The Patriot Post Digest 11-14-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-14-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Nov. 14, 2016

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Trump’s opening moves have shown a commitment to calming things down.
The electoral college preserves our constitutional republic. Don’t abandon it.
Left Coast liberals can’t handle the election results and want to secede.
The New York Times rededicates itself to honest reporting. Go ahead and laugh.
And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

“I often note with equal pleasure that God gave this one connected country to one united people — a people descended from the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in manners and customs, who by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side through a long bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence.” —John Jay (1787)

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Trump Talks Tranquility1

By Thomas Gallatin

Donald Trump has begun the process of choosing advisers and cabinet members, and one theme is becoming increasingly clear: Trump is all about mending fences. Over the weekend, Trump announced that his chief of staff would be current RNC chair Reince Priebus, while Breitbart’s Stephen Bannon will be his chief strategist. Bannon was Trump’s campaign CEO. The announcement said, “Bannon and Priebus will continue the effective leadership team they formed during the campaign, working as equal partners to transform the federal government, making it much more efficient, effective and productive.” This move is clearly an attempt to bridge the divide the between the Republican establishment2 and conservative anti-establishment groups.

In another welcome move, Trump replaced the head of his transition team, Chris Christie, with Vice President-elect Mike Pence. This was a smart change, as Pence is a favorite among principled conservatives and will likely make moves to assuage the fears of those same conservatives. That’s not to mention the fact that there are still concerns over more potential political fallout with Christie and the Bridgegate scandal. Trump doesn’t need that distraction. What we’re witnessing so far shouldn’t be that surprising given Trump’s history of having surrounded himself with good people.

As for the agenda, Trump isn’t quite as rigid as the Leftmedia want you to believe, either. On Sunday night, CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired its Friday interview with Trump, in which he was asked questions ranging from his campaign promises to his views on the Clintons. Trump reemphasized his commitment to fixing the illegal immigration problem by holding to his plan to build a border wall and to deport criminal illegal immigrants. But he eased up on ObamaCare, suggesting that he’s open to fixes rather than repeal.

Trump was also conciliatory on Hillary Clinton, calling her a very tough competitor. When asked if he would seek to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary’s scandals, Trump demurred. “I don’t want to hurt them, I don’t want to hurt them,” Trump said. “They’re good people. I don’t want to hurt them.” Many Americans believe the Clintons are bad people and that it’s critical to prosecute Hillary to uphold Rule of Law and eliminate the double standard the Clintons have enjoyed for too long. Trump seems to think it’s more important that he offer an olive branch by way of just moving on.

Where Barack Obama was an idealist whose ideology hampered his ability to constructively accomplish goals, Trump appears to be more of a pragmatist who understands his strength lies in combining the right people to get the goals accomplished. Trump looks poised to continue to do what he has done all through his run for the presidency — defy the “wisdom” of the nation’s political elite.

The Electoral College Preserves Inclusion3

By Arnold Ahlert

In yet another demonstration of their “respect” for the nation’s laws and our Constitution, many leftists are calling for the elimination4 of the Electoral College following the election of Donald Trump. “The only reason he’s president is because of an arcane, insane 18th century idea called the Electoral College,” insists5 filmmaker Michael Moore. Like so many of his fellow travelers, Moore demonstrates a profound ignorance of a constitutional mechanism the Founding Fathers put in place to limit the power of what millions of Americans just voted against: an all-powerful federal government that has routinely ignored them.

There is a reason this country is called the United States of America. It’s because we are not a direct democracy, but a constitutional republic consisting of 50 separate entities plus the District of Columbia, operating under a federal umbrella. And while the Founders recognized the need for the extra layer of government, they were also extremely wary of politicians who would see it as an opportunity to eviscerate states' rights. The Electoral College was the vehicle they used to preserve those rights and simultaneously maintain democratic legitimacy.

The process operates6 as follows. According to constitutional provisions and limits, each party chooses a slate of potential Electors, which are then chosen by the state’s voters on Election Day. These 538 Electors — equal to the number of people in Congress plus three addition Electors from the District of Columbia — then convent in December to cast their ballots. Congress certifies the results in early January.

There are no constitutional provisions or federal statutes that require Electors to abide the popular vote in some of their respective states. Thus it is unsurprising that ordinary leftists7 and their celebrity allies8 are circulating petitions urging the Electors to “go rogue” and ignore the wishes of their states' voters. Moreover, a group called FaithlessNow is targeting9 160 Electors in 15 states Trump won that don’t require a commitment to the winning candidate. In 25 states and the District of Columbia, Electors are bound by state law or pledges to cast their vote for a specific candidate. The penalties for failing to do so range from being replaced and/or paying a fine, to a fourth degree felony in New Mexico.

Thankfully, the odds of reaching a critical mass of so-called “faithless Electors” is exceedingly slim. As the New York Times reveals10, more than 99% of Electors have voted as pledged throughout the course of the nation’s history, and the last faithless Elector was an anonymous Minnesota Democrat who cast his 2004 vote for VP candidate John Edwards instead of presidential candidate John Kerry.

Hence, some Americans — campus crybabies11 accommodated by canceled classes and exams, “disaster” counseling and other infantile coping mechanisms including Play-Doh, coloring books and therapy dogs; rent-a-mob12 thugs whose idea of democracy consists of violent protests13, brutally beating up14 Trump supporters and inundating Twitter with Trump assassination threats; and those who wish to secede15 from the union — will be forced to deal with unpleasant reality.

That goes double for a Leftmedia yet to discover that their overt bias16 during the campaign is very likely to result in Trump being able to talk right past them directly to the American public. And because they’ve already denigrated Trump and his supporters17 in every way possible, from calling him a misogynist, a homophobe, an Islamophobe, a racist, a bigot and a xenophobe, to enabling those comparing18 him to Hitler, Stalin and Satan19, future attacks will ring increasingly hollower. In fact, by completely squandering the trust of the American public, the Leftmedia may have just accomplished the unthinkable: enabling their own irrelevancy.

It’s worth remembering that many of the same Americans now calling for the Electoral College’s elimination were confident of a Clinton victory precisely because they believed a blue state Electoral College-inspired “firewall” was impossible for Trump to overcome. Now that he has, they will continue their efforts, led by a group called the National Popular Vote20, to further erode states' rights and require Electors to vote for the candidate who wins the national vote. NPV’s efforts have been well-received, mostly by Democrat-controlled legislatures. Ten states and the District of Columbia representing a total of 165 Electoral votes have signed on. If they reach the 270 total required to elect a president, they will have effectively circumvented the Constitution to get their way. What else is new for leftists?

If it were up to those in favor of eliminating the Electoral College, Clinton would be heading for the Oval Office. Yet far more important, she would be doing so based on a huge vote advantage in only three states21: New York, California and Illinois. Moreover, the votes in those states were undoubtedly driven by a big edge in four cities: New York City, Los Angeles San Francisco and Chicago.

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-14-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Now let’s remember why Trump is president-elect: Millions of Americans rejected a cadre of arrogant and condescending elitists in government, media and academia united by their utter contempt for the “bitter clingers” who populate “flyover country.” And yet, rather than come to grips with that rejection, the elitists and their followers would rather institutionalize their contempt, and effectively turn national elections into referendums controlled by a handful of populous locations. It is precisely the effort to prevent that from happening that gave rise to the Electoral College.

In other words, the Founding Fathers recognized that direct democracy is “two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” The wolves lost in 2016. And just like Clinton, it’s time they accepted it.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Peggy Noonan: What Comes After the Uprising22
John C. Goodman: What Was the Election All About?23
Michael Reagan: Get a Grip, Losers24

For more, visit Right Opinion25.

TOP HEADLINES

Trump Won’t Take Presidential Salary26
New York Times Admits: We Blew It27
Australia Resettling ‘Refugees’ in U.S.28
FBI Operated 23 Tor-Hidden Child Porn Sites29

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report30.

Thank You

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You, our readers, make this possible.

We will continue to work hard for you. The rights our Founders fought for were not made secure overnight; and in the same spirit, we’re in this for the long haul.

But to continue this critical work, we need your help.

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I hope you’ll strongly consider supporting31 our Year-End Campaign today.

On behalf of The Patriot Post editors and staff, thank you for standing with us. —Christy Chesterton, Director of Advancement

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

NYT to ‘Rededicate’ Itself to Honest Reporting32

The Leftmedia really blew it16 in this election cycle, not because they misread opinion, but because they tried to dictate it. And The New York Times was at the forefront of that effort, including its August front-page call to abandon what was left of objective journalism in favor of defeating Donald Trump. On Friday, the paper’s publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., penned a letter to readers promising to “reflect” on the paper’s coverage. He wrote, “We aim to rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism. That is to report America and the world honestly, without fear or favor.” If you believe the Times has the slightest intent to report honestly after Trump’s election — especially when the same letter claims to “believe we reported on both candidates fairly” — we have some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you. Likewise if you buy that anyone at the Times thinks they, and not Trump’s voters, are the ones who blew it.

New York Post columnist and former Times reporter Michael Goodwin got it right27: “Because [the Times] demonized Trump from start to finish, it failed to realize he was onto something. And because the paper decided that Trump’s supporters were a rabble of racist rednecks and homophobes, it didn’t have a clue about what was happening in the lives of the Americans who elected the new president.” The real purpose of Sulzberger’s letter was to stop the bleed of subscribers. But the Times will no doubt continue its elitist ways of condescension and grossly biased reporting, further driving a wedge between it and the rest of the country. It’s just what leftists do.

Some Call for California Secession15

What do American citizens do when things don’t go their way? Well, if they’re California leftists they call for secession “to become [their] own nation.” As Silicon Valley venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar said, “It’s the most patriotic thing I can do.” That’s right, for some California leftists the definition of patriotism is to leave one’s country when the opposing political party wins the election.

As liberals across the nation struggle to come to grips with the election of Donald Trump, California Democrats may feel it more acutely than others. California, the most populated state in the union and holding 55 electoral votes, went almost three to one in favor of Hillary Clinton, 61.5% to 33.3%. In fact, if Clinton ends up winning the final popular vote total, she can thank the Golden State. And yet, before the state’s ballots were done being tallied the election had been called for Trump.

Will California secede? Of course not. Notably there are a lot of conservatives in California, however outnumbered at present – recall that Ronald Reagan33 was a Californian! However, if California did manage to leave the union, it would be a long time before America saw another Democrat in the White House again. The truth is, leftists, for all their calls for tolerance and acceptance, have the most difficulty tolerating and accepting ideas and leadership with which they disagree. And protesting the election and making threats of secession do nothing but reinforce the hypocrisy of the Left.

And a footnote: Donald Trump has established a good relationship with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto. As an alternative to secession, perhaps Donald can convince Enrique to open the Mexican state of Baja Norte to all the California leftists who hate America!

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

The Future of Conservatism34 — It’s time for principles to meet action.
Pelosi and Clinton: Two Peas in a Pod35 — The Democrat Party continues to protect stale and corrupt leadership.
Harry Reid’s Incredibly Nasty Parting Shot36 — Is there anyone who will miss that sourpuss?

OPINION IN BRIEF

Peggy Noonan: “Donald Trump said he had a movement and he did. This is how you know. His presidential campaign was bad — disorganized, unprofessional, chaotic, ad hoc. There was no state-of-the-art get-out-the-vote effort — his voters got themselves out. There was no high-class, high-tech identifying of supporters — they identified themselves. They weren’t swayed by the barrage of brilliantly produced ads — those ads hardly materialized. This was not a triumph of modern campaign modes and ways. The people did this. As individuals within a movement. It was a natural, self-driven eruption. Which makes it all the more impressive and moving. And it somehow makes it more beautiful that few saw it coming. On the way home Wednesday morning I thought of my friend who runs the neighborhood shoe-repair shop. He is elderly, Italian-American, an immigrant. I had asked him last winter who would win the Republican nomination and he looked at me as if I were teasing. ‘Troomp!’ he instructed. I realized at that moment: In America now only normal people can see the obvious. Everyone else is lost in a data-filled fog. That was true right up to the end.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “Although the political landscape has changed, the bold ideas of the 1980s are alive and well. Republican candidates swept every major election across the country … and, as a result, it seems that our opponents have finally realized how unpopular liberalism really is. So now they’re trying to dress their liberal agenda in a conservative overcoat.”

Alpha Jackass: “Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.” —Harry Reid (Don’t miss the rest of his vile statement36.)

Non Compos Mentis: “Republicans are planning to repeal Obamacare just when half the country desperately needs insurance that covers trauma counseling.” —CNN’s Sally Kohn

Bad idea: “We have to just abolish the electoral college3.” —former Attorney General Eric Holder

But we repeat ourselves: “Hillary won this election … by what will likely be more than a million votes. So how come she isn’t going to the White House in January? Because of an anachronistic Electoral College system which should have been abolished 150 years ago.” —Michael Dukakis

And last… “You hear suicidal talking heads in the liberal media saying that Trump tapped into something they didn’t see. Of course they didn’t see it. They’re liberals.” —Michael Reagan

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.