The Patriot Post Digest 2-22-2017

[nChrist]

________________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 2-22-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

Mid-Day Digest

Feb. 22, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

    While the media “fact checked” Trump on Sweden, he had a real point.
    DHS’s new immigration directives change the priorities of the Obama era.
    Venezuelan citizens are starving. How do American socialists respond?
    Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“To prevent crimes, is the noblest end and aim of criminal jurisprudence. To punish them, is one of the means necessary for the accomplishment of this noble end and aim.” —James Wilson (1790)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Trump’s Non-Gaffe on Sweden1

In a campaign-style rally speech Saturday, Donald Trump said, “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers [of immigrants]. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice [France]. Take a look at Paris.” The Leftmedia once again pounced. Sweden hasn’t had a terror attack. What’s Trump talking about?!

By now the media, with its obsession of covering everything Trump, should be well aware of Trump’s unvarnished rhetorical style. As many have stated, listen for what he means not what he says. Admittedly, Trump was rather vague with his “last night” reference, not elaborating until later that he was referring to a Fox News story. However, given the larger context of Trump defending his recent immigration orders against Leftmedia pushback it seemed rather obvious that he was pointing out the problems Europe’s mass immigration policies have created.

But the Leftmedia had fun mocking Trump for disseminating more “fake news” — and then Monday happened. Reports of rioting in an immigrant-heavy suburb of Stockholm proved Trump’s point. Sweden’s liberal policy on accepting refugee immigrants in such mass numbers has become increasingly untenable. Sweden is now spending 1.5% of it GDP on asylum-seekers, more than it spends on defense. Among the immigrant population, there is 43% unemployment, much of this due to lack of cultural assimilation, language abilities and low labor skills. While Sweden has seen an overall decrease in crime since 2005, it has seen an alarming rise in the number of violent crimes like rape in the last couple of years.

Trump has tapped into the zeitgeist of the moment regarding unfettered and unvetted immigration. What spurred the nationalist/populist movements both here in the U.S. and in Europe is the reality of the clashing of significant cultural values. When the generosity of one culture is met with scorn and violence from the other, it’s little wonder that the dominant culture then pulls back and demands protection. Trump’s manner may be easy to mock, but ignoring the message because of the messenger is a recipe for disaster.

Venezuela’s Socialist Diet2

Is this what Bernie Sanders and his ilk envision for America when they fervently promote pure socialism? Via Fox News3: “In a new sign that Venezuela’s financial crisis is morphing dangerously into a humanitarian one, a new nationwide survey shows that in the past year nearly 75 percent of the population lost an average of 19 pounds for lack of food. The extreme poor said they dropped even more weight than that. The 2016 Living Conditions Survey (Encovi, for its name in Spanish), conducted among 6,500 families, also found that as many as 32.5 percent eat only once or twice a day — the figure was 11.3 just a year ago. In all, 82 percent of the nation’s households live in poverty, the study found.”

Way back in 1985, Sanders lectured, “Sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food. That’s a good thing.” By that logic, the millions upon millions of undernourished Venezuelans, some of whom now lie in mass graves because they can’t find enough food, can somehow be construed as “a good thing.” Sanders wrongly believes that his version of socialism would evolve differently. But the reality is that socialist “equality” for everyone means misery for all. And for those who think Sanders can somehow turn statism into a utopia, it’s worth reflecting on what Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s said last year in support of Sanders: “He is an emerging candidate with a renovating and revolutionary message.” Unlike America’s leftists, Maduro understands the end result is always the same.

Consider also this 2011 excerpt4 that appears on Sanders' senate.gov website: “These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger.” That may be true. But as Venezuela demonstrates, they also share hunger equally. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that nothing can change the minds of statist supporters — even widespread malnutrition that results in 20 lbs. of weight loss. Instead, as Sanders' might say, they’re more apt to perceive it as an effective dieting regime.

Top Headlines5

    Trump prepares new orders targeting EPA. (Washington Examiner6)

    Grassroots appeal? Trump smashes Obama’s small-donor fundraising pace, bests Clinton, Sanders combined. (The Washington Times7)

    U.S. to Putin: Sanctions to remain in place until Crimea occupation ends. (CNS News8.)

    Federal appeals court upholds Maryland ban on so-called “assault weapons.” (Washington Post9)

    Texas judge blocks state from cutting Planned Parenthood funding. (Washington Examiner10)

    John Podesta: It’s possible that “forces within the FBI” wanted Hillary Clinton to lose — or NOT. (Hot Air11)

    Trump administration to rewrite Obama’s absurd transgender rule. (Washington Examiner12)

    Missouri man charged with plotting Islamic State terror attack on Kansas City. (The Kansas City Star13)

    Michigan State University bans whiteboards on dorm doors because people write things on them. (Reason14)

    Truly hard-hitting so-called journalism: President Trump’s favorite so-called insult — “everything that Donald Trump has referred to as ‘so-called’ on Twitter — and our analysis of whether that so-called thing is actually that thing or not.” (The Washington Post15)

    Police cancel “High Five Friday” because “undocumented children” might feel uncomfortable. (Law Newz16)

    Humor: Trump listens to Clinton and Obama on immigration policy. (YouTube17)

    Policy: Decline of unions under right-to-work laws levels playing field for Trump. (The Daily Signal18.)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report19.

[nChrist]

________________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 2-22-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Changing the Presumption of Immigration Enforcement20

By Lewis Morris

President Donald Trump’s promise to take on illegal immigration went from rhetoric to reality this week when Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly released two memos21 outlining directives that aim to get a handle on the problem. Here’s the primary difference from the last eight years: Under Barack Obama, the presumption was against deportation; now it’s in favor of removing illegals. That’s a sea change in emphasis that’s critical to restoring Rule of Law.

Kelly was one of the first of Trump’s cabinet nominees to clear the Senate, and by a largely bipartisan vote of 88-11. The widely respected retired Marine Corps general has a great deal of experience working in Latin America, and he also served as a homeland security advisor during the Obama administration. His bona fides were recognized and respected during his confirmation hearing and Senate vote. Now that he is making good on the promise of his appointment, we’ll have to see how bipartisan the support truly is for his actions.

Kelly’s memorandums lay out the DHS plan to tackle illegal immigration in unmistakable detail. First, DHS is going back to pursuing criminal offenses committed by illegal immigrants. This is once again an unequivocally deportable offense. And that will include defrauding public welfare programs.

Additionally, local law enforcement will be allowed to act as immigration agents in these criminal cases, a power that was greatly reduced during the Obama years.

DHS will also call for the hiring of 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents, and an additional 5,000 Border Patrol agents. You may recall during the Obama years that ICE and the Border Patrol were forced to get creative about meeting their mandate with reduced funds and smaller hiring quotas.

As Andrew McCarthy put it22, “Obama did not so much openly push for the repeal or relaxation of immigration laws; his method was to pretend to enforce them (i.e., pretend that they were a ‘priority’) while implementing a process that quietly immunized most aliens."
 Thankfully, Kelly’s order will also end one of those "priorities” — the so-called “catch-and-release” policy. It’s misguided and ultimately dangerous to allow arrested illegal immigrant felons to leave incarceration and rejoin the citizen population while awaiting trial — essentially allowing them to disappear into the country until they’re picked up again for another crime. Many of them were never found again.

And, yes, the DHS memo also calls for concrete plans to design and build a border wall between the United States and Mexico, starting at key points such as El Paso, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; and Southern California. Trump maintains that Mexico will pay for the wall. Mexico says that will never happen, but in reality, it can happen very simply by reducing Mexican aid by the amount of money needed to pay for the wall’s construction. But that’s a topic for another conversation.

What’s important right now is stemming the tide of illegals coming into this country and staying without consequence.

“The surge of illegal immigration at the southern border has overwhelmed federal agencies and resources and crated a significant national security vulnerability to the United States,” Kelly wrote23 in the memos.

The Left wants everyone to think that these actions are based on Trump-era xenophobia and racism. But it’s a well-documented fact that international drug cartels, human traffickers, and international terrorist groups have flocked to our porous southern border because it’s so ridiculously easy to cross. Making our border secure from threats is simple logic. One of the most fundamental rules of national security is to secure a nation’s borders.

Obama claimed to be concerned about the border and the plight of illegal immigrants, but only to the extent that these newcomers — legal or otherwise — could help the leftist cause. Trump has made it a priority to reverse this lawlessness in favor of secure borders.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

    Pruitt’s EPA Will Be Better for Private Property Rights, States24 — His Rule of Law record is exactly why ecofascists hate him so much.
    Remember Obama’s War on the Press25 — He is the one to blame for undermining the freedom of the press, not Trump.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    John Stossel: Fake News26
    Ben Shapiro: What if There’s No Plan?27
    Walter Williams: There’s Nothing Free28

For more, visit Right Opinion29.

OPINION IN BRIEF

John Stossel: “The press is depressingly shallow. They blow up little things, speculate about conspiracies and constantly obsess about ‘who’s winning?’ Offensive remarks are taken out of context and amplified. Days later, it’s forgotten and the media move on to the next sensational accusation. They rarely explain the policies at stake, what those policies cost, past success or failure or the laws of economics. As a result, we miss the real news: the big, important changes that happen slowly. Remember the coverage of the beginning of the women’s movement, the invention of the computer chip, Google, Facebook, etc.? No? That’s because there wasn’t any. But the growth of Facebook alone changed lives more than the election of any politician. Wages rise — inflation-adjusted household income rose $7,000 over the last 30 years. But the media claim that the middle class and the poor get poorer. We live longer than ever. Crime is down. But Americans are fearful and pessimistic because what they read and see on TV makes them believe life’s getting worse. When the media do that, they are indeed enemies of the people.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Believe me, it is not failing to speak out with promptitude and energy that is the matter with you; it is having nothing consistent or valuable to say.” —Matthew Arnold (1822-1887)

Upright: “Trump may not have a plan. He probably doesn’t. Those around him probably have their own plans, but they’re not the president. But you know who did have a plan? The people who constructed our constitutional system, placed checks and balances in that system and ensured that no one person could wield all power in American government. That means that even the presidency that begins most chaotically can find its sea legs, and even the presidencies that remain chaotic can’t do too much damage. So let’s not panic. Everything’s not chaos, even if it feels like it.” —Ben Shapiro

Belly laugh of the week: “On February 16, ‘A Day Without Immigrants,’ thousands of people across the country refused to work and spend money in an effort to protest the Trump administration’s stance on immigration. … The following day, however, over 100 strikers found themselves in a quandary, as their employers informed them that they would no longer be employed. … Indeed, employees are free to decide for themselves if striking for a day to make their voices heard in Washington, D.C., is worth losing their jobs. But they shouldn’t complain when the consequences catch up with them.” —Austin Yack

Demo-gogues: “America is coming together like never before; we’ll stop [Trump’s] drive to divide us.” —Rep. Keith Ellison

And last… “A free country is defined less by what you can vote on and more by what rights are never up for a vote.” —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.