GROWING GOVERNMENT SHRINKING FREEDOM

 

It seems to be the goal of every Socialist/Progressive to grow the size and strength of government, in every nation of the world. The fanatically Progressive editor of The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel, wrote high praise of Joe Biden in a recent article for his multitude of executive orders that appear "transformative" in increasing government control and oversight. She is not alone in trumpeting the need for governments to impose ever greater control over society, below I will quote Sebastian Mallaby from his article in Foreign Affairs Magazine in which he declares governments should become more assertive.

"Today, the United States and other advanced countries are experiencing the second wave of an especially powerful twin shock. Taken individually, either the global financial crises of 2008 or the global pandemic of 2020 would have been enough to change public finances, driving government to to create and borrow money freely. Combined, these two crises are set to transform the spending power of the state. A new era of assertive and expansive government beckons. Call it the age of magic money."

Read it carefully. "A new era of assertive and expansive government beckons." What does he mean by assertive government? Powerful government, and government becomes powerful when citizens lose power.

 

Katrina vanden Heuvel gave numerous examples of why she supported President Biden's actions, and she also took the opportunity to attack anyone with a different point of view. She declared "the era of small government is over".  She went on to say "Biden is essentially announcing that the Washington consensus — one that favors deregulation, austerity, and pro-corporate trade policies — is bankrupt,"

 

 Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package was at the forefront of her praise, claiming the Republicans "have no clue as the suffering of the people" with their counteroffer of $600 billion. She took the opportunity to mention Barak Obama and his administration, "As President Barack Obama came to understand only too late, attempts to compromise with obstructionists gain nothing".

 

Let's think about this very carefully. Katrina vanden Heuvel in her praise of Biden is also advocating for an end to legitimate political debate. Her declaring that Obama's compromising with the Republican led Congress gained nothing is very revealing of her true desire, a an apparent desire for one party rule. Is this the future Progressives are so eager to attain? A future in which the citizens have become little more than servants to an all powerful government that is ruled by Socialist elites. This has been tried before, in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. These ideas failed in the Communist block, and they will fail if implemented in the West. The greatest quality a nation can have is freedom and liberty for it's citizens to make their own economic choices, reach their highest potential in life, or to fail if they so choose. This argument is one of choice, and it is best left to individuals to choose for themselves. We do not need the illustrious Katrina vanden Heuvel, Sebastian Mallaby, Bernie Sanders, or Joe Biden to dictate to us how we should live our lives. 

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A DAY OF NATIONAL DISGRACE

 

A sad picture of lawless protestors inside the Senate chamber.

Today was "supposed to be" a day of protest: of American citizens exercising their Free Speech, of citizens exercising their Right to Petition Government for the Redress of Grievances. Many people believe that fraud was involved in the recent presidential election, and they wanted to express their feelings about the whole process.

Instead of a legitimate protest and expression of public opinion, it turned into an unparalleled disaster and a blemish on the history of our nation.

Fools, thugs, idiots, and hoodlums, all supposedly there to protest, forced their way into the Capital Building, and things went downhill from there. Capital Police found multiple pipe bombs and other improvised explosives planted throughout the Capital Building. The police were involved in a shootout with one individual. There are hideous images of lawless bastards that broke into the main Senate chamber and desecrated the one place that represents the highest ideals of the US Constitution. 

 

There is no comparing this to other protests. No other protest in the entire history of our nation has staged such an assault on the US Capitol building. This is the first time since the War of 1812 that the Capitol building, the place that represents the highest ideals enshrined in the US Constitution, has been besieged and vandalized. 

 

There is no excuse, there is no reasoning, there is nothing anyone can say that will justify this act wanton desecration of our US Capitol. 

 

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BIDEN ATTACKED BY SOCIALIST/PROGRESSIVES FOR NOT BEING EXTREME ENOUGH

 

The "Squad", angry and aggressive Socialist/Progressives in Congress

 

There is a bit of wisdom that has been gained through much harsh experience, it's in the form of a proverb and it states "the Left will always turn on itself". When the Communist Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1918, they murdered hundreds of  thousands of their political opponents which included the entire family of the Czar; however, they also murdered thousands of people that had supported the Bolshevik party, but were found to be lacking in some way. This same process has been repeated throughout history, every time Socialists have come to power; with but a few exceptions, most of these Socialist governments have been quick to murder anyone that displeased them which included their own supporters. The group of Socialist/Progressives known as the "Squad" that came to Congress in 2018 were exceptionally harsh in their criticism of President Donal Trump, and now that Joe Biden is apparently the President-elect, Biden has become the focal point for their sharp tongued belligerence. 

Congressman elect, Jamaal Bowman, an outspoken Progressive and newest addition to the Squad, has publicly attacked some of Joe Biden's choices, some of whom are Democrat Party loyalists. 

"The Democratic congressman-elect said gender and racial diversity in Biden’s administration were important, but “ideological diversity” was key.“We need to make sure here that President-elect Joe Biden is picking as many progressives to his cabinet as possible,” Bowman said."

 “But when I hear names like Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed, you know, it makes my skin crawl,” Bowman said. “Rahm Emanuel covered up the murder of Laquan McDonald as Mayor in Chicago. He closed elementary schools. He closed mental health institutions. He added: “Bruce Reed is a deficit hawk and a master of austerity budgets. So, we cannot have anyone like that in the Biden cabinet, especially as we deal with the coronavirus and as we deal with an economic depression and racial reckoning in our time.”   https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-squad-member-says-hearing-these-two-possible-biden-cabinet-picks-makes-my-skin-crawl

 Reading these statements may confuse the casual observer, or anyone with a sound and reasonable mind. The esteemed Congressman-elect has called for "ideological diversity"; therefore Joe Biden must fill his administration with as many progressives as possible. This statement creates an unfathomable paradox. How can ideological diversity exist when progressives are infamous for their aggressive intolerance of differing opinions?

 Progressives of all sorts, including those who are members of the Global Elite, have begun to openly question Biden's cabinet choices. Two individuals with deep and long ties to the Democrat Party and various Democrat Presidential administrations, Michèle Flournoy and Antony Blinken, both having been chosen by Biden for top cabinet positions, have come under pressure to reveal the confidential client list they kept while working at the consulting firm "WestExec Advisors", a firm which they started. We see this happening all the time by members of both parties, people get into government by political appointment, then enter the private sector, only to be recalled into government service. 

Exclusive think tanks which serve as the intellectual training grounds of the Global Elite, such as the "Council on Foreign Relations" and the "Washington Center for Near East Policy" , are filled with lists of rotating members which switch places every time the White House changes occupants. These think tanks are supposedly non-political and have no influence over government policy decision making; however, almost all of the power players in Washington DC are members of these groups, and the ideas expressed in these think tanks are frequently adopted as government policy. The members of these think tanks were some of the strident opponents of the Trump White House, and many of these individuals, both Democrat and Republican, have supported policies favored by Socialist/Progressives.

To make an accurate analyses of the current situation, a bit of intuition is required. Loud, obnoxious, charismatic, and popular Progressive politicians such as the "Squad" in Congress, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren, may be the face of the Socialist movement in the United States, but behind the scenes, the Global Elite within the Council on Foreign Relations and other such groups, are providing the ideas and intellectual muscle upon which the politicians depend on. 

Elections become meaningless if the politicians are just over-paid figureheads in a system in which a revolving door of insiders is making all the big policy decisions. These insiders, these Global Elite, they cause the rise and fall of governments, they help finance the governments of the world through their affiliation with the Federal Reserve and the World Bank, and they have worked quietly behind the scenes to influence Joe Biden in choosing his cabinet secretaries and other administration officials.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 

THE NEW REALITY: NO HUMAN INTERACTION

 

A new concept being tried by fast food chain "Chipotle" is a dark reflection on the sad state of our current times. Customers and employees will have no interaction during the food ordering process, all orders must be made through the Chipotle app, company website, or third party provider. There are no dining room, all orders will be either pick up or delivery.

 

There are uncountable thousands of carry out only restaurants throughout the US; however, in almost all cases employees can take food orders, or there is some method for customers to interact with restaurant staff when ordering food. Company executives claim this is designed to fit smaller stores in high cost urban area, and to minimize issues of contamination due to Covid-19. Many different fast food chains are trying the concept, in one form or another, and it all seems to have started with the Covid-19 lockdowns that began in March of this year.

 

Regardless of the reasons being given by Chipotle executives, or executives at other companies trying similar concepts, there are in fact two underlying issues which are driving these concepts: employee turnover and increased minimum wage requirements.  It may or may not surprise many readers, fast food chains have tremendous rates of employee turnover. In many cases the rate of turnover may reach as high as 150%. To put this in simple terms, at a rate of 100% turnover a 10 person staff will see all 10 staff members replaced in one year. At 150% turnover,  that same 10 person staff will be replaced by 15 new employees. The cost of hiring, training, and managing new employees can become overwhelming, and can have adverse effects of productivity. Productivity being one of most important aspects of every high volume fast food operation.

 

Robin B. DiPietro, director of the International Institute for Foodservice Research and Education at the University of South Carolina’s School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, says that six years ago, when she was in touch with Burger King, the average cost of turnover was about $600 per employee.

Cornell’s Batt said a survey of restaurants she helped conduct in 2013 put the cost of fast-food turnover at $1,600 per worker, and that was at a time when turnover was significantly lower.

The turnover cost estimates have kept going up.

The cost per employee now is estimated by the National Restaurant Association at $2,000 per employee. Those figures will vary by restaurant type as fast-food employees are still less expensive to turn over than those in upscale dining. Restaurant research firm TDn2K calculated replacement costs at $2,100 to $2,800. But all operators feel the pinch of the deepening turnover crisis, especially with a higher minimum wage, and higher recurring business costs.

 https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/29/fast-food-restaurants-in-america-are-losing-100percent-of-workers-every-year.html

 The unspoken truth behind many of these decisions is the quickly rising minimum wage. Legislatures in many states and localities have steadily increased the minimum wage to $15 an hour. This may not seem like much, but for a business to pay several employees $15 an hour, even during slow times, can be a burden most smaller businesses can not endure. Many fast food businesses have raised prices in consideration of this added cost. If a particular task or function can be completed by robotics or automation, an astute business leader, will quickly replace employees with machines that cost less over the long-term and are not going to call in sick or cause disciplinary issues. 

It seems that no matter the reason, the fast food restaurant of the future will look very different than anything seen in the past. A hungry customer may never actually see a person when picking up their order. Customers will order their meal through purely digital means, as employees will not be taking phone orders. Robots will prepare the food, with minimal human supervision. It is conceivable that a fast food business such as McDonald's or Chipotle, that once employed 15-20 employees, will have a staff of less than 10, which will include management. A dystopian future in which consumers order food from a machine, have machines prepare the food, and then machines deliver food to customer's vehicle, may not be that far away. 

(Richard B. Levine/Newscom)