How You Score DJT

For John, BLUF:  Is this the "October Surprise" of the 2024 Election Season?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Trump's former chief of staff called him a 'fascist.' Harris is campaigning on that

From NPR, by Reporter Ximena Bustillo, 23 October 2024, 1:53 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus two:

Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who was former President Donald Trump‘s longest-serving chief of staff, called Trump’s leadership style “dictatorial,” “fascist” and lacking empathy in new interviews this week.

Now Vice President Harris — who is trying to peel off moderate Republican voters and independents in key swing states — is seizing on those warnings to bolster her argument that her opponent is a threat to democracy and too dangerous to hold the office.

Trump has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punish perceived enemies "So the bottom line is this, we know what Donald Trump wants — he wants unchecked power. The question, in 13 days, will be what do the American people want?" Harris said, referring to Election Day on Nov. 5.

I want to switch this up because I am not sure I understand how Progressives view “fascism”. I distinctly remember some woman being interviewed on NPR saying, about Mao, and the Great Leap Forward, that to "Make an Omlet you have to break some eggs."  Really?

Anyway, I ask each of you to tell me where, on this spectrum, you put Candidate Donald J Trump in terms of his fascism.

1. Woodrow Wilson (New Jersey)
2. António Salazar (Portugal)
3. Francisco Franco (Spain)
4. Benito Mussolini (Italy)
5. Adolf Hitler (Germany)
6. Joseph Stalin (Russia)
7. Mao Zedung (China)
8. Pol Pot (Cambodia)

In thinking about this, keep in mind that in Italy Carlo Levi survived WWII to write a book, but, in the Netherlands Anne Frank did not survive WWII, to allow her to edit her diaries.  The Ukrainians probably have yet to forgive Russia for the Holodomor.  While I have forgiven The Old Gray Lady and Walter Duranty and the Pulitzer Panel for lying about it, I haven't forgotten their failures.

Anyway, give DJT a score.  A score with a decimal fraction is fine.  For instances, my score for Candidate Trump is 0.8.

Then ask yourself where you would put Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz.  Think especially about their views on freedom of speech (First Amendment) and the right of People to be wrong.

Exit Question:  If, as I would assert, Joseph Stalin was worse than Adolf Hitler, does that make his Left Wing Government more right wing than Nazism?

Regards  —  Cliff

Dems Call DJT a Fascist

For John, BLUF:  I am going to blame high school history teachiing for the false belief that Donald Trump is a Fascist.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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My Middle Brother, who is a Progressive, sent me this article

Harris and Democrats Lose Their Reluctance to Call Trump a Fascist

Here is the sub-headline:

Since Gen. Mark Milley was quoted as saying Donald Trump is “fascist to the core,” a term avoided by top members of the Democratic Party is suddenly everywhere.

From The Old Gray Lady, by Jonathan Weisman, 17 October 2024.

Here is the lede plus six:

The word “fascist” has hovered around former President Donald J. Trump from the moment he rode down his golden escalator in 2015 to warn of Mexican rapists and drug dealers in the memorable opening of his bid for president. But for most top Democrats, it was a provocative term loaded with dread, historical import and potential incitement — best left unsaid.

Until Vice President Kamala Harris this week made clear — again and again — that it would be just fine with her to use the word.

On Tuesday, as the radio host Charlamagne Tha God interviewed Ms. Harris, he interjected as the vice president contrasted her vision with her rival’s. “The other is about fascism,” he said of Mr. Trump’s vision. “Why can’t we just say it?”

Ms. Harris’s response: “Yes, we can say that.”

On Wednesday, speaking in Washington Crossing, Pa., Ms. Harris quoted Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Mr. Trump, describing his former boss as “fascist to the core,” as detailed in a new book from the journalist Bob Woodward.

“America,” she said, “must heed this warning.”

The quotation of Mr. Milley may have opened the floodgates for Democrats, granting new permission with the authority of his uniform and his unique closeness to the inner workings of Mr. Trump’s administration. But an element of political risk remains, even as Mr. Trump freely uses the word himself against Ms. Harris.

As an aside, one wonders if General Milley is sort of a Paronist.

But, since we are crediting General Milley with opening up the use of the word fascist, via Reporter Bob Woodward's book, War, we need to ask what it means.  I expect that to most Americans the term fascist conjurs up the image of German Fuehrer Adoph Hitler.  I think that is wrong.  Fascist comes from Italian leader Benito Musolinni, Il Duce.  He was a former Communist, looking for a new system.  This was parallel to Adolph Hitler creating a new approach for Germany, National Socialism.  While Wikipedia says "Nazism is a form of fascism", I am doubtful that Adolph Hitler was modeling his party on what was happening in Italy at the same time.  I doubt that Hitler saw Musolinni as an influencer.

It would seem that those who followed in the fascist path are Spain (Francisco Franco) and Portugal (António de Oliveira Salazar).

Yes, Benito Musolinni was a bad guy, but he was no Hitler.  Remember that Carlo Levi, a Jewish Italian Physician and Painter, lived through the war to write Christ Stopped at Eboli.  We know that Anne Frank, a Jewish teen in German occupied Holland, did not live to edit her diaries.

So, does General Milley think that Trump models himself after Musollini or after Hitler?

Yet, there are others in the Twentieth Century who might have been worse than Hitler.  I am thinking of Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union), Mao Zedung (China), Pol Pot (Cambodia) and the Kim Family (North Korea).  Each has been ruthless and each has killed a higher percentage of its Citizens.  And yet we tend to shy away from examining the evil in those four leaders and from using them as standards of evil by comparison.  A prime example is Reporter Walter Duranty, who won a Pulitzer Prize while reporting for The New York Times on the Soviet Union and the Holodomor.

In fact, it appears sometimes that Progresssives make space for such evil.  I remember, about a decade or so ago, sitting in the parking lot of the Raytheon Facility in Sudbury, Massachusetts and listening to a woman on NPR talking about Mao's Great Leap Forward, "That to make an omlet you had to break some eggs."  wikipedia has a low estimate of 15 million dead, with a high of 55 million.  Elsewhere I have heard the number 100 milliion dead.

When someone claims Candidate Donald Trump is a fascist it tells me more about the speaker than it does about Donald J Trump.

Regards  —  Cliff

Knowing Your Fascists

For John, BLUF:  This is about a sideshow, but it is attracting some attention.  To Vax or not.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Are you following the pretty formidable coalition with neofascist leanings?

From Althouse Blog, by Professor Ann Althouse, 18 June 2023.

This is about Joe Rogan challenging Professor Peter Hotez to come on his show to debate Democratic Party Presidential Challenger Robert F Kennedy, Jr.

Professor Hotez Tweeted:

I'm quite concerned about the Elon-Tucker link, then fold in Rogan and RFK Jr and it becomes a pretty formidable coalition with neofascist leanings.  In some ways darker or perhaps more dangerous than Trump, in my opinion.  Awful.  I just hope Team Biden is preparing.

Do these people even know the origins of Fascism?  Do they connect it with Benito Mussolini?  Do they understand that it was Mussolini's invention after he rejected Communism and invented his own system of socialism?  Do they understand it is more "Left" than "Right"?  Do they undertaand that Left and Right were great terms in late 1700s France, but are artificial constructs today?

When Professor Hotez says, "I just hope Team Biden is preparing," do he and Team Biden know that it is both within the party and external?

As for myself, I worry about the Fascists supporting President Joe Biden.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Our Lost Hope For a Western Oriented Russia

For John, BLUF:  We sent some talented people to help in the transition from the Soviet system, but they failed.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Russia’s Great Transformational Failure

Here is the sub-headline:

Hopes that post-Soviet Russia would join the ranks of prosperous liberal democracies have proven to be a chimera

From Tablet Magazine, by Postdoctoral Fellow Ms Maria Snegovaya, 28 September 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

The collapse of the Soviet system led to a period of hope in Russia.  Throughout the 2000s, it was popular to describe Russia as a “normal country.”  The changes it went through during its transition from Soviet communism to a Westernized, market-based economy and parliamentary system were agreed to be irreversible, setting the stage for the country to eventually join the club of liberal democracies.

Thirty years later, however, it seems clear that Russia’s much-heralded modernization effort was a failure.

In the early 1990s, the political scientist Claus Offe explained the nature of the unique challenges faced by countries across the post-communist region, which he called the triple transformation:  the political transition from autocracy to democracy; the economic transition from planned to market economy; and a national transition from empire to nation-building.  While post-communist countries saw varying degrees of success, it is the failure to modernize along all three dimensions that distinguishes Russia.

As we look across the Globe we see Democracy, in various forms, the Communist Chinese approach of Social Credit and the Russian approach of authoritarianism.  To my surprise, and disappointment, the Russian model is gaining support in some areas.  However, notwithstanding the bleating from some in the US, authoritarianism does not appear to have a foothold here.

This is where a good foreign information program might be of value.  While I doubt such a program could overthrow the Social Credit syetem (it will have to undo itself by thwarting all aspects of freedom) it can help other nations cope with authoritarian aspects of thei government.  We have Madison Avenue.  We should be able to sell democracy and the freedom aspects of capitalism.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Free Speach as a Right

For John, BLUF:  I joined the ACLU some 30 years ago, to help ensure my Civil Rights, especially the Right to Free Speech.  Today, not so much, and my membership has lapsed.  They went "Woke".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Move over ACLU, FIRE is the New Champion of Free Speech

Here is the sub-headline:

The expansion of the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education marks the end of an era, when free speech issues were the sole province of American liberalism

From Taibbi Substack, by Reporter Matt Taibbi, 6 June 2022.

Here is the lede plus three:

After years of planning, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, better known as FIRE, announced a major expansion Monday, moving “beyond college campuses to protect free speech — for all Americans.”

FIRE was the brainchild of University of Pennsylvania history professor Alan Charles Kors and Boston civil liberties lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate, who co-authored the 1999 book, The Shadow University:  The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses.  To the modern reader the book reads like a collection of eccentric cases of students and teachers caught up in speech code issues, most (but not all) being conservative.

To take just one of countless nut-bar examples, Kors and Silverglate told the story of a professor in San Bernardino reprimanded for violating sexual harassment policies because, among other things, “he assigns provocative essays such as Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal,” as the court case later put it.  This was apparently the “cannibalism” portion of the accusation that he delved into such subjects as “obscenity, cannibalism, and consensual sex with children.”

The book triggered such an overwhelming number of responses from other faculty members and students that the pair decided to set up an organization to defend people who found themselves in tricky speech controversies on campuses.  They soon found they had plenty of work and, by 2022, enough of a mandate to expand beyond colleges and universities into America at large.  According to FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff, as quoted in a Politico story, the group has already raised over $28 million toward a $75 million “litigation, opinion research and public education campaign aimed at boosting and solidifying support for free-speech values.”

I am very disappointed in the ACLU and in those Liberals who have abandoned the principles of Liberty.  We are talking about People who have abandoned Liberal Principles for Frankfurt School Progressiveism, intellectuals who fled the rising tide of Fascism, only to implant their own version n the United States.

The Right to Free Speach doesn't mean you can stop me from saying it, but you can point out my comment was wrong, boorish, prejudiced or silly.  It also means you don't have to listen, even if we are married.

Stiffling Free Speech will destroy higher education and slow scientific progress, to our ultimate detrimnt.  It is what gave us the Dark Ages and what ended the Golden Age of Islam (from the 8th century to the 14th century).

Regards  —  Cliff

The Othering of Others

For John, BLUF:  When I was growing up we were still dividing by race, religion and erthnicity.  We seem to have overcome that and are now down to assigning those we disagree with to disfavored categories.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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MSNBC Op-ed:  If You Exercise, You're a Neo-Nazi

From Town Hall, by Reporter Matt Vespa, 24 March 2022, 1:45 PM.

Here is the lede plus two:

The Left has a Nazi fetish. They have an unhealthy obsession with Adolf Hitler.  Maybe it’s because they all secretly want to be him?  After all, he built death camps, put people he hated into them, and systemically murdered them.  It’s what liberals want to do with anyone with whom they disagree, so roughly half the country.  Everything they hate is rooted in racism, sexism, misogyny, or Nazism.  It’s the same old game, but it’s not reaching levels of mockery that we really haven’t approached yet.  I have never seen an op-ed that argues that working out and exercising is akin to Nazism.  It’s all here.  Exercise is a far-right activity.  You cannot make this up (via MSNBC):

It appears the far right has taken advantage of pandemic at-home fitness trends to expand its decade-plus radicalization of physical mixed martial arts (MMA) and combat sports spaces.

Earlier this month, researchers reported that a network of online “fascist fitness” chat groups on the encrypted platform Telegram are recruiting and radicalizing young men with neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremist ideologies.  Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to closed chat groups where far-right content is shared.

Makes me not want to walk laps in the house, or up and down the driveway, for fear that my neighbors with "Black Lives Matter" Flags think I am another Nazi, embedded in a Democratic Party voting City.

Apparently, in the minds of many, the best way to fight fascism is to be a fascist.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Portland State University Earns an F

For John, BLUF:  .  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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My University Sacrificed Ideas for Ideology.  So Today I Quit.

Here is the sub-headline:

The more I spoke out against the illiberalism that has swallowed Portland State University, the more retaliation I faced.

From Bari Weiss Substack, by Professor Peter Boghossian, 8 September 2021.

Here is the lede:

Peter Boghossian has taught philosophy at Portland State University for the past decade.  In the letter below, sent this morning to the university’s provost, he explains why he is resigning.

Back when I was young and in Elementary School, one of my teachers told my Mother I was "a critical thinker".  Within our family that was translated into "critical stinker", but that is a different story.

It appearas "critical thinking" has now become aligned with being a conformist.  This is a major change.  Further, Portland State University has forfeited its connection to great Universities of the past.  It has become a fascist institution.  Fascist.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Venezuela Evolving

For John, BLUF:  The sad story is that Venezuela was doing well, but to do better the leadership, under President Hugo Chávez, tried socialism, which caused collapse and thus many, almost all, are doing less well.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Bloomberg:  Venezuela Turns to Privatization After Being Bankrupted by Socialism

Here is the sub-headline:

After much pain and suffering, Venezuelan socialist leaders have conceded they cannot effectively run an economy.

From The Foundztion for Economic Education, by Managing Editor Jon Miltimore, 16 February 2021.

Here is the lede plus five:

Early in 2007, after winning a second six-year term as president, Hugo Chávez announced his plan to nationalize Venezuela’s largest telecommunications company, CANTV, hinting at wider nationalization plans to come.

“All that was privatized, let it be nationalized,” announced Chávez, who had run under the banner of democratic socialism.

Nearly a decade and a half later, on the brink of mass famine and a growing energy crisis, Venezuela is now moving in the opposite direction.

According to Bloomberg News, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has quietly begun transferring state assets back into the hands of private owners in an effort to reverse the country's economic collapse.

“Saddled with hundreds of failed state companies in an economy barreling over a cliff, the Venezuelan government is abandoning socialist doctrine by offloading key enterprises to private investors, offering profit in exchange for a share of revenue or products,” write Caracas-based journalists Fabiola Zerpa and Nicolle Yapur.

The transfer, which was not announced publicly but was confirmed by “nine people with knowledge of the matter,” reportedly includes dozens of coffee processors, grain silos, and hotels that were confiscated as part of Venezuela's widespread nationalization that began under Chavez.

It is all happening sub rosa.  But it is happening.  Venezuela is moving away from Socialism, but not necessarily toward Capitalism.

Here is how the article ends:

The Maduro government is still using everything from price controls on food to minimum wage hikes to currency manipulation to manage its economy, not to mention selecting which businesses get to participate in its privatization efforts (and who gets to invest).  In terms of overall economic freedom, Venezuela ranked 179 out of 180 countries in 2020—one place ahead of North Korea and one behind Cuba.

At best, Venezuela’s current economic system is a form of fascism, which Sheldon Richman once described as “socialism with a capitalist veneer.”

Yes, the difference betaween Fascism and Socialism is how the profits are distribued.  In both cases the concept of individual freedom is very limited.  For example, see this testimony by a North Korean woman who is now in the UK.

The key take away is that Democratic Socialism is still socialism and is a perversion of how economics works.  The outcome of any form of socialism is the destruction of the economic signaling system that makes for successful economic exchange and advancement.

Regards  —  Cliff

Fixing The Climate

For John, BLUF:  I worry that Government control of the means of production will be intoduced under the guise of fixing climate change.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Biden’s Climate Team:  “Systemic Racism” Is To Blame For Climate Change

From The Daily Wire, by Reporter Ashe Schow, 18 January 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

Two aides named by President-elect Joe Biden to handle environmental issues claim “systemic racism” is partially to blame for climate change.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Maggie Thomas has been tapped for the Office of Domestic Climate Policy chief of staff and Cecilia Martinez will serve as “senior director for e nvironmental justice.  Both incoming advisers have said racism drives climate change while insisting Biden’s environmental reforms should be based on “racial and economic justice.”

Then the article quotes The Washington Free Beacon as saying

Thomas and Martinez’s climate plans in many ways mirror the Green New Deal, a $94 trillion bill introduced by progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) in 2019.  The legislation calls for the “economic transformation” of the United States and aims to provide “adequate” federal housing for every American.  While Biden has not explicitly endorsed the Green New Deal, he has praised the bill as “a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face” and included many of its components in his $2 trillion climate plan.  The proposal, released in July 2019, pledges to “comprehensively address the most pressing, intersectional environmental justice issues” by targeting federal subsidies to minority groups.

A trillion dollars is a lot of money, and two trillion doubly so.  The US Nation Security budget for the 2021 Fiscal Year is $740.5 billion.  That is less than a trillion.

I am dubious about the racism of climate change.  Open to being convinced, but I have seen these kinds of assertions defeated by folks I respect.  We will see what the Biden Administration produces.  I hope it isn't one of those Speaker Pelosi thousand page bills, which they have to pass for us to read it.  That isn't democracy.  That is the Bureaucratic State at its Fascist best.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Definition of Fascism

For John, BLUF:  When we look around we may be seeing this.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Samizdata quote of the day

From Samizdata, by Samizdata Illuminatus (Arkham, Massachusetts), 13 January 2021.

Here is the quote:

Fascism is the organised attempt to introduce socialist planning with the consent of big business

– Edward Conze (1934)

This sounds about right.  And, it sounds like what may be happening here, today.

I wonder how US Representative Sandy Cortez (D, NY) sees it?

Regards  —  Cliff

Learning From History?

For John, BLUF:  We need to teach our children, and ourselves, more about history.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Learning from Experience, Not

From Chicago Boyz, by Blogger David Foster, 21 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

A high-school friend had a father who worked in a factory.  He had a story…it seems there was this guy who got his left arm caught in one of the machines and horribly mangled.  He was out for months, and when he came back, the other workers crowded around him, asking “How did it happen?”

“Like this,” he said, demonstrating with the other arm.

Maybe just a made-up story…but I’m reminded of it a lot, these days.

We have a century of evidence of what happens to a society when it falls into the traps of centralized economic planning, suppression of free speech, and the categorization of people–especially ethic categorization.  But an awful lot of people, including powerful and influential people, seem to want to go in these directions.

I can have some sympathy for people who became Communists and/or advocates of world government back in the 1920s.  The theory of centralized economic planning is very seductive (see this, for the actual practice), and the slaughter of the First World War led people to grasp at any possible way of avoiding such horrors in the future.

We I have a lot less sympathy for people who have refused to learn from a century of experience.

Ten or so years ago, sitting in a Rayrheon Parking Lot in Sudbury, Massachusetts, listening to NPR, I heard a woman say, unchallenged, about Communist China and the Great Leap Forward, if you are going to make an omlet you have to break a few eggs.  A few?  Easily 100 million eggs humans.

Are we, as human beings, incapable of learning.  Yes, I have heard people talk about "last century."  The problem is, a lot of stupid and perhaps avoidable mistakes were made in the last century.  For example there was a war, the Great War, in which almost 20 million died, and it was capped by a Pandemic, which killed somewhere between 17 and 100 million people.  The peace for that war wasn't all that good, laying the groundwork for a new war.  And people were so disgusted by the war that they did things like swear to never again fight for "King and Country."  Oh, and we had a Great Depression.  The US didn't pull out of the Depressionn until it mobilized for a newer and more horrific war, WWII (some 73 million dead).  Some five years later we had the Korean War and were lucky enough to have a self-taught historian as US President, who kept the war limited (none the less, a couple of million killed).  We dodged a couple of nuclear confrontations and ened up with Communism losing the Cold War, or so we thought.  The desire for centralized control and safety from freedom is strong in the human species.

we should try and avoid such mistakes in the future.

Regards  —  Cliff

Antifa Protests Those Protesting the Government Lockdown (Germany)

For John, BLUF:  And I had thought that the dreaded Antifa was found mostly around US college campuses.  I was wrong.  Here it is in Germany.  However, I doubt it exists in Russia or Mainland China or North Korea.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Antifa protests against ending the lockdown in Germany

From The Post Millennial, by Reporter Collin Jones, 25 May 2020.

Here is the lede plus four:

Police deployed water cannons on Saturday in an effort to break up an antifa demonstration that was disrupting an anti-lockdown rally in Hamburg, Germany.

The authorities were called to action after 120 antifa counter-protesters, dressed in black hoodies, consistently ignored requests to steer clear of the "Vigil for the Basic Law" rally against the lockdown measures.

The initial lockdown protest featured those who insisted that the government reopen the economy.  This group was given the go-ahead to move forward with their event after the organizers agreed to keep the limit of attendees below 750 as opposed to the thousands who would usually be allowed to show up if not for social distancing measures installed due to the pandemic.

The protestors who were permitted to be out were obeying social distancing protocols, and asking that the government make testing more available as opposed to keeping everyone quarantined.

But it did not take long before antifa counter-protesters took to the streets to ironically side of the government against those who simply want to get back to work.

Signs saying "Vigil for the Basic Law" mean Vigil for the Constitution, since the German "Basic Law" is what we would call the Constitution.

My Wife's comment to me:  "They just want the Government to fail."  That makes sense, so the Antifa crowd can capitalize on the ensuing chaos to install their own Fascist system.  Individual freedom take the hindmost.

If we keep in mind the Antifa crowd hates those who think for themselves, those who do not conform to Antifa current thinking, it is at least capable of being binned.  Otherwise they make no sense.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Keeping You Safe

For John, BLUF:  Ideas need to compete and that requires freedom of thought and speech.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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LIZ WARREN FINALLY HAS A GOOD IDEA

From Powerline Blog, by Blogger John Hinderaker, 29 January 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

Elizabeth Warren wants to jail fellow Democrats who spread the Russia collusion hoax and, more recently, the Ukraine impeachment fraud.  That, at least, is how I read her latest proposal:  “Elizabeth Warren proposes criminal penalties for spreading voting disinformation online.”

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday released a plan to fight disinformation and to hold tech companies accountable for their actions in light of the 2016 election.

***

Warren proposed to combat disinformation by holding big tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google responsible for spreading misinformation designed to suppress voters from turning out.

“I will push for new laws that impose tough civil and criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating this kind of information, which has the explicit purpose of undermining the basic right to vote,” Warren said in a release.

I assume she refers to Democrats who spread the ridiculous Russia collusion hoax, which was implausible on its face, in an effort to discourage Republican voters from turning out and to dissuade other voters from voting for Donald Trump.  As to 2020, the most obvious targets of her proposed statute would be the Democrats who smeared President Trump on the basis of the Ukraine fraud.

Yes, the question is who gets to decide truth from fiction?

Not the Government.  They have been recently found to have lied, numerous times, to the FISA Court, thus abusing the rights of Citizens.

Not the media, which distributed the lies of the Steele dossier, a collection of political lies.

The Judiciary?  Not likely.

Maybe this is about what we call social media, which is replacing newspapers,♠ and the idea is that faceless corporate censors will, in the absence of journalistic skills, decide right from wrong for us.

Senator E Warren's idea is one that may look good at first glance, but is actually fascist in its execution.  Like a couple of Senator Warren's ideas.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Here is a short history of newspapers, which became a common thing after the invention of the printing press, with the first European newspaper beginning publication in 1605 AD.

German Government Broaches Censurship

For John, BLUF:  There is Fascism in the air, and it has nothing to do with Donald Trump.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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AFP: Merkel's successor sparks freedom of speech uproar

From FOCUS News Agency, 28 May 2019.

Here is the lede plus six:

Sofia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's favoured successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer sparked outrage on social media on Tuesday with an apparent call for limits to free speech around elections, AFP reported.

The CDU chief's comment came after her party and its centre-left coalition partner SPD suffered their worst scores in Sunday's European election -- a result partly blamed on the fact that some 70 YouTube stars had urged Germans not to vote for either party.

Addressing the issue on Monday night, Kramp-Karrenbauer said if 70 newspaper editors had called to boycott parties ahead of an election, that would be classed "clearly as propaganda".

"The question is... what are rules from the analogue realm and which rules should apply to the digital realm?

"I'll tackle this discussion quite aggressively," said Kramp-Karrenbauer, or AKK as she is dubbed in Germany.

Her comments immediately sparked a storm on social media with #AKKRuecktritt (AKKresign), #annegate, #Zensur (censorship) and #Meinungsfreiheit (freedom of opinion) making up the top four topics trending on Twitter in Germany.

Many users pointed to article five in the German constitution guaranteeing freedom of opinion, speech and writing.

The belief that you are right does not justify preventing others from speaking.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

Antifa Dictators

For John, BLUF:  Don't be fooled by the Antifa gang.  They are street thugs.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Read Antifa's press 'guidelines' for DC rally — it shows everything you need to know about Antifa

From The Blaze, by Chris Enloe, 6 July 2019.

The Antifa conspiracy is not about being anti-fascist.  They are the Fascists.  They are the Communists, the Wahhabists, the would-be caudillos, the Dictator supporters.  They see themselves as the absolute arbiters of right and wrong.

This article talks about Antifa's sense of being above the law, and of being free to dictate to others how those others must behave.

They are a danger.  A danger to our individual freedom.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Huey P Long Foretells the Future

For John, BLUF:  Destroying art, or suppressing it, because we don't like the artist, or the artists political views, is pretty much like book burnings.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Auden on No-Platforming Pound

That would be Mr Ezra Pound, noted poet, who turned to Fascism in the 1930s and 40s, as a reaction to The Great War (WWI).

From The New York Review of Books, by Mr Edward Mendelson, 27 February 2019.

Here is the key paragraph, from a 29 January 1946 letter by Writer W H Auden to his publisher, Mr Bennett Cerf, of Random House Publishing:

As you say, the war is not over. This incident is only one sign—there are other and far graver ones—that there was more truth than one would like to believe in Huey Long’s cynical observation that if fascism came to the United States it would be called Anti-fascism.  Needless to say, I am not suggesting that you desire any such thing—but I think your very natural abhorrence of Pound’s conduct has led you to take the first step which, if not protested now, will be followed by others which would horrify you.

Yes, Governor Huey P Long was able to see his Democratic Party today, from the 1930s.

The idea that we would suppress the art of someone else because of their politics should be anathema to all true Americans.  This isn't, after all, Europe or certain parts of Asia.

It is little wonder to me that folks are opting for cremation, given the current attitude, which any day now may trip over into digging up the bodies of the dead and desecrating them for past sins.

However, we should not just focus on the sins of a Michael Jackson, but also ask about all those people who enabled his sinful actions.  Why are we not talking about them?  Holding them to account?  Assigning them their share of the blame?

Regards  —  Cliff

Misunderstanding Socialism

For John, BLUF:  If you don't have a bit of an understanding of economics and politics you can get led astray.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This is a discussion of a couple of Twitter exchanges.

Jedediah Bila
@JedediahBila
My even more favorite conversations are with those who equate first responders and roads with socialism.

That was a response to this Tweet:

Steven Hawkins
@HittaHawkins
Replying to @JedediahBila
My favorite conversations are with those who despise socialism but love things like first responders and roads... 🤔😒
5:40 PM · Jul 3, 2018

Then, later, we have this follow-on comment from Mr Steven Hawkins:

15h
Replying to @JedediahBila
To be clear, I’m not advocating Marxist socialism I’m just pointing out that we have a lot of socialist programs in this country that people enjoy. when you realize that it’s not such a scary word..

Capitalism without socialism is fascism.

I am thinking the Mr Hawkins doesn't understand Fascism.

Without Socialism there is no Fascism.  The German version was known as the National Socialist Party (National Socialist German Workers' Party).

I wonder if Mr Hawkins thinks that in Capitalism all streets should be turnpikes, of a private nature?

Senator E Warren was on to something when she made her "you didn't build that" remark.  Sure, we all depend on the roads and canals and dredged rivers and harbors that carry our goods.  But, that is as old as the wheel.  That is from before feudalism.  The key question is to what degree did freedom play in the ability of economies to provide employment.  Put, another way, to what degree did the freedom of the individual entrepreneur to do his own thing play in reducing global poverty from some 80% two hundred years ago to under 10% today.  For sure, socialism didn't do it.

Regards  —  Cliff

Nazis Under The Bed

For John, BLUF:  When I was young we worried about "Reds under the bed" (like monsters under the bed), but now it is Nazis under the bed.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Left Needs Nazis

From PJ Media, by Novelist Sarah Hoyt, 4 June 2018.

Here is the lede plus three:

I was told by numerous, not visibly insane friends and acquaintances on the election night that Trump would start rounding up minorities within the month.

When it didn’t happen, did it calm down?

Oh, heck no.  They ramped it up.  Antifa — supposed to be anti-fascists, while acting like brown-shirts — rampaged in the streets.  Students are encouraged to prevent “fascist” speakers (like, you know, Jordan Peterson who encourages you to clean your room) from speaking, and there are sites like NaziUSA.

All while Trump reduces regulations and not a single person is imprisoned to cover the regime’s ass, like, say, a filmmaker that the regime decided to blame for attacks on our embassies abroad… under Obama.

Here is some more

So, what is going on?

What is going on is that, taught in schools or not, the knowledge that communism/socialism is a disaster has permeated our collective subconscious.  And the idiots still pushing it are bitter, horrible people who want camps and executions… for their opponents.  The fact that they’re convinced there’d be paradise once we’re gone does not excuse them. A hundred million broken eggs and not a single omelet.

So they must resurrect the ghost of the Nazis because it’s the only regime ugly enough to justify their othering of us, and their wanting to kill us.

They look through the hatred in their eyes and see the ghosts of Nazis on our side.  But it is their side that keeps those ghosts alive, as justification for what they want to do to us.

Nazis don’t exist, except in the hearts of socialists, who need them desperately to excuse the mass murders they intend to commit.

It's time for the left to face the fact they're using Nazis as a shield.  And that when the only people you can point to that are worse than you are the Nazis, it's time to abandon your dead-end philosophy.

Remember, Ms Hoyt grew up living in a Fascist Dictatorship.  She may have some insight Ms Samantha Bee lacks.

The other point I would draw is when the author says, "who need them desperately to excuse the mass murders they intend to commit."  I am not saying that Rep Maxine Waters is calling for mass murder, but we are edging in that direction.  If you can't eat out, can you still go to the grocery store?  If you can't, will renounciation of (President) Trump be sufficient to be allowed to obtain and consume food?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Your Future Colleague is Beyond the Pale

For John, BLUF:  Can't we disagree without being disagreeable?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A post by Writer Ed Driscoll, at the InstaPundit, Sunday, 24 June 2018.

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/229455/

This is a discussion of the left, and the media (but I repeat myself), using Hitler and Nazi and Fascist to try to paint Republicans into a box.

While we are now in the shunning phase, with people being run out of restaurants, we will come to a fork in the road, where we return to civilization, a new civility that the Democrats once talked about in the recent past, or we go full James T. Hodgkinson, with bullets flying.

I am hoping that this heated rhetoric will soon cool off.  Maybe a report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller saying that there was no collusion will calm things down.  We can only hope.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

May Day Games

For John, BLUF:  Communism, in the name of equality, is evil.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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L.A. Antifa Group Hangs Trump in Effigy, Calls for 'Revolutionary Violence' Against 'the Capitalist State'

From Pajama Media, by Ms Debra Heine, 3 May 2018.

The first paragraph:

An antifa group in Los Angeles celebrated May Day by holding a small march, hanging a Trump effigy, and advocating for "revolutionary violence" against the "capitalist state" in order to "create real political power."

So, the Antifa, the Anti-Fascists, in the name of Marxist-Leninist Revolution, want to make things worse for the world than the Fascists did.  Remember, Fascism comes from a guy, Benito Mussolini, who rejected Communism and then moved on to found his own Party, which, when it spread to Germany and Spain, killed proportionally far fewer people that Communism.  Now there is an indictment.

Don't be fooled.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff