The Patriot Post Digest 12-8-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 12-8-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Dec. 8, 2016

IN TODAY’S EDITION

    The EPA will soon be led by a man who sued the agency for its power grabs.
    The GOP House delayed accountability for IRS Chief John Koskinen.
    Life after Trump has been really difficult for some tender leftists who need to get a life.
    And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

“Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue; or in any manner affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens.” —James Madison (1788.)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Reining in the EPA1

By now it should come as no surprise that Donald Trump is making good on his campaign promises. Yesterday, Trump nominated Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. Pruitt has a record of waging legal battles with Barack Obama’s over-regulating EPA. In fact, he’s currently one of the leaders suing the EPA over its Clean Power Plan, which would create significant price increases for Americans' power bills while having negligible impact on the environment. Pruitt is a big proponent of states' rights over and against the unconstitutionally powerful EPA. Trump’s transition team stated in its announcement that Pruitt is “an expert in Constitutional law [who] brings a deep understanding of the impact of regulations on both the environment and the economy.”

Maybe the best endorsement for Pruitt has come from those ecofascist groups who, with an almost religious fervor, shout their opposition. Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said, “Having Scott Pruitt in charge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is like putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires. He is a climate science denier who, as attorney general for the state of Oklahoma, regularly conspired with the fossil fuel industry to attack EPA protections.” And Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resourced Defense Council, lamented, “The mission of the EPA and its administrator requires an absolute commitment to safeguard public health and protect our air, land, water and planet. If confirmed, Pruitt seems destined for the environmental hall of shame.”

Pruitt responded to his critics: “It should come as no surprise that I am working diligently with Oklahoma energy companies, the people of Oklahoma, and the majority of attorneys general to fight the unlawful overreach of the EPA and other federal agencies.”

This is indeed good, because, especially over the last eight years, two of the most abusive and unaccountable federal agencies have been the IRS and the EPA. Now it appears that needed change will be coming in a big way, protecting Americans' freedoms and saving the nation from unneeded expensive and oppressive regulations.

No Accountability (Yet) for IRS, Koskinen2

On Tuesday, the House voted against impeaching IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and referred the matter to the Judiciary Committee. This decision allows Koskinen to continue leading the IRS, effectively delaying any potential accountability for the beleaguered commissioner. Conservative representatives quickly voiced their opposition to the House’s decision. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said, “We think Mr. Koskinen has to go. Koskinen [was] brought in to clean up the mess, and he has done, in my judgement, just the opposite.” That “mess” being the political targeting of conservative groups3 that continues to this day.

Republican Study Committee Chairman Bill Flores (R-TX) emphasized why the House should have voted to hold Koskinen accountable, stating, “IRS Commissioner Koskinen has willfully misled Congress, refused to comply with House subpoenas, and violated the trust of the American people. Commissioner Koskinen should be impeached and removed from office.”

While the IRS’s Tea Party targeting scandal did not start during his watch, Koskinen has done little to nothing to clean up the corruption. In fact, he has proven to act mostly as a roadblock to Congress’s investigation of the scandal. The GOP-lead House’s failure to even hold a vote to impeach Koskinen means that the IRS chief will still be heading the agency during most of the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, as his term isn’t up until November 2017.

However, several Republicans argued that the decision was simply a postponement to allow for the incoming Congress to take up the issue and vote on it. While it remains to be seen if that indeed will be the case, it does leave one wondering if this isn’t yet another example of Congress merely kicking an uncomfortable issue further down the road. If it is, Koskinen will enjoy a cozy retirement just like Lois Lerner is.

Top Headlines4

    Gen. John Kelly tapped for Department of Homeland Security, another great Trump pick, but Leftmedia fear “too many generals.” (The Daily Signal5)

    Now that Trump’s won, media suddenly notices that a lot of new jobs are crappy. (Hot Air6)

    Stein’s Wisconsin recount for Clinton produces net gains … for Trump. (Fox News7)

    Judicial order halts Stein’s Michigan recount for Clinton. (Detroit Free Press8.)

    WashPo columnist repeats fake news while complaining about repeating fake news. (Washington Examiner9)

    The latest and hopefully last chapter of Obama’s social engineering military experiments — Naval Academy hosting “Transgender 101” training for midshipmen. (Washington Free Beacon10)

    Two charged with arson in Gatlinburg wildfires that killed 14. (Fox News11)

    Two police officers shot, one killed, in Georgia. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution12)

    How long will Hollywood put up with social justice warriors after latest attacks? Probably always. (National Review13)

    Despite objections14 and a pending congressional resolution, Black History Museum has “no plans” to recognize Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. (The Washington Times15)

    Policy: A pro-growth agenda for the 115th Congress. It would be about time. (Competitive Enterprise Institute16)

    Policy: Short-term spending bill: The good and the bad. (The Daily Signal17)

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
The Left’s Arrested Development18

By Allyne Caan

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory, the emotional instability many leftists have demonstrated is mind-boggling and, in some cases, downright hysterical.

We get being disappointed when your candidate loses. After all, there was plenty of disappointment — and even some fear — among Liberty-loving conservatives when Barack Obama ascended to power with the promise to “fundamentally transform” the land of the free and the home of the brave. There was even more dismay when the country saw what Obama had done … and re-elected him anyway.

But we didn’t ditch dating, chop off our hair, or lose our faith because of it. Clearly, “progressives” are outdoing us in their post-election mourning.

So great was the grief of Trump’s win for single mom Stephanie Land, for example, that she gave up dating. And not just in theory. She actually ditched a man who was a potentially promising husband. “There is no room for dating in this place of grief,” Land wrote in the Washington Post19. “I’ve lost the desire to attempt the courtship phase. The future is uncertain. I am not the optimistic person I was on the morning of Nov. 8. … Dating means hope. I’ve lost that hope in seeing the words ‘President-elect Trump.’” And so, Land told her almost-significant other, “I can’t. I just can’t”. (Despite her emotional dependency on Hillary Clinton, Land apparently didn’t embrace Clinton’s mantra that we are “stronger together.”)

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 12-8-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Then, there is hair. And no, not Trump’s. New York magazine details20 the “post-Trump haircut.” One client at the Georgetown Salon & Spa told her stylist, “Think of Melania Trump and go in the opposite direction. I don’t want to be that person people see as sexual, I want to be seen as strong.” Meanwhile, marketing director Julianna Evans had colored her hair the same shade for years, but when “president-elect” was prefixed to Trump’s name, she “cried for three days.” Then, she did the unthinkable. Instead of using medium-brown coloring, she went for natural black! “The election deadened my soul,” she said. “I think I wanted to do something defiant to feel stronger.” Because in the age of gender equality and breaking glass ceilings, we women find our greatest strength in our hair color.

The strong, feminist women aren’t alone in their despondency. Benjamin Ryan writes in the Huffington Post21 that he learned of Trump’s victory “while midstream in providing a urine sample for the emergency psychiatric staff of a New York City public hospital” where he had checked himself in after the results from battleground states started coming in. Ryan was eventually sent home and told, “You don’t belong here,” yet he characterized himself as having suffered “a genuine mental health crisis.” Notably, he is a self-described Ivy League graduate. Those bastions of reasoned discourse sure prepare folks for the real world.

Haircuts, dating and safe spaces are one thing, but losing your religious affiliation? That’s what Trump’s win supposedly did to Brandi Miller. As the Wall Street Journal reports22, after the election, Miller wrote on Facebook, “On Nov. 8, white evangelical Christianity and I called it quits.” She noted that as a biracial woman, she couldn’t condone the racial divide highlighted by exit polling showing 81% of white evangelicals backed Trump. “Evangelicals have decided who and with what they will associate. It’s not me.” Miller still calls herself a Christian, but not evangelical.

At least one person is taking an ever so slightly more reasoned approach to the loss — which isn’t saying much. Instead of peeing in a psychiatric ward, journalist Mark Weston is calling for mass tax evasion23 if a Republican ever again wins the presidency without winning the popular vote. Give us the president we want or else we… we… we… won’t pay taxes! He waves the banner of “no taxation without representation” because, you know, the inability to handle disappointment is on par with pledging one’s life, fortune, and sacred honor. And note the hypocrisy of crying that Trump didn’t pay taxes, only to turn around and promise not to pay taxes.

Aside from leftists displaying the maturity level of a five-year-old, the irony of all this is that regardless of how much the Left may hate Trump and Republicans, the latter aren’t the ones trying to micromanage everyone’s lives. While under the next administration liberals may lose their supposed right not to get offended and their ability to try to control everything, they won’t lose their Liberty or true rights. What’s worse, they may even be forced to endure hearing opinions different from their own.

And for Hillary-worshipping, glass-ceiling-breaking damsels in distress everywhere — and for the metrosexual males too traumatized to rescue them — living through such hardship may require not just a new hair color but also a full mani-pedi.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

    Alexander’s Column: National Security — Beyond the Mattis Memes24. Allies respect Gen. Mattis for his fearless courage, and adversaries fear him for the same reason.
    ‘Sanctuary’ Fire Traps25 — How the Oakland fire provides a window into important policy.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    Larry Elder: Democrats: From Temper Tantrum to Self-Delusion26
    Victor Davis Hanson: Assessing the Obama Legacy — Against His Own Mileposts27
    Mark West: The National Debt: How America’s Festering Cancer Will Affect You28

For more, visit Right Opinion29.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Larry Elder: “Following Mitt Romney’s 2012 defeat, Democrats and pundits predicted GOP defeats as far as the eye could see, because there aren’t enough white voters for Republicans to win. But now the narrative is, ‘Trump won by appealing to white voters.’ Could they please pick one and stick to it? … If Democrats truly believe that racism carried the day for Trump, they’re even more out of touch than initially thought. Given that line of reasoning, they will be hard-pressed to get back the middle-class and working-class Americans they lost this cycle. If Democrats think Trump won by ‘catering to racists,’ just wait until the economy improves under Trump, and more Latinos and blacks stop voting like victicrats. Just wait until blacks and Hispanics start voting to continue the policies that caused an improvement in their economic conditions and for education policies like Trump’s pro-voucher stance. Then Democrats will ‘really’ start losing.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “A good teacher must know the rules; a good pupil, the exceptions.” —Martin H. Fischer (1879-1962)

Upright: “You can bet that the men and women that we honor today and those who died that fateful morning 75 years ago never took a knee and never failed to stand when they heard our national anthem being played.” —Navy Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr.

For the record: “Obama disappeared from our collective television screens, replaced by unpopular candidates Clinton and Trump, who slung mud at each other and stole the limelight. As a result, Obama discovered that the abstract idea of a lame-duck Obama was more popular than the cold reality of eight-year President Obama. He wisely adjusted by rarely being heard from or seen for much of 2016. So Obama now departs amid the ruin of the Democratic Party into a lucrative post-presidency: detached and without a legacy.” —Victor Davis Hanson

No, really, she said that: “[Republicans want] a trillion dollars over 10 years taken out of Medicaid. Two thirds of that goes to long-term heath care for our seniors. They won’t be able to go to their own doctor if you take this away.” —Nancy Pelosi (Says the women who peddled the lie that Americans can keep their doctor under ObamaCare.)

Alpha Jackass: “I don’t think the Democratic Party is in that big of trouble. I mean, if Comey kept his mouth shut, we would have picked up a couple more Senate seats and we probably would have elected Hillary.” —Harry Reid

Non Compos Mentis: “People walk around and they reprogram these [voting] machines and use, like, a floppy disk.” —Jill Stein (Yes, and they’re probably conspiring over telegram, too!)

And last… “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read it, you’re misinformed.” —Denzel Washington

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.