The Patriot Post Digest 11-29-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-29-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Nov. 29, 2016

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Drawing lessons from more media malpractice after the attack at Ohio State.
Obama’s Justice Department fines a sheriff’s department over illegal immigration.
The DNC considers another radical to lead the party.
Introducing our all-new headline roundup — In Our Sights.
And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

“During the course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap its safety.” —Thomas Jefferson (1805)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

The Active Non-Shooter at Ohio State1

“What you need to know about the shooting at Ohio State,” blared a headline at USA Today. Well, first of all, what you need to know is that it wasn’t a shooting at all. It was evidently an 18-year-old Somali refugee — a legal permanent resident of the United States and a student at Ohio State University — who drove a car into a crowd before jumping out to cut and stab people with a butcher knife. (Ohio State is a gun free zone, after all…) A campus security guard opened fire, killing the would-be murderer. (College cupcakes protest cops until they need one.) Several people were hospitalized with injuries, some critical, from either the car or the knife.

Media reports about such attacks are notoriously inaccurate, as various outlets scramble to be the first out with a “news alert.” And the template for such incidents is to blame a “gunman.” But somehow we don’t expect to now see reports of the “carman” or the “knifeman.”

NBC notes, “The motive was unknown, but officials said the attack was clearly deliberate and may have been planned in advance.” No doubt. After all, it was modeled after attacks in Minnesota and California, as well as another that was slightly more famous — the one in Nice, France2. In that attack, as in the aforementioned and countless other attacks, the Islamic State-inspired radical perpetrator yelled “Allahu Akbar!” as he took the lives of innocent victims. In Nice, 85 people were mowed down by a terrorist with a 15-ton truck. In September, The Washington Post reported3 on the model, as well: “The attacks carried out by Palestinians against Israelis often appear to be spontaneous and opportunistic. Many are undertaken by young, unmarried Palestinians. The most common weapon used is a kitchen knife. The second most common is the family car.” Check, and check. The Islamic State has called for such attacks4.

Meanwhile, the attacker’s Facebook page featured a few clues: “America, stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah. We are not weak… By Allah, we will not let you sleep unless you give peace to the Muslims. You will not celebrate or enjoy any holiday.” Furthermore, “I am sick and tired of seeing my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters being killed and tortured EVERYWHERE. Seeing my fellow Muslims being tortured, raped and killed in Burma led to a boiling point.”

Well, it’s not Ohio State students torturing and killing Muslims (and Christians and Jews and others). It’s Islamic State radicals.

So you might say that, while the motive is unknown in terms of the official investigation, it is not a reach to speculate that radical Islam is, as usual, the culprit. Yet Obama has imported 43,000 Somalian refugees5, 99% of whom are Muslim.

DOJ Levies Fines for Respecting Rule of Law6

While Lois Lerner and her acolytes at the Internal Revenue Service got away with unlawfully blocking the tax-free applications of conservative groups — which the agency is still doing7, by the way — Obama’s Justice Department is busy punishing those who actually take Rule of Law seriously.

The latest example comes from Colorado, where the Denver Sheriff Department was handed  "a $10,000 fine after it required applications for deputy sheriff jobs to be U.S. citizens when hiring from the beginning of 2015 through March 2016,“ the Washington Examiner says8. To remedy the situation, "The department will … have to go through old applications to find applicants who were eliminated because of their citizenship status and reconsider them for future jobs” and “will also have to train its human resources staff on the Immigration and Nationality Act’s anti-discrimination provisions.”

This from the administration that selectively enforces immigration law.

Heritage Foundation fellow Hans von Spakovsky outlines9 the reasons the statute likely isn’t applicable in this case. Also, don’t miss the irony here. The IRS, to name just one example, spent years circumventing the law in order to subjugate Tea Party groups. But when it comes to the DOJ, its behavior is hardly different; the agency is selectively enforcing rules based entirely on whether it benefits the Left. Spakovsky writes, “Given the importance of the job done by law enforcement officers throughout all levels of government to protect the public from those who would harm them … requiring citizenship seems like a basic, commonsense qualification.”

“The federal government certainly thinks so,” he adds, “because it does not apply this statute to itself. If you want to be a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which often works closely with local law enforcement, including sheriff’s departments like Denver’s, the FBI website specifically says that you ‘must be a United States citizen.’ The same is true of the U.S. Secret Service, which routinely discriminates against noncitizens in a manner that no doubt horrifies the DOJ’s Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices.” You know what else requires U.S. citizenship? You guessed it — the DOJ.

Federal agencies are hardly immune to corruption. They never have been. But when the Justice Department bends the rules — for example, by refusing to prosecute IRS bureaucrats and by enforcing rules from which it exempts itself — the administration can hardly be considered “the most transparent in history.” It’s a fast track to tyranny.

Top Headlines10

Welcome to our retooled Top Headlines section. Our objective is to save you time by reviewing hundreds of news and policy sites every morning. In addition to our top-of-the-fold Right Analysis and Hook summaries, here are more of today’s top stories.

Trump’s choice of Tom Price at HHS signals the end for ObamaCare. Price led the GOP’s effort for an alternative plan. (Wall Street Journal11)

Despite accolades12 for the Communist Dictator, Obama and Biden are skipping Fidel’s funeral, but we’re sure they’ll hold a private mourning ceremony. (Hot Air13)

On behalf of Hillary Clinton, Green Party candidate Jill Stein pursued a recount in Pennsylvania in addition to the recount in Wisconsin14. PA officials say she missed the deadline there, but we’re pretty sure she still lost. (Washington Examiner15)

It turns out that more than 800,000 “noncitizens” may have voted in the 2016 election, but Democrats assure us there’s no need to be concerned about voter fraud or lack of voter IDs. (Daily Signal16)

The U.S. will fall short of ethanol and biofuel17 targets mandated under the Renewable Fuel Standards boondoggle. (Washington Times18.)

South Korea’s president offers to resign amidst pay-to-play corruption scandal, while Hillary Clinton is contesting her election loss after her own pay-to-play corruption scandal. (Washington Post19)

Good news: Faithful thinking is good for your brain. Is the science settled? (CNN20)

Don’t Miss Patriot Humor

Check out Timing Is Everything21.

If you’d like to receive Patriot Humor by email, update your subscription here22.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Paul Kengor: Death by Fidel23
Rich Lowry: Can Democrats Quit Identity Politics?24
Dennis Prager: 10 Reasons Left-Wingers Cut Trump Voters From Their Lives25

For more, visit Right Opinion26.

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-29-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
The Next DNC Chief: From One Extremist to the Next?29

By Paul Albaugh

The Democratic National Committee is looking to fill a void in party leadership. By all indications, the next person to lead the Party will be more extreme than the former chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. While that may be hard for most conservatives to fathom, what has become clear thus far is that Democrat elites learned absolutely nothing from this past election.

We’ve already reported30 that Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison launched a campaign to be the next DNC chief. Ellison is a radical racist with Islamic roots and has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The fact that he is even being considered to lead the Democrat Party is outright appalling, though somehow not surprising.

Equally appalling is another individual well known amongst Democrat supporters. Ilyse Hogue has taken steps toward jumping into the race for DNC chair by laying out her vision31 for the direction she thinks the party needs to go. Hogue is but another extremist — albeit on a different front. She is the current president of the rabidly pro-abortion group NARAL, which, as of 2003, is allegedly no longer an acronym for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. As NARAL’s leader, Hogue is one of leading voices for supporting Planned Parenthood, which the GOP would like to defund, and abolishing the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits direct taxpayer funding of abortion.

(Don’t think for a minute that funding Planned Parenthood to the tune of half a billion a year isn’t paying for some abortions.)

A recent email Hogue sent to DNC members indicates how she might lead the party: “The DNC can be not just a force every two years at election time, but also a daily presence in peoples' lives, relevant in policy discussions and responsive to ideas and concerns of people where they live.” Sounds genuine, sincere and speaks to those she intends to serve right?

All except for her last phrase, which doesn’t apply to a baby living in a mother’s womb. In her view, there are no concerns for the unborn baby. Hillary Clinton espoused such views during the campaign32, and it’s about as radical as you can get. Which is exactly why this woman is another potential candidate to lead the Democrat Party.

If Hogue is selected, then it will mean that abortion on demand will be reinforced as a central plank33 of the Party as it moves to achieve its progressive goals. Democrats long ago took up abortion as an issue, especially by the 1970s. But the parties have become more polarized since then. The Democrat mantra was long “safe, legal and rare,” but it has since transitioned to a full embrace of abortion to be “federally funded and ubiquitous.” There’s just about no such thing any more as a pro-life Democrat.

Hogue’s radical views on abortion also indicate just how out of touch the Democrat Party is. According to a recent poll, the American public is becoming less supportive of abortion. The poll revealed that almost two-thirds of Americans support legislation that restricts abortions beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy. In addition, a Knights of Columbus/Marist poll from this summer shows that 78% of Americans support significant restrictions on abortion, including limiting it to the first trimester.

Meanwhile, for a party that operates under the banner of “Black Lives Matter,” it’s worth noting that, as CNS News reports34, “Although black Americans make up 13.3% of the U.S. population, they comprised 35% of the total abortions ‘reported’ — 128,682 babies killed — in 2013.” It could be higher, because many states don’t report race, and some don’t report abortions at all.

Yet Democrat Party leadership appears to be hearing none of this.

While the DNC might be considering an abortion advocate to lead their party, there is some good news, which again reveals how little Democrats pay attention to cultural shifts. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 664,435 abortions35 in the U.S. in 2013. While that number is extremely high, the data shows a trending decline — the rate has fallen by more than 40% since 1980. That is good news for conservatives and pro-life advocacy groups who have pushed for educating mothers to choose alternatives to abortion. It appears that more people are appreciating and valuing life. And it’s great news for the lives that have been saved.

Hogue would be a very bad choice to head the DNC. Perhaps the party will choose someone who is less extreme. But until the party leadership recognizes that there is a slow cultural shift taking place that values Life and Liberty, we can expect to see more of the same extreme positions and more extreme people to lead their party.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

The Campaign Was Wild and Crazy, and the Aftermath Is, Too36 — We can’t allow ignorance and emotion to rule.
A Not-So-Simple Western Land Dispute37 — The struggle to balance private property rights with public access.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Paul Kengor: “The focus on Castro at his death must be just that: Castro and death. First, there’s the death he was responsible for since seizing Cuba in January 1959, and then, second, there are the incalculable millions more who would have died — not just in Cuba but in America and worldwide — had he gotten his way in October 1962. … Thankfully, the world averted nuclear war … and no thanks to bloodthirsty lunatics like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, who were ready to blow up the world in the name of their Marxist-Leninist nightmare. This, alas, was Fidel Castro. And for the record (and not surprisingly), not a word of it is found in the awful press release by President Barack Obama acknowledging Castro’s death, a statement that Marco Rubio rightly called ‘pathetic,’ with ‘no mention of [the] thousands he killed & imprisoned.’ Pathetic, indeed. Fidel Castro is dead. And death was Fidel Castro.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Government will not fail to employ education to strengthen its hands and perpetuate its institutions.” —William Godwin (1756-1836)

For the record: “To have broader appeal, Democrats will actually have to meet working-class voters partway on a few cultural issues, whether it is abortion or guns or immigration, even if their concessions are symbolical or rhetorical. This is what Bill Clinton did in the 1990s when he made inroads into what would come to be known as Red America. This will be a truly painful step, and surely anyone advocating it will be accused of every -ism and -phobia in the book.” —Rich Lowry

Braying Jackass: “[Fidel Castro] was a revolutionary leader who confronted a system of government that excluded everybody except the military and the money-rich. And he took them on, defeated them and then set the country up in a way where… Did he use harsh dictatorial tactics? Yes, probably he did, but, did he also stand up for peace and freedom in Africa? Absolutely.” —would-be DNC Chief Keith Ellison

Cart before the donkey: “Deeply saddened by the senseless act of gun violence at Ohio State. … Praying for the injured and the entire Buckeye community.” —Sen. Tim Kaine (Memo to Hillary’s running mate: It wasn’t “gun violence.”1)

Delusions of grandeur: “The president has spoken at some length about how proud he is that there hasn’t been a major personal scandal in his administration, that the kind of people that he has chosen to serve in high-profile, influential positions in his administration have done so with the focus on the country’s best interests.” —Josh Earnest

Friendly fire: “[Recounts are] a waste of time and money. It is not going to change anything. I think it probably was the Stein people looking for a way to stay relevant, raise some money and take the stink off of them. Instead of everybody screaming, ‘You made Trump happen,’ she is counting the votes to change that whole narrative.”“ —Joe Trippi, who added "everybody is taking the bait”

And last… “Hillary demands a vote recount — except in states she barely won. Apparently, those were accurately tabulated.” —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.