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« on: January 27, 2018, 12:43:58 AM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 1-16-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Jan. 16, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/53472-mid-day-digest
IN TODAY’S EDITION
From global warming to socialism, leftists appropriate MLK for their gain.
A lot of accomplishments could be more if Trump would fill hundreds of positions.
Flake’s comparison of Trump to Stalin is utterly absurd for a number of reasons.
Martha McSally makes for an interesting Senate race in Arizona.
What are U.S. objectives in and with Pakistan? It’s convoluted, to be sure.
Plus our Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.
THE FOUNDATION
“The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all citizens.” —Thomas Jefferson (1816)
IN BRIEF
Leftists Make MLK Whatever They Need Him to Be1
By Nate Jackson
Yesterday was, of course, Martin Luther King Jr. Day2. That means the annual ritual of leftist attempts to culturally appropriate his legacy for their modern political ends. Here are two examples:
First, the NAACP, in its endless efforts at justifying its continued existence, wants to turn King’s legacy toward fighting climate change. “We see climate change as a civil rights issue,” insisted Jacqueline Patterson, head of the NAACP’s environmental and climate justice program. See? Put “justice” in the department or job title, and anything can be used for leftist political gain. Indeed, that’s exactly what Patterson went on to say, noting that ecofascists, er, environmental activists see the climate as an “environmental justice” issue, since “minority and low-income populations are disproportionately affected by global warming.” Patterson is merely taking a cue from Barack Obama’s former EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy, who declared in 2014, “If we want to protect communities of color, we need to protect them from climate change.” What McCarthy and Patterson neglect to inform their audiences is that leftist climate policies disproportionately hurt poor blacks3 due to increased energy prices. But, you know, “justice” or something.
Second, according to4 CNN’s John Blake, MLK wasn’t just an “environmental hero,” he “was a socialist before it was cool.” Wait a minute — socialism is cool? It’s true that King’s associations with communists have been the subject of a lot of disagreement over the years. A 1968 FBI file on King characterized him as a “whole-hearted Marxist who has studied it [Marxism], believes it and agrees with it, but because of his being a minister of religion, does not dare to espouse it publicly,” though one could be forgiven for doubting FBI dossiers. Still, King did say, “The country needs a radical redistribution of wealth,” and “America must move toward a democratic socialism.” He was a socialist, but that’s not why our nation celebrates him.
In any case, Democrats have long denied that King had communist leanings because socialism wasn’t yet “cool.” In the age of Bernie Sanders, however, socialism has enjoyed an unfortunate but real surge of popularity, particularly among ignorant Millennials who know nothing of even the modern horrors of socialism5.
Barack Obama wrote of himself in The Audacity of Hope, “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” Leftists do much the same with Martin Luther King, whose true legacy was not socialism or “environmental justice,” but legitimate and needed racial reconciliation — something they’d now prefer not to have.
Lack of Administrative Picks Is a Thorn in Trump’s Side6
By Jordan Candler
In just a few days, Donald Trump will officially mark one full year in the Oval Office, during which time his impressive list of accomplishments7 has blossomed, with conservative policy reforms and judicial nominations. If there’s one area the president is coming up short, however, it’s in neglecting to fill important administrative posts.
The Daily Signal reports8, “Trump has no nominee for 252 of the 633 key positions requiring Senate confirmation, according to the Partnership for Public Service, which tracks presidential appointments. That’s well behind every predecessor going back to at least President George H.W. Bush, each of whom had the bulk of nominees confirmed by this point in their administration, according to the organization.” To name just a few, key appointments are lacking in the Justice Department, Internal Revenue Service and State Department.
In fairness, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders last month pointed out, “The president has said before he doesn’t think that every single position in the government needs to be filled. He’s going to cut back on some of those positions. We’ve been focused on some of the top priority places and we’re going to continue filling out individuals. But, we’ve also seen a massive slowdown and obstruction by the Democrats.”
Here’s the problem with that argument: Every second that ticks by only exacerbates the issue of the deep state, and it actually detrimentally handcuffs Trump’s broader agenda. Why? Because career politicians will jump at the opportunity to continue fulfilling Barack Obama’s statist agenda, or at least blocking Trump’s. As The Heritage Foundation’s Robert Moffit observes, “If you are going to drain the swamp, you need the people to do it. You either control the federal bureaucracy or the federal bureaucracy controls you.”
In related news, turnover is disproportionately high in the Trump White House. According to a Washington Post analysis9, Trump’s first-year turnover rate sits at 36%, which dwarfs that of previous administrations. For example, of the previous five presidents, the second-highest on the list, Ronald Reagan, had a first-year turnover rate of 17%, while George W. Bush had the lowest at 6%.
Trump is certainly largely to blame for the chaotic atmosphere in the White House, but Steven Bannon, Reince Priebus, Michael Flynn and others hurt themselves and created a lot of their own problems. The bottom line is that Trump needs to get busy filling critical positions. But he also needs to be methodical about it. The wise vetting he deployed to pick Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch should be applied to his entire administration to mitigate turnover and avoid needless distractions.
Top Headlines10
The adolescent boycott: Democrats ramp up efforts to boycott Trump’s State of the Union address (Fox News11)
U.S. military members receive biggest pay bump since 2010 (Fox Business12)
Another leftist-run corporation praises tax cuts (2nd Vote13)
Trump attacks “Dicky Durbin” over “s—thole14” deceit (The Hill15)
Obama achievements could fit in a closet — Move to shut down Obama’s presidential center (Washington Examiner16)
Obama’s administration didn’t follow procedure for checking illegal immigrants’ ties to terrorism (The Washington Free Beacon17)
School district pays gender-confused teen $800,000 after refusing to let her bunk with boys (The Federalist18.)
Navy SEAL battling for U.S. House seat (The Washington Free Beacon19)
NFL’s kneeling comes to abrupt halt: Protesters miss playoffs (The Washington Times20)
Humor: Mass panic erupts as Heaven accidentally sends out rapture alert (The Babylon Bee21)
Policy: The return of earmarks won’t solve congressional irresponsibility (National Review22)
Policy: The surprising truth about income inequality (The Hill23)
For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report24.
FEATURED ANALYSIS
Trump Is Like Stalin? Not Even Close25
By Thomas Gallatin
This Wednesday, President Donald Trump plans to present his much-discussed “Fake News” awards. Trump postponed the presentation last week, tweeting, “The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!”
From the very moment Trump won the election, much of the mainstream media began spearheading the #Resistance effort against his presidency. Recall that much of the MSM believed it had helped Trump win the Republican primary, and in so doing presumed to have provided Hillary Clinton with the easiest opponent to beat. Trump has been feuding with the MSM ever since.
On Monday, retiring26 Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced that he would be giving a speech prior to Trump’s Fake News awards. In released excerpts of his planned speech, Flake states, “It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase ‘enemy of the people,’ that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of ‘annihilating such individuals’ who disagreed with the supreme leader.”
Flake’s assertion that Trump is essentially Stalinist due to using the phrase “enemy of the people” when referencing grossly biased news reporting is simply asinine. Even though this is the age of snowflakes, the fact still remains that hurting people’s feelings is not equivalent to killing (millions of) them. Flake, of course, knows this, but he’s after his 15 minutes of fame — ingratiating himself with the Leftmedia — on the way out the door. |
