The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Top Headline Summary
Democrats, defenders of infanticide: “The Senate voted 53-44 in favor of legislation that would protect survivors of abortion, falling short of the necessary 60 votes to proceed as Democrats blocked the bill when only three of them joined Republicans. Sens. Doug Jones of Alabama, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania were the only Democrats to vote for the bill. All other 44 Democratic senators voted against the bill.” (The Daily Signal)
“After long journeys to Vietnam, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are in place for their second summit Wednesday to address perhaps the world’s biggest security challenge: Kim’s pursuit of a nuclear program that stands on the verge of viably threatening targets around the planet,” reports the Associated Press. Keep in mind that trade negotiations with China are all wrapped up in this chess match.
“House Democrats will vote Tuesday to terminate President Donald Trump’s national emergency proclamation to build the border wall, presenting their opening salvo in a battle that’s expected to drag into the next presidential campaign, both in the courts and on Capitol Hill. … The resolution to terminate the national emergency is expected to pass the House before the Senate considers the measure in the coming weeks. The showdown sets up a potential presidential veto if the measure clears both chambers. So far there doesn’t seem to be enough support on Capitol Hill — two-thirds majorities in both chambers — to override a veto.” (ABC News)
Time for a unicorn currency? “Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ambitious plan to fight climate change won’t be cheap, according to a think tank led by a former Congressional Budget Office director. The so-called Green New Deal may tally between $51 trillion and $93 trillion over 10-years, concludes the center-right policy American Action Forum, which is run by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who directed the non-partisan CBO from from 2003 to 2005. That includes between $8.3 trillion and $12.3 trillion to meet the plan’s call to eliminate carbon emissions from the power and transportation sectors and between $42.8 trillion and $80.6 trillion for its economic agenda including providing jobs and health care for all.” (Fortune)
Judicial clampdown: “The Supreme Court answered a question Monday that, surprisingly, hasn’t been resolved before: If a judge dies after voting on a case but before the decision is announced, does the judge’s vote count? The liberal lion of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Stephen Reinhardt, died March 29, 2018, but his vote was counted in a decision that came out shortly afterward. … But the Supreme Court said Monday it’s ‘generally understood that a judge may change his or her position up to the very moment when a decision is released.’ In order for a vote to count, a judge must be actively serving on the court when a ruling is rendered. Holding otherwise would have ‘allowed a deceased judge to exercise the judicial power of the United States after his death.’” (NBC News)
“On Monday, President Donald Trump announced that he had secured the release of Danny Burch, a U.S. citizen from Texas who was held hostage in Yemen for 18 months. Burch was an employee for the Yemeni Safer oil company when Houthi rebels reportedly abducted him from the capital in broad daylight while dropping his children off at a school event in September 2017, the National Review reports. ‘It is my honor today to announce that Danny Burch, a United States citizen who has been held hostage in Yemen for 18 months, has been recovered and reunited with his wife and children,’ Trump tweeted. ‘I appreciate the support of the United Arab Emirates in bringing Danny home.’” (The Daily Wire)
“A federal judge in Washington state on Monday rejected a challenge to the Trump administration’s ban on so-called bump stocks, the device used to kill 58 people and injure nearly 900 people in Las Vegas in 2017. In a 64-page decision, U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich said the plaintiffs who brought the challenge failed to prove their case. The ban, issued on Dec. 18 by the Justice Department, is set to go into effect on March 26.” (NBC News)
“For more than 90 years, a huge concrete cross has dominated part of Bladensburg, Maryland, a Washington, D.C. suburb. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to decide whether it stays, raising a question that has vexed the justices for decades: What is the proper place for religion in American public life? … Completed in 1925, it was built to commemorate 49 servicemen who died in World War I. Their names are on a bronze plaque at the base. Private funds paid for the cross, but a state commission took it over in 1961 as well as the land it sits on, which is now in a busy traffic interchange. In 2012, the American Humanist Association filed a lawsuit, claiming that its presence on public land violates the Constitution, amounting to a government establishment of religion.” (NBC News)
The hoaxes just keep on coming: “In 2017, prominent Michigan LGBT activist Nikki Joly, a transgender man, was the victim of an apparent hate crime: An unknown arsonist burned down his house, which had two dogs and three cats trapped inside. Some presumed the act was retaliatory — a response to Joly’s successful campaign to persuade the government of Jackson, Michigan, to adopt an anti-discrimination law, for which a local newspaper declared him ‘Citizen of the Year.’ Now the police finally have a suspect in custody: Joly.” (Reason)
“Cubans have overwhelmingly ratified a new constitution that enshrines the one-party socialist system as irrevocable while instituting modest economic and social changes, according to the national electoral commission. … Dissidents, who were divided between those who advocated a ‘no’ vote and those who called for abstention so as not to legitimize a process they deemed a fraud, reported a few incidents across the country of members being temporarily detained or harassed.” (Reuters)
“India launched an air strike on Pakistan which was targeted at ‘terror camps’ of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group in the town Balakot early Tuesday morning. The overnight raid comes in light of a deadly suicide bombing earlier this month that killed more than 40 Indian soldiers, which the Pakistan-based JeM group claimed responsibility for. The bomber, who made a video before the attack on Feb. 14, was a resident of Indian Kashmir. Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack but has vowed to respond to any Indian military operation against it. After news broke of the air strike on Tuesday morning, anti-India rallies were held in Pakistan, as angry residents burned the Indian flag. The strike is a significant move escalating tensions in an already increasingly violent conflict.” (Fox News)
Humor: Nation breathes sigh of relief as Ocasio-Cortez comes out against having children (The Babylon Bee)
Policy: The Washington Examiner explains the importance of “a unanimous Supreme Court [decision] that law enforcement can no longer make grossly disproportionate seizures of property, even from people who owe money after being convicted of crimes.”
Policy: The Daily Signal’s Amy Swearer reveals “8 Serious Flaws in the New Background Check Bill.” Swearer infers, “Instead of passing this tortured bill, Congress should look at ways to shore up the enforcement of existing laws, which do address the underlying realities of criminal firearm activity.”
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.