The Patriot Post Digest 3-13-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-13-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Mar. 13, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Leftmedia still can’t believe there’s a such thing as conservative media.
EPA’s Scott Pruitt touts a novel concept: Maybe the science isn’t settled.
Why do people support Trump’s infrastructure plan? The answer is simple.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“We are, heart and soul, friends to the freedom of the press. It is however, the prostituted companion of liberty… It corrupts, it deceives, it inflames. It strips virtue of her honors, and lends to faction its wildfire and its poisoned arms, and in the end is its own enemy and the usurper’s ally.” —Fisher Ames (1807)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

The Leftmedia’s Turf War1

Mainstream media outlets such as the Washington Post have an established track record for covering the news. Over the years they have secured their status in the eyes of much of the public as legitimate journalists. But for years they have stubbornly stuck with a crumbling façade — that they’re reporting from a non-agenda driven, non-biased perspective. The MSM’s claim to objectivity in its reporting is time and again exposed as a farce.

The latest example comes from a complaint voiced by the Washington Post2 over the list of pool reporters chosen to cover Vice President Mike Pence. All the major mainstream media outlets were represented in the pool, as well as several Leftmedia organizations such as BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post, who share the Washington Post’s anti-conservative bias. But the inclusion of Fred Lucas3, a reporter for the Heritage Foundation-owned Daily Signal, sparked howls of outrage. Oh, the humanity. The Post, which became practically unhinged in its anti-Trump coverage in the last year, essentially lumped the Signal in with what it said were “extremist or racist organizations.” Clearly, someone at the Post hasn’t actually been reading the Signal.

The growth of alternative news organizations, many openly holding unabashedly conservative perspectives, has long been eroding the monopoly the MSM used to hold. The MSM’s continued attempts to promote the lie of its “objective” reporting only serves to further reinforce Americans' distrust in the media — trust is at historic lows4.

This latest incident exposes the Post as little more than a roaring paper tiger. The MSM is in a turf war that they’re losing, because they’ve embraced an agenda of journalistic activism rather than objectivity. Instead of engaging honestly with the fact that every organization expresses a particular bias to one degree or other, they have sought only to promote the notion that they are the only legitimate purveyors of truth. Through the use of strawman tactics and labeling prejudice the MSM seeks to discredit alternate news organizations' reporting rather than deal with the facts of the reporting.

Speaking of labeling, Harvard University has been circulating a list entitled “False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical ‘News’ Sources”5. This list is made up of mostly conservative news and commentary sites, such as the Washington Examiner and the Washington Free Beacon. We at The Patriot Post have the distinguished “honor” of making the list as well. Maybe somebody missed the endorsement we received6 several years ago from Harvard Political Review.

Pruitt’s Right: The Science Isn’t Settled7

New EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is being lampooned for downplaying the extent of carbon dioxide’s alleged effects on the climate. According to Pruitt, “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that [CO2 is] a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.” You can imagine the uproar that ensued.

Critics responded with a slew of scientific information on the greenhouse gas effect and how scientists collectively agree that human-induced fossil fuels are most assuredly to blame for our warming climate. On the EPA’s own website it stipulates that “the primary human activity affecting the amount and rate of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.” And Forbes’s Alex Knapp says8, “We can get one thing clear — climate change is complicated,” but he goes on to confidently argue “the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted every year by humans is … happening faster than nature can take care of it.”

This ridicule, of course, is an effort to smear Pruitt and portray him as an anti-science rube. But pay close attention to what Pruitt also said in the same interview: “But we don’t know that yet. We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.” What he’s trying to say is that the climate debate is not etched in stone, which is what the ecofascist lobby is desperately trying to do. Yes, we know that the greenhouse effect is real, but scientists are gravely mistaken if they think they’ve discovered all there is to know about how the climate operates. The same ones who told us that the California and Texas droughts were permanent and that the Arctic sea ice would be gone by now want to lecture us on “what the science says.” Pruitt has a different approach: Let’s see what the facts say, which takes time. And that’s exactly why he’s the right man to lead the EPA.

Top Headlines9

How Trump is performing on his promises halfway through first 100 days. (The Daily Signal10)

Trump will travel country to sell revised health care bill. (The Washington Times11)

Oil touches three-month lows, as U.S. supply swells. (Reuters12)

Sessions’s firing of 46 Obama-appointed U.S. attorneys typical of new AG transitions. Clinton/Reno fired 93. (National Review13)

Obama AG Lynch, involved in wiretapping Trump14, to receive Jefferson Medal in Law from University of Virginia. (UVA School of Law15)

Conservative college club accuses administration of intolerance, and is promptly banned. (Truth Revolt16)

Almost 100 California entities are interested in building Trump’s border wall. (Los Angeles Times17)

Suspect in House IT security probe also had access to DNC emails. (The Daily Signal18.)

Brave New World? Historic ruling grants “tri-custody” to trio who had threesome. (New York Post19)

Media Humor: Children interrupt a BBC News interview. (YouTube20)

Policy: Veterans' bill deserves bipartisan support. (Washington Examiner21)

Policy: A fair and legal replacement for DACA. (National Review22)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report23.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Building the Road to Success24

By Robin Smith

President Donald Trump met with key business leaders last week regarding America’s infrastructure. Trump continues to pledge a $1 trillion infusion of money to states to help complete projects to renovate existing roads and bridges within a 90-day start date. Once approved, Trump’s infrastructure dollars will be block-granted to states with truly shovel-ready projects, with the objective that it not be lost down bureaucratic money holes with endless calendars.

In a March 8 Quinnipiac Poll, Republicans, Democrats and Independents voiced their strong support of Trump’s infrastructure plan, with all groups at least 90% in favor. With clear bipartisan support, the Trump administration has an issue that transcends party lines.

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-13-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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Rush Limbaugh recently reviewed these numbers and other data on the big spending proposal of Trump. “The American people, many of them, and particularly on the Republican side, think the country is falling apart in a whole bunch of different ways,” Limbaugh noted. “We’re falling apart culturally. We are falling apart in our politics. We’re falling apart politically. And I believe it’s nothing more complicated than people actually do think that we need to modernize some things in this country. And I believe that if you would deeply ask these people, if you would find … that the vast majority of them think that this is a legitimate responsibility for government, state and federal combined, to make sure that the airports are modernized and not falling apart, to make sure bridges are not going to collapse down the road, to make sure dams are okay. The stuff that people assume government does anyway.”

He also contrasted Trump’s plan with Barack Obama’s “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” Almost $1 trillion in government spending, Obama’s “stimulus” was a big government fantasy buffet of public spending. Taxpayer money went to everything from expanded welfare benefits to subsidies for health insurance to an infrastructure plan that included “shovel-ready jobs” aimed at highway and bridge repair and construction.

The Obama administration insisted there were more than 19,000 “shovel-ready” projects totaling more than $150 billion that could begin within a 90-day period. A year after the massive government spending was approved and in progress, however, Obama admitted that there is “no such thing as a shovel-ready project.”

Limbaugh noted that most Americans were skeptical of Obama’s vague plan, and then were proven right when millions went to union groups and other Obama cronies25 with little or nothing to show in the form of completed projects.

Now, according to26 an American Society of Civil Engineers report card, the nation’s infrastructure gets as a D+ that will require up to $3.6 trillion in investments through 2020 for repairs and expansion.

As a developer and businessman, Trump anticipated the barriers never factored into the wasted spending via Obama’s plan: regulatory approval. Trump has already conferred with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on the regulatory impact of some projects. Obama’s expansion of the Waters of the United States rule, for example, creates havoc with any water runoff by turning cattle paths that collect rain into “bodies of water” to be regulated. Pruitt leads the effort to vacate this rule that is one of many environmental extremes in blocking construction and development.

Back in January, one of Trump’s executive orders expedited environmental reviews and approvals for all infrastructure projects aimed at “improving the U.S. electric grid and telecommunications systems and repairing and upgrading critical port facilities, airports, pipelines, bridges and highways.”

In short, Trump’s infrastructure plan is overwhelming popular because the American public has more faith in a president whose can-do record includes the development of skyscrapers, hotels, the completion of a New York skating rink, international resorts along with other business ventures versus the faculty lounge academics of a community organizer.

As Limbaugh put it, “I think people trust Trump on this — this money is literally going to end up in the economy.”

Conservatives must remain vigilant in protecting taxpayers from insatiable money pits. Primarily, mass transit is characteristic of protracted construction timelines, enormous budget overruns and promises for taxpayer subsidies. Projects to relieve volume congestion should be the responsibility of state and local officials who oversaw permits and approvals for their own community’s growth.

Taxpayers need to be assured their tax dollars are spent as advertised — for construction, repair and maintenance of structures, not walking trails, bike lanes, beautification projects and other initiatives that are and should be locally driven to add value to a community. And certainly not merely enriching Democrat cronies.

Peter Drucker, famed for his business management teachings and philosophy, stated most accurately, “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” Trump and Congress have a winning issue with a new approach for funding. We’ll soon see what comes of it.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Choosing Diversity Over Literacy27 — Because an insufficient percentage of minority teacher candidates passed the tests.
IRS Continues Foot Dragging28 — More documents found regarding the Tea Party targeting scandal.
‘There Is No Gender Wage Gap’29 — Are women paid less than men to do the same work?
U.S. Attorneys Controversy Is a Load of Grade-A Fertilizer30 — It’s neither unprecedented nor nefarious.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Hans von Spakovsky: Hawaii Has No Case Against Revised Travel Executive Order31
Caroline Camden Lewis: Congress: Please Replace NewbamaCare with NobamaCare32
George Will: A Place to Learn and Celebrate America’s Foundational Principles33

For more, visit Right Opinion34.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Caroline Camden Lewis: “The House Freedom Caucus, composed of some 40 conservative members, have stood against the NewbamaCare bill and have rallied behind the original 2015 repeal bill. As Congressman Mark Meadows (R-NC), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said recently in criticism of the recent House bill, ‘Repeal and replace is not fix and keep.’ The 2015 repeal bill, which actually is a repeal bill, passed through both houses of Congress in 2015 but was vetoed by Obama in January 2016. The American people don’t want NewbamaCare. They want NobamaCare. Ludwig von Mises, founder of the Austrian School of economic thought and champion of the free market economy, attributed his life motto to Virgil: Te ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito, which translated means, ‘Do not yield to the bad, but always oppose it with courage.’ With this attitude and resolve, our citizenry and our leadership can oppose the bad with courage, bravery and steadfastness in order that we may leave, not squander, a legacy of liberty for future generations.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “I’ve always believed that a lot of the trouble in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other.”

Upright: “Putting politically correct sentimentality aside, it is not bigotry or discrimination to impose limits on nations or people who may be at war with us or who are likely to harm us. That is common sense. The Constitution is not a suicide pact that requires us to ignore reality.” —Gary Bauer

For the record: “It took 2 years for [the] Jonathan Gruber35 tapes to surface. It took 4 hours to report Trump unfollowed Morning Joe on Twitter.” —Stephen Miller

Alpha Jackass: “Did [Ben] Carson start out as a self-hating coon, or did he develop his ‘coonery’ over time? ” —Star Jones

The BIG lie: “Look, for all the Trump administration’s sort of focus on refugees, the single biggest national security threat is climate change. We’ve seen that the ways in which climate change has either sparked conflicts or has made existing conflicts worse again and again. This has been a major DoD priority.” —Brookings Institution’s Susan Hennessey

And last… “Nancy Pelosi set her clocks 2 hours ahead so she could always be the first to say something stupid.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest

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.