FROM THE OPINION PAGE Sometimes it is good to know a bit more about the people serving us – Bluefield Daily Telegraph

If you follow politics, you know that politicos are in the news all the time, and they are highlighted for the supposed good and the alleged bad they do. Much of the bad they allegedly do, unless they are Republicans, is kept quiet, however.

Herewith some of the insider info on two of them.

Rep.Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, D-Minn.,says America is a giant system of oppression needing an immediate dismantling far beyond current calls for criminal justice reform. She told constituents recently that most national conversations fail to realize the size and scope of change she envisions, as reported by the Washington Times.

We cant stop at criminal justice reform or policing reform, she said during a press conference. We are not merely fighting to tear down the systems of oppression in the criminal justice system. We are fighting to tear down systems of oppression that exist in housing, in education, in health care, in employment, [and] in the air we breathe.

She wants the U.S. to guarantee homes for all, due to what she thinks are racial disparities in home ownership. And she supports the Green New Deal because we know that environmental racism is real.

As long as our economy and political systems prioritize profit without considering who is profiting, who is being shut out, we will perpetuate this inequality. So, we cannot stop at [the] criminal justice system. We must begin the work of dismantling the whole system of oppression wherever we find it.

These arent the words of your every-day regressive liberal/socialist, these are the words of someone whose family fled their home country, lived as refugees for four years, and eventually came to America and earned asylum. Why did her family choose America?

Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. Her family fled the countrys civil war when she was eight-years-old, lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for four years before coming to the United States in 1992. Her father drove a taxi for some time before getting a job with the U.S. Postal Service. They secured asylum in 1995 and eventually settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Omar became a citizen in 2000.

Having been in such horrible circumstances that they had to flee their native country to another poor African country, and then coming to the United States, where so many in similar circumstances yearn to be, it is an interesting question as to why she wants to change everything in the country her family worked so hard to come to for relief. It would not be unfair to expect her to be a thankful immigrant.

But she is not.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, also a Democrat, has generated a great deal of news since the pandemic began. But who, exactly, is this guy?

De Blasio wasnt known as Bill de Blasio untilJanuary 2002.He was born Warren Wilhelm Jr., but changed his name in 1983 to Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm. The reason he gave was to honor his mothers Italian heritage. He received court approval to officially change his name again in 2002 to a name he had been using, and became the Bill de Blasio we have all come to know and love.

He has indulged in some things along the way that would cause many folks to raise an eyebrow. For example, he supported the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua during the 1980s.

De Blasio opposed the Supreme Courts decision to allow corporations, political nonprofits and trade associations more freedom to donate to political campaigns. But he is less fervent against labor unions, like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), donating to campaigns. In fact, the 1199 SEIU New York State Political Action Fund and the SEIU Local 1957 Committee of Interns and Residents supported de Blasio to the tune of $14,850in 2017.

And while he decries big money in politics, he quietly collects money from anti-American George Soros and his family. A large group of the Soros clan helped him win his first mayoral campaign to the tune of $29,875. Soros and two of his sons gave $12,400 to a subsequent mayoral campaign.

The way he operated his campaign earned him a healthy fine from the New York City Campaign Finance Board, of nearly $48,000 in 2016. The violations included failing to report transactions, accepting over-the-limit contributions and taking contributions from unregistered political committees.

De Blasio ran for the Democrat presidential nomination beginning in May of 2019, was critical of fellow candidate and former vice president Joe Biden, but dropped out in September when his candidacy failed to get traction.

It is also interesting to note the number of media people associated with the Democrats.

Jay Carney went from Time to the White House press secretarys office. Shailagh Murray went from the Washington Post to the Vice Presidents office while married to Neil King at the Wall Street Journal. Neil King left the Wall Street Journal for Fusion GPS. Linda Douglass went from ABC News to the White House, then to the Atlantic. Jill Zuckman went from the Chicago Tribune to the to the State Department. Stephen Barr went from the Post to the Labor Department.

James H. Smokey Shott, a resident of Bluefield, Va., is a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. Contact him at james.shott@yahoo.com

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