Not so sure. May apply to USA but not quite on rest-of-world
considering economy.



Alright, that's a caution note but somethings bother me..
How about walking me through primary levels? So please correct me where
it's wrong.

1. Communism is a single party rule: China
China has a 2+ billion population.
It appears to me if the Chinese had 'free will' the 'one-child-rule pops off & pop could double within 9 months!!! In other words, a small change in policy and there's a huge ripple effect. I would think, we need the Chinese to stay communist.

2. India. It's a Multi-Party affair with major parties forming a coalition with smaller parties to 'prove their majority' in the Lower House.
Result: Energy lost in gaining consensus, political will of the PM eroded.
So Socialism is considered here as the 'middle path'

Allow me: In this Eastern world, down with religious dogmas and so on, the average person does not has comparable education with the westerner. So we end up electing royalty and film stars rather than social workers, lawyers and others with proven professional competencies.

So we have socialism which is a mix of Public and Private sectors and as the economy grows more areas are opened up for private (hopefully)

3. USA: The 'Off the People, By the People..' is reasonable cause the voting public is on an average well educated. The fact is democracy is practically limited to 2 parties; but within the parties they have primaries and that probably makes a 'world of a difference'.

4. Europe: The Europeans have seen it all.
It seems, they adorn Socialism when the economic conditions of the public so demand. Bread is shared.

Smaller countries like Greece, could never withstand anything like the 'Great Depression' & we're seeing it. So it's austerity that calls in Socialism; although by the time they get there, the country is near bankrupt. But in European democracy, unlike Russian Politburo, the socialists like Jeremy Corbyn could never go to the extreme & seize power like the Communist. The Constitution limits them. So as and when the economy reverses, the electoral is in expansionist mood and reverts back to the right wing.

--xx--
So in a sense 'Capitalism' or 'Socialism' is a business policy
and quite different from un-fettered Capitalism of Wall Street merchants / Banks and on the other extreme Single Party Dictatorship. Railways are nationalized else people loose jobs. In UK, the Government closed down the BBC while increasing the salary of the Royal Highness!!!

So Socialism is not communism off steroids but a situational policy, Something that older people like Sander's feel, the time has come to rebuild the character of the Nation before it moves forward to the next boom cycle. On similar lines, Gandhiji in India lamented that he wished he could have delayed the Independence from British Rule so that the Indian Public truly appreciated the responsibilities that come with freedom and democracy; not just strikes and dissent.

India had been ruled for over 1000 years by Hindu Kings, 500 years by Muslims in Delhi & 400 years by the Brits. Today, with around 60 years of socialism, we are in a position to de-nationalize many of our Government run institutions!!!

So in a sense, Socialism is a pause to unfettered capitalism; else a nation would move from one orgy to the next. And Amtrak's & BBC's that is lost to the next generation.

before we get into this, please clarify: Is Socialism, 100% Communism?

it's the writing on Britain's Wall, and perhaps the European Wall..

To Alidost, what????

What is free speech without criticism?
What is freedom of speech if it does not offend somebody??
And what is a joke when we sometimes come across one that does not make us silently howl? come on, come on..


a man with a severe problem and faced with the unknown?

As Jaysonwasco abbreviates: "cool"

i figure you as in real estate and thumbing our "new age ladies", 'hey, we've got this sunshine "kiss-me-beach" for you gals'.

Then your intercept: 'Daytona'; sounds like a medieval goddess.
Aah, i love our Xena's - from far.
Now too old-to-mess-around, aren't we?

“Socialist Corbyn wins Labor Part Leadership in landslide”
(by 99.5% Votes)
Source: this morning's 'The Hindu':



Much can happen between now & 2020 but if we take France's recent experiment with Hollande's socialism, it does not appear to be working.

How is Syria the most advanced muslim society?

1. In light of 'Arab Spring' originating in Syria. Reason why the Saudis & other Emirates kept away from supporting them since they did not want 'democratic' ideas spreading to their people.

2. Historically, St. Thomas (the Apostle) who traveled to the South Western Coast of India appears to be a Syrian. He founded what is today the Syrian body of church here as opposed to the Catholic church the Portuguese who came in later tried to leverage on.

In light of this, for the Syrians, conversions could be like drinking water but from a different well.



It's ironical - that the one ethnically friendly Muslim Nation to the West are viewed through the same lens. With all respect MM, Syrians should have been distinguished from the others; like the French in the 18th century were from the English; and the reason Assad has turned the ISIS wolves on these people. Assad & his generals belong to the Iraqi - Shia sect; not that they are not progressive, maybe more so - since i once worked for a firm owned by them.

<shrug> as our clown would bleat: naah, not my problem.

Reminds me of the cashew fruit ferment they call 'Feni', here in Goa. Takes longer than Vodka to kick in. By the time you start seeing doubles, the girl is gone.

None of my business but may be some of you may agree on this. As i recall from working in the US; 92-98, resident then in Richmond, Va; used to drive all the way to DC and sometimes to NYC, etc. never actually met a black cop (as they show in TV). Worked with black Americans but don't recall any policemen. The ratio looks way down.

& the rope holding him down.

& the OP, who has deactivated his account is just 26 and... '2.11 mts'?
could be a typo, but then comes this blooming joke.

"It's a mouthful".
I turned to see a woman kneeling, wiping the excess juice spilling on her daughter's face, and walked on.

Returning to the parking lot, a couple of girls & one of them smiled: 'big hands'. I was carrying back 3 sausages wrapped in my hand for the trip.

Being the hunger driven, muscle minded motor mechanic Indian that i am, it was after i got behind the wheel that the switches clicked; was rather rude not to have smiled back to them cheers.

Happens to me all the time i travel abroad; no matter the country. People been too good to me (that includes cops, US cops also) and i don't see it till it's way too late. Don't want to expand further except to mention Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, Saudis. So when i read about the farm boy who fell off the roof one night, i have this belly aching laugh.

Now maybe some of us will agree why the top clown in the circus, the master; is painted with the saddest face in the lot.

Reminds me of the book 'Why England Slept' - JFK
It doesn't surprise me that Europe didn't see this coming.

In my opinion, Syria is where dear darling Obama 'slept'. Europe guided him to focus on their Ukraine standoff against Russia over Crimea. Something like the Kashmir issue in India.

The tragedy is this whole exodus could have been avoided.
Now with ISIS / Iranian / Putin's backup: native Syrians are faced with certain massacre.

I don't even know if I should be writing all this under such tragic circumstances. In India, we have a long standing relationship with the Russians (since Nixon's America when US chose to back up the Paki Lobby).
But Putin has gone way too far. Now this has been Putin's long awaited opportunity to replay the Great Game of world domination with Islam as the cover. That Mrs Putin left him should have warned us all on his instability.

Sorry Crystal, but the Syrians are the only Muslims who stood up against their military government. They had no outside help. Muslim doors are closed to them. They trust Europe.

Nice point

Well stabbed in.

Question the bureaucracy here asks is have the 'girls being raped'?

these days the Indian Media / foreign media in India are quite powerful: although not comparable to the US media

the Law here is slow but grinding,
would take the 'elders' who engaged in the verdict to the docks
else the Police & the state minister would inevitably lose their positions

--------------------------------------------------

As there seems to be some sort of 'contest' and resentment about India
and Indians from the past (sic) comments on some of my posts i'll hazard a brief if that interests some of you.

Over here we have several shades of brown and education.

For instance, in India, we are 25% Muslims.
(it would have been more but for the civil war, partition & formation of Pakistan)

To understand Indian mindset, check out this diversity:
Way before Islam, there were lot of immigration.
You see unlike the Pacific or the Atlantic,
the Indian Ocean separating Africa and India is peaceful, virtually a lake

1. Saint Thomas came over this lake to India (yeah, the doubting Thomas)
& we have what is the Syrian Church order in a state called Kerala

2. Alexander with his Greeks came to India,
some of them stayed back in what is the state of Gujarat

3. In the East, Bengal state, we have Indians with Chinese ethnicity!!

4. Ghengis Khan ransacked India & we have the Khan (Muslims) who are quite different from the Shahs

5. About the original natives? Oh, here i'm blacky black
from extreme South India (Tamil Nadu / Kerala).
Our DNA traces back to the aborginals of Australia
A time when the Australia and India were one continent before the tear apart. We are also considered as the regional source for best geeks in India!! (Bangalore exists because of us)

Even as we speak, the Indian land mass is going under the Tibet land mass,
this has given raise to the Himalayas;
at the peaks what do you find? fossils of fish!!

The Indian concept 'kings, kinships & wars' maybe in our folklores
but the boudaried nation is just 68 years old; after WW2
U see, India stopped agitating for Independence when Britain declared war on Germany
Indian soldiers fought in the Brit Army (WW1 & WW2) and we waited till the war was over
Ofcourse we had a splinter group who associated with the Japanese.
That's us, Indian people for you

So in a sense, we have many ethnically diverse nation-states in India
and running the Federal Government over here is not that simple as say running China which is ethnically singular - Chinese

We are not all Hindu and Muslim.
We have a strong presence of Sikhs, Buddhists
and Catholics & a very small minority are Anglo Indians
We have over 20 distinct languages;
that alone makes us a continent
so in that sense running India is running a continent
Laws cannot be enforced overnight


Our real problem is our population crisis:
We have 1/4 the land mass of the USA
and 4 times the population.
We can't just tell our farmers to stop having large families
we tried - it backfired
nor can we tell our Muslims
but the message is finally getting through (if India must survive)

The American Dollar is therefore 60 Indian bucks !!
Yeah, by your standards, we are down to a hand-to-mouth country

Next time you take a 'stab' on India think it over
We remain the only true democracy the world has got in this part of the planet Like France, we are a socialistic democracy.
More than any other country, the Chinese worry about us
Memories about a war with a neighbor generally last several generations

More than any other non-Muslim country, the Middle East is influenced by us. Indians are kidnapped by the ISIS and the Taliban
we negotiate (no money transfers) and there are no beheading.

Our relationship with Pakistan is a case to point.
even though the US Government and the Chinese provide military aid
it's not difficult for us to strike into a war considering the
terror infiltration by the Pakistani military.

but as the Pakistani people matter to us more than their
pseudo military government; we don't treat them as a Cuba

& personally?
i'm too small an alien to debate with a citizen of the world's most powerful country when she says 'shame on India'.

In your mind, a bullet solves the problem, doesn't it?

There's another way. Understand the enemy; what makes him tick & so on.
As the Man said: 'Father forgive them for they know not..'
It's this compassion that broke Rome from wars excesses

In my mind, Christ's words
are the nectar of Hinduism

Absolutely right. The elder could be in India and pass a 'fatwa' on a UK citizen!! the fatwa on Salman Rushidie.

A few years ago a fatwa on Sania Mirza (Indian tennis star) cause she wore skirts. Her parents had to beseech the clergy explaining it under the game's dress code. The Indian media, government, courts, other muslims, tennis fans, women's organizations; nobody came out in support of her; no one dared to interfere.

If this unbridled power resides in just about any Mullah then where is the question for ordinary Muslims to dissent? Even a hint of it could have him ostracized from his community; these people may have been conditioned to accept it and don't think of it as 'living under terror'. Like Russians under Soviet Russia(?), East Germans under Soviet Russia?

Extend this line of thought towards the Muslims in the US, say building a large integrated facility for their Mosque. A few years from now, a Mullah wakes up one morning and issues a 'fatwa'. The Law arrests him but the media spreads the news around the world. Law cannot 'arrest the Fatwa'!!

Time for the US Senate to pass a Law on fatwas.
Thanks MM, for articulating what is unspoken in many people's minds.

Actually under Yasser Arafat's PLO, the Hamas tried but could never raise even their heads. Yasser had visited India, that was before he brokered a deal with the Israeli Government changing the 'refugee status' of his people to 'secondary citizens'; in their own land.

Leads one to think over why the great leaders of WWII marked out strips of territories surrounding Jerusalem as the homeland for all European Jews. The Jewish faith did not need The Temple; the people had always carried their faith with them. Why not territories from Germany,itself?

Anyway, the Syrian refugees flooding Europe are from the most advanced Muslim societies in the world. Recall the Arab Spring? It sprang in Syria.

You said it.

Probably right on the 'poly' bit.

Now if it was little Johnny, i could have seen the little motor mechanic at work but when little girls take on such script; becomes vaguely disturbing. How would you describe it?

child marriages was a tradition in India & probably some of the eastern societies; like arranged marriages still are. Probably it was to extend 'protection' to pubescent girl by her new family rather than 'sex' as the 'groom' would also be just around 12 years or so!! Guess that made teenage pregnancies legit.

Over the last 50 years, under 18 pregnancies are very low and under 16 fairly rare in India and eastern societies. Compare this to ..

oh well, can't win with people whose beliefs rest on Virgins giving birth ..

Although, personally i'm fond of The Man; on this point, you are on a wet wicket, Don.

I wonder whether they will ever un-stick from their queens & royalty.
maybe in a 100 years.