Tag Archives: progressives

May 1 2020

Scratch a leftist, find a fascist


One doesn’t have to have a doctorate in quantum physics to understand all the utopian socialist fantasies can only add up to one thing: a culture of fascism, control and coercion

Klaus Rohrich image

Re-posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—April 30, 2020

Scratch a leftist, find a fascist

Dennis Prager currently has a series of videos explaining the basic difference between those on the left side of the political spectrum and those on the right. While his analyses of the difference between the two sides is relatively accurate, it’s a tad too kind for my taste.

Prager correctly states that a prime difference between so-called progressives and conservatives is that progressives are all about the collective, while conservatives believe in the individual and personal choice.

I see the difference in much starker terms: the former involves coercion by the state, while the latter involves individual responsibility.

Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, the Kim dynasty, Pol Pot, et al have killed more people in the name of serving the greater good

As I recently wrote in these pages, here the 1920s provide a good example of where the various forms of socialism that are now becoming all the rave will lead us. It might be simplistic to say socialism is responsible for more deaths and suffering than the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-1920, but the math works.

Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, the Kim dynasty, Pol Pot, et al have killed more people in the name of serving the greater good and achieving a perfect society than the last pandemic, which eradicated up to 5% of the global population.

What’s so puzzling is that every new crop of socialists believes that if only socialism was implemented properly, everyone would be happy. What they do not understand is that socialism’s fuel is its coercive power to control the individual. No one really wants to actually live under socialism, except those who would govern and ‘correctly’ administer the principles of socialism in order to achieve the perfect society.

This takes place in several ways.

First, individuals are made dependent on the state for their basic needs like food shelter and healthcare. They are also controlled through what amounts to social credit, rewarding correct attitudes and behaviors while punishing those who do not toe the line. If you doubt me, check out how Trump supporters are treated.

Failures of socialism

Second, for socialism to succeed there is an ever-present requirement for an enemy, which is an important element in directing revolutionary fervor to the correct goals, rather than allow for reflection that could result in uncomfortable questions. For the Bolsheviks the enemy was the Czar and wealthy bourgeoisie, for the Nazis it was communists and Jews. For Mao it was the liberal bourgeois. Cambodia’s Pol Pot had a thing for intellectuals and the educated. As a result some 1.8 million ‘bad elements’ were sacrificed for the greater good. There isn’t one socialist state that doesn’t have a prime enemy towards whom to wage the ‘struggle’ for social justice.

Third, socialism also relies heavily on the educational system to swell their ranks. But that only makes sense, given that young people generally tend to be naïve and easily influenced. For the past 50 years socialism has wormed its way into school curricula at an alarming level, and all under the guise of ‘fairness,’ equality or social justice. While this is a long-term process, it also seems to be the most effective, judging by the attitudes of most young adults today.

So, after examining the failures of socialism in a rational discussion, if you still find yourself yearning for social justice, just take a minute to examine what socialism has actually achieved over its 103-years in operation.

Russia collapsed under communism’s contradictions.

The Nazis’ ‘Thousand Year Empire’ couldn’t last twenty years.

Yes, Cuba has free healthcare. But the standard of living for the average Cuban isn’t much better than it was 62 years ago under Fulgencio Batista.

China’s brand of communism is likely the most dangerous and virulent. The Chinese Communist Party absolutely controls the actions of every man, woman and child under its control, to the point of presiding over a lethal global pandemic with only the goal of shifting the blame.

Anyone who hasn’t lived under a slimy rock for the past two decades must surely be aware that in the 1950s Venezuela was the fourth wealthiest nation in the world and today is one of the world’s poorest.

What do all these socialist jurisdictions have in common? Without fail, they all wind up consisting of an uber-wealthy ruling class and an ever-increasing poverty-stricken populace. This is an indisputable fact, even China, whose 1.43 billion people constitute over 18% of the world’s population, can have millions of millionaires among the Party cadre, while the other billion or so become tools of the state. (don’t confuse my focus on socialism with acceptance of the rampant corruption in western governments—that’s for another column)

The point of this is to realize that one doesn’t have to have a doctorate in quantum physics to understand all the utopian socialist fantasies can only add up to one thing: a culture of fascism, control and coercion.

May 1 2020

Advice for the Church: Better Call Saul


It’s time for America’s religious leaders to come out of the closet and gather together to save freedom — and lives — in America. What will it take for the scales to fall from their eyes? The freedom they save may be their own

Cliff Kincaid image

Re-posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—April 30, 2020

Advice for the Church: Better Call Saul

A local pastor is walking dozens of miles to raise funds for the poor and hungry, many of whom have been created by the government’s COVID-19 economic lockdown. That’s a nice thing to do. But his own church in the Washington, D.C. area remains essentially closed, except for “private” displays of Christianity. Some of his parishioners entered into the church to fill the pews with pictures of the people who used to be there. That’s sad.

It is America 2020 and the police are showing up to arrest ministers of the Gospel – at least the few willing to challenge the modern-day Caesar.

Early Christians were willing to be imprisoned and killed for their faith

Early Christians were willing to be imprisoned and killed for their faith. A popular Netflix show, “Better Call Saul,” is about a lawyer who represented a drug dealer. The early church has their own Saul. In the Acts of the Apostles, we learn about a persecutor of the early church named Saul who had a Damascus Road conversion after experiencing Christ and was also known as Paul the Apostle. The reading is that “something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again.”

With scales on their eyes, today’s Christians for the most part seem afraid to challenge secular authorities and various “executive orders” about how they should worship. They have resorted to drive-in or drive-by “worship services,” so they don’t get out of their cars. This is a dramatic perversion of Christ’s directive to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Caesar, the State, should not dictate to the churches. The State does not own the churches. But many Christians today act as if the government is in charge.

This country was born in a revolution over global taxes imposed by the King of England, as well as rejection of an official state-imposed national religion. Freedom of religion and of the press was supposed to be guaranteed in our First Amendment. Yet, as a result of the coronavirus, freedom of the press has been guaranteed and freedom of religion has not. Most pastors, preachers, and priests acquiesce to their government masters and their demands for empty pews.

On the national level, unfortunately, our elected representatives go along with the emergence of this totalitarian state.  Attorney General William Barr has issued a memo on “Balancing Public Safety with the Preservation of Civil Rights,” which is too little too late. Our God-given rights are not to be sacrificed on the altar of what unelected “health experts” have to say abut how we live our lives.

We need more than a memo, Mr. Barr

We need more than a memo, Mr. Barr.

Conservative media fret over the Deep State’s frame-up of Lt. General Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security advisor, and that was truly an outrage. But the rights of the people in general have been stripped away, too, for months. What they did to Flynn they are doing to all of us, in a much quicker time frame. As Elon Musk has commented, they have taken away our freedom and subjected us to a form of house arrest. He calls it “fascist.” It’s also communistic.

“FREE AMERICA NOW” he says. It’s time for our religious leaders to follow his example.

“Better Call Saul” is advice they should be given and take.

In the story of Saul, we are told that a light from heaven flashed and a voice said to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul asked, “Who are you, sir?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise; go into the city, and you will be told what to do.” William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible refers to this passage as “the most famous conversion story in history.” Barclay explains, “We must try as far as we can to enter into Paul’s mind. When we do, we will see that this is not a sudden conversion but a sudden surrender.” Eventually, the scales fell from his eyes.

Grass-roots Christians are crying out for leadership.  President Trump recommends various on-line services every Sunday but this is really no substitute for the ability of people to worship at a church or synagogue of their choice.

At various locations around the country, pastors are rebelling in the name of Jesus Christ

At various locations around the country, pastors are rebelling in the name of Jesus Christ. Some are recommending that their parishioners practice social distancing and even to wear masks when they come to church. But that is not good enough for the mostly liberal governors in whose states where they live and their police forces which arrive with citations and arrest warrants.

We are seeing persecution of the Christian Church in America and too many conservative Christians are silent. Many pastors and preachers act like chickens, afraid of the secular authorities, and then act like sheep on the way to the slaughter.

Today, many pastors, preachers, and priests have been too quick to surrender to the State. They are blinded by the legal-sounding razzle-dazzle of “emergencies” and “executive orders,” with no basis in the Constitution. In Washington State, the situation is so bizarre that local authorities are providing beer and cigarettes (and until recently marijuana) to keep addicts in quarantine.

Marijuana has become the Soma of Brave New World, in order to keep the people satisfied.

Since our media enjoy protected status under various emergency or executive orders

For those who didn’t read the Aldous Huxley classic, Spark Notes provides this information: “Soma is a drug that is handed out for free to all the citizens of the World State. In small doses, soma makes people feel good. In large doses, it creates pleasant hallucinations and a sense of timelessness.”

I’m not saying our ministers are dope fiends. But if termination of religious services is not the tipping point, what about the cancellation of elections?

“The Democratic Presidential Primary rescheduled for June 23, 2020 has been cancelled” proclaims the New York State Board of Elections. A left-wing progressive group, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA), is protesting this decision as an exercise in one-man rule by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. But where is the rest of America? Where are Republicans and independents rising up in protest?

Since our media enjoy protected status under various emergency or executive orders, they could care less. They will continue to swoon over Cuomo, who is assuming the role of pastor and care-giver. Never mind the state lawwhich relegated the elderly to coronavirus death camps known as nursing homes.

It’s time for America’s religious leaders to come out of the closet and gather together to save freedom—and lives—in America. What will it take for the scales to fall from their eyes? The freedom they save may be their own.

Apr 19 2020

Blue Bloods Have Gone Oprah!


We’ve dropped this leftist travesty forever, and are now enjoying both reruns and new episodes of the quite fabulous and compelling Chicago PD!

Joan Swirsky image

Re-posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—April 18, 2020

Blue Bloods Gone OprahAmong the TV shows I gravitate to with my husband Steve, a former athlete, include live baseball, basketball and football games, historical documentaries, and both true crime shows and crime dramas like Law & Order, Forensic Files, Chicago PD, and Blue Bloods––all studies in the greatest mystery of all time, human behavior.

When Blue Bloods debuted in September 2010, we thought it was excellent, featuring in-depth and provocative episodes, and at last embodying the conservative values we embraced, including a distinct lack of the three-legged stool on which Progressives base their so-called values: moral relativism, political correctness, and multiculturalism.

The show is about the Reagan dynasty in NY City, where the following characters are presented every week with daunting challenges, moral dilemmas, high-action chases and arrests, and touching family dramas:

  • Frank Reagan, a widower and the New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner, played by Tom Selleck.
  • His father Henry Reagan, also a widower and a former NYPD Commissioner, played by Len Cariou.
  • Frank’s son Danny, played by Donnie Wahlberg, a tough, street-smart detective, and his partner Maria Baez (played by Marisa Ramirez). Danny was happily married to R.N.  Linda (played by Amy Carlson) before her death, and they were the parents of two sons played by real-life brothers Andrew and Tony Terraciano.
  • Frank’s daughter Erin, played by Bridget Moynihan, a letter-of-the-law Bureau Chief in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and divorced mother of daughter Nicky (played by Sami Gayle). Erin works closely with Anthony Abetemarco, a detective in the D.A.’s office (played by Steve Schirripa).
  • Frank’s son Jamie, played by Will Estes, a Harvard Law School graduate who chose to become a street cop, promoted to sergeant, and then married to his NYPD partner––a beautiful blonde from a decidedly dysfunctional background––“Eddie” Janko, played by Vanessa Ray.
  • Frank’s Chief of Staff, Garrett Moore, who is also the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, played by Gregory Jbara.
  • I cannot omit the very gorgeous and fabulous actress Abigail Baker who plays Commissioner Reagan’s chief aide as Detective Abigail Hawk.

Suffusing the drama is the Commissioner’s late son Joe, an NYPD detective who was murdered by a corrupt gang of police officers and whose memory continues to haunt the Reagan family.

THE OLD FORMAT

Every week for the past many years, all these characters presented compelling and original drama with episodes addressing themes such as the unreliability of eyewitnesses, the difficulty of identifying sociopaths, the nefarious inner workings of the New York mafia, the dangers of nepotism within the ranks, the reluctance of sexual assault victims to come forward, the complexity of solving murder cases, on and on and on.

In every episode, it was clear that the protagonists––members of the NYPD from the top on down––knew the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, legal and illegal.

Right was the teenage kid from the projects who resisted following his thug friends into a life of crime; wrong were the thugs who chose a life of crime, including robbery, rape and murder.

Good were the people who yearned for a safe neighborhood coming forward to identify the bad guys, in spite of great risk to themselves and their families; bad were the drug dealers and corrupt politicians who covered for the bad guys.
Legal were the follow-the-rules cops who crossed every “t” and dotted every “I”; bad were the on-the-take judges who ruled against them.

Riveting. Illuminating. Thought-provoking. Influential. Worthy of our time.

THE OLD VALUES

Among the most refreshing qualities of the show was––not is––the great respect the children and grandchildren exhibited toward their father, the Commissioner, and their grandfather, the former Commissioner.

Every week, viewers were treated to the Reagan clan gathering around a huge dining-room table for a sumptuous dinner consisting of platters of roast turkey and roast beef, mountains of salad and vegetables, and heaping portions of baked and mashed potatoes, where one or another member of the family would say Grace before the meal, thank their Lord Jesus Christ for their bounty, make the sign of the Cross, and in unison say Amen.

While serious discussions and good-humored kidding took place around the table, philosophical disagreements also abounded. Yes, quizzical looks and raised eyebrows and even scowls were evinced, but there was always a refreshing absence of the dismissive, rude, hostile and insulting behavior and the repulsively foul language we’ve become accustomed to in shows ranging from newscasts to award shows to daytime talk shows to “Housewives” dramas. And there was never any sign or sight of an iPhone!

RATINGS DON’T LIE

According to Wikipedia, the pilot episode 10 years ago garnered 15,246 million viewers, and the ratings remained sky-high for about seven seasons. But from season eight on, the ratings began to plunge, with season nine seeing the lowest in the show’s history.

No mystery to me, as the Blue Bloods audience witnessed this once-terrific show go Oprah––turning into both a social service and finger-wagging forum designed to set Commissioner Frank Reagan and his unenlightened family straight, to teach them the Progressive values that the leftist writers they hired wanted them to learn: how to be a moral relativist, a multiculturalist, a politically correct jerk.

CLUELESS WRITERS

It is abundantly clear that the current writers had never watched the show, had no idea about the rock-ribbed simpatico dynamics of the Reagan family, had contempt for the police, and had a deep loathing of the Christian religion and prayer and even the mention of Jesus.

Why else would they have the always respectful sons of Frank Reagan and their grandfather Henry speak to them with such antagonistic, disrespectful language? Why would they feature rookie and even senior policemen speak to the Commissioner in such brazenly inappropriate terms? Why would they completely eliminate the prayer before eating dinner and any reference to Jesus?

Why? I know nothing about corporate media or who calls the shots and ultimately determines content. But this is an all-important election year and we already see the Murdoch boys pushing their properties––The Wall St. Journal and Fox News, among others––in a distinctly leftward direction, so it’s not a far stretch to theorize that anti-Trump CBS-TV is also pushing their popular shows along the same route.

After all, why would they drag a veteran leftist, the seemingly dotty 90-year-old Ed Asner, out of his comfortable California home to star in a preposterous episode where the writers wasted our time watching Asner and his old friend Commissioner Reagan show off their knowledge of ancient movies?

Why? Clearly the writers want to make the Commissioner look like a regular guy, to reduce his gravitas, to make him less important.

Why would they feature the toughest guy in town, Commissioner Reagan, visiting the new Mayor of NYC––who told him the City needed a tougher P.R. person than Reagan’s longtime Chief of Staff Garrett Moore––and then portray the Commissioner as an emotional, conflicted, hand-wringing wuss over a simple executive decision?

Why? Again, an attempt by the writers to make the Commissioner look incapable of taking charge and getting something done––sort of like Congressmen Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Of course, the goal of the real wusses who are writing this junk is to convince the viewing public that they’ve been wrong all along about Blue Bloods, that what we should really believe is that the police are the problem, prayer is the problem, Jesus is the problem, and we should vote for all the leftwing candidates who believe this tripe.

As for me and Steve, we’ve dropped this leftist travesty forever, and are now enjoying both reruns and new episodes of the quite fabulous and compelling Chicago PD!

Apr 9 2020

Value of a Currency


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted Apr 9, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Hi Mr. Armstrong,
You have said that money is not gold, or silver, or oil, or fiat currency, but rather represents the collective elbow grease and ingenuity of a people. From the work of Socrates, which country or countries best typify this concept and therefore will become the better countries to live in, so that we may guide our families and children in that direction?
As always best to you and your vision, and thank you.
MB

ANSWER: What made America great was not our resources. The Silver Democrats tried to force a higher silver to gold ratio and were bribed by the silver miners. When the world was on the gold standard, that dictated the value of a currency in international FOREX markets because the value of the currency was just the metal content. Napoleon attempted to create that standard and the idea, known as the Latin Monetary Standard, was used after his defeat where the coins were all of the same weight and purity.

However, great disruptions to this standardized system of metals repeatedly led to major economic upheavals. The economy of Florence suffered from the tremendous economic crisis and people were burning down the houses of bankers because they blamed them without understanding the real cause. Due to the war between France and England, the French debased the coinage. This drove the price of silver up dramatically where there had been a two-tier monetary system — gold for international transactions and silver for domestic. Since wages were paid in silver, as the price rose, employers could no longer afford to operate and the economy crashed with a vast rise in unemployment.

Only after World War I and II did modern society begin to see that the value of a currency was not simply the metal content. There was a premium even over gold’s value attributed to the Romans, as was the case with silver and the Greeks. This is proven by so many surrounding nations imitating their coinage with the same metal content and weight showing that there was a premium over the raw metal.

China, Japan, and Germany all rose from the ashes because their people were productive. Once the unions began and extorted higher sums of wages beyond competitiveness, the USA began to see its labor move offshore for it was overpriced relative to the world because of also taxes on labor — not merely the hourly wage.

Adam Smith in his “Wealth of Nations” saw that it was not simply metal. If a farmer or candlestick maker sold something from London to Paris, they both returned with gold. It was the value of their labor that mattered.

Unfortunately, the socialists are leading the charge and have conspired together to bring down the economy to force political change. They are also weakening the West and inviting war. Just as Rome saw its economy decline sharply within 8.6 years during the 3rd century, the barbarian invasions began. These socialists have no idea what they have unleashed. The world economy will NEVER be the same all because of a pretend virus that has a death rate of 10% of the annual flu.

Unfortunately, the baton will pass to Asia. The West will be engulfed in civil strife. The Socialists have killed the economy precisely as did the communists during their revolutions in Russia and China. We have a turning point in 2021 even for Russia.

Industrialization in the Soviet Union was a process of accelerating the industrial potential of the Soviet Union to reduce the economy’s lag behind the developed capitalist states, which was carried out from May 1929 to June 1941.

The official task of industrialization was the transformation of the Soviet Union from a predominantly agrarian state into a leading industrial one. The beginning of Socialist industrialization as an integral part of the “triple task of a radical reorganization of society” (industrialization, economic centralization, collectivization of agriculture and a cultural revolution) was laid down by the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy lasting from 1928 until 1932.

In Soviet times, industrialization was considered a great feat. The rapid growth of production capacity and the volume of production of heavy industry (4 times) was of great importance for ensuring economic independence from capitalist countries and strengthening the country’s defense capability