The Patriot Post Digest 12-7-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 12-7-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Dec. 7, 2016

IN TODAY’S EDITION

75 years after Pearl Harbor there are still lessons to learn.
And Obama hasn’t learned them. The U.S. faces the greatest terrorist threat since 9/11.
While the Pentagon is wasting $125 billion, Obama is shipping F-16 production to India.
And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

“Of all the cares or concerns of government, the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand. The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength, forms a usual and essential part in the definition of the executive authority.” —Alexander Hamilton (1788.)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Pearl Harbor 75 Years Later1

In October 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared, “I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” This was a reiteration of his earlier assertion, “We are keeping out of the wars that are going on in Europe and in Asia. … Our opponents are seeking to frighten the country by telling people that the present administration is deliberately … drifting into war. You know better than that.”

Roosevelt campaigned on neutrality in 1940. Roosevelt assured his constituents, “I give … to the people of this country this most solemn assurance: There is no secret treaty, no secret obligation, no secret commitment, no secret understanding in any shape or form, direct or indirect, with any other government, or any other nation in any part of the world, to involve this nation in any war.”

Unfortunately, Germany’s Führer Adolf Hitler and Japan’s Prime Minister Hideki Tojo didn’t cooperate.

On December 7, 1941, 75 years ago today, 353 Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2,390 American servicemen and civilians and wounding 1,282. The attack sank or damaged eight battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers and one minelayer and destroyed 188 aircraft. It took four years and the full military-industrial capability of the United States to defeat Japan. There was no more devastating surprise attack on the United States until 9/112.

After the attack, Roosevelt stated: “December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. … Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory. … With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounded determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God.”

Historian Victor Davis Hanson writes3, “After Pearl Harbor, the United States went into a rearmament frenzy the likes of which had never been seen in history. America produced more airplanes and ships than all World War II powers combined. The U.S. military grew to 12 million soldiers. American military leadership in the Pacific — led by Admirals William Halsey Jr., Chester Nimitz and Raymond Spruance, along with Generals Curtis LeMay and Douglas MacArthur — proved far more skilled than their Japanese counterparts. And the American soldier, sailor, airman and Marine, after a bruising learning experience in early 1942, proved every bit as ferocious as veteran Japanese fighters.”

Much has happened since the 74th anniversary of this attack. In May, Barack Obama became the first American president to visit Hiroshima4, where he offered a not-quite-apology for the U.S. having dropped two atomic bombs to end World War II. He also pushed again for a nuclear-free world. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will reciprocate by becoming the first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor later this month while Obama vacations5 in Hawaii. Japan and the U.S. are, of course, now close allies, so in a way these visits put to rest old grievances. Let’s hope that’s truly what happens.

It is with honor and respect for those who died or suffered terrible injuries that Sunday morning that we should never again fall into the slumber that allowed such a tragedy as Pearl Harbor — or the attack on Sept. 11, 2001 — again.

Obama’s False Reality6

Yesterday, Barack Obama delivered his final lecture, er, speech to the U.S. military. In his all-too-familiar pattern, Obama wove an eloquent farce. Seeking to deflect responsibility for facilitating the rise of the Islamic State7, Obama said, “There’s been a debate about ISIL that’s focused on whether a continued U.S. troop presence in Iraq back in 2011 could have stopped the threat of ISIL from growing. And as a practical matter, this was not an option. … In addition, maintaining American troops in Iraq at the time could not have reversed the forces that contributed to ISIL’s rise.” Obama seeks to have it both ways: Claim credit for keeping his ideologically driven campaign promise to end the war in Iraq, while blaming George W. Bush for allegedly creating a situation where Obama was unable to keep a sizable military presence in Iraq.

Obama then pivoted and suggested that ISIL is not really the significant threat to the U.S. that many Americans know it to be. He stated, “Today’s terrorists can kill innocent people, but they don’t pose an existential threat to our nation, and we must not make the mistake of elevating them as if they do.” For Obama, the only significant “existential threat” facing the nation is climate change.

The outgoing commander in chief has at times acted as though he were the most limited president in history, while at other times he has exercised almost dictatorial power to go around Congress in order to implement his agenda. Obama has always had an excuse ready for why his policies have failed. Either A) it wasn’t his plan so it’s not his fault or B) Congress prevented him from acting according to his policy plans so it’s not his fault. Some people might think Obama is an eloquent speaker, but speeches don’t create reality. There’s a reason fairytales are sold in the fiction section of the local book store.

After eight years under Obama’s watch, America finds itself facing a terrorist threat every bit as dangerous8 as we faced on 9/11. Sadly, Obama, rather than take the enemy seriously, has sought to convince the American people that the Islamic State really isn’t that big of a problem. It makes one wonder if he believes he can perform what he once errantly called a “Jedi mind meld9” on the American populace.

Top Headlines10

Time’s Person of the Year: Donald Trump. Who else? (Time11)

Obama’s top labor arbiters have overturned a cumulative 4,500 years of legal precedent over the past eight years, in 91 decisions without a Republican vote. (Washington Free Beacon12)

GOP leaders reveal stopgap spending bill that includes path for Mattis confirmation. (The Hill13)

Medicare looms over Trump-Ryan alliance. What will the pair do to reform it? (The Hill14)

Obama’s IRS commissioner evades impeachment. (The Daily Signal15)

Trump announces Japanese telecom company will invest $50 billion and 50,000 jobs in the U.S. (Hot Air16)

Obama sent rep to Castro’s funeral, but not Margaret Thatcher’s funeral… (The Daily Signal17)

Congress objects to secret Obama deal for 2,400 Middle Eastern refugees rejected by Australia. (The Washington Times18.)

Angela “Let the Refugees Come” Merkel calls for a ban of full facial veiling — i.e., Islamic burkas. (NBC News19)

ObamaCare shutters Texas restaurant. (The Washington Times20)

Ukraine peace deal delayed by Obama’s confusion and obfuscation. (Reuters21)

Policy: Fake news is not a technology problem. (Tech Policy Daily22)

Policy: Trump’s realistic thinking on climate change. (InsideSources23)

Did You Know?

The Patriot Post’s Digest represents a collaborative effort of contributors, editors and technical staff who bring their passion and expertise from all walks of life. We work hard to ensure an accurate and penetrating analysis of the week’s news, policy and opinion. Indeed, this is what you, our readers, have come to expect over the last 20 years. Many Patriots volunteer their time and effort to our mission, while others receive only a modest salary. Nonetheless, our costs are substantial.

If you find today’s Digest interesting, inspiring or informative, we humbly ask that you consider making a secure online donation24 toward The Patriot Fund’s 2016 Year-End Campaign. Or, if you prefer to support us by mail, please send your donation with our printable donor form25. Thank you for your support! —Nate Jackson, Managing Editor

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The Patriot Post Digest 12-7-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Obama’s Pentagon Waste and Outsourcing26

By Lewis Morris

Now that we have a real businessman headed to the White House, “business as usual” in Washington may start getting a little un-usual. At least for Beltway insiders, anyway. For the rest of us, we’re hoping to see some common sense kick in.

This week it seems to be the defense industry that’s getting the attention. But the Pentagon may have brought that on itself by attempting to bury a report that revealed $125 billion in wasteful and fraudulent spending.

An in-depth exposé27 in the Washington Post explains how the Pentagon commissioned a study in 2014 to look for ways to make its “enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power.”

The study was conducted by the Defense Business Board, a federal advisory panel made up of corporate executives and consultants from McKinsey and Company. The final report28 identified $125 billion in wasteful spending to be cut over five years by streamlining bureaucracy through attrition, early retirements, and curtailing high-priced contractors.

Top brass, however, were terrifically embarrassed by such a large amount of waste in the Defense Department. To give some life to their concern, consider the fact that $125 billion represents about 20% of the Pentagon’s annual budget. On top of that, the number of back-office civilian and military personnel is roughly equal to the total number of troops on active duty, a one-to-one ratio. And if that isn’t enough to shock you, 298,000 of those back-office personnel are military, not civilians or contractors.

It’s little wonder that the Pentagon wanted to bury this report, and Barack Obama was no doubt a big supporter — if not instigator — of that decision. Remember the days of the sequester29 when Obama was blaming Republicans for leaving our national defense vulnerable because of “reckless cuts”? Cuts that were his idea for political gain. Well, if the Pentagon had followed the Defense Business Board’s recommendations, it would have found the savings it needed to balance out the sequester cuts, which was what was intended at the time anyway. But Obama opted instead to close DC memorials and national parks so as to score more political points.

To Obama’s White House, it was never about cost savings or reduced spending, or about keeping jobs and dollars in the U.S. And in its twilight days, the administration has not learned the right lesson.

With Obama’s blessing, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter are working out a deal30 to build Lockheed Martin’s F-16 and Boeing’s F/A-18 fighter jets in India.

The F-16 is being phased out by the U.S. military, but the aircraft is still popular in other countries. There are still a lot of jobs to be had for building and servicing the aircraft, though both the administration and the two companies insist American jobs will be repurposed, not lost. It may make some business and logistical sense to move this manufacturing overseas, but it seems to us there are some things that just shouldn’t be outsourced. America’s iconic military jets are one of them.

In the wake of President-Elect Donald Trump’s recent work31 to stop jobs from being shipped overseas, the Indian government is wondering if the deal will still hold. It may; it may not. But Trump is definitely making his presence known now in other areas.

In fact, Boeing is now feeling the heat from The Donald for its deal to build two new planes to fly as Air Force One. The new 747s are sorely needed as the current pair of retrofitted planes flying as the airborne White House are around 30 years old. The price tag, however, seems to have climbed past the point of fiscal responsibility — at least according to Trump’s latest Twitter declaration32.

The replacement program for the planes was originally budgeted at $2.87 billion for fiscal years 2015-2021, but this was apparently only for research and development, testing and evaluation, not the cost of the planes themselves. However, a Government Accountability Office report from earlier this year claimed the program would cost $3.21 billion, planes included.

That was too much for Trump, and now Boeing is finding itself on the defensive. The Donald couldn’t resist pointing out that his own 757 is posher than Air Force One, which may very well be true, but it doesn’t have defense countermeasures nor can it operate as an airborne command post during a nuclear attack. That we know of…

The point here is that Trump is acting on campaign promises he made to keep jobs in the United States and to make America more economically competitive. He’s also already signaled with his pick of James “Mad Dog” Mattis33 for defense secretary that the Pentagon could use some cleaning up. After eight years of Obama, that’s going to be a herculean undertaking.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

HUD May Get Elective Surgery Under Carson’s Leadership34 — It’s not brain surgery, but Carson has his work cut out for him.
North Carolina Flushes Out Gov. McCrory35 — But it’s nowhere near the victory the Left is making it out to be.
Have You No Decency?36 — Colossal jerk gloats over destruction in Gatlinburg because it hurt Trump supporters.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Cal Thomas: Remembering Pearl Harbor at 7537
Ben Shapiro: When Democracy Fails38
Walter Williams: Majority Rule Equals Tyranny39

For more, visit Right Opinion40.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Ariel Rabkin: “In America, we allow both broadsheet newspapers and supermarket tabloids to be sold. The underlying philosophy of the First Amendment (and free speech generally) is that society should leave people to make their own truth judgements, and should not rely on appointed authorities to promulgate truth and suppress falsehood. The technology industry stands on solid philosophical ground with its desire to concentrate on building content-neutral platforms, rather than to be the world’s arbiter of fact. We should be humble about the capacities of our current technology. If you Google ‘does New Zealand exist,’ the search results include a factbox titled ‘New Zealand: The Country That Doesn’t Exist.’ If Google’s technology can be made to doubt the existence of a sizeable English-speaking democracy that shows up in satellite imagery, it might be overly ambitious to expect them to solve the general problem of separating truth and fiction. … The history of science, politics, and philosophy demonstrate that even intelligent, educated, and well-meaning humans often believe foolish things. Technology is not going to change that. Intellectual honesty has always been a difficult virtue to practice, and no algorithmic cleverness is likely to change that.”

Read more…22

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.” —Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

For the record: “The crusade against fossil fuels in part is an effort to transfer wealth from red states to blue ones, by increasing energy costs disproportionately in the former. In part it is a religious movement: The interpretation of destructive weather as the gods' punishment for the sins of Man is ancient. And just as the pagans for millennia attempted to prevent destructive weather by worshipping golden idols, so do modern environmentalists now attempt to prevent destructive weather by bowing down before recycling bins.” —Benjamin Zycher

Alpha Jackass: “If a threat is serious enough to require the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, then members of Congress should at least have the courage to make clear where they stand … by fulfilling their constitutional duty to authorize the use of force against the threats we face today.” —Barack Obama, who never asked for authorization to attack Libya

The BIG lie: “No foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland.” —Barack Obama

Setting the record straight: “Remember, the Democratic Party had a campaign plank to change the First Amendment. And they were doing it in the guise of campaign finance reform. And that was worrying me more because the press tends to miss that. … I thought the threat to the First Amendment came from the Democratic side.” —Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes

And last… “Obama and the Japanese PM will tour Pearl Harbor. The Japanese PM will not apologize for the attack, but Obama will apologize to him.” —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.