Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Tuesday, October 13. 2015

A critique of Bernie Sanders

Via Bloomberg:



 “He is a progressive on the home front, but he is pretty reactionary when it comes to foreign policy,” says Gloria La Riva, the 2016 presidential nominee for the Party of Socialism and Liberation. “He supported the Israeli war against Gaza. He supports the drone bombing campaigns in other countries, which is a war crime. He has said that Cuba needs to be a democracy, but we believe Cuba already truly is a system for the people there.”



A system for the people. What an excellent idea.


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 18:56 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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How about Bloomberg on Bloomberg?
When will someone campaign to toss his hat in the ring.

NS
#1 ns on 2015-10-13 19:53 (Reply)
Freedom remains the revolutionary idea. Freedom means freedom from governments.
#2 Bird Dog on 2015-10-13 19:58 (Reply)
I think you're oversimplifying this very important political ideal.

freedom from government means no policeman to stop the home invader, no navy to stop the pirates and no zoning to stop me from building my extremely unsafe dynamite factory next to the Farm. unless you're arguing in conclusory terms where "freedom from government" means "freedom from everything the government does that I don't like", and you're not doing that, right?

so its really a matter of balance, as with all things. what you probably want is a government enforced structure that safeguards personal liberties and balances individual rights against other individual rights against public interests. but this is a republic, and that means a lot of compromise, so no one gets whatever he wants.
#2.1 Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz on 2015-10-13 21:42 (Reply)
Yes Donnie, all politicians (sweeping phrase) make compromises. Figuring out the tradeoff, what is gained and what it costs, is Occam's Razor at work.

Something about "the greatest good for most of Us The People".
#2.1.1 chasmatic (Link) on 2015-10-14 13:29 (Reply)
which itself may or may not pass constitutional muster
#2.1.1.1 Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz on 2015-10-15 00:35 (Reply)
Socialism and liberation groups tend to define "the people" pretty flexibly. Those who disagree with them aren't the real people, but kulaks and planted imposters.

She has a point about Sanders, though. He and Trump both favor limiting immigration. He and Trump both favor taxing the ultra-rich. They simply appeal to constituents using different symbols.
#3 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2015-10-13 21:18 (Reply)
and "We The People" is a catchphrase for the reverse of the coin.
#3.1 Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz on 2015-10-13 21:43 (Reply)
Yes, Cuba is and has a system for the people...to keep them subservient.
#4 Sam L. on 2015-10-14 00:14 (Reply)
Well, you know, it's a system, and there are, uh, people living there....
#5 Texan99 on 2015-10-14 10:17 (Reply)
For the people, but not *of and by*.
#6 DanB on 2015-10-14 10:34 (Reply)
Not sure it matters to that guy, but how many of those people wanted to be systematized?

How many would vote for less systematization (in the unlikely event the system ever bothers to ask)?

I'm not the world's biggest fan of democracy, but I'd rather suffer its vagaries than be systematized, any day. I can see myself getting behind whatever party - or candidate - that is most against systematizing people.
#7 Thos. on 2015-10-14 18:05 (Reply)
You can have freedom or you can have socialism but you cannot have both. Some systems try to be hybrids but fail on both counts.
#8 GoneWithTheWind on 2015-10-15 11:05 (Reply)

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