Below is my column in The Hill on Mamdani’s full-throated pledge to introduce New Yorkers to “the warmth of collectivism.” We have been here before…
Here is the column:
This week, Seattle and New York swore in socialist mayors in what many are portraying as a new era for the Democratic Party and the nation. Of course, it is only “new” for the young voters who have no memory of the economic and political meltdowns of socialist and communist governments in the late 20th Century. Nevertheless, many of them were thrilled as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared at his inauguration that he would introduce the city to “the warmth of collectivism.”
The wind blowing from the West to the East coasts is familiar to many of us who lived through the 1970s and 1980s. In my forthcoming book, I discuss this shift toward socialism as a new generation replicates the same failed policies that marked a long line of collectivist catastrophes.
The current rhetoric and divisions are strikingly similar to the conditions that brought socialist François Mitterrand to power in France in 1981, promising a “rupture with capitalism.” It was a heady time for armchair Marxists. He was sworn into office just weeks after the election of an unknown socialist as mayor of Burlington, Vt. named Bernie Sanders.
Sanders was there this week to give the oath of office to Mamdani after thrilling the crowd with promises of going to war with the “billionaire class” and “wealthy oligarchs.”
Mamdani then repeated his pledge to govern as a socialist and listed off his pledges of free buses and other benefits of socialism. Mamdani had previously pledged everything from free buses to making “Halal eight bucks again.” As a rising socialist activist, he also called for “seizing the means of production.”
The problem with socialism, as Margaret Thatcher observed, is that you “eventually run out of other people’s money.” Such details are a distraction if you listen to Mamdani. After the mayor said that the free buses would be paid for by increasing state taxes on the rich, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) nixed the idea, knowing her state is already facing an exodus of high-earning taxpayers. When confronted by that refusal and asked how he would pay for the program, Mamdani shrugged and said, “The most important fact is that we fund it, not the question of how we do it, but that we do it.”
It is that easy. Mitterrand promised the same magical economic results for the working class. He even appointed Andre Henry as the Minister of Free Time to assist citizens in their new socialist leisure. As I explain in “Rage and the Republic,” the French economy collapsed, as the British economy had earlier during the “winter of discontent” under Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan. Britain was even forced to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund.
Both France and Britain would later reintroduce capitalist policies and roll back socialist policies to stop the economic collapse.
We also tried collectivist policies in cities across this country, including a commune on Long Island called Modern Times (now called Brentwood). It lasted about ten years before collapsing.
But the greatest fear is not the replication of failed economic policies, but the assault on individual rights that is sure to come with it. Socialist and communist systems emphasize collective over individual interests. Mamdani also touched on that theme in his inauguration, promising to replace “the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.’”
Noting the millions who died under socialist governments, Bishop Robert Barron responded dryly on social media: “For God’s sake, spare me the ‘warmth of collectivism.’”
Even Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy, Kirill Dmitriev derided Mamdani’s speech by noting that the new mayor was “doing a solid job steering the U.S. toward Communism.” He wrote “Dear Comrade Mamdani — just a friendly reminder that this has been tried before.”
What is striking about Mamdani in New York and Katie Wilson in Seattle is that they have virtually no real experience in running anything. Indeed, with the exception of a few organizing and college positions, this is believed to be the first major job Wilson has ever held. Both are socialist organizers who have now been handed the mayoral jobs in two of the largest cities in the U.S. on promises to bring about “the warmth of collectivism.”
Of course, neither has come close to a utopian collective outside of a Marxist 101 college course. But it does not matter. In New York, voters have been promised that they will soon be munching on eight-dollar Halal meals on free buses.
Like promises of shares in the Brooklyn Bridge or five-dollar solid gold watches from street slicks, this grift is one of the oldest pitches in politics. But it has been decades since someone ran the scam on a large scale. Fittingly, some participants at Mamdani’s inauguration complained that it lacked any food, music, or bathrooms. On a cold, miserable Friday, the new budding socialists had to stand outdoors and imagine the “warmth of collectivism” coming in the new utopia known as New York.
It seemed Mamdani had already achieved true equality for everyone in attendance.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the forthcoming “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution” on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
When 40% are workers and 60% are wokers soon they will come and take what you have buit and earned… of course the deliberately unemployables are salivating.
Great point.
Were slave auctions a product of capitalism?
Auctions sell property. Slavery exists only after a society first decides people are property. That decision has nothing to do with capitalism and everything to do with moral failure.
Slavery survives under any ideology that subordinates the individual to the collective or the state. That’s the throughline history actually shows.
It also survived where private plantation owners owned them as private property, like a mansion or a yacht.
Oh my read the comment above. Slavery exists due to a moral failure not due to capitalism. Another example of the failure of our education system. Reading comprehension failure.
What was done with all of that cotton and sugarcane? Was it sold? Was it turned into
other products?
Why dies that matter ?
Free markets are not about buying and selling those are nearly as old as humanity.
They are about FREEDOM – the oposite of slavery.
Slavery is the extreme deprivation off liberty – the opposite of free market capitalism and the most extreme form of socialism.
The Gulag Archipelago
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D87JHLZ?binding=paperback&searchxofy=true&qid=1767671883&sr=8-1
The founders of the USA sought freedom to own slaves.
Even marx found it imposible to have communism without property.
Contra left wing nuts – property is not a creation of capitalism.
The ownership of people predates money much less the far more recent capitalism and free markets.
When New York City implodes, the last voice they will hear is Emily Litella saying “Never mind.” What if the true long game is hollow out the city, contact the First Nations to let them know that if they return the beads, they can have the land back. Lowers the carbon footprint.
The capitalists already wiped out the garment district in New York and sent it to China and Bangladesh, among other places. Fashion is still created there and sold there, but the manufacturing of it is almost entirely gone.
Trade on Wall Street has gone global except for the micro-traders that have sub millisecond access that allows them to take a few pennies on each stock sale and siphon billions of dollars out of the market.
It is a huge city in a world that doesn’t really need huge cities; the capitalists have abandoned it as they are mainly slash and burn economically.
Communal Apartments at their finest. Enjoy the company.
The best place to read the latest news, is in the bathroom. I’ve been there for a few hours and need more toilet paper.
Use the NYT, Sunday edition, that’s alot of sheets…
Amateur hour at Mary a Logo “Situation” (AKA Play) Room.
The computer screen behind secretary of (make shift) war mongerer shows an X screen.
Yep, the Secretary of “war” had to make sure his X feed was up so he can get accolades and especially so he can praise dear leader for his impeccible leadership in his first war mongerer in chief play time.
Disgusting bunch of children.
Is there anything in your post that is relevant ?
Who cares what is on some screen ?
I care what the executive accomplishes.
GDP up from 0.6% in jan 2.25 to 4.8% in Dec. 3% average for the year.
Government jobs cut by 300K – not enough but a start.
Approx 300B of waste fraud and abuse eliminated – not enough but a start.
980K illegal immigrants deported – 42% convicted criminals, 45% suspected criminals.
1.4M illegal immigrants who self deported.
Interest rates down – not enough but a start
Inflation down – not enough but a start.
Significant progress towards lasting peace in Ukraine and Israel. More to do, but more progress than the entire prior 5 years.
Nationwide reduction in crime
Nationwide reduction in drug deaths.
Maduro – out of power.
Pweformance of US military in accomplishing that – Stellar and a message to despots arround the world.
A warning to China about the cost to messing with Taiwan and the US navy.
Cuban special forces – wiped out.
Delta Causalities ZERO.
Iran collapsing.
Russia and China disempowered globally.
Cuba failing.
Projected 2026 Growth 4.8%.
Gas prices down
oil production up.
new investment in the US $16T.
and on and on.
These are things that matter – not your ranting about X being up on a screen.
Like a bunch of kids at a birthday party. You must be so proud of your manbaby king. Keep drinking the koolaide.
Again – what do you think the goal is ?
To worship or pi$$ over the president ?
Or to unF#$K the mess that the left has made of the country ?
You keep telling us that Trump will be a disaster as president.
While he does not LITERALLY deliver on his promises – which no one expected – There was no “Day One” this or :”Day one” that.
But if you go though his platform which is what he inteds to accomplish in 4 years – significant parts have been accomplished or are well under way – and it has not quite been one year.
Further – you do not have to agree with the entire platform – unless you are a complete twat there are atleast a few platform points that nearly everyone agrees on.
Are you so much of an idiot that you somehow think you are going to get a president that EXACTLY matches your personal wishes ?
No presidential candidate in my lifetime – not even the libertarians have perfectly matched what I beleive the correct policies are.
Only total narcicists expect a president that is a mirror reflection of themselves.
Your lucky if you can life with 50% of what they wish to do, and if there is nothing that they wish to do that thoroughly pi$$es you off.
That is reality – it is reality for EVERY presidential canditate for the past 65 years.
What is unusual about Trump is that he is actually trying in all cases and in many cases succeeding in delivering his campaign promises.
What does that mean ? Unlike every other president in my lifetime – you can TRUST him.
That does NOT mean you will get what you want out of him.
But it does mean that if he says he will do something you like – he will do it.
And if he says he will do something you do not like – he will do it.
As Turley has said – Trump is the most transparent president in US history.
Everyone KNOWS what his goals are – go read agenda 47. It is all there.
I can provide you with a list of objections I have to Trump’s platform.
But it is not a long list. Further nothing on that list is a deal breaker.
Biden promised to be one thing and as president he was something entirely different – something very bad, and something disasterous.
Obama and Bush promised to be things they were not.
Trump is exactly who he says he is.
You want to have a serious debate over issues – fine – there are lots of things Trump has done that I think he should not have done, or that he should have done differently.
But NONE of them are a “threat to democracy”. NONE of them are the slightest unusual for past presidents.
But what do we have from the left – this is illegal, that is illegal, this is unconstitutional, that is unconstitutional – and this from people who try to game the law and constitution at every chance.
If you were not the party that tried to wipe out $2T in student loans with the stroke of the presidents pen – then MAYBE claims of illegality or unconstitutionality would be taken seriously. But your not serious about the law or constitution – and you just look like fools when you pretend you are.
Worse still – there is nothing unusual about Trump’s actions – except that they are at odds with your ideology. They are closer to conformance with the constitution and the law than anything nearly all other presidents expecially democrats have done.
I did not vote for Trump – I also did not vote for Clinton, Biden, or Harris and there was no chance in h311 that I would.
I have however voted for both democrats and republicans in the past.
None were perfect – I did not expect parfect. I live in the real world.
Again – you want to have a debate – Fine – can YOU have a rational debate ?
Do not make lunatic arguments that we are facing the Trumpocalopse. Or that 2024 was the last election.
I am not interested in a debate with a fool.
You do not have to like Trump but you do have to stop lying if you wish to have any credibility
“Quiet, Quiet Piggy”
GDP without lower and middle class pay increases; the majority of Americans see zero benefit from it and, instead, see inflated prices from more expensive goods. Raise the price of a product from $1.00 to $1.05 and, poof, the contribution to the GDP is up 5%.
No waste or fraud was eliminated. These were programs proposed by Congress and signed into law by the President. They didn’t directly benefit the backers of the Heritage Foundation and so the Heritage Foundation wants to kill them.
Interest rates may be down, but they are already close to 0 at the Fed that it will soon require paying people to take cash to get any improvement. Note that credit cards are still going with 18-25%, and an astonishing number of Americans have trouble catching up when they have large balances. At the same time banks are tweaking overdraft fees and the way that checks are processed to maximize their take at the expense to consumers of over $1 Trillion a year. Instead of returning a check for insufficient funds, they push it for overdraft ahead of other checks, multiplying what might have been a single overdraft into dozens.
He’s done nothing in Israel but turn his back on the continuing torture of the Palestinian civilians by the Israelis.
There’s been no visible progress in Ukraine. Putin has one goal – the capture and elimination of Ukraine, including all the native speakers in it. That’s why his targets have included Ukrainian cultural sites, museums, and other uniquely Ukranian creations, such as the giant aircraft they obliterated. And why he kidnaps children for brainwashing back in Russia. Any negotiation is a waste of time and an extra chance for Putin to push his meat-grinder strategy.
Crime has been falling for decades; drug deaths have been falling as Narcan access becomes more widespread. Trump had nothing to do with either one.
Oh, no! Not a warning to China! Golly gee whillikers. They have a 5,000 year track record of focusing on society. They are now leading in a great number of areas because, with over 1 Billion people, they have more chances of genius level creators than the US does.
Iran is collapsing for no reason related to Trump. Climate change is the chief victor there.
China is seeing more countries looking to drop the US dollar as the prime currency along with India, Brazil,and Russia.
Cuba’s failure has been just about to happen for nearly 70 years.
Gasoline prices are down because the winter blends are cheaper to make. Add in the settled jitters about Russia and Ukraine, with Russia failing to make gains in proportion to their spending and casualties.
That new investment is promised by people who want to be on Trump’s good side. There is little chance they will follow through because, as soon as Trump leaves, most of the hot air will also leave that particular balloon.
“Further – you do not have to agree with the entire platform – unless you are a complete twat…”
Anonymous, you proved John’s point. You are a twat. Everything fits on both sides of a column, so one needs to recognize that a singular point is meaningless without the others.
“Raise the price of a product from $1.00 to $1.05 and, poof, the contribution to the GDP is up 5%.”
Sort of, but you forget other indices that help to conclude, “good or bad.”
“He’s done nothing in Israel but turn his back on the continuing torture of the Palestinian civilians by the Israelis.”
Trump has done plenty, but your knowledge is too thin to recognize that. Yes, one can say many Palestinians are suffering, but it isn’t from the Israelis. It is from the terrorists who use and kill civilians. You don’t realize that Hamas is not the only group in Gaza, and these multiple groups fight one another. Most of the groups are terrorists.
Conclusion: You are a twat along with many bad personality traits.
The Situation Room exposure went to his head, Hegseth now has filed a citation against Mark Kelly, intending to reduce his rank and pension.
michael molovinsky says: The Situation Room exposure went to his head, Hegseth now has filed a citation against Mark Kelly, intending to reduce his rank and pension.
The voice of the Code Pink/Never Trumper fraudulent conservatives and libertarians is heard again. Where it wasn’t heard while Hegseth’s predecessor under Biden was AWOL and the Commander In Chief’s puppeteers weren’t even aware.
Where it wasn’t heard a single time while Hegseth’s predecessor under Biden was forcing Marxist Critical Black Racist History onto the military.
Where it wasn’t heard a single time commenting on Hegseth’s predecessor helping Biden abandon Afghanistan and enough weaponry to equip a small NATO nation (or an army of terrorists).
Where it wasn’t heard a single time commenting on Hegseth’s predecessor prioritizing recruiting from The Alphabet Sex Pride Tribe and it’s Furry Trannies.
Let’s have a big hand for Flight Leader Mark Kelly of the Blue Falcon Squadron, and Michael The Fraudulent Conservative who didn’t have anything negative to say about what Biden and his Marxist Warriors were doing to the military and Americans dependent on a meritorious military to protect our country and its citizens.
Trump left 85,000 pieces of equipment and only 2,500 soldiers when he left office. Just exactly what should Biden have done? Sent 100,000 soldiers to Afghanistan to get the stuff back, or realize that the military did what it normally does with used equipment and either simply left it there with no hope of spare parts or technical support or, the fun option, figure out ways to disable it? Why risk even more lives to get garbage back on a boat?
What really made it tricky was Trump’s deal with the Taliban to wait for Trump to leave office and they could have the country for themselves, including 5,000 trained Taliban troops that Trump sprang from prison.
Good.
Personally I think Kelley made a mistake. I think he should have apologized and that should have ended it.
But I do not beleive that he should have his rank or pension reduced – even though he needs neither.
But it is not the end of the world if minor military misconduct is punished more harshly than I would prefer.
I am not going to burn down the capital if a Drug dealer gets 3yrs instead of 2.
That said – there has been ALOT of malfeasance and some of it should be prosecuted.
I have no problem convicted James on the current evidence. I have no problem convicting Comey.
There are a very large number of people I would happily convict of violating 18 UCS 242 – the violation of individual rights under color of law.
That is a felony – but it comes with a max 1yr sentence and I would not send any of those I will like to see tried and convicted to jail.
But there must be consequences. Nor is this specifically about those who “wnet after Trump” for non crimes.
The people in government who surveiled Catholics or parents of school children or who engaged in the censorship of protected speech.
They should all be convicted.
John Say says: Personally I think Kelley made a mistake. I think he should have apologized and that should have ended it. But I do not beleive that he should have his rank or pension reduced – even though he needs neither.
If you support the government enforcing the rule of law where it concerns Illegal Aliens in this country,and nobody being above the law, then you as well as Kelly as a retired military officer, should ALSO be supporting the USMCJ and U.S.C regarding offences they committed after retiring at the rank they held.
Just as Ravensburg and the remainder of those generals and admirals commited offenses that were even worse during Trump’s first term should have faced trial under.
You can argue that in a trial of their peers they should be acquitted, but they and their conduct in retirement are still subject to those laws. You can even attempt the argument that those laws are unconstitutional, but you would have to find a defense lawyer for Kelly wanting to make that defense.
Would it have ended if Kelly and his flight of Blue Falcons had apologized? Almost certainly it would have. But they didn’t, and that’s why it didn’t end.
Kelly should be kissing his own lucky ass that he’s getting the easy way out with a reduction in rank and pension, rather than facing the exact same in a military or civilian trial.
“What is striking about Mamdani in New York and Katie Wilson in Seattle is that they have virtually no real experience in running anything. Indeed, with the exception of a few organizing and college positions, this is believed to be the first major job Wilson has ever held.” Stop bringing up Obama. LOL
And Pete Hegseth has experience running the United States Military?
Sheeeeeeeesh
And Pete Hegseth has experience running the United States Military?
A veteran of the Biden Antifa Brigades proclaims he has the combat experience from throwing Molotov Cocktails at the Secret Service to make an assessment of whether Hegseth’s multiple combat commands will make him more or less likely than his Biden predecessor to go AWOL. Or sign off on giving a country and thousands of American citizens to a group of multinational hajji terrorists.
Your move, Tovarisch…
Yep and she just dropped a good one on the Seattle police.
They can’t arrest drug users anymore. Seattle has enough issues, they don’t need this too.
New York Times; Washington DC Bureau
BREAKING NEWS: Trump’s Use Of Delta Force and FBI HRT To Arrest Maduro and Claim President Biden’s $25 Million Reward For His Arrest May Be Criminal
In a raid eerily reminiscent of the early warning military operation carried out by FBI Director Christopher Wray that resulted in Trump confidant Roger Stone and his wife being arrested after being awoken while sleeping in bed, Venezuela’s elected president Nicolas Maduro and his wife were arrested in a raid by the FBI and Delta Force on their home in Venezuela. While military helicopters circled overhead and US government agents dressed in tactical gear stood watch, Maduro and his wife were read their Miranda rights by FBI Special Agents, handcuffed, and taken into FBI custody.
Inside sources revealed to NYT investigative journalists that the real reason for the raid and arrests was Trump hoping to win the $25 million reward President Biden offered for Maduro’s arrest in January 2025. Legal analysts tell the Times that Trump’s actions co-opting the FBI and Delta Force to use in this attempt to claim the reward is unconstitutional and probably criminal
And here we are being told it was supposedly about stealing dirty Venezuelan oil that we do not need!
Trump can do damage for more than one reason at a time.
Maybe Maitreya Rael had it right after the hallucinations of voters in NYC and Seattle of life being so grand along Yellow Brick Road to perdition, where they cast out Common Sense and the historically recorded failures of any form of Socialism.
Comrade General Secretary Madmani was “elected” by people who were NEVER intended to vote by the American Founders, and they vote quite simply for “free stuff” and “free status,” which they are not inclined to work for.
_______________
“the people are nothing but a great beast…
I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”
– Alexander Hamilton
_________________________
“The true reason (says Blackstone) of requiring any qualification, with regard to property in voters, is to exclude such persons, as are in so mean a situation, that they are esteemed to have no will of their own.”
“If it were probable that every man would give his vote freely, and without influence of any kind, then, upon the true theory and genuine principles of liberty, every member of the community, however poor, should have a vote… But since that can hardly be expected, in persons of indigent fortunes, or such as are under the immediate dominion of others, all popular states have been obliged to establish certain qualifications, whereby, some who are suspected to have no will of their own, are excluded from voting; in order to set other individuals, whose wills may be supposed independent, more thoroughly upon a level with each other.”
– Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 1775
_______________________________________
“[We gave you] a [restricted-vote] republic, if you can keep it.”
– Ben Franklin, 1787
________________________
You couldn’t.
do you feel better, George, after repeating your same bullsh*t comments day after day, hour after hour, with not an original thought in sight? Darren, ban for life this nut case
“[We gave you] a [restricted-vote prohibiting Democratic Party communists] republic, if you can keep it.”
– Ben Franklin, 1787
________________________
And then we allowed the Confederate and now communist Democrats to exist and vote in violation of that restricted vote. So we couldn’t.
The overwhelming singular failure of the American republic rights and freedoms experiment has been voters allowing the continued existence of the vile and violent, seditious DNC and their equally vile members like X, The
Racist Democrat Communist Formerly Known As George. Who immediately elected republic-busting totalitarian racist Democrat presidents like Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Obama and Biden.
Only 360 more days of repetitive daily failure remaining in 2026, X/George/Anonymous.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. The devil calls good evil, and evil good. Mamdani calls collectivism warm, and individualism cold. In fact collectivism is lonely and cold, the collective has no soul, it is a sinister false god, a spiritual evil. Only the individual has a soul.
Ayn Rand wrote about the soul of a collectivist, and the soul of an individualist.
“The theme of Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead is: individualism versus collectivism, not in politics, but in man’s soul.”
https://courses.aynrand.org/works/the-soul-of-a-collectivist/
Her collection of essays, For the New Intellectual, is worth re-reading in an age where a politician who wins election as mayor of the nation’s largest city refers, devil-like, to the supposed warmth of collectivism.
A 10-page essay worth reading: The Soul of an Individualist.
https://www.tomrichey.net/uploads/3/2/1/0/32100773/the_soul_of_an_individualist.pdf
The entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, CRT, DEI, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, PBS, NPR, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense, and “general Welfare”–ALL or THE WHOLE WELL PROCEED through governmental provision of security and basic infrastructure–omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual Welfare, specific Welfare, particular Welfare, favor, or charity. The same Article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY the Value of money, Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes, and land and naval Forces.
Further, the 5th Amendment right to private property was initially qualified by the Framers and is, therefore, absolute, allowing no further qualification, and allowing ONLY the owner the power to “claim and exercise” dominion over private property.
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals, while government is severely limited and restricted to facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security such as police and fire and basic infrastructure, services, and commodities such as roads, post offices, water, and electricity.
The Necessary and Proper Clause is nothing more than a perfunctory redundancy for the purposes of clarification—a reinforcement of that which was previously codified—and may not be wielded to amend and impose separate acts that do not represent but alter the letter and spirit of the Founders and Framers.
Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto 59 years after the adoption of the Constitution because none of the principles of the Communist Manifesto were in the Constitution. Had the principles of the Communist Manifesto been in the Constitution, Karl Marx would have had no reason to write the Communist Manifesto. The principles of the Communist Manifesto were not in the Constitution then, and the principles of the Communist Manifesto are not in the Constitution now.
What we’re seeing here is less an economic argument than a civic one. In my book Awakening a Forgotten Republic, I describe this as national dysphoria: “Just as personal dysphoria manifests through disconnection from reality, national dysphoria manifests through disconnection from history. When a nation loses its past, it loses its purpose” (Ch. XIV, pp. 131–132).
A nation suffering national dysphoria does not lose freedom by force; it gives it away in exchange for promises that feel compassionate and cost responsibility.
Trading slaves happened under capitalism.
“Capitalism” was used as a pejorative by Karl Marx.
Slavery was legalized under freedom, free enterprise, free commerce, free industries, free markets, free deployment of all asset classes, etc.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AI Overview
Slavery was indeed a legal institution in the British colonies that became the United States throughout the entire period from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in
1619 to 1789, the year the U.S. Constitution took effect.
1619: Arrival and Early Legal Status. In August 1619, “twenty and odd” enslaved Africans were brought to Point Comfort, Virginia. Initially, their legal status was somewhat ambiguous, with some possibly treated similarly to indentured servants (who would eventually gain freedom).
Codification of Slavery. Over the following decades, colonial assemblies passed laws that established and hardened the institution of racial, hereditary slavery. For example, Massachusetts was the first colony to legally recognize slavery in its 1641 Body of Liberties, and Virginia codified in the 1660s that a child’s slave status would follow that of their mother.
Slavery in the New Republic. By the time of the American Revolution, slavery was legally established in all Thirteen Colonies. The institution was a major point of contention during the drafting of the U.S. Constitution in 1787; compromises were made to protect slavery where it existed to ensure the Southern states would join the new Union. The Constitution explicitly acknowledged slavery through clauses like the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause, though it did not use the word “slavery”.
Slavery was legalized under freedom, free enterprise, free commerce, free industries, free markets, free deployment of all asset classes, etc.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AI Overview
Only 360 remaining days of Confederate Kluxxer failure in 2026, X/George/Anonymous…
My, my!!! You’ve overestimated your ability to start with some snippet from the ever trustworthy AI, and then heavily edit it to support Confederate Kluxxer’s new version of history.
How could we have ever noticed it was actually you from the style of the writing you copy and paste here verbatim day to day, rather than an allegedly unbiased AI.
Same rule for programming applies to X/George/Anonymous and AI: insert shyte into it, and don’t be expecting Fruit Loops when you get shyte coming out.
@Anonymous
You make stupid people recoil in embarrassment. Hope your chump change is worth it. You are going to have to deal with the consequences of your life down the road just like anyone else.
Truly, a pity, you are, to not realize you will not be the age you are now forever. But that is the plague of your generation. Reality will be most harsh for you and your cohort. Honestly. Many millennials will be a lost generation, just like their hippy parents that didn’t strike gold.
I feel bad for you. We will grieve for your idiocy, because you could have amounted to so much more, but then, we will carry on. And we will pat you on the back with a, ‘There, there.’, at that time, when the people that propped you up financially are dead and buried, and you have literally no one else to turn to. Bet your life on it: that day is coming, and sooner than you think.
Slavery didn’t come from capitalism. It survived wherever human beings were treated as collective property instead of individual persons. It ended when societies recognized unalienable rights. Blaming capitalism for slavery requires ignoring most of human history.
Capitalism says you can own property, and humans were considered property, so, uh, yeah.
Trading slaves happened under capitalism.
Enslaving entire nations under communism and Muslim nations began 50 years after slave trading in capitalist Western countries ended.
A century later, no capitalist nation still practices slavery – while communist and Islamic states still continue the practice of communism.
Your move, Tovarisch…. don’t do the Drop A Democrat Dump To Deflect And Disappear!
To all you commenters. If you think that Mamdani will force socialism or communism on NYC in 4 year, or even 8 years, you are truly delusional.
You’re a bunch of whipped up by Fox news know-nothings nothings.
Of course he will not.
But he will either massively disappoint his voters or he will succeed in some things that will prove disastrous.
Regardless the election of Mamdani in NYC is a gift to Republicans.
How well did socialism work forr the people of venezuella or Cuba, or Cambodia, or china or the USSR or .anywhere.
Hell yeah brother! Don’t forget Portugal, Norway Sweden Finland Vietnam. Chinas got what, the 2nd largest economy in the world imagine, if it was capitalist. Same with USSR, am I right. Imagine if USSR wasnt communist it would have definitely ranked higher than the 2nd largest industrialized nation in the world. Down with those commies
COMMUNISM IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
The Supreme Court Justices swore an oath to support the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution.
The natural, God-given, and absolute right to private property was expressed and conferred upon Americans by the 5th Amendment.
Communism denies the right to private property.
The anti-American and anti-Constitution direct and mortal enemy, Madmani, must be struck down by the Supreme Court beginning with the abrogation of rent, price, and wage controls and other unconstitutional interference with the operation of private property free enterprises and private property industries, including the enforcement of trespass laws, denial of service, etc., which are determined only by the owner of private property.
___________________________________________________________________
“[Private property is] that dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual.”
– James Madison
_____________________
“The theory of the Communists may be summed up in a single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
– Karl Marx
______________
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the MANIFEST TENOR of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what [their powers] forbid.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
What if humans are considered private property?
Is it legal under the laws enacted by a legislative body that was established by representative self-government?
If a construction worker falls to his death from a skyscraper while doing stuff for his capitalist employer and the owner of the building, would this count as a capitalist death?
“Capitalism” was used as a pejorative by Karl Marx.
In America, it’s not capitalism; it’s freedom, free enterprise, free commerce, free industries, and free markets in conjunction with severely limited and restricted government—see Article 1, Section 8.
Under your communism, it’s the unconstitutional “dictatorship of the proletariat (i.e. hired help)” and forcibly imposed “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
No.
People dying from normal causes that exist in all societies can not be attributed to ideology unless there are a disproportionate number.
Are you claiming that workers do not fall to their death building tall buildings in Russia ro China ?
In fact the death rate of workers both in specific jobs and overal correlates strongly to standard of living.
The higher the standard of living the lower the rate of workplace deaths and injuries.
And free markets demonstrably raise standard of living faster than anything else.
The workplace rates of deaths and injury are lower for free markets than for socialst states – because statards of living are higher.
In my simple mind, the reasons for Mamdani’s election were two fold: 1) Mamdani has an engaging persona: articulate with an electric smile and 2) the alternatives, chiefly Andrew Cuomo, provided uninspiring warmed over goods. Many people make decisions based on an emotional sense of the person rather then through some rigorous analytical method. Like it or not, Mamdani was democratically elected. It will be an interesting experiment to watch – from afar.
“The devil doesn’t come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for.”
Good one.
“The “News-Herald” says “….mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, whose foreign policy credentials are akin to dining at International House of Pancakes.”
Have deaths ever occurred because of the bad decisions of capitalists?
Have deaths ever occurred because of the bad decisions of capitalists?
More or less deaths than from the bad/evil decisions of Marxists like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Ho Chi Min, Pol Pot, Castro, etc?
Your move, Tovarsich Fraudulent Moral Equivalency…
This is your cue to end this session of Drop A Democrat Dump To Deflect And Disappear.