The Patriot Post Digest 5-26-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-26-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

May 26, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Trump tells NATO members standing right behind him to pull their weight.
Montanans might just have cheered a GOP candidate’s handling an activist reporter.
The real national security issue is all the leaking Obama loyalists in the White House.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.” —John Adams (1815)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Trump’s Welcome Bluntness1

NATO has been a subject of some controversy for President Donald Trump. During last year’s Republican primary campaign, Trump alleged, “NATO is costing us a fortune” and is “obsolete” because other nations aren’t pulling their weight. At the time, it was jarring because conservative politicians don’t talk that way about our allies. Trump walked back the “obsolete” charge, but otherwise he’s stuck to his guns.

Just yesterday at NATO headquarters in Brussels, he called out several NATO member leaders as they literally stood behind him. “These grave security concerns are the same reason that I have been very, very direct with Secretary [Jens] Stoltenberg and members of the alliance in saying that NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations,” Trump said, “for 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States.”

“We should recognize that with these chronic underpayments and growing threats, even two percent of GDP is insufficient to close the gaps in modernizing readiness and the size of forces,” he continued. “We have to make up for the many years lost. Two percent is the bare minimum for confronting today’s very real and very vicious threats.”

Some critics pounced, citing this as evidence that Trump won’t follow through on America’s Article 5 obligations to come to Europe’s defense. But that’s just utter silliness that, frankly, serves Vladimir Putin’s agenda. At an event unveiling a memorial to 9/11 and NATO’s first and only invocation of Article 5, Trump praised NATO for responding “swiftly and decisively” after those attacks. He added, “We will never forsake the friends who stood by our side.” How do those remarks constitute any waffling on U.S. commitments?

Trump’s loose lips can indeed be a problem, and no doubt our allies would appreciate consistency. But his admonition to NATO members who don’t contribute fully could be the impetus for a needed course correction for the old alliance. Furthermore, it’s certainly part of the larger strategy of his first foreign trip — cleaning up Barack Obama’s mess and fighting terrorism2.

MSM Blames Trump for Victorious MT Republican’s Assault of Journalist3

Yesterday, Republican Greg Gianforte defeated Democrat Rob Quist in a special election to fill the Montana at-large House seat vacated by Ryan Zinke after he was tapped by Donald Trump to head the Department of the Interior. Gianforte’s win comes amid an eleventh-hour controversy over a physical altercation with a Guardian reporter who was pressing Gianforte to answer a question on health care. The confrontation, which was caught on audio, resulted in Gianforte being charged with misdemeanor assault.

Democrats have been working overtime seeking to flip seats in regions that heavily voted for Trump, and thus far have achieved little success. Yet this seemingly gift-wrapped controversy in an already tight race must have seemed like a golden opportunity to finally show that the Resistance™ was bearing fruit. In fact, the mainstream media did its utmost to assert that Gianforte’s action was proof positive of the Left’s charge that Trump has encouraged and perpetuated bigotry, racism and even violence across America.

In reality, Quist was a flawed candidate with a checkered past who simply didn’t cut it. Gianforte was a well-established, successful businessman who has heavily invested and helped to improve the economy of the state. He’d also previously run for governor. While failing to win, he proved he knew how to campaign. And really, outside of his body-slamming the reporter, he had few controversies.

Ironically, Democrats' favored tool of early voting might have cost them the election. Prior to the assault, over a third of Montanans had already cast their vote. This incident proves to be a rather convincing argument against those proponents of early voting.

The most important point, however, is that while journalists bemoan the lack of trust Americans have for the MSM, all while blaming conservatives, talk radio and Trump, the truth is that most of the fault for the distrust rests with journalists themselves. When journalism becomes activism for leftist agendas, don’t be surprised when the populace stops trusting the media’s narrative. Gianforte did apologize for his actions against the reporter, who by the way had trespassed in order to badger the candidate, but many Montanans actually appreciated the candidate’s takedown of the reporter. Honestly, many in Montana don’t view the Guardian reporter as an innocent victim, but as a member of the MSM hell-bent on attacking Trump and conservatives.

Top Headlines4

Rejecting Kerry’s appeals, Senate committee passes new Iran sanctions bill with strong Dem support. (CNS News5)

Navy warship exercises close to Chinese claimed reef in S. China Sea. (The Washington Free Beacon6)

11 unauthorized government spending programs Trump cut from his 2018 budget. (The Daily Wire7)

Senate mulls health-law rewrite pushing ObamaCare repeal to 2020. (Bloomberg8.)

Senate confirms Judge Thapar to Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (The Washington Times9)

Bloody Chicago only major U.S. city to lose population from 2015 to 2016. (Chicago Tribune10)

Top Democrats just endorsed a $15 minimum wage, but don’t pay their interns that much. (Washington Examiner11)

Students and faculty protesters demand punishment of College Republicans chapter. (The Daily Signal12)

FBI won’t provide Comey memos to Congress yet. (Politico13)

Satire: ISIS lays down arms after Katy Perry’s impassioned plea to “like, just coexist.” (The Babylon Bee14)

Policy: Don’t restrain the shale revolution. (U.S. News & World Report15)

Policy: Budget bloodbath a result of lawmaker refusal to confront entitlement spending. (E2116)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report17.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Obama’s Leaking Loyalists18

By Brian Mark Weber

Despite the utter lack of evidence, the mainstream media continue to prop up a theory that there was collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russians, and any rumor or unfounded suggestion is reported as fact. However, a far greater problem than the alleged Trump-Russia connection (and the only one supported by evidence) is the leaks coming from the White House and from within the intelligence community. They are without question damaging our national security and undermining the president.

The impression created by the media is that Trump is so inherently incompetent that members of his own staff are doing the leaking. The image is one of utter chaos in the West Wing. In reality, many of the leaks are likely coming from political appointees of Barack Obama who remain in the White House. In the waning days of his presidency, Obama transferred these political appointees to civil servant status in order to make it harder for them to be terminated by the incoming president.

Remember when candidate Obama used to rail against the cynicism in our politics? Turns out he was right.

As The Daily Signal revealed19 last December, “After President Barack Obama exits office, at least 88 of his political appointees will likely remain working in the federal government under a Donald Trump administration, according to numbers from the Office of Personnel Management.”

It’s not atypical for employees under a former president to carry over to the new administration. But Obama clearly went out of his way to ensure that key individuals would retain their status long after Trump took office. It’s not their status that’s the problem, but the likelihood that they’re using their access within the government to leak information to the media.

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-26-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence, told20 the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this week, “The release of information not only undermines the confidence in our allies, but our ability to maintain secure information we share with them, and they jeopardize sources and methods that are invaluable in finding out what’s going on and what threats are.”

The seriousness of the leaks became even more evident after the bombing of a concert venue in Manchester, England. Shortly afterward, the New York Times published an article containing leaked intelligence information about an ongoing investigation — and then slammed Trump for the leaks.

Consequently, the British announced that they would no longer cooperate with American intelligence officials on the investigation. Moreover, Prime Minister Teresa May even suggested that the special relationship between Great Britain at the United States was at risk. Trump was able to reassure our allies at the NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday. At least for now.

But the problem isn’t going away as long as his administration is infested with Obama-era vermin. These individuals are leaking information to the media with the sole intent of damaging the president and undermining his ability to govern. Now that’s collusion.

As for collusion with the Russians, numerous public officials have conceded that there’s no evidence. This includes former Obama CIA Director John Brennan and Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Feinstein is a member of the Gang of Eight, a select group of House and Senate intelligence committee members briefed on FBI and CIA investigations. “There are all kinds of rumors around,” she stated. “There are newspaper stories, but that’s not necessarily evidence.”

Upon reviewing information at the CIA and being asked whether she saw any evidence of collusion, Feinstein said, plainly, “Not at this time.” Again, this isn’t just coming from the unhinged likes of Rep. Maxine Waters, but a high-ranking Democrat senator with access to the latest intelligence information.

Not that we can necessarily trust the FBI21 to conduct an honest investigation…

Meanwhile, despite Brennan’s unrevealing congressional testimony earlier this week, prominent Democrats such as Rep. Adam Schiff, a ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee, responded as though Brennan had revealed some critical evidence.

Byron York writes22 in the Washington Examiner, “Brennan gave the committee old information — he frankly admitted it was old — that did not take into account what has been learned in recent months from other sources.”

What Brennan did say is that leaks are deadly. “What I have found appalling is the number of leaks that have taken place over the last several months,” he said last week. “The real damage to national security is the leaks. These individuals who still stay within the government and are leaking this stuff to the press need to be brought to task.”

As for York’s reporting, it’s a truthful outlier amid an anti-Trump media onslaught. For all the stories23 about Trump being a threat to national security, the real threat is the collusion between Obama-appointed informants and the likes of the Washington Post, New York Times and CNN.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Social Justice Grammar and ‘Zir’ Own Agenda24 — They’re ransacking the English language because in doing so, they find power and the ability to manipulate the historical narrative.
NYT Peddles Another Vacuous Story on the Russia-Trump Conspiracy25 — Using claims from unnamed sources, Leftmedia outlets are pushing the collusion narrative to the level of the ridiculous.
Carrier Jobs Move to Mexico, Trump Not to Blame26 — True, Trump failed to keep his overpromise, but the real culprit is a poorly kept “secret” — minimum wage costs jobs.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Erick Erickson: Secular Ecclesiology27
David Limbaugh: Pros and Cons of Trump’s Budget and Cons of Dem Demagoguery28
Joe Bastardi: Is This Really the Worst Ever?29

For more, visit Right Opinion30.

OPINION IN BRIEF

David Limbaugh: “Demagoguery and propaganda are enemies of good governance, but nowhere is that more apparent than in the federal budget, on which Democrats are shameless and too many Republicans are feckless. Sages from American history presciently predicted that our republic would be in jeopardy if voters acquired the power to vote themselves money from the public trough. The U.S. Constitution did not contemplate that the federal government and federal politicians would be able to secure their elective offices through legislative transfers of wealth, but the sordid practice has been with us for decades, and we are paying the price. … Liberals have an easy job. All they need to do is promise benefits and apply dishonest marketing strategies to paint themselves as caring and their opponents as ogres. They don’t need to designate how those benefits will be funded, and they slam the so-called rich for not paying their fair share — an abominably false claim.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “All government, in its essence, is organized exploitation, and in virtually all of its existing forms it is the implacable enemy of every industrious and well-disposed man.” —H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Political futures: “Recent polls have found Obamacare to be at unprecedented levels of popularity while Republican efforts to replace it are very unpopular. My own interpretation of those polls: People don’t dislike the Republican plans because they favor Obamacare; they favor Obamacare because they dislike the Republican plans. The public’s dominant sentiment on health care is usually: Please, Washington, don’t do anything more to screw it up, especially if it could affect me.” —Ramesh Ponnuru

Braying Jackass: “I look at a place like Syria, where despite our best efforts — and this is something I worked on a lot — we still have a vicious war.” —Barack Obama

Braying Jenny: “To see this person who wants to be the one representative into the House of Representatives from Montana be sort of a wannabe Trump — you know, use language like that, treat people harshly like that — that’s his model. Donald Trump’s his model. And we’ve really got to say, ‘Come on, behave, behave.’” —Nancy Pelosi

Demo-gogues: “It’s a tactic, to attack the press. And we really have to say this is about the Constitution of the United States, and behavior that creates alternative facts and fake news, and all these other mischaracterizations, do a disservice to our democracy.” —Nancy Pelosi, who’s an expert at ignoring the Constitution and peddling fake news

The BIG Lie: “When the president fired the head of the FBI who was investigating him … and the president went on to say on national TV that he did it because of the investigation … all of these things combined are enough to conclude that the president has committed an impeachable act.” —Rep. Al Green

That’ll fix it! “We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things.” —Mark Zuckerberg

Late-night humor: “An Ohio man recently proposed to his girlfriend at the finish line of a marathon. And she can never find out that he really said, ‘Will you carry me?’” —Seth Meyers

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

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