Guns Banned, Knives Next?

Shockingly, New York and London, two world-famous cities of similar population sizes, currently have equivalent murder rates.  The glaring differences are that the United Kingdom has no Second Amendment, and prohibited firearms in 1997.  That has not stopped the violence, however.  The mostly gang-related carnage has been accomplished with knives instead. 

That’s no problem to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim to hold the post in a major Western capital.  He tweeted, “No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife. Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law.”  Since Mr. Khan plans to restrict British cutlery, will his next target be serving forks?  If this is the new trend there, he has certainly fashioned a big job for himself.  Imagine confiscating all of the blunt objects at hand, or lying about, that can be weaponized!

When will leftists finally acknowledge the simple truth that inanimate objects cannot be blamed for the hateful intentions of the wielder?  So much for the “evolved sensibilities” of our floundering cultural cousins in the gun-free zone across the pond.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

http://patriotpost.us/commentators/446

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/

http://canadafreepress.com/members/74987/DavidLHunter/976

Going Cuckoo Hiding Obama's “Gatsby”

“And I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” – Daisy Buchanan, love interest from F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary classic “The Great Gatsby” (1925)

By publishing “Our dishonest president,” “Why Trump lies” and “Trump's Authoritarian Vision,” the Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Times tries to play their readers for fools. To that end, this series should have been printed on April Fool's Day. After all, they comprise an absurdist anti-Trump hatchet job that actually epitomizes Barack Obama. Some 70 days in (within any new president's honeymoon) did any detractor treat the former president with partisan venom or unjustifiable disdain?

That answer is absolutely not. Back then, everything for the inexperienced sophomoric senator from Illinois was hope and change rainbows and unicorns. After 8 years, his progressive fantasy—a dystopian design to turn America into a big government, European-style socialist state—resulted in nothing good. Contrast that to Trump's rejuvenating vision of “America First”. Hence, it's laughable to claim, “He sees himself as not merely a force for change, but as a wrecking ball.” By definition, that which destroys can't also be that which restores. Utter hogwash! What of Obama's record-shattering debt (9.3 trillion added), ObamaCare's imploding failure (BHO's “Keep your plan” whopper: Politifact's Lie of the Year in 2013), Middle East tumult and the likelihood of a nuclear Iran (funded by Obama's 1.7 billion dollar payout in January of 2016) to name just a few of the last administration's messes. That unmistakable damage has nothing to do with President Trump. Per the facts, exactly who's been a wrecking ball here? The politically schizophrenic press can't find anything good about Mr. Trump—or anything wrong with Mr. Obama. Should such naked bias and baseless propaganda be trusted?

Under Obama for most of a decade, they found nothing amiss as the world burned with perpetual Middle Eastern strife and terrorist insurgency. Simultaneously, America teetered on economic insolvency enflamed by a domestic racial powder keg. Meanwhile, the enigma “in charge” was a F. Scott Fitzgerald style dilettante who led from behind and governed via golfing greens. (Per CBS reporter Mark Knoller, Barack Obama played 333 times over his two terms.) Interestingly, both high living figures changed their names: James Gatz assumed the Jay Gatsby persona while Barry Soetoro became Barack Obama. Yet, the parallels run deeper to equally murky pasts. After all, doesn't Gatsby's bootlegging and shadowy mob associations eerily denote Obama's Indonesian childhood, his controversial birthplace (read: Kenya or Hawaii?) and unclear religious persuasion (read: Christian or Muslim faith?). Furthermore, both men abandoned humble roots for larger-than-life ego-building aims. In pretender Gatsby case, to achieve wealth in order to be worthy of his “golden girl”. Similarly, for Obama, to gain the ultimate standing by playing at being a U.S. president.

Moreover, the two share a common psychology: the same heedless mind-set of the unyielding dreamer. The difference being Gatsby's obsession with the past (“Can't repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can.”) versus Obama's sole interest in dominating the future:

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Candidate Obama on Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008

As president, he clearly enjoyed the office's pomp and circumstance while, like Gatsby, completely ignoring distasteful realities. Specifically, what of his forgotten political hometown of Chicago: the nation's murder capitol for 5 of the 8 years of his presidency? Beyond that, Obama told numerous bald-faced lies and constantly stoked racial tensions to distract from his litany of atrocious mistakes. Even worse, he never took any responsibility whatsoever. Abetted by the MSM—today same as yesteryear—the political opposition is blamed for all of his failures. Thus, isn't Barack Obama the moneyed archetype for a nefarious Gatsby playboy? And speaking of careless people, doesn't designer duds Michelle roughly approximate superficial, shirt-obsessed Daisy Buchanan?

To ground things in a real-life context, Democratic ex-president Bill Clinton reportedly said: “Barack Obama is an amateur” in Edward Klein's similarly titled 2012 book. In retrospect 5 years later, that assessment is spot-on. Notice how today's LA Times's fictional smear of Donald Trump actually perfectly fits his predecessor:

“[Barack Obama] was a narcissist and a demagogue who used fear and dishonesty to appeal to the worst in American voters. The Times called him unprepared and unsuited for the job he was seeking, and said his election would be a 'catastrophe'.”

By any objective measure, the Obama years were exactly that: the worst of any modern U.S. president. For the record, Donald Trump opposes the dysfunctional and dictatorial Washington “swamp” that Mr. Obama exploited. While the LA Times freely vilifies The Donald as “authoritarian,” they completely disregard the guy who actually was. Of the two, which ultra-constitutional president ruled by fiat with executive orders? Which one bragged about using a pen and a phone as a middle finger to Congress; our system's lawmaking body? It's frankly Orwellian for them to conflate Obama's totalitarianism with Trump's anti-establishment stance that liberty-loving Americans cheer!

Like Obama, these anonymous scribblers have a tenuous relationship with reality. See how desperate they are to rehabilitate his failed legacy; to change the subject by unfairly besmirching his replacement. How is their extended Trump hit piece not an adverse reaction to his ongoing dismantling of the last guy's ruinous policies? How else does one logically explain this newspaper's unhinged four-piece tirade that wrongly transposes Obama's misdeeds and track record with Trump's? The LA Times's premature condemnation proves their birdbrained publication had indeed flown the coop! Ideologues' blind devotion to a facade: same as Gatsby's deluded love for Daisy, another unworthy idol.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

http://patriotpost.us/commentators/446

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/

http://canadafreepress.com/members/74987/DavidLHunter/976

http://newstex.aci.info/authors/15977720f5100100002

Busted “Hero” Barry Bronzed

“If ever I become entirely respectable I shall be quite sure that I have outlived myself.” – Eugene V. Debs

Apparently, that's true of the late Marion Barry: a half-century fixture of local D.C. government. While the American political landscape is chock full of colorful characters—some lovable scoundrels, others not so much—perhaps none fit this category better than the one nicknamed “Mayor for Life”. In that role Barry served for four terms as the district fell into corruption and insolvency. In 1989, at a D.C. budget hearing, then-Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.) publicly chastised his mismanagement:

“Some governments are corrupt but are known for their competency in running the city. Others are incompetent but considered clean. [Washington's] government is scandalously corrupt and hopelessly incompetent.”

In fact, at his death, he was still in office representing Ward 8, having collectively amassed 16 years on the city council.

On the first anniversary of his demise, current D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser established a 13-member D.C. Commission to "Commemorate and Recognize the Honorable Marion S. Barry Jr". During a ceremony last week at the Wilson Building, a mock-up of the proposed life-sized statue was unveiled. (Reportedly, his fourth wife Cora Masters Barry, hated the hat: a fedora obscuring Barry's famous receding hairline. Well, D.C. Commission on the Arts Director Arthur Espinoza, manager of the project, should get that right!) The anticipated cost—to be raised through both public and private sources—is between $350,000 and $400,000.

This eventuality begs the question: with such a checkered past, does this particular individual warrant a grand commemoration?

First and foremost, Marion Barry was a survivor. Notably, last Thursday, March 9th, marks the 40th anniversary of the “Hanafi siege”, a little-remembered act of terror in the spring of 1977. (Hanafi Muslims were a radicalized, breakaway sect of the Nation of Islam.) These black men armed with swords and shotguns took hostages at three locations: a Jewish organization, a rival mosque and the government building where Barry worked. At 41, he was then a fledgling council member who suffered a chest wound above his heart. He recovered, but a reporter was killed and a security guard later suffered a fatal heart attack.

Another turning point in the then-mayor's life was January 18, 1990. At the Vista International Hotel—groping former girlfriend Hazel Diane “Rasheeda” Moore—the married Mayor was arrested in an FBI sting for smoking crack cocaine. Videotaped during the encounter and arrest, a muttering Barry blamed Moore: “Bitch set me up . . . . I shouldn't have come up here . . . goddamn bitch.” In the digital age, that event has been recorded on the internet for posterity. In the future, how exactly does a silent bronze statue speak louder about Barry's character than his own potty mouth?

For that utterance he became a popular punch line on late-night talk shows. Likewise, he was famous for the remark, “Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.” (For three consecutive years, D.C. homicides increased to record-breaking levels, reaching 474 in 1990. The nation's capital was then called the “murder capital”.) Still, as a survivor of gun violence, Barry was lucky to escape a second life-threatening fate that felled so many of his constituents: drug overdose. (Ironically, cocaine use killed his son—and namesake—Marion C. Barry, 36, on August 14, 2016.) Unlike those unfortunates, the older Barry lived a long life, expiring from cardiac arrest on November 23, 2014.

Indeed, this politician had a long history of running afoul of the law. Even in the waning two years of his life, Marion Barry racked up $2,800 in fees from 21 unpaid parking and speeding tickets. In spite of these violations, he caused a car accident after driving down the wrong way of a street into opposing traffic. True to form, this time the elder statesman blamed a “hypoglycemic attack” for his behavior. However, there is no good explanation for a 78-year-old Jaguar-driving community leader not to have car insurance and current tags.

Undoubtedly, the statue is intended to sanitize Marion Barry's reputation to future generations as a “champion of the downtrodden”. In the late 60s, he co-founded a group called Pride Inc. intended to help black men find employment. Later, as mayor, he expanded government to accomplish that goal. Yet, who remembers that compared to his decades-long embarrassing escapades of repeatedly flouting the law? For starters, he spent six months in prison for the “Rasheeda” Moore incident. Put aside his local popularity and visible job titles for a moment. His rap-sheet reads like a hardened criminal's: arrests for drug incidents (1990, 2002), incarceration (1991-1992), income tax evasion (2005), stalking (2009), corruption (2010), public exposure (2011), and political censure for taking kickbacks and accepting bribes (2010, 2013) et cetera.

Marion Barry's backers can superficially immortalize his likeness—but nothing will expunge his lengthy track record of wrongdoing. Even his outspoken supporters would likely acknowledge a deeply flawed human being. In the final analysis, the man's shameless and often illegal antics obscure any do-gooder residue gained early as a civil rights activist. Therefore, perhaps it's kinder to leave Marion Barry's “legacy” unbronzed: a well forgotten, but colorful footnote in local D.C. affairs.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

http://patriotpost.us/commentators/446

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/

http://canadafreepress.com/members/74987/DavidLHunter/976

http://newstex.aci.info/authors/15977720f5100100002

Traitorous Tears for Terrorists

“This executive order was mean-spirited and un-American”. – Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on January 29, 2017

Ah, the Fellini farce that is the modern-day Democratic Party. A laughingstock headed by a crying, middle aged pajama boy as Senate Minority Leader. (This guy's in desperate need of Linus's blanket and a pacifier.) In 2011, Barack Obama's secret six month ban on Iraq refugees is no different than Trump's new executive order. In fact, the seven jihad-infested countries affected now were first identified by the Obama Administration!

Pro-abortion Democrats, like Schumer and Obama, don't value human life anywhere: in the womb, on Chicago streets, or abroad. Recall, Obama's crocodile tears for his hometown—the nation's murder capital for five of the eight years of his presidency—that he did nothing about. Furthermore, this winner of 2009's Nobel Peace Prize dropped 26,171 bombs on predominantly Muslim nations in 2016. Twenty-four hours a day: one every twenty minutes. The Guardian characterized this Orwellian warmonger as follows:

“President Obama did reduce the number of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he dramatically expanded the air wars and the use of special operations forces around the globe. In 2016, US special operators could be found in 70% of the world’s nations, 138 countries—a staggering jump of 130% since the days of the Bush administration.”

So much for the “Great Peacemaker”—and one goose-stepping Democrat's teary-eyed claim to care.

Like Obama, Schumer's weepy theatrics are nothing more than a political stunt. As the ex-president mourns his Trump-dismantled legacy, Schumer bemoans Democrats' diminished power. Specifically, he's upset at the absence of future illegal voters (that unfettered migration and open borders perpetuate).

For progressives, every action is a manipulation designed to shore up their waning influence. These insulated liberal ideologues have utterly forgotten their purpose: to represent citizens' rights. That means honoring the Constitution, the rule of law, and most of all—Americans' physical safety. The fact that Democrats advocate for others with no legal standing is telling. Thus, Chucky's antics are an egotist's dirty trick. An illusion hiding who's actually mean-spirited and un-American.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

http://patriotpost.us/commentators/446

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/

http://canadafreepress.com/members/74987/DavidLHunter/976

http://newstex.aci.info/authors/15977720f5100100002

Chicago: A Microcosm of Obama Years

It's appropriate that Barack Obama gave his “farewell address” in his political hometown. Against this backdrop of pervasive and obvious despair, Mr. Obama has completely ignored the results of his disastrous tenure. While he lives as a pretender, a deluded Great Gatsby golfer, he struts and preens as America's first black president. In retrospect, all empty symbolism obscured by the reality of his abject failures.

Who has suffered more than the black community in the windy city? Poverty, joblessness, violence and homicide: Chicago—nicknamed Chiraq—has it all! Did Mr. Obama address the fact that Chicago has been the nation's record-breaking murder capital for five of the last eight years of his presidency? Or did he crow about his illusory “successes” like adding 9.3 T in debt or the fictions of a 4.7 employment rate (with 95 million people out of the workforce) and the job-killing, premium-surging debacle that is ObamaCare?

America has paid a terrible price for embracing aloof Obama's cult of personality; the superficiality of identity politics that has taken America to the brink. The only value in Mr. Obama's self-serving Chicago bloviating is in one word: goodbye.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

http://patriotpost.us/commentators/446

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/

http://canadafreepress.com/members/74987/DavidLHunter/976

Obama's Long Goodbye Kiss-Off

On January 10^th, Mr. Obama will make his “farewell address” in Chicago. Like January 20^th—when Donald Trump will become the 45^th President of the United States—Obama's exit, stage left, cannot come soon enough. Of course, one can safely assume Mr. Obama will not stray far from the spotlight. After all, he and his “no hope” missus have chosen to dwell in D.C. Indeed, the geography of current events is telling on many levels. For starters, their lavish mansion is a stone's throw from a mosque. So, given his Indonesian childhood, Mr. Obama can daily hear the sound that's prettiest to him: the Islamic call to prayer. Meanwhile, simultaneously, remaining a vocal—and visible—critic of Mr. Trump. An unwelcome thorn in the new president's side.

For aloof Obama, he (and similarly coddled Michelle) exists in a Great Gatsby fantasy of the carelessly rich and famous. Like playboy Gatsby, golfer Obama has repeatedly ignored glaring facts and distasteful realities. Why should he accept the true meaning of a Trump presidency now? It's far easier to pretend this crushing political repudiation is anything else but that. And who would blame him? Cocooned for eight years in the beltway bubble, this “pen and phone emperor” is used to having things his way. He was foolishly elected twice—despite the worst record of any U.S. president in the modern era. (No doubt future historians will shake their heads in universal disbelief at his reelection, and his inexplicable personal popularity today.)

So what to Obama that his party, the Democrats, is a smoking ruin? So is the country he has grossly mismanaged! Unfortunately, experience has taught insulated Obama that results, and consequences, don't matter. Therefore, he knows: everyone will always give him a pass. In our age, the superficial symbolism of skin has been a bewitching potion. In retrospect, the well-meaning, but wrongheaded embrace of this anti-American ideologue very nearly cost America its soul. A fascist in politics is the same as a scorpion in nature: both sting their host to death. Hence, the two-faced Obama phenomenon is explained.

The ultimate absurdity is Obama's “triumphant” return to the nation's shameful murder capital. (That's 2008 and 2012-16: five of the last eight years of his presidency). This third largest American city—appropriately nicknamed Chiraq—remains a war zone (including 762 homicides last year). What other domestic locale has suffered more under his inept ministrations? On average, he's only made one “policy” trip per year. Most visits, like this final one, are for a political speech. Otherwise, he avoids the subject of Chicago entirely. Isn't Barack Obama most personally responsible for the deplorable state of his home city? Ground zero of glaring problems he did nothing as president to solve?

Witness Obama's longstanding pattern: an empty, self-aggrandizing victory lap against a backdrop of obvious disaster. This circumstance encapsulates Obama's utter lack of character (as defined by MLK). Likewise, Chicago's dilapidated state remains a lasting testament to his blatant failure as president. Fate, like history, will make its unflattering judgment. Therefore, all of his lies and face-saving words will come to naught. Likewise, his “farewell” platitudes and baseless claims of success are meaningless.

Yet, unlike every former president before him, Mr. Obama isn't really going anywhere. Does anyone seriously believe citizen Obama will go quietly into night? Not this rule breaking, law disregarding, soon-to-be ex-president. Solely for pettiness and spite, he's tweaked an adversary (read: Russia) and an ally (read: Israel) on his way out the door. So much for honoring the presidential tradition of a smooth transition of power! To come full circle, this latest underhandedness reminds one of Obama's bait-and-switch campaign pledge of “hope and change”. Good riddance to this snake oil salesman.

Not that this phony is wise enough to shut his trap and skulk away. He won't. How does one know this? Well, Mr. Obama is both a deluded egotist and a faithful subscriber to anti-American pipe dreams. And beyond Inauguration Day, he'll rapidly discover that all future things can't be “transformed” to his unquenchable authoritarian desire.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

http://patriotpost.us/commentators/446

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/

http://canadafreepress.com/members/74987/DavidLHunter/976