Bernie Sander’s Affection for Soviet Socialism

SANDERS’ SOCIALISM MAY BE LIGHT ON “DEMOCRATIC”

by Paul Mirengoff   at  PowerLine:

“Bernie Sanders calls himself a “democratic socialist.” But when it came time to pick a honeymoon destination, Sanders didn’t select Denmark. He honeymooned in the Soviet Union.

In my mind, this raises the possibility for Sanders, socialism is the imperative, and “democratic” is just a preference — “superstructure,” as a Marxist might say.

Nor do we have to rely on Sanders’ honeymoon to entertain this suspicion. Stanley Kurtzbelieves that Sanders’s 1979 documentary on socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs may offer a revealing glimpse of Sanders’ socialist vision.

The vision isn’t pleasant. According to Stanley:

[T]he Debs documentary suggests that Sanders’s ultimate goal lies beyond even European social democracy. The man who made this documentary was pretty clearly a classic socialist: committed to relentless class struggle, complete overthrow of the capitalist system — preferably by the vote, but by violence if necessary — and full worker control of the means of production via the government. . . .

These days, Sanders calls for a “political revolution,” and the Debs documentary clearly admires labor unions and politicians who seek to bring about revolution by peaceful democratic means. Yet just as clearly, Sanders admires Debs for saying that, in the last resort, violent revolution remains an option……”   Read on:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/10/sanders-socialism-may-be-light-on-democratic.php

In San Fran, Feminist Principal Does What Feminists Do…..Censor Truth; Favor Feelings, Fix Elections

Today in progress: San Francisco middle school withholds student election results due to winners’ insufficient diversity

by Guy Benson  at HotAir:

“A grimly accurate headline, I’m afraid. The good news is that most of the community seems to reject this nonsense for what it is: Racialized, politically-correct social engineering run amok. The bad news is that the administration is standing by its decisions, effectively arguing that ‘diversity’ concerns are simply too serious to be subordinated to such quaint notions as representative democracy. Madness:

When Everett held its election three days later, its principal promptly refused to release the results, saying she was concerned that the winners were not diverse enough. While she would ultimately relent and release the results, her decision spurred anger among parents and kids who felt that the principal was putting diversity ahead of democracy. Critics compared her to a dictator who scraps elections when results don’t go her way…“The whole school voted for those people, so it is not like people rigged the game,” seventh-grader Sebastian Kaplan told KRON 4, who had run for class representative yet had no clue a week later if he won. “But in a way, now it is kinda being rigged.” … The controversy began as soon as the Oct. 9 election results rolled in. Everett’s 36-year-old principal, Lena Van Haren, was disturbed by the lack of diversity among the winners, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The school sits in San Francisco’s Mission District, a historically diverse neighborhood that has recently struggled with both gentrification and gang violence. Everett is as much a melting pot as the community, with 80 percent of its population comprised of students of color. Only 20 percent of students are white, Van Haren told KTVU.”     Please read on:

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/10/20/today-in-progress-san-francisco-middle-school-withholds-student-election-results-due-to-winners-insufficient-diversity/

The Dan Rather Sleaze Hits the Hollywood Robert Redford Low about “Truth”

Dan Rather, Still Wrong After All These Years

The movie ‘Truth’ is as bogus as the original attempt to smear George W. Bush’s wartime service.

“Combine every speech about the nobility of the journalistic endeavor in every film glorifying reporters intrepidly searching out truth, and you still won’t come close to grasping the level of treacle—there are other words—bubbling up out of “Truth.” Compared with which, “All the President’s Men” (1976)—about the triumphant adventures of Woodward and Bernstein, with Robert Redford portraying Bob Woodward—was a veritable model of shrinking modesty.

Mr. Redford has come a long way since to his latest, namely the role of CBS’s Dan Rather,former network star and anchor of “60 Minutes II,” and the story of how Mr. Rather was ultimately forced out of the company thanks to the scandal in September 2004 after the airing of a segment called “For the Record.”

The creative minds behind “Truth”—based on a book by the CBS report’s producer, Mary Mapes—have wrapped Mr. Rather and Ms. Mapes in a glow of heroic martyrdom so impenetrable there’s hardly a line not put to its service. When, toward the end, all involved in the report face firing, the film’s fatherly Dan Rather asks a young producer what made him want to go into journalism.

“You,” comes the answer.

The “60 Minutes II” report focused on the alleged special preferences that George W. Bush received as a member of the Texas Air National Guard in the early 1970s, not incidentally suggesting that he did his all to evade duty in Vietnam. The segment aired in the heat of the presidential-election contest between Democratic candidate John Kerryand George W. Bush.

As the exhaustive, and ultimately devastating, independent review of the affair that would become known as “Rathergate” showed, the segment had a way of ignoring facts that subverted its viewpoint. Among the luminaries interviewed was Ben Barnes, former speaker of the Texas House and Kerry supporter. Mr. Barnes said that he had tried, with a well-placed call, to secure a spot for Mr. Bush in the Texas Air National Guard, and that he regretted trying to arrange this preferential treatment because hundreds of people were on the Guard waiting list.

But Mr. Barnes, it turned out, had also said in his interview that he had no idea whether his phone call had any effect—such efforts weren’t always successful. That observation never made it on air. Neither did the fact—which came to light later—that producer Mary Mapes had heard testimony from authoritative sources that flat-out rebutted the claim that there was any list of candidates waiting for a place in the Guard.

All of this was as nothing compared with the now famous bombshell of the fabricated documents that the producers presented as part of their “For the Record” segment—material allegedly from Mr. Bush’s Texas Air National Guard superiors describing his dereliction of duty and official pressure to “sugarcoat” reports about his service.

The documents, which CBS posted online, were almost immediately exposed as forgeries. The final implosion came when Ms. Mapes’s chief source, Bill Burkett, provider of the documents—a retired Texas Air National Guard officer well-known for his bitter rants against the Bush family and for his efforts to discredit George W. Bush’s Guard service—later conceded on-air with Dan Rather in a follow-up report that he had misled the producers about the source of the documents. Documents that he nonetheless still maintained were genuine. Mr. Burkett had told producers that these papers had found their way to him from a range of providers—an anonymous overseas caller, and a mysterious woman, Lucy Ramirez, who had led him to a “dark skinned” stranger who had approached him at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.”

Please read on:

http://www.wsj.com/article_email/dan-rather-still-wrong-after-all-these-years-1445295792-lMyQjAxMTA1NDI4MDEyNzAyWj

John Hinderaker’s PowerLine report about this Rathergate evil: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/10/truth-and-other-lies-5.php

Prager U…..CAN WE RELY ON WIND AND SOLAR ENERGY?

CAN WE RELY ON WIND AND SOLAR ENERGY?

Presented by ALEX EPSTEIN at Prager U.

Is “green” energy, particularly wind and solar energy, the solution to our climate and energy problems? Or should we be relying on things like natural gas, nuclear energy, and even coal for our energy needs and environmental obligations? Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress explains. Learn about Alex Epstein’s book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.

Please check out the excellent five minute lesson below:

https://www.prageru.com/courses/environmental-science/can-we-rely-wind-and-solar-energy