Category Archives: Abuse of Power

EXTORTION BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL EXTORTION

Published / by Lee Kessler / 3 Comments on EXTORTION BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL EXTORTION

BY LEE KESSLER

You can call it Diversity, Equity, Inclusion.   You can call it ESG.  You can call it Reparations.  No matter how you dress this verbal conflagration that is racing across the world, infecting the logic and common sense of otherwise good, stable nations and people, extortion is still extortion.

There are legal definitions for extortion of course.   But, even figuratively, Dictionary.com defines extortion as the act of “using violence, threats, intimidation, or pressure from one’s authority to force someone to hand over money (or something of value) or do something they don’t want to do.”.

The news is full daily of people who are victims of the definition above, especially of being made to do something they don’t want to do, or prevented from doing something they do want to do.   For example, having watched the Oversight Committee hearing with the FBI Whistleblowers who were extorted not to blow the whistle, it was obvious they went ahead on their own convictions, and suffered mightily as the FBI withdrew money, support, livelihood, and their good names.

Another news agency reported last week that the environment in the FBI is now toxic, and that FBI employees are terrified.   Of what, you ask?   Of losing their jobs, and other retaliations obviously. They fear loss of homes, income, respect, titles–symbols of success.  I would argue though that character matters more.  One might not have a legacy income to leave his children, but the legacy of honor and courage is a far more important example for them to have witnessed.  Money comes and goes. There are all kinds of ways of making money. But character is lasting.

Last week also a Toronto Blue Jays pitcher, Anthony Bass, was sheepishly apologizing for having posted something that some “god” somewhere deemed unacceptable and who extorted him by the new means of silencing people and getting them to violate–if not even abrogate–their own First Amendment rights.   It was clear he was in fear of being sent back to the Minors, after having worked his whole life to get to be a Major League pitcher.

Dozens of corporations across this country are spitting on their loyal customers of decades as they race to embrace DEI, and outdo each other in the Wokism flavor of the month.   Why?   Again, what “god” are they satisfying?  Who is threatening them so much that they risk, and are experiencing, massive drops in sales revenue, stock prices, customer loyalty and more?  Who is threatening them with being labeled racist, or a bigot, intimidating them to the degree that all rational thinking has left the boardrooms?

The examples are too many and too frequent to catalog, but it seems clear that the message to the lone individual or corporation that tries to stand on its original principles and morals is this:  “Do as we demand OR we will hurt you!”  And that, I submit, is extortion—and a diabolical one at that.  Demanding money at gunpoint in order to provide “protection” has long been deemed illegal.   Mob syndicates when caught experience criminal prosecution.

But those who would implant and enforce DEI and ESG know that they are skirting the law here, since they hide behind the guise of “merely representing the will of fair-minded people.”  I do not know whether or not the United States has in fact devolved to the point that bullying people into submission is the new modus operandi, embraced and agreed to by our fellow countrymen.  I pray we have not sunk to that barbarism in human interactions.

I myself was raised with the old adage of “two wrongs don’t make a right.”   Adherence to that one truth alone would stop almost all this nonsense.  No matter how wronged you or I feel we have been, that does not justify our embracing the techniques of our wrongdoer and deploying them ourselves.   That can only lead to an ever-expanding sphere of one wrong being met with another wrong which is met with yet another wrong.  The society spirals down, and brutality rises.  Two wrongs make two wrongs, period!

Further, any of us who have been bullied somehow understand to either stop the bully, or get away from him.  To become a bully ourselves is to assume the identity of the enemy.  I would like to suggest that if you have been bullied, the wrong thing to do is to become a bully.  Put simply, at that point, the bully wins.

When I was young I was bullied because my father was the strict school principal, and the way people felt they could hurt him—since they were too cowardly to face him straight up—was to bully his little girl.  Running to my mom in tears, she taught me to understand why I was being attacked, and to decide those people were not worthy of my attention, let alone my friendship.  Bolstered by that sense of reality—that people have to qualify for one’s friendship—I chose to walk away, or challenge directly, but without using any of their degrading tactics.

That in turn served me well in my adult years in Hollywood.  I want you to understand that the person writing this commentary has factually been discriminated against and “extorted” because of my gender, my race, my age, my religion, and my politics.  I have personally paid a price financially and career-wise for my refusal to yield to someone’s demands that I do something I felt was wrong, or harm someone else, or abandon my beliefs and values or they would see that “I never worked again.”  The words of my mother have never left me.  Those people who would do that to another are not worthy of me. And they are not worthy of you!

And very specifically I remember always something my father taught me.  He said one day when he was under attack by townspeople and being pressured to back off a project he knew would be vital to the education and safety of his students, and indeed the town, “Lee, you don’t live this life to be liked.  You live it to be effective.”

I never forgot.   My message to all who are torn now between doing the right thing even though there will be repercussions, or just cowing in the face of the extortion demands of those in authority over you—you may feel the only option you have in order to survive is to yield, to submit.  I doubt it.   And that is my parting gift to you: that doubt.

www.LeeKessler.net

www.whitekingrising.com

Has DA Alvin Bragg inadvertently created an alliance between African-Americans and Donald Trump?

Published / by Lee Kessler / Leave a Comment

Has DA Alvin Bragg inadvertently created an alliance between African-Americans and Donald Trump? What a question!

Though this would likely be the farthest thing from his mind, and completely contrary to his intentions in his unjust and unethical indictment of a former President and front-runner in an upcoming Presidential election, Alvin Bragg may have just forged an alliance that would have been considered unlikely, if not impossible, before last Tuesday.

Many do not realize that in the election of 2020, then-President Trump picked up significant percentages of voters amongst minorities that historically don’t vote for Republican candidates.   His popularity amongst African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians was rising in all categories.  Talk about forgotten men and women.   Those are people that the Democrats view as a cinch for them.  It never occurred to them that those groups are comprised of individuals—not voting blocks who swim like a school of fish.  And, as the smart, common sense people they are, those voters were noticing something.

They noticed that Trump funded, for the long term, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, eliminating those fine institutions from having to come begging every year for funding.  He lowered the unemployment rate amongst African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans to the lowest point in history.  If my memory serves me, he further raised the wages and incomes in each of these categories significantly, using his economic policies in an attempt to raise everyone into the middle class, and to increase household incomes.

In a multi-pronged approach to the crisis in our inner cities, he brought school choice and school vouchers to the table, making it possible for young boys and girls who might be trapped in inadequate educational systems to have a chance at a good education and better life.   And he was putting that into the hands of the parents. Until the election of 2020.

Coupled at the same time were his initiatives to bring business, money, and job opportunities into those same communities, making it possible for the neighborhoods to prosper, and for future generations to have a true place in our country.

Even more importantly as I watched him listen to the issues brought before him about the Justice System, and its unfairness to blacks and minorities, he was creating prison sentencing reform—not by just willy-nilly releasing hardened and violent offenders as is happening in many cities today—but by working to get the prison sentences proportionate to the crime in the first place.

Many did not get the word on any of this, since Big Media didn’t want to cover the possibility that someone could actually be raised up, given that the controlling politicians make money and win elections by keeping a people oppressed.  Many did get the word, however, and I believe that contributed to his steady rise in voters from those groups.

But there was one area for sure that African-Americans in particular continually rail against.   That is what they refer to as “unequal justice under the law.”   Though there are likely many grievances, two stand out to me.  One is the perceived prejudice against a person because of his skin color and economic strata.  The second is the over-charging of individuals who really can’t defend themselves in the court system, where public defenders may not provide adequate defense.  That leads to higher conviction numbers of excessively charged crimes, resulting in excessive sentencing.  And, in my opinion, it has opened the door to fears of persecution by our Justice system, and to manipulation by people who benefit from citizen against citizen.

I am not here to debate that, but just to point out a perception that is widely embraced, and which is hindering the prosperity of our great nation.  It is also destroying our humanity.

Then along comes Alvin Bragg, who has just now, with bias and malice aforethought persecuted the exact opposite type of citizen:  an older white male who is wealthy, and who nonetheless has been hounded relentlessly, treated constantly with a double standard, “pulled over” and “searched” for just being there, and now excessively charged.  Misdemeanor elevated to felony with no statement of the related felony.   One charge multiplied 34 times it seems to exaggerate the alleged threat of the person charged.  And consecutive sentencing—if convicted—of over 100 years.

And in so doing I believe Alvin Bragg will be “hoisted by his own petard”—unintentionally bringing together two formerly unlikely bedfellows.  Those being the African-American community that has been long-suffering and the white guy who was enacting policies designed to help in those arenas.  No one on either side is perfect.  But common sense citizens I believe can still recognize when someone else is being mistreated, and that it is not all about color. 

I believe we have an innate sense of fair play as American citizens, and we do struggle and resist when we see unfair, unequal treatment under the law.  Donald J. Trump had an intellectual understanding for sure about the problems in the system. He no doubt had empathy. But, until his arrest, it was not visceral or personal.   Now he understands at a level that no other President or other-wise interested, albeit a bit sanctimonious, politicians understand.

This is no longer about only black people being mistreated, or the poor.  When it crossed into the current charges and legal battles, it transcended the arena the manipulators play in.   They wanted it to be about powerful politicians against other powerful wealthy people—with the victory occurring on some elevated plane.  And they wanted it to be about impoverished minorities on a lower plane.

But Bragg’s actions have breached the divider between the privileged and the unprivileged.  He has torn open a hole, revealing the problem is not really about color or education.   It is about corruption, ambition, and complete disregard for the nation as a whole.  For the first time white Americans who may have intellectually understood and debated the plight of their fellow citizens, without viscerally understanding it, are now witnessing unequal justice under the law happening to them.

Americans have always come together when there is a common enemy.  Remember how we were after 9/11? If there is no common enemy—in either person or ideology—we tend to drift and just wave at each other’s dilemmas without joining forces.  Well, Alvin Bragg may have just created a common enemy—unequal justice under the law—which transcends now and hereafter color, ethnicity, education, wealth, and much more.   And in so doing, two groups who want to be in harmony but have not attained the higher levels we are capable of, may now be looking not at each other as the source of their burdens, but rather at hate-filled corrupt men and women who would suppress and repress their fellow countrymen–no matter their color.

Now that, to me, is a cause worthy of uniting us.  And it may provide to this Presidential candidate the empathy and support of people who know exactly how he feels, and more importantly, who now know he knows exactly how they feel.  That alliance, if the individuals who are aware of what I just said unite, will change politics, the nation, and the history of our people forever.   Wouldn’t it be deliciously ironic if the malevolent Bragg brought about the uniting of the minority communities, who frankly have been taken for granted by the people they have voted for, and the would-be President who formerly tried to help.  Personally, I love irony!  And I despise injustice, anywhere, anytime.  How about you?

While We Look to the Skies, a Cancer Metastasizes

Published / by Lee Kessler / 2 Comments on While We Look to the Skies, a Cancer Metastasizes

By Lee Kessler

Since last week, the Media and the American public have been mesmerized and absorbed by the aerial phenomena occurring over the homeland, meaning the sovereign territory of the United States.  It is non-stop coverage and will likely remain so for several weeks.  Important as it is, it is nonetheless a diversion to distract from some very important hearings going on in Washington, D.C.—especially those related to abuse of power, and possible collusion over the last three years between the FBI, Big Tech, and Social Media relevant to possible election interference, and manipulation of the public’s perception.  Not to mention hearings about the chaos and disintegration of our Southern border.

Even more insidious though is the fact that while we look wherever we are told to look, a “cancer” has metastasized in the United States—threatening the Heartland of our great nation.  By that, I mean those states that do not border the Atlantic or Pacific oceans.

A few weeks ago I wrote a commentary about California being the prototype for all social and cultural attacks upon our country and its values.  It was my contention that one should watch all things that are implemented in California, with the expectation that they will soon be spreading to other parts of the country—”coming to a theater near you.”  One of the examples was a “universal Income” experiment going on in a section of Los Angeles where the citizens are being compensated an extra $1000 or so a month because they are disadvantaged in some way.  Another is proposed reparations.  If you follow the news, you know by now that those “ideas” are spreading to other states like Massachusetts, New York etc.

But now, a “cancer” that we have all had our attention on for at least the last two years has metastasized and is growing and spreading into areas you never considered.  We have all watched the parents in Loudoun County, Va fight valiantly to regain control of the curriculum their children are being exposed to.   They have been maligned, called domestic terrorists, and vilified as they continue their battle to regain control of their children’s education.  It is a reflection of how dire the situation has become when a battle has begun about parental rights with children versus the government’s rights with children.   One belongs universally in the column of free nations, the other in the column of communist or totalitarian nations.

Well, brace yourselves.   My home is in Montana.  It is a magnificent state with a rich history.   It is referred to as “God’s Country” and “The Last Best Place.”   I moved here from California in 2002, fulfilling a lifelong dream.  What I am about to say is relevant to every citizen in Montana, and more importantly, to every citizen in this country—especially those states considered the Heartland, those states that do not border an ocean, and who most often reflect traditional and conservative values.

As an author of prescient political fiction, I am accustomed to people bringing to me stories and proof of what I have written about in my novels.   For more than 15 years enthusiastic followers have done what I call “confirming research”  by revealing that what I wrote about has now happened.   I have grown comfortable to a degree with my books playing out in the real world.   But nothing could have prepared me for what I just learned.  The following is anecdotal.

In a city near me, a city with only one school district that I am aware of, a scene I speculated upon in “White King and the Seat at the Table,” and which I thought really stretched credulity for the state of Montana, appears to have now occurred in the real world.

A school Principal/Superintendent was hired from California.  (That should be your first alarm bell.)  At first the individual appeared to be a good addition to the district.  By the second year however I am told they announced to the teachers that they were removing History from the curriculum, and replacing it with Humanities.  These are two distinct disciplines, and you can probably guess where this is headed.

Shortly after, portraits of Washington and Lincoln were arbitrarily removed from the Kindergarten classroom, to be destroyed.   Both portraits were salvaged by a teacher.  Next, all teachers were told they were not to say “boys” and “girls” but to refer to everyone as a genderless “friends” category because the administration felt children were too young to really know yet what sex they were, and should not be called a boy or a girl.  Books were introduced in the elementary school showing and discussing sex and sexuality.

Teachers who stood up and fought back against this perversion of education models and standards were ostracized, threatened, isolated, and eventually fired or forced to quit.  Their “union” folded in the face of the possibility of filing suit against the District by saying that since previous claims of misconduct had been denied, theirs would not be taken seriously either.

This “cancer” persisted however.  Even when the teachers who stood up were no longer employed by the school, they were purportedly blacklisted and prevented from getting new jobs in their chosen field, even blacklisted and vilified in new, lesser jobs in the community.  Secretly parents and business owners agreed with them,  and gave them the thumbs up.  But no one has had the courage to stand up  and fight this “cancer” in the education system.  Given what I write about, I know they fear for their own jobs or businesses.

This is one of the symptoms of Fascism—a populace that is too cowed to fight back.   A populace that has succumbed.  Free speech and the right to protest have died.  Anyone who may attempt to will be cancelled and censored.

The Principal in question has left—and no one knows where they have gone.   I personally would suspect they have returned to California, mission accomplished.   However, they have been replaced by someone they knew from California.  To my beloved fellow Montanans, said to you by one who chose to leave the state of California, and embrace the spirit of Montana, you are now in Stage Four.   In the world of medicine, when a cancer has left its original site, and metastasized, it is now known as Stage Four.   Generic treatment of the cancer is no longer as effective.  When the source of the cancer is detected, then precise treatments that are known to destroy it are developed.  Blanket cancer treatment often misses the target, or hits the wrong target.   But location of the real source opens the door for a targeted treatment regimen.

And I would say to everyone of my fellow countrymen, the “cancer” has spread to you too.   But, if you do not identify the actual source of it, you will not be able to defeat it.   You will engage in arduous protracted battles, and eventually succumb.  Knowing the source, you have some hope.  And that is why you must watch ALL cultural and social experiments that arise in California.   In the name of Democracy, they are the true threat to our democracy.  As one who spent years in Hollywood, I can assure you this crew knows Public Relations, and how to manipulate even the sanest in America.

If this shocked you that it could occur in MONTANA, then know that none of us are safe.  This malignancy has taken hold.  We are in the fight of our lives.   For, if the Heartland of the United States falls, the United States falls.   And, if the United States falls, freedom and self-governance around the world fall.

From the Blog,  “Incoming Tomatoes” at:   www.leekessler.net

The Trophy Generation Grew Up

Published / by Lee Kessler / Leave a Comment

Over a decade ago I remember having a conversation with a friend who was befuddled by the idea of everyone getting a trophy, just for showing up–not for excelling. My friend was lamenting the horrible lack of values and success principles that represented, and he asked, “what’s it going to be like when this ‘trophy generation’ grows up?” Looking back I am sure he was considering what it would be like for the Millennials when they came of age and had neither the emotional maturity, the drive, the pursuit of excellence mindset, or even skill sets to encounter life. In his mind, I am sure he felt life would give them a beating.

Instead, the Trophy Generation is giving us a beating. They have grown up–in years at least–and the entire generation is now voting. That generation is defined as those born between 1981 and 1996. They are now between 25 and 41. They are your doctors, your teachers, members of city councils, your ministers, middle to senior management in corporations, founders of technology companies, your district attorneys, your mayors, and members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. They have done what every young person of every generation has done. They have started into life, and are making their way into positions of senior authority.

The difference is we now know the consequences of a generation where significant numbers are still living at home even into their 30s, where they have been educated into the anti-American woke culture, are driven by their emotions rather than logic, where they can repeat rote slogans, but lack the intellectual curiosity or integrity to even scratch the surface of analysis to think for themselves. We know they run in packs, supporting each other’s viewpoints and neuroses.

And they are in charge now–including in the political arena! Following what I considered to be a lamentable, yet predictable, outcome of the 2022 elections in many arenas, there is a lot of head scratching going on as to how we could have two elections in a row where the margin of victory for either candidate was razor thin, and how our country, whose electoral system was the envy of the world, has descended into distrust and uncertainty.

I believe the answer lies here. The Baby Boomers were once the largest generation in the US, and controlled almost all of business, education, and government. However the US Census Bureau reported that the Millennials have now become the largest generation, as of 2019. And that the Millennial Generation, and younger, now comprise more than half of the US population–166 million.

In my opinion, that means that politics as we knew it is over. This group is now voting. And they are voting based upon their world view and life view–basically influenced by what they experienced in their education, good or bad. And if they grew up expecting to be rewarded for just being there, and not contributing to excellence, they will be takers more than givers, and they outnumber the US voter who was raised with a fierce work ethic and sense of personal responsibility.

Where I think we missed this lies with us spending time wondering how the “JFK Democrats” and moderate neighbors we grew up with and competed with–who are patriots too–suddenly became radicalized and joined the “Woke.” I hear pundits asking how these regular Democrats could possibly have sold out to the extreme wing of that party. They didn’t. They are now outnumbered, voter-wise. Many may have secretly voted Republican, hoping to bring things back to the normal political game they were accustomed to. Their constituency is something they never saw coming.

But an energized, organized, and mobilized new generation of voters are registering and voting. They are of all backgrounds, races, ethnicity. They have a couple of things in common though. They were educated in the US education system over the last decades, and they bullied their parents into letting them coast because they are so “special.”

Having coached this generation in business for more than 20 years, that is why I wrote the political fiction series known as the “White King Series.” It was written for Millennials. The heroes Andy Weir and Brian Washington Carver represent the best that generation has to offer. They represent courage, commitment, intelligence, imagination, character, and a relentless pursuit of freedom. And they defeat our real-life, real-threat global enemies, and stop The Great Reset that is occurring right now.

If you want to start to influence the minds of this huge generation, I suggest you let them travel with the story and emotion of the “White King.” Let them experience the current events of the last two decades through the eyes and minds of peer patriots who bring about change with grace. Let them be entertained and, in the process, start to use their own creative imagination to solve the real-world threats, not just regurgitate the propaganda they have been force fed. For the story of the White King is the story of America’s decline in the 21st Century. It is also the story of how to reverse it–not by fighting this largest generation, but by tapping into the strengths of the individuals who comprise that generation. Let them “earn” the trophy that the final victory in “White King and the Seat at the Table” offers.

Our enemies are betting that the Millennials’ weaknesses will prevail, and America will be removed from the world stage. I, however, am not!

www.whitekingrising.com for information on the series

www.LeeKessler.net for the political Blog.

While We Rearranged the Deck Chairs on the Titanic

Published / by Lee Kessler / Leave a Comment

It’s been a week since the 2022 mid-term elections, and final results are still not in. For seven days now there have been recriminations, finger-pointing, blame-shifting, jockeying for position for 2024, betrayal, shock, disappointment, glee, and endless preliminary analyses on how so many got so much so wrong. I will leave the postmortem on all that to the commentators and op-ed writers.

As for me, having written “White King and the Seat at the Table,”–the novel revealing who, how, and why America is being brought down from within–and having been raising red flags all through this election cycle, it is now time for a look from a different perspective, a different angle, and a different elevation.

All of America, certainly all of the Media, and all of our politicians pinned their hopes, on both sides, on last Tuesday. In Clearwater, Fl. in September, I attempted to warn a political activist group I had been asked to speak to that even if we won, it would not be a silver bullet, but rather a bullet dodged. My message and the reasoning behind it fell on deaf ears that night, as all were caught up in the frenzied and impassioned dedication to the task immediately in front of them.

Well, there were some wins and losses, but while we were distracted “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” a great deal happened that no one was looking at. Even as I write this, those in charge in Washington are in heated debate over where they should put the chairs next time, who was too fat and tilted the ship, who left too many light weight chairs on the wrong side of the deck, who picked the wrong people to assign to areas of the deck and to traffic control, who didn’t pull their weight, etc. etc. That debate will go on for weeks.

But while it has been raging this week, the Titanic called the United States of America not only did not stabilize, it continues to sink, as America loses freedoms, wealth, hope, and leadership in the world. The gash produced by the iceberg floating in international waters is widening, and our nation itself is being swamped. Here’s what you missed in the frantic “rearranging of the deck chairs.” Here’s what our Media failed to cover.

The United Nations Climate Summit in Egypt is occurring. Heads of state of about 100 nations, including our own, are attending. For years now they meet annually as they plan on how to handle what they call the impending global climate disaster. It used to be called Global Warming, but that didn’t pan out. Then it was called Global Cooling, but that didn’t pan out. Knowing that the target would always be shifting in this pesky thing called the physical universe, their marketing department came up with a label that can be used forever, and will likely apply somewhere on our orb on any given Sunday–“Climate Change.”

However you feel about it, here’s what I saw and read about this week. Standing on the same stage were the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization, and John Kerry representing the United States. He proudly laid out how they plan to handle a global climate-death emergency. They will use the Covid-19 model. We all know how that turned out. Lock-downs, mandates, cessation of freedom, individual medical freedom overridden. Kerry seemed to assert that the World Health Organization is poised to declare a global emergency, and when they do, the test-run of the pandemic and the protocols they used to curb it, will be implemented globally.


Whether it was Kerry or someone else who brought it up, there appears to be a GPS app now that can be used globally to measure CO2 emissions and identify who the culprits are who are harming the planet. They then can be located and “handled.”

So, while we were distracted, the world moved one step closer to an authoritarian global governance, with arbitrary designations determining who survives and who does not. If you have not done so, please read the fictionalized truth revealed in “White King and the Seat at the Table.” Reading a story will help you see what you can not see at the moment amidst all the current non-fiction noise.

It is my absolute intention that the Titanic does not sink, but we had better identify who floated an iceberg into our great nation before it is too late.

www.whitekingrising.com or www.amazon.com