Our Road to Venezuela

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 27 March 2019.]

Socialism used to be the third rail of American politics, no more.  A form of governance that requires and ever-larger government to handle the people’s everyday affairs was anathema after WW2, especially with the country having had its brief love affair with socialism during FDR’s depression years.  Ever since the Great Society’s programs began to get traction in the 1970s, the workings of socialism in America, if not its name, became more and more acceptable as our governments created more programs every year to solve this or that social problem, most of which its then previously entrenched programs had created.

Every economic slowdown and recession since then has been an opportunity for liberals to introduce and launch more ‘people oriented’ programs, the first purpose of which was to buy votes to re-elect those politicians promising the new largess to be paid for with other people’s money.  Funding these required ever higher taxes and more borrowing.  And each one created more Americans who could not conceive of getting along without a regular government check.

Things kicked into high gear with the Great Recession and Obama’s victory promising a “fundamental transformation” of America, which included more taxes on corporations and bringing them to heel with a spate of new regulations, while putting the country on the sure path to a globalist future.  Of course, growth stalled and we had the slowest and longest drawn out recession recovery in the country’s history.  But sacrifices had to be made; after all, our elites were busy transforming the country.

The 2016 election marked a true fork in America’s political road.  For the first time the Democrats were confronted with the choice between an unattractive candidate promising to continue Obama’s anemic road forward, and a self-declared, actual socialist, an outsider who would really get the promised transformation on its way.  Instead, the country decided to elect another outsider who also promised many things, all centered around capitalism and prioritized America first.  His programs would deliver anything except bigger government and a less sovereign and secure America.

While the mainstream Democrats were busy with their shock and awe to torpedo the Trump administration, their fringe or alt-Left comrades started planning various stratagems for 2018 with policy offerings that would build on Obamacare, the climate hysteria, and Bernie Sanders’ socialist nose now firmly under America’s political tent.  Then as the Pelosis, Schumers, and Schiffs were busy feeding their media comrades ‘clear evidence’ of all kinds of Trump’s wrong doings, the alt-Left was assembling a spate of leftwing policies that would be introduced in time for the 2018 election.

So, the 2018 election came and delivered the expected historical results to the party out of power, which included a gaggle of very loud, energetic, ignorant, and ideologically dedicated young alt-Left Democrat congress critters.  They immediately began introducing their socialist initiatives into the policy vacuum created by their party’s leadership still fiercely focused on Mueller’s upcoming proof of Trump’s Russia collusion.  Suddenly, the Democrats had a full plate of new policies to offer Americans that included free college, single-payer healthcare (aka Medicare for All), amnesty for illegals, and, of course, the Green New Deal.  This immediately resulted in massive happy dancing in the streets by the leftwing core that swept along almost all of the Democrats preparing themselves to be the party’s 2020 presidential candidate who would take down Donald Trump.  Now, with no debate or discussion or even as much as a by-your-leave of their leadership, the Democrat Party had in a place a socialist platform on steroids.

So, counting on the support of pre-educated millennials and a soundbite electorate, the Democrats promise to deliver their $100T+ ten-year fundamental transformation of America.  A transformation that will not only restructure our government, but also change almost every aspect of American lives ranging from our homes, how we travel, what we eat, our healthcare industry, and how we communicate with each other.  We will then transform from an open market capitalistic economy based on growth, to a command economy that delivers an already demonstrated stagnant ‘new normal’ managed from a one-party Washington for the promised benefit of all.   Americans have never had a more dramatic and consequential choice about their future than they will in 2020.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the 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.

Comments

[AVMan]

,,,Time for an update??? Green New Deal did not pass muster...Trump popped off with the 100 Trillion figure,,,probably another lie he farted into the wind.

[Don Bessee]

Looks like the woke troll is still experiencing the first step of 6 if that made any sense. LOL
===============================================================================================

Not everyone is willing go quietly -

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/27/kansas-idaho-weigh-lowering-concealed-carry-age-from-21-to-18/

;-)

[scenes]

"Trump popped off with the 100 Trillion figure,,,probably another lie he farted into the wind."

Possibly from Brian Riedl of the Manhattan Institute, but you can believe any ol' thing you like of course.

[scenes]

Here's another one at over $90B

https://reason.com/blog/2019/02/25/study-green-new-deal-could-cost-more-tha
https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/the-green-new-deal-scope-scale-and-implications/

But I'll bet Trump just made up the number.

[scenes]

Another reference:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/green-new-deal-would-cost-93-trillion-or-600g-per-household-study-says

No problemo, remember what the crazy lady sez (from Forbes):

"In an NPR Morning Edition interview, Ocasio-Cortez was unfazed by the cost. Yes, she acknowledged, the GND would be expensive and require lots of government spending. But she insisted there is no need to worry about its long-term effects on the already-massive budget deficit because this initiative would pay for itself through economic growth."

It'll pay for itself!!! It's an INVESTMENT!!!!

[Don Bessee]

Speaking of the littlest commiecongres-critter. That Mike Lee is one funny mutha, check out his visual aids on the green new deal vote. SNAP!

Politics
Twitter Users Can't Believe This GOP Senator's Speech Props Aren't Photoshopped

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/twitter-users-apos-t-believe-102437891.html

;-)

[George Rebane]

Again the liberals need to expand their horizons beyond the lamestream. The GND estimate for just the first 10 years starts at $94T.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/democrats-running-from-ocasio-cortezs-green-new-deal-heres-why

[Walt]

Judging by the actions of the queen of the DEMNed and the Left in general, The House will never put forth a Bill that would help Trump fix America. No matter what . What the House would pass,(pure LIB agenda) will never make it past the Senate. Self assured gridlock.

When Trump's health care fixes are put up, no way in HELL would Queen Nan allow it to move forward. No matter how good it is.
Like for instance, "people with pre existing conditions can't be screwed over." Anyone really think Nan would let that fly?

[Scott O]

"Trump popped off with the 100 Trillion figure,,,probably another lie he farted into the wind."
Ha - that's your sides number, dude - own it!
Remember - it's an investment!
CA likes to brag about its GDP compared to other countries like GB and France. They have 'wonderful' health care systems - what's holding back CA?
What happened to that promised free health care?

[George Rebane]

ScottO 752pm - the lying bastards in Sacramento know what the real cost of CA's single payer would be, and the only thing delaying them now is to figure out how they can position their new healthcare travesty so that even their double dummy supporters would believe that it is a financially doable program. That's turning out to be a real puzzle. When/if they finally do CA, they will turn the state into a third world shithole country - we'll be the first ones to reach Venezuela.

[L]

Go for it! I'll be watching from AZ. Wait... build a wall down the middle of the Colorado River first.L

[scenes]

re: GeorgeR@9:36PM

My favorite part about a California-concocted all-in public health system will be watching the legislature determine just who is a California resident and how to prove it. You wouldn't want other US citizens sneaking in and getting free stuff.

The other centerpieces of the plan would be free health care for illegal aliens and a giant list of marginal 'health' coverage (gender change surgery, medical marijuana, free birth control, acupuncture, dentistry, herbal medicine, in short every 'good' idea added together).

I'll probably differ from you in thinking that a public system can work, but the ideas I hear waltz around the primary problem, which appears to be cost, and it's the kind of cost that you can't easily fix by keeping a few million in insurance executive compensation or simply imposing Medicare pricing on everyone.

If I had to guess, public health system quality will be directly (and I mean directly) correlated to a homogeneous and high functioning population. Singapore shows that high functioning might be enough, but it's a small case.

Q: Why not have Blue Mob Wave Nevada County take over healthcare for it's citizens? 100k people could obviously negotiate a group plan and you'd simply amp up property/sales/local income taxes to whatever level is needed.
A: There's not enough asibaya within the group to implement the self sacrifice needed.

[scenes]

It occurs to me that my post has nothing to do with Venezuela.

I'll think about a rule of thumb here.

Movements from the natural regulation of capitalism to the planning model of socialism, and this wouldn't work with all aspects of society, requires a homogeneous and high functioning population.

High functioning implies rule of law, high trust, work ethic, peer pressure towards good behavior.

[George Rebane]

scenes 810am - Actually, your post is a natural expansion of our 'Venezuela discussion'. The needed attributes you mention are components of a functioning culture - i.e. one that organizes and encourages social behaviors based on heritage, shared traditions and customs, shared ethics and values, shared vision of an inviting common future, and institutions that incorporate feedback loops on public and private sector behavior that is seen to be timely and just. (The latter, more than the others, serves to naturally prune the size and scope of such social orders.)

[scenes]

An interesting article only a little related to healthcare.

All of this is interesting to me, and I'm open to any ideas although any solutions I see coming from the Left look like fairly silly ones.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-26/the-world-s-cheapest-hospital-has-to-get-even-cheaper

[scenes]

Pardon, I mean only a little related to Venezuela.

[Don Bessee]

Hey look, the masters of the universe just hooked the Cuban government to the core of their system for free, what could go wrong giving the already effective intelligence service access to the back room??? Does anyone think the proletariat will get access? Didn't think so.

The American internet giant and the Cuban government agreed to create a seamless, cost-free connection between their two networks once Cuba is able to physically connect to a new undersea fiber-optic cable that would be laid sometime in the future.

With that cable in place, the so-called peering deal linking Google’s global internet backbone directly to Cuba’s local network would allow Cubans to connect faster to content hosted on Google servers. It would also reduce the Cuban government’s cost of connecting users to Google content.
Network owners like the Cuban telecoms monopoly Etecsa currently must pay third-party operator fees for passing traffic along to sites such as YouTube, Google Maps and Google.com.

https://apnews.com/d076fa0c68b440ada320cec8478a08dc

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Perhaps we in CA are more on the road to Greece instead of a Venezuela. Communist country, huge bloated bureaucracy, generous benefits, stifling regulations, and broke.

https://m.facebook.com/OurConstitutionalRightsAreNotNegotiable/photos/a.450374471701099/2496138057124720/?type=3&source=48

Socialized medicine

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/03/11/veteran-diagnosed-cancer-10-months-after-test-va-hospital.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2bVGMVBb6EgB_SnOpSI5WdzMDJ2CmqwYgMFtK-WKp_PhXmemVlcGNuocU#Echobox=1552300992
———
Summary Of OIG Findings

VA did not provide effective governance of the personnel suitability program necessary to ensure that background investigation requirements were met at medical facilities nationwide. Background investigations were required for most medical facility staff, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians. The OIG projected that about 6,200 employees who were working at the facilities did not have a background investigation initiated. The OIG also found that adjudicators had not been reviewing background investigations timely and suitability staff were not maintaining official personnel records as required........

Finally, OSP and VHA did not effectively manage their business processes to ensure that sufficient investigation data were created and maintained in support of program objectives. As a result, VA cannot reliably attest to the suitability of its largest workforce, exposing veterans and employees to individuals who have not been properly vetted. Unless internal controls and data are improved, VA and the public lack assurance that VHA has a workforce suitable for serving our nation’s veterans.“

https://www.disabledveterans.org/2018/04/13/va-put-veterans-lives-risk-not-running-background-checks/

“

[Bill Tozer]

Perhaps we in CA are more on the road to Greece instead of a Venezuela. Communist country, huge bloated bureaucracy, generous benefits, stifling regulations, and broke.

https://m.facebook.com/OurConstitutionalRightsAreNotNegotiable/photos/a.450374471701099/2496138057124720/?type=3&source=48

Socialized medicine

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/03/11/veteran-diagnosed-cancer-10-months-after-test-va-hospital.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2bVGMVBb6EgB_SnOpSI5WdzMDJ2CmqwYgMFtK-WKp_PhXmemVlcGNuocU#Echobox=1552300992
———
Summary Of OIG Findings

VA did not provide effective governance of the personnel suitability program necessary to ensure that background investigation requirements were met at medical facilities nationwide. Background investigations were required for most medical facility staff, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians. The OIG projected that about 6,200 employees who were working at the facilities did not have a background investigation initiated. The OIG also found that adjudicators had not been reviewing background investigations timely and suitability staff were not maintaining official personnel records as required........

Finally, OSP and VHA did not effectively manage their business processes to ensure that sufficient investigation data were created and maintained in support of program objectives. As a result, VA cannot reliably attest to the suitability of its largest workforce, exposing veterans and employees to individuals who have not been properly vetted. Unless internal controls and data are improved, VA and the public lack assurance that VHA has a workforce suitable for serving our nation’s veterans.“

https://www.disabledveterans.org/2018/04/13/va-put-veterans-lives-risk-not-running-background-checks/

“

[Don Bessee]

AOC sucks as a crowd chant works for sure, for sure. The blossoming socialist paradises unfortunately tell the world the truth of its people dying from lack of the simplest of things.
Having the ruskies send two passenger jets of spetznaz sure looks like an evacuation team for el commandante Maduro.

https://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-returns-middle-ages-during-power-outages-143506671.html

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2019/03/25/Russian-military-planes-land-in-Venezuela/5611553524335/

https://www.worldtribune.com/trump-to-moscow-get-out-of-venezuela/

http://www.cuba-venezuela.org/index.php/en/2019/03/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/americas/venezuela-cuban-doctors.html

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Q: What did Socialist use before candles? A: electricity.

[Bill Tozer]

Now the Venezuelans are demanding electricity and water. Greedy bastards.

https://www.facebook.com/patunleashed/videos/387464472093577/

Conversely, neither the NYT or NPR can find failed socialism in Venezuela. They can find a crisis, they can see a collapse, but no signs it was failed socialism. Go figure

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2019/04/07/npr-cant-find%20failed-socialism-venezuela

[scenes]

re: BillT@10:16pm

Them Russkie jokes:

A new food store has opened – everything is sparkling clean and there is an attractive shop assistant in a neat white coat.
A customer comes in and says: “Wrap me up half a kilo of meat please.”
The shop assistant takes out a sheet of paper and says: “Certainly, give me your meat.”

[Bill Tozer]

Now they are demanding food and medicine.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/442017982919984/?multi_permalinks=654828381638942%2C654705094984604&notif_id=1554719183430186&notif_t=group_activity