Defining socialism in the modern world

Here is the original story: Socialism is losing its stigma thanks to Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez as a MAJORITY of American women age 18-54 would prefer living in a socialist country to living in a capitalist country. That story was replied to here: 55% Of Women Prefer Socialism To Capitalism. Here’s Why They’re Wrong. But what is of particular interest is the list of attributes being sought in the socialist system these women are seeking to have introduced, in descending order of approval, from 76% for the first through to 52% for the tenth.

  1. Universal healthcare (76 percent)
  2. Tuition-free education (72 percent)
  3. Living wage (68 percent)
  4. State-controlled economy (66 percent)
  5. State control and regulation of private property (61 percent)
  6. High taxes for the rich (60 percent)
  7. State-controlled media and communication (57 percent)
  8. Strong environmental regulations (56 percent)
  9. High public spending (55 percent)
  10. Government “democratizes” private businesses—that is, gives workers control over them—to the greatest extent possible (52 percent)

“State-controlled economy” pretty well defines socialism with 66 percent signing up for whatever it might mean in practice. Goes very neatly with “State-controlled media and communication”. The full socialist box and dice.

Corruption and criminality

A fantastic series of posts from today that outline not just the corruption but outright criminality among the left in the United States in which they have used the levers of the Federal Government to attack their enemies and benefit themselves. Start here with a story found nowhere else I could see: True the Vote Wins Stunning Court Ruling Against IRS in Lois Lerner Scandal.

The True the Vote v. IRS lawsuit has finally come to a close with a stunning ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton ruling in favor of True the Vote; penalizing the IRS with maximum attorneys fees due to their unconstitutional discrimination against the group and their unethical behavior in the case.

This decision marks the end of a nearly decade long battle that first began in 2010, when federal government agencies including the IRS, DOJ, FBI, ATF, OSHA weaponized against True the Vote and its founder, Catherine Engelbrecht. Under Obama Administration leadership, the agencies leveled a barrage of attacks, including twenty-three audits, investigations, and inquiries, against the group in an attempt to stop their work in election integrity. “

At one point the IRS got Child Services to try to take Ms. Engelbrechts’ children from her—this is how vicious Lerner and the crowd became, to stop honest elections. To stop those exposing the corruption of elections.

There is then this: Investigation finds Ilhan Omar illegally used campaign funds to pay lawyers related to allegations that she married her brother.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is facing financial penalties for campaign finance violations following a Thursday ruling from the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.

Which may be supplemented by this: WHEN THE CAT HAS OMAR’S TONGUE. Which gets into her fraudulent marriages and tax fraud.

She held out Ahmed Hirsi as her husband on her campaign site and elsewhere. We found that Omar had legally married Elmi in 2009 and wondered if he was her brother. Omar remained married to him from 2009 to 2017. Although Omar has three children with Hirsi, Omar never did marry him until last year….

Although she didn’t marry Hirsi until last year, Omar has held Hirsi out as her husband at all times since she became a public figure. Over what period of time did Omar and Hirsi file joint tax returns? My guess is that it runs back to 2002. We know she filed joint tax returns with Hirsi while she was still married to Elmi. In addition to the IRS issues, the questions intersect with those arising from Omar’s marriage to Elmi.

Then there’s this: Profiles in Treason Bruce and Nellie Ohr.

The latest emails and memos uncovered shows clearly that Fusion GPS, hired by Hillary Clinton and the DNC in an attempt to destroy the Trump candidacy was assisted in its agenda by the FBI the DOJ and the intelligence agencies of the Obama administration. The notes, some of which are from Associate Deputy District Attorney Bruce Ohr, whose contact was Deputy AG Sally Yates. Bruce Ohr was demoted four times since the investigation began, at least twice for failing to disclose his involvement with figures associated with the unverified dossier from Fusion GPS. Sally Yates was fired for insubordination and refusing to implement a legal order from the President. Both are members of the Deep State Resistance doing everything they can to usurp the power of President Trump.

Finally, in the midst of actual criminality and fraud, there is this question over possibly the most-investigated political leader of modern times, A Serious Question For Democrats: What Exactly Was Trump’s Crime?.

Democrats need to answer the question. Impeach Trump for what?

Specifically, what law did our President violate?

If you asked any one of them, really pressed them, they wouldn’t be able to come up with an actual crime. Trump is so vile and we are so virtuous and enlightened will no longer cut it.

And a reminder we are this week celebrating the 70th anniversary of the publication of Orwell’s 1984: George Orwell’s prescient novel 1984 is turning 70 and only growing more relevant with age. To add to how fantastic this is, truly space age incredible, the article is from our ABC.

In defence of Professor Ricardo Duchesne

The following has been take verbatim and in total from The Other McCain. It is titled, Sociology Professor Who Quoted ‘Red Pill’ Sites Forced Out of Canadian University.

In 2011, University of New Brunswick sociology professor Ricardo Duchesne published The Uniqueness of Western Civilization, a critique of multiculturalism. In 2017, Professor Duchesne published Faustian Man in a Multicultural Age:

At this pivotal moment in recent Western history, Richard Duchesne tackles what may be the most crucial question for people of European descent:

‘What makes us unique?’

Casting aside the dominant cultural Marxist narratives and dismissing the popular media attacks on concepts of ‘whiteness’, Duchesne draws on a range of historical examples, sources and philosophies to examine the origins of European man, his achievements, and the nature of the Faustian spirit that has driven his innovation and creativity.

Last month, Huffington Post published an article detailing how Professor Duchesne was “peddling white supremacist views while the university’s leadership is unable or unwilling to intervene.” As a result, Professor Duchesne has now been forced into retirement:

A University of New Brunswick professor accused of being a white supremacist and denounced by more than 100 colleagues for his views on immigration is taking early retirement, the university announced on Tuesday.

Prof. Ricardo Duchesne provided his notice “to focus on his own pursuits as an independent scholar,” vice-president Petra Hauf said in a statement.

“We respectfully accept his decision and thank him for his 24 years of service.” . . .

Duchesne, who teaches sociology at the Saint John campus, has appeared on far-right podcasts and YouTube channels. He has also written about what he calls the “relentless occupation of the West by hordes of Muslims and Africans,” and asserts that “only out of the coming chaos and violence will strong White men rise to resurrect the West.”

He says he’s looking forward to retiring at the end of the month and pursuing independent studies.

He plans to write about “why European civilization was far more creative than all the other civilizations combined” and “why all European-created nations are being forced to diversify themselves through mass immigration,” he said in an emailed statement.

He will also address “why the mainstream media never allows any critical thinking about the mandated ideology of diversity,” he said.

Googling some of the phrases attributed to Professor Duchesne, I found a March 2017 article, “There Is Nothing the Alt Right Can Do about the Effeminacy of White Men,” a historically informed analysis of cultural decadence. Professor Duchesne cites such sources as Plutarch, Polybius, Sallust and Livy on the similar trend of decadence in ancient Rome. Interestingly, Professor Duchesne also cites “red pill” sites Chateau Heartiste and Return of Kings. He does this to refute their claim that feminism is to blame for the decline of the West, concluding instead that this decline is a consequence of historical forces:

The expectation recently articulated in a Counter-Currents article that reading about Rome’s glories can teach current White men to regain their valor and heroism is pure wishful thinking. White men today will never build up their “resolve as great as that of the Romans” by reading about the Romans. The Romans built their character, before and during the time of Cato the Elder, by living at a point in the historical cycle when anarchy and savagery demanded hardness, by working extremely hard as farmers, by living in a very patriarchal culture that had harsh laws and expectations, and by undergoing intense military training and warfare. The Rome of Cato was a civilization at its peak; the West today is senile and childless, its families in decline, preoccupied with appearances, and overall too lazy and comfortable.

Decline is irreversible. The relentless occupation of the West by hordes of Muslims and Africans is an expression of White male decadence and effeminacy. Only out of the coming chaos and violence will strong White men rise to resurrect the West.

Well, these startling assertions would make an interesting topic of debate, if only Professor Duchesne’s critics were willing to debate him, but instead they have sought to silence him, to terminate his employment and ostracize him as persona non grata. How odd is it that disciples of Marx and Lenin — advocates of revolutionary socialism — are tolerated in academia, but a professor who makes reference to Plutarch and Livy is condemned as a Thought Criminal? The point is not whether one agrees with Professor Duchesne’s racial beliefs or his bleak assessment of future prospects, but instead whether these beliefs can be the subject of open discussion and debate. There is a totalitarian tendency in academia that now seeks to silence certain perspectives by labeling them “hate speech,” and it’s never the Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries who are silenced.

Toronto life

https://twitter.com/aslater00/status/1135353570851794949

I suppose something like it could happen in Melbourne. And then there’s this: A Call to Slaughter Jews at Toronto’s Al Quds Day March.

If you don’t understand the reference, go to the link. And it just so happens that something like it did just happen in Melbourne: WATCH: Melbourne Al Quds Rally Participant: “Hamas Should Be Here”.

So while reading about that, I was also reading this: Spinoza and Friends about seeing the world as God might Himself. And then most unexpectedly, right in the middle came this.

I have followed Israel’s situation for nearly two decades now. I see what the Palestinians are up to and I see what the Israelis are up to and I conclude that peace will only come about when Israel extends sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and Gaza and kicks out the Palestinians who refuse to recognize the Jewish state. Which means most of them. People call me right-wing. Most of my friends call me right-wing or worse. I barely talk to them now. I do not understand how they can believe in a two-state solution when the Palestinians, in word and by deed, proclaim their desire to liquidate the Jewish state and murder its people. Has not one Holocaust been enough? I understand people’s predilection for peace. It is an expectation normal to a democratic society. But the Arab Muslim world is not a democratic society and is not going to become one anytime soon. Why observe their world through western eyes? Do not excuse what they say or do by claiming it is a response to western arrogance, colonialism, or any of the other sins which so many have so wrongly laid at the doorstep of the West. As if peoples and countries have not been conquering and plundering each other since time immemorial! My friends would do better to read the Bible, but they don’t do that anymore either.

If you want peace, prepare for war, and if war comes, kill your enemies. Is that really the message? Whether it is or not, it is the message our enemies have in store for us, but one we cannot use ourselves.

AND THERE IS ALSO THIS: Toronto Muslim: Executing gays may sound “unfair,” but that’s sharia law and “it’s coming to Canada”.

Socialism may not be the answer but do socialists know that?

The reality is that you have to be kidding yourself if you think your standard issue modern leftist knows that. The video is taken from here. Watch it for yourself. If you understand why socialism is not the answer, then it is hard to fathom that people in bulk numbers can really be this insane, but they are.

So let me continue with this. I have been sent an article from a friend in New Zealand – Why Call it “Socialism”? – which opens in the following way.

I’ve been coming around to the belief that most modern arguments over “socialism” are a waste of time, because the content of the term has become so nebulous. When you drill down a bit, a lot of “socialists” are really just saying that they would like to have government play a more active role in providing various benefits to workers and the poor, along with additional environmental protection.

Socialism is thus, as he sees it, nothing more than an unfocused desire for better social welfare and a more egalitarian society. Well, maybe, but pay attention to the video. It is beyond ignorance and beyond stupidity. We are truly looking at a cult of some kind, but it is a cult that encompasses near half of the population. This was my reply to my friend.

Thank you for that. Very interesting, and yet, and yet…. Socialism is a personal belief system that has no specific definition. Everyone makes up their own version so whenever some actually existing socialist economy is set up and then inevitably fails, everyone else can say that what they did was not what they had meant by socialism, that what was done was not what they had had in mind.

No one any longer describes what they believe in as “socialism” but I know it when I see it. It is ever and always a means to supplant the market through some kind of government direction in which individuals are not made responsible for their own personal welfare. Instead, governments manage and direct major economic entities; there are huge burdens placed on enterprises, through the taxes that are levied, the wages and benefits they are made to provide, and the regulations that they are made to follow; and there are huge amounts of public expenditures, almost inevitably more costly than the economic benefits they provide, that shape the direction in which an economy is made to follow. There are then large efforts to equalise incomes between those who provide more value than they are paid and those who either do not work or who are allowed to receive incomes well above the value added they have personally created. There are other features too, but you get the picture. The incentive structure is completely warped so that economic returns are very badly correlated with economic contribution.

And with every turn of the electoral cycle, we move further in a socialist direction. Scott Morrison is hardly a free-market capitalist, but he is well ahead of anyone on the Labor side. Your own PM is a complete economic dunce who will do you in if she is given half a chance. Everyone wants to be Mr, Miss, Ms and Mrs Niceperson. I only wish they had some prior understanding of how economies work before they bought in on it.

There you are. Interesting article, but economists turn out to have no political or philosophical sense whatsoever.

I would be placated to some extent if everyone before they waded in on the need for more regulation and re-distribution first explicitly stated that of course, free market capitalism is the only way to manage an economy so these suggestions are only intended to slightly alter the way we go about things. But no one ever says that. Replacing capitalism with something else is the underlying aim, or so it seems to me. There are so many gadgets around, from computers to widescreen television, that everyone will be easily lulled into disaster as in Venezuela with no way out at the end. And none of it will be mentioned by our media who are more into an apathetic torpor than anyone in Orwell’s time could ever possibly have imagined.

Socialism is not the answer

But you have to be kidding yourself if you think your standard issue modern leftist knows that. I have been sent an article from a friend in New Zealand – Why Call it “Socialism”? – which opens in the following way.

I’ve been coming around to the belief that most modern arguments over “socialism” are a waste of time, because the content of the term has become so nebulous. When you drill down a bit, a lot of “socialists” are really just saying that they would like to have government play a more active role in providing various benefits to workers and the poor, along with additional environmental protection.

Socialism is thus a desire for better social welfare and a more egalitarian society. Well, maybe. This was my reply.

Thank you for that. Very interesting, and yet, and yet…. Socialism is a personal belief system that has no specific definition. Everyone makes up their own version so whenever some actually existing socialist economy is set up and then inevitably fails, everyone else can say that what they did was not what they had meant by socialism, that what was done was not what they had had in mind.

No one any longer describes what they believe in as “socialism” but I know it when I see it. It is ever and always a means to supplant the market through some kind of government direction in which individuals are not made responsible for their own personal welfare. Instead, governments manage and direct major economic entities; there are huge burdens placed on enterprises, through the taxes that are levied, the wages and benefits they are made to provide, and the regulations that they are made to follow; and there are huge amounts of public expenditures, almost inevitably more costly than the economic benefits they provide, that shape the direction in which an economy is made to follow. There are then large efforts to equalise incomes between those who provide more value than they are paid and those who either do not work or who are allowed to receive incomes well above the value added they have personally created. There are other features too, but you get the picture. The incentive structure is completely warped so that economic returns are very badly correlated with economic contribution.

And with every turn of the electoral cycle, we move further in a socialist direction. Scott Morrison is hardly a free-market capitalist, but he is well ahead of anyone on the Labor side. Your own PM is a complete economic dunce who will do you in if she is given half a chance. Everyone wants to be Mr, Miss, Ms and Mrs Niceperson. I only wish they had some prior understanding of how economies work before they bought in on it.

There you are. Interesting article, but economists turn out to have no political or philosophical sense whatsoever.

I would be placated to some extent if everyone before they waded in on the need for more regulation and re-distribution first explicitly stated that of course, free market capitalism is the only way to manage an economy so these suggestions are only intended to slightly alter the way we go about things. But no one ever says that. Replacing capitalism with something else is the underlying aim, or so it seems to me. There are so many gadgets around, from computers to widescreen television, that everyone will be easily lulled into disaster as in Venezuela with no way out at the end. And none of it will be mentioned by our media who are more into an apathetic torpor than anyone in Orwell’s time could ever possibly have imagined.

The aim is to replace capitalism with something else

I have been sent an article from a friend in New Zealand – Why Call it “Socialism”? – which opens in the following way.

I’ve been coming around to the belief that most modern arguments over “socialism” are a waste of time, because the content of the term has become so nebulous. When you drill down a bit, a lot of “socialists” are really just saying that they would like to have government play a more active role in providing various benefits to workers and the poor, along with additional environmental protection.

Socialism is thus a desire for better social welfare and a more egalitarian society. Well, maybe. This was my reply.

Thank you for that. Very interesting, and yet, and yet…. Socialism is a personal belief system that has no specific definition. Everyone makes up their own version so whenever some actually existing socialist economy is set up and then inevitably fails, everyone else can say that what they did was not what they had meant by socialism, that what was done was not what they had had in mind.

No one any longer describes what they believe in as “socialism” but I know it when I see it. It is ever and always a means to supplant the market through some kind of government direction in which individuals are not made responsible for their own personal welfare. Instead, governments manage and direct major economic entities; there are huge burdens placed on enterprises, through the taxes that are levied, the wages and benefits they are made to provide, and the regulations that they are made to follow; and there are huge amounts of public expenditures, almost inevitably more costly than the economic benefits they provide, that shape the direction in which an economy is made to follow. There are then large efforts to equalise incomes between those who provide more value than they are paid and those who either do not work or who are allowed to receive incomes well above the value added they have personally created. There are other features too, but you get the picture. The incentive structure is completely warped so that economic returns are very badly correlated with economic contribution.

And with every turn of the electoral cycle, we move further in a socialist direction. Scott Morrison is hardly a free-market capitalist, but he is well ahead of anyone on the Labor side. Your own PM is a complete economic dunce who will do you in if she is given half a chance. Everyone wants to be Mr, Miss, Ms and Mrs Niceperson. I only wish they had some prior understanding of how economies work before they bought in on it.

There you are. Interesting article, but economists turn out to have no political or philosophical sense whatsoever.

I would be placated to some extent if everyone before they waded in on the need for more regulation and re-distribution first explicitly stated that of course, free market capitalism is the only way to manage an economy so these suggestions are only intended to slightly alter the way we go about things. But no one ever says that. Replacing capitalism with something else is the underlying aim, or so it seems to me. There are so many gadgets around, from computers to widescreen television, that everyone will be easily lulled into disaster as in Venezuela with no way out at the end. And none of it will be mentioned by our media who are more into an apathetic torpor than anyone in Orwell’s time could ever possibly have imagined.

You cannot trust a party of the left with the management of an economy

From New Data Shows Absolute Economic Destruction During Obama Years. And these figures are not from some ratbag bunch of observers. This is where they are from:

The Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis just released this single snapshot of economic performance over the Obama years.

And what do the figures show:

Federal debt went through the roof as we added more debt than all other previous periods combined.
We printed lots of money to paper over the monetary effects.
Health costs went way up when we were told they would drop. Obama care was a flop.
Labor force participation went down as unemployment increased and many just dropped out of the workplace altogether.
Inequality went up and up, as the rich got richer and the middle class shrank.
Median income dropped.
Home ownership also fell way down.
Overall, Americans were far worse off than before and we were told there was NO hope.
The country was losing to China and our children and grandchildren would not live as well as their parents and grandparents had.
Jobs would never return.

Venezuela is all that parties of the left know since they know nothing about allowing a market economy to work. Politically totalitarians and economically socialists. Yet they are the almost-governments everywhere and are only stopped because the damage they create causes a backlash before they can go much farther. But eventually they return and carry their projects a little further along.

We need a strategy for dealing with censorship by the left

You can see this for now, while there are other things you cannot see at all, and do not even know you cannot see them because they have been obliterated by media proprietors as if they are private companies with no need to provide the service they promised once they forced the opposition out of the picture. If it’s not illegal to say something, then it should be illegal to remove anything from twitter, facebook and youtube. The backstory here: Lauren Southern’s Documentary ‘Borderless’ Goes Viral Despite YouTube Censorship.


YouTube reportedly censored Lauren Southern’s latest documentary on the migrant crisis in Europe but it went gone viral nonetheless.

As of Monday morning her documentary had over 526,000 views.

 

It’s not all sunshine

A quite sobering column from Terry McCrann this morning: Tale of two elections: Sunshine state v others. Here’s the nub of it:

The result in Australia ex-Queensland (and/or also WA: it really doesn’t matter for the substantive analysis) is not just an interesting statistical artefact. It is of huge substantive significance, especially going forward.

Now maybe the maths was a little challenging for commentators. But it isn’t actually that difficult. You subtract the 23 seats the Coalition won in Queensland from the 78 it won nationally and that leaves you with 55. Then you subtract the six seats Labor won in Queensland from the 67 it won nationally and you are left with 61.

That number 61 is greater than 55. But for Queensland, Bill Shorten would be leader of a Labor government — with five other supportive lefties led by the Greens Adam Bandt and Zali “real climate action, never voted Liberal federally” Steggall.

The core substantive reality this speaks to is that the 20 million Australians who live outside Queensland actually did vote to elect a Labor government.

And where does that take us. Terry again:

Australia ex-Queensland actually voted for:

● So-called “real action on climate change” and the 45 per cent 2030 emissions reduction cuts and its identical twin insanity of 50 per cent renewables by the same date. And to accept the absence of costs.

● The raft of Labor tax hikes, along with the vast social-engineering spending.

● And of course, a PM Shorten.

It makes an utter nonsense of the sweeping claims from leading commentators that Australia “didn’t want sweeping change, class warfare or progressive ideology”.

Apparently outside Queensland we voted for Labor, and that is a real worry.