The Patriot Post Digest 9-26-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 9-26-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Mid-Day Digest

Sep. 26, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“It is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government… Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political.” —Thomas Jefferson (1801)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

‘Hillary Coverup Operation’1

In March 2015, not long after news first broke of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server while serving as secretary of state, Barack Obama was asked in an interview when he first learned of her practice. Obama responded, “Uh, the same time everybody else learned it — through news reports.” Last October, Obama answered another interview question — “Did you know about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server?” — with a terse, “No.” Fast forward to the latest Friday afternoon news dump. The FBI released another 189 pages of Clinton investigation notes, which reveal that during Hillary’s time as secretary of state Obama had emailed her private account under a pseudonym. Clearly, Obama’s earlier assertions of ignorance were blatant lies. He not only knew, but covered up his knowledge at the time — or at least tried to keep his own hands clean.

Speaking of cover-ups, also contained within the FBI notes released on Friday was a reference made by an IT contractor managing Clinton’s private server, who labeled a work ticket “Hillary coverup operation.” If that doesn’t perfectly sum up the whole fiasco, we don’t know what does. When CNN’s Jake Tapper questioned Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook about this damning reference, Mook deflected by stating that the FBI had cleared Hillary of any wrongdoing. When pressed, Mook turned and blamed Republicans for “selectively leaking information.” A strange response given that it was the FBI that released this information late on a Friday afternoon.

On a final note, we also learned that the Justice Department granted immunity deals to three of Clinton’s closest advisers in exchange for information. The question is, why were immunity deals needed if the FBI concluded that no criminal activity occurred? Logically, one would assume that if immunity were offered to someone, it would have been needed in order to prosecute someone else of an even greater crime. Yet Clinton walked.

This all is smelling like a much larger cover-up that may now even have connections to the White House. The tech company, the attorney general, the FBI director and the president were all complicit in covering for Clinton. “Hillary coverup operation,” indeed.

Cruz’s Tepid Endorsement2

On Friday, Ted Cruz finally (gingerly) threw his support behind Donald Trump. Cruz posted on Facebook, “After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but Cruz has come a long way. The news was greeted by a combination of dismay and relief. There were those “Never Trump” Cruz supporters who were angered by the news, feeling that Cruz had sold out to the Republican establishment3. And there were those Republicans relieved that the deepening party rift exposed during the nomination process was at least somewhat mended.

But it seems that Cruz’s decision to support Trump may have been motivated more by consideration for his own political future than any sudden sense of party loyalty. As much as Cruz billed himself as the anti-establishment guy, warnings from the RNC’s Reince Priebus to those who didn’t support Trump coupled with the tightening polls were enough to cause Cruz to blink. At July’s convention4, Cruz was betting that Trump’s political stock would inevitably fall, propelling his own “I told you so” position politically. Now that Trump’s made it a close race, Cruz finds himself in the awkward position of having to play politics the same as all “establishment” politicians.

One bright spot in this for Cruz is that he was perhaps able to convince Trump to add Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) to the updated list of proposed Supreme Court justices. As a Cruz spokesman said, “Trump’s willingness and decisive action to release a list of conservative jurists, particularly including Mike Lee, with the promise to choose from that list, was a top factor in Cruz’s ultimate decision.” The remaining question is, will this help Trump more in 2016, or Cruz in 2018 and 2020?

Sporting Double Standards5

Although many Americans find it highly offensive that San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick refuses to stand6 for our national anthem (to protest “a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” in his own words), neither the NFL nor the 49ers have administered any sort of punishment or remedial action for his political speech. Yes, he has an individual right to political expression, despite the leftist strawman that anyone’s arguing otherwise. But whether Kaepernick should face consequences is up to the NFL, a private venture with the right to deal with its representatives as it sees fit.

Kaepernick’s protests are spreading, too. In one example yesterday, four Washington Redskins players raised “black power fists” during the national anthem. (Are we the only ones who find it highly ironic that black Redskins7 players are making racial gestures?) And high school and college teams across the country are making similarly disrespectful gestures during the national anthem.

But American professional sports organizations and their billionaire leftist owners proved, once again, that they have unmitigated double standards regarding free expression, and accept such expression only when they agree with it. The Seattle Mariners suspended backup catcher Steve Clevenger on Friday for the remainder of the 2016 season after he sent a social media message about the rioting in Charlotte. Clevenger tweeted: “[Black Lives Matter] is pathetic once again! Obama you are pathetic once again! Everyone involved should be locked behind bars like animals.” He added, “Black people beating whites when a thug got shot holding a gun by a black officer haha [expletive] cracks me up! Keep kneeling for the anthem!” Whether you think Clevenger should be punished or not, he too has an individual right to political expression.

There is ample evidence of a double standard in professional sports, as recently demonstrated by the fact that then-St. Louis Rams players could take the field in the faux “hands up, don’t shoot8” posture, while the Dallas Cowboys were not allowed to apply helmet stickers showing solidarity with Dallas police9 after the assassination of five officers there. Likewise, the offensive actions of a black man (Kaepernick) are heralded as “courageous,” while the offensive actions of a white man (Clevenger) resulted in suspension without pay. Where is sports media outcry in defense of Clevenger’s right to speak freely? Clearly, the “right to free speech” that the pundits and talking heads champion at ESPN does not apply to everyone. Indeed, it wasn’t all that long ago that ESPN fired Curt Schilling10 for expressing a political opinion…

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    Gary Welton: A Memo to Washington: Don’t Box in Our Freedom11
    Peggy Noonan: The Year of the Reticent Voter12
    Imprimis: Restoring America’s Economic Mobility13

For more, visit Right Opinion14.

TOP HEADLINES

    Russia Accused of ‘Barbarism’ in Syria15
    Charlotte Releases Videos of Police Shooting16
    Washington Shooter Is Turkish Immigrant17

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report18.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
The IRS: Still Weaponized Against Conservatives19

By Arnold Ahlert

While Americans remained distracted by the presidential election, the rioting in Charlotte and the terror attacks in New York and New Jersey, some equally important news remained below the radar: IRS Commissioner John Koskinen’s impeachment hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. Important because while elections, riots and terror are transient events, IRS power — and the agency’s apparent willingness to abuse it — remains a constant threat to the republic.

During his testimony last Wednesday, Koskinen’s demeanor was in sharp contrast to the arrogance20 he demonstrated when he appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in 2014. Perhaps that’s because he was forced to admit he made false statements two years ago. “Some of my testimony later proved mistaken,” he stated.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) wasn’t buying it and questioned21 the Commissioner’s earlier assertion that “every email” of former Exempt Organizations Division director Lois Lerner had been preserved.

“What did you mean by every email?” Gowdy asked.

“I meant that every email that the IRS had that I knew of had been preserved,” Koskinen stated. “That was my honest belief.”

“Well why didn’t you say that?” Gowdy asked.

“Well, if I knew then what I know now, I would have testified differently,” Koskinen answered. “But at the time, I testified honestly about what I knew and what I’d been told. Nobody regrets more than I do that in some ways this case has been the case that keeps on giving with more information coming out. I wish that all the information had been put out to begin with.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 9-26-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Such a statement strains credulity. In June 2014, Koskinen asserted22 that no emails had been destroyed since congressional investigations began. Yet IRS workers erased backup tapes containing many of Lerner’s emails in March 2014. Moreover, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) explained that a top senior management official at the agency had learned about missing emails in early 2014, before the backup tapes were destroyed. “We’re supposed to believe that’s just a coincidence?” Jordan asked.

Among a rather amazing number of coincidences, apparently. First Americans were told Lerner’s records were “accidentally” lost23 when her desktop computer crashed, as if that were the only device that contained them, despite networked and cloud computing, and redundant email backup systems required by government. Then we learned24 Lerner’s hard drive crashed during a time frame critical to the investigation, and that six additional IRS employees could not produce investigation-related records, with one also citing computer failure as the reason. After that, IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel Thomas Kane, in charge of producing documents for congressional investigators, revealed even more IRS officials “have had computer problems over the course of the period covered by the investigations and the chairman’s subpoena.”

This coincidental destruction of evidence was so thorough, the House Armed Services Committee asked25 the NSA and the Defense Department to see if they could find anything. Then it became a question of accessing a secretive government database established for continuity of operations in case of national disaster. At that point the DOJ told26 Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton it would be “too hard” to retrieve Lerner’s emails from that system.

All of these “coincidences” occurred even as Koskinen told Congress he had “moved heaven and earth”27 trying to find them — yet that somehow precluded him from notifying Congress immediately after he discovered what had occurred. His excuse? He wanted to produce as many emails as he could before revealing some of them had been destroyed.

That assertion infuriated Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH). “You circled the wagons, you clammed up, you took the Fifth [Amendment], you destroyed evidence and you betrayed the country,” he said, blasting Koskinen. “And most sadly, you got away with it.”

With plenty of help from an equally corrupt DOJ. Despite its own involvement in the scandal, revealed in a series of documents released28 by Judicial Watch in July 2015, DOJ closed29 its investigation of IRS corruption in October of that year, with Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik stating in a letter to Congress that the DOJ found “substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints. But poor management is not a crime.”

That “poor management” continues to this day. Despite Koskinen’s insistence the IRS is “absolutely not” still targeting Tea Party and other non-profit conservative groups, Jordan revealed otherwise. “You can’t sit there and say you’re not still targeting,” he stated. “These organizations still don’t have their tax-exempt status.”

“We would do well to remember just how outrageous the IRS’s actions in this matter were,” states30 National Review’s editorial board. “Conservative organizations, particularly those with tea-party leanings, were singled out by the IRS and subjected to an extraordinary degree of scrutiny on everything from the political ambitions of their donors (and their donors' family members) to — hard as it is to believe — the contents of their prayers. IRS officials misled and stonewalled Congress and federal investigators. This harassment happened after Democratic grandees including Chuck Schumer and Max Baucus demanded that the IRS investigate tea-party organizations and other entities on the Democrats' enemies list. It was a pure political witch hunt and a gross, criminal misuse of one of the federal government’s most fearsome agencies.”

More important, it may have tipped the scales in the 2012 presidential election.

Nonetheless, Republicans seem determined to maintain their spinelessness in the face of overt corruption. Before last week’s hearing, House Republicans agreed to avoid a floor vote on Koskinen’s impeachment. Why? GOP leaders surmised the effort could “irritate” voters.

In other words, GOP leaders would have one believe that so many Americans stand behind the most powerful and misery-inducing agency in the nation that pursuing justice could hurt their election prospects.

“We will not survive as a free society operating under something roughly resembling the rule of law if federal law-enforcement agencies — which is what the IRS really is — are permitted to run amok,” writes31 columnist Kevin Williams.

But they are running amok. And Hillary Clinton, who promised32 to “build on the successes” of the Obama administration, will ensure it continues.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

    Millennial Politics — A Y2K Disaster for Dems?33 — Exactly who are Millennials and why does their populace matter in politics?
    Don’t Believe the Anti-Gun Hype34 — Recently touted gun ownership survey is not what it seems.
    Chicago Protests?35 — 3,100 people shot. No protests.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Gary Welton: “Several years ago I sat down with a bank official and told her I wanted to close out my mother’s account. I had handled her estate, and the job was finished. I wanted to remove the last $100 and close the account. She told me that, because of some wrinkle associated with federal banking regulations, I was not allowed to close out the account. This was the first and only difficulty I had encountered in the entire process. So I looked her in the eye and asked her what she would do if she were in my place. She said she would write a check for $99.99, leave a penny in the account, and then forget about it. Seriously? There is a large sector of American society that is asking Washington to get out of the way. Donald Trump has benefitted from this frustration, as these rural conservatives applaud his antiestablishment rhetoric. … The status quo is not working. Instead, we are allowing our infrastructure to crumble, while we regulate and spend ourselves into bankruptcy. … America is facing critical issues, well beyond the gaffe of the day or the latest legal misstep.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “I have seen the rise and fall of Nazi tyranny, the subsequent cold war and the nuclear nightmare that for 50 years haunted the dreams of children everywhere. During that time my generation defeated totalitarianism. As a result, your world is poised for better tomorrows. What will you do on your journey?”

Upright: “I don’t want to make the case that the federal government can just pass a law and this [racial tension] is all going to go away. I think what we need to do is make sure we go in the communities, listen, learn, identify local homegrown solutions, support them. And then see if we can find good solutions that could be replicated in other areas. And that’s the kind of dialogue we’re trying to achieve.” —Paul Ryan

Fed up: “I think it’s a problem — anybody who disrespects this country and the flag. If they don’t like the country, they don’t like our flag, get the hell out. … I have no respect for Colin Kaepernick. He probably has no respect for me. That’s his choice. My choice is that I like this country, I respect our flag, and I don’t see all the atrocities going on in this country that people say are going on.” —Hall of Fame NFL coach Mike Ditka

For the record: “I love the way that [Ted] Cruz said ‘after searching his conscience…’ Whenever a politician says he is searching his conscience, you can assume it was a quick search of a very small space. I don’t denounce them or deplore what they’re doing here. This is business as usual, but weren’t they the candidates who were against the business as usual? This is politics. This is exactly what you’d expect, but it is not how they sell themselves.” —Charles Krauthammer on Cruz’s Trump endorsement

Friendly fire: “[Hillary Clinton] doesn’t really tell you how she’s going to stop the attacks. She just seems to lecture on us how to be a better person.” —HBO’s Bill Maher

And last… “Obama first learned he used a pseudonym to email through Hillary’s private server like every one else did, by watching the news.” —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.