Archive for June 2022
Utah Politics: Republicans Rats and Rumors
I live in Utah. I was born and raised here. I left Utah for a number of years as my career in broadcast journalism took me to other parts of the country, but returned after retiring from TV News in 2005. I love my home state and I love Utah County, but what I have learned about some of our local and state government elected officials over the past few weeks is not only shocking, but frankly, disheartening and sickening.
Utah County has long been a stronghold of active faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, at one point being close to 90% church members. As members we are taught and believe strongly in being honest, having integrity, and treating others honorably. However, in such a high concentration of like-minded people it becomes easy to assume everyone holds those same characteristics at the same high level and live by them in the same way. That simply isn’t the truth. All people are fallible and make poor decisions and bad choices including the illegal kind.
Utah County has grown extensively over the past 30 years. What was a county of about 200,000 people in 1980 had grown to nearly 700,000 by 2021 and continues to see new residents increasingly flow into the cities in this county. That certainly brings change, including change to the overall makeup of the communities we live in. But it is still predominantly LDS or Mormon or as the church prefers it, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
What I have learned about some of our officials in Utah County will be shocking to many in a place commonly known as Happy Valley. Happy Valley is supposed to be full of good, honest, hard working people who love each other and go to church on Sunday, but Happy Valley has some very scary skeletons in its closet including some with a lot meat still on the bone.
It’s hard to know where to begin because there is so much to cover. The easy place to start is with the Mike Smith, David Leavitt feud that has made national news in recent weeks. Mike Smith is the Utah County Sheriff and David Leavitt is Utah County Attorney. Both are elected officials. David Leavitt is up for reelection and the primary is Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Just weeks before the primary Sheriff Mike Smith opened up a cold case. According to KSL News it implicated Leavitt.
Utah County Attorney David Leavitt said Wednesday that he’s been wrongly accused of cannibalism, as well as the murder of small children. The accusation, according to Leavitt, stems from an investigation by the Utah County Sheriff, Mike Smith. Further, Leavitt believes that the Utah County Sheriff is using his position for political gain, as both the Utah County Sheriff and the Utah County Attorney are up for reelection in 2022. Leavitt has called for an independent investigation of a press release made public on Tuesday (cited below.) And he said he wants an investigation into Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith as well as Smith’s office.
This bizarre story got the attention of national news media outlets and the story went viral. Last week the Utah County Commission voted unanimously NOT to investigate the nearly 2 decades old allegations of Satanic rituals and sex slaves, but Smith and those trying to oust Leavitt from his County Attorney seat continue to use it and other allegations of impropriety and poor management of the county attorney’s office as they campaign for Jeff Gray to replace Leavitt. Utah state officials like Utah State Attorney General Sean Reyes and former Utah Speaker of the House Greg Hughes jumped into the fray piling on Leavitt.
Even Glenn Beck has been part of the smear, whether intentional or not, I don’t know. I respect Beck and have been a long time listener to his program, but after hearing his interviews with both Sheriff Smith and then David Leavitt, it appears pretty obvious Beck already made up his mind who the good guys and bad guys were.
Glenn Beck and Sheriff Mike Smith interview.
Just over one week later Leavitt got his opportunity to speak on Becks radio program, but the reception he received and the time he was given was very different from that of Sheriff Smith. If that audio becomes available I will update this post and include it here. Suffice it to say, it was one of the most unfair, cynical, and predetermined-outcome interviews I’ve ever heard on Beck’s program. It was a railroad. In all my years as a journalist and news reporter I have never seen someone treated so disrespectfully by an interviewer as Leavitt was by Beck.
Already in a tailspin, Leavitt’s campaign took another critical hit.
But is the negative campaign against Leavitt legitimate? Or is this a story of David and Goliath where Goliath wins the fight?
I intend to provide evidence, not hearsay or rumor or innuendo, evidence that David Leavitt is being smeared. As I stated in the opening paragraph, Utah County has some very corrupt people in office and they are doing everything in their power to maintain their hold on that power and keep those who might upset the apple cart out.
That evidence will begin to surface in my next post.
The Reason We Have a Second Amendment
This is American History. The history few of our public schools or institutions of higher learning teach any more. Our ignorance has and always will be our undoing.
The Second Amendment was inspired by British plans to disarm every American. A part of you probably already knew this, but didn’t have the details. Those details should chill you to the bones and give you every piece of evidence you need moving forward through the renewed gun debates. So buckle up.
It began In 1768. “The freeholders” led by John Hancock and James Otis, met in Boston at Faneuil Hall and passed several resolutions, including “that the Subjects being Protestants, may have Arms for their Defense.” The royal governor rejected this proposal. The petition was then circulated under the pseudonym “A.B.C.” It is likely this was Samual Adams. “It is reported that the governor has said that he has Three Things in Command from the Ministry, more grievous to the people than any thing hitherto made known. It is conjectured 1st, that the inhabitants of this province are to be disarmed. 2nd The province is to be governed under Martial Law. 3rd that a number of gentlemen who have exerted themselves in the cause of their country are to be seized and sent to Great Britain. Unhappy America! When thy enemies are rewarded with honors and riches; but they friends punished and ruined only for asserting thy rights, and pleading for they freedom.”
Shortly after Sam Adams’ petition was circulated, per the Boston Evening Post, (Oct. 3, 1768) British troops took over Faneuil Hall. Then, per The New York Journal, (Feb. 2, 1769) they ordered colonists turn in their guns. “That the inhabitants had been ordered to bring in their arms, which in general they had complied with; and that those in possession of any after the expiration of a notice given them, were to take the consequences. Sam Adams would write about this time later that month saying, “it is said orders will soon be given to prevent the exportation of either navel or military stores, gun-powder, to any part of North-America.”
In another article he signed “E.A.”, Samual Adams went on to recall, “The right of having and using arms for self-preservation and defense.” Under the auxiliary subordinate rights of the English Bill of Rights. Shortly after in 1770 protesters “armed with sticks” were shot dead in the streets of Boston during the infamous Boston Massacre. It would be 4 years before the first physical attempt to disarm the Colonists would be tried and would fail. This per the Massachusetts Spy, Sept. 8, 1774 – “It is said, it was proposed in the Divan last Wednesday that the inhabitants of this town should be disarmed and that some of the new-fangled counsellors consented thereto, but happily a majority was against it.”
Now comes the part that makes my blood boil and reminds me of Democrat voters who most assuredly would be on the side of the English and would pull a similar stunt to entrap their opponents. In an affidavit, a man name Thomas Ditson testified that an Undercover British soldier pressured to him to buy a gun he had. When Ditson caved, a group of British soldiers appeared and he was tarred and feathered. “I enquired of some Townsmen who had any guns to sell,” he said. “One whom I did not know, replied he had a very fine gun to sell.” Ditson felt, “there was something not right…and left the gun”, but the townsmen followed him and urged him to buy the gun.
The Connecticut Courant had this account in April 3, 1775 revealing ammunition seizures followed. “The Neck Guard seized 13,425 musket cartages with ball, (we suppose through the information of some dirty scoundrel, of which we have now many among us) and about 300 pounds of ball, which we were carrying into the country – this was private property – The owner applied to the General first, but he absolutely refused to deliver it.”
This was followed shortly there after by the widely published American account of April 19, 1775, when a British officer shouted: “Disperse you Rebels—Damn you, throw down your Arms and disperse.” Then per the Connecticut Courant, a General Gage decided to change the British tune. See, They just wanted to hold the guns for a little bit “for safe keeping” and then they promised to return them; “And that, the arms aforesaid at a suitable time would be return’d to the owners.” Bostonians proceeded to turn in 1778 muskets, 634 pistols, 973 bayonets and 38 blunderbusses.
In June of 1775 General Gage declared martial law and offered to pardon to all who would lay down their arms—except Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Seriously though, how badass were these guys? The Gazettes in Virginia and Maryland both reported more attempts to confiscate weapons through the summer of 1775. The Continental Congress adopted “The Declaration of Causes of Taking Up Arms”, July 6, 1775. This was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, and to be perfectly honest, we should probably know as much about it as we do the founding Documents.
Wonder why we don’t.
“It was stipulated that the said inhabitants having deposited their arms with their own magistrates, should have liberty to depart.” They accordingly delivered up their arms, but in open violation of honor, in defiance of the obligations of treaties, which even savage nations esteem sacred, the governor ordered the arms deposited as aforesaid, that they might be preserved for the owners to be “seized by a body of soldiers.” In other words, they went back on their “word.”
In 1777, British General William Knox, under British Secretary of State, circulated a proposal entitled “What is it to be Done with America?” Along with the unlimited power to tax and an official Church, what else did he propose? You guessed it. YET AGAIN. Gun confiscation. “The militia laws should be repealed and none suffered to be reenacted, & the arms of all the people should be taken away, & every piece of ordnance removed into the King’s stores, nor should any foundry or manufactory of arms, gunpowder, or warlike stores, be ever suffered in America, nor should any gunpowder, lead, arms or ordnance be imported into it without license; they will have but little need of such things for the future, as the King’s troops, ships, and forts will be sufficient to protect them from any danger.”
This time it was too late. The colonists were at war. The damage had been done.
To this point in time the colonists had endured entrapment, banning of imports, promises of “safekeeping” and return at some point, direct seizure of guns, and tar and feathering of any who refused to comply. But the British weren’t opposed to shooting anyone bearing what they called “arms.”
As we watch Congress bloviate today over ways to disarm us, we’re reminded of all these ways the British tried to do the same thing 250 years ago and how that congress fought to save us from the common enemy. We beat the British and won our freedom, however, it appears those who consider themselves our betters and currently rule in positions of government and power have decided to use these old worn out and tired tactics against America again.
Now it seems many of those who supposedly serve in congress are no different than our old enemy. They are, quite frankly, the enemy within. They do their dirty work by preying on the good hearts and minds of the people. Using the victims of shootings to push their age old ploy. Effectively dancing on the graves of the dead while using the dead to shame any who would suggest disarmament isn’t the answer to the evil designs of evil people. This is how they gain powerful minorities or even outright majorities calling for an end to the horrible loss of life. No one wants to see innocents slain. No one. Not pro-gun nor anti-gun. But the anti-gunners know how to manipulate. They know how to blur the truth, how to hide or fix the data, how to use Hollywood and Professional athletes to push the narrative.
Strangely, the shootings always come in bunches right around elections. They happen in inexplicable numbers in short periods of time almost as if they are driven by the 24 hour news cycle frenzy. Talking heads reading the scripts handed to them by the “King’s Men” and before we know it they have the votes and our right to defend ourselves, our homes, and our property are gone and millions of law abiding Americans become criminals overnight.
So what do we do?
We learn from our past.
Sam Adams had always drawn the connection that those who wanted to disarm us, also fiercely wanted to stop us from petitioning our grievances. There is more power in petitioning grievances than we realize and that is why the founders enshrined it in the first amendment—Before the second amendment.
Maybe that’s a good place to start. In the meantime, bone up on our history and be ready to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights…EVERY ONE OF THEM.
Sources: Archives of Boston Evening Post, Boston Gazette, Massachusetts Spy, Massachusetts Gazette, Connecticut Courant, Essex Gazette, Connecticut Journal, Virginia Gazette, and The Independent Institute.
A Declaration for the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms.
Thanks to The Red Headed Libertarian on Twitter for the sources and highlights.
The Long Version 