Perspectives Of A Soviet Immigrant (No. 6)Posted 02/02/2010 07:24 PM ET
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Perspectives of a Russian Immigrant
There was an old Soviet saying: If you need to find food to fill your refrigerator, plug it into the microphone of a party leader giving a speech.
Today in America, if we plug a refrigerator into our leader's teleprompter, I suspect the refrigerator will stop working.
Democratic party leaders speak incessantly of limiting profits and regulating salaries.
It brings back to memory another Soviet line: You pretend you are paying us salaries, and we pretend we are working. If bureaucrats predetermine the value of your work, there is no incentive to be productive. This is the quickest way to kill a dynamic economy.
I never expected to hear this kind of rhetoric in the USA. Today, the American educational machine teaches exactly the same points the Soviets taught.
It idealizes Socialist societies and denigrates America, especially its economic system.
American students are brainwashed to despise economic freedom and to yearn for a big government state.
Freed from their parents' control, but intimidated by the relentlessly negative portrayal of America, young Americans look for politicians to show them the way.
As someone who experienced real government-approved anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, I am amazed by the obliviousness of American Jews, the most fervent supporters of left-wing politics.
They support a party that is obsessed with pitting one group against another, and that incessantly plays on envy and hatred for bankers, rich people, big business and doctors.
They fail to notice that the success of Jews, as well as other minorities, in the sciences, business and arts is directly correlated to their freedom from oppressive, centralized control. American Jews who support big government do not understand what their ancestors escaped from.
Persecutions of Jews throughout history all have one thing in common: a centralized power that manipulates and directs people's anger away from themselves onto an easy target.
No matter how much Jews align themselves with the power structure and work for noble causes, they will remain an easy target.
As they said in the Soviet Union pertaining to Soviet Jews: They don't beat your record; they beat your face — meaning that no matter how much you try to assimilate, no matter how many good deeds you do, the centralized power can direct populist anger toward you and crush you when it suits them.
When the Bolsheviks took power after the 1917 proletarian revolution, their first steps were to take control of the banks and the media.
Of course, it is not fair to compare our current American democratic leaders with the Bolsheviks.
Yes, they both use the same slogans in their speeches.
Yes, they both stir up envy and class warfare to distract from their failures.
Yes, both political movements sought control of the banks as the foundation for their new egalitarian vision.
And yes, they are both opposed to free speech, as was made clear by the reaction of American leftists to the recent Supreme Court decision.
But you would never find a Czar anywhere in the Soviet government.
• Kunin lived in the Soviet Union until 1980, working as a civil engineer. She is now a retired software developer living in Connecticut.
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Z: The article above is worth thinking about but, of course, if we draw any similarities between Bolsheviks and Barack, we're 'silly Conservatives only interested in bringing Obama down.' (Although, from FOX's ratings, I think that attitude's changing, folks...I reall
And, of course, instead of heeding the warnings of people who write articles like the one above, our country's more interested in FINALLY coming up with something AGAINST SARAH PALIN! They FINALLY found something!! My Gosh, the Left's been so busy you'd think it wouldn't have taken this long, don't you? Take a close look at the article. Nothing much there, folks, but it merits YAHOO Homepage HEADLINES!! :-) Information that's really important, like the education information Chuck Thinks Right printed, or THIS or THIS and so many other important things wouldn't make it to YAHOO, but anything against Sarah Palin sure would!
z
19 comments:
"I never expected to hear this kind of rhetoric in the USA." Neither did I. Look what Obama has done in only one year.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
If those cabins had belonged to Gore or Kerry or anyone on the left only the National Enquirer would have cared. This is not her crime. Her crime is not knowing her place and bowing down and kissing the feet of Ivy League snobs like a good country bumpkin should.
Debbie, neither did I, that's for SURE. IMagine a president who says "for profit" like it's disdainful. And he wonders why our economy's tanking?
Shoprat, remember how the media tried to keep Gore and Edwards' huge homes quiet...particularly how much CARBON FOOTPRINT Gore's has? And how he flies around in private jets as he's speaking GREEN?
Palin's bills on those properties go to their partner in the ownership of those homes; apparently, she's supposed to be RIGHT ON IT at ALL TIMES and know all the tax requirements!
Typical of the hypocritical Leftwingers.
I do enjoy thinking that the DNC is STILL paying lefty trolls to KEEP DIGGING INTO ANYTHING PALIN...
But, of course, they're NOT afraid of her :-)
Don't we have tax cheats in the administration of a scale that makes Palin's alleged state-level no-goodery rather insignificant?
Obama still needs to explain what the Bolsheviks would have disagreed with in his health reform proposals.
If BO's hands aren't tied, he can do tons of damage in the next 3 years. Like Debbie said, "Look what Obama has done in only one year."
Much hay will be made of Palin's oversight whereas we will hardly hear about the corruption in DC and in BO's cabinet and czardom.
For one thing, we don't know what the laws or ordinances are in Alaska, and btw, who cares?
If construction isn't finished, the fact that it's habitable doesn't mean that's the requirement for assessment.
Amazing isn't it, to what lengths the left will go to attempt to ruin someone? Whatever the taxes are on that property, we in California would love to be able to buy acres of land for $30,000!
Your first article is much more important than a couple of cabins Palin owns a share of. It's indicative of how desperate the left is to divert attention from what's really going on with the administration.
I suspect this info was released today, because Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak at the tea party convention. The left, I suspect, is more worried about the tea party movement. It had a big role in electing Scott Brown, and will continue to play a role in upcoming elections.
Sarah Palin's embracing the tea parties, gives them an added draw to the movement, and more attention by the media. I think that's what's in play here.
Pris
Pris, it's the same reason CNN ran stories on Scott Brown's nude picture when he was 22 all day yesterday, the day he was sworn in.
Typical, isn't it.
Pictures, his interview with B Walters (Why?), etc etc....
NUDE SCOTT BROWN all day.... what a coincidence!
and yes, Palin's talking and the story comes out.
Man, the left is SO DAMNED scared!
I heard today that the press corps (that's pronounced CORE, of course, unlike Obama's pronunciation you've all heard about by now)isn't getting the press conferences with this president that they've had in the past. He simply won't take questions that aren't on point, he simply can't think out of the box and can't risk not knowing the facts and figures, I guess...
of course, it's not the leftwing press discussing this. Just another think I'LL be discussing today on BlogTalk with Always on Watch.
From the articls: "Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said it is not the responsibility of property owners to report structures that go up on their land.
"'It is the borough's job,' he said in an e-mail. 'The property taxes on this parcel are fully paid and have never been delinquent.'"
It was a bogus charge to begin with. A very misleading headline, but typical.
Great article, Z. I think a major part of the problem in the countries of the Western world is perpetrated through the educational system. Too much obfuscation about the true nature of socialism and those that have been powerful advocates for socialism. Nobody talks about the simple truth that some of the greatest darlings of the educated Western mind were doctrinaire socialists — two of whom were John Maynard Keynes and George Bernard Shaw, both charter members of the British Fabian Socialist movement. They were imported into Canada and the United States. And they were both ugly socialists to the root. They only differed from the radical revolutionaries of socialism such as Lenin, in that they advocated for "gradualism" in implement the system of enslavement.
How many schools over the past several decades have had required reading in the writings of GBS? How many educated economists graduate today without being taught the "socialist economic" of John Maynard Keynes?
It's always good to hear these low-lifes explain their futuristic thinking in their own words as GBS does here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQvsf2MUKRQ
Waylon
Zee! Good Posting...
The Main Thrust of the Progressive
Party is 'redistribution of wealth'. When carefully analysed it's skimming from the legitimate profits from the producers of wealth (the job-creators) and handing a large share of these gains over to non-producers.
Question: If you are a "producer",
how long are you willing to keep on with your efforts? How long before you STOP producing "Goods & Services"...and providing JOBS?
reb
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You would think (if one were capable of thinking, so let me be clear I'm specifically excluding leftists) that if it were such a discredit to his political views that Scott Brown once "posed nude" for a photo in a magazine that we wouldn't hear a peep out of all the Hollywood liberal actors and actresses that have shown skin in movies and magazines over the years.
Ronald Reagan, and not FDR is his most relevant role model. We've got a real problem on our hands if that's the case.
-- CRE is in hopeless freefall-- meaning businesses are closing, not being replaced, and not opening.
-- Option ARMs are only just beginning to recast.
-- Foreclosures are not only rising, but, because of the first two bullets, are about to explode (just in time for elections!). No signs of effective help coming. Property values everywhere are going to take another big plunge very soon.
-- Bankruptcies, both personal, and corporate, are way up.
-- Banks are only lending to each other, but raising fees and rates on customers.
-- Budgets from the Household to the Federal level are all falling deeper into the red. Cities and over 1/3 of all states are insolvent. US debt is pushing 95% of GDP.
-- No sign of Banksters being held accountable. The Bushies are getting exonerated for some reason.
-- Reform and regulation Bills are getting so watered-down, they end up being gifts to the industries they are intended to punish.
-- We're still in two elective wars.
-- Infrastructure is breaking down in palpable ways (see Jackson County, MS, and Colorado Springs, CO.)
-- There is no sign of effective and useful Energy, Transportation, or Land/Water use policy designed to get people working, traveling smarter, or helping us, down here, in any practical way. No real interest in upgrading infrastructure into the 21st Century.
No green shoots. No "Morning for America."
Barry says, "Don't give up on him?" Hell, I've given up on not just him and Congress, I've given up on the entire, rotting, existing paradigm. There is no sustainable future for the status quo, and no unified vision to get us where we need to go. So, from where I'm sitting, they are all spending their time skimming as much loot as possible before it all collapses. The last act of scoundrels.
How many schools over the past several decades have had required reading in the writings of GBS?
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You think "Major Barbara" is being taught in public schools? I wish.
How about "Pygmalion"? You really think there are enough teachers in America who understand his discourse on language and class structure? Hardly.
But let's keep 'em dumb, eh Waylon?
Ducky, I say get smart. Put GBS in the contest in which he should be understood. As hea said his aims were political and social — he wrote plays as a means of achieving those ends. He did say (paraphrasing) that people see his plays and hear his wit and they laugh, but they don't understand he only tells the truth.
He's another one that "doesn't eat corpses", but has no problem gassing those he considers unworthy — i.e. not in agreement with him, I guess.
Waylon
P.S Seems I recall "Farewell to Arms" being another GBS work on the required list.
"He's another one that "doesn't eat corpses", but has no problem gassing those he considers unworthy — i.e. not in agreement with him, I guess."
Waylon, right. But maybe Ducky agrees with GBS, who said he wanted medical science to come up with a more "humane" gas, and that beautiful music should play as the unwashed masses are dying. Isn't that special?
Yes, by all means, expose the poor slobs to classical music, and teach them what matters as they take their final breaths! What a guy!
"He simply won't take questions that aren't on point, he simply can't think out of the box and can't risk not knowing the facts and figures, I guess..."
Z, can you imagine Bush trying to get away with that? We'd be hearing cries of "he's inhibiting freedom of the press, he's arrogant, and not up to the job"!
Maybe it's time we call Obama, Hugo, or Fidel, and where's Sam Donaldson when we really need him?
You'd think the press would finally get their dander up given this turn of events, but it's probably hard for lemmings to change course.
Pris
Beamish, brilliant comment as usual.
Ducky, forget about GBS, those were the days... our kids aren't learning about Washington or LIncoln...get a grip. You make a great point, teachers aren't prepared..but they sure are ready to teach about the ENVIRONMENT and GLOBAL STUDIES..check out Chuck's blog, THAT is sickening.
Palin has only undermined herself. She's not quite the mature woman I'd hoped for. To a degree, Shoprat is correct. But moreover, she didn't take proper care to ensure she kept the line she drew in the earth for herself.
1. She STOPS her governorship in its tracks? A foolish, foolish move which does nothing but provide heat and no light.
2. After excoriating McCain in her book, she then decides to link back UP with McCain?
Foolish, foolish. She is, as with many Republicans, her own worst enemy at this point. I wanted so much to like her. to have her do well, to be the base around which the GOP could actually rally.
I don't see that now. And the GOP didn't do all of this to her. Nor the Left.
And as to her alliance with McCain -- ? Aren't you beginning to question: what ARE her true beliefs, NOW?
BZ
BZ, what would people be saying if Palin supported Hayworth instead of the man who asked her to run as VP candidate, with him, and put her on the national scene?
He gave her the opportunity of a lifetime. I see her as repaying McCain, and displaying loyalty to the man who put her on the National map. I don't see how she could've refused.
I don't question her true beliefs at all. She's the most candid of the main possible contenders, and whether she runs in 2012 or later, her leaving her governorship early will be a faded memory.
The electorate has a short memory, and the impact of something that happened years before is dulled. Any candidate if given time, can overcome almost anything.
Pris
I've got a feeling Palin HAD to support McCain for Pris's reasons but I HATE IT. Maybe she does, too.
I wasn't thrilled with her Tea Party address....but I do believe she's getting more and more people on her side....independents, too.
BZ, the stopping the governorship thing would have been appreciated had the media been honest..they weren't (Surprise! :-)
She said she left because she couldn't govern with the left's media devouring every move she made, every paper she throws away, every bit of gossip they can conjure about her family.....she had to step down to let ALaska have a governor who COULD work. I firmly believe she meant it and it was the right thing to do.
It's the media which smears her for it..AND the RINOs.
HOW I WISH she was supporting Hayworth...I'm with you
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