Who’s Really Winning the North Korea Standoff?

Victor Davis Hanson

Kim Jong-un may seem to have the upper hand, but the U.S. is quietly proving otherwise.

"There have been wild reports that the United States is considering a “bloody nose” preemptive attack of some sort on North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. Such rumors are unlikely to prove true. Preemptive attacks usually are based on the idea that things will so worsen that hitting first is the only chance to decapitate a regime before it can do greater damage.
"But in the struggle between Pyongyang and Washington, who really has gotten the upper hand?
"With its false happy face in the current Winter Olympics, North Korea thinks it is winning the war of nerves. Yet its new nuclear-missile strategy is pretty transparent. It wants to separate South Korea’s strategic interests from those of the United States, with boasts — backed by occasional nuclear-missile tests — that it can take out West Coast cities.
. . . 
"Time, however, may actually be on the American side. The situation in 2018 will certainly be better than it was in 2016. Under the prior policy of “strategic patience,” Washington apparently accepted having North Korean missiles pointed at the West Coast. But things are changing in several ways." . . .

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON — NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author, most recently, of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.

The horrifying life of sex slavery North Korean cheerleaders face

NY Post

"Members of the North Korean national cheerleading squad — who have been featured gleefully rooting at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics — are systematically forced to have sex with high-ranking members of Kim Jong Un’s twisted regime, according to a disturbing report.

"Behind the scenes, the troupe — dubbed the “Pleasure Squad” by insiders — are forced to perform sex acts on party leaders during their trip to the Olympics, a defector with knowledge of the sexual slavery told Bloomberg News.

“ '[The] troupe came here and performed with dances and songs, and it might seem like a fancy show on the outside [but] they also have to go to parties and provide sexual services,” said defector Lee So Yeon, a military musician who fled the country in 2008, during Kim Jong Un’s regime.

“ 'They go to the central Politburo party’s events, and have to sleep with the people there, even if they don’t want it,” said Yeon, 42.

"She added, “Those sorts of human-rights infringements take place, where women have to follow what they are told to do with their bodies.”

"The perky and impeccably dressed cheerleaders are subject to an extreme vetting system based on their looks, family backgrounds and loyalty to the Workers’ Party, according to the outlet." . . .

Being educated doesn't mean being wise or moral:

The Westerners Who Love North Korea  . . . Despite being branded “naive” and “untrustworthy” by academics, the pro-North Korea groups are said to attract new members every day.

"The Stockholm-based Swedish-Korean Friendship Association, a 300-strong organization founded in 1969, states that it “denounce[s] US imperialism and wholeheartedly support the Korean people’s struggle for independence and national reunification.'”  . . .

Too bad we could not have traded these people for Otto Warmbier. TD

US student 'brutalised' in North Korea and left in a coma for over a year pictured as he returns home  . . . " 'We want the world to know how we and our son have been brutalised and terrorised by the pariah regime in North Korea. We are so grateful that he will finally be with people who love him.' " . . .

DeVos Stands Up to the Transgender Bullies

National Review

"In Secretary Betsy DeVos latest de-regulatory step, the Department of Education has said it will not investigate or take action on complaints from transgender students regarding the open use of restrooms in public schools.

"The Obama administration had adopted a broad understanding of Title IX, the federal law that protects citizens from discrimination on the basis of sex. Under Obama, the Department of Education ruled that “sex” also includes “gender identity.” Now that bureaucratic decision is being reversed.

“ 'Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity. Therefore the question is whether a student (regardless of gender identity) has been discriminated against on the basis of sex,” Elizabeth Hill, a spokesperson for the department told THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “In the case of bathrooms, however, long-standing regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX.”

"Hill said that until Title IX is updated or revised by Congress or the courts to include “gender identity,” the department will stick to what the written law says.

"Transgender activists are displeased with the decision to rely on laws, rather than bureaucratic interpretations. “This is an abdication of its job and a betrayal of hundreds of thousands of students who just want an equal chance to learn,” Harper Jean Tobin, director of policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement." . . .  Kaylee McGhee

Charity calls police after a teacher 'misgenders' a trans pupil and say he has committed a 'hate crime'

UK Daily Mail  

Stock photo

"A charity called in police to deal with a teacher who ‘misgendered’ a pupil.

Mermaids, which supports children who believe they were born in the wrong body, said the teacher had committed a ‘hate crime’ because he did not address the child using his new gender.

"The youngster, who had switched from female to male, wanted staff and pupils at his school to accept his new identity.

"Under the Equality Act, schools have a duty to accommodate transgender pupils and make sure they do not suffer upset or bullying. According to Mermaids the teacher often failed to use the correct gender pronouns for the boy – he, him and his. The charity said the reminders of his past as a girl had caused the boy to become depressed.

"Volunteers from Mermaids intervened on behalf of the boy, and when the teacher refused to accept their point of view, they called police. Susie Green, who heads the charity, told the Times Educational Supplement the tough action was necessary to protect the boy’s mental health. She said: ‘We had to get the police involved because a young student was being regularly misgendered by his tutor. 

"The tutor dismissed it until he was informed that it counted as a hate crime." . . .

Read more 

CNN’s Town Hall Anti-Gun Agitprop, Part Two: “A Really Good Discussion”

"Here a competent moderator should have intervened, saying: “I’m going to insist that all questioners phrase their questions to our guests in a far and respectful manner, and if they do not, I’m going to move on to another questioner. This is not how to have a civil discussion. Try again, Emma.”
Of course, Tapper did not, because he appreciates Emma."

Ethics Alarms  . . . "Take it from an ethicist, Chris (look it up): a biased and one-sided audience jeering and booing advocates of one position, including calling one of those advocates “a murderer” while the somnolent moderator does nothing is not a good discussion, nor is it ethical journalism. See, in a “really good discussion,” Chris, both sides in the debate feel they were heard, respected, and given an equal chance to express themselves. One side does not leave the stage feeling they were bullied and mugged. That you and CNN—Jake Tapper also has defended the “town hall” can say—perhaps sincerely—that this was a “really good discussion” tells us that “good” means “advanced the political and policy agenda we support, while abusing the opposition.”
. . . 
Except that this was not the message of CNN’s “really good discussion.”Here are some examples from the CNN transcript.

• CNN’s transcript deceptively fails to reflect that fact that in this first exchange, the audience was booing and jeering poor Marco Rubio almost without stop. Nor does it reflect accurately the utter disrespect student questioner Cameron Kasky displayed for Rubio, who is a U.S. Senator, and was willing to subject himself to the smug abuse of children. “Applause” in CNN transcript-speak often means “boos and jeers so loud it’s incredible”and “crosstalk” means  “the students were shouting insults all at once.”

. . . "To sum up this fiasco, it is impossible to have a “good discussion” of a complex issue…

…before all the facts are known

….in a rigged, circus atmosphere

….created by a politically biased news organization

….before an audience overwhelmingly favoring one point of view

….containing recently traumatized teens,

….with the guests consisting of an incompetent sheriff trying to cover for his own accountability for a tragedy

….plus two politicians to pandering to the angry mob

…and two incompetent advocates for the unpopular position

…all overseen by a passive and inept moderator.

Agencies dropped the ball with the Parkland school shooter

Transcript of Phone Call FBI Thought Was Fine to Ignore   

"The transcript of the phone call by a woman close to Florida killer Nikolas Cruz has been released. "This is the call made shortly before the crazed killer murdered 17 innocent people and wounded 17 others, five critically. It speaks for itself and leaves no doubt how serious the situation was." 'The FBI must be called to account for this." 'The caller was very clear. The FBI did not follow up and, after reading this, you might see their lack of action as especially egregious."   "THE TRANSCRIPT . . . 

 Disarmed school guard Aaron Feis: It's worse than we thought . . . "There was never a greater example of the need to stop infringing on the rights of good people to bear arms and protect themselves and the ones they care about.  When seconds count, it certainly may not matter when the police are even seconds away. "

Trump changing the game on school shootings . . . Republicans have failed us by allowing Democrats to turn every issue or tragedy into an argument on gun control or some other freedom-weakening, leftist-loved issue.  As long as weak-kneed Republicans allow progressives to define the issues, nothing will be accomplished." . . . 

The Parkland shooting and The Red Badge of Courage  . . . "A more recent creative work that deals with the same general topic is “The 15:17 to Paris“, the movie Clint Eastwood recently made about the heroes who stopped the armed terrorist on the French train. The film deals with the same issues of courage and reaction to danger, approached from another angle: what was it in the background of these three particular young men that made them run towards danger rather than away?" . . . Here’s a trailer:

Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Confirms Police Don’t Have Discretion in Arrests

"A Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy confirmed last evening on the Ingraham Angle that because of a feckless school board, the police cannot arrest juveniles who need to be arrested. Police don’t have discretionary powers when making arrests.

"Yesterday, we posted a summary of an investigation by a writer at The Last Refuge. The author has in the past probed the disciplinary procedures of the Broward County School District. Broward of course is the site of the recent mass murder of 17 innocent children and staff. He outlines a strong argument, with documentation, that a failed police-school system allowed serious crimes to go unreported and kept criminal youth in the schools and on the streets." . . .

For one thing, the school doesn’t want any arrests on the school grounds because they are worried about their statistics.
The school board is proud of the fact that they have reduced the numbers of arrests but they have done it, not by providing help for the most part, but by not arresting people who needed to be arrested.

" The Broward County School Board and District Superintendent, entered into a political agreement with Broward County Law enforcement officials to stop arresting students for crimes."

 The primary problem was the policy conflicted with laws; and over time the policy began to create outcomes where illegal behavior by students was essentially unchecked by law enforcement.

CNN, the preferred news source of the California school system. Part One

CNN’s Town Hall Anti-Gun Agitprop, Part I: Rigged

"Anyone seeking smoking gun evidence of the unconscionable bias in the news media need look no further than the conduct of CNN since the murders of 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The network’s anchors and talking head have abandoned any pretense of objectivity, taking on the roles of full-throated advocates without demonstrating any particular acumen or expertise while ranting and hectoring defenders of the Second Amendment. This disgraceful example on Don Lemon’s show was a low point, but many others came close. Contributor Van Jones retweeted a claim that mass shooters were Republicans. Afternoon CNN Newsroom anchor Brooke Baldwin harangued Florida Republican State Representative Matt Caldwell for not submitting to emotional blackmail and voting to not debate a gun banning measure in the midst of media-amped hysteria. [Note: what follows is not journalism. It is activism.]

. . . 

"Then CNN showed us what it and the anti-gun Left considers “a conversation.” On February 21, it held one of its infamous “town meetings”—you know, like the one where CNN contributor Donna Brazile slipped candidate Hillary Clinton advance notice of a pre-scripted question?—hosted by Jake Tapper. Tapper is arguably the only CNN anchor with a shred of credibility left, or was, until this debacle." . . .

National Review: CNN’s Shameful Town Hall


Hot Air: CNN: Trump Shouldn’t Call Mass Shooter A ‘Sicko’ Because It’s Stigmatizing  "This strikes me as really pushing for any excuse to attack Trump for any reason whatsoever."

Part Two here.

VIRTUE Signaling by the VIRTUELESS

Socio-Political Commentary...

'Words are Meaningless, Silenced by Their Actions'

"Let’s start with a working definition of virtue: “Behavior showing high moral standards,” comes from Apple’s included dictionary.

"The other word is signal: “A gesture, action, or sound that is used to convey information or instructions, particularly between the parties concerned.”

"With that out of the way, let’s look at virtue signaling by the left’s wannabe totalitarians as it is employed in their coup against Donald Trump and middle America.

"We begin with the indictment. No one who advocates the premeditated killing of one human being by another has any virtue to signal. None. Their words are meaningless, silenced by their actions.

"No one is more dependent upon another human being than a baby developing inside the mother’s womb. From what I can see, the left in its entirety not only supports premeditated murder with unrestricted abortion, if forces the rest of the nation to violate its own conscience to pay for this barbaric way of postponing “a woman’s right to choose” until after she becomes pregnant.

"It doesn’t stop there. It never does. Abortion providers moved into selling fetal tissue to morally compromised researchers, with a premium for whole, live babies. If it’s OK to torture and kill them, why not an older child? Why not a homeless person? Why not anyone? What’s the difference? Does anybody believe the U.S. Supreme Court had the moral authority to issue death warrants for 65 million American babies? How about to certify Planned Parenthood as their executioner?

"Virtue signaling? You’re sure signaling something to America, but virtue ain’t it. Maybe the celebrities and their PR agents should spend more time on social media, explaining to self-identified school shooters why it’s OK to kill a baby before it’s born, but it’s a “no-no” to kill children walking around inside the school. Or other people for that matter. It isn’t “wrong” only if the target has a personal security force. It’s wrong because murder is wrong." . . .

Schools Aren't Made Safer by Removing Police or Curbing Searches

From the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs

Removing Police or Curbing Searches by ALADS Board of Directors There have been many solutions offered for the tragedies of school shootings in the past days, and surely many more will be generated in the days to come. However, among the ideas that should be swiftly rejected are those that seek to remove police from campus and ban safety measures such as metal detectors or random searches. Yet, incredible as it seems, such are the demands of radical groups such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) who are demanding random searches be ended at city schools. Their effort is just the beginning of an undertaking that BLM describes as "abolishing policing in our schools." In the radical view of members of this movement, "policing is a derivative of slave catching" and ending random school searches is the beginning of the eventual removal of police officers from schools. While one might dismiss these as nothing more than comments from extremist groups, it is incredibly disturbing to learn that the Los Angeles City Schools teacher's union (UTLA) has joined as a co-sponsor for a Black Lives Matter rally that will call for such extremist demands.  The union posted a flyer for the event on its website that boasted in its headline the rally was "a fight to end random searches and criminalization" at city schools. While UTLA leaders have since attempted to distance themselves from the radical demands of BLM to remove police from city schools, they refused a request by Gil Gamez, president of the LA School Police Officers Association for a letter in support of school police.  The 410 sworn police officers and 101 non-sworn school safety officers who make up the LAUSD school police department do an incredible job protecting the students of the schools they serve, ensuring campuses have a safe learning environment and providing positive role models for students. Just this past month, school police officers swiftly responded to a shooting at Sal Castro Middle School, locking down the school, tending to the wounded students and arresting the shooter. Since the Florida shootingtragedy where seventeen people died, schools in Los Angeles have had seven school shooting threats. While some people are concerned with random searches on school campuses, a LAUSD survey last year found that 78 percent of parents polled agreed that random searches should be conducted at their child's school, while less than half of students surveyed felt the same way. While activist groups and others may grab headlines with rallies and marches, they clearly do not have the backing of the parents of children who attend our local schools. In fact, following the shooting at Sal Castro, parents at the school vocally demanded that metal detectors needed to be installed to complement random searches.  Action Needed  In addition to the common-sense requests of parents for additional resources at schools, there are other steps that can be taken to increase the likelihood that authorities are alerted to and can respond to those who would threaten our schools. In California, there is presently no uniform method for alerting authorities of school threats or even knowing which school or police departments should be alerted. However, there is an in-place model that can be easily adopted in California. In the wake of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, Colorado authorities acted on recommendations to prevent, interdict and respond to potential school shootings. In particular, they created a state-wide program called "Safe2Tell," which allows students and parents to anonymously report potential threats. Since the program was implemented, it has averaged 3,000 tips a year, with suicide threats or reports of bullying being the leading tips that are phoned in. The State Legislature should pass legislation that creates a model such as Colorado's, which allows any tip to be made to a state-wide central hotline and then directed to the appropriate local authority or school to handle in an expeditious manner. The cost of this program would likely be minimal and the potential benefits enormous.  When citizens have the means and authorities are alerted to potential threats they can move rapidly to intervene. We saw this most recently when Los Angeles County deputies from the Norwalk Station responded to a call from a school security guard at El Camino High School in Whittier. The guard advised the responding deputies he had heard a student make verbal threats that he was, "going to shoot up the school sometime in the next three weeks." The deputies conducted a thorough investigation, determined there were weapons available to the named student and wrote and executed a search warrant. The search warrant yielded AR-15 rifles and nearly 100 high capacity magazines. Deputies confiscated the weapons and arrested the juvenile suspect who had threatened to commit a school shooting. Deputies also arrested the owner of the weapons, the juvenile's 28-year-old older brother, on felony charges. Whatever responses California devises in the wake of the most recent school tragedy, the changes BLM and other radical groups want--removing any police presence from local schools--should not be among them. The best way to prevent future school tragedies is to have a statewide system to alert authorities of school threats and to encourage cooperation with local police and school police, not ban them from campus. The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS) represents more than 7,900 Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs and district attorney investigators. Like our Facebook page www.facebook.com/aladsonline

Hat tip to Harley Standlee; Placerville, CA 
Of course, murdering police officers has long been encouraged by activists with the Black Lives Matter cult, with the support of the activist Left.

7 Terrible Liberal Gun Control Arguments … And How To Beat Them

Kurt Schlichter

"I argue for a living. I often deal with hacks, liars, and agenda-driven fanatics. But never in a quarter century of being in court rooms have I faced such a blizzard of constitutional illiteracy, technical ignorance, flabby reasoning, and outright lies as I have dealing with people who think our Second Amendment rights are up for debate. 

"Our rights are not up for debate. But, as a courtesy, because talking is the way a free people should endeavor to solve problems, we should debate them anyway. Rational discussion beats the alternative – many of us are vets who saw the alternative overseas – even if the other side prefers emotional blackmail using articulate infants to bum rush their anti-civil rights policies. So, here are seven (it could have been 50) of the most annoying – and dishonest – arguments you will hear, and how you can fight them." . . .  Full article

Dana Loesch Reveals More Evidence CNN's Town Hall Was 'Scripted' To Be Pro-Gun Control

Also this: CNN Anchor Dares Dana Loesch to Repeat Claim that Media 'Love' Mass Shootings   . . . "In her CPAC speech Thursday, Loesch also excoriated CNN for its gun control town hall on Wednesday, where attendees booed her and called her a "murderer" for her gun rights activism in the wake of last week's carnage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. CNN was the "malicious" party, Loesch said, for letting those accusations stand."

Daily Wire

. . . "In an interview with The Federalist Radio Hour Podcast Thursday, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch revealed more details suggesting CNN deliberately orchestrated the town hall to stir up anti-gun and anti-NRA emotions, including neglecting to give Loesch any context for the event, protecting pro-gun control speaker Sen. Bill Nelson, and allowing angry activists to accuse Loesch of being a "murderer" and call for violence against her.

"Loesch stressed that she was given no prior information about what she was walking into. "I had nothing in advance," Loesch told the Federalist. "I didn’t know how the setup was going to be. I didn’t know it was going to be in a giant arena where it was 360 all the way around. I had no clue."

"Prior to her appearance, CNN appears to have taken steps to ramp up the crowd's emotions.

"They had music that was playing," said Loesch. "They had montages that they were flashing across the screen. They had a number of speakers from the school and from the community. They had the sheriff go up and speak. He mentioned special interest groups, referring to the membership of the NRA. Then they brought the politicians out . . . and that was the first hour."

"After all the buildup, CNN had Loesch enter as if she were "a boxer" or in the "WWE."

" 'After all of this was already happening, after emotions were already running high, and after CNN put everyone together and cranked up, really trying to wind people up even more," she said. "I had no questions in advance. It was even weird the way they had us walk out because it was like entering like you were a boxer or like WWE. You were walking up to the stage and they had music playing. You had to walk in aisles with all these people screaming and you had to walk toward the stage."

"At one moment, the moderator, Jake Tapper, gave Nelson an out, telling him he didn't have to answer what appeared to be an unscripted question. Though he stepped in to protect Nelson, no such protection was offered Loesch throughout the night." . . .

On that CNN "townhall" lynch mob; "So thanks a lot for adding to our discourse, CNN."

FL Shooting Survivor Ariana Klein: Networks Don't Want Us To Give Our Real Opinions, "Want Us To Further Their Agendas"

. . . "The whole point of the town hall meeting was to hear the kids and hear what we had to say," she said.
Her father, prefacing that he is a Republican and a gun owner, said he was approached by a CNN producer on Thursday, the day after the school shooting, and felt they "were looking for people who were willing to espouse a certain narrative." 
"The producer insinuated to me they were looking for people who were willing to espouse a certain narrative which was taking a tragedy and turning it into a policy debate and I read that as being a gun control debate," Klein said.
"Unfortunately, I think a lot of the people talking about gun control don't understand what they're talking about," he added. . . .

National Review: Gun Politics, Twitterized

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel (left) and syndicated talk-show
host Dana Loesch at CNN’s town hall meeting, February 21, 2018.

. . . "But here’s my worry: In our increasingly Twitterized nation, that relatively simple concept — “I disagree with the idea, but I understand it” — seems to be an increasingly endangered thought process. Political insults, of course, are nothing new. But just last week, New York Times columnist David Brooks earned widespread scorn and evisceration for a rather mild column suggesting that all Americans, including law-abiding gun owners, are worthy of respect. Yikes."

CNN’s Insane Anti-Gun Townhall Will Only Help The NRA
. . . "So thanks a lot for adding to our discourse, CNN. You’re now no different than SKDKnickerbocker when it comes to being a promotional vehicle for anti-gun views, and you’ve given gun owners every reason to believe reformers are coming for every gun they have. Great job, everyone."

CNN’s Shameful Town Hall  . . . "More immediately, events like the CNN town hall go a long way in convincing gun owners that gun-control advocates do have a desire to confiscate their weapons. The advocates can’t confiscate weapons right now, so they support whatever feasible incremental steps are available to inch further toward that goal. We don’t know how this plays out in the long run. In the short run, though, it does nothing to stop the next school shooting."

Colton Haab Vs. CNN  "On Wednesday night CNN took up the 2018 children’s crusade that is intended to produce gun control where previously there has only been left-wing frustration. After the event, RealClear Politics posted local television video of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Colton Haab. I wrote about it here yesterday morning." . . .
"The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple explains: it’s a CNN non-scandal."

The Yelling of the Lambs  "For all of those who are angry about the Parkland attack and those before it, and who insist that the experiences of the newly minted child-activists for rescinding the Second Amendment require us to do what they demand, ask yourselves: do I want a society where my rights are determined by the raw and manipulated emotions of my accusers?  Do I want my rights decided by what children feel?  It is self-evident to rational people that anger, especially misinformed anger, is not a basis for good policy.  However, it is all that progressives can offer." . . .