Thom Hartmann: 'Arthur Brooks - Free Enterprise'

Source:Thom Hartmann- AEI President Arthur Brooks.

"Thom Hartmann debates Arthur Brooks, President, American Enterprise Institute

Website: www.aei.org, over Brook's defense of free enterprise in his new book, THE ROAD TO FREEDOM.

If you liked this clip of The Thom Hartmann Program, please do us a big favor and share it with your friends... and hit that "like" button!" 

From Thom Hartmann

Unless you are talking about an economy and economic system where government is completely out of the economy, no regulators, no regulations, no public safety net, no subsidies, no corporate welfare, etc, then you are not talking about a free market and free enterprise.  

Every developed country in the world has a combination of private enterprise, capitalism, that's part of a private market, that has even a national government there to protect consumers and workers from predators in the economy(which is what regulations is supposed to be about) and some type of public safety net for people who fall on hard times. 

I believe what Arthur Brooks is talking about here (and I don't even know the man personally) is an American economy where taxes and regulations on individuals and businesses are low, but they are there to pay for the government that we actually need, to protect us against monopolies, slave labor, perhaps even some environmental regulations. Which is actually very different from saying that there's no government role whatsoever in the economy at all. Which is what Libertarians tend to believe.

Associated Press: 'U.S. Senator Richard Lugar Loses Indiana GOP Primary to Tea Party Foe'

Source:Associated Press- 6th term U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (Republican, Indiana)

"U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar was ousted Tuesday by a tea party-backed challenger in Indiana's Republican primary, abruptly ending his nearly four-decade career as one of Indiana's best-known and popular politicians." 

From the Associated Press

Center on Budget & Policy Priorities: Jared Bernstein & Chye-Ching Huang on Tax Rates & Economy

Source:Center On Budget & Policy Priorities- Jared Bernstein & Chye-Ching Huang.

"Jared Bernstein and Chye-Ching Huang discuss the Center's new, comprehensive analysis of recent findings on the economic effects of raising federal income taxes on upper-income taxpayers as part of a balanced effort to reduce budget deficits." 

From CBPP

The Nation: John Nichols: 'How To Build a Movement'

Source:The Nation- Socialist columnist and commentator John Nichols. 

"A real movement is not limited to a small party. A real movement touches everyone. In Wisconsin, a real movement did just that. In this video, John Nichols explains how the state came together—from the young to the old, from the private sector to the public—in a show of diversity that formed the basis for a broader struggle. For more videos visit The Nation." 

From The Nation 

I actually completely agree with everything that John Nichols said here. (Which gets me to thinking that I need to see a shrink) John Nichols is a self-described Democratic Socialist. I'm a self-described John F. Kennedy Classical Liberal. So there's plenty that we disagree with on, at least as it relates to economic and foreign policy, but as not often as perfect games are thrown in Major League Baseball, they are still thrown, at least every other year or so and I can find something that I can agree with John Nichols on, even if happens less often than an MLB perfect game. 

Nichols made the perfect point here when he was talking about what it would take for American labor to become a real political force again, talking about people who aren't part of the American labor movement today and aren't members of labor unions, would have to rally, march and organize for labor unions. And he used the analogy about non-African-Americans marching for civil rights in the 1960s, especially European-Americans, because those European-Americans saw the value of equal rights and justice in America. 

Because of how small American labor as far as their union membership is today, they're going to need non-union members to come out in support of America labor, because labor doesn't have the personal and resources to fight for their own survival, at least with their own current membership. 

Russia Today: The Aloyna Show: 'Labor Union Membership Down'

Source:Russia Today anchor Alyona Minkovski. I guess Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin likes here, because he let's her stay on the air.

Alyona Minkovski: "Labor Union Membership Down"

Source:Russia Today

"RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (Russian: Россия Сегодня))[9] is a Russian state-controlled[1] international news television network funded by the Russian government.[16][17] It operates pay television and free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in Russian, English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an autonomous non-profit organization founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.[8][18] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO "TV-Novosti" on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia.[19][20][21] RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (2010–2022),[22][23] RT UK (2014–2022) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the Ruptly video agency,[5] which owns the Redfish video channel and the Maffick digital media company.[6][7]

RT has regularly been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy.[2] Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation[58] and conspiracy theories.[65] UK media regulator Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast "materially misleading" content.[72]

In 2012, RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan compared the channel to the Russian Ministry of Defence.[73] Referring to the Russo-Georgian War, she stated that it was "waging an information war, and with the entire Western world".[17][74] In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a foreign agent with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[75]

RT was banned in Ukraine in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea;[76] Latvia and Lithuania implemented similar bans in 2020.[77][78] Germany banned RT DE in February 2022.[79] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland and then the entire European Union as well as Canada announced they were formally banning RT as well, while independent service providers in over 10 countries suspended broadcasts of RT.[80][81][82] Social media websites followed by blocking external links to RT's website and restricting access to RT's content.[83][84] Microsoft removed RT from their app store and de-ranked their search results on Bing,[85][86] while Apple removed the RT app from all countries except for Russia." 

From Wikipedia

Public Resource: 'FDR Compilation 2 Great Depression/New Deal'

Source:Public Resource- Frank D. Roosevelt (Democrat, New York) being inaugurated as the 32nd POTUS, in 1933.

"FDR Compilation 2 Great Depression/New Deal - FDR Presidential Library 1933 - Video 257 - From the Pare Lorentz Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. NLR 201-29-5 NLR 201-29-6 NLR 201-30-1 NLR 201-30-2 NLR 201-30-3 Series of newsreels including FDR starts construction of San Fransisco Oakland Bridge New industrial codes FDR visits CCC camp John Roosevelt on his pony FDR asks for cooperation with NRA Nation unites to support NRA Big companies endorse Blue Eagle flies over US NRA spirit sweeps the Nation FDR returns from a cruise and is greeted by Anna Dall and children. Boy Scouts give FDR a headdress FDR at the Dutchess County Fair FDR at Vassar Sistie and Buzzie see FDR off FDR says NRA is working. Americans shop in Blue Eagle stores. FDR addresses leaders on relief for the needy Cheaper power from the TVA FDR rides through NYC The Fighting President Parts 1 and 2 J Ramsey McDonald Archival footage from the FDR Presidential Library." 

From Public Resource

PBS: A World of Ideas- Bill Moyers Interviewing Noam Chomsky (1988)

Source:PBS- Bill Moyers & professor Noam Chomsky in 1988.

“Taken from Bill Moyers program “A World of Ideas” aired on PBS back in 1988.

I do not own the rights to this content.” 

From Pink Of 

Last week I was in a debate on YouTube (of all places) about libertarianism. We were commenting on a video about Professor Noam Chomksy and I commented on it, saying he was a Libertarian Socialist.

I understand that people not familiar with the term, like the person I was talking to on YouTube, that Libertarian Socialist might sound like an Oxymoron, sort of like jumbo shrimp, or Conservative Communist. (If there is such a thing) Libertarians are always arguing in favor decreasing the size of the state. And that the current state that we already have is way too big and unconstitutional. Socialists (at least in America) are always arguing in favor of increasing the size of government (especially at the national level) even when they argue in favor of cutting national defense and law enforcement.

When this person saw my comment on YouTube, this person said that basically that Noam Chomsky couldn’t be a Libertarian because he’s a Socialist and people like Ron Paul etc are real Libertarians. I’m guessing this person describes his politics as libertarian, but doesn’t seem to fully understand his own political ideology.

I told the person that I talking to that Professor Chomksy isn’t a Classical Libertarian, but a Libertarian Socialist. Big believer in social freedom and that we should be free to live our own lives. But that the state has to be big enough, with a welfare state to meet the needs of the country. Which is what Libertarian Socialism is. So a Libertarian Socialist would be against things like the War on Drugs and America expanding its power in the world, trying to police the world, big believer in civil liberties, against what’s called the Military Industrial Complex and what’s called the Prison Industrial Complex.

Libertarian Socialists would be against things like private prisons and for things like legalizing narcotics, especially marijuana, that pornography and gambling should both be legal, even prostitution. That the state shouldn’t try to police people from themselves, but regulate how we interact with each other.

Libertarian socialism is a different form of socialism (to state the obvious) in the sense that even though they both tend to agree on economic policy, but tend to disagree on some key personal choice social issues.

Libertarian Socialists don’t believe that hate speech should be illegal, or that people should be subjected to civil action based on hate speech. Again, as long as people aren’t threatening to hurt or harm each other.

Today’s so-called Progressives (Socialists, in actuality) do believe hate speech should be regulated. The Westboro Church case of 2011, is a pretty good example of that. So-called Progressives tend to believe that gambling should be illegal as well and perhaps even prostitution and certain forms of pornography. There are leftists that are Statists (communist-lite, perhaps) not just on economic policy, but social issues as well. Libertarian Socialists are individualists on social issues. There’s diversity in the so-called progressive movement.

There’s diversity in the Socialists movement to the point, that now there are Leftists like Noam Chomsky that describe their politics as Libertarian Socialist. Socialist on economic and foreign policy, as well as national security. But liberal-libertarian on social issues.

There’s a blog called the Progressive Libertarian. I’m friends with people on Facebook and outside of Facebook that call their politics libertarian socialist. And you have Socialists who are collectivist on economic policy but some key social issues as well. So when they get labeled nanny statists by the right-wing and Liberals like myself.

You can see why I would describe Professor Chomsky’s politics as a combination of Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders, or perhaps just Bernie Sanders. Someone whose a Socialist-Liberal, or Libertarian-Socialist. 

You can also see this post on WordPress.