The Colorado Education Association has decided that “capitalism inherently exploits children, public schools, land, labor, and resources,” and it has passed a resolution so declaring.

CEA believes that capitalism requires exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources. Capitalism is in opposition to fully addressing systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy, (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality.

An earlier version, apparently sanitized for public consumption, was more fulsome in its opprobrium:

CEA believes that capitalism requires exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources and, therefore, the only way to fully address systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality is to dismantle capitalism and replace it with a new, equitable economic system.

Either way, it’s just From each according to his ability, to each according to his need, with the phrasing updated to suit 21^st century Leftist sensibilities (including updating the pronouns, which I didn’t do).

…or at least the bragging news….

My latest Peter Hunt novel, Missing, is out, and it can be had here.

It was well toward dusk when I got to the end of the dirt road; I walked on down to the beach. Some crime scene spots were lighting up the area, and there was Miller, face down in the pebbly sand, a small, dark splotch under his head and another one under his chest. Lt. Jankuwicz was there, still the sharp dressed man in a dark, double-breasted gabardine trench coat, unbuttoned and the belt hanging loose from its loops, a dark suit, and dark ankle boots appropriate for the beach. Cold or no cold, always cool. Gonzo was Gonzo: cargo pants and a fake fur-lined leather jacket.

Crime scene and a couple of forensics folks were doing their tricks with the scene and the body, which was starting to bloat. The forensics team was the same one I’d worked with before when Rick’s apartment had gotten tossed and Jennifer Clark had gotten herself murdered. The one was a babe with a carefully tailored uniform. Her assistant was a slump-shouldered, balding man with round rimless glasses.

Jankuwicz was standing a short distance from Miller’s head where he could look along the length of the body. And look over the whole scene, taking it all in. Gonzo told me Forensics Babe had told him Miller had been dead for a while. The bloating implied a time frame, and the cold messed with the time frame. She’d need him on her table to get a good estimate. Then Gonzo had to do it.

“Want to look at the body?” he said.

I looked at him. “No,” I said. “But maybe I ought.”

Someone had iced a colleague of sorts of another someone who’d tried to ice Hunt. And that was just half the story. The other half involved the weak father of a missing college boy whose younger brother was involved with a group of high school street racers, one of whom drove a car used for smuggling small, high value items.

I first posted this in 2012.  It bears repeating.

Enjoy this holiday.  Take the time to kick back, relax from the hard work you’ve been doing, and just goof off for a bit.

While you’re doing that, though, do something else, also.  Invite that veteran in your neighborhood, who came back from his service wounded or maimed, and his or her family, to your celebration.  Invite the family in your neighborhood whose veteran was killed in his or her service to your celebration.  They need the break and the relaxation and the support, also.  And they’ve earned your respect and remembrance.

To which I add this, excerpted from Alex Horton’s remarks on the significance of the day to him and his:

I hope civilians find more solace in Memorial Day than I do.  Many seem to forget why it exists in the first place, and spend the time looking for good sales or drinking beers on the back porch.  It’s a long weekend, not a period of personal reflection.  At the same time, many incorrectly thank Vets or active duty folks for their service.  While appreciated, it’s misdirected.  That’s what Veterans Day is for.  Instead, they should take some time and remember the spirit of the country and the dedication of those men and women who chose to pick up arms.  They never came home to be thanked, and only their memory remains.

h/t Spirit of America

My new novel, a Peter Hunt tale, Judging, is out and can be obtained in Kindle format via the Author Page on Amazon link just to the right or from Amazon more directly here.

It’s a tale of bad…deeds…and ultimate success.

“He looked at C-C, his eyes wide open, but he decided he was more afraid of me and my pistol.  ‘I went up to her.  I offered her some blow.  She refused.  She yelled at me.  Then I kind of lost it.’
“Then I kind of lost it, too.  A deafening blast ricocheted around the building, and a blinding flash overwhelmed the gloom.  And my eyes.  My pistol went off.  I think I wounded the ceiling.  Groggily, I felt hands on me, bearing me down.  My pistol was ripped out of my hand, and my arms were jerked around behind me.  I felt cuffs snap on.”
After that, Hunt had to deal with an angry detective agency manager, partner, and friend. And an angry prosecutor. And angry Feds. All that was only backdrop, though, as he worked a rape case, drug smuggling, human trafficking. And a teenage girl that just appeared on his doorstep.

I hope you like it.

That’s the view of the Left because, after all, average American individual[s are] morally and intellectually inadequate to serious and consistent conception of [our] responsibilities as…democrat[s].

That contempt for us is made explicit by The Washington Post. Writing for the Editors, Director of Graduate Studies for the Political Science and International Affairs MA Programs, Associate Professor and Assistant Chair [who’s she/Marquette trying to convince of her importance: us or Azari?] Julia Azari wrote—and she’s serious:

A better primary system would empower elites to bargain and make decisions, instructed by voters.

Because Elites know better. We’re just dumb farmers and factory workers in flyover country, can’t even learn to code. But WaPo/Azari wasn’t done.

The system as it works now…What it’s not great at is choosing among the many candidates…. A process in which intermediate representatives—elected delegates who understand the priorities of their constituents—can bargain without being bound to specific candidates might actually produce nominees that better reflect what voters want.

Because those “intermediates,” those Know Better Elites, will perforce do a better job than us unwashed masses in choosing who we hire to lead us for a cycle. But wait…

Different states jockey for influence in the official primary. … Elites try to shape the decision early on. Everyone is doing guesswork about what others want. Reforms to the process should try to make that guessing a bit more informed.

It’s not enough to freeze us commoners out of the process, even the States in our federated republic should be denied. Know Betters should be able to do more than merely “try to shape” from early stages.  Here’s the Know Betters’ freeze:

The results [of the reformed process] would be public but not binding; a way to inform elites about voter preferences.

The people’s choice is not binding on anything. I’m reminded of an old spaghetti sauce ad: Give it here, Rosa; I’ll decide, says the father to his wife at the family’s dinner table.

The piece closed with this:

Why not invest some resources in finding out what voters really think, and then allow party delegates to figure out how those opinions can translate into a winning ticket?

We do know what voters “really think:” they voted. Sadly, though, they thought wrong, and Know Betters need to correct the error. Party must decide who will be on the general election ballot, not primary election voters. Sort of like the Communist Party of China does for Hong Kong.

And this “reform” will negate average Americans‘ choices in the general election by dictating to us the Party lists for our choices.

The attitude that Elites—Know Betters—should rule was confirmed in Wednesday’s Progressive-Democratic Presidential candidate debate Wednesday night. When asked by one of the moderators in the end game of the debate whether, at a brokered convention, the candidate entering the brokerage with the plurality of delegates (elected by actual voters) should be the nominee,

…all but Senator Bernie Sanders (I, VT) rejected the notion that the candidate with the “most delegates” should become the Democratic nominee.

Because they thought voters were going to make the wrong choice and nominate Sanders.

This is the gang that wants to rule over our nation.

Aside: the WaPo piece originally was headlined It’s time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president, but the tabloid doesn’t even have the courage of its own convictions; after some social media opprobrium, the editors collectively [sic] ducked under their desks and changed the headline to its present It’s time to switch to preference primaries. This, too, is representative of the gang that wants to rule over our nation.