Mediaboss Marketing

analysis

The Q'uran and the Prophet Mohammed cannot be held responsible for the Jihadi atrocities of Boko Haram or the Islamic State groups any more than can the Christian Gospels and Jesus be held responsible for apartheid or the Ku Klux Klan. To claim otherwise is simply illogical.

Yet the murderous behaviour of Josef Stalin, of Cambodia's Pol Pot and the bureaucratic barbarism in North Korea continues to be blamed by many on the writings of Karl Marx. However, at the same time, much of the labour movement and most of the many fragmented Left groups regard such states as "socialist", while much of the business community denigrates them as "communist".

The issue of what is meant by these terms is even more pertinent in South Africa now that the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) proposes acting as a catalyst for the formation of some form of "socialist movement".

In April, encouraged by Numsa, a gathering of trade unionists, human rights campaigners and the various groups and grouplets that see themselves on the political Left, plan to come together to establish a "socialist alternative".

It proposes to be an alternative to anything political, social and economic currently on offer. And if previous and current debates are anything to go by, many references in April will be to Brazil and Venezuela, to Cuba, China and perhaps Bolivia.

These tend to be seen by many in the local labour movement as epitomising some form of socialism. There may even be a genuflection or two to the former Soviet Union and its satellites as offering a desired alternative.

What Marx and Engels argued for was extreme democracy"

This issue of whether an alternative exists also emerged at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week as the wealthiest bosses on earth gathered to ensure the best ways of propping up a clearly collapsing system.

Significantly, there was no condemnatory mention of state intervention, of socialism or communism. In fact, since at least 2012, the economic oligarchy at Davos has been most accepting of state intervention and even degrees of control.

Visit link:
South Africa: State Ownership Does Not Equal Socialism

Islam, Socialism, Measles, ISIS - Mel Brooks, Bill Maher MORE! LiberalViewer Sunday Clip Round-Up 93
Support my videos on Patreon at http://bit.ly/1tBnWX5 1:35 Socialism and whether US tax, benefit policies are or have been socialist, plus current budget fight 9:04 Islam and muslim extremist...

By: LiberalViewer

Excerpt from:
Islam, Socialism, Measles, ISIS - Mel Brooks, Bill Maher MORE! LiberalViewer Sunday Clip Round-Up 93 - Video

During the latest episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher took out time to explain how socialism helped create a strong middle class in the United States.

The Huffington Post reports that Maher called out Republicans for showing fake support toward the middle class. Maher also acknowledged that socialism played a key part in building the middle class of the 1950s and 60s.

"The large, thriving middle class that America used to have didn't just appear out of the blue. It was created using an economic tool called socialism," said Maher.

Maher explained how after World War II the U.S. government heavily taxed the rich and redistributed the wealth through the G.I. Bill allowing Americans free access to college and job training among other benefits.

"We can debate whether that's a good thing or a bad thing to go back to, but what is beyond debate is that, that is what happened." Maher said.

Maher has not been one to shy away from controversy with this statement and recent comments about American Sniper.

Credit: Revolution Pix/INFevents.com

See original here:
Bill Maher says socialism built middle class

Published: January 31, 2015

In Paul Krugmans Jan. 22 facts dont mattercommentary, on the emotional denial of environmental, health, and economic realities by the right, he says Republican rage is bound up with rejecting any role for government that serves the public interest. Fear and ignorance of socialism is indeed fueling the irrational hatred of self-government.

Socialism, secular government in the public interest, begins with the American Revolution, followed by the French and successive revolutions. One result: today, two of the worlds poorest nations, North Korea and Cuba, have universal education and health care, important components of governments that serve the public interest.

Contrast that with America where, shortly before assuming control of Congress, Republicans repealed the anti-bail-out Wall Street law and severely underfunded the Internal Revenue Service and Environmental Protection Agency, encouraging tax cheats and polluters to open businesses financed by New York bankers. The GOP will be more outraged than its base when the bill for this falls due, correctly blaming the federal government. Currently they are busy passing more anti-socialist legislation, and facts dont matter, particularly the constitutional one spelled out for Congress in a Supreme Court decision in 1819, formally establishing the public interest as the guiding principle in making federal laws.

A basic assumption of the Founding Fathers, including Alexander Hamilton, whose twisted interpretation led to the Whiskey Rebellion, was that popular support for secular government serving the public interest replaced loyalty to British rule almost overnight through the pamphlets of Thomas Paine. But by 1819, the spirit of 76 was so weak that the purpose of the revolutionary generations sacrifices needed to be codified in the Constitution, now mocked with every Republicans oath of office and assault on the public interest. Not only facts dont matter for them, history, cause and effect, common decency, international law and opinion, and human rights are all trumped by anti-socialism.

Jim Greenwood

Washington

See original here:
The public interest under assault

Politically NKU - Anarcho-capitalism and Socialism
NKU grad Marc Kennedy sits down with NKU history major Tyler Weber to discuss Anarcho-capitalism and Socialism, defining the pros and cons of each ideology.

By: Holland Rains

Link:
Politically NKU - Anarcho-capitalism and Socialism - Video