The Patriot Post Digest 7-31-2019

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The Patriot Post Digest 7-31-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Jul. 31, 2019

https://patriotpost.us/digests/64650-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” —Thomas Jefferson (1823)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/64645-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

The third Democrat debate featured the Left versus the far Left.1
Meanwhile, workers are seeing higher wages thanks to Trump’s policies.2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.

IN BRIEF

Demo Debate 3: Left vs. Far Left10

Ten Democrat presidential candidates gathered on stage last night in Detroit — a Democrat-run city right up there with Baltimore11 — for the first of two debates12 in Round Two of the Left’s 2020 “Free” Stuff Sweepstakes. As both John Stossel (here13 and here14) and The Washington Free Beacon15 report, the candidates seem only to be competing with each other for who can give away the most “free” stuff. Multitrillion-dollar proposals are all the rage as they cynically appeal for votes.

On that note, a significant argument last night was just how much “free” health care Democrats can promise without, as John Delaney warned, committing “political suicide” by being “the party of subtraction, and telling half the country … that their [private] health insurance is illegal.” While “moderates” like Delaney are making their last stand against “impossible promises” about “free everything,” socialists Bernie Sanders and his left-hand woman Elizabeth Warren argue that their $40 trillion16 government plan to take away your private health plan is the best way to go.

Warren flat-out lied: “We are the Democrats. We are not about trying to take away health care from anyone. That’s what the Republicans are trying to do.” That’s a BIG Lie — a false assertion so brazen they’re hoping voters won’t question it. They hope to dishonestly frame the debate as one between benevolent and caring Democrats and “bigoted” Republicans who “take stuff from you.”

John Hickenlooper says Sanders’s policies are too extreme and that “you might as well FedEx the election to Donald Trump.” But leftists like Hickenlooper are losing to the radical Left.

On a more humorous note, it’s ironic to hear Democrats like Sanders declare, “Nobody can defend the dysfunctionality of the current [health] system!” That would be the health system now defined by ObamaCare, rammed through by Democrats without a single Republican vote.

Immigration provided an interesting contrast. Whereas Warren called for citizenship for “students who have overstayed their visas” among others, Sanders insisted that “strong border protections” are necessary to prevent illegals from abusing all the “free” stuff. Now, we don’t believe for a minute that Sanders would actually secure the borders as president. But maybe he’s reading the tea leaves. Polling shows17 that many Americans view immigration as a top issue, and they specifically worry about illegals overwhelming and abusing income-redistribution programs.

Naturally, the subject of race came up. CNN’s Don Lemon, who has defended antifa thugs and compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, asked utterly preposterous questions: “What do you say to those Trump voters who prioritize the economy over the president’s bigotry?” And “President Trump is pursuing a reelection strategy based, in part, on racial division. How do you convince primary voters that you’d be the best nominee to take on President Trump and heal the racial divide in America?”

The entire history of the Democrat Party is one of racial division, which some now propose to “heal” by confiscating money from whites for reparations. The Democrats’ 2020 strategy comes from the same old playbook: Paint Trump as a racist18 (with the help of Leftmedia race-baiters like Lemon), and demand that all “people of color” (which simply means everyone but white people) fall in line with leftist groupthink.

We’ve only just touched on some of the biggest issues debated last night. But here’s some final food for thought: It is the leftist Sanders-Warren-Harris cabal, pitted against the more moderate choice of Joe Biden, that will be the Achilles heel for Democrats. Biden is a terrible candidate, but where else do moderate Demos go?

Footnote: Also on stage last night were Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Tim Ryan, Steve Bullock, and New Age guru Marianne Williamson.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/64643-demo-debate-3-left-vs-far-left

Trump’s Economic Policies Raise Wages for 99%19

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released annual revisions to its personal-income report on Tuesday, and the data should encourage everyone: Americans’ wages have been increasing at a healthy rate since President Donald Trump took office. The Wall Street Journal reports20, “The revisions show that employee compensation rose 4.5% in 2017 and 5% in 2018 — some $4.4 billion and $87.1 billion more than previously reported. The trend has continued into 2019, with compensation increasing $378 billion or 3.4% in the first six months alone. Wages and salaries were revised upward to 5.3% from 3.6% in May year over year. And in June wages and salaries grew at an annual rate of 5.5%, which is a rocking 4.1% after adjusting for inflation.”

Counter to the Leftmedia’s erroneous narrative that credits Barack Obama and not Trump for America’s current economic growth, the Journal notes, “Employee compensation has increased by $150 billion more in the first six months of 2019 than all of 2016. Compensation increased 42% more during the first two years of the Trump Presidency than in 2015 and 2016. This refutes the claim by liberals that the economy has merely continued on the same trajectory since 2017 as it was before.”

The fact of the matter is that today “Americans are earning more and relying less on government.” So, how does this reality comport with the leading Democrat presidential candidates’ socialist message of ever more government-provided “free” stuff — stuff that can only be “given” by taking more of the wages of hard-working Americans? For all the overwhelmingly negative press Trump receives, at the very least his policies are proving effective in putting/leaving more money in the pockets of hard-working Americans, giving them more freedom to spend and invest as they see fit. Once again, it’s capitalism, not socialism, that is lifting everyone’s boats.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/64641-trumps-economic-policies-raise-wages-for-99-percent

ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY

Featured Analysis: Leftist Snopes ‘Fact-Checkers’ Hit Conservative Satire Site21 — The Babylon Bee is satire. Someone should tell the humorless leftists who can’t take a joke.
China Aims to Block Trump Reelection22 — Beijing is working to prevent the president from winning as a means by which to win the trade war.
Corps Values23 — Recent misdeeds by military personnel prompt question about rot in the ranks.
Grassroots Perspective: Mr. President, Is Baltimore That Bad?24 — Actually, it’s probably worse than Trump declared in his widely panned tweets.
Video: Free Stuff 202014 — Presidential candidates promise expensive new programs. John Stossel adds up the cost.
Video: Trump Campaign Video Slamming ‘The Squad’25 — The president takes on the Gang of Four by artfully using their own words against them.

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The Patriot Post Digest 7-31-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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TOP NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

BEGINNINGS OF A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT? “California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a bill on Tuesday to force President Donald Trump to release his tax returns in order to get on the state’s 2020 primary ballot,” The Sacramento Bee27 reports. “While other states have pursued Trump’s taxes, California is the first one in the country to make the disclosure of tax returns a requirement for a ballot spot.” Not that it matters in California, but this is a dangerous model. And the sooner it’s torpedoed in court, the better.

SUIT DISMISSED: “A U.S. judge on Tuesday dismissed a Democratic Party lawsuit arguing that the Russian government, President Donald Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks carried out a conspiracy to influence the 2016 U.S. election. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan said he could not hear the claims against Russia, which were the focus of the case, because of a legal doctrine called sovereign immunity that shields foreign governments from litigation in the United States.” (Reuters28)

PRESCRIPTION REFORM “The Trump administration said Wednesday it will set up a system to allow Americans to legally import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada, weakening a longstanding ban that had stood as a top priority for the politically powerful pharmaceutical industry.” (NBC News29)

NONSTARTER: “Implementing the ‘Green New Deal’ (GND) would cost just shy of $75,000 per household in year one of the program and would never drop below $37,000 per household in any of the following years, according to a [Competitive Enterprise Institute] study released Tuesday.” (The Washington Free Beacon30)

TRANSHUMANISM: “Human-animal hybrids are to be developed in embryo form in Japan after the government approved controversial stem-cell research. Human cells will be grown in rat and mouse embryos, then brought to term in a surrogate animal, as part of experiments set to be carried out at the University of Tokyo. Supporters say the work … could be a vital first step towards eventually growing organs that can then be transplanted into people in need. But opponents have raised concerns that scientists are playing God.” (Independent31)

NANNY STATE: “A woman in Ohio has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for violating ordinances about feeding stray animals. Seventy-nine-year-old Nancy Segula began visiting stray cats on her back porch a few years ago after a neighbor abandoned their pets.” (Washington Examiner32)

VILLAGE ACADEMIC CURRICULUM: “The Chicago Teachers union has a delegation in Venezuela to show their solidarity with Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime. … Delegation members are personally sharing their wonderment at Venezuelan socialism on a blog called ‘Radical Educator Collective.’ … They quoted a Venezuelan official saying communes make society less individualistic since groups of people are working together to decide their needs and how to work collectively towards solutions.” (Wirepoints33)

RECORD APPREHENSIONS: “With two months still left in this fiscal year, the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) border sector has already set an all-time annual record for apprehensions at the border. According to a source in Border Patrol, this week, the total apprehensions in the RGV passed 301,000. That is an all-time record for this sector since Border Patrol began collecting records.” (Conservative Review34)

MISSILE LAUNCH: “North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, according to South Korea’s military, the second such launch in a week. … Last week’s launch was the first such action since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in June. The North called that launch a "solemn warning” to Seoul over its planned military exercises with Washington.“ (BBC35)

POLICY: It’s time to pressure corrupt Central American elites to end the border crisis (The Federalist36)

POLICY: The myth of American middle-class stagnation (American Institute for Economic Research37)

HUMOR: All 20 candidates arrive at Democrat debate in one stylish car (Genesius Times38)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights39.

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/64644-wednesday-top-news-executive-summary

OPINION IN BRIEF

Marc A. Thiessen40: "The tragedy of Trump’s presidency is that he should be championing the people of Baltimore rather than using their plight to attack one of his critics. In 2016, Trump visited a black church in Detroit and gave a major speech in Charlotte in which he promised black Americans, ‘Whether you vote for me or not, I will be your greatest champion.’ Last year, he was supposed to visit Baltimore to deliver a similar message but canceled. That would have been a lot more effective than a tweetstorm that only prompts Baltimore’s beleaguered residents to rally around their incompetent Democratic leaders.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise and their conscience tells them it is wrong.” —Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)

Political futures: “Democrats don’t really need a new effort to win traditionally red states. … They need to win back the traditionally blue states that Trump narrowly won last cycle.” —Jim Geraghty

Political futures II: “The president has a unique ability to dominate news coverage. But to win in 2020, the central question of the 2020 campaign cannot be solely about who President Trump is; it must instead be about what President Trump and the GOP will do with four more years.” —Tim Chapman

For the record: “Only 22 percent of U.S. adults are on Twitter, and 80 percent of the tweets come from 10 percent of users. If you rely on Twitter for political information, you are being informed by ersatz pundits residing within 2.2 percent of the population.” —Arthur Brooks

2020 vision: “On [last night’s] Democrat debate stage, Americans witnessed a doubling down on Democrats’ radical, socialist proposals. From a government takeover of health care to decriminalizing illegal immigration, Democrat candidates put their out-of-touch priorities on full display. As workers and industries thrive under President Trump’s winning economic policies here in Michigan and across the country, voters will choose four more years of this great American comeback rather than allow Democrats to take us backward.” —RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel

Non Compos Mentis: “Jewish people have been persecuted throughout all of human history, but I don’t think that by marginalizing Palestinians, you create safety. … Once someone doesn’t have access to clean water, they have no choice but to riot, right?” —Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

And last… “As Elizabeth Warren closes the night with complaints about cost of college for students, just remember she was paid $400,000 to teach one class.” —Katie Pavlich

https://patriotpost.us/articles/64640-wednesday-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