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« on: May 03, 2019, 03:37:34 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-3-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
May 3, 2019
https://patriotpost.us/digests/62788-mid-day-digest
THE FOUNDATION
“This gave me occasion to observe, that when Men are employ’d they are best contented. For on the Days they work’d they were good-natur’d and chearful; and with the consciousness of having done a good Days work they spent the Evenings jollily.” —Benjamin Franklin (1771)
https://patriotpost.us/fqd/62783-founders-quote-daily
IN TODAY’S EDITION
The economy continues roaring, as the latest jobs report shows.1
The Facebook censors have come for several prominent individuals.2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.
IN BRIEF
Unemployment Hits Half-Century Low10
The jobs numbers for April are out and it’s more good news, as 263,000 jobs were added, surpassing Wall Street expectations of 190,000. With the economy continuing its steady upward trajectory, a milestone was reached that has not been seen since 1969 — the headline unemployment rate fell to 3.6%. Meanwhile, the more complete U6 unemployment measure held steady at 7.3%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, “Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates declined in April for adult men (3.4 percent), adult women (3.1 percent), Whites (3.1 percent), Asians (2.2 percent), and Hispanics (4.2 percent). The jobless rates for teenagers (13.0 percent) and Blacks (6.7 percent) showed little or no change.”
CNBC notes, “GDP increased 3.2% during the first quarter, far exceeding expectations, while productivity during the quarter jumped 3.6% for its best gain in five years. Pending home sales rose 3.8% in March, providing some hope in the real estate market so long as rates are held in check.”
This is more good news for all Americans and for President Donald Trump. Clearly, his commitment to deregulation coupled with the Republican tax cut is paying off, and an increasing percentage of the country is seeing this. Even anti-Trump CNN’s own poll found that 56% of Americans view Trump favorably11 on the economy. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Democrat presidential candidates to spin this booming economy12 as somehow bad for Americans.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/62781-unemployment-hits-half-century-low
De-Platforming Free Speech13
Facebook is at it again, de-platforming several people the social-media thought police have dubbed “dangerous individuals and organizations.” And the Leftmedia is at it again, too, conflating bigotry, racism, and conspiracy theories with the Right.
First, the main story. Mark Zuckerberg and his censors, in their infinite and benevolent wisdom, have decided that certain voices have no place on Facebook or Instagram. Infowars founder Alex Jones and personality Paul Joseph Watson, provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, self-described investigative journalist Laura Loomer, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan have been banned. Facebook insists it has “always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology.”
Regardless of what he espouses on a regular basis, Watson was exactly right when he said, “In an authoritarian society controlled by a handful of Silicon Valley giants, all dissent must be purged.” Indeed, Jones was already purged from Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, Apple, and Twitter last year. To be sure, as we noted at the time14, while Jones’s audience in particular tends to fall on the conservative end of the spectrum, Jones himself is a performance artist who’s closer to an anarchist. “He is NOT a Patriot of any order,” says Mark Alexander. “He is a con man who preys on insecurities of vulnerable people in the name of ‘patriotism.’”
That said, Facebook has no business banning him. Just because his speech isn’t worth much doesn’t mean he should be silenced as “hate speech.”
Which brings us to the almost comical media coverage of this ban. Numerous Leftmedia outlets — The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Atlantic, and BuzzFeed, to name a few — initially reported this as an action against “far-right leaders.” The Post’s original headline began, “Facebook bans far-right leaders including Louis Farrakhan…” until blowback forced editors to fix it. Each publication made minor edits, but The Atlantic and BuzzFeed still infer the “right wing” connection.
But to state the obvious, Farrakhan is anything but “far right.” In fact, he’s a leftist friend of dictators, a noxious anti-Semite, and a cult leader. No wonder Barack Obama15 and a litany of other Democrats16 would rather hide their associations with him.
Frankly, we think Jones is onto something when he says of Facebook, “They’re trying to hide their censorship of conservatives by mixing in Louis Farrakhan.” In other words, the only reason Farrakhan was banned is to serve as a fig leaf of objectivity for banning the others.
The real danger here is to free speech. Governments around the world are using terrorist attacks as a pretext for cracking down on speech. American leftists know it’s much harder to make the case for our government to silence people, so they’ve created a faux “moral” case for businesses to do their dirty work for them. Whether it’s social media, news “evaluation” organizations, or credit-card companies, leftists are finding creative ways to dismantle our constitutional rights by using private businesses as the enforcers.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/62779-de-platforming-free-speech
ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY
Featured Analysis: The Great Infrastructure Boondoggle of 201917 — With a bipartisan $2 trillion plan to fix all the things, what could go wrong?
Potholes on the Road to ‘Medicare for All’?18 — CBO: A single-payer system “could be complicated, challenging, and potentially disruptive.”
Gillibrand Plan: A Voter Slush Fund19 — The Democrat’s plan to have the wealthy pay toward the campaigns of candidates they may oppose.
Grassroots Perspective: The Death of Patriotism20 — Patriotism: “The quality of being patriotic, devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country.”
Video: Why Do We Have the Second Amendment?21 — The people of Venezuela were once able to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Video: The Unexpected Power Behind the U.S. Military22 — Land. Sea. Air. Space. Cyber. These Multi-Domain Operations are the battlefields of the future.
TOP NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
EMBATTLED BALTIMORE MAYOR CALLS IT QUITS: “Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh resigned Thursday amid a mushrooming corruption scandal. Pugh’s resignation is effective immediately, her attorney Steve Silverman said at a press conference that she herself did not attend. … Pugh, 69, came under fire for selling $500,000 in copies of her ‘Healthy Holly’ children’s books to the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) while serving on its board. She also sold 20,000 copies of the books to Kaiser Permanente for $114,000 from 2015 to 2018, and 10,000 copies to Associated Black Charities for nearly $80,000 from 2011 and 2016.” (National Review24)
JUDICIAL PROGRESS: “President Trump hit another milestone in his efforts to reshape the federal judiciary, with the Senate clearing his 100th judicial nominee Thursday. The president and Republican-controlled Senate have made judicial nominations a top priority, and the confirmation of Rodolfo Ruiz to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida brought the number of Trump’s judicial appointments into triple digits. In addition to confirming Ruiz, the Senate is also set to clear two more nominees to federal district courts in Puerto Rico and Pennsylvania. If those two nominations win approval, Trump will have tapped 102 judges to the federal bench.” (Washington Examiner25)
PELOSI IMPLIES BARR IS A CRIMINAL: Yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi inveighed26, “What is deadly serious … is the attorney general of the United States of America is not telling the truth to the Congress of the United States. That’s a crime.” But even CNN isn’t buying it27.
TRUMP SAFEGUARDS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: “President Donald Trump spoke out on religious freedom Thursday, as he vowed to protect conscience rights and to combat anti-Semitism. ‘Just today, we finalized new protections of conscience rights for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, students, and faith-based charities,’ Trump said at a White House Rose Garden event with faith leaders from across the country on hand for the National Day of Prayer. … The Department of Health and Human Services’ final rule protects both employers and employees. The rule protects providers, individuals, and other health care entities from having to provide, participate in, pay for, pay for coverage of, or refer for, services such as abortion, sterilization, or assisted suicide to which they might have religious objections.” (The Daily Signal28) |
