The Patriot Post Digest 12-19-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 12-19-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Dec. 19, 2016

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Blaming the media for Clinton’s loss, as Obama does, is awfully rich.
Team Clinton infighting has reached the next level.
Are Christians making a deal with the devil to preserve religious liberty?
And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

“We are, heart and soul, friends to the freedom of the press. It is however, the prostituted companion of liberty, and somehow or other, we know not how, its efficient auxiliary.” —Fisher Ames (1807)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Obama Dispenses Some Fake News1

As Democrats continue their desperate search for culprits to blame for Hillary Clinton’s failure to win the election, Barack Obama decided it was time to add his own “insights” and call out the fourth estate. Yep, according to Obama, Hillary lost because the mainstream media treated her unfairly. “I couldn’t be prouder of Secretary Clinton,” he said. “I think she worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people and I don’t think she was treated fairly during the election. I think the coverage of her and the issues was troubling.”

Well, he’s right — it was troubling — but not in the way he imagines.

Picking up leftists' latest pejorative for news with which they disagree, Obama continued, “If fake news2 that’s being released by some foreign government is almost identical to reports that are being issued through partisan news venues, then it’s not surprising that that foreign propaganda will have a greater effect.” No one has denied the authenticity of the leaked DNC emails revealing the effort to subvert Bernie Sanders. That was not fake news. Nor was it fake news that Clinton operated an unsecured private email server. But Obama’s intentionally conflating “fake news” with WikiLeaks' release, and then he’s blaming the mainstream media for falling for conservative and Russian efforts to paint the government and Clinton as “malevolent actors.” Obama’s effort is itself subversive.

It’s no secret that the Leftmedia has long acted as a super PAC for Democrats, and arguably never more so than this election. When in the past did the MSM ever openly contend that for the good of the nation it needed to throw aside objectivity and seek to prevent a candidate from winning the election? Obama’s assertion that the mainstream media was unfairly negatively biased in reporting on Clinton is simply “fake news,” and it’s a pathetic excuse for a lousy candidate.

Backstabbing After Hillary’s Loss3

Inevitably, failure to achieve a goal is often followed by a period of questioning, second guessing and maybe even accusations. Currently, the Hillary Clinton campaign team find themselves still seeking answers to questions they thoroughly believed they would never have to answer. After Clinton’s stunning election loss, some Team Hillary members have turned on each other. Vanity Fair recently reported on Clinton’s closest adviser, Huma Abedin, quoting another staffer saying, “[Abedin] was enjoying the red carpet and enjoying the photo spreads much too much in my opinion. She enjoyed being a celebrity too much.”

A story in Politico noted how several Clinton staffers blamed Robby Mook and his campaign “model” as it evidently became something of a standard by which the campaign determined various strategy decisions. Examples were cited of spending too much time in Democrat strongholds such as New Orleans and Chicago and yet ignoring states like Wisconsin and Michigan that she ended up losing.

Then there are those wealthy Democrat donors, some of whom are demanding answers and others who have become disillusioned supposedly to the point of leaving politics altogether. This may be understandable as Hillary’s campaign raised well over a billion dollars and yet lost.

While all these reasons certainly contributed in some degree to her loss, nothing can change the fact that the biggest hurdle for the campaign was Hillary herself. It would be difficult for any campaign to overcome what many Americans saw as one of the most disliked, legally compromised and untrustworthy candidates in the nation’s history. America just didn’t buy what Team Hillary was selling. And now, team members are stabbing each other in the back over it. That’s the Clintons for you though — their failures and scandals are always someone else’s fault.

Top Headlines4

Five things to watch when the Electoral College votes Monday. (The Hill5)

Last, desperate call: Protesters urge Electoral College members to switch votes. (Austin American-Statesman6)

Blame everything but Clinton: Election officials question voter ID laws impact on Clinton’s defeat. (Los Angeles Times7)

Senators call for probe of cyberattacks by Russia. (Reuters8.)

FBI backs CIA view that Russia intervened to help Trump win election — the moment when the FBI regained all its credibility in certain Democrat quarters. (ABC News9)

Five problems with the CIA’s claim that Russia hacked DNC/Podesta emails. (VIDEO CBS Atlanta10)

TSA agents confiscate teddy bear and use it for social media shaming post. No wonder this bureaucracy is on everyone’s naughty list. (National Review11)

Trump says U.S. should refuse to take back drone seized by China. (NBC News12)

Report: UN gave arms to South Sudan rebels later implicated in massacre. (The Washington Post13)

Remember when the NYT reported that its ad hoc campaign to boost revenue by selling subscriptions in response to the vicious back and forth with Donald Trump was a smashing success? Not smashing enough — the newspaper will vacate at least eight floors in its iconic building to generate additional “rental revenue.” (Zero Hedge14)

Policy: Here’s what the Founders thought about term limits. (The Daily Signal15)

Policy: Why we use the Electoral College. (The Daily Signal16)

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Some Christian Leaders Feed the Crocodile17

By Robin Smith

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces,” said Jesus Christ as captured in Matthew 7.

What he meant is there are beliefs and truths that those of the Christian faith should guard as holy and precious and protect from those who can’t and/or won’t honor.

The political relevance of this timeless teaching?

Some Christians and especially Mormons are joining forces with the so-called Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (LBGT) community to support federal legislation to construct a “Fairness for All” approach to their agendas. In other words, those who aim to defend religious liberty are coupling their efforts with the homosexual community.

Understand that every human is, indeed, endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights with no basis for prejudice or discrimination. Yet the recent record of the treatment of Christians regarding their God-given and First Amendment right to “free exercise” of their faith is outrageous.

Whether it’s about the sacred beliefs of a baker or simply a woman who doesn’t want a man in her restroom, established rights of believers have been trampled underfoot by the Rainbow Mafia. Believers have seen their rights sacrificed at the altar of those attempting to elevate individuals with gender disorientation pathology18 and those who make sexual orientation choices opposite their biological existence to a protected class.

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The Patriot Post Digest 12-19-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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The mismatched “Fairness for All” coalition features a group of Christians and Mormons who are willing to accomplish their stated goals of protecting religious freedoms by becoming entangled with a group whose core activists have proven their disdain for the very teachings of the former.

Winston Churchill had a phrase for this: “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.”

Those advocating this “Fairness to All” approach emphasize a religious exemption that protects those of faith from betraying their beliefs. But please excuse the severe skepticism based on a mountain of evidence that the elasticity of tolerance of these legislative approaches will only stretch to accommodate the enemies of conservative Christianity.

America has witnessed courts rule that business owners honoring their values must pay huge fines19, even if they lose their businesses. We saw Houston’s mayor subpoena copies of sermons20 from five local pastors in response to a proposed transgender bathroom ordinance. Similarly, a lay pastor employed by Georgia’s Department of Health complied with his state employer’s demand to review his sermons. He was fired two days later21.

These high-minded intellectuals are driving a utopian policy stance marrying two groups in conflict under a promise of “fairness.” As mentioned, we have every reason for skepticism. But there’s more.

Just last Tuesday, The New York Times featured this headline: “Christians in U.S. Are Less Educated Than Religious Minorities, Report Says.” The dutiful Presstitute of the Left’s paper of record took a Pew Study and effectively twisted data to fit the narrative desired: i.e., Jesus makes you stupid.

Citing the Pew Research Center’s report, the article noted that atheists and agnostics have higher education levels than the religiously affiliated in the U.S., and that the magnitude of education corresponds to the lack of religion on a national level. Pew’s analysis captured that “there were 267 million Christians in the United States when the data was collected, but only 36 percent of them had a postsecondary education.”

The Gray Lady’s writer, Liam Stack, failed to address the key data regarding the world’s most widely dispersed faith, Christianity, in relation to education. Pew noted, “Gaps in educational attainment are partly a function of where religious groups are concentrated throughout the world.” Translation: Because Christianity has the widest distribution among diverse people groups impacting the largest number of geographies, the educational attainment is lower on a comparative basis.

And the Leftmedia will remind any “unenlightened” Christian of this any time opposition to the homosexual agenda comes up.

Should Americans trust the efforts being made to push the homosexual agenda that carries with it the gender and sexual-orientation crowd? Why should anyone seriously believe that the same Rainbow Mafia tactics already employed aren’t the same actions ahead? “Fairness” will be defined by activist judges working on behalf of sympathetic “victims” of discrimination.

If quoting Christ bothers you, let’s quote Judge Judy of TV family court fame: “Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.” These “faith” leaders are willingly equivocating consecrated teachings in order to fit their god into their politics. The First Amendment enumerates the right of a believer to honor their God in their politics, their work, their educational choices, etc. Christians shouldn’t compromise their rights or their beliefs for a temporary deal with the devil.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Spread Federal Government Wealth Around22 — The idea of moving various bureaucracies around the nation gains steam.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

George Will: Our Excellent Electoral Vote System23
L. John Van Til: Why the Electoral College Should Endure24
Hans von Spakovsky: Threatening Electors Violates Federal Law. So Why Isn’t Loretta Lynch Doing Anything About It?25

For more, visit Right Opinion26.

OPINION IN BRIEF

John Merline: “While Clinton’s overall margin looks large and impressive, it is due to Clinton’s huge margin of victory in one state — California — where she got a whopping 4.3 million more votes than Trump. California is the only state, in fact, where Clinton’s margin of victory was bigger than President Obama’s in 2012 — 61.5% vs. Obama’s 60%. But California is the exception that proves the true genius of the Electoral College — which was designed to prevent regional candidates from dominating national elections. In recent years, California has been turning into what amounts to a one-party state. Between 2008 and 2016, the number of Californian’s who registered as Democrats climbed by 1.1 million, while the number of registered Republicans dropped by almost 400,000. What’s more, many Republicans in the state had nobody to vote for in November. … If you take California out of the popular vote equation, then Trump wins the rest of the country by 1.4 million votes. And if California voted like every other Democratic state — where Clinton averaged 53.5% wins — Clinton and Trump end up in a virtual popular vote tie.”

Read more…27

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look.”

Non Compos Mentis: “Our culture of purity celebrates the Virgin Mary. As a rape victim, that hurts me.” —Ruth Everhart in The Washington Post

Alpha Jackass: “I know there have been folks out there that suggest somehow, if we went out there and made big announcements and thumped our chests about a bunch of stuff, that somehow that would potentially spook the Russians. … I should point out … [that] part of why the Russians have been effective on this is because they don’t go around announcing what they’re doing.” —Barack Obama

That’s not how it works: “As a practical matter, we can’t depend on a constitutional amendment to eliminate the electoral college. … Instead, it’s up to the Supreme Court — and a properly framed lawsuit — to do away with a system that not only never functioned as the framers intended but blatantly violates the court’s ‘one person, one vote’ principle.” —Kenneth Jost in the LA Times (Yet another example of liberal ignorance. SCOTUS was never intended to write laws.)

Village Idiots: “Some states have made it ‘illegal’ for [electors] to vote any other way than for Trump. If you don’t vote for him, your state will fine you $1,000. So here’s my offer to you: I obviously can’t and won’t give you money to vote [today], but if you do vote your conscience and you are punished for it, I will personally pay your fine, which is my legal right to do.” —Michael Moore

Blame game: “Swing-state voters made their decisions in the final days breaking against me because of the FBI letter from Director Comey. … This is not just an attack on me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it. This is an attack against our country. We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.” —Hillary Clinton

Late-night humor: “The Democratic National Committee was actually hacked because one of its directors clicked on a fake email to change his password, which gave Russia access to his account. Then Hillary said, ‘I can’t believe you’d be so careless with your email!’” —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.