Re: “Who’s afraid of ‘Socialism’?” by Peter Certo [3/15/20 TPP]: The capitalists who own this country, along with thousands of daily newspapers and TV stations, have done a masterful job in convincing the majority of Americans that socialism is the same as communism … to the point that many are fearfully looking under their beds for socialists.
Since it is the corporate CEOs who decide what is printed and what is not in the mainstream media, is it any wonder that we read and hear that socialism, just like communism, is evil?
Nevertheless, communism and socialism are not the same. In 1962, Walter Lippmann wrote: “The so-called socialism which is supposed to be creeping up on us is in fact nothing more than the work of making life safe and decent for a mass society.” Does that sound like a communist dictatorship?
Successful socialism is found in Sweden and Denmark, where it works in harmony with capitalism. In those countries, the democratic government is obligated to protect the working class from capitalist exploitation.
Sadly, our government’s priority is to protect capitalism. Granted, our nation does offer limited protection to labor and the poor, but only to prevent a devastating class warfare that would surely destroy capitalism and cause bloodshed of apocalyptic magnitude.
Therefore, perhaps the best we can hope for is a harmonious partnership between capitalism and democracy that works for the commonwealth — like that of Sweden and Denmark. A socialist president would be a good start.
DAVID QUINTERO, Monrovia, Calif.
Is Robert Dr. Cintli Rodriguez’s calling Donald Trump “inept,” “corrupt,” “ignorant” and a “white supremacist” [in When a Virus and Virulent Racial Supremacy Collides” [4/15/20 TPP] a discussion of relevant issues or just up-market, academic name-calling?
Give the devil his due, Doc: Donnie is one savvy operator. He knows instinctively when a group of people is genuinely aggrieved.
As if the US were the world’s cash-cow, immigrants come here, undermine our unions, work for non-living wages, compete with indigenous, indigent middle class and blue collar workers and enrich the 1% beyond all calculation. In short, make US work life a grind for everybody, (themselves included). Nobody has time to read, think, learn a language, raise their kids or even eat properly!
I doubt Trump even knows the stats back him up: Americans work more hours and take less vacation than most of the industrialized world, ironically, even than Mexicans.
Not that he wouldn’t be the first to hire somebody for a nonliving wage. So could the problem be something else? Overpopulation? Is the human race outstripping the resources of the globe? The societies it has created? Is COVID Mother Nature’s response?
For two decades plus, the Chinese have been sending shabby products to markets around the world. In fact, a fairly standard COVID-joke making the rounds on the internet goes: “Don’t worry, COVID won’t last long; it was made in China!” I have variants of it from friends both in Germany and Israel. All just white supremacists?
While immigrants are, for the most part, sweet, decent and desperate people (not the murders, rapists, and drug dealers etc. Trump characterizes them as), can it be equally true they are wreaking havoc on parts of American society? Is that havoc part of the discussion? We have Donald Trump in the White House because he is savvy enough to harness the animus, a genuine, legit fact of life a lot of politicians and academics refuse to acknowledge.
Profs name-calling in newspapers is not a solution to some very real problems.
S. KEYRON McDERMOTT, Cascade, Iowa
Voting by mail should replace voting at the polls in it’s entirety. The two institutions that can definitely be trusted is the County Board of Elections and the US Postal Service. The money saved by eliminating the need for poll workers could be used to offer free postage on the envelopes used to vote by mail. The person voting would also have more time to consider what they are voting for and would not be confined to the hours of the polling place. It would also prevent unwanted entry to schools and churches from anyone trying to harm someone.— In addition the voter would not be harassed by someone trying to place unsolicited campaign literature into their hand. The additional revenue would boost the Postal Service and perhaps keep it afloat until we as a country are able to vote online. Voting by mail would solve the registered voter problem and guarantee safe passage of the ballots to the County Board of Elections.
JOE BIALEK, Cleveland, Ohio
By removing the Inspector General who was selected to oversee that the disbursement of the $2 trillion coronavirus bailout goes honestly without fraud, Trump has set himself up to commit the largest theft in the history of civilization. He has removed several inspectors general as a way of intimidating the rest not to do the job they are skilled and experienced to do. This undermines the system of independent oversight of the executive, established after Nixon’s Watergate crimes.
What can prevent an outrageous theft of OUR Money? Perhaps the loud reaction from Vox Populi, the Voice of the People. Perhaps our senators and Congress representatives can force adequate oversight as a condition for more bailouts. If ever there were a time to speak out, to write, and to call, it is now.
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
I believe that ALL conservatives and Republicans in the USA should return their Relief Checks to the federal government so that they do not become “unproductive” and “shiftless welfare recipients” and “blood-suckers” who are accepting “government hand-outs” and “something for nothing” as well as “parasites” who are “overly-dependent” on being “subsidized” by the federal government which they HATE.
It is HYPOCRITICAL for conservatives and Republicans to accept money from the federal government when they constantly oppose social programs which help the middle and lower classes who truly do need it. They look down their noses at these people, and now they are in their shoes.
All of our allies in western Europe have federal governments which do more to help their people than ours does.
So does Canada. For us to be right, all of them have to be wrong.
To quote Al Pacino in “And Justice For All”, “I have now completed my opening statement.”
STEWART B. EPSTEIN, Rochester, N.Y.
On page 19 of The Progressive Populist (4/1/20), you published a cartoon by Ted Rall that was not only offensive, insensitive, but incorrect.
I have heard from my neighbors that are Donald Trump supporters that the new strategy is to paint Joe Biden as having Alzheimer’s Disease and not capable of being a president, in the November election.
This cartoon is offensive and insensitive to all of us who have been caretakers, or supporters of caretakers of people with any form of senile dementia. These include millions of Americans, if you include the nurses and doctors involved, besides family members and social service administrators. We know what the symptoms are, we have seen them every day, and coped with them. We also know that a diagnosis of Alzheimers can not be confirmed until autopsy.
Joe Biden exhibits none of these symptoms. He does, however, have a documented medical problem of stuttering, which causes him to think about what he says, wait to form words, and sometimes they just do not come out right. Since our current president enjoys mocking people with disabilities, he is under tremendous stress to get things verbally right and sometimes that doesn’t happen.
Lastly, this cartoon claims that Joe Biden would be our first term dementia president. Really? He has forgotten about Ronald Reagan? He was showing symptoms of dementia at the end of his first term, and was re-elected to a second term with restrictions imposed by Nancy Reagan to limit his White House meetings or visitations to the early morning hours, because, as those of us know, dementia patients are only lucid in the early mornings, not after that.
Dr. JANET BANKS (retired assistant professor of nursing), Maggie Valley, N.C.
In a recent article [“From Katrina to COVID-19,” 4/1/20 TPP], John Young wrote, “we elected someone who sees the office as a game.” I disagree. I think Trump is doing what he knows best FAIL. He treats government like a business, pitting states against each other and citizen against their neighbors in an effort to get the highest profit. Some may think that this is an acceptable way to run the federal government, but I remind them of Trump’s record as a businessman — multiple businesses started and failed, including an almost-impossible-to-fail casino operation. The next time we choose a business leader to run our government, we should choose one who makes common-sense decisions, can admit when he or she is wrong and, oh yeah, one who hasn’t gone bankrupt four times.
JOHN MURPHY, Portland Ore.
Sheer serendipity to read columnist Connie Schultz’s piece on Fr. John O’Donohue’s book of poetry titled “To Bless the Space Between Us” [4/15/20 TPP]. The carnality of our advised “social distancing” doesn’t presuppose spiritual aloofness.
Our matter-of-fact culture can even now retain that essential sense of wonder transcending time and space, as we so crudely circumscribe by our limitations. The poetically articulated question remains for introspection [by William Massey]:
“Whence did the wond’rous, mystic art arise,
Of painting speech, and speaking to the eyes?
That we by tracing magic lines are taught,
How to embody, and to colour thought?”
WILLIAM DAUENHAUER, Willowick, Ohio
Yes, we’re all familiar with the Justice Department memo that says the president is too busy to be bothered with prosecutions while in office. But with Trump this is ludicrous!
Trump just violated three more laws by using government materials and staff to produce and show a campaign/propaganda video. And we know he’s not too busy to be prosecuted: he spends the majority of his time either golfing or watching and chatting up Fox News.
There are now documented dozens of crimes that Trump has violated. The memo was designed to protect a basically innocent president from prosecutions of harassment—not from a serial-crime-perpetrator like Trump. And as long as we fail to prosecute he will continue to break the law.
LEE KNOHL Evanston, Ill.
From The Progressive Populist, May 15, 2020
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