Is America Going Socialist under Biden/Harris?

President Trump proclaimed during his last SOTU address: "America will never be a Socialist country!" But, was he right? Democrats sat on their hands and frowned during Trump's speech.

Does the Biden/Harris administration, that took power from him, intend a different outcome? If so, and Socialism is our destination, which variant across the Socialism spectrum of the roughly 25 failed experiments in history will they pursue? What is the American strain of Socialism in 2021, and are Americans sufficiently versed in Marxism/Socialism/Communism to recognize and evaluate it - or stop it?

I'm exploring these questions as I read Dinesh D'Souza's book "United States of Socialism: Who's behind it, Why it's evil, How to Stop it" and Mark Levin's bestseller "American Marxism". 

Let's briefly step through the evolution of the ideological underpinning (Marxism), the various Collectivist expressions in government systems, and the American direction on the Socialism spectrum.

1. Marxism's evolution: 

- Classic Marxism: Marx proposed that society was organized in a division of worker vs owner of capital

- Neo-Marxism: Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci revised Marxism, when it failed to take root in the West, to frame it in a culture context, or "Cultural Marxism"

- Critical Theory (CT): German Marxists (Adorno, Horhheimer,  from Frankfurt University brought Marxism to America as the FrankFurt School in California and Colombia University in NYC. Critical Theory was anti-capitalist and anti-tradition, and aimed to spread deconstruction of society through all academic disciplines in universities. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is an evolution of CT, incorporating Gramsci's cultural aspects, developed in the law school curriculum's at Harvard. CT also developed across other disciplines, such as "Queer Studies" etc.

- Identity Socialism: framework proposed by Dinesh D'Souza to define how Identity Politics and Socialism have merged in the culture war in America. Perhaps the American strain of Socialism.

2. Collectivist systems of Socialism / Communism

What are the commonly understood definitions of Socialism and Communism? Are they adequate to explain all of the expressions in governing systems that have emerged in history?

I've seen it defined that Socialism is an intermediary step between Capitalism and Communism. The famous quote from Vladimir Lenin is: "The goal of Socialism is Communism".

a. Worker's paradise: Marx envisioned, to simplify, worker ownership of the means of production, after revolution. 

D'Souza asks: in what country have we seen that governing system happen? Nowhere.

b. Nationalization is the commonly understood definition of Socialism: State ownership of the means of production. 

We've seen this tried before. I grew up when the Communist nations of the Soviet Union and "Red China" controlled half of the planet - with satellite nations like Cuba nationalizing industries. Socialism spread through the African nations, and into South America.

But the Soviet Union failed and imploded. China gave up Socialist economics to some degree for Totalitarian Capitalism. And we'll see what Cuba becomes post-Castro as it has sought to open up to the West. Venezuela is collapsing.

c. Democratic Socialism: The Scandanavia model is oft-touted among American intellectuals, and desired by Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) types like Bernie Sanders. Or anti-business types like Elizabeth Warren. They haven't gotten much traction in America, though Sanders ran strong primaries against Hillary and Biden. AOC and the Squad have significant influence on Speaker Pelosi.

d. Sphere of Influence: D'Souza references another definition of Socialism, from economist Joseph Shumpeter, who defined Socialism as a system in which "as a matter of principle, the economic affairs of society belong to the public, and not to the private sphere".

D'Souza: "This strikes me as an excellent definition because it creates a spectrum. At one end is the free market society, which generates wealth and earnings in the private sphere, requiring little more than laws protecting property rights and enforcing contracts . At the other end is the socialist society, in which the wealth and earnings of the citizens are considered a common pool to be harnessed by the state or the public sphere and dispersed according to the government's objectives and priorities. Shumpeter's definition allows us to locate every type of socialism along this spectrum. 

e. The American Strain: 

D'Souza: "So, what hue of Socialism do our American socialists want? They insist that they are a new breed, with a new vision and a new agenda. While history and other countries may supply useful models, American socialists have introduced a new element - Identity Politics - that Marx would have repudiated and other socialists have assiduously avoided. Consequently, American socialism deserves it's own name, and the name I propose is Identity Socialism".

In short, D'Souza explains that the new American strain redefines the word democracy to define the public sphere. The "we" that Identity Socialists use so often is not the individual sense that traditionalists are use to in "We the People" - in which rights are individual and not collective - but in the "royal we" sense of the collective. State ownership is through representatives, exercised in terms of regulations, taxes, and mandates to meet identity-dominant goals. Democracy in the Identity Socialist sense will use climate change through massive Green New Deal taxing, spending, and regulation to achieve a sort of communism.

4. So, are we transforming to Socialism?

Joe Biden is not Marx, or Lenin, or Gramsci, or Castro, or Xi, or Bernie Sanders. 

But, Biden has stocked his cabinet and advisors with radicals. That includes cabinet members like Mayor Pete "roads are racist" Buttigieg, our Transportation Secretary whose father was a fan of the Communist Manifesto, with an academic's life work of translating Antonio Gramsci's prison diaries. did our cabinet secretary fall far from the Socialist fanboy's tree? The Marxist indoctrination of our elites through the Frankfurt School's inter-disciplinary seeding of academia is evident in Biden's cabinet - from his intersectional race/gender pick for VP,  to his radical secretaries. 

And his radical cabinet and advisors are breaking everything traditional in the first year as they pursue a radical agenda. They broke our border to facilitate a transformational invasion + mass amnesty. They broke our dollar with tax-and-spend inflation. They broke our energy independence, and sold us out again to globalists. They broke our national security as they converted the Taliban to a standing army with $85B of US military weapons, and reinvigorate ISIS and al Qaeda, reverted the Mideast to enable terrorism and make war more likely, and yield everything to China. Our Woke generals, like Gen Mark "the roots of White Rage" Milley and SecDef Austin have broken our military with CRT indoctrination and purges of conservative patriots. And they have re-weaponize DOJ and FBI (as they did during Obama/Biden) to transform the War on Terror domestically aimed at suppressing traditionalist opposition. 

How you look at Biden nominating Saule Omarova for Comptroller of the Currency at Treasury, and not see the transformation to Socialism agenda? Omarova was born in the Soviet Union, educated at Moscow State University on a Lenin scholarship, and wrote her thesis on Marx. Her professional career in the US has been at the most radical universities, from the People's Republic of Madison to the Ivy League. Omarova has proposed bankrupting energy companies to move us to Green climate change policies, and eliminating private banks with everyone having a federal account at the Fed. 

Did Biden nominate Omarova for Treasury? Or is Biden a mentally-diminished figurehead controlled by radicals in his inner circle?

Either way, the direction is clear. We're in the midst of a Cultrual Marxism, Identity Socialism, transformation of America. 

When Barack Obama said that we are five minutes away from a "fundamental transformation of America", he wasn't expecting to be stopped by the Tea Party in his socialist transformation, or for it to be interrupted by one term of an America First outsider fighter. But, the establishments regrouped, remove the outsider from the public square, and are now racing to fully transform us.

Joe Biden has broken almost everything in 10 months in his race to transform us, which started with 100+ Executive Orders reversing everything that Trump had fixed. His reckless socialist spending on our "recovery" has caused rapid inflation and has broken our supply chain. He was bailed out on his boondoggle "infrastructure" bill by 19 sellout GOP Senators and 13 sellout GOP Representatives. If Biden gets 50 Senators to pass his Build Back Better multi-trillion dollar spending bill - a Socialist spending bill euphemistically called "human infrastructure", our Republic is over. Transformed.

The American Marxists are achieving the United States of Socialism.

Fight the Marxist takeover of America, every day.
"

Verdict Vindication

 It was always a lie from liars that Kyle Rittenhouse was a racist "white-supremacist" vigilante - as the "smart set" called him in a year long false narrative.

So many lies. He "crossed state lines with a weapon". It was illegal to have the weapon. He was looking for trouble. He was a militia member of the Proud Boys or similar. Joe NBC even said that KR "fired 60 rounds" into the crowd. All lies.

Kyle Rittenhouse worked in Kenosha. He was working there that day as anarchists were destroying his town. He went to the riot area to provide aid and deter rioters from destroying a car lot. He attempted to put out fires. He was armed for his own self defense. For his efforts, he was attacked by 4 criminals who were there committing new crimes to burn the city down, and he defended himself from all 4 attacks without firing any more rounds (8 total) than he had to. As the defense attorney argued: all of the people that Kyle shot were attacking Kyle. 

Self defense necessarily requires an aggressor and a defender. Democrats and Democrat Media inverted the two in this encounter for partisan purposes to advance a bad false narrative that America is systemically racist, and that "white supremacist" "domestic terrorists" are the real threat. 

Democrat politicians and Democrat Media lied for a year to defame KR. Joe Biden defamed him after a debate as a white supremacist with zero evidence, for votes - and his voters rewarded that lie with votes. Irresponsible media sold false narratives about Kyle for a year for ratings with their echo chamber audience. They were divisive lies, and they divided our nation.

Then comes a trial, livestreamed to America daily, and the red-pilling of Americans as they could see from the evidence how much lying there had been. Viewers could see for themselves who was the Defender that night, and who the 4 Aggressors were. The prosecutors were exposed for bringing a rush-to-judgement malicious prosecution. And the brave jury, in the face of a growing mob outside, rendered justice with a just verdict.

This trial was important for America to see. It bolstered the Second Amendment, and the natural law right of self defense encoded in our states' laws. And it exposed the liars and their bad agendas.

I am stunned at the jury's courage in delivering the just verdict, ecstatic that self-defense prevailed in the face of criminal anarchist attackers, and relieved for this brave young man. 

I am also appalled at the hot takes from Establishment blowhards who can't admit how wrong they have been for a year, including those who should have defended KR. Leftists are doubling down on their lies. Establishment hacks like Alan Dershowitz and David French are going with the sanctimonius virtue-signal that Kyle was innocent but a vigilante who shouldn't have been there. Screw them. 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse had more virtue than them, as they opined as cities burned across America and he showed up. The "Republican" Establishment left the base in the lurch during the lies to be banned from social media for expressing support or fired from their jobs for contributing to KR's defense. 

Now is time for the comeuppance for the lying class.

Shame for the Democrat politicians who sold the false vile white supremacist narrative for votes. 
Shame for the Democrat Media hacks who sold the false vile white supremacist narrative for ratings.
Shame for the Social Media titans who suppressed and banned the truth from their platforms.
Shame for the "conservative" establishment types of Con Inc who left their base to carry the truth.

Fire them all. 

Tucker Carlson has the spot on recap tonight. I'll give him the last word, and go party. 

Is There a Tipping Point?

 What's the tipping point where the majority of Americans are fed up with the party in power's rapid race to fundamentally transform America to Socialism?

- Mandates / firings?
- Empty shelves and a broken supply chain?
- Biden-flation / Stagflation
- Marxist indoctrination of our military and schools?
- Cancel Culture?

Do people imagine that one election every 4 years will stop Marxists?

- 

Why Would We Owe Them Respect?

 I no longer respect our institutions or elites at any level, as it's clear they don't respect us:

"We are illegitimate.

That’s their position. This stuff about us being real participants in this “democracy” is all lies and it’s all a scam. 

Any time we attempt to use the rights we supposedly have as American citizens – to invest how we want, to elect who we want, to say what we want, to live how we want, to just plain be – we find out that none of those things are rights but are instead mere privileges to be snatched away by the ruling caste the moment we use them to actually challenges the garbage status quo.

So, why again do we owe any respect, loyalty, or obedience to this paradigm?"

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2021/02/01/gamestop-lets-you-see-the-matrix-n2583952

The End of our Republic...

 ...begins in two days. The damage that Biden and Harris can do to our Republic in their first 100 days is likely to be irreparable. 

Border? What border...

 

Resuming Blogging, as the World Goes Crazy

 Blogging used to be my main form of expression on politics, art, religion, and the world. I was here opining quite a bit from 2003 to 2015. But, the siren call of social media caused me to relocate my expressive outlets to the Big Tech hangouts.

As Big Tech goes Big Brother and executes purges this week, I'm back here. I can't support platforms that are doing the purging. We'll see if the purges reach to here. 

The world has gone crazy, but predictably so. A lot of us warned where it was headed, and it's here. 

How far will the purges go?

Fight Evil, not the Evil Fighters

"The Left almost always opposes fighting evil, and almost always wants to disarm those who want to fight."

Dennis Prager has offered that insight, in minor variations, many times over the years that I've read and listened to Prager's radio show - as examples of that insight come up often.

This week's example of that insight is found in the Senate confirmation hearing for Trump's nominee to be CIA Director - Gina Haspel. Trump has nominated her, the first woman to be nominated for that position, because she has an accomplished career at CIA on the front lines of the Cold War and the War on Terror. Democrats, and near-Democrats like John McCain, oppose the confirmation of Haspel because her work fighting al-Qaeda in the Work on Terror included supervising a CIA black site where rendition and enhanced interogation took place - and they consider her a "torturer".

I got a glimpse of Prager's insight on this story when I read a Tweet from the ACLU yesterday,  which read:

"Haspel won’t answer whether she oversaw the torture of Nashiri. She did. It involved:
• Locking him, naked, in coffin-like boxes
• Slamming him into walls
• Waterboarding him"

Who is "Nashiri"? You can find that answer in an article inProPublica that is linked in the ACLU tweet:

"Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a 37-year-old Saudi, did not deny having been a terrorist operative for Osama bin Laden. He admitted his role in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, an attack that killed 17 Navy sailors. Captured two years later in Dubai, he talked openly about planning more attacks."

Wait. Stop there. Why did ACLU westernize Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri's name down to simply Nashiri in their tweet? And why did they leave out his al-Qaeda resume which includes killing Americans and planning to kill more? Because they want Westerners to be sympathetic to this high-ranking terrorist, and his murderous resume doesn't help in casting him as the good guy and Haspel and the CIA as the bad guy to defeat Haspel.

Did the interrogation techiniques work on Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri?

"Nashiri did not do much resisting. After he was locked into the smaller box for the first time, early in his stay at the black site, he began to talk about two of the main operations to which he would be linked in U.S. intelligence summaries: an aborted plan to attack oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and a plot — for which he was trying to raise funds when he was captured — to crash a small airplane into a ship in the Emirati harbor of Port Rashid."

So, he was an al-Qaeda planner, like Khalid Sheik Muhammed (KSM) was. He was the "ticking time bomb" that we talk about when we talk about justified interrogation.

Did the CIA injure the terrorist in their custody

"Various psychological evaluations of Nashiri have found lasting scars. In addition to a phobia of water, he has been diagnosed with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. A psychiatric expert, Sondra Crosby, called him “one of the most damaged victims of torture” she had ever examined."

The 17 Navy sailors that Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri murdered on the USS Cole were unavailable for comment on whether it bothered them that the terrorist who killed them was depressed and has PTSD...

Me, I'm wondering why we haven't shot him yet....

You know who wants to testify to help Democrats defeat the nomination of Gina Haspel to be CIA Director? Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in Gitmo, who we also should have shot by now. KSM and the Democrats are aligned against Haspel. Boo.

Sometimes I believe that those on the Left forgets not only the devastation of the 9/11 attack, but the uncertainty in the months following over whether there would be further attacks, including the anthrax attacks in the US. That would explain their opposition to Gina Haspel, who was on the front line overseas tasked with discovering whether al-Qaeda was planning further attacks.

The broader explanation is Prager's insight: The Left doesn't fight evil, it fights those who fight evil.

The GOP should confirm Trump's CIA Director, Gina Haspel, immediately - Democrats and John McCain notwithstanding. Do it.  

Me, a Russian Bot?

I got dismissed as a Russian bot on Twitter this week, so there's that...

Because, hey, why would an American citizen support Trump on social media? Must be the Russians...

Nyet!

I'm back, with more to say...

It's been a while since my last post at the holidays of 2015. A little thing called the presidential election happened in the meantime.

I was right about the election. I picked Donald Trump in October of 2015. I supported him in the primary season, and took a ton of heat for it from my NeverTrump friends. I was right about his chances in the general election, when I took a ton of heat from my liberal friends. But, I was right. So, there's that.

Which means that I wake up every day since the election with Donald J Trump as our president - and not Crooked Hillary - working to erase the terrible legacy of that last guy - what's his name.

I've still been having long pointless threads on Facebook. There is agreement from my Trump-voter friends, grudging okay-maybe's from my NeverTrump friends, and the same tired old rehashes with my liberal friends who didn't learn a damn thing from the election and are lost in their Resist! fantasies of the Russia-ate-my-homework collusion conspiracy and the coup to take down a duly elected president.

I'm still on Twitter where I'm at just short of 40k tweets, but I seem to be "shadow-banned" by the leftists that run that place. I opine into the void there now.

Instagram is where my self-actualization takes place, as I find my joy daily in capturing an image that's interesting but no one else saw or got. Fun!

Having said all of that, I'd like to rekindle this blog and express my thoughts here instead of the other venues. I hope someone reads it, but that's not required for me to get something out of posting here.

So, we're caught up - and the Master's Class on Life is back in session...