This is what happens when classics such as Aesop are removed from the classroom in favor of the more-attuned “Heather Has Two Mommies:” instructions in common sense and good behavior are neglected, resulting in adults who are significantly more ill-mannered, credulous and gullible.
Current proof can be found in revelations from Shaun Henry, president of “Crowdstrike,” the organization that first suggested Russian hackers stole those tens of thousands of embarrassing emails from DNC servers during the overheated 2016 Presidential election. You undoubtedly remember how those revelations fed the narrative at the time that candidate Trump was in the pay of Moscow – which continued for two and a half years until replaced by the narrative that he was corrupting the President of Ukraine. Well…
On May 7, Adam Schiff was finally forced to release transcripts of closed-door Congressional testimony, in which Mr. Henry admitted, under questioning by Utah’s Chris Stewart that there was no evidence that the Russians actually stole the emails in question. Russian hackers were in the server, evidently along with a handful of their closest friends, but there’s no real evidence they took the data in question.
Why should anyone care? Because those of us with long memories will recall that this incident was the first impetus for the “Trump-Russia collusion” which metastasized in a hundred directions and was the basis of the infamous “Mueller Report.” But we now know the certitude with which Democrats howled about the president’s many conspiracies with Moscow’s Vlad the Terrible were based on smoke and lies.
Think about the accusations this engendered: Trump’s a traitor. Trump’s a maniac. Trump’s profiting illegally from his office. Trump’s engaging in a thousand corruptions. Trump’s obstructing justice. Trump’s guilty of anything we say, up to and including owning a skunk – a loony litany founded on untruth and, at least for accusations not based solely on opinion and fancy, all proven wrong.
Now there is yet another accusation based on dismissal of an Inspector General at the Department of State. It’s been asserted that there is crime here, specifically retaliation for an investigation into the Secretary of State’s use of a political appointee as a personal factotum. But…
Those who read Aesop as children will remember the tale of “The Boy who Cried Wolf,” about a young shepherd who, out of boredom repeatedly summoned his fellow-shepherds and nearby villagers to drive off a wolf, when no such wolf existed. Finally, the others tired of the game so when an actual wolf appeared in the sheepfold, no-one answered the boy’s call for help – and in the words of the Author, “the wolf made a great meal of the boy’s sheep.”
The moral of this cautionary tale – that those proven liars will not be believed even when they tell the truth – should be of great concern to our Democrat friends today. Even those content collecting a handsome public salary while remaining safely at home with, or even without, a Sub-Zero freezer full of chocolate ice cream should ask themselves why, after putting the nation and its electorate through this four-year cavalcade of smears and slanders, anyone should believe or trust them again.
And we should ask with them.
May 17, 2020
