So Markos says he wants us to have a debate about socialism.
This is coming from a guy who banned democratic socialists from debating the Democratic primaries in mid-March.
I'm starting to think that "socialism" has become a fad among some Democrats.

In Aesop's Fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, we learn the moral "that when liars speak truth they are not believed".
I've found that this is not always true, especially where politics is concerned.
In politics, truth is a relative concept that lies can beat into submission by repetition.

The right-wing Daily Caller made a trip to Kansas to see Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders speak. This rally in a deep-red state had to be moved to a larger venue because it sold out in under 10 hours.

gjohnsit published a nice essay today about the future of the Democratic Party. Briefly discussed is the #Walkaway movement--is it real? Is it Botwork? Is it overly optimistic propaganda from the Repugnants? Yes. All of the above.

I happened to run across a Fox News article from 2010 titled:
What socialism? Private sector still dominates Venezuelan economy despite Chavez crusade

Wink wrote a pro-Bernie essay that I mostly agree with.
Chris Hedges wrote an anti-Bernie essay that I mostly agree with.
Just like Donald Trump is important, but still mostly a symbol of a larger problem, we shouldn't get hung up on Bernie Sanders.

In my experience, the most confident and strident defenders of capitalism are the ones who know the least about socialism. I can't fully blame them for this because there is so much intentional misinformation, as well as suppressed information, that it takes a herculean effort to get a more accurate viewpoint.
This essay is a follow-up to this previous one.

When your only access to persons you have not met is through the internet, you are standing on shaky ground. With the complete collapse in trust of formerly solid leftwing institutions, due to their selling out to TPTB or being crushed by TPTB, people on the left literally do not know whom to trust.

You can see this happening right on this board. In three recent essays,

Hey there folks. Haven't had much time to get anything together here for a while, though I have loads of drafts sitting around. And don't anticipate that changing much for the near future, with this middle-aged father taking over full-time duties for two babies come the end of March.