Day: August 11, 2026

How About A Rational View?

This post is about capitalism vs socialism….

We Americans seem to be deathly afraid of the term socialism….why?

Well basically because of the 50s Red Scare and it has just kept growing from those days.

Awhile back I wrote a post….

Who’s Afraid Of The “S” Word

With that firmly in your mind there is a very good piece written by Nick Licata….

While Wikipedia identifies two dozen different kinds of socialism, two primary approaches support its goal of upholding a society’s welfare. One approach is to realistically regulate the marketplace to ensure it provides everyone in society with their basic needs, allowing them to lead a satisfactory life. The other is pursuing the ideal communal society without a marketplace that forces competition for obtaining basic needs.

Capitalism’s active practice is maintaining a marketplace to exchange goods, services, and access to them through a price system. Money has the greatest exchangeability value because it allows for the acquisition of various types of resources, one of the most critical being political power. However, exchanges can be made through a barter system, in which tangible items, including human labor, can be directly exchanged between seller and buyer. This was the dominant system before the advent of written history.

Capitalism’s belief system is limited to preserving the marketplace because it results in greater accumulation of resources that can be used for many purposes. There is no aspiration to create a new society; rather, it is to protect the current market-based one. It is a continuation of Adam Smith’s philosophy, as presented in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which appeared just as the Industrial Age was dawning in the late 1700s. He believed that individuals pursuing their self-interest in the marketplace would benefit society through increased productivity and wealth.

Socialism as a practice can be seen as a popular response to the marketplace system that replaced the barter system.  It aimed to regulate the marketplace so that no concentration of material or social advantages occurred to the extent that it disrupted a community’s cohesion.
Socialism, as a pronounced belief system challenging the marketplace, emerged in the 19th century, when the term “socialist” was introduced. It was first used to describe the effort to create cooperative businesses and communities as an alternative to capitalism’s marketplace economy.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/31/a-rational-view-of-capitalism-vs-socialism-in-america-and-history/

If one is afraid of socialism then fix capitalism…..

Everywhere I look, I see people expressing alarm about the popularity of socialism. It polls in the mid-to-high 30s, and considerably higher among younger people. Older people, who have a living memory of the various socialist regimes that once dotted the planet, which at best didn’t deliver prosperity to their people and at worst threw them in jail by the thousands, can’t understand how this could be and seem to want to talk endlessly about it.

I, however, marvel at the other consistent result of all these polls, which these people don’t seem nearly as interested in talking about. I refer to the ratings Americans give to capitalism. They’re terrible. A big Gallup poll from last fall is representative. Socialism won the approval of 39 percent, while capitalism’s positive number was 54 percent.

That is pathetic—barely half the country! In the country that invented modern capitalism and where it is worshipped by the elite class! And you know what? It’s entirely deserved. In fact, it deserves to be a little worse (as it is among Democrats). The kind of capitalism we’ve been practicing in this country over the last 40-plus years is cruel, corrupt, and a perversion of what humane capitalism ought to be. The people who are so freaked out about socialism ought to realize that the only way they’re going to arrest its rise is to change capitalism for the better.

From the founding of the country until the stock market crash of 1929, the general belief was that government should be small and markets should not be regulated. Some people say it worked pretty well until 1929, but in fact, that isn’t true. It worked well enough to perpetuate itself, because if capitalism is anything it’s elastic and dynamic, but that’s about it.

https://newrepublic.com/article/214122/fear-socialism-try-fix-capitalism

Unfortunately to fully understand is to say that critical thinking needs to be foremost in one’s mind….but sadly those days are gone….that is why I try to give my reader as much information as I can without too much thought.

It is a complex subject that needs more study than one can receive here but at least it is a start.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Putting Children At Risk

This group leading the country has already but our children at risk by depriving them of the food that some need to survive and now he, Donny and RJK,Jr, want the children to expose themselves to debilitating diseases….

President Trump on Monday signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his long-held but discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits. The order advocates separating the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different shots administered in separate appointments, and directs the nation’s health department to improve vaccine research, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. Separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children are not currently available in the United States, and vaccines are already extensively researched, the AP reports.

Speaking about the order at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump repeatedly suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, even as scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link. He also touted several changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that his health department has already attempted, but that have been blocked by a federal judge. He said his administration would no longer recommend COVID-19, flu, and hepatitis B vaccinations for children.

  • Trump said he wants to find out “what’s going on with autism,” Mediaite reports. “It’s many, many times what it used to be years ago, and it gets progressively worse, and we’ve had progressively more and more vaccines,” he said, adding, “Very simply, large amounts of vaccine—large amounts—like vats of vaccine are currently pumped into your child’s body.”
  • The renewed focus on vaccines marks a departure from his administration’s recent efforts to emphasize less controversial health policies related to healthy eating, drug price negotiations and medical fraud crackdowns ahead of November’s midterm elections, the AP reports.
  • Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots as Trump suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit. Childhood vaccines—and how and when to give them in combination—go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used.
  • “I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong,” Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said on X. “The President does not have the expertise to make these changes.” Vaccines, Cassidy said, are effective, “overwhelmingly safe,” and do not cause autism. “Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots,” he said. “It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe. Parents should listen to their child’s pediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order. This is so wrong.”
  • Even as the order calls for revised vaccine recommendations, states, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. The order advises states with school vaccine mandates to consider updating their laws to reflect the administration’s preferred schedule, the fact sheet said. Many states have already said that they no longer follow federal guidance and instead rely on recommendations from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Washington Post reports.
  • Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics, set out to overhaul immunization guidance in the first year of Trump’s term. He fired an entire 17-member vaccine advisory committee, installing replacements who made far more restrictive recommendations that have since been halted by a federal judge. He also personally directed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without supplying any new evidence to support the change.
  • Scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded that there is no link between childhood vaccines and autism. On Monday, Kennedy repeated his assertion that he believes an unknown environmental factor is to blame for rising autism diagnoses and said that his department will deliver research findings “as soon as they are ready.”

If this goes forth stand back and watch the problems that he creates…..think Whooping cough and measles, and you cannot see this as a good thing.

Children in the crosshairs.

I read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Shift In Strategy?

For months now the conflict with Iran has been on again and off again….someone needs to make up their mind and pick a course preferably a peaceful one…..so once again Donny may have shift in tactics?

President Trump appears to be shifting into a new strategy with Iran for the time being, one that emphasizes economic pain over military strikes. “We are low-keying it,” Trump tells Axios. “We are only semi-negotiating with them,” he said, asserting that Iran is buckling under inflation, lack of cash, and a US-led naval blockade. With oil prices back under $80, Trump said Americans are feeling less strain and likened the standoff to “a chess game.” (Has he even looked at a gas pump?)

The immediate flashpoint is the partially closed Strait of Hormuz. A US-Iran-Oman deal to reopen it, granting Tehran some new authority over shipping, has stalled as Iran’s Supreme National Security Council chief unveiled tougher conditions, including sanctions relief and compensation. The president’s new posture comes amid widespread reports that the US is running short of key weapons, which the White House denies. Still, Bloomberg reports that Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg asked defense companies to “accelerate” munitions production days after Trump called him about the issue. One US official tells the outlet it will take years to replenish the stocks.

I guess a shortage of missiles can have that effect on the on-going conflict.

Iran has issued a list of demands….

Iran issued a broad, new set of demands to the US on Saturday for the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a senior security official, laid out the conditions including an end to the US naval blockade and sanctions, withdrawal of American forces around Iran, payment of war reparations, release of frozen assets, and a halt to attacks on Iran’s regional allies. The list complicates ongoing talks between Iran and Oman over how to manage the strait, which Iran largely shut down after the US and Israel began their attacks in February, the New York Times reports.

The strait will not open until the US “corrects its behavior,” the statement said, per the AP. White House officials did not immediately comment. The strait runs between Iran and Oman; Iran’s foreign minister said it’s close to a deal with Oman on a temporary shipping route but insists any reopening hinges on US compliance with a June cease-fire memorandum that the two sides interpret differently. Traffic through the strait has fallen from about 130 ships a day to just over a dozen, per the Times.

Of course could not stand by and let Iran grab the headlines.

Iran has called for reparations from the US and not to be outdone Donny thinks Iran should pay to the US…..(seriously?)

resident Trump is trying to flip Iran’s push for war reparations back on Tehran. In a Truth Social post Monday, the president said he’s told his negotiators to demand compensation from Iran for Americans killed or injured in attacks linked to Tehran, calling Iran’s own reparations demand “an interesting idea” to copy. He cited deaths from roadside bombs, “many conflicts,” and even the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole—an attack attributed to al-Qaeda, not Iran, the Independent reports. The government blames Iran-backed militants for the deaths of more than 600 US troops in Iraq and the bombing that killed 241 US military personnel in Beirut in 1983, reports the AP.

  • In a follow-up post, Trump said, “Also, with respect to the Iran negotiations, Iran should be responsible for the damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza!  (they did not killed themselves….Israel is the aggressor)
  • Trump also said Tehran should pay compensation to the “hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months.” The Independent notes that it’s not clear where Trump got the 52,000 number. US and Israeli estimates of war deaths so far are a little over 6,000. The Times of Israel notes that it’s also not clear how significant Trump’s announcement is, “given that negotiations with Iran are said to have hit a dead end.” On Sunday, Trump said the US is “low-keying it” and only “semi-negotiating.” (should the US pay reparations to it’s innocent protesters?)
  • Over the weekend, a senior Iranian official laid out six conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including lifting sanctions, ending US military operations in the region, and paying compensation for “imposed wars.” An interim ceasefire framework expires in just over a week, with no clear path to an extension.

I apologize for I feel I must be blunt….Donny could f*ck up a wet dream.

This so-called ‘diplomacy’ that he and Little Marco and Pistol Pete play at is laughable if it were not so f*cking sad.

I weep for the diplomatic corps of this country.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”