The Patriot Post Digest 3-12-2018

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-12-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Mar. 12, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/54686-mid-day-digest

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Warren’s two dubious claims: She’s still Indian and she’s not running in 2020.
Bruce Jenner says it’s hard being a woman. Any other man would be “mansplaining.”
What are the real effect of video game violence?
MAGAnomics are why Trump won, so don’t be surprised if that continues.
Leftists are fools for continuing to preach against the GOP tax cuts.
Plus our Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a state than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.” —Samuel Adams (1775)

IN BRIEF

Iron Eyes Lizzy Is ‘Not Running’ for President1

By Nate Jackson

We’ve long teased Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren over her tenuous claims of Native American ancestry, calling her Sacaja-Warren and Fauxcahontas. Well, here’s a new one that may fit best of all: Iron Eyes Lizzy. Readers of a certain age will recall Iron Eyes Cody, the actor known for portraying Native Americans in numerous Hollywood films, as well as shedding a tear in one of the country’s most well-known television public service announcements, “Keep America Beautiful2.” Well, Ole Iron Eyes was actually Espera Oscar de Corti, an Italian-American pretending to be an Indian — not just in commercials and movies but in real life. His ruse lasted until his half-sister outed him decades later, though he lied about it so long he may have actually convinced himself he was Indian.

So you can see why that behavior fits Warren quite well. As we’ve noted3, Warren has used this supposed ancestry for gain in both her academic and political careers. That continues to this day.

She’s back in the news this weekend after making the rounds to repeat her talking points4 on all the Sunday morning shows. Public service announcement: Warren is not running for president and she will not take a DNA test to prove her ancestral claims. “I’m not running for president,” Warren maintained, though she declined to commit to serving a full six-year Senate term if re-elected this November. Of her supposed heritage, she insisted, “I know who I am because of what my mother and my father told me. … It’s part of who I am and no one’s ever going to take that away.”

Her claims of ancestry and of not running in 2020 are equally believable. Which is to say, not at all. “I am not running for president” just means she hasn’t yet declared her candidacy, but she’ll be beating the class-warfare drums regardless. So just keep an eye out for that Warren 2020 Wigwam near you.

Bruce Jenner Lectures on the Hardships of Womanhood5

By Thomas Gallatin

Last Thursday was International Women’s Day, so what better way to celebrate and recognize the occasion than to have a man explain how difficult life is for women? Evidently, those “woke” folks at CNN thought that was fitting6 and trotted out gender dysphoric Bruce “Caitlyn” Jenner7 to pontificate on his experiences being a “woman.” Any other man would be guilty of “mansplaining.” “My path to womanhood was very different,” Jenner opined, ignoring the fact that he is not a woman. Jenner then blamed society for treating women as “second-class citizens” and for conditioning them to be “emotionally weaker, physically weaker.”

The cognitive dissonance on display in the CNN interview has sadly become the norm across much of America’s mainstream media culture. Not only are cultural practices based upon innate understandings of gender differences actively condemned, biological facts discovered by sound scientific research are ignorantly maligned and rejected as part of the “patriarchy.” Sound thought is replaced with flawed narratives about the right to absolute autonomy of self-identity.

The truth is Jenner, who won Olympic gold as a man, knows no more experientially about what it is to be a woman than does any other man. He is and always will be a man, no matter how deluded he may become in his own mind or how many procedures and drugs mar his body. But the shame for this ridiculous display lies primarily on those cultural leftists who have rejected the reality of the absolute nature of truth, attempting to replace it with their version of mutable “truth.” To the cultural Left, truth is not objective reality that is discovered rather than created, but is subjective and malleable in nature. It is manipulated by those with enough power and influence to condition individuals and society at large to believe in their conclusions. And clearly much of the mainstream media has bought this pernicious lie, all under the guise of seeking “social justice.”

And what may be most ironic about this whole nonsensical display is the fact that it works to belittle and confuse what is meant by the term woman. How in the world does a man claiming to be a woman do anything other than turn the whole reason for recognizing the distinctive nature, essential role and valuable contributions women bring to society on its head? It is cultural madness, or, as Ecclesiastes states, “Meaningless, meaningless says the preacher. Everything is meaningless.”

Top Headlines8

Treasury report: True U.S. government shortfall is $88.9 trillion, an average of $704K per household (PJ Media9)

“Stand down”: How the Obama team blew the response to Russian meddling (Yahoo News10)

Trump pardons sailor who invoked “Clinton defense” in trial (Bloomberg11)

Judge tells Trump to pretend to listen to Twitter haters (Reason12)

Trump tariffs cost five jobs for every single job gained, analysis finds (The Daily Signal13)

After tariffs, Trump to punish China for intellectual property theft (The Washington Free Beacon14)

Xi Jingping cleared to rule indefinitely15 as China officially scraps term limits (The Washington Post16)

WH: Trump won’t meet with Kim Jong-un until actions match the words and rhetoric (CNS News17)

Trump’s plan to combat school shootings includes allowing armed teachers, federal commission, review of FBI tip line (The Washington Times18.)

Baltimore approves spending of $200,000 to pay lawyers to help illegals fight deportations (The Baltimore Sun19)

Policy: Trump agrees to meet with Kim Jong-un; here’s what he needs to do now (The Daily Signal20)

Policy: Minimum income is not a right (American Enterprise Institute21)

For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report22.

FEATURED ANALYSIS
The Effects of Video Game Violence23

By Robin Smith

“The video games, the movies, the Internet stuff, it’s so violent. I look at some of the things he’s watching, and I say, ‘How is that possible?’” Those were President Donald Trump’s thoughts regarding the content his son, 11-year-old Barron, has access to through video games and other entertainment. Last Thursday, Trump held his first meeting with video game executives to discuss what the White House called “violent video-game exposure and the correlation to aggression and desensitization in children” as part of a national response to the Parkland, Florida, school shooting24 and “gun violence25.”

Predictably, representatives from the gaming and entertainment industry gave no ground on the issue. A spokesman for the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Dan Hewitt, spoke definitively: “Like all Americans, we are deeply concerned about the level of gun violence in the United States. Video games are plainly not the issue. Entertainment is distributed and consumed globally, but the U.S. has an exponentially higher level of gun violence than any other nation.”

Echoing the sentiments of other participants in last week’s meeting, which included lawmakers, representatives from the entertainment industry as well as parental rights and media research advocates, Trump responded, “It’s hard to believe that, at least for a percentage of children, maybe it’s a small percentage, that this doesn’t have a negative impact on their thought process. These things are really violent.”

Looking at the issue from the framework of the First Amendment, there is no question that the freedom to choose the type of speech and entertainment we make and consume is protected in America. Trump isn’t saying otherwise. It’s another reminder, however, that with rights come responsibilities. While some research, according to comments made by ESA’s Hewitt, establishes “no connection” between the consumption of violent media and entertainment and violence, there are a few realities that simply cannot be ignored. And a few tough questions need to be answered very honestly.

Is there any real relationship between actual violence and regular exposure to violent video content? What is the impact of gratuitous, graphic violence in entertainment and behavioral change? Would that relationship and that impact be different, say, for a kid who’s already suffering deep sociopathic tendencies?

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-12-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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Ironically, those who assign morality to guns — they’re bad, bad, very bad — are not assigning any morality to violence perpetrated in an immersive experience on a repeated basis as characterized by video games that have the gamer engaged as an active shooter.

During the Obama administration, Congress refused in 2013 to approve $10 million for research assessing any link to violence in the media and that at the hands of individuals with guns. While small studies exist, there are no larger studies to validate either argument.

In 2006, researchers conducted a small study of 44 adolescents randomized to play 30 minutes of either a violent or a non-violent video game, after which the teens were tested with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The MRIs revealed that those exposed to violent video gaming demonstrated less activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain, which are involved in inhibition, concentration and self-control, and more activation in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal. Subjects exposed to a half-hour of gaming violence showed a different brain response than those who played a non-violent yet stimulating game.

But, even aside from the tiny sample size, correlation does not mean causation. Many things correlate with others but are not the cause. Smoking is frequently correlated with those who are also alcoholics, but smoking is not the cause of alcoholism.

Similarly, for a very large population, one event, the exposure to violence in video gaming or movies, does not cause mass shootings or gun violence. However, there is a correlation in some individuals who’ve been involved in these mass shootings with their active participation in first-person shooter video games.

Why do some men and women who fight in the brutal conflict of war return home to lead very normal, healthy lives, while others battle the unseen wounds of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that is tied to an alarmingly high rate of suicide among combat veterans? We saw the horrific results of that this weekend, when a veteran killed three nurses and himself26. Not every veteran has PTSD. But recent data shows that up to 31% of veterans will experience this lingering impact of the chronic exposure to violence and stress with an escalated risk of suicide that is seen among this subgroup of veterans.

As a society, we have accepted the role of a traumatic experience, such as a rape, a natural disaster or severe injury or repeated exposures to conflict and harm as contributing factors to PTSD. We recognize the need to provide mental health intervention and treatment. So why do we utterly reject the possibility that regular exposure to first-person shooter games may negatively impact a similar subgroup of the population, especially children and teenagers?

From a larger perspective, why do we accept as normal the notion of killing as entertainment? The good guys and gals going after the bad guys and gals is a universal plot line, but what’s normal or entertaining about severed limbs, decapitation, disembowelment, torture or any type of excessive use of force?

Through these repeated exposures, our society is desensitized to the horrific. It’s called conditioning. Individuals become conditioned to view a situation or action as normal by the games we play and permit our children to play and the movies we view.

The old adage that when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail offers a bit of application. When your day very often includes an immersive experience that involves a violent response, whether in role play or in reality, your conditioning may change your perspective.

So, no. Video games do not cause mass shootings, just like guns do not cause mass shootings. However, when the mind is engaged with corresponding actions in the pursuit to win a game that rewards death and destruction, a correlation is certainly a possibility. We can’t say “always,” but neither can we say “never.”

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Dems & Leftmedia Fools to Preach Against GOP Tax Cuts29 — Pelosi backtracks on “crumbs,” while the NYT admits faulty calculations on an article against tax cuts.
MAGAnomics30 — Trump’s tariffs — targeted and negotiable — represent a classic shot across the globalist bow.
Video: What Is Happening to Men?31 — Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and psychology professor Jordan Peterson debut a new “Men in America” series.
Video: I Like It, I Love It32 — Reason’s Remy takes on the Washington establishment’s addiction to more spending.
Video: Do You Have Haters?33 — YouTuber Chad Prather says, “It seems that everyone these days has haters online and in their lives.”

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Marvin J. Folkertsma: Is National Socialism America’s Future?34
Todd Starnes: Hollywood Admits It Hates Heartland Values35
Ryan T. Anderson: Sex Reassignment Doesn’t Work. Here Is the Evidence.36
Tony Perkins: Planned Profiting: Abortion Biz Rakes in Taxpayer Cash37
Jeff Jacoby: China’s Corporate Tools38
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion39.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Marvin J. Folkertsma: “If a doppelgänger of Joseph Goebbels, the ‘poison dwarf’ propaganda minister of the Third Reich, were somehow to leap into the 21st century and embark on a Tocqueville-like tour of his country’s former enemy, probably he would be stunned by developments thought to have perished with the Nazis’ defeat in 1945. Of course, technological progress would dazzle any time traveler from that era, though Goebbels might huff that German science predicated many advances — but professional interests likely would dominate his observations. Some things would make him laugh: micro-aggressions, safe spaces, counseling for sensitive egos — are you kidding me? Others would evoke comparisons to practices more familiar to him, such as America’s huge ‘fake news’ industry — i.e., media lies — and Planned Parenthood’s annual slaughter of innocents. So much to see, so much to evaluate, so much to compare! Which of course is the whole point, especially because our fictional observer likely would agree with Leo Strauss, a German-American who in 1953 expressed astonishment about how a country ‘defeated on the battlefield … deprived its conquerors … of victory by imposing on them the yoke of its own thought.’ This yoke, of course, being National Socialist ideology.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.”

Federalism: “For [teachers] who are capable, [being armed] is one solution that can and should be considered. … Every state and every community is going to address this issue in a different way.” —Education Secretary Betsy DeVos

Broken clock… “If we could avoid a nuclear confrontation with North Korea, that would be a wonderful achievement. It’s good we’re going to be talking to them.” —Jimmy Carter (That depends on the conditions and results, of course.)

Huh? “Donald Trump, again, he just makes a decision on tariffs because of Hope Hicks, and he makes a decision on North Korea because of Stormy Daniels. And people can deny that all they want, but if you’re doing that, you’re in the tank for Donald Trump, because it’s painfully obvious that that is what’s going on.” —MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough

Alpha Jackass: “I have had two children; I was old enough, when I became pregnant, that it made sense to do the testing for Down syndrome. … I can say without hesitation that … I would have terminated those pregnancies had the testing come back positive. … The evidence is clear that most women confronted with the same unhappy alternative would make the same decision.” —The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus in a piece titled, “I would’ve aborted a fetus with Down syndrome. Women need that right.”

Non Compos Mentis: “Hanging on and hoping for the best is certainly one approach to rescuing the best of liberalism from its discontents, but my answer is admittedly more ambitious: It’s time to give socialism a try.” —The Washington Post’s Elizabeth Bruenig

And last… “Obama restores trade to Cuba, lifts sanctions: HERO! Obama trades 5 terrorists to Taliban: HERO! Obama gives Iran billions & nuke deal: HERO! Trump meets Un: I CAN’T BELIEVE POTUS IS DEALING WITH A MURDERER WHO OPPRESSES HIS OWN PEOPLE.” —Twitter satirist @hale_razor

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