Tag: Socialism

Closing Thought–21Jul20

You know how much the conservatives hate socialism…..but only when it is applied to the downtrodden of this society…..it is acceptable as long as it will benefit the wealthy and preserve profits….

What?

I read a piece the other day about the idea of nationalization of one of America’s industries…..

With the US the world’s largest military, by far, it makes sense that their own armsmakers often have a level of capacity far beyond overseas competitors. The Air Force is finding this is limiting to the competition for US business.

Air Force acquisition head Will Roper has suggested the solution for this may ultimately be having the US nationalize chunks of the military aviation industry outright, to ensure that a few different armsmakers survive.

And yet they’d survive only nominally. The nationalization would give the government an effective monopoly on those parts of the industry, but the US might spare the expense to prop up multiple design and construct facilities just for the sake of “competition.”

The nature of these many billion dollar plane projects means only a few could ever compete to begin with. Many have responded to the mounting cost by merging to share expenses. The Pentagon wants more than one contractor to choose from, even if they have to own them all.

Yet doing this necessarily will lead to consequences for state-run monopolies, replacing the profit motive at the company level with a new layer of bureaucracy. The companies traditionally seek Pentagon deals with lobbyists, and by hiring former Pentagon figures to gaudy contracts. It isn’t clear how well the military will be able to sustain this if they nationalize the companies.

The legality of nationalizing US industries remains shaky, with President Truman’s failed bid to nationalize the steel industry in the 1950s. The Obama Administration, however, did successfully nationalize General Motors, temporarily, under the guise of saving jobs.

Nationalizing to ensure competition is a very unusual notion, and that’s going to make advancing the case all the more difficult. Expect the big armsmakers to resist, as these huge plane deals tend to be wildly profitable.

(antiwar.com)

For more in-depth report…..https://www.defenseone.com/business/2020/07/us-may-need-nationalize-military-aircraft-industry-usaf-says/166894/

I wait for the reaction from conservs…..so far I have heard.read NOTHING!

Why is that?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

The Paris Commune

Closing Thought–28May20

On this day in 1871 French troops were dispersed to put an end to the workers control of Paris….

Brought to an end was the popular uprising known as the Paris Commune…..

The Paris Commune is often said to be the first example of working people taking power. For this reason it is a highly significant event, even though it is ignored in the French history curriculum. On March 18 1871, after France was defeated by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian war, the French government sent troops into Paris to try and take back the Parisian National Guard’s cannon before the people got hold of it. Much to the dismay of the French government, the citizens of Paris had got hold of them, and wouldn’t give them up. The soldiers refused to fire on their own people and instead turned their weapons on their officers.

The PNG held free elections and the citizens of Paris elected a council made up mostly of Jacobins and Republicans (though there were a few anarchists and socialists as well). The council declared that Paris was an independent commune and that France should be a confederation of communes. Inside the Commune, all elected council members were instantly recallable, paid an average wage and had equal status to other commune members.

https://libcom.org/history/1871-the-paris-commune

A more subdued description of the event…..

The Paris Commune was a popular-led democratic government that ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. Inspired by the Marxist politics and revolutionary goals of the International Workingmen’s Organization (also known as the First International), workers of Paris united to overthrow the existing French regime which had failed to protect the city from Prussian siege, and formed the first truly democratic government in the city and in all of France. The elected council of the Commune passed socialist policies and oversaw city functions for just over two months, until the French army retook the city for the French government, slaughtering tens of thousands of working-class Parisians in order to do so.

https://www.thoughtco.com/paris-commune-4147849

On May 21, 1871, the army stormed the city and slaughtered tens of thousands of Parisians, including women and children, in the name of retaking the city for the Third Republic. Members of the Commune and the National Guard fought back, but by the 28th of May, the army had defeated the National Guard and the Commune was no more.

This is a special day and a special time mostly for anarchists and socialists….it was a success and the brutal response ended the experiment.

As always I try to help all understand even those that do little reading so…..a shirt video will help explain the event…..

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Funny Thing About Socialism

It is the election season and Bernie is running for the Dem nomination and as usual there are all those people yelling about socialism or communism or Marxism…….inciting fear in any change that we could hope for….but that is somehow alright because we have a pandemic now and the GOP has become infected with the concept of socialism……you read that right…..according to the GOP socialism is good only when it helps the wealthy…..

Ted Rall, cartoon

A further reading:

The Socialist Specter in Present-Day US Politics

The Bailout package is nothing but socialism for the wealthy……they throw some bones in the bill to make it more palatable to the masses…..but in reality it is nothing more than a robbery in progress….

“It’s not a bailout for the coronavirus. It’s a bailout for twelve years of corporate irresponsibility.”

As details of the Senate’s coronavirus stimulus plan slowly trickled in Wednesday, progressive critics characterized the sprawling legislative package as a brazen attempt by both political parties to use trillions of dollars in taxpayer money to bail out and further enrich large corporations while tossing mere crumbs to the most vulnerable.

“This is a robbery in progress,” wrote David Dayen, executive editor at The American Prospect. “And it’s not a bailout for the coronavirus. It’s a bailout for twelve years of corporate irresponsibility that made these companies so fragile that a few weeks of disruption would destroy them.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/25/senate-corporate-bailout-package-robbery-progress-warn-critics

The markets have rebound and rebound well….the promise of free cash has them dancing a jig…..the so-called “bear market” is over is the prediction……

A historic surge in jobless claims didn’t keep the stock market down on Thursday. Quite the opposite, in fact, as the Dow rose more than 1,300 points, or 6.3%, and the S&P surged by a similar percentage. The Dow has risen three days in a row and is up more than 20% in that span—which CNBC notes is the best three-day surge since 1931. The percentage increase means the market just went from a bear back to a bull, marking the shortest bear market in history, reports the Wall Street Journal. Whether it remains that way in extreme volatility is the big question. For the day, the Dow rose 1,351 to 22,552, the S&P rose 154 to 2,630, and the Nasdaq rose 413 to 7,797.

The increase comes as the House prepares to pass the massive stimulus bill approved by the Senate, seen as all the more pressing because of the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs. “Investors believe data like today will make it more likely that the House will pass the stimulus bill,” Jeffrey Kleintop of Charles Schwab tells the Journal. “The deeper and the worse the numbers are in the near term, the more possibility there is for a [fiscal] response, which powers the rebound on the other side.”

Need we say more about how corrupt the system is?

This news explains everything you need to know about the economy of the United States…..3+ million people without jobs means nothing to the markets…..free money however drives the rise…..

Plus people struggling will also get free cash….not as much as the markets but free any way……should make Trump more popular for Americans loyalty can be bought.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Who’s Afraid Of The “S” Word

Well the media for one. They must be for the MSM is always making sure that the word is used liberally in the political reporting……all centrist Dems will spread the lie with a broad knife.

Then there are those old white guys on the Right.

They will even get some of the cowardly Blue Dogs to write op-eds all about their plight at the hands of socialism…..in other words the media as well as the DNC are afraid of the coming political storm……

Plus any time a new “Proposed” plan is announced by anyone other than some cowardly centrist Dem they get pundits to step up and call it “socialism”…….another reason most Americans are stupid when it comes to political thought.

Congress, The House, for another is worried about the Left….they have just formed a damn silly “anti-Socialism Caucus”…a waste of time and resources……but here we go…..

Republican politicians have form an anti-socialism caucus in congress, a member of the House of Representatives has announced.

“Just received approval from the House for the formation of the Anti-Socialism Caucus,” Chris Stewart, a Republican politician representing Utah, said on Wednesday.

“This caucus will defend individual liberty & free markets and highlight the dark history of socialism.”

Progressive activists were quick to criticise the formation of the caucus, which some compared to the infamous Un-American Activities Committee, a House investigative body which was formed in 1938.

It became notorious for a series of hearings held in the 1950s, investigating left-wing politics and communism in the US.

Smells like history repeating itself……who will get the nickname “Tailgunner”?

Beyond that does anyone know what socialism is?  Of course not to these morons it is just a word to insight fear…nothing else.  These so-called Blue Dog Dems are nothing more than the weapon corporate America will use to preserve their obscene profits.

Most of these explanations are really non-explanatory. Whether written as a list or in a more discursive form, they are little more than descriptions of some social democratic order, usually in a Northern European country such as Sweden. Their “explanations,” in other words, are not explanatory, they do not go beyond portraying how, for example, health care, education, public transport and similar institutions work in these countries, mostly as state organizations. Political theorists who have contributed to discussions of socialism have avoided its philosophical grounds and instead given an account of its history and, depending on their own political views, its successes or failure.

Most of these non-explanatory articles draw on familiar tropes in the American political imaginary about socialism, describing it, for example, as a form of redistributionism through state institutions to undo inequalities. Or, they define socialism as public ownership of the means of wealth. However, the state, as the agency of equality, and collective ownership of the means of production are only instruments of socialism. They do not explain its underlying philosophy. To understand socialism, one has to go beyond descriptions of its agencies and engage its philosophical principles.

What is Socialism?

Or if you would prefer what I had to say about this……https://lobotero.com/2011/11/10/american-socialism-a-history-lesson/

Not to worry……the Dems will find some well meaning liar to make their case for them……with tales of sacrifice and want…..

The problem is when the polls are taken the policies that these douches hate are the policies the American people want……let me say that again….it is what the people want……(do you understand that concept?)

“Socialism,” snarled Donald Trump at a recent pep rally of far-right Republicans. And the obedient crowd of faithful Trumpistas snarled back in unison: “So-shull-izz-ummm!”

And there you have the entire intellectual content of the GOP’s 2020 re-election strategy under Generalissimo Trump—slap Democrats silly with a scurrilous campaign branding them as Lenin-Trotsky-Stalin reincarnate. It’s not just Trump hissing out the socialist label in a frantic McCarthyesque attempt to make it stick by mindless repetition, but also Mike Pence, cabinet officials, Republican lawmakers, right-wing pundits and, of course, the extremist choreographers of Fox News.

Their incessant babbling has already turned clownish, with many babblers bumbling over their own ignorance and making ridiculous attempts to overplay their weak hands. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, for example, compared Democrats who support ideas such as “Medicare for All” to Mussolini. Apparently, Cornyn is unaware that the brutish Italian dictator was no socialist, but a fascist! Mussolini’s ideology of ultranationalism, promotion of masculine authoritarianism, domination of society by big business and the wealthy and suppression of democratic rights is the opposite of the Democratic agenda. Indeed, it describes the policies of—guess who—Trump and his acolytes, including Cornyn!

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/13/its-not-socialism-its-what-people-want

I have watched MSNBC and shook my head at the “Red Scare” of the 1950s has returned…..please stop it!  Talk about issues not try to protect your paymasters……MSNBC MoJo….has said “it matters not if you are progressive or conservative it matters that you have a message”…what crap for as soon as their is a message Joe starts screaming “Socialism”…….

I find Donald Trump reprehensible as a human being, but a socialist candidate is more dangerous to this company, country, as far as the strength and well-being of the country, than Donald Trump.  I would vote for Donald Trump, a despicable human being…I will be so distraught to the point that that could even come out of my mouth, if we have a socialist [Democratic presidential candidate or president] because that will take our country so down, and we are not Denmark.  I love Denmark, but that’s not who we are. And if you love who we are and all the great things that still have to have binders put on the side. Please step away from the socialism.

– Donny Deutsch, advertising executive, “branding and marketing expert,” and regular MSNBC commentator

“Please Step Away from the Socialism”:  The Red Scare Dems at MSNBC

The MSM spend so much time on bullshit and not enough on policies is why we get morons like Donald Trump…..

It is sad that the people depend on lies and bullshit to pick their candidates….ask who these “pundits” really owe their livelihood to and you have who they serve and the voter is just a group to try and impress.

A closing thought……

Four in 10 Americans think socialism is a good thing for the United States, a shift in attitude that reflects the modern 21st century political landscape and changing social mores. 

Results from a Gallup poll released Monday show that 43 percent of U.S. adults polled from April 17-30 think socialism is a “good thing.” It’s likely not a coincidence that rise in popularity across all Americans came as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), both of whom identify as democratic socialists, became two of the most prominent  politicians in the U.S. 

The 43 percent number is a jump in approval of socialism by 18 percent since a poll by Roper 1942, the historical date used by Gallupfor reference to show the country’s evolving views. 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/22/four-10-americans-believe-socialism-good-thing-gallup

Something written a decade ago and not much has changed…….https://lobotero.com/2009/04/10/many-americans-prefer-socialism/

And yet this is not a story for the MSM…..another indication who pays their salaries…and it is not to report the news.

The media could not slow Bernie down with lies and constant socialism insults……so now they have changed their direction……now they say that Trump will wind handily…..(that may be true….but they are trying to decided the voter who to vote for…..a centrist)

Another historical note….the society we know today was shaped by the “S” word.

From single-payer health care to climate change, the 2020 Democrats have ambitious plans. But these new, grand, and green deals aren’t as radical as some make them sound. In fact, big public projects are what made America great.

When President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower took office in 1953, America had been buffeted by the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II in the 1940s. The Cold War put us in competition with Soviet “5-Year Plans” and Chinese “Great Leaps Forward.”

Eisenhower was concerned that soldiers would return home to closing factories. So Ike pushed for massive infrastructure spending, creating the “Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways.”

Congress funded a half-century of highway construction, building 47,000 miles—the biggest public works project in the history of the world. It cost $500 billion in today’s dollars, with 90 percent coming from Washington and 10 percent from the states.

The interstate highways transformed America.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/09/11/socialism-made-america-great

I know that no one these days wants to hear the facts…..but socialism helped make this country the great place it is today.

But if you still have your head in the sand….then read about Eduard Bernstein….https://www.hetwebsite.net/het/profiles/bernstein.htm

Will I need to cover this again….or will you take the time to learn what the Hell you are going on about?

That was rhetoric question….I know that I will have to correct ignorant rantings yet a again in the future.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

I Thought Socialism Was Bad

The term “socialism” is seeing a rebirth…the Right is seeing that old bogey man from the past in everything…..

I guess it is not so bad until used by a conserv to lie about an opponent.

But first one of the tenets of socialism or so dipsticks would want you to believe is the nationalization of companies and put all under government control…..and yet a Trumpite thinks it is a good idea.

And Trump has been throwing around the “S” word liberally (no pun intended) in the past couple of months….after all there is an election coming and he needs a good bullshit story to spread…..

But his AG Barr and good friend and butt boy of Trump has suggested that the US take control of some foreign businesses…..

Barr suggests US govt take control of major foreign telecoms

In comments that appear far-afield of his normal law enforcement duties, Attorney General Bill Barr suggested in a speech on the “threat” of China that the US government should buy out control of Nokia Corporation and Telefonaktieboladget LM Ericsson (generally referred to as Ericsson) and use them to fight against China’s Huawei Technologies.

The Trump Administration has long viewed Huawei with hostility, and has been making the rounds internationally, threatening and cajoling other nations not to do business with Huawei on 5G infrastructure.

The problem is, Huawei is broadly the market leader in telecommunication infrastructure, and the preferred option for many in 5G transitions. US objections are generally not to Huawei’s competence, but rather to them being Chinese, leading the administration to claim they’re a spying risk.

Barr suggests that Nokia and Ericsson could compete better with Huawei if they had the financial might of the Federal government behind them. But they’d need to be American companies to do that, and Barr says they should be either outright state-controlled by the US, or held through a consortium of private US corporations that would make them quasi-state-controlled.

It’s not clear how this could be achieved. Nokia is a $23.8 billion corporation, and Ericsson is another $27.3 billion. As they are Finnish and Swedish, respectively, there is no obvious mechanism by which the United States could nationalize other nations’ major telecommunications companies

(antiwar.com)

Seriously?  Does anyone else see how moronic this idea really is?

Once again this show just how ignorant the toads are that work for this person in the White House truly are…..

Nationalization of foreign companies is one of the first steps to socialism…Iran in the 1950s, Fruit in Guatemala in the 1950s, Chile in the 1970s for examples….

Maybe some idiot in the White House should take this dolt aside and explain this move to him.

I thought he, Barr,  was an idiot and nothing but a yes man for Trump from the beginning of his lame ass mouth began talking…..now I know….

He is another mental midget in the seat of power.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–15Aug19

It is that time again….the approach of another tiresome exercise we call an election. Since it is that time again the “S” word is being passed around like a cheap hooker….of course the GOP will use it as some sort of grade for the Dems……..even that person in the White House is using it liberally (no pun intended)……

But did you know that our Beloved Supreme Demagogue back in 2009 back during that crash of the markets had offered a solution of our problem…nationalization……

Though it surely won’t matter to his legion of supporters, back in 2009, business mogul Donald Trump supported the bailing out of the banks. Not just that, he suggested he was comfortable with the national government taking them over ― at least temporarily ― as a means of market stabilization.

The comments came during an interview with CNN’s Larry King in April 2009. King, who has since left the network, asked Trump what he thought of the new president, that being Barack Obama. Trump replied that he “really like[d] him” ― which, for any other current Republican presidential candidate, would probably be considered apostasy in its own right. But then Trump went further:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-nationalizing-banks_n_55ef2d4de4b002d5c076e9df

You do realize that some sort of nationalization is par for socialism, right?

Does that make His Majesty a socialist?

He is a person with absolutely NO principles……all he has is his showmanship after years of reality TV, the popularity of the mindless…..he will say whatever gets him attention….personally I have NO use for egocentric d/bags….and even less use for a pretend “genius”who went to the best schools and made Daddy proud.

Learn Stuff!

Now Vote!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

More “S” Word BS

MSNBC is once again trying to control the electorate…..the mouth of PA, Chis Matthews, is so concerned about the “S” word that he injects it into his nightly broadcasts at every opportunity.  (Should qualify him for a gig with FOX News)  Matthews tries to create the news not report it.

Have you noticed that those that earn the big bucks are the ones most afraid of the trend in American politics…….especially these so-called experts and pundits that earn 6 figures or more…..and the only people not concerned are the people that are suffering everyday with the system as it is……

Conservs are concerned that the US will become a “socialist” state if everyone gets health care….and yet they turn a blind eye to corporate socialism….and yes we can call it like it is….

“We renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country,” Donald Trump said recently.

Someone should alert him that America is now a hotbed of socialism. But it’s socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism.

In the conservative mind, socialism means getting something for doing nothing. This pretty much describes General Motors’ receipt of $600 million in federal contracts, plus $500 million in tax breaks, since Trump took office.

Some of this corporate welfare has gone into the pockets of GM executives. Chairman and CEO Mary Barra raked in almost $22 million in total compensation in 2017 alone.

But GM employees are subject to harsh capitalism. GM is planning to lay off more than 14,000 workers and close three assembly plants and two component factories in North America by the end of 2019.

The nation’s largest banks saved $21 billion last year thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, some of which went into massive bonuses for bank executives. On the other hand, thousands of lower-level bank employees got a big dose of harsh capitalism. They lost their jobs.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/11/socialism-rich-capitalism-rest

For example…..Red States, long have hated the dread of socialism depends on government handouts more so than Blue states….

Conservs know nothing of socialism short of the lies of their party, the GOP….plus the morons in Congress have started a totally worthless endeavor….an “anti-socialism caucus”

Republican politicians have form an anti-socialism caucus in congress, a member of the House of Representatives has announced.

“Just received approval from the House for the formation of the Anti-Socialism Caucus,” Chris Stewart, a Republican politician representing Utah, said on Wednesday.

“This caucus will defend individual liberty & free markets and highlight the dark history of socialism.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/congress-anti-socialism-caucus-chris-stewart-utah-aoc-trump-gop-democrats-a8854131.html

Is this how “Tailgunner” Joe got his start?

This is silly and worthless…..just another attempt to keep the corruption where it belongs…… in the hands of the Congress.

For those intelligent people that would like to know more…..

What is Socialism?

American Socialism–A History Lesson

Most of what the voter will hear is bullsh*t and lies…..but most have made up their minds as to what is “socialism” and NO amount of facts will change their mistake in thought.

Do I consider them stupid?

Stupid NO…Ignorant yes!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Er4go Scribo”

 

Capitalism Has Failed!

I realize this post will not sit well with those individuals that have more money than brains…….but let’s look at it….capitalism has failed.

The truth is that the “economy” is booming according to some….then why are most Americans are overworked and underpaid and the future looks no brighter than now……

Let’s look shall we?

Some years ago, I faced up to the futility of reporting true things about America’s disastrous wars and so I left Afghanistan for another remote mountainous country far away. It was the polar opposite of Afghanistan: a peaceful, prosperous land where nearly everybody seemed to enjoy a good life, on the job and in the family.

It’s true that they didn’t work much, not by American standards anyway. In the U.S., full-time salaried workers supposedly laboring 40 hours a week actually average 49, with almost 20% clocking more than 60. These people, on the other hand, worked only about 37 hours a week, when they weren’t away on long paid vacations. At the end of the work day, about four in the afternoon (perhaps three in the summer), they had time to enjoy a hike in the forest or a swim with the kids or a beer with friends — which helps explain why, unlike so many Americans, they are pleased with their jobs.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/american-capitalism-failed-us-overworked-underemployed-powerless-ever/

Now we see a debate taking hold should the US embrace socialism over the soul sucking capitalism we have today?

In 2016, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ran on a platform that many thought would’ve ruined his political chances. He ran as a democratic socialist, disavowing America’s longtime capitalist consensus and proudly wrapping himself in a label pundits considered political poison. And it worked.

In American politics, and particularly in the Democratic Party, the primacy of capitalism is, for the first time in ages, an open question. Sanders is expected to run again in 2020, and to run with the support of a grassroots movement that thrills to his break with capitalist convention. He’ll face, among others, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who says one key difference between her and Sanders is that she’s “a capitalist to my bones.”

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2019/1/7/18167691/what-is-socialism-capitalism-sanders-warren

Personally I do not care what we call it…..as long as the children get educated, people make a living wage, health is for everyone, etc……so can a bit of socialism help capitalism?

Larry Fink, the chief executive and founder of BlackRock, published his annual letter to the chief executives of all the companies around the world in which it invests last week.

And Fink’s message was: don’t put profits first. Put “purpose” first. “Purpose is not the sole pursuit of profits, but the animating force for achieving them,” Fink explained.

“Profits are in no way inconsistent with purpose – in fact, profits and purpose are inextricably linked.”

This corporate purpose, he went on, means investing for the long term, serving a community, developing the talents of a workforce. And so on. BlackRock also says that bosses’ pay should not rise faster than that of the firm’s workers and has threatened to vote against remuneration committees that agree to excessive awards.

It’s enough to make the libertarian epigoni of Milton Friedman, the economist who famously asserted “there is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits”, choke on their cornflakes.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/blackrock-socialism-capitalism-stock-market-sacha-romanovitch-grant-thornton-a8737131.html

We need some help……this deal is just not working the way it was intended…..reform NOW or face the consequences.

Return Of The “S” Word

The 2020 election will see a rise in the use of the “S” word, Socialism……the Right will be using it more and more until the actual candidate is chosen…..it is all they have to attack the policies from the Left…..then there are those cowards the Democrat Centrist…they too will jump on the “S” word train.

Even the dolt in the White House has been using it….but don’t call him a f*cking fascist that would be “fake news”……..but the old farts that cannot move into the 21st century will resurrect the lies and the bullsh*t for a lack of any real policies to advance……

There are a lot of people talking about socialism these days. Senator Bernie Sanders, who on Tuesday launched a bid for the Democratic nomination for president, calls himself a democratic socialist, and so does Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Public intellectuals are debating the label anew. And then there’s the most high-profile participant in the discussion: Donald Trump.

The president, of course, is not a proponent. But he has moved “socialism” to the center of his lexicon in February, deploying it in discussions of foreign policy as a weapon against domestic political opponents. He does so at a time when his political messaging has faltered and when the left wing is more energized than it has been in generations. How successful Trump’s attempt to revive an old but often successful line of attack is will be an important test, both for his reelection hopes and for the future of socialist ideas in this country.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/trump-socialism-venezuela-bernie-sanders-ocasio-cortez/583135/

Bernie needs to worry about trashing by the media and Right leaning pundits that cannot move into the 21st century and still fight the Cold War…..in other words..”Old Farts”……

Some people are attached to the idea that the Democratic National Committee will “rig” the presidential nomination against Bernie Sanders. The meme encourages the belief that the Bernie 2020 campaign is futile because of powerful corporate Democrats. But such fatalism should be discarded.

As Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Of course top Democratic Party officials don’t intend to give up control. It has to be taken from them. And the conditions for doing that are now more favorable than ever.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/04/big-obstacle-bernie-isnt-dnc-rigging-its-media-trashing

Let me help those people that do not know what socialism is…….for one socialism is not communism….but communism is a form of socialism…..confused? I can help…….https://lobotero.com/2012/02/07/just-what-is-socialism/

I know that is a bit much for some of among us……so maybe this short video will do a better job than having to read……

https://youtu.be/XD94UUTvMts
https://youtu.be/FrtDZ-LOXFw

The Right hates any thing that would move society forward….but yet when it comes to their big donors they have a special type of “socialism”…..

“America will never be a socialist country,” Donald Trump declared in his State of the Union address. Someone should alert Trump that America is now a hotbed of socialism. But it is socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism.

In the conservative mind, socialism means getting something for doing nothing. That pretty much describes the $21 billion saved by the nation’s largest banks last year thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, some of which went into massive bonuses for bank executives. On the other hand, more than 4,000 lower-level bank employees got a big dose of harsh capitalism. They lost their jobs.

Banks that are too big to fail – courtesy of the 2008 bank bailout – enjoy a hidden subsidy of some $83 billion a year, because creditors facing less risk accept lower interest on deposits and loans. Last year, Wall Street’s bonus pool was $31.4 billion. Take away the hidden subsidy and the bonus pool disappears.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/02/12/trump-wants-socialism-rich-brutal-capitalism-rest-us

Trump is NOT alone…it is a typical and a predictable policy of the GOP and its aging minions……even those conservs that oppose the Trump policies will jump on the “S” word bandwagon and they are not alone the media is also on-board…..instead of debating policies and ideas they resort to the typical BS of name calling…….the old farts are running scared.

Giving the wealthy free stuff is more in line with GOP politics than helping those in our society……but they will not see it and neither will those old farts that are still living in the Cold War.

Is it “Socialism” if it is what the people want?

“Socialism,” snarled Donald Trump at a recent pep rally of far-right Republicans. And the obedient crowd of faithful Trumpistas snarled back in unison: “So-shull-izz-ummm!”

And there you have the entire intellectual content of the GOP’s 2020 re-election strategy under Generalissimo Trump—slap Democrats silly with a scurrilous campaign branding them as Lenin-Trotsky-Stalin reincarnate. It’s not just Trump hissing out the socialist label in a frantic McCarthyesque attempt to make it stick by mindless repetition, but also Mike Pence, cabinet officials, Republican lawmakers, right-wing pundits and, of course, the extremist choreographers of Fox News.

Their incessant babbling has already turned clownish, with many babblers bumbling over their own ignorance and making ridiculous attempts to overplay their weak hands. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, for example, compared Democrats who support ideas such as “Medicare for All” to Mussolini. Apparently, Cornyn is unaware that the brutish Italian dictator was no socialist, but a fascist! Mussolini’s ideology of ultranationalism, promotion of masculine authoritarianism, domination of society by big business and the wealthy and suppression of democratic rights is the opposite of the Democratic agenda. Indeed, it describes the policies of—guess who—Trump and his acolytes, including Cornyn!

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/13/its-not-socialism-its-what-people-want
 
https://lobotero.com/2009/02/16/socialism-for-the-rich/campaigns fire up and get serious
ith the “S” word..
Not to worry……we have heard the “S” word more in the last month than in 10 years and we will hear it a lot more as the campaigns fire up and the election gets more serious.
 
Try to remember that there is NO blueprint for a socialist society….so the talk of socialism by the GOP and their master, Trump are just cowards running scared.
 
The GOP is still living in the 1950s and any progress will be equated with the “S” word…..equated falsely I might add.

When The “S” Word Is Okay

The 2020 election is quickly approaching……and we have the usual word in the debate….socialism…..

Soon we will be bombarded with the “S” word as the Dem field starts to take its final shape……Trump will be out front with the accusations followed closely by the GOP and their lies that they do so well.

The problem is they are not against “socialism” just not for the people of the nation…they prefer that corporations get the “free stuff”……

This news report of 7 years ago helps understand just how bad “corporate socialism” can be……

A proposal to spend $250 million of taxpayer money on a retail project here illustrates the damage state and local subsidies do by taking from the many to benefit the already rich few.

Nationwide state and local subsidies for corporations totaled more than $70 billion in 2010, as calculated by Professor Kenneth Thomasof the University of Missouri-St. Louis

In a country of 311 million, that’s $900 taken on average from each family of four in 2010. There are no official figures, but this one is likely conservative because — as documented by Thomas, this column and Good Jobs First, a nonprofit taxpayer watchdog organization funded by Ford, Surdna and other major foundations — these upward redistributions of wealth keep increasing.

http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/2012/06/01/how-corporate-socialism-destroys/

Fast forward to the Trump presidency…….

“America will never be a socialist country,” Donald Trump declared in his State of the Union address. Someone should alert Trump that America is now a hotbed of socialism. But it is socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism.

In the conservative mind, socialism means getting something for doing nothing. That pretty much describes the $21 billion saved by the nation’s largest banks last year thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, some of which went into massive bonuses for bank executives. On the other hand, more than 4,000 lower-level bank employees got a big dose of harsh capitalism. They lost their jobs.

Banks that are too big to fail – courtesy of the 2008 bank bailout – enjoy a hidden subsidy of some $83 billion a year, because creditors facing less risk accept lower interest on deposits and loans. Last year, Wall Street’s bonus pool was $31.4 billion. Take away the hidden subsidy and the bonus pool disappears.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/02/12/trump-wants-socialism-rich-brutal-capitalism-rest-us

After over a 100 years of demonizing socialism is now what the GOP tells their child-like followers to send them hiding under their beds…..

And while they are hiding democracy is slowly slipping from their grasp……

This growing animosity toward the greed of the immensely wealthy is not merely symptomatic of a popular presidential candidates’ rhetoric, but indicative of the harrowing economic inequalities existing in American society and politics. The 62 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of the world, roughly 3.6 billion people. The wealthiest 1 percent of the global population have as much wealth as the other 99 percent of the world’s population. For decades, wages of the middle and working classes have remained stagnant in the United States while the top earners have seen their wages grow exponentially. In the United States since the 2008 recession, nearly 99 percent of all new generated income has gone to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. Current trends suggest these enormous disparities in wealth are expanding.

https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/economy-budget/268947-a-democracy-lost-to-corporate-socialism

Political lies have replaced knowledgeable discourse and the specter of socialism taking over and people will lose all their rights……under these lies that is exactly what is happening and socialism did not have anything to do with that loss.