Meanwhile in Canada, Trudeau is desperate

Former Canadian socialist party (NDP) leader Tom Mulcair calls out Trudeau for his desperate and unfounded attack on conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.  He said it's unworthy of consideration.  Kudos to him for being honest, unlike the current NDP socialist leader.  Trudeau is trying to distract everyone from his own miserable failings, and it is truly disgusting.

U.K. Prime Minister acting like a socialist

In fairness, it's only because he is one. "Don't like what you're doing, you are clearly racist."

Monopolies are not capitalism

Canada has a monopoly problem. It serves as a cautionary tale for any economy becoming oligopolistic or worse, monopolistic. The trend in Canada has been towards fewer and fewer players in most major industries. It harms consumers, employees and stifles innovation.  In Canada it has become a critical problem.

No worse monopoly than government, and there is no bigger monopoly than government. Socialists who are anti-business and prefer to consolidate power favor government as producer.  They are in favor of an even bigger super-monopoly, refusing to see the error of their own illogic.

Reason's Great Escape

I think there's a certain naivety in this, despite the validity of the sentiment.  Klaus Schwab is not a good guy. Dare I say it, evil.  So this Reason video on a decentralized world and decentralized economies makes a lot of sense.  But there is a naivety in thinking that there is not some sort of conspiracy behind it.  I'm not saying there's some secret cabal guiding all of this, but there is a common socialist/communist vision along with a technocrat vision that drives many of those who are pushing for this.  So it is not a closed door back-room conspiracy but it is a common ideological goal that is driving those who drive this.

There's also a naivety to think think that a Great Escape will overcome the Great Reset. Not without a tremendous amount of push.  Look how they were able to shut down the Freedom Convoy using economic levers.  That's tough to overcome. It will take a herculean effort by millions of people.  Let's work towards that rather than just hoping it will materialize.

Green New Deal insanity

Ben Shapiro breaks down Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Green New Deal, because ultimately it's a broken, idiotic plan that would destroy America.  Not surprising coming from a socialist, but sadly, something a bunch of low information voters (and apparently Democratic presidential candidates) buy into.

Here's more details:

Happening Now: Conservative vs Liberal vs Socialist in Ontario

My home province of Ontario (Canada's most populated province) votes today for a new premier (our version of governor).  After 15 years of Liberal party hegemony, fraught with scandal, corruption, inefficiency and some truly bad policy, voters are looking for a change.  Unlike the U.S. we typically have three viable options - the Liberal party (think Bernie Sanders), the New Democrats (think left of Bernie Sanders) and the Conservatives (which vary from people as conservative as Hillary Clinton, all the way over to Ronald Reagan).

Thankfully voters have finally had enough of the Liberals.  The provincial conservative party (sadly named the "Progressive Conservatives") held a strong enough generic lead to form the next government but in a snap leadership race months before the election (due to a sudden, not-so-surprisingly-ill-timed #MeToo-type scandal for their leader) they chose to elect the brother of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford (of crack mayor fame), as their leader.

He has no such scandal associated with him but he is not the most telegenic candidate.  He's been portrayed as Canada's version of president Trump by the media here.  They have attempted to smear him and his party.  Yet he clings to a slim lead in generic balloting.  The Liberals have not made a comeback - and risk garnering so few votes they may no longer qualify as a party if you can believe it. 

But this is going to be a change election.  The only other choice for change is the New Democrats (NDP) - the true socialists.  They have surged with a candidate who ironically speaks yells an awful lot like Hillary Clinton.  See for yourself.

She's also rude and exudes a sense of entitlement:

Just, wow. And apparently just HORRIBLE at basic math:

All that, said I expect our mini-Trump to win a majority government in provincial parliament as his votes are not so concentrated as the NDPs which will solidly over-perform in some areas, just as Hillary Clinton did in California, which did not help her one bit either.   Conservatives deserve to win because they are offering common sense.  They are listening to voters.

I'll report tomorrow on how it turned out.

Socialist Pope Decries Bureaucracy

The Guardian has this story:

Pope Francis has rebuked Vatican colleagues in a Christmas message, denouncing the “cancer” of cliques and how bureaucrats can become corrupted by ambition and vanity.

“Reforming Rome is like cleaning the Egyptian sphinxes with a toothbrush,” Francis told cardinals, bishops and priests who work for him on Thursday. “You need patience, dedication and delicacy.”

The pope acknowledged there were competent, loyal and even saintly people working in the Holy See. But others tasked with helping to reform the Vatican’s inefficient and outdated bureaucracy had shown themselves to be not up to the task.

Interesting. Donald Trump was sent to Washington to drain the swamp. Pope Francis dislikes president Trump (as a president at any rate). But now he's faced with his own bureaucratic resistance. I wonder if he sees the irony.

Socialist Pope redux

I'm not sure how I missed this back in July of 2015. But it's worth noting. Supposedly Pope Francis was 'surprised' by this, but the fact that Bolivian president Evo Morales felt in a position to offer this to the Pope, says a lot about the image he has projected - at a minimum.  I for one, am not surprised that this happened. I don't think the Pope really was either, unless he wants to be a stealth socialist Pope and this blew his cover.

Yes, that's a hammer and sickle crucifix.

(CNN) The look on the face of Pope Francis says it all.

Why am I being presented with a wooden crucifix laid on a hammer and sickle, the Communist symbol conceived during the Russian Revolution?

The Pope received the gift from Bolivian President Evo Morales on the latest stage of his South American tour. He later celebrated Mass with nearly 1 million Bolivians in Santa Cruz.

The links and battles between Communism and the Catholic Church are an extremely sensitive subject in Latin America, the Pope's home continent. While he was an archbishop in Argentina, Francis tried to strike a delicate balance between championing the poor and avoiding class warfare.

According to reports, Morales told Francis that the "Communist crucifix" was modeled on a design created by the Rev. Luis Espinal, a politically active priest murdered by right-wing paramilitaries in Bolivia in 1980. The Pope stopped and prayed at the site of the shooting on Wednesday evening.

That is not cool.

Crowder - Hitler was a socialist

On the right we've all pointed this out countless times: Hitler was a socialist. The truth doesn't seem to be sinking in fast enough. Steven Crowder however does it especially well, and provides evidence along the way. So it's worth sharing.

Dictator Watch - Venezuela post-Chavez

Venezuela is in dire straits and in the wake of the death of socialist strongman Hugo Chavez, his successor socialist, facing electoral defeat may go even further than Chavez to retain power.  Where Chavez wanted to re-write the Venezuelan Constitution to remain in power, it sound like Nicolas "who, now?" Maduro sounds practically ready to roll out the troops.

A defiant President Nicolas Maduro said he would give no quarter to the Venezuelan opposition in spite of his own party’s crushing defeat in last weekend’s mid-term parliamentary elections.

Mr Maduro vowed to block “the counter-revolutionary right” from taking over the country. “We won’t let it,” he said.

The outburst came as electoral authorities gave final confirmation that the coalition of opposition parties had not only pushed the ruling party into the minority in the national assembly for the first time since 1999 but had, after final results came in, secured a two-thirds majority that, in theory, will allow it to pass laws without the President’s support, replace his ministers and potentially move to replace him.

 Tough talk, but right now he holds all the guns.

Bernie Sanders, socialist for president

There's an article in The Atlantic about Bernie Sanders, the socialist mayor (back earlier in his career). If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about why not to vote for him, you're probably a Democrat.

The mayor says, “It’s not welfare. It’s money that never should have been taken from you in the first place, for God’s sake.”

The old woman looks at him and smiles indulgently. She clearly likes the mayor. “I shouldn’t say this,” she tells him, “but I saw you on TV the other night, with my son, when they finish fixing North Avenue? And my son says to me, ‘That Mayor Sanders, he’s a communist, you know.’ And do you know what I say to him?”

Sanders shakes his head no.

“I say to my son, ‘Don’t go around saying such things where intelligent people can hear. They’ll think you are stupid.’”

She laughs, a silvery laugh, and the mayor laughs, too, and rising from the sofa, he puts his huge hands on her tiny shoulders, thanks her and makes sure Thabault has got her address.

Stopping him at the door, the woman says, “I told my son that you’re a socialist, not a communist.”

“Precisely!” the mayor shouts.

Ugh.

I'm a murderer, not a mass murderer. 

Oh really, what do you murder? 

Liberty, self-reliance. Self-respect. But that's all. 

Seems like mass murder to me.

When your best defense is that you are less evil than the alternative, that's weak reason for an endorsement of any kind. Even worse, the woman in the story endorsing Sanders had a French accent. The only thing worse than a socialist or a communist is a French one.  They're so snooty about it.

Thursday Hillary Bash - Plunging?

According to a CNN report, Hillary's poll numbers are continuing to tank. Even without Biden in the race, she now trails Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire.

(CNN) Hillary Clinton trails Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination for president in New Hampshire, even if Vice President Joe Biden decides not to make a run for the White House, according to a new CNN/WMUR poll.

Sanders has the backing of nearly half of those who say they plan to vote in the first-in-the-nation Democratic primary next year -- 46% support him -- while just 30% say they back Clinton. Another 14% say they would support Biden, 2% former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, 1% former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, and less than half of 1% back former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee or Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig.

Clinton trails Sanders across most demographic groups, with broad gender and ideology divides bolstering Sanders' run. He holds 56% of male Democratic voters compared with just 20% who back her, while the two are much closer among women, 39% back Sanders, 37% Clinton. Likewise, Sanders holds a 56% to 30% lead among liberals, versus a 37% to 31% race among moderates.

While that's good news for Republicans who are likely to have an easier victory path without Clinton in the race, it's bad news for the country when an avowed socialist could end up as the Democratic candidate. Has America really gone that far down the left fork in the road? Is it too late to turn back now?

Well, at least a stealth socialist like Clinton is working her way towards becoming a non-factor. But, just like Jeb Bush, she can rely on the fact that it's still very early.

Shopping Malls were the idea of a socialist

...And he hated how they turned out. It's weird how things that came from one frame of reference can end up somewhere else entirely. Just like the pledge of allegiance was a socialist creation, so too was the idea of shopping malls.

Today shopping malls are seen as culprits in the rise of American car culture and the decline of walkable downtowns. But the inspiration for the shopping mall is in fact the town center of Vienna. Gruen, an Austrian Jewish architect born Viktor David Grünbaum, immigrated to New York with $8 in his pocket, and when he designed the first enclosed shopping centers in the mid-1950s, he envisioned a communal gathering like the one he knew back home, with a lively mix of commerce, art and entertainment.

...A socialist who hated cars (“Their threat to human life and health is just as great as the exposed sewer,” he once said), Gruen designed the development with long promenades and parking lots purposely built far away to encourage walking. In drawing Southdale’s original plan, Gruen imagined a medical center, schools and residences, not just a parade of glitzy stores.

Not surprisingly Gruen rued how malls turned out.

But Gruen never imagined that these mega-structures he had envisioned as town plazas would contribute to the suburban sprawl that he despised, and to the demise of the urban high street.

“I am often called the father of the shopping mall,” he once said, reflecting on his career two years before his death in 1978. “I would like to take this opportunity to disclaim paternity once and for all. I refuse to pay alimony to those bastard developments. They destroyed our cities.”

So sad. Suburbs, commerce, and supporting an increased demand for cars - it seems socialists are completely unaware of the notion of unintended consequences. Sometimes that's a good thing. I'm not saying that Gruen's original ideas behind the mall were bad. It sounds like a nifty mixed use concept. Except, as a socialist, you know the next step would be to somehow layer in some sort of indoctrination of people. I'm glad that didn't work out for them.

Saturday Learning Series - Socialists Know Better? They think so.

Let's start with Bill Whittle's pithy and insightful analysis of the socialist Tomorrowland as a lead in :

Next, a lengthy discourse from a couple of years ago on communism, socialism and the lies they promote to decay America (and other capitalist nations as well):

Obama Hearts Pope

Um, who couldn't have seen this coming from a socialist Pope and a socialist president?

President Obama increasingly is finding a key policy ally in the Vatican, with Pope Francis standing virtually shoulder to shoulder with the White House on income inequality and a historic diplomatic reboot with communist Cuba. The pontiff next year also appears poised to offer greater support to the president on climate change initiatives and reportedly wants to be a leading voice at a U.N. global warming summit next year, where the American president will make perhaps his greatest pitch to date for more dramatic action on the environment.

I know I did, except I thought it would be much less in the visible spectrum.

Obama to salute Cesar Chavez (again) today

This is how I plan to fly below the radar...swish.

The Washington Post reports that the president will attend a private White House screening of the film "Cesar Chavez", a film chronicling the life of the labor activist.  The option to view this particular film is very telling about the president, but let's face it: it's going to go unnoticed.

The official D.C. premiere of “Cesar Chavez” will be held at the Newseum on Tuesday night. But on Wednesday the film’s director and stars will head down the street to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for a private White House screening. The biopic’s director, Diego Luna, told The Wrap that he hoped the president would tweet about the movie.

This isn't the first time the president has honored Chavez.  In 2011, Obama declared March 31st Cesar Chavez Day.  Some might argue that this is merely political pandering - appealing to a large voter constituency with an honor for a member of their community.  Certainly there is an element of that to Obama's deliberately visible actions.  But if it were merely a matter of honoring a member of the Hispanic community, there are a lot of other better options available. How about Cesar Millan or Jordi Muñoz?  Don't know who Jordi Muñoz is?  Maybe if Obama honored someone who succeeded from the ground up in a major way, you'd know about some very inspiring Hispanic individuals.

There's a marked difference between working for worker's rights in places where unfair practices are being employed and making the leap to espousing government control of the means of production.  Cesar Chavez was at a minimum, a socialist and more likely a communist.  Trevor Louden pointed this out in 2011:

C.S.O., under the leadership of Los Angeles leftist President Ed Roybal (father of current congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, mentor to far left congressman Xavier Becerra) and organizer Fred Ross, and with the financial backing of independent Chicago radical Saul Alinsky, became a major force in “progressive” politics in Los Angeles in the 1940s.

C.S.O. created the first broad-based organization within the Los Angeles Mexican-American community. It had also established ties to organized labor, the Catholic Church, the Jewish community and to individuals in both the Democratic and Progressive parties, creating a broad based coalition that succeeded in electing Ed Roybal to the Los Angeles City council and then later to the U.S. Congress.

C.S.O. pioneered, with the assistance of Saul Alinsky, the type of multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition that would elect Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency some 60 years later.

Both Ed Roybal and Cesar Chavez worked closely with a leading Los Angeles Communist Party USA member and Democratic Party activist, Bert Corona.

(emphasis added.)

The optics of this film viewing doesn't make a lot of sense with the on-going crisis in the Crimea that Obama dedicated all of about 3 minutes to in a statement about sanctioning a dozen or so Russians.  But you won't hear about it from the mainstream media.  In fact, you probably won't hear much about this private screening at all.  CNN for example, has spent almost all of it's time talking about the minutia of the missing 777 in Malaysia.  It does nothing to make the president look bad or weak on Crimea.  The media also has no interest in letting you know about the president honoring a community activist with ties to communists.  They are aware that those who support progressivism and those in the Hispanic community will know about this event already.

Russell Brand Doesn't Care About Socialism

Russell Brand is being hailed by many of the far left, including people I know, as some sort of uber-intelligent socialist guru.  He's not.

Zo takes a crack at debunking Brand's brand on PJTV:

Pope Socialist, I am NOT cool with that.

Socialist Cristina Fernández Kirchner with the then future Pope.

FULL DISCLOSURE:  In the spirit of full disclosure, let me start by saying that I was baptized Catholic, but my father was (is) a rabid atheist.  As the story is told to me, my paternal grandmother had me baptized without my father's knowledge.   I grew up in a home where religion was absent.  My maternal grandmother was profoundly religious, and I spent a lot of time with her as a child.  Consequently, most of my exposure to Christianity was through her.  She was a member of the United Church, a Protestant denomination.  It may explain my consternation with the idea that anyone of a Christian or Jewish faith does not have a significant tolerance for anyone else in any of those particular subsets that is different from their own - or indeed any other religion that does not foster hatred or tolerance of religious liberty, or the choice to be an atheist or agnostic. I myself identify as a Christian, not a Catholic, or Lutheran or United Church parishioner. I try to live a Christian life but am far from perfect.   I bring all of this up because there may be people who believe I am, because of my religious self-identification (or lack thereof), I am not qualified to disagree with the Pope, or more accurately, that in this case my opinion does not matter.

That is their prerogative.  I respectfully disagree.   I was a great admirer of Pope John Paul, and just because I disagree with a Pope does not mean I disagree with all of Catholicism.

Alright, this post may p*** off a number of my readers because I am about to disagree with the Pope.  The Pope it seems, is a socialist.  He has a fetish for social justice.

The former Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's "resume" is open to interpretation. The first Jesuit pope, he is known to share his religious order's passion for education and social justice, particularly as it concerns the welfare of the poor and oppressed. In a speech last year, he accused fellow church officials of hypocrisy "for forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes," according to the Associated Press.

It seems like this guy sees the Pope as a useful idiot.

Coming from South America, where socialism is the predominant notion when it comes to political philosophy, it is not surprising that he would seek to marry his religious beliefs (which I am sure are heartfelt) with his political beliefs (which I'm sure are equally heartfelt).  Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Evo Morales, Che Guevara are some high profile examples of South American politics.  In nations where poverty is rampant and the gap between the wealthy and the poor is so vast, socialism is an easy sell.  Priests of the church are not immune to the political speeches of men.

Indeed the Pope can turn to the Bible to find scripture that can reinforce the notion of social justice.  But here's the problem I have with that approach.  It is not the responsibility of government to impart social justice from a Christian perspective.  To require the government to impart social justice is an abrogation of one's own duty as a Christian.  It is in a sense a way of saying I cannot do it myself so I will get the government to force me, and others to pay for social justice.  It is both sloth and greed that lead to this mindset.

Secondly, while working through the church to do such things creates a similar quandary,  a church is still a voluntary membership organization.  You are not required to attend church and even upon attending you are not compelled to donate, the way you are with an income tax.  You still have freedom of choice, an inalienable right given by God.  

Thirdly, as a Christian, it is more responsible to be involved directly with the social injustices you see.  I'm sure that will be seen as more important and more charitable by God.  I could be wrong, but paying an extra dollar in tax is less altruistic than helping a person on your street who needs a hand.  Raising funds for 

Fourthly, the question of whether the church should be involved in affairs of state at all is debatable. It is one thing to say help the poor, it is another to say the government's austerity measures are bad.    I also find it quite ironic that liberals in the U.S. who will hammer the table for the separation of church and state from the perspective of government would feel quite happy to accept the views  of the church and feel that it is okay for them to espouse a progressive cause like social justice. I guess the separation of church and state only works one way for them. At least, while it's convenient with Pope socialist.

It is important to remember that South America has never had equality of opportunity, and this is not the fault of capitalism.  Everything from conquest to corruption and cronyism  have played much larger parts.  Certainly Puerto Rico has had some success with fledgling capitalism, and Mexico has put itself on a path to prosperity - assuming it's criminal issues can be resolved.  Capitalism is not the enemy of the poor and it certainly is not the enemy of the church. Ignorance is the enemy of both. Is there any place where the gap between the very wealthy and very poor is as bad as China?  The poor in the United States have televisions and air conditioners.  The poor in communist Cuba are more numerous than pre-Castro.  Oops.

Setting aside all of the geopolitical stuff, there are religious reasons to consider that perhaps the Pope is wrong on this one.  They are expressed pretty well in numerous places on the website Christian Capitalism, here's an excerpt from one such post:

Simply, God ordains governments for the suppression of evil.  In Genesis 9:5-6, the initial post-diluvian government was to be established upon capital punishment in order to suppress evil.  This was the extent of the affirmative directive from God.  It must be stressed ever so strongly, that the Bible never commands or mandates anything further for human government than to suppress evil.  Thus it is wrong to assert that God ordains active redistribution of wealth in a government. 

Jesus commanded us in Luke 10:37 to take our personal abilities, talents and possessions and use them in showing mercy to other individuals.  Jesus demonstrated this by taking His own abilities and talents (which were considerable since He was God on earth) and used them to show mercy to other individuals. 

Jesus never projected this command to any government. To take this command and extrapolate it to government is simply not in the text.  Let me repeat, the Bible makes no mandate whatsoever for a government to take the position of redistributors of wealth. 

“But does not Romans 13:7 order us to pay taxes?” one may ask.  Yes!  But these taxes are for the government’s duty to restrain evil.  No mandate for taxes for entitlement programs was ever given. 

Neither did Jesus compel or force His followers to give their wealth away.  Giving was to be voluntary and done cheerfully from the heart.  Those who gave with bad motives would lose their heavenly reward or, at worst, be struck down (Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-9). 

But did not the early Church of Jerusalem in Acts 4:32-36 sell all their goods and “distributed to each as anyone had need”?  Yes, they did do this.  But we must note again that their participation in this community was voluntary (Acts 5:4).

 Now, it's not a slam dunk that the Pope is a socialist, but there is plenty of evidence that he leans that way.  While that may be good for the Catholic church in South America or other socialist and communist countries, it isn't de facto good for Christianity and certainly not for the global financial situation.

Italy in trouble

Silvio Berlusconi, leader of a center-right party has offered his resignation as prime minister of Italy in order to get the European Union austerity measure designed to stabilize Europe's apparent next Greece.  Italy is a socialist country and the loss of the conservative-leaning Berlusconi does not serve the country well.  Nevertheless it seems to be the only way forward and may help prevent this crisis from spreading even more.

Canadian Socialist Leader Dies

Canadian politics is a little off the theme of my blog except where it provides an example for American politics. Today it does not do that.  However, a big story in Canada today is worth noting because it affects Canada's future as far as the progress of progressivism in the country.  NDP (socialist) leader Jack Layton, who in the latest election (that served up Canada's first conservative majority in decades) brought the socialist party to previously unattainable heights, has succumbed to cancer.