The Patriot Post Digest 10-13-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-13-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Mid-Day Digest

Oct. 13, 2016

IN TODAY’S EDITION

The Clinton campaign’s anti-Catholic bias exposed.
Media colludes with Clinton to roll out Trump accusers.
Haiti was hit by the Clinton Foundation hurricane.
The DC Circuit Court issues a welcome constitutional ruling.
And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

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

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Clinton Campaign’s Anti-Catholic Bias Exposed1

Some of Hillary Clinton’s campaign advisers find themselves in hot water as a result of WikiLeaks' release of their hacked emails. Communications director Jennifer Palmieri exchanged emails that expose a repugnant anti-Catholic bias. John Halpin, a former colleague of Palmieri’s at the Center for American Progress, commented to her about the decision of News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch and CEO Robert Thomson to raise their children in the Catholic faith. Halpin calls conservative Catholicism “an amazing bastardization of the faith,” and suggests that the reason many leading conservatives are Catholic is, “They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backward gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy.” To which Palmieri responds, “I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelicals.”

Halpin then writes back, “Excellent point. They throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiarity’ and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they’re talking about.” The reference to “subsidiarity” is to de-centralized governance when dealing with local social problems. It is the basic idea of neighbors helping neighbors rather than admonishing and depending on some faraway state.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is himself Catholic, said, “If anything, these statements reveal the Clinton campaign’s hostile attitude toward people of faith in general. All Americans of faith should take a long, hard look at this and decide if these are the values we want to be represented in our next president. If Hillary Clinton continues to employ people with biased and bigoted views, it’s clear where her priorities are.” Indeed, it seems that Hillary’s “basket of deplorables” includes Catholics.

The Clinton campaign’s response was to once again blame the Russians2 and repeat their claim of Donald Trump being in cahoots with Moscow. The Center for American Progress also decided to “shoot the messenger,” telling the Washington Times, “We will not comment on or authenticate the contents of the WikiLeaks release except to say that this appears to be yet another illicit breach by the Russian government designed to influence the United States election, and we wish to have no part in furthering their mission.” Never mind the religious bigotry. The Russians are coming.

The Real Strategy Behind the Trump Accusations3

Hillary Clinton and her media super PAC will stop at nothing to win the election. And make no mistake: They are colluding. Not that we needed further proof, but some of the Clinton campaign emails leaked this week reveal several instances of collusion. CNBC’s John Harwood talked with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta about stories he was working on. In March, ABC and CNN contributor Donna Brazile, who also happened to be vice chair of the DNC (and is now interim chair), passed town hall questions to Clinton in advance. A New York Times reporter emailed Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri a story with a note saying, “You could veto what you didn’t want.”

So it’s no wonder that the Leftmedia is helping Hillary Clinton by ramping up an October offensive against Donald Trump. It actually began in September when Clinton dropped a reference to Miss Universe in the first debate. Trump took the bait even more vigorously than Clinton could have hoped for, spending days digging himself deeper into controversy. Soon after that setup, Clinton’s media dropped the bombshell4 of Trump’s boorish comments about women — just in time for the second debate. Once that was the big story of the weekend, moderators were fully justified in spending the first third of the debate badgering Trump about it. CNN’s Anderson Cooper pointedly asked Trump several times whether he had “ever done those things” he’d boasted about. Trump tried to avoid answering, but eventually said, “No, I have not.”

Lo and behold, three days later, several women came forward to tell their stories of being groped by Trump. No doubt others will join them as the media perpetuates the story for the next three weeks. First, if the allegations are true, then it undermines the contrast between Trump’s words and Bill Clinton’s actions. Trump will have also acted, and there is no defense for it.

Yet strategically the story is one of media collusion. The women who accused Clinton did so over the course of many years right from the beginning. They didn’t show up in October 1992, as Trump’s accusers have for the first time this October. In November 1998 (after the election), Clinton settled with Paula Jones over sexual harassment allegations, though he admitted nothing. And Clinton confessed to an affair with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office, as well as to a 12-year affair with Gennifer Flowers.

Trump may very well have done what he’s accused of doing — it’s certainly in line with his utter lack of character. But at this point, all that matters for the election is public perception, which Clinton and her media allies are shaping masterfully. The only thing that might help Trump out of this is the number of people who see the timing and collision for what it is.

Clinton Foundation Hurricane Hits Haiti5

After a debilitating earthquake rattled Haiti in 2010, the Clintons offered to chip in by utilizing their foundation for monetary aid. But what ensued was arguably just as debilitating and certainly more gut-wrenching to the suffering Haitians. The Clintons maintain that accusations of pay-to-play is nothing more than a vast right-wing conspiracy. Why, then, does the evidence continue to strongly imply just the opposite?

ABC News this week published an investigative piece6 on Haiti and how some contributors turned into Clinton henchmen. For example, a garment factory associated with Old Navy that was erected after the earthquake is floundering today. But it gets worse: “An ABC News investigation has found that after opening its factory in the Haitian industrial park — built with $400 million of global aid — the Korean firm became a Clinton Foundation donor and its owner invested in a startup company owned by Hillary Clinton’s former chief of staff.” That would be Cheryl Mills.

According to Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Jake Johnston, “Contributors to the Clinton Foundation benefited from the relief effort in Haiti writ large. The evidence indicates that those who were contributing to the Clinton Foundation and active in Haiti were certainly a part of that reconstruction process.”

Sadly, the story doesn’t end there. Democrats give Donald Trump a lot of grief for building extravagant hotels, but consider this: “The Clinton Foundation says it ‘facilitated’ the construction of a luxury hotel in Port-au-Prince, a Marriott owned by Denis O'Brien, who has given $10 million to $25 million to the Clinton Foundation. O'Brien, an Irish billionaire who runs the Jamaica-based telecom giant Digicel, said he financed the hotel himself.” The hotel is “just blocks from the neediest Haitian neighborhood.”

It’s nearly impossible to brush aside as conspiracy accusations of pay-to-play, particularly when another ABC report notes7, “In a series of candid email exchanges with top Clinton Foundation officials during the hours after the massive 2010 Haiti earthquake, a senior aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeatedly gave special attention to those identified by the abbreviations ‘FOB’ (friends of Bill Clinton) or ‘WJC VIPs’ (William Jefferson Clinton VIPs).” A more appropriate title for the Clintons' “charity” would be The Quid Pro Quo Foundation.

Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column

Read Hillary — Spare Us Your Faux Indignation8. Clinton’s sycophantic Leftmedia propagandists restore her poll standing, while Trump threatens to overturn Senate and House majorities.

If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email, update your subscription here9.

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-13-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

U.S. Navy Birthday10

On Oct. 13, 1775, the U.S. Navy was born when the Continental Congress authorized the arming of two sailing vessels with 80 men and 10 carriage guns in order to intercept British supply and munitions transports. The Declaration of Independence came nine months later, followed by the creation of the Department of the Navy in 1798.

Today, our Navy is the most powerful in the world. We at The Patriot Post offer our thanks to all our sailors for a job well done and wish you a Happy 241st Birthday! God bless you and your families.

Please visit The Patriot Post Shop11 for a great selection of items bearing the Navy’s insignia.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Victor Davis Hanson: Medieval America12
Rich Lowry: The Agony of the Republicans13
Star Parker: Whole Foods and Chicago Partner to Fight Poverty14

For more, visit Right Opinion15.

TOP HEADLINES

FBI, DOJ Roiled by Hillary’s Supremacy16
Iran-Aligned Rebels Target U.S. Navy Ship17
Embattled Wells Fargo CEO Resigns18

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report19.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
DC Circuit Delivers a Blow for the Constitution20

By Allyne Caan

Despite persistent attempts by countless politicians to kill it, the Constitution is still alive and kicking. This was on full display this week in a significant decision by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals declaring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) “unconstitutionally structured.”

CFPB isn’t quite sexy enough to make regular appearances on the evening news, but it’s been a bane on our constitutional separation of powers since its 2011 birth under the Dodd-Frank finance regulatory overhaul at the behest of now-Senator Elizabeth Warren. As usual with things named by Democrats, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does anything but protect consumers. In fact, “predatory” would be a more apt word for the title. Indeed, early last year we highlighted21 the bureau’s lavish expenditures, intrusive collection of Americans' financial data, and unaccountability to the public.

Additionally, since the bureau’s inception, Republicans lawmakers have challenged its very constitutionality. Under CFPB’s setup, the president appoints the bureau’s director for a five-year term, but the president can fire him or her only for cause, not for any other reason — including policy decisions. To give some context, independent agencies — regardless of what we think of them in principle — are generally governed by bipartisan commissions. And while executive agencies are headed by a single person, that person is accountable to the president, who can fire him or her at will. These setups avoid giving one unaccountable person exclusive authority over an agency. (Despite the president’s unilateral actions, he is ultimately accountable to the American people.)

Not so with CFPB. Unencumbered by accountability to a president or the checks and balance of a bipartisan commission, CFPB Director Richard Cordray has pretty much had free rein at the agency since his appointment in 2012.

Indeed, the court stated22, “Because the CFPB is an independent agency headed by a single Director and not by a multimember commission, the Director of the CFPB possesses more unilateral authority … than any single commissioner or board member in any other independent agency in the U.S. Government. Indeed … the Director enjoys more unilateral authority than any other officer in any of the three branches of the U.S. Government, other than the President.”

Of course, this wasn’t breaking news. Back in 2012, columnist George Will accurately and critically wrote23, “Untethered from all three branches of government, unlike anything created since 1789, the CFPB is uniquely sovereign.”

But no more.

In a victory for the Constitution and the American people, the court ruled that the CFPB director will now be accountable to the president, thus ending Cordray’s unfettered five-year reign. While an even more welcome step would have been the elimination of the bureau entirely, curbing its power to align with constitutional principles is a win not to be ignored.

The court’s decision also reminds us of the importance of everyday Americans taking a stand for Liberty against an ever-encroaching government.

As the Daily Signal reports24, “Banks, mortgage lenders, and other credit establishments have largely cowered before Cordray and his troops, agreeing to nine-figure settlements rather than engage in prolonged litigation.” One New Jersey mortgage company, however, took a stand after Cordray arbitrarily slammed the company with a $109 million fine. That company, PHH Corporation, was the plaintiff in this week’s lawsuit.

Not surprisingly, Senator Warren dismissed the ruling as a “technical tweak,” as if the difference between a monarchy and a constitutional republic is a mere technicality.

Thankfully, the court took our constitutionally protected liberties much more seriously and, at least this time, upheld them.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Unprecedented Vulgarity or Unprecedented Tyranny?25 — Those are your choices, America. Either a trash-talking boor with adolescent impulses, or a globalist with utter contempt for national sovereignty.
Clinton’s Strategy: Shoot the Messenger2 — John Podesta blames Trump for Russia’s hacking.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Victor Davis Hanson: “In the medieval world, impoverished serfs pledged loyalty to barons in exchange for their food and housing on the manor. In the modern world, progressive government is the bastion that distributes entitlements on the expectation that the masses show their political fealty at election time. In medieval Europe, widespread literacy disappeared. Superstition reigned in place of reason. Despite spending some $11,000 per student each year, are we all that much different? In many polls, more than a quarter of Americans believe in astrology. A quarter think aliens have visited Earth. More than 40 percent can’t name their own vice president. Nearly three-quarters of Americans have no idea what the Cold War was about. … There is one great difference, however, between the medieval and modern worlds. People living in the first millennium believed in transcendence and a soul, and sought to keep alive culture until civilization returned. People living in the second millennium increasingly live for their appetites without worry about what follows — with little awareness of what has been lost and so not a clue about how to recapture it.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “By academic freedom I understand the right to search for truth and to publish and teach what one holds to be true. This right implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.” —Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

For the record: “If Trump had been a serious candidate, he would have known this stuff was coming. He would have hired opposition researchers to vet him before others could. It’s going to get much worse, and nuking the rubble of the Clinton marriage won’t save him.” —Jonah Goldberg

The history-defining question: “Bob Dole was a horrible presidential candidate and not a particularly conservative Republican. But he was an honorable man who had a loyalty to things bigger than himself, including his political party. When Republicans had to cut him loose in 1996 to try to save their congressional majorities, he was a good and loyal solider. Does anyone expect that of Donald Trump?” —Rich Lowry

Obama who? “I really like the idea of a program that Congressman Jim Clyburn from South Carolina, the highest-ranking African-American in our government, has been promoting.” —Hillary Clinton

Death spiral: “The reality is the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable for increasing numbers of people.” —Minnesota Democrat Gov. Mark Dayton

Didn’t see that coming… “In the gloom and ugliness of this political season, one encouraging truth is often overlooked: There is a well-qualified, well-prepared candidate on the ballot. Hillary Clinton has the potential to be an excellent president of the United States, and we endorse her without hesitation.” —Washington Post editorial board

Late-night humor: “Happy 41st wedding anniversary to Bill and Hillary Clinton! Yep, they celebrated with a quiet dinner. A really, REALLY quiet dinner. ‘Did you say something?’ ‘No.’ ‘Good.’” —Jimmy Fallon

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.