The Patriot Post Digest 4-12-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-12-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Apr. 12, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Michael Bloomberg will spend $25 million to defeat national reciprocity bill.
Republicans win a special election in Kansas, but it was a bit too close for comfort.
There are signs of life in the coal industry, but more is needed for a strong comeback.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance employ for the preservation of our liberties.” —Declaration of the Cause and Necessity of Taking up Arms (1775)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Bloomberg Targets Gun Rights Legislation1

Surprise, surprise — Michael Bloomberg is continuing his anti-Second Amendment crusade. The New York billionaire has announced that he will give $25 million in a targeted campaign to oppose the national reciprocity bill currently working its way through Congress. One of the anti-gun groups expected to receive most of the money is Everytown for Gun Safety — an ironic name given the fact that the group seeks to remove guns from law-abiding citizens, making them less able to defend themselves from violent criminals and therefore less safe.

Everytown’s president John Feinblatt said, “This is a line in the sand on this issue, there’s no question about it.” He continued, “The NRA wants to normalize carrying guns in public. It’s not where the American public is. We’re putting people on notice today that we’re watching … and that we expect to hold people accountable.”

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), who introduced the bill, responded, “Common sense national concealed carry reciprocity is gaining traction across the country. Big city liberals like Bloomberg can spend all the money they want to create fear with emotion, but the truth and facts are on our side. Just like states recognizing other states' driver’s licenses, national concealed carry reciprocity2 makes good sense.”

Bloomberg spends millions trying to convince people to believe fiction over fact. The truth is firearms don’t cause or promote violent crime — in fact just the opposite, which has been proven time and again. The reality is that gangs and drugs are the leading factors for violent crime. Avoid those primary contributing associations and the chance of finding oneself a victim of a violent crime decrease significantly. If Bloomberg was so concerned about preventing violent crime, his money would be better spent on programs designed to combat the persistent problems of gangs and drugs, not a campaign to demonize gun ownership3.

A Special Win for Republicans4

In the first special election since Donald Trump’s big win in November, Republicans held Mike Pompeo’s seat in Kansas. Trump tapped Pompeo to head the CIA, and Ron Estes will now take his seat representing Kansas' 4th District, which has been in Republican hands since 1994. Estes won topped 53% in a three-way race with Democrat James Thompson and Libertarian Chris Rockhold. The race was important because both sides put all their resources into it — Mike Pence, Ted Cruz and even Trump recorded get-out-the-vote messages. And Democrats were hoping to serve up the first election rebuke of Trump. It wasn’t to be.

That doesn’t mean all is well for Republicans. The Heritage Foundation’s Rachel Bovard argues, “I think the closeness of this race is a warning to the GOP. Trump won this district by almost 30 points, and Pompeo never won less than 60 percent of the vote.” Fox News adds5, “The Republican’s margin of victory was just over 8,000 votes. By contrast, Pompeo won re-election in November by 31 percentage points and 85,000 votes.”

Bovard continues, “To have a House race this close in a safe GOP district within the first 100 days is troubling. It means those voters who were so motivated to get out and vote for Trump are waning in enthusiasm, either for Trump or for Congress, or both. The GOP should be watching closely and understand that this is a dynamic that could easily play out in the 2018 midterms if they don’t start keeping the promises they ran on.”

Next up for the GOP: Defending seats in Georgia, Montana and South Carolina. That will provide a little bit better picture for Republican prospects — especially given the seat in Georgia was vacated by now-HHS Secretary Tom Price.

Top Headlines6

Republicans victorious in Kansas special House election. (Fox News5)

Trump’s Justice Department to end “catch and release” immigration policy. (The Washington Times7)

Border wall will get its start in San Diego County. (The San Diego Union-Tribune8.)

Soros-funded group chaired by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter fighting voter integrity lawsuits. (The Washington Free Beacon9)

FBI had FISA court order to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page: Report. (The Washington Times10)

Trump spokesman Sean Spicer steps in a Hitler mess. (National Review11)

United Airlines stock loses $600 million in value after viral video of ejected passenger. (USA Today12)

Hump Day Humor: Pentagon awards contract to United Airlines to forcibly remove Assad. (Duffel Blog13)

EPA employees billed taxpayers $15,000 for gym memberships in Vegas. (The Washington Free Beacon14)

San Diego’s experiment with higher minimum wage: 4,000 fewer restaurant jobs. (Reason15)

Policy: Here are six reasons to lower the corporate tax rate immediately. (The Daily Signal16)

Policy: The true costs of New York’s “free college” program. (The Daily Signal17)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report18.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Coal’s Potential Comeback?19

By James Shott

It’s the politically correct idea among many Americans that coal as a major industrial fuel is dead, or at least dying, and that “cleaner” fuels like natural gas, wind and solar energy (and maybe unicorn dust) are taking over. There is some reality there, especially for natural gas due to the advancement of technology making it cheaper. But there are other influences on coal’s recent decline.

Less costly natural gas has become the fuel of choice in power plants and for other industrial uses. That’s not entirely because of the natural relative price of the fuels, but because the regulatory overkill on mining and burning coal requires enormous investments that have priced coal higher than natural gas. Remember Barack Obama’s prediction: “So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them.”

These regulations produced the closing of more than 400 coal-burning power plants, which dropped the demand for coal. That in turn put 63,000 people in the coal industry, electric production industry and related support industries out of work in just the last few years.

At the same time hydraulic fracturing (fracking) became popular, after lying mostly dormant since its first commercial application in 1957. That produced a boom in natural gas production at attractive prices to compete with coal.

Many think burning less coal is a great thing, because burning coal fouls the air and is dangerous to our health. But that “truth” loses importance when you know the actual infinitesimal improvement in air quality derived from burning less coal.

However, considering all those factors, and paraphrasing a famous quote attributed to Mark Twain, the rumors of coal’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Coal likely will never regain its former dominance among industrial fuels. Time and technological/industrial evolution would just as certainly, although much more gradually, have eaten into coal’s popularity without the help of Obama’s War on Coal.

But several things point to a continued market for American coal: Trump’s regulatory relief20, the growing acceptance of the idea that the climate change/global warming mania is dramatically overstated, the reality that coal is still the best fuel for many things, the fact that many countries that do not have domestic coal supplies depend upon it for fuel, and the improvement in coal-burning technology.

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-12-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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And let’s not forget that fossil fuels made up 81% of the fuels used to produce electricity in 2016, and coal is still the primary fossil fuel in electricity production.

Industry insiders like Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray see a partial resurgence21 in coal. “Coal will grow back,” he told Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney. “But we’re in a decline right now.”

He went on to say that Trump “can bring back at least half of those [63,000 lost] jobs as the economy grows and as he ends the regulations on coal.” He noted that we have not had a level playing field in coal because, instead, “the government has been picking winners and losers.”

And he told Maria Bartiromo, also on Fox Business Network, that Obama closed 411 coal-fired plants, and that the Clean Power Plan, which Trump ended recently22, would have closed 56 more plants. That, he said, would have caused a steep spike in electric rates. “As [Trump] grows the economy [and] brings jobs back to America, coal will participate in that growth because we are one-sixth the cost of a windmill and one-fourth the cost of natural gas,” per kilowatt-hour, Murray said.

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH), “The coal industry knows and understands how to mine coal … and protect our environment. We don’t do it the way it was done 50, 60 years ago.”

Here are a few pieces of evidence that coal isn’t dead yet:

Reports from the Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia coalfield regions say that mines are cranking back up and miners are being rehired. Train yards are seeing cars filled with coal moving through them in greater numbers.

Kingdom Resources plans to take over operations of one of the old Enterprise mines in Knott County, Kentucky. The company plans to hire 60 workers.

A southern West Virginia college recently held a Job Fair to immediately fill 85 open coal positions in mines in two counties — the coal from which is used in making steel.

Coal exports through Hampton Roads last month rose more than 50% from last year’s level, led by a nearly five-fold increase at Newport News' Pier IX, according to the most recent Virginia Maritime Association statistics. “A lot of mines are open again,” said Harry Childress, president of the Virginia Coal and Energy Alliance.“

Fox News reports23 that in Wise County, Virginia, "A long-awaited revival is under way in this beleaguered Central Appalachia community where residents see coal as the once and future king. Trucks are running again. Miners working seven days a week cannot keep up with current demand.”

Few if any argue that the coal industry will return to its former greatness, but it will certainly endure for many years at a lower level if natural forces are allowed to work, free of politically correct environmental engineering. These aforementioned items represent the beginning of coal’s potential comeback.

When you replace regulations resulting from shortsighted ideological goals with a level of business regulations based upon common sense, good things can happen.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

How to Cover the Sick24 — Let’s take a look at the Republicans' proposed solution for the sick — “individual high-risk pools.”
Putting Pressure on Putin25 — The U.S. says Russia knew about the chemical attack and covered it up. It seems Trump’s strategy is to isolate Moscow.
How Leftists Conflate ‘Unfairness’ and ‘Inequality’26 — The reality is that people have a different interpretation of economic disparities, and all they really want is fairness.
Pushing Communism on Children27 — MIT Press publishes a children’s book relating the wonders of real communism compared to capitalist misery.
Arizona Won’t Let Students Face the Desert28 — Universal education savings accounts become reality for 1.1 million students. School choice and federalism at work.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Walter Williams: Metastasizing Academic Cancer29
Ben Shapiro: The Insanity of the Left’s Child Gender-Confusion Agenda30
Gary Bauer: The Syria Debate31

For more, visit Right Opinion32.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Walter Williams: “The average American has little knowledge of the extent to which our institutions of higher learning have been infected with a spreading cancer. One aspect of that cancer is akin to the loyalty oaths of the 1940s and ‘50s. Professors were often required to sign statements that affirmed their loyalty to the United States government plus swear they were not members of any organizations, including the Communist Party USA, that sought the overthrow of the United States government. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down loyalty oaths as a condition of employment in 1964. Today we’re seeing the re-emergence of the mentality that gave us loyalty oaths, in the form of mandating that faculty members write 'diversity statements,’ especially as part of hiring and promotion procedures. … The fascist college trend that we are witnessing today is by no means new. As early as 1991, Yale University President Benno Schmidt warned: ‘The most serious problems of freedom of expression in our society today exist on our campuses. The assumption seems to be that the purpose of education is to induce correct opinion rather than to search for wisdom and to liberate the mind.’ What diversity oaths seek is to maintain political conformity among the faculty indoctrinating our impressionable, intellectually immature young people. Vladimir Lenin said, ‘Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.’ That’s the goal of the leftist teaching agenda.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Liberty without learning is always in peril and learning without liberty is always in vain.” —John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

Upright: “The most important thing for us is to send a message to the world that the border is not open. Please don’t come. You will be apprehended if you do come, and you will be deported promptly.” —Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Believe it when you see it: “When the Democrats return to the majority and capture the presidency … we will restore the 60-vote margin. We will ensure that, for the Supreme Court, there is that special margin that any candidate has to reach because that is essential to ensuring that our country has a confidence in those people that are nominated, rather than just someone who just passes a litmus test.” —Sen. Ed Markey

Flashback: “We would be in a much worse situation had the United States acted [militarily]. … Syria would still have a declared chemical weapons stockpile. Right now they don’t.” —Josh Earnest in September 2015

Race bait: “That the missiles are called tomahawks must enrage a lot of Native Americans.” —Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffery (“On behalf of the Jewish people, I am willing to waive all offense if we rename Tomahawk missiles Hebrew Hammers.” —Ben Shapiro)

Non Compos Mentis Godwin’s Law Moment of the Week or Whatever: “We didn’t use chemical weapons in World War II. You know, you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.” —Trump spokesman Sean Spicer in a pathetically convoluted attempt to talk about Assad’s chemical weapons use, for which he later apologized

And last… “Hillary says losing wasn’t her fault: Russia meddled into her corruption. FBI investigated her corruption. Hackers exposed her corruption.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatbest

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.