Sunday, July 9, 2023

I blinked and...

 I was 81 years old. The last I remember I was in my 40's, confident, strong still, and eager. Where did the past 40 years go? Hell, I feel that I know less now than I did then. And, does aging make all feel more guilty that there is time to rectify?

When asked, "Do scientists and philosophers agree that consciousness is a product of the brain?" Microsoft Bing responded in part, "There is no consensus about how it is generated or how best to approach the question, but all investigations start with the incontrovertible premise that consciousness comes about from the action of the brain." Not so sure about that incontrovertible premise. Such would mean that if there is no detectible brain activity there is no consciousness. How can they tell? How do they know? As far as I can tell there is no agreed-upon definition of consciousness so how is it determined when it ceases to exist? 

The hard problem of consciousness is usually described by asking, how is it that we realize we are. and that material objects and possibly other life forms do not? 

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” —Attributed to Mark Twain


Sunday, May 21, 2023

8 Disturbing Similarities between the Democrat and Nazi Parties

 

By D. Parker

Steve McCann's "Eight Startling and Uncomfortable Ways the Democrat Party Emulates the Nazi Party" was just the tip of the National Socialist iceberg.

The fascist far left have always had to lie to survive.  They've always been on the wrong side of history, and the only way they can remain viable is by gaslighting people on a full-time basis.  For decades, their biggest lie has been that the supposedly pro-freedom side of the political spectrum, imbued in the precepts of individual liberty and limited government, is somehow connected to totalitarian collectivist regimes that displayed the exact opposite of those values.

Anyone who has debated leftists for the past few decades has been subjected to the same bluff abuse in their trying to maintain that nonsensical lie.  But the close similarities between fascism and communism have been obvious for at least 75 years:

"In certain basic respects — a totalitarian state structure, a single party, a leader, a secret police, a hatred of political, cultural and intellectual freedom — fascism and communism are clearly more like each other than they are like anything in between". 

—Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Associate Professor of History at Harvard, New York Times Magazine, Sunday, April 4, 1948 

Even if you set aside the preposterous argument that totalitarians would also be proponents of liberty and limited government, there are still a myriad of parallel characteristics between the Democrat party and the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party.  That's what was so startling about the first eight ways.  

Our follow-up along those lines will make the case even more. 

1. Democrats and the Nazis were/are obsessed with gun confiscation.   

We'll start with the one issue the fascist far left never bring up when they try to make their absurd claims: that the Democrats and the Nazis were obsessed with gun confiscation.  You will never hear them try to make this accusation of the pro-freedom right because even they know that their lies can only carry them so far.  This obvious common collectivist trait also destroys the far leftist mythology of the "party switch," which supposedly took place sometime in the late '60s.  This was one glaring item that didn't switch, so they avoid mentioning it.

Anyone who has been paying attention for the past few years knows that saying that the Democrats are obsessed with gun confiscation is an understatement of massive proportions.  Every day, it seems they've come out with a new scheme on the national, state, and local levels to deprive the people of their commonsense civil rights.

2. Democrats and Nazis are collectivists.

There are essentially two political philosophies: individualism and collectivism.  The fact is that all academic disciplines are based on foundational principles, and this is an ironclad rule that separates the two sides of the political spectrum and also eviscerates the fascist far left's biggest lie.  According to F.A. Hayek, students today are often taught that on the imaginary "political spectrum," socialism and communism are "left of center," and capitalism and fascism are "right of center."  This is frightfully misleading.  Socialism, communism and fascism are all peas in the same collectivist pod.  Hayek held that they all despised both competition and the individual, and he was precisely right.

3. The overarching philosophy of both Democrats and Nazis is centralized control.

The individualists on the pro-freedom side of the political spectrum favor liberty and limited government.  The collectivists of the anti-liberty side of the political spectrum favor control and unlimited government.  This can easily be seen in the Democrat's obsession with controlling not only basic liberties, but also gas stoves, dishwashers, and air-conditioners.

In the case of the German National Socialist Labor Party, this was set out as point 25 in their 25-point program:

25. In order to carry out this program we demand: the creation of a strong central authority in the State, the unconditional authority by the political central parliament of the whole State and all its organizations.

4. The centralized collectivist control philosophy of the Democrat and Nazi parties is epitomized in the phrase "the Common Good" (Gemeinnutz vor Eigennutz in the original German).

How many times have you heard the fascists of the far left parrot the phrase "the Common Good" when trying to shove a draconian, authoritarian rule down our throats?  The COVID crisis was particularly egregious in this regard, exemplified by this piece in USA Today: "The COVID culture war: At what point should personal freedom yield to the common good?"

5. Far-left fascists of the Democrat and Nazi parties see force as means to their political power.

While the German national socialist party exploited force, Democrats started the practice with the KKK and perfected it with the Burning, Looting, and Murder riots during the summer of 2020, making it clear to everyone that if they didn't get their way, the BLM violence would continue.

The tradition continues with Mr. Liberty Control himself, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), threatening a "popular revolt" if they don't get their way in ramming the pre-stages of gun confiscation down our throats.

6. Democrats and Nazis are proponents of single-party systems.

It should also be obvious that the authoritarians of the far left would love to keep everything nice and simple with a single party — theirs.  This is why the Nazis attacked the rival collectivists of the communist party.  Just like the rival factions of Islam, they had the same ideology; it's just that they wanted to be the people in control.

This was exemplified in a piece from the New Republic, "The Constitution Is the Crisis," with this lovely quotation: "We've seen multiple periods of one-party dominance in our history; we've also seen defeated political parties wither and die. Why shouldn't the Republican Party join them?"

7. Democrats and Nazis are fascistic.

You can always tell when a leftist defines fascism, because aside from the inevitable circular logic that supposedly prevents them from being fascist, such as oh, so cleverly labeling themselves as "anti-fascist," they will define the term based on an arbitrary set of subjective (and thus meaningless) criteria.

The fact is that fascism is based on several references.  When it's primarily defined as an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer.  

In present-day parlance, it's a "Public/Private" partnership, combining the worst aspects of unlimited governmental rule and corporate oligarchy, with the latter answering to the government instead of the customer.  The Bud Light debacle is a prime example.

When the Italian far left originally developed this reprehensible ideology 96 years ago, it was based on La Carta del Lavoro, translated as the Charter of Labor.  The New York Times enthused:

FASCISTI PROCLAIM 'CHARTER OF LABOR'; Mussolini Is Hailed as Prophet of Cooperative Industrial Peace Under the State. LABOR AND CAPITAL JOINED Document Declaring Rights and Duties Is Presented at Climax of Rome's 2,681st Birthday. 

ROME, April 21. — The Fascist "Charter of Labor," embodying the fundamental principles of the Fascist-Syndicalist State, which is based primarily upon the theory of replacing the class struggle by a fruitful cooperation between capital and labor under direct State control, was promulgated tonight by Premier Mussolini at a special meeting of the Fascist Grand Council.

Strangely enough, Democrats never refer to this founding document of their base ideology.  If you study any of their "academic" work on the subject, they tend to ignore these facts.

8. Democrats are striving for a totalitarian state structure and a single party like the Nazis.

Put all of this together, and you'll come to the inescapable conclusion that all of these parallels make the ironclad case that both parties are all too similar.

With with modern surveillance technology and tyrannical "innovations" like Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), the Democrats could make the Nazis look like amateurs.  This is why they have to be opposed with cultural guerrilla warfare every step of the way.

D Parker is an engineer, inventor, wordsmith, and student of history, the director of communications for a civil rights organization, and a long-time contributor to conservative websites.  Find him on Substack.

Sunday, August 14, 2022

The FBI

There is an accurate and insightful article in the American Thinker on August 14, 2022 that every American should read, especially members of congress. It is frightening to be confronted so openly of what we already suspected, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become monstrously totalitarian. The points made by Mr. Fitzgerald:

In addition to proclaiming the death of God, Nietzsche proclaimed the death of peoples.

There is a distinction between the state and the peoples.

Peoples existed before the state.

States claim to be identical with the peoples, thus stares are the biggest liars.

States stole the identity of the peoples, thus are the biggest thieves.

Every modern state is totalitarian, some more than others.

The biggest threat to the peoples of America is the omnipotence and omnipresence of the states' administration.

The FBI is the central part of the administration of the state. The two have collapsed into one.

There is no governing authority over the FBI. Neither the president, congress, the courts, other law enforcement agencies, nor the Department of Justice posses no power to oppose their jurisdiction.

The FBI does whatever it wants, to whomever it wants, wherever it wants.

The FBI has enormous intelligence gathering capability and no one at any level can know what it knows.

The FBI in effect is the "regulating finger of God."

The FBI most be reformed.



Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Only Thing They Didn't Do Was Arm Teachers and Students

 UCISD's (Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District-Texas) website states that the district has "proponents to curb and/or eliminate" elements of" violence, vandalism, disruptions and fear" in its schools to "provide a safe and secure environment for all." Those proponents include four officers, including a chief, a detective and two officers within the school district; partnerships with local law enforcement agencies; security staff that patrols door entrances and parking lots at secondary campuses; case managers and social workers on UCISD campuses; licensed counselors; threat assessment teams; social media threat monitoring; a visitor management security system; canine detection services; motion detectors and alarm systems; perimeter fencing at Robb and other schools; security vestibules and outside buzz-in systems; security cameras; a locked classroom door policy; staff and student training; and a threat reporting system. https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-mass-shooting-school-district-security-measures

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Biden's Wimpy Approach to Russia

 Putin is a self-proclaimed bully with a known agenda. He is intent on restoring the territory previously governed by the USSR and will do so when necessary with military force. He will push and push until he accomplishes his goal or is stopped. In any case he will have bullied his way into increasing Russia's hegemony. Actually, smelling America's leadership weakness (military as political) and lack of resolve emanating from woke stupidity, he has already done so with impunity.

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Why Sanctions on Russia Will Not Work

 Geez, aren't we aware of Russia's history of peasant misery? The ruling elite, be they Tzars or "democratically" elected leaders have never hesitated to sacrifice Russian citizens to their and their friends and relatives advantage. The more the merrier. 

Because sanctions on any major country also affect the citizens of the countries levying the sanctions, the question becomes, who has the political will to hang on the longest? Citizens of communist countries, short of a national revolution, have no opportunity to voice their displeasure with their government. The governments of many member states of NATO, on the other hand, can be readily influenced by a dissatisfied citizenry. The United States under Biden, for example, has already experienced a record inflationary increase causing prices to soar. People are already unhappy. Biden warned that they will likely go higher should there not be a quick resolution to the Ukraine thing.

What do you think will happen? 

Sunday, November 21, 2021

There Would Be a Time for Mourning

 The following is from the book: Helmet for My Pillow: from Parris Island to the Pacific, Robert Leckie.

"It is not always or immediately saddening to hear “who got it.” Except for one’s close buddies, it is difficult to feel deep, wracking grief for the dead, and now, hearing the lieutenant tolling off the names, I had to force my face into a mask of mourning, deliberately adorn my heart with black, as it were, for I was shocked to gaze inward and see no sorrow there. Rather than permit myself to know myself a monster (as I seemed, then) I deliberately deluded myself by feigning bereavement. So did we all."

About 20 years after Robert's experience, I, upon the combat loss of comrades, thought myself to be psychologically defective when I felt much the same following combat losses over the longest five years. Others, with whom I spoke about this feeling agreed that they, in wonder, felt the same. When the task was mine to write condolence letters I felt, guiltily, that I was just making up the proper words and phrases. I didn't really feel them. I consoled myself with the thought that there would be a time for morning. And I have now lived long enough to realize that truth. I don't remember most of their names, but I see them and their deaths or ghastly wounds vividly many-a-night in nightmares. I don't dream about successes or victories, but the events that resulted in horror.