The Patriot Post® · Monday Top Headline Summary
Eighteen million views. That’s what the Washington Examiner says has been accrued by “a video of actress Ellen Page blaming President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for the alleged assault on ‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett.” There’s just one huge problem: “The number takes on new significance … as new reports says two brothers told authorities that Smollett allegedly paid them to stage the attack.” But despite the media’s cursory and knee-jerk reporting, don’t expect any major concessions. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deleted a sympathetic tweet without so much as an acknowledgment or apology.
Tone deaf: “Speaking on German soil 75 years after the U.S. and its allies prepared for D-Day, Joe Biden described America as ‘an embarrassment’ and its trade policies ‘self-defeating.’ … The former vice president was speaking exactly three-quarters of a century after American troops were fighting against Germans at the Battle of Anzio and Allied military staffs were deep into planning for the D-Day invasion of Normandy less than 4 months later.” (Washington Examiner)
Democrats were expeditious in instigating border-barrier lawsuits. According to USA Today, “At least two lawsuits have been filed in response to President Donald Trump on Friday declaring a national emergency to secure funding for a wall along the southern border with Mexico. The filings are expected to be part of a flurry of legal challenges to the constitutionality of Trump’s decision.” Legal challenges are also anticipated to come from citizens themselves. As Bloomberg reports, “Some landowners along the U.S.-Mexico line say they see a government land grab in their future.” But Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller this weekend pointed out, “This is a threat in our country, not overseas. And if the president can’t defend this country, then he cannot fulfill his constitutional oath of office.”
“President Trump’s pick to be the next United Nations ambassador withdrew from consideration Saturday, the State Department said. The department’s spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, had been tapped to succeed Nikki Haley at the United Nations, but her name was never formally sent to the Senate for confirmation. … The withdrawal is related to the employment of a nanny who was in the country illegally. … But according to a person familiar with Nauert’s situation, the nanny was in the country legally. She was a Jamaican national employed by Nauert and her husband 10 years ago.” (The Washington Post)
According to Fox News, “More men and boys from a Somali American community in Minneapolis have joined — or attempted to join — a foreign terrorist organization over the last 12 years than any other jurisdiction in the country. … So what has made the area such a hotbed for such activity? And what has been Rep. Ilhan Omar’s record in addressing the issue — either before she was elected, or since? The answers matter because federal authorities say they remain ‘highly concerned’ about the terrorist connection with the Minneapolis Somalis.” Omar’s anti-Semitism could be emblematic of an even bigger problem.
Too long coming: “Disgraced ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood after an investigation found sex abuse allegations against him were credible, the Vatican said Saturday. The church is penalizing McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and Newark, New Jersey, with ‘dismissal from the clerical state,’ it said in a statement. He will not be able to appeal the decision.” (NBC News)
A majority of Californians are inclined to put down roots elsewhere, new polling reveals. The catalyst is cost of living, which is particularly pronounced in San Fransisco. Perhaps voters should revisit partitioning the state.
Civics testing in the U.S. is less than mediocre. According to the Washington Examiner, “A majority in every state except Vermont has failed the U.S. Citizenship test, the latest sign that Americans aren’t very good history students. … More than half of those in every other state failed, and in Washington, D.C., 58 percent failed, said the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, which does the survey. Only one-in-four nationally passed the 20-questions.” This shouldn’t surprise us, though. Schools are more interested in “diversifying” restrooms and locker rooms than they are in fostering education.
A tragic mass shooting occurred Friday in Aurora, Illinois, where five innocent lives were taken and police officers were injured. But like many mass shootings, it could have been prevented via existing laws. Townhall reports that the shooter “purchased a Smith and Wesson .40 caliber handgun in 2014 but was later discovered to have been convicted of an aggravated assault charge back in 1995 when he tried to apply for a concealed carry permit. As a result, he should have turned his firearm over to authorities. He didn’t.”
Having your cake and eating it too: “The NFL and lawyers for players Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid jointly announced Friday that they had settled a complaint of collusion by the players, who claimed football team owners blackballed them,” CNBC reports. According to The Daily Wire, “All parties are prevented from revealing details of the settlement, by the settlement’s terms, but various news reports put the settlement between $60 million and $80 million split between the two players.” Furthermore, “Kaepernick’s attorney … told ESPN that he predicts Kaepernick will now be welcomed into the league with open arms.” On the contrary, why would any team want such a toxic charlatan?
Humor: In pushing Amazon out of New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declares victory over the modern-day equivalent of slavery: jobs. (The Babylon Bee)
Policy: Read why “Amazon’s NYC Pullout Shows Economy Is Rigged, Just Not the Way Most People Think” at the Foundation for Economic Education.
Policy: “Outsiders should regard purported hate crimes that sound like crafted narratives with skepticism until they’re proven true,” Kyle Smith suggests in National Review. “No matter what the era or who is in charge, disaster always looms, and any weird anecdote that supports the larger doom narrative is eagerly, even devoutly, believed.”
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.