We’re starting on the Capitalism/Communism argument again. Isn’t it boring? We’ve been having this argument for decades. Nobody even WANTS communism. That’s just the scary story one side tells to terrorize their own base into voting their fear. Now they’re telling it again. The sad part is, it’s a real toss-up as to whether those same people are going to buy that same tired story yet again. A conman will sell you a bridge as many times as you’re willing to buy it.

Even Democrats are freaking out because so many Democratic Socialists are doing so well in campaigns, and that scares the lard out of so-called free-market capitalists. The Democratic Socialists ARE doing so well in campaigns because they’re talking about a more equitable system, a system that gives more people an honest chance to succeed. That’s all people really want, an honest chance to succeed.

I can take it one step further, too. When most people talk about Democratic Socialism, they’re talking specifically about what is known as the Nordic model. It’s a highly-regulated, Capitalist economy. It includes private ownership of businesses but a strong safety net and controls over what are called the commons, things everybody needs like water, power, education, and health-care. Those kinds of things.

When the masses talk about the known and proven benefits of the Nordic model of Democratic Socialism,the response is usually along the lines of “This is a different country.” Well, that’s true, but it doesn’t really mean anything more than that. The implication is that they can do it, but we never could. In truth, it’s just capitalists afraid they’ll lose dictatorial control over businesses.

Besides, even capitalists know that free-market capitalism is a wildly unstable economic system subject to wide swings of equality and success. Think about the Roaring 20’s, followed immediately by the worst economic crash the world had ever seen to that point. WIDE swings. Worse, so-called free-market capitalism is pretty much opposed to democracy.

Free-market capitalism is SO unstable, capitalists try to hide it in a catchy name, the “Business Cycle.” They’ll tell you that the business cycle dictates that the economy will crash to one degree or another every seven to ten years. Really? Economic crashes are built into the system? How is that better? Is there really no way to stabilize the system? Why, yes. Yes there is. Democratic Socialism.

Oh, but – and this is already widely known – where do the self-congratulating, self-serving, so-called free market capitalists turn when the whole thing comes crashing down, as it does on a regular basis? Socialism! “Please, sir,” they beg the government, “bail us out sir.” It’s so common, there’s a saying about it; ‘privatized profit, socialized risk.’

Here’s a bit of a startling number I’ve picked up from an economist I follow: employers – and that includes the self-employed – make up only three percent of Americans. Three. That means ninety seven percent of Americans are NOT employers and have little to no voice in their workplaces. Isn’t it stupid to build a system that best serves three percent of it’s population?

Those of us who have seen the free-market failures and understand that those failures are inherent to the system are simply looking for a better way, a more democratic way. We’re asking, why not skip the darkest parts of so-called free-market capitalism and just go with the life-saving socialism in the first place? It’s a fair question and Americans are asking that question more and more…

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Democrats are war-gaming elections. They’re literally getting together and planning responses to expected and unexpected disruptions to American elections. To be clear, the only evidence of any electoral fraud I’ve seen revolves around Donald Trump, but he is selling scare stories that everyone else is cheating. They’re not. He’s lying.

But that boy regularly responds to his delusions with real-life activity. It’s less important that election fraud doesn’t exist and more important that his demons tell him otherwise. He’ll respond to those demons, evidence or no. So the Dems are trying to find answers to his attacks.

One of the biggest concerns is centered around artificial intelligence (AI). People are worried about floods of AI generated election bullpucky, intended to confuse voters by spreading false and misleading information. Will that happen? Hell, have you been on social media lately? OMG, my feeds are FULL of AI generated videos and ads already. It’s just getting harder and harder to find legitimate information created by actual people.

Even when there ARE people involved, it’s just so much click-bait. ‘The end for Trump.’ ‘Donald melts down as administration collapses.’ ‘Trump can’t take the heat.’ Uh-huh. But he just keeps going and NOT collapsing, doesn’t he? I want decent information, not click-bait. (That’s why I don’t get my news from social media, by the way.)

It can’t be good that Democrats feel the need to game-plan the upcoming elections to offset the cheating virtually everyone knows Donny is going to initiate. We all know he has to do something to save his ass. We’ve seen him trying over and over to control the outcome in his own favor. So far, he has been thwarted by the Constitution and/or Republicans who know that disenfranchising voters means disenfranchising Republican voters, too.

But 47’s desperation seems palpable. Everyone knows he’s going to do something. We just don’t know what. It’s hard to imagine. He’s a sociopath. He’ll do things normal people wouldn’t even think of, and that’s the problem. Increasingly, the fight is centered on mail-in ballots because Donny knows he can’t cheat against those. They’re the safest form of voting so of course 47 decries them as the least safe form. Lying continues to be his favorite weapon.

Donny says voters are mad a Republicans, but not him. Those are just words. If he thought voters weren’t mad at him, he wouldn’t need to cheat like he’s planning. But he IS working to cheat so he must know voters ARE mad at him, right along with the rest of the Republicans. Why wouldn’t they be? What has Donny done for anyone but himself? I’ll tell you this: I, for one, AM mad a Republicans for being so spineless AND at 47 for being so evil, so I guess Donny’s wrong again…