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Hank Cetola| The Daily Telegram

Rep. Tim Walberg has announced that he is running for re-election. In typical fashion, he used unsupported scare words talking about the … disastrous Biden Administration and radical liberals attempting to turn America into a politically correct socialist regime. Who are these radical liberals?

Perhaps they are the Democrats who want to change health care so we are no longer what Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., called, … the ONLY industrialized country without universal healthcare. Or perhaps they want to ensure the right to vote by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Or maybe they want to actively address climate change. Or possibly they want to have the top 1% pay their fair share in taxes. These ideas dont sound very radical to me.

According to Walberg, radical liberals are also trying to make America into a socialist regime. Huh? Where does he get this stuff? Ill bet he cannot name one Democrat in Congress who promotes this idea because none do. Its a scare tactic. He always seems to come out strongly against socialism, but I think Walberg doesnt even know what socialism is, at least judging by how he supports it during his photo-op at the opening of the Veterans Administration outpatient clinic in Adrian. The VA is an example of classic socialism an organization owned and operated by the government. It is socialized medicine. His blatant hypocrisy is appalling. He uses socialism to scare people.

Considering the economy, Walberg is always saying how bad it is. Really? According to Business Insider (Nov. 5, 2021), the economy added 531,000 nonfarm payrolls in October; the unemployment rate is 4.6%, down 2.3 percentage points from a year ago; and companies plan to hire 939,300 seasonal workers for the holidays, 11% more than last year. As for the stock market(which Walberg always pointed to in the Trump years but hasnt mentioned since), the Dow closed at 35,602.98 on Nov. 19 compared to 28,634.88 when Trump left office.

He also misleads us by constantly blaming President Joe Biden for inflation, usually talking about how much food prices are going up, what gasoline costs, and what heating our homes will cost without explaining the causes for the increases, other than its Bidens fault. Is it?

Lets look at some October prices: heating oil (up 59.1% from a year ago) and gasoline (up 49.6%). What caused the price jumps? According to Robert Rapier at Forbes, the vast majority of the gasoline price rise can be accounted for by the rise in the price of (crude)oil both here and around the world. The high cost of crude is also due partly to the collapse of demand during COVID-19 with U.S. producers idling 3 million barrels per day of U.S. oil. Now that we are recovering, the demand is up, but the supply is still lagging. Also, OPEC and Russia are keeping their supplies low while demand and prices are increasing worldwide.

Also, the price of natural gas has increased by 28.1%. Again, Walberg is quick to blame Biden. But according to oilprice.com, the key reasons for higher natural gas and energy bills have been this year's record American exports amid flattish domestic gas production and U.S. (liquid natural gas) exports jumped … 42 percent compared with the first half of 2020. We are exporting the gas that we need here. Why? Ask Tim. He is on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He should know.

Walberg also opposes closing Enbridges Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac. During a recent town hall, he claimed that Line 5 is safe saying, Its almost a foot thick, solid steel … when that anchor hit, that anchor basically all it did was chip the paint … a foot thick going all the way around. However, according to Steven Meyer @TakeCareTim, Enbridge states that the thickness of the pipe is actually 0.812 of an inch thick! Walberg lied again. We do not need a liar representing us.

Hank Cetola is a professor emeritus at Adrian College and the founder of Lenawee Indivisible. He can be reached at lenaweeindivisible3@gmail.com.

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Scare tactics used in re-election announcement - Monroe Evening News

After the 1989 fall of communism in the Soviet bloc, five self-declared communist states remain today: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam. Belarus and Venezuela can also be added to the mix as they fulfil the criteria of a communist state even though they do not officially invoke the ideology. So, at present, the number stands at seven. The question is, now that capitalism is the engine of Chinas economy, what is communism today? And if the number of communist states is poised to grow in the near future, as some predict, what does this prospect mean for democracy?

My interest in communism goes beyond my work as a historian its personal. I was born and raised in communist Poland in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a grey country where people seemed to have lost all hope. All essentials, including shoes and coffee, were rationed. But rationing cards did not mean you would get what you wanted, or even needed. Queueing for hours sometimes even days to buy anything that had just been delivered to a shop was a regular occurrence.

I have no doubt that my upbringing shaped my life and inspired my career. My research has examined modern central and eastern Europe, nationalism, and the politics of language particularly in the regions totalitarian and authoritarian regimes during the past two centuries.

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Communism 2.0: China, capitalism and the new world socialism - The Independent

When students in China returned to classrooms in September, they were provided with a new series of textbooks outlining Chinas president Xi Jinping, or Grandpa Xis, political philosophy.

Each textbook on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era, as Xis political philosophy is officially called, is tailored to students at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

Xi Jinping Thought was enshrined into the Chinese Communist Partys Constitution in 2017. Although the main stated aims are to remain committed to reform and build a moderately prosperous society, the realities of this political philosophy has been a tightening of party discipline and curtailing of social freedom.

While prior textbooks were focused on the Communist Party, the new versions centre on Chinas paramount leader. In this way, they reflect the growing personality cult of Xi Jinping, eerily reminiscent of the days of Chinas founding father Mao Zedong.

According to Chinas National Textbook Committee, the textbooks reflect the will of the Communist Party of China and the nation and directly impact the direction and quality of talent cultivation.

In particular, the committee stated, Primary schools should foster love and right understanding for the Party, country and socialism in students.

The core socialist values highlighted in the textbooks include prosperity, patriotism and friendship.

Targeted at children, the moniker of Grandpa Xi is part of the ongoing strategy towards creating a personality cult in China. Authoritarian regimes like the Soviet Union also used the grandfather figure (Grandpa Lenin) as part of propaganda aimed at children. This enhanced Lenins personality cult across the Soviet nations.

Political scientist Pao-min Chang defines the personality cult as, The artificial elevation of the status and authority of one man [] through the deliberate creation, projection and propagation of a godlike image.

Like Lenin, a personality cult around Mao Zedong emerged during Chinas Cultural Revolution (19661976). Although later leaders Deng Xiaoping, the architect of Chinas economic reform and Wen Jiabao, who was Premier between 2003 and 2013, are popularly known as Grandpa Deng and Grandpa Wen, they did not overtly push for this image.

Xi returns to Mao in his efforts to build a personality cult around himself. Since coming to power, he has cultivated the image of being a man of the people in a bid to make his authoritarianism more palpable to the masses.

The new primary school textbooks emphasise Xis wisdom, friendliness and care for the children. Early signs of this strategy can be seen in the government propaganda video, Grandpa Xi is Our Big Friend, which circulated online in 2015.

The video was recorded at Yanan Yucai Primary School in Shaanxi. The location is significant because the school was founded by Mao Zedong in 1937.

In the video, Xi Jinping is not presented as a distant authority figure. Instead, Grandpa Xi is a caring big friend. The children sing that his warm smile is brighter than the sun. Images of children waving sunflowers and lyrics that describe Xis visit as better than the warmth of a spring day serve to accentuate his friendly disposition.

Most importantly, the children sing about the need to study diligently to achieve the Chinese Dream. This dream is Xi Jinpings vision for China to become a prosperous society.

The children wear red scarves and red stars in the video. These symbols represent the national flag. The colour red alludes to the blood of revolutionary martyrs. They remind children of their connection to the nation and the Party.

Xi wears a red scarf in the video. In one scene, he places a red scarf over the shoulders of a child. This accessory and gesture are depicted in the 2021 primary school textbooks as well. The act of placing a scarf on a child signifies children taking on the mantle of happily fulfilling Grandpa Xis vision.

The textbook for lower primary students contain photos of Xi planting trees with children and meeting them at school.

The books include statements such as, Grandpa Xi Jinping is very busy with work, but no matter how busy he is, he still joins our activities and cares about our growth.

Xi shares his memories of being emotional when joining the Young Pioneers of China (the Communist Partys youth organisation) in 1960. He then invites readers to describe their own feelings about becoming a part of the Young Pioneers, thus encouraging young people to join.

The textbooks use illustrations with speech bubbles to make the ideological content more interesting. Some illustrations are of students sitting around a table teaching each other Grandpa Xis expectations to become a person of good moral character and who is diligent and thrifty.

The books also emphasise acquiring knowledge about science and technology, as well as being creative and innovative.

The children must cultivate these markers of good citizenship to become what the books refer to as qualified builders and successors of socialism. This rhetoric of children as the hope of the nation has been in use since the late nineteenth century.

The emphasis on being qualified suggests children must live up to the expectations set out by Xi. The textbooks imply this is only possible because of Grandpa Xis continued care for them.

This image of Grandpa Xi as a big friend is a gentler form of propaganda than that seen during Maos Cultural Revolution. Propaganda aimed at children during the Cultural Revolution positioned the Party as the surrogate parent. It also highlighted childrens violence as they fought for the socialist cause. Young Red Guards sang patriotic songs and read the Little Red Book. These rituals fostered Maos cult of personality.

It remains to be seen whether the new school curriculum is a harbinger of the future deification of Xi Jinping.

Shih-Wen Sue Chen is a Senior Lecturer in Writing and Literature at the Deakin University. Sin Wen Lau is a Senior Lecturer in China Studies at the University of Otago.

This article first appeared on The Conversation.

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Chinas new school textbooks reflect the rise of Grandpa Xis personality cult - Scroll.in

China's Great Hall of the People adorned with Chinese flags and emblem.

Socialism is a political and economic ideology employed by certain governments around the world. Often seen as the opposite of capitalism, socialism prescribes the belief of equal wealth distribution and government control of the economy. The dominance of socialism in global politics peaked in the mid-20th century, during the height of the Cold War. Socialist countries are classified into two categories: countries which belief in Marxism-Leninism ideologies and those which do not. Currently, there exist only four countries around the globe that are recognized as Marxist-Leninist socialist. These countries are China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam.

The Peoples Republic of China is the oldest existing socialist country in the world, with socialism being practiced since 1949. The Communist Party of China, the countrys ruling and largest party, is driven by socialist ideals. The party was founded in 1921 and is among the oldest in Asia. The partys ideology can be defined as a blend between Chinese communism and Marxism-Leninism. The leader of the Communist Party of China is also the socialist nations head of state. China still shares strong relations with other socialist countries and communist parties in former socialist countries.

Laos is another socialist country in Asia. The Laos Peoples Revolutionary Party sanctions socialism in the country. Founded in 1955, the Laos Peoples Revolutionary Party is the countrys ruling and largest party, holding 128 of the total 132 seats in parliament as of 2016. The party is a descendant from the older Communist Party of Vietnam, which inspired the growth of socialist political movements in Asia in the early 20th century. The party inherited many of the Communist Partys socialist policies including the Marxism-Leninism ideology.

Cuba is the only country in the western hemisphere that practices socialist ideologies. The country embraced socialism in July 1966 and was spearheaded by the countrys longest-ruling leader, Fidel Castro. The Communist Party of Cuba, the countrys ruling party, is responsible for advancing socialist policies in Cuba. The party was established in October 1965, six years after the deposing of Fulgencio Batista, as a merger of the Popular Socialist Party, Revolutionary Directory, and the 26th of July Movement, with Fidel Castro as its Central Committees First Secretary. The country practices a strict version of the Marxism-Leninism socialism. Cuba has a history of participating in revolutionary movements in other nations, including Angola, which later became a socialist country.

Angola is one of the few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa considered to be socialist. The country's constitution is explicit in its definition of the government structure, stating that Angola is a socialist state. However, the government is yet to implement these provisions of the constitution that would make Angola a socialist state in practice. Nonetheless, the country seems to be gradually embracing democratic systems of governance and even has characteristics which define capitalism. Some scholars, however, believe that socialism in the country ended in August 1992. Benin is another country whose constitution defines it as a socialist but has embraced a different political ideology. Other examples include Poland, Hungary, Mozambique, and Albania.

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Countries That Are Considered Socialist - WorldAtlas

This is an opinion column.

Americans love iPhones and rock Nikes. Gmail accounts streamline inboxes like never before. Facebook and Twitter have heavily supplanted conversations in the real world. Even with an occasionally burnt taste, we cant get enough Starbucks. Unfortunately, many conservatives have discovered their social and political values dont line up with those companies. Then a Republican politician shows up. Im from the government, he says, and Im here to help.

Dont fall for it. Its socialism wearing a conservative mask.

For quite some time, Republican politicians have hidden their command and control tendencies behind the idea of populism. The term essentially identifies a philosophy where people have a material say in the political and economic systems that impact them. That concept is as American as apple pie. When the people decide that theyre going to socialize control over American businesses, the populists are, in fact, socialists.

Conservatives conveniently tag Democrats as socialists because the most progressive among them would be perfectly willing to control most aspects of Americas corporations. The primary focus is almost always on wages for executives versus labor. The social values of Americas largest corporations already align fairly well with Democrats, so they mostly leave those alone.

Regrettably, Republicans have adopted what amounts to a values-based socialism where the government seeks to control the corporate ethics and decision-making capabilities of business while largely leaving the economics alone.

Sometimes they arent so bashful. In 2017, for example, Tucker Carlson called for Google to be regulated like a public utility. The argument stuck. Earlier this year, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit against Google attempting to make Carlsons argument a reality. Some Republicans in Montgomery are tossing around the idea of banning private companies from requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. For too many Republicans across the country, protecting a free marketplace has become secondary to satisfying instant political desires.

Democrats want economic control. Republicans are increasingly interested in controlling the rest. Both are strains of the same socialist virus: government manipulation of Americas economic engine for political gains.

Its easy to miss when its coming from preferred politicians. Every senator, congressman, governor and presidential hopeful believes he or she is the government champion of the average American. That description could also apply to every socialist and communist leader throughout history. Politicians fancy themselves to be Robin Hood while behaving like the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John.

Americas founders wisely realized that the American government must balance the political desires of citizens against longer-term priorities and interests of political minorities. The United States doesnt and shouldnt have a Constitution where the passions of the moment solely dictate our governance.

Imagine that Facebook creates a filter that essentially mutes all conservative posts. Keywords like free market, Reagan, and individual responsibility are flagged and blocked. Most conservatives would understandably be outraged, but we shouldnt run to the government to fix a private decision we hate. I should have as much say over Facebooks content policies as I do the kinds of coffee offered at Starbucks. My choice is to enjoy the products or not.

Dont give me the argument that the government benefits business in certain ways, so the government can then demand whatever it wants. If thats the case, the mere act of incorporating a business entity could be a blank check for government control. Should we end the corporate handouts that skew the marketplace? Absolutely. Do those government goodies and tax breaks justify socialist-style controls? No.

When the folks complaining about social media bias communicate their outrage via the platforms they criticize, the complaints ring a bit hollow. Most of us arent looking up what charities our preferred products support in deciding whether were going to buy the product. When it comes to the politically disaffected abandoning companies in droves, its seldom enough to move the needle. Twitter is perfectly fine losing a relatively small population of fiery right-wing politicos to Parler.

Republicans absolutely want technologies, services, and goods made by companies with far more progressive values. Regrettably, weve become increasingly willing to use the government to secure the former without the latter. Its as wrong as the socialist who wants economic control of businesses while preserving a free expression of their social values and norms. Economic and civil liberties are the bedrock of American democracy, both deserve our protection even if doing so isnt politically popular.

Smith is a recovering political attorney with three boys, two dogs, and an extremely patient wife. He engages media, business, and policy through the Triptych Foundation and Triptych Media. Please direct outrage or agreement to csmith@al.com or @DCameronSmith on Twitter.

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Cameron Smith: Conservatives must address the rise of Republican socialism - AL.com