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Volume XIX Number 12 - June 8, 2020     RSS Feed   

A Periodic Newsletter for Committed Texas Conservatives

In This Issue

The Next Dumb Idea From The Democratic Party: Defund The Police

George Floyd/Bad Apple Police In Liberal Minneapolis And The United States, What's The Problem?

Ponder This And Consider The Future You Want For Your Children

Advice For Republican County Chairs In Texas: Think First, Email Later

Civil Disobedience And Right To Protest By Brian Ettinger, Contributing Editor

Celebrities Should Take The Pledge By Neland Nobel, Contributing Editor

Willful Ignorance By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

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Thoughts This Fortnight

The Next Dumb Idea From The Democratic Party:
Defund The Police

Just when you thought we would get a break from the dangerous ideas flowing from the radical Democratic party, we get the latest: Abolish the police and take the money and use it on social programs.

We have tried that before and failed. Billions of dollars have been spent on the Great Society since the 1960's and yet the issues remain unsolved.

So if we defund the police, who will protect you from crime, violence, and looting? The short answer is, you are responsible for you and your family's safety. Maybe that is why gun and ammunition sales are through the roof.

And the major media continues to do what it has done for over three years, blame Donald Trump. What a joke! You and your fellow citizens have a choice this year. The choice is not a perfect one, but is a critical one.

The aiding and abetting of riots and looting by the Democratic Party tells us what our future will be if they win, just look at the wanton destruction of New York City, parts of Los Angeles, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Chicago and others too numerous to mention.

George Floyd/Bad Apple Police
In Liberal Minneapolis And The United States
What's The Problem?

You have probably seen the statistics. Thank goodness the number of citizens, black, white, & Hispanic killed in an encounter with the police is relatively low, white 370, black 209, Hispanic 158 (source Statista.com). One death is still too many, so we need to work on methods to reduce the numbers, but they are not as high as the major media would have you believe.

George Floyd's death is inexcusable and the police officer directly responsible (who had numerous complaints against him, yet was inexplicably still on the Minneapolis Police force) and his colleagues who watched and did not intervene also need to be punished to the full extent of the law.

Minneapolis has been a Democratic-run city in a Democratic run state for decades, so what gives? Haven't we been told the problem is Republicans, Trump, etc.? They haven't been in charge, so that brings me to another question: Decades after the 1960's and the origins of the Great Society, one liberal elected official after another, eternally serve in Congress. Just to name a few: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and our own Sheila Jackson Lee, have been there for decades and exactly where are the so-called liberal reforms to deal with the issues the protesters are complaining about? Nowhere to be seen. The problems persist to be talked about every election cycle and then quickly forgotten.

The problem is the career politicians who talk a lot but accomplish little or nothing. Maybe it is time to quit listening to them and let common sense citizens with good intentions roll up their sleeves and address issues of concern to make America better for all.

Ponder This And Consider
The Future You Want For Your Children

TCR Comment: Friend Gary Bauer (cwfpac.com), former Domestic Policy Chief for Ronald Reagan, correctly observed last Friday:

"Democrat leaders in multiple cities and states are against bringing in the military. They reluctantly deployed the National Guard only after President Trump shamed them. They ordered their own police officers to stand down and to stop making arrests and enforcing curfews. Think about that."

"The damage done to our cities is well into the billions. So many have lost so much. Imagine what it would have been like if the National Guard had not been brought in as the President insisted.

"Imagine what it could be like next time if the progressive left is in power and a different President isn't demanding a return to law and order.

"I'm still waiting for the modern liberal to stand up and say, 'You know, we were wrong. You do need strong families with mothers and fathers. You do need reliable standards of right and wrong. You do need people to have a moral core.' I'm not holding my breath.

"Here's the central point to keep in mind: These liberal mayors and governors abandoned their citizens to the mob. They failed at their most important job.

"They abandoned the police. If the left takes power, you will be on your own.

"By the way, have you noticed that the mayors and governors who were most aggressive in going after people who wanted to reopen their businesses and churches are the same left-wing politicians who allowed the rioters to destroy those businesses and burn churches?"

Advice For Republican County Chairs In Texas:
Think First, Email Later

In this era of instant communications, many of us are guilty of writing something stupid, and then pushing the send button and not considering what the reaction of others will be or how stupid it may look or read.

Harris County Republican Chairman-elect Keith Nielsen did exactly this recently posting a famous Martin Luther King, Jr. quote and putting a banana next to it.

Party Chairmen are there to elect candidates, not to be a distraction. Nielsen was guilty of what is described in the first paragraph. He has since resigned, which was the right thing to do.

The Executive Committee will pick a new Chairman. Some outstanding experienced Republicans are interested, so as a public service, TCR will outline what makes a good Chairman based on your editor's 92% plus success rate during my three terms as Chairman:

  1. Unite the various factions. It's not the Chairman's party. It's every Republican's party.

  2. Always be raising money to sustain the party and help its candidates.

  3. Be a responsible spokesperson when appropriate.

  4. Communicate with your leadership and the base regularly and be accessible to candidates and officeholders.

  5. Understand that in the internet era, brick and mortar has been replaced by smartphones.

  6. Think of politics as a chess game, not checkers, always plan at least three steps ahead.

  7. Remember the job of a Chairman is to recruit great candidates and elect them.

  8. In the new Harris County, you need to campaign with all the interest groups, as it's a majority-minority county.

  9. Create opportunities to cultivate new leadership in the generations coming up.

  10. Follow Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment, "Thou shalt speak no ill of a fellow Republican."

The HCRP needs a Chairman that combines the strengths of the last two who served, Paul Simpson and Jared Woodfill. The former did a good job of raising money, but fell down in the areas of spending money, party unity and public relations. Paul ended up with the worst three terms of any modern Chairman.

The latter was a great spokesman, an inspiring speaker but had problems keeping the financial side of the party in order.

Neither did a good job of bringing together all factions of the party. Essentially, they both catered to their base leaving the party divided and vulnerable to the Democratic surge.

The Democrats under Lillie Schechter are organized, united and very successful. She has done a good job of fundraising and has assembled a staff of twelve. Schechter has led the Democrats to essentially two countywide sweeps in a row. The Republican Party needs to up its game considerably, if it wants to become a player in Harris County politics again.

The challenge for the Executive Committee is to ignore your friendships and pick a new chairman who is up to the challenge. Bringing back Simpson or Woodfill is not the answer unless Republicans are content with continuing to lose.

Civil Disobedience And Right To Protest
By Brian Ettinger, Contributing Editor

Americans have a protective constitutional right to protest peacefully. But what I watched on TV happening in over 30 cities is a disgrace. This is not a legitimate right to protest, but a justification to riot and loot. It does not matter if you are involved with right or left extremist groups. Racism and fascism is wrong. It is clear that leaders of these states and cities showed a total lack of leadership and only responded to these riots, looting and burning of government buildings, private businesses and destruction of vehicles.

First it was a horrible act: the death of an individual, George Floyd, by a policeman who should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This police officer murdered this individual and let the justice system prosecute him. The other police officers involved in this incident also need to be investigated and prosecuted under civil rights violations or violating state law and policies of their police department. Post this murder, the leaders of these states and cities allowed the mob to behave in the manner to destroy property, government buildings, private businesses and disrespect our law enforcement.

In Philadelphia, the city leadership told the police to stand down, so the protesters looted businesses. This needs to be dealt with. Law enforcement officers have a job to do to protect our communities, citizens and businesses. It is horrible for these major and small business owners to see their businesses destroyed in neighborhoods that these communities needed. This will lead to law enforcement not responding to calls in certain neighborhoods, which will lead to more crime and deaths.

Our country has gone through this before in the 1960's and 1970's during the civil rights movement and anti-war protests. Have we learned nothing from these riots, looting, burning of property and killings?

Here is how real leadership should respond:

  1. Set up designated areas to protest and if they leave this area or try to protest in other areas, immediately arrest them.

  2. Use mounted police, drones and helicopters to identify mob leaders and professional agitators and also to control crowds.

  3. Place police in positions in areas of the city to secure areas by protecting government buildings and private businesses.

  4. Deliver by loudspeaker messages that anyone committing violence or destruction of property (looting and rioting) will face arrest and prosecution as well as any others who promote this action, including protest leaders. Place bail at a minimum limit of $100,000 and no personal bail.

  5. Put in place curfews the first night after an incident that leads to protest, starting at 7 PM to 5 AM.

  6. If they do not protest peacefully and are told by law enforcement to disburse and leave an area, they will be arrested.

  7. If a law enforcement officer (police or firemen) are hurt by the mob, then the assault needs to be prosecuted as a hate crime.

  8. Meet with community leaders a day after an incident to work closely with law enforcement and seek their support to defuse violence. Law enforcement officials are tasked with protecting our society and they deserve our respect and gratitude. Yes, there is a small percentage of law enforcement that needs weeding out and with proper training and leadership this will control these actions.

  9. If they do not follow these officials' warnings, then law enforcement can use water cannons with dye to help identify non-peaceful protesters. If this does not work then if they attack law enforcement, their property, police cars, buildings, other government property or private business then more forceful steps and measures are put in place.

  10. Use of rubber bullets, as tear gas does not work. The mob just throws them back at law enforcement.

  11. If these measures do not work and breakup is non-peaceful, protest of riots and looting encouraged by professional agitators then as last steps to defend law enforcement, use deadly force. No more standing by watching mobs burning buildings, stealing and looting, hurting and disrespecting law enforcement and not being held accountable. Arrest and prosecute them under state and federal law, including the Civil Rights for assault of law enforcement.

If you think I do not know what I am stating, I worked for a Mayor of the fourth largest city in the U.S. in the turbulent 1970s and we did not have riots, looting or unlawful protests. This City did not have the incidents other major cities had when Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, anti-war or civil rights demonstrations, riots and looting. We hosted major events like the Bicentennial, the 200 year anniversary of the birth of our country, Pope John Paul II's visit, major sporting events and did not have any issues as city leadership was prepared. We even dealt with an anti-establishment back to nature group called MOVE and tried a peaceful solution, but it did not work and after all negotiations, it fell apart. The Mayor was left with no choice and took them out. I can attest to this first hand, as I was involved in the negotiations. We knew who the organizers and agitators were and arrested them and tried and convicted them for murder.

These measures need to be put in place again. No more standing by and to let the mob take over a city and its communities that will suffer after this mob leaves. Strong leadership has to take measures and if they are called names for allowing law enforcement to take strong measures it is what they are elected to do. Leaders lead and are not there to win a popularity contest.

One last point, Mayor Rizzo died almost 30 years ago yet the mob in Philadelphia tried to destroy the ten-foot statue of him in front of City Hall. They burned the base of the statue and when two older women tried to stop it they were assaulted but no arrests were made as police just stood by. If he was still the Mayor this would not have happened and he would have supported his law enforcement and put in place the steps listed above. We need leaders to protect its citizens, property and law enforcement. The media is also to blame for glorifying the protestors and rioters.


Brian Ettinger is a practicing attorney and contributing editor to TCR. He is a strong conservative who is concerned about America's future.

Celebrities Should Take The Pledge
By Neland Nobel, Contributing Editor

In the wake of peaceful demonstrations, arson, looting, and property destruction, and in the aftermath of the tragic death of an African American man in police custody, many American celebrities -- actors, artists, and athletes -- have called for the defunding of the police.

Megan Rapinoe, the outspoken soccer player, is a good example, but there are many others.

We understand where she and others are coming from, but just signing a public letter is a gesture of superficial consequence. Far more powerful would be for these celebrities to "take the pledge." This would be a strong individual and collective statement of personal responsibility. It would be more than public relations for the "woke", but a declaration of fundamental change in society that they desire and are uniquely qualified to model for the rest of us.

So here is the pledge that each one of the caring and intelligent luminaries must sign. It should have tremendous impact on those who read it.

We, the undersigned, believe that the United States of America, and all of its history, jurisdictions and institutions, are and were from the beginning, systemically racist.

We believe that the police present a fundamental danger to all people of color.

Therefore, it is our heartfelt and earnest belief that the police forces throughout the nation should be defunded and abolished.

We pledge that we will not, for the duration of our lifetimes, ever call the police for any matter whatsoever. We would never want such despicable people in our lives' orbits.

Nor will we employ private security of any kind, by ourselves or through our employers, as such purveyors of violence and discrimination are not necessary in the world as we see it.

Our objection to the Second Amendment of the Constitution is well known, and therefore its provisions will not be exercised by ourselves, our families, and our employees and associates.

Therefore, we the undersigned do hereby collectively agree to publicly proclaim that we will henceforth live without any so-called police "protection."

We further demand that all law enforcement agencies be made aware of our views, and that they respect this decision by keeping a DNA (do not assist) list current and functioning at all times.

This declaration will be made public in all media formats and we will post appropriate signage on all of properties, real and personal, to designate such property as "do not assist" property.

Insofar as protection of person is concerned, we the undersigned agree to wear a bracelet, hat, or other visible item identifying ourselves as "do not assist" persons.

We do this as a statement of faith in humanity and its potential to advance. We take this first step to provide moral and political leadership to the people. We all must become living examples of our beliefs and philosophy.

What we ask others to do, we must do first.

This declaration shall apply to ourselves, our spouses and/or co-habitators, our offspring, and our pets.


Neland Nobel is an Arizona based free market economist and a contributing editor for TCR.

Willful Ignorance
By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

The Beautiful Wife forwarded a column by Walter Williams, a professor of economics at George Mason University, to a liberal friend of hers. Other than being an economist for half a century and having written ten books, Williams is a Black man who lived through poverty and real racism while growing up in Philadelphia. The ensuing incident tells a large part of the reason why we have the divide in our country. Then it gets worse.

Dr. Williams was not schooling people in this column about the misguided support of the current movement in America that is justifying release of criminals prematurely from jails, looting and rioting in the name of George Floyd and de-policing our cities. He could easily school them on that. What he wrote about in this column was the plight of "the poor" in America.

The column wrote about the fact that people below the poverty line have a better life in America than most middle-class in Europe and certainly have larger living quarters than the Europeans.

He told about all the material things they have like TVs, microwaves, smartphones, dishwashers, etc. I know a lot about what Mr. Williams wrote because I wrote a column on the same subject a few years back. Neither one of us were making things up - contriving things. This is information drawn directly from census figures. This is not information the census people contrived. This is information provided to the census by the people living below our poverty line themselves. As Williams points out, the well-being of these people does not address public subsidies like food stamps, rent subsidies or Medicaid. This should be non-controversial information. People should feel good that the less fortunate among us for the most part are not suffering.

One person it was sent to refused to read it. Another said she read the first paragraph and thought it was a parody. This is not a new reaction. While a center/right-of-center person reads multiple sources form the Left daily because the vast media is basically that, even when you try to provide some other info to the Left they are unwilling to read or hear a contrarian viewpoint. The BW had lunch with these same people and in the discussion she brought up shovel-ready projects. The women had never heard the term. These are college educated women who spout their political views on social media regularly. It is willful ignorance.

I am not blaming them or the people one encounters daily who bathe in their "unawareness." It is the fault of the sources they read. Just last week there was a senatorial hearing in Washington with Rod Rosenstein as the star witness. The first alert I received about the testimony came from the National Review. That never happens. I waited for the ones from the NYT, WaPo, Politico, The Hill, Axios, etc. They never came. The hearing never existed with its revelations from Rosenstein. The next morning none of them mentioned the hearing. Not even The Dispatch which was formed by people who used to be legitimate members of the press. If the testimony harmed Trump or Republicans, rest assured it would have flooded the airwaves.

If the people who rely on these sources are not even exposed to news how do you expect them to know. Obviously, they are prisoners of a deficient press with an agenda. Then matters got even worse.

You may have heard there was a dustup because U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) wrote an opinion piece that was published by the NYT. The subject was about the Insurrection Act and the possible use of the act by President Trump. This act has been implemented many times since it was passed in 1807. Go to Wikipedia and look at the list. Because it was Trump telling Governors that unless they got control of the looting, burning and rioting going on in their states, if he would invoke the act they stated fascism would descend upon our country. Even irresponsible former military leaders who had abdicated their leadership to Ben Rhodes jumped in and criticized Trump. What no one has mentioned is that since Trump lectured the Governors on their responsibility to their citizens the criminals have been abated and the real protestors have been freed to display their first amendment rights.

Cotton's column was not his first in the NYT. They know this guy could be President someday; he is currently a U.S. Senator. That gives them cachet. Despite the fact that the editor lied after a further time and said he had not read the column before publishing, it went through a vigorous editing process with it going back and forth between the NYT and Cotton. The final copy was approved and then published. That is when hell descended upon earth.

The readers of the NYT cancelled their subscriptions in droves. James Bennet, opinion editor, felt he needed to defend his publishing the piece which in itself is a mystery. Isn't that their job? Even he stated that. "We published Cotton's argument in part because we've committed to Times readers to provide a debate on important questions like this. It would undermine the integrity and independence of The New York Times if we only published views that editors like me agreed with, and it would betray what I think of as our fundamental purpose - not to tell you what to think, but to help you think for yourself."

That was until the next paragraph in his explanation where he began to backtrack. "But that probably just sounds platitudinous, particularly at a fragile moment like this in our national life. And it doesn't address specific concerns about our publishing this piece." By the next day he was in full-throated abdication of his first amendment obligations and denied he actually read the column before publication. Bennet apparently watched the Rosenstein hearings and adopted the complete ignorance defense.

David Brooks who writes for the NYT stated he was in favor of publishing the Cotton piece. He said he enjoyed reading pieces with which he does not agree because it makes him think. That is what we used to have as an ideal. Not anymore. Michele Goldberg wrote a column entitled Tom Cotton's Fascist Op-Ed. Did you notice she was advocating fascistic suppression of free speech and freedom of the press while calling another person a fascist?

The worse reaction came from another NYT columnist, Bari Weiss, though she was just explaining the situation. She wrote "The old guard (that would be editors like the 54-year-old Bennet) lives by a set of principles we can broadly call civil libertarianism. They assumed they shared that worldview with the young people they hired who called themselves liberals and progressives. But it was an incorrect assumption. "The new guard has a different worldview," "one articulated by [authors] Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff. They call it 'safetyism,' in which the right of people to feel emotionally and psychologically safe trumps what were previously considered core liberal values, like free speech."

You can bet that every one of these people in the newsroom who were in open revolt are graduates of a prestigious journalism school. They are what we have been calling "snowflakes." They are being minted by our educational system to disregard our most precious rights that defend our freedom. They work at our most highly regarded publications and in 10 years they will be running them.

People often flippantly state we live in dangerous times. This is dangerous folks. Do you think the newsrooms at WaPo, USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, LA Times, etc., are stocked with people any different than the people rending their clothing and forcing their editors to back down from defense of our essential protections?

Yes, many people are willfully ignorant. We cannot blame them when our "free" press is no longer free and advocates keeping their readers ignorant for their own safety. And these people call Trump dangerous.


Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee. You can follow Bruce on Twitter @brucebialosky.


TCR on the Air

Red, White, and Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland on Fridays at 7:30 pm on Houston Public Media TV 8, replaying Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Monday at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.

Red, White & Blue, Like all business and education campuses, our show is off the air as we can't meet to tape. We hope to be back as soon as possible.

About Your Editor

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his twenty-fifth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last nineteen years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 17 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 18th year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on Houston Public Media TV 8 PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary serves on the Board of Directors of American Values, a national pro-family, pro-faith, conservative organization supporting the unity of the American people around the vision of our founding fathers and dedicated to reminding the public of the conservative principles fundamental to the survival of our nation. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.

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