Tag archives: socialism
Jeffrey Harding’s column on socialism lacks nuance and greatly oversimplifies what socialism can mean. Below is AI’s answer to the question, “Have there been successful experiments in socialism?” Jeffrey doubts that there are any progressives with “a well-rounded knowledge of history, economics, and philosophy,” a statement that might have surprised Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. […]
I have yet to encounter any Progressive or socialist with a well-rounded knowledge of history, economics, and philosophy. They don’t seem to be open to ideas other than socialism as Marx-Lenin-Marcuse-Piketty espouse it. They have little understanding of the ideas of Aristotle-Spinoza-Locke-Adam Smith. As a result, their circular reasoning gets things wrong and, when reduced […]
Recently the bored and sated West has directed its gnat-like attention to two truly stomach-churning stories: 1) the intestinal assault of the grotesque but well-meaning cyclosporiasis parasite, and 2) increasingly bold public utterances of the soul-vaporizing S-word, if you can imagine. Two quick comments: neither the flaw-expunging rigors of long-game Darwinism nor the prospect of […]
Recently a new word just popped up courtesy of the NY Times: “microlooting.” Microlooting is a word that justifies petty theft (shoplifting) as a political statement. The idea is that as long as you are stealing from “big corporations” it is a protest. NYT reporter Nadja Spiegelman interviewed The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino and […]
On April 15 in a smugly gleeful video staged in front of investment CEO Ken Griffin’s $238 million Manhattan penthouse, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed an annual tax on pied-à-terre (second) homes, especially those owned by billionaires like Griffin. Mamdani thinks billionaires are what’s wrong with America and he’s going after them. Alexandra Ocasio Cortes […]
I thought I knew Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s new mayor, but I didn’t. My hope was that he was just another Bernie-clone promising free stuff who would move more to the less toxic liberal wing when he took office. I was wrong. He’s the real deal socialist, disturbingly so. He revealed his true colors in […]
Jeff Harding criticizes the college educated youth that are gravitating to Socialism with puerile augments such as “Capitalism has provided the greatest prosperity ever.” This is simply not true; it has provided the greatest wealth inequality in history and left our environment shattered. Science has progressed in the last 200 years, and this provided the […]
This is a follow-up to my recent articles (“The Kids Don’t Know…” and “Barbarians at the Gate”). The “Kids” article decried the fact that critical thinking skills are not being taught to our children which has led to fuzzy thinking about socialism. “Barbarians” was the political manifestation of that fuzziness with a Democratic Socialist receiving […]
The idea that many of my fellow citizens think favorably about socialism astounds me when I consider the sad tale of socialism’s history. I’m looking for reasons why that is. Here’s some background. I think most of it is because of what we teach our children. They are not taught to think critically. It starts […]
New York City Democrats just nominated a very woke socialist, Zohran Mamdani, for mayor. They say he has a good shot at winning. I’m not surprised. After all, NYC is a liberal/progressive bastion. They’ve already got AOC (Andrea Ocasio-Cortez), the Congresswoman representing much of the Bronx. Most democratic socialists want free stuff like health care, […]
Tony Soprano: You know we’re the only country in the world where the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed in writing? You believe that? Bunch of $%@! spoiled brats. Where’s my happiness then? Dr. Melfi: It’s the pursuit that’s guaranteed. Tony Soprano: Yeah… always a $%@! loophole, right? A dear friend asked me once; “Jeff, do […]
It is well known that most industrialized countries have universal healthcare, good public transit, and free public college education. Why doesn’t the U.S. have these things? A hundred years ago socialism was seen positively in much of the world as a way to share in the productivity of modern industrialization. President Franklin Roosevelt and his […]
Passion and Competence When Das Williams was on the Santa Barbara City Council, I was the wife of a Councilmember, Grant House. Since then Das has been both my State Assembly member and my County Supervisor. I got to know him when he served on the Council, and have seen him grow since. Das was […]
My first job after college was in the Arizona House of Representatives as the House reader: the guy who sits just below the Speaker of the House on the floor and reads the bills, tabulates the votes using a computer, runs the microphones, that kind of stuff. It was a front-row seat in the debate […]
The American left is twisting itself into knots trying to figure out its basic messaging. Once discredited, “democratic socialists” have been re-energized, led by a 76-year-old Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who has been preaching socialism for half a century, and 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a stunning upset winner over favored Democrat Joe Crowley, a 10-term […]
Dana Newquist stated in the latest MJ (#24/34) that the Montecito Sanitary District is “dumping partially treated sewage water just off shore at Butterfly Beach.” This is a false, slanderous statement. Secondary treatment is treated to the same level as tertiary treatment, but the salinity is modulated to match the ocean salinity. Tertiary is the […]
Salsa and cigars, rum and mojitos, music and the Tropicana nightclub, 1950s cars. Icons of Cuba. Christopher Columbus is touted to be the first tourist in 1492, but I don’t think he found a nightclub or cigars. My husband, Don, and I went to Cuba on our honeymoon in 2002 with the Museum of Art […]
The recent two-part editorials on Coast Village Road (MJ #23/43 & 23/45) was very interesting. You did, however, have an error in the recent Part 2. You said that it was the City of Santa Barbara that caused the closure of the southbound 101 on-ramp and that it was Santa Barbara city officials’ contention that […]
