Democrats v/s Socialists

Well, the cat is slowly slipping out of the bag. Earlier this month Democratic National Committee Chairperson, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was asked – not once but twice on different television programs – to explain the difference between Democrats and Socialists. She quickly diverted the question to an altogether different subject. No, she would not answer the question.

What brought about the question – from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, of all people – was the fact that the other Democrat contender in the Presidential race, Bernie Sanders is an avowed socialist.

This deserves more in-depth examination. In 2009, the Socialist Part of America proudly announced there were 70 members of congress belonging to the party. Today, beliefnet.com said:

The 75-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, co-chaired by Reps. Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison, is closely allied with the Democratic Socialists of America. The Communist Party USA identifies Progressive Caucus members as its “allies in Congress.”

Okay, it is settled, Sanders is a socialist, as apparently are a huge number of members of congress – all Democrats. Just what is a socialist and why should we be wary of them?

Socialism wasn’t invented by Karl Marx. Frenchmen Saint-Simon and Fourier advanced the idea of a socialist society long before Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels collaborated on this aberrant philosophy. Europeans, in particular, the French experimented with various forms of socialism well before the Lenin brought the Marxist ideals to notoriety.

The Russian revolution came about because of the excesses of the Tsarist monarchy. It was not intended to be a socialist or Marxist revolution. The people simply wanted to be free of the Tsar and his henchmen. What they wound up with was the dictator Lenin and his Bolshevik henchmen. When Lenin died during the formative stages of the Soviet Union, Joe Stalin stepped into his shoes, ruled with an iron fist, and allowed only a single party, the Bolsheviks, to dominate the political scene. The name Bolshevik was changed to Communist but maintained the same Marxist philosophy of socialism.

Socialism isn’t new in America. The Socialist Party of America was founded in 1897 and dissolved in 1972. No fewer than four socialist organizations succeeded the SPA. One of those organizations was the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), founded in 1991 by Bernie Sanders, a self-identified socialist.

Is there a difference between socialists and communists? Not much. Communists are Marxist socialists who advocate transition from a capitalist economy to a regulated socialist economy. Communists believe that transition should be achieved through a violent revolution. The Bolsheviks found out the revolution would not accept socialism without the force of a dictator.

Do socialists work for the “working class” aka., the little people. Again, that would be no. It is the big lie. Lenin called the proletariat, “useful idiots.” Workers unions were controlled by Bolsheviks and peasants were forced into collective farming. Individualism was outlawed – except for the elites of the administration. If you like slavery, you will love socialism.

And what of mere socialists? Well, in the ‘60s and ‘70s the American Socialists and Communist party advocated the same transition through revolution. Today these communists/socialists are members of our congress and reign throughout our government. Most are registered Democrats.

It is no coincidence that the recession brought out the socialist call for wealth redistribution. Of course, as Margaret Thatcher once said, “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” The fall of the Soviet Union appeared to eliminate communism, but in actuality, it merely renamed itself – again – to “Progressive” and “Democratic Socialist”.

Is there a difference between socialists and Democrats? Well, Chris, apparently not for many Dems. The question he should have asked is, can a socialist leopard change its spots? Not likely! As the Russians tragically realized, socialism is elitism wrapped in a lie.

The Modern Car Dilemma

My wife’s ten-year-old PT Cruiser is … not well. If it were a person, we would be looking for a good nursing home to place it in.

It’s not like we haven’t maintained it properly. Every 3000 miles it gets a new oil filter and oil change. I replace the brake rotors and pads when they are worn. We always put the best tires on it and keep them properly inflated. It has had two new batteries during its lifetime. It gets regular tune-ups. It’s had a good life.

Lately, it has become… well, incontinent. The garage has a large – and growing – puddle of something oily beneath the poor car. On top of that, the air conditioner quit. I can’t say precisely when it quit, but the wife has been using the 4-60 A/C method most of this summer. What is the 4-60 A/C method? You roll down all four windows and drive 60 miles per hour. It doesn’t help much and leaves her hair looking like that new “just out of bed” messy style. But it’s still better than arriving looking like a wet dishtowel.

It’s been a good car, but yes, the time has come to think about a replacement.

I have never been a fan of used cars especially those only a year or two old. You have to ask, why would someone get rid of a car that soon? Although, those cars more … mature, have usually been around the block more than a time or two, so you might not be gaining much by trading in your old problems for new ones.

No, I like new cars. I like the warranty with a new car, although I have seldom had to use it. I like the feel of a new car. And I like the smell of a new car.

What I don’t like these days is the look of the new cars. One day when the PT Cruiser was in the shop, I rented a new Buick. Wow! A Buick! Nice car. My impression when setting in it for the first time was, huh? Well, I recognized the steering wheel, and brake and accelerator pedals, but everything else was foreign. I may just as well have been sitting at the controls of a 747.

I went to put the key (yes, the Buick did have a key) into the ignition. There was none. The rental guy showed me how to start the car by just putting your foot on the brake and pressing the “start” button. I still don’t know that the key was for. Nothing seemed to use it.

Okay, now that the engine is on, let’s back out. Wait a minute! There is no gearshift lever! Back to the rental guy. Turns out, there is a little knob on the console that controls the transmission.

Now I’m finally out of the lot and on the road. In front of me is a bewildering array of buttons – all with some sort of hieroglyphics – and a couple of computer screens. One screen appears to be showing the car’s speed, and the other is giving me more information than a Sunday newspaper.

I experimented with a few of the buttons and managed to get the A/C and fan to a somewhat comfortable point. I have no idea what most of the buttons did, though, and I’m certain the owner’s manual was the size of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”

I did manage to make it through the day but really didn’t go far. Even so, I still needed to have the same gas reading as when I left, so I pulled into a filling station. Uh, what side is the filler on? Of course, I had a 50 percent chance of guessing right and 100 percent chance of being wrong. So, whip the car around to the other side. Now I am confronted with a filler door that won’t open. Well, back to the buttons. There must be one with something that looks like a filler door that will open the thing. There wasn’t!

I panic! I am cutting it close on time to return the car, and just know they will be charging me for an extra day. Well, forget it. I know they will charge me ten dollars a gallon for what I used, but what-the-hey. I had no way of putting gas in it and didn’t have time to read through “War and Peace” to figure it out.

As it turned out, the PT Cruiser wasn’t done. I still needed a car, so the dealer was kind enough to provide a loaner – yes, I should have asked for one earlier.

When the service adviser brought the loaner around, he appeared in a brand new Chrysler 200. Wow! New car! It was then I noticed the Chrysler looked nearly identical to the Buick I had just returned. Parked next to each other, you could not tell the difference. Then it dawned on me; nearly all cars from all the different manufacturers look the same. Is there a conspiracy here, or did the engineers all go to the same school of design? Every car looks alike! And they all look like pregnant roller skates. There are no lines or distinguishing features, just the same blah in every car.

Call me nostalgic, but I do long for the ‘50s and ‘60s when cars had class, for the days when high-performance meant a mean engine and drive train, not a bigger amp. No Bluetooth, Pandora, or GPS for me. Give me a ’57 Chevy with standard transmission and a big V-8 – American iron with American muscle and class. A car you could be proud to own and drive.

Oh, well… dream on. I guess, I will be stuck with a pregnant roller skate and car payment larger that my mortgage. Maybe I can paint a Confederate flag on it so I can find it in a parking lot.

Drone No-Fly Zone

As two recent wildfires raged in California, the tankers and aircraft needed to fight them sat idle on the ground leaving property and lives at great risk. The North Fire that burned along I-15 in the Cajon Pass came on vehicles on the Interstate so fast that the occupants were lucky to scramble to safety while their vehicles were consumed. That fire took 44 vehicles, 7 homes, and 16 outbuildings. Another home and 4 outbuildings sustained damaged but was not destroyed. Much of this destruction may have been prevented if the airdrops had been allowed to fly.

But why were these badly needed aircraft sitting idle? In a word, safety! Some idiot decided it would be cool to watch the fire from cameras mounted on a drone. Never mind that the drone could present a safety hazard to aircraft as they dropped water and fire retardant on the flames, this jerk just wanted some excitement! Never mind that he or she might be responsible for destroying 44 vehicles and placing the occupants at risk of being burned alive, he or she just wanted some good shots of the fire.

Okay, what is being done to these drone idiots? NADA! That’s right, it’s not against any law to interfere with fire crews, not against the law to fly a drone into a situation that could cause other aircraft to collide, not against the law to be an inconsiderate and dangerous idiot with a drone. So, it happened again with the Lake fire. Once again, fire aircrews were told to stand down because a drone was in the area.

Remotely piloted model aircraft have been around for decades. Hobbyists have enjoyed flying these toys without causing serious incidents. Recently someone mounted a camera on them and called them “drones.” They have taken various shapes, but the most popular seem to be the helicopter type with four or six rotors.

It’s a handy little thing, these drones. Any fool can own one. You can put them almost anywhere, fly them remotely from ever increasing distances, and with those cameras, see things you would never otherwise be able to see – like in the neighbor’s high-rise windows; over the privacy fence at… well, whatever; and through the smoke and flames of a wildfire.

Yep, these things are intrusive, obnoxious, and now dangerous. I am of the opinion that they might also make great shotgun targets when they get low enough. Oh, wait… there is a law against that. That’s right, the FAA takes a dim view of shooting at aircraft – even if the aircraft is unoccupied and buzzing your house. Although I haven’t seen reports of anyone being arrested for shooting at a drone, I did see where a woman was arrested for hitting a drone operator who was harassing her with the drone.

Personally, I believe a little double-ought buckshot from a goose gun would end the problem in a hurry. Drone down… fire crews back in the air, property safe. If they can’t put the idiot drone pilots in jail for endangering or harassing people and property, at least they won’t be flying that drone again.

If you own a drone, take heed. In my neck of the woods, we shoot unidentified flying objects. With my bifocals, drones could easily be mistaken for a large bird or some strange locust.

The Trump Card

With over 500 days to election 2016, Donald Trump leads the pack in the Republican camp. Well, why not. He’s rich; he’s a celebrity; he’s rich; he’s entertaining; he’s rich; he’s outspoken; he’s rich; he gets a lot of free air-time; and oh, by the way, he’s rich… very rich.

He also has the ire of the Republican Party, which only tends to elevate him in the eyes of Republican voters.  Make no mistake about it, though; Donald Trump is a loose cannon.

Can he win the Party nomination? Maybe. Can he win the White House? Well, the odds are probably somewhere like those of me being struck by lightning – twice – then winning the Power Ball Lottery and California’s Mega Millions on the same day. It could happen!

Let's take a look at this 69-year-old billionaire. He lives in Queens, New York, was married three times, has five children, holds a Bachelors Degree from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania after transferring there from Fordham University in the Bronx. Trump finished High School at the New York Military Academy (NYMA), after being dismissed from the Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills, Queens for having “behavior problems.”

Trump’s fortune got its start when his father brought him into the family real estate business that focused on middle-class rental housing in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. It wasn’t long before he changed the company name from Elizabeth Trump and Son to The Trump Organization.

Lest anyone might think Trump was handed his fortune, they would be wrong. The man works hard for the money he has made and takes some very big risks. “The Donald” has created a great number of very successful enterprises, from the Trump Towers to the Taj Mahal Casino (which nearly brought him to bankruptcy), with a number of high-rise developments having the name Trump in them along the way. His net worth, depending on the source, might be from 1.8 billion to 10 billion dollars. The guy is rich… filthy rich!

Trump’s party history runs the range of Republican (Before 1999; 2009–11; 2012–present), Reform Party (1999–2001), Democratic (2001–09), and Independent (2011–12).

There can be no doubt that Donald Trump is a narcissist with an ego bigger than Texas and a very bad haircut. On the other hand, he is probably one of the most recognizable people in America, if not the world. He is also one of the most outspoken. His tirade on Mexican illegal immigrants and denunciation of heroism of Senator John McCain has given him great traction among voters. Why, because he is not just another mealy-mouthed politician. In fact, he has proven that he has not a drop of politician blood in his veins.

Is he dangerous? Very! In 1992, another billionaire businessman with strong libertarian tendencies, Ross Perot, cost a very good Republican candidate, President George H.W. Bush reelection and essentially bought Bill Clinton the office. Trump has already hinted that he might run an independent campaign if he doesn’t get the Republican nomination. If this happens it will be a Clinton redux.

Like Perot, Trump is telling many conservatives what they long to hear – and what the other candidates are too timid to voice. His schoolyard invectives against other candidates are entertaining, and seem to hit a chord with many voters simply because Trump is calling the politicians out in violation of the Republican 11^th commandment (thou shalt not speak ill of other Republicans).

If you scan back to Trump’s political history, you will find he was registered in the Reform Party from 1999 to 2001 – the same Reform Party created by Ross Perot. Coincidence?

Is Donald Trump merely a celebrity buffoon? If so, he is a very cagy buffoon, one that might just trump the Republicans with an undeserving loss.

The Stars and Bars

On June 24^th,, a Sunday, a young White man walked into the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina during a bible study session. He was welcomed and sat through the class for an hour before declaring he was there "to kill black people" and then opening fire, killing nine parishioners. I won’t dignify the killer by mentioning his name, but I’m sure everyone knows whom I am referring to.

God lord, we are not even safe in church anymore! Why would a person do such a low, despicable thing?

It’s too easy to blame it on racism and white hate groups. Since the end of the Civil Rights movement in the ‘60s, I can’t remember sensational reports of blatantly racist hate crimes of this sort. There may have been a few, but nothing like the September 15, 1963 bombing before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama—a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured in that bombing. You don’t hear of cross-burnings and lynchings much anymore either. These hate groups don’t seem to be doing much besides wallowing in their own misery and paranoia.

These days, however, terrorists are being increasingly recruited on-line through the “social” media. (Although, I don’t see much social about it. Maybe there needs to be a special web section for an anti-social media.) This killer posted pictures sitting with a Confederate battle flag, and spouted racial hatred and an affinity for White hate groups. Other terrorists have black flags of the Islamic State and spout hatred of anyone not of their particular pseudo-religious bent.

Whoa, back the train up! This guy had a Confederate battle flag?

That’s right. The flag was what everyone seemed to focus on. Suddenly this inanimate piece of cloth was reviled more than even the despised handguns and assault rifles or even the maniac that did the shooting.

Ah, but there is a Confederate battle flag flying over a Confederate Soldiers Memorial on the South Carolina statehouse grounds. From a single picture, you get the feeling that the Confederate battle flag somehow managed to climb down from that flagpole and murdered all nine people in that church. Well, it simply had to go.

Scant mention was made of the vile young man with the twisted mind, or surprisingly, not even much mention of the weapon he used. Although, a few weeks after the shooting it was reported that the background checks to purchase the handgun were faulty.

After much ballyhoo and protestation, the Confederate flag was lowered and relegated to the Confederate Museum.

Suddenly, though, the people who cry over any perceived slight were protesting just about everything containing the name of a Confederate soldier, street names and names of buildings were now to be changed. And it wasn’t limited to Confederates. Now any name anyone deemed offensive was to be changed – Washington, Lee, and Jackson Streets along with Squaw Bread and Redskins football team are now racist. The carving of three Confederate Generals at Stone Mountain State Park in Georgia that had stood since completion in 1924 by Gutzon Borglum – the same Gutzon Borglum that carved Mount Rushmore – must be blasted from the face of the mountain, was the battle cry. Political correctness is running amok!

People need to get a grip. Slavery is dead. President Lincoln ended that abomination in 1863. The 13^th amendment put the nail in that coffin. The Civil War has been over for 151 years!

The flag that people seem to think depicts slavery and racism is not even the flag of the Confederacy. The flag of the Confederate States of America was entirely different – not the “stars and bars.” This flag was one carried into battle by brave men who fought for the rights of their states and their homes. Most of these men never even owned a slave. That flag is no different than the pennant Colonel George Custer’s 7^th Cavalry carried into battle for the North.

Any racist connotation ascribed to the “Stars and Bars” is merely a product of those who have hijacked the flag for their own vile purposes and is a disgrace to the men who fought valiantly under those colors. We should be condemning those people, not the flag they happen to have with them. If that flag reminds you of slavery, it is your problem, not the flag’s. Cotton reminds some of slavery too, but they have no problem wearing cotton products. If those hate groups displayed the American flag, would the reaction be the same?

The Confederate battle flag is a relic of our nation’s history, and should be treated as such. It should be revered and honored as with any other relic of men who fought and died for their country.

Leave Stone Mountain and the paint job on Beau Duke’s car alone!

Solar For Everyone!

Okay, let’s just imagine for a minute that you are a business owner. Your business is to generate electricity for millions of homes and other businesses. Along comes the supreme regulator who dictates that you can’t use the fuel most of your generators run on. You’re devastated! You simply can’t afford to replace the generators or upgrade to a different fuel. In a benevolent moment, the dictator allows you to buy credits from others that have extra credits and keep your generators cranking. Well, that’s not much of a solution. You will still have to raise the rates you charge your customers.

Bummer! But wait! Here is a nifty solution. Have your customers give you electricity that you can sell back to them. If they give you enough power, you will even be able to sell your credits. But how do you convince your customers to go along with this scheme? Common sense would dictate that they would want to be paid for providing you an infrastructure that will keep you from needing capital expenditure.

Aha! Let’s call it GREEN! Everybody loves the green ideas. Let’s get the customers to all install “Green Energy” solar systems at their own expense and have them provide you with power. You then sell power back at a reduced rate. Everybody wins, right?

In the old days of a many-tiered rate structure this propaganda worked. A lot of homeowners bought (literally and figuratively) into this scheme. What with rebates, zero down and free installation, who could pass up a deal like that?

Okay, but how much does your solar installation really cost you? You are paying for it! You may even have a lean against your home for the cost of the solar unit. How much are you saving in the cost of electricity? Does it offset the cost of the solar unit?

Now, mull this over. The Public Utilities Commission just voted to reduce the tier structure from four or five to just two tiers. And they are giving the big users a whopping break on charges. Well, of course, the power companies aren’t exactly benevolent, so they are going to raise the rates for small users … the ones on solar.

No, I’m not against solar energy. In fact, I believe it would be a great investment … if you could get off the grid.

I know people who are self-sufficient with power. Some have solar, and some have wind turbine power; some have both. None are connected to the power grid. Mother Nature provides all the electricity they need, and Mother Nature is not controlled by the PUC and won’t raise the rates.

There are people who, without fail, point out what they see as drawbacks to self-contained power generation. Yes, there are cloudy and windless days, and yes, the amount of power generated can and does fluctuate. That is what batteries are for. Ah, but batteries are dangerous and messy. Wrong! Gel cells have no mess and properly contained they are no more dangerous than the battery in your car. When things really go south and you just can’t get enough power from your units, there is always a backup generator powered by natural gas or diesel.

Of course, all this equipment costs money … and it ain’t cheap. But again, what are you paying for that solar unit that gives the power company free capital improvements plus free power – not to mention the ability to sell pollution credits on the cap-and-trade market?

 Solar for everyone? Well, as P.T. Barnum once said, there’s one born every minute.

It’s a Heavy Badge

Visit any jail or prison and you will find the worst of society housed there to protect the rest of society from harm. The list of crimes is long and at times horrifying. Their crimes can range from assault and battery to drug use, drug sales, robbery, burglary, car theft, and a host of murder and attempted murders, or worse. These aren’t choirboys and girls. They are for the most part asocial and amoral criminals.

All right, now that you have that picture in your mind, imagine what it must be like to deal with the likes of these people every day. Sure, the guards are systematically disrespected and abused, but what about the police who have to be able to tell the good guys from the bad in the general public. Imagine having to take verbal abuse and threats from total strangers. Imagine responding to a traffic accident call only to see an entire family smashed and shredded to an unrecognizable piece of blood and gore.

But these are trained police officers. They are conditioned to accept these things and respond like programmed unemotional automatons. Their training allows them to turn all emotion off.

Wrong! Our men and women in blue are as human as you and me. Sure, they learn to handle these things without emotion, but even the best of them can reach a breaking point. When that happens, often the unpolished human emotions take over.

Contrary to the claims of some people with their own agenda, we are not living in a police state, and police are not an organized group of oppressors of the poor or the Black communities. As a rule, if you haven’t committed a crime and are cooperating with the police you have nothing to fear.

On the other hand, if you have committed a crime, the police are there to arrest you. If you resist, they will take whatever action is necessary to affect that arrest. Then too, if you haven’t committed a crime but give the police a hard time and verbally or physically abuse them, well… ‘you in a heap o’ trouble.’ The degree of trouble you bring on yourself usually depends on how abusive you are.

If it is merely verbal abuse, most police will do the right thing and just walk away leaving the abuser to look like a total fool. Physical abuse – the worst of which is trying to take an officer’s weapon – will illicit a response, and very likely you will be arrested for assault on a police officer. If you try resisting arrest… well you know the drill.

Are there exceptions to this well-defined action-reaction scenario? Sure. Cops are human. Whether they show it or not, their emotions are like any other person’s. If an officer’s day has been an emotional rollercoaster ride, a simple confrontation may be just one too many and he overreacts.

Put yourself in an officer’s shoes and imagine what you might have done in the same situation. Okay, imagine having started your day responding to not one but two serious traffic accidents, three domestic disturbances – one where the wife was beaten to a pulp – then progressing to a walk through a neighborhood with people calling you names and taunting you, breaking up a drunken bar fight and finally being called to a disturbance at a drug buy. You have to chase the suspect for three blocks before taking him down to put the cuffs on. Now you realize you have a drug-crazed individual – maybe even larger than you – who wants to wrestle your weapon from you, and he is feeling no pain.

Life seldom resembles a TV show. If that person gets your weapon, he is not going to stop and admire how well you have maintained it. He is also not going to take the gun and run. Now you are the one in trouble and you should rightly fear for your life.

Ah, but somewhere during this event, your emotions may have hit overload, and just maybe you will take out your stick and wail on the perpetrator a bit… maybe more than a bit. He is high on drugs and can’t feel it, so he doesn’t stop struggling. You wail some more. Finally backup arrives and they get him subdued and in the patrol car.

The perpetrator lives, but sues the department. Your career is officially over. You won’t even find employment as an unarmed mall cop.

The perpetrator? Well, he’s a little sore, but he now has millions of taxpayer dollars to buy more drugs… and he still hates you.

Why bother? You show up for work at the PD every day because you know the animals behind bars would be roaming the streets accosting and terrorizing your community if you didn’t. If you are lucky, you will come home after your shift in one piece and live to protect and serve tomorrow. If not, your picture will hang in the station, and everyone will get to go around with a black band over his or her badge.