The Patriot Post Digest 4-9-2018

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-9-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Apr. 9, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/55238-mid-day-digest

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Federal judge upholds ban on AR-15s for lousy reasons.
Another Democrat is outed as having a racist past.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg is set to testify in Congress about data practices.
Iowa charts a course for dealing with the utter disaster of ObamaCare.
Bullies lack fathers, as well as immigration and gun videos.
Plus our Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.” —James Madison (1788.)

IN BRIEF

Judge Okays Infringing the Second Amendment1

By Nate Jackson

The AR-15 is not protected by the Second Amendment, according to a federal court ruling Friday. In his decision in Worman v. Baker, U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young declared, “Assault weapons and LCMs [large capacity magazines] are not within the scope of the personal right to ‘bear arms’ under the Second Amendment.” Furthermore, he argued, “Because the undisputed facts convincingly demonstrate AR-15s and LCMs are most useful in military service, they are beyond the scope of the Second Amendment … and may be banned.” He insisted, “The test is not the AR-15’s present day popularity but whether it is a weapon ‘most useful in military service.’” You know what else was “most useful in military service”? The single-shot musket, at the time the Bill of Rights was crafted. It’s pathetically laughable to assert that the Founders meant what Young contends. Quite the contrary, the usefulness and popularity of the AR-15 mean that it is the epitome of what the Founders intended to protect.

Moreover, Young even acknowledged the difference between the AR-15 and the M-16, if only to dismiss it: “The AR-15 design is almost identical to the M16, except for the mode of firing [emphasis added].” Young should have realized that semiautomatic vs. fully automatic makes all the difference. The fact that these two rifles look alike does not trump the fact that they function very differently. The deliberate leftist conflation of the two, simply due to some entirely cosmetic features, is solely for the purpose of undermining Second Amendment rights. We suggest Young take the time to learn the error of his ways2.

Young concluded by boasting of his ruling, “Justice Scalia would be proud.” Like Scalia, Young is an appointee of Ronald Reagan, but Young’s claim is outrageous, and if Scalia were alive to correct him, he would hammer this mendacious twisting3 of his words.

As for Massachusetts’ law, bans on popular semiautomatic rifles with certain cosmetic features that have nothing to do with lethality are merely for show; they do not “save lives” as the state’s attorney general insisted after the ruling. Instead, they rob citizens of a tool useful in actually exercising their constitutional right.

Eventually, the Supreme Court is going to have to stop avoiding gun cases4 and settle this matter.

DNC’s Black Caucus Chair Touts Her Black Panther Past5

By Thomas Gallatin

Once again, Democrats have exposed their racist instincts — from recent revelations of Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison (MN) and his connections6 to anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to now Virgie Rollins, chairwoman of the DNC’s Black Caucus. A video7 has surfaced from a recent meeting of the Black Caucus in which Rollins is heard unapologetically touting herself as a former member the Black Panther Party.

Rollins states, “I’m a former Black Panther, and when we talk about the movement, as a former Black Panther with Angela Davis and Kathleen Cleaver, it was important … to make people understand it was about the movement for us. Educating us. We got out and we taught kids, we fed the hungry, and we clothed the naked.” Ironically, Rollins also invoked Martin Luther King Jr., ignoring the fact that he was opposed to the Black Panthers and their call for violent revolution, as well as their overt anti-white racism. Democrats have thoroughly killed his dream8.

Rollins appears to have invoked her past as a means of demonstrating her credibility to caucus members, which may be the most disturbing aspect of the video. Rollins says, “We’ve got to be out here in masses in the midterms if we want to change this country because it’s all about changing the Congress now. [Democrats] cannot win without black folks and women, so it’s up to us.” Later she adds, “We’ve got to turn back to the revolution because it’s important. They depend on us.” She isn’t wrong — Democrats depend on perpetuating the “victim” status of blacks, women and immigrants, in particular. But Democrats don’t do anything to help such people, because their victimhood is far more valuable.

No member of the Congressional White Caucus was available for comment.

Top Headlines9

Trump signs memo ordering end to “catch and release” practices (The Hill10)

London’s mayor declares “knife control” policies to stop record murder rates11 (The Daily Wire12)

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s key female advisor arrested for firearm possession (Free Beacon13)

South Carolina secession bill introduced over gun rights (The Washington Times14)

Trump threatens “Animal Assad,” Putin over alleged chemical attack in Syria (CBS News15)

Xi takes center stage to defend China’s trade from Trump barrage (Bloomberg16)

Trade appeasement: China puppet North Korea17 confirms talks on denuclearization (Bloomberg18.)

Tip of the iceberg — Facebook suspends another data analytics firm after CNBC discovers it was using tactics like Cambridge Analytica (CNBC19)

Feds seize Backpage website, charge founder after human-trafficking20 investigation (USA Today21)

Humor: Movement that demands forceful silencing of all opposing viewpoints unsure why nation so divided (The Babylon Bee22)

Policy: Understanding the hidden $1.1 trillion welfare system and how to reform it (The Heritage Foundation23)

Policy: Trade wars have no winners, only badly damaged survivors (Investor’s Business Daily24)

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

FEATURED ANALYSIS
Facebook — Congressional Bluster or the Real Deal?26

By Robin Smith

It’s most probable that the average person would reject the offer to provide thousands of businesses, organizations or interests with minute-by-minute feedback on purchases, personal interests and habits, daily movement, civic engagement, or even details about your travel, family, health and voting. Yet those who engage in social media, as revealed by the recent data woes of Facebook27, are consenting to just that.

Consumers enjoy using Facebook to connect with friends and family, or the ease of entering a search item into Google’s platform to easily access information, but those actions simultaneously trigger a cascade of activity to create a digital profile of you and your interests. Your browsing history, the time you spend on certain website pages and the type of content accessed are very valuable data points for retailers and political organizations in efforts to win spending and your votes.

Simply put, you are the product being sought by marketers to add to their data sets for the purpose of any number of transactions and sales.

This week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is set to appear before Congress. Americans have been made aware that an estimated 87 million users have had their personal data “scraped,” or used without permission and outside the terms of use of Facebook’s user agreement. And Facebook acknowledged last week that it’s likely most of its two billion worldwide users have had data collected by “malicious actors.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-9-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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This latest flap isn’t the first time the social media giant has been less than careful about the private information of its users, and it’s not the first time it’s been disciplined for its failures to live up to its user agreements. In 2011, an eight-count complaint was issued by the Federal Trade Commission against the social media behemoth. The charges, as described28 on the FTC website, claim that Facebook “deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.” In response to the FTC claims that Facebook violated federal law, a settlement was reached that the social media company would take “several steps to make sure it lives up to its promises in the future” that would include “giving consumers clear and prominent notice and obtaining consumers’ express consent before their information is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established.”

Of course, in 2012, when Barack Obama’s political machine, Organizing for Action, was using personal data harvested from Facebook users to micro-target voters with messages that were personal and matched their interests, the headlines trumpeted the genius of the plan. Not only did the information captured and utilized by Obama’s data-savvy campaign relate to those who were personally interested in his re-election, but personal data about their friends was obtained and used as well.

Tomorrow, when Zuckerberg faces congressional questions, will Americans see their representative body of government fight for their privacy, or will lawmakers spout partisan talking points to protect their own? Will Facebook, as is being predicted, face record fines that could exceed $1 billion for violating the terms of the 2011 consent decree to address misuse of data?

It’s an election year and it’s pretty safe to say the soaring speeches of indignation during Tuesday’s hearing will consume most of the allotted time.

There’s already been an early indication that the largest social media platform company in the world would rather keep its lengthy user agreements written by a slew of attorneys that force a Facebook user to either purchase some type of subscription service to opt out of the data sweeping or know how to manipulate settings to circumvent the existing structure. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, offered in an NBC interview last week, “We have different forms of opt-out. … We don’t have an opt-out at the highest level. That would be a paid product.”

Maddening. Your data is not yours. Facebook’s assumption is that once a consumer engages, users abandon all rights to their personal information that may be linked to an Internet address and the content posted in messages that are believed to be private.

The issue of our day is actually about the democratization of our data. Who owns it? How should interested parties access our personal data? Should we charge those seeking our data rather than pay to have our privacy protected?

Remain focused on the true issue involved in this Facebook regulatory situation. Consumers in a surveillance economy need to be protected, not merely exist as the product.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Another Crack in the ObamaCare Wall31 — Iowa is offering some alternatives for citizens priced out of ObamaCare. Leftists hate it.
Bullying Problem Linked to Lack of Fathers32 — Statistics show that the increasing problem of bullying is tied directly to the lack of fathers in the home.
Video: NC Man Defends Americans’ Right to Bear Arms33 — He let it be known he’s had enough of being blamed, and he’s had enough of our rights being attacked.
Video: Trump Sends Troops to the Border34 — Why does the president need to send troops to the southern border? Because illegal immigration is invasion by another name.
Video: How Building a Border Wall Changed San Diego35 — How did the region go from one of the busiest sectors for illegal border crossings to one of the most secure?
Video: Trey Gowdy Has Had It With the Swamp36 — VICE News interviewed the departing “hyper partisan” congressman in part to make the GOP look bad.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Jeff Jacoby: The Concocted Uproar Over ‘Privatizing’ the VA37
Burt Prelutsky: The Least Great Generation38
Hans von Spakovsky: Here’s Hoping John Paul Stevens Continues to Enjoy Retirement39
David P. Goldman: How to Meet the Strategic Challenge Posed by China40
Tony Perkins: Avengers Fans Marvel at Director’s Hate41
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion42.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Burt Prelutsky: “Although it’s played for laughs, we have all seen the interviews on TV when collegians are unable to identify their state’s two senators, to figure out which country had to be defeated before Americans could form their own nation, in what century the Civil War took place or even the length of a presidential term. We laugh, but we should be crying. Because they grew up in the digital age, they even have a hard time telling time if limited to a clock with a big hand and a little hand. But even more troubling than their basic ignorance is their arrogance, which we have all seen on full display with the recent anti-gun demonstrations. Thousands of youngsters who have never even bothered to read the Constitution have shown up at venues around the country and on TV to lecture their elders on the danger of guns in the hands of law-abiding people. They are so incapable of thought, they never even pause to wonder if gun-free zones might not be an overwhelming temptation to the demented among us who are out to bag their limit of innocent victims. … Because they are whizzes when it comes to computers and phones that do everything but cook their meals and do their laundry, they regard themselves as superior to those who managed to not only drive stick-shift cars but to repair them. The fact that they grew up using these modern tools has somehow convinced them that they’re as smart as the brainiacs who invented them. It would be like you or I thinking we were the equal of Thomas Alva Edison because we’d mastered turning on a light.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Self-defence is a part of the law of nature; nor can it be denied the community, even against the king himself.” —John Locke (1632-1704)

Braying Jenny: “[The Obama White House] was like having the ‘good parent’ at home. The responsible parent, the one who told you to eat your carrots and go to bed on time. And now we have the other parent. We thought it’d feel fun — maybe it feels fun for now because we can eat candy all day and stay up late and not follow the rules.” —Michelle Obama

Braying Jackass: “We are seeing a divide in this country that is as significant as when we had slave states and anti-slavery states. This rural-urban divide — people in rural areas of Colorado and across the country feel like the urban areas have just left them behind and don’t care.” —Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper

The BIG Lie: “What I’m telling you is the only way [Louis] Farrakhan gets in the news is if somebody tries to say, ‘Oh, this black person whose whole life is dedicated to human rights met him or saw him or was in a room with him.’ It’s a smear, man. … The Black Caucus in particular has been targeted with this smear. The Black Caucus has fought for justice more than any other caucus in the United States Congress, period, and that’s who is being questioned about whether we really stand against hatred. It’s offensive.” —DNC Vice-Chairman Rep. Keith Ellison

Non Compos Mentis: “No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife. Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law.” —London Mayor Sadiq Khan on his city’s recent spike in murders11 (“I carry a knife everywhere I go and I find dozens of uses for it, none of which include murdering people.” —Matt Walsh)

And last… “Britain used to be the most powerful empire in the world. Now they’re terrified of pocketknives. How the mighty have fallen.” —Matt Walsh

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