Comments by John Steed | Eastern North Carolina Now

Here is information on the Republican statewide runoff candidates:
www.beaufortcountynow.com

Commented: Thursday, May 9th, 2024 @ 11:59 am By: John Steed

Poor management in the public schools is the result of the tail (superintendant) wagging the dog (school board). Too many school board members act like the superintendant is their boss, when in reality, he is their employee. The school board members are the elected policy makers sent their by the voters to run the school system. The superintendant is their chief bureaucrat. Many of our Beaufort County School Board members are little more than yes-men or yes-women to superintendant Cheeseman, and that badly needs to change if we are to get out of the rut we are in.

Proper management would include setting expectations for school improvement and basing any raises on meeting those standards. For the central office and superintendant that should include scores districtwide increasing to the expected level. If not, no raise for them. For each school, there should be a similar arrangement for principles and assistants for improving the scores of that school. Teachers are paid less, so they should probably get a cost of living raise, but should get a bonus or a further raise if their class exceeds the expected levels. Reward success and punish failure. That is the only way our schools will improve.

Commented: Wednesday, May 8th, 2024 @ 4:28 pm By: John Steed

Not only is Harriet Beecher Stowe a white woman, but her book is a novel, a work of fiction that was written with a political agenda.

If you want to read an anti-slavery factual perspective from an eyewitness (which Stowe was not), a far better source is the chapter on slavery in Charles Dickens book on his travels in the US. Although a renowned novelist himself, that book of Dickens is non-faction based on his personal observations, and he highly critizes both slavery and slave owners.

It is also interesting that during the War Between the States, Dickens never bought the north's narrative about fighting to abolish slavery, which claim he described as "specious humbug designed to conceal the north's desire for economic control of the wouthern states."

Commented: Monday, May 6th, 2024 @ 12:44 pm By: John Steed

A book? How about "The Great Republic", a history of the United States written by former Britich Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill? If you bothered to read that, as I have, you will find Churchill's viewpoints on the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 very similar to American viewpoints.

As to the War Between the States, both the northern and southern versions leave out things. Both are politicized and always have been. Some on each side even objected to their side's slanting of the war, like Sherman who after the war objected that the war had not been about slavery and if it had been, he would have fought for the south.

The most objective viewpoints on the war are those from people in other countries who observered or studied it, like Sir Winston Churchill, who devoted a chapter in his book on US history, "The Great Republic" to the causes of the war. Churchill concluded that the main cause of the war was a rupture between two competing concepts of government that had existed since the founding of the county, between the concept of a powerful cental government espoused originally by Alexander Hamilton and represented in 1860 by Lincoln and the north, on one hand, and concept of limited government, originally espoused by THomas Jefferson, and represented in 1860 by Jefferson Davis and the south, on the other.

The north's narrative of the war being about slavery was also disputed by two contemporary observers of high stature. Novelist Charles Dickens, a leader in the British anti-slavery movement described the north's attempts to say the war was about slavery as "specious humbug designed to conceal their desire for economic control of the southern states." Similarly, Karl Marx wrote "the war is not about slavery, it is a war of economic subjugation by the north against the south."

Then there is British political philosopher Lord Acton, best known for his quote that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" who praised the Confederate constitution as being a great example of democracy that corrected the defects in the US Constitution.

As Churchill wrote, the south stood for limited government, something that is badly needed now. Those Jeffersonian concepts would solve a lot of what is wrong in America and in the western world. President Jefferson Davis, in his memoir, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" (another book you should read) pointed out that the principles of limited government were lost when the south lost the war, and he correctly predicted the continued increase in the power of the federal government that has occured since that time.

I can see why a big government advocate such as yourself does not want the limited government perspective of the south and of Thomas Jefferson taught. And it is amusing that someone such as yourself who does little but regurgitate the far left narrative would try to tell others to read different viewpoints.

Commented: Friday, May 3rd, 2024 @ 11:23 am By: John Steed

Okay, lets take the Revolutionary War or even the War of 1812 where the US fought the UK. There are not going to be significant differences in they way they are presented in modern British accounts versus modern American accounts. Both sides of those conflicts will present objective history.

Where the problem comes in is where some ideology, like the communists or the woke are trying to politicize history, and that is when the distortions start flying. It is the totalitarian ideologies that are absolutely the worst for this. As George Orwell wrote. "The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."

Commented: Thursday, May 2nd, 2024 @ 10:37 am By: John Steed

Well, NO, Jim Crow is on YOU. It was your party, the Democrats, who proposed it and all voted for it. My party, the Republicans voted AGAINST Jim Crow. That is the actual historical record that you want to sweep under the rug. Own it, Bobbie, Jim Crow is YOURS.

As far as air traffic controllers, you were the one who brought up the year 1776 in reference to them. Regardless of the year, air traffic controllers are FEDERAL jobs, dumbass, and state Jim Crow laws did not apply to federal jobs at any time.

And the issue of the present DEI problem with air traffic controllers never had anything to do with race in the first place. It has to do with Biden giving DEI preference to these categories:

Hearing (total deafness in both ears)
Vision (Blind)
Missing Extremities
Partial Paralysis
Complete Paralysis, Epilepsy
Severe intellectual disability
Psychiatric disability
Dwarfism

Commented: Wednesday, May 1st, 2024 @ 9:53 am By: John Steed

President Dwight Eisenhower proudly displayed a portrait of General Robert E. Lee in the Oval Office at the White House his entire presidency. In his own words, here is why Eisenhower so respected General Lee:

"General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was a poised and inspiring leader, true to the high trust reposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his faith in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.

From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the Nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.

Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall."

Commented: Tuesday, April 30th, 2024 @ 10:09 pm By: John Steed

I do not remember ever seeing Newsmax or Fakebook cited or linked on the BO, and I could probably count the tiny number of times I have seen Fox cited on one hand.

Bobbie's positions, on the other hand, could be easily found at Think Progress, the left's Talking Points Memo, or even the Daily Worker. He is way off the left side of the spectrum.

Commented: Tuesday, April 30th, 2024 @ 2:08 pm By: John Steed

Here is renowned Constitutional Law professor Jonathan Turley' column from "The Hill" on how Alvin Bragg seems not to be taking real law too seriously:
jonathanturley.org

Commented: Monday, April 29th, 2024 @ 8:44 pm By: John Steed

Johnny Henry's attempt to deflect by regurgitating Jack-boot Smith's version of the Presidential Records Act conflicts with the interpretations of a number of major legal experts and also conflicts with how these matters have been handled with other former presidents. But most importantly it fails to address the main issue I brought up, and that was the classified documents retained by Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, neither of whom had ANY protection under the Presidential Records Act, and who retained lots of documents they had no legal right to keep and kept them in very insecure locations, a bathroom in Clinton's case and boxes stacked by his Corvette in his garage with Biden. The Biden DOJ and the corrupt FBI have put both of them above the law in our two tier system of "justice">

Commented: Monday, April 29th, 2024 @ 11:14 am By: John Steed

Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton were certainly above the law in our two tier "justice" system. They had no rights whatsoever under the Presidential Records Act to take classified documents, but they did, and lots of them. The crooked, bent, partisan FBI and DOJ let them go scot free. Trump, who DID have rights to retain documents under the Presidential Records Act, was treated wholly differently and the FBI / DOJ goons went after him, hammer and tongs. "Justice" in America these days clearly depends on your politics.

Commented: Sunday, April 28th, 2024 @ 9:48 pm By: John Steed

What is really needed in the next administration is a special prosecutor on election interference to punish those who have engaged in politically motivated Stalin Show Trials. Letitia James, Judge Engoron, Alvin Bragg, Judge Merchan, Fani Willis, and Jack Smith should all be prosecuted for election interference. So should those involved in subverting the 2020 election like Marc Elias and Mark Zuckerburg.

The Biden DOJ has prosecuted and jailed a comic for a satire on Democrat efforts to change voting methods as "election interference" so they have opened the door. What these scoundrels in our justice system have done with their Stalin Show Trials is so much worse and so much more damaging to our democracy. They should be punished and punished severely.

Commented: Sunday, April 28th, 2024 @ 9:17 am By: John Steed

Since these womens groups are suing the Biden regime over its dictatorial act of trying to rewrite by executive fiat a law passed by Congress, local schools should volunteer to become plaintiffs in these cases. Otherwise, local schools should tell the Biden regime to stick its federal funds where the sun does not shine. Congress makes law not the Dictator Biden.

Not only has Florida become the first state to tell the lawless Biden regime that they will not comply, but Franciscan University has become the first university to do so. www.breitbart.com

Commented: Saturday, April 27th, 2024 @ 12:53 pm By: John Steed

Poor infrastructure management in one country does not justify its citizens invading a neighboring country. We need a president who will build the wall and defend our borders from invaders not a president who breaks our own immigration laws in a way that benefits the criminal human smuggling cartels in Mexico.

Commented: Thursday, April 25th, 2024 @ 3:39 pm By: John Steed

Bobbie may have just outted himself as an internet troll from China. The US eliminated smog from fossil fuels decades ago, but China has failed to do so to this day. So if Bobbie is "choking on fossil fuel emissions" he must be sitting in a troll factory in China.

Bobbie is also clearly economicly illiterate as he does not seem to understand the economic implications of the globalist climate policies.

Commented: Monday, April 22nd, 2024 @ 9:38 pm By: John Steed

You are one keyboard jockey who has no credibility as you would not know a fact or the truth if they jumped up and bit you on the ass, Bobbie. You make up numbers that are not even close to even the bent CDC numbers.

And that mindless gibberish in your second line you so often post should probably bring you to the attention of the "red flag law" folks.

Commented: Friday, April 19th, 2024 @ 12:03 pm By: John Steed

WE need to remember in November that AG Josh Stein running for the Democrats to replace Cooper was also a "Covid Nazi" who supported these police state tactics by Cooper. Places like Florida, Sweden, and South Dakota that kept businesses open had a better Covid record than the authoritarian "lockdown" states and countries. The lockdown crowd like Cooper and Stein, was blowing smoke with science fiction, not real science.

Commented: Thursday, April 18th, 2024 @ 9:50 pm By: John Steed