Trumping a socialist wave

By Norman Zanetti

The radical leanings of the likes of U.S. House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and a host of others calling for Democratic Socialism, are a rapidly growing segment within the Democratic Party. They are stretching their party’s interests from health care for all, for free college tuition, ending capitalism, nationalizing major industries and their profits, all part and parcel to driving wealth redistribution within America.

Their attempts to create what amounts to a cradle-to-grave social structure along with other left wing ideological whims represents an invariant agenda, mocking the dynamism of decades of dedication to personal innovation and risk taking. These grew America’s wealth and stature, rewarding personal success, and supporting programs for its citizens by way of their tax contributions going forward. This made America a prosperous republic and the envy of the world.

The progressive preoccupation to woo voters to shifting all social costs to government entities versus the private sector only defers the inevitable — chaos, confusion, resentment, infighting, probability of hyperinflation, and a much higher tax rate for business and personal entities to support it. This is being assisted in part by a burgeoning social media that is now being scrutinized. There is no airbrushing this astonishingly expensive and strategically incoherent strategy.

Is there enough gullibility in the American voting public for this to resonate in political favor, to gain traction for a blue wave in this November’s mid-term elections? Don’t think so. The 63 million-plus who voted for President Donald Trump, as well as a growing independent base, will reject the cacophony of voices of those supporting socialism more broadly.  The art of the possible is on full display. The ambitious agenda to Make America Great Again is succeeding, and all under the radar of a media network which has purposely refrained from acknowledging a booming economy and renewed consumer confidence. Group loathing by the entire progressive establishment will not point the November mid-term needle to a blue wave.

President Trump is unburdened with how the major media and progressives are challenging his agenda. He knows and we know they are afraid to admit to any and all positive enhancements his agenda has accomplished. It can’t be hidden from us despite splenetic attacks on his person.  

Independence 365

There is absolutely nothing most Americans do not love about the early summer activities surrounding “the Fourth of July”, or, more popularly,  “the Fourth”. It is for many families a turn-key day, or series of days. Parade. Cookout. Golf. Boating. Hiking. Hanging out at the beach house.

May it ever be thus. Purists insist on always referring to it as Independence Day because, well, that’s the actual name of the holiday. It is a day to observe, reflect and celebrate the independence from British rule that led to the formation of a new nation that would change the course of human history. Those on the front line fighting for this independence sacrificed everything, most significantly their lives. They were not trained soldiers. They were lawyers, doctors, shopkeepers, clergy and otherwise “regular” folk.

Americans through the generations have coveted and celebrated our “independence”. But the passage of time has seen Independence Day transformed from a solemn observance to a period of ritual frivolity. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. But there are another 364 days when life goes on and plays out, and those who are engaged in 21st Century America sense that our independence is under siege as never before. Our independence is not a “given”, not a slogan, and certainly not acceptable to many, both within our borders and beyond our borders.

In 1963, Congress was exposed to a document entitled, “Communist Goals for Taking Over America”. We can only imagine that our elected leaders reviewed the document, took it seriously, but could not comprehend how the so-called goals ever could be achieved on U.S. soil. Newsmax.com 15 years ago drew attention to the list of goals. Even then, many would have scoffed at the notion that our society would tolerate them.

“On Jan. 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr. of Florida read a list of 45 Communist goals into the Congressional Record. The list was derived from researcher Cleon Skousen’s book “The Naked Communist.” These principles are well worth revisiting today in order to gain insights into the thinking and strategies of much of our so-called liberal elite.”

These are the Communist goals within America that were read into the Congressional Record 55 years ago. Many we now accept as part of American life, and others are gaining traction:

  • Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
  • Promote the UN as the only hope for mankind.
  • Do away with all loyalty oaths.
  • Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
  • Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
  • Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
  • Gain control of all student newspapers.
  • Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
  • Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
  • Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
  • Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
  • Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
  • Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
  • Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
  • Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
  • Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”
  • Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
  • Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
  • Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
  • Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
  • Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
  • Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
  • Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
  • Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
  • Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
  • Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
  • Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [“]united force[“] to solve economic, political or social problems.

One day each year we celebrate our independence. There are 364 other days when we must fiercely defend it, lest it slip away. It is under attack as never before. Let’s get to work on “the Fifth”.

Taxing distortions

In a Twitter post, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis this week called out a Washington Post reporter’s visit to Burlington, NC, where he sought to demonstrate that pending Republican legislation to cut taxes and liberate businesses offers little relief to the little guy. The premise of the Post report is that the state’s tax cutting endeavors have done next to nothing to help small business so, by extension, federal tax relief is likely to have minimal impact going forward.

The Post obviously assigned the reporter to find a rural business owner who is, for whatever reason, an unhappy camper in a state where many businesses are thriving, and into which new businesses are relocating.

The extremes to which the Left is going to stop the unleashing of the full potential of the American economy is not limited to the corrupt mainstream media. It is seeping into our own community.

Apparently, it is the policy of our local liberal house organ, The Pilot newspaper, to allow a reader to submit a letter-to-the-editor that does little more than regurgitate extreme Left Wing talking points. There is scarcely a thread of truth in this missive by the misinformed Ms. MeNeish. She laments over “a few years of tiny (tax) cuts”. About half the U.S. population pays no federal or state taxes, thus can not be granted a “cut”. The highest producers (in the 39.6% bracket) are not likely to see a federal tax cut, even a tiny one, and some very high earners might find themselves in a new 45% bracket, pending the final terms of the bill. The author also claims tax reform will “make it harder for young people to go to college”. This obviously is drawn from warnings by people such as University of North Carolina President Maragaret Spellings who oppose the removal of tax deductions for private giving (to schools such as UNC). But why does she assume that, for example, a UNC alum who owns a successful business, would not give more to the school as his tax burden declines, even absent a deduction for his charitable activity? This seems to suggest that her alums care little about the institution but give only to add a deduction to their filings. Quite an insult. How, you ask, does the elimination of private giving deductions “make it harder for young people to go to college”? Because the Left accepts that tuitions must continue to skyrocket and, thus, youngsters will need academic scholarships more than ever. Left unsaid is that many of these scholarships go to students who are not U.S. citizens.

Ms. MeNeish also wrings her wrists about tax reform burdening “our children and grandchildren with more than $1 trillion in addtional federal debt.” This is based on models that are typically inaccurate and on the smear campaign now being waged by billionaire investor Tom Steyer, who writes this week in the Wall Street Journal that tax cuts for “the wealthy” will be “paid for with money taken out of the pockets of working Americans and their children.” This outlook defies the outcomes of the economic impact of the last sweeping reform, under President Reagan in 1986, which handed President Clinton a booming economy throughout the 1990s. Projected debt increases under the current government spending trajectory — apart from tax reform becoming reality — far exceed $1 trillion over the next decade (the Congressional Budget Office estimates $10 million). Easy to dismiss, apparently. But, worse, her misgivings also conveniently ignore the $9 trillion in federal debt added during the eight unchecked years of spending under President Obama. Are her children and grandchildren somehow unscathed by Obama’s reckless legacy?

America is back

 

 

By Walter B. Bull Jr.

Before the analysis of President Trump’s September 19 address to the United Nations is compartmentalized by liberal and conservative writers, I would like to put forth my unvarnished opinion.

I liked the tone and American themed text that was not politically driven drivel pushed by the unrealistic cadre of Democrat politicians. Many listeners didn’t care for his philosophy. The stony silence when our president brought up the long term track record of failed socialism and central control of an economy by strong men dictators indicates Mr. Trump was testing his audience. Continue reading “America is back”