be able to pursue whatever dream she sees fit. But I don’t believe that America’s soul needs changing. That’s because I know that Americans agree with me. If they didn’t, my mom’s career wouldn’t have been possible, and neither would my wife’s. I don’t spend every day worrying about my daughter’s possibilities, because in a free country she can go as far as her skills and decisions take her. If she faces obstacles from sexists, I’ll be right there calling for action, if she wants my help. But I’m not going to pretend for the sake of political correctness and popularity that sexism is widespread and pervasive. It isn’t. America is a glorious place for women, and the only way to make it even better is to target actual sexist activity, to stop slandering men as sexists without evidence and to tell our daughters that there are no glass ceilings, just a world of options waiting for them. After all, that happens to be the truth.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “When the political columnists say ‘Every thinking man’ they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to ‘Every intelligent voter’ they mean everybody who is going to vote for them.” —Franklin P. Adams (1881-1960)

Upright: “It is the height of dishonesty, as far as blacks are concerned, to blame our problems on slavery, how white people behave and racial discrimination. If those lies are not exposed, we will continue to look for external solutions when true solutions are internal. Those of us who are old enough to know better need to expose these lies."—Walter Williams

Braying Jackass: "As painful as it is to hear Donald Trump talk and as embarrassing as it is as an American to hear him talk, I think it’s good. … We get to know who people really are and now we get to cleanse it out of our country.” —actor Will Smith, taking time out while promoting his latest movie in the Middle East to suggest cleansing the U.S. of those who condemn Islamic violence

Double standards: “I heard about the Orlando terrorist’s dad going to a Hillary Clinton rally36], and I saw the picture of him with the red hat, but it didn’t have ‘Make America Great Again’ on it by the way. And [Clinton] did not disavow. If that were me, this would be a headline all over the world about Trump. But she did not, as I understand it, disavow this man. He’s got some pretty harsh views. So I think it’s — look, it’s a whole double standard, but we’re punching through it, and I think the people understand.” —Donald Trump

Dezinformatsia: “What appears to be an evolution in terror, from centralized operations directed by a core group of terrorists to a far-flung, loosely knit ideological movement inspired by ISIS from afar, masks a bigger question: Is what we are seeing even terrorism at all?” —CNN columnist Philip Mudd

Head’s still buried in the sand: “Well, what did [Hillary Clinton] do in Benghazi? I keep wondering what she did in Benghazi. … I’m still waiting for Congress to run a decent hearing.” —Chris Matthews

And last… “Obama’s release of another 214 felons is brilliant. He’s intentionally making our streets so dangerous, ISIS won’t dare come here.” —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.