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Patriot Headlines | Grassroots Commentary Daily Digest
October 8, 2015
THE FOUNDATION"In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate — look to his character." —Noah Webster, 1789TOP RIGHT HOOKSLooks Like FBI Has Clinton's Complete Email Trail
On Wednesday, Datto Inc. said it would turn over the emails to the FBI. According to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), when Clinton ordered Platte River Networks to start destroying email, a Platte River employee emailed Datto writing, "Starting to think this whole thing is really covering up some shaddy [sic] s— ... I just think if we have it in writing that they told us to cut the back ups, and that we can go public with our statement saying we have Head back ups sense day one, then we were told to trim 30 days, it would make us look a WHOLE LOT better." Bottom line here: Clearly Clinton has been lying all along and endeavoring to keep her communications off books in order that they would not be subject to scrutiny before her presidential campaign. At best, Clinton has been grossly negligent in maintaining these private servers. At worst she has committed treasonous felonies. Did we mention her staff emailed classified information to the Clinton Foundation? Comment | Share Clinton's 'Pivot' Against the Trans-Pacific PartnershipIt's a well-known fact that Hillary Clinton flip-flops on the issues. She was against same-sex marriage before she was for it. She supported her husband's tough-on-crime policies before she said they damaged the nation. Sure, some of her changes can be chalked up to time and more information. But that narrative doesn't fit Clinton's recent stance against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "Based on what I know so far, I can't support this agreement," Clinton said in a statement Wednesday, implying that TPP would reduce the number of jobs in the nation. Based on what she knows? Of all the people in the nation, Clinton should know the most about TPP. After all, she was the person that negotiated the deal. When she was secretary of state, Clinton publicly lobbied for the partnership 45 times. It was part of her "pivot to the Asia Pacific." She told Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in January 2013 the TPP "holds out great economic opportunities to all participating nations." The Trans-Pacific Partnership isn't just empty words for Clinton or some kind of theory of what might be a future solution to a current problem. She invested herself into the partnership, presumably giving a part of herself to the diplomatic process. Yet she's willing to throw that all away to cater to progressive voters (read: unions) ahead of next week's first Democrat debate.Comment | Share Concerted Effort to Silence Climate Opposition ExposedA clarion call by a group of professors demanding that climate dissenters be prosecuted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act backfired spectacularly last week when the Republican-controlled House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology launched an investigation into the group's organization, the Institute of Global Environment and Society. IGES President Jagadish Shukla is now trying to stave off possible ethics violations — namely, using taxpayer dollars to attack opposing viewpoints, a move that perplexed even some Democrats. Emphasis on some. Others, like Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, the ranking Democrat on the committee, pretend to cherish freedom of speech while simultaneously ignoring the allegations against IGES. Johnson suggested the probe is unjustified and paints IGES as the victim. "[S]ince the letter [ordering Shukla to retain information for investigative purposes] contains no specific allegations, I am puzzled as to the Chairman's intent in writing it," she said. Still, asserted Johnson, "To be clear about my own position, I would resist any attempt to stifle the constitutionally protected right of any citizen, including the nation's scientists, to engage in free speech without interference." But that's exactly what the group's letter demands. A letter that has since been taken offline because it was "inadvertently" made public to begin with.Comment | Share Don't Miss Alexander's ColumnRead Welcome Home, Lt. Bonnyman, on how, after 72 years, a Marine comes home.If you'd like to receive Alexander's Column by email, update your subscription here. FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSISTrump's DomainBy Allyne Caan
Good thing Madison never met Donald Trump. Turns out the real estate mogul and Republican presidential candidate not only has made it his practice to strip folks of their private property, but he also thinks it’s just fine for the government to do the same. Recall the disastrous 2005 Supreme Court Kelo v. City of New London decision. In that case, SCOTUS ruled the city could take private property from its rightful owner and give it to a private developer for the “greater economic good” — not for public use. And Trump agreed with the Court. Incidentally, a decade after Kelo, the land that was supposed to deliver such a boon to the area still sits empty. As The Blaze reports, “The only creatures making regular use of [the lots] in the intervening years have been a colony of feral cats.” In an interview this week with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Trump extolled the virtues of eminent domain and even boasted of his own abuse — er, use — of it. (Warning: typical Trump run-on sentence follows.) "I think eminent domain is wonderful. … I build a lot of buildings in Manhattan, and you’ll have 12 sites and you’ll get 11 and you’ll have the one holdout and you end up building around them and everything else, okay? So, I know it better than anybody. I think eminent domain for massive projects, for instance, you’re going to create thousands of jobs, and you have somebody that’s in the way, and you pay that person far more— Don’t forget, eminent domain, they get a lot of money, and you need a house in a certain location, because you’re going to build this massive development that’s going to employ thousands of people, or you’re going to build a factory, that without this little house, you can’t build the factory— I think eminent domain is fine.”In other words, Trump thinks it’s just dandy to build his empire by kicking folks out of their homes. As president, would he wrack up executive orders ousting folks from hearth and home so his billionaire development pals could provide for the “greater good”? Make America Great Again™, indeed. In reality, eminent domain — as outlined in the pesky Fifth Amendment — is bound by strict limitations. Specifically, private property may be taken only for public use and with just compensation. Nowhere does the Constitution permit the government to take property from its rightful owner and give it to another private entity for personal or even communal gain. And, as John Adams wrote, "The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence." But to the Constitution, Madison and Adams, Trump says pish posh. After all, the Founders obviously never had a casino to build, so what could they possibly know about making America great? The sobering reality is that Trump remains an enthusiastic supporter of government seizing private property. In fact, long before Kelo, Trump was busy targeting private property for his business gain. In the 1990s, he went after New Jersey widow Vera Coking, attempting to use eminent domain to take her Atlantic City home for, of all things, a limousine parking lot for his Trump Plaza Hotel. Trump may be tough, but he picked the wrong fight messing with a Jersey girl. Coking retained the right to her property, but had to go through a costly, multi-year court battle to do so. In the frightful scenario of a Trump administration, one can only imagine how many Vera Cokings would have to appeal to the courts to keep their homes — and trust to hope that the court doesn’t use Kelo against them. Of course, assuming he holds the keys to brilliance, Trump suggested conservatives simply need eminent domain explained to them — then they’ll love it, too. Yeah, that’s it. If only Trump had explained eminent domain to conservatives ("It's great, it's really great, and I'll make it even better!"), we wouldn’t have spent all those centuries protecting private property rights against tyrannical governments — and against people like Trump. What were we thinking? Comment | Share
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OPINION IN BRIEFVictor Davis Hanson: "[Vladimir] Putin’s recall of history is as fishy as his proposed coalition. Since he has invoked the 'anti-Hitler' alliance of World War II, we would all do well to remember the circumstances that led to the totalitarian Soviet Union of Josef Stalin joining with democracies to defeat Hitler. Stalin, remember, was originally a de facto ally of Adolf Hitler. Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany on August 23, 1939. That devil’s agreement greenlighted the start of World War II just over a week later. Germany invaded neutral Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. It was joined soon after by Russian troops attacking from the east. With a now-friendly Russia at his rear, Hitler was then free to turn westward against the European democracies. ... There is no reason to believe the Soviet Union would ever have flipped to join Great Britain against Nazi Germany had Hitler not double-crossed Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. ... Ironically, Stalin kept his word to the Axis alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan far better than he later did to the Allied partners, Britain and the United States, who helped save him. ... Putin’s sloppy historical perspective on World War II is a window into his soul. And we should be as distrustful of him as our disillusioned forefathers finally were of Stalin’s Soviet Union."Comment | Share SHORT CUTSInsight: "All questions of power, arising under the constitution of the United States, whether they relate to the federal or a state government, must be considered of great importance. The federal government being formed for certain purposes, is limited in its powers, and can in no case exercise authority where the power has not been delegated." —Justice John McLean (1785-1861)Upright: "In the wake of the recent homicidal shooting rampage at an Oregon community college, I’m forced to come to the conclusion that it is high time for common sense national background checks for journalists. It’s time we closed the political loophole and prevented biased, ignorant political operatives from getting their hands on a dangerously misleading national microphone." —Michael Reagan Non Compos Mentis: “People walked in like literally down because of the beating, the beating Hispanics are taking at the hands of the Republican caucus — I mean the Republican presidential race.” —Joe Biden using his favorite word, "literally," completely wrong once again Village Idiots: "I think [Rachel Dolezal] was a bit of a hero, because she kind of flipped on society a little bit. Is it such a horrible thing that she pretended to be black? Black is a great thing, and I think she legit [sic] changed people's perspective a bit and woke people up." —singer-songwriter Rihanna Dezinformatsia: "I always find it amazing that, when it comes to gun control, the Second Amendment is unassailable to those who support gun ownership and gun rights, but then, when you talk about terror, the Fourth Amendment is completely open season in search and seizure, right?" —CNN's Ashleigh Banfield Wrong prescription: “Many [Republicans] talk about improving mental health care. One of the biggest providers of mental health care — especially in disadvantaged communities — is Medicaid. For those who say they want to work with the administration in limiting gun violence, we would welcome the support for the Affordable Care Act and expanding Medicaid." —Josh Earnest (The answer is not bigger government.) Game changer: "I don’t think President Putin is playing chess. He’s playing checkers." —Josh Earnest And last... "It's official: The Democratic debate will be held on a game show set, so the promise of so much free stuff will seem perfectly natural." —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest 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. |
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