Tag: Socialism
I keep hearing a lot about “socialism” these days, mainly from Donald Trump and Fox News, trying to scare Americans about initiatives like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, universal child care, free public higher education, and higher taxes on the super-wealthy to pay for these.
Well, I’m here to ask you to ignore the scaremongering.
via The Same Old Scare Tactic about Socialism | The Smirking Chimp
The policies Republicans smear as Stalinist are a good deal more popular than their own. By Jim Hightower | May 1, 2019
“Socialism,” snarled Donald Trump at a recent pep rally of far-right Republicans. The obedient crowd of Trumpistas snarled back in unison: So-sh’ll-izz-ummm!
There you have the entire intellectual content of the GOP’s 2020 re-election strategy under Generalissimo Trump: Slap Democrats with a scurrilous campaign branding them as Lenin-Trotsky-Stalin re-incarnate.
It’s not just Trump hissing out the socialist label in a frantic McCarthyesque attempt to make it stick by mindless repetition, but also Republican lawmakers. Unfortunately for them, they’re overplaying a weak hand and bumbling over their own ignorance.
Texas Senator John Cornyn, for example, compared Democrats who support ideas like Medicare-for-All to Mussolini.
Apparently, Cornyn is unaware that the brutish Italian dictator was no socialist, but a fascist. Mussolini’s ideology of ultra-nationalism, masculine authoritarianism, suppression of democratic rights, and rule by wealthy elites is the opposite of the progressive agenda. Indeed, it describes the policies of — guess who? — Trump and his acolytes, including Cornyn!
via The GOP is Demonizing the Left in New Red Scare, but US Public wants . . . Socialism
Question to edicated and semi-Educated Americans still believe this bunk? The “we” is bad and the “me” is good? (ODT)
The President faces an uphill battle – his poll numbers are some of the worst in history and he faced a drubbing in November’s midterm election. One way to boost Trump’s prospects is to shift the focus from his turbulent tenure to his eventual opponent and his frightful portrayal of that alternative.
via Trump begins Democrat insults by brandishing the ‘S’ word – socialism
She isn’t asking for a revolutuionbut a rebalance in the system yet the GOP see it as a Socialist Revolution heading their way (ODT)
via 400 Richest Americans Own More Than 150 Million Of The Nation’s Poorest: Study | HuffPost
President Trump expressed “alarm” at what he termed “new calls to adopt socialism in our country.” “Tonight,” he proclaimed, “we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” The line received a standing ovation from Republicans and Democrats alike, yet recent polls show that socialism is growing in popularity in the U.S., with a net positive rating among Democrats. Newly-elected Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib are both members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and policy proposals identified with the socialist movement, such as debt-free college and universal health care, are gaining traction on the left. To discuss America’s long-held resistance to socialism and its current rise in popularity, Mehdi Hasan is joined by Washington Post columnist Elizabeth Bruenig.
Or should we forget the Three Rs and introduce the Four Cs (Communication, Creativity, Critical Thought and Collaboration)? Teaching children to reproduce what is when in a few years it will no longer be, seems pointless because many of the jobs they are thinking about doing or are already training to do will not exist in ten years’ time. It has been estimated that up to half of our large companies will disappear before 2030, along with up to 40 per cent of the jobs which exist today.
Therefore tailoring the education program to meet the needs of transferable skills in a world in which flexible working conditions and freelancing will be the norm, makes sense. And it makes sense to have started yesterday. As a first step. And as a crucial one because if we do not address these needs, now, then we will lose the next generation to joblessness, homelessness, dispondency, demoralization, marginalization, in some cases criminality and terrorism. In a globalized world, education counts not only at home but in the distant corners of the world.
Ted Cruz’s hypocrisy won’t stop government from helping in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, but Texas will be needing help for a long time.
Source: Everyone’s a Socialist After a Natural Disaster | The Nation
In an interview with the grass-roots media portal Actvism, Wolff discusses methods of economic organization.
Source: Socialism? Capitalism? Economist Richard Wolff Explains It All. – Truthdig
It isn’t hard to see why younger Americans seem to embrace an alternative to unregulated capitalism.
Source: The Rise Of Bernie Sanders Shows Shifting Views On Socialism In America | Crooks and Liars
For over 50 years Cubans have endured enmity and a trade embargo, and are now set for closer US ties.
Havana, Cuba – The United States of America has finally revived diplomatic relations with the neighbouring island nation of Cuba after more than five decades.
The communist nation was kept on a tight leash by the world’s most powerful nation, since severing of diplomatic ties in 1961 nearly two years after the Cuban revolution brought Fidel Castro to power.
Cuba, a nation of about 11 million people, endured nearly half-a- century of enmity, crippling trade embargo, and American spy plots.
It was cut off from international trade but Cubans learned to live with limited resources.
Despite the odds, the country developed one of the finest healthcare systems in the world.
Art and culture, particularly music, also flourished under communist rule. In spite of sanctions, Cuba managed to attract international tourists on the back of its rich cultural heritage and pristine beaches.
Nearly two million tourists visited the island in the first six months of this year, bringing billions of dollars into the country.
Booming tourism has offered Cubans an extra income that they could not have dreamt of with low-paying government jobs. Waiters are one of the biggest earners compared to much-respected professions of medicine and teaching that pay as low as $40 a month.
