The Patriot Post Digest 7-23-2018

________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 7-23-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
_______________________________

The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Jul. 23, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/57280-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?” —Patrick Henry (1775)

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Yet more proof that the FBI essentially relied on Clinton to investigate Trump.
Hypocrisy alert: Hillary Clinton defends an ambassador.
Why immigration is an increasingly hot political potato.
Unelected bureaucrats accountable to no one can “get back” at the president?
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

IN BRIEF
DOJ’s FISA Application Abuse Further Confirmed1

Thomas Gallatin

Over the weekend, the Justice Department finally released a 412-page highly redacted version of the FBI’s application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant. The warrant, granted in October 2016, gave the FBI authorization to wiretap then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s former foreign policy adviser Carter Page as part of its Russia investigation. Back in February2 of this year, both the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee released their findings on the FBI’s handling of the FISA application, concluding that the FBI had misled3 the court over the legitimacy of the infamous Christopher Steele dossier. Furthermore, the FBI relied almost exclusively upon the dossier as justification in seeking the FISA warrant, as well as for three subsequent extensions of the original warrant.

This latest document release serves to confirm4 what Republicans and specifically Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) have long been arguing — that leadership within Barack Obama’s Justice Department abused its authority in order to justify spying on a political opponent. None of this is new news since the House and Senate released their memos earlier this year, but now the actual FISA application’s details are public and better fill in the picture.

What new details have come to light? First, there is no question that the DOJ and FBI relied on the unverified Steele dossier in obtaining the FISA warrant. Second, it now appears that not only did Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC pay Steele to compile the dossier5 but that “Source #1” — Steele — “has been compensated … by the FBI.” How much and for what specific service has been redacted. Third, it is confirmed that the FBI relied heavily on hearsay and Steele’s reputation and did not establish the reliability of his “sub-sources.” Fourth, the DOJ used multiple news stories that had in turn sourced their reporting from Steele himself in seeking further evidence to support its warrant application. Fifth, no probable cause is established in the FISA application. While a theory is proposed, no supporting evidence is offered in support of the theory. The application states that the FBI “believes that Russian Government’s [interference] efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with Trump.”

Finally, as Margot Cleveland of The Federalist notes6, “The DOJ effectively criminalized GOP foreign policy” by using “leaked information from internal GOP platform debates as ‘evidence’ of collusion.” Cleveland continued, “Also disconcerting is the DOJ’s reliance on Trump’s ‘conciliatory words’ toward Russia in conflict with GOP insiders to justify spying on the Trump campaign — in effect criminalizing foreign policy differences concerning Ukraine.”

Andrew McCarthy adds, “Now that we can see it all in black and white — mostly black, as they are heavily redacted — it is crystal clear that the Steele dossier, an unverified Clinton-campaign product, was the driving force behind the Trump-Russia investigation.”

This is the real scandal that should be dominating news media headlines rather two weeks of MSM talkingheads endlessly running to the fainting couch over what Trump said, appeared to say, or didn’t say about Russia and its election meddling.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/57274-dojs-fisa-application-abuse-further-confirmed

Hypocrisy Alert: Hillary Defends an Ambassador7

Nate Jackson

Hillary Clinton, who left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans to die in the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi8 in 2012, slammed President Donald Trump for what she perceived as failing to defend a U.S. diplomat. Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul “is a patriot who has spent his career standing up for America,” Clinton tweeted. “To see the White House even hesitate to defend a diplomat is deeply troubling.”

So what’s she talking about? According to9 The Daily Caller, McFaul “was among the group of American officials that Russia sought to question in connection with a fraudulent scheme to launder hundreds of millions of dollars out of Russia to help fund Hillary Clinton’s campaign.” No wonder Clinton wants to defend him, but the Trump administration has been noncommittal.

As we noted in setting up the story, the irony and hypocrisy is thick. Former U.S. Army Ranger and CIA security contractor Kris Paronto, a survivor of the Benghazi attack, was livid. “Are you f'n kidding me @HillaryClinton ?!!!” he tweeted in response. “You left Ambassador Stevens and us to die in Benghazi then spewed lie after lie to the family members of my dead teammates and to the world to cover it up and now you have the nerve to talk about defending diplomats?! You are disgusting!”

Indeed, Clinton, along with Barack Obama and his other lackeys, insisted for weeks that the Benghazi attack was due to a YouTube video rather than a coordinated anti-U.S. jihadi attack. Why the lies? To cover up8 for Clinton’s malfeasance in denying security upgrades. And that was after she and Obama made a hash out of Libya10 along with the rest of the Middle East. The Clinton modus operandi for 30 years has been to attack opponents for what they themselves do, so this may be rank hypocrisy but we’re not the least bit surprised.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/57270-hypocrisy-alert-hillary-defends-an-ambassador

Top Headlines11

Eight years of Obama’s weakness toward Russia (The Washington Free Beacon12)
Trey Gowdy: Whoever advised Trump on Russia should consider resigning (Washington Examiner13)
James Comey gets roasted on Twitter after advising Democrats NOT to “rush to the socialist left” (Washington Examiner14)
Justice Department targets foreign disinformation operations (The Washington Free Beacon15)
Trump warns Iran’s Rouhani to stop the threats or suffer historic consequences (Fox News16)
Trump says he’s “ready” to put tariffs on all $505 billion of Chinese goods imported to the U.S. (CNBC17)
Democratic socialism surging in the age of Trump (Associated Press18)
Colonel removes Bible from POW/MIA memorial because atheists were offended (Washington Examiner19)
Study concludes conservatives are more likely to live meaningful lives (BPR20)
Humor: Black conservative informed by white people that he’s racist (The Babylon Bee21)
Policy: Getting tough on China without taxing Americans (Washington Examiner22)
Policy: Trump tackles the art of the drug-price deal (National Review23)
For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report24.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/57275-monday-top-headlines

FEATURED ANALYSIS
The Politics of Immigration28

Robin Smith

Over the last few weeks, illegal immigration has jumped in the polling as the top issue for voters in the midterm elections. These polls are perhaps a snapshot reflecting the Trump administration’s separation policy impacting children whose parents were detained at different facilities. Breathless 24/7 media coverage was complete with photos featuring children in wire pens, more closely resembling cages. The outrage was everywhere, and Americans took notice. And in essence, that’s what pollaganda29 is: The media runs endless stories and then polls Americans to see if it worked. The polls are then reported as news to keep the churn — and advertising revenue — going.

On June 9, a Reuters poll recorded the economy and jobs as the most important issues to voters, with health care and immigration following behind. Within two weeks, immigration had surged to become the number one issue. The Leftmedia and Democrats exploited30 President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance enforcement as a way to foment voter outrage ahead of the elections.

It didn’t take long, however, for images of caged children to be traced back31 to the Barack Obama administration’s identical practices of separation of children and alleged parent to address human trafficking. That’s right — adults were bringing other people’s children into America as a mask to circumvent law enforcement efforts. And while the greater enforcement produced about 2,000 separations of children from their actual parents, Obama and his secretary of homeland security, Jeh Johnson, engaged in the same practice.

The Reuters poll was essentially replicated with a July 18 Gallup Poll that showed a record-high acknowledgement of illegal immigration as the top issue. The 22% of respondents saying so was dramatically higher than the 5% average over 17 years of asking participants to name their top issue in the monthly survey. As for partisan breakdown, Republicans cited immigration as the top issue 35% of the time, while Democrats were at 17%.

________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 7-23-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
_______________________________

Clearly, the partisan divide portrays this issue from different vantage points, but a few facts must be stated and acknowledged in the role of this issue in the ongoing election cycle.

Democrats are energized and exercised because immigration simply provides campaign fodder to attack Trump and congressional Republicans, who Democrats always accuse of hating minorities. Never mind that it’s Democrats whose policies institutionalize poverty, enslave children in failing schools, and embrace government as the “family provider” for its dependents.

Republicans are likely equally mobilized and angered, primarily because they’re tired of being cast as “racist” for supporting law enforcement.

But there are a couple of truths that may be overlooked in this sudden surge of immigration interest.

According to32 the Center for Immigration Studies, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont are either legally or effectively “sanctuary states.” Of these states that welcome illegal immigrants to enjoy the rights of law-abiding, tax-paying citizens in the United States, only Illinois does not have a gubernatorial race this year. Obviously, however, all states have House members and state legislators on the ballot. This is important because many governors’ races as well as legislative races are very active in promoting differences between candidates with the support or opposition of the critical discussion around sanctuary city and state status and laws.

So while the emphasis of our national media revolves in the orbit of DC politics, don’t miss the importance of these state elections on this issue. For example, Oregon, after a petition drive to place the issue on the November ballot, will allow citizens to overturn its state’s sanctuary state law. Immigration is, indeed, a key issue in the federal midterms, but much of the interest is being driven by state politics.

Nonetheless, immigration may be the issue that most demonstrates the inefficiencies of Washington. It turns Republicans and Democrats alike into the DC Elite, who enjoy governance that protects the status quo rather than solving problems. Despite repeated promises to “fix” the broken immigration system since President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 amnesty, neither Republicans nor Democrats have risen to the occasion, even when controlling the White House and the Congress in their respective majorities. For three decades, politicians have recited the problem and offered pandering platitudes with no real solutions. That’s left jaded voters on the Center-Right and turned Democrats into the open-border party aiming to exploit a new pool of voters that will fall prey to their identity politics schemes.

Democrats of all stripes now advocate somewhere along a sliding scale of open borders with little to no enforcement. The recent evidence is the move to abolish ICE33 — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Just this past week, only 18 of the 194 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted for a resolution supporting the agency’s mission of law enforcement of America’s immigration laws. Some 35 of them voted in opposition and another 133 cowered behind a vote of “present.”

Democrats love children when they’re used to bludgeon Republicans for what the Obama administration did for years. Democrats want the immigration issue to live on as a recruiting tool to their dwindling ranks as some #WalkAway34 from the #Resistance and socialism.

Yet too many Republicans can’t find their vertebrae to articulate the value of national sovereignty or the integrity of citizenship to the greatest nation on the planet. And conservative voters have grown weary of the impotence of elected Republicans who fear their own shadow when it comes to immigration votes, and in general can only stammer when the expectation comes their way to defend a Trump policy.

Today’s immigration debate can be boiled down to this: The issue has become little more than a campaign gimmick for politicians and an increasingly worrying topic for most Americans. Will that change anytime soon?

https://patriotpost.us/articles/57272-the-politics-of-immigration

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Slouching Towards a Police State35 — Unelected bureaucrats accountable to no one can “get back” at the duly elected president?
U.S. Immigration Enforcement Failures Exposed36 — Officials misrepresented to Congress the numbers on migrant court appearances and deportations.
Video: The Mueller Indictment37 — What’s going on with Robert Mueller’s latest indictment? It seems a bit underwhelming.
Video: How Government Caused ‘The Boy Crisis’38 — Author Warren Farrell says society should offer more respect to men who focus on fathering.
Video: Plastic Straw Myths39 — Have you used a plastic straw lately? Did you feel guilty? Celebrities and activists hope so!

OPINION IN BRIEF

Burt Prelutsky: “There was a day when [Supreme Court] candidates were judged by their understanding of the Constitution. The ideal was a justice who interpreted things as they understood the Founders intended. Along the way, beginning, I suppose, with FDR, justices were selected entirely on the basis of their political allegiance to the sitting president. … It is not a good thing for the nation that so many important decisions by the Court are the result of a 5-4 vote. It is in fact a very bad thing that the votes tend to be as predictable as death and taxes. Anthony Kennedy became known as the swing vote on the Court, meaning he would side with the liberal bloc when it came to social issues like abortion and same-sex marriages and with the conservative bloc on most other matters. It used to make me wonder why we even needed to pay those other eight people to show up. Come to think of it, it bothers me that I just described the four rational judges as conservatives. We don’t tend to think of the men who wrote the Constitution in partisan terms, so why is it that we have been forced to think of justices in that light? Every judge should be a constitutionalist, period. Instead, we have heard justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg say that if a newly formed nation were looking around for a constitution to adopt, she would not advise them to use ours. That, alone, should have led to her overdue dismissal from the bench.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”

Braying Jackass: “Before this harebrained and reckless administration is history, the nation will have cause to celebrate the public servants derided by Trumpists as the supposed ‘deep state.’” —Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post

Alpha Jackass: “I was absolutely outraged by [Donald Trump’s] behavior in Helsinki, where he really sold the American people out. … Perhaps he is being blackmailed by Russia because they may have compromising information about him or perhaps also you have a president who really does have strong authoritarian tendencies and maybe he admires the kind of government that Putin is running in Russia.” —Sen. Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT)

Braying Jenny: “For months I’ve been trying to tell the American public that this president is dangerous [and] that he’s in bed with Putin. Don’t forget this president can’t borrow money in the United States from any bank. This president is looking at Russia for his new money, financial playground. … I think he is Putin’s apprentice. He’s been under his tutelage for a long time now.” —Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)

Good luck with that: “Hello everybody. I’m so excited to be hopping on here, on Senator Sanders’ [Twitter] account, and we’re here in Kansas City to rally for Brent Welder. We’re going to flip this seat red in November.” —Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a Freudian slip about the election map color

Non Compos Mentis: “Julie and Nate Sharpe are raising their 3-year-old twins using the pronoun they, them and their to shield them from gender stereotypes. This is a new parenting technique called, ‘theybies.’” —NBC News (“There is a name for this parenting technique: child abuse.” —Matt Walsh)

And last… “The Left no longer even pretends to believe in borders or in citizenship. They’ve rejected the notion that America is even a country. ‘It’s an idea,’ they tell us again and again. Though really you get the sense they think it’s more like a division of Amazon, staffed by faceless, replaceable drones. Meaning you, for now, and then your foreign replacement if you don’t work eagerly enough or if you complain.” —Tucker Carlson

https://patriotpost.us/articles/57273-monday-short-cuts

Join our editors and staff 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