The Patriot Post Digest 11-19-2018

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-19-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Nov. 19, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/59560-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.” —Fisher Ames (1788)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/59559-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Georgia and Florida elections may be over, but the Demo narrative isn’t.
One Democrat says, “Give up your guns; the government has nukes.”
Daily Features: Columnists, Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, and Short Cuts.
Featured Analysis: The worrisome state of military readiness.

IN BRIEF
‘Undermining Democracy,’ Democrat Style1

Nate Jackson

It’s all over but the recriminations in Georgia and Florida. Nearly two weeks after Election Day, Democrats Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum conceded (Gillum for the second time after reneging) their respective races for governor, and Sen. Bill Nelson has given in to mathematical reality in the Florida Senate race. Despite recounts (including by hand in the Senate contest), lawsuits, judicial activism, a serially corrupt Democrat election official in Broward County, and nonstop Leftmedia hoopla, all three Democrats failed in their attempts to steal election victories. But they did succeed in one critical goal: subverting election integrity in the minds of their constituents.

As we said Friday, Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election have nothing on Democrat schemes to undermine election integrity.

Clearly, Florida has some work to do to shore up election laws. But Georgia may be the more troublesome state. Abrams rose to prominence by running massive voter registration drives in order to flood Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office with perhaps fraudulent registrations, only to cry racism2 when Kemp, who also happened to be her gubernatorial opponent, worked to sort it out.

That narrative is so key to her entire campaign that she isn’t going to let it go in defeat. She’s launching a political action committee called Fair Fight Georgia, which she will use to wage a legal battle. “Let’s be clear: This is not a speech of concession,” Abrams said. “In the coming days, we will be filing a major federal lawsuit against the state of Georgia for the gross mismanagement of this election and to protect future elections from unconstitutional actions.”

In her speech announcing she wouldn’t actually concede but rather found “no further viable remedy,” Abrams also expounded her narrative: “Trust in our democracy relies on believing that there are good actors who are making this happen. And [Brian Kemp] was a horrible actor who benefited from his perfidy. That’s problematic. … Will I say this election was not tainted, was not a disinvestment and a disenfranchisement of thousands of voters? I will not say that.” Abrams admonished her supporters not to give up just because the process was “as rotten and rigged as you’ve always believed.”

Furthermore, the abortion-supporting Abrams added, “Something being legal does not make it right.”

Georgia voters best prepare for future election cycles to replay this manufactured grievance, as Democrats work to rally their urban Atlanta base with fairy tales of voter suppression in hopes of turning the Peach State blue.

P.S. Remember when Democrats lambasted Donald Trump for musing that he might not accept the 2016 election results if Hillary Clinton’s corruption and voter fraud won the day? Those same Democrats went on to create a two-year narrative of “Russian collusion” to undermine Trump’s victory. They’re using that playbook again in Georgia. “If [Abrams] had a fair election, she … would have won,” Clinton declared. As usual, Clinton’s account of What Happened isn’t exactly reliable.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59558-undermining-democracy-democrat-style

‘Nuke Americans Who Resist Gun Confiscation!’3

Mark Alexander

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is taking the lead on gun confiscation, beginning with what he calls “assault rifles.” You know — those extra dangerous rifles that he says are “more powerful and cause more carnage when used with a pistol-grip.” In an op-ed assault on the Second Amendment4, Swalwell, not the brightest Democrat, proposed an Australian-type gun “buyback5,” which sounds like a voluntary proposal … until he insists the government should “go after resisters” who don’t comply.

When challenged that this was the first step toward total confiscation, Swalwell insisted, “Wrong. Just assault weapons. Keep rifles, shotguns, pistols. Basically, the weapons that allow you to hunt, shoot for sport, and protect your house.” By the Left’s definition, “assault weapons” include many semiautomatic rifles. And as with nearly all Democrats these days, Swalwell reduces the Second Amendment to nothing more than hunting and home protection. Why the Founders went to such great lengths to codify a right to hunt alongside such essential liberties as free speech, religious liberty, and due process is never explained.

One of his critics fired back, “So basically @RepSwalwell wants a war. Because that’s what you would get.” Swalwell responded, “And it would be a short war my friend. The government has nukes.”

That’s right — Swalwell suggested that if you don’t comply with a “voluntary” gun buyback, the government will nuke you. “Trust the government. But also, we’ll nuke you if you resist.”

Memo to Eric: The first shots of the first American Revolution were fired when the British government attempted to seize arms in Concord, Massachusetts. And that IS the reason the Second Amendment was written into our Constitution — to guarantee the citizens’ right to defend against government tyranny. Nevertheless, Swalwell insists, “You claiming you need a gun to protect yourself against the government is ludicrous.” Says the guy who threatened to nuke American citizens.

For the record, Swalwell is assuming our military would wage a war against the American people at his bidding. Think again. The first hill they will take if so ordered will be Capitol Hill.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59555-nuke-americans-who-resist-gun-confiscation

ON THE WEB TODAY

Paralyzed Children Should Transcend Politics6 — The CDC denies that illegals are bringing EV-D68 into the U.S. We’re not convinced.
DeVos Rebalances Due Process in Title IX7 — The secretary of education restores students’ basic rights in sex-abuse cases.
Video: Leftists Don’t Want You to Believe Your Own Eyes8 — The Leftmedia says the caravan is all hype and your concern is unwarranted.
Video: Seven Ways to Stop Democrats From Stealing Elections9 — Stephen Green, Bill Whittle, and Scott Ott explore ways to reform elections so every vote is counted only once.
Video: Endangered Syndrome10 — “One of the most heart-wrenching pro-life ad campaigns you’ve ever seen.”

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

59541 59544 59540 59539 59410

For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion11.

TOP HEADLINES

As predicted, GOP tax cuts prompt record government revenues (Hot Air12)
Unemployment rate at record low in 10 states (CNS News13)
Trump visits fire-ravaged California (Los Angeles Times14)
Democrat senators sue to block appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general (Associated Press15
“It’s your right to go to the U.S.”: What I saw when I visited the migrant caravan (The Daily Signal16)
Betsy DeVos formally unveils new Title IX rules (Reason17)
CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination (CBS News18)
As CNN’s Jim Acosta returns, White House seeks “decorum” for press (The Daily Signal19)
NRA, SAF file suit to block new Washington gun-control law (The Washington Free Beacon20)
Humor: Amazon to provide all employees with Prime boxes to live in (The Babylon Bee21)
Policy: Policymakers should listen to voters on school choice (National Review22)
Policy: The good, the bad, and the ugly of new Title IX regulations (Washington Examiner23)
For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report24.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59554-monday-top-headlines

FEATURED ANALYSIS
Why Our Military Forces Aren’t Ready for Prime Time27

John J. Bastiat

As if well over a decade of neglect and budget-vampiring weren’t enough evidence, it’s now official: The U.S. faces a “crisis of national security.” That’s the blunt verdict from the National Defense Strategy Commission (NDSC), the bipartisan, independent assessment board formed by the House and Senate Armed Services committees. Unlike previous go-along-to-get-along reports that attempted to “make nice” with both sides of the political aisle, this report pulled no punches, estimating that the U.S. would be hard-pressed to fight more than one major conflict at a time and might even lose a war against either China or Russia.

Never at the top of any Democrat president’s priority list, national defense took an especially precipitous plunge during the Obama administration’s so-called “sequestration” budget pogroms. Barack Obama insisted that national security be placed on the same level as prison work-release programs, food stamps, and other Democrat “pet rocks” — every dollar cut from a “social” good had to be matched with a dollar cut from national defense. Thus, defense suffer asymmetrically deep cuts. Of course, the NDSC cited lack of funding as a primary culprit to the current crisis — but it wasn’t the only one.

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The Patriot Post Digest 11-19-2018
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The report also noted that while the U.S. has been focused on fighting smaller, counterinsurgency conflicts and combating terrorism in hot spots abroad, “our enemies have developed new ways of defeating U.S. forces.” As a result, “America is losing its advantage in key war-fighting areas such as power projection, air and missile defense, cyber and space operations, anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, long-range ground-based fires, and electronic warfare.” Punctuating the forest-for-the-trees loss of the Big Picture suffered by upper-echelon military strategists and policymakers, the report further observed, “Many of the skills necessary to plan for and conduct military operations against capable adversaries — especially China and Russia — have atrophied.” That’s putting it mildly.

Naturally, the Left totally miscasts both the issue and the solution. Sometimes, leftist rhetoric even seeps into otherwise conservative areas. The Daily Wire’s Joseph Curl, for instance, smugly explains28 that “so-called ‘entitlements’ … are actually the programs that make America America.” So socialist income-redistribution programs make America America? But, we are told, “Americans are right to be wary of the U.S. war operation” that — using the magical accounting method of “a new study” from that bastion of conservative thought, the Watson Institute at Brown University — cost $6 trillion since 9/11. In other words, throwing trillions at entitlement programs is fine, but spending to defend the nation? That’s another story!

To only slightly exaggerate, it seems the study’s numbers include anything even remotely “war-related,” including Grandma’s new dentures to replace the old ones she spit out in anger after watching TV and seeing all the horrible things our military is doing over there. Seriously, though: Their accounting wasn’t even close.

But why not, then? Shouldn’t we get to tally up the costs of all the addicts, convicts, and life-drop-outs the Left has foisted on America since LBJ’s failed “Great Society29”? Wouldn’t we then have an apples-to-apples comparison of the so-called “real” costs between constitutional defense spending and the social programs that have raised our operating debt to $22 trillion and our unfunded liabilities to over $200 trillion? It’s also interesting to note how the Left can so skew its worldview as to lump its social-program costs into costs actually used to maintain national security. Perhaps these defense funds should be allocated to better purposes or used more efficiently, but defense spending is just that: Spending on defense.

The Pentagon recognizes the fiscal problems associated with accounting for global military operations in the context of the modernization and sustainment needs of a strong defense force. Accordingly, using an army of 1,200 auditors, it just completed its first-ever audit. Again, leftists were drawn to attacks on the character of the U.S. military like flies to poo. For example, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) declared, “The unchecked waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon is an insult to the American people.” No, the insult is a Democrat Party that would rather buy votes with redistributed income than defend our nation.

That the Department of Defense was willing to conduct an introspective into getting its house in order is worthy of praise, not condemnation. Such an audit was high on President Donald Trump’s “to-do” list and the fact he was able to convince the Pentagon to do it is also worth noting.

Finally, back to the report on American military readiness. It concludes with this ominous warning: “The costs of failing to meet America’s crisis of national defense and national security will not be measured in abstract concepts like ‘international stability’ and ‘global order.’ They will be measured in American lives, American treasure, and American security and prosperity lost. It will be a tragedy — of unforeseeable but perhaps tremendous magnitude — if the United States allows its national interests and national security to be compromised through an unwillingness or inability to make hard choices and necessary investments. The tragedy will be all the more regrettable because it is in our power to avoid it.”

Translation: We had better get our act together quickly or we may not have an act to get together at all.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59553-why-our-military-forces-arent-ready-for-prime-time

OPINION IN BRIEF

Gary Bauer: “At a financial summit on Tuesday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said, ‘I think that Stacey Abrams’ election is being stolen from her, using what I think are insidious measures to disenfranchise certain groups of people.‘ That same evening, Hillary Clinton told an audience in Austin, Texas, 'If [Abrams] had a fair election, she already would have won.’ And speaking to Al Sharpton’s group Wednesday, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said, ‘If Stacey Abrams doesn’t win in Georgia, they stole it. It’s clear. It’s clear. I say that publicly.’ Ironically, they are saying this when it seems more and more races are being stolen by the Left. By the way, all three federal judges who have been dragging out the election disputes in Florida and Georgia are Obama appointees!”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

Re: The Left: “Human rights should be reserved for righteous humans.” —Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum on the caravasion’s impact on his city

That’s one way to spin it: “Winning 23 seats in a voter-suppressed gerrymandered map was a wave… Now we’re getting up to 40. That’s … almost a tsunami.” —Nancy Pelosi

Non Compos Mentis: “Almost every single person I’ve ever heard of with an AR-15 has been a mass murderer. Based on Twitter sample the rest of them are scarily paranoid.” —Newsweek’s Nina Burleig

Village Idiots: “There are over 20 productions shooting in Georgia. Is the entertainment industry willing to support the economy of a totally corrupt state that suppresses democracy; where the winner isn’t the best choice for the people but the best schemer or crook?” —actress Alyssa Milano

Dumb and dumber: “If we work our butts off to make sure that we take back all three chambers of Congress — uh, rather, all three chambers of government — the presidency, the Senate, and the House in 2020 — we can’t start working in 2020.” —Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez with a civics lesson that makes no sense regardless of how you read it

And last… “The coffee shop where [Ocasio-Cortez] ‘got her start’ had to close down because minimum wage hikes have put them out of business. The same minimum wage Socialist Ocasio wants to increase is killing jobs in her community yet she still supports raising it."—Charlie Kirk

https://patriotpost.us/articles/59556-monday-short-cuts

In Closing

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Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher