Drift toward Socialism is picking up speed

By Don Frost

“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism,’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation without knowing how it happened.  . . . The Democratic Party has adopted our [Socialist] platform.” – Norman Mattoon Thomas, six-time Socialist candidate for president, in a 1944 speech.

Snopes says attributing this quote to Thomas is “probably false,” meaning the rumor-busting website can neither prove nor disprove that he said it. But who said it is irrelevant. Snopes research has determined that if Thomas didn’t say it, someone else did at least 55 years ago.

Chicago and several other major cities have approved legislation to grant no-strings-attached cash payments to its citizens. In Chicago it’s $500 a month. Los Angeles is on the threshold of implementing monthly grants of $1,000. Mayor Michael Tubbs of Stockton, Calif., launched a program that doled out $500 a month.

Tubbs, in fact, started the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. He now boasts 50 other mayors are members of the coalition, 24 of whom are introducing similar “free money” concepts of their own. So the fulfillment of the dream of Karl Marx marches inexorably on in America.

Of course, all these payments are earmarked for  “the poor,” “the disadvantaged,” “the underserved,” “the less fortunate,” etc. Which is, of course, the bedrock of Socialism as set forth by Marx in 1875: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” In other words, those who can support themselves are required to also support those who can’t support themselves – or would simply rather have someone else support them.

It is the epitome of “liberal” conceit to claim everyone on the dole would much rather go to a job every day than sleep in every day and collect money while doing so.

It isn’t just Socialistic-minded mayors pushing guaranteed income. The president of the United States likes the idea, too. Joe Biden calls it a “tax credit” instead of a dole. His massive social spending spree was originally $3.5 trillion. Thanks to the Republican Party and two courageous Democratic senators (Kyrsten Ainema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia) that has been pared down to $1.75 trillion.

Still there is plenty in the proposed legislation for the Socialist wing of the Democratic Party to love. As reported by the Associated Press, the proposed Democratic legislation would give households earning up to $150,000 a year a tax credit of $3,000 per child 6 to 17 years old and $3,600 per child 5 and younger. This tax credit would be doled out in monthly payments, making it not a tax credit at all, but simply a monthly check. Calling it a “tax credit” disguises its true nature: Socialism.

If you have two kids between 6 and 17, that’s $6,000 a year or $500 a month. Four kids in that age group, it’s $12,000 a year or $1,000 a month.

Of course, such parents could not then claim per-child deductions when they file their income tax returns. But by then they will be thoroughly accustomed to receiving a monthly check. It would be almost like a monthly welfare check. No government anywhere has ever offered its citizens a greater incentive to, “Let’s get pregnant!”

To make all this city and federal largesse more palatable, Socialist-leaning legislators assure one and all that these measures would be for one year only. But realists – as well as the Democratic Party’s Socialists – recognize a simple truth. As reported by the AP, “. . . lawmakers tend to continue programs rather than let them expire.”

For those on the dole, “free money” is an addictive drug, a habit that has proven impossible to kick. And any legislator or president who takes it away after a year will be committing political suicide.

Karl Marx and Norman Thomas are chuckling in their graves.

‘Liberals’ rule blue flag is a racist display

By Don Frost

            You’re a thoughtful citizen who has been watching police being vilified as “racist pigs” and “Gestapo-like thugs.” You know that some police officers are, indeed, racists and some abuse their authority. But you also realize that common sense dictates that most cops are decent human beings doing a tough and dangerous job and you’d like to show support for them. So you buy a “thin blue line” flag.

            This is a black and white American flag with a blue line across the center. You fly it in recognition of the work police do to keep you, your home, and your community safe. You fly it proudly because it’s an important message you want to share with your neighbors. It’s simply this: Support the police because without them, man’s worst instincts would be the norm and no one would be safe.

            Turns out, what you think doesn’t matter a whit. You might regard your reasons for flying that flag as benign, civic-minded, and even noble. Forget it.  “Liberals” know you’re really a racist and that’s why you fly the flag.

            The Evanston Public Library in suburban Chicago was promoting an upcoming lecture on police reform. As part of its promotional efforts the library displayed a thin blue line flag. The image also appeared on signs and a book. All were taken down after a staff member alerted library officials to the “fact” that it was racist.

            Executive director of the library, Karen Danczak-Lyons, immediately apologized and endorsed the “liberal” judgement that the flag was racist: “This image,” she said in a statement, “can be and is [my emphasis added] harmful, so we apologize to our community. We acknowledge the harm this image has caused in our community, particularly for those who identify as black, indigenous, or [people of color].”

            One cannot escape the fear that the library’s lecture, by a Northwestern University professor, will be an exercise in maligning the police, culminating in a call to further hobble them. That, inevitably, is what happens when people talk about “police reform.”  Check it out. It’s set for Nov. 2.

GOP vs. raising the federal debt ceiling

By Don Frost

            President Biden and the Democratic Party are trying to pass two bills totaling $4.5 trillion. They call one “infrastructure investment,” and the other “social spending,” but, not surprising, both are loaded with Socialistic earmarks intended to appease the Socialist wing of the party.

            That aside, Biden swears no one making less than $400,000 a year will see his taxes rise; that this spending spree will be paid for by raising taxes on corporations and “the rich.” These two bills are in addition to ongoing federal expenditures: Upkeep on the White House; salaries of all federal employees from the president on down to the guy who sweeps out FBI offices after hours; the military; Medicare; Medicaid, Obamacare; Social Security; Amtrak; the Postal Service; an alphabet soup of other federal welfare programs; and on and on.

            Biden also wants to raise the national debt ceiling, which begs the question: If “the rich” and corporations are going to pay for these two bills, why is it necessary to raise the debt ceiling? Is he planning to propose yet another unbalanced federal budget?

            Of course the GOP won’t vote to extend or increase the debt limit despite the fact that past presidents and congresses, under the banner of the Grand Old Party, have had a hand in increasing it to its present unconscionable level of $18 trillion. (Some sources say it’s $27 trillion, but when you’re dealing in trillions, what difference does $9 trillion more or less make?)

            The party’s objections are rooted in principle and perhaps their spokesmen, mainly Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, have articulated them, but you can’t count on today’s “liberal” press to fairly report their opposition.

            The media prefers to give GOP objections a seven-second sound bite on TV and a one-paragraph quote buried deep in their print coverage. Democrat spokesmen blast Republican objections with 60-second sound bites on TV and five and six paragraphs up high in their print coverage: “The Republicans won’t vote to increase the debt limit because they’re a collection of fat cats dedicated to increasing their wealth at the expense of the poor and hard-working Americans.”

            The simple truth is that Republicans realize the debt limit will eventually be increased regardless of what they do. But for now they just want to force Congressional Democrats to increase it pointedly without GOP support because it is Biden and the Democrats – not Republicans – that want to spend an extra $4.5 trillion (one bill for $1 trillion, another for $3.5 trillion).

            Democrats desperately want Republican support. If even one Republican votes for it and it later is exposed as a bad idea, they’ll throw up their hands and say, “Don’t blame us. It had bipartisan support.” As things stand now two courageous Democratic senators won’t vote for the bills, preventing their party from using its 51-50 majority to pass them without Republican support. (50 Democrats plus Vice President Harrises’ guaranteed tie-breaking vote.)

            If/when the debt ceiling is raised, Biden will borrow (from China?) so he can claim he kept his promise not to raise taxes on the middle class. This is a debt that will be passed on to the next generation, then the next, then the one after that, and then the one after that, and then . . .  Anybody with two brain cells to rub together knows that boosting taxes on corporations and “the rich” hasn’t a prayer of paying for these two massive spending bills. And borrowing – an inevitable offshoot of raising the debt limit – will inevitably lead to boosting taxes on the middle class. Meanwhile, corporations will pay their increased taxes by simply raising the prices of their goods or services to the lower, middle, and upper classes.

            Carve it in granite and post it where you can see it every day: Corporations don’t pay taxes; they collect taxes.