School shootings: Who’s to blame?

Another school shooting has taken the lives of what is being reported as 9 students and a teacher‘s aide. Twelve others were wounded by the 17-year-old murderer, This time the massacre was in Santa Fe Texas, a small town of approximately 80,000 residents south of Houston.

The Houston Chronicle described the assassin with these words: “He posted a photo on his Facebook page of a “born to kill” T-shirt and wrote in a journal about shooting people and committing suicide. His Facebook cover photo comes from an album called “Dangerous Days” by a dystopian cyberpunk band called Pertubator with a track that took on a haunting quality before 8 a.m. on Friday morning: “Humans Are Such Easy Prey”

The newspaper wrote, “The signs of dark, violent fantasies were ubiquitous in (the killer’s) social persona and private ramblings.”

Like the 1999 Columbine High School killers, he had a penchant for wearing a trench coat. Presenting a dichotomy of personalities, he had been an honor roll student, played on the high school football team and expressed a wholesome desire to join the Marines.

Seventeen were killed at a Parkland, Florida high school just three months ago on Valentine’s Day. This list of school shootings goes back to 1990.

The immediate reaction by many on the left is to go after guns — confiscate and destroy them. Eradicate the Second Amendment as outdated.  Blame the NRA. Then comes the talk of mandatory mental health evaluations and permitting involuntary commitments.

Lost in the mix is the undeniable fact that violence, passing as entertainment,  has for far too long, permeated our society.  Music lyrics were once taken on by Tipper Gore, then-wife of Sen. Al Gore. She testified before a senate panel in 1985, saying, “…in virtually every medium, the communications industry offers increasingly explicit images of sex and violence to younger and younger children. In the course of my work, I’ve encountered a degree of callousness toward children that I never imagined existed. No one asks what is in the product or its effect on kids, only how well it will sell.”

Her efforts to expose the encroachment were vociferously fought by the music industry. In 1985, the graphic violence was mild compared to today. According to Quora, the Internet “became mainstream among researchers by 1989, among Silicon Valley movers and shakers by mid 1995, and by most US households by 2001.”

In 2018, many children are isolated, unsupervised and fatherless. The Internet provides them with explicit images and social media sites to “express themselves.”  Their entertainment is raw and often violent.  Fewer families than ever before are involved in a faith-based community. Values are no longer taught. Parents increasingly put their own pursuits ahead of their children. These are the areas that beg for attention, since they create the personalities that revel in violence.

Families owned firearms throughout our history and mass shootings were not perpetrated at schools by adolescents. The cause is too uncomfortable to address, but it’s time to remind parents that their children are their primary responsibility. Economic pressure must be applied to the entertainment and music industries. The NRA, which protects freedom, is not the problem.

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R U appreciating extortionist teachers during Teachers Week?

National Teacher Appreciation Week began on Monday May 7, and runs through Friday May 11. That’s obviously not a week, but the National Education Association (NEA) informs us that it is. Who’d want to take on a group that has mega $millions and marching goons at its disposal? 

We saw teachers at work here in Arizona last week. Not actually “at work,” as they abandoned the students they contracted to educate while they staged their brassy REDSforEd protests over salaries — led by a 24-year-old self-identified Socialist and Bernie Sander’s Arizona presidential campaign organizer who teaches hip-hop music.

When they got the outrageous 20% increase they demanded, it wasn’t enough. Baring themselves as lockstep liberal union thugs, they proceeded to file an extortive Initiative to permanently “tax the rich,” to enrich themselves.

Of course they’ll use that money judiciously, lobbying on behalf of candidates and causes that the organization believes will make our country better for the students entrusted to them. The question is, why are those issues and candidates they back overwhelmingly left-wing Democrats?

The organization is no fan of Charter Schools, which give parents the ability to make educational choices for their own children. Charters often outperform the government schools which have become hotbeds of liberalism, promoting “social justice” and illegal immigration over education — intentionally blurring the lines between actual immigrants and those who invade our country. The NEA site even includes this form to “Tell your representatives to oppose any private school voucher program for military-connected students.”  After it’s filled out, the ham-fisted NEA takes over getting the message to the representatives.

The NEA promotes the now-yearly ‘Day of Silence’ where students remain silent all day in support of all things “LGBTQIA.”  Not much learning going on but celebrating homosexuality in all its incarnations takes center stage. The NEA declares ”sexual literacy will be essential to address through critical comprehensive sexuality education in grades K-12.” It commends the “transition” of a kindergarten boy who became a girl halfway through the school year.

Diversity trumps unity. But their union activism takes first place.

Ninety-four percent of the funds teachers unions (NEA and AFT) contribute go to Democrats.

This video is from 2009, but it clearly spells out the views of the NEA regarding the children they are charged with educating. The words are spoken by Bob Chanin, the NEA legal counsel in a brief excerpt from his revealing retirement speech.

James O’Keefe latest Project Veritas undercover video “School Corruption Exposed” features New Jersey Teachers Union President Dr. David Perry. Watch as he blatantly states, “We need to know the truth so we can bend the truth,” as he covers up child abuse, protects drug-using and shoplifting teachers.

REDSforED socialist extortionists file initiative for $millions more

After holding parents and children hostage for a week with their demands for a 20% salary increase — and getting it — from the foolishly acquiescing Gov. Doug Ducey and legislators nervously facing reelection, Arizona teachers have a new scheme up their collective sleeves.

We use the term “collective” with intent. They are not to be appeased.  The teachers who staged a tantrum-like strike to get their way, followed Pied Piper leftist Noah  Karvelis, a 23-year-old hip-hop music teacher and Bernie Sander‘s Arizona presidential campaign organizer. Do yourself a favor and read Ralph Benko’s excellent expose of Sanders published in Forbes magazine. It addresses the resurgence of Socialism in America.

We’ve all seen the now-faded bumper stickers that said, “if you can read this, thank a teacher.”  Sadly, Americans are experiencing a new twist on that sentiment: “If your kids are Socialists, thank their teachers.”

‘Tax the Rich’ is the teacher’s latest Socialist plan that sounds suspiciously akin to the slogan popularized by Karl Marx:

 “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

In fact, Arizona teachers, clad in red tee shirts emblazoned with #RedforEd, while demonstrating at the state Capitol, have filed a ballot initiative raising taxes on “the rich” to get even more money. The ‘Invest in Education Act’  (read it) is aimed at higher wage earners who are their latest enemies.

Liberals conveniently forget that “the rich” supply jobs that raise up individuals and benefit families. None of them work 8 1/2 months a year as teachers do. They are the people who took risks and worked long hours to realize their dreams of entrepreneurship. They are those we should aspire to emulate. Liberals view them with contempt.

SRAZ added an “S” on the teacher’s slogan correctly identifying them in previous posts as REDSforED.

SIXTY PERCENT of the additional revenue they are now seeking would further pad teacher salaries. Forty percent would fund all-day kindergarten and provide raises for “support staff.”

The imitative was filed by former state legislator David Lujan, now VP of the liberal Arizona Center for Economic Progress and Mesa teacher Joshua Buckley — both left-of-center Democrats. Buckley is quoted as saying,  “It’s up to educators, parents and other community leaders to act if the legislature will not provide a new dedicated funding stream.”

That “funding stream” is nearly $700 million a year in forever money taken from taxpayers for the radical unionist and extortionist teachers, who show no commitment to their either their contracts or their students.

Don’t fall for their con.

AZ teaches’ strike leader admits, “Teaching is political”

Propagandizing students is educrats’ game plan

Today Seeing Red AZ is taking a road never previously traveled since our inception in 2007.  We are sending our readers directly to another site — in this case, Breitbart — where Dr. Susan Berry Ph.D, has written an illuminating exposé on Noah Karvelis, a radically leftwing elementary school teacher leading the indefensible teachers’ strike set to take place in our state on Thursday.

Twenty-three-year-old Karvelis has urged his colleagues on Twitter to teach political activism to their students and to discuss with them gun control, white supremacy, and anti-capitalism.

Never forget the “underpaid” teachers, who work 81/2 months a year, are able to support the far left teacher’s unions* to the tune of $millions a year, earmarked for Democrat candidates and liberal causes.

These same people are undermining the values conservative parents try to instill in their children.  Karvelis, a cool hip-hop music teacher, volunteered on the presidential campaign of self-admitted Socialist Bernie Sanders. Additionally Karvelis has been a political consultant and staff writer for the Progressive Times, which defines itself on its masthead with this banner: “Progressive, independent journalism for the political revolution.”

This is akin to putting Marxists in charge of educating our children. Noah Karvelis, and others like him, are dangerously influencing America’s youth, steering them away from democracy that flourishes in our representative Republic, and into the liberty killing fields of Socialism.

* Center for Responsive Politics

AZ Gov. Doug Ducey caves to teachers’ outrageous demands

Though his press secretary denies it, Ducey is looking ever more like a guy with senatorial aspirations

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey had a chance to stand tall. Instead he rewarded the abysmal behavior of union teachers who abandoned their students to strike for a massive 20% raise.  He played tough for a nanosecond, telling the teachers there was no pay hike in the near future, then reneging, followed by an acquiescence or two preceding the final capitulation. If nimble Ducey didn’t have his eye on a mighty political payoff, he could fill the role of state contortionist.

Instead of emulating President Ronald Reagan who on Aug. 5, 1981 fired 11,359 unionist air traffic controllers of the almost 13,000 who went on strike in defiance of his order for them to return to work, issued two days earlier.

Reagan, a former two-term Screen Actor’s Guild union president, didn’t stop there.  He declared a lifetime ban on the rehiring of the strikers by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Within days the FAA began accepting applications for new air traffic controllers, and ultimately the Federal Labor Relations Authority decertified the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association (PATCO).  Robert Poli, PATCO president, was found in contempt by a federal judge and ordered to pay $1,000 a day in fines, for the disruptions his union caused. 

There were inconveniences during the strike and after Reagan made good on his threat, (video) but such a strike never happened again.

Ducey is thinking politically instead of on behalf of Arizona students abandoned by their striking teachers, who should also have been fired if they didn’t return to work.  He appears to be letting his future political aspirations get in the way of sound judgment. Ducey’s longtime friend and mentor John McCain, diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in July 2017 has remained at his compound in Cornville, AZ. missing crucial votes. The Arizona senate seat is not a museum piece. 

Ken Rudin, Political Junkie, answers the question about governors appointing themselves to the U.S. Senate. It has happened. Of the nine going back to 1933, all but two were Democrats and the results were uniformly dismal.

Joy Pullmann, an author and executive editor of The Federalist, does a masterful job with this commentary, “Fire All Striking Teachers And Send Their Paychecks To Students’ Parents.” Obviously it was not on Ducey’s reading list.

It should be.

Education Week, a publication of the liberal teachers’ union, clearly states teachers plan to ride this victory to effect changes across the Arizona political landscape.  The teachers, who overwhelmingly vote Democrat, have no allegiance to Ducey.

Today’s front page shows a smiling Ducey surrounded by educrat admirers, who got their way, via protests and walk-outs, which the teachers coyly termed, “walk-ins.” The headline blasts, “The winners today are the teachers”

A further look reveals the truth, with this line under the photo, “K-12 advocates skeptical, say walkout still planned.” There is no pleasing a riotous mob. They should have been fired.

Don’t lose sight of the fact that this is where the people who influence our children and grandchildren put their union dues.*

* H/T Center for Responsive Politics

Teen anti-gun marchers, influenced by leftists, descend on DC, other cities

Teen mobs led by liberal celebrities march throughout USA

Under-educated students who haven’t been effectively taught the history of our nation’s founding and the enduring greatness of our American Constitution, are flexing their political muscle and threatening to remove members of congress who support the Second Amendment.

Think about that.

Many of them will be first time voters during this fall’s midterm elections. Voter registration activists were among throngs of young Americans who marched for tighter gun laws on Saturday, signing up thousands of soon-to-be voters who want to eject lawmakers who oppose gun control.  Organizers of the voter registration drive hoped to sign up at least 25,000 participants in the DC march alone, a promising boost for Democrats.

Estimates of the March for Our Lives crowd size ranged in the hundreds of thousands, who lemming-like flocked to DC as they flock to rock concerts. Since they are teens, the question is who financed their trek to the nation’s capitol, where food and lodging are not inexpensive. Did they all have parental consent? With or without consent, we find that their benefactors were the left-wing Hollywood elite, who provided funding and buses for the trip. The NAACP was among the co-sponsors of the event, with Martin Luther King, Jr’s young granddaughter calling for the elimination of all guns. Breitbart provides info on the celebs.

This is 17-year-old David Hogg, (video) a survivor of the Parkland Florida high school massacre. Seventeen of his classmates were slaughtered by a crazed, recently expelled fellow student who should have been on the FBI’s watch list, and disallowed to purchase a gun, since the police had been called to the family home two dozen times prior to his murderous rampage at the school.

Rather than engendering compassionate action, cocky, foul-mouthed Hogg uses his new-found status to disparage parents, senior citizens, Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott and issues threats to congress and the Second Amendment. And wouldn’t you know?  He‘s an aspiring journalist. In his profanity laced interview, Hogg calls himself the NRA’s “worst nightmare.”

HeadCount conducts voter registration drives at concerts, and claims it has registered over 500,000 young voters since 2004 — “translating the power of music intro real action.” Missing is any mention of learning about our system of government or the views of individual candidates. These are liberals on the rise. Though they claim to be disconnected from a political party, they direct people to the AFL-CIO union scoreboard and announce, “We balance the power of the wealthy,” (those are the job creators, folks) whom they claim exploit workers — referring to Right to Work laws as “racist.”

Rock the Vote, calls Arizona a “vote blocking state,” claiming it restricts voter rights, appears on DiscovertheNetworks.org: A Guide to the Political Left. RTV also works to register and mobilize voters aged 18-29 to support left-wing Democrat political candidates. Like HeadCount, it forms partnerships with music-industry and popular-culture icons who share the organization’s left-wing values, and use their celebrity status to influence the opinions of young voters.

If your kids are concert goers, you need to get up to speed on these insidious groups and their agendas. Who would have thought music would become a political menace to our Constitutional freedoms?

AZ teachers shamefully shut down schools

Wearing red T-shirts emblazoned with “#RedForEd,” hundreds of Pendergast School District teachers staged a fake “sick out” abandoning their classrooms Wednesday protesting what they claim are low wages. Their actions left working parents scrambling for day care — many had to leave their own jobs, putting their livelihood risk — as teachers taught students the valuable lesson that not showing up for work is a productive way to air grievances.

We hear a lot about underpaid teachers. Teachers protest and school districts hold budget overrides and bond elections to “get more money into the classroom” —- eduspeak for bolstering teacher’s salaries. A major premise of passing the Arizona Lottery in 1980 was that money from ticket purchases would make its way to schools. 

Passage of ballot propositions — 301 in 2000 increasing the state sales tax and 123 in 2016 a grab from the state land trust — guaranteed more money, which apparently is never enough.

How is it that “underpaid” teachers are able to send union dues specifically earmarked to fund mostly liberal politicians?  These are the people who spend more time influencing American students than their parents do. Consider why leftist Barack Obama and self-declared Socialist Bernie Sanders cornered the youth vote.

Open Secrets/The Center for Responsive Politics shows the $ millions the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) lobbying arms give to the most left-wing elected officials. The AFT gave not one thin dime to Republicans.

There are problems that appear endemic to the schools of education from which the teachers graduate and, consequently, the teachers as well, that have nothing to do with money. Sample certification test questions are included in Dr. Walter Williams’ column “Educational Rot,” with Arizona represented, exposing the shockingly low bar for getting hired. Reading it will  arm you with crucial information about many of your kid’s teachers, without having to join and pay dues to radical teachers’ unions.

Arizona Education Association members recently marched at the Arizona Capitol protesting tuition tax credits. Allowing taxpayers to make tax-deductible contributions to the private, parochial or charter schools of their choice is anathema to the educrat unionists, who want unfettered control as they indoctrinate students, denying parental choice.

Arizona Education Project disproves the educrat notion that due to low wages, Arizona schools are at the lowest rung in the nation. You’ll read that five of the top seven public high schools in America are located here in Arizona, according to US News & World Report – in Scottsdale, Tucson, Oro Valley, Peoria, and Chandler.

Read 10 Facts You May Not Know About Education in Arizona. It’s news you need and aren’t getting. Armed with the facts, it’s time for informed parents to march. The only roadblock is they have jobs where their presence is required. And unlike teachers, they don’t have the luxury of frequent half days, lengthy holiday vacations or the entire summer off.