The Patriot Post Digest 5-16-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-16-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

May 16, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

The WaPo again exploits the Russia narrative in its active attempt to take down Trump.
A dead DNC staffer may have played a role in getting this whole Russia narrative started.
Trump’s communication skills continue to present problems for his own agenda.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“[The press] 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. It would be easy to enlarge on its evils.” —Fisher Ames (1807)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

The Latest WaPo Dezinformatsiya on Trump and the Russians1

According to the old adage, there are two sides to any story — unless it’s a Leftmedia hit piece, and then there is only their side.

Monday the Washington Post trumpeted, “Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador.” The Post claimed that Donald Trump disclosed classified information that “jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.” The Post asserted the sources of this information were current and former unnamed U.S. officials. How’s that for ambiguity.

Of course, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters, CNN and BuzzFeed all got the same memo from the same “official sources” with the same objectives.

Monday evening, both National Security Advisor H.R. McMasters and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insisted the Post’s “story is false.” McMasters stated, “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.” Tillerson released a similar statement which read, “During President Trump’s meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov a broad range of subjects were discussed among which were common efforts and threats regarding counter-terrorism. During that exchange the nature of specific threats were discussed, but they did not discuss, sources, methods or military operations.”

Tuesday morning Trump weighed in with the following social media post, “As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.” That brought howls of accusations, claiming that according to the Post, “Trump just threw his top advisers under the bus … again.” We’re not sure how that phrase applies here because he didn’t contradict anything they said, even though that’s what the Post would have you assume.

Here’s a reality check: Nations with shared national security interests, in this case concerns about bombs on civilian airliners, share classified information on a regular basis. The ostensible reason for the Post report is not that sensitive information was shared, but a much more nuanced and complicated question of what protocols, sources and methods might have been compromised by sharing some piece of information. “Nuanced and complicated questions” are the stuff of great conspiracy theories, and lots of MSM advertising revenue.

It’s not like Trump kept classified information exposing sources and methods on a private unsecured server in a bathroom closet, as was the case with Hillary Clinton. Nor was it like Barack Obama, who whispered in the ear of Dmitry Medvedev that after his re-election he could cut a deal with Vladimir Putin and sell out U.S. national security.

The Leftmedia, of which the Washington Post is a flagship outlet, are propagating this story for two reasons. First, it sells. It’s the life blood of tabloids — and WaPo has devolved into little more than that. Second, the Washington establishment is terrified of this administration’s policy objectives, restoring Rule of Law and disenfranchising central government power — and the MSM is doing everything possible to disable and undermine those objectives.

The Significance of the Murdered DNC Staffer2

The Democratic National Committee is back in the news, and it’s not just because its being sued3 for not paying workers $15 an hour to campaign for a federal minimum wage of … $15 an hour. No, the real story is the DNC staff who was murdered in DC last summer. Why’s that a story? Let’s look at the history.

Last summer, WikiLeaks released a huge cache of emails from key Democrats revealing4 the DNC’s conspiracy to sabotage Bernie Sanders' campaign on behalf of Hillary Clinton. We suppose Hillary’s “reset” with the Russians worked, because the DNC blamed Moscow for the leaks. Democrats have been screaming about Russia “hacking” the election ever since.

A few weeks later, Donald Trump hit Clinton over her illegal unsecured email server by taunting5, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 [Hillary Clinton] emails that are missing.” What began as the Democrats' Russia hacking narrative soon became the story of Trump colluding with Vladimir Putin. Trump’s tease caught Clinton in an obvious contradiction, but Democrats used it to build a narrative.

Thus the import of what we learn today. Fox News reports6, “The Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10 on a Washington, D.C., street just steps from his home had leaked thousands of internal emails to WikiLeaks.” Julian Assange, the tool who runs WikiLeaks, suggested this last summer, but he’s not exactly a credible source. Now, a federal investigator has confirmed it.

In any case, 12 days after Rich was shot from behind, WikiLeaks published the damning internal DNC emails — damning not because WikiLeaks released them or “the Russians” hacked them, but because of what Democrats themselves were saying behind closed doors. And then you’ve got John Podesta emailing, “I’m definitely for making an example of a suspected leaker whether or not we have any real basis for it.”

Death and Hillary Clinton7 have a long history, but this is getting ridiculous.

Top Headlines8

Pelosi pushes back on impeachment calls: Without facts, it’s hearsay. (Washington Examiner9)

WH: Despite reports, ransomeware software not developed by the NSA.. (CNS News10)

North Korea possibly behind global cyberattack, researchers say. (Fox News11)

North Korea’s missile launch a “litmus test” for Trump and South Korean leader. (The Daily Signal12)

U.S. accuses Syria of mass murder camp. (ABC News13)

Trump cuts all health care aid to international groups performing or promoting abortion. (The Washington Times14)

State troopers wrote 12,000+ more tickets in NYC so far this year than all of last year. (Reason15)

Chicago violence fuels gun sales surge, despite national dip. (LifeZette16)

Policy: Trump advances life-affirming policy in foreign aid. (Daily Signal17)

Policy: How a billion dollars is being wasted in the war on sugar. (Hudson Institute18.)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report19.
Don’t Miss Patriot Humor

Check out Premature Deaths20.

If you’d like to receive Patriot Humor by email, update your subscription here21.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Trump’s Messaging and Communication Debacle22

By Thomas Gallatin

Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to Donald Trump, recently described her boss as “an unconventional president who is an excellent communicator.” While few would disagree with Conway’s assessment of Trump being “unconventional,” he’s a far cry from the Great Communicator.

While Trump’s talking over the media while working toward reforming government is certainly Reaganesque, his temperament and inability to clearly communicate and stay on message set him apart. Where President Ronald Reagan went out of his way to find common ground and unite the country, Trump is more apt to go out of his way to pick fights with his opponents — many of them needless or without any clear objective. Where Reagan overlooked an insult, Trump insults back twice as hard.

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-16-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Trump is clearly and justifiably frustrated with the hostile mainstream media and loves to respond in kind. This “fighter” attitude brought supporters flocking to his banner. But it’s become a war for control of the narrative — a war that he cannot win with his undisciplined and often confusing approach toward message communication.

Trump’s proclivity for tweeting has too often landed him into messaging troubles. He justifies the practice as an effective means of circumnavigating Leftmedia spin, allowing him to get his message directly to the people. He’s right in a way, and, again, that campaign persona did propel him to popularity with the millions of Americans who tire of the seemingly spineless Republican. But a regular lack of clarity and some dubious claims or factually inaccurate tweets have provided more fodder for MSM criticism, rather than offer a clearly articulated statement on solid policy.

He’s campaigning, not governing, as we repeatedly said of Barack Obama.

As the negative media fallout over Trump’s explanation for firing FBI Director James Comey23 came due to the inconsistency of his account24 with that of his staff, he responded via his favorite media platform, tweeting, “As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” He then added what has proven to be yet another MSM talking point: “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”

Or maybe he and his staff could get on the same page before setting the narrative and then changing it.

Predictably, the MSM had a field day claiming Trump is seeking to stifle the free press. Sending them on a wild goose chase may have been the intended aim of his tweet, but it’s a long way from clear communication.

Friday morning, after his previous evening interview with NBC in which he dealt with questions over Comey’s firing, Trump seemed to feel the need to warn/threaten Comey. Trump tweeted, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Why did Trump feel the need to ring that Pavlovian bell? The Leftmedia was already referring to his firing of Comey as “Nixonian” before he fed the beast.

The problem is that more often than not Trump’s tweeting habit relays mere emotional outbursts rather than cogent arguments. His tweets often amount to little more than heckling and trolling than they do any form of substantive communications. This is his strategy — so as to connect him to his voting base — but that doesn’t mean it’s a good one. Trump is loath to recognize that his tweeting is hampering his agenda25.

The bigger question is this: Where is the leadership? Where is Trump leading on health care or tax reform? Besides a few brief mentions, there is little coming from Trump. He put out intriguing corporate26 and individual27 tax reform proposals … and then promptly stopped talking about them. As he watched health care reform crash and burn in the House, he just tweeted a few accusations28 against conservatives before turning his attention elsewhere. He celebrated its later passage with a Rose Garden ceremony, but what’s he doing to move it through the Senate?

He has the bully pulpit but has been slow to use it because his focus has been, well, unfocused.

Another point: In a strange way, Trump and the MSM are in a sort of symbiotic relationship, both feeding off each other. The MSM loves his chaos for the constant “scandal” news alerts with which it can sell advertising. And Trump seems to enjoy it for its reality-TV-like excitement, and for the pure joy of tormenting his opponents.

Long gone are the excited feelings and hopeful statements after Trump’s impressive speech29 given to the joint Congress at the outset of his term. Now, many conservatives and Republicans alike (particularly the staff he contradicts) are cringing at the thought of Trump’s next tweet or press interview. While many of his decisions have been welcome changes, his confounding tweeting and the general failure of White House communication are simply agonizing. Again, tweeting and campaigning are different than governing, and it’s time Trump put as much energy into the latter as he does the former.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Wind and Solar Energy Haven’t Lived Up to Hype30 — Heck, even the Europeans are starting to doubt the sustainability of these “fantastic” green energy sources.
Clinton Comes Out of the Woods Yelling ‘Onward Together!’31 — Hillary is attempting to anoint herself as the grand leader of the “resistance.”
Food in the Composting Pile Doesn’t Help Kids32 — “Think about why someone is okay with your kids eating crap,” Michelle Obama says. “Why would you celebrate that?”
Congressional Review Act Is a Towering GOP Success33 — Now it’s time to turn these wins into legislative victories, beginning with health care.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Hans von Spakovsky: SCOTUS’s Refusal to Hear NC’s Voter ID Appeal Isn’t a Big Deal34
Dennis Prager: Feminism and Intelligence35
Cal Thomas: Mr. President, Please Stop the Insults36

For more, visit Right Opinion37.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Cal Thomas: “Anger is not policy. Insults do little to change anyone’s mind. … Here are some positive suggestions that might turn things around. An old Glen Campbell song should be [Trump’s] theme: ‘Try a Little Kindness.’ Find some positive things to say and do. Unemployment has fallen to its lowest level since 1988. Have some newly employed people in, as he did with the coal miners, some of whom were unemployed or underemployed during the Obama years. They could thank the president for reducing expensive regulations on businesses that allowed them to hire more people. Trump should remind Americans where he is trying to take the country. Turn those constant tweets into positive statements. Just as light overcomes darkness, so, too, do positives overcome negatives. Americans respond to optimism (read Ronald Reagan’s speeches). Let the Democrats own gloom and doom. The president should rise above that and rekindle an optimistic spirit that has always led America to new heights. Please knock off the insults, Mr. President. They are poisoning your presidency and the good you and a Republican Congress can do.

SHORT CUTS

Insight: "Let [the Constitution] be taught in schools, seminaries and in colleges; let it be written in primers, in spelling books and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, enforced in courts of justice. In short, let it become the political religion of the nation.” —Abraham Lincoln

For the record: “There was a time not that long ago during the Obama years when ‘civility in our public discourse’ was all the rage among the media. Tea Party supporters were told to calm down and be quiet. Suddenly, those concerned media voices are silent.” —Gary Bauer

A blind squirrel finds a nut: “If you’re talking about impeachment, you’re talking about, what are the facts? … What are the rules that he may have violated? If you don’t have that case, you’re just participating in more hearsay.” —Nancy Pelosi

Non Compos Mentis: “What causes climate deprivation is population. If we had not been systematically forcing women to have children they don’t want or can’t care for over the 500 years of patriarchy, we wouldn’t have the climate problems that we have. That’s the fundamental cause of climate change.” —Gloria Steinem

Yeah, and we see how well that turned out… “I actually think that the issue that required the most political courage was the decision not to bomb Syria after the chemical weapons use had been publicized and rather to negotiate them removing chemical weapons from Syria.” —Barack Obama

And last… “I don’t know if the Washington Post story is accurate, but I do think it’s entirely plausible. Put aside whether the story is properly sourced and all that. When you heard the news, did you think it could be true? If your answer is yes, think about that for a moment. That right there is a problem.” —Jonah Goldberg

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

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