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« on: August 22, 2018, 02:14:57 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 8-22-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Aug. 22, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/57807-mid-day-digest
THE FOUNDATION
“Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government.” —George Washington (1796)
https://patriotpost.us/fqd/57805-founders-quote-daily
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Cohen, Manafort, and the Demo strategy to delegitimize the president.
Another American killed by an illegal alien who shouldn’t have been here.
The Leftmedia’s suicidal assassination of Trump proceeds apace.
This just in: Russian election meddling never ended.
The FDA injected a little competition into the EpiPen industry.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists, and Short Cuts.
FEATURED ANALYSIS
Trump’s Good, Bad, and Ugly Day1
Nate Jackson
In March, we issued a warning2 about President Donald Trump’s salacious affairs with a porn star and a Playboy model a dozen years ago: “A man’s private morality does affect his ability to govern. At a bare minimum, the bad press is a distraction; at worst, it reveals a deep untrustworthiness that plays out in policy and personnel decisions. Moreover, all the hush money and other legal wrangling over flings with porn stars could seriously jeopardize the president.”
Unfortunately, that warning proved all too prescient with yesterday’s news about Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. More on that in a minute.
Now don’t get us wrong — Trump may not be a good man, but he’s been a good president3. He has, as Mark Alexander noted recently4, “dropped a bomb on the status quo” in Washington. A desperately needed bomb. No wonder he’s a target for destruction.
As for Trump’s (lack of) character, that was baked into the 2016 election cake. Voters knew exactly who they were electing — and that he was vastly preferable to a criminally corrupt swamp creature named Hillary Clinton. Moreover, as you recall, Bill Clinton had multiple accusations of rape and sexual assault, but Democrats rallied around him. Barack Obama lied about the murders of four Americans in Benghazi5 to win reelection in 2012, yet Democrats rallied around him. Now they care about character? Please.
Yet it’s also true, as David French argues, “There is no universe that exists under which all the MAGA-folks wouldn’t be calling for Hillary’s impeachment or resignation under similar facts.”
Which brings us to the facts about Cohen and Manafort. Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty to tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and making false statements to secure a loan. As part of his effort to obtain a better plea deal, he threw Trump under the bus, alleging that “a candidate for federal office” ordered and reimbursed hush-money payments to mistresses “for the principal purpose of influencing the election,” a violation of campaign-finance law because these in-kind contributions by Cohen exceeded the legal limit. That’s a serious charge, but it’s a difficult one to prove. As Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said of the Cohen deal, “It’s not nearly as deadly lethal [to Trump] as some have portrayed it as being.”
But Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, is a leftist who was special counsel to Bill Clinton, so he knows how to protect a Democrat and attack a Republican.
Manafort was targeted by Robert Mueller’s team for various crimes committed before Trump’s candidacy. The jury convicted him on eight of 18 charges — a decidedly mixed bag. None of it had to do with Trump, and none of it had to do with Russian collusion. As with Cohen, it was all related to tax and bank fraud, and anyone who thinks such sleazy behavior isn’t commonplace among campaign advisers isn’t paying attention. Recall that District Judge T.S. Ellis chastised Mueller’s team, saying, “You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort. You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.”
As Mollie Hemingway points out6, “One of Manafort’s associates in the whole lobbying enterprise was [Democrat] Tony Podesta, who has yet to be indicted for his role.” The obvious double standard and specific political targeting actually helps Trump politically.
Yesterday was a bad day for the GOP, not necessarily for Trump — “draining the swamp” notwithstanding. It most certainly was not, as NBC News laughably asserts7, “the darkest day for the presidency since Watergate.” That assertion is being parroted across the Leftmedia spectrum. Trump uses chaos to his advantage, even if it is needlessly distracting chaos. But the House is in jeopardy of falling to Democrats, who will then be sorely tempted to pursue impeachment proceedings. Most Leftmedia outlets seem to consider impeachment a foregone conclusion, even if a Senate conviction will never happen.
Leftists’ sole strategy is delegitimizing Donald Trump. Driven by their own Trump Derangement Syndrome, they’ll use yesterday’s news to maximum effect in seeking to exact retribution for Trump’s only real “crime” — defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57801-trumps-good-bad-and-ugly-day
Illegal Alien Charged in Murder of College Student8
Thomas Gallatin
Sad news broke yesterday: The body of missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts was found in a corn field a few miles from her home in the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa. Tibbetts’s sudden disappearance during an evening jog last month made front-page news across the nation as her family and friends appealed to the public for any information. Police announced Tuesday that they had arrested and charged Cristhian Rivera, a 24-year-old illegal alien, with first-degree murder.
Authorities stated that Rivera had been living in the area for the last four to seven years and that he worked at Yarrabee Farms, a local family-run farm. Yarrabee Farms issued a statement saying that Rivera had been “vetted through the government’s E-Verify system, and [he] was an employee in good standing.” The company further added, “Yarrabee Farms follows all laws related to verifying employees are legal to work in the United States, and we regularly seek outside counsel to ensure we stay up-to-date on employment law matters. We keep records on all employees and have shared that information with authorities.”
Meanwhile, the mainstream media continued its practice of blurring the lines between legal and illegal immigrants by referencing Rivera as an “undocumented immigrant.” Yet that proves to be ironic and misleading in this case, given that Rivera was actually “documented,” though it’s clear his documentation was not legal.
On Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Executive Associate Director Matthew Albence noted the danger in Democrat and leftist calls for abolishing ICE. “If you abolished ICE and removed the whole interior enforcement arm of immigration enforcement, you will have created the greatest pull factor this country has ever seen,” he said, adding, “Individuals south of the border will know that as long as they keep trying and keep trying to get past the border patrol, that there is no possibility that they will ever be arrested, even if they get arrested for criminal violation in this country, that there is no possibility they will ever be arrested by immigration and by ICE. Without that deterrent effect, you will have rampant crime throughout our communities.” |
