The Patriot Post Digest 6-26-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 6-26-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Jun. 26, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

A charity rating group backs off its decidedly uncharitable rating system.
Michael Brown’s death ignited Black Lives Matter. Ferguson decide what his was worth.
With Mueller’s investigation becoming more politicized, Trump can fight back.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“There are certain social principles in human nature, from which we may draw the most solid conclusions with respect to the conduct of individuals and of communities. We love our families more than our neighbors; we love our neighbors more than our countrymen in general. The human affections, like solar heat, lose their intensity as they depart from the centre.” —Alexander Hamilton (1788.)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

GuideStar’s Slanderous ‘Hate Group’ Designation1

The nation’s leading and supposedly “neutral” informational source on U.S. charitable groups, GuideStar, has found itself in hot water for adopting the leftist organization Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) label of “hate group” into its own designation delimiters. Not surprisingly, several conservative nonprofits objected and sent a letter to GuideStar pointing out the biased nature of the SPLC’s slanderous designation. The letter, addressed to GuideStar CEO Jacob Harold and signed by 41 conservative leaders, states in part:

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, write to express our strong disagreement with GuideStar’s newly implemented policy that labels 46 American organizations as “hate groups.” Your designations are based on determinations made by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a hard-left activist organization. As such, SPLC’s aggressive political agenda pervades the construction of its “hate group” listing.

Among the conservative charitable organizations listed by GuideStar as “hate groups” is the Family Research Council (FRC). (As a side note, a leftist wacko attacked FRC headquarters in 2012 intending “to kill as many people as possible” because the SPLC designated FRC as a “hate group.”) FRC President Tony Perkins, whose columns2 are a regular feature on our site, points to what was likely the motivating factor behind GuideStar’s recent controversial decision — politics. It turns out that the CEO of GuideStar is quite the leftist activist himself. Perkins notes that Harold has worked for both Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network. He has also written for the Huffington Post and he hosted an NARAL Pro-Choice DC men’s event in 2014. His wife is a pro-abortion advocate and he marched in the “Women’s March” this past January, where he held a sign protesting Donald Trump. And he has donated to Democrats. Needless to say, Harold is hardly the poster boy for objectivity.

Fortunately, GuideStar saw the light. Sort of. GuideStar released a statement3 on its website declaring that it is backing off its controversial use of the SPLC’s ‘hate group’ designation, at least for the immediate future. The statement reads in part, “We have decided to remove the SPLC annotations from these 46 organizations for the time being. This change will be implemented during the week of June 26, 2017. In the meantime, we will make this information available to any user on request.” Apparently, the negative media attention and the thought of losing its credibility created a little needed introspection.

Brown, Castile Families Win Race Bait Lotto4

In an effort to put the whole debacle in the past, the City of Ferguson, Missouri, settled a civil suit brought over the death of Michael Brown5. The $1.5 million settlement will be paid out by the city’s insurance company and split between Brown’s parents. Recall that the grand jury found no legitimate reason to indict Officer Darren Wilson on any charges, and even Barack Obama’s Justice Department found nothing wrong with Wilson’s actions. But just like that, Brown’s parents won the latest round of the legal lotto. The same thing happened Monday morning in the Minneapolis suburb where Philando Castile was killed by Officer Jeronimo Yanez during a traffic stop last summer. Castile’s mother was awarded $3 million.

Like the payouts for the deaths of Freddie Gray6 and Eric Garner7, the settlements in these cases of alleged police brutality have never been about justice.

These are now the third and fourth settlements of lawsuits for a death in which a city caved to the mob, even though no injustice was ever proven. (We’ll grant that Castile’s case is different and easily the most sympathetic, but a jury acquitted Yanez last week.) In each of these incidents law enforcement was found to have acted legally, yet by agreeing to these settlements these cities willingly perpetuate the fabrication that a culture of institutional racism exists within law enforcement. It’s important to note that Ferguson birthed the Black Lives Matter movement, which is allegedly in support of blacks. However, it’s a movement based on a lie, and its proponents have led destructive protests and riots costing millions in property damage around the country, often to the very communities they claim to represent. Baltimore, New York City and now Ferguson and St. Anthony are helping to set a precedent where if violent, rioting mobs drum up enough frenzy, then money will flow soon after to make the issue go away.

Top Headlines8

Trump signs VA reform bill. (The Hill9)

Trump appoints 19 ambassadors. (The Washington Times10)

Military chiefs seek delay in allowing transgender enlistment. (CBS News11)

CNN imposing new rules after posting fake Trump/Russia stories. (The Hill12)

Data shows media covered Gabby Giffords shooting twice as much as Steve Scalise shooting. (The Federalist13)

California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon shelves single-payer health care bill, calling it “woefully incomplete.” (Los Angeles Times14)

41% of counties could have only one insurer participating on ObamaCare exchanges. (The Washington Free Beacon15)

SCOTUS News:

Supreme Court revives Trump travel ban, further hearing scheduled for October. (The Washington Times16)

Court will hear case on religious rights of business owners when it comes to same-sex weddings. (Fox News17)

Court sides with Missouri church in major church-state decision over use of public funds. (The Washington Post18.)

Court won’t rule on carrying guns in public. (USA Today19)

Policy: Understanding the Senate health care bill. (Health Affairs20)

Policy: Germany is learning the cost of Merkel’s big heart. (The Washington Times21)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report22.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Time to Appoint a Second Special Counsel23

By Arnold Ahlert

John C. Eastman, Founding Director24 of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, and a man who has represented 17 parties before the Supreme Court, has some advice for President Donald Trump: fight fire with fire.

“Perhaps it is time to make good on that old pledge to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the Clinton ‘matters’ after all,” he writes25. “And while you’re at it, add in referrals to the grand jury for the contempt of Congress committed by the IRS’s Lois Lerner and former Attorney General Eric Holder, an FBI investigation of the destruction of government documents and servers in the midst of the IRS scandal, an investigation into alleged perjury committed by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in testimony about those matters given under oath to Congress, an ‘obstruction of justice’ investigation against former Attorney General Eric Holder and others (and related perjury charges against Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez) for allegedly ordering that an egregious voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party be dropped shortly before a default judgment was about to be entered in the government’s favor, etc., etc., etc.”

Eastman’s ire is driven by the appointment of Robert Mueller and the broad latitude he has been given to conduct his investigation. Latitude Eastman likens to a “writ of assistance” and the power to exercise a “general warrant” against Trump, his family, his business associates and his campaign and transition teams, “to see if any crime can be found (or worse, manufactured by luring someone into making a conflicting statement at some point),” he explains.

“That is the very kind of thing our Fourth Amendment was adopted to prevent,” he adds. “Indeed, the issuance of general warrants and writs of assistance is quite arguably the spark that ignited America’s war for independence.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 6-26-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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Like many others, including President Trump himself, Eastman agrees the unconstitutional issuance of a search warrant absent not only a crime but probable cause is the essence of a “witch hunt.”

Former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy also offered26 “fight fire with fire” advice to the Trump administration. First, he believes the DOJ should appoint a special counsel to “investigate the potential abuse of government surveillance powers for the purposes of political spying and leaks to the media,” he writes. “The investigation should scrutinize all unmasking of Americans to determine whether it conformed to court-ordered restrictions.”

That may be a heavy lift. Last week it was revealed27 that “career officials” at the National Security Council are “slow walking” subpoenaed records of former National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s unmasking efforts. Mid-level NSC managers asserted those records were transferred to Obama’s Presidential Library and could “remain closed to the public for five years” based on the Presidential Records Act28.

The discovery of that transfer was made when Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information request rejected by NSC Access Management Director John Powers on May 23. The House Intelligence Committee issued its subpoena approximately a week later. Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said, “Having to subpoena this information indicates the insanity of the situation when the nation’s top intelligence agencies are withholding information — basic information — that could bring to an end the controversy raging across this country.”

Insanity — or wholesale corruption?

Thus, McCarthy’s additional suggestion, that “appropriate committees of Congress should convene hearings on whether the Obama Justice Department sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, and whether it colluded with the Clinton campaign toward that end,” is problematic, if the evidence is buried in Obama’s Presidential Library. Fitton asserts Trump can access that evidence “because they are executive branch records.”

That remains to be seen. In the meantime, McCarthy’s final suggestion, a thorough investigation of the Clintons’ potential collusion with Russia, is an idea whose time has come.

“Those who counseled President Trump to not prosecute Hillary Clinton said a Clinton investigation would distract the White House from furthering Trump’s positive agenda,” writes29 Karin McQuillan at American Thinker. “That was a strong argument — then. But as Professor Eastman points out, it backfired. Perhaps Trump’s civility was taken as a sign of weakness. Hillary launched the lie that the Russians made her lose the election. Democrats instigated this phony Russian collusion investigation of Trump, precisely in an effort to distract the White House and halt the Trump agenda. The best defense is to return to offense.”

Not offense. Rule of Law. Thus, when Eastman speaks about engendering a second investigation as a means of getting Democrats to “accept olive branches of civility,” he completely misses the mark. Americans are disgusted by ruling class horse-trading, whereby tainted politicians are completely insulated from the criminal justice standards that apply to everyone else.

They also resent a seemingly endless Narrative promulgated by a thoroughly corrupt Leftmedia, whereby an investigation of “Russian collusion,” that has allegedly30 morphed into an “obstruction of justice” investigation focused solely on Trump and his associates — while Obama administration officials seemingly remain hermetically sealed off from scrutiny.

How sealed off? Fusion GPS, which promulgated the ridiculous story provided by former British spy Christopher Steele about Trump hiring hookers to urinate on a bed the Obamas slept in at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton is “stonewalling congressional investigators trying to learn more about its connections to the Democratic Party,” New York Post columnist Paul Sperry reveals31.

Incredibly, the FBI, who allegedly paid Steele $50,000 to help corroborate Trump’s takedown, is also refusing to cooperate, a disturbing reality that Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley warns “raises substantial questions about the independence” of the bureau’s Trump investigation.

So by all means, fight fire with fire, Mr. President. Because the massive corruption32 and collusion33 evinced by members of the Obama administration and the “deep state” leakers, all invested in removing you from office — even if it takes committing felonies to do — can be summed up in three words:

“Target rich environment.”

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Red vs. Blue — Data Shows the Value of Right Households34 — Given the prominence of sex in culture, three recent stories provide an interesting opportunity for discourse about intercourse.
The USS Scalise?35 — No, it hasn’t happened, but it’s no more ridiculous than some real stories.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Peggy Noonan: Rage Is All the Rage, and It’s Dangerous36
Ken Blackwell: Regime Change in Iran Appears Increasingly Attainable37
E. Calvin Beisner: You’re ‘Still In’? Too Bad for You. We’re Out.38

For more, visit Right Opinion39.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Peggy Noonan: “We have been seeing a generation of media figures cratering under the historical pressure of Donald Trump. He really is powerful. They’re losing their heads. Now would be a good time to regain them. They have been making the whole political scene lower, grubbier. They are showing the young what otherwise estimable adults do under pressure, which is lose their equilibrium, their knowledge of themselves as public figures, as therefore examples — tone setters. … Rage and sanctimony always spread like a virus, and become stronger with each iteration. And it’s no good, no excuse, to say Trump did it first, he lowered the tone, it’s his fault. Your response to his low character is to lower your own character? He talks bad so you do? You let him destabilize you like this? You are making a testimony to his power. So many of our media figures need at this point to be reminded: You belong to something. It’s called: us. Do your part, take it down some notches, cool it. We have responsibilities to each other.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “The other day, someone told me the difference between a democracy and a people’s democracy. It’s the same difference between a jacket and a straitjacket.”

Upright: “I can summarize the health care cost problem in one sentence… The reason capitalism doesn’t work in health care is the consumer is disconnected from the product.” —Sen. Rand Paul

Dezinformatsiya: “How Trump and Republicans may get away with hurting millions of people.” —headline from The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent

Non Compos Mentis: “This 125 million [chronically ill] people as of today will be as high as 140 million by 2020. And in 2020, they are going to be looking for somebody to give them medication and health care. And what this bill does is sends them all to death.” —Montel Williams

Braying Jackass: “Senate Republicans want to gut Medicaid — throwing children and families who rely on it to the wolves. … The Republicans’ health care plan will literally cost American lives.” —Sen. Richard Blumenthal

Alpha Jackass, part I: “[Steve Scalise’s] whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to [expletive] kick people off [expletive] health care. I’m glad he got shot. I wish he was [expletive] dead.” —now-ousted Nebraska state Demo official Phil Montag

Alpha Jackass, part II: “Every morning I wake up and in the seconds before I turn my phone on to see what the latest news is, I have this boundless sense of optimism and hope that this is the day that [Trump] is going to have a massive stroke, and, you know, be carted out of the White House on a gurney.” —Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon

Earth to Hillary: “You lose an election, you don’t blame other people, you blame yourself.” —Sen. Chuck Schumer

Late-night humor: “The Senate health care bill … would cut a tax on indoor tanning. Which is the biggest proof so far that Trump was actually working on the bill.” —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.