The curious case of black discrimination against conservative blacks

It would seem the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. would be among the least likely places for discrimination to flourish, but that assumption would be incorrect.

Larry Elder, writes a masterful column on the topic, in which he concludes the exclusion of exceptional men such as Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams explains why “there’s no serious discussion in the black community about government dependency; school choice; the damage done by high taxes, excessive regulation and laws like minimum wage; and why blacks should rethink their allegiance to the Democratic Party.”

The Democrat Party (SRAZ’s preferred term) depends on robotic support from those who should know better by now. The lure of a free cell phone or the hope of a secure future without working for it are part of the conspiracy that, for decades has held too many minorities down.

Over fifty years ago, Democrat Pres. Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” ignited the decline by replacing fathers with welfare checks. Since then, taxpayers have spent more than $22 trillion fighting Johnson’s war. Pres. Ronald Reagan, who understood that the welfare state perpetuates itself by rewarding dependency, later said, “We declared war on poverty and poverty won.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and economists, distinguished professors, and gifted authors Dr. Thomas Sowelll and Dr. Walter Williams all came from the depths of poverty, but possessed great minds that led them to conservatism, and provided them the pathway to influence countless Americans of all ethnicities.

Until what we considered his inadvisable retirement in 2016 at age 86, the brilliant Thomas Sowell was Seeing Red AZ’s go-to columnist, as we frequently posted his articles under the heading, “Weekend Reading Guaranteed to Make You Smarter.”

Do yourself a favor and take time to read Larry Elder’s exposé: “The Shameful Blackout of Thomas, Sowell and Williams.”

 

Hero or Goat? Typifying the liberal quandary

Though deeply entrenched in the digital world, there remains an enigmatic appeal to holding a book or magazine in our hands and turning pages. This explains why the arrival of the conservative Weekly Standard in the mailbox each week is such a pleasure.

The magazine runs the gamut from serious commentary, analysis of the news to dashes of humor. Today we bring you the humor, which we all so richly deserve after the antics that dominated the news this past week. This selection is from The Scrapbook:

Hero or Goat?

The latest threat to the American workforce has arrived, and it’s on four hooves.

A public-employee union is up in arms over a team of blue-collar billy-goats employed to clear brush on a college campus. The union claims that by using the animals, Western Michigan University is snatching jobs away from union workers. They’re not kidding around, either—the union has filed a grievance against the university. Their complaint is a sort of inversion of Orwell’s Animal Farm motto: Two legs good, four legs ba-a-a-a-ad.

What’s particularly delightful about this conflict is how it pits two key leftist enterprises—public-employee unions and college environmentalists—against one another. After all, the reason Western Michigan University chose goat grazers in the first place was concern for the environment. Eschewing chemicals, the college instead opted for the green solution, hiring a team of 20 goats to clear 10 acres of rough bramble and poison ivy. Last year a trip of 10 goats proved efficient and sustainable, and the current flock is ahead of schedule.

Alas, such environmental considerations weren’t enough to pacify the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union was quick to leap to the defense of its members in the face of the ruminant menace.

And just how great is that menace? The Washington Post did the math and found that in one month, one person with a tractor can do the work of 3,600 goats. Even if all 2.5 million goats in the United States were employed, they would only threaten 347 full-time human jobs nationwide.

Small as that number may be (and it’s nothing compared with the threat posed by automated robot goats), it’s not nonexistent, which leaves leftists with a dilemma. It seems to The Scrapbook that there is an obvious compromise that would satisfy all parties: The goats should unionize.

Networks’ disgraceful allegations against Christian legal group

ABC, NBC and CNN  dishonestly call Alliance Defending Freedom a “hate group”

The Valley of the Sun is fortunate to have Scottsdale-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in our midst. ADF is the nation’s largest religious freedom legal advocacy organization, winning  seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in the past seven years.

Earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions addressed the group on the topic of religious freedom.  ABC, NBC and CNN networks headlined the event describing ADF as an “anti-LGBT hate group,” using information gleaned from an actual hate group, the radical, violence inciting Southern Poverty Law Center  (SPLC)— which NBC deceptively referred to as a  “prominent civil rights watchdog.”

Count on the shameless Democrats to join the dishonest tirade. DNC spokesman Joel Kasnetz was quoted as declaring, “Sessions’ appearance at this event, as the top law enforcement official in the country, brings into question whether the attorney general intends to protect all Americans.”

Some Phoenix residents are familiar with the New Times, a giveaway, left-wing tabloid, featuring soft porn ads along with its sensationalized articles blatantly targeting conservative officials. Until recently, Stephen Lemons, whose rancorous column titled, ‘The Feathered Bastard,’ was a mainstay of the tabloid, was a local resident. His final column which we addressed in, “A vile goodbye from a sour Stephen Lemons,” was written in April as he prepared to move to a new gig with the disreputable SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama, befitting his extremist bent.

Kristen Waggoner was interviewed by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Friday evening. She does an excellent job of describing the skewed news reporting of Attorney General Sessions’ speech, the mission of ADF and its many successes in the courts. She is ADF’s senior vice president of US legal advocacy and general counsel, with an impressive bio.

The Federalist provides this copy of Attorney General Sessions inspirational speech. You’ll be glad you took a few minutes to read it.

AZ Regents chair gets testy at challenge, hurls personal insults & UPDATE

Mark Finchem, a Republican representing Dist. 11 in Tucson doesn’t meet the high standard of dress established by former state legislator Greg Patterson — who has since gone to law school and is now the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) chairman. Patterson oversees the three state universities he previously sucker punched for their imperial excesses.

It no doubt galls Patterson, who is also a CPA, that the less educated Rep. Finchem is a member of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee and Vice Chair of two other significant committees.

In a private meeting that Patterson secretly recorded,* he laid into Finchem — who along with East Valley Rep. Jill Norgaard (R-Dist. 18) — had the temerity to co-sponsor a bill to rein in the authority of the board that Patterson chairs.

Apparently, she dresses well enough and is suitably degreed to suit Patterson, but her perch as Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, gives her a level of prominence that rankles the ‘Top Regent’ who takes his title very seriously. Bully Patterson referred to Rep. Finchem’s western attire as a  “costume that doesn’t work.” He advised Finchem to trim his mustache and buy a suit before abruptly leaving the meeting.

Though Patterson has been a registered lobbyist since 1997, he fails miserably in the area of persuasive techniques.

This news article provides background on the unsavory meeting, and includes disapproving comments of Patterson’s actions from Vice Chair Bill Ridenour, who takes over as chairman July 1. Board of Regents President Eileen Klein, also condemned Patterson’s behavior, saying it was not reflective of how the regents do business. 

The Arizona Board of Regents voted on Jan. 20 to oppose SB 1061, a bill proposing to cap tuition and fee increases at two percent per year at the state’s public universities. The bill was co-sponsored by nine Republican state senators and one Republican state representative and would have significantly restricted the power of the regents and the universities to impose ever escalating tuition and fees on students. Readers have to plow through ten paragraphs of self-congratulatory hogwash to get to ABOR’s opposition to restrictions to rein in student costs. 

Universities do not have market forces and shareholders to enforce spending discipline, so foisting the trickery of “a $1 billion/30-year plan to fund new capital and rebuild aging infrastructure without raising taxes,” sounds reasonable to the elites who won’t be around in 2047 to answer for its ruinous impact.

One burning question remains: Were they dressed appropriately enough to meet Greg Patterson’s exacting standards as they implemented the epic con job?

ABOR Chair Greg Patterson has resigned after hurling an insult-laden spew at state legislator Mark Finchem.

As of his resignation Monday June 19, the pretentious Board of Regents chairman is now officially a goner, though he still had three years on his term. According to this report in the Arizona Republic, he laid off his obtuse insults — which he secretly recorded and then disseminated to shocked regent staffers — on being “overzealous.” He also declared he was in a “caffeine-induced rage.”  If those foolish excuses weren’t enough, he had one more up what we assume was his perfectly starched and ironed sleeve.  He didn’t want to be a “distraction.”

Patterson won’t distract anyone. But as he toils at his lobbyist day job, will he be able to attract clients who don’t want to risk having their grooming insulted?

Vicious Dems tweet vile spew re: ballpark shooting

Raw evidence that there’s more that separates Republicans and Democrats than their party platforms:

Caution…You might need a gag bag as you read these depraved thoughts.*

Count on conservative Ann Coulter to get it right, with The ‘Resistance’ Goes Live Fire.

 * H/T The Blaze

US Rep. Steve Scalise shot at congressional baseball practice & UpDate

Gunman intended to shoot Republican Congressmen

A would-be assassin opened fire on Republican members of the U.S. Congress during a baseball practice near Washington. DC this morning, wounding several people including  U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, House of Representatives Majority Whip,—  the third-highest ranking member of the House Republican leadership.

Rep. Mel Brooks, who represents Alabama, estimated 50 to 100 shots were fired in the spree that lasted about 10 minutes. Those at the practice were “sitting ducks,” with no place to hide in the open field.

Scalise, 51, represents Louisiana. He was shot in the hip and is undergoing surgery. Five people were transported to local hospitals. Two of the wounded were Capitol Hill police who responded to the scene. Also shot was Zack Barth, a congressional aide to Roger Williams. Williams was injured trying to escape by jumping into the dugout

The attempted assassin, who was shot by Capitol Police, was identified as 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson, of Illinois has died of his injuries. As he entered the Alexandria, Virginia ballpark, he specifically asked if the players were Republicans, since the site was known as a congressional practice field.

“Without the Capitol Hill police it would have been a massacre,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)  said, describing the scene as “sort of a killing field.”

SRAZ’s post yesterday titled, Celebration of assassination betrays leftist hypocrisy, deals with an acclaimed New York theatrical production of Julius Caesar, featuring the stabbing assassination of a President Trump look-alike Caesar. 

Recently comedian Kathy Griffin thought it was appropriate to do a routine including a mock,  bloody severed head representing President Trump. When she met with derision she whined at a press conference — accompanied by her lawyer — that she felt her career was over and that Trump “broke” her.

Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake never let an opportunity pass to disparage President Donald Trump. Civil discourse has taken a back seat to reviling the president. They are just as guilty of stirring up hatred as Kathy Griffin.

It all has to stop. This shooting stands as stark evidence.

This update on the condition of Rep. Steve Scalise is from MedStar Washington Hospital Center:

June 14, 2017, 8:15 pm

“”Congressman Steve Scalise sustained a single rifle shot to the left hip. The bullet travelled across his pelvis, fracturing bones, injuring internal organs, and causing severe bleeding. He was transported in shock to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, a Level I Trauma Center.  He underwent immediate surgery, and an additional procedure to stop bleeding.  He has received multiple units of blood transfusion. His condition is critical, and he will require additional operations.  We will provide periodic updates.

In other news, Breitbart News reports President and First Lady Melania Trump went to the hospital where he sat at Steve Scalise’s bedside and they spoke with members of his family.

Celebration of assassination betrays leftist hypocrisy

Broadway incites presidential assassination, mob cheers

In a bizarre mockery of President Trump passing itself off as a highbrow production of Julius Caesar, the assassination scene is the main impetus. If this is public theater, it has sunken to a new low. Even the reviewer called the production “genuinely frightening.”

We live in dangerous times in an increasingly polarized nation. Donald Trump was elected by a majority of Americans who were demoralized following eight years of far leftist governance by Barack Obama.  Imagine if conservatives controlled the entertainment venues of Broadway, Hollywood and the majority of what comes directly into our homes via television — filled with biased news and vicious deceit passing itself off as comedy.  Obama and his family who were revered by the celebrity clique, would still never be treated in such a repulsive manner.

Some of Julius Caesar sponsors have pulled their funding. They all should have. Presidential assignations are no joke. Four U.S. Presidents have been killed, two others were wounded,  surviving attempts on their lives.

The same elites who consider the stabbing of our president entertainment, celebrating it as a free speech issue, go mysteriously silent when universities — where free speech should flourish — stage raucous protests to repress it when it conflicts with their liberal views. They remain silent when conservative speakers with whom they disagree are shut down or uninvited.

North Korea’s unstable leader is threatening to nuke New York. Terrorism in the United States and Western Europe has reached epic heights resulting in the murders and maiming of ordinary people going about their lives. Instead of pulling together in a united effort to defeat evil, we are increasingly inundated with those who appallingly find it appealing.

Freedom of speech is enshrined in our Constitution. It once had its limits. Schenck v. United States, decided in 1919, is notable for Supreme Court Justice Oliver Holmes writing “the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.” It was overturned in 1969 by the infamous Warren Court.