Reflections From a Murky Pond

OK, as all students of real and accurate American history know, Big Labor, i.e., labor unions, have always had a complex and often antagonistic relationship with Blacks. This has changed little over the last century. The only change has been the unions choosing to catch wayward Blacks and keep them on the unions’ plantations rather than clubbing them down in streets as they used to do.

But oh how the unions hate it when the Blacks leave the plantation. How dare those “uppity niggers” accept monies from individuals that the unions and their paid-for politicians fear and loath such as the Koch brothers.

A powerful government workers’ union will end its support for the United Negro College Fund after the group accepted $25 million from the conservative powerhouse Koch brothers and the college fund’s president appeared at a Koch event.

In a letter made public Thursday, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said it will no longer partner with or raise funds for the fund, known for its iconic motto, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

Naturally, the AFSCME’s President, Lee Saunders wasn’t satisfied with merely refusing to further support the United Negro College Fund. He also had to take UNCF’s President and CEO, Dr. Michael Lomax to task for his uppitiness.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders said the actions of the college fund’s president “are not only deeply hostile to the rights and dignity of public employees, but also a profound betrayal of the ideals of the civil rights movement.”

Saunders’ may be too politically correct and savvy to speak frankly, but there’s no real doubt that his personal attack upon Lomax was anything but a dog-whistle for “Oreo,” “Uncle Tom,” “Sell-Out,” and/or “Race Traitor.” It’s pretty obvious that Saunders and the AFSCME can’t abide by Blacks who aren’t beholden to them.

Of course, the funny side of this is that Saunders and the AFSCME don’t have much of a whip to crack over the backs of the UNCF. They’ve donated between $50,000 and $60,000 annually to the UNCF for its AFSCME/UNCF Union Scholar Program over the last 11 years and the Koch Brothers just gave the UNCF $25,000,000 – 38 times that total amount.

Tags: AFSCME | America | Blacks | Charity | Koch Brothers | Labor Unions | Lomax | Money | Politics | Racism | Saunders | UNCF

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2014 at 7:43 am and is filed under Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Since America is now in yet another election year, one can expect various cries for campaign finance reform to resound across our divided land. Most of the screaming will come from Liberals and Progressives who will chant, “Koch Brothers! Koch Brothers! Koch Brothers!” while wondering where they left their torches and pitchforks.

The unruly and largely ineffective mobs of Leftists truly hate the Koch Brothers and stridently declaim about how they’ve bought and paid for so many politicians.

Yet, as corporations go, the Koch Brothers’ campaign contributions pale in comparison to others’.

Over the 23 year span between 1989 and 2012 Koch Industries donated just under $10,000,000 to political campaigns. That’s a fairly significant amount. Yet it is only a fraction of what the larger labor unions contributed to political campaigns during the same time period.

• The American Federation of Teachers  paid 3.19 times as much;
• The Laborers Union paid 3.22 times as much;
• The Int. Brotherhood of Electrical Workers paid 3.44 times as much;
• The National Education Association paid 3.70 times as much;
• The SEIU paid 3.78 times as much and;
• The AFSCME paid 4.66 times as much.

Indeed, the largest class of expenditures by labor unions is political spending, both direct campaign contributions and other forms of a political backing such as television commercials. Yet, of course, Americans will never hear the Liberals and Progressives bemoan that. Quite the contrary, those are corporations that they laud for “purchasing” politicians.

What even more sad than the by now utterly expected hypocrisy of the Left is the fact that Americans allow them to get away with it. Instead of allow them to shape the conversation as they please, Americans should be in their faces hammering them mercilessly with the truth about campaign contributions.

Tags: 2014 Elections | America | Campaign Finances | Corporations | Koch Brothers | Labor Unions | Leftists | Liberals | Politics | Progressives

This entry was posted on Friday, January 3rd, 2014 at 11:24 am and is filed under 2014 Election, Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.