Defining American Freedom

Source:TIME Magazine– “A marcher with “Freedom Now CORE” on his shirt joins in cheers of Mississippi Freedom march leaders assembled at the foot of a Civil War memorial statue in Grenada, Miss., in 1966. ” From TIME Magazine.

“We tend to think of freedom as an emancipatory ideal—and with good reason. Throughout history, the desire to be free inspired countless marginalized groups to challenge the rule of political and economic elites. Liberty was the watchword of the Atlantic revolutionaries who, at the end of the 18th century, toppled autocratic kings, arrogant elites and (in Haiti) slaveholders, thus putting an end to the Old Regime. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Black civil rights activists and feminists fought for the expansion of democracy in the name of freedom, while populists and progressives struggled to put an end to the economic domination of workers.”

From TIME Magazine 

“Freedom, generally, is having the ability to act or change without constraint. Something is “free” if it can change easily and is not constrained in its present state. In philosophy and religion, it is associated with having free will and being without undue or unjust constraints, or enslavement, and is an idea closely tied with the concept of liberty. A person has the freedom to do things that will not, in theory or in practice, be prevented by other forces.”

From Wikipedia

If you are some who believes in freedom let’s say regardless of your democratic philosophy, then freedom can mean several things to several different people, regardless of what your let’s pro-freedom political philosophy is.

If you come from more of a social democratic doctrine, freedom to you probably means the freedom for people to not to have to live without the basic essentials in life. And that you believe in welfare rights and that government’s job is to guarantee that no one has to go without what they need to live well in life. Which is why Socialists (let’s say) tend to believe in a bigger, centralized, national government, that’s financed through high taxes to make sure that everyone is guaranteed a quality life.

If you come from the classical liberal or classical conservative school of American politics (which is where I graduated) you believe in the rights of the individual. And that government’s job is to let people be free and not have to worry about their public safety, but not there to try to run their lives for them. That the job of government is to see that everyone has the opportunity to live in freedom, but not guarantee their personal welfare, other than their public safety.

My personal definition of freedom is very close to what I quoted from Wikipedia: “Freedom, generally, is having the ability to act or change without constraint. Something is “free” if it can change easily and is not constrained in its present state… The right for people to be left alone to be able to live their own lives, short of hurting any innocent person with what they’re doing.

I’m not antigovernment, never have been, but believe the job of government is to promote and protect our individual, constitutional rights. Not try to run our lives for us.

Thom Hartmann: ‘The Hidden History of the Supreme Court & The Betrayal of America’

Source:Thom Hartmann talking about his book.

You can also see this post on Blogger.

“Thom Hartmann reads from his new book, the Hidden History of the Supreme Court & the Betrayal of America, explaining how the Supreme Court has spilled beyond its Constitutional powers and how we the people should take that power back.”

From Thom Hartmann

“Thom Hartmann on the Supreme Court and Political News of the Day
Talk show host Thom Hartmann talked about decisions from the Supreme Court and other news.”

Source:C-SPAN– left-wing radio talk show host Thom Hartmann.

From C-SPAN

Left-wing radio talk show host Thom Hartmann, on his Vladimir Putin owned Russia Today TV talk show, talking about what he called: “Time For Congress To Regulate Supreme Court Clan”, back in 2013. But the video that this photo is from, is not currently available online right now.

My response to what Thom Hartmann said on his radio talk show and in his book, is not intended to make him look dumb or for him too look like he just woke up one day and found himself living on another planet, let alone country, not knowing what the hell he’s doing here, how he got here, and how the society works. But because of his little speech about the Supreme Court, I feel the need to state the obvious, at least a little bit here.

America has never been a pure democracy. We’ve never been a majoritarian or social democracy. Just because Thom Hartman or some other left-wing commentator, can site some polls (probably left-wing polls) that says higher taxes and paid maternity leave, or whatever the issue, is popular in America, doesn’t mean those things become law. They still have to get passed out of Congress, signed into law by the President, and then hold up to constitutional scrutiny to the Supreme Court. But Hartmann already knows this.

Now for my constructive critique: the reason why we have a right-wing (not just Republican) majority on the Supreme Court, because the left-wing in America, especially Far-Left Democrats, didn’t bother to vote in 2014 and 2016. If Democrats bothered to vote instead of staying home in 2014, Democrats hold the Senate. If left-wing Democrats bothered to vote in 2016, Hillary Clinton is now President and gets at least 2 appointments confirmed by the Senate, to the Supreme Court today.

The old saying that we get the politicians and government that we vote for and that’s only as good as the people, that can be applied to the Supreme Court as well. As important as the House of Representatives might be, they’re only the lower House in Congress. The real power in Washington and in Congress, is at The White House and in the Senate. You want different Supreme Court decisions and justices, try voting whenever you can and you’ll get more people in government that you like and agree with.

CNBC: ‘Why Democratic Socialism Is Gaining Popularity In The United States’

Source:CNBC– with a look at socialism in America.

Source:The New Democrat

“Socialism used to be a scary word in the U.S., but presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have helped to catapult it back into mainstream American politics. In the latest explainer from CNBC we try to answer what socialism means to different parts of the political spectrum and whether it’s fad or the future of politics in America.”

From CNBC

This is the perfect question to be asking and debating, because it goes to the heart of a big debate America has debated as a country for at least forty-five years. With the creation of the Great Society, to President Richard Nixon’s Federalist approach to domestic issues. To get government power out of Washington and back to the states. To President Jimmy Carter’s New Democratic approach to get more power back to the people. And of course the debate just getting bigger with President Reagan, President Clinton and of course today with President Obama. That is why do we have a government and different levels of government and what is it exactly do we need, not want government to do for us in a civilized society.

Why do we have a government and what we need it to do. Depends on who you ask anywhere from Socialists on the Far-Left let’s say who have the biggest role for government and tend to have programs and taxes that are designed to solve all of our problems for us. To Libertarians who aren’t quite Far-Right, but have the smallest role for government for us. To Liberals and Conservatives who are somewhere in the middle. But with different roles for government in our lives and what we need to pay in taxes.

My role for government as a Liberal I believe is pretty simple. To do for us what we can’t as people do for ourselves, or do as well for ourselves. The obvious things being law enforcement, national security, foreign policy, smart regulation of the economy. But not running the economy which is different. A public education system, but not an education monopoly for the broader public. These are a few examples but my role for government doesn’t get much bigger than this.

My basic idea for government is to protect and expand freedom that individuals have to run their, or govern even their own lives, not to take someone else’s freedom from them. But to be able to manage their own economic and personal affairs. So for people who do not have freedom, but need it and deserve it, help them help themselves so they have the freedom to take care of themselves. And to protect freedom for those who already have it and still deserve that freedom.

I’m not anti-government even at the federal level and not pro-government at any level. But the role of government is to protect and expand freedom. That also includes protecting workers and consumers from predators with smart regulations. But again not designed to run companies, but to protect people from those in companies who would hurt us. Only having the government that we need and not the government that we want. Which are different things.

Kennedy Institute of Politics: Professor Brandon Terry- Interviewing Professor Noam Chomsky: The Future of Leftist Politics in America’

Source:Kennedy School of Politics– Professor Brandon Terry, interviewing Professor Noam Chomsky at Harvard

Source:The New Democrat 

“A discussion with:
Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor of Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Political Theorist and Activist
Brandon Terry (moderator)
Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies and Social Studies, Harvard University.”

From the Kennedy School of Politics

As someone who is not a psychic or a leftist, I would say the future of The Left ( as it’s called ) and I would argue Far-Left ( at least in an American sense ) will be about identity politics, the welfare state, big government in general, and I guess self-honesty. ( For lack of a better term ) Where you’ll have millions of young Americans especially who are proud to be Leftists ( let’s call them Socialists ) who no longer feel the need to hide who they are politically and even hide their own political labels.

This event was in late 2015 about 3 1/2 years ago but just go up three years later to November, 2018 and we now have a class of Democrats or at least prominent Democratic freshman in the House who are not just proud to be Leftists, but proud to be Socialists. Who just a few years ago would’ve felt the need to run in the Green Party to run for reelection and to have any shot at winning the nomination for the office they’re seeking, who today can run as Democrats and not just run as Democrats, but run as Socialists and Democratic Socialists.

The Democratic Party today thanks to Bernie Sanders in 2015-16 now has a significant Socialist faction in it. Whether that’s 20% or 30%, the Democratic Party today now has a significant, hard core Socialist base who believe that government can solve any problem that has ever been known to man, if it just has the money to do so. Which is very different from where the Democratic Party was just 10 years when they were basically just a Center-Left progressive party with a Far-Left fringe in it. 10 years later the Socialists in the party now look more mainstream with Democrats who just 10 years ago would be viewed as solid Progressive Democrats ( like Barack Obama ) , now are viewed as centrists or even Conservative Democrats. ( At least by the Socialists in the party )

What I just laid out looks very mainstream at least when you’re talking about the left-wing ( to say the least ) about the Democratic Party today. People who believe in social democracy or democratic socialism, who want a large centralized national government and welfare state there to meet the economic needs of all the people.

If the left-wing of the Democratic Party was just Henry Wallace or George McGovern wing of the Democratic Party and if that’s all the left-wing of the Democratic Party represented today and represented people of all races and ethnicities, male and female and they weren’t about racial or identity politics, but a pluralist political faction that was about social democracy or democratic socialism, they wouldn’t look that radical today especially with young Americans, especially with the more militant faction of this movement that wants to make race, ethnicity, and gender issues about everything not just in politics and government, but in American life in general.

But the left-wing ( or Far-Left ) in and outside of the Democratic Party today are not all pluralists and don’t care for liberal democracy. It’s not just social democracy that they want, but believe that men aren’t necessary, ( at least Caucasian men ) that women aren’t just superior to men, but should be running everything, and generally view Caucasians especially men as ignorant and bigots, unless they come from the West Coast or Northeast and were educated there.

And that’s the growing faction in the Democratic Party that you have to worry about if you’re a mainstream Democrat who is part of the Democratic leadership, because as the Far-Left grows in the party, the less Far-Left they’ll look and more mainstream that they’ll look in the party. But they’ll still look very radical outside of the party and mainstream Democrats will have to figure out how to get elected and reelected with this faction on their back that they’ll need to win elections, but still be able to appeal to mainstream Democrats and Independents.

The Bitchy Pundit: ‘Bernie Sanders is Rich’

Source:U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders– Maybe Senator Sanders, had himself in mind when he made this statement.

Source:The New Democrat

From The Bitchy Pundit

“I’m going to veer off course for a minute to say that I don’t believe that any society should allow billionaires to happen. Billionaires are toxic to a society because they can’t spend a big enough percentage of their money to actually help an economy. Millionaires on the other hand, are great for societies and I’m all for creating more of them. Millionaires are in that sweet spot of having enough money to spend on significant amounts of consumer goods and investing just the right amount to help seed businesses. But millionaires aren’t rich enough to play fast and loose with their investments, since it can all disappear overnight. They are not (for example) rich enough to create mortgage backed securities or naked credit default swaps. I believe that our tax code should be designed to stop anyone from becoming a billionaire, just like it was for nearly forty years. We need a top tax rate of 90% not only to prevent billionaires from happening, but also to force reinvestment in American companies. There’s no point in looting a company if you’re going to have to pay 90% of what you loot back to the government.”

Source:The Bitchy Pundit 

“Jimmy Fallon’s monologue from Wednesday, April 10, plus Hodor from Game of Thrones remixes pop hits, like Lady Gaga’s “Shallow.”

Source:NBC– Jimmy Fallon, on Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders becoming a millionaire.

From Jimmy Fallon Tonight

Just to respond to The Bitchy Pundit: saying that she is OK with millionaires, but thinks billionaires should be outlawed, in other words being rich is OK, it’s superrich that’s the problem: that’s like calling someone a little fat, or saying they have a slight drinking problem: “Tom and Susan, only get drunk twice a week, three times during a holiday. Bob, is only 20 pounds overweight, but that doesn’t make him obese. Jane, is a little pregnant, but it’s not like she’s going to have the baby tomorrow.” I mean do the really have to wait for the extreme to happen before we call a problem a problem and say if we act now, it won’t become a major issue later on?

I mean, if you really think that wealth is a problem and people being independently wealthy is a problem, than why attack billionaires, but leave the millionaires alone? You don’t think people who are worth 20, 50, 100 million dollars aren’t investing their money oversees and doing what they can to avoid high taxation in America? If you do, you’re not that familiar with our tax code and our economic system and economy.

This is not about Bernie Sanders being rich in the sense that being rich and wealthy is a bad thing, simply because I don’t believe wealth and being rich are bad things. Otherwise I would be a Socialist myself. This is about a Socialist from Vermont who before 2019 was the only self-described Socialist in Congress ( but not the only Socialist ) who is only famous in America because he’s spent his entire Congressional career ( House and Senate ) demonizing what he is which is rich and wealthy. We’re talking about a man who is a multi-millionaire who’ll never have to work again ( thanks to his personal wealth and taxpayer funded Congressional pension ) who attacks the wealthy in America simply because they’re wealthy and use their money and connections to avoid paying high taxes.

Bernie Sanders attacking someone for being wealthy, is like an alcoholic speaking out about the dangers of heroin and cocaine. And perhaps doing that while they’re drunk. Perhaps when they’re sober, they’re not as hypocritical. And if we ever see that person sober, maybe we’ll know for sure how hypocritical they are. A smoker who bashes people for eating junk food. Or the radical hippie vegan, who calls someone an animal killer because they eat cheeseburgers and calls people animal killers for eating meat while wearing a leather jacket. If there’s any one thing that American voters hate the most about politicians other than they are politicians to begin with and just hate their profession, it’s hypocrisy.

Socialists, like to say that America has socialism for the rich and capitalism for everyone else. Meaning that we subsidize wealth in this country and don’t do much as a society at least the government for people who are poor. They have a point there, but the problem that they have is that they might have had one of their icons in mind in Bernie Sanders, when they argue that.

If Bernie Sanders really was as Socialist and believed in socialism as much as he claims he does, he wouldn’t be a millionaire to begin with. He would just live off of his Congressional salary, while donating his wealth to his favorite charities like Uncle Sam. Because Socialists don’t believe in material wealth and believe that people should just have enough money to live a quality life and not have to be poor of course, but not be rich either, while Big Government takes care of the rest of what we need to live well. At our expense, of course.

When it comes to politicians, Bernie Sanders is about honest as they come. Which I know sounds like saying Joe is the best hockey player to ever come out of El Paso, Texas. Or Mary is the best ballet dancer to ever come out of Mobile, Alabama. But generally speaking I get the impression when Senator Sanders says something and proposes something, he actually believes what he’s saying. But when it comes to wealth in America and being rich, Bernie now sounds like Michael Moore, Bill Maher, Jane Fonda, or any other so-called Hollywood Leftists who attacks people simply for being what they are, which is rich and financially successful in America thanks to American capitalism, while they attack our capitalist economic system. It’s more than a little much and more like enough to make people vomit when they hear that hypocrisy.

“Jimmy Fallon’s monologue from Wednesday, April 10, plus Hodor from Game of Thrones remixes pop hits, like Lady Gaga’s “Shallow.”

Chomsky’s Philosophy: Professor Noam Chomsky- Free Speech on Campus

Source:Chomsky’s Philosophy– Professor Noam Chomsky: talking about free speech on campus.

Source:The New Democrat 

“If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views that you don’t like. Goebbeles was in favor of freedom of speech for views that he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re in favor of freedom of speech that means you’re in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views that you don’t like.”

Source:Quote Master:

Professor Noam Chomsky, will never get mistaken for a Ronald Reagan, William Buckley, or Barry Goldwater Conservative, except for perhaps in one area: when it came to free speech, Professor Noam Chomsky is to the right of Reagan on free speech and believe that free speech is for everyone. Not just Hippies who oppose war, but for right-wing Nationalists who hate minorities. These hard-core Leftists on the Far-Left ( whether you want to call them Socialists or Communists ) might view Chomsky as a Conservative, simply because he believes in free speech. But disagreeing with these Leftists on anything, is like saying no to Joe Stalin: you put your life or career in jeopardy when you do that. You’re either with these hard corse Leftists on everything, or they see you as part of the opposition.

Something else that these Far-Leftists should think about: if they’re successful in censoring speech that they don’t like, the right-wing at some point could come in and start outlawing music and other entertainment that they don’t like, or political demonstrations that they disagree with. Which is what they tried to do in the 1960s with Vietnam War protests and pro-civil rights demonstrations. It’s that old Martin Luther King line about every action having a reaction to it: when you take action against someone on the other side especially an action that they despise like trying to cut off their free speech rights, they’ll do the same thing against you when they’re in power.

If you’re going to live in a free society like a liberal democracy, there are certain actions and views from others that you have to put up with. You don’t have to accept them or agree with them and you’re more than welcome to oppose them and demonstrate against them. You just can’t use your freedom to deny someone else’s their freedom, simply because you disagree with their personal choices and views. If you don’t accept the concept of a free society and oppose liberal democracy, try living in a communist or nationalistic state where the government is there literally to hold onto power and they do that by severely limiting what their people can do so they can hold onto power.

 

The Rubin Report: Dave Rubin- Interviewing Nick Di Paolo: ‘On Offensive Comedy and Political Correctness’

Source:The Rubin Report– “”Nick Di Paolo on offensive comedy and political correctness”

Source:The Daily Review

“Nick Di Paolo (stand up comedian) joins Dave to discuss his comedy career, his problem with political correctness and so many stand up comics today, why he believes comedians should be at the forefront of speech and free expression, and more.”

Source:The Rubin Report

I think the great comedian Mel Brooks had the best comment about political correctness that I’ve ever heard when he said in 2017 that: “political correctness is killing comedy.” We’ve become at least with the left-wing such an uptight country now where comedy has almost disappeared ( unless you’re making fun of right-wingers ) that everything is taken seriously.

Comedy: “Professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh.”

Comedy is simply just making fun of people and situations that deserve to be made fun because they’ve done or said something stupid or embarrassed themselves. When someone tells someone that they’re as dumb as a brick. because they’re constantly speaking nonsense or can’t find their own hand in front of their face, they’re literally not saying that person is a brick. They’re saying they’re dumb as a brick and act like they don’t have a brain.

When people do redneck or ghetto jokes and I do that all the time, we’re not saying that call Caucasians are rednecks or that everyone with a rural background is a redneck. We’re saying that people from those communities who are rednecks are rednecks and speak a certain language and have a certain accent that perhaps only people from that community can understand. Who see Yankees and everyone with a metropolitan accent as foreigners and perhaps even invaders. ( Sort of how Trump voters who view anyone with black hair and brown skin )

When people do ghetto jokes and I do that myself as someone who went to an urban melting pot high school in the early 90s, we’re not saying that everyone from the African-American community are ghetto. We’re simply making fun of ghetto people and mimic the way they talk and act. But not labeling all African-Americans as ghetto.

There’s real-life and then there’s comedy. When your’e watching sitcoms or any other type of comedy, that is not actually happing, since they’re pretending and acting out. Real life is real, comedy is just an expression about the stupidity of life and what comedians are seeing from their own personal experiences and not meant to be taken seriously.

People who take comedy seriously are people who weren’t around and perhaps had an off day when whoever who has the job of passing sense of humors around was passing those around. And are the biggest tight asses in the history of the world and have redefined that term. When someone makes fun of you, the first thing you do is to see if that person has a point and self-examine yourself. If the joke is spot on, you have nothing to complain about and if anything should laugh at yourself and use the humor as a learning experience. If the joke really is off target, then you laugh it off or fire back or enjoy the rest of your life. But unless the person is calling you a racial or ethnic slur, you really have nothing to complain about.

Dandelion Salad: Ellen Brown- ‘Funding A U.S. Green Deal Without Raising Taxes’

Source:Bart Everson– Via Flickr 

Source:The New Democrat

From Ellen Brown:

“As alarm bells sound over the advancing destruction of the environment, a variety of Green New Deal proposals have appeared in the US and Europe, along with some interesting academic debates about how to fund them. Monetary policy, normally relegated to obscure academic tomes and bureaucratic meetings behind closed doors, has suddenly taken center stage.

The 14 page proposal for a Green New Deal submitted to the US House of Representatives by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez does not actually mention Modern Monetary Theory, but that is the approach currently capturing the attention of the media—and taking most of the heat. The concept is good: abundance can be ours without worrying about taxes or debt, at least until we hit full productive capacity. But the devil is in the details….

MMT advocates say the government does not need to collect taxes before it spends. It actually creates new money in the process of spending it; and there is plenty of room in the economy for public spending before demand outstrips supply, driving up prices.”

Source:Dandelion Salad 

“Democrats are introducing framework for what they call the Green New Deal. It addresses climate change and how the U.S. can make clean energy a priority over 10 years. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey have championed the measure. CBS News chief congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes joins CBSN to explain.”

From CBS News

Ellen Brown is right about one thing: the U.S. Government doesn’t have to actually collect the taxes that it’s owed before it spends money.

Back when Congress and the President actually passed budgets and appropriations bills ( when dinosaurs were still around, ha, ha, ) they would agree to what the U.S. Government would spend and how to collect the money that it spent. Then most of that money would be spent and the taxes would come in later.

If Congress and the President passed a budget, all the appropriations, and a tax bill today, the revenue to pay for that government spending that has already been spent wouldn’t actually come in until the following year, or at least not all of it. Similar to how individuals pay for things on credit: we purchase items on credit and then pay those bills to our credit card company at the end of the month. If we made those payments, we didn’t have any debt. But if we didn’t make those payments, we would now have a credit card debt.

When Congress appropriates money for the Executive to spend, that money gets spent before the taxes are actually collected. And if the Executive takes in more money than was actually spent, ( which happens about as often as the Cleveland Indians win the World Series ) then the U.S. Government has a budget surplus. But if the Executive spent more money than it collected in either taxes or tariffs or a combination of both, then it runs a deficit for that year and that deficit is added to the national debt. Which has happened every year in this country since 2002. ( That should give you an idea of how often that is )

What Ellen Brown is arguing for is that the U.S. Government could fund a Green New Deal ( as its called ) simply though monetary policy that would fund it by itself and you wouldn’t have to borrow more money or raise new taxes to pay for it. If that were true, government wouldn’t need a tax code, taxes, or an Internal Revenue Service, because it could just pay for all of its operations with Treasury printing all the money. The reason why we have a national debt of 22 trillion-dollars ( get your head all the way around that number ) is because Congress and the Executive has been borrowing money ever since the Federal Republic was created and has been running a budget deficit almost every year since the 1960s, because it almost always takes in less tax revenue than it spends. With the last four years of the Clinton Administration, the last year of the Johnson Administration, and one year during the 1950s under President Dwight Eisenhower.

Knowledge Hub: History of Prohibition- Why It Failed?

Source:Knowledge Hub– Big Government, is coming for you

Source:The New Democrat 

“People like booze. Now. But there was a time alcohol was a matter of debate and was made illegal. Here is why it failed.

Music by No Sustain
.

Written and Edited by Tyler Franklin”

Source:Knowledge Hub

Source:Google Sites– Yes, end the War on Drugs 

As someone who is a nondrinker ( when it comes to alcohol ) I believe I have a lot of credibility when it comes to alcohol and other prohibitions, simply because I’m not looking to keep products like alcohol, tobacco, sugar, salt, caffeine, and any other current drugs that Americans consumer that are currently legal simply so I can continue to consume them, but because I don’t believe they should be illegal. I don’t want to legalize marijuana and decriminalize harder narcotics because I want to consume them, but because I don’t believe people should be put in prison or even jail simply for consuming or possessing these products.

I simply as a Liberal don’t believe that people should be arrested and put in jail simply for doing or consuming things that are dangerous and come with negative side-effects. You need a better argument than, “this is bad for you and dangerous and if you do this or take this, you’re going to be locked, because these products are bad for you.” Or you need a better argument than these products violate some people’s religious and moral values in order to outlaw something. You need a fact-based argument that lays out that the negative consequences of using let’s say risky products or so great that if they’re allowed to be consumed in society that not only will the people who consume them be negatively affected. but the people around then and the greater society will be harmed to the point that society couldn’t afford those negative affects. An argument that has never been made to outlaw alcohol or any other product that comes with real risk in America.

So why bas prohibition failed?

I’ll give you a hypothetical: think about a father who doesn’t want his daughter ( let’s say ) seeing her boyfriend anymore simply because the father doesn’t like him and doesn’t want him around his daughter and he tells his daughter that and perhaps even tells her boyfriend that he doesn’t’ want him seeing his daughter anymore and if does, there will be real consequences for that: you think the daughter is going to stop seeing her boyfriend simply because her father no longer wants her to see him, especially if her father can’t explain why he doesn’t’ like him, or why he’s bad for her? Well, if you’re familiar with teenage girls in America and perhaps outside of this country, you know that they won’t stop seeing people simply because their parent or parents tell them not to.

The so-called War on Drugs whether it was alcohol prohibition in the 1920s or the war on harder narcotics today like marijuana ( and there’s still a question of whether marijuana is actually a harder narcotic than marijuana ) has failed for the same reasons. Just because you tell someone they can’t do something especially if the person is an addict or they know what they’re doing is not so dangerous than they can die from, especially if they don’t abuse alcohol or marijuana, doesn’t mean they’ll stop doing it or taking whatever they’re into. It just means that what they’re currently doing is illegal and that they may end up in jail or prison if they’re caught in possession or consuming what they’re into.

What you get with the so-called War on Drugs is an overcrowded, unaffordable, and unsustainable criminal justice and prison incarceration system where maybe 1-10 American prison inmates don’t represent any actual threat to society. If they represent any threat whatsoever to anyone, it’s to themselves, but because they’re addicts. If your’e a true fiscal Conservative, you hate the so-called War on Drugs and criminal justice system in America, because it’s so expensive, because we lock up people for what they do to themselves. You’re cool with locking up predators who hurt innocent people especially if the punishment is just, but locking up people for what they do to themselves is a waste of tax dollars and you hate that as a fiscal Conservative.

So the War on Alcohol and the broader so-called War on Drugs has failed for several reasons: One, almost 50 years later after President Richard Nixon launched this so-called war we’re still fighting it. That should be a pretty good clue there. But now thanks to this so-called war we have an overcrowded, unaffordable, unsustainable criminal justice system in a time when we’re running trillion-dollar deficits and have a national debt of over 20 trillion-dollars.

Just because you outlaw something doesn’t mean it goes away, it just means that it’s now illegal and will go underground. And the people who get caught will end up in prison simply because they were caught in possession or caught using a product that Big Government says is dangerous and should be illegal.

Just like the father who tells his daughter to stop seeing her boyfriend for no apparent reason: they’ll continue to see each other, but behind her parents backs and no longer be upfront and honest about their relationship.

The Real News Network: Paul Jay- ‘Is Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialism, Socialism?’

Source:The Real News Network– U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont 

Source:The New Democrat

“Sanders says that medicare for all, a living wage, and other reforms is the socialism that’s possible, but is he too reserved on strengthening public ownership? – with Jacqueline Luqman, Eugene Puryear, Norman Solomon and host Paul Jay”

From The Real News Network

Source:Fortune Magazine– U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont: speaking at Georgetown in 2015 

Apparently we need and the people from the so-called Real News Network need a refresher course on Socialists and socialism, because there are Socialists and then there are Socialists and none of these factions are the same as the other except when it comes to Democratic Socialists and Social Democrats. Democratic Socialists and Social Democrats, are the same faction.

Source:C-SPAN– U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont: Speaking at Georgetown in 2015 

Democratic Socialists and Social Democrats both believe in a democratic form of socialism or socialist form of democracy and neither wants to eliminate the private enterprise or even capitalism. They just want the national government to provide the people’s workers benefits. Things like health care, health insurance, pension, child care, education, etc. Services that a country like America you would get those services from the private sector, or at the very least would have the option in getting those services from the private sector.

Senator Bernie Sanders, believes in democratic socialism/social democracy. He’s not looking to government to come in and close down private business’s ( except for perhaps health insurers and hospitals ) or have government come into people’s homes and other properties and kick people out and have the properties taken over by the government.

Under a Bernie Sanders Administration if a President Sanders had his way let’s say, the private sector in America would remain in place, but the public sector at least at the Federal level would be a lot larger. Trillions of dollars would be added to the Federal public sector every year in new social programs and in expansions in current Federal social programs, but the private sector would remain in place.

I’m not explaining this because I’m a fan of Senator Sanders, because I’m not even though I respect his candor and honesty, but to explain his own politics so people know what they’re getting when they hear about Socialist Bernie Sanders. He doesn’t represent the Communist or Marxist wing of socialism and looking to turn America into a gigantic Cuba, but instead if he had his way America would become like a gigantic Sweden or gigantic Scandinavia. Where the national government would be a lot larger and more expensive, taxes on everyone would be a lot higher, but the national government would provide a lot more social services and individuals would still own their own properties.