SPLC Alleged Discrimination

For John, BLUF:  The Southern Poverty Law Center seems to be a Progressive Organization with a penchant for smearing more mainstream organizations.  It once had a mission, but has morphed into a political aggitation activity.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Southern Poverty Law Center Is Racist, Employees Say

From The Washington Free Beacon, by Reporter Patrick Hauf, 28 March 2022, 5:25 pm.

Here is the lede plus two:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is best known for its extensive list of hate groups, is racist, according to its employees.

SPLC Union members protested outside of their employer's office Monday in opposition to the legal advocacy group's plan to require certain employees to return to in-person work.  The union, in a statement, claimed the move targets black women because it primarily requires workers in low-level positions to return to the office.

"Staff in more highly regarded job classifications and who are higher-paid employees are being given the flexibility to work remotely, while women, Black, brown, and lower-paid employees are forced back into the office regardless of our work, our needs, and our advocacy for more inclusive treatment," Lisa Wright, a union bargaining committee member, said.  "Forcing employees back into the office isn't about collaboration or cooperation—this is about policing and surveillance of SPLC's lowest-paid employees."

Actually, this seems more class discrimination, which shows itself as racist because of who has which positions.

Benefit of the doubt to the SPLC, but it adds to my suspicion that the SPLC is a corrupt institution.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

SPLC Strikes Out, Again

For John, BLUF:  In a previous Blog Post I linked to Reporter Glenn Greenwald talking about how near everyone has memory holed the reason US Domestic Terrorist Omar Mateen shot up the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida.  Now comes the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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SPLC Uses Anniversary of Islamic Terror Attack to Demonize Conservative Christians

From PJ Media, by Reporter Tyler O'Neil, 14 June 2021, 10:05 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus one:

Five years ago on Saturday, a radical Islamic terrorist opened fire in Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, killing 49 people and wounding 53 others.  He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) during the attack, and ISIS later claimed responsibility.  Yet, because Pulse is a gay bar, leftists have memory-holed the terrorist’s intentions and blamed “anti-LGBT hate” for the heinous attack.  On Saturday, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) used the anniversary of the shooting to demonize conservative Christians and efforts to restrain the excesses of the transgender movement.

In a fundraising email, the SPLC noted the horrific Islamic terror attack, saying, “Today, we remember those we lost. We grieve for their families and friends.  And, we honor them by keeping up the fight against anti-LGBTQ hate.”

To quote Agent Maxwell Smart, "Missed it by that much."

This is the kind of thing that discredits efforts to fix our race problem.  The Southern Poverty Law Center may have been doing God's work in the beginning but today it is just hustling money and putting bad spin on the views of those who don't worship at its altar.  Sad.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Hate Fighting "Hate"

For John, BLUF:  The SPLC, and CAIR, have been spewing hate for some time.  In the case of the SPLC, it seems to have evolved to its current position.  Which is sad.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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SPLC, CAIR Take Aim at $121 Billion Industry in Effort to Silence Conservative 'Hate Groups'

From PJ Media, by Reporter Tyler o'Neil, 11 March 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

Liberal activist groups are pressuring donor-advised funds (DAFs) to blacklist conservative and Christian organizations in the name of fighting white supremacy and "hate."  On Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), themselves far from immune from scandal, released a report urging this philanthropic sector — which held more than $121 billion in donor contributions in 2018 — to join the political warfare effort of isolating conservative voices from polite society.  The report favorably cites Fidelity Charitable's and Schwab Charitable's decisions to ban contributions to the NRA, citing San Francisco's resolution condemning the NRA as a "terrorist organization."

"Straddling the intersection of public and private, the philanthropic sector — like tech companies — functions as a powerful platform for hate," the report warns.  The SPLC and CAIR pepper their report with mentions of specific white nationalist groups and terrorist attacks inspired by white supremacy, associating these things with SPLC-accused "hate groups."

The SPLC's much-vaunted "hate group" list includes mainstream Christian charities (like the law firm Alliance Defending Freedom and the policy group Family Research Council) and conservative nonprofits like the Center for Security Policy, ACT for America, and the Center for Immigration Studies.  Amid a racism and sexism scandal last year, former SPLC employees confessed that the "hate group" list is a fundraising scam.  A would-be terrorist even used the SPLC "hate map" to target the Family Research Council for a mass shooting in 2012.  The SPLC faces multiple defamation lawsuits regarding the accusations.  (I cover all this and more in detail in my book Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center.)

The Fascist/Communist approach of the SPLC and CAIR to those who deviate from the Party Line is abominable, and very un-American.  These are the thought police.  If you deviate from their line you are evil. As an American, who believes in the value of free speech, this is embarrassing.  Worse, there are those who actually think the SPLC is a criminal enterprise.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Will Mr Richard Cohen (Formerly SPLC CEO) Ever Go Away?

For John, BLUF:  The United States is no longer a live and let live land.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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SPLC PRESIDENT RICHARD COHEN RESIGNS FROM EMBATTLED LEFT-WING NONPROFIT

From The Daily Caller, by Mr Peter Hasson, 22 March 2019.

Here is the lede plus four:

Southern Poverty Law Center president Richard Cohen resigned Friday, in the latest blow to the embattled left-wing nonprofit.

Cohen’s resignation came nine days after the SPLC fired co-founder Morris Dees on March 13, citing unspecified conduct issues.

Cohen announced his resignation in a staff-wide email Friday evening, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“Whatever problems exist at the SPLC happened on my watch, so I take responsibility for them,” Cohen’s email read, according to the Times.

Current and former SPLC employees have accused the organization of turning a blind eye to sexual harassment and racial discrimination within its own ranks.

And yet, the SPLC, and Mr Cohen, have been continuing to try to take down American Citizens, and their volunteer organizations, who do not conform exactly to what the SPLC believes to be the pure motives they believe they have.

The SPLC reminds me of Between the Wars Organization that tried to enforce cultural conformance.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

Lessons From Lebanon

For John, BLUF:  There are a number of forms of Islam and also a question of how Islam fits into the American culture.  We here here in the United States, don't seem to be engaged.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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5 Reasons ACT for America Is NOT an 'Anti-Muslim Hate Group'

From Pajama Media, by Mr Tyler O'Neil, 14 October 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

Last week, President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago hotel canceled an ACT for America gala after an orchestrated pressure campaign from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), two left-wing groups that have branded ACT for America an "anti-Muslim hate group."  They could not be more wrong, but since even Mar-a-Lago caved to their pressure campaigns, it seems necessary to explain why the accusation is wrong.

Here are five reasons ACT for America is not "anti-Muslim" or a "hate group."

Go to the Link to read the five reasons.

I think the Left is fairly inconsistent with regard to how it deals with Christians and Muslims.  This will not end well, if not corrected.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The SPLC Exposed, Againt

For John, BLUF:  Some view the Southern Poverty Law Center as a fighter for human rights.  Others see it as a criminal racket.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate-based scam that nearly caused me to be murdered

Here is the sub-headline:

After internal challenges with discrimination, the Southern Poverty Law Center can't call itself an arbiter of justice.

From USA Today, by Ms Jessica Prol Smit, 17 August 2019.

Here is the lede plus:

I’ll never forget the moment I learned we were on lockdown. It was Aug.15, 2012. My frustration mingled with fear. Trapped on the sixth floor, we knew someone had been shot. We knew we couldn’t leave yet. We knew little else?

. . .

It was the type of violent incident that one could expect a group that purportedly monitors “hate,” like the Southern Poverty Law Center, to notice, research, and decry. In fact, we were on the center’s radar but for all the wrong reasons. The assailant acknowledged later in FBI testimony that he had selected our office precisely because the SPLC had labeled my employer a “hate group.”

It’s always been easier to smear people rather than wrestle with their ideas. It’s a bully who calls names and spreads lies rather than thoroughly reading a brief’s legal arguments or challenging the rationale underlying a policy proposal. The SPLC has chosen to take the easy path — to intimidate and mislead for raw political power and financial benefit.

Yes, the SPLC has been an abusive organization.  On the other hand, the First Amendment covers everyone, Saints and scoundrels.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Private Stasi

For John, BLUF:  The idea of private organizations labeling groups so that public institutions can go after them seems fairly Unamerican.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Judeo-Christian Group Sues Michigan for 'Orwellian' Witch Hunt Based on SPLC Labels

SPLC is the Southern Poverty Law Center, a known hate group favored by the left.

From PJ Media, by Mr Tyler O'Neil, 4 March 2019.

Here is the lede plus four:

Last Thursday, the Judeo-Christian law firm American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) sued Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Michigan Department of Civil Rights (MDCR) Executive Director Agustin Arbulu for using the arm of the state to quash their First Amendment rights.  Nessel and Arbulu had referenced the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) "hate group" labels in launching a new hate-crimes unit "to fight against hate crimes and the many hate groups ... in our state."

"It’s one thing for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a private organization, to engage in political propaganda and political hyperbole," Robert Muise, co-founder and senior counsel of AFLC, told PJ Media on Monday.  He said it's a violation of the Constitution "when you have the attorney general who’s relying on that political propaganda to investigate and target us with the power of the state."

"You now have the government giving its endorsement to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s nonsense — that now triggers our constitutional protections," Muise insisted.

He summarized the new policy in Michigan succinctly:  "'We're going to keep files on you.'  It's Orwellian.  It's Big Brother.  It's the thought police."

The AFLC lawsuit brings three claims against Nessel and Arbulu: violation of free speech rights under the First Amendment; violation of expressive association rights under the First Amendment; and violation of equal protection as guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment.

I am not sure that substituting the word hate for the words ignorant or stupid is doing us much good.  It sure doesn't do anything for civility.  Didn't the Democrats once promise us a "new civility?"

The Democrats, being the party of science, should realize that across the bell curve of human beings there will always be small numbers at both extremes.  Having those people will not change that.  On the other hand, love might shrink the numbers at the edge.

Remember the words of Governor Huey P Long, when Fascism comes to America it will call itself Antifascism.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Jeff Sessions on SPLC

For John, BLUF:  Turning around DoJ is hard work.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Jeff Sessions:  The DOJ 'Will Not Partner With Groups That Unfairly Defame Americans' Like the SPLC

SPLC = Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate group.  Just ask Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

From PJ Media, by Mr Tyler O'Neil, 8 August 2018.

Here is the lede:

On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions denounced the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for weaponizing its "hate group" designations against conservative organizations, and pledged that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will not partner with hate groups or groups that defame Americans.  He spoke in front of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian legal organization that has won 9 Supreme Court cases in the last seven years and that has been unfairly defamed as a "hate group" by the SPLC.

I want to hear what the FBI does as a result of this direction.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

For John, BLUF:  The Southern Poverty Law Center is a bully.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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SPLC Pays $3.3 Million Settlement to Counter-Extremism Group It Called ‘Anti-Muslim’

Acronym Alert:  SPLC stands for Southern Poverty Law Center.

From The Daily Beast, today, 18 June 2018.

It is just one paragraph and a link. The SPLC seems to have an agenda and seems to lack nuance.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Southern Corruption

For John, BLUF:  Freedom of speech is bigger than the First Amendment.  It is granting our fellow citizens the right to be stupid.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Intellectual Poverty of the Southern Poverty Law Center

Branding dissenters as haters undercuts its effectiveness.

From Reason Magazine and Writer Shikha Dalmia, 23 March 2018.

The lede:

With America's president casually stirring racial and other hatreds, it would be helpful for our civic good to have an organization that tracks with honesty and precision what rabble his rhetoric is rousing. The Southern Poverty Law Center, the nation's largest (and richest) watchdog of hate groups, has long sought to fill that role. Unfortunately, the SPLC is not up to the task. It is too busy enforcing liberal orthodoxy against its intellectual opponents.

The SPLC is a corrupt institution.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Suppression of Free Speech

For John, BLUF:  I see this as a particular failure of higher education, where the Professors and the Administrators should know better.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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We’re All Fascists Now

From The Old Gray Lady by Writer Bari Weiss, 7 March 2018.  Mr Weiss (@bariweiss) is a staff editor and writer for the Opinion section of the paper.

Here is the lede plus three:

Christina Hoff Sommers is a self-identified feminist and registered Democrat with a Ph.D. in philosophy and a wicked sense of humor.  She is also a woman who says bad things.  Things like:  Men and women are equal, but there are differences between them.  Or:  The gender gap in STEM fields isn’t simply the result of sexism.  Or:  Contrary to received wisdom, the American school system actually favors girls, not boys.

When such a person steps foot on a college campus these days, you know what’s coming.  So it was on Monday at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., where Ms. Sommers had been invited by the Federalist Society to give a talk about feminism.

In advance of the lecture, nine student groups, among them the Portland National Lawyers Guild, the Minority Law Student Association, the Women’s Law Caucus, the Jewish Law Society and the school’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter sent a letter protesting the appearance by this “known fascist.”

The letter added that her invitation amounted to an “act of aggression and violence” and went on to offer a curious definition of free speech:  “Freedom of speech is certainly an important tenet to a free, healthy society, but that freedom stops when it has a negative and violent impact on other individuals.”

Soon we will all be fascists and the Progressives will consume themselves.

I am glad to see the media, in this case The New York Times, wake up to the dangers to our precious freedoms, especially those incorporated in the First Amendment.  The paper seems to be woke to the idea that when people start restricting one First Amendment freedom the others will tumble into the abyss in turn.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff
-, Wed 0.0

SPLC Off The Track

For John, BLUF:  Not everyone who cries "Fascist" or "Nazi" at a fellow human being is on the side of the angels.  Some are on the side of Evil.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER WARNS OF FEMALE "MALE SUPREMACISTS"

Because I never tire of pointing out the hypocrisy of the SPLC.

From Front Page Magazine, on 25 February 2018, by Daniel Greenfield.

Here is the lede plus one:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a mail order scam with all the credibility of a guy selling fake Rolex watches on a street corner at midnight, has done it again.  The same lefty hate group whose hate map led to at least one violent attack on a religious group, which listed a sign outside a bar as a hate group and blatantly faked an Islamophobia increase is back in action.

This time the SPLC is denouncing female male supremacism.  It's like white supremacism, except with men.  So it's very trendy.  But just as its Islamophobia materials accused some Muslims of being Islamophobes (because they opposed the Muslim Brotherhood), the SPLC attacks some women as "male supremacists".

We are talking here about, amongst others, Dr Helen Smith, the wife of Blogger and Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds.  As the article notes, she is a graduate of The New School.  Not a place known for generating "right wing" attitudes.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

http://right-side-of-lowell.blogspot.com/2018/03/splc-hate-organization.html

SPLC A Hate Organization?

For John, BLUF:  Someone suggested they are a money skimming scam.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Stop treating the Southern Poverty Law Center like it's a respectable and responsible organization

From The Washington Examiner, by Reporter Becket Adams, 28 February 2018.

Here is the lede plus one:

YouTube has tapped the Southern Poverty Law Center to help it police objectionable content, according to the Daily Caller.

Hopefully, this isn't true.  But if it is, it's a disaster.  YouTube couldn't have chosen a worse or less trustworthy partner.

The SPLC is a dishonest, irresponsible and obnoxiously partisan organization.  Trusting them to decide what constitutes objectionable and “extremist” content, as YouTube’s more than 100 “Trusted Flaggers” have been asked to do, is like asking the inmates to run the asylum.

Here is an important and SPLC condemning paragraph from the article.  Anyone who would condemn Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali is clueless.  They are especially clueless if they don't mention that her partner in a filming project, Mr Theo van Gogh was brutally murdered on a public street in the Netherlands, by a run amok Muslim.

In 2015, for example. the group caught well-deserved criticism after it put Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on its “extremist watch list,” citing the one-time presidential candidate’s “anti-LGBT views.”  Later, in 2016, the SPLC labeled women’s rights activist, female genital mutilation victim, atheist, and ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali an “anti-Muslim extremist” because she opposes Islamic extremism.  The British activist and extremist-turned-counter-extremist Maajid Nawaz was placed in the same category.

The SPLC is an ugly institution, honored by the mainstream media.  Disgusting.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Smeared by SPLC

For John, BLUF:  How can you be Female and Black and be Conservative, unless you reasoned your way to that position?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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What It’s Like to Be Smeared by the Southern Poverty Law Center

The sub-headline:

I paid a professional price when the group attacked me in 2009. Now I wear its mud as a badge of honor.

From The Wall Street Journal, an OpEd from Professor Carol M Swain, 11 September 2017.

From the article:

Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, was to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee about threats posed by domestic extremist groups.  The hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed because of Hurricane Irma.  As a black conservative who has been smeared by the SPLC, I recommend against reinviting Mr. Cohen.

When Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin Jr. started the SPLC in 1971, it was needed and it had noble goals. In recent years, however, it has become a tool of the radical left.  Domestically, it uses its influence to paint with a broad brush that smears immigration restrictionists, orthodox Christian churches and pro-family organizations as “hate groups.”

What landed me in the SPLC’s crosshairs was a Sept. 10, 2009, Huffington Post blog entry titled “Mission Creep and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Misguided Focus.”  I pointed out the SPLC’s silence about video footage released after the 2008 elections showing members of the New Black Panther Party, decked out in full paramilitary regalia, patrolling a polling precinct in Philadelphia where they were clearly intimidating white voters.

Although several news organizations covered the story, the SPLC ignored the incident.  At the time, the law center was spending an inordinate amount of time attacking then-CNN host Lou Dobbs for his relentless focus on illegal immigration.  It demanded that CNN fire the anchor. After CNN and Mr. Dobbs parted ways, the SPLC took credit for getting him off the air.  I ended my post with a one-liner that raised the ire of the organization and had a devastating effect on my life.  I wrote: “Rather than monitoring hate groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center has become one.”

The SPLC’s retaliation was vicious and effective.  On Oct. 17, 2009, my photo appeared on the front page of my local newspaper, the Tennessean, with the headline “Carol Swain is an apologist for white supremacists.”  That was a quote from Mark Potok, at the time the SPLC’s national spokesman.  The context for Mr. Potok’s attack was a review I gave for a film titled “A Conversation About Race.”  I endorsed it for classroom use because it offered a perspective on race rarely encountered on university campuses.  Mr. Potok argued that the filmmaker was a bigot.  I felt then and now that the perspective needed to be heard.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

I stand with Ms Swain.

Regards  —  Cliff

SPLC is About Destroying Its Targets

For John, BLUF:  Once you are identified you are going to suffer.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Southern Poverty Law Center: ‘Our Aim in Life Is to Destroy These Groups, Completely’

This is from Pajama Media by Blogger Tyler O'Neil, 1 September 2017.

Here are the pertinent paragraphs:

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has gained traction in recent weeks, but contrary to media reports, the group does not exist to "monitor hate groups" but to destroy groups that it targets for "strictly ideological" reasons.  In light of large donations from Apple, J.P. Morgan, and George Clooney, and CNN's favorable coverage of the SPLC, Americans should learn the real motivations behind this far-left organization.

In the words of SPLC former spokesman Mark Potok (who spent 20 years as a senior fellow at the SPLC and only retired this year, according to LinkedIn), the group does not exist to monitor hate groups.

"Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate groups, I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, completely destroy them," Potok declared at an event in Michigan in 2007.

And, they get to decide who is a "hate group."  Sometimes they protect one side of an argument against another side.  See, for example, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  As you may recall, the person she was collaborating with on a film on Islam, in the Netherlands, Theo van Gogh, was brutally murdered on the streets of Amsterdam.  The murderer, Mohammed Bouyeri, left a note on the body, pinned by a knife, threatening Ms Ali with death.  But, to SPLC, Ms Ali is the bad person, the hateful person, the oppressor.  Go figure.

So, who are the haters?

And why can't the ACLU see it?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

First They Came For...

For John, BLUF:  Oppressed groups (either side) must be protected from oppression.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Southern Poverty Law Center Gets Creative to Label 'Hate Groups'

The sub-headline:

Principled conservatives are lumped together with bigots.

It is a fairly complex examination as Bloomberg's Megan McArdle dives down the rabbit hole, chasing why the Ruth Institute is listed as a hate group.  This is a report from 7 September 2017.

After the SPLC finishes up with the Ruth Institute they could be coming for you.  Remember what Pastor Martin Niemöller said:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff