The Young Lead The Foolish

Last Saturday's “March for Our Lives” rally had a wealth of protesting voices, but little common sense. How topsy turvy is our political landscape when hundreds of thousands gathered in Washington, DC to protest the Bill of Rights: specifically the Second Amendment? Benjamin Franklin would counsel the outspoken masses thusly: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” For the illusion of some greater sense of security, individuals would willingly submit to further government restriction and control? Yet, in large part, wasn't it the failure of law enforcement that facilitated the Parkland, Florida school shooting rather than preventing it?

Deluded marchers, as embattled Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, completely miss the lesson of the Valentine's Day massacre of 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It's not about blaming the gun or even the homicidal shooter. It's about the complete failure of the State to protect the local population from a clear and unmistakable danger. It's about profound incompetence masked as self-congratulation. What else explains Sheriff Israel's disinterest in immediately viewing the video of his four errant deputies: who neglected to enter the school while the shooting took place? What else explains his laughable statement to CNN's Jake Tapper, “I've given amazing leadership to this agency” the following Sunday? He's ignored calls for his resignation, and refused to release the video of his officers' dereliction of duty. What does that say about this public servant's responsiveness and accountability?

In essence, “March for Our Lives” malcontents advocate giving Sheriff Israel's ilk more power. Is that wise given their colossal bungling—that cost lives rather than saving them? Specifically, an armed deputy wearing a bullet proof vest (a resource officer sharing the already infamous name Scot Peterson) arrived 90 seconds into the attack, but remained outdoors while the perpetrator shot innocents inside for nearly five minutes. Sheriff Israel's other responsibility-phobic officers milled around outside too. In retrospect, can anything good be said about these cowards? Per Naples Daily News, authorities received at least 18 warning calls from 2008 to 2017 regarding Nikolas Cruz, 19. NDN reports, “In February 2016, neighbors told police that they were worried he 'planned to shoot up the school' after seeing alarming pictures on Instagram showing Cruz brandishing guns.” So neighbors (a group that historically never sees or hears anything about a given suspect) saw something and said something. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School also did something. Per Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Mr. Cruz was such an apparent threat, he was prohibited from wearing a backpack for security concerns. Ultimately, he was expelled from the school for misbehavior. Shockingly, law enforcement visited Cruz's home 39 times over seven years. Even the FBI was alerted twice: one instance was just weeks before the shooting occurred. Despite all these blurry blue lines of bureaucracy, this highly preventable tragedy was not. The fact that Officer Peterson resigned, and suspect Cruz was arrested, is cold comfort to the families who lost loved ones in such a violent and horrific manner.

Despite numerous red flags authorities dropped the ball on every level. In that regard, nothing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has appeared to change. As reported by local10.com's Tim Swift last Tuesday, a Broward County sheriff's deputy, Moises Carotti, has been suspended—with pay—after he was caught sleeping in a patrol car outside that very site! If “March for Our Lives” anti-gun protesters are looking for a legitimate reason to object, a golden opportunity exists: police not serving the communities they're sworn to protect. Hence, the real issue here is not guns. As with all objects that can be weaponized (read: cars, bats, knives, rocks etc.) doesn't the wielder vitally determine whether something is good or bad? In a free society that answer is always yes.

What all of this hubbub boils down is who to trust: faceless government bureaucracy or the individual to make responsible choices. Unfortunately, the reality here is that law enforcement has fallen inexcusably short, contributing to 17 deaths. Therefore, legally armed white hat elements in our society should fill in the gap. Naturally, most teenagers understand none of this. How can they when they're biologically impulsive and notoriously shortsighted as to life's consequences? Their wish to be cocooned in metaphorical bubble wrap is certainly understandable: it's the naive thinking of the unrealistic dreamer. Yet, what of the mature bubbleheads supporting these misdirected young marchers? It's pure folly for adults to believe these kids will save us from ourselves. From playwright Herb Gardner's aptly named “A Thousand Clowns” comes the common sense adage: “Out of the mouths of babes comes drooling”. For good reason since time immemorial adults have guided children, not vice versa. Only the aged and the addled follow anywhere teenagers lead.

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Slut-Shaming A U.S. President

With the #MeToo movement in full flight, why hasn't anyone in the legacy media finally held former U.S. president Bill Clinton to account for his lifetime of boorish behavior? What of his string of adulterous affairs with numerous accusers—even within the Oval Office? What of Juanita Broaddrick's 40-year-old allegation of rape? Is it fair for Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen to slut-shame the sitting U.S. president: while giving worse behaved Bubba a complete pass? For one thing, Mr. Clinton's juvenile high jinks—among them, the Lewinsky affair: a national scandal that virtually brought the country to a standstill, and led to Bill's impeachment—happened while he was in office. How is that comparable to a porn star's allegation of a consensual affair with Donald Trump, then a private citizen, in 2006?

Where is this partisan's “honesty, dignity and rectitude”? In reality, Mr. Cohen engages in the yellowiest journalism by using language better suited to the gutter: “But Trump himself is a slut. He is a liar and a moral harlot who revels in irresponsibility and bad-boy behavior.” To paraphrase the Bible, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7). That would be good advice for the Post's holier than thou columnist to heed: especially given his own sexism directed at a younger, female subordinate in the workplace. As reported in June of 1998 by the Washingtonian's Harry Jaffe in “Cohen Gets Kid-Gloves Treatment in Harassment Case”:

“Among the allegations reported to [deputy managing editor Milton] Coleman: Cohen asked [Devon] Spurgeon to come into his office and close the door, then queried her about her generation's view of oral sex. Also at issue: a conversation where Cohen said it's too bad Bill Clinton is the only one who can grope in his office and get away with it. He also is said to have intimidated her with references to his connections with top Post editors, such as Tom Wilkinson, who can hire and fire.”

How is it not beyond creepy for a then 57-year-old man to question a then 23-year-old editorial aide about sexual mores? At the time, the Post's response was simply to move his office to a different floor. As for curbing potential misdeeds, that's about as effective as moving an accused pedophile priest to a new perish. Indeed, all these years later, where's Richard Cohen's, or The Washington Post's, integrity and transparency regarding these events? As of now, this stone thrower is still employed there. In fact, sanctioned for decades to point fingers at others while ignoring his own less than chivalrous conduct. (As was typical in the Clinton era of “bimbo eruptions,” the wagons were circled and the young woman in question was blamed.) Unfortunately, his journalistic old boy's club is still stuck in Clintonian amber. Neither Clinton nor Cohen have yet received their deserved comeuppance in 2018.

Upon reflection, how was the lurid, sex scandal-plagued Clinton era not a shadowy reflection of recently exposed Hollywood sex scandals (read: Clinton friend and donor Harvey Weinstein), and the #MeToo movement? In both cases, didn't prominent Democrats misuse their lofty positions to exploit underlings for sexual favors? Specifically, when Bubba chased Monica around the resolute desk in the Oval Office, wasn't Bill's bad-boy behavior (with her and others) equivalent to the adulterous antics of a bathrobed Harvey? Rightly, today's press has excoriated the disgraced movie mogul Yet, Bill's extramarital affair with then 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky is still treated with kid gloves. Ironically, his still traumatized former paramour, now 44, couldn't bring herself to hold the Clintons responsible in her candid March 2018 Vanity Fair article: he for his arguably predatory behavior; she for calling Lewinsky a “narcissistic loony toon”. Shouldn't the Clintons be held to the same standard of conduct that the media is rabidly trying to hold The Donald to?

The hard left media continuing to protect the coddled Clintons conveys the message that questionable actions, or words, have no bearing on character or a president's ability to lead the nation. And despite the sea change regarding sexual harassment, Bill and Hillary have survived their various imbroglios, haven't they? So, it stands to reason that President Trump will also survive the supposed peccadilloes of his past. Before applying such blatant double standards to U.S. presidents, Democratic surrogates of the biased MSM need to take a long look in a mirror. Not to do so shows the truth of what they are: untrustworthy mudslingers of salacious leftist propaganda.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

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Fuzzy Words Hide Shady Leftists

“I was not aware of any Communists at Fort Roach*, although there were several gentleman of the extreme left … who called themselves 'progressives', a term I subsequently learned was the Party's code word for true believers.” – Edmund Morris, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of “Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan”

*The First Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II (installed at the dormant Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California) in the 1940s

As disclosed by biographer Morris, the label progressive is leftist code for an adherent of communism. Yet, communism's collectivism diametrically opposes American principles embodied by individual liberty. In short, such oil and water philosophies don't mix. What's misleading is the root word of progressive happens to be “progress”. So, it's easy to assume that both terms mean the same good something. (After all, in this technologically driven age, who's not in favor of advancement?) Yet, progressivism is destructive in its practice, and backward in its orientation. In reality, it fails everywhere it's tried. By almost every objective measure (with the anomaly of a flourishing Wall Street), President Obama's progressivism was ruinous for America. Specifically, the economic albatross of a record-shattering 9.3 trillion added to the national debt was no accident. Likewise, leftist leadership turned oil and diamond rich Venezuela into a hellhole where basic necessities, like toilet paper, are scarce. Democrats typically use such nebulous, good sounding language to conceal their real anti-American intentions. For example, their knee-jerk advocacy of “investment” in some fashionable cause. That's just doublespeak for raising taxes and growing government. Such poison pills only undermine our nation's solvency, and future prospects. For these wastrels, it's better to rule in a leftist hell—propagated by their political pandering and cultural divisiveness—then serve in heaven as pro-American constitutionalists.

In the same vein, political movements with the word “Democrat” in them are usually totalitarian: as the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea. Certainly, no lover of civil rights, and human freedoms, are they. For proof of Kim Jong-Un's liberalism, who can forget the tragic fate of American student 22-year-old Otto Warmbier? For the college prank of foolishly attempting to steal a propaganda poster this future ivy leaguer was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Fifteen months later he was returned to the United States in a vegetative state. This coma—the result of likely torture—led to his premature demise; a young man in full flower cut down. What a waste of potential, what a senseless loss of life.

Speaking of destroying life of accused agitators on foreign soil, how about Barack Obama's Orwellian-style “disposition matrix”? This was the former president's secret kill list: a database of suspected terrorists to be dispensed with, either targeted in drone strikes, or captured and interrogated. How is that nihilistic system not equivalent to the barbarity of the Kim regime? In fact, some of Mr. Obama's quarry were even American citizens! The horror is that guilt or innocence didn't matter. The accused were deprived of their lives without due process: that means no right to legal representation and a fair trial, and no judgment by a jury of one's peers. From on high, what a megalomaniac thrill to play God!

That's not the only similarity between the leadership in North Korea and today's Democrats. Both groups use demonizing rhetoric against their perceived adversaries. Specifically, reported by FoxNews.com on March 7^th, the former instruct their people to call Americans bastards. How is Hillary Clinton's repudiation of Trump supporters as a basket of deplorables any less hateful and derogatory? The 2016 presidential election ended over 16 months ago, but she's still spewing venomous blame. In India, this foul-mouthed “feminist icon” smeared the married, white women who didn't support her. Outrageously, she implied they were mindless chattel: incapable of acting independently of their husbands, bosses or sons. So much for this skin-deep “champion of women”.

With all leftists, freedom of thought is vehemently suppressed because it departs from the Party's official position. On every issue under the sun, conformity of perception is paramount. What liberals say is “right” in this moment can be completely the opposite of what they stood for yesterday. Even writers David Nakamura and Ed O'Keefe of the highly partisan Washington Post acknowledged:

“In 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Secure Fence Act, a bill that authorized the construction of hundreds of miles of fencing along the border. That legislation was approved with broad bipartisan support, including, in the Senate, by such Democratic luminaries as Barack Obama (Ill.), Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), Joe Biden (Del.) and Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), now the Senate minority leader.”

In 2018, that's The Donald's border wall. Yet, so afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome are they, progressives automatically oppose what they previously supported—under the previous two administrations. As masters of the political flip-flop, hypocrisy and self-interest define them (read: Crooked Hillary).

Thus, proponents of the left—regardless of their particular stripe—demonstrate a jackbooted impulse to dominate others. In common, each ruling class controls via a herd mentality. Unchecked, the Worker's Party of Korea (WPK) can govern by overt force. Meanwhile, dissembling Democrats weaponize their words to incite protests. Sometimes these “social justice” movements metastasize into mob violence (read: Black Lives Matter). Yet, either by force or by fearmongering the left advances its un-American notions. These exploitative elites preach inclusivity while repressing and actively dividing.

These true believers, as Hillary and Obama, are oblivious to patriotic Americans' views or problems. They're insulated creatures of the Washington establishment; buoyed by their hard left extremism and access to governmental influence. In truth, they care nothing for their fellow citizens' freedoms (particularly the Second Amendment), and actively work to subvert them. As a parallel, their mindset is epitomized in “Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith” (2005) when the Republic becomes a dictatorial galactic empire:

“So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause.” – Padmé Amidala (played by Natalie Portman)

As “Democratic” leader Kim Jong-Un is a scourge upon the world stage, progressives are a cancer upon the American body politic. Acting and speaking with the same anti-U.S. malevolence is clear—regardless of what commonality their fuzzy labels are designed to obscure.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

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