The Patriot Post Digest 9-2-2016

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 9-2-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Sep. 2, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” —Thomas Jefferson (1822)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Black Voters, er, Lives Matter to Democrats1

The infamous hacker Guccifer 2.0 released hacked memos he claims came from Nancy Pelosi’s personal computer. She and her staff have denied the allegation, saying, “Leader Pelosi does not have a personal computer at the DCCC, so no hacked, dumped or doctored documents can be attributed to her computer.” In any case, the leaked memos reveal strategic guidance for Democrats as to how best to deal with the Black Lives Matter activist/agitator group. They advise Democrats to “partner” with the group and to “lead from behind,” but not to “co-opt” their movement. The memo warns Democrats to steer clear of using phrases such as “all lives matter” and “black-on-black crime.” You know, avoid saying true things2.

Many of the demands of Black Lives Matter are outright racist3, yet Democrat leadership views BLM as a movement that can help garner them more votes and support for their leftist causes. The problem is that because the BLM platform is so radical, Democrats risk looking too extreme should they be aligned too closely with BLM. In the meantime, they are content to show support for the radical movement, without getting their hands dirty, as it were.

The real story here is that the Democrat Party would want to so willingly identify itself with such a radical, racist group as Black Lives Matter. Then again, it should come as no surprise given Democrats' long, checkered history of supporting various radical and racists groups.

McAuliffe in Legal Trouble Over Felon Gambit4

Earlier this spring, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe pushed the bounds of executive authority in a strategic effort to turn Virginia blue5. With a few strokes of his pen, McAuliffe reinstated the voting rights of some 200,000 ex-felons. The move didn’t pass muster with the Virginia Supreme Court, however, which ruled against blanket clemency6 in late July. In short, the law stipulates that pardons are legally justified only if they are applied on a case-by-case basis. Treating nearly a quarter-million ex-cons as a single entity doesn’t count. But McAuliffe is an expert Clintonista, so in blatant defiance, he recently “announced … that he has individually restored voting rights to 13,000 felons and is working on doing the same for a total of about 200,000,” The Washington Post reported. It went on to note, “Republican legislative leaders who successfully sued over McAuliffe’s original order said they will examine his latest restoration effort.”

Now we learn that McAuliffe is being accused of contempt. The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky says7, “Virginia state legislators have filed a motion with the Virginia Supreme Court asking for an order requiring Gov. Terry McAuliffe to ‘show cause’ why he should not be held in contempt for violating the court’s July 22 order.” Spakovsky provides additional context regarding the crux of the issue:

    This motion for contempt follows McAuliffe’s Aug. 22 press conference in which he announced that he had again restored the voting rights of 13,000 felons who had registered to vote after he issued three blanket restoration orders earlier in the summer. His press announcement said that “individual restoration orders were printed with the Governor’s signature.” How much of an individualized review could be given by McAuliffe to these 13,000 felons in the four weeks between the Supreme Court’s July 22 decision and his press conference on Aug. 22 was certainly in question. And that is what the contempt motion focuses on — the lack of any real individualized review of these felons' cases.

Spakovsky suggests that “a governor being held in contempt by a state supreme court for such behavior is rare and would be a history-making event in Virginia.” McAuliffe’s autocratic behavior is deplorable, but he’s hardly alone. Just this week Barack Obama shortened another 111 sentences8, bringing the total under his tenure to 673. He has now granted more clemencies than all previous 10 presidents combined. As we wrote9 earlier this month, when he separately commuted hundreds of sentences, he did so for many prisoners who were behind bars for gun-related convictions. That’s not exactly setting a good example. Both McAuliffe and Obama have exceeded their authority. And at least one of them could soon face legal blowback for it.

More Secret Side Deals for Iran10

It seems like every time we report on Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran (or Hillary Clinton’s scandals, or ObamaCare, etc., etc.), things get worse. David Albright and Andrea Stricker of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS — yeah, we know), a DC think tank specializing in nuclear issues, reveal the latest problem. They write11, “We have learned that some nuclear stocks and facilities were not in accordance with JCPOA limits on Implementation Day, but in anticipation the Joint Commission had earlier and secretly exempted them from the JCPOA limits.” (JCPOA stands for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official name for the deal.) In other words, Obama agreed to secret side deals that made Iran’s compliance unnecessary. He allowed exemptions for low-enriched uranium, heavy water production and radiation containment chambers. The whole idea of secret exemptions, warn Albright and Stricker, “risks advantaging Iran by allowing it to try to systematically weaken” the JCPOA.

The Wall Street Journal writes, “The White House has waved off the ISIS report by insisting it ‘did not and will not allow Iran to skirt’ its commitments. The non-denial would be more credible if the Administration hadn’t last year agreed to a secretive process in which Iran was allowed to inspect its own nuclear-related military facilities.”

In related news, Iran has stationed Russian S-300 surface-to-air missiles at one of its key nuclear facilities — the one at Fordow. That heavily fortified facility housed a substantial part of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and Western negotiators initially sought to shut it down. So much for that — Obama caved, and now the Iranians have even more heavily fortified a critical facility. Wonder what that means…

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    Charles Krauthammer: The Only Immigration Solution12
    David Harsanyi: Kaepernick Has a Right to Free Expression. And So Does Everyone Else.13
    Todd Starnes: Hey NFL — Meet a Public School That Loves America14

For more, visit Right Opinion15.

TOP HEADLINES

    U.S. Jobs Growth Slows in August16
    Senate Braces for Shutdown Fight17
    California to Criminalize Sting Videos18
    Infamous Hacker ‘Guccifer’ Gets 52 Months in Prison19

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report20.

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 9-2-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Navy Mismanagement of Carrier Force Bites America21

By Harold Hutchison

The Navy is in a world of hurt. It’s less than half the size it was when Ronald Reagan left office. Carrier air wings have fewer combat aircraft than they did in 1991 — about 33% less. We’ve gone from 15 carriers to 10. Now, the Navy’s newest carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78.), may not be able to deploy on time, leaving America short one more carrier.

That’s not a good thing. The ChiComs have played a Cersei Lannister gambit22 in the South China Sea — and that puts American allies like the Philippines in a bind. America also has to confront the presence of China’s DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missile — which, while overhyped, still inflicts virtual attrition on a Navy with too few hulls.

How did we get here? First, the Navy chose to prematurely retire23 the USS Enterprise (CVN 65), banking on the Ford being ready to fill in. Even though Newport News Shipbuilding could have done a second overhaul on the Big E, the Obama administration ignored the growing threats from China, Iran (which has been harassing American ships24), and the Islamic State (not to mention the fact that the Russian reset wasn’t quite working25), and went ahead with the scrapping process. Second, the Obama administration began to scrap seven older carriers that were being kept in reserve.

Did we mention the world was getting more dangerous while we junk eight major strategic assets?

It took almost seven years from laying the Gerald R. Ford’s keel to getting her to this point, and even then, with all of the new technology on board — like the electromagnetic catapults, the AN/SPY-3 radar, and new arresting gear — it may take time even after she’s commissioned for her to be ready to deploy.

You’d think that Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus would have acted to address this before it got too severe. But Mabus has been more interested in dissing Navy heroes26 who don’t buy into the politically correct changes27 in DOD policy he and others have been pushing.

Sadly, the Navy’s carrier force isn’t the only place there the mismanagement of our forces has been a continuing trend28. Three of the Navy’s Freedom-class littoral combat ships have suffered damage to their engines. The Marine Corps has been struggling to find sufficient numbers of flyable F/A-18 Hornets. The Air Force is falling short of pilots. Army OH-58s are getting older as proposed replacements like the RAH-66 and ARH-70 fall victim to the budget axe. Even ground troops could see defense cuts rob them of the game-changing XM25 “Punisher,” officially known as the Counter Defilade Target Engagement (CDTE) System, even though it performed well in operational testing in Afghanistan.

Cuts like these, not to mention the onslaught of political correctness and social engineering, don’t just hurt the material performance of our troops. As Mark Alexander wrote Wednesday29, they also kill the military’s most valuable resource — morale. That means troops, some with combat experience, may retire or not re-enlist, creating a vicious cycle of declining readiness due to subpar training due to loss of experience.

Reversing this trend won’t be easy, but it will be essential. Because an unprepared military invites aggression — which will be far more expensive in money, equipment and lives than it would have been to properly maintain our forces in the first place.

So how were those defense cuts a bargain, again?

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

    Your Tax Dollars Paid for Hillary’s Server30 — The Clintons used GSA funding meant for former presidents.
    A Racial Conversation the Left Wishes to Avoid2 — Blacks are mired in an unendurable status quo engendered by Democrat policies.
    NFL Allows Anti-Cop Socks, but Outlaws Pro-Cop Decals31 — Kaepernick apparently despises the police more than he despises the national anthem.
    There’s No Winning the Gas Wars32 — Climate alarmists put their agenda ahead of consumers' well-being.

OPINION IN BRIEF

David Harsanyi: “It’s true that athletes have an outsized influence in the media. But even the wealthiest among us shouldn’t be inhibited from having a say, right? After watching liberals at the Democratic National Convention cheer for laws allowing the banning of political books and movies and demand the overturning of Citizens United, it’s nice to see some renewed passion regarding the First Amendment. After watching progressive mobs go after Americans who support traditional marriage, maybe we’re going to see more compassion regarding opposing viewpoints. Maybe professional sports leagues and sports networks will stop injecting themselves into political and social debates and allow all people to have a say. Or, more likely, it will always depend on the topic.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The attempt to silence a man is the greatest honor you can bestow on him. It means that you recognize his superiority to yourself.” —Joseph Sobran (1946-2010)

Observations: “[Donald Trump is] going to do what everybody else in the party generally does, which is to say enforcement first, and then we kick the can down the road. We’re not even going to talk about legalization. That is a definite softening of what he had said — the mass deportation — and I think that was largely overlooked because of the style and … the bombast [of his speech].” —Charles Krauthammer

For the record: “[ObamaCare] has not expanded choice but destroyed it, robbing Americans of their ability to gain insurance in a rational market and further eroding the buying power of the middle class. On every level, Obamacare has proven an abject failure.” —Ed Morrissey

Braying Jackass: “When Donald Trump kind of goes after these phantom sanctuary cities and talks about how bad they are, basically what he’s going after is police chiefs. And I trust police chiefs in terms of knowing what should be done to keep their communities safer and police departments and mayors a lot more than I trust Donald Trump.” —Tim Kaine, as if sanctuary cities don’t exist

Inquiring minds want to know… “It is each citizen’s responsibility to be as prepared as possible for emergencies. Whether in the form of natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes, or unspeakable acts of evil like terrorism, danger can arise at unexpected times and places. Fortunately, there are many things that individuals, families, and communities can do to improve their readiness. I encourage all Americans to take proactive steps to prepare for any situation that may occur.” —Barack Obama (Do guns and ammunition make the list?)

And last… “Mrs. Clinton’s campaign tweeted [Wednesday] night: ‘Trump just failed his first foreign test. Diplomacy isn’t as easy as it looks. -H’ … That may well be true, but which candidate is more appealing, the one who makes it look easy, or the one who complains about how hard it is?” —James Taranto

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.