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« on: September 04, 2019, 12:52:39 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 9-4-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Sep. 4, 2019
https://patriotpost.us/digests/65256-mid-day-digest
THE FOUNDATION
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” —James Madison (1822)
https://patriotpost.us/fqd/65254-founders-quote-daily
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Walmart’s new restrictions on ammo sales are meaningless.1
Mattis reminds everyone the role Biden and Obama had in the rise of ISIS.2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.
IN BRIEF
Walmart’s Vacuous Virtue Signal10
Walmart has bravely stepped into the void and forever solved the problem of gun violence. Alright, forgive the utter sarcasm. On Tuesday, the retail behemoth announced its new policy of no longer selling handgun or some rifle ammunition — after stores sell out of current inventory, of course — as well as asking customers to no longer open carry in its stores. Asked if that will have any effect on crime committed with guns, former Walmart CEO Bill Simon said “it’s very difficult to say.”
Actually, Mr. Simon, it’s not difficult to say at all: Walmart’s new policy is meaningless virtue signaling that will merely transfer sales and customers to eager small gun stores while doing absolutely nothing to stop a single shooting, most of which happen with illegally possessed guns on Democrat-run urban poverty plantations. Only 7% of firearm-related homicides are committed with guns purchased from licensed dealers.
Yet Simon argued that the mass murder of 22 people in an El Paso Walmart last month (along with other recent mass shootings) meant the company was “left with no choice” but to “take some sort of action.” Current CEO Doug McMillon insisted, “In a complex situation lacking a simple solution, we are trying to take constructive steps to reduce the risk that events like these will happen again. The status quo is unacceptable.”
The 21-year-old murderer in El Paso used an AR-15. Walmart stopped selling such rifles in 2015, and in 2018 it raised the minimum age for purchasing any other gun to 21 from 18. Neither policy change stopped the El Paso psychopath. Walmart does account for 20% of the nation’s ammo sales, but ceasing those sales won’t stop a determined evildoer in the future; it will only inconvenience law-abiding Americans.
As for open carry, well, our position may be unpopular, but we believe it’s a tactically foolish and provocative gesture that gives more heartburn than protection. Yet we’d far prefer that gun owners reach that conclusion on their own rather than a retailer dictate it.
On a final note, when is Walmart going to stop selling high-sugar junk food, which it promotes primarily to lower-income customers? Those products are a far more deadly and health-cost burden than firearms. Far more people who become sugar and fat junkies die from the resulting heart failure, strokes, and other diseases related to obesity. And what about selling alcohol and auto parts, each of which also contribute to far more deaths than firearms? The answer, of course, is that there’s no political party calling for any of that.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/65252-walmarts-vacuous-virtue-signal
Mattis: Obama and Biden Empowered ISIS11
President Donald Trump’s former defense secretary, James Mattis, just released his book, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, and it’s not what many within the Leftmedia were hoping for — a rebuke of Trump’s leadership. In fact, if anything Mattis does the opposite by offering stinging criticism of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Mattis, who abruptly left the Pentagon12 last year following a disagreement with Trump over his decision to withdraw troops from Syria, explained his rationale for refusing to offer any criticism of Trump: “There’ll come a time when I speak out on strategic issues, policy issues, that I do not have a question about. But I need to give some period of time to those who have to carry out the responsibility to protect this country in a very, very difficult age.”
Meanwhile, since both Obama and Biden are no longer in office (though Biden wants Trump’s job), Mattis freely offers his critique of their leadership (or lack thereof), specifically regarding U.S. involvement in the Long War and their inept handling of Iran. For example, Mattis noted that both Obama and Biden summarily dismissed his objections to pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, as Mattis warned that Iraq would slip back into violence. As we’ve noted, Obama practically did create ISIS13. Mattis pinpoints the reason for Obama’s rejection of his warnings, writing, “At the top, then as now, there was an aura of omniscience. The assessments of the intelligence community, our diplomats, and our military had been excluded from the decision-making circle.”
Following Obama’s dismissal of Mattis, he writes, “I was leaving a region aflame and in disarray. The lack of an integrated regional strategy had left us adrift, and our friends confused. We were offering no leadership or direction. I left my post deeply disturbed that we had shaken our friends’ confidence and created vacuums that our adversaries would exploit.”
Mattis’s criticism of Biden, while not biting, leaves one with little confidence that Biden would really listen to advice. “I found him an admirable and amiable man,” Mattis says. “But he was past the point where he was willing to entertain a ‘good idea.’ He didn’t want to hear more; he wanted our forces out of Iraq. Whatever path led there fastest, he favored. He exuded the confidence of a man whose mind was made up, perhaps even indifferent to considering the consequences were he judging the situation incorrectly.”
Effectively, Mattis may be offering one more warning to Trump: Don’t follow the same failed path taken by your predecessor. Furthermore, it serves as a warning to the American people against electing Biden, who just recently boasted, “If I have any expertise, it’s American foreign policy.”
https://patriotpost.us/articles/65255-mattis-obama-and-biden-empowered-isis
ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY
Featured Analysis: Communist Chinese Gov’t Fears a Free Hong Kong14 — Withdrawing the extradition bill is good, but it may be simply an attempt to restore order.
Chinese Dissidents: Communism Must Be Confronted15 — “Trump Has The Right Strategy On Beijing,” says an op-ed in The Washington Post.
Corruption Corrodes the UAW16 — The workers aren’t the problem. It’s the big whigs pocketing big money.
Automakers Demand More Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks17 — Washington really wants to keep picking winners and losers in the auto industry.
Grassroots Perspective: God Is ‘Liberal’18 — Democrats have put themselves in the position of God, giving away “liberally” to voters.
Video: Black Trump Vote Is Mental Illness?19 — A black pastor defends an offensive and dishonest sign outside his Alabama church.
Video: Lessons From Africa20 — Magatte Wade, an African entrepreneur, blames crushing government regulation for poverty.
TOP NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
BORDER FORTIFICATION: “Defense Secretary Mark Esper has signed off on spending $3.6 billion in Defense Department construction funds for 175 miles of wall on the southern border with Mexico. … Use of the money had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit proceeded. Last month, however, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the use of about $2.5 billion. A border wall was a keystone of the president’s 2016 election campaign, but Congress has resisted funding all of it. This year it allocated $1.4 billion, but the president wanted much more.” (Fox News22)
HURRICANE DORIAN UPDATE: “Hurricane Dorian gradually leaves Florida behind Wednesday, setting its sights on the coasts of Georgia and then the Carolinas. These areas face a triple threat of ‘destructive winds, flooding rains, and life-threatening storm surges,’ according to the National Hurricane Center. While Dorian has stayed far enough off the coast to largely spare Florida from the worst of its wrath, it is forecast to make a much closer approach to the coastline of the Carolinas between late Wednesday and Thursday and could even make landfall. Impacts are thus expected to be more severe.” (Capital Weather Gang23) |
