The Patriot Post Digest 4-17-2018

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-17-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Apr. 17, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/55401-mid-day-digest

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Today is Income Redistribution Day. Here are a few facts for you.
Comey’s “Higher Loyalty” was to Hillary Clinton.
A new AP U.S. history textbook slanders Donald Trump and his supporters.
Is America’s tax system fair? Nope, but not how leftists insist.
Plus our Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.” —John Marshall (1819)

FEATURED ANALYSIS
Tips for Income Redistribution Day1

By Lewis Morris

It’s that time of year again. Hard-working Americans are reminded just how big a bite Uncle Sam takes out of their paychecks. The government acts like it’s doing the public a favor by giving back some of the money people overpaid in taxes during the year. And statists grouse about how the rich and corporations are gaming the tax system and not paying their fair share.

Happy Income Redistribution Day!

Thanks to the Demo-gogues, the false narrative that the rich don’t pay their fair share is engrained into the American psyche. Leftists have been pushing this myth for many years in an effort to justify even higher taxes on upper-income earners and corporations to pay for entitlement programs that buy votes.

The next time you hear someone rant about the rich not paying their fair share, throw some facts at them.

Every year, the Tax Foundation releases its Facts and Figures report2, a collection of state and federal tax data that compares tax rates across the country and breaks down just how much people are actually paying in taxes. The most updated information covers the 2015 tax year.

The top 1% of taxpayers earned 21% of all adjusted gross income in 2015, and paid 39% of all income taxes. Their average tax rate was 27.1%, almost twice the rate for all taxpayers nationwide. This group of 1.4 million people is carrying a big chunk of the tax burden for the 141 million taxpayers nationwide.

Looking further down, the top 10% paid 71% of all income taxes, and the top 50% paid 97% of all income taxes. The bottom 50% of taxpayers earned 11.3% of all income, but paid only 2.8% of the taxes. Fair share, indeed.

Leftists don’t seek fairness in the tax system, though. That’s just a phrase that fits nicely on a bumper sticker, to be rolled out whenever the issue of tax cuts arises. Democrats operate under the assumption that all the money belongs to the government. That is what they are saying when they use terms like “tax rebate” or phrases like “the government cannot afford tax cuts.”

It is this same backwards mentality that helped spark the American Revolution in the first place. Democrats might want to refresh their memory of history3. Otherwise, they’re doomed to remain on the wrong side of it.

The debate over last year’s tax cuts saw leftists pull out all the stops in their perpetual class war. They claimed that the money didn’t exist to pay for the cuts and that the government has a revenue problem. In real life, the government has a spending problem4, but that didn’t stop the media from spreading Nancy Pelosi’s message that the tax cuts would lead to the end of the world5.

When it became obvious that middle-income earners were going to enjoy $1,000 bonuses, millionaire Pelosi shrugged off the bonuses as “crumbs.” When more than 200 American companies announced salary increases, new hiring and major expansions thanks directly to the tax cuts, Democrats called the changes insignificant — and they look foolish6 doing it.

This is the last year that people will be filing their taxes under the Obama rates. That means we have yet to see the full impact of the tax cuts on the economy. But the new individual and corporate rates are already having a positive effect, which is bad news for “progressives.” Like a virus, they only seem to prosper when things are going badly.

What a pleasure it is to see them disappointed.

Comey’s Higher Loyalty Was to Hillary Clinton7

By Mark Alexander

The airwaves are full of Leftmedia spin8, ad nauseam, praising FBI Director James Comey’s9 defamatory and petulant perspective on Donald Trump10 from his Higher Loyalty11 book tour.

Clearly, Comey had a “higher loyalty” to Hillary Clinton12 than to his oath “to support and defend13” our Constitution. The interviews reveal more about his abject and reprehensible bias14 while FBI director than about anything Trump has done. Across the board, political observers conclude there was no “bombshell” in Comey’s book.

But what is clear is that Comey’s bias set the tone for Barack Obama’s15 deep state FBI operatives to influence the 2016 election in Clinton’s favor. Though Comey has been condemned for his “on again, off again” Clinton investigation review just prior to the election, in fact, as we noted at the time, Comey used the window after absentee voting had ended and before the general election vote to exonerate Clinton16.

Of course, it was also Comey’s political corruption that led to the investigation into Trump17 after his election in order to disable his presidency.

What follows are a few of what I believe were the most revealing Comey comments from his ABC interview with Bill Clinton’s18 former communications director, George Stephanopoulos.

When asked, “You write that President Trump is ‘unethical,’ ‘untethered to the truth.’ Is Donald Trump unfit to be president?” Comey insisted, “I think [Trump] is morally unfit to be president.”

Indeed, Trump’s moral failings are considerable. We have noted those failings19 since he first declared his candidacy, and he does not help his case by engaging in sophomoric name-calling20.

However, it is equally clear that Comey was ethically unfit to be FBI director. He was grossly biased and negligent in his exoneration of Clinton, even though he claimed she was “grossly negligent21,” and his investigation of Trump was based on fake information funded by Democrats.

Comey was, and remains, a “Trump hater,” much as his fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe22 and senior investigators Peter Strzok and Lisa Page23, all of whom colluded in an effort to ensure Clinton would win in 2016.

Perhaps the best indication of Comey’s personal bias was his repeated reference to being greatly influenced by his wife (as was McCabe). According to Comey: “My wife and girls marched in the Women’s March the day after Trump’s inauguration. My four daughters, probably all five of my kids, wanted Hillary Clinton to be president. I know my amazing spouse did.”

All the while, he was, ostensibly, directing the investigations of Clinton’s communications coverup24 and the corrupt Clinton Foundation25 activities while she was Obama’s secretary of state26.

Stephanopoulos asked about the fact that Comey leaked27 the fake Trump dossier to the media, knowing full well it was funded by Trump opposition28, and he then asked Comey about Trump’s reference to him as “the leaker.” Comey replied, “Look, it’s true. … I gave an unclassified memo to my friend and asked him to give it to a reporter. That is entirely appropriate.” (Only in Comey’s deluded justification.)

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The Patriot Post Digest 4-17-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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When asked if he should have advised Trump that the FBI knew the real collusion with Russia was perpetrated by Clinton and the Democrat Party29, the delusional Comey responded, “No.”

He also concluded it was “unlikely” Trump colluded with Russians to swing the election and went on to offer a lot of political speculation about Trump — just as he did a lot of speculating in 2016 as FBI director, when he should’ve been dealing objectively with facts.

When asked if Trump should be impeached, Comey replied, “I think impeaching and removing Donald Trump from office would let the American people off the hook and have something happen indirectly that I believe they’re duty-bound to do directly.”

In other words, Comey knows there was no impeachable offense in connection with “Russian collusion,” and since he could not swing the election to Clinton in 2016, Americans are “duty-bound” to defeat him in 2020.

All that having been said, as I have noted before, James Comey is a case study of what happens to once-right-minded citizens who don’t properly maintain their political immunity against Potomac swamp fever. They devolve through metamorphosis into bureaucratic political hacks, and when they lead an agency as powerful as the FBI, they are a formidable threat to the future of Liberty30.

He has become a sad caricature of a once-reputable and admirable FBI director — one who is demonstrably “untethered to the truth.”

I should reiterate here that the disgraceful corruption of FBI leadership has cast a long shadow on the 12,484 special agents and 2,950 intelligence analysts in the FBI, most of whom steadfastly abide by their constitutional oaths and live up to the FBI motto: Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. Indeed, most FBI agents, whose reputations are being sullied by the corrupt actions of a few high-ranking officials, are deeply offended both personally and professionally by that corruption.

Top Headlines31

New Report: How social media giants Facebook, Twitter, YouTube suppress conservative speech (CNS News32)

Trump’s war powers to be limited under new Senate resolution (The Washington Times33)

Trump asking Arab nations to replace U.S. military in Syria after defeat of ISIS (The Hill34)

Trump puts the brakes on new Russian sanctions, reversing Haley’s announcement (The Washington Post35)

Ex-CIA chief says Obama rejected cyber action against Russia for election meddling (The Washington Free Beacon36)

China engaged in massive theft of U.S. technology, analysts reveal (Fox News37)

The Supreme Court just handed the Trump administration a loss on immigration — and Gorsuch was the tie-breaking vote (Business Insider38.)

California agreed to send National Guard troops to the border but won’t let them do anything (Hot Air39)

Laura Ingraham’s audience 20% higher than before boycott (The Daily Wire40)

Evil Christians oppress secular New Yorkers with delicious chicken sandwiches (The Babylon Bee41)

Policy: Trump’s pardon of Scooter Libby was the right thing to do (City Journal42)

Policy: Some thoughts, facts and charts for Tax Day (American Enterprise Institute43)

For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report44.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

AP U.S. History Textbook Promotes Leftist Bias49 — Textbook blames political differences in America on racism, bigotry and sexism.
Video: Is America’s Tax System Fair?50 — Is the U.S. tax system fair? Are the rich paying too little or too much? What about the middle and lower class?

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Hans von Spakovsky: Will the FBI Apply the Same Rules Against McCabe That It Applies to All of Us?51
Caleb Verbois: Whither Congress?52
Cal Thomas: Welfare Reform Again53
Stephen Moore: The Trillion-Dollar Myth54
Dennis Prager: The New York Times Best-Seller List: Another Reason Americans Don’t Trust the Media55
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion56.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Hans von Spakovsky: “It’s official: McCabe lied. The new report from the Justice Department inspector general concludes that Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director, lied to then-FBI Director James Comey, to other FBI agents, and to officials of the Office of the Inspector General. Some of those lies came when McCabe was under oath. What did he lie about? Unauthorized disclosures about the FBI’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation. The information was leaked to a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. The inspector general has completed his work. The question now is, will the Justice Department prosecute McCabe? Or, put another way: Will the FBI and the Justice Department follow the same rules they apply to members of the public who lie to a federal agent? Remember, the only charge brought against Gen. Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor to President Donald Trump, was lying to the FBI, a felony. And Flynn wasn’t even under oath when he supposedly lied to the FBI. Given that recent history, failure to prosecute McCabe would tell the American people that officers of the Justice Department and the FBI think they are above the law.”

SHORT CUTS

Upright: “Do not fall for identity politics. … Identity politics I think was a craft of the Left. … We should stop playing identity politics. I believe in inclusive aspirational politics that brings people together.” —House Speaker Paul Ryan

The BIG Lie: “Women are dying because we are losing elections.” —DNC Deputy Chief Keith Ellison

Alpha Jackass: “People will rot in hell for besmirching the reputation, the integrity and the professional history of [Comey and Mueller].” —Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT)

Fake news: “I’m so furious I can barely write this email. President Trump is inches away from firing Robert Mueller and derailing the entire Russia investigation. … I need a MASSIVE 24-hour fundraising surge to send [Republicans] a powerful message: If they let Trump fire Mueller, we’ll kick each and EVERY one of them out of office.” —a Nancy Pelosi fundraising email deceptively titled, “Mueller FIRED”

Someone’s not telling the truth: “Throughout the [Clinton email probe] process I did what I always do: rise above politics and uphold the law. At no time did I ever discuss any aspect of the investigation with anyone from the Clinton campaign or the DNC. I have known James Comey almost 30 years. Throughout his time as director we spoke regularly about some of the most sensitive issues in law enforcement and national security. If he had any concerns regarding the email investigation, classified or not, he had ample opportunities to raise them with me both privately and in meetings. He never did.” —ex-Attorney General Loretta Lynch

Late-night humor: “Most Americans said they still like Facebook, but they don’t trust it. So basically, people feel the same way about Facebook as they do about the McRib.” —Jimmy Fallon

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