The Patriot Post Digest 2-21-2019

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The Patriot Post Digest 2-21-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Feb. 21, 2019

https://patriotpost.us/digests/61316-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction.” —John Witherspoon (1776)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/61315-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

There’s nothing “right wing” about hateful identity politics.1
Just how far left are Democrats going? Gallup has some answers.2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.

IN BRIEF

The Ugly Face of White Nationalism Is Identity Politics10

Thomas Gallatin

On Wednesday, it was learned that federal investigators had arrested11 a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant on weapons and drug charges last Friday. Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson, a self-identified white nationalist, had been stockpiling weapons in his Silver Spring, Maryland, apartment in preparations for his plan to instigate a race war. The charges referenced Hasson as “a domestic terrorist” who intended to “murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country.” In his own words, Hasson was “dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth.”

Hasson had created a specific hit list of “traitors” that included congressional Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, as well as Leftmedia personalities such as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and CNN host Don Lemon.

In a 2017 letter to “a known American neo-Nazi leader” following the deadly violence at the infamous racist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia12, Hasson wrote that he was “a long time White Nationalist, having been a skinhead 30 plus years ago before my time in the military. I fully support the idea of a white homeland… We need a white homeland as Europe seems lost. How long we can hold out there and prevent niggerization of the Northwest until whites wake up on their own or are forcibly made to make a decision whether to roll over and die and stand up remains to be seen.”

Thankfully, the authorities arrested Hasson before he attempted to follow through on his murderous plot.

What examples like Hasson serve to expose is the underlying evil behind identity politics, whether it comes in the form of white nationalism or in more widely accepted forms like Black Lives Matter or the Women’s March. The evil of identity politics is fomenting rabid tribalism. It is the antithesis of constitutional conservatism, which espouses the God-given dignity, rights, and Liberty of each individual over that of any one identity group. An individual should be judged by actions and ideas, not identify-group classification.

The hatred of others based upon their immutable characteristics is not a conservative or politically right-wing perspective, even though the mainstream media often erroneously conflates the two — often with the help of the hate-baiting Southern Poverty Law Center13. Instead, it is an expression of identity politics. (One party in America specializes in this, and it’s not Republicans.) By its very nature, identity politics highlights tribal grievances (real or imagined) and then uses these grievances to vilify and blame another targeted group as the “problem.” It seeks to pit groups against each other by preaching the flawed Marxist ethic of oppressor vs. oppressed, creating overly simplistic paradigms like bourgeois vs. proletariat or rich vs. poor. In Hasson’s case, that manifested as sociopathic white nationalism, and there’s nothing remotely “right wing” about it.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61313-the-ugly-face-of-white-nationalism-is-identity-politics

Just How Far Left Are Democrats Going?14

Nate Jackson

We’ve spent much of the last two years chronicling how far and fast Democrats are moving to the extreme left. But don’t take our word for it — take the word of average Democrats.

In a new Gallup survey, “Understanding Shifts in Democratic Party Ideology15,” the organization attempts to discern an answer to what average Democrat voters think on a range of current issues. What researchers found is staggering, though it confirms what we’ve written for years:

As Gallup has previously reported, the percentage of Democrats nationally who identify as politically liberal has been increasing. This has occurred in three distinct phases: 1) 2001-2006, when the percentage was trending steadily upward; 2) 2007-2012, when liberalism held steady near 40% for several years in a row and 3) 2013-2018, when liberalism resumed its upward trajectory.

The percentage of Democrats identifying as politically liberal averaged 32% in the first period, 39% in the second and 46% in the third. At the same time, the percentages identifying as conservative and moderate fell equally.

Though all identity groups within the party have moved left, the starkest shift has been among college-educated whites — a testament to the stranglehold “progressives” have on the higher-education system16 because, Gallup notes, “the percentage of all college graduates (including postgrads) increas[ed] by 13 points.” Just 34% of that cohort identified as “liberal” in the early 2000s. Now it’s 54%. The shift is on issues running the gamut, too. Whether it’s gun control, climate change, or abortion, rank-and-file Democrats are moving left.

Democrat politicians have exploited and driven this shift. Remember a dozen years ago when the likes of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer supported border security and opposed same-sex marriage and single-payer health care? Heck, Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (sponsored by then-Rep. Schumer), and implemented “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Now, not only have those same politicians — and the entire party — shifted, but they utterly vilify anyone who hasn’t adopted the radical new positions of open borders, forcing bakers to serve same-sex weddings, and Medicare for All. In fact, the latter is practically a litmus test for the 2020 presidential field.

Pondering the fallout of this shift, National Review’s David French writes17, “Any study of the political polarization in the 21st century has to account for the fact that it is extraordinarily difficult to achieve any kind of national consensus when one side is rapidly and constantly changing its demands. … The terms of the debate changed. The goalposts shifted.”

Indeed they have, and yet, somehow, leftists are even more angry than they were before all their victories. In any case, even with Donald Trump in the White House and the Senate under GOP control, Gallup’s findings portend trouble ahead for the cause of Liberty.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61290-just-how-far-left-are-democrats-going

ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY

Featured Analysis: Amazon Illuminates the Democrat Party Divide18 — High-tax cronyists on one side, socialist “purists” on the other. Neither is good for business.
Higher Education? More Like Leftist Indoctrination16 — America’s colleges and universities are producing indoctrinated lemmings, not educated reasoning adults.
Greening of the Earth Enhanced by … India and China?19 — Over the last two decades, the earth has seen a big increase in area covered by green leaves.
Video: How Socialism Killed Venezuela20 — It meets all 10 of Karl Marx’s tenets of socialist government. Such planned economies fail.
Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column
Read Comey/McCabe/Rosenstein: The Coup Co-Conspirators21. While the FBI’s McCabe deflected blame to DoJ’s Rosenstein, McCabe’s coup d'etat against Trump is still in motion.

If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email every Wednesday, update your subscription here22.

GOOD NEWS

Powerlifter Lifts 2-Ton SUV Off Man Trapped Underneath23
“A powerlifter in Michigan is being hailed as a real life super hero after his quick actions helped save a man pinned under a rolled over vehicle. Ryan Belcher, 29, was preparing to leave work last Thursday when he heard a loud crash outside his workplace. He noticed an SUV flipped upside down, and he rushed outside toward the wreckage. Ryan said there was a man trapped under the vehicle begging for help. Belcher, who is 350 pounds and can deadlift over 800 pounds, recalled thinking at the time, ‘This is where I need to be. All the training I’ve been through… this is the time where it’s really going to pay off.’ But the Jeep Cherokee he was about to try and lift weighed roughly two tons…”

Read more at Sunny Skyz24.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61288-powerlifter-lifts-2-ton-suv-off-man-trapped-underneath

TOP HEADLINE SUMMARY

Jussie Smollett’s hate-hoax theatrics26 may well land him behind bars. Authorities have officially leveled a felony charge27 against the actor, accusing him of fabricating a police report. A guilty verdict comes with the possibility of three years in prison.
Economic headwinds: “The United States and China have started to outline commitments in principle on the stickiest issues in their trade dispute, marking the most significant progress yet toward ending a seven-month trade war,” Reuters reports28. Despite being “far apart on demands made by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for structural changes to China’s economy,” the report notes that “a deal is beginning to emerge from the talks … as the two sides push for an agreement by March 1.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 2-21-2019
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The Associated Press says29 that “House Democrats will file a resolution Friday aimed at blocking the national emergency declaration that President Donald Trump has issued to help finance his wall along the Southwest border,” even as “the effort seems almost certain to ultimately fall short.” The resolution may pass the Democrat-controlled House, but its prospects in the Senate are fuzzy. “The law that spells out the rules for emergency declarations seems to require the Senate to address the issue too, but there’s never been a congressional effort to block one and some procedural uncertainties remain.”
Alarmingly, 47,893 illegal immigrants were nabbed this past January along the southern border, which represents an 84% increase over January 2018, the Washington Examiner reveals30. Data extrapolators “suggest that border officers will make over 600,000 apprehensions this year,” according to the Examiner. On a related note, Fox News reports31, “At least 25 people affiliated with the MS-13 gang were deported from Mexico after they were revealed to be concealed within the caravan of 1,600 Central American migrants just across the U.S. border.” Nevertheless, Democrats insist there is no border crisis.
Good idea31 from Rep. Mark Green and Rep. Chip Roy in an appeal to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “We write to urge the Department of State to consider designating many of the world’s most violent drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). … Violent drug cartels are not just a domestic policy issue limited to their home countries. These groups view America’s sovereign borders as merely minor inconveniences. In 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement made more than 2,300 fentanyl arrests and 405 seizures of fentanyl totaling 2,383 pounds. Additionally, cartels operate human trafficking operations into the U.S. that compel victims into forced labor or sexual slavery.”
Here we go again: According to The Daily Wire32, “Legislators in the Vermont House are expected to approve an abortion bill that is so insane it allows abortion at any time, with no qualifications at all. … New York’s abortion law states that abortion is permitted after 24 weeks of pregnancy only if ‘there is an absence of fetal viability, or the abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s life or health.’ Vermont’s law has no similar statement.” Meanwhile, The Hill says33, “Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) on Tuesday signed into a law a measure that would automatically ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.”
“As the deadline approaches for the withdrawal of U.S. forces fighting the Islamic State in Syria, America’s closest European allies have turned down a Trump administration request to fill the gap with their own troops, according to U.S. and foreign officials,” The Washington Post reports34. “Allies have ‘unanimously’ told the United States that they ‘won’t stay if you pull out,’ a senior administration official said. France and Britain are the only other countries with troops on the ground in the U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State.” Some countries rightly view America as the world leader, while others demand we do all the heavy lifting. This development is likely a combination of both attitudes.
Humor “Opinion”: Everyone who makes more money than I do isn’t paying their fair share (The Babylon Bee35)
Policy: The Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Kliegman says, “The U.S. needs to recognize the connection between Iran’s internal strife and the regime’s imperial foreign policy.” Read more in “Beyond Sanctions: How to Exert Maximum Pressure on Iran36.”
Policy: “For many in the Republican party, the political imperative in 2020 is to claw back support among the moderate white women who have fled the party in droves, especially in America’s suburbs, apparently because of the president’s caustic style and divisive tone,” writes Albert Eisenberg at National Review. “But the GOP path to victory in 2020 may runs through minority communities that have been neglected for too long.” See “How Republicans Can Win Over Minority Voters37.”
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights38.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61314-thursday-top-headline-summary

OPINION IN BRIEF

Ed Feulner: “Amazon isn’t the only company wary of locating in New York. Many other individuals, families and businesses are fleeing the state as well — ones who don’t remotely qualify as the hated ‘1 percent’ — and they’re taking their income and tax revenues with them. How bad is it? Between 1997 and 2016, every dollar of income that left New York was replaced by only 71 cents coming in. No state can sustain that if it hopes to grow. What states need to do, in short, is stop meddling. Rather than pick winners and losers (which would be a mistake even if it were qualified to do so), it should create a low-tax, low-regulation environment where all businesses, big and small, can compete fairly for its share of the economic pie. No one can blame Mr. de Blasio for lamenting the jobs that won’t be created as a result of Amazon spurning New York City’s offer. But this isn’t ‘an example of an abuse of corporate power,’ as Mr. de Blasio called it. It’s the inevitable result of a bad business environment. And it certainly shows the folly of relying on crony capitalism to attract companies to your playing field.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” —Frederic Bastiat

For the record: “Two-thirds to three-quarters of a $4 trillion-plus federal budget can be described as Congress taking the property of one American and giving it to another to whom it does not belong.” —Walter Williams

Upright: “The crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border is a real emergency — not a figment of Trump’s imagination. Think of what the president is doing in terms of your family budget. You have money set aside to buy a new car. Then a member of your family gets seriously ill and requires emergency medical treatment that costs you several thousand dollars not covered by your health insurance. What do you do? You postpone buying the new car and use the money for emergency medical care.” —Hans von Spakovsky

For the record II: “Virtually all of the high profile widely-reported hate crimes39 over the last two years have been hoaxes. A broader motivation for these hoaxes is that the demand for bigots in America greatly exceeds the supply. … We have a very well-funded grievance industry. … The SPLC40 currently has an active invested endowment of $432 million dollars.” —Wilfred Reilly, Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University

Paging a young socialist woman: “I think we would look for somebody who is maybe not of the same gender that I am, and maybe someone who might be a couple of years younger than me, and somebody who can take the progressive banner as vice president and carry it all over this county to help us with our agenda, and help us to rally the American people.” —Socialist Bernie Sanders on who he would want on his presidential ticket

Friendly fire: “Overall I am not a supporter of the Green New Deal.” —Rep. Abigail Spanberger

Friendly fire II: “To be honest with you, I’ve read [the Green New Deal], and I’ve reread it, and I asked Ed Markey, ‘What in the heck is this?’” —Sen. Dick Durbin

Non Compos Mentis: “I think all of the announced Democratic candidates for president are capitalists. We don’t have socialist candidates running for president in the Democratic Party.” —Rep. David Cicilline, who added, “I don’t see any movement in the Democratic Party towards socialism at all.” He also asserted that Bernie Sanders isn’t “a member of the Democratic Party, so I wouldn’t attribute too much significance to how he self-identifies.”

And last… “I’m sad about the whole Jussie Smollett thing. Obviously I’m happy the crime didn’t actually happen, but I’m sad that we’ve apparently reached a point where victimhood is so virtuous that you’d risk absolutely everything to gain it.” —Allie Beth Stuckey

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61305-thursday-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