The Patriot Post Digest 1-18-2018

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The Patriot Post Digest 1-18-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Jan. 18, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/53547-mid-day-digest

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Trump’s long-awaited “Fake News Awards” are here, and the Leftmedia flips out.
Flake and McCain hammer Trump for his rhetoric, but they totally miss the point.
“Armageddon” update: Apple brings home billions thanks to tax reform.
The March for Life and our nation’s cultural attitude toward life.
Coastal ecofascists take on Big Oil, but there’s a great way to fight back.
Extreme poverty in California is tied to the state’s income redistribution.
Plus our Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“Newspapers … serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.” —Thomas Jefferson (1802)

IN BRIEF

Media Flips as Trump Awards Fake News1

By Thomas Gallatin

And the award for the number one fake news story of the year goes to … The New York Times’ Paul Krugman for his claim that the economy would never recover from President Donald Trump’s election victory. Wednesday evening, Trump released his much anticipated “Fake News Awards” on the GOP website2, which quickly crashed due to high traffic volume3. Clearly, a lot of Americans were eager to learn who had earned the dubious trophies. In announcing his awards, Trump also tweeted, “Despite some very corrupt and dishonest media coverage, there are many great reporters I respect and lots of GOOD NEWS for the American people to be proud of!”

Trump highlighted 11 fake news stories that ranged from Twitter posts by reporters and misleading video edits to news stories from leading television and print media. After the release, The Washington Post sought to refute Trump’s claims via a “fact check4” article in which they made the laughable argument that since the news stories were later corrected, they weren’t fake news. Front page news stories that are later corrected on page 12 has long been the practice of these major media outlets. If it’s front-page news and the paper gets it wrong, does not the retraction and/or correction deserve the same front-page coverage? That is, if news outlets are indeed concerned about reporting the truth rather than pushing a biased narrative. The Post, Jeff Bezos’s Beltway tabloid, is obviously more invested in the narrative.

Trump also noted that over 90% of MSM coverage of his presidency last year was negative. This statistic is supported by a new Media Research Center report5, which found that not only was the vast majority of news coverage of Trump negative, he was also the most-covered story, with the major networks devoting approximately 34% of all their evening news airtime to him. In other words, he had a lot of source material for fake news.

Finally, there’s what the MSM essentially missed or, rather, simply ignored — the significant accomplishments6 of Trump’s first year. Very little coverage time, much less credit or recognition, was given to real progress, be it in the growing economy, the passage of massive tax cuts, success in war on terror with the Islamic State nearly decimated, the significant decrease in illegal immigration, or Trump’s impressive foreign policy achievements. In fact, only three months ever saw positive news coverage of Trump rise above 10%, and during those three months the negative coverage never dipped below 85%. Can anyone really blame Trump for calling out the Leftmedia’s bias and fake news?

Flake and McCain Utterly Miss the Point7

The two Republican senators from Arizona have evidently decided to tag team in their efforts to belittle President Donald Trump while playing for affection from the mainstream media. Jeff Flake delivered a blistering speech8 from the Senate floor Wednesday, eviscerating Trump for his rhetoric about the press. John McCain took to the pages of The Washington Post with his own condemnatory opinion piece9 making the same argument. While both make some fair criticisms of the president’s temperament, they’re also completely missing the point.

Following the Democrat and MSM narrative, Flake and McCain worry that Trump is endangering the freedom of the press with his combative rhetoric and “fake news” awards. But Trump, who the Leftmedia regularly and repeatedly label as everything from a racist to mentally unstable, is clearly not the one responsible for “discrediting” the free press. Journalists have only themselves to blame for that.

As for the senators’ idea that Trump is echoing Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, or providing justification for despots around the world to persecute journalists, we’d counter, as we did Tuesday10, that it wasn’t Trump who ordered the Justice Department to go after journalists and their sources. That was Barack Obama’s M.O. Where is Flake’s speech or McCain’s op-ed blasting Obama for his real threat to a free press?

Moreover, a news flash: This “fake news” phenomenon among tyrants has been around for a lot longer than Trump, as both senators well know. It used to go by the term “propaganda.” The truth is, if Trump had never uttered the phrase “fake news,” it would not change the long-running practice of totalitarian regimes suppressing journalistic freedom.

Both senators should be ashamed of doing nothing more than ingratiating themselves to the Democrat/Media Complex. Yet they seem to view the MSM as having the authority to dictate how Americans are supposed to think on culture, politics and government. Theirs is not a plea for freedom or truthfulness, but rather a call for Trump to surrender to the dictates of the PC police.  No wonder McCain lost in 2008 and Flake is headed for the exit this year.

It’s not that we necessarily disagree with Flake or McCain that Trump’s sometimes reckless approach presents some problems, but it’s what they don’t say that is the most egregious error. It is the media’s collusion with the Democrat Party11, not Trump’s rhetoric, that presents the greatest threat to Liberty.

Top Headlines12

Trump effect: It looks like Apple is bringing back home nearly all of its $250 billion in foreign cash (CNBC13)

U.S. poised to shatter records for oil production, gas exports (The Daily Signal14)

Hungry for pork, Republicans and Democrats agree to link arms for return to earmarks (The Washington Times15)

Betsy DeVos: Common Core is dead at U.S. Department of Education (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution16)

House Intel Committee Democrats started the false “Russia on Facebook” story (The Federalist17)

Incoming New Jersey governor wants to create an entire agency to protect illegal immigrants (The Daily Signal18.)

Democrats score a big win in Wisconsin special election (Axios19)

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch — movie theater attendance hits 24-year low (The Wrap20)

Number of women involved in certain shooting sports increased nearly 200% over last two years (The Washington Free Beacon21)

Humor: Army’s new “Holistic Medics” treat gunshot wounds with crystals, essential oils (Duffel Blog22)

Policy: The new threat children face 45 years after Roe v. Wade (The Daily Signal23)

Policy: A work requirement for Medicaid isn’t “cruel” (Bloomberg View24)

For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report25.

FEATURED ANALYSIS
March for Life: Replacing a Culture of Violence With a Culture of Life26

By Caroline Camden Lewis

On Jan. 22, 2018, our country will commemorate 45 years since the grossly infamous Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade27, the landmark case that legalized abortion in the U.S. by overturning all state laws on the subject. Federalism wasn’t the only casualty. Since that decision, nearly 60 million children in the U.S. have been denied the right to take their first breath. This accounts for almost 10 times the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust.

March for Life28 began in 1974, one year after Roe v. Wade, as a way for people to gather in the nation’s capital to support the rights of pre-born children. This year, the March will take place on Friday, Jan. 19 and will feature Speaker Paul Ryan, Pam Tebow (mother of quarterback Tim Tebow, whom she spared from abortion), former NFL player Matt Birk, and others. With the theme “Love Saves Lives,” the March will focus on love, the love that says “yes” to the lives of the pre-born. While the abortion industry unjustly separates the “inconvenient” from the “worthy,” love accepts each individual life as a unique creation with value, dignity and worth. This love ultimately acts as the force by which a culture of death transforms into a culture of life.

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The Patriot Post Digest 1-18-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Some might argue that abortion is a personal choice that does not affect the broader culture. Yet a culture that accepts the arbitrary removal of innocent people from its community does not value human life at all. Taken to its logical end, the abortion rationale makes all lives of the weak the “personal choice” of the strong. This philosophically empty concept makes other types of violence seem “acceptable” to those who perpetrate it.

Consider the pervasive violence and utter disregard for life in our culture. Just last month, four teens murdered a driver by throwing sandbags29 onto the interstate from an overpass. To them, murder was recreation. Last spring, a Cleveland man murdered an elderly man and posted it30 on Facebook. To him, murder was entertainment. Any rational person ought to ask, “What in the world is going on?”

Examining our deeply violent culture, can we not see that it could be related to the acceptance of violence against our own — innocent citizens only weeks away from being born? When we accept the indiscriminate violence of abortion, are we not also implicitly condoning the indiscriminate violence of these other situations?

While our country was founded on the premise that “all are created equal,” abortion says, “All are not created equal. Some are created more worthy, some less worthy.” How can we be the land of opportunity when we deny the basic opportunity of life to the youngest members of society? This right is denied without a conviction of crime, due process or trial, but simply because society calls it a “right” to rid itself of those deemed inconvenient or whom they determine cannot contribute.

Our Founders believed the essential truth that because we have inherent value and dignity, we have the right to self-rule, to create a government where the power is in the people, not the elite. They believed that those in power only remain in power because of the “consent” of the people. If we believe in this American model of the “consent of the governed,” we must realize that we don’t have to consent to Planned Parenthood’s reign of terror. The strong winning over the weak is the paradigm of dictatorships, not free nations. It is time to acknowledge Planned Parenthood’s elitism, which continues through their suppression of truth and exploitation of women for profit. To them, women’s “rights” are the rights of abortion clinics to keep profiting from exploitation, crisis, deception and death.

March for Life 2018 reminds us of the need to embrace all people as equally valuable. The anniversary of Roe v. Wade provides opportunity to reflect on the connection between violence toward innocent pre-born children and the systemic violence in our culture. This week, as we remember both the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.31 and the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, may we remember the value of the human person and how upholding that value and dignity affects all other areas of culture, life and policy.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

‘Armageddon’ Update: Apple to Repatriate Billions, Hire Thousands and Bonus Workers36 — Tech giant will bring $250 billion home and pay $38 billion in taxes on it, as well as spread the wealth to workers.
Turning the Tables on Radical Environmentalists37 — New York and California aim to punish energy companies for climate change. Here’s how to fight back.
Extreme California Poverty Is Tied to Unbounded Welfare38 — If mitigating poverty was simply about doling out financial assistance, California should be golden.
Video: Our Corruption Coma39 — Remember when the world made sense and movies showed us evil just long enough to be vanquished? What happened?

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Mona Charen: What Is the Real Message of #MeToo?40
Victor Davis Hanson: The Trillion-Dollar Chameleon41
Ed Feulner: The Cosmetology Cops42
Hans von Spakovsky: Judge Upholds Alabama Voter ID Law in Win for Common Sense43
Marvin J. Folkertsma: Abraham Lincoln on the Suicide of America44
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion45.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Victor Davis Hanson: “Today, five companies — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) — have a collective worth of more than $3 trillion. Yet such transnational companies remain mostly exempt from the sort of regulations and accountability faced by most other industries. Major corporations understandably fear product liability laws. Oil companies are hectored by class-action lawsuits and headline-grabbing attorneys badgering them to pay up for supposed climate change brought on by commuters filling up each week. Tobacco companies have paid out billions of dollars due to cigarettes’ contribution to lung cancer. Pharmaceutical corporations are often forced to pay millions in fines when their prescription drugs cause dangerous side effects. Yet every year, nearly a half-million Americans are injured in traffic accidents due to distracted driving involving a cellphone. No one knows how many millions of people worldwide are addicted to the apps on their smartphones — a habit that can be harder to break than an opiate addiction and can leave addicted users in a similar zombie-like condition. Yet unlike Big Pharma, Big Oil and Big Tobacco, Big Tech is rarely held responsible for the deleterious effects of its products on millions the world over. … High tech has become a brilliant chameleon — invisible in plain sight.”

SHORT CUTS

Observations: “I think we are seeing something much larger than pushback against male predation. What we are seeing in the broader culture now is something that has been evident on college campuses for some time: Women are unhappy about the state of sex and romance. They feel pressured, they feel disrespected, and they are fighting back. Sadly, our culture has so exalted sexual license that the only form of sexual conduct women are permitted to protest is coercion. It should not be surprising, then, that the terms ‘assault’ and ‘rape’ have been expanded beyond reasonable bounds.” —Mona Charen

Upright: “The overly simplified ‘good [sex] or rape’ formula suddenly turns into an overly complicated calculus, and the only way for a man to really know whether he has committed rape or not is to ask his partner the next day. And even then, she may not make the determination until the following week, or next month after she sees you on TV winning a Golden Globe. And suddenly we have fixed the problem of sex in modern society by turning it into a criminal act.” —Matt Walsh

For the record: “Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea. What China is helping us with, Russia is denting. In other words, Russia is making up for some of what China is doing.” —Donald Trump

Braying Jackass: “[Trump] attacks any check on his power, because he would like to be like Duterte, Assad, Putin, Stalin. That’s his goal; he’s an autocrat.” —Democrat strategist Paul Begala

The real agenda: “We are slowly but surely ushering in sacred matriarchy.” —actress Shailene Woodley on the #MeToo movement

And last… “The Democrats treat black people like the wife who will iron your shirt for a date with your mistress. They know they don’t have to do anything to keep winning 90 percent of the black vote, so they’ve dedicated themselves to bringing in millions of Latin Americans who will vote for them — and also do their gardening.” —Ann Coulter

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. We also humbly ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the spirit of Liberty in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis

Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher