The Patriot Post Digest 3-18-2019

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-18-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Mar. 18, 2019
https://patriotpost.us/digests/61831-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.” —Thomas Jefferson (1801)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/61830-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

SPLC dumps its cofounder for harassment and discrimination.1
Is Kirsten Gillibrand really the Democrats’ “brave” candidate?2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.

IN BRIEF

SPLC, Morris Dees, and Their Hypocritical Facade10
Mark Alexander

We have written at length about the so-called “Southern Poverty Law Center11,” which has nothing to do with the South, poverty, or the law.

The SPLC was founded by a marketer and self-promoter, Morris Dees, who perfected the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton race-bait shakedown model12 for extorting money from corporations. Despite his social-justice-crusader cape, his former law partner, Millard Fuller, said of their years in business: “Morris and I shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money. We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich.” The examples of how “not particular” they were included defending racists whose legal fees were paid by the KKK.

In a moment of honesty, JoAnn Wypijewski of the leftist Nation magazine once described Dees as a “millionaire huckster.” According to Harper’s Ken Silverstein, the SPLC exists “to separate wealthy liberals from their money.” And Dees used those funds to build his “Poverty Palace13” offices and exotic luxury home.

Last week, Dees’s unmitigated arrogance caught up with him and, according to The Washington Post, he was fired14. SPLC President Richard Cohen, an equally leftist hack handpicked by Dees, noted that under Dees, the organization lacked “truth, justice, equity and inclusion.”

His own organization finally cut ties with him after decades of internal complaints about his sexual harassment and racial discrimination15.

For much of the SPLC’s history, it was an obscure collector and disseminator of mostly open-source news about racist organizations — fascist and anarchist groups with a handful of members whom Dees mislabeled as “right wing.” But as we noted in our coverage of the mass murder in New Zealand16 last week, “There’s nothing uniquely ‘right wing’ about racism or nationalism. The ideological spectrum is better understood as circular, not as linear. And in that sphere, fascism occupies the space between Left and Right.”

But Dees is an archetypal “useful idiot17,” a hypocrite who lives high on the hog while embracing Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collectivism.

Consequently, on the political spectrum, the SPLC falls in the increasingly narrow gap between the Democrat Party18 and the Communist Party USA — reflecting Dees’s personal views. At the time he was founding the SPLC, he also served as national finance director for the presidential campaigns of leftist George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and uber-leftist Ted Kennedy when he was seeking the nomination to run against Ronald Reagan19.

The SPLC was largely unknown until the last decade, when Dees promoted it as the go-to organization for Leftmedia outlets20 and social-media giants21 for SPLC’s rankings of hate groups22. Most of those groups were correctly labeled in prior years, but, increasingly, Dees has made a practice of rating organizations and people as “haters” because they do not comport with his views. Among many examples would be his labeling of the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom as “hate groups.”

After the election of Donald Trump23, and the epidemic of “Trump Derangement Syndrome24” that followed, Dees capitalized on the Left’s “Hate Trump25” wave. Predictably, SPLC’s Hate Watch26 list jumped to more than 1,000 groups.

Given the SPLC’s rising status as the arbiter of what constitutes “hate” for media platforms, it has become an insidiously dangerous organization. And consistent with his “overriding purpose of making a pile of money,” Dees has turned that star status into cash. The SPLC’s slush fund “endowment27” is now more than $500 million — some of which is reportedly maintained in offshore accounts.

Dees has been terminated and even his bio has disappeared28 from the SPLC website. But a day after he was fired, his successors at the SPLC were doing what they do best: fundraising on the blood of innocents. They broadcasted an email to their list not to explain Dees’s firing but to fulminate about the New Zealand attack, declaring that “this hatred is even being amplified by our own president.”

https://patriotpost.us/alexander/61829-splc-morris-dees-and-their-hypocritical-facade

Gillibrand’s ‘Brave’ Presidential Bid29

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) has officially and “bravely” announced her bid to enter the crowded field of Democrat presidential hopefuls. In a two-and-a-half-minute video released Sunday, she referenced the national anthem’s final line about the “home of the brave” to set herself up as the candidate to take on President Donald Trump, whom she accuses of promoting fear. Seeking to further the image of herself as the “brave” anti-Trump candidate, Gillibrand plans to give her first big speech in front of the Trump International Hotel in New York City. So … brave. Never mind the fact Trump currently resides in the White House.

Gillibrand’s platform is a litany of the latest leftist extremism, which includes30 “universal healthcare, paid family leave for all, end gun violence, pass a Green New Deal, get money out of politics and take back our democracy.” We’re not sure who “took” our democracy, or where it was taken, as the American republic is still (largely) operating under the system established by our Founding Fathers over 200 years ago. But even still, Gillibrand will “take it back.”

Evoking the moon landings, Gillibrand declares that her socialist agenda is entirely doable if we are just “brave” enough to put our minds to it. This is the stuff of fairy tales, not facts, but remember — “we landed on the moon,” so anything is possible. (By the way, on that moon-landing allusion, she probably owes Cory Booker for copyright infringement31.) And as for getting money out of politics, it’s ironic that Gillibrand herself doesn’t seem to want to walk the walk, as the first item on her campaign page32 is an ad asking for donations.

As the sixth woman to enter a crowded Democrat field, Gillibrand is not a particularly unique candidate and she is already well behind in the polls compared to the rest of the field. However, her biggest problem may be answering the charge of flip-flopping. Gillibrand was first elected as a moderate who supported gun rights and opposed illegal immigration. But she has swung to the extreme left, while at the same time claiming that flip-flopping is not “part of my record.” She’s a microcosm of the entire Democrat Party over the last 20 years.

At this point, it’s difficult to see Gillibrand catching up and surpassing the likes of Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, or Joe Biden, should he decide to enter, but she will surely be a factor in how the race plays out.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61825-gillibrands-brave-presidential-bid

ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY

Featured Analysis: Are Third-World Pilots Being MAXed Out?33 — As theories solidify for recent deadly airline crashes, we wonder if the right question is being asked.
Colleges or Ruling-Class Collaborators?34 — Admissions bribery? The real problem with higher education is far deeper than that.
The End of the World … Because Leftists Say So35 — Kids are always pawns for leftist indoctrination, this time walking out over climate.
Reparations Decoded36 — Can “40 acres and a mule” solve black America’s problems today? Not a chance.
Pelosi Wants to Lower Voting Age to 1637 — Democrats would love nothing more than to increase the number of ignorant voters.
Video: What Is an Automatic Weapon?38 — Well, for one thing, it’s not the same as a semiautomatic weapon.

TOP NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

“President Donald Trump on Friday issued the first veto of his presidency, defying a bipartisan rebuke of the national emergency he declared to circumvent Congress to get more money for his proposed southern border wall,” ABC News reports40. “Attorney General William Barr was on hand to tell the president that his emergency declaration was ‘clearly consistent with the law.’ Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told him that the fact that it was an emergency was ‘undeniable.’” Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced, “On March 26, the House will once again act to protect our Constitution and our democracy from the President’s emergency declaration by holding a vote to override his veto.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-18-2019
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On the Senate side, The Hill says41: “Republicans are already setting their sights on making it easier to terminate future emergency declarations — setting up an intriguing round two. … Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has tapped Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to craft legislation … that could win the 60 votes needed for a bill to defeat a filibuster and ultimately pass the upper chamber. … Roughly a third of the Republican conference … is already backing legislation from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) that would require Congress to pass a resolution approving future national emergency declarations within 30 days. … [Johnson stated] that he thought the ‘basic concept’ of Lee’s bill was ‘correct’ and could ‘pass constitutional muster’ but that he expected others would have ideas on what the final legislation should look like.” Unlike the House’s political theater, this is a far more sensible approach. As we stated42 last week, “We still argue that Trump has not exceeded his authority under the law as it stands currently, but we also believe that the National Emergencies Act grants too much power to the executive branch.” That’s what the Republican Party is rightfully seeking to ameliorate.
Speaking of emergencies: “Criminal organizations in Mexico have mounted a lucrative new smuggling operation that uses express buses to deliver Guatemalan migrant families to the U.S. border in a matter of days, making the journey faster, easier and safer, according to U.S. law enforcement reports and U.S. and Guatemalan officials. … Paying up to $7,000 per adult with child, families are transported to staging areas at ranches and hotels in southern Mexico, where they are organized into bus groups and rushed north along Mexican highways, ‘stopping only for food, fuel and bathroom breaks,’ according to the U.S. law enforcement documents.” (The Washington Post43)
“Ambitious proposals to end climate change and provide healthcare for everyone … have failed to win the support of even half of the House Democratic caucus,” the Washington Examiner reports44, “effectively dooming any chance of floor consideration.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal has been publicly endorsed by a mere 90 Democrats — a fraction of the caucus’s 235 members. Similarly, the Democrats’ Medicare for All has a relatively lackluster 106 total co-sponsors. However, while it’s good that, as the Examiner headlines it, the “Socialist agenda stalls in the House,” the fact that even this many lawmakers approve of these schemes is cause for alarm.
NBC News reports, “Beto O'Rourke45 raised $6.1 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate, according to his campaign, surpassing Bernie Sanders and every other 2020 Democrat who has disclosed their figures. … Sanders beat expectations and stunned observers by raising a then-record-setting $5.9 million in his first 24 hours as a candidate last month.” However, O'Rourke’s haul comes despite his writing murder fantasy46, hacking computers47, and DUI charge. Oh, and white maleness48.
“Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign announced Friday it will have a unionized workforce, a first for a major party candidate,” according to The Hill49. Memo to Sanders et al.: Be careful what you wish for…
Humor: Bernie Sanders captures leprechaun to confiscate gold for redistribution (The Babylon Bee50)
Policy: “The bribery scheme to get privileged children into elite universities is causing parents and teachers across the country to fume with righteous indignation,” Kenny Xu writes at The Daily Signal. “But the revelations of corruption in the multibillion-dollar college admissions industry is perhaps more indicative of how Americans’ views of college — especially among the elite — are shifting into dangerous territory.” Read why here51.
Policy: When it comes to the Remington lawsuit, National Review’s Kevin D. Williamson says: “Two kinds of opportunism are at play against the gun manufacturer: financial and political.” Here’s his explanation52.
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights53.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61826-monday-top-news-executive-summary

OPINION IN BRIEF

Gary Bauer: “What many people are sadly not aware of is that in many parts of the world, violent attacks on people of faith, as well as other forms of systematic persecution, are common occurrences. Over the last decade, Christians in the birthplace of Christianity have been the victims of systematic attacks. The have been driven out of their homes, raped and murdered at such an extreme level that world governments eventually declared a genocide. And there are attacks taking place today that get virtually no press coverage. The communist regime in China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Christians into concentration camps reminiscent of the 1930s. … ISIS, which is on the verge of being defeated on the battlefield, was already calling for renewed attacks overseas. Friday’s atrocity in New Zealand is certain to inspire Islamists who have never needed an excuse to wage jihad.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “Our friends in the other party will never forgive us for our success, and are doing everything in their power to rewrite history.” —Ronald Reagan

Friendly fire: “The Democrats made a terrible decision when they announced that they had turned down Fox News’s offer to host one of their 2020 primary debates, saying that Fox was nothing more than propaganda. … Republicans never shy away from coming on this show, and they come with a smile on their face despite knowing that the only people in the crowd cheering them on are the three campaign aides they brought with them. … The audience is against them and they don’t care — it’s an opportunity to expose people to your side of the story.” —Bill Maher

Non Compos Mentis: “America is to white nationalism what Saudi Arabia is to jihadism.” —New Republic contributing editor Jeet Heer

Race bait: “The air that Americans breathe isn’t equal. Blacks and Hispanics disproportionately breathe air that’s been polluted by non-Hispanic whites, according to a study. This new research quantifies for the first time the racial gap between who causes air pollution — and who breathes it. ‘Pollution is disproportionately caused by whites, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic minorities,’ the study said.” —USA Today

Race bait II: “The New Zealand shooting was inspired by the hate America is exporting. We need to deal with that reality.” —Center for American Progress’s Simon Clark

Non sequitur: “I am triggered by those who piled on Representative Ilhan Omar and incited a hate mob against her until she got assassination threats now giving condolences to our community. What we need you to do is reflect on how you contribute to islamophobia and stop doing that.” —Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour

And how is a gun ban constitutional? “An AR-15 gunshot wound — that high-impact, high-velocity round — will blow a hole through your back the size of an orange. You will bleed to death before anyone can get to you and save your life, because that’s exactly what it was designed to do: to keep that enemy’s soldier down and not claim the life of one of our own. If you own an AR-15, keep it. Continue to use it responsibly and safely. I just don’t think that we need to sell anymore weapons of war into this public.” —Beto O'Rourke

And last… “A reporter literally agreed54 to not report potentially damaging information about a Democrat in a close race until after the election. And people treat Fox’s and National Enquirer’s actions as if they’re unprecedented and unmatched.” —Tim Carney

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61827-monday-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