The Patriot Post Digest 8-16-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 8-16-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Aug. 16, 2017 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/50811

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Leftists exploit the awful violence in Charlottesville to remove Confederate monuments.
The Leftmedia will tell you exactly what to think of Trump’s press conference.
Contra Black Lives Matter’s founder, free speech is still constitutionally protected.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Progressives Use Violence to Whitewash History1

By Louis DeBroux

The awful violence this past weekend in Charlottesville is the inevitable culmination of the Left’s goal of achieving the complete eradication of opposing viewpoints. Whitewashing history2 (pardon the pun) and engaging in political violence are tools to that end.

As the Dallas Morning News3 observantly noted, “History is not easily compartmentalized. It isn’t simply right versus wrong, black versus white, or blue versus gray. But there’s an entire crowd of folks who want to do just that because they believe it is all those things, and most egregiously, they believe there is an individual right for all to go through life unoffended.”

Dr. Lee Cheek, senior fellow of the Alexander Hamilton Institute4, concurred, noting, “The events in Charlottesville have no connection to understanding the political traditions of the American South, and everything to do with battles among professional ideologues without any attachment or knowledge of the historical situation.”

Millions of Southerners are proud of their heritage for reasons that have nothing to do with slavery. They revere Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who stated in 1856, five years before the commencement of the War Between the States, “Slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil in any country.” Lee is heralded as a brilliant military strategist who served America faithfully5 in the Mexican War and as Superintendent of West Point. However, when called upon by President Abraham Lincoln to lead Union forces against the seceding South, he declined, incapable of bearing arms against his family, friends and home state. He accepted the commission as commander of Confederate forces in order to defend his beloved state of Virginia. Following the war, Lee worked tirelessly to convince his fellow Southerners to seek peace and reconciliation.

None of this matters to the Left, though. There is no understanding of the complexities of history, no appreciation for context. Slavery has existed throughout human history, regardless of color or nationality. In fact, there are more people enslaved worldwide today than ever before, including slavery practiced by Muslims6. Mohammad owned slaves. One wonders if American progressives will now call for banning all things Islamic.

Indeed, how far will this go? Historical monuments of the Confederacy are being removed in Memphis, Lexington, Baltimore, New Orleans and elsewhere to appease angry leftists. These fascists even desecrated an Atlanta monument dedicated to unity and reconciliation7.

Violent leftists have rioted in recent years in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Chicago, Ferguson, Charlotte, Berkeley, DC, Oakland and other cities, destroying businesses, setting cars on fire, and dragging people from their cars and beating them8, declaring their right to do so because of past and current “injustices” — such as hearing words they don’t like.

As detestable as the KKK and white supremacists are, they have a right to speak and to peaceably assemble. Our First Amendment was written specifically to protect unpopular speech, and we show our own intolerance by silencing those with whom we disagree. The violence in Charlottesville would not likely have occurred had not the leftist agitators shown up looking to pick a fight, though the murderous Nazi thug is obviously responsible for his own actions.

So again we ask, how far9 does this go?

Do we eliminate all monuments to Democrat/progressive hero Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who opposed anti-lynching legislation, turned a blind eye to the Nazi eradication of Jews, and imprisoned 100,000 Japanese-Americans? What about progressive icon and racist Woodrow Wilson, who re-segregated the federal workforce?

Progressives have already declared war on Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, who owned slaves but sought to prohibit slavery in the newly formed nation. They now call for taking down the Jefferson Memorial10.

Even Lincoln, author of the Emancipation Proclamation, is not immune to leftist hatred. The Lincoln Memorial was desecrated11 Tuesday. Is that because Lincoln, a staunch opponent of slavery, was willing to save it in order to preserve the Union, or because he also believed in the superiority of the white race12?

If we truly want to rid our nation of its shameful history regarding racism, let’s start by abolishing the racist Democrat Party13. After all, it was the Democrats who waged war to preserve slavery, founded the KKK, enacted Jim Crow laws, and fought against Republican efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act.

Democrat President Andrew Jackson owned slaves and signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

It was Harry Truman who wrote to his wife, “I think one man is just as good as another so long as he’s not a n—er or a Chinaman.”

It was the Democrat Party that praised Senator and former KKK Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd until his death a few years ago, a man who filibustered the Civil Rights Act for 14 hours. It was Lyndon Johnson, a virulent racist14 but a political pragmatist15, who told two Southern Democrat governors his signing of the Civil Rights Act would “have those n—ers voting Democrat for 200 years.” And it’s Johnson’s “Great Society16” that has yielded today’s urban poverty plantations17, where blacks slaughter other blacks without too much notice from the Leftmedia.

What about Bill Clinton, whining of the upstart Obama, “A few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags”? Or the absolute devotion of Democrats to Planned Parenthood18, founded by eugenicist Margaret Sanger for the express purpose of exterminating blacks through abortion and sterilization? According to Tuskegee University, the KKK lynched 3,446 blacks in 86 years. Planned Parenthood is a white supremacist’s dream, killing more blacks in two weeks than the KKK killed in a century. And the Democrat Party fights to ensure that $500 million a year in taxpayer funds is funneled to Planned Parenthood to kill all of those black babies.

Surely we could at least agree to remove the Seattle monument to Vladimir Lenin? Anyone? Anyone?

How far do we go? Are we willing to engage in violence and oppression of opposing viewpoints? If so, then Charlottesville will only be the beginning.

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Don’t Let the Media Tell You What to Think19

At a press conference Tuesday, President Donald Trump responded to questions from reporters about the violent and deadly riot that transpired in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, and he again leveled blame on both white racists and the “alt-left.” Naturally, “reporters” and politicians on both sides of the aisle raced to the microphones to offer their statements condemning Trump’s words. This is becoming par for the course. The Leftmedia tells Americans how to think; no nuance or caveat allowed. You either express your absolute hatred of neo-Nazi white supremacists or you are one. And if you’re a Republican, you are one either way20, they say.

We in our humble shop have been more than willing to call out Trump for foolish things he has said21, but we find ourselves more often than not having to push back against and correct the mainstream media narrative. These pontificators — even some conservatives — have become so biased and hostile against Trump that they’re unable to accurately and objectively report on what he says. It appears now more so than ever that the MSM’s primary objective is to instruct Americans on what to think and not to report the news and trust Americans to freely come to their own conclusions. For the MSM, propaganda has replaced reporting.

The MSM’s practice has been to intentionally conflate conservatives with white supremacists, and more specifically to tacitly suggest that anyone who voted for Trump is a closet racist. Secondly, the MSM has inferred that Trump, by defending the right of white supremacist groups to express their speech via protests, must secretly be in agreement with their views, irrespective of his repeated rejection of those views.

Here are a few of Trump’s statements from Tuesday’s press conference; decide for yourself what he said:

“What about the alt-left that came charging in at the, as you say, the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt? Let me ask you this: What about the fact that they came charging with clubs in the hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do.”

“You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent, and nobody wants to say that. But I’ll say it right now.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 8-16-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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“I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all those people were neo-Nazis. Believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.”

“This week it’s Robert E. Lee. I notice that Stonewall Jackson’s [statue is] coming down. I wonder, is George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You really do have to ask yourself, when does it stop?”

“I think there’s blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there’s blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it, and you [reporters] don’t have any doubt about it, either. And if you reported it accurately, you would say it.”

“You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people — on both sides. … You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue, and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”

That last statement — “fine people on both sides” — was problematic in that it was easy to take out of context. But what Trump meant is where he ended up — that decent people come down on both sides of the statue debate. It was not decent people dominating either protest. His muddling of the point doesn’t invalidate it. In any case, watching the press conference or reading all of Trump’s remarks leaves one with a very different perspective than reading the Leftmedia’s cherry-picked quotes. And that’s their intent.

No, the First Amendment Is Not Limited by ‘Hate Speech’22

In the aftermath of Charlottesville’s antifa vs. alt-right riots23, the mainstream media24 is, predictably, using the violence to feed the political narrative that all Donald Trump supporters are tacit defenders20 of white supremacy and racism. While the narrative is nothing new, it seems to have picked up steam due to the murder of a woman in the protest crowd by a sociopath from Ohio. Shamefully, the MSM exploited the murder to call into question the ACLU-defended25 First Amendment rights to freedom of speech — including ugly speech.

One of the Left’s favorite hobby horses is calling for the limiting of free speech it finds offensive, and leftists would love to have the power to silence speech they disagree with by labeling it “hate speech.” The trouble is the Constitution does not recognize this limit to Americans’ right to free speech. Still, that doesn’t stop leftists from claiming it does. A recent example emerges from an MSNBC interview of Patrisse Cullors, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter — which, one might argue, is a black supremacist group.

Cullors was asked to explain the distinction between the BLM protesters and the white supremacist protesters who were clashing in Charlottesville. Cullors responds by claiming that BLM’s message is about seeking equality while the white supremacists’ is “hate speech.” Not a surprising response, but she then flat-out lies, stating — without any pushback from the MSNBC host — that “hate speech” is not protected by the First Amendment. The truth is that “hate speech” is protected, because for the U.S. Constitution that caveat simply does not exist. Time and again the Supreme Court has ruled broadly in favor of Americans’ right to free speech. Just because one person or group may find certain speech to be offensive and reprehensible, they do not have the right to call for the government to silence someone else. This is the entire essence of the freedom of speech.

Top Headlines26

Women charge past men in U.S. job market as economy lumbers on. (Bloomberg27)

Feds collect record income and payroll taxes through July. (CNS News28.)

Trump names Hope Hicks as White House communications director. (Washington Examiner29)

Trump-endorsed immigration bill would save taxpayers trillions. (The Daily Signal30)

Faith leaders urge Secretary Tillerson to save religious minorities from ISIL31. (The Washington Free Beacon32)

The three-step argument the Left makes to justify violence against conservative speakers (The Daily Signal33)

CBO: Eliminating cost-sharing reduction payments will increase premiums by 20%. (The Washington Free Beacon34)

NRA endorses Ed Gillespie over Ralph Northam in Virginia race. (Washington Times35)

Moore and Strange head to Alabama Senate runoff. (Fox News36)

Curtis wins Republican primary in Utah, favored to replace Chaffetz. (The Washington Times37)

Policy: How to break Silicon Valley’s anti-free-speech monopoly. (National Review38.)

Policy: The decline of Big Labor. (Real Clear Policy39)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report40.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

What Was Unmasking and How Far Did It Go?41 — Clapper expanded it at Obama’s behest, and Rice, Power and Rhodes all went to town.
Iran Is Following in North Korea’s Footsteps42 — The decades-long policy of appeasement has metastasized into a dual nuclear menace.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Star Parker: Trump Is Right: Bigotry, Violence ‘on Many Sides’43
Michelle Malkin: Where Is the Corporate Disavowal of Black Lives Matter?44
Hans von Spakovsky & Tiffany Bates: Initiated Under Obama, a Plan for Cleaning Voter Rolls Is Now ‘Radical’45

For more, visit Right Opinion46.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Star Parker: “British writer and theologian G.K. Chesterton observed, ‘It is hatred that unites people — while love is always individual.’ The use of hatred to mobilize has a long and bloody history. We should understand why it works so well. It taps into human weakness. It exploits the unwillingness of individuals to take responsibility for their own lives, to courageously confront life’s ambiguities and inconsistencies, and still move forward constructively. It’s so much easier to blame someone else. This is what racism is about. Speaking to the horrible incident in Charlottesville, President Donald Trump condemned the ‘egregious display of bigotry and violence’ on ‘many sides’ that’s ‘been going on for a long time in our country.’ … Trump is right. The use of hate to blame others, the refusal to take personal responsibility for one’s life, is going on and has been going on in our nation ‘for a long time’ on ‘many sides.’ Being honest about this does not justify the vile white supremacist violence and murder in Charlottesville. But to claim that these distorted individuals are the exclusive locus of bigotry in America does not help our cause.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance… We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flout the central teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule.” —Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968.)

Observations: “Last November, when 150 — 150 — ‘alt-Right’ Nazi types attended a conference in DC, the media sent 150 people to cover them. The event, which had been going on for years without much notice, received coverage from nearly every major outlet. … Coverage not only skews our understanding of the alt-right’s size, it empowers them. … So the media will keep giving racists outsized coverage.” —David Harsanyi

For the record: “Other groups [opposing the alt-right faction] began amassing along the street and in the park. Gradually, the crowd sizes increased along with aggressiveness and hostility of attendees toward one another. … We did have mutually combating individuals in the crowd.” —Charlottesville police chief Al Thomas

Race bait: “[America] is not the land of the free and the home of the brave, where opportunity and prosperity are available to all.” —Rep. Cedric Richmond, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (The chairman of the Congressional WHITE Caucus was not available for comment.)

“Hate speech, which is what we’re seeing coming out of white nationalist groups, is not protected under the First Amendment rights.” —Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors

And last… “The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement demanding that ‘every street, every school, every flag, and every public memorial honoring those who took up arms in defense of white supremacy and slavery’ be removed or have its name changed. That’s an interesting position for CAIR to take since it would require that every mosque in America be shut down. Mosques are dedicated to the teachings of Muhammad and Muhammad owned slaves. … Also joining the fray is Planned Parenthood, which tweeted, ‘#StandWithCharlottesville against racism & hate in your community.’ This is coming from an organization founded by Margaret Sanger, who was a disgusting eugenicist. Her purpose in founding Planned Parenthood was to weed out ‘less desirable’ populations.” —Gary Bauer

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.