What comes after socialism

That's all ye need to know. The moral of  the story is: don't take that first step!

Hey, socialist! Grow up!

Ask someone who's lived under "democratic socialism"

Government-run grocery stores? How about a government-run bakery?

Weather forecast for NYC, Minneapolis, Portland, etc etc

Vicious circle

The difference between socialism and capitalism

I wonder if the voters of New York City are clear on this...

Meme of the week (so far)

Panic in Gotham as socialist Muslim wins Dem primary for Mayor

Cazart! The BSDs of Wall Street and the denizens of Crown Heights, Borough Park and Williamsburg are in full panic mode -- "Can you get me on a flight to Miami Beach, today?!" -- after Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani's shock victory over the former governor Andrew Cuomo to become the presumptive Dimocratic nominee for mayor of the Wormy Apple.

Mr Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, and a devout follower of the Prophet, ran on a platform that has terrified some in the business and certain religious communities. Their idea of an acceptable leftist candidate was someone like (((Bernie Sanders))). But this? Oy, oy, oy!

Mr Mamdani wants to raise corporate taxes to 11.5% and add a 2% income tax on New Yorkers making more than $1 million. He has said he would make the city more affordable by freezing rents on rent-stabilized apartments, investing $70 billion in publicly subsidized housing for the flotsam and jetsam who wind up in the "sanctuary city", providing free bus service and opening government-operated grocery stores -- the kind they used to have in the Soviet Union where you had to bribe someone to get a six-month old turnip.

Wall Street quickly started to worry.Some financial executives spoke of backing Mayor Eric Adams, clearly the lesser of the two weevils. Corporate leaders held a flurry of private phone calls to plot how to fight back against Mr Mamdani's primary victory and discussed backing an outside group with the goal of raising around $20 million to oppose him. Dan Loeb, chief executive of hedge fund Third Point, and a major Cuomo backer, wrote on X, "It’s officially hot commie summer."

Yeah. And if Mr Mamdani wins the mayoralty, what happens next? The real insane voters of New York may think that he, being an oppressed person like them -- all Muslims are oppressed, you know -- will bring them equity, justice and freedom in a socialist workers' paradise. LMAO. 

Those who can read would do well to check out "All socialism involves slavery" (WWW 14/6/25), in which we posted a quote from Left Luggage, by C. Northcote Parkinson, author of the eponymous Law, on the motivation and actions of today's leftists. 

They came to realize...that the lower classes cannot be resued from the slum unless they will do as they are told. This, they came to see, is a basic principle of existence. 

You cannot help an old woman to cross a busy street unless she will accept your guidance. The very act of going to the rescue makes you superior to the person rescued. And just as folk in danger must obey the orders of the lifeboatman or fireman, the victims of the industrial slum must follow the social reformer's advice. 

That they are incapable of saving themselves is the most obvious result of their ill-treatment. Kindly but firmly they must be shows the way to escape. A better environment can be theirs but only if they will obey orders. It is this kindly coercion that has come to be known as Socialism. [My emphasis. Walt]

Shortly after that post appeared, Agent 3 was on the horn to tell us that socialism also involves poverty. As surely as day follows night (he said), the socialists achieve "equity" not by raising the standard of living of the masses, but by reducing everyone to the same level of bare subsistence. Like this.

Walt has dear friends, refugees from Cuba, who remember how the Marxist Castros plunged their country into dire poverty. The voters of New York City, many of whom are Americans [geddit? Ed.] and therefore ignorant of the realities of places like Cuba and Venezuela, must think that Islamic socialism would somehow be better than the Latin American variety. If so, they are wrong.

"All socialism involves slavery." (Herbert Spencer)

[Who Herbert Spencer? Ed.] Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. He originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology after reading Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species.

In Left Luggage (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1967), C. Northcote Parkinson (author of The Law), says: "In his approach to sociology and policisa, Herbert Spencer had one tremendous advantage over rival theorists.... He knew what he was talking about." 

At page 35, he (Parkinson) writes: "In The Man Versus the State (1884), Spencer distinguished clearly between 'the regime of status' and the 'regime of contract'.... To give people greater freedom should enable them to benefit themselves. To benefit them directly, by contrast, one must insist, first of all, on obedience."

There follows a lengthy quote from Mr Spencer's book, from the section headed "The Coming Slavery", at page 314.

There is that increasing need for administrative compulsion and restraints which results from the unforeseen evils and shortcomings or preceding compulsions and restraints. Moreover, every additional State-interference strengthens the tacit assumption that it is the duty of State to deal with all evils and secure all benefits. 

Increasing power of a growing organisation is accompanied by decreasing power of the rest of the society to resist its further growth and control. The multiplication of careers opened by a developing bureaucracy tempts members of the classes regulated by it to favour its extensions.... 

The people at large, led to look on benefits received through public agencies as gratis benefits, have their hopes continually excited by the prospects of more. A spreading education, furthering the diffusion of pleasing errors rather than of stern truths, renders such hopes both stronger and more general. 

Worse still, such hopes are ministered to by candidates for public choice, to augment their chances of success; and leading statesmen, in pursuit of party ends, bid for popular favour by countenancing them. 

Getting repeated justifications from new laws harmonizing with their doctrines, political enthusiasts and unwise philanthropists push their agitations with growing confidence and success. 

Journalism, ever responsive to popular opinion, daily strengths it by giving it voice; while counter-opinion, more and more discouraged, finds little utterance.

Thus influence of various kinds conspires to increase corporate action and decrease individual action. And the change is being on all sides aided by schemers, each of whom thinks only of his pet plan and not at all of the general re-organisation which his plan, joined with others such, are working out. 

It is said that the French Revolution devoured its own children. Here [in Great Britain], an analogous catastrophe seems not unlikely. The numerous socialistic changes made by Act of Parliament, joined with the numerous others presently to be made, will by-and-by be all merged in State-socialism -- swallowed in the vast wave which they have little by little raised.

"But why is this change described as 'the coming slavery'?" is a question which many will still ask. The reply is simple. All socialism involves slavery.

Elsewhere in Left Luggage, Mr Parkinson gives his own explanation of the motivation and actions of today's leftists.

They came to realize...that the lower classes cannot be resued from the slum unless they will do as they are told. This, they came to see, is a basic principle of existence.

You cannot help an old woman to cross a busy street unless she will accept your guidance. The very act of going to the rescue makes you superior to the person rescued. And just as folk in danger must obey the orders of the lifeboatman or fireman, the victims of the industrial slum must follow the social reformer's advice.

That they are incapable of saving themselves is the most obvious result of their ill-treatment. Kindly but firmly they must be shows the way to escape. A better environment can be theirs but only if they will obey orders. It is this kindly coercion that has come to be known as Socialism.

The emphases are mine. WW

Why people vote for leftist parties

The oldest con game in the world

Click here to see VIDEO: "The life and thought of Thomas Sowell", WWW 26/1/21.

Socialism to blame for making American workers "lazy, fat, stupid"

So says Bernie Marcus, who, together with Arthur Blank [seriously, that's his name. Ed.] founded Home Depot. In an interview with the Financial Times (reported from behind the paywall by Breitbart News), Mr Marcus said that "Nobody works. Nobody gives a damn. 'Just give it to me. Send me money. I don't want to work — I'm too lazy, I'm too fat, I'm too stupid." Like this, maybe?

   

How did things get like that? Mr Marcus puts it down to the economic agenda of socialism. He recommends capitalism as the better alternative, because capitalism is based not on entitlement, but on merit. 

"Capitalism is the basis of Home Depot [and] millions of people have earned this success and had success," said the entrepreneur. "I'm talking manufacturers, vendors and distributors and people that work for us able to enrich themselves by the journey of Home Depot. That’s the success. That’s why capitalism works."

Mr Marcus argued that business is meant to make a profit from offering a service or product, explaining that a business's ability to generate profit benefits employees and customers. He also slammed those who believe business exists for “social purposes. "The role of a business is to sell a product and make a profit. The whole idea that a business is set up for social purposes doesn't make sense to me."

He added that if the founders of Home Depot tried to launch such a business in the society and regulatory environment of Brandon's America, it would be less successful, "ending up with 15, 16 stores." That's because big government's love of red tape, along with a lackluster labor force, especially hurts small businesses’ ability to compete with big business.

A longtime conservative donor, Bernie Marcus supported President Donald Trump and became one of his largest donors. His continued support of Trump in the 2020 election cycle triggered a boycott of Home Depot, even though Mr Marcus no longer worked with the company.

Mr Marcus told FT he makes no apologies for backing Republicans such as Mr Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying, "I give money to them because I hope they’re going to do the right thing." 

He described President Trump's policies as "spot on"” but did not say if he would support one man over the other for the GOP nomination. "It's going to be very interesting in `24." Mr Marcus said, "because I think DeSantis will challenge [Trump]. And may the better man win!"

VIDEO: Fr. Ed Meeks: 5 things Catholics should know about Joe Biden

Father Ed Meeks is a Catholic priest of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, and the founding pastor of Christ the King Church in Towson MD. After many years as a priest of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, and then the Anglican Church in America, Fr. Meeks was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on 23 June 2012.

Excerpts from Fr Meeks' homily (11/10/20) on the issues of the 2020 election and Catholics' civic responsibilities are featured by Michael Matt in his video "The American Nightmare: Go Trump or go lockdown!", reposted here a few minutes ago.

 

It requires great courage for a Catholic priest to speak out against the liberal establishment, especially now when that liberal secular humanist establishment has, as its chaplain, none other than the Marixst Jorge Bergoglio, whom some still call "Pope Francis". Fr Meeks' warning should be taken to heart not just by Catholics, but by patriotic Americans of all faiths.

Reposting a rant you're not going to like, by Brandon Morse

Ed. here. The last couple of months has been hard on Walt's blood pressure, and kindly ol' Doc Martin has suggested some time away from the USA might do him some good. He is therefore in partibus infidelibus until further notice, but we -- Poor Len Canayen and I -- won't let our faithful readers down.

Our National Sports Editor will wait until after tonight's NHL playoff game between the Penguins and the Habs to make sure he wasn't dreaming on Saturday night, so today we'll share with you excerpts from "Stop Being Nice: A Rant You're Not Going to Like", by Brandon Morse, in RedState, 31/7/20. By "you", Mr Morse means you conservatives and libertarians who aren't fighting back against the BLM/SJW/Antifa war on our society. Here are some choice chunks from his call to action.

I'm convinced that we've become a nation that has gotten so out of control in our adherence to social justice that it's even infected the people who are supposed to resist it, or worse, we've become too scared to rebel against it....

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, isn’t living up to its reputation as either of those things. Social justice has infected everything and turned the United States into the shadow of its former self.

Despite all the fighting back we've done, the left is still managing to make their reality-rejecting ideological stances the standard in how the public conducts itself. It doesn't matter if its a complete denial of science or embracing failed political systems, the general public has become too afraid to look at the raging, temper tantrum throwing, hate-filled left and say "no."....

Social justice has taken over our society so much that we have a mass of people so brainwashed by leftist propaganda that they actually believe that socialism and communism are awesome. Socialists and communists [come] out of the woodwork to let me know that capitalism is actually the place where people starve and that Soviet Russian citizens actually ate better than Americans back in the day....

So convinced are the brainwashed left by their professors and peers, however, that their position is that my own eyes and ears are useless and that I should trust theirs. So consumed with social justice are they, that despite reality slapping down every position they have on the subject, they embrace it with their heart and soul to the point of violence....

These are the same idiots screaming "Black Lives Matter" in the streets as they burn down black-owned businesses, destroy their neighborhoods, and even kill them over television sets during riots. The same idiots who tell you that they're the good guys as they pummel you into a near-coma because you think pummeling people into a near-coma isn't the way we fix society.

...the end-goal of Black Lives Matter isn't equality and elevation of black lives but the fact that despite repeated actions from the BLM rioters and their leaders have proven me right time and again, the general public either still believes BLM cares or is too afraid to say otherwise. It's this cowardice that drives me nuts.

Our nation is collapsing around us, people have lost or are losing their jobs, businesses are failing, and the stress of it all is causing drug and alcohol abuse, as well as suicide rates to shoot up....

If all the truly responsible people went out and opened their businesses and conducted their lives like normal, the politicians and COVID-Karens could rant, scream, and rave all they want, lefty doctors could fear-monger till they were blue in the face and show us skyrocketing infection rates, but beyond these people, you wouldn't know a damn bit of difference between now and pre-COVID America....

I think a lot of this is happening because, frankly, we've become so passive and polite. Our enemies have interpreted our mild-mannered kindness as weakness and we’ve done nothing to prove otherwise....

I'm sick of this "nice guy" routine we’ve gotten ourselves into a rut with. It’s not doing us any good and we’re clearly being taken advantage of....

I'm promoting self-defense, which we have a right to. I guarantee that if rioters began seeing that the likelihood of being shot went up significantly, you'd see a lot of people a lot less gung-ho about being destructive and violent. The choice to loot and pillage becomes a lot more difficult to make when the consequences involve dying somewhere between the store and the hospital bed.

That means speaking truths that are uncomfortable and not doing things that our polite society has taught us to do. Stop qualifying your facts with reassurances that you’re not racist or sexist. Stop being afraid to make other people uncomfortable with your disagreements. ...stop entering every verbal combat situation by putting yourself on the back foot as a show of friendliness. They won't show you that mercy and will only take advantage of it.

We're not a nation of cowards so let's stop acting like it. The old saying that "all evil needs in order to succeed is for good men to do nothing" applies here. Our enemies deserve no quarter as we have received none ourselves.

Fight back.

That's about half of what Brandon Morse wrote. Click on the link in the introduction to read the whole thing. Any further comment from us, even an "Amen!", would be superfluous.

Sedition

"Stand frim!"? Oh well, it's the spirit of the thing that counts. Ed.

Brilliant satire from the People's Cube: dream diary of Tiffany, SJW

Komissar al-Blogunov, writing in The People's Cube, has concocted a brilliant piece of satire: "From the dream diary of Tiffany, SJW". Constraints of space prevent us from reposting the whole thing, but these excerpts will give you the flavour of it. To read the aarticle in its entirety, follow the link at the end.

Okay, like, I had this totally awful dream last night, okay - in my safe space! It was literally the worst dream I have ever literally had. It went like this:

It was November 3, 2020. Bernie won! It was wonderful that he won because that meant that Trump was gone! My feminist studies professor told me that Trump was literally the worst Republican president since Hitler, and I believe him. Everybody on campus was cheering, hugging, dancing, getting high, and waving rainbow flags while burning American flags. It was the greatest day in our nation's history.

Bernie gave the best inaugural address that I have literally ever heard. He said, "The time has come to realize FDR's Second Bill of Rights."

I had to Google FDR, and Google said that he was literally the best president ever and AOC said Republicans persecuted him and rewrote the Constitution (some kind of boat, I don't get it) so he couldn't run for a fifth term after he died.

My bad, back to the speech. It was literally awesome.... I thought I was literally going to go deaf from all the cheering. But then something really weird happened in my dream, and it was like I was going forward in time....

I guess I needed to like, work or something. I knew I could make a lot of money with the new minimum living wage of $50 per hour (Thank you, thank you, Bernie!) so I looked for my first job. I was so confused because it was like everybody else needed a job, too. Everywhere I went some guy or some woman would tell me they couldn't afford to hire me. I went to the Employment Council building, and they said that since I was white I had to move to the back of the line. How come there were no jobs when the pay was so good?

We ended up living in an alley, and I'm not lying when I tell you it was literally the filthiest place I've ever seen. We tried to make a shelter, but it didn't do much to keep the rain out, and nobody would share their tent with us. My little brother got sick, so we took him to the hospital because all the health care was free (Thank you again, Bernie, you're awesome!) and we knew we could just walk in. You know what? There were so. many. sick people there. When we got to the desk, Mommy said that my brother may have typhoid (she used to be a nurse) and needed to be seen immediately. Well, the clerk told us to go home and come back when there weren't so many sick people in the waiting room and the earliest appointment we could get was 11 months later.

When I woke up, I was so confused, so angry. I mean, how is it even possible for socialism to turn out so bad when they make so many cool promises? Whatever. We just need the right people in charge.

Click here to go to The People's Cube and read Tiffany's bad dream, in its entirety. Good job, Komisar! Keep up the good work!

VIDEO: "Mad Max" Bernier at Rebel Live in Calgary - full speech

Ed. here. We no sooner posted "Bernier's People's Party of Canada wows Toronto 'deplorables'", earlier this morning, when an assiduous (and sometimes acidulous) reader e-mail to say it was nice to see the positive comments from those who heard Maxime Bernier speak at Toronto. But (he asks) don't you have the speech itself? Errr, no. But I've found the video from M Bernier's speech to a conference organized by The Rebel in Calgary, earlier this month. Here it is.



Gotta love the line about "politically correct nonsense"!

VIDEO: Bannon vs Frum debate goes on despite antifa near-riot

Last night in Toronto, Steve Bannon, former advisor to POTUS and founder of The Movement, was scheduled to debate the pros and cons of populism with cuckservative never-Trumper David Frum in one of the Munk Debates, an occasional circle-jerk for Canada's chattering classes.

Days before the event, the usual gang of SJWs, snowflakes and NPCs, led by Big Labour (Hello! United Steelworkers) and Canada's pinko New Democratic Party, started protesting. Petitions were circulated. Speeches were made. Marches were marched. The theme? "Free speech = hate speech!" For, as we know, the lefties are all for free speech and allowing people to voice their opinions, as long as the opinions are politically correct.

The organizers refused to cave, and the debate went ahead, but not before about 1500 antifa types, including cheerleaders from Canada's Communist and Socialist parties, held up traffic in front of the venue for about 45 minutes, trying to prevent the entry of the audience, not because they wished to speak, but because they came to listen! Here's some video from Global TV News.



Protesters chanted, booed and jeered at those waiting in line, and held up signs with slogans such as "refugees are welcome" and "human rights are not up for debate." Inspector Knacker of the Toronto Police "Service" tweeted that a dozen protesters will face "various charges". Two officers were injured during the near-riot.

Inside, Mr Bannon acknowledged protesters' right to free speech, before emphatically stating that populism is "a new political revolution." The question to be asked, he said, is what kind of populism will take root? "It's not a question of whether populism is on the rise and whether populism is going to be the political future," Bannon said. "The only question before us is, is it going to be populist nationalism or populist socialism?"

Dear American citizens, please keep that question in mind when you go to vote on Tuesday!

Lesbian premier of Ontario warns yoofs: People like me will outvote you!

Agent 3 tells us that nearly half a century ago, he met Catherine Swift, who was then whipping up enthusiasm (= members + funds) for the newly-formed Canadian Federation of Independent Business, a pro-business and therefore mildly conservative organization which is still promoting free enterprise and freedom from unnecessary government. [Is there such a thing as "necessary government"? Ed.] Ms Swift went on to become Chair of the Board of the CFIB, and has since moved on to become spokesthingy for Working Canadians, which sounds to me like dangerously populist group.

As such, she does a lot of writing, some of it quite provocative, including the following short polemic which was picked up by the Niagara Independent, a new blog which looks like a worthwhile read for residents of the attractive side of the river.

A few weeks ago, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne made an astonishing statement. When speaking to a roomful of Humber college students, she urged them to make sure they voted in the upcoming June 7 provincial election.

If she had just left it there, it would have been a commendable reminder of the importance of participating in our democratic system to a group that might never have voted before and needed some extra encouragement to do so. But Wynne didn’t leave it there, but rather added the absurd and objectionable comment “If you don’t vote, then somebody who looks like me is going to vote, some senior person, older than me, some white person”.

Wow – the notion of old, white people actually voting? The horror!

Wynne has made a career of calling out others as racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist etc. when anyone opposes her views or policies, no matter how legitimate the criticism. It is particularly hypocritical for her to have made such an ageist, racist statement as she did to the college students.

This certainly did not demonstrate the “inclusiveness” that Wynne and her Liberal friends profess to practice. Instead it merely exposed the superficial nature of the Liberal brand and the divisive nature of identity politics that seeks to pit one group against another, no matter how corrosive that divisiveness is to society as a whole....

What Wynne likely had in mind in making this silly statement was the fact that young people have a track record of low voter turnout while a larger proportion of older voters do tend to get out and vote. Younger voters also have a higher likelihood of voting to the left of centre, exemplifying the old adage “If you are under 30 and not a socialist you have no heart, but if you are over 30 and not a capitalist, you have no brain”.

These realities are true not just in Ontario, but world-wide, as age and life experience have a habit of chipping away at youthful ideals that big government is a good thing and governments always have the best interests of citizens at heart. [My emphasis. Walt]

This ridiculous comment by Wynne did get some mention in the media but it was basically a one-day wonder. If a Conservative had said anything like this, it is likely we would still be reading about how unacceptable it was several weeks later. Although the mainstream press may have forgotten about this incident, I imagine there are many old, white folks who won’t when they head into the ballot box on June 7. And deservedly so.