THE FOUNDATION

“Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.” —John Adams, Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1812

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Same-Sex Marriage Decision Hinges on Justice Kennedy

In the oral arguments over the Supreme Court case that may institute same-sex marriage nationwide, the Court appeared to split along its usual lines, with Justice Anthony Kennedy once again becoming the justice on which the whole decision rests. Like many, Hot Air’s Allahpunditsaw Justice Kennedy sympathetic to the arguments made by the pro-same-sex-marriage lobby. Allahpundit believes the Court will rule against traditional marriage; the only question now is by what vote. Nevertheless, some justices were cautious. For thousands of years, marriage has been defined as between a man and a woman. Then, the Netherlands changed its definition of marriage in 2001. “You’re not seeking to join the institution,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. “You’re seeking to change what the institution is.” He added, “One of the things that’s truly extraordinary about this whole issue is how quickly has been the acceptance of your position across broad elements of society.” The plaintiffs' attorneys have been practicing for months, running moot courts and rehearsing responses to Justice Antonin Scalia’s style of questioning. The goal, The New York Times reported, is not just win, but “win big.” If SCOTUS rules in their favor, then they already have. More…

Comment | Share

National Guard, Curfew Quell Second Night of Baltimore Unrest

The rioting Monday night in Baltimore left 19 buildings and 144 vehicles burned, 20 police officers injured and 235 people arrested. But what we saw by dawn on Wednesday is that Tuesday’s violence was subdued. Two thousand National Guard members and 400 state troopers enforced a 10 p.m. city-wide curfew. Baltimore was hesitant at first to crack down on the initial stages of unrest because many of the unruly were youth, but then the violence evolved. “When we deployed our officers yesterday, we were deploying for a high school event,” Baltimore PD spokesman Capt. Eric Kowalcyzk said. “I don’t think there’s anyone that would expect us to deploy with automatic weapons and armored vehicles for 13-, 14- and 15-year olds.”

Meanwhile, about 50 protesters were demonstrating in Ferguson, Missouri, last night when a man was shot in the lower leg. While it’s not clear if the shooting is connected to the demonstrations, police threatened to use “chemical munitions” to clear the crowd. Later, a group set fire to trashcans and a portable toilet. Even after all this time, violence still lingers in the St. Louis suburb. However, Barack Obama wasn’t about to say the riots are due to a malformed relationship between cops and citizens. No, for him, the problem is Republicans. He said at a press conference yesterday, “I’m under no illusion that out of this Congress we’re going to get massive investments in urban communities … But if we really want to solve the problem, if our society really wanted to solve the problem, we could.” Leftists believe the answer to everything is more money. More…

Comment | Share

Obama: Congress Is Just Afraid of a Little Globalization

In pushing for a free-trade agreement with countries arrayed around the Pacific Ocean, Barack Obama has managed to enter the rare political situation of gaining opponents in both Democrat and Republican parties. Democrats, led by the likes of Elizabeth Warren, bray that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will hurt the middle class. Republicans, well, they have a right to be suspicious, because the administration that “led” the U.S. economy on its slowest recovery to date wants to negotiate a trade deal that will have huge economic implications. Furthermore, Obama is seeking approval for this treaty in a simple yes-no vote, a move that speeds up the negotiation process, but one that also cheapens Congress' role in negotiating treaties. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Obama called the skeptics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership scared of a little globalization. After all, if the U.S. does nothing, then China will establish its trade agreements and earn influence over that corner of the globe. “What we can’t do, though, is withdraw,” Obama said. “There has been a confluence of anti-global engagement from both elements of the right and elements of the left that I think [is] a big mistake.” There is a reason why the Constitution grants Congress the power to approve treaties, and the argument that we’re running out of time is no excuse to trust the judgment of one man. More…

Comment | Share

Share

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

Why Is SCOTUS Even Considering Same-Sex Marriage?

By John J. Bastiat

Since the very definition of marriage is up for grabs at the U.S. Supreme Court this week — SCOTUS entertained oral arguments Tuesday on a number of cases consolidated under the central issue of the un-constitutionality of states' ability to deny gay marriage — we thought this an appropriate point to interject reason into the debate, strengthened by an understanding of history — Constitutional history. Let’s start with the basics: The Constitution of the United States has nothing to say about marriage, “gay” or otherwise. What does that mean?

Well, if you know nothing about civics, it means nothing. Unfortunately, that’s the take the religiously zealous supporters of same-sex marriage are trying to foist off on the Supremes this week. Their approach, of course, doesn’t admit to this, or even begin to touch on the truly core issue — Federalism — for the same reason abortionist supporters of Roe v. Wade did not: They would otherwise lose. Let’s walk through this Matrix together, Neo.

The Constitution is the foundational legal document governing our nation. For almost 200 years it served as the backbone behind the body of laws under which the lowliest individual to the U.S. President operated. All of that changed with the Progressive Movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s, FDR’s New Deal and a host of other progressive assaults on the concept of the Rule of Law. Wiser-than-the-rest-of-us progressives rejected this idea in favor of the arrogation that some people (read: them) are better suited to rule than others (read: you), and accordingly pushed to make the Constitution a “living, breathing document” (read: changeable to suit progressives' needs). The practical upshot of this “breathing” is that Rule of Law is all but a dead letter in our nation. But we digress.

Since the progressives' constitutional onslaught, the model formerly known as “federalism” has died yet another — virtual, if not actual — death. The Constitution originally gave power to the federal government to make and enforce certain, very particular laws across the land. These so-called “enumerated” powers were so called because they were very limited in scope, though unlimited within the span of that scope. Such laws were applicable to the entirety of the United States and evolved from the previous federal power failures of the former bedrock document, the Articles of Confederation. For example, the power to regulate commerce among the states — a power itself abused over the past century by an overly-ambitious SCOTUS interpretation of the term “interstate commerce” — is specifically granted to Congress under Article I of the Constitution. Likewise, the power to enter treaties — another power very recently abused, since the current office holder ignores the prerequisite Senate consent to such power (“He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties… ”) — is specifically granted to the president under Article II.

However, the rest of governmental power is vested within the states. This structural component was codified under the Tenth Amendment, which reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

In a nutshell, the Tenth Amendment is saying if We-the-People didn’t give you-the-federal-government a particular power in the Constitution, we are keeping that plenary power for individual states to make those calls. The rationale behind this principle, as aptly annunciated in the opinion section of Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, is that the “Founders believed that social mores should be reflected in law through the democratic process, not judicial command.” Indeed.

Unfortunately, over a century of assaults on the Tenth Amendment have withered it to a bare thread of what it once was. Were this not the case, the issue before SCOTUS wouldn’t even be here. It would be among each of the 50 states to decide for themselves. Sadly, that option was foreclosed with SCOTUS’s unreasonable shoot-down of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), whose primary focus was the assertion of individual states' rights to choose for themselves whether or not to recognize same-sex marriage. Ultimately, that means the decision of whether to recognize same-sex marriages rests not with individual states, but rather with an arbitrary and often-fickle Supreme Court.

The real issue is whether a state’s free people can decide for themselves whether they can choose one such path or another. The more the Tenth Amendment is eviscerated by the Court, the less likely they can. The Founders envisioned the states as political laboratories to experiment with governmental models. Those that worked encouraged people to move and join in the prosperity of successful models; those that didn’t encouraged people to vote with their feet. Let’s hope the Supreme Court learns its lesson from Roe v. Wade and decides the Founders' model is best. If history is any guide, however, we’re not overly optimistic.

Comment | Share

TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• Krauthammer: To Help Inner Cities, Embrace School Choice
• Due to Finances, Clinton Foundation Placed on ‘Watch List’
• Earnest: You Know Who’s Really at Fault for ISIL’s Rise?
• Vietnam Veteran to Rioters: Do Something With Your Lives
• Iran Flexes Naval Might by Seizing Cargo Ship

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Star Parker: Defending Traditional Marriage
• Terence Jeffrey: Give Every Child in Baltimore a $17,329 School-Choice Voucher
• Michelle Malkin: Debunking Obama’s Bilious Baltimore Babble
• John Stossel: What Creates Jobs
• Walter Williams: California’s Water Problem

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Star Parker: “[I]f leaders in these various institutions of our nation’s left-wing elite look in the rearview mirror to their own family histories, histories of Christians and Jews arriving and settling in America, they most certainly, overwhelmingly, will find families — parents, grandparents, great-grandparents — defined by the very traditional values that their offspring today throw to the trash. Central to the propaganda being sold is the notion that embracing sexual behaviors that our religions prohibit represents progress. But in fact, these behaviors are more ancient than our religions. Our religions were the answer to these destructive behaviors. And no, this is not about freedom. Few do not believe or accept that every American should be free to live as he or she chooses. This is a battle about redefining the values of our nation’s culture and, hence, redefining our nation itself.”

Comment | Share

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The real freedom of any individual can always be measured by the amount of responsibility which he must assume for his own welfare and security.” —Author Robert Welch (1899-1985)

Non Compos Mentis: “I’m under no illusion that under this Congress we’re going to get massive investments in urban communities. And so we’ll try to find areas where we can make a difference around school reform, and around job training, and around some investments in infrastructure in these communities trying to attract new businesses in.” —Barack Obama, faulting Republicans for the rioting in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore

“The fact is that al-Qaida was not in Iraq prior to President Bush’s decision to commit significant American resources on the ground in that country. That is a historical fact.” —Obama spokesman Josh Earnest, shooting back at George W. Bush after he criticized his successor’s foreign policy

Dezinformatsia: “You get into Baltimore, you can’t find a job with a short commute. And that’s, to me, the problem that’s behind all of this [rioting]. … [The jobs] went to the right-to-work states … where the unions didn’t have any power. You could get people to work for nothing and the stuff wasn’t that good that was made down there.” —MSNBC’s Chris Matthews

Village Idiots: “[Baltimore] policemen and firemen have the right to work in the city and live in the suburbs. Some live as far away as … Pennsylvania. And so they come in as an occupying force, not as neighbors. So, often people are afraid of them, because they’re not taxpaying neighbors whose children go to school with their children. So there is this gap between police and people. And you really ought to have residential requirements for policemen and firemen. Those who get nectar from the flower should sow pollen where they pick up nectar.” —Jesse Jackson

And last… “Sixth-year president blames fourth-month GOP Congress for blocking agenda which would’ve aided city run by Democrats for decades. #Baltimore” —twitter satirist @hale_razor

Comment | Share

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

“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States.” —Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Miller, 1808

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Lynch Officially Takes Up Holder’s Torch

On Monday, new Attorney General Loretta Lynch was sworn in, formally taking over for the contemptuous Eric Holder. And to say she entered the position amid chaos is an understatement. Gangs throughout Baltimore continued to wreak violence and havoc, injuring police officers and destroying property in protest over the death of Freddie Gray, the circumstances of which are still unknown. In response, one of Lynch’s first acts on the job was to send in the troops. “The Department of Justice will send two officials to Baltimore amid clashes in the city between police and citizens,” The Hill reports. We wish we could say she will be an improvement over her predecessor, but all evidence suggests she will continue the Holder legacy. Joe Biden illuminated this concern at Monday’s swearing-in ceremony when he said, “[Lynch] is a woman who is incredibly qualified, just like Eric Holder, who I’ve known and has been my close friend for years and years and years, over 30 years.” He added, “He might be one of the finest attorney generals [sic] we have had. He has been in this environment of such political hostility. He has stood his ground on principle. He has never yielded. And he has been right.” If he was one of the finest attorneys general in American history, why are sights like Ferguson and Baltimore seemingly becoming the norm? Lynch has a lot of work to do — but at least she’d be hard pressed to make things worse.

Comment | Share

Arguments Begin in Contentious Same-Sex Marriage Case

Today is a big day for the Supreme Court as the debate over same-sex “marriage” takes center stage. Two and half hours of oral arguments will be presented to the justices, whose decision on America’s biggest social controversy since Roe v. Wade will have monumental implications. And just like Roe v. Wade, as Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins points out, the government meddling in what should be an issue left to the states isn’t going to end the debate. Forty-two years after that dreadful ruling, America has come no closer to unanimously accepting abortion, and the same fate awaits the gay marriage dispute. Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Perkins explained, “The courts are decided to interpret the Constitution and the constitutionality of laws, not create public policy.” And as Jennifer Marshall of The Daily Signalreports, some 50 million Americans have voted in support of traditional marriage — only to have the courts silence the majority of them. “Only 11 states have redefined marriage democratically,” writes Marshall. “In the 37 states that currently recognize same-sex marriage, 26 have been forced to do so by courts.” Today, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio will defend their bans on same-sex marriage against 16 plaintiffs, and a decision will be announced before the Court adjourns in June. The Tenth Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The right ruling rests in those 28 words. More…

Comment | Share

Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Emails

Regarding the security breach of the White House’s computer network, it might be easier to ask what the hackers didn’t gain access to. In the early part of April, news broke that a group of hackers — probably with some link to the Russian government — compromised the White House email system and accessed Barack Obama’s full schedule. But the White House has remained mum on how deeply the hackers penetrated. According to The New York Times, the hackers were reading some of Obama’s unclassified email messages, the ones where he drafted upcoming speeches, worked out upcoming policy, complained about Congress, talked about staffing changes and, yes, even described his golf game. The Times says Obama’s account itself was not compromised, nor was the classified email system the White House uses. As Noah Rothman writes at Hot Air, “This administration has a problem with information security, and it’s becoming clear that their carelessness is a threat to American national security.” When Obama declared his administration was the most transparent in history, none of us thought he was talking about the Russians. More…

Comment | Share

Don’t Miss Patriot Humor

Check out Hillary Clinton Rally.

If you’d like to receive Patriot Humor by email, update your subscription here.

Share

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

Baltimore Mishandled Seeds of Unrest

By Lewis Morris

The city of Baltimore is reeling after a savage night of rioting downtown that led to the burning of stores, looting and violent confrontations with police officers. The violence erupted in the hours leading up to and following Monday’s funeral of Freddie Gray, who died several days after suffering a spinal cord injury while in police custody. Facts are still hazy about Gray’s arrest and injury and just how an initially peaceful demonstration devolved so quickly into full-scale rioting.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency late yesterday and called out the National Guard to assist overwhelmed city law enforcement. “The National Guard represents the last resort in restoring order,” Hogan told reporters. “I have not made this decision lightly.”

Up to 5,000 soldiers could eventually be deployed. There are already at least 100 Maryland State Police officers already in the city, as well as municipal police from surrounding towns and counties. Close to two-dozen Baltimore police officers have sustained injuries in close-quarter confrontations with rioters who assaulted them with rocks, bottles and other objects.

Schools are closed today in Baltimore, and last night’s Orioles game was postponed, with baseball commissioner Rob Manfred suggesting the matchup between the Orioles and Chicago White Sox could be played elsewhere.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake ordered a week-long 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, calling out the rioters as “thugs who only want to incite violence and destroy our city.”

This is a much more decisive Rawlings-Blake than just two days ago, when she said during a press conference in the early hours of unrest over the weekend that “we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we worked very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to de-escalate.”

Rawlings-Blake’s words were quickly clarified by her office in a follow-up statement that said, in part, “There was an effort to give the peaceful demonstrators room to conduct their peaceful protests on Saturday. Unfortunately … that also meant that those seeking to incite violence also had the space to operate.”

In some cases, it is prudent for law enforcement to back off to prevent further confrontation, and it seems the Baltimore Police Department did so at least a few times yesterday. But to come right out and say it, telling rioters and looters what the police will do? That’s absurd!

Whatever Rawlings-Blake meant to say, the opportunity to de-escalate the situation has clearly passed. The scope of the rioting and looting quickly overwhelmed the police, and it is not clear at this point just what their strategy was in the early hours of the mayhem. Sporadic acts of violence over the weekend spread into full-scale chaos Monday afternoon after a number of youths, fresh out of school, joined those already engaged in unlawful activity.

According to a notice by the Baltimore Police Department, there is a credible threat that the Black Guerilla Family, Bloods, Crips and other gangs entered into an agreement to attack police and coordinate looting. Furthermore, some of Baltimore’s outlaw elements may want to take the violence outside the city, targeting white police officers. The West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center released a memo warning police officers that they might be the target of gang violence. Remember: The man who killed New York City Police Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos earlier this year was associated with the Black Guerilla Family gang in Baltimore.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) suggested that the violence was actually perpetrated by out-of-towners. “[A]t the end there were a few people who said, ‘We’re gonna turn this city down [sic], we’re gonna close it down,’ and the next thing you know we had a few people mainly from out of town … start beating up on police cars and throwing all kinds of projectiles.” It may just be that Cummings doesn’t want to admit the fact that Baltimore has a criminal element capable of fomenting such chaos.

Rev. Al Sharpton, never one to miss a race-baiting opportunity, pledged to visit Baltimore to reach out to local church leaders who have been gathering with community leaders to find ways to stop the violence. Unfortunately, if history is any guide, Sharpton’s appearance might distract from that opportunity as he grandstands for the camera and solicits donations for his National Action Network.

And what about the man whose death sparked the rioting? The Baltimore Sun has attempted to piece together a timeline of the arrest of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, looking to discover how he sustained the injuries that led to his death. Like Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, Gray has been made out to be a martyr at the altar of police brutality, but he was no angel. Gray’s rap sheet includes at least 18 arrests for various offenses. Baltimore police have not shed any light on why Gray was arrested earlier this month, stating only that he was carrying a knife, which was actually discovered after he was arrested.

It can be said that Gray was not a model citizen; however, the Baltimore Police Department is not a model law enforcement agency. The local police department has some problems of its own. A lengthy investigation in 2014 by the Baltimore Sun uncovered numerous incidents of police brutality and resultant civil suits that cost the city $5.7 million over three years.

Unlike Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, New York City actually handled the outcry after the death of Eric Garner in Staten Island.

As with civil unrest in Ferguson, Oakland, CA, and other cities around the country, a terrible pattern is playing out in Baltimore, and it looks something like this: In an effort to reclaim the city from criminals and gangs, police have on occasion gone beyond their mandate and sometimes been guilty of the very crimes they attempt to stop. The community, which should welcome and feel protected by the police, instead fear and loathe them because of injustices, either real or perceived. The situation can fester for years until an incident, oftentimes the shooting or death of someone in police custody, pops the top off a pressure cooker.

Not all those arrested are victims, and not all cops are criminals. Far from it. Yet, the media, ever in pursuit of a story, will report any angle that feeds the story. Sometimes facts are optional. Race hustlers like Al Sharpton and naïve liberals like Stephanie Rawlings-Blake don’t help the situation. Cooler heads must prevail and examine the root causes of these issues; otherwise Baltimore will be just another name on a sad and growing list of cities tearing themselves apart.

Comment | Share

TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ANALYSIS: Who Is Watching Obama’s Game of Drones?
• Bush’s Top Three Critiques of Obama’s Foreign Policy
• Judge Suggests $135,000 Fine for Christian Bakers
• Gay Businessman Who Met With Cruz Apologizes After Criticism
• Did Baltimore Mayor Condone Rioting?

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• David Limbaugh: Puffed-Up Leftist Tyranny Punishes Dissenters
• Bill Murchison: The Court and Marriage
• Dennis Prager: Why Is Pakistan More Legitimate Than Israel?
• Mona Charen: About Those Smoking Guns
• Arnold Ahlert: I Want My Country Back
• Ed Feulner: Fallout From a Bad Deal With Iran

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

David Limbaugh: “Forget for a moment the ever-failing economy, the implosion of our foreign policy coherence, and our virtually unilateral withdrawal in the war on terror under Barack Obama’s presidency. If liberty lovers don’t start fighting back soon, we’ll forfeit our freedom of thought and religious expression under the assault of fascist leftist activists in our culture. … The real fight on [social] issues in this nation is no longer about the underlying ‘rights’ involved. It concerns the appalling mission of activists to marshal the coercive power of government and of commercial blackmail to compel other people to agree (and publicly say they agree) with their opinions on issues they deem important. Isn’t it ironic that the people who are pushing for these rights always wave banners of tolerance, love, compassion and liberty? More than ironic, it’s outrageous. And fewer and fewer people of principle are standing up to this tyrannical bullying because, understandably, they don’t want to put themselves in the crosshairs of this gestapo. But history tells us the logical conclusion of this story. Some socially liberal Republicans naively believe that this is only about the social issues themselves, but it’s about liberty. God help us.”

Comment | Share

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “[T]he Government is merely a servant — merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.” —Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Non Compos Mentis: “We … have to be very careful about the language we use to talk about [the situation in Baltimore]. I’m not calling these people rioters. I’m calling these uprisings and I think it’s an important distinction to make. This is not a riot. … [R]esistance looks different ways to different people and part of what it means to say black lives matter, is to assert our right to have rage — righteous rage, righteous indignation in the face of state violence and extrajudicial killing. … The city is burning because the police killed Freddie Gray and that’s a distinction we have to make.” —Morehouse College professor Marc Lamont Hill (How can anyone argue that turning a city into a war zone isn’t rioting? Moreover, there’s this thing called “due process.” And until the courts rule otherwise, the police are innocent.)

Dezinformatsia: “I don’t remember seeing anything like this in the United States of America in a long time.” —CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on the Baltimore riots (Was Ferguson really that long ago?)

The annals of the absurd: “Looting [is] a real shame. But FAR MORE shameful is [the] pattern of police violence against [the] black community! Perspective, people.” —CNN contributor and Daily Beast columnist Sally Kohn

The BIG Lie: “[Loretta Lynch] is a woman who is incredibly qualified, just like Eric Holder, who I’ve known and has been my close friend for years and years and years, over 30 years. He might be one of the finest attorney generals we have had. He has been in this environment of such political hostility. He has stood his ground on principle. He has never yielded. And he has been right.” —Joe Biden

Late-night humor: “New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has been positioning himself to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Hillary once developed a program to deliver rural healthcare, while de Blasio once dropped a groundhog on its head.” —Jimmy Fallon

Comment | Share

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

“No people will tamely surrender their liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the contrary, when people are universally ignorant, and debauched in their manners, they will sink under their own weight without the aid of foreign invaders.” —Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, 1775

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Obama Joked at Nerd Prom While Baltimore Rioted

Once again, Hollywood celebrities and DC politicians gathered in Washington Saturday for the White House Correspondents' Dinner — AKA nerd prom. It’s an opportunity for Nancy Pelosi to rub shoulders with the likes of Jane Fonda and for Barack Obama to further his agenda and take down political opponents by dishing out punch lines. This year, the dinner only showed how out of touch the two institutions are with the rest of the nation, because while attendees were slurping down Foraged Wild Mushroom Ragout and Seared Alaskan Halibut protests became violent in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray, who died because of injuries he received while in police custody.

While the baseball game at Baltimore’s Camden Yards went into lockdown because of protests outside, three big television networks — CNN, MSNBC and CSPAN — kept their cameras trained on the White House Correspondents' Dinner because Obama was going to start his jokes soon. Never mind that the latest chapter in the debate over modern day policing was being punctuated by vandalized police cars and smashed storefronts an hour away.

Obama was once again selling the tired issue of “climate change,” trying to make it matter to everyday Americans. “I am determined to make the most of every moment I have left,” Obama said. “After the midterm elections, my advisors asked me, ‘Mr. President, do you have a bucket list?’ And I said, ‘Well, I have something that rhymes with bucket list.’ Take executive action on immigration? Bucket. New climate regulations? Bucket. It’s the right thing to do.” But as executive editor of the Washington Free Beacon Sonny Bunch pointed out in a piece titled “This Is Why They Hate Us,” no one except those inside the Beltway cares about nerd prom.

Comment | Share

Clinton Foundation Refiles Taxes as Media Grows Suspicious

On Sunday, the Clinton Foundation admitted it did not properly disclose which foreign governments donated to the organization while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state. As a result, it is refiling taxes because of the “mistakes.” Acting CEO of the nonprofit Maura Pallyissued a statement, saying, “So yes, we made mistakes, as many organizations of our size do, but we are acting quickly to remedy them, and have taken steps to ensure they don’t happen in the future.” This comes as liberal media organizations become increasingly suspicious of Clinton because of reports she favored foreign bureaucrats and oligarchs who donated to the Clinton Foundation during her time as madam secretary. This admission of fault from the Clinton Foundation is a way of damage control. If they own up to it and appear to fix the problem, then maybe they can move past the nasty headlines. But as the talking heads at The New York Times editorial board, ABC’s “World News Tonight,” MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” and CNN all said last week: These allegations are not about to go away. More…

Comment | Share

Study Finds Significant Economic Effects of Immigration Surge

A new study from the Congressional Research Service discovered an interesting interrelation between depressed middle class incomes and increased immigration. The Washington Examinerreports that in 1945 the foreign-born population of the United States stood at 10,971,146, but by 1970 it slid to 9,740,000 for a net loss of 1,231,146 foreigners. At the same time, says the CRS, “The reported income of the bottom 90% of tax filers in the United States increased from an average of $18,418 in 1945 to $33,621 in 1970 for an aggregate change of $15,202 or a percent increase of 82.5% over this 25 year period.” In contrast, from 1970 to 2013, the foreign-born population blossomed from 9,740,000 to 41,348,066, a 324.5% increase. However, “The reported income of the bottom 90% of tax filers in the United States decreased from an average of $33,621 in 1970 to $30,980 in 2013 for an aggregate decline of $2,641 or a percent decline of 7.9% over this 43 year period.” There’s no question high-skilled emigrants who go through the system legally contribute positive economic effects. The issue is that our basically open borders has allowed the population of unskilled illegal immigrants to swell, which undoubtedly strangles the overall economy. Border security must be Congress' top priority to fix the overarching issues affecting America’s middle class.

Comment | Share

Share

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

The Wisconsin Left Tried to Criminalize Free Speech

By Arnold Ahlert

Anyone still wondering how low the American Left will sink in pursuit of its agenda should turn their gaze toward Wisconsin. In a blatant attempt at political intimidation masquerading itself as legitimate investigation, police conducted a series of early morning raids at the homes of several Wisconsin conservatives. Dozens of armed officers showed up for pre-dawn raids with battering rams, swarming into houses and threatening the people inside with arrest if they didn’t cooperate, even as they seized personal property. And on the way out, the invaders gave every person they encountered the same warning: Don’t call your lawyer, and don’t tell anyone about what happened, because a gag order is in place.

How is it that people can be forced to remain silent even as police conducted large, noisy raids more suitable to taking down a drug kingpin right in front of their neighbors? Because law enforcement officials in Wisconsin are allowed to conduct John Doe investigations, defined as “an independent, investigatory tool to ascertain whether a crime has been committed and if so, by whom.” And unlike other investigations that require probable cause to pursue, John Doe investigations are conducted to establish the existence of probable cause itself.

Under the rubric of looking for campaign-finance violations, the investigations were initiated by Milwaukee district attorney John Chisholm, a partisan Democrat — whose wife is a teachers' union shop steward — and a man determined to find anything that could undermine the political career of rising Republican star Gov. Scott Walker. Walker has thwarted Wisconsin leftists at every turn, winning three elections, including a recall effort, in just four years.

Chisholm’s undertook his first John Doe investigation in 2010, when Walker was Milwaukee County Executive. After three years, it netted all of six individuals who pled guilty to crimes ranging from stealing money from a veterans' fund, and sending political emails on government time, to violation of state campaign finance laws and contributing to the delinquency of a child. Walker himself? Never even charged.

Undaunted, Chisholm launched a second John Doe investigation shortly after Democrats failed to remove Walker in the recall election in 2012, an act of naked revenge precipitated by the passage of Walker’s “budget repair bill” known as Act 10. Act 10 limited the collective bargaining power of unions — including the teachers union to which Chisholm’s wife belonged. The machination surrounding the passage of Act 10 included Democratic state legislators fleeing the state to prevent a vote on the issue, an effort to affect a liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the purpose of overturning the law after it was passed, and the recall election.

The second probe, led by special prosecutor Francis Schmitz, targeted Walker and 29 conservative groups. Dozens of subpoenas were issued demanding documents related to the 2011 and 2012, campaign, all based on the theory that these groups had illegally coordinated their activities during recall campaigns of Walker and other Republican legislators targeted for supporting Act 10. National Review’s Rich Lowry aptly described what really occurred. “Walker’s opponents weaponized campaign-finance law, literally,” he explains.

One of those groups, Wisconsin Club for Growth (WCFG), and its founder Eric O'Keefe filed suit. In 2014, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa granted a preliminary injunction halting the investigation, and hammered prosecutors “for exercising issue advocacy speech rights that on their face are not subject to the regulations or statutes the defendants seek to enforce.” The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case on appeal, but not because they disagreed with Randa’s interpretation, but because the Anti-Injunction Act prohibited federal courts from intervening in a state criminal investigation based on the cited principles of “equity, comity, and federalism.” Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook characterized the ruling as victory for states' rights.

Nonetheless it remain clear O'Keefe’s rights were violated and Section 1983 of the U.S. Code allows citizens to be granted relief under federal law if their rights have been violated by state officials. Last Friday, the Supreme Court began deliberations to determine if O'Keefe v. Chisholm will be heard by the highest court in the land. The Wall Street Journal insists such a hearing is critically necessary because the theory of coordination, allowing “vast investigations to be instigated on the thinnest evidence” it is part of yet another leftist effort to undermine the Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling that lifted unconstitutional restrictions on spending by corporations and labor unions. That would be the very same Citizen’s United decision that former IRS hack Lois Lerner was bemoaning at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy on Oct. 19, 2010 when she stated that the “Federal Election Commission can’t do anything about it; they want the IRS to fix the problem.”

The IRS decided to “fix” the problem by denying or delaying conservative groups' tax-exempt status, and attempting to coordinate with the Eric Holder-led Justice Department to tamp down revelations regarding that scandal. Wisconsin Democrats chose to fix it by conducting two separate witch-hunts replete with dawn raids and gag orders. In a better world, lots of people would be getting disbarred and/or going to jail. In this one, the American Left will continue its attempt to criminalize speech with which they disagree — by any means necessary — until they are stopped.

Stopped from doing what? Try this, courtesy of National Review’s David French:

“As I finished an interview with one victim still living in fear, still shattered by the experience of nearly losing everything simply because she supported the wrong candidate at the wrong time, I asked whether she had any final thoughts. ‘Just one,’ she replied. ‘I’m hoping for accountability, that someone will be held responsible so that they’ll never do this again.’ She paused for a moment and then, with voice trembling, said: ‘No one should ever endure what my family endured.’”

Here’s hoping the Supreme Court agrees — in no uncertain terms.

Comment | Share

TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• Perkins: SCOTUS ‘Is Not Going to Settle’ Same-Sex Marriage Debate
• Protests Over Death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore Turn Violent
• U.S. and Russia Point Fingers as Ukraine War Escalates
• It’s Time for Congress to Readdress the VA

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Stephen Moore: How the Sierra Club’s Lexus Liberals' Agenda Hurts Poor Americans
• Stephen Moore: Media, Environmentalists Were Wrong: How the Gulf Coast Roared Back After Oil Spill
• Tony Perkins: Sue Chef: Court Fines Bakers $135,000
• Larry Kudlow: Snarking Hillary Is Not the Way to the White House
• Jeff Jacoby: Death or Life for Tsarnaev?

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Stephen Moore: “[B]illionaire Tom Steyer convened the uber-rich liberal donor base at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle — nice — to pontificate about how much they care about polar bears, the Arctic ice caps and rising sea levels. … A Gallup poll found in March 2015 that only 2 percent of Americans perceive the ‘environment/pollution’ as the nation’s ‘most important problem.’ And a Bloomberg poll last year specifically listing climate as a candidate for ‘most important issue’ found only 5 percent of Americans concurring. Polls also show the richer Democrats are, the more they care about climate change. Maybe that’s because green policies hurt the poor and working class — starting most obviously with opposition to modern drilling techniques such as fracking, and with blocking infrastructure projects that would create tens of thousands of high-paying union jobs. … No one on the left, least of all the donors who are funding the climate change scare campaign, seem to care about how the poor will cope with slow growth and higher costs. The Sierra Club’s Lexus liberals can afford a future with less growth, fewer jobs and higher costs for everything. The middle class can’t. Democrats have abandoned the financial interests of these Americans. Republicans really are the stupid party if they can’t win these disenchanted voters.”

Comment | Share

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States.” —The Gipper

Non Compos Mentis: “It’s a very delicate balancing act. Because while we try to make sure that [the Baltimore protesters] were protected from the cars and other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.” —Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (Regardless of whether her intent was to defend rioting, it will be interesting to see the mayor defend this regrettable remark on the campaign trail.)

Demo-gogues: “I’ve gotta give it to the citizens of Baltimore. I was there all day. It was very peaceful, all day, thousands of people. And then at the end there were a few people who said, ‘We’re gonna turn this city down [sic], we’re gonna close it down,’ and the next thing you know we had a few people mainly from out of town … start beating up on police cars and throwing all kinds of projectiles. But the fact is that, for the most part, it could have been worse. But again, this whole police-community relations situation … is the civil rights cause for this generation.” —Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)

Race bait: “With an institution like American policing, that I believe is founded on anti-blackness, on slave patrols, there are things that are so institutionally ingrained in terms of how we police communities, that are anti-black. They may not say specifically in the language, in the words, that they’ll stop and target black people, but when you do this type of proactive policing … these disproportionately [affect] black and brown and poor communities. So, these things are not only racist, they are also classist.” —community organizer Cherrell Brown (Start with giving police a reason not to disproportionately patrol black communities that have disproportionate levels of crime.)

Village Idiots: “What the Clinton Foundation has said is that we will be even more transparent, even though Transparency International and others have said we’re among the most transparent of foundations. I very much believe that that is the right policy. That we’ll be even more transparent. That to eliminate any questions while we’re in this time, we won’t take new government funding, but that the work will continue as it is.” —Chelsea Clinton

Late-night humor: “It’s being reported that Google spent over $5 million on lobbying just during the first quarter of this year. You’d think Google wouldn’t really need to lobby politicians. All they have to say is, ‘We have your search history. Do what we tell you.’” —Jimmy Fallon

Comment | Share

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.