The Patriot Post Digest 2-8-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 2-8-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Feb. 8, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Democrats think Muslims here are in more danger than Christians in Muslim countries.
Betsy DeVos (barely) wins confirmation and is ready to reform education.
Repealing Dodd-Frank would be welcome, as is Trump’s first move in that direction.
And more news, policy and opinion.

THE FOUNDATION

“For it is a truth which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are always most in danger, when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.” —Alexander Hamilton (1787)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Democrats' Muslim Delusion1

There’s bias and then there’s outright delusion; file this one under the latter. A recent CBS poll revealed that a majority of Democrats believe Christianity to be just as violent as Islam and that Muslims living in America are mistreated worse than are Christians living in Islamic countries. Clearly, a lot of Democrats have been drinking the leftist Kool-Aid for far too long. According to the survey, 62% of American voters believe Christians living in the Islamic world are treated unfairly due to their religion. However, while 56% of Democrats surveyed believe Muslims living in America are mistreated, only 47% of Democrats believe that Christians living in Muslim majority countries are persecuted due to their religion.

Time for a sobering dose of reality. A recently released study from the Center for Studies on New Religions found Christians to be the most persecuted religious group across the globe last year. It estimated that in 2016 some 90,000 Christians2 were killed for their beliefs and over 600 million were prevented from practicing their beliefs. Nine3 of the top 10 countries where the persecution of Christians is most extreme are Islamic — the worst offender is communist North Korea. Last summer, the Pew Research Center found4 that while there has been a world-wide decrease in restrictions against religion, the greatest offenders of religious freedom were either communist or Muslim majority countries.

Contrast that to Muslims living in the U.S.5. They enjoy the same constitutional rights as do any other religious group. It could be argued that Muslims have even enjoyed rather favorable treatment, due to both the American culture of acceptance in general and concerns of avoiding any perceived discrimination. There are prayer rooms, prayer breaks at work, burkas, and recognition of religious holidays to name but a few accommodations. Obviously, there are those who have acted unkindly toward Muslims, but those incidents have been the exception not the norm. And certainly the government has not discriminated against Muslims, in spite of what the Left claims regarding Donald Trump’s lawful temporary travel ban6.

Unfortunately, it appears that many Democrats are suffering from a bad case of partisan bias resulting in an ideologically induced blindness to reality. If the data doesn’t fit the narrative of the Left’s accepted paradigm, then it is rejected.

Why the Demos Dissed DeVos7

The Senate Tuesday finally cleared the way for Betsy DeVos to take over as head of the Department of Education — but just barely. Last week, DeVos' nomination fell in danger8 after two teacher union-supported Republicans (Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine) opted to join Democrat obstructionists. This put the Senate in a 50/50 split, leaving absolutely no room to spare, which always opens the door for backroom deals being cut over future legislation. Vice President Mike Pence cast the pivotal tie-breaker vote in the Senate.

Never before has a cabinet confirmation come down to a tie-breaker, and the reason this one did is because DeVos is a threat to the Democrats' stranglehold9 on shaping the worldview of the next generation of Americans. Not only is the vote historic, but the role DeVos will play in America’s future may well be too. She stands ready to upend the Democrats' government school status quo, especially their urban poverty plantation10 schools. The situation is so crucial that public policy protagonist Thomas Sowell temporarily came out of retirement to lobby on her behalf11. He warned, “American education is at a crossroads. If the teachers' unions and their allies can defeat the nomination of Mrs. DeVos, and the Republicans substitute someone else more acceptable to the education establishment, a historic opportunity will be lost, and may never come again in this generation.” Republicans (most of them anyway) should be applauded for not wasting this opportunity.

“What matters is what families and students think about having a change agent in this position,” Janine Yass argues12 in a Washington Examiner op-ed. “If you judge from the tens of thousands of families on waiting lists for charter schools and for scholarships in private schools it is apparent that poor families are desperate for someone who will fight for them for a change.” Yass also scolded the media for ignoring “the faces of the millions of families and students who have been the victims of bad education policy.” Sadly, Democrats and their media cohorts are more interested in protecting what they accurately consider the Holy Grail, because indoctrination masquerading as education is the pathway to statism. And Americans are fed up with it. Thankfully, with the help of DeVos' agenda, they will be ignored no more.

Top Headlines13

Ninth Circuit Court ready to rule on Trump’s travel restrictions to ensure identity of travelers. (Los Angeles Times14)

“Refugees”? Islamic State recruiting child refugees as they head to Europe. (The Telegraph15)

Congress moves to cut immigration to U.S. by half. (Washington Free Beacon16)

Democrat obstructionists hold up Trump’s cabinet nominees. (The Wall Street Journal17)  + McConnell formally rebukes Warren for violating Senate rules, defaming Jeff Sessions. (CNS News18.)

GOP breaks attempted filibuster on Jeff Sessions, sets up final Wednesday vote. (The Washington Times19)

California sheriffs back Sessions' stance on immigration. (Washington Examiner20)

Keith Ellison classmate says the wannabe DNC chief, a Muslim, claimed Jews want to “oppress minorities all over the world.” (Washington Free Beacon21)

Dumb and Dumber: Harambe-shaped Cheeto sold for almost $100,000. (CNBC22)

Good Samaritan with firearm receives commendation for saving Arizona police officer. (Washington Free Beacon23)

Policy: On the cusp of historic tax reforms. (National Review24)

Policy: The perils of delaying ObamaCare repeal. (Hudson Institute25)

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Dodd-Frank Is Too Big and It Has Failed26

By Louis DeBroux

With President Donald Trump’s recent executive order directing the Treasury Department to conduct a review27 of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, Democrats have, unsurprisingly, reacted with feigned horror and outrage. They claim Trump is turning Wall Street loose to do as it pleases; an odd claim considering Dodd-Frank was signed into law by Barack Obama, who raked in more Wall Street cash than any politician in American history.

Initially, Trump’s call is only for a review of the law, and it makes few, if any, systemic changes. But it does establish a set of principles28 upon which Trump administration policy shall rest. Namely:

Empower Americans to make independent financial decisions and informed choices in the marketplace, save for retirement, and build individual wealth;
Prevent taxpayer-funded bailouts;
Foster economic growth and vibrant financial markets through more rigorous regulatory impact analysis;
Enable American companies to be competitive with foreign firms in domestic and foreign markets;
Advance American interests in international financial regulatory negotiations and meetings;
Make regulation efficient, effective and appropriately tailored; and
Restore public accountability within federal financial regulatory agencies and rationalize the federal financial regulatory framework.

The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law in July 2010 following one of the worst economic meltdowns in U.S. history. The goal of the law was ostensibly to put tighter regulations on U.S. financial markets in order to discourage risk and avoid another meltdown.

Yet this was a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse. The law was named after Democrats Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), who were among the primary catalysts behind the Wall Street bailouts, shoveling hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars29 to financial institutions deemed “too big to fail.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 2-8-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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During George W. Bush’s administration, Republicans repeatedly warned that government-run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country’s largest mortgage-backers, were extremely overleveraged and at risk of causing a financial catastrophe. Frank dismissed those concerns before the House in 2005, going so far as to say that, even if a housing bubble did exist, he was willing to “roll the dice.”

Dodd and Frank rolled the dice, alright, and tens of millions of Americans paid the price with the near collapse of the American banking system. In October 2008, Bill Clinton admitted some Democrat culpability in the meltdown30, stating, “I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress … to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

Sadly, Democrats were largely successful in blaming Bush for a failure of their own making, even though none other than The New York Times warned of dire consequences31 as far back as 1999.

The end result of Dodd-Frank was the exact opposite of what its architects claimed. Rather than ending “too big to fail,” it gave the federal government power to take control of financial institutions deemed to be “systemically important,” signaling to investors and financial institutions that they could take greater risks with the tacit guarantee of another taxpayer bailout. The law furthermore created an agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with massive powers to interfere in the financial industry, but completely detached from any oversight or control by Congress.

One of the most damaging aspects of Dodd-Frank was that not only did it make the biggest banks even bigger32, but it destroyed thousands of community banks and credit unions, drying up credit lines for small businesses. Without the lifeblood of credit from the community banks that knew them, and unable to get the time of day from the mega-banks, these small businesses withered and died, along with their millions of jobs.

It is high time this law is repealed. As the Cato Institute’s Mark Calabria recently wrote, “We are almost a decade past the last financial crisis. Despite much scurrying around and endless amounts of paper produced, Washington has actually done little to avoid future bailouts and improve the stability of our financial system. Unfortunately, what has been done has come at great economic cost. We can have both a strong economy and a more stable financial system. Reforming Dodd-Frank is a critical step along that path.”

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has already proposed a bill, the Financial CHOICE Act33, which would replace the most damaging provisions of Dodd-Frank.

This will not be an easy fix, though. Dodd-Frank has been law for nearly seven years, with thousands and thousands of pages of regulations birthed from it. Democrats will fight repeal or revision tooth and nail because it takes power away from the federal government, and from some of Democrats' biggest donors. They will use every tactic at their disposal34 to block changes to the law, and will use the media to paint it as Republicans getting in bed with Wall Street to the detriment of the little guy — when, of course, the exact opposite is the case.

Congressional Republicans and Trump should work together, and take a page out of the Democrat playbook by telling the stories of some of the millions of Americans hurt by this atrocious law.

Along with the repeal of ObamaCare and true tax reform, repeal of Dodd-Frank will go a long way toward improving the lives of everyday Americans, jumpstarting the economy, and furthering us on the road to making America great again.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Al-Qaida Isn’t ‘Decimated’; It’s Back35 — While the Islamic State got all the attention, or old nemesis grew.
Dakota Access Unshackled36 — The economy is free to flow once again.
The Politicized Reality of ‘Settled Science’37 — Whistleblower alleges NOAA manipulated data to support the Left’s climate agenda.
A Rare Muslim Voice Condemning Radical Islam5 — Sadly, the movement to reform Islam gains little popular support.
We Need Extreme Vetting in the Judicial System, Too38 — Once GOP nominees get confirmed, their gavels go wobbly.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Ben Shapiro: Can the Super Bowl Save America?39
Michelle Malkin: Hillary’s ‘Future Is Female’ Femme-A-Goguery40
Gary S. Smith: Will the Real Donald Trump Please Stand Up?41

For more, visit Right Opinion42.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Ben Shapiro: “I’ve long been an antagonist of the notion that bouncing balls can somehow heal real political divisions. In 2007, I wrote this about the World Cup, saying: ‘Sports solve no great moral dilemmas. Sports are not politics.’ That’s still true. But sports can provide a breath. … Americans seem willing to part from their neighbors because they believe their neighbors are in a heightened state of readiness to bother them. Texans think Californians want to control how they raise their children; Californians think Texans want to dirty their air. Federalism normally provides the distance for both sides to leave each other alone. But our common culture has shrunk that distance. Now you can’t turn on the TV in Dallas without hearing a Los Angeles point of view. The Super Bowl provided that distance. Thanks to President Trump’s election, the Super Bowl organizers clearly recognized — for once — that they’d be best off eschewing politics rather than enabling Beyoncé to dance around in Black Panther gear. Lady Gaga did an apolitical halftime show. The game was great. The politics were relegated to easily debunked commercials. And we all took a breath. Hollywood and pop culture would do well to remind themselves that if they don’t want to alienate half their audience and exacerbate our differences, they can allow us room to breathe.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The great trouble with you Americans is that you are still under the influence of that second-rate — shall I say third-rate? — mind, Karl Marx.” —H. G. Wells (1866-1946)

Demo-gogues: “Nominees to our nation’s highest court must demonstrate that they are mainstream and independent enough to earn the support of at least 60 senators from both parties. Both of President Obama’s nominees to the Supreme Court exceeded that level of support. The simple question we are asking is: Can President Trump’s nominee meet that same test? If the nominee fails to meet 60 votes, the answer isn’t to change the rules; it’s to change the nominee.” —Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

Cooler heads prevailing? “[Judge Gorsuch is] a very caring person and he’s obviously legally very smart. I think we are dealing with someone who is impressive, so we’ll see.” —Sen. Dianne Feinstein

I’m with her: “Despite all the challenges we face, I remain convinced that, yes, the future is female.” —Hillary Clinton

Never let a crisis go to waste: “Winning’s everything. If you don’t win, you can’t make the public policy. I say that because it is hard for people in our party to accept that principle. Sometimes, you’ve just got to win, OK? Our party likes to be right, even if they lose. … I’ve never lost an election. It’s about winning, because if you win you then have the power to go do what has to get done.” —Rahm Emanuel

Alpha Jackass: “Voucher programs will lead to more suicides. Betsy DeVos’s policies will kill children. That is not an exaggeration in any sense. … Strong public schools are the bedrock of a thriving, autonomous middle class. No wonder zealot billionaires want to get rid of them!” —Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson

And last… “The focus of our education system is the transfer of tax dollars between politicians and unions. Educating children is its waste product.” —Frank Fleming

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.