“History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” – Mark Twain
If you thought we were reliving the Jimmy Carter administration with oil issues, a bad economy and policies that are just making it worse, problems with Iran, and a president who is in over his head, then it just gets more “déjà vu all over again,” as American philosopher and Major League catcher Yogi Berra famously said.
The Justice Department has announced that ten individuals were arrested last week for “allegedly carrying out long-term, ‘deep-cover’ assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russian Federation.”
These folks were blending into the suburbs of New Jersey as “average Americans” in order to infiltrate the society of this country. Authorities became suspicious when they found that the people in question were current on home mortgages they could actually afford and were not overweight.
Here is the big surprise for the Russians: Our government has not had an idea worth stealing since the late 1980s. Also, if these spies are here to destroy capitalism and install Lenin’s philosophy in the U.S., they are too late. We did that with the November 2008 election.
Even the judge agreed when he set a low bail based on the defense lawyer’s claim that “not one scintilla of state secrets or classified material was ever obtained.”
I disagreed with the judge on that one and would have ruled differently. Any evidence that there was nothing accomplished — besides wasting an embarrassing amount of money — tells me that they must have been working for a government endeavor.
I have developed another theory to explain why they were here. They were in New Jersey working to develop a reality show. These Boris and Natasha spies were pretty hot. Not James Bond-movie-hot, but, compared to ‘Snookie’ of Jersey Shore fame, some of the women would certainly do well on American TV.
A curious crosscurrent of this case and other recent events is that Hillary Clinton’s State Department uncovered the spies. She also identified the Christmas Day “underwear bomber” who was arrested in Detroit. If there is a woman who can detect nefarious acts and who understands how underpants exploding at inopportune times can undermine a presidency, it is our Hillary. She also seems to take pleasure in appearing to be the only Obama appointee capable of actually doing meaningful things. Each time the President’s poll numbers drop, Hillary schedules a pancake breakfast in Iowa and a speech to a Rotary Club in New Hampshire.
Obama seems to have appointed the O.J. Simpson jury to his cabinet, which is having the odd effect of making Hillary look a bit like Thomas Jefferson all of a sudden.
As with any dose of reality, the Russian spy affair comes at an inopportune time for the members of the Obama administration as they pursue their worldwide American apology tour and seek a naïve, “Kumbaya” policy with dangerous countries. The administration is downplaying the spy case; Obama refused several times last week to comment when asked about the arrests of Russian operatives in the U.S. In fairness to Obama, he is really uncomfortable talking about anyone but himself.
With his only experience being as a “community organizer” in Chicago, much of the reality of the dangerous world we live in is lost on this president.
The world is full of people and countries that want nothing more than the total destruction of America and its way of life. Having a president who is inexperienced, weak, naive, too egotistical to know what he doesn’t know, and who constantly projects a disdain for his own country to the rest of the world, is a clear and present danger for us all. We ignore it at our peril. Obama would do well to remember that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
If the Russians want to destroy America, they best hurry before this administration beats them to the punch.
Ron Hart is a syndicated libertarian op-ed humorist, author and TV/radio commentator. Email Ron@RonaldHart.com or visit: RonaldHart.com