Swedish Rhapsody

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 16 January 2019.]

George Rebane

Today our socialist politicians feel that they have the wind at their back to fundamentally transform our country into the Socialist States of America.  And that may well be the case as poll after poll shows that for most Americans capitalism has fallen out of favor, or at best they are indifferent to its existence and role in supporting their quality of life.  The Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, are now the major voting block, having taken their positions in government and the private sector workforce.  Their attitudes reflect the education they received in our unionized public schools, and most are definitely in favor of socialism as the better way to organize society and our economy – over half prefer socialism to capitalism.

For most Americans, tilting leftward or already there, Scandinavia is their siren song of socialism.  And among those nations, Sweden is the posterchild and most frequent answer to, ‘Why can’t we be more like …?’  Sweden is held up to us by both progressive politicians and their handmaiden media as the paragon of how to correctly do government.

Led by under-educated naïfs like Alexandria Octavio-Cortez and old proto-communist Bernie Sanders, we see formerly sensible center-left Democrats start to embrace the hard-left narrative that delivers invectives against constitutionality, religion, American sovereignty, the immorality of secure borders, and, of course, the merciless greed and inequality of a capitalistic society.  Today the whole enterprise of educating the electorate has been made easier by holding up President Trump as the despised capitalist-in-chief and exemplar of successfully practiced capitalism.

Sweden, in its enthusiastic adoption of socialism in the 1970s and 80s, was going to show the world how an enlightened government of the technocratic elites would bring about an equitable, prosperous, and content society.  The Swedes confidently headed down that road with their small, culturally coherent, and racially cohesive population.  What could go wrong?  Yet it turned out that Sweden’s experiment with unsustainable socialist policies was disastrous as its economic indicators slid to the bottom of the EU economic barrel. 

The WSJ reports that “Until the mid-20th century, Sweden pursued highly competitive market-based policies. By 1970 Sweden achieved the world’s fourth-highest per capita income. Then increasingly radical Social Democratic governments raised taxes, spending and regulation much more than any other Western European country. Economic performance sputtered. By the early 1990s, Sweden’s per capita income ranking had dropped to 14th. Economic growth from 1970 to the early 1990s was roughly 1 percentage point lower than in Europe and 2 points lower than in the U.S.”

By the mid-1990s Sweden realized its mistake and began rapidly implementing market-based reforms and returned a large measure of economic success in response to an aggressive program of privatization and market-based reforms.  Its economic growth now ranks behind only the Baltic states and Slovakia.  This little piece of European socio-political history has somehow escaped the curricula of our schools and colleges.  (more here and here)

Also swept under the rug is Sweden’s other problem in what they call their “vulnerable regions” - insular and unassimilated Muslim communities growing in its big cities.  Sweden’s continued embrace of globalism, multi-culturalism, and unfettered migration gave rise to such regions where Sharia law rules and police seldom venture.  No one in Sweden or other similarly afflicted EU countries knows what to do about Islam’s quiet re-invasion of Europe, today an entire community of socialism-bound nations that for the first time in history can no longer afford to defend itself. (more here, here, and here)  And here is Sweden attempting to put the best face on the problem.

And all such policies, initiatives, and programs which haven’t worked there are promoted and propagandized here today.  Their continued adoption in America, with each successive election cycle, depends on the ongoing distillation of news from over there that support only our own established road to socialism.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the addended transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However, my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

Addendum: Sweden’s disastrous state of affairs was made possible by enlarging government and its participation in the economy through increasing spending and transfer payments to over 70% of GDP. The Swedes were literally drowning in a tsunami of regulations and sky-high taxes of the kind now planned for us after 2020 by our ardent and ambitious progressives at all levels of government.

One direct result of Sweden’s deteriorating economy was the emigration of thousands of its wealth producers to sunnier and less regulated climes in the south of Europe.  Through hosting exchange students and sending our own daughters overseas to live in Europe, our family got to know several European families up close and personal.  Most of these relationships continue after 50+ years.  One of ‘our families’ from Malmo was a successful retailer of fine crystal and operator of advanced tech (then Todd-AO) movie theaters.  He told of several of his business associates who in the 1970s were transplanting themselves and their businesses to Spain where they were welcomed with open arms and special tax and regulatory dispensations.  And he had plans to do the same.

The main thing that happened was a phenomenon totally invisible and antithetical to the progressive mind, which holds that government always increases its revenues by increasing taxes.  There are many reasoned economical arguments, effectively summarized by the Laffer Curve, against such a belief.  Eventually you start taking away enough from the workers and wealth generators so that they no longer want to earn monies under confiscatory tax rates.  And that’s what Sweden wound up doing in the 1980s, as one social program after another became alarmingly unsustainable.  The Swedes became wise to this downward spiral in the early 1990s and started reversing course.  They have yet to apply that wisdom to their multi-cultural immigration and social policies.

(The astute reader will recall that any program, government or private sector, is unsustainable if, year after year, it continues to demand an ever increasing percentage of the institution’s income.)  Governments maintain unsustainable programs through borrowing, usually without any commensurate plan for paying back the loans.  Of course, such policies also become unsustainable as debt service costs demand an ever-higher percentage of both the budget and the GDP from which government revenues are derived.  In the end, even the most dim-witted see the whole enterprise as a Ponzi fraud which finally collapses when evermore stifling government policies reduce GDP growth until the only alternative remaining is the destruction of the nation’s currency.)

Here in the US there now has arisen a very prominent useful idiot for the Left – congresswoman Alexandria Octavio-Cortez who was seated on the House Finance Committee by that paragon of financial acumen – wait for it – congresswoman Maxine Waters.  Yes, little freshman Alexandria “looks forward to working under the leadership” of Mad Max to get her vision of a 70% tax rate for all who earn above $10M a year into a bill that will be sent to die in the Senate.  But the woke Americans should consider what if these maniacal mavens ever get complete control of the government again – memories of the 2009-2010 Obama years.

The venerable Tax Foundation, which does analyses on tax policies proposed and implemented, tells us that AOC’s proposal will have a definite back-side-of-the-Laffer-Curve effect on the national fisc.  The hoped for added revenues are destined to fund the progressives’ ‘Green New Deal’, the cost of which, of course, no one knows or has put pencil to.  Depending on which combination of the three tranches of income – wages, interest, capital gains – get hit with the 70%, the best cumulative ten-year increase will be less than $300B, and worst will be an actual loss of $63.5B in federal revenues.

And all this does not take into account the impact such a tax will have on the economy which is sure to take a major hit as the so-called loopholes of the Eisenhower 90% tax era have long been closed.  (The Left likes to cite the growth during that era, without telling their nebbishes that no one actually paid tax under that rate.)  The bottom line today is the same as always.  There is not enough money in the top 1% (who already pay 30% of federal taxes) to fund any of the grandiose progressive programs, let alone grow the economy to reduce deficits – forget paying down the national debt.  The solution – the new socialists have to do what Sweden and all the economically stunted governments have done, go after the middle class, because that’s where the money is.  Talk about a national emergency when all those Green New Deal, and nationalized healthcare, and … bills come due.  So I again ask the middle class, ‘For whom are those idiots useful?’

[17jan19 update] A reader from Irwin, PA sends the following figures that illustrate the above commentary on tax rates, taxes, and federal revenues.  It again exposes the bamboozle (aka lies) that ALL Democrats have been spraying on the electorate about higher tax rates, especially their impact on government income.  The truth as known by students of (real) economics is that government revenues depend on economic growth and the health of the economy that is supported by taxable transactions.  Increase unavoidable taxes and regulations on such economic activity, as did Sweden and other socialist countries, and you have what ranges from tepid economies to the economic disasters and population migrations so common to countries (e.g. Venezuela) south of our border. (more here)

Comments

[Don Bessee]

The report comes after another report released by Brå last July which showed nearly half of the women living in “vulnerable areas,” often referred to as no-go zones, felt insecure in their own neighbourhoods after dark.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/16/nearly-half-of-swedish-women-early-20s-feel-insecure-crime/

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Sweden and Scandinavia

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/what-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-gets-wrong-about-europe

https://www.facebook.com/browerreport/photos/a.1451642195135790/2033278663638804/?type=3&theater&ifg=1

https://m.facebook.com/AtlasSociety/photos/a.10150124236450351/10156896857980351/?type=3&source=48

[Gregory]

Another Millennial bogus belief is "free college" in Europe. I recall a discussion with a youngster in a high school where I mentioned it and she smiled approvingly... and then an empty incredulous stare came over her face when I told her that there were tests that ranked kids in what we might call a middle school... that decided which track the students would be on. The college track, the trade school track, the learn as much as you can and maybe you'll manage to be waitstaff or sales clerks when you graduate. In Denmark, the Guilds control even the jobs making sandwiches in cafes.

You can't just stumble out of high school barely able to read, write and 'rithmetic and find a college to attend for free to learn to be a journalist.

I did know a number of Swedes in the 80's who had escaped from the Olde Country's confiscatory taxes to work in tech... and a couple of them went on to Australia for a more enlightened government, only to come back after a year when they found Aussie taxes to be more like Sweden's.

[Robert Cross]

Today our fascist politicians feel that they have the wind at their back to fundamentally transform our country into the fourth Reich. Poll after poll shows that for stupid old white men schooled during the red scare of the 1950's, democracy, even representative democracy has fallen out of favor, or at best they are indifferent to its existence and role in preventing the degradation of quality of life and instead prefer the dying polluted planet that unbridled capitalism has created.

Did anyone ever think that, perhaps, socialistic government is the only way for the planet and humanity to survive the mess the robber barons' spoiled offspring have wreaked upon the rest of us?

socialism--a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

[fish]

Posted by: Robert Cross | 17 January 2019 at 09:10 AM

Somebody whack Roberta on the back…….she's stuck in "failed political system" mode again.

So…..hows your packing for Venezuela going?

[Gerry Meander]

Of course Robert, the ilc of the page (as Todd would say and spell) are those who: A) fight taxation of any kind and B) Are the first to bitch about slow emergency response times, potholes, transients, under staffed counters at DMV, and delayed social security checks. And of course these same "patriots" want to regulate a woman's right to her own health care, ban cannabis use, privatize public lands, and . . .

[Todd Juvinall]

Another sock puppet? Jeeze you people are gutless honeyfish.

The liberal ilk crack me up. They are all about projection. The only fascist on these pages are Robert Cross/Linda and a couple of other sock puppets.

[George Rebane]

The casual reader should again note that our critics do not address the issues presented, but simply denigrate the convenient straw men that they construct in our supposed image - in short, in their responses they play their strong and only suit.

[Robert Cross]

The casual reader should note the entire diatribe above (Swedish Rhapsody) is derived from decades of right wing propaganda and as such should be taken with less than a grain of salt. In short, it was spawned from the same old nineteenth century thinking that allowed the current broken capitalistic economic system to flourish and decimate the planet. The author is a devout climate denier which is a defining factor in terms of the credibility and ultimate value of such information. #none

[fish]

Posted by: Robert Cross | 17 January 2019 at 12:04 PM

Then no plans on leaving yet?

[George Rebane]

RobertC 1204pm - I have given references for the presented facts that can be rebutted in detail, which you apparently cannot do and so continue with attaching unfounded labels to what I have observed and cited - it would be refreshing for you to try the alternative approach were one available to you.

"climate denier"?? And clearly you have no real idea about what I have written in these pages concerning climate. Perhaps my expressed position on the matter is not accessible to you. Can you define 'climate denier' for us?

But in all fairness, you are more than clear about your own socio-political sentiments with your "In short, it was spawned from the same old nineteenth century thinking that allowed the current broken capitalistic economic system to flourish and decimate the planet." Thank you for that.

[Gregory]

It is entirely appropriate for cowards throwing out terms like "climate denier" to do so anonymously... it is on its way towards the laugh heap of 21st century politics.

the following *is* just weather:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8218861/jerusalems-iconic-wailing-wall-and-dome-of-the-rock-covered-in-snow-as-6c-temperatures-bring-middle-eastern-city-to-a-standstill/

and this is just weather:
http://spaceweather.com/images2019/10jan19/TCI_From2006.jpg

[***M***]

,,,Please show us the details of the proposed 70% tax rate. At what level does the taxpayer have to pay 70%???

Taxing those who earn $10 million a year at 70% would just feel real good to a lot of those who are struggling these days!!!

[George Rebane]

M 357pm - You're not paying attention again Mr M. It's your own darling AOC who has made the proposal to pay for her "Green New Deal", and presumably has additional details. Again, a need to broaden your reading horizons.

[***M***]

,,,George 452pm - guess what, there is no actual detailed plan to speak of!!! So I guess you can just stop hopping around like a chicken on a hot plate since it turns out the hot plate is not even plugged in!!!

[Don Bessee]

Would just feel good' as opposed to actually doing something practical that matters in the real world. What a typical socialist maroon.

;-)

[George Rebane]

M 459pm - I am sure that you have given the same advice to the nation's leading newspapers, magazines, broadcast media outlets, and weblogs which have and continue to extensively cover and comment on AOC's intent to introduce her bill in the House Finance Committee "under the leadership of Rep Maxine Waters". Again, you seem to only hear of these things on RR.

[Bill Tozer]

“Other nations, such as Denmark, have top marginal rates closer to the range the congresswoman envisions. However, its top tax rate of 60 percent kicks in at $60,000, rather than $10 million. Contrary to the congresswoman, funding the social welfare state weighs heavily on the middle class.

This ignores the significant burden imposed by the Value Added Tax (VAT), which accounts for about 25 percent of the price of virtually every item sold. This kind of regressive tax, which punishes the poor and struggling the most, is a hallmark of Scandinavian systems.”......

Not to mention the small amount Scandinavian countries pay for defense. Somehow, all these plans end up falling on the middle class when the new programs initiated do not pay for themselves.

I see nothing that Ms. Cross, Brother Ben, or the extreme far left offers that differs one iota from that which the French Green Party espouses. Nothing that is not in the French Green Party’s platform is offered by AOC and company. At least Grumpy Bernie and AOC have come out and declared themselves Socialists. The others are cowards hiding behind other labels.

[l]

M- in general then, you would explain the present oldest, largest and healthiest cohort of humans in Earth's history to show a failure of capitalism? Because it wasn't created by socialists.

Not sustainable? True, so tell the brown and black people to stop spawning as the white and east Asian mostly have. L

[l]

Can remember in 1955 hearing there were two billion people on Earth and heading toward three, frightened the Hell out of me. I was living in Sedona, AZ Pop. 350 (we were PO box 65). It's likely that half the humans who have ever lived are alive today. If anything, capitalism has been too successful at eliminating the things that used to kill far more people, including wars. Real problem here. L

[l]

People like AOC have no concept of how recent these improvements have been- basically most within my lifetime, now 74 years with photo memory back to crib days. Amazing world, much more so than young people here age can even imagine.

[l]

Socialists can't even operate or maintain the inherited infrastructure, how could they possibly be expected to build it? See Russia, Cuba for examples of going downhill. China was at bottom to begin with, but once they accepted capitalist reasoning (minus the democratic part) they had nowhere to go but up. L

[Tricky McClean]

“True, so tell the brown and black people to stop spawning as the white and east Asian mostly have. L”

This is my most favoritest racist Nazi blog in all the whole wide world.

[l]

And you clowns on the left are worried about climate change?

[l]

Mine too!

[fish]

Hmmm.....you boys want take your hot sock puppet on sock puppet action somewhere else! I think jeffy is absolutely desperate for some web traffic!

[***M***]

,,,says the sock-shaped Fish,,,

[Brandon Branson]

I and Robert-
Why is there an abundance of race baiting on this blog (and in the White House) but not on any progressive blogs? Is racism part and parcel with ultra conservatives?

[fish]

Posted by: Brandon Branson | 18 January 2019 at 07:54 AM

False accusations of racism is what makes the progressive blogosphere run BB! Really....you didn't know that?

#predictable!

[fish]

Posted by: ***M*** | 18 January 2019 at 07:31 AM

Really?

I haven't been run off any websites for "multiple personality disorder" Lavender!

Scurry along now......

[George Rebane]

Re l's (actually L's) 848pm - Could it be that none of you folks understood L's comment??? He was actually drawing a plausible conclusion from M's critique of capitalism, and asked a begged question about the self-selection of "the brown and black people" with regard to economic sustainability. Can any of you worthies point to what was racist and/or "race baiting" about that question?

BTW, Mr McClean should probably withdraw from this exercise since he continues to display his ill-read past - here he again demonstrates that he hasn't a clue about the definition of Nazi or Nazism. For him, like most progressives, a person who doesn't share his beliefs is simply a Nazi - period, end of story.

[***M***]

,,,sock-eye,,,how much do we really know about your social network behavior???

[fish]

Posted by: ***M*** | 18 January 2019 at 08:50 AM

Only as much as I tell you! But since Facebook and Instagram are for jerkoffs and gossipy women I don't frequent there.

You'll just have to trust me!

And hey! While we're at it ....."Lavender"? What's up with you and jeffy puppeting as females? Something you want to get off your heaving bosom....err....I mean chest?

[Brandon Branson]

George 8:50-
"a person who doesn't share his beliefs is simply a Nazi - period, end of story."

REALLY????

A few weeks ago a poster named Jurgen chimed in and was immediately attacked by your mob as a Nazi based on nothing but his name.

[Paul Emery]

Yeah Branson, that mob was led by Todd who claimed Jurgen was a Nazi just because he had a German name. Disgusting crew this Circle of Jerks.

[fish]

Posted by: Paul Emery | 18 January 2019 at 09:31 AM

Disgusting crew this Circle of Jerks.

.....and yet here you are....every day!

[Paul Emery]

What's your real name fish? Reminding our new readers that you will not use your real name and also don't live here.

[fish]

Posted by: Paul Emery | 18 January 2019 at 09:35 AM

.....sigh......? Really Punch.......going full jeffy and validating Gregorys assertion that you're bone lazy at the same time!

Well done!

Anybody......with the slightest modicum of effort can find out my real name!

Hey Punch......did you hear? The internet is changing the way we communicate!

[Todd Juvinall]

I think we are like crack to Paul Emery. He can't stop himself so he comes back many times a day for a fix. What a hoot!

What did happen to that Jurgeon guy, was there a rally in Nurenburg this week?

[Bill Tozet]

“Also swept under the rug is Sweden’s other problem in what they call their “vulnerable regions” - insular and unassimilated Muslim communities growing in its big cities. Sweden’s continued embrace of globalism, multi-culturalism, and unfettered migration gave rise to such regions where Sharia law rules and police seldom venture. No one in Sweden or other similarly afflicted EU countries knows what to do about Islam’s quiet re-invasion of Europe, today an entire community of socialism-bound nations that for the first time in history can no longer afford to defend itself. “

Well, you don’t see the welcoming crowds at train stations across Europe with homemade sandwichs each made with love, water, and big banners proclaiming “Welcome Refugees” no more. Where has the welcome wagons gone?

When Muslims are in the minority, they worry about minority rights. When Muslims are in the majority, there are no minority rights.

[George Rebane]

Sociologists and historians agree that a radicalized 5% share of a population is sufficient to destabilize the other 95% within a political jurisdictions such as nation-states. That's a threshold to keep in mind as we read the news and keep up with events.

[***M***]

,,,sock-eye,,,you are digressing,,,what does Walt's imaginations and obsessions about Doughy and possible links to Lavender have to do with your '''get a room''' comments and what do those comments have to do with the Swedish Solution???

[George Rebane]

BrandonB 902am - My "mob"??! Really, are you now also part of my "mob", or "Circle of Jerks", or ...? Try to find the answer to why RR has as many leftwing as rightwing commenters debating on these pages. There must be something unique and attracting about this forum that allows a breadth of opinion which for the Left is breathtaking, pearl-clutching, and should be verboten (and will be when their fundamental transformation is complete). Yes, there are also some loonies on the Right for whom logic is optional, no one here claimed otherwise - but we do keep score on that count, and, hands down, you guys are winning ;-)

[***M***]

,,,What is a "Three Percenter"?

During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King's tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists. They were in turn actively supported by perhaps 10% of the population. In addition to these revolutionaries were perhaps another 20% who favored their cause but did little or nothing to support it. Another one-third of the population sided with the King (by the end of the war there were actually more Americans fighting FOR the King than there were in the field against him) and the final third took no side, blew with the wind and took what came.

THANK YOU THREE PERCENTERS!!!!!!

[fish]

Posted by: ***M*** | 18 January 2019 at 10:37 AM

Probably right Lavender.......more appropriate for the "Sandbox". Then again, one does need to reply where it makes some sense.....in proximity to the original comment.

[George Rebane]

M 1041am - Actually, historians divide our revolutionary population into thirds - those who were patriots, those loyal to the Crown, and those who really didn't give a crap who won. And of the patriots about 10% were 'in the field' (your 3%). Historically this is not an unusual percentage of war fighters in a population. During WW2 out of a 140M population about 16M "served" in our military at one time or another, and of that considerably fewer than 4M "fought" or saw combat (the "tip of the spear"). But your point is made.

[Bill Tozer]

Denmark: We are not Socialists!

Democratic Socialists have presented Denmark as the elusive nation where socialism has been successful, and thus a model for the policies they would implement in the United States. Bernie Sanders regularly invoked Denmark during the 2016 presidential campaign, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez reassured 60 Minutes viewers that her version of democratic socialism would veer more toward Denmark than Venezuela. Just weeks ago a free-market think tank in Denmark, the Center for Political Studies (CEPOS), issued a 20-page report telling Americans that 1) Denmark is not a socialist nation; and 2) statist policies have still caused significant economic harm.........

In fact, taxes are much higher in Denmark – especially on the poor and middle class. The government confiscates more than half of virtually all incomes. Low-income Danes pay an effective marginal tax rate of 56 percent; the middle class pay 57 percent.

Extremely poor Danes have more money than poor Americans – but the difference cannot be financed exclusive by the rich. “The average American has 27 per cent higher income than the average Dane,” CEPOS reports, “reflecting both lower GDP per capita and higher taxes in Denmark.”

The biggest difference is Denmark’s high consumption taxes. Its VAT imposes a 25 percent tax on the sale of every item – and additional taxes apply on coffee, beer, and chocolate.

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/denmark-american-politicians-were-not-socialist

[***M***]

,,,George 1101am,,, well what do you expect from a T-shirt company,,,

https://gadsdenandculpeper.com/collections/three-percenter-apparel/products/military-green-three-percenter-hoody

[Steven Frisch]

Posted by: Brandon Branson | 18 January 2019 at 07:54 AM

Well yes Barndon racism is a integral part of modern American ultra conservative ideology.

[Don Bessee]

So are you going to let a black person talk to you on Monday firschy?

;-)

[Todd Juvinall]

Steven Frisch | 18 January 2019 at 02:36 PM

Seems to me that is the democrat gig. Look at the lefty women's march and you will see all those racists and anti-semites kissing your pal Farrakhan's butt. I bet you love him don't you Frisch. And the democrats brownshirts, the KKK were the inspiration for Mussolini. Not a conservative but like you Frisch, a socialist.

[George Rebane]

Note in the discussion of 'racism' and its assignation to "ultra conservative ideology", none of the discussants touch any definitions or citations that would give even a smidgen of support and substance to their accusations. It is so, simply because they say it is so.

[Todd Juvinall]

D'Nesh has a great tour on the terms racism and fascism. YOUTUBE him and listen. The democrats sure try to shut him down.

[Don Bessee]

For the socialists it is all about self hate and those icky people -

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/18/vice-celebrates-frenchmen-sterilised-themselves-save-world/

;-)

[fish]

Posted by: Don Bessee | 18 January 2019 at 02:49 PM

Now Don.....don’t you bother Obersturmbannführer Frisch.....he’s busy maintaining the racial purity of his SBC detachment. Incredibly important work!

[Don Bessee]

This guy is calling bs on the lock step (goose stepping) socialist group think from inside the system -

Writing for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Notre Dame Professor Christian Smith argued in a column last week that higher education has some serious issues. BS is universities hijacked by the relentless pursuit of money and prestige, including chasing rankings that they know are deeply flawed, at the expense of genuine educational excellence (to be distinguished from the vacuous “excellence” peddled by recruitment and “advancement” offices in every run-of-the-mill university),” one complaint read.

Smith bemoaned the lacked of intellectual diversity in many academic fields, specifically the humanities and social sciences. He argues that the academics in these fields are hypocrites because they fail to live up to the values of diversity and tolerance that they often preach.

“BS is the grossly lopsided political ideology of the faculty of many disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences, creating a homogeneity of worldview to which those faculties are themselves oblivious, despite claiming to champion difference, diversity, and tolerance,” Smith wrote.

One of Smith’s complaints has been discussed multiple times in Breitbart News’ higher education coverage. Professors, especially in the “social justice” fields,” have a habit of forcing unnecessary made-up terms to make outsiders feel confused and unwelcome.
“BS is the ideologically infused jargon deployed by various fields to stake out in-group self-importance and insulate them from accountability to those not fluent in such solipsistic language games,” Smith wrote.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/01/18/notre-dame-prof-offers-21-reasons-why-higher-ed-is-bullsht/

;-)

[Brandon Branson]

George 3:05-
We aren't racists!

The term "rag head" ring a bell?

[George Rebane]

BrandonB 418pm - It sure does. Do you even understand how I use it, and whatever does that have to do with racism? Again, just because you say it does?

Mike Thornton, flaming liberal and former KVMR news director, correctly identified my use of 'raghead' - You use "raghead" as a way to dehumanize and entire group of people, in order to make it easier to hate them and therefore kill them.
https://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2011/09/of-ragheads-and-regressives.html

For example, here's a commentary of which you and yours have demonstrated no understanding since it was posted nine years ago.
https://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2010/02/of-ragheads-and-racism.html

[L]

Oddly, most of the people Dr. Rebane calls rag heads are members of the 'gasp!' Caucasian race. How about that? L

[scenes]

"So are you going to let a black person talk to you on Monday frischy?"

No need. He sees them on TV all the time. They are quite funny and play basketball well.

"Caucasian race"

No such thing. It's as silly as saying "Mexican race".

re: Colleges@4:17

It's obvious how to blow up that world, although as an iron ricebowl and a cauldron of ridiculous thinking they are important to more than a few people.

Pretty obvious, but simply expanding certificates (ie. things like law degrees) to the trade school part of universities (and perhaps other parts) would make all the difference in the world. The main trick is to get hiring employers to care about them.

[Bill Tozer]

Too bad no one defended the idea of a 70% tax and how we should be more like Sweden. Instead, it is the ole messenger is a racist! Not only that, an ultra far right Nazi racist!...as if there is any other kind of Nazi...sez the extreme far left America haters. Well, we learned this week that the term ‘Western Civilization’ is racist and the word ‘family’ is transphobic. Oh well. Nobody taking a crack on how enlightened or superior the Scandinavian ecomonic model is to ours?

Well said, Dr. Rebane.

“Note in the discussion of 'racism' and its assignation to "ultra conservative ideology", none of the discussants touch any definitions or citations that would give even a smidgen of support and substance to their accusations. It is so, simply because they say it is so.”

[Brandon Branson]

Rebane 3:48

What does the term rag head have to do with racism???? Give us a friggin break George.

"Rag head. Syn: sand nigger" "(slang, ethnic slur) A Muslim, Arab, Sikh, or member of any group that traditionally wears a headdress such as a turban, keffiyeh or ..."

Nope, no racism here. Just good ol' American patriots numbing themselves "in order to make it easier to hate them and therefore kill them."

Wonder what the Sikhs down in Yuba City think of y'all, non racists?

[L]

BB, since when are Indians, Sikhs and Arabs not a part of the so-called "white" race? By contrast, Muslims can be of any "race" since it describes a learned belief system and not inherited characteristics. People differ about what constitutes a race. Great example: the so-called "Hispanic" race didn't exist before the 16th Century, in fact they are hybrid caucasoid-mongoloids. Sorry Scenes, there are such things as basic races among mankind although most of us are mixed to some degree. L

[George Rebane]

BrandonB 904pm - You are hopeless. You probably won't do the country a favor and stay out of the voting booth.

[Brandon Branson]

GR 9:58
You have dropped to the plane of Bessee when it comes to debate. I'm surprised you stoop to his level. You find it more convenient to pivot or deflect than to defend your racism and ethnic contempt.

[Todd Juvinall]

The Brandon is a troll.

[Steven Frisch]

So Brandon and L and M and Tricky....here is what the Circle of Stupid (a less graphic but more accurate moniker I prefer) cannot change or accept...they are dinosaurs, and the world will change beneath their feet whether they like it or accept it or not.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/01/17/generation-z-looks-a-lot-like-millennials-on-key-social-and-political-issues/?fbclid=IwAR2wrw6UuC5Po7I4cXXvJRs-QSJ0aCntEGuaYKXhh-EQjoIG4RytFjOVeVU

[Gregory]

Any luck getting some of the SBC staff and Board members replaced by people of color,Steve? Forty white folk... how can that just happen?

[Brandon Branson]

Todd.
Yup. And living under a Nevada City bridge waiting to eat a free goat.

Woman's March today. You going to be there to try and pick up a 13 year old meadow muffin?

[***M***]

,,,gregory,,,could it be that SBC staff and Board represents the ethnic diversity of Nevada County???

[Gregory]

Keach, that would be a question best left to Frisch. Local tech firms don't have the problem as far as I can tell.

[fish]

Posted by: ***M*** | 19 January 2019 at 09:01 AM

When they decide to make an example of you that absolutely doesn’t matter! Try using the “No blacks or Hispanics applied” argument dugsKKKi. Especially since Reno is a comfortable commute away and it has a far wider ethnic mix from which to select a candidate!

One can only conclude.....as scenes suggested recently, that Steve likes and is comfortable with African Americans and Hispanics but only in the abstract! You know ....on TV......Black History month ....Cinco de Mayo.....etc

[Bill Tozer]

As covered multiple times on these boards, the millennials fhave a growing have a favorable socialism. The future belongs to them. What we on the watchtowers warn constantly is there is a fine line between and authoritarianism. What Big Bro takes, he does not give back. He never cedes power, his thirst for more control of our daily lives is insatiable, and the end result is shared misery.

“It seems that socialism is like an infectious disease that everyone has to get ill of to develop immunity. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn pointed out, “For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.”

“This dead dog, expelled from Russia, acquired a new life in the United States and regained vitality to become a living lion within the Democratic Party.

“The 2018 Democratic victory in the midterms brought new Marxist arrivals to the House of Representatives who are interpreting the elections as an endorsement of socialist policies. They dropped all the pretenses — no liberals, no progressives — they are proud Marxist-Leninists driven by the ideology and committed to converting this country into the United Socialist States of America.

“This militant crowd is comprised of uninformed and misinformed people looking at themselves as unfortunate, underpaid, underappreciated victims of capitalism, overwhelmed with jealousy that there are people who are everything they are not.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/425970-america-the-new-socialist-frontier

[Todd Juvinall]

Brandon Branson | 19 January 2019 at 08:58 AM

So you are a true troll, thanks for admitting it. As far as the "women's March" today? Looks to me it is full of women that can't attract a man. But maybe you could make it work as a troll. Go getum.

[George Rebane]

BillT 1111am - Good find Mr Tozer. Unfortunately for our liberal readers, such a piece from elsewhere fits snugly under their enormous blindspot; they only see such sentiments as arising from a sprinkling misbegotten rightwing blogs like RR.

[Bill Tozer]

Dr Rebane @ 11:20.
Sorry to all about butchering my prose. In and out of service. I will try it again, if for no other reason than to placate myself. Redo.

As covered multiple times on these boards, the millennials have a growing favorable view of socialism. The future belongs to them. What we on the watchtowers warn constantly is there is a fine line between socialism and authoritarianism. What Big Bro takes, he does not give back. He never cedes power, his thirst for more control of our daily lives is insatiable, and the end result is shared misery.

[Bill Tozer]

Remember when Milo wanted to have a Gay Pride Parade straight down the streets of the ‘no go’ neighborhoods of Sweden? Quite the courageous and provocative endeavor. Of course, it was deemed as inappropriate and blocked by the open minded tolerant enlightened superior Swedish officials. Hate speech or something. Divisive, no doubt.
—————-
Nine “British men” (Islamic extremists from Kurdistan/Turkey) waged Acid Jihad against the LGBTQ community in London.

https://www.facebook.com/UncleSamsNation/photos/a.1716581078594668/2188481358071302/?type=3&theater

Milo was spot on. The biggest threat to the LGBTQ community comes from not the Christian Right, but from the Islamic Community.

“I appreciate these groups responding, so that all Americans, but perhaps especially conservatives, understand what motivates them. As someone who’s worked in communications, I admire these organizations staying so focused on their core missions. As an American and a Jew, though, I find these statements concerning — especially from the larger, well-known corporate partners. For example, while I appreciate Ben and Jerry’s respecting my rights as a woman, I have more concerns as a Jew right now.”

http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/18/womens-march-partners-explain-theyre-ignoring-allegations-anti-semitism/

According to the FBI, 53% of the hate crimes in the USA are directed at 2% of the population (Jews). Hate crimes against Muslims account for 16%. 80% of the hate crimes on our campuses are believed to be hoaxes. Just saying.

[Bil Tozer]

Swedish Raspberries

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2261169023902262&set=a.103178609701325&type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158295437773782&set=gm.613137372474710&type=3&theater&ifg=1