Letters to Lexus and Samsung in Support of Tucker Carlson

PO Box 130

West Shokan, NY 12494

August 15, 2019

Jeffrey Bracken, General Manager

Lexus USA

P.O. BOX 259001 - MAIL DROP E3-2D
PLANO, TX 75025-9001 USA

Dear Mr. Bracken:

I am a Lexus owner, and I am pleased with my ES-350, which I bought at Prestige Lexus in New Jersey in 2008 and financed through Toyota Credit. Since I now live in upstate New York, I was thinking about my next Lexus, so I was just planning a trip up to Albany to visit the Lexus dealer there. That is, until I learned that you might be supporting the Antifa boycott of Tucker Carlson.

Let me ask two questions:  (1) Do you believe that the Antifa totalitarians--who oppose  automobiles and anyway cannot afford one—are likely to be your customers, or (2) do you believe that people who support Tucker Carlson and will be deterred from buying  a  new Lexus because Lexus supports left-wing, Antifa bigots are your customers?  

I know, buying a new Lexus once every ten or eleven years isn’t that big a customer, but blame that on great Lexus quality.  At the same time, if you are supporting Antifa, my next car can easily be an Audi, Lincoln, or Acura.

Sincerely, 

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

Email Sent to Samsung USA CEO  Young Hoon Eom:

Dear Mr. Young Hoon Eom:

I am a fan of Tucker Carlson, and I am a college professor in New York State.  Like Mr. Carlson, I was subjected to an Antifa attack and outing, which received media attention. I am also a Samsung customer, and I was thinking about purchasing a new Galaxy Note 10.  However, I have become increasingly concerned about the totalitarian direction taken in the US in universities, in the media, and in partisan politics.  I would hate to have your participation in the Antifa political action interfere with my relationship with your firm.,

A couple of things I learned when I was attacked, just as Tucker Carlson is being attacked, are as follows:

 (1) The protestors are a small, inconsequential portion of the population. In my case, about 2% of the college joined the protest.  As a percentage of the general population, they are much less than one tenth of one percent.

(2) The protestors are not customers.  Following the media attention I received, I was afraid that my reputation might have been damaged and that students might not register for courses. The opposite was the case. My classes have filled to maximum capacity, just as they did before. Moreover, I have received several offers from publishers, a foundation, and media outlets.

(3) My fears were empty.  I found that few people care about the American media, which has become part of the far-left fringe, and many people consider it heroic to stand up to  Antifa bigots. Hence, ignoring them might actually be a win for Samsung, and you might even advertise your support for American individualism and freedom.

I urge you to ignore the tiny numbers of loud-mouthed left-wing protestors, who are unlikely to be good customers simply because most of them do not have jobs.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert

It Is Time to End the Critical Ethnic Studies Con Game

Dear Senator Seward:

I urge New York State to eliminate tax breaks and financial subsidies for colleges and universities that support involvement with the Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanctions movement.  Such support is already illegal under Section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code, which prohibits the use of tax-exempt money for political and ideological purposes.

Recently, a group called the Critical Ethnic Studies Association has issued a statement supporting the BDS movement.  I urge you to eliminate funding and tax exemption to higher education institutions that support faculty involvement with it. That includes the portion of faculty salaries allocated to writing papers and traveling to conferences.  Such expenses are not entitled to tax exemption or public support, and I resent that my tax dollars are being used for these purposes.

A perusal of the website of the Critical Ethnics Studies Association indicates that all it does is political and ideological.  There is no legitimate academic study called critical ethnic studies. Its website, at criticalethnicstudies.org/content/about, indicates that it “aims to develop an approach to scholarship, institution building, and activism animated by the spirit of decolonial, antiracist, and other liberationist movements that enabled the creation of Ethnic Studies and which continues to inform its political and intellectual projects.”

Universities are supposed to engage in scientific and intellectual, but not political projects.   The Critical Ethnic Studies Association is a political advocacy group, and it openly says so.  Although the higher education institutions involved with the Critical Ethnic Studies Association are by law engaging in tax fraud, a separate bill is necessary because the university sector is rife with such fraud—i.e., political advocacy masquerading as legitimate academic study.  The Department of Finance will need guidance as to how to begin to address it.

Among the New York higher education institutions that may engage in political advocacy by paying faculty to participate in the Critical Ethnic Studies Association are Barnard College, the College of Mount Saint Vincent, and SUNY Fredonia. It is time that this con game is ended.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

Boycott Firms that Receive Government Aid

The Wall Street Journal writes of another homeless corporation that is panhandling for $3.5 billion from the federal government: American Express. According to the Journal:

"The card issuer is the latest company not directly hit by the housing crisis to request cash from the federal government. While retailers, car companies and others hit by the slowdown in consumer spending haven't gotten the government money, financial firms of all kinds are getting federal bailouts."

There are about 130 million Americans who file tax returns but about one third of these pay no taxes, so the number of taxpayers is about 86 million. With a bailout of $750 billion, each taxpayer pays on average $8,720 to subsidize inept millionaire investment bankers, slothful auto executives and now, if they have their way, the people who bring you the American Express card.

I take it personally that my taxes are being raised to subsidize bozos at badly managed firms. I think that all Americans should just say no to any firm that receives a subsidy. The American car companies have been indifferent to the plight of their employees for decades. Now, they claim public subsidies. Investment bankers have been overpaid for decades. Now, they want average earners to subsidize their inept practices.

Boycott American Express. Boycott General Motors. Boycott the lot of them.