The art of misdirection: The Left is manipulating the narrative on gun-control

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is largely predicated on misdirection as a tactical strength in warfare. In it, he advises:

Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.

The attentive viewer, the careful listener can spot even the cleverest misdirection. It's that nagging feeling, that twinge in your gut, the suspicion that something just ain't right. You can sense a con and you don't like it. You can tell that something sinister is at play. The media has perfected an agenda-setting approach to news that is deception at its finest. They control the narrative, the framing, the output of information.

So when the media swarmed around the February 14th massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, many of us suspected that something else was going on.

Why all the focus on this killing? Why now? Why such vigor? Why didn't the Las Vegas killer provoke the same reaction? And how did the entire thing turn into a circus of protests and outrage so intense that most of us forgot where we should even be looking?

As Sun Tzu wrote, "In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity."

Politicians on the Left, along with the media, have a permanent anti-gun stance that they will move mountains to promote.

According to the media, our attention was meant to be trained on two things: Guns and the teenager victims. Politicians on the Left, along with the media, have a permanent anti-gun stance that they will move mountains to promote.

Just like we've seen lately with the media suddenly caring about children on the border when it's actually been a problem for years, for the Left, the end always justifies the means. When it comes to guns, they have their "guns are the problem" story and they stick to it religiously.

The Left is motivated on all fronts to skirt the truth and broadcast their doctrine.

In the Parkland case, the media framed a group of smart, charismatic kids, who, being kids, loved the chance to be rock stars, without ever realizing that they were tools in the whole scheme — and don't balk at the term "rock star." It's not hyperbole. The group is currently on a 70-city tour, the "March for Our Lives: Road to Change."

From the start, Hogg and his classmates proved impervious to criticism. They actually thrive on it — painting themselves as victims of gun rights advocates has become part of their foundation. Using these children as representatives, the media was able to push a gun-control narrative, and accuse critics of verbally abusing children anytime that narrative was challenged. Where, then, should we redirect our gaze?

For starters, there's the mass killer himself. Since 2010, police had been called to the killer's home 39 times. Multiple requests were sent to the Broward County Sheriff's Office to have the killer's cache of rifles taken away. Online, he posted pictures of bloodied dead frogs and said things like: "I wanna shoot people with my AR-15" and "I'm going to be a professional school shooter." In another post from his now-deleted Instagram account, the shooter posted a photo of a bullet-riddled target and the caption: "Group therapy. Sometimes it works." The killer had been expelled from the campus he would eventually terrorize and teachers were told to remain alert. Even the FBI had been warned. The agency received important information about the killer but chose not to follow up.

The school district, the Broward County Sheriff's Department, the FBI — all failed to stop the killer.

The media has portrayed the killer as a product of Trump's America when in reality, he is a shining example of incompetence at every level short of the office of the President. The school district, the Broward County Sheriff's Department, the FBI — all failed to stop the killer.

It's no secret the Broward County Sheriff's Department has conducted themselves poorly from the very start. The day of the killing, police from nearby Coral Springs arrived at the school to find officers from Broward County hunkered down behind their squad cars outside the school. According to news sources, the Coral Springs officers have expressed resentment toward the Broward Country officers "about what they perceived to be a dereliction of duty."

Then there's the car. No, not the Lamborghini (which turned out to be on loan from a local dealership, in 2014, for a Toys for Tots charity). I'm talking about this car — or, more specifically, this tweet:

The car, like most repurposed police cars, is more than likely a confiscated car, meaning the department did not spend taxpayer dollars on it. The issue here is more about how tone-deaf the tweet is. And, honestly, given the Department's record, they probably should've gone with a Prius or even a scooter. Or, better yet, they could've auctioned the car off and donated the money to a meaningful cause. Maybe even just wait until a year or so had passed, then get back to tweeting like a teenager again.

Although, in this case, a tweeting teenager, Kyle Kashuv, made far more sense of the whole ordeal with his criticism of the Broward County Sheriff's Department:

Most recently, we learned about Andrew Medina and David Taylor, two security guards at the school who could have prevented the entire killing, but chose cowardice instead. One of the guards, Medina, saw the killer approaching the school and failed to phone in a code red.

"I'm telling you I knew who the kid was," Medina told investigators. "Because we had a meeting about him last year and we said, 'If there's gonna be anybody who's gonna come to this school and shoot this school up, it's gonna be that kid.'"

Regarding the killer's threat, Taylor said the same thing: "Not only me, but all of our security personnel. I would say everybody [knew]."

Yet, upon seeing the killer approaching the school in military gear, Medina radioed Taylor, who briefly encountered the killer, then huddled to safety in a janitor's closet.

To make matters worse, Medina had previously sexually harassed Meadow Pollack, one of the victims of the killing. He'd asked her out for drinks, so aggressively that she complained to the school. A report on the matter notes that she and another student "became so uncomfortable with Mr. Medina's comments and actions, they sought out different routes to their classes in an attempt to avoid him."

Why has the media largely shrugged off or ignored new details surrounding the killing? As facts continue to emerge, we gain a fuller picture of the tragedy that occurred that day, and the myriad mistakes that brought it to life. Yet the media has chosen to depict the shooting as strictly a gun-related issue.

No one is pursuing truth — everyone is just persuing victory.

It wasn't the guns — it was the combination of a mentally disturbed teenager, with city, county and school district corruption. But in order to cover their own backsides, public officials were eager to cede the spotlight to the photogenic Parkland students, who in turn provided the media with the holy grail of anti-gun propaganda material.

In the words of Sun Tzu:

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

From gun-control to border-control, the nation's over-the-top rhetoric has reached an unsustainable level. No one is pursuing truth — everyone is just pursuing victory.

Now, outside the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia, Trump supporters are throwing feces at people like monkeys. I can only say "monkeys" here because I'm talking about Republicans. I'd be a racist if I said that and it was Democrats flinging poop.

At what point does this rhetoric spill over into civil war? It would be easy to do with 400 million guns out there. Even then, God forbid, it wouldn't be guns causing the war, it would be the people. Guns didn't cause the Civil War in 1861 either.

If we're going to survive, we have to stop all the instant outrage and ground ourselves in principles and in the truth.

Top THREE reasons the U.S. NEEDS Greenland

EMIL STACH / Contributor | Getty Images

Are Trump's repeated promises to claim Greenland for the U.S. just belligerent imperialism or a deft move to secure the future of America?

During his patriotic inaugural address, President Trump reiterated his campaign promise to expand American territories, including securing U.S. control over Greenland. This is not a new idea despite what the mainstream media may claim.

The idea of buying Greenland was originally introduced by progressive hero Woodrow Wilson in 1917 as an attempt to secure the homeland as America was gearing up to enter the First World War. The second attempt came after World War II when President Truman tried to buy the island from Denmark in another attempt to shore up national security, this time against the Soviets. Since then, Trump floated the idea in 2019, which was met with much the same ridicule as now.

The truth is that the acquisition of Greenland represents far more than just an outlet for repressed imperialist desires. It would be one of America's best investments in a long time, which is why we've been eyeballing it for so long. Here are three reasons the U.S. needs Greenland:

Strategic Military Position

THOMAS TRAASDAHL / Contributor | Getty Images

For the majority of the 20th century, Europe was the region from which a foreign attack on American soil could be launched: the Germans for the first half of the century, and the Russians for the second half. On both occasions, Greenland stood between our foreign enemies and the United States.

After the World War II, America was the official military defender of Greenland, per an agreement with Denmark. Under this agreement, the U.S. built Pituffik Air Force Base, a remote base 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Due to its location, approximately halfway between D.C. and Moscow, the Pentagon still views Pituffik as a vital component of America's nuclear defense.

The U.S. also built a secret base within the ice cap known as Camp Century. Camp Century was part scientific outpost, part nuclear-tipped ballistic missile silo built in the ice to withstand a direct atomic strike. The nearly two miles of icy tunnels were powered by a nuclear reactor and were designed to survive a nuclear first strike, and return fire. Although abandoned in 1967, Camp Century still symbolizes the strategic importance of Greenland for U.S. security.

Untapped Resources

OLIVIER MORIN / Contributor | Getty Images

While Greenland's population is a mere 56,000, the island has a total landmass nearly three times the size of Texas. According to a 2009 geological assessment, a whopping 30 percent of the Earth's undiscovered natural gas, and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil is locked away beneath Greenland's icy ground. There are also untapped deposits of valuable rare earth metals including copper, graphite, and lithium.

Neither Greenland nor Denmark have any real plans to tap into this immense wealth trapped beneath the ice, but it could prove crucial for ending the West's dependency on China. China has the global market cornered on rare earth minerals- including America. We acquire 72 percent of our rare earth mineral imports from China, making us entirely dependent on them for the manufacturing of many essential goods. Tapping Greenland's natural resources would help free America, and the West, from China's yolk.

Polar Silk Road

mark peterson / Contributor | Getty Images

In 2018 China launched an ambitious project that aimed to cut the travel time of cargo vessels between its ports and European markets in half. China, in collaboration with Russia, plans on developing new shipping routes through the Arctic Ocean. This bold new strategy, dubbed the "Polar Silk Road," has been made possible thanks to new tech, including a fleet of Russian, nuclear-powered icebreakers, the latest of which is capable of breaking through nearly 10 feet of ice.

With clear waterways from eastern China and Northern Europe, it won't be long before the first cargo ships brave the frigid sea and China looks to the next leg of the journey: the Northwest Passage. The Northwest Passage is the area of sea between Canada and the North Pole that would be an optimal shipping route between America's East Coast and Asia if it wasn't frozen over most of the year. But with new technology, we may be able to overcome the challenges of the ice and open the passage to commercial traffic, and Greenland is positioned directly on the passage's easternmost mouth.

Greenland would quickly become a key location along the Northwestern Passage, acting as a sentinel of the east, with the ability to control traffic through the trade route. If China or Russia were to take control of Greenland, they would dominate the Northwestern Passage, along with the rest of the new northern trade routes.

Is Romania squashing its own 'Trump' candidate?

DANIEL MIHAILESCU / Contributor | Getty Images

This week the streets of Bucharest, the capital of Romania, erupted in protest after the Constitutional Courts annulled the recent first round of the presidential election after the "far-right" candidate won.

The government is lying to you. If you have been listening to Glenn for a long time you already know that, and you also know that if you try to call attention to the lies you get labeled a conspiracy theorist or "far-right." This is not only true in America but across the world. Politicians cheat, steal, and grab power, then lie about all of it. This is the root of countless issues across every government on the planet, and recently Romania has become the latest example of this unfortunate phenomenon.

But what is really happening in Romania? Was this an actual attempt to stamp out someone who would shed light on lies and corruption? Or did the Romanian government put a stop to a genuine bad actor?

The Election

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

On December 6th, 2024, the Romanian Constitutional Court canceled the second round of the presidential election amid claims of Russian interference. The second round of the election would have seen right-wing candidate, Calin Georgescu face off against pro-European centrist Elena Lasconi.

The trouble surrounds Georgescu, who stands accused of using Russian aid to run an unprecedented social media campaign that helped him win an election pollsters claimed he stood no chance of winning. Georgescu's rapid rise in popularity on social media does raise some eyebrows, and to add to the suspicion he declared he had zero campaign spending. On the other hand, Georgescu's supporters claim that his quick rise to stardom and underdog victory is due to the growing resentment for the ever-out-of-touch political elite.

Georgescu's Platform

Andrei Pungovschi / Stringer | Getty Images

Georgescu rose to prominence on a platform many of his detractors have labeled "far-right," "pro-Russian," and "populist" (sound familiar?). His positions include supporting Romanian farmers, increasing Romanian self-reliance, and increasing local energy production. Georgescu has been lauded for his message of hope and vision for the future and his dedication to truth, freedom, and sovereignty.

Georgescu is also a vocal Christian and a supporter of the Romanian Orthodox Church. He has questioned the climate change and COVID-19 narrative as well as NATO and the war in Ukraine, which is how he earned his "Pro-Russian" monicker. Georgescu promised to respect and honor its obligations to the EU and NATO, but only to the extent that they respect Romania and its interests.

What Happens Next?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

After Georgescu's unexpected victory, the Romanian Constitutional Courts annulled the election's first round and scheduled it to restart on May 4th. As of now, it is unclear whether Georgescu will be allowed to participate in the new election. This act by the Constitutional Courts triggered mass protests in the capital, Bucharest, and has caused many Romainians to question the state of democracy within their country.

Many of the protesters are calling what happened a coup and are demanding the election be allowed to continue to the second round. They are also calling for the resignation of current President Klaus Iohannis, who has maintained power thanks to the incomplete elections. Georgescu has officially challenged the court's decision and even made a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, but it is unclear if his appeal will make any difference.

The tides have turned — and now the very same banks that were pushing heavy-handed environmental, social, governance rules are running away from them.

In a significant victory, a federal judge in Texas has ruled that employers and asset managers cannot use environmental, social, and governance factors in employee retirement accounts. If this ruling holds up — which is likely, given the conservative composition of the appellate court — it will dramatically shift the balance of power between corporations and their employees.

This decision represents one of the most substantial blows to the ESG agenda to date. Companies that have been steering employees into ESG-focused investments, which prioritize progressive values over financial returns, now face legal repercussions. Continuing such practices would directly violate federal law. The ruling forces companies to re-evaluate their commitment to ESG initiatives, and many may withdraw from these funds before the case even reaches the appellate court.

Watching these corporations squirm as they try to backtrack and avoid legal repercussions is ever so satisfying.

The impact of this ruling could very well be the beginning of the end for the ESG movement as it’s been pushed by elites.

In even better news, BlackRock, a major player in the ESG movement, has officially left the United Nations’ International Association of Asset Managers. This is a direct rebuke of the global push for ESG initiatives and a major sign that the tide is turning. In contrast to the Glasgow Net Zero Conference in which the Global Financial Alliance for Net Zero — an organization championed by global elites — was pushing for ESG to be a central focus, BlackRock’s departure from the group signals that even those who were at the forefront of this movement are starting to distance themselves.

But it doesn't stop there. Every major U.S. bank has now announced that they too are leaving the U.N.’s Association of Net Zero ESG Bankers, another key part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance. For years, we’ve been warning that ESG in banking was one of the primary ways elites like Biden, the Davos crowd, and others were planning to reset the world’s economy.

The tides have turned — and now those very same banks are running away from ESG, a powerful signal of things to come. They know they’re on the losing side, and they’re scared that a new administration will come down hard on them for their involvement in these globalist initiatives.

In another win, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled a shocking new rule that, if it survives, would prohibit many financial institutions from de-banking customers based on their political or religious views, or even certain types of speech. While the rule is not as comprehensive as we need it to be, it’s a step in the right direction — and it includes concerns raised by our allies about the dangers of ESG. The Trump administration has promised to come down even harder on the banks with tougher rules, and this is a very good start.

Watching these corporations squirm as they try to backtrack and avoid legal repercussions is ever so satisfying. Some are running for cover while others are desperately trying to ingratiate themselves with the powers that be. It’s clear that the backbone of these companies is made of rubber, not steel. They don’t really believe in the ESG values they preach — they’re just playing the game to get in bed with the political elites.

Now that Trump is back in town, these corporations are showing their true colors. They never cared about their customers or the values they forced upon them. It was always about the power they could acquire through catering to those in power at the time.

No company should be afraid of the president of the United States. But they’re not afraid of Donald Trump. They’re afraid of the return of the rule of law. They know that fascistic public-private partnerships between the government and corporations are on the way out. That’s a victory for freedom and a victory for the American people.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Inside President Trump's EXCLUSIVE inauguration balls

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

Inauguration Monday was a busy day for President Trump, and it didn't stop after his inauguration address either. President Trump partied across D.C. long into the night.

Exclusive balls are a D.C. tradition on inauguration night, hosting many of the nation's most influential people. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump appeared at three of the most prestigious balls: the Commander-in-Chief Ball, the Liberty Ball, and the Starlight Ball.

These parties had star-studded guest lists that included celebrities, musicians, politicians, and many more. Here is a peek into the exclusive inaugural balls:

Commander-in-Chief Ball

The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump's first stop was at the Commander-in-Chief Ball, an event dedicated to the armed forces that defend our nation. The event included a dance where Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife Usha Vance joined the President and First Lady on stage and a performance from the country music band Rascal Flatts and country singer Parker McCollum. President Trump also spoke to U.S. service members stationed in South Korea on a video call and cut a cake shaped like Air Force One with a sword.

Several people of note were in attendance, including Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and actor Jon Voight. Musician and avid Trump supporter Kid Rock was also in attendance along with country music star Billy Ray Cyrus.

Liberty Ball

The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump's second stop of the night was at the Liberty Ball, an event thrown for all of Trump's loyal supporters. The event had a magnificent lineup of musicians, including country singer Jason Aldean and rapper Nelly. There was even a live performance of Trump's iconic campaign song, "YMCA" by Village People.

Also in attendance were President Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, who appeared on stage with her father.

Starlight Ball

JIM WATSON / Contributor | Getty Images

Wrapping up his night of celebration, President Trump visited the Starlight Ball, which was full of major donors to his campaign.

Shortly after arriving, the presidential couple and the vice presidential couple shared a dance in front of a mock White House. Later the stage featured singer Gavin DeGraw for a memorable performance. Notably, renowned podcaster and comedian Theo Von was spotted entering the event. Von is known for hosting President Trump on his podcast for an in-depth interview during his campaign, which many credit boosting Trump's popularity with the younger generation.