The Patriot Post Digest 10-11-2018

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-11-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Oct. 11, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/58790-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.” —Patrick Henry (1775)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/58787-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Trump is immune to some attacks and uses them on Dems.
Not coincidentally, all the worst-run states are controlled by Democrats.
The nation’s elites are far too insulated from the consequences of their policies.
Is the Electoral College all about slavery? Ocasio-Cortez “thinks” so.
Evidently, Bredesen lied about his Kavanaugh support.
The world will end, and this time they’re serious.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists, and Short Cuts.

IN BRIEF
Trump’s Trumpian Assault on ‘Medicare for All’1

Nate Jackson

Like running the football straight up the middle, a regular Democrat play is to accuse Republicans of taking entitlements from America’s seniors. (Remember that infamous ad depicting “Paul Ryan” pushing a wheelchair-bound grandma off a cliff?) Well, President Donald Trump was elected because he was both practically immune from such attacks and isn’t afraid to use those tactics himself.

Thus, with his USA Today op-ed2 yesterday, he warned that Democrats’ “Medicare for All” plan “will demolish promises to seniors.”

“Dishonestly called ‘Medicare for All,’ the Democratic proposal would establish a government-run, single-payer health care system that eliminates all private and employer-based health care plans and would cost an astonishing $32.6 trillion during its first 10 years,” he wrote. Analysis: True3.

He also notes it’s not a fringe idea anymore: “123 Democrats in the House of Representatives — 64 percent of House Democrats — as well as 15 Democrats in the Senate have already formally co-sponsored this legislation. Democratic nominees for governor in Florida, California and Maryland are all campaigning in support of it, as are many Democratic congressional candidates.”

To be sure, Trump plays a bit fast and loose with terminology. Technically, Bernie Sanders’s plan — essentially adopted by Democrats — is to expand Medicare to include better coverage for all seniors and then gradually include all Americans. But what Trump means is that the plan will cost so much, while shifting the cost burden onto taxpayers and the health care industry, that Medicare — and the health market — will effectively be ruined.

Trump has never made any bones about his desire to preserve earned entitlements like Medicare and Social Security as they are, regardless of their drain on federal coffers4. In other words, he’s immune from the typical Democrat attack (though The Washington Post does have an absurd and dishonest “fact check5” today on his op-ed), and he is instead turning that attack right back on the Left.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/58785-trumps-trumpian-assault-on-medicare-for-all

Ranking of Best- and Worst-Run States Exposes Dem Failure6

Thomas Gallatin

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has released its latest ranking7 of states by their fiscal condition. And it comes as no surprise that nine out of the top 10 most fiscally sound states are Republican-run, whereas nine out of the bottom 10 worst states are Democrat-run. The Mercatus Center ranks the states based on five categories that include: cash solvency, budget solvency, ability to meet long-term spending commitments, state spending and taxes as a share of personal income, and unfunded pensions liabilities and debt.

These latest state rankings are not an anomaly but rather the continuation of a long-running trend. As Investor’s Business Daily notes8, “Of the 10 states that show up most frequently at the bottom of the list since 2006, nine are solid blue states. Of the 10 states with consistently the best record, all but one are solidly red states.”

Another significant aspect that readily rises to the forefront when comparing the data is that the states imposing the highest tax rates are also the worst-run states. As IBD insightfully observes, “The best-run states show greater respect for taxpayers than the worst-run states.”

However, in spite of all the data and clear evidence warning against the demonstrably bankrupt and untenable policies of socialism, Democrats have chosen only to double down in continuing their march to the hard-left. How else does one explain their calls for “Medicare-for-all1” while they avoid answering how they would pay for the $32.6 trillion price tag? Democrats, like snake-oil salesmen, are trying to sell the nation a stinky bag of failed socialist garbage by appealing to fairness. The truth is that for Democrats it’s not really about serving their fellow citizens by looking out for their best interests; rather it’s all about selling impossible promises9 couched in faux morality in order to secure power for themselves. Nothing else explains the long-term fiscal irresponsibility practiced by Democrat-run states.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/58788-ranking-of-best-and-worst-run-states-exposes-dem-failure

Top Headlines10

Hurricane Michael: At least two dead after most powerful storm to hit U.S. in 50 years tears through Florida (ABC News11)
Reminder: The Left had no problem labeling the Tea Party a “mob12” (Hot Air13)
Economic boom largely ignored as TV’s Trump coverage hits 92% negative (NewsBusters14)
A look at President Trump’s nominees to the Second and Ninth Circuits (National Review15)
The differences between Christine Ford and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi woman (Frontpage Mag16)
Mike Pompeo rebukes South Korea’s kowtowing to North Korea (Washington Examiner17)
U.S. arrests Chinese intelligence officer for economic spying (The Washington Free Beacon18)
Trump’s tariffs now cost Americans more than ObamaCare taxes (Washington Examiner19)
UK Supreme Court overturns case forcing Irish bakers to bake a same-sex wedding cake (The Resurgent20)
Humor: UN warns climate change will destroy Earth by 2005 (The Babylon Bee21)
Policy: Time to rethink how we value our online identities (American Enterprise Institute22)
Policy: The emerging U.S. energy powerhouse (The Heartland Institute23)
For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report24.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/58789-thursday-top-headlines

GOOD NEWS

Concealed-Carry Permit Holder Saves a Starbucks Employee25
The assault victim, a 24-year-old woman who worked as a Starbucks barista, expressed her gratitude to the concealed carrier who stopped the attack, stating, “I never would have expected that from him. He just seemed like a very meek guy. So I was surprised, but also very grateful. I was very grateful that he was there. And I was glad it was somebody we see regularly so that hopefully, in the future, I can thank him.”

For more, visit Fox News26.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/58783-concealed-carry-permit-holder-saves-a-starbucks-employee

FEATURED ANALYSIS
America’s Insulated Elites32

Arnold Ahlert

Few things are more worthy of disdain than America’s elites and their penchant for insulating themselves from the consequences of polices and ideas they inflict on the rest of us.

In 1986, our elitist class determined that unambiguous amnesty for 2.7 million illegal aliens — in exchange for shutting down the border and cracking down on businesses who hired illegals going forward — was the way to go. Americans were also assured this was the last time they would have to endure what amounted to the elevation of political expediency over the Rule of Law.

It was all lies.

During the Obama administration, the lying got worse. Years of record-breaking border surges were sold to the American public as another Democrat “what about the children” effort, and the term33 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) became part of the Democrat-Leftmedia lexicon, with all the attendant implications that anyone who would resist allowing illegal children to flood across the border was xenophobic and heartless.

Again, it was all lies. In 2017, it was revealed34 that nearly 30% of the UACs being held by the U.S. in dormitories were teens with gang ties. “Operation Matador,” an effort by law enforcement officials aimed at combatting transnational gangs in Long Island, the New York City metropolitan area, and Hudson Valley, precipitated 475 arrests35. Of those arrests, 227 were criminal arrests and 248 were “administrative immigration arrests,” as in those made to combat terror or control illegal immigration. MS-13 gang members comprised 274 of the arrests and most were apprehended in Nassau and Suffolk counties. During a May 2017 meeting of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini revealed36 that the MS-13 gang was linked to 38% of all the homicides in that county over the preceding 16 months, and that 4,624 UACs had been placed in the county since 2013.

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-11-2018
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Now one might think the upsurge in the brutal37 gang violence that is an MS-13 speciality — including reports the gang has called for assassinating38 law enforcement officials — might precipitate a reassessment by our elites regarding sanctuary policies. Yet the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island has declared39 itself a “sanctuary diocese,” using its 129 churches to shield illegals from arrest and deportation. Nassau County sanctuary policies protected40 a previously deported illegal now accused of raping a woman. And Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent41 a “cease and desist” letter to ICE, insisting its raids netting 225 suspected illegals — 180 of whom had criminal convictions — were unconstitutional and “un-American.”

The same Andrew Cuomo is routinely surrounded by armed security.

Other New York elites are securing themselves as well. While ordinary folk on Long Island remain completely vulnerable to MS-13 brutality, billionaires who vacation in places like the Hamptons are turning42 their mansions into de facto fortresses, replete with luxury “panic” rooms. “People used to open up their garages and show off their Lamborghinis,” explains Herman Weisberg, managing director of the personal-security firm Sage Intelligence Group. “Now they take guests to the wine bar in their safe room.”

East Coast elites aren’t alone. “I finished a [security] system for $100 million,” said Al Corbi, president of SAFE (Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments), in reference to a project he recently completed on the West Coast. “That sounds like a lot but there is nothing I know of, human or manmade, that could possibly harm this family for three generations, including global nuclear holocaust, a pandemic, or a second Ice Age.”

For other elites, domestic fortresses are insufficient. Seven Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have purchased43 bunkers and placed them in New Zealand. “New Zealand is an enemy of no one,” said Gary Lynch, general manager of the Rising S Co. that produced the bunkers. “It’s not a nuclear target. It’s not a target for war. It’s a place where people seek refuge.”

Refuge, or escape from the consequences of their own policies? “The communications kingpins of California have no allegiance to ordinary Californians — or ordinary Americans, for that matter,” asserts44 columnist Edward Ring. “To them, ordinary people are Pavlovian proles, expendable parasites that pollute the environment. To the extent these kingpins have compassion, it is to profitably create for the expendable multitudes a benign zoo; smart cities of high rises, contained in areas as geographically minute as possible, so that only wild nature, corporate farms, and private estates of the super-rich exist outside the urban containment boundaries.”

On almost every issue that roils the nation, there is a gargantuan disconnect between elites and ordinary Americans. Those who yell loudest for gun control live in gated communities and/or are surrounded by armed guards, even as they produce ultra-violent cultural sewage45 for the masses to consume; those who speak in glowing terms about a globalist economy and open borders don’t go near “flyover” America’s economically ravaged towns and cities that bear the brunt; those who rail about the ravages of global warming travel in private jets, and live in huge mansions; those who would turn you and your children into social media addicts prevent46 their own families from getting addicted; those who champion public education put their own children in private school.

And if you don’t like who the “little people” elected as president? Attempt47 to precipitate48 a coup d'etat.

These elites continue cultivating49 those divisions with as much relish as they can muster. “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about,” declares12 former Democrat Party standard-bearer Hillary Clinton. “That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again.”

No power, no civility? Clinton has issued a clarion call to the same useful-idiot mob that made an utter mockery of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. And if her extortionist drivel precipitates widespread violence?

Clinton, like all her fellow elites, will remain safe and sound.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/58782-americas-insulated-elites

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Is the Electoral College Really About Slavery?50 — Democrats continue attacking a bastion of our republic and the Constitution.
Video: World to End Again: This Time They’re Serious51 — Bill Whittle has heard this climate change warning before, and he has an answer.
Video: Bredesen Campaign Workers Say He Lied About Kavanaugh52 — “He wouldn’t” vote for Kavanaugh, said one staffer. “But he’s saying he would” for votes.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Larry Elder: “To those who say [Brett] Kavanaugh disqualified himself as an ‘impartial jurist,’ consider the ‘judicial temperament’ of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a heroic figure to the left. In a July 2016 interview with The New York Times, Ginsburg said of candidate Donald Trump: ‘I can’t imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president’ and that her late husband would have said it was ‘time for us to move to New Zealand.’ Undaunted, Ginsburg later told CNN she considered Trump a ‘faker,’ adding: ‘He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego. … How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? The press seems to be very gentle with him on that.’ How’s that for bias, judicial temperament and a blatant disregard for the expectation of impartiality? Ginsburg later apologized: ‘On reflection, my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised, and I regret making them. Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office. In the future, I will be more circumspect.’ … Liberals see no basis for Ginsburg to recuse herself from cases involving Trump, despite her partisan attack. Will they extend Kavanaugh the same courtesy?”

SHORT CUTS

Braying Jenny: “We have to show Republicans that we will never forget and never forgive.” —Nancy Pelosi, who obviously doesn’t let her Catholic faith influence her public politics

Forget civility: “It is time for us as Democrats to be as tough as they are, to be as dedicated as they are, to be as committed as they are. Michelle [Obama] says, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ No. When they go low, we kick them.” —Eric Holder

Rebuttal: “Eric Holder, the only Attorney General of the United States of America to be held in Contempt of Congress, wants his deranged, maniacal hooligans on the left to get more physical with their political activism.” —Liz Sheld

For the record: “I was there at the ball field when Steve Scalise almost died from a very, very angry violent man who was incited really by rhetoric on the Left. And this hasn’t been reported enough — when he came on the field with a semiautomatic weapon firing probably close to 200 shots at us, shooting five people and almost killing Steve Scalise, he was yelling, ‘This is for health care! He also had a list of conservative legislators, Republicans, in his pocket that he was willing to kill. So what happens is that when Democrats say, 'Get up in their face.’ They need to realize that there are a lot of unstable people out there. There are people with anger issues. There are people who are prone to violence.” —Sen. Rand Paul

Upright: “What can hold us together? We can start with gratitude, gratitude for this unique moment in human history, for our unique country, for our unique ideals, for our unique institutions. If we’re ungrateful, spite will win the day. And that means that we could be setting the charges for a spectacular implosion.” —Ben Shapiro

And last… “The longer Hillary Clinton remains the Democrats’ idea of a standard-bearer, the better off the country will be. She should run in 2020. And in 2024. And forever.” —Kyle Smith

https://patriotpost.us/articles/58784-thursday-short-cuts

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis

Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher