The Patriot Post Digest 7-25-2019

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The Patriot Post Digest 7-25-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Jul. 25, 2019

https://patriotpost.us/digests/64521-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man.” —James Madison (1787)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/64520-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

An executive summary of Robert Mueller’s testimony.1
Daily Features: More Analysis2, Columnists3, Headlines4, Opinion in Brief5, Short Cuts6, Memes7, and Cartoons8.

FEATURED ANALYSIS

Executive Summary: Mueller’s Capstone Testimony9

Mark Alexander

Special Counsel Robert Mueller provided what should be capstone testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee10 and the House Intelligence Committee11. However, for Democrats, it could better be described as “tombstone testimony” regarding their political charade alleging that Donald Trump “colluded” with Russia to win the 2016 election. Fact is, the whole farce was a setup by Hillary Clinton’s campaign12.

After submitting a 448-page report13 in March, Mueller gave a press conference in May14 in which he intended to put the investigation to bed. Democrats spent the first two years Donald Trump15 was in office “investigating” the fake collusion story in order to take the House in the 2018 midterm elections, despite the Trump administration’s extraordinary MAGA record16. In an effort to keep that momentum alive into 2020, they insisted on Mueller’s testimony.

As we noted yesterday before he had completed his testimony, it was a train wreck17. The widespread consensus among politicians and even Leftmedia propagandists18 is that Mueller looked old, haggard, and confused, and that he didn’t have a full mastery of the questions.

Leftist Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe declared, “Much as I hate to say it, this morning’s hearing was a disaster. Far from breathing life into his damning report, the tired Robert Mueller sucked the life out of it.” David Axelrod, former senior adviser to Barack Obama, observed, “This is very, very painful.”

Many of Mueller’s most memorable lines were to the effect of “I can’t speak to that,” “That’s out of my purview,” or “I can’t answer that.” Muller said more than 200 times that he could not answer the question he was being asked — providing plenty of fodder for Democrats to pursue their dead-end line of allegations. But one reason Mueller refused to answer some questions is, of course, that there is still an ongoing lateral investigation, the results of which may lead in a direction very damaging to Hillary Clinton19 and, by extension, all those Demos who have perpetuated the collusion myth.

On the question of whether Trump committed obstruction of justice, the Mueller report itself states: “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Regarding Democrat suggestions that Trump tried to obstruct the investigation, Mueller was asked by Rep. Doug Collins, “At any time … was your investigation curtailed or stopped?” Mueller answered, flatly, “no.”

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) wanted to make hay anyway, because it’s all Democrats have: “Did you actually ‘totally exonerate’ the president?”

“No,” Mueller responded, adding: “The finding indicates that the president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed.”

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) correctly noted, “It was not the special counsel’s job to conclusively determine Donald Trump’s innocence or to exonerate him because the bedrock principle of our justice system is a presumption of innocence.” Ratcliffe also thundered, “Donald Trump is not above the law, but he damn sure shouldn’t be below the law.”

In other words, they saw nothing that would be an indictable offense. And of course he did not “exonerate” the president because that was not his task. The “exoneration” question, which assumes “guilty until proven innocent,” is just a Democrat play on words to imply there must be something else to keep their impeachment circus20 circulating.

On the question of “obstruction,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) led the witness: “The reason, again, that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of [an Office of Legal Counsel] OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president. Correct?”

Mueller: “That is correct.”

But in the second hearing, Mueller went back to this question to correct the record. “I want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by [Representative Ted] Lieu, who said, and I quote, ‘You didn’t charge the president because of the OLC opinion.’ That is not the correct way to say it,” Mueller said. “As we say in the report, and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.”

In other words, there was no evidence to indict, one way or the other, despite Demo efforts to spin it the other way.

“The Democrats have refused to accept reality,” said California Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. “They live in an alternate universe. This is over.”

“None of the evidence has panned out,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said. Democrats “know this is not what they wanted to see today. This is not what they wanted to hear. This should end the chapter of this book we put America through.”

After the hearings, former federal prosecutor and Rep. Trey Gowdy declared, “Before Bob Mueller had uttered a single syllable of the report, 60 House Democrats moved to impeach him. What they wanted was Mueller to come in and do their job for them — to issue this roadmap that could lead them to impeachment.” Again, for Democrats, it’s guilty until proven innocent.

Our conclusions…

First, while Democrats are still insisting that Russian interference helped Trump win in 2016, the fact is the overwhelming political beneficiaries of the Russia collusion delusion21 were Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.

Second, in regard to corruption of our elections, it’s the Democrats who are endeavoring to corrupt the political process with their open-borders policy, refusal to allow the citizenship question on the census, and opposing voter IDs. Democrats are doing far more to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections than the Russians have ever done.

Third, as we have noted previously, it is astounding that Mueller did not investigate the fake dossier funded by Clinton22, but that investigation may come next.

And finally, this entire Trump setup began with a small group of powerful anti-Trump bureaucrats23 who in effect attempted a coup d'état24 to take Trump down.

https://patriotpost.us/alexander/64519-executive-summary-muellers-capstone-testimony

ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY

Gov’s Resignation Exposes Puerto Rico’s Corruption25 — Leaked messages expose Ricardo Rossello’s disregard for both Rule of Law and needs of citizenry.
Groupthink Campus Culture26 — “Inclusive” language standards on campus are all about crushing free thought.
Cuomo Goes Green, NY Fades to Black27 — The New York governor blames the power company for the failure of his leftist energy policy.
American Spirit: Group of Strangers Saves Man in Flipped Truck28 — Miraculously, the driver sustained no injuries, and he was thankful for the Good Samaritans.
Video: Mueller Hearing Was a Disaster29 — Fox News’s Chris Wallace says it’s a disaster for Democrats and Mueller’s reputation.
Video: Students Say Obama Immigration Quote Is Racist30 — The problem is they first think it was President Donald Trump who said it. Wrong.

Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column

Read The Demos’ Socialist Cloward-Piven Pivot31. What objectives and strategies do the Democrat Party and CPUSA have in common?

If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email every Wednesday, update your subscription here32.

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The Patriot Post Digest 7-25-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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TOP NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

NO PROSECUTION FOR BARR: “The Justice Department said Wednesday it will not prosecute Attorney General William P. Barr for contempt of Congress, rejecting House Democrats’ attempt last week to punish Mr. Barr in a spat over the 2020 census. The move is in keeping with longstanding department policy, and follows the lead of the Obama administration, which likewise refused to prosecute then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. after he was held in criminal contempt.” (The Washington Times34)

ASYLUM BAN BLOCKED: “Delivering a painful defeat to the Trump administration’s most sweeping effort to single-handedly overhaul the asylum system without Congress, a federal judge on Wednesday blocked a rule that made most migrants from Central America and other countries ineligible for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. … Earlier on Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington declined to block the policy as requested by plaintiffs in a second court challenge to the controversial policy.” (CBS News35)

FEDERAL EXECUTIONS RESUME: “The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it will resume capital punishment for the first time in nearly two decades. Attorney General William Barr has directed that executions for five death-row inmates be scheduled. If carried out, they will be the first federal executions since 2003.” (The Hill36)

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? “The House voted 264-169 on Wednesday to pass legislation that would create a new Treasury Department agency to provide taxpayer-backed loans to endangered multiemployer pension plans and some other types of endangered plans.” (Washington Examiner37)

A BROKEN BLOCK IS RIGHT TWICE A DAY: “On Wednesday, in a lopsided 429-3 vote, the House passed a bill that will stop bad robocalls.” (The Daily Wire38)

TRUMP VETO: “President Trump has vetoed three congressional resolutions that would block his emergency arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). … Congress is not expected to have the two-thirds majority needed to override Trump’s vetoes.” (The Hill39)

NOKO PROVOKES: “North Korea test-fired two new short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, South Korean officials said, its first missile test since its leader, Kim Jong Un, and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to revive denuclearisation talks last month. … Firing a ballistic missile would be a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban the North from the use of such technology.” (Reuters40)

CHINA RANCOR: “China sharpened its hostility toward the United States and Taiwan in a new high-level report on its future military strategy that accused Washington and its allies of undermining global stability. Releasing the document on Wednesday, officials of the People’s Liberation Army repeatedly warned that Beijing would be willing to deploy military force to assert its claims over Taiwan.” (The Washington Post41)

PUERTO RICO GOV. RESIGNS: “Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced his resignation Wednesday days after demonstrators at the island’s largest protest in recent history called for his ouster over a scandal involving leaked private chats as well as corruption investigations and arrests. His resignation, effective Aug. 2, came late Wednesday night on a recorded video published on Facebook.” (NBC News42)

EPSTEIN INJURED: “Jeffrey Epstein was reportedly found injured in a New York City jail cell on Tuesday after a possible suicide attempt. Epstein, 66, was discovered at the Metropolitan Correctional Center nearly unconscious and with wounds to his neck.” (Fox News43)

POLICY: Proposed rule change would increase SNAP integrity (American Enterprise Institute44)

POLICY: How to make student debt affordable and equitable (Manhattan Institute45)

HUMOR: “I’m still sharp as a tack,” insists Mueller moments before taking phone call on a banana (The Babylon Bee46)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights47.

The Patriot Post is a certified ad-free news service, unlike third-party commercial news sites linked on this page, which may also require a paid subscription.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/64515-thursday-top-news-executive-summary

OPINION IN BRIEF

Ken Blackwell: “Unlike Barack Obama, President Trump was elected because he offered an agenda designed to empower all Americans, not divide the country into arbitrary categories based on race. If you are a citizen of this great nation, President Trump stands for you and will fight for your interests. Democrats, on the other hand, fear the powerful appeal of this commonsense, patriotic approach and have tried to balkanize the American electorate in hopes of exploiting isolated identity groups with grievance politics. Their selfish attempts to seize power have done real damage to American unity and our ability to believe in a shared future. The American electorate must firmly reject the Democrats’ attempts to divide and conquer along racial lines, and the best place to do that is at the ballot box. President Trump’s reelection might be the only way to convince Democrats to finally give up on their divisive, race-baiting political strategy.”

SHORT CUTS

On cross-examination: “Mueller needs to go back to law school. In America’s judicial system, no prosecutors ever, ever conclude innocence. They only decide guilt. Americans are presumed innocent if not found guilty!” —Sen. Rand Paul

Upright: “Allow me to reiterate my unpopular opinion that it is ridiculous to have a prosecutor produce a 400-page report for public consumption and then testify for the TV cameras over a matter that he couldn’t decide was a crime or not.” —Rich Lowry

Friendly fire: “All you pundits and moderates and lame Dems who told the public to put their faith in the esteemed Robert Mueller — just STFU from now on.” —Michael Moore

Braying Jenny: “I would say our country should be more fearful of white men across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country. And so if fear was the driving force of policies to keep America safe — Americans safe inside of this country — we should be profiling, monitoring, and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men.” —Rep. Ilhan Omar, February 2018

Race bait: “Look, there are African American men [at a Trump rally]! How much did he pay them to be ‘blackground’?” —Bette Midler, who evidently thinks blacks can’t think for themselves

Dezinformatsiya: “Was @AOC crying over a parking lot while protesting family separation? False, she was standing on a road to a migrant facility, which was in her line of gaze, and was just beyond the port of entry.” —Politifact with a laughably pathetic “fact check”

Braying Jackass: “Let’s get one thing out of the way right at the beginning: Donald Trump is a raging racist, okay? He’s a complete and thoroughgoing racist and he made that choice as a choice a long time ago.” —Bill Weld

Alpha Jackass: “[Republicans] don’t care about the United States. It really was something watching them defend this president. Normally, when people fall on their knees for Trump like that, he pays them $130,000 in hush money.” —Jimmy Kimmel

And last… “The person who learned the most about the Mueller report [yesterday] was Bob Mueller.” —Trey Gowdy

https://patriotpost.us/articles/64513-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