The Conservative Sage

Black Friday proved to be exactly that for many unsuspecting shoppers on Chicago's magnificent mile. As thousands of black Lives Matter affiliated protesters locked arms and blocked entrances to numerous businesses sending would be shoppers away. These latest protest are in response to the release of a police dashcam video surrounding the shooting of black teen Laquan McDonald by white police officer. The video appears to show 17 year old McDonald, armed with a knife moving away from Police when officer Jason Van Dyke opened fire, shooting McDonald 16 times killing him. The video also shows that 14 of the shots were fired into the teen as he lay on the ground. Even some in law enforcement have condemned the shooting. Although the shooting took place in October 2014, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration sat on the video for an entire year in what looks like nothing more than political expediency. Emanuel was in an election year and like he has famously stated on record- "

Today former Chicago Public school chief Barbara Byrd-Bennet was in a place that has become far too familiar to many of it's public officials- a courtroom. Bennet plead guilty to 23 charges of corruption in an alleged $23M no-bid contract kickback scheme. She is the latest in an alarming trend of political corruption nationwide, particularly involving black liberals. Over the past 20 years numerous Illinois elected officials have been brought down in corruption scandals. In spite of the black left's superiority complex, their track record in the state of Illinois is nothing short of dismal. Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., as well as an astonishing 4 of the past 7 Illinois Governors have been sent to prison. Besides Jackson Jr., who completed a 17 month sentence in March for misuse of campaign funds, his Predecessor Mel Reynolds also left office in a ball of shame. In 1992, he was convicted of having sex with underage campaign volunteer. Roland Burris, who was Obama&#

One would think the rising demand for trucking which has driven industry revenues up to $700 billion last year, would be a boon for fleet owners like Jim Burg of Warren Michigan. Thanks to crippling federal regulations, that is not the case. New regulations on emissions, and rules that limit driver hours on the road have driven up cost for truckers.  Hundreds of smaller trucking outfits with fewer than fifteen vehicles have gone out of business as they struggle to adapt to the higher cost. Others have been acquired by larger operators who have the deeper pockets to deal with the increasing expenses."I haven't grown in three years," said Burg. " I don't know what my cost are going to be in two years. Many trucking outfits are struggling to attract enough new drivers as cost increase, forcing many to pay signing bonuses. If that isn't enough, soon the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will require all trucks to be equipped with electronic devices

I recently read the below editorial from a very passionate but grossly uninformed Canadian liberal named Richard Brunt entitled: You American's Have No Idea how Good You Have it With Obama. Mr. Brunt's letter strung together a series of  disconnected economic tidbits which are in dire need of context. I must admit that I found the over zealous reception this letter received from the American left to be depressing although not surprising. There is so much in it to respond to however I'll do my best to educate our northern neighbor. You Americans Have No Idea Just How Good You Have It With Obama Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections. Consider, right now in America, corporate profits are at record highs, the country's adding 200,000 jobs per month, unemployment is below 6%, U.S. gross national product growth is the best of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The dollar is at its strongest levels in ye

As the nation tries to process the shocking and gruesome murders of reporter Alison Parker and Adam Ward on live television by former reporter Vester Flanagan, revelations about his life and state of mind portray a very disturbed individual. A man who lived his life as that of a perpetual victim of racism. Victimization which happens to be a common link to virtually all incidents of mass murder. Not only does Flanagan bear a physical resemblance to mass murder and former LA police officer Christopher Dorner. The 25 page  manifesto which he faxed to CNN shared very similar themes of racism and discrimination-none of which were ever proven. Flanagan's race obsession and victim complex left a tattered career path in its wake. Unfortunately this self defeating mindset is far too prevailing in a large segment of black America. "Vester was an unhappy man," WDBJ  general manager, Jeff Marks, said on-air. "We employed him as a reporter and he had some talent in that res

Atlanta Hawks GM Danny Ferry was bought out of his contract after serving an indefinite 10 month suspension. Ferry was initially suspended for making what many considered to be racial comments about NBA veteran Luol Ding who was being considered by the Hawks as a free agent signee. During a conference call Ferry described Ding by stating "He's got a lot of African in him". and also that "he's the kind of guy who has a nice store out front, but sell you counterfeit stuff out the back". After Ferry's comments were leaked to the public he was immediately placed on indefinite suspension. We have seemed to have reached a new normal whereby non-whites will lose their jobs or are be forced to sell their business interest when they engage in unpopular speech. In the case of Donald Sterling, even in private. The Ferry email was the fallout from an earlier scandal in which Hawks owner Bruce Levenson turned over his own controversial email to the NBA in light of

One of John Kerry's positions in his 2004 Presidential campaign was the notion any military action by the United States should pass a "global test". His position is pretty consistent with that of mainstream the left which believes that the United Nations should be consulted before the united states conducts a preemptive strike on any nation it deems a threat. The United Nations when established in 1945 after WW2 was well intended. It's aim was to prevent another such conflict which claimed an estimated 17 million lives. In spite of it's noble intentions, the UN has failed miserably to stop genocide on earth over the past 5 decades. The most notorious examples are Rwanda, Cambodia and Burundi to name just a few. Currently the UN and the world stands by while Boko Haram and Islamic state rampage through Africa and the middle east respectively, murdering, beheading and leaving decimated towns and villages in their wake. The truth is the United Nations has been a

Jessie Jackson has been waging his latest social and economic justice campaign against Silicon valley for it's lack of diversity. According to Jackson, Silicon Valley has too few blacks, Latino's and woman. He has pressured some of the larger tech companies turn over their employment records and commit millions of dollars to minority recruitment.  At Google, and Twitter, the workforce is approximately 90 percent white and Asian, with about 5 percent African-American and Hispanic. Males make up about 70% of all hires. EBAY which performs the best has 12 percent African-American and Hispanic and 58 percent male. Forbes magazine's annual Midas Touch ranking of the tech's 100 top investors which was just released is worth noting. 25% of the list is comprised of individuals of east Asian or South Asian decent. The list is filled with non-European names like Ji, Chaddha, Liu and Agrawal. East Asians include Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and the success of these groups i

Hillary Clinton's announcement that she would be seeking the Democratic nomination was to be expected. However many things that have happened since her announcement were unexpected. Who among us expected that a veteran politician like Clinton would bungle her campaign rollout as she has? Clinton along with a few trusted aids, piled in a van she dubbed the "Scooby doo van" and embarked on a cross country tour. The stop in Maumee, Ohio outside of Toledo caused the most controversy. Clinton and an aid entered a Chipotle in sunglasses and went completely unrecognized. Clinton most astonishingly failed to identify herself or speak to anyone in the restaurant before leaving with her grub. Two weeks after her announcement Clinton has yet to speak to the press. She has been continuously dogged by the controversy surrounding her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of State. Now serious questions have arisen regarding Clinton foundation donors and possible in

Although the drop in gas prices brings many Americans a great deal of joy when they arrive at the pump, low oil prices isn't net good to the U.S economy. Very little of the downside is acknowledged in the financial press-until now. Falling oil prices are affecting everything from oil services companies to state budgets. Texas, which has rode the oil boom for a decade has seen it's state payroll reduced by 125,000 due to the price of oil. Texas has also seen the number of drilling rigs decrease since oil service companies like Baker Hughes and Halliburton are experiencing cutbacks in oil exploration. Last month oil services giant Schlumbeger announced it could see at many as 20,000 layoffs by June of this year. Baker Hughes announced that it was closing a plant in Texas and laying off 110. Low oil prices have geo-political consequences as well. Russia which has been battling a plummeting ruble due to western sanctions surrounding it's incursion into Ukraine, needs oil to h

  Eli Broad has a lot of time on his hands. With a $7 billion fortune, it's easy to see why. However the 80 year old finance wizard isn't wasting his golden years on the golf course or sailing on his yacht. He's busy pouring millions of dollars into his vision of revitalizing downtown Los Angeles to transform the city into a "cultural Capital" of the world. Broad and his wife of 60 years, Edythe have given over $800 million to arts and culture initiatives in the city. Armed with $2.6 billion through his Broad Foundation, he has also poured millions into various philanthropic endeavors such as medical research and endowing Michigan State's business school (his alma mater). Broad built his fortune over a 60 year career where be built home construction behemoth KB Home and later retirement savings company SunAmerica. The latter which was sold in 1999 for a whopping $18 billion. Since then he has dedicated all his time to philanthropy. Mr. Broad's genero