Category: Great Moments In Socialism

Bolshevik History Lessons

nannystate Religion Of Submission The Tolerant Left 11 Comments

Leave it to these barely coherent, shopworn Marxists to claim that the source of Iran’s problems lie not with a brutal Islamist dictatorship with zero respect for individual rights, but rather with an insufficiently generous welfare state and too much freedom for entrepreneurs. Apparently, if the West didn’t impose sanctions on Iran they would be able to embrace rigid central planning and usher in utopia. Who knew?

Sanctions have separated Iran, a neoliberal state with Iranian characteristics, from the neoliberal world order it looked set to join in the 1990s. Since then, the government has eroded Iran’s once generous welfare state and cut subsidies on bread, fuel, and other staple commodities. Responding to its sanctioned public realm, Iran’s leaders have expanded a gray, pseudoprivate economy unregulated by the democratic state to reach international markets through front companies. The middlemen doing these deals, “black knights,” satisfy Iranian military-industrial and consumer demand and provide the country with off-the-books cash to support the “axis of resistance,” Iran’s regional allies from Yemen to Syria which look likely to enter a regional war against Israel.

 

I Need More Stimulus!!

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing nannystate 5 Comments

Economic growth predictions are notoriously hard to make accurately, but at some point saddling the economy with destructive mandates and borrowing to fund politically motivated boondoggles has to be reckoned with. It’s not a matter of if, but when.

Berezin expects that recession to begin either later this year or in early 2025.

He rattled off a number of indicators suggesting that the torrid pace of pandemic-era hiring has given way to something far less appealing to workers. As official job-openings data show, the number of open positions have fallen substantially, as has the quit rate. And private surveys of job openings reflect an even more dramatic decline.

SCOTUS: Deep State vs Citizenry

nannystate Surveillance State The Deplorables 11 Comments

Boom!

The Supreme Court’s third (but not last) decision is SEC v. Jarkesy. By a 6–3 vote, the court holds that when the SEC seeks civil penalties, the defendant is entitled to a jury trial in federal court.

This sounds technical but it’s huge.

SCOTUS’ decision is Jarkesy may well hobble many federal agencies’ ability to bring meaningful enforcement actions against wrongdoers. Not just the SEC. Neither the executive branch nor the judiciary have the time or resources to try all these cases before a jury. Nowhere close.

Today’s decision in Jarkesy could kneecap enforcement by the FCC, the FTC, the NLRB, the Department of Labor, and more—it goes WAY beyond the SEC. This is a massive blow to the federal government’s ability to enforce regulations against lawbreakers.

The ruling is here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-859_1924.pdf

More from Benjamin Weingarten;

Justice Gorsuch — with whom Justice Thomas concurred — details more administrative state tyranny. We’ve been de-sensitized to an unelected, unaccountable, awesomely powerful branch of government that’s, shall we say, hard to square this with the Constitution

And another: The Supreme Court granted applications for a stay, effectively halting the enforcement of the EPA’s “good neighbor” policy. The decision underscores the limits of the EPA’s regulatory authority, emphasizing state sovereignty in managing local environmental issues.

We Need Another Lockdown

Shiny Pony Venezuela 19 Comments

Longer and harder this time. And more taxes. And more regulations…

Calgary Herald- Canada’s ‘productivity emergency’ called the most widespread in history outside the pandemic

Outside of Quebec and Ontario, gross domestic product per person is not only lower than before the pandemic, it is lower than the peak in 2014-15.

“That means many people outside our two biggest provinces feel worse off today than they did 10 years ago,” he said.

Don’t Think Of It As “Your” Information, Think Of It As “Our” Information

Surveillance State 19 Comments

Blacklocks- Feds Likes Payroll Data Scoop

“The vision of ePayroll in Canada is a service through which Canadian employers can securely send payroll, employment and demographic information to a protected Government of Canada repository,” said the Briefing Binder. “Government departments and agencies could then access the information when they need it.”

“The scope and scale of the ePayroll project are massive,” said the Policy Brief. “It would impact every employer and every worker in Canada.”

“The sheer volume of data would be enormous, roughly equivalent to the amount of information submitted at year-end being received every two weeks,” said the Payroll Institute. “Public buy-in is essential,” it cautioned.

If It Wasn’t For Government

Canada’s Bolsheviks Great Moments In Socialism 28 Comments

Who would make it too much of a pain in the ass to celebrate Canada day?

Montreal Gazette- Organizer cancels Canada Day parade in Montreal

Nicholas Cohen said the decision was made after he found it increasingly difficult to obtain the needed permits and funding from different government authorities over the past year.

“Cowen was faced with rules that changed at the last minute and requests that made organizing the parade virtually impossible,” it said in the news release.

If You’ve Got Nothing To Hide

Surveillance State Tech 20 Comments

It shouldn’t be a problem for you.

CBC- Public servants uneasy as government ‘spy’ robot prowls federal offices

Bruce Roy, national president of the Government Services Union, called the robot’s presence in federal workplaces “intrusive” and “insulting.”

“People feel observed all the time,” he said in French. “It’s a spy. The robot is a spy for management.”

Francisco- While we’re at it the all of the information collected should be readily available to the public via the internet. In the interest of “transparency” of course.

You Didn’t Think They’d Stop Did You?

Climate Cult Forward! 35 Comments

Blacklocks- Gov’t Rethinks Climate Claim

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday banned the sale of lightbulbs once touted by his department as climate-friendly energy savers. Compact fluorescent bulbs in fact contained toxic mercury blamed for poisoning the environment.

Cabinet earlier promoted compact fluorescent bulbs as an energy-saving alternative to traditional, mercury-free Edison bulbs. A 2003 Project Porchlight campaign gave away 200,000 compact fluorescents as good for the environment and drove sales to 27 million mercury bulbs a year.

Govern Me Harder!

Freespeechers Media nannystate The Tolerant Left 26 Comments

I can vividly recall my frustration at having to see Frances Russell’s and Val Werier’s leftist screeds populating the editorial pages of the Winnipeg Free Press back in the 80s. Fast forward to the present day, where technology continues to level the media playing field, introducing informational symmetry in ways I could not have dreamt of in my youth. But some people remain deeply dissatisfied with that. Apparently, the latest technology is just making us, well, ungovernable.

So, the telephone was great, the postal system was great. Social media is not like those earlier innovations.

They don’t want to see the lion and the Christian making nice; they want the one to kill the other. That’s what Twitter is often like.

I am very concerned that there is no longer any source of authority. There is no trusted authority, there is no way to find consensus on truth. It seems that the truth-seeking mechanisms, including the courts, came up with the answer that the last presidential election in the U.S. was not stolen. But there’s no real way to spread that around to the large portion of society that believes that it was.

Loud And Proud, You Say?

Forward! Media Protected Class 17 Comments

Atlantic columnist is oppressed by expectations of politeness and basic consideration:

Ms Gonzalez, who repeatedly mentions how “minority” and “of colour” she is, also tells us how she, “just wanted to be around people in places where nobody told us to shush.” Say, when being a late-night annoyance to roommates and neighbours, a thing that by her own account happens repeatedly, or when playing music in a library. Where other people are trying to study:

“One day, when I accidentally sat down to study in the library’s Absolutely Quiet Room, fellow students Shhh-ed me into shame for putting on my Discman… I soon realised that silence was more than the absence of noise; it was an aesthetic to be revered. Yet it was an aesthetic at odds with who I was. Who a lot of us were.”

A bold admission. One, I suspect, that reveals more than intended. Also, the claim that one can sit down in a library accidentally.

Oh, there’s more. And a plot twist of sorts.

“Not Weaponized” (Yet)

Surveillance State 27 Comments

During the next pandemic they can harass farmers in the middle of nowhere for not wearing a mask while greasing their cultivator.

Calgary Herald- ‘Game-changing’: RCMP testing crime-fighting drones in rural Alberta

The drones are purely used for observation, according to RCMP, and aren’t weaponized. Some can be equipped with loud speakers, emergency lights and sky hooks to carry emergency equipment. Officers on Friday said pre-recorded messages can be blared from certain drones equipped to do so, making them a communication tool in emergency situations.

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