The Patriot Post Digest 11-14-2018

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-14-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Nov. 14, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/59475-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/59474-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Amazon’s socialist chief had ulterior motives in selected new headquarters.
“Hate crimes” and leftist demonization of Republicans.
Daily Features: Columnists, Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, and Short Cuts.
Featured Analysis: Anti-gun doctors should “stay in their lane.”

IN BRIEF
Socialist Family Feud Over Amazon HQ21

Thomas Gallatin

Amazon’s long-anticipated decision for the location of its new “HQ2” headquarters was announced with an unexpected twist — the new headquarters will be split between two cities: Queens, New York, and Crystal City, Virginia (a DC suburb). In the end, the reasoning behind this decision is obvious: direct access to the levers of financial and political power in two high-profile leftist enclaves. Instead of locating the new headquarters in the most business-friendly states and environments, Amazon chose leftist power centers knowing that the company will be able to seamlessly pass on any higher costs to consumers. And the tax benefits to Amazon work out to almost $50,000 per job created. Cronyism at its finest.

But there was another reason behind Amazon’s new headquarters’ “search.” In all likelihood, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had made up his mind on the new locations when the search was first announced. As Reason speculates2, “[Amazon’s] HQ2 search was not about HQ2: it was about market research. The mayors and governors and councilmen and commissioners and local developers of America handed priceless information about their plans, investments, and reserve prices to Jeff Bezos for free. … Amazon is now privy to information about where different municipalities are going to direct investment and infrastructure in the near future. The company can exploit this information.”

Interestingly, one of the biggest decriers of Amazon’s decision was none other than Bezos’s fellow lefty and newly elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). She blasted the announcement, writing, “Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here.” Mind you, this is the same Ocasio-Cortez that dodges questions over how she plans to pay for Medicare for All while dubiously3 complaining about not having enough money to rent an apartment in DC until she begins collecting her congressional salary in January.

Both the billionaire socialist4 Bezos and poor Ocasio-Cortez are cut from the same cloth — they look to government to dictate to the masses how Americans should live. In Ocasio-Cortez’s case, it’s the demand that taxpayers foot the massive bills for Medicare for All, free college, and a host of other socialist wealth-redistribution schemes. For Bezos, it’s pocketing $2 billion in tax breaks while at the same time working to get the government to create Amazon-favoring minimum-wage legislation5 that would squelch competition against the online-retail behemoth. Both lust after power. Neither appear interested in abiding by the Constitution or preserving America’s hard-won freedom and exceptionalism.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59473-socialist-family-feud-over-amazon-hq2

‘Hate Crimes’ and Demo Demonization of ‘Racist’ GOP6

Nate Jackson

“Most Democrats see Republicans as racist, sexist,” blared the headline to a new Axios poll7. An astounding 61% of Democrats view their Republican counterparts in this very negative light. (Frankly, we’re surprised it’s only 61%.) Other adjectives that a substantial number of Americans use to describe people of the other party include greedy, corrupt, ignorant, spiteful, and evil.

Granted, this wasn’t a reliably scientific poll and we don’t bring it up because the results are airtight. But they certainly do affirm what we’ve long warned: Heated political rhetoric has consequences, and primarily it’s being driven by the Democrat/Leftmedia complex.

These leftist leaders insist 24/7 that everything Republicans say, think, or do is racist. We’re even told that hiring people based on merit is racist8. Notably, it is Republicans who fight for school choice for minorities stuck in failing inner-city schools, In some areas, minorities are noticing9; in others, not so much10. And it’s Republicans, not Democrats, who are lifting minorities out of poverty. Blacks in particular are thriving under President Donald Trump11.

Nevertheless, just before the midterms, Sen. Bernie Sanders declared Trump “the most racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted president in history.” Is it any wonder that rank-and-file Democrat voters believe what they’re hearing?

Kim Hart of Axios explains the problem with that: “If Americans are this convinced that the other side isn’t just wrong, but dumb and evil, they’ll never be able to find enough common ground to solve real problems. And they’re more likely to elect leaders who can’t do it, either.” As we explained before Thanksgiving 201612, leftist demonization of half the country is why Trump won, though, granted, he wasn’t elected to “find common ground.”

In related news, the FBI reports that 2017 saw a 17% increase in reported “hate crimes,” including a 37% spike in crimes targeting Jews. The Washington Post reports13, “Of the more than 7,000 hate crime incidents in 2017, more than 4,000 were crimes against people, ranging from threats and intimidation to assault [and] murder. More than 3,000 were crimes against property, ranging from vandalism to robbery to arson.”

A few observations:

First, this increase is fueled largely by more cities and law-enforcement agencies reporting a category called “hate crimes” — as in 1,000 additional sources nationwide. Second, we’ve long questioned the very category of “hate crimes” because it’s so subjective and because it motivates people in favored victim groups to report crimes that didn’t actually happen — a fad of hate-crime hoaxes14. Third, the increase of anti-Semitic sentiments in the country is driven by Democrats15 and by so-called “alt-right16” racists who are all “alt” and no “right.”

Finally — and the reason this relates to the poll where we began — is that leftists blame Trump. The leftist, hate-hustling Southern Poverty Law Center17 certainly does, and the Leftmedia takes its cues about “hate” from these supposedly unbiased propagandists. Moreover, writes Vox’s German Lopez, “The [FBI] report covers the first year of President Donald Trump’s time in the White House, and he’s been repeatedly criticized, from his campaign to his presidential statements and tweets, of stoking racist sentiment, particularly against immigrants and refugees.”

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-14-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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If “hate crimes” are “rising,” all the better to solidify that blame-Trump narrative and to further divide the country by vilifying all the “deplorables” on the Right. The predictable result is polls showing that everyday Democrat voters view their Republican counterparts as evil racists.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59470-hate-crimes-and-demo-demonization-of-racist-gop

ON THE WEB TODAY

Facebook Forced Out Trump-Supporting Exec18 — A rising star in virtual-reality tech was ousted from Facebook because he supported the “wrong” guy.
Video: The Enemy of Capitalism? Capitalists19 — John Stossel says politicians shouldn’t pander to companies, and companies shouldn’t pander to politicians.
Video: Where Farm Subsidy Money Goes20 — The biggest beneficiaries of American farm subsidies are the biggest farms with the least need.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

59461 59467 59462 59437 59459

For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion21.

TOP HEADLINES

Trump’s “big victory” diminished as Democrats pick up more wins (The Washington Times22)
Judge orders recount in Florida’s Palm Beach County extended to Nov. 20 (The Hill23)
Federal judge delays certification of Georgia election results, citing concerns over provisional ballots (The Washington Post24)
Caravan migrants reach Tijuana, begin climbing the border fence (Washington Examiner25)
President Trump announces Brett Kavanaugh’s replacement on the U.S. Court of Appeals (Townhall26)
Appointment of acting attorney general challenged in court (Associated Press27)
New Mueller indictments expected soon (Bloomberg28)
School punishes male teacher for refusing to watch a naked girl in the boys’ locker room (The Federalist29)
The UK and EU have agreed on a Brexit text — now May’s cabinet puts it to the test (Bloomberg30)
Humor: Hillary Clinton receives large cash advance for “What Happened 2” ahead of 2020 presidential run (The Babylon Bee31)
Policy: Trump is right: Poor land management is leading to bigger California wildfires (The Daily Signal32)
Policy: The path forward on health reform for conservatives (The Daily Signal33)
For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report34.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59472-wednesday-top-headlines

FEATURED ANALYSIS
Dear Anti-Gun Doctors: Stick to What You Know37

Louis DeBroux

A recent feud between the NRA and the American College of Physicians (ACP) has stoked the debate surrounding gun control and mental illness. It also reminds us once again of the unbridled arrogance of leftist/progressive academia.

Following last week’s mass murder38 at a California bar, the ACP released a list of gun-control recommendations, to which the NRA responded, “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. … Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control. Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves.”

Some pro-gun-control physicians took umbrage at having their wisdom questioned, and they lashed back with comments like, “After treating countless patients with life altering spinal cord injuries and brain injuries secondary to gun shot wounds, I would have to say this is my lane.”

The ACP’s gun-control advocacy is just the latest in a long list of medical organizations becoming overtly politicized and pushing a progressive social agenda.

The problem is that basing public policy on emotion, rather than logic and fact, produces unhelpful and counterproductive outcomes. Indeed, the “solutions” the ACP offers are already the law in California.

One of the ACP’s recommendations is to have doctors pressure patients to reveal whether they have firearms in the home, which is frankly none of their business. Owning a firearm is a constitutionally protected right, and law-abiding citizens should not be stigmatized for exercising that right. In fact, numerous studies, including one commissioned by the CDC at the behest of Barack Obama, revealed that exponentially more lives were saved by armed citizens39 than were taken by violent criminals using guns.

In the 1960s, in response to severe mistreatment of the mentally ill housed in state mental institutions, President John F. Kennedy led the call for “deinstitutionalization,” releasing nearly 560,000 patients back into society, treating them with psychotropic drugs in community health centers. Today, roughly 3.5 million Americans with severe psychiatric disorders receive no treatment, despite accounting for 10% of all homicides, 20% of all jail/prison inmates, and 30% of the homeless population.

With the highly publicized mass shootings in recent years, there has been a renewed call for mental-health reform, but leftists have politicized the issue40, and there is little trust to be had for their policy prescriptions.

In 2015, Obama attempted to use an executive order to declare any elderly American who needed help managing their finances as “mentally defective,” at which point their names would be placed on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) list, denying them their right to own a firearm for self-defense.

With progressives in the mental-health field declaring that conservative viewpoints are a sign of mental illness, does anyone really trust a Barack Obama or a Hillary Clinton not to use that pseudo-science as an excuse41 to strip constitutional rights from their political adversaries?

What is particularly notable is that while the ACP and other physicians’ groups are pushing gun control, they are actually embracing policies that literally kill people.

For example, the American Medical Association (AMA), which has come out in support of an “assault weapons” ban on the one hand, is reconsidering its position on physician-assisted suicide42. Where the AMA once staunchly opposed assisted suicide for obvious ethical reasons, it now refuses to reaffirm its long-held position and is considering supporting the practice. The AMA’s ethics panel previously rejected the practice, arguing that “Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.” This fear has proven warranted, as the practice has led to an overall increase in suicides43.

In Europe, following the legalization of euthanasia, doctors put thousands of patients to death against their will44 with no legal authorization, including chronically ill patients and newborn babies with birth defects.

The World Health Organization this year ceased classifying gender dysphoria/gender identity disorder (“transgenderism”) as a mental disorder45, instead classifying it as a “sexual health condition.” More than 40% of all transgender individuals will attempt suicide in their lifetimes, and pretending that it is not a mental disorder will directly result in more untreated individuals attempting suicide.

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-14-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
_______________________________

These physicians seem to think they have some kind of superior insight into every aspect of life simply because they are skilled in one area of life, which is odd. Mechanics also deal with diagnosing and fixing highly complex systems, but we never hear ASE-certified mechanics demanding their views on obesity be adopted as official public policy.

We do, however, hear from celebrities, who seem to think that portraying someone else in a movie qualifies them to expound upon public policy.

In fact, when it comes to preventing needless deaths, physicians should get their own house in order before dictating policy to the rest of us. After all, the opioid crisis claims more than 42,000 lives per year — 9,000 more than guns — but that would not be the case without doctors prescribing the addictive pharmaceuticals. Yet even the lives lost to opioids are a fraction of the more than 250,000 deaths attributable to medical errors each year.

In our society, physicians are well-respected, and rightfully so. They spend years rigorously training to become expert in human anatomy and physiology, and in diagnosing and treating a bewildering array of diseases, afflictions, disorders, and trauma. We all have benefitted from their skill and dedication.

But doctors are not gods46. They are fallible, and outside of their field of expertise they have no more and no less insight than the rest of us into what public policies will make for a more peaceful, happier, healthier society. A little humility would make for a more productive discussion.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59455-dear-anti-gun-doctors-stick-to-what-you-know


OPINION IN BRIEF

Ben Shapiro: “Nationalism, when opposed to patriotism, can indeed be terrible. It can suggest that the interests of one nation override the interests of every other nation, that imperialism and colonialism are worth pursuing out of love of blood and soil. But when combined with patriotism, nationalism can also be a bulwark against tyranny. Nationalism can stand up to international communism. Nationalism can refuse to bow before the dictates of multiculturalism, which suggest that all cultures and practices are of equal value. Patriotism is a philosophy of national values: It is a statement that your nation has values that are eternal, true and noble. … It is simply a fact that human beings resonate to nationalism. The question is whether that nationalism can be grafted to a worthwhile philosophy. The German troops of World War I marched into battle out of national pride; so, too, did the American doughboys. Americans have fought and died for their flag and their families; so have soldiers of other nations. But America is great because that flag stands for certain values, and American families are built on those values.”

SHORT CUTS

The BIG Lie: “If you wonder why the President of the United States, the junior senator of the United States, Mr. Rubio, the sitting Governor of the state of Florida are fighting like you know what to stop a vote count, that ought to tell you something.” —Andrew Gillum, who wants to establish a “stolen election” narrative (No Republican wants to not count every vote. Republicans do, however, want to stop voter fraud and Demo election tampering.)

Hypocrite: “Think how demeaning our politics has become in terms of how we talk about one another. There’s the opposition, not the enemies. In a week following another contentious political season, the presentation of the Liberty Medal is a critical reminder that neither Republicans nor Democrats hold a monopoly on the values and the ideals that define us as a nation.” —Joe “Put Y'all Back in Chains” Biden

Pre-election: “I will serve my six-year term.” —Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

Post-election: “I’m thinking about.” —Kirsten Gillibrand when asked on “The View” if she’s running for president

At least she’s honest: “I do have my own biases, specifically to blond women. Blond hair on white women just triggers me, and I’ve had to catch myself. … We, even as black women, have to be willing to look at our biases that keep us from being able to bridge the gap.” —actress Jada Pinkett Smith

Non Compos Mentis: “I’m a doctor. I went to medical school. I trained to save lives. I’m pro-life, I’m pro-women, I’m pro-family, I’m pro-patient, and it’s important for us to go beyond these labels to talk about what it is that we want at the end of the day, which is that we are a society that trusts women.” —Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen

And last… “Democrats: A bunch of rich people convincing poor people to vote for rich people by telling poor people that other rich people are the reason they are poor.” —Charlie Kirk

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59471-wednesday-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