The Patriot Post Digest 12-21-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 12-21-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Dec. 21, 2016

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Gun-grabbers use phony stats and fake news to push their agenda.
Climate change, settled science and fired scientists.
Obama complains about the Founders and the Constitution limiting his power.
And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

“It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Bloomberg’s Fake News on School Shooting Numbers1

Billionaire gun-hater Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety is at it again. The Huffington Post used some phony Everytown statistics to push a little “fake news” when it ran a story claiming that since the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary2 in 2012 there have been more than 200 school shootings. This non-critical piece of reporting did not question the validity of statistics from the overtly anti-gun Bloomberg-funded organization. Instead, in typical leftist fashion, they applied narrow terminology as broadly and loosely as possible so as to make the case that “gun violence” is a major epidemic on school campuses.

Thanks to the work of Bob Owens at Bearing Arms3, however, Everytown’s use of the term “school shooting” was fact checked and shown to be so broadly applied as to render it meaningless. For instance, Everytown listed any gun-related discharge of any kind on or near a school as a school shooting. This included a negligently discharged weapon during the cleaning process, gang-related shootings near schools, suicides, a jogger shot in the leg on the edge of a campus, and after-hours shootings in a school parking lot in which the participants had no connection with the school. Owens concluded that of the 203 so-called “school shootings” cited, only 44 could even very broadly fit the category. Did we mention that schools are “gun free zones”?

Proving yet again the leftist rag that it is, the Huffington Post would clearly rather promote the anti-gun agenda with fictitious data than inform its readers of the facts. That’s Leftmedia fake news4 for you.

On a interesting side note, as gun sales in 2016 continue to set records, an unexpected group has contributed to those record numbers — liberals, who are buying firearms following the election of Donald Trump. Evidently, they have determined it’s time for them to take responsibility for protecting their own safe spaces.

Obama Fired Scientist for Failing to Toe the Party Line5

Yesterday a report was released on a congressional investigation into Barack Obama’s firing of a top scientist at the Department of Energy. The investigation has determined that the firing was aimed at removing obstacles to the furthering of Obama’s climate change agenda. The report also identified ways in which the Obama administration intimidated DOE staff, sought to censor information given to Congress and worked to prevent legislation in order to fund its own climate agenda. Rick Perry has his work cut out for him6.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, stated in the report, “Instead of providing the type of scientific information needed by Congress to legislate effectively, senior departmental officials sought to hide information, lobbied against legislation, and retaliated against a scientist for being forthcoming. In this staff report based on lengthy record before the committee, much has been revealed about how senior level agency officials under the Obama administration retaliated against a scientist who did not follow the party line.”

The report goes on to detail how scientist Dr. Noelle Metting was fired in “retaliation” for providing too much information to Congress and for refusing “to conform to the predetermined remarks and talking points” provided by the administration.

This damning report not only reveals the degree to which the Obama administration sought to control and promote its leftist agenda, it also further exposes just how bankrupt and lacking in honest and open scientific research are the climate alarmists. Ultimately, the agenda has little to do with protecting the environment, and everything to do with instilling a totalitarian form of government control over American citizens.

Top Headlines7

FBI warrant released in Clinton concealed email case. Despite her denials, it relates to “criminal investigation.” (Fox News8.)

Trump will form infrastructure task force to manage $1 trillion project. (Hot Air9)

Percentage of young Americans living with parents rises to 75-year high. And we were repeatedly told that the economy had recovered. (The Wall Street Journal10)

Another ObamaCare co-op exits exchanges, leaving only 5 co-ops in 2017. But “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” (Washington Free Beacon11)

Russia-Turkey relations unlikely to be derailed by shooting of ambassador. (The Daily Signal12)

Russia, Iran, Turkey meet to broker Syria peace talks without U.S. Why not snub Obama? (UK Telegraph13)

Obama’s “nuke deal14” with Iran enabled Aleppo massacres. (Washington Examiner15)

Missouri’s governor-elect is that rare politician against publicly funded stadiums. (Reason16)

Troubled coal-fired plant could get a lifeline as Congress mulls tax-credit incentive for clean coal. (The Wall Street Journal17)

Government bureaucrats charged in Flint debacle. (ABC News18.)

MTV News draws backlash for “2017 resolutions for white guys” video. Racist, anyone? (The Washington Times19)

And a little satire: Local snowflake resents being compared to fragile college students. (Babylon Bee20)

Policy: It’s not sexy, but procedural integrity makes the American system work. (Washington Examiner21)

Policy: A first whack at Social Security. (Investor’s Business Daily22)

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
James Madison Thwarts Obama From Beyond the Grave23

By Louis DeBroux

In his last press conference of the year, Barack Obama began whining24 when asked about the Electoral College, which on Monday voted for Donald Trump25 to become the next U.S. president, and in the process [denied the Oval Office to Hillary Clinton, who would have continued and expanded26 Obama’s lawless behavior and his trampling of the Constitution.

And therein lies Obama’s disdain and contempt for the Constitution; it is an impediment to his desire for imperial executive rule and the creation of a permanent socialist democracy in America. The “fundamental transformation of the United States,” if you will.

“So there are some structures in our political system, as envisioned by the Founders, that sometimes are going to disadvantage Democrats,” Obama bitterly complained. Fortunately, he’s right.

After tossing a bone to our electoral process — “it’s the American people’s job, and now the electors' job to decide my successor” — Obama proceeded to complain about the Electoral College, which gave Donald Trump an overwhelming electoral victory despite losing the aggregate popular vote by more than 2.5 million votes, or 2.1%.

Obama described the Electoral College as “a vestige [and] a carryover from an earlier vision of how our federal government was going to work that put a lot of premium on states.” He continued, “It’s the same type of thinking that gives Wyoming two senators with about half a million people, and California with 33 million gets the same two.”

For once, when speaking of the Constitution, Obama is right. The Founders did put a premium on the power and influence of the states in limiting the power of a majoritarian government, which they saw as a necessary evil but a danger to the rights of citizens. Democrats constantly speak of America as a democracy, when the truth is that America has never been a democracy — it’s a republic. In fact, the Founders took great care to prevent the evils of democracy, which is little more than mob rule.

To better understand the brilliance of the Electoral College, one has only to look at where Trump won versus where Clinton won. There are 3,142 counties in the United States. In the 2016 election, as the election map by county shows27, Trump won 2,623 to Hillary’s 490. America is a sea of Republican red with densely populated pockets of Democrat blue in the major urban areas like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In fact, if you take away Clinton’s 4.3 million vote margin of victory in California, Trump wins the rest of the country28 by about 1.5 million votes.

And that is exactly why the Founders created the Electoral College; so that presidents would be forced to represent every American, and not just those in the major cities.

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The Patriot Post Digest 12-21-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Make no mistake. Obama, though feigning an air of detachment, is livid with the results of the election. Why? Because Obama knows full well that his policies have been extremely unpopular, and that without Hillary in the White House, his legacy, such as it is, is toast.

He has run roughshod over the Constitution and the separation of powers, achieving most of his “accomplishments” through “a phone and a pen,” as he liked to say. His so-called achievements were primarily the result of unlawful executive orders, regulatory overreach and blatant violations of the Constitution. All the while, he mockingly told Republicans to sue him if they didn’t like it — which they did, winning an astonishing 44 cases in which the Supreme Court issued unanimous rulings against Obama. He lost even more in lower courts.

The Obama years have been a case study in abuse of power, unconstitutional actions and despotism. Obama’s signature achievement, “ObamaCare,” barely passed on a party-line vote near midnight on Christmas Eve, and only then after Harry Reid openly bribed and/or threatened any Democrat senator who did not fall in line. Once signed into law, the bastardized monstrosity, cobbled together in a festering tapestry of legislative creepy-crawlies oozing forth from the minds of radical leftist Democrats, immediately began to run into major logistical and actuarial problems.

“No worries,” cried Obama, “I’ll rewrite the law myself!” And he did, literally dozens of times29, extending deadlines, issuing waivers to Democrat donors, shifting money from Medicare to ObamaCare without an appropriation by Congress, issuing ACA tax credits for illegal immigrants, exempting labor unions, refusing to enforce abortion restrictions, etc.

This, of course, was just one of many times that Obama showed his utter contempt for the Constitution’s limitations on his power.

Obama weaponized the IRS, using it to attack and harass conservative critics. He declared the right to determine when the Senate — part of a co-equal branch of government — was officially in session, making recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board despite the Senate still being in pro forma session (this was one of the unanimous SCOTUS decisions against Obama). He threatened colleges with loss of federal funding and investigations by the Justice Department if they didn’t crack down on “unwelcome” speech (i.e., conservative speech), and, as reported in Forbes, demanded that sexual harassment complaints at colleges be heard in “quasi-judicial procedures that deny legal representation, encourage punishment before trial, and convict based on a mere ‘more likely than not’ standard.”

Obama also instituted a de facto amnesty for illegals. He launched an unauthorized war against Libya. His EPA interpreted the Clean Water Rule so broadly that the feds can regulate large water puddles on private property. The same EPA vastly expanded the scope of the Clean Power Plan such that it was able to begin forcing dozens of coal plants to shut down.

Even all this is just the tip of the iceberg, as evidenced by this list of Obama’s unconstitutional actions compiled by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)30, including his unlawful dismissal of work requirements for welfare recipients, his demand for Boeing to fire 1,000 employees and shut down a new plant in right-to-work South Carolina, his unlawful moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, his violation of decades of bankruptcy law in bailing out GM/Chrysler by giving favored terms to unsecured creditors — the UAW — while forcing secured creditors — including pension plans for millions of middle class Americans — to take massive losses.

Sadly, decades of horribly inadequate or inaccurate public education has left a vast portion of American citizens ignorant31 about the principles and structure of our republican/federalist government, and why it’s a safeguard for individual liberties against the encroaching power of a leviathan government.

Obama spent the last eight years acting like a king, when in reality he is nothing but a petty tyrant with a slick PR machine and obedient legions of minions willing to do his bidding.

Luckily, James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” foresaw such tyranny, and created a complex system which distributed powers among the branches and levels of government, and in doing so he has thwarted Obama’s aims from beyond the grave.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Obama Drills the Oil Industry One Last Time32 — He aims to block Arctic and Atlantic exploration.
Radical Islamist Attacks Berlin Christmas Market33 — Are Germany’s refugee policies to blame?
Dems Prove Politics at Play in Bathroom Wars34 — Charlotte eliminates LGBT ordinance in exchange for repealing HB2.
Prager University on the Flat Tax35 — What would happen if there was just one tax rate for most Americans?

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Thomas Sowell: The NY Times' Public Service36
Star Parker: Bracing for Change at HHS37
Michelle Malkin: FLOTUS’s Christmas Lump of Coal38

For more, visit Right Opinion39.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Thomas Sowell: “The fallacy of believing that the way to reduce shootings is to disarm peaceful people extends from domestic gun control laws to international disarmament agreements. If disarmament agreements reduced the dangers of war, there would never have been a World War II. The decades leading up to that war were filled with international disarmament agreements. As with domestic gun control laws, the agreements were followed by peaceful countries and ignored by belligerent countries that built up huge war machines, such as in Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. The net result was that the belligerent countries had every incentive to start wars, and that they inflicted devastating losses on the peaceful countries that had drastically curtailed their own military forces. … There was hysteria when President Ronald Reagan began building up American military forces in the 1980s. Cries were heard that he was leading us toward nuclear war. In reality, he led us toward an end of the Cold War, without a shot being fired at the Soviet Union. But who reads history these days, or checks facts before leading the charge to keep law-abiding people disarmed?”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The superficial distinctions of Fascism, Bolshevism, Hitlerism, are the concern of journalists and publicists; the serious student sees in them only one root-idea of a complete conversion of social power into State power.” —Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945)

Upright: “[It’s] poetic justice that [Hillary] should set the indoor record for the most faithless electors. Look, it was a joke from the beginning. What we heard … [is] it is our responsibility to stop a man who could be a demagogue, he could be a Manchurian candidate. The fact is that’s why you have elections. That’s why you have a year and half of campaigns. That’s why you have one primary after another. And in the end, you count up the delegates and you get a nominee; in the end, you count up the votes and you get a winner. That’s how it’s done. You don’t stop them after the game. After the game, the score is determined. I mean, this is simple.” —Charles Krauthammer

Braying Jackass: “Resistance means repetition. Humiliate [Donald Trump]. Humiliate him every day and those who support him. … Resistance means find a Trump supporter every day and remind them he lost the popular vote. There is also a passive-aggressive, subtler way to make this point clear. … Never address Trump as president. He is Trump. Just Trump. Never president. The title of president, that we must protect for a happier and more honest time. Resistance means refusal. Resist! Peace.” —Keith Olbermann

Braying Jenny: “I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had.” —Lena Dunham, who later regretted the “distasteful joke”

Late-night humor: “John McCain criticized President Obama … and said he ‘has no strategy and no policy’ on dealing with Russia’s recent hackings. Oh, he has a strategy all right — it’s called running out the clock.” —Seth Meyers

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.