The Patriot Post Digest 10-4-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-4-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Oct. 4, 2016

IN TODAY’S EDITION

New inclusion and diversity quotas come at a bad time for the Air Force.
Trump Foundation molehills compared to Clinton Foundation mountains.
What’s the real Syria strategy?
Obama’s Clean Power Grab gets a hearing before the DC Circuit.
And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

“The Army (considering the irritable state it is in, its suffering and composition) is a dangerous instrument to play with.” —George Washington (1783)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

The U.S. Diversity Force1

The United States Air Force was created in 1947 and tasked with defending America’s national security from the skies. In Barack Obama’s 2016 version of the Air Force, however, “diversity” is king. At a time when the USAF faces a critical shortage of 700 pilots and 4,000 support personnel for aircraft, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein and CMSAF James Cody recently announced, as Air Force Magazine reports2, “13 new diversity and inclusion initiatives … for certain promotion candidate pools, membership on command selection boards and nominations for recruiter duty.” That’s not all. “Additionally, Air Force ROTC will receive $14 million over five years to fund 200 new scholarships for ROTC candidates from ‘underserved and underrepresented’ population centers.”

Now don’t get us wrong — we’re all for finding the best qualified people, and if scholarships and better targeting help find them, then great. But that’s not what this is about. It’s the same morale destroying3 PC social engineering that Obama is constantly foisting upon our Patriot Armed Forces. Whether it’s “Gay Pride” propaganda4, removing “So Help Me God” from military oaths5, or tossing out retired AF personnel6 for mentioning God, “progressive” assaults on our military are growing under this commander in chief. Hillary Clinton will only implement more of the same.

Trump Foundation: Molehills to Mountains7

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman ordered Donald Trump and the Trump Foundation to cease raising money in the state of New York. Schneiderman justified his cease-and-desist order arguing that a paperwork technicality madeTrump’s foundation a “fraud upon the people of the state of New York.” But the AG himself is nothing more than a Hillary Clinton surrogate — he has endorsed her and sits on the “leadership council” for her campaign in the Empire State.

The partisanship doesn’t stop with Schneiderman’s attack on Trump. He’s turned a blind eye toward Clinton’s own foundation indiscretions. According to New York law, every non-profit organization must disclose any foreign donors and the amount of those donations, something which the Clinton Foundation has failed to comply with for years. It would appear that Schneiderman’s commitment to protect the people of New York from “fraud and abuse” is applied to only those conservative organizations with whom he disagrees.

Meanwhile, Trump on Monday responded to revelations of his tax records8 by pointing to his business record and charging that Clinton had nothing to offer in the way of creating jobs. He said, “While I made my money as a very successful private businessman following the law all the way, Hillary Clinton made her money as a corrupt public official breaking the law and putting her government office up for sale. And now she’s running for president.” Indeed, Clinton’s campaign has nothing to offer in real substantive proposals supporting economic growth, therefore she and her leftist buddies promote spurious accusations against Trump seeking to deflect attention away from her own record of malfeasance9. The Leftmedia are vigorously seeking to make mountains out of Trump’s tax molehills while at the same time ignoring the Mount Everest of Hillary’s multiple scandals.

Obama’s Syria Failure10

Barack Obama’s spokesman Josh Earnest announced Monday that the U.S. had broken off its joint Syria agreement with Russia. “What’s clear is that there is nothing more for the United States and Russia to talk about with regard to trying to reach an agreement that would reduce the violence inside of Syria,” Earnest said, “and that’s tragic.” What is indeed tragic — beyond the great human suffering11 experienced by those living through (and dying in) the Syrian civil war — is how Obama’s lack of foresight and strategic vision for Syria and the Middle East combined with his ideological barrier against any notion of solving conflict through the use of force squandered the U.S.’s position of influence in the region.

Obama utterly rejects Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” worldview, and has thus appeared more like Neville Chamberlain with his aversion to the use of force. Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, is more than willing to use all forms of politically advantageous diplomacy and military force, which enabled him to call Obama’s bluff. While Putin may be no Adolf Hitler, assuming a bully will concede defeat through some form of toothless diplomacy is simply foolish.

Other fallout regarding the collapse of talks was Russia’s announcement that it is putting on hold a plutonium disposal deal with the U.S. This low level of U.S.-Russian relations hasn’t been seen since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Finally, in leaked audio from a side meeting at the UN General Assembly obtained by CNN, Secretary of State John Kerry states that he argued for the use of force back in 2013 following Assad’s use of chemical weapons, but was overruled by Obama. He also faulted Congress, saying, “The bottom line is that Congress refused even to vote to allow that.” What seems to be happening here is an attempt by Obama to take one for the team regarding Syria, thereby insulating Hillary Clinton from taking blame for a catastrophic foreign policy failure.

Don’t Miss Patriot Humor

Check out Brushfires of Free Stuff12.

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BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Cal Thomas: Faith and the VP Debate14
Rich Lowry: We All Avoid Taxes15
Thomas Sowell: The Academic Curtain16

For more, visit Right Opinion17.

TOP HEADLINES

Judge Dismisses Ferguson Protesters' Lawsuit Against Police18
DOJ Let Agents Destroy Laptops in Clinton Email Case19
Duke Offers Men a ‘Safe Space’ to Contemplate ‘Toxic Masculinity’20

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report21.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Judging Obama’s Clean Power Grab22

By James Shott

After the U.S. Supreme Court stayed implementation of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) on Feb. 9, pending judicial review, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia has begun hearings to resolve the issue. The CPP is the Obama administration’s next step to impose severe restrictions on burning fossil fuels to save the world from supposed climate change from carbon emissions. The agenda is control.

Barack Obama’s EPA explains the regulation this way23: “On August 3, 2015, President Obama and EPA announced the Clean Power Plan — a historic and important step in reducing carbon pollution from power plants that takes real action on climate change. Shaped by years of unprecedented outreach and public engagement, the final Clean Power Plan is fair, flexible and designed to strengthen the fast-growing trend toward cleaner and lower-polluting American energy. With strong but achievable standards for power plants, and customized goals for states to cut the carbon pollution that is driving climate change, the Clean Power Plan provides national consistency, accountability and a level playing field while reflecting each state’s energy mix. It also shows the world that the United States is committed to leading global efforts to address climate change.”

That garbage notwithstanding, 27 states and a group of private companies and trade associations challenged the CPP24 on grounds that it’s exceedingly costly executive overreach. The regulation seeks to cut carbon dioxide emissions in the energy industry by over 30% and to effectively nationalize the country’s electric power grid. The regulation, which runs 1,500 pages, gives the federal government authority over how states use their natural resources.

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-4-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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There are significant problems with the CPP. For starters, it’s another example of what is effectively the executive branch making law, a function plainly reserved for the legislative branch by the U.S. Constitution. However, Congress frequently abdicates this responsibility, and effectively and unconstitutionally transfers it to the executive branch. The CPP also breaches the Tenth Amendment protections of the states against improper encroachment by the federal government, and it was this aspect of the CPP that prompted the Supreme Court to call a timeout.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, challenging the CPP on Tenth Amendment grounds (State of West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency), said after the court session that the way EPA set its goals is key to the case. The Daily Signal notes25 that “the Clean Power Plan seeks to reverse what may be natural climate fluctuation at the cost of creating power blackouts, higher energy costs, job losses in the energy sector, and price spikes throughout the nation’s economy, including for necessities such as food and water.”

The Heritage Foundation predicts the following effects of the CPP26:

An average annual employment shortfall of nearly 300,000 jobs;
A peak employment shortfall of more than one million jobs;
A loss of more than $2.5 trillion (inflation-adjusted) in aggregate GDP; and
A total income loss of more than $7,000 (inflation-adjusted) per person.

And for what great and noble end would the EPA impose this misery on the nation?

Heritage cites climatologists Paul Knappenberger and Patrick Michaels, who used the “Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Induced Climate Change” developed with support from the EPA, and estimate that the climate regulations will reduce warming by a meager 0.018 degree Celsius by 2100.

Oral arguments began last Wednesday, and Scientific American magazine reports27 that both sides in the case thought the EPA arguments had the edge in the nearly seven-hour court session that involved 10 of the Circuit’s 11 judges, rather than just the normal three-judge panel. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland recused himself from the proceedings.

“The most contentious questions focused on a big issue: how the regulation set state-specific carbon levels for power plants,” the magazine noted. “Rather than looking at what individual coal plants could do to limit greenhouse gas emissions, EPA assumed the industry as a whole could accelerate a trend away from coal and toward cleaner natural gas and renewable power.”

The EPA’s arguments predictably did not sit well with the CPP’s challengers. Lawyers representing the 27 states and the private companies allied with them “argued that EPA overstepped its authority under the Clean Air Act, moving into Congress' turf and violating a separation of powers.”

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a George W. Bush appointee, said that while curbing greenhouse gas emissions is a “laudable” goal, “global warming isn’t a blank check” for the administration. “I understand the frustration with Congress,” he said, but the rule is “fundamentally transforming an industry.” The executive branch does not have that authority.

The outcome is definitely uncertain, with judges expressing both support and opposition to the CPP. A decision from the DC Circuit might not come until early next year, and the Supreme Court’s final action might be delayed until 2018.

The administration’s manic, emotional and weak theory about carbon emissions threatening life as we know it brought forth a question from authors Stephen Moore and Kathleen Hartnett White in their excellent new book, “Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy” — “How can carbon be a weapon of mass destruction and the basis of all known life” at the same time?

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Democrats Push to Repeal the Hyde Amendment28 — It’s saved two million lives over 40 years. No wonder the party of death hates it.
About That JASTA Veto Override…29 — Congress already regrets the new law.
California Criminalizes Whistleblowing30 — Governor signs controversial Planned Parenthood protection bill into law.
The Pollaganda Effect: Culture Edition31 — Is forcing religious Americans to violate their faith morally permissible?
Clinton Campaign Doubles Down on ‘Deplorable’ Americans32 — What Clinton is doing is not all that different than what Obama did in 2007.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Rich Lowry: “The so-called net operating loss carryforward that Trump took advantage of is not an exotic loophole in the tax code. Many industrialized countries have similar provisions. In 2014, more than a million taxpayers declared net operating losses. The provision simply reflects that if you, say, lose $100,000 setting up a business and earn $50,000 the next year, it makes no sense for the government to tax the $50,000 as if it were the only part of the equation; the loss should be accounted for, too. … The damage to Trump of the Times story is probably not his tax strategy. … Rather, the vulnerability for Trump is the fact — stated in black and white in his own filings — that he lost nearly a billion dollars by recklessly overextending himself in the 1990s. This will be thrown back at him every time he touts his business acumen. In other words, all the time. … If Trump had released his taxes or even some of them, he wouldn’t have been vulnerable to a leak that, coincidentally, hit the news as the campaign enters the homestretch. He has enough enemies that he could be certain that information about his taxes would get out, and there may be yet more to come. He teed up this October Surprise.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” —Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Braying Jackass: “God grants life, God should take it away — that’s my religious belief.” —Tim Kaine, who is Catholic and pro-abortion

Braying Jackass: “The scientific consensus is in and the argument is now over. If you do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in facts, or in science or empirical truths and therefore, in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to hold public office.” —actor Leonardo DiCaprio

Friendly fire: “You’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people … out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It’s the craziest thing in the world.” —Bill Clinton knocking ObamaCare

Blame shifting: “[ObamaCare has] eminently fixable problems in terms of strengthening the marketplace, improving the subsidies so more folks can get it, making sure everybody has Medicaid who was qualified under the original legislation, doing more on the cost containment. But you hit a point where if Congress just is not willing to make any constructive modifications and it’s all political football, then you’re getting a suboptimal solution.” —Barack Obama

Late-night humor: “Hillary Clinton has vowed to crack down on hackers who launch cyberattacks. She said, ‘If anyone’s going to abuse U.S. government computers, it’s gonna be me.’” —Conan O'Brien

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.