The Patriot Post Digest 6-7-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 6-7-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Jun. 7, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Will James Comey’s much-ballyhooed testimony be a bombshell or just a bomb?
The Leftmedia want us to believe that most Americans support the Paris climate deal.
Why are more men opting out of college? Cost is up, value is down.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” —Joseph Story (1833)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

MSM Hopes Comey Hearing Precipitates Trump Impeachment. It Won’t.1

Tomorrow, former FBI Director James Comey2 will give his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The focus of the mainstream media’s coverage leading up to this moment has been the existence of a memo which Comey had allegedly written after a meeting with Donald Trump. According to media sources, Comey wrote that Trump said to him, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this [investigation] go, to letting [Mike] Flynn go.” And ever since the New York Times first ran the salacious story, the MSM has pushed the narrative that this is the “smoking gun” evidence proving that Trump was somehow seeking to obstruct an FBI investigation into his alleged collusion with Russia.

The MSM’s mindset, as described3 by Brendan Kirby of LifeZette, is that Comey’s testimony “will be the biggest congressional testimony since the Clarence Thomas hearings! No, since Oliver North testified about the Iran-Contra affair! No, wait … since Watergate!” Indeed, the Leftmedia has worked itself up into a lather in anticipation hoping that Comey’s testimony will be the impeachable moment4 they’ve been dreaming about since Trump won the election.

The most likely scenario, however, is that nothing new will be learned on the alleged Russia-Trump collusion conspiracy, no matter how much Democrats blow smoke in their desperate attempts to keep the narrative viable. The more interesting questions that should be asked are questions regarding Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation5 and the Clinton Foundation’s6 pay-to-play racket. In other words, questions about more pressing and pertinent matters of actual criminal behavior and the FBI’s investigative decisions regarding pursuing that corruption, rather than getting sidetracked with a phony scandal.

So, get your popcorn and beverage and sit back in your favorite easy chair to enjoy the next episode of “As the Beltway Spins.”

Paris Climate Accord Pollaganda7

Plastered among this week’s headlines (some even sporting the “Breaking News” banner) are the findings of a new poll on public opinion regarding Donald Trump’s decision to say au revoir to the Paris climate accord8. A Washington Post headline emphatically declared, “Post-ABC poll: Nearly 6 in 10 oppose Trump scrapping Paris agreement9.”

According to the survey, 59% of Americans overall disagree with Trump’s decision. In contrast, a paltry 28% support it. Unsurprisingly, the majority of that support comes from Republicans, 67% of whom condone Trump’s move. Also unsurprisingly, 82% of Democrats and 63% of Independents believe the exit was wrongheaded (if not flat out apocalyptic10). However, Democrats — besides having lost the climate accord battle — don’t necessarily have a lot to celebrate in this poll, for two reasons.

First, there’s a major caveat in these numbers that reflects the Democrats' worst bane: Their failure to garner overwhelming support for their statist policy prescriptions. The fact that just 59% of Americans supposedly oppose Trump’s move actually represents a remarkable failure on the Left’s part. Why? For 30 years climate alarmists have been lecturing, pleading with and vilifying climate skeptics. And 59% support is the best they can muster?

Of course, that’s assuming the poll is even accurate (a dubious proposition), which brings us to the second point. We define Pollaganda11 as “polling used to manipulate public opinion and advance a particular bias,” or “instruments designed to generate a preferential outcome.” In the minds of leftists, the Post-ABC poll shows just how “out of touch” Trump is with the majority of America. But polls — particularly Leftmedia ones — prove nothing because they are manipulated from the start.

The next time the Post uses damning surveys to belittle Trump’s policy decisions, just remember this: Those same surveys unanimously, prematurely and wrongly predicted a blowout victory for Hillary Clinton. Moreover, remember that the Paris exit is good for America (and, more importantly, the Constitution) regardless of opinions so-called experts try to extract from polls.

Top Headlines12

Trump will nominate Christopher Wray13 to serve as the new FBI director. (The Hill14)

Trump’s closest allies warn president, stop tweeting. (Bloomberg15)

EPA’s Pruitt delays Obama-era smog rules for a year. (Washington Examiner16)

U.S. oil exports double, reshaping vast global markets. (The Wall Street Journal (subscription)17)

Homeland Security sounds alarm over “terrorist travel,” backs up Trump’s case for temporary ban. (The Washington Times18.)

Terror in Tehran: ISIS claims responsibility after jihadis with guns, suicide bombs storm Parliament, shrine. (Fox News19)

Obama administration did not publicly disclose Iran cyberattack during “side deal” nuclear negotiations. (The Washington Free Beacon20)

Short on troops, Army offers up to $90K bonuses to re-enlist. (Associated Press21)

DOJ: Almost 60,000 drug overdose deaths in 2016; “largest annual increase in American history.” (CNS News22)

Hump Day Humor: Southern Baptists vote to affirm inerrancy of Second Amendment. (The Babylon Bee23)

Policy: The historic nature of the regulatory slowdown. (American Action Forum24)

Policy: Yes to privatizing air traffic control. (National Review25)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report26.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Men Not Learning?27

By Lewis Morris

The nation has just emerged from graduation season. Many of us know young people who are either leaving high school and moving on to college or graduating from college and heading off into the world. But college and the promise of better career opportunities aren’t what they used to be.

The job market for college graduates in America in 2017 is tighter than it’s ever been, and it gets more competitive every year. No matter the degree earned, the average college graduate is becoming less likely to find a job in their chosen profession within five years, in some cases even 10 years, after graduation. Given the fact that a four-year college education can cost anywhere from $40,000 to $150,000, this is a troubling fact that is crippling an entire generation of young people looking to enter the workforce.

It’s a frightening and demoralizing situation to be saddled with a debt large enough to buy a small home before the age of 25 with nothing to show for it but an 8 ½ x 11-size piece of onion skin paper with fancy lettering. There was a time when these degrees led straight to high-paying jobs. But that time is quickly waning.

Change is happening on a social level on college campuses, too. A recent article in the Denver Post28 notes that women now outnumber men nearly two to one in college attendance. Women hold nearly 60% of all bachelor degrees, and they account for almost half of all students in law, medical and graduate business programs.

________________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 6-7-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

It’s a great thing and a long time coming that women have reached this level of academic excellence. But it comes amidst a wave of militant feminism that has a high price. By comparison, over the past decade, as the Denver Post notes, close to 30% of male college students have quit during their freshman year. This is a nationwide phenomenon. What gives29?

There is something ugly beyond the increasingly limited economic value of a college education in modern America. And that’s the fact that college isn’t about education anymore. It’s about indoctrination. Colleges in this country are not a place for learning, but are rather factories for cranking out sycophants of leftist ideology. They are surely not the haven for free speech they pretend to be. Look at the walkouts, protests and riots that are now taking place on college campuses sparked by nothing more than diverse opinions that run counter to statist groupthink.

Relationally, college has gotten bad too. James Shelley, director of the Men’s Resource Center at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio, gives voice to one of the real reasons young men don’t want to be on college campuses. These institutions, says Shelley, “welcome young men to college by essentially telling them that they are potential rapists.”

Indeed, incessant repetition30 of the phony one-in-five-women-are-raped statistic isn’t helping. Why would young men subject themselves to such legal jeopardy?

The hostile social environment combined with the extremely limited return on investment of spending money and time in an institution of higher “learning” that no longer offers better employment after graduation makes college a bad idea for a lot of young men. It should come as no surprise that they are dropping out of — or not even bothering to enroll in — these institutions.

The problem this growing segment of emasculated men are experiencing is that there isn’t really a viable alternative outside of college. Society has effectively shamed31 the idea of vocational training and learning a trade as some backwards mindset that no longer suits our young people. Working with your hands has become scorned in a nation that was built by people who once practiced the very trades that we now need most.

The fact is there are not enough tradesmen, or tradeswomen for that matter. The high-end professions that college is supposed to train people for these days are drowning in applicants. There are more people trained for these jobs than the market can bear.

While colleges teach classes on the evils of Western civilization and offer degrees in understanding “Star Wars” and “The Simpsons,” America’s infrastructure is thirsting for people with tangible skills. That’s where opportunity truly is, and where viable income and steady work can be found.

Mike Rowe, TV personality and one of America’s foremost practical thinkers, offers countercultural advice32 that should be considered by America’s young people: Don’t follow your passion. Passion doesn’t pay the bills; opportunity does. Don’t be inspired by the one-percenters who followed their passion and became Oscar- and Grammy-winning performers. Follow opportunity. Find where no one else is meeting a need and fill that need.

Higher education is not a sham. Wanting to learn more about the world is a noble pursuit and young Americans have an opportunity rare in most countries. But education is not a value in its own right. It should lead somewhere. And that place is not a leftist reeducation camp that teaches people to hate each other based on belief or gender. That place should be where you learn a skill or a trade that allows you to make a living and build a future for yourself and for your future family. This country was built by people not afraid to get their hands dirty. That is what truly makes America great.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

WaPo’s Horowitz Conspiracy Piece Ignores Democrat Ties to Radical Left33 — David Horowitz is an open advocate of the Constitution, while George Soros lurks in the shadows to undermine it.
Did CNN Stage Muslims Protesting Terrorism?34 — Questionable footage of a CNN news story emerges that suggests fakery rather than real coverage.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Walter Williams: Democrats' Hoodwinking of Blacks35
Michelle Malkin: YouTube Banned Me, but Not the Hate Imams36
Byron York: Time to Govern, Republicans37

For more, visit Right Opinion38.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Walter Williams: “Today, Democrats use diplomacy to hoodwink blacks. They tell blacks to be against those — such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — who are for school vouchers that enable black parents to get their children out of rotten schools run by Democrats at the National Education Association. Democrats are using black congressmen to go after Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who is a high-profile conservative, champion of law and order, and supporter of President Donald Trump’s. They view Clarke as a threat to Democratic Party interests. Indeed, if Democrats lost just 25 percent of the black vote, they would be in deep political trouble. By the way, none of what I’ve said should be taken as an argument that blacks should rush to become Republicans. I’d like to see the black community acting the way most Japanese and Chinese communities do — not getting into a tizzy over which political party is in power.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow.” —H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Upright: “On Nov. 9, 2016, in the stunned afterglow of Republicans taking the White House and holding both chambers of Congress, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor put it plainly: ‘It is now time for Republicans to govern,’ he said on CNBC. ‘There’ll be no excuses now. And I think the number one focus will be repeal and replacement of Obamacare. I think that’s where they’ll go first.’ Cantor was right, and it’s a reminder Republicans need to hear today, as they return from recess with the first six months of the Trump presidency almost over.” —Byron York

Braying Jenny: “It is really a form of slavery to force women to have children that they cannot afford and then to say that they have to raise them.” —author Margaret Atwood

Demo-gogues: “Clearly [the timing of Trump’s nominating an FBI director] is an effort by the president to try to distract attention from our hearings today and our hearings tomorrow.” —Sen. Mark Warner

Belly laugh of the week: “I don’t have a private jet. And what carbon emissions come from my trips on Southwest Airlines are offset. I live a carbon-free lifestyle, to the maximum extent possible.” —Al Gore

Non Compos Mentis: “When terror attacks happen, I think of the Whos in the Grinch, singing after Xmas is ruined. It isn’t fear/hate that changes him: it’s love.” —author Jodi Picoult

Village Idiots: “If human rights laws get in the way of tackling extremism and terrorism, we will change those laws to keep British people safe.” —British PM Theresa May

Late-night humor: “Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, tweeted that Trump is pulling out of [the Paris climate accord] because he’s jealous of Obama. Then Kaine waited for one of his 25 followers to retweet him.” —Jimmy Fallon

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.