The Patriot Post Digest 1-16-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 1-16-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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Mid-Day Digest

Jan. 16, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

What’s up with John Lewis and Donald Trump?
It’s MLK Day, and, as is our custom, we look at the way Democrats crush that dream.
Cory Booker’s idea of an attorney general’s job turns justice on its head.
And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

“Happily for America, happily, we trust, for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society.” —James Madison (1787)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

John Lewis Encounters the Trump Effect1

Over the weekend, Donald Trump’s row with civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) has dominated the headlines, especially given the fact that Monday is the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth2. Friday, in an interview with NBC News, Lewis stated, “I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president.” That’s par for the Democrat course on delegitimizing Trump.

Predictably, Trump responded by tweeting that Lewis was “all talk” and “no action” and that he should “spend more time on fixing” the crime problem in “his district.” And, of course the mainstream media had a field day over Trump’s attack on a civil rights hero. Indeed, the optics of it looked bad, but there’s so much more to the story.

Politicians love to conflate admiration for past heroic accomplishments with the merits of a political position, as is currently the case with John Lewis, one of the furthest left of representatives in the House. The truth is Lewis' inflammatory rhetoric on Trump is nothing new either. In 2000, Lewis called into question the legitimacy of George W. Bush’s presidency; in 2008, he compared John McCain’s campaign to that of George Wallace. But of course he’s gotten a pass because of his past. And on the merits, Trump is right — inner cities often are little more than Democrat-controlled urban poverty plantations3. Whatever his brave deeds 50 years ago, Lewis should be ashamed of his subsequent legislative record that has created dependency.

What may be different now is how a Republican — Trump — is responding. In the past, Republicans tended to express disagreement, yet remained relatively congenial, not wanting to appear to disparage a hero. The desire to get along out of fear of losing political status was of greater concern. However, Barack Obama so polarized4 the political climate in this country that it opened the door for Trump to be successful. In the past, Trump’s politically incorrect rhetoric would have ended a political career. But for him, it has served only to further strengthen his position. In a way, Trump has out Democrat-ed the Democrats.

Trump, who can hardly be accused of taking the high road, aggressively hits back at his opponents with similar over-the-top accusations and rhetoric, effectively changing the terms of the debate. That’s what makes Trump such an unusual and yet effective political leader for Republicans — his ability to expresses the frustrations of the average American in the manner of a common man who doesn’t give two hoots about what the elites in Washington may think.

It’s clear that the old playbook Democrats have so effectively used to shame Republicans into caving to their demands just doesn’t work on Trump.

Martin Luther King Jr.2

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ … I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. … And if America is to be a great nation this must become true.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

Despite King’s courage and wisdom, today’s Democratic Party5 protagonists have turned this iconic sovereign’s message inside out, as if King had said, “I have a dream that my children will one day be judged by the color of their skin, not the content of their character.” They’ve turned it from a dream into a nightmare6, and their failed statist “Great Society7” programs have enslaved generations of poor, mostly black Americans on urban poverty plantations8. But they are a dependable constituency, inculcated with the belief that the Democrats will take care of them.

King’s 1963 address from the Lincoln Memorial was his most famous, but you have likely never read King’s 1966 assessment of racial violence in Obama’s hometown of Chicago: “This is the most tragic picture of man’s inhumanity to man. I’ve been to Mississippi and Alabama and I can tell you that the hatred and hostility in Chicago are really deeper than in Alabama and Mississippi.” King added, “Those who are associated with ‘Black Power’ and black supremacy are wrong.”

So you thought racism was just a “deep south problem”? That is what the Democrats and their Leftmedia sycophants would have you believe.

Three recent headlines from the Windy City serve to illustrate the problem. 2016 was Chicago’s bloodiest year9 in two decades, and it was largely black-on-black crime. But then there was the black on white10 crime that should have shocked the nation. Instead, Obama’s Justice Department is focused on alleged abuse11 by the Chicago Police Department.

“Black supremacy” is precisely what was drilled into Barack Obama’s12 psyche by his Marxist mentor Frank Marshall Davis13 and his religious mentor Jeremiah Wright14.

Obama and his cadres routinely dismissed any criticism of him as being due to racism: “There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president.” Yes, Obama used the anniversary of King’s birth to establish that his true legacy is being a half-black president who is nothing more than a race-bait political hustler15.

Regardless of one’s conclusion about King’s proper place in history (given the historical account regarding his personal character failures), his letter from a Birmingham jail16 is mandatory reading as it provides a window into the soul of King’s vision for all Americans.

Top Headlines17

Trump’s short list for the Supreme Court. (The Daily Signal18.)

Congress OKs budget — first step toward ObamaCare repeal. (Fox News19)

Dead people get $2.6 billion in food stamps. (Washington Free Beacon20)

Lockheed Martin CEO meets Trump, says deal to lower F-35 costs is close. (Reuters21)

California’s bullet train is hurtling toward a multibillion-dollar overrun, a confidential federal report warns. (Los Angeles Times22)

Video: BuzzFeed/CNN DID Push #Fakenews in “Trump Intelligence Memos.” (CBS Atlanta23)

Trump to meet with Martin Luther King III. (Washington Times24)

Rep. Smith re-introduces bill to provide emergency relief to Christian genocide survivors in the Middle East. (CNS News25)

Clinton Global Initiative is shutting down after Hillary’s loss. (Heat Street26)

Policy: National concealed carry reciprocity lies and the lying liars who tell them. (NRA-ILA27)

Policy: Black clergy, big government and black responsibility. (Inside Sources28.)

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Cory Booker and the Lawless Left29

By Robin Smith

Never mind that New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker was deified on the Left for testifying against a fellow member of the chamber considered for a cabinet post. Never mind that as a licensed attorney, he’s charged to serve as an officer of the court and, as a senator, Booker takes the Oath of Office30 to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” You know, that “Law of the Land” document called the Constitution.

Booker was the Left’s posterchild in the attempt to personally destroy his Senate colleague and nominee for attorney general, Alabama’s Jeff Sessions31. Despite glowing remarks and working directly with Sessions, Booker turned his fire on a qualified public servant.

The content of Booker’s comments was largely ignored because he’s a sympathetic minority some view as the next Barack Obama. But Booker unloaded on his fellow senator, painting him as a dangerous man who’ll allegedly target minorities. And he described the job of the attorney general as more or less the opposite of what it should be.

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The Patriot Post Digest 1-16-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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We’re not going to ignore Booker’s comments. Instead, they should be bookmarked for years to come as this ambitious man chooses to ignore his current oath of office. Booker clearly wants an arbitrary approach to the law that’s rooted in prejudice and, thus, has demonstrated he should not be trusted with a promotion.

Sessions is the clear antithesis to his two predecessors: Eric “Fast and Furious32” Holder and Loretta “Let’s talk about our grandbabies on the tarmac33” Lynch. While these two AGs, according to Obama, supposedly served without scandal or corruption, time and factual history will show them to have politicized and even weaponized the Department of Justice to advance a lawless agenda.

In stark contrast, Sessions, who also served as Alabama attorney general, has always approached the law with respect and the determination to enforce it. For example, not only did Sessions work to ensure racial integration in public schools in his southern state, but he legally pursued the Ku Klux Klan, even prosecuting a leader who was later put to death for his racial crimes. A $7 million successful civil suit resulted against the KKK, bankrupting the hate group, while Sessions lead as chief law enforcement officer in Alabama.

And, there, friends, is the problem that Booker and every other Democrat has with Sessions: As U.S. attorney general, Sessions might actually keep his pledge to enforce the law without fear, favor or affection, malice or partiality. Horrors!

Booker’s statements were purely political, assigning powers outside the office of AG. “He will be expected to defend the rights of immigrants and affirm their human dignity,” Booker lectured. Please don’t misread this to be Booker’s concern with impartial law enforcement of immigration statutes. Instead, the senator assigns a power outside the Rule of Law in concern for illegal immigrants, who he says should be shielded from the consequence of lawless activity — like the sanctuary city status honored by Booker as mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

Booker continued, “The next attorney general must bring hope and healing to our country, and this demands a more courageous empathy than Senator Sessions' record demonstrates.” This soaring rhetoric was made in context of Booker claiming that Sessions has a racial bias against minorities. And, Booker warned, “Persistent biases cannot be defeated unless we combat them.”

Mr. Booker, why is the statue of Lady Justice always depicted with a blindfold hiding her eyes while she’s holding a balance in her right hand and a sword in her left? The blindfolded goddess personifies that authentic justice is blind to extraneous factors. She employs the scales to balance truth and fact, not feeling and empathy, in her determinations. And the downward pointed sword represents that justice includes punishment for those who are unlawful.

Thus the Left fiercely works to redefine justice, the law and all that would be within the job description of the attorney general. That’s because Rule of Law impedes their political agenda.

But back to a disgusting implication made by Booker and the Left. They issue a call to first prejudge the situation based on minority status, sexual preference or identity, immigration status or any other certified aggrieved person or group on the Left. But, to prejudge is to practice prejudice, the Latin word praejudicium. Essentially, remove the blindfold from Lady Justice and place a thumb on the scales depending on factors identified as “triggers,” “privileges” or any other subjective aspect outside of fact.

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it’s worth noting again that Cory Booker and the Democrats clearly illustrate their devotion to politics, even by lawless means, instead of the call of an American icon who prayed that his children would “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

The Increasing Hysteria of the Unhinged Left34 — They’ll do anything to delegitimize Trump.
Smearing SEAL Team Six35 — Anti-American Greenwald goes after Patriot warriors.
Sanctity of Life Sunday36 — Extend compassion and advocate for the unborn.
House Panel: The Intel Was Cooked37 — Analysts were pressured to make rosier-than-real assessments of ISIL.
Church Won’t Mention Trump, Fearing Microaggressions38 — A good many people in the pews at All Saints Church may be slap crazy.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Peggy Noonan: The Trump Cabinet’s Good Opening Week39
Jeff Jacoby: Like a Fish Needs a Treadmill40
George Will: The Patent and Trademark Office’s Assault on Free Speech41

For more, visit Right Opinion42.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Peggy Noonan: “I was speaking at a college down South this past fall. … In my talk I compared the past five presidents, noting one thing each could have learned, to his benefit, from his predecessor. But the evening ran late, and wanting to sum up quickly I gave Mr. Obama short shrift, not affording him the same degree of regard and respect I’d given his predecessors. … I knew I had disappointed these students, especially, but not only, young black men. … Barack Obama had dignity in his personal sphere. He carried himself with confidence, like someone with self-respect. You gathered, as you watched over eight years, that he did what a man does, taking care of his family, his wife and children. He didn’t talk about it but he modeled it, represented it in his actions. This, in an increasingly less parented country, was valuable. I didn’t give enough weight to it until after that night at the college. I put it here to remind everyone, mostly myself, that you can strongly oppose someone politically, really think you’re seeing bad things there, but have a responsibility to see and note what good there is. We’re losing that ability, in our enclaves. He has said that he’s touched a rising generation. To some significant degree I have a feeling that will probably prove true.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “Government has an important role in helping develop a country’s economic foundation. But the critical test is whether government is genuinely working to liberate individuals by creating incentives to work, save, invest, and succeed.”

Fueling the flames: “I understand why John Lewis feels the way he does. This is a very fearful and divided nation right now. And the Trumps have not done anything to bring it together.” —Sen. Dianne Feinstein

The BIG lie: “Whether we’ve seen eye-to-eye or rarely agreed at all, my conversations with you, the American people … are what have kept me honest, kept me inspired, and kept me going.” —Barack Obama

Non Compos Mentis: “Much of the increase in the national debt that’s occurred during [Obama’s tenure] still springs from [policies enacted under his predecessor]. Absent the work of President Obama this national debt would be even higher.” —Nancy Pelosi giving Obama credit for the two-fold increase in the national debt

Belly laugh of the week: “I am so proud of President Barack Obama, not just because he was and is my color, but because he was America’s kind. He helped this country like no president I’ve seen in my lifetime. We should thank God we lived in the age of Obama.” —Al Sharpton

Still bitter, much? “Donald Trump is someone who is very insecure in his victory, and I understand why. Every day there are new developments — new shoes dropping, so to speak — that call into question the legitimacy of his win. I think Donald Trump is just trying to cling to whatever legitimacy still is in effect here.” —Brian Fallon, Clinton’s campaign manager

Late-night humor: “Obama … awarded Vice President Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom With Distinction, which is an honor only three other people have been given over the last 30 years. Then Biden gave Obama his highest honor: double finger guns with a wink.” —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.