I Was Born In A Small Town

 https://open.substack.com/pub/roomfive/p/why-everyone-is-completely-wrong?r=28q7xt&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

This is an interesting piece about economic systems.  The short version is that scale seems to be the limiting factor.  That something like socialism/communism can work on a small scale where people know and trust those in their community, but is doomed to failure on a national level.   In a general sense, I can see his point and don't necessarily disagree.  

Where I might have problems is that he seems to be cherry picking his examples to support his thesis.  His use of monastic communities seems the most obvious.  Monastic communities are not really economic units.  Dividing the farm chores so everyone can eat doesn't seem like an economic system as much as a necessity to stay alive.  Further, monastic communities are not "owned" by the monks, they are "owned" by the ecclesiastical body that they are affiliated with.    It seems interesting that the Amish didn't make his list if I remember correctly.  

Despite some issues with his examples, I think that he has a pretty valid point.  However, we now live in a world where is is almost impossible to be a self contained economy with little or no economic connection with the rest of the world.  

In short, the fact that he concludes that  Socialism/Communism is virtually unworkable in anything more than a very small local scale is interesting.   This should give pause to those who are convinced the communism is the answer if it's only done correctly.  

Yesterday

 Last week or so, I posted about the Ramsey county sheriff getting blasted for simply discussing the reality that Somali gangs commit a lot of crime.   Yesterday, there was an active shooter incident at a park in Edina (the bouguie suburb) which involved around 50 Somali youth and approximately 21 shots fired.  Strangely enough, this hasn't gotten very much coverage on the local news at all.  I heard about it from a friend who's kid was at the park, and had to search around to find out any information.  

It must be nice to have the media, government, and local society willing to stay quiet so as to not offend Somalis by telling the Truth.  

In the past week this brings us to at least 4 significant events of public violence in the metro.  Two mass shootings in MPLS, One (depending on your definition) mass shooting in STP (3 dead) and the shooting spree in Edina.    

Schism(s)

 https://x.com/danburmawy/status/2079029612810563827?s=51&t=cLq01Oy84YkmYPZ-URIMYw

" The split between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism was the product of centuries of theological and ecclesiological debate. Questions about the nature of the Trinity (the Filioque clause), the authority of the Pope, and the relationship between church and empire were argued through many councils. The Great Schism of 1054 emerged from incompatible theological and institutional claims. The Protestant Reformation followed the same pattern. Luther, Calvin, and others challenged doctrines like indulgences, justification, the authority of tradition versus Scripture, the nature of salvation. In both cases theology came first; institutional separation followed. Violence followed these divisions, but it did not create them. Christianity fractured because people disagreed about what was true. Islamic sects came into existence in an entirely different way. Islam did not fracture through theological debate. It fractured through power struggles, wars of succession, and political violence, after which theology was constructed to justify the outcome. The first and most consequential split in Islam, Sunni versus Shia, had nothing to do with doctrine at the outset. It revolved around a single question: who gets to rule after Muhammad? Muhammad left no succession mechanism. What followed was a chain of civil wars: the Ridda Wars, the assassination of Uthman, the battles of al-Jamal and Siffin, the rise of the Kharijites, the murder of Ali, and the massacre at Karbala. Hundreds of thousands died, not over doctrine, but over who had the right to rule in God’s name. Only after this bloodshed did theology harden. Sunni doctrine evolved to legitimize whoever held power and to preserve order at almost any cost. Shia theology evolved to sacralize dispossession, martyrdom, and stolen authority. Theology followed blood. It did not precede it. This pattern repeats throughout Islamic history. Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Ottomans, Safavids, each civil war produced a theological justification after victory or defeat. Belief adjusted to power, not the other way around. Christianity fractured because people argued about God. Islam fractured because people fought over who gets to rule for God. In Christianity, theology is primary, in Islam, politics is primary and theology is retrospective. This is why Islamic sects, despite centuries of violence against one another, remain largely monolithic on the core elements: the Qur’an, Muhammad, and submission to divine law. The differences between them are marginal when compared to the scale of bloodshed that produced them. This is why Islam behaves less like a religion and more like a political system. Its internal divisions do not reflect competing visions of truth, but competing claims to authority."

Those Who Ignore History

 https://x.com/creativededuct/status/2079539016865648859?s=51&t=cLq01Oy84YkmYPZ-URIMYw

" In the 1920s an imprisoned Italian journalist, disillusioned by the realisation that Karl Marx’s prediction of spontaneous worldwide socialist revolution was failing to come true, began working on a new revolutionary strategy that would profoundly shape the modern left. In his Prison Diaries, Antonio Gramsci argued that capitalist societies were held together not primarily by economic power or state coercion, but by cultural hegemony - the dominance of bourgeois values, culture and institutions (education, media, family, religion and civil society). As long as the working class accepted these values as “common sense”, revolution was impossible. His solution was revolutionary: the left must wage a “war of position” - a long, patient struggle to capture the institutions that shape culture and ideas. Only after achieving cultural dominance could they seize political and economic power. This was a major departure from classical Marxism. Instead of focusing on factories and economic base, Gramsci shifted the battlefield to culture and consciousness. He understood that whoever controls the “superstructure” (culture) can eventually control the base (economy and politics). Gramsci’s ideas became foundational to what later became known as Cultural Marxism. The Frankfurt School and the New Left built upon them, moving the struggle from class warfare to cultural warfare - attacking Western traditions, morality, family structures, and national identity. Today’s identity politics, “the long march through the institutions”, critical studies in universities and the weaponisation of culture all trace their intellectual lineage back to Gramsci’s insight. He understood that real power lies in defining what society considers normal, moral and true. It has been a guiding principle for the left ever since."

Ignore This, After Watching The Video

 https://x.com/tironianae/status/2079346025379020946?s=51&t=cLq01Oy84YkmYPZ-URIMYw

" HOLY HELL Minnesota is way DARKER than anyone thought. A Somali refugee just blew the entire welfare racket wide open. He says they TOLD him to refuse assimilation and jump straight onto Section 8 and government benefits. That’s the “system.” “I was told to go find discounted housing, get on Section 8, sign up for community benefits.” And when he suggested actually integrating? His own community ATTACKED him. “The community treated welfare like a way of life. I said we can do better. They said no.” He came here at 29, fully aware of what he escaped in Somalia. And even HE is shocked at the fraud and rot in Minnesota. Massive respect to Abdi Iftin for exposing what Democrats desperately try to hide."

Reasonable Questions

 https://x.com/chrismartzwx/status/2079569981549744453?s=51&t=cLq01Oy84YkmYPZ-URIMYw

 Here are TEN questions that I have for any climate alarmists reading, and I hope I can get some honest answers down in the comments: You have asserted that the planet is dangerously overheating. So, what exactly is the correct globally averaged surface air temperature supposed to be and why? I want an exact value to the nearest tenth of a degree Celsius. What is the correct atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) level to optimize life on Earth? Give me your answer as an exact value in mole fraction or volume percentage, then explain why in detail. A range would suffice too, but you still need to explain. What makes CO₂ “air pollution”? The pre-Trump 2.0 EPA considered CO₂ as an air pollutant under the legal framework of the Clean Air Act, and their justification was that it “contributes to greenhouse gas pollution that threatens public health and welfare.” But that seems pretty ambiguous if you ask me. By that arbitrary standard, water vapor (H₂O) should also be classified as harmful “air pollution” because it also is a GHG and is a byproduct of combustion. But we don't classify it as pollution because, well, H₂O is necessary for life on Earth. But so is CO₂. Without it, we would all die. Why are global average temperatures measured in reference to the 1850–1900 baseline? While many of our modern instrumental weather records begin within that timeframe, we know that climate conditions pre-1900 were much harsher than they are today as we were coming out of the Little Ice Age. Winters were harsher. Summers could be harsher. Droughts, floods, and famine were just as, if not more common relative to today. So, why should the end of the Little Ice Age be seen as the ideal baseline for human welfare? The estimated cost of net zero in the U.S. by the year 2050 is ~$6 trillion (though estimates I have seen widely vary). And with ~165 million taxpayers in the nation, using that $6T figure, it would cost each of us a little more than $36,000 to achieve. That's a lot of money per individual. How many of you activists are willing to shell out that kind of money just to see what happens? If we spent that $6T to decarbonize the economy by 2050, by how much will such measures reduce the global mean surface temperature by the year 2100? Please provide your answer to the nearest tenth of a degree Celsius and show your math (I actually know the answer to this theoretically, but I want to see you do the math). What does the perfect climate look like? Just how much extreme weather should there be? How many floods? Tornadoes? Category two hurricane landfalls in Florida? What should temperatures be? How many droughts should occur per century in Cambodia? How will we get there and how do we know when / if we get there? By what scientific measure will we know? If “combating climate change” is really a global concerted effort, then why do you always give China and India a free pass to continue emitting without bound? Why are they never criticized? And don't tell me it's because they are “the world's factory.” The U.S. is the second largest industrial manufacturer in the world. Don't give me the “per capita emissions” BS either; the atmosphere does not care about that. So, why is it that the U.S. is always dunked on? Why do most of (not all) you vehemently oppose nuclear power? It's the best alternative to coal and natural gas, and statistically it is the cleanest and one of the safest forms of “carbon-free” energy. Lastly, if you truly believe climate change is an urgent problem, why do you continue to use social media? After all, it has a large carbon footprint because it is powered by those data centers you hate. Also, why do demonize fossil fuels, but use them to keep the lights on in your home or apartment? Why use running water and indoor plumbing, which often require fossil fuels? Why not give up modern luxuries and live off grid to lead by example? I really want to know why you are still here.

It's The Jews Fault

 https://x.com/davidfrum/status/2079582572976239087?s=51&t=cLq01Oy84YkmYPZ-URIMYw

" Reconstruction has scarcely begun in Gaza, only about 5% of rubble has been cleared. Almost none of the pledged aid to Gaza is yet flowing. The key impediment: donors (including Arab donors) require Hamas disarmament as a precondition for aid - and Hamas won't do it. Humanitarian improvement is held hostage by Hamas, which has put its own dominance ahead of its subject population's human needs. The Palestinian dilemma is that while their political movements are very successful at stoking anti-Israel odium, those same political movement's feel almost zero concern for the people they purport to speak for. Israel has many enemies. The Palestinians have few friends. True friends would push for Hamas to lay down its arms so reconstruction can begin. The strategy of "resistance" has failed again and again since the Arab Revolt of 1936. It's time for a strategy of "Take the deal even if you don't love it because it's better than living in tents waiting for the next war to turn out better for you than the last war did.""

 https://www.instagram.com/reels/DZGC0ERtTcG/

And the idiot, lemmings believe every bit of propaganda they're fed, then go and protest in their ignorance.  

 https://x.com/realmaalouf/status/2079400242517078349?s=51&t=cLq01Oy84YkmYPZ-URIMYw

 "Why don’t history books refer to Muslims as colonizers, oppressors, genociders, slave traders, and imperialists?"

 

Why doesn't the ASPL do so? Why doesn't Dan do so?