The Patriot Post Digest 5-12-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-12-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

May 12, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Trump shoots himself in the foot with the messaging about Comey’s firing.
Mexico is now the second most dangerous country in the world. Border wall?
Motherhood is a challenge, especially culturally. But Happy Mother’s Day!
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.” —George Washington (1795)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Trump’s Statements Add Fuel to Controversy1

The fallout over Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey2 is beginning to resemble a daytime soap opera. Democrats have strategically boxed Trump in so no matter what he does, it’s further “evidence” supporting their collusion-with-Russia narrative. With the mainstream media presuming the validity of that conspiracy theory, any action or non-action by Trump suddenly becomes evidence of covering up a “crime.” What crime exactly? Well, it would seem the best answer is the fact that Trump won the election. Evidently, that’s criminal enough for the Leftmedia and Democrats to demand investigations into unsubstantiated allegations.

The trouble is, Trump isn’t helping himself. Thursday evening, in an interview with NBC News, Trump flat out contradicted his White House staff’s and Vice President Mike Pence’s explanation of the reasoning behind the decision to dismiss Comey.

According to statements from the White House immediately following the firing, the reason the FBI director had been let go was primarily due to recommendations from the Justice Department, particularly based on Comey’s handling of the Clinton email probe. Pence corroborated that account, stating earlier Thursday: “Let me be very clear that the President’s decision to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to remove Director Comey as the head of the FBI was based solely and exclusively on his commitment to the best interests of the American people and to ensuring that the FBI has the trust and confidence of the people of this nation.”

Then came Trump’s Thursday evening interview. In typical Trump style, he ineloquently expressed a totally different story behind his decision to remove Comey. He stated, “I was going to fire Comey. Oh, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation.” The obvious question then arises: Why now? What transpired to bring him to make the decision?

Here’s where Trump’s explanation just really doesn’t add up. He says, “In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.’” He’s entirely accurate in his assessment of the Democrat narrative being utter nonsense, but that still doesn’t explain his motivation for canning Comey or the timing of it. Nor does it explain why he’s playing right into Democrat hands by saying the Russia angle prompted him to do it.

Another comment by Trump may come closest to answering the question. In evaluating Comey, Trump said, “Look, he’s a showboat. He’s a grandstander. The FBI has been in turmoil. You know that. I know that. Everybody knows that. You take a look at the FBI a year ago — it was in virtual turmoil. Less than a year ago. It hasn’t recovered from that.” Maybe Trump witnessed Comey’s testimony3 last week, in which he explained his decisions for not recommending prosecution of Hillary Clinton. Perhaps that rubbed Trump the wrong way and he decided it was time.

Unfortunately, the lack of a cohesive and consistent statement from Trump and his staff has served to add fuel to a controversy he wanted to dispel. If it seemed bad after Comey’s firing, it will only get worse with the Trump White House failing to keep its story straight.

Mexico Second Deadliest in 2016 — Build the Wall!4

Unsurprisingly, Syria is once again the number one global hotspot for armed conflict, the International Institute for Strategic Studies reveals. But the second worst hotspot is located nowhere close to the Middle East, where one would normally expect it. In fact, it couldn’t be closer to home. The IISS says that 23,000 Mexicans were victims of mostly drug-related guerrilla warfare last year, which is just under half of the 50,000 lives taken in Syria.

IISS director general John Chipman points out that “Mexico is a conflict marked by the absence of artillery, tanks or combat aviation,” which only adds shock value to the alarming toll. In Syria, the opposite is true. The report also proves just how effective Donald Trump’s immigration clampdown has been. According to The Washington Times, “Illegal immigration across the southwestern border is down a stunning 76 percent since President Trump was elected, with the flow of children and families dropping even faster as analysts say the administration’s commitment to enforcing the law has changed the reality along the border.”

That’s a remarkable drop, yet it’s nary enough, given the threat. The degree to which violence is devastating Mexico is more evidence of our need for a border wall. Gangs and drug runners have found numerous ways to exploit border security (or lack thereof), and the statistics demonstrate both how serious the threat truly is and what they are capable of. Meanwhile, here’s a question for “compassionate” Democrats that will leave them looking like a deer staring in the headlights: Why do leftists support open borders to the world’s second most deadly country?

Top Headlines5

Biggest ICE gang raid ever: 1,378 arrested, 21 murder charges, 3 “Dreamers.” (Washington Examiner6)

Trump has vowed to eradicate MS-13. What you need to know about the gang. (The Daily Signal7)

Trump establishes panel to probe voter fraud. (The Daily Signal8.)

Full-time jobs are finally easier to get. (USA Today9)

U.S. government posts $182 billion surplus in April. (Reuters10)

Mormon church takes steps away from Boy Scouts of America; does total exodus loom? (The Salt Lake Tribune11)

Did the National Park Service reject a Grand Canyon project because the researcher is a creationist? (Phoenix News Times12)

Texas A&M won’t fire professor who called for killing white people. (Washington Examiner13)

Poll: Americans hold record liberal views on social issues. (Gallup14)

Largest U.S. solar panel maker files for bankruptcy after receiving $206 million in subsidies. (The Daily Signal15)

Policy: The legal and economic case against the Paris climate treaty. (Competitive Enterprise Institute16)

Policy: Fact versus fear: The AHCA and pre-existing conditions. (American Action Forum17)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report18.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
The Culture vs. Motherhood19

By Robin Smith

The second Sunday in May, Mother’s Day, was designated a national holiday first by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. The inaugural memorial for moms began, however, in 1908 after Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia. The elder Jarvis was known for caring for wounded soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy and created “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to address public health issues.

Despite the commercialization of Mother’s Day, the original commemoration remains true to Jarvis' intent: to honor mothers as “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world.”

Behind the gift-giving holiday of Christmas, Mother’s Day ranks second in present purchases and accounts for more than one-fourth of flower purchases — the average amount spent is about $186 spent per mom. So, yes, retailers are in high gear for Mother’s Day, but we shouldn’t miss an opportunity to honor those whose impact has been, is, and will forever be, critical.

Mothers' roles in our lives are indeed diverse. Some moms serve as the matriarch of a nuclear family, some as the sole parent raising children and, in both cases, more and more women work both inside and outside the home. Yet, most moms have a common genetic trait that’s expressed in their DNA. It’s called “sacrifice.”

Sacrifice of time with sports leagues, school events and homework, music lessons and tracking down lost and forgotten items. Moms sacrifice possible promotion at work with a commitment to home instead of travel, advancement or excessive business demands. (That, by the way, is the real reason for the “gender wage gap” continually trumpeted by the Left.) The sacrifice of that “life-sized Barbie” look takes a hit when one’s kids are young and the shoulders of blouses are dotted with “urp” and baby bio stains, and when the cost of daycare eats into the budget. The sacrifice of privacy and personal space is a given with children because Mom always knows where all things are stored, are hidden or have disappeared to. And when those items are needed, it doesn’t matter what Mom’s doing or if she’s behind a closed door. Among so many other things, moms serve as the first teachers at every age — whether prioritizing a child’s bedtime reading or trying to figure out advanced Algebra homework, mothers lay the foundation of learning and add mortar to the bricks year after academic year.

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-12-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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These are just a few glimpses of sacrifice in the lives of most moms. And, yes, mothers, you are loved and valued. Your sacrifices have not been and are not in vain.

But as some read this brief salute to the female gender and their critical role as nurturer, educator, mentor, disciplinarian, bread-winner, boo-boo kisser and more, angry emotions are triggered. How could such a microaggression occur — one that stereotypically oppresses women by relegating them to a reproductive function with an honorable duty to raise a productive citizen, a decent adult? Feminists, who claim to seek equal social, economic and civil rights have angrily and inaccurately defined motherhood as a burden, and they have propagandized the mischaracterization that motherhood is mutually exclusive to worth as a double-X chromosomal human.

Women, according to their feminist champions, aren’t supposed to need a male in their lives and, if one is needed, he’d better be an emotion-driven weakling. In today’s culture, a child “is a choice,” not a miracle that carries the legacy of love between a man and a woman. And yet today’s feminists sneer at those who choose a career as Chief Operations Officer of the Home.

Modern culture has, indeed, progressed. When Anna Jarvis honored her mom in 1908, our nation had some 8,000 automobiles on approximately 144 miles of paved road, according to the Ford Motor Company. In 1908, only about 14% of homes featured a bathtub, and just 6% had a telephone. In 1915, when the American flag featured only 48 stars, a Stanford University publication documented that, in the analysis of 16 states, illegitimate births accounted for only 1.8% of all births recorded.

Today, sport utility vehicles reign, with smartphones serving as a mandatory appendage for constant connectivity. According to20 the U.S. Department of Labor, 70% of women with children under the age of 18 are in the workplace outside the home, and 40% of all births are to unmarried women. According to November 2016 figures21 released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of children living in two-parent homes has decreased from 88% in 1960 to 69%. And many of those 69% are still from broken and then reassembled homes.

So what? The data provide a glimpse of cultural decay brought about by leftist redefinitions of everything from life in the womb, to marriage to being a female — and especially a mom.

Despite this, the fingerprints of our own mothers leave indelible marks that, hopefully, transfer as love, grace, faith, hope, vision and grit in our lives. We, in turn, touch our own children with love and these same virtues to continue the legacy of family. Moms truly do mold and fashion a better human race.

King Solomon ended his writings in Proverbs by describing the woman to “be praised.” Of the attributes honoring the value of this woman, the words paint a picture of a mom who “works with eager hands,” who is “clothed in strength and dignity,” “does not eat the bread of idleness,” and whose “children arise and call her blessed.”

This Sunday, please join us in paying tribute to your mom and the mothers in your life.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

What Constitutional Crisis?22 — Trump’s firing of Comey does not fit the bill, but there was a president whose entire strategy was to cause such crisis.
Aetna to Completely Exit ObamaCare23 — Does the insurer’s exchange exit mark yet another sign of ObamaCare’s imminent demise? It would appear so.
A College Falls for Another Hate Crime Hoax24 — Students at St. Olaf College shut down the school and demanded change over a racist note. But it wasn’t real.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Erick Erickson: The Real Constitutional Crisis25
Michael Barone: James Comey Is the Latest Victim of the Clintons26
Ann Coulter: To Say ‘Stop Raping Me!’ in English, Press ‘1’ Now27

For more, visit Right Opinion28.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Erick Erickson: “Federal judges have blocked President Trump’s inarguably constitutional travel restrictions merely because of statements candidate Trump made before becoming President Trump. Holding a president to campaign stump speeches has never been done before. In fact, President Obama campaigned for his health care plan declaring it not a tax, but the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act under the Constitution’s taxing powers. Had they used the president’s campaign statements, the legislation would have been ruled unconstitutional. In Virginia, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that President Trump is the reason a travel ban is unconstitutional. Judge Niemeyer of the Fourth Circuit, a federal judge not willing to join the fever swamp, asked the ACLU’s lawyer, ‘We have a candidate who won the presidency, some candidate other than President Trump won the presidency and then chose to issue this particular order, with whatever counsel he took…. Do I understand that just in that circumstance, the executive order should be honored?’ The ACLU’s lawyer responded, ‘Yes, your honor, I think in that case, it could be constitutional.’ When the federal judiciary will not give the president of the United States due deference merely because they do not like that particular president, we do have a constitutional crisis. Unfortunately for the republic, this is a constitutional crisis the Democrats and media support and are enabling.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.” —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

Non Compos Mentis: “We are trying to make it very clear that this country could be careening towards a constitutional crisis. … We have to ensure that the American people understand that the United States Senate, or at least the Democrats in the United States Senate, are going to stand and demand that a special prosecutor be named in order to ensure that all of the facts are out, on the table for the American people to see and understand as to what exactly was the reason that President Trump fired James Comey as he was conducting an investigation of Donald Trump himself.” —Sen. Ed Markey

You doth protest too much: “It is a looming constitutional crisis because it involves a potential confrontation as did Watergate between the president and other branches of government. … It may well produce impeachment proceedings.” —Sen. Richard Blumenthal

Belly laugh of the week: “Donald Trump clearly has not taken this seriously, and [in] what should be a Paul Revere moment for our country, where people are talking about the Russians are coming — they’re not intending not only to attack this last election but intending to continue this behavior — what will our response be?” —Sen. Cory Booker

Alpha Jackass: “Is ISIS dedicated to trying to destroy the prospects for organized human existence?” —Noam Chomsky bemoaning Republicans as civilization’s biggest nemesis for “departing from the rest of the world on climate change”

Braying Jenny: “A Democratic lawmaker from California referred to Middle America as ‘Podunk, USA,’ during a committee meeting last week… Remarks by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D., Calif.) during a closed-door Energy and Commerce Committee meeting with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai raised eyebrows from those present. The moment occurred when Eshoo pushed back against Pai when he was discussing expanding broadband access to rural areas.” —Washington Free Beacon

Late-night humor: “The White House announced yesterday that President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Yet another long-time dream that Trump stole from Hillary.” —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.