The Patriot Post Digest 6-10-2019

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The Patriot Post Digest 6-10-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Jun. 10, 2019

https://patriotpost.us/digests/63553-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.” —John Adams (1815)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/63551-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

What did Trump get out of Mexico?1
Keeping a lackluster jobs report in larger perspective.2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.

IN BRIEF

Bad Spin on Trump’s Mexico Tariff Win10

Following President Donald Trump’s weekend announcement that the U.S. and Mexico had reached an immigration deal averting his tariff threat11, Democrats and the Leftmedia jumped to spin the narrative as little more than Trump engaging in political grandstanding. They couldn’t be more wrong.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bloviated, “President Trump undermined America’s preeminent leadership role in the world by recklessly threatening to impose tariffs on our close friend and neighbor to the south. Threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate foreign policy.”

The New York Times sought to diminish Trump’s accomplishment by pointing out that much of the deal had been in the works for a while, and that Mexico had already agreed to several aspects of it months ago. The Times then speculated that Trump’s decision to accept the deal was actually “a face-saving way to escape from the political and economic consequences of imposing tariffs on Mexico.”

Or maybe Trump was simply holding Mexico’s feet to the fire, getting our neighbors to quit dragging their feet on what they had agreed to months ago. After May saw 132,000 arrests of illegal aliens crossing the border12, it was clear that Mexico was failing to live up to promises to help stem the migrant crisis. Trump’s tariff threat appears to have given Mexican officials the necessary kick in the pants to finally act.

The obvious problem with the Left’s spin is that Trump has not shied away from imposing tariffs. He followed through on his tariff threat against China and has only continued to raise them as he presses Beijing on decades of bad behavior13. Why would he be scared to hit Mexico?

But there may be another reason Democrats and the Leftmedia aim to mitigate Trump’s victory here. The latest polling shows that a large segment of Americans view immigration as the most important problem facing the nation today. Democrats and much of the mainstream media — who have long sought to downplay the border crisis — don’t want this becoming the major election issue in 2020, as it is a winning issue for Trump.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/63548-bad-spin-on-trumps-mexico-tariff-win

Leftmedia: ‘The Recession Is Coming!’14

The jobs report for May, released last Friday, was not only unimpressive but could be construed as worrisome. The economy added an anemic 75,000 jobs instead of an expected gain of 180,000, and previous reports for March and April were reduced by 75,000 jobs. “It’s time to start worrying about the economy,” The Washington Post tells us. But is it?

The Post does paint a disconcerting picture of fewer job openings, slower wage growth, and lackluster progress for people “in the prime of their working years,” all while there’s a European debt crisis and the Chinese economy is slowing down. Over all of it, we’re told, looms “Trump’s trade war.”

This doesn’t quite sink to the level of fake news, but the Post is most definitely regurgitating the Democratic National Committee’s talking points. Democrats’ best hope for retaking the White House in 2020 is a recession, and they’re pushing for one15 in every way they can.

A few points about trade. It is true that tariffs hurt some sectors of the economy while arguably aiding others. It is also true that many Republicans — and even more so the conservative commentariat — are (accurately) warning about the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Trump called himself “the Tariff Man,” and he generally advocates tariffs as sound trade policy. “Tariffs are a beautiful thing when you are the piggy bank,” he insisted today. GOP orthodoxy for decades has been just the opposite, and many Republicans are distancing themselves from Trump’s tariffs both as genuine disagreement and as political cover when they hear from constituents hurt by those tariffs. It’s interesting that Trump isn’t blowing that political cover with Twitter tirades, but there’s no question he’s upsetting the status quo apple cart.

Oh, and by the way, Trump didn’t start this trade war13 — China did decades ago. Whether his chosen tool will rectify the problem remains to be seen, but he’s at least confronting Beijing’s Red leaders, which is something no one else in Washington was willing to do.

Finally, the economy is all about confidence. Tax cuts and deregulation vastly improved confidence for businesses and consumers, while tariff fights — particularly as portrayed by the media — depress that confidence. It’s almost impossible for the short-attention-span, 24/7-news-cycle crowd to maintain a strategic perspective about the long-running economic issues at play here, but the American economy is quite resilient. The problems didn’t manifest overnight and they won’t be fixed that quickly either.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/63527-leftmedia-the-recession-is-coming

ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY

Featured Analysis: ‘Stop Traveling,’ Say Climate Alarmists16 — If you’re flying or riding cruise ships, you’re destroying the planet and future people.
Hacking Americans’ Health Data17 — As many as 20 million patients may have had their info stolen via online health portals.
WA Supreme Court Rules Against Religious Liberty18 — The florist will appeal her First Amendment case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
NYPD Steven Silks — We Will Miss You, Brother19 — The New York Police Department lost one of its finest last week.
Grassroots Perspective: The State, the Surrogate Parent?20 — Broken families lead to broken societies, and the answer is not the nanny state.
Video: The Problem With Celebrating Pride21 — Michael Knowles discusses why the celebration of pride is a growing problem in our society.
Video: America’s Biggest Issues — Religious Freedom22 — The Heritage Foundation’s Genevieve Wood takes a look at some of the concerns about it.

TOP NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

LEFT COAST LUNACY: “California is set to become the first state in the country to pay for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to have full health benefits. Under an agreement between Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats in the state legislature, low-income adults between the ages of 19 and 25 living in California illegally would be eligible for California’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. The deal emerged as part of a broader $213 billion budget.” (Fox News24)
IMPEACHMENT CHURN: “Top Democratic leaders may be in no rush to launch an impeachment inquiry, but the party is launching a series of hearings this week on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report,” the Associated Press25 reports. “The slate of televised sessions on Mueller’s report means a new, intensified focus on the Russia probe and puts it on an investigative ‘path’ — in the words of anti-impeachment Speaker Nancy Pelosi — that some Democrats hope leads to impeachment of President Donald Trump.” Try not to spew your coffee, but NBC News26 adds that Dems are also considering a series of bills to “safeguard democracy.”