How Obama killed journalism

Barack Obama’s address at the Democrat National Zoom Festival last week was a stark reminder to practitioners of our once noble craft that it was he who sucked the life out of modern journalism.

Yes, Obama clipped Anderson Cooper. He buffooned Wolf “Baghdad” Blitzer. He blathered Dan Rather and fogged Brian Williams' memory even more than imaginary Iraqi gunfire.

Obama – the bitter reflection of the nation's unrequited hope that a black president might be a healing tonic for the ails of the country's black community, bottled up journalism in the United States in eight short years and left it to rot like a tuna salad on whole wheat left in a Ziplock bag on the dash of your car in July.

Yet, there he was at the Democrats' Covid convention, his historically anointed socialist sheen still luminescent against the stark and bitter truth that it was he, as much as 304 electoral votes, who in 2016 unleashed Donald Trump on a Pearl Harbor-esque, over confident and substance-starved American Left. It was he whose haughty derision for American exceptionalism made the words of Donald Trump resonate with such passion in the pool halls, farm coops, union halls and barbershops of our country. Yet liable as he is for the hell Democrats have lived for nearly four years, he is still reserved a seat at their royal table.

Were it any other organization, he would spend his future in exile for the sin he committed against them. Obama brought the wrath of Trump on the Democrats, but his malfeasance against the nation as a whole and arguably the world in the destruction of journalism is a far higher crime.

Not just through his administration’s record denial of requests under the Freedom of Information Act; not just his use of the Espionage Act to attack whistleblowers who fed tips to reporters; Obama changed the face of journalism as the vanguard of a new phenomena in the American press – the untouchable topic.

From the minute his Italian leather-soled shoes hit the concrete steps of the Old State Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois, in 2007 to announce his candidacy, his status as untouchable was etched into political stone. Any second-guessing of him by the press couldn’t be legitimate, because it was racist. It was an automatic blank check to make stupid decisions as president that benefited the Iranian Mullahs, the Russians in Crimea and ISIS in Syria with never more than a twitch from the mainstream media. Obama was the kryptonite to press criticism.

Now American journalism spends more time tip-toeing around every politically correct topic and choosing coverage angles and narratives in advance of interviews than it spends in hair and makeup. An entire host of taboo topics followed Obama into the circled wagons of American press privilege.

Obama’s legacy reaches clear to Kansas, where Democrat Governor Laura Kelly enjoys her own Lethal Weapon 2-style ‘diplomatic immunity’ from press criticism even after her statewide shutdown canceled the state’s economy and her mask mandate showed no impact on the virus. It is fallout from the Obama experience that mainstream media or anyone else for that matter can’t critique the performance of a Democrat governor, much less a female one.

But we remember the good old days, when Dena Sattler, then publisher of the Garden City Telegram, led the daily media tar and feathering charge against Gov. Sam Brownback. Sattler couldn’t write so much as a grocery list without blaming Brownback and state Republicans for the spots on her bananas. But her sheering voice of gubernatorial dissent has now faded along with the rest of that old liberal Kansas chorus. Without Brownback to disparage anymore, Sattler left the paper and is now a staffer in Gov. Kelly’s public affairs office.

This dynamic is why we see no condemnation of Black Lives Matter for its Marxist roots, no judgment of rioters in the destruction of American cities, no notice that Democrats spent four nights talking about how much they hate Donald Trump, but outlined not a single policy or initiative which could be discussed, analyzed and evaluated.

It is a delicate tight rope the modern national journalist must negotiate. The fall on either side risks “cancellation” by social media, the exodus of customers, sponsors and advertisers, and the end of careers should they stray toward the now Unholy Grail of objectivity.

The result has been a crippled press and an audience driven to the addictive comfort of an accommodating but scurrilously deceptive social media. Obama’s damage cannot be undone.

– Dane Hicks is publisher of The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kan.

'Ghost of Elections Future' gives Dems a preview of November

 

   I'm the Ghost of Elections Future.

    I'm escorting my two new friends, typical Kansas Democrat voters Vic and Vicky Victim, on the last leg of our midnight post-primary election tour as we preview the upcoming fall election contests in the state.

Vic and Vicky, say hello to our audience...

        Vic: KRIS KOBACH IS A NAZI!

        Vicky: Yeah.

Vic, we've been over this. Kris Kobach is not a candidate this fall. He was defeated in Tuesday's Republican primary.

Vicky: Hooray!...wait..what?

Kobach lost his primary and won't be on the November ballot.

Vic: But...he took money from White Nationalists. He...he suppresses black voters. He...We were gonna beat him easy.

Now, Vic, get used to the fact Kobach will never again be a candidate for office in Kansas. You'll have to move on now.

Vic: But...HE'S...A...RACIST!

Moving along, let's look at the U.S. Senate race. Your candidate is Barbara Bollier. She's a doctor.

Vicky:  Good. She can cure Covid when she's elected. Trump has killed millions with that disease, and HE'S A RACIST, too. We're for her.

However, she used to be a Republican.

Vic: What? She was a Nazi, too? I'm against her, I think.

No, far from it. See her here on the Senate floor a few years back? She's wagging her finger in the faces of some conservative members, and criticizing her own Governor Brownback for his tax cuts for businesses. Here you can see her voting to expand abortion rights in the state.

Vic: Well, that's more like it. I'm for her.

Her opponent is named Marshall; he's a doctor also.

Vicky: Did you say his name was Field Marshall? So, HE'S A NAZI, too? And a doctor? I've heard terrible things Nazi doctors did to people. So, he's one of them, too?

No, he's a Congressman and an obstetrician. He delivers babies.

Vicky: Big deal. Is he Pro-Choice?

No, he's against abortion.

Vicky: So, he HATES WOMEN and wants to take away their control of their own bodies? More Toxic Masculinity. I don't like him.

I never doubted that. Next, we have a couple of Congressional races to preview. This is Congressman Watkins of the Kansas 2nd District.

Vic: HE'S A CROOK! On Facebook I heard he voted several times in the same election. Keeps lying about his address; what's he hiding? Somebody told me he still lives with his parents and eats red meat. What a loser! I think he's going to jail.

He was also defeated Tuesday. He won't be running in November.

Vic: Good...what? A crook is easy to beat. Crap.Who's running instead?

Jake LaTurner. Here he is, with his wife and young family.

Vicky: "LaTurner?" What is he, French? He can't run here, can he? He looks like the 'Where's Waldo' guy. Or a White Supremacist. What's he hiding?

Nothing so far. Hes a young fellow with a nice-looking, All-American Family. Already been elected statewide once – has a bright future, most people say.

Vicky: Pfffftt. He's done something to somebody, you can bet on it. He's a white male; there's no telling what hes up to.

But, isn't your husband a white male also?

Vicky: My what? Are you for real? We're not married. We don't go for all that  legal mumbo-jumbo. We're free to come and go as we please. None of that Male Domination crap for me. Besides, Vic's not really a man, that's just how he identifies right now.

    I'm sorry...I just assumed...

Vicky: (Laughing) Who are you, my Dad?

Our last stop is the neighboring District, the Kansas Third. Two women are running here, Amanda Adkins, and incumbent Sharice Davids.

Vicky: Good. Two Sisters running. Both victims of Male Oppression. Which one is the Democrat?

That's Congresswoman Davids.

Vic: Wait...a...minute. She's an Indian. Is it legal for her to run for office?

Yes, Vic. She won easily last time; defeated an incumbent. You might be interested to know she's also a former MMA fighter.

Vic: She scares me. I'll vote for her..but..she scares me. I'm probably going to need a cry room and a puppy.

Shes also a lesbian.

Vicky: I don't blame her a bit. The fewer men in the way, the better (nods toward Vic).

Well, that's the end of our tour. Just one more thing. (A picture of President Trump appears)...

Vic: Arrrgh. RACIST! Hes going to kill us all with the Covid!

Vicky: He's PUTIN'S PUPPET!

President Trump carried Kansas by more than 20 points in 2016. If he does that well again this year, all your candidates are going to lose;  some very badly. I've been sent here to warn you of what lies ahead.

Vic and Vicky: (In unison) But, KOBACH IS A NAZI!!  ###

– David Hicks is a political analyst and editorialist for The Anderson County Review.

Democrat candidates must disavow Black Lives Matter

  There's a question that Democrat Roger Sims needs to answer in his bid for 5th District Kansas Representative.

It must be asked of Michelle De Le Isla who wants to be the U.S. Congresswoman from the 2nd District to represent Anderson County and pretty much the entire eastern third of the state. Don't forget to ask Mike Bruner, who wants to be the senator from Kansas' 12th District, which also represents most of our local area.

It's the same question that voters and the ever-tip-toeing-around-Democrats Kansas media need to ask all Democrats running for elective office in the state. Indeed it is the elephant in the room of the 2020 elections that must be addressed by all Democrat office seekers. And that question is this:

"Will you disavow the Marxist leadership and objectives of Black Lives Matter and the crimes of murder, rioting and violence its armies have perpetrated against the United States of America?"

America demands that question be answered by local, state and national Democrats as they stump for office over the next 90 days. It is required because their national leadership has failed to condemn BLM, nor to stand in support of police during 2020's Summer of Carnage.

Is it a loaded question? Not really.

Not when so many of those victimized by BLM in these attacks have been the very black lives they say 'matter' – those who've been traditionally supportive of Democrat candidates ad nauseam for generations.

Not when innocent Americans of all races have been killed, confronted by mobs and had their homes and small businesses destroyed in the name of seeking 'justice.'

Not when the lionized martyr for BLM's attacks was too stupid and too high on meth to obey a simple instruction to get in the back of a patrol car.

Not when his murder was co-opted as a ploy to burn a country in an effort to besmirch a president.

Not when Democrat mayors and governors have sided with the attackers of their own citizens, cowered to the violence and appeased the criminals with the genius move of defunding the cops sworn to protect them.

Yes, it is a rightful question Democrat candidates must all answer.

Were it far right agitators or Neo-Nazis rioting and burning abortion clinics, basing attacks on a premise of racism, confronting and attacking police departments in minority neighborhoods, do you believe the media would be asking Republican candidates for their stance on such violence? That's been a standard of news coverage in the past. Those seeking office should be asked to declare themselves, their beliefs and their intentions on the major topics of the day, particularly when Americans are being murdered by riots condoned and facilitated by some in their own party.

Candidates should go on the record regarding BLM because the organization and its attacks are murdering Americans. The grieving families of those Americans deserve to know.

Retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn, a black man helping defend his neighbor's store during riots in St. Louis weeks ago, was shot and killed by a rioter.

David Patrick Underwood was a federal protective services officer murdered while guarding a federal building in Oakland, Calif.

Twenty-two year-old Italia Kelly was attending a protest in Davenport, Iowa, when things turned violent and she sought to leave. She was hit by a rioter's bullet and killed as she was getting in her car.

This list goes on although it's hard to find. Some casualties are police, some protestors themselves, some just bystanders. No one in the media has done a very good job of compiling the identities of the bodies the day after these 'peaceful protests,' as many media outlets have dubbed them, took place.

They all have one thing in common: Black Lives Matter.

Voters in the upcoming elections have a right to know if Democrat candidates, whose party members have created and fostered a petri dish for BLM's violence, condemn or endorse the actions of this Marxist-led mob of murderers.

     They owe America an answer. ###

–Dane Hicks is publisher of The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kan.

Democrats now terrified of the bed they've made

Democrats are running scared in 2020.

Frightened of the Socialists led by Bernie Sanders and AOC.

Fearful of Black Lives Matter.

Panic-stricken over Antifa.

Intimidated by the Media.

Subservient to the Cancel Culture.

Terrified of Donald Trump and prospects of his re-election.

Incapacitated by their own atonement; oh-so-politically correct and apologetic to all. Except white males.

Mobs tear down Confederate statues, attack police, set fire to buildings. Has a Democrat uttered a discouraging word? On the contrary, the Democrat mayors of New York City, Portland, and Seattle egg them on, only criticizing federal law enforcement sent to quell the violence. 

And it is violence, not “peaceful protests” as their apologists in the Media claim. Good thing they’re not attacking a Planned Parenthood clinic, or the Leftists would be the ones calling in the feds.

Why are Dems as petrified as Barney Fife chambering his only bullet?

Because they are now captives of the monsters they’ve been creating for decades. Spoiled, entitled, under-educated children convinced for generations they are victims of “White Supremacy.” Too black, too Hispanic, too female, too ignorant, too fill-in-the-blank to succeed, with the federal government “eve­ning out the playing field” by making excuses for their failures and punishing those who advance beyond them.

Now, the monsters want a guaranteed income, free health care, free college, the end of both fracking and the internal combustion engine, and the head of Donald Trump.

And…they…want…it…NOW.

You can see the worry in the eyes of those who the Dems ironically call “leaders.” The Harpy of the House, Nancy Pelosi, knew the Impeachment Hoax was a lost cause this year, but was powerless to stand in the way of The Mob. You don’t think Adam Schiff’s eyes bulge like that all the time, do you? The Deer Community refers to that phenomenon as “Schiff-in-the-Headlights.”

Jerry Nadler was likewise bewildered that the Impeachment Hoax was taken from his Judiciary Committee for the first time ever and given to Schiff’s secret Intelligence Inquisition in the basement. It was an unprecedented “No Confidence” vote in Nadler's leadership.

The Impeachment Managers themselves all looked like they were being directed by some­body off-camera as they emerged with their daily drivel. “Stand here….Say this…..Walk away.”

You could easily spot it during last week’s grilling of Attorney General William Barr. The questions were barely asked before the interruptions of him began. “I want to reclaim my time” was brayed over and over from congressional Dems afraid to let Barr actually speak. Like those who protest conservative speakers on college campuses, the Muzzlers of Freedom of Speech show a special brand of cowardice; unprepared for debate, and uninterested in any opinion that counters their own.

That used to be called Fascism; before everything was called Fascism.

Joe Biden is a pitiful and pathetic version of “Democrat 2020.” Only the presumptive nominee because he eventually outlasted the ineffectual alternatives including at least one Communist; he will only be a figurehead in his own doomed campaign. Robbed of his mental acuity, he may not even understand the forces that have driven him far Leftward and out of the American mainstream.

Most people start the day off with a healthy breakfast. Biden’s is a plate of crow. Apologies for his creepy behav­ior toward women; to blacks for his support of the 1994 Crime Bill; to liberals for his vote to authorize the Iraq War; and to anyone who’ll listen for his past friendships with segregationists. The start of his day is fortified by his own fear of his own kind.

Because of these sins, he’s bowing to demands he pick a woman, probably one of color, as his running mate. Among the contenders are an ex-po­lice chief of Orlando who once had her weapon stolen out of her police car in her driveway; a mayor uninterested in con­trolling crime in her city; a failed gubernatorial candidate who never accepted defeat; a former professor who falsely claimed Native American her­itage to further her careers in academia and politics; and an Obama crony who lied to the nation about circumstanc­es leading to the murders of Americans in Benghazi.

Not exactly an inspiring cast to be put one brainwave away from the presidency. I expect Biden's running mate announcement to look more like a hostage video.

“Democrats 2020” are a far cry from JFK. Heck, they’re a far cry from Jimmy Carter. No Profiles in Courage to be found. The lasting image of The Party of Jefferson and Jackson (ooops….they were slave holders) is of its “leaders,” in African garb, on their knees, in the Capitol.

Kneeling, conquered and surrendered.

–David Hicks is a political analyst and editorialist for 

The Anderson County Review in Garnett, Kansas.