I appreciate this article as I note how the media are skipping Thanksgiving and going directly to promoting Christmas. Fox News had a full-hour show promoting its lighting of the Christmas tree. It was a good show, but why couldn't it have waited to after Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is an important holiday with a spiritual underpinning that celebrates our blessings as a nation.
Much to be thankful for living here in beautiful Santa Barbara. The mountains, the ocean, living in a clean, beautiful city, and now having socialists running our state and local government…wait, what?
Did anyone see unhinged Rep. Maxine Waters being called out by Rep. Maria Salazar for voting against a House resolution condemning Socialism? It would seem some 98 leftist radicals, disguised as members of Congress, voted against a resolution condemning Socialism! Yes, Salazar took on wack job, “Auntie Maxine” to task for being a staunch supporter of the thuggish Cuban regime, having met with “El Comandante,” Fidel Castro, himself on several occasions. What? Sure, the Dems now have several members supporting the DSA, including LA Mayor, Karen Bass. All advocates of replacing our time tested democracy with Socialism and having our wealth and freedoms being transferred to the State.
Wait there’s more, members of Congress calling out our military to disobey orders given by our Commander in Chief! Isn’t that treason, and calling for insurrection? Sure it is! Aren’t they traitors? Sure they are!
All while distracting us with shiny objects like now deceased convicted child molester and pervert, Jeffery Epstein as a pretext for removing Trump from office.
Now with Monique Limon as President pro Tempore of the California Senate, the Socialist takeover at the state level is almost complete.
LT, you rhetorically asked (then inaccurately answered) the following questions:
"... members of Congress calling on our military to disobey orders given by our Commander in Chief! Isn’t that treason, and calling for insurrection? Sure it is! Aren’t they traitors? Sure they are!"
But, for the record, these (six) members of Congress (Army Ranger Rep. Jason Crow, astronaut and Navy officer Sen. Mark Kelly, CIA analysis Sen. Elissa Slotkin who served three tours in Iraq, U.S. Navy Officer and Iraq veteran Chris Deluzio, Air Force veteran and engineer Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, and Navy intelligence officer Rep. Maggie Goodlander) actually urged current service members to ignore the chain of command if they're given UNLAWFUL orders. (Specifically these six urged our members of the military and intelligence communities to "refuse illegal orders.")
IMHO, this rebuking of unlawful or illegal orders is the exact opposite of treason since they would be keeping with the oath they made to uphold and protect the Constitution, rather than blindly heeding the fancies of an unhinged superior.
If anything, the issuer of the hypothetical unlawful orders (in your example, our Grifter-in-Chief, who sought five deferments from having to serve his country's military) would be the one guilty of treason.
So you propose that soldiers should weigh the constitutionality of their orders? Soldiers are trained to follow orders not debate the conetitutionality of those orders. Like all ideas from the left, this is stupid.
Hey Johnson, when did you ever serve in the military? No, never…didn’t think so. BTW, your namby-pamby argument fails to specify which direct orders you’re referring to. Would it be for example, taking out a speedboat filled with Fentanyl or how about refusing to report for kitchen patrol? This isn’t playing dress up in your make believe world or an episode of Beetle Bailey, this is realtime events, needed in split seconds and having life and death consequences. Do you even have a grasp of the UCMJ?
Right-on LT. These philosopher types always come up with some whack-a-doodle ideas to F things up. When I was in the military you did one thing above all else - followed orders!
When the Democrat controlled House ran the real estate market into the ground with stupid and fiscally unreliable backed mortgages who stood up in the public House committee and stated "We Socialist" were going to make sure "everyone" regardless of ability to pay payments would get a loan for a house?
It was Waters. I happened to be watching the House Committee session when she made that statement. (1st person) When Waters realized what she had said, she quickly backtracked and state it was the Democrats not Socialist.
It is the destruction of the Democrat Party started by Wilson, and placed on a fast track by Roosevelt that you see today.
It is clear what is called the Democrat Party in Calif. is no longer and it is in fact a radicalized Socialist Party that will take anything and everything the producers of society have created. When you see what has happened in Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Washington, Oregon, and late not so great state of Calif. it is just the tip of the iceberg.
Right, and then Maxine steered millions of Treasury Department dollars to her husband’s failed S&L. This woman, along with Nancy “Insider” Pelosi are the personification of evil and is exactly what Trump is up against.
This all began with the establishment of the “department of education“. It is imperative that President Trump completes his goal of dismantling it completely!
Next up, the unions. The birthplace and current home of communism
"Communism" failed by the third generation, as the party hierarchy created a self-protective privileged class with legacy rights for their own children. In three generations "communism" had already stratified into a new class system.
How will this new brand of socialism counter human nature and "do it better this time", when this grand Soviet plan failed so quickly?
Socialism is the natural response to capitalism - capitalism failed to enrich the common man and instead left entire families without land or property as they gave their labor to enrich others.
"The issue with capitalism is that their are too few
capitalists", today we see capitalism has continued to fail - up to a third of people in America live not in their own home but by renting out someone else's - and when it comes to California and new York up to 45% of people rent, is there any hope for these people to be able to afford even a modestly sized home? Of course people, especially younger people will gravitate toward socialism, because conservatives and the right aren't doing anything to support them in any meaningful way, and with entire generations of people living in poverty I can't see this trend reversing any time soon.
Just as the enlightenment failed to deliver freedom without economic justice yesterday, it fails today and socialism creeps in to fill in the gaps.
Of course before someone feels the need to call me a socialist for saying this, [I am not], I absolutely detest socialism, but I detest classical liberalism, capitalism, and "conservatism" as an Integralist, the beliver of a Confessional state and the traditional model monarchy that once existed before the rise of absolutism and constitutionalism. I simply say what even socialists themselves say - the failure to bring about a utopia with capitalism and liberalism, and the creation of generations of people without property and wealth to pass on would in time lead to socialism. Capitalism is the root of this evil, nothing else. And the Church has waged war against economic modernism, unrestricted capitalism, and socialism with its secular, anti clerical, and materialistic foundations and motives.
Again the confusion of socialism (and democratic socialism) with communism. These are very different animals. It's the difference between the "socialism" of the Scandinavian countries (which, I'll note, lead the list of countries with the best overall living standards) and the communism of the former Eastern Europe countries and Russia. (My wife is Hungarian and discussions with her relatives in the early 90s showed the horrors of communism, while discussions with them today show the repressions of Orban, even though he's not full out fascist.) Effective government is a three-legged stool with aspects that guard individual liberties, allow for executive action, and popular representation: democracy (equal justice under the law), authoritarian (executive enforcement), and socialist (representative bodies) as in the courts, the executive, and congress. The checks and balances are there for good reason, if any one side gains complete power normal human perversity leads to a slide into disfunction. I'm not a socialist myself, but do see the sharp difference between that and communism and recognize the necessity of a socialist stream in political discourse (as well as a libertarian stream). Others, however, may prefer to live under an oligarchy of robber barons (remember child labor, sweat shops, no social security - all social ills redressed by "socialist" legislation). Santa Barbara is my voting home, but living in Canada I certainly appreciate the "socialist" health care system. Basic provincial care runs (in US dollars) about 90 per month for me and my wife. With supplementary care packages and prescription drugs that goes up to about 200. About 18 months ago my wife fell and broke her hip. Ambulance arrived quickly, took her to emergency, a surgeon operated the next morning. There was a week stay in the hospital and a month of follow up rehab to which she responded exceptionally well. A few months later we got the bill - $80 (Canadian) for the ambulance.
BVH: Just think if we followed the Noway model of "socialism" with their same closed border policies and funded our "socialism" on drilling and selling fossil fuels which they still extract from North Sea petroleum deposits. The devil of their socialism is in the details.
Rep Salud Carbajal needs to investigate this reliable Norway "socialism" funding model.
Sweden is failing, but Denmark took note and has the most restrictive closed borders of all. Hard to take several countries with a strong heritage of the Protestant work ethic and a far more homogeneous and small population and translate this to what the US of late has become, thanks to Democrat open door policies and draconian "green energy" failures.
You do know Canada is teetering on total economic collapse, when it had to admit it could not pay their required NATO fair share. Which is when Trump offered to make them a 51st state. Or is the lack of free speech in Canada still keeping its residents in the dark about their stark economic peril?
Over-committed "free" social programs along over-zealous "green" destruction of their production capacity does not paint an idealistic Canadian role model to follow at this current time.
Burton, I read some interesting info on "socialism" in some of the European countries that you were referring to which commented that the smaller populations of the country and the homogeneous culture would make it easier to run whereas bigger countries, like the U.S., with an extremely diverse population would struggle to make it work. Also, these small countries rely on the capitalistic countries to aid them with military defense and do not need to rely on their taxes to pay for it. As far as the socialistic medical system in Canada, I am glad that you had a good experience with your medical issue. I have many Canadian friends that come down yearly to the U.S. to get their medical issues taken care of because they are not happy with the Canadian system. Also relatives in England are complaining about the medical system there. That being said, I do agree that we need some restructuring here.
I also recommend a very fine piece in the EpochTimes Opinion Section this week: "The New Moral Revival: Why Socialism Feels Like Faith to a Generation Searching for Meaning. (Kay Rubacek)
Balanced discussion, penetrating and spot on. Particularly since this generation's prior "Climate Change" fervor has been now soundly debunked. .....man's search for meaning .....continues.
The author reminds us this spiritual searching today is also expressed by many more men reconnecting with traditional religions; while others remain drawn to the cartoon promises of "socialism".
Cue in the horrors of the French Revolution that also believed they could reprogram the world by changing its superficial expressions.
Thank you for writing. A successful America requires both free enterprise capitalism and quasi socialism to be functional. A two wheeled cart is my metaphor describing our country.
The cart carries the load (American society) and is supported by the wheels (capitalism and socialism). All countries need goals, a sound economy and a responsible government, which are all carried in the (huge) cart as we roll. The cart is powered by our successful energy. However, the two wheels can have different "speeds" when the cart is unbalanced and slows veering the cart towards socialism or capitalism. Simplistic? Monopolies, greed, etc. on one side of the cart's axle and taxation and controls on the other. The cart's "two wheels" have to be equal providing balance for maximum success pulling power. Idealistic? It will depend on how the load is placed in the cart. Forgetting that both wheels are needed for success will impede our goals.
“unalienable Divine rights of life, liberty, speech, religion, and private property . . . " yada, yada, yada - all esoteric doctrines and principles that don’t mean squat to the average chump on the street.
Larry Lunchbucket don’t know from Socialism - all he cares about is cheap meat and a warm place to . . . sleep. You’ve seen Man on the Street interviews - all anybody cares about is ‘What’s in it for me.’ Mamdani’s gonna give me free stuff ? Ok, he’s my guy!
Under the heading of supporting “the general welfare”, America is a socialist country. Look at the long list of entitlements provided by government. Constitutional limitations, individual responsibility, freedom, independence, federal government protecting national sovereignty, states protecting citizens are forgotten concepts. There’s no certainty beyond a free-for-all. Congress has certainly failed to represent and protect citizens.
Regardless, I’m thankful for being an American which is better than any of the other 92 countries I’ve visited. I toast our military past and present, and Founders every Thanksgiving. There’s no better place especially for females!
Amen! It ain't perfect, but the good 'ol U. S. of A beats the crap out of every other country. I only wish I had the $$$$ to make this offer: "Don't like America? I'll buy you a ticket to any other country you prefer. All you have to do is renounce your U.S. citizenship which means you can't come back!"
I appreciate this article as I note how the media are skipping Thanksgiving and going directly to promoting Christmas. Fox News had a full-hour show promoting its lighting of the Christmas tree. It was a good show, but why couldn't it have waited to after Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is an important holiday with a spiritual underpinning that celebrates our blessings as a nation.
Much to be thankful for living here in beautiful Santa Barbara. The mountains, the ocean, living in a clean, beautiful city, and now having socialists running our state and local government…wait, what?
Did anyone see unhinged Rep. Maxine Waters being called out by Rep. Maria Salazar for voting against a House resolution condemning Socialism? It would seem some 98 leftist radicals, disguised as members of Congress, voted against a resolution condemning Socialism! Yes, Salazar took on wack job, “Auntie Maxine” to task for being a staunch supporter of the thuggish Cuban regime, having met with “El Comandante,” Fidel Castro, himself on several occasions. What? Sure, the Dems now have several members supporting the DSA, including LA Mayor, Karen Bass. All advocates of replacing our time tested democracy with Socialism and having our wealth and freedoms being transferred to the State.
Wait there’s more, members of Congress calling out our military to disobey orders given by our Commander in Chief! Isn’t that treason, and calling for insurrection? Sure it is! Aren’t they traitors? Sure they are!
All while distracting us with shiny objects like now deceased convicted child molester and pervert, Jeffery Epstein as a pretext for removing Trump from office.
Now with Monique Limon as President pro Tempore of the California Senate, the Socialist takeover at the state level is almost complete.
https://youtu.be/QLYC0x1lbk8?si=SZK3OnahvwRN3nnA
LT, you rhetorically asked (then inaccurately answered) the following questions:
"... members of Congress calling on our military to disobey orders given by our Commander in Chief! Isn’t that treason, and calling for insurrection? Sure it is! Aren’t they traitors? Sure they are!"
But, for the record, these (six) members of Congress (Army Ranger Rep. Jason Crow, astronaut and Navy officer Sen. Mark Kelly, CIA analysis Sen. Elissa Slotkin who served three tours in Iraq, U.S. Navy Officer and Iraq veteran Chris Deluzio, Air Force veteran and engineer Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, and Navy intelligence officer Rep. Maggie Goodlander) actually urged current service members to ignore the chain of command if they're given UNLAWFUL orders. (Specifically these six urged our members of the military and intelligence communities to "refuse illegal orders.")
IMHO, this rebuking of unlawful or illegal orders is the exact opposite of treason since they would be keeping with the oath they made to uphold and protect the Constitution, rather than blindly heeding the fancies of an unhinged superior.
If anything, the issuer of the hypothetical unlawful orders (in your example, our Grifter-in-Chief, who sought five deferments from having to serve his country's military) would be the one guilty of treason.
So you propose that soldiers should weigh the constitutionality of their orders? Soldiers are trained to follow orders not debate the conetitutionality of those orders. Like all ideas from the left, this is stupid.
Hey Johnson, when did you ever serve in the military? No, never…didn’t think so. BTW, your namby-pamby argument fails to specify which direct orders you’re referring to. Would it be for example, taking out a speedboat filled with Fentanyl or how about refusing to report for kitchen patrol? This isn’t playing dress up in your make believe world or an episode of Beetle Bailey, this is realtime events, needed in split seconds and having life and death consequences. Do you even have a grasp of the UCMJ?
Right-on LT. These philosopher types always come up with some whack-a-doodle ideas to F things up. When I was in the military you did one thing above all else - followed orders!
So . . . a squad of Marines ordered to ‘Take the hill!” should be able to decide amongst themselves whether to take the hill?
Waters condemning the vote???
When the Democrat controlled House ran the real estate market into the ground with stupid and fiscally unreliable backed mortgages who stood up in the public House committee and stated "We Socialist" were going to make sure "everyone" regardless of ability to pay payments would get a loan for a house?
It was Waters. I happened to be watching the House Committee session when she made that statement. (1st person) When Waters realized what she had said, she quickly backtracked and state it was the Democrats not Socialist.
It is the destruction of the Democrat Party started by Wilson, and placed on a fast track by Roosevelt that you see today.
It is clear what is called the Democrat Party in Calif. is no longer and it is in fact a radicalized Socialist Party that will take anything and everything the producers of society have created. When you see what has happened in Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Washington, Oregon, and late not so great state of Calif. it is just the tip of the iceberg.
Right, and then Maxine steered millions of Treasury Department dollars to her husband’s failed S&L. This woman, along with Nancy “Insider” Pelosi are the personification of evil and is exactly what Trump is up against.
https://www.politico.com/story/2010/08/ethics-charges-issued-against-waters-040817
This all began with the establishment of the “department of education“. It is imperative that President Trump completes his goal of dismantling it completely!
Next up, the unions. The birthplace and current home of communism
Dismantle the unions ? ? ? Boy, are you dreaming. Those crooks have a stanglehold on the politicians as long as their money keeps them in office!
We all become slaves to the Socialist establishment, and the Socialist billionaires, and we have no self ownership, or individual rights.
"Communism" failed by the third generation, as the party hierarchy created a self-protective privileged class with legacy rights for their own children. In three generations "communism" had already stratified into a new class system.
How will this new brand of socialism counter human nature and "do it better this time", when this grand Soviet plan failed so quickly?
Why are we surprised? I am not.
Socialism is the natural response to capitalism - capitalism failed to enrich the common man and instead left entire families without land or property as they gave their labor to enrich others.
"The issue with capitalism is that their are too few
capitalists", today we see capitalism has continued to fail - up to a third of people in America live not in their own home but by renting out someone else's - and when it comes to California and new York up to 45% of people rent, is there any hope for these people to be able to afford even a modestly sized home? Of course people, especially younger people will gravitate toward socialism, because conservatives and the right aren't doing anything to support them in any meaningful way, and with entire generations of people living in poverty I can't see this trend reversing any time soon.
Just as the enlightenment failed to deliver freedom without economic justice yesterday, it fails today and socialism creeps in to fill in the gaps.
Of course before someone feels the need to call me a socialist for saying this, [I am not], I absolutely detest socialism, but I detest classical liberalism, capitalism, and "conservatism" as an Integralist, the beliver of a Confessional state and the traditional model monarchy that once existed before the rise of absolutism and constitutionalism. I simply say what even socialists themselves say - the failure to bring about a utopia with capitalism and liberalism, and the creation of generations of people without property and wealth to pass on would in time lead to socialism. Capitalism is the root of this evil, nothing else. And the Church has waged war against economic modernism, unrestricted capitalism, and socialism with its secular, anti clerical, and materialistic foundations and motives.
Again the confusion of socialism (and democratic socialism) with communism. These are very different animals. It's the difference between the "socialism" of the Scandinavian countries (which, I'll note, lead the list of countries with the best overall living standards) and the communism of the former Eastern Europe countries and Russia. (My wife is Hungarian and discussions with her relatives in the early 90s showed the horrors of communism, while discussions with them today show the repressions of Orban, even though he's not full out fascist.) Effective government is a three-legged stool with aspects that guard individual liberties, allow for executive action, and popular representation: democracy (equal justice under the law), authoritarian (executive enforcement), and socialist (representative bodies) as in the courts, the executive, and congress. The checks and balances are there for good reason, if any one side gains complete power normal human perversity leads to a slide into disfunction. I'm not a socialist myself, but do see the sharp difference between that and communism and recognize the necessity of a socialist stream in political discourse (as well as a libertarian stream). Others, however, may prefer to live under an oligarchy of robber barons (remember child labor, sweat shops, no social security - all social ills redressed by "socialist" legislation). Santa Barbara is my voting home, but living in Canada I certainly appreciate the "socialist" health care system. Basic provincial care runs (in US dollars) about 90 per month for me and my wife. With supplementary care packages and prescription drugs that goes up to about 200. About 18 months ago my wife fell and broke her hip. Ambulance arrived quickly, took her to emergency, a surgeon operated the next morning. There was a week stay in the hospital and a month of follow up rehab to which she responded exceptionally well. A few months later we got the bill - $80 (Canadian) for the ambulance.
BVH: Just think if we followed the Noway model of "socialism" with their same closed border policies and funded our "socialism" on drilling and selling fossil fuels which they still extract from North Sea petroleum deposits. The devil of their socialism is in the details.
Rep Salud Carbajal needs to investigate this reliable Norway "socialism" funding model.
Sweden is failing, but Denmark took note and has the most restrictive closed borders of all. Hard to take several countries with a strong heritage of the Protestant work ethic and a far more homogeneous and small population and translate this to what the US of late has become, thanks to Democrat open door policies and draconian "green energy" failures.
You do know Canada is teetering on total economic collapse, when it had to admit it could not pay their required NATO fair share. Which is when Trump offered to make them a 51st state. Or is the lack of free speech in Canada still keeping its residents in the dark about their stark economic peril?
Over-committed "free" social programs along over-zealous "green" destruction of their production capacity does not paint an idealistic Canadian role model to follow at this current time.
You are rather uninformed as far as Canada is concerned. And wow, all those countries "failing." Have another cup of kool aid.
Read for comprehension next time, BHV. Pay up, slackers.
Keeping up on Canadian news: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/22/gop-lawmaker-demands-300b-in-defense-dues-from-canada-00666112
Burton, I read some interesting info on "socialism" in some of the European countries that you were referring to which commented that the smaller populations of the country and the homogeneous culture would make it easier to run whereas bigger countries, like the U.S., with an extremely diverse population would struggle to make it work. Also, these small countries rely on the capitalistic countries to aid them with military defense and do not need to rely on their taxes to pay for it. As far as the socialistic medical system in Canada, I am glad that you had a good experience with your medical issue. I have many Canadian friends that come down yearly to the U.S. to get their medical issues taken care of because they are not happy with the Canadian system. Also relatives in England are complaining about the medical system there. That being said, I do agree that we need some restructuring here.
I also recommend a very fine piece in the EpochTimes Opinion Section this week: "The New Moral Revival: Why Socialism Feels Like Faith to a Generation Searching for Meaning. (Kay Rubacek)
Balanced discussion, penetrating and spot on. Particularly since this generation's prior "Climate Change" fervor has been now soundly debunked. .....man's search for meaning .....continues.
The author reminds us this spiritual searching today is also expressed by many more men reconnecting with traditional religions; while others remain drawn to the cartoon promises of "socialism".
Cue in the horrors of the French Revolution that also believed they could reprogram the world by changing its superficial expressions.
Thanks you Lord for Giving us a wonderful life. Best to all readers, too.
Thank you for writing. A successful America requires both free enterprise capitalism and quasi socialism to be functional. A two wheeled cart is my metaphor describing our country.
The cart carries the load (American society) and is supported by the wheels (capitalism and socialism). All countries need goals, a sound economy and a responsible government, which are all carried in the (huge) cart as we roll. The cart is powered by our successful energy. However, the two wheels can have different "speeds" when the cart is unbalanced and slows veering the cart towards socialism or capitalism. Simplistic? Monopolies, greed, etc. on one side of the cart's axle and taxation and controls on the other. The cart's "two wheels" have to be equal providing balance for maximum success pulling power. Idealistic? It will depend on how the load is placed in the cart. Forgetting that both wheels are needed for success will impede our goals.
“unalienable Divine rights of life, liberty, speech, religion, and private property . . . " yada, yada, yada - all esoteric doctrines and principles that don’t mean squat to the average chump on the street.
Larry Lunchbucket don’t know from Socialism - all he cares about is cheap meat and a warm place to . . . sleep. You’ve seen Man on the Street interviews - all anybody cares about is ‘What’s in it for me.’ Mamdani’s gonna give me free stuff ? Ok, he’s my guy!
Under the heading of supporting “the general welfare”, America is a socialist country. Look at the long list of entitlements provided by government. Constitutional limitations, individual responsibility, freedom, independence, federal government protecting national sovereignty, states protecting citizens are forgotten concepts. There’s no certainty beyond a free-for-all. Congress has certainly failed to represent and protect citizens.
Regardless, I’m thankful for being an American which is better than any of the other 92 countries I’ve visited. I toast our military past and present, and Founders every Thanksgiving. There’s no better place especially for females!
Amen! It ain't perfect, but the good 'ol U. S. of A beats the crap out of every other country. I only wish I had the $$$$ to make this offer: "Don't like America? I'll buy you a ticket to any other country you prefer. All you have to do is renounce your U.S. citizenship which means you can't come back!"