THE FOUNDATION

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” —Thomas Paine, American Crisis, No. 1, 1776

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Obama’s New ‘Angry’ Standard for Owning Guns

As we have already noted here and here, Barack Obama wants you to believe that the horrific murders in Charleston last week happened because his gun control agenda has been thwarted. In a new interview — part of a comedian’s somehow appropriately titled podcast “WTF With Marc Maron” — Obama blamed the NRA. “Unfortunately, the grip of the NRA on Congress is extremely strong,” he said. “I don’t foresee any legislative action being taken by this Congress.” Fortunately, the Second Amendment, which the NRA defends, still holds sway with enough members of Congress to stop Obama’s agenda. Of course, he trotted out his usual trope about how he concedes “we have to be respectful” of the traditions of “hunting and sportsmanship around firearms,” neither of which have much to do with our rights. But his most worrisome statement was on the standards for background checks, which the Charleston murderer passed. Obama wants those background checks to be even tougher to pass. How tough? Obama asked, “The question is just, is there a way of accommodating that legitimate set of [hunting and sporting] traditions with some common-sense stuff that prevents a 21-year-old who’s angry about something — or confused about something, or is racist, or is deranged — from going into a gun store, and suddenly he’s packing and can do enormous harm?” So now the standard is whether someone is merely angry, confused or racist? Who gets to decide that? If it’s Obama, no Republican would ever be permitted to purchase a gun.

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In Charleston, Grace Broke Through

As Dylann Roof sat in the basement of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Wednesday evening, he almost didn’t go through with his plot. The church members were “so nice to him,” NBC News reports. But Roof was bent on carrying out his “mission.” In murdering nine people in cold blood, leaving one woman alive, he hoped to ignite a race war. It’s the sum of white supremacist philosophy: Sooner or later the races will descend into violence, and Roof wanted to be the spark. But instead of revenge, Roof was met with something else. In an unusual testimony during a bond hearing, the daughter of Ethel Lance, one of the victims, told Roof, “I forgive you. You took something really precious away from me. I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again. But I forgive you and have mercy on your soul. It hurts me, it hurts a lot of people but God forgive you and I forgive you.” One by one, the representatives of the victims came forward, forgiving Roof, asking him to give his life to Christ. On Sunday, Roof’s plans vaporized as white Christians prayed with black Christians and churches vowed to build relationships with one another. Truth and love transcend racial lines.

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EPA Slaps New Regs on Vehicles

The Environmental Protection Agency is heating up. In late May the EPA took additional controlover America’s waterways. Last week it announced plans to regulate aircraft. This week it expanded its reach even further by slapping regulations on larger vehicles. “The Obama administration on Friday proposed tough new standards to reduce pollution from carbon-emitting trucks and vans, the latest move by President Barack Obama to address global warming,” the Associated Press reports. “The new rules … are designed to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 24 percent over the next 12 years while reducing oil consumption by up to 1.8 billion barrels over the lifetime of the vehicles sold under the rule. … The proposed standards would cover model years 2021-2027 and apply to semi-trucks, large pickup trucks and vans, and all types and sizes of buses and work trucks, officials said.” As if this latest power grab isn’t bad enough, the EPA is about to finalize its long-anticipated Clean Power Plan regulating carbon emissions from coal-fired plants. The sad irony is that it’s all being justified by junk science. More…

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Liberty Depends on You

The part you play in the ongoing battle for Liberty is significant. Without you — our faithful readers — what the editors and staff of The Patriot Post do would be impossible, as would keeping the flame of Liberty burning bright.

Unlike our government, we function on a budget. But The Patriot Post team depends on you to ensure that remains the case, and we humbly ask that you consider supporting our 2015 Independence Day Campaign today. Please keep in mind that, once again, we did not increase our budget this year.

Please, if you have the ability, take a moment to support us online today by making a contribution. If you prefer to support us by mail, please see our printable form for more information.

Thank you!

Nate Jackson
Managing Editor

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

State Dept. Admits Obama’s Anti-Terror Polices Failed

By Nate Jackson

This just in from Barack Obama’s never-ending victory lap in the Long War: The State Department issued a notable report Friday indicating that terrorism is on the upswing around the world. Not only that, but Iran has a big hand in it. Clearly, Obama’s boasting in his own successful policies has been, to put it charitably, misplaced.

According to the State Department’s report, terror attacks spiked 35% between 2013 and 2014, while deaths from those attacks rose by a staggering 81%. State called the 2014 attacks “exceptionally lethal,” as 20 of them resulted in more than 100 deaths. Twenty-four Americans were among the nearly 33,000 victims of almost 13,500 attacks.

A major facet of the increase in attacks is that the Islamic State — previously known as the “JV team” — has, according to The Guardian, crippled al-Qaida from within while succeeding in procuring what State’s report called an “unprecedented seizure” of territory in Iraq and Syria. The report found, “The prominence of the threat once posed by core al Qaeda diminished in 2014. … AQ leadership also appeared to lose momentum as the self-styled leader of a global movement in the face of ISIL’s rapid expansion and proclamation of a Caliphate.”

Obama may claim to have “decimated” al-Qaida, but he has done so only by permitting the Islamic State to do it for him. That’s hardly what we’d call a model for success.

Much of the terrorism increase has happened in Iraq, where the Islamic State filled the vacuum left by Obama’s premature withdrawal of American forces. But Syria is also a serious problem, where the report notes that the number of foreign fighters swelling the ranks of the Islamic State “exceeded the rate of foreign fighters who traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen or Somalia at any point in the last 20 years.”

Finally, and perhaps of most concern going forward, is that the State Department acknowledges Iran’s major role in sponsoring the increase in terrorism — all while Secretary of State John Kerry negotiates lucrative sanctions relief as part of a lousy nuclear agreement with that nation.

“ISIL and AQ were far from the only serious threat that confronted the United States and its allies,” according to the report. “Iran continued to sponsor terrorist groups around the world, principally through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).”

Though Iran is no friend of the Islamic State, its methods don’t differ all that much. “Tehran increased its assistance to Shiite militias fighting in Iraq and continued its long-standing military, intelligence and financial aid to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s embattled government and Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” notes the Associated Press, which added, “While the 388-page [State Department] study said Iran has lived up to interim nuclear deals with world powers thus far, it gave no prediction about how an Iran flush with cash from a final agreement would behave.”

That’s reassuring.

But at least Obama’s worried about it, says White House spokesman Eric Schultz: America’s “grave concern about Iran’s support for terrorism remains unabated. That is all the more reason that we need to make sure they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon.”

If only Obama’s deal would in fact ensure that.

In short, all of Obama’s assurances that terrorists were defeated, decimated or otherwise diminished by his policies were bunk. His policies have failed, and the world is paying the steep price of his “leadership.”

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ANALYSIS: Destroying Traditional Culture, One Child After Another
• ANALYSIS: A New $10 Bill to Become Reality
• A Confederacy of Dunces
• House Sends Fast-Track Trade Authority to Senate
• Brian Williams to Return — as Reporter at MSNBC

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• John Goodman: Why Voters Vote
• Tony Perkins: The Hate of Ignorance
• George Will: Let Greece Go
• Peggy Noonan: Hillary Will Glide Above It All

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

John Goodman: “The Republican Party has four factions, Matthew Dowd announced on This Week with George Stephanopoulos a few weeks ago. They are: the libertarians, the evangelicals, the Tea Party and the establishment. Notice that all four factions are defined by ideas. They are defined by how they think the world should be organized. Can you name the four idea factions that make up the Democratic Party? The problem is that the Democratic Party is not a party of ideas. It is a party of special interests and groups who respond to identity politics. When Clinton announced her candidacy, she carefully went down the list of groups she intended to target: women, minorities (read blacks), Hispanics, immigrants, the LGBT community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender), etc. … Then of course there are the economic interests, including working women, minimum wage workers, teachers and members of just about every labor union in the country. In all cases the strategy is the same. Attached to every group there is a single issue or a set of issues that is vote-determining. Members of the group may disagree with the candidate on every other issue. But those disagreements don’t matter. Republicans never campaign this way. If they did, Republican voters wouldn’t vote for them.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Speech delivery counts for little on the world stage unless you have convictions, and, yes, the vision to see beyond the front row seats.” —The Gipper

The BIG Lie: “When I ran in 2008, I in fact did not say I would fix it. I said we could fix it. … If you’re dissatisfied that every few months we have a mass shooting in this country killing innocent people, then I need you to mobilize and organize a constituency that says this is not normal and we are going to change it.” —Barack Obama

Non Compos Mentis, part I: “If Congress had passed some common-sense gun safety reforms after Newtown … we wouldn’t have prevented every act of violence, or even most. We don’t know if it would have prevented what happened in Charleston. No reform can guarantee the elimination of violence. But we might still have some more Americans with us.” —Barack Obama

Non Compos Mentis, part II: “I cannot imagine the horror that could’ve occurred if people [in Charleston] were sitting around with concealed weapons, this thing started and you had a full-scale gunfight. You might not even have three survivors.” —Democrat strategist Bob Shrum

Demo-gogues: “Racism, we are not cured of it. And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say n—r in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination.” —Barack Obama

Village Idiots: “We have to use this most recent tragedy to keep us working on [gun control]. We have to do that. It is insane the number of guns and the ease of getting guns in America.” —Charleston mayor Joe Riley

Late-night humor: “Hillary Clinton signed a note … for a nine-year-old boy, explaining to his teacher that he was missing school to meet her. In exchange, the kid wrote Hillary a note saying his dog ate her emails.” —Jimmy Fallon

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us 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.

THE FOUNDATION

“[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” —Samuel Adams, essay in The Public Advertiser, 1749

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Maybe It’s Not a ‘Gun Problem’

It took Barack Obama just 12 hours to classify the senseless killings in Charleston as a “gun problem,” exploiting the blood of innocents as political fodder to advance his gun control agenda. In a press conference Thursday, Obama asserted, “At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.” Unless you count all the “mass violence … in other advanced countries” like the recent Charlie Hebdo attack in France, where eleven were murdered. Oh wait, the Paris hate crime was perpetrated by Islamists — Obama doesn’t count those (see Ft. Hood attack). But it was a nice sound bite. Moreover, other countries have not deliberately institutionalized urban poverty plantations, which have become mass breeding grounds for such violence. That is the inconvenient truth Obama will never mention. Alveda King, NAACP member, Christian civil rights activist and niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., acutely observes, “To politicize this by calling for gun control — we already know that gun control is not going to stop the violence. Only a change of heart is going to do that.”

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GOP Must Decide ObamaCare Policy Before SCOTUS Rules

The Supreme Court could issue a ruling as early as Monday in King v. Burwell, the case regarding whether the federal government overstepped its authority in paying out subsidies to those purchasing health insurance on the federal ObamaCare exchange. The GOP has been preparing for this moment for awhile now. If the Court strikes down the subsidies, a legislative fix will be needed, and proposals have been coming in from all sides of the conservative spectrum. Sen. Ron Johnson proposed extending the subsidies to 2017, as a Republican administration may occupy the White House then. The Heritage Foundation suggested repealing the subsidies. And Rep. Paul Gosar unveiled his Premium Reduction and Insurance Market Reform Act, a bill that would end subsidies and also end regulations like the age rating restriction. Now it is up to the Republican leadership in Congress to plot a policy and strategy to enact a conservative reform to ObamaCare. Chief Executive for Heritage Action for America Michael Needham said, “A continuation of illegal subsidies will simply cover up the law’s costs while giving the impression Republicans believe subsidies are necessary for Americans to afford health insurance.” But that option is tempting GOP leadership, as Barack Obama and the Left will make a King v. Burwell fallout politically fraught.

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Texas to Take Back $1 Billion in Gold From the Fed

Texas no longer trusts our nation’s central bank to safely store its gold in New York City. For years, the Lone Star State has kept its $1 billion in gold in the hands of the Federal Reserve Bank, which has safeguarded the bullion of the U.S. government, foreign governments and other major organizations. But now, the state is setting up its own bullion depository and will soon withdraw its gold from Fed control. “Today I signed HB 483 to provide a secure facility for the State of Texas, state agencies and Texas citizens to store gold bullion and other precious metals,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement June 12. “With the passage of this bill, the Texas Bullion Depository will become the first state-level facility of its kind in the nation, increasing the security and stability of our gold reserves and keeping taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside our state.” The move could be as simple as Texas stepping up and taking responsibility for its own assets, as well as providing a place for Texas citizens to store gold. Or, as CBS notes, it could be a step toward establishing a currency if Texas were to secede from the union. Regardless, it’s a Texas two-step toward greater autonomy.

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FATHER’S DAY

Sunday is Father’s Day, a fitting day to consider four contexts for “father” — God the Father, our own earthly fathers, the role of men as father to their children, and the legacy of our forefathers. They combine to create a rich and abiding sense of what fatherhood means, as well as what it should look and feel like in heart and practice.

But for tens of millions of Americans from broken homes, the consequences of failed fatherhood are the enormous obstacles their children must endeavor to overcome in relationships with their Creator, with their own spouses and children, and in their ability to honor their forefathers' legacy.

Patriot fathers, if you want to extend the Legacy of Liberty to the next generation, there is no better place to start than in your own home.

In the words of the Father of our Nation, George Washington, “May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us in all our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.” (1790)

For more, read Mark Alexander’s essay, Fathers and Freedom: Irrevocably Linked.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

The Pope’s Encyclical Isn’t That Revolutionary

By Lewis Morris

Pope Francis released his much-discussed 184-page papal encyclical on climate change Thursday and the Leftmedia have already distilled the message down to a one sentence quote: “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”

Liberals embrace the Pope, or any aspect of religion in general for that matter, when it suits them. The rhetoric surrounding this encyclical is no different.

An encyclical, for those of us who are not Catholic, is an open letter written by a pope. They are not considered infallible. Think of it as an opinion piece written by the pope.

The document, entitled “Laudato Si” (Praise Be to You), states, “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.”

Francis blames the problem on consumerism, corporate greed, overreliance on technology and the poisonous political atmosphere in and among many nations. He called for a radial change in how people conduct their political and economic affairs and suggested that the time has come for each of us to alter our individual lifestyles in response to climate issues.

The encyclical was leaked earlier this week by the Italian magazine L'Espresso, which set off half-baked opinions and speculation about what the document was going to say, with liberals pre-embracing Francis' message and conservatives expressing concern about the injection of the Vatican into a debate that is far from settled, despite what environmentalists would have us believe.

It is interesting how liberals, who have always rejected religion in favor of worship of the state, have embraced Francis since his ascension in Rome. Francis, who comes from Argentina, is the first pope from the developing world, and, coming from a poor nation as he does, his worldview is shaped accordingly. He has frequently spoken on issues of poverty and inequality, often excoriating capitalism and calling on Western democracies to do more for the world’s poor.

This message of taking from the rich and giving to the poor combined with his latest writings on climate change fall right into line with the liberal narrative, and they have fallen over themselves to praise the pope’s latest message.

Of course, the liberal media has been quite selective in its adoration for Francis, choosing to promote his words that match their ideology, but somehow failing to report on other parts of the pope’s message that don’t swing with the liberal dogma.

Here are a few excerpts from “Laudato Si” that are unlikely to make the front page of the major daily newspapers:

• “A spirituality which forgets God as all-powerful and Creator is not acceptable.”
• “When media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously.”
• “Concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion … It is troubling that, when some ecological movements defend the integrity of the environment, rightly demanding that certain limits be imposed on scientific research, they sometimes fail to apply those same principles to human life.”
• “Helping the poor financially must always be a provisional solution in the face of pressing needs. The broader objective should always be to allow them a dignified life through work.”

While the document does reveal a more considered and practical view of the Catholic Church’s stand on environmental and cultural issues than the media would have us believe, there is still cause for concern as to the sources Francis has chosen for his own climate change education.

The pope has relied on some less than reputable sources for his encyclical. Jeffrey Sachs, an economist with a lifelong adoration of socialist policies, has been a vocal supporter of abortion and just the kind of redistributive activities that make him a darling of the Left. The Vatican invited him to speak at its conference on climate change.

Another “gem” the Vatican has listened to is Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. Schellnhuber, director of Germany’s Potsdam Institute and the WBGU, a German climate change advisory council, authored the two-degree-trigger, which stated that a two-degree-Centigrade average rise in global surface temperature was the point of no return in terms of climate change. He claimed that we would reach this point by 2020. Of course, the 18-year lull in rising temperatures forced Schellnhuber to revise his doomsday date to 2030.

Whether or not Francis chooses to surround himself with real scientists or enviro-Nazis is his choice, but has the pope stirred a storm by injecting the Catholic Church into the environmental debate?

The Catholic Church has always been part of the political debate in Europe and around the world. Hundreds of years ago, Church decisions drove politics and individual nations followed its lead. Today it’s a different story, though. Christianity is facing a withering ideological attack in the U.S. and Western Europe by secularists who preach the primacy of the state or the individual above God. Except when it suits them, like with “Laudato Si.”

It could be that Pope Francis is not the liberal activist the Left wishes him to be. He still holds dear many tenets of the Church that rankle liberal ideologues, such as his beliefs onheterosexual parents and abortion. And even if Francis chooses to embrace the radical liberal environmental agenda, there will always be room for a loyal opposition within the Catholic Church.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• With Deadline Looming, U.S. Capitulates to Iran
• Trans Fat Ban’s Other Detrimental Effect
• Trump Hired Actors to Cheer During Campaign Launch
• SBC Head Vows to Defend Christian Principles

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Mona Charen: Hands Off Hamilton
• David Harsanyi: The Trans Fat Ban Is Worse Than You Think
• Michelle Malkin: The Creepy Consequences of Oppression Chic
• Jonah Goldberg: Nietzsche’s ‘Ressentiment’ Alive and Well Today
• Charles Krauthammer: A New Strategy for Iraq and Syria
• Tony Perkins: ObamaCare in Critical Condition at Court

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Mona Charen: “They’re coming for our money. OK, that’s nothing new, but this time, the Obama administration is coming for our $10 bills — the notes graced by the image of Alexander Hamilton. True to the identity politics of the Democratic Party, the Obama Treasury Department has announced that some worthy female will replace Hamilton on the currency. The sheer arrogance, ignorance and stupidity of this move are difficult to capture in one column. Let’s start with stupidity. If there’s one figure whose face arguably does not deserve to adorn the currency, it’s the man on the $20 bill, not the $10. That is Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, adamant opponent of paper currency (!), friend of slave power and scourge of Native Americans. … Here’s the solution: Upgrade the security features on the $10, but keep Hamilton in his spot. Dump Jackson from the $20 and hold an essay competition among American high school seniors for his replacement. It would be a great exercise in the appreciation of excellence. Both sexes may be nominated. … [B]y announcing in advance that you’re choosing a woman, you’ve guaranteed that the honor will be downgraded to the ‘best woman’ rather than the best candidate. In short, you’d be echoing the Hillary Clinton campaign.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “To enjoy freedom, if the platitude is pardonable, we have of course to control ourselves. We must not squander our powers, helplessly and ignorantly, 
squirting half the house in order to water a single rose-bush; we must train them, exactly and powerfully, here on the very spot.” —English writer Virginia Woolf 
(1882-1941)

Upright: “Clinton, if she wins, would be the first former secretary of state to be elected since James Buchanan — not an encouraging precedent. Reporters who have been demanding Bush and other Republicans say how they would have acted in 2003 may want to ask Clinton about how she actually did act between 2009 and 2013 — and what she would do going forward.” —Michael Barone

Demo-gogues: “I do not know how much longer we can thwart the views of the American public on taking reasonable gun safety measures.” —Harry Reid

Non Compos Mentis: “I call on all media to use terms ‘white racist’ + ‘terrorist’ with same force & ease that we would use terms ‘Muslim’ + ‘terrorist.’” —tweet by Van Jones

Village Idiots: “The ideology of racism promoted by … @FoxNews and Co. breeds the terrorists who commit #CharlestonShooting.” —tweet by University of Maryland professor Faheem Younus

Freudian slip? “We should be reforming our criminal justice system in such a way that we are not incarcerating non-violent offenders in ways that renders them incapable of getting a job after they leave office.” —Barack Obama

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us 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.

THE FOUNDATION

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” —James Madison, speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

EPA Causing This Summer’s Rising Electricity Rates

Due to EPA regulations, you’ll start to notice that your electricity bill is more expensive this summer. The Energy Information Administration predicted that Americans will spend 4.8% more on electricity this year than the last. Is global warming causing air conditioners to run more? Nah, it’s just EPA regulations that are causing power plants to close because they are not deemed green enough. “Consumers are receiving the dim news as utilities take tens of thousands of megawatts of coal-generated power offline to comply with a host of EPA regulations and because of the sharp increase in cheap, domestic natural gas,” The Washington Times reports. “Regulations such as the EPA’s mercury and air toxic standards already are having an effect on the power sector, utilities and analysts say, and the impact will be greater after the agency releases further limits on carbon emissions from power plants this summer.” The EPA argues the effects will be minuscule — people will hardly notice the bill. It’s all part of a fight against the boogey man of “global warming,” and old electricity plants must shutter to make way for politically correct plants — an expensive undertaking. But when has the EPA ever acted in the best interests of U.S. citizens?

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Donald Trump Brings Levity to Presidential Race

Donald Trump would be a mere sideshow curiosity in the 2016 elections if it were not for his name recognition and entertainment factor. According to Real Clear Politics, Trump is polling higher than Rick Perry, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham and Bobby Jindal. But even if he’s fired in the end — and we hope he is — he will provide some much-needed humor. After Tuesday’s announcement, Politico pulled Trump’s 10 best lines. Notably, however, Politico missed the best one: “When did we beat Japan at anything?” Well, there was that whole WWII thing in the Pacific… But to put things in perspective, as absurd as the Trump vanity campaign is, he is far more qualified than Barack Obama was in 2009 — or today! For example, Obama put Joe Biden on his ticket. When Trump was asked who he wanted as a running mate, he replied, “I think Oprah would be great. I’d love to have Oprah.” Frankly, presidential elections could use a little levity. It’s been a long time since the last billionaire vanity campaign kept us amused, compliments of Ross Perot!

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White Male Targets Blacks in Charleston

A young white male in his early 20s murdered nine blacks who were attending a Wednesday night prayer service in Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. It’s still a developing story, as the murderer has not yet been apprehended and the names of the victims have not yet been disclosed, but according to Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen, “We believe this is a hate crime; that is how we are investigating it.” But already some anti-Second Amendment crusaders are exploiting the tragedy to advance their pet policy proposals. Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley was the first to do so, wasting no time advocating for greater gun control as a diversionary ploy. “I personally believe there are far too many guns out there, and access to guns, it’s far too easy,” he said. “Our society has not been able to deal with that yet.” Make no mistake: This story is newsworthy. But it’s also worth noting that, on average, there are between 30 and 40 homicides every day in America, most of which are black-on-black. If “black lives matter” to the Leftmedia, why aren’t these other victims covered in the news?

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Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column

Read Fathers and Freedom: Irrevocably Linked, a treatise on fathering, children without fathers, and the Left’s agenda to undermine marriage.

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

Did You Know?

The Patriot Post’s Digest — now offered five days a week — represents a collaborative effort of contributors, editors and technical staff who bring their passion and expertise from all walks of life. We work hard to ensure an accurate and penetrating analysis of the week’s news, policy and opinion. Indeed, this is what you, our readers, have come to expect over the last 18 years. Many Patriots volunteer their time and effort to our mission, while others receive only a modest salary. Nonetheless, publishing costs are substantial. If you find today’s Digest interesting, inspiring or informative, we humbly ask that you consider making a secure online donation to The Patriot Post’s 2015 Independence Day Campaign today.

Thank you!
 Nate Jackson

Managing Editor

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

EPA Thinks Regulation Leads to Economic Growth

In the early days, fighting “global warming” was environmentally responsible; fast-forward a few years, and addressing “climate change” was socially just. Now, with only so much rhetoric left in the eco-friendly arsenal, battling supposed anthropogenic climate change has become economically advantageous.

At least, that’s what EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy argues in a piece published this week on Medium, in which she claims the administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) — a pleasant sounding name for sweeping additional government regulations of carbon emissions — is important to America’s economic strength. Notwithstanding the fact this administration doesn’t have the best track record on policies leading to economic robustness, McCarthy points to astudy by the liberal Economic Policy Institute that found “the CPP is likely to lead to a net increase of roughly 360,000 jobs in 2020, but that the net job creation falls relatively rapidly thereafter, with net employment gains of roughly 15,000 jobs in 2030.”

Those jobs are the new regulators who will be hired to enforce the new regulations, nothing more.

In other words, forget hoping a free market will drive economic growth; what’s really needed is new regulations on carbon emissions! As McCarthy writes, “When we set ground rules to limit carbon pollution, we send a long-term market signal that propels innovation and investment in cleaner energy technologies, expanding new industries and creating good-paying jobs.” She’s right that the administration is sending a market signal, but it’s not the one she claims.

Indeed, according to labor union leader Cecil Roberts, president of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), “The proposed rule … will lead to long-term and irreversible job losses for thousands of coal miners, electrical workers, utility workers, boilermakers, railroad workers and others without achieving any significant reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions.” The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers echoed this concern, cautioning against “focus[ing] solely on the environmental aspect of public policy at the expense of balancing our nation’s economic and energy needs” and noting, “The jobs of thousands of working men and women and the well-being of their communities are also worthy of saving.”

Furthermore, per a study commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CPP’s regulations “threaten to suppress average annual U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by $51 billion and lead to an average of 224,000 fewer U.S. jobs every year through 2030, relative to baseline economic forecasts.” And according to The Heritage Foundation, the economic impact would be even worse, with EPA regulations eliminating an average of $155 billion annually in GDP through 2030.

Of course, before the EPA rams regulations down the nation’s throat, the administration wants to hear from Americans — sort of. When the public comment period opened regarding the then-proposed regulations on coal power plants last year, McCarthy wrote, “We expect great feedback at these sessions. And unfortunately, we also expect a healthy dose of the same tired, false and worn out criticism that commonsense EPA action is bad for the economy.” Ah, yes, agree with us or else you’re wrong.

But as Brooking Institution Fellow Phil Wallach wrote in Newsweek, by the time the comment period closed in December 2014 more than four million comments had been submitted. By comparison, Clean Air Act regulations usually garner a few dozen to a hundred. Instead of ceding that millions of Americans may have serious concerns with CPP, however, Wallach proposed that the “barriers to ‘participating’” in commenting might be a “bit higher, thereby saving our public servants a great deal of unnecessary work.” Yes, nothing like wasting the government’s time addressing the people’s tired, false and worn out petitions.

Public concern notwithstanding, the administration is plowing ahead with CPP, effectively claiming that by picking winners (solar and wind energy) and losers (fossil fuels, including petroleum, coal and natural gas) Washington regulators can create a strong economy. Because, you know, this approach has worked oh so well before.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ANALYSIS: Gauging America’s Decapitation War Against Terrorism
• Govt. Shows Favoritism to Illegal Hiring

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Victor Davis Hanson: The New World Map
• Ed Feulner: Saluting a ‘Great Charter’ of Liberty
• Tony Perkins: Ration Roulette: House Debates Death Panel
• George Will: McDonald’s, the ‘Progressive Burger Company’
• Larry Elder: Father’s Day: Being Raised Without a Father Is Not a Death Sentence
• Veronique de Rugy: Expecting the Export-Import Bank to Expire

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Victor Davis Hanson: “In 1945, after some 60 million had perished in World War II, the Western democracies blamed themselves for having appeased and empowered fascist empires. That sadder but wiser generation taught us two lessons: Small sacrifices now can avoid catastrophic ones later on, and dictatorial regimes on a roll never voluntarily quit playing geostrategic poker. If the present trajectories continue, a reconfigured Middle East will be bookended by radical Islamic empires — the Islamic State caliphate and a new Persian empire. China will control most of the Pacific and adjudicate trade, commerce and politics west of Hawaii and to the south and east of India. The client states of a new Russian empire will border central Europe and be under constant pressure to leave the EU, NATO or both. How does all this end? One of two ways. America and its allies can reawaken, gradually restore deterrence and re-establish the old postwar order without a global war. Or the United States will not be bothered — at least until this new generation of dictators bothers us at home.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.” —American journalist William Allen White (1868-1944)

Upright: “The Supreme Court of the United States is not the final authority nor is the culture itself.” —Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, on the church’s resolution on same sex marriage: “Resolved, that Southern Baptists recognize that no governing institution has the authority to negate or usurp God’s definition of marriage; and be it further resolved no matter how the Supreme Court rules, the Southern Baptist Convention reaffirms its unwavering commitment to its doctrinal and public beliefs concerning marriage.”

Alpha Jackass: “As hard as it is to believe, [Republicans] continue to deny the reality of climate change. They also deny gravity. But they also deny there is such a thing as climate change. That’s the problem. The point is the safety and security of the United States of America and every community across the country.” —Joe Biden

Non Compos Mentis: “I finally had a chance to read Caitlyn Jenner’s piece in the magazine. … I cried. Because I resonated with some of the themes of isolation, of being misunderstood — to not know if you have a conversation with somebody, will that relationship then end because they have seen you as one way.” —Rachel Doleful

Annals of the absurd: “[W]e’re not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what [it] did at one point in time or another. … What we’re concerned about is going forward. It’s critical to us to know that going forward, those activities have been stopped and that we can account for that in a legitimate way.” —John Kerry

Village Idiots: “I hope that at the end of my two terms as president, I will have overseen an even bigger peacetime expansion of the economy than my husband did.” —Hillary Clinton

And last… “We’re coming up with new things to be offended by at a much quicker rate than we’re retiring old things. This is not sustainable.” —Frank Fleming


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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us 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.

THE FOUNDATION

“Wherever the real power in a government lies, there is the danger of oppression.” —James Madison, letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1788

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Barack, Francis, Hot Air and Social Justice

The United Nations is apparently now writing “climate change” encyclicals for the Vatican. On Monday, an Italian magazine leaked a draft copy of Pope Francis' 191-page address on the topic. Taking a page from the Left’s playbook, the pope insists that curbing global warming is a moral imperative. “Humanity is called on to be aware of the need to change lifestyles, production and consumption,” he says, because the world is filled with a “culture of waste.” We are all for using energy judiciously and curbing waste, but not under the pretense of a UN-Vatican mandate. The encyclical coincides with Obama’s announcement this week of his plans for more climate “executive actions” in order to bypass Congress. Like Obama, the Pope has long advocated for liberation theology, a doctrine similar to that propagated by Obama’s religious mentor, Jeremiah Wright, and other Marxist promoters of “social justice.” Many Catholics in the U.S. take strong exception to the pope acting as a water boy for the UN. Big-government statists at the UN welcome the pope’s statement, as it may assist with the UN’s global climate treaty negotiations at the upcoming Paris summit — a treaty which would be more accurately called a “global economic control” treaty. Obama insists, “If I can encourage and gain commitments from the Chinese to put forward a serious plan to start curbing their greenhouse gases, that then allows us to leverage the entire world.” However, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) made clear that neither he nor his Republican colleagues are drinking Obama’s Kool-Aid: “The Senate is not going to ratify any international climate treaty that continues this trend [centralizing the global economy].”

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Obama May Fundamentally Transform Economy

The Obama administration claims that the money dropping into the U.S. debt hole has declined. Jobs are up. The economy is coming back. (Y'know, except for those pesky winters.) But the reports are coming in that counter the administration’s propaganda. First, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report Tuesday claiming that, if left unchecked, the U.S. debt will become much, much worse. “The long-term outlook for the federal budget has worsened dramatically over the past several years, in the wake of the 2007-2009 recession and slow recovery,” the CBO said in its report. The debt could double by 2040 if left unchecked. It’s a massive problem, almost too large for any politician in Washington to recognize, but one that will affect the economic vitality of the nation far into the future. Part of the problem is that entitlement spending is going to increase as the baby boomer generation heads into retirement. As for the generation that’s supposed to keep entitlement spending going, millennials have entered the job market at the lowest part of the recession. According to statistics blog Five Thirty Eight, that generation holds more personal debt, makes less money and owns fewer and less expensive homes. Furthermore, because millennials entered the job market in a tough economic time, they will make less money over the course of their careers. Thank to his administration’s shenanigans, Barack Obama could have the legacy of fundamentally transforming the American economy.

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Hillary, The Miser

In 2014, Hillary Clinton spoke at a Boys and Girls Club fundraiser. Like most of the “dead broke” politician’s speeches, this one was for a fee: $200,000. Usually, a speaker appearing at a nonprofit will charge a fee and then donate it back, especially if it’s a smaller organization. That’s what Condoleezza Rice did when she spoke at the Boys and Girls Club in 2009. But not Clinton. She turned around and deposited the check into the Clinton Foundation. Politico reports, “[F]undraising experts and people affiliated with some nonprofits on the list — including the Boys and Girls Club — grumbled that the hefty price tag for securing a Clinton speech is a significant drain on small charities' fundraising and that community-based nonprofits could put the money to better use.” Furthermore, Clinton’s campaign is running off the work of full-time interns who work for free. The Guardian reports that the people taking these jobs are seasoned politicos who wish to enter Clinton’s good graces. How can she talk about a bad economy and a wage gap when she doesn’t take care of the people working to get her elected? Remember, this is the same Hillary Clinton that said, “I don’t think Americans are against success, I think they’re against people who get on top of the ladder and starts pulling it up so that nobody else has the same chance that they had. … Those of us who do have opportunities how to be doing more to help other people do the same.”

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

A Short History of the Trans Fats Witch Hunt

By Jim Harrington

In the year 1975, a mother was likely to give her children a snack with trans fats in it. Those fats were considered healthier, the benefits of nutritional innovation. Fast-forward 40 years and America considers trans fats a pariah and a substance that directly leads to heart disease.

Last week Mommy Government decided that no level of trans fat is healthful in the American diet. It therefore completely banned the substance by 2018 so that you’ll have one less danger stalking you.

In banning a certain ingredient from food, the government assumes too much responsibility over Americans' lives. David Harsanyi points out that the government’s justification that the ban prevents heart disease could justify a battery of food bans — including on alcohol and cigarettes. Instead, big-government social engineering must decide what we consume — even if its groupthink may be wrong.

Trans fats can be found in fried foods, margarine and commercial baked goods. They aremanufactured fats that take saturated fats and stabilize the substance through a process called hydrogenation.

Trans fats were initially developed in Germany and later went into large-scale production in England. In 1909, Proctor and Gamble bought the rights for the U.S. market, and their first product, a partly hydrogenated cottonseed oil used as shortening, was named Crisco.

Products using trans fats quickly became popular. During World War II, when dairy products were scarce, margarine took the place of butter. Trans fats also found uses as preservatives and for improving products' texture. In the 1960s the government and scientists both recommended using them in food preparation rather than saturated fats such as lard and butter. Of course, cigarettes were being advertised as a boon to your health, too.

The Atlantic points out, “A 1961 Time magazine article that railed against the dangers of saturated fat (found in meat and dairy products), and … consumers began to view margarine and shortening as healthier alternatives.”

“In the 1980s,” the Atlantic continues, “some scientists began to associate heart disease with saturated fats, and in response, groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the National Heart Savers Association … began to hound manufacturers [to stop] poisoning America … by using saturated fats… In 1990, a New York Times food writer said CSPI’s campaign prompted fast-food chains to ‘slim down’ by switching to frying in shortening.”

Activists got their wish. Low fat became de rigeaur in restaurants and among “health-conscious” people. Fat was out. Chicken breast was in. And those of us who revel in our Royale with cheese and a good donut or two have become politically incorrect.

But a funny thing happened. In the late 1980s, just as Al Gore was warming up, scientific “consensus” began to shift away from trans fats. A decade later, healthy food activists were saying the fats contributed to clogged arteries. Indeed, they may be a more insidious threat than saturated fats, they said.

Ironically, as The Atlantic reported, Center for Science in the Public Interest, the organization that initially lobbied for the wide use of trans fats, turned around and told the FDA to add warning labels to any food that contained them. In 2006, the FDA required companies to label their products with the quantity of trans fats they contain and include a warning that no amount of trans fat is safe. Enjoy your meal.

This comes at a time when the average consumption of trans fats has dropped 80% in the last decade. The FDA was issuing its warnings, and people were making their own decisions about their diets.

Large food companies have already started to make the switch to other kinds of oils, but smaller businesses likely still have a stock of trans fat products. With rent, wages, taxes and now additional regulation, it doesn’t make sense to get rid of them any sooner than necessary.

Once again we see the absurd spectacle of a government treating its citizens like infants. Not only are we regulated beyond absurdity, the rules also change every generation or so. Who are these people who spend their careers writing these preposterous warnings for the “children” who work at real jobs and pay their salaries?

Adding injury to insult, now that time has passed in which “grave damage” has been visited upon millions of victims of trans fats by manufacturers that knew all along they were poison, the wolves are coming out of the woods. Personal injury lawyers are lining up to go after the deep and not so deep pockets of firms that produced an entirely legal product.

As long as the government is allowed to treat citizens as infants — a situation with which far too many are comfortable — regulations will continue getting more ridiculous and more expensive for everyone. Is it too much to tell the government to start treating Americans like a group of adults?

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ANALYSIS: Sending Troops Is the First Step in Countering Russia
• Clinton Was for the Trade Deal Before She Was Against It

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Arnold Ahlert: The Death of the Neighborhood
• Ben Shapiro: Yes, Rachel Dolezal Is Black
• Jonah Goldberg: Why Are We Ignoring a Cyber Pearl Harbor?
• Stephen Moore: The Young and Investment-Less
• Star Parker: The Audacity of Jeb Bush
• Walter Williams: Culture and Social Pathology
• Tony Perkins: A Call to Lead

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Ben Shapiro: “[W]hat distinguishes [Bruce] Jenner from [Rachel] Dolezal? On what basis can we reject Dolezal’s blackness, given that the left has now redefined objective reality as self-definition? If you want to be a woman, you are a woman. If you want to be black, why can’t you be black? … By the left’s standards, Rachel Dolezal is black. She can choose her race, just as Bruce Jenner can choose his sex. And she didn’t choose. She always felt that way. After all, no one would choose to be black, just as no one would choose to be gay — blacks are so put upon in American society that no one would fake being black for, say, the benefits of employment or mainstream leftist celebration. Perhaps we can all learn from Rachel Dolezal: Race doesn’t matter. Except that it does for people like Rachel Dolezal, which is why she went black. Rachel Dolezal is a poster child for the deconstructionist, victim-manufacturing left. But now she’s learning: Once you go black, the left will make you go back.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “If it was necessary to tolerate in other people everything that one permits oneself, life would be unbearable.” —French novelist Georges Courteline (1858-1929)

Upright: “[Rachel Dolezal] actually said when explaining her deceptions, her lies, her constructions, her inventions, her delusions, ‘I hope that [my story] can drive at the core of the definitions of race, ethnicity, culture, self-determination, and ultimately empowerment.’ Is there a cliché from the marxist lexicon of identity politics that she has not used? … This is oppression envy. I can’t quite figure out if this is psychopathological deception on her part, or has she actually shifted over into delusion?” —Charles Krauthammer

The BIG Lie: “I’ll be honest with you. With all the crises we were dealing with … [technology and IT] did not get the kind of laser-focused attention until ­Healthcare.gov, which was a well-­documented disaster, but ended up anyways being the catalyst for us saying, ‘Okay, we have to completely revamp how we do things.’ The results there were so outstanding.” —Barack Obama

Non Compos Mentis: “The records of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, of cleaning up the messes they inherited, is something that speaks to Democratic values. Both my husband and President Obama created more opportunity coming from a lower base, because they believe, fundamentally, that real and lasting prosperity must be built by all and shared by all.” —Hillary Clinton

Village Idiots: “We are rolling out major policy proposals over the summer/fall. Among those proposals will be revenue enhancements.” —Hillary Clinton’s press secretary Brian Fallon (“Of course, ‘revenue enhancements’ is code for tax hikes. During the Bill Clinton administration, another code word for this was ‘broad-based contributions.’” —Washington Examiner’s Jason Russell)

Braying Jackass: “The Supreme Court shouldn’t have taken up [ObamaCare]. … I think the language is clear. I hope the Supreme Court can read English.” —Harry Reid

Late-night humor: “It was a beautiful weekend in New York. This is how nice the weather was: I went outside without sunscreen for about an hour, and I was elected to run the Spokane NAACP.” —Seth Meyers

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us 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.

THE FOUNDATION

“[Emigrants] will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty.” — Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

121 Illegal Immigrants Released by ICE Became Murderers

Regardless of how Democrat sympathizers see it, illegally crossing the U.S. border is a crime, but that’s not preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from letting unauthorized immigrants back onto the streets — including some who went on to become murderers. According to The Washington Times, “More than 100 immigrants whom the Obama administration released back into the community went on to be charged with subsequent killings, according to government data released Monday that raises more questions about whether immigration authorities are doing enough to detail illegal immigrants awaiting deportation. … All told, 121 immigrants who were held but eventually released by ICE went on to commit ‘homicide-related offenses’ from 2010 through 2014, the agency said.” Those are only known offenders, though, meaning the actual figure is probably even more alarming. ICE said in a statement, “When making custody determinations, ICE performs an individualized review of the individual’s immigration history and criminal history, pursuant to the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA). In accordance with the requirements of the INA, not all criminals are subject to mandatory detention and thus may be eligible for bond.” And, thus, eligible to take other people’s lives. America’s lax immigration policies aren’t just ridiculous; they’re proving to be deadly. More…

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ATF Teams Up With NYPD to Deter ‘Gun Crimes’

In what CBS New York describes as the “first-ever anti-gun initiative,” federal agencies in collaboration with the NYPD are cracking down on escalating “gun crime” across the City of New York. ATF agent Charles Mulham said, “There’s going to be an increase in federal arrests — no doubt.” He added, “Of course, when the ATF gets involved … we’ll be able to figure out if [any] weapon is part of an interstate trafficking operation.” That’s a bold statement coming from an agency that intentionally put weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. And considering New York boasts lower than average crime rates, why aren’t they asking why violent behavior is increasing instead of positing this as an “anti-gun” initiative? For the same reason the question is being avoided in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore. As Mark Alexander has pointed out, blaming weapons serves an agenda: “The ‘gun violence’ rhetoric comports with the errant Leftist assertion that guns are the problem and the Democrats' next gun control measure is the solution. Most assuredly, the epidemic of crime in American urban centers is not a ‘gun problem,’ but rather a cultural problem.” Getting the federal government involved in New York, ostensibly to ward off potential offenders, won’t get us any closer to tackling the core problem — especially via an agency embroiled in its own questionable behavior. More…

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Killing Al-Qaida Terrorists Is Good, But…

The Obama administration continues to play whack-a-mole with terrorists in the Middle East, using American aircraft as the gavel. Over the weekend, al-Qaida in Yemen confirmed that its number two leader, Nasir al-Wahishi, was killed in a U.S. airstrike. This is the biggest blow against the terrorist group since SEAL Team Six drilled Osama bin Laden in his Abbottabad compound. Meanwhile, U.S. planes dropped 500 lb. munitions in Libya, possibly killing Mokhtar Belmokhtar, “the one-eyed sheik” who split from al-Qaida to form his own terrorist outfit. The implications are that we have some decent intelligence. The strikes are good news, but it’s not a game changer but rather a place-holder by the administration, which has no coherent or comprehensive policy in the region. Obama’s objective is to pass this buck to the next administration. For that reason, GOP candidates better get the history of OIF and OEF right, because, if the next president is a Republican, he is going to have to implement a policy to contain and diminish this metastasizing threat.

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

Jeb Bush Enters Race Wooing Latinos, Furthering Dynasty

By Robin Smith

After a six-month “exploratory” window that served as the acceleration ramp up to his real campaign, Jeb Bush — the brother of President George W. Bush — formalized his candidacy for president June 15.

“I have decided,” Bush told a crowd at a community college in Miami, “I am a candidate for President of the United States.”

In his campaign, Bush brings a strong Catholic faith, a credible voice in the Latino community in Florida and the baggage that comes when your brother and father both served as commanders in chief.

Jeb indirectly acknowledged that some conservatives believe he is the “establishment pick” by noting, “It’s nobody’s turn, it’s everybody’s test, and it’s wide open — exactly as a contest for president should be.”

Bush’s candidacy was inevitable. As former governor of Florida, the third most populous state in the U.S., “Jeb!” showed off his gift of policy over politics in a rich vein of electoral votes. In the GOP tribe, however, this inevitability is not without its concerns — the Bush name has been gleefully lambasted by the presstitutes. The liberal media loves to invoke partisan animosity toward previous Bush presidencies, diverting scrutiny from controversies involving Barack Obama and his robotic, scandal-ridden heir apparent — Hillary Clinton.

The Jeb Bush campaign will certainly have plenty of funding. That guarantees a mass-marketed, micro-targeted message integrated across all platforms of media designed to reach a vast range of voters. But his key trait — widespread recognition of his family name — might be a liability among many Republicans and virtually all Democrats, thanks to the negatives of Bush 41 and 43.

But he isn’t just another clone of his brother. Jeb Bush is considered by some as a prominent member of the Latino community. Fellow presidential contender Marco Rubio considers Bush a mentor. Fluent in Spanish, Bush decided to reach out directly to Spanish-speaking constituents in his speech. “Ayúdenos en tener una campaña que les da la bienvenida,” he said, a phrase that’s translated to mean, “Help us to have a campaign that welcomes them.”

According to every poll conducted thus far, the GOP presidential primary is wide open. No frontrunner has emerged to doggedly prevent another Clinton White House. The sheer size of the pool of GOP candidates gives the Democrats a whole lot of cover behind which to hide their lack of effective policies, opposed to the authentic race and political choices found in the GOP presidential primary.

For Bush, the bar is extremely high. His successful tenure as governor in Florida displays his talent for leadership. The crucial task of Jeb and his campaign team will be to remind GOP voters of his effective conservative policies implemented during his time as Florida’s top elected official. These victories include a few issues that are inarguably crowd-pleasers for the Right, even the far-Right:

• Passed parental school choice and rigorous school reform that raised the reading level of fourth graders by 11 points
• Enacted tax cuts that totaled $19 billion with an actual reduction in the size of his state’s government by 6.6%
• Supported parental notification of abortions requested by minors
• Pushed through Medicaid reforms with private insurance solutions emphasizing personal health and accountability
• Ended civil service protections of long-time unelected state bureaucrats and eliminated racial preferences in state-government contracting
• Signed the nation’s first “Stand Your Ground” law
• Called five special sessions of the legislature to pass medical liability and trial lawyer reforms to eradicate jackpot justice in Florida

Yet to win the eventual party nomination, Bush must explain his post-gubernatorial stances on a few hot-button topics. First, he backs immigration reform that emphasizes assimilation through access to services, not by enforcing existing law and prioritizing a secure border. He has also been a vocal proponent of Common Core, a set of educational standards originally written by our nation’s governors but soon sullied by the federal government, which established massive testing requirements and strings attached for funding access.

Jeb also must consider a few factors about the composition of the GOP that he’s not seen as a candidate before: In his last election, Bush did not face the Tea Party.

But as Politico writes, “Jeb’s stances on immigration and Common Core distance him from the GOP base, but his Catholic faith brings him back into the flock.”

While the Left is arguing that Religious Liberty is a limited right, one that should be eroded for holier rights such as same-sex marriage or abortion, Bush believes the opposite.

“The most galling example is the shabby treatment of the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Christian charity that dared to voice objections of conscience to Obamacare,” Bush said. “The next president needs to make it clear that great charities like the Little Sisters of the Poor need no federal instruction in doing the right thing. It comes down to a choice between the Little Sisters and Big Brother, and I’m going with the Sisters.”

Governor Bush’s early message and targeted contrasts could make him a heavyweight in the Republican primary, and his name recognition and depth of resources are advantages in the crowded field. Only time will reveal whether we’ll find ourselves rallying to unite against the Left with a nominee declaring, “Third time’s a charm.”

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ‘Black’ NAACP Official Resigns
• ObamaCare Placing Americans' Data in One Basket
• Ronald Reagan Packed Heat While in Office

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Cal Thomas: China’s Big Hack Attack
• Michael Barone: Obama Fails to Pass Trade Bill Backed by Majorities in Both Houses
• Dennis Prager: The Left Rejects Painful Truths
• Stephen Moore: The Fantasy That ObamaCare ‘Is Working’
• Thomas Sowell: Micro-Totalitarianism
• Arnold Ahlert: I Am Who I Say I Am

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Cal Thomas: “It doesn’t take a spy novelist to come up with a scenario in which a Chinese government agent approaches someone with a top security clearance and threatens to expose a dark secret in his or her past, possibly destroying family and career, unless he or she cooperates and hands over information to Beijing. The Chinese agent would likely have details about medications his target is taking to ward off depression, or some other malady, possibly making him more vulnerable to pressure. The former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, says another possible use of the hacked information could be to shape fake emails crafted to look legitimate while injecting spyware and other viruses on the networks of government agencies or businesses the Chinese wish to penetrate. … If any humor can come from a serious situation, it was in a statement by OPM spokesman, Samuel Schumach. When asked to provide more details on the damage caused by the hacking, Schumach said: ‘For security reasons, we will not discuss specifics of the information that might have been compromised.’ What possible ‘security’ reasons could there be when clearly there was insufficient security at OPM? Perhaps reporters should ask this of the Chinese, since they now appear to be in possession of all the pertinent information.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “[T]he human mind is seldom at stay: If you do not grow better, you will most undoubtedly grow worse.” —English writer Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)

Upright: This country and the left has made it profitable to become a victim of something — primarily a victim of an evil, faceless majority. If you become a member of a minority are automatically a victim, and the victim gets goodies. … The victim gets excused for all kinds of aberrant, weirdo behavior and instead is the recipient of sympathy. So it’s clear that this is a purposeful and studied move that [Rachel Dolezal] made.“ —Rush Limbaugh

Friendly fire, part I: "The question is for all politicians, including [Hillary Clinton] today, when you live in a bubble of privilege, surrounded by and marinating in the worldview of elites, business elites, rich donors, can you really connect with the policy concerns of people outside of the bubble?” —New York Times' Nicholas Confessore

Friendly fire, part II: “The Hillary of a year ago was for the trade deal. The Hillary of Saturday’s announcement was against the trade deal. We’ll have to see what Hillary she is when the trade deal comes up for the next vote. I mean that’s the reality of it, right? This is just political positioning.” —Slate’s Jacob Weisberg

Friendly fire, part III: “[Hillary] has not been consistently saying anything for 30 years. … [A]t some point there has got to be an acknowledgment that there hasn’t been a straight line between [her youth and political career].” —New Republic senior editor Rebecca Traister

Friendly fire, part IV: “Let’s be blunt, the Obama-Clinton foreign policy is not something to brag about, I would argue. The growth of ISIS, the failures in Iraq.” —NBC’s Perry Bacon

And last… “A new report shows that the federal government paid almost $10 million in medicaid benefits to 200 dead people. It really helped, though. Afterwards, most of them were spry enough to vote in Chicago.” —Fred Thompson

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us 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.

THE FOUNDATION

“[O]ur commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers so disposed; in order to give trade a stable course.” —George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

HUD’s ‘Housing Equality’ Thud

Barack Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is set to release a rule aimed at fostering “diversity” in wealthy neighborhoods around the country. “HUD is working with communities across the country to fulfill the promise of equal opportunity for all,” an agency spokeswoman said. “The proposed policy seeks to break down barriers to access to opportunity in communities supported by HUD funds.” This diversity scheme has shades of the last time Democrats attempted to reconfigure banking to favor unqualified people. Promoters of the policy are suggesting it’s fair because, if states and communities don’t want to abide by Obama’s decree, they can forgo the federal money they receive. That’s a fair argument only if the people in those states can also choose to forgo paying taxes to the federal government. Of course, most of Obama’s supporters pay no taxes. Political analyst Marc Thiessen said it best: “We as conservatives believe and diversifying communities too. The way you do that is through economic opportunity. It’s not by building more affordable housing in affluent communities, it’s by creating economic opportunities so that more Americans can afford housing in affluent communities. Right now the problem is that people at the bottom of the Obama economy can’t get ahead.” HUD’s rule is nothing more than an Obama charade to ramp up class warfare and appease constituents who are enslaved on poverty plantations — the direct result of generations of failed Democrat economic policies.

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House Democrats Doom Obama’s Trade Deal

In a vote that served a smackdown on Obama’s trade deal with Pacific countries, House Democrats voted against a provision that was supposed to sweeten the legislation allowing Obama the authority to fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Senate had sent two measures to the House: Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) was the legislation that gave the chief executive authority to negotiate this trade deal, and Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a Democrat priority, was legislation that — as the leftists viewed it — protected American workers (read: unions) when the economy experienced freer global trade. On Friday, the Houseoverwhelmingly rejected TAA in a 302-126 vote and narrowly passed TPA 219-211. Both chambers need to agree on the legislation before it heads to Obama’s desk. So TPA will head back to the Senate where it may or may not pass; the bill’s on life support.

This comes as Obama lobbied hard for the measure to pass. He showed up at the congressional baseball game to personally lobby lawmakers. He even made his way to Capitol Hill to talk to Democrats — the first time in two years. It was personal, it was desperate and, ouch, Pelosi and Co. betrayed him. “Basically, the president tried to both guilt people and then impugned their integrity, and I don’t think it was a very effective tactic,” said Democrat Rep. Peter Defazio (D-OR). Both parties are split in Congress over the issue. But those who love Liberty should appreciate that we have more time to debate a trade deal.

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China’s Theft of Federal Employee Data Demands a Response

Not only has China scraped up the data from all federal employees past and present, the Office of Personnel Management said it had “a high degree of confidence” that the country has every SF-86 form submitted by any American seeking a security clearance. Former general council to the NSA and former National Counterterrorism Center head Matthew Olsen said the data could be used many different ways by the oppressive Chinese regime, “whether it’s [to] blackmail, to recruit, [or] to punish individuals in China who are connected to people in the United States.” As it’s been said before, China has been creating a massive database on American citizens, and it has also hacked into the databases of health insurance companies in the past to gather data. Furthermore, anonymous sources are saying the data theft of federal employees didn’t just affect four million people. Instead, the breach could affect as many as 14 million Americans. In response to impeding U.S. intelligence efforts, cataloging Americans like merchandise and sitting poised to wreak further havoc on our country, let’s hope the U.S. is also matching China’s data collection efforts. In this game of espionage, let’s make it so China also cannot keep secrets.More…

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

June Deadline for ‘Islamic Bomb’

By Patriot Post Staff

As yet another supposed “deadline” approaches for a final agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, the sheer determination of Barack Obama to get any deal he can before he leaves office — literally any deal — becomes more and more the driving force behind our negotiating position.

Having once said “We cannot allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon; it would be a game-changer in the region” and claiming “I will always keep the threat of military action on the table,” Obama is now willing to ignore Iranian nuclear violations, ignore Iran’s willful violation of UN Security Council resolutions, ignore Iran’s role in the Syrian war, ignore Iran’s continued arming and equipping of Hezbollah, ignore Iran’s defacto control of Iraq, ignore the mortal threat a nuclear Iran would pose to Israel, and ignore the history of the current Iranian regime, all in the hope of getting something on paper with which to declare his foreign policy legacy.

The most recent interim agreement openly ceded to Iran everything it needs to produce nuclear weapons if it will only refrain from open mischief for ten years. Ten years is a blink of an eye to a nation. Consider that just slightly more than ten years ago a previously little-known Illinois senator was delivering the keynote address at the Democrat National Convention in Boston, or that nearly 25 years have passed since the first Gulf War.

With a sense of its own history stretching back nearly 6,000 years, Iran understands how quickly ten years will pass, at which time it can begin industrial-scale enrichment without penalty. Ten years will also produce advances in Iran’s ballistic missile program, another subject once linked to the nuclear program but now tossed aside by the White House.

Why is Obama so determined to give this extraordinary gift to Iran? Because, as Reuel Marc Gerecht, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, points out in a scathingcritique of the president’s misunderstanding of Iran, Obama is afraid that if the United States tries to hold a harder line the Iranians will simply walk away from the talks. And then the president will be faced with another red line he knows he cannot bring himself to enforce.

Obama’s irresolution has been the one common thread running through all of his administration’s dealings with Iran. Time and again, he has demonstrated lack of leadership and lack of resolve in the face of unpleasant facts. Having been elected president on a platform of platitudes, perhaps he really believes that wishing can make it so. But the entire body of human history demonstrates the opposite.

This lack of leadership and resolve has led key friends and allies around the world to re-assess their relationships with the United States. How can Saudi Arabia, or South Korea, or Estonia take seriously America’s pledge to defend them while Obama is giving away the farm to Iran? This lack of faith in American resolve has reportedly led to the virtually unthinkable happening: Israeli and Saudi officials recently acknowledged the two nations are consulting on how to deal with the rising threat of Iran without the U.S.

We remain guardedly optimistic that no final deal will be reached by June 30, which will at least prevent sanctions being lifted for another nine months or so. But as months of negotiation stretch into years, and as Iran inches ever closer to nuclear capability, the only thing that can possibly bring about an acceptable outcome to the nuclear issue is U.S. leadership and resolve — something sorely lacking in our current president and his team of fellow travelers.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ANALYSIS: Army Ditches Church’s Independence Day Event
• ‘Titles Are Not Accomplishments’
• Ecoalarmists Were Wrong. Again.
• Fear and Loathing in Hillary Clinton’s State Department
• Maryland ‘Free-Range’ Parents Vindicated
• Newest Obama Regs Cost $110 Billion

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Burt Prelutsky: War Zones Here and Abroad
• Ken Blackwell: Expanding Relations With the Iranian Resistance
• Jim DeMint: Saving Internet Freedom
• George Will: Our Long Path to Limited Government

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Burt Prelutsky: “Because Obama is so adamant about having what only he regards as a major foreign policy achievement on his resume, he is leaving Israel and the Gulf nations to swing in the breeze while he offers Iran the entire Middle East in exchange for a signature on a nuclear deal. If he had a single ounce of red blood in his veins, Obama would have sent our military over there months ago to wipe out ISIS before they burned, beheaded or crucified any more people. Instead, Obama and his stooges defend his inaction by insisting that Americans are war-weary. I beg to differ. What we’re sick of is engaging in wars we have no desire to win unconditionally. If an American president ever pledged himself to wipe out those in the Middle East and North Africa who target Christians for extermination, who kidnap young girls and turn them into sex slaves and who exhort their pea-brained followers in the U.S. and Britain to execute soldiers, cops and civilians, I feel reasonably confident that his approval rate would hover well above 80%.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose.” —The Gipper

Non Compos Mentis: “It was very courageous and brave, if not crazy as well, to open fire on the [Dallas] police headquarters, and now you have this scene, this standoff.” —CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield, who later claimed she “misspoke”

Belly laugh of the week: “I’ve stood up to adversaries like Putin and reinforced allies like Israel.” —Hillary Clinton (“The problem with that first sentence is that it’s the opposite of being true: As secretary of state, Clinton stood up to Israel and reinforced Putin.” —The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack)

The BIG Lie, Part I: “No poll shows that voters don’t trust Hillary.” —Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook (A new CNN/ORC poll found that 57% say Clinton isn’t “honest and trustworthy.”)

The BIG Lie, Part II: “I don’t think there’s ever been anyone more consistent in their entire career [than Hillary].” —Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta

Village Idiots: “The Baltimore thing came on the heels of what happened in Ferguson and what happened in New York City and all these other places. … You can’t have a bunch of people walking around with guns. … You get enough people with weapons around and there will be unattended consequences. People make mistakes. People do wrong. Things happen. To hold a community together you got to have a high level of community trust.” —Bill Clinton

Late-night humor: “Hillary Clinton is apparently asking people to donate to her campaign, even if all they can afford is one dollar. Then Bill Clinton said, ‘Trust me, I will find a use for a giant stack of singles.’” —Conan O'Brien

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us 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.