‘Splaining Things to the Kids

A Democratic Socialist explains «what Democratic Socialism actually is»: Not just a return to the halcyon days of the New Deal.

“I’m a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of DSA, and here’s the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism. And we want to do that by pursuing a reform agenda today in an effort to revive a politics focused on class hierarchy and inequality in the United States. The eventual goal is to transform the world to promote everyone’s needs rather than to produce massive profits for a small handful of citizens.

“Democratic socialists share goals with New Deal liberals. But they want to go further.

“Pooling society’s resources to meet people’s basic needs is a tenet of social democracy, one that’s been advocated domestically by much of the labor movement and many of its political supporters among New Deal and post-New Deal liberals. This is a vision we share. But we also want more than FDR did. A robust welfare state in an economy that’s still organized around capitalists’ profits can mitigate the worst inequalities for a while, but it’s at best a temporary truce between bosses and workers — and one that the former will look to scrap as soon as they can.”

Vox

Yup.

Remembering the Past

Remembering Bill Schock on his 100th birthday … and the 52nd anniversary of Braniff 250 in Falls City. Also … feeling old from … time flying and stuff.

Since the AM2431 crash in Durango a few days ago appears to be from weather-related causes, never forgetting the lessons of BN250, as well as CO426, OZ809, EA66, PA759, DL191, and US1016 is as important as ever. Hope today’s flight crews are paying attention.

Those Who Forget the Past …

Looks like my second book (about microburst crashes) just gained a new chapter, «as described at AvHerald». Passenger-point-
of-view videos are also posted; pretty amazing. (Don’t watch if you can’t deal with intemperate language spilling out of people who are slammed to the ground and cheating death.)

And if you want to know what really happened with any airliner incident, big or small, Simon of AvHerald knows all. How he gets what he does from his Czech Republic base is amazing.

[A caveat: The comment section of AvHerald, like every other comment section in every other corner of the internettubesweb, is highly toxic. So, read Simon’s reports on the day’s incidents/accidents, but ignore the comments. Fair warning. The capacity of people to be nasty to each other upon the slightest context will always amaze me.]