A collection of thoughts, and gnomic aphorisms.
(Many are quotes without known attributions.)
​

► The perfect socialist storm: call an ordinary flu a pandemic requiring emergency measures, force the economy and citizens to lock down, mandate facemasks and social distancing to remind people of the "emergency" and signal their surrender to the higher powers, report only news that fuels the fear, then offer as the only hope a new socialist/communist government that will care for every need.
 
► In the end, when all the good intentions are peeled away, socialism is about concentrating power in government and removing it from citizens.

​► A government that is big enough to give you all you want, is big enough to take all you have.

► We have a moral duty to self and society to prevent socialist authoritarian rule.
 
► Socialism is upside-down America—power at the top exerted down upon the citizens, rather than up from the citizens through representatives who preserve freedom.
 
► The road to a country's hell is paved with naïve good intentions.
 
► Socialism is a fairytale with a tragic ending as evidenced in every country that has ever tried it.

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Venezuela's Socialist Hellscape, Captured in 28 Horrifying Headlines - Fee.org
 
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​Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro lifestyle, family, Net worth, Biography - YouTube.com
 
► We live on the largesse of a free and productive people. When free and productive people run out, so does the largesse.
 
► Complaining, even rioting, because others have more than you, and voting for those who say they will steal from others to give to you, will ultimately result in you not having anything.
 
► The cure for political disease is socialism-distancing.
 
► A person does not have a heart if they aren't a liberal socialist at 20, and no mind if they aren't a conservative Constitutionalist at 40.
 
► In the socialist utopian ideal, all things are shared equally without regard to their origin. Free enterprise is painted as selfish and uncaring. To the young, unfamiliar with the real world, the choice is obvious.
 
► To remove the benefits of hard work is to deny the underlying truth of cause and effect.
 
► "A government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy." – Ronald Reagan
 
► The ability to choose a career, pursue creativity, and follow your dreams is snuffed out under a socialist regime.
 
► Government is made of people, who, like you, have their best self-interests at heart. Surrendering to them is to surrender to the self-interests of another person.
 
► Knowingly voting for policies that have been proven to lead to poverty and despair is a sin against self and fellow citizens.

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Why the U.S. Should Not Reward Castros' - Cubacontactomagazine.com
 
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Fidel Castros Hidden Mansion - YouTube.com
 
► When government promises to be the great benefactor, individuals are robbed of the opportunity for charity and compassion.
 
► Free thought and speech must be stifled under socialism. Instead, only the thought and speech of people who happen to be in government is permitted.
 
► Human progress depends upon individual initiative, creativity, and competition, a socialist state impedes that.
 
► In America, by Constitutional law, the federal government has the limited purposes of handling foreign affairs, commerce among the states, common defense, and protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
 
► Government corruption is best measured by the number of laws. Combined, US state and federal laws number over one million.
 
► We should feel insulted to have someone else pay for our food, housing, clothing, and medical bills.
 
► "The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance of foreign lands should be curtailed lest the Republic become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." – Cicero, 55 B.C.
 
► Equality means equal opportunity, not equal results.
 
► Thinking that government is the answer is simply an excuse not to think.
 
► Liberal paternalism brings a nanny state unbecoming any adult.
 
► Putting government in its place: One morning, the husband returns the boat to their lakeside cottage after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, puts her feet up, and begins to read her book. The peace and solitude are magnificent. Along comes a Fish and Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing? Reading a book, she replies, (thinking, Isn't that obvious?) You're in a Restricted Fishing Area, he informs her. I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading. Yes, but I see you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up. If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault, says the woman. But I haven't even touched you, says the Game Warden. That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. Have a nice day ma'am, and he left.

► The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. – Thomas Jefferson.
 
► The future belongs to the fecund and the confident. The West—wedded to a multiculturalism that undercuts its own confidence, a welfare state that nudges it toward sloth and self-indulgence, and a childlessness that consigns it to oblivion—is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization.
 
► The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments. – William H. Borah
 
► Unfortunately, our fate lies in the hands of ignorant voters.
 
► If you think health care is expensive now, wait til' it's free. – Wendell Phillips, Bostone, 1852
 
► Politics has become creating earmarks and going home to cut ribbons.
 
► Imposing socialism on the economic lifeblood of society kills the goose that lays the golden eggs.
 
► It's the famous political two-step: First, screw something up, then claim that it's screwed up because there's not enough government oversight (it's capitalism run wild!), and then step in and really screw it up in the name of social reform.
 
► Only where there was a defiance, a refusal to truckle, a distrust of all authority, they believed, would institutions express human aspirations, not crush them. – George Orwell
 
► You can't make a weak man strong, by making a strong man weak. – Pauline Maier
 
► A liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake at the moment. – Abraham Lincoln

► A liberal is a conservative who hasn't been mugged yet.
 
► It is possible to move toward more equitable distribution of wealth without becoming a Stalinist . . . but only for a time. – Willis Player
 
► Creative activity is invariably diminished when it conforms to ideology and the rigid dogma of political correctness.
 
► You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

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How do people live in North Korea? - Quora.com
 
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Kim Jong-un's house: A Russian photojournalist was given access to one of the North Korean dictator's lavish homes at an undisclosed location near Pyongyang. According to the tyrant's former bodyguard Lee Young-kuk, the North Korean leader keeps at least eight separate palaces outside the capital. Although Kim has several palaces, pictures of them are hard to come by because the North Korean government has put in place tight security measures to make sure very few photographs exist.

► To take from one, because it is thought that his industry and that of his father has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, 'the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.' – Abraham Lincoln
 
► Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. – Thomas Jefferson
 
► Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom. – Sam Adams
 
► One of the consequences of such notions as entitlements is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence. – Friedrich August Von Hayek
 
► A government policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul. – Thomas Sowell
 
► It is a socialist ideal that making profits is a vice. I consider the real vice is making losses. – George Bernard Shaw
 
► Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. – Winston Churchill
 
► In questions of power, let us hear no more of trust in men, but rather bind them down from mischief with the chains of the Constitution. – Alexis de Tocqueville
 
► A democracy that is not self-destructive does not mean the ignorant masses, even those who are not citizens of a society, can vote in any cockamamie government they choose.
 
► There should be only two laws: do all that you say you are going to do, and do not aggress upon others or their property. – Thomas Jefferson
 
► If socialists have their way, the Constitution would read: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.
 
► Democracy is mob rule dressed up in a coat and tie. Hitler was elected.
 
► That's because they (government) still think that the economy is driven by confidence, not production of value. This pretend confidence they are instigating can blow away like a pile of leaves in a hurricane—and that's exactly what's going to happen. – R. Reagan
 
► The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. – Margaret Thatcher
 
► Whoever prefers life to death, happiness to suffering, well-being to misery must defend without compromise private ownership in the means of production. – Ludwig von Mises
 
► The state is fundamentally a criminal organization—it violates the right of self-determination in order to preserve its own existence.

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Zim among Africa’s worst on good governance index - TheIndependent.co.zw
 
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10 Photos of President Mugabe's Mansion in Zimbabwe - ZimbabweSituation.com
 
► If something is needed and wanted, an entrepreneur will supply it if profitable. Government will regulate it out of existence. Socialism will destroy its profitability.
 
► Doing what’s right is politically impossible, too many voters would squeal if an old order of freebies was changed.
 
► The failed dollar, due to socialistic spending beyond means, is like holding the old maid card, no politician wants to get stuck with it. The only way out, for a time, is to print endless counterfeit money.
 
► The task of weaning various people and groups from the national nipple will not be easy. The sound of whines, bawls, screams, and invective will fill the air as the agony of withdrawal pangs finds voice. – Linda Bowles
 
► The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore, we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive. – Thomas Sowell
 
► Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. – Thomas Sowell
 
► The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics. – Thomas Sowell
 
► Life, in general, has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government. – Thomas Sowell
 
► Remember, your government . . . considers you a milk cow. And history has shown, if they need to, they'll use you as a beef cow, as well. – Doug Casey
 
► Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it. – Mark Twain
 
► A liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake at the moment. – Willis Player
 
► Socialists pit eaters against the earners and providers.
 
► When government is big enough to give you everything you want, it's big enough to take everything you have.
 
► A liberal is someone who is liberal only with other people’s money.
 
► Socialists and liberals clamor for access to the machinery of state in order to multiply the inevitable harm they can do.
 
► Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. – C. S. Lewis
 
► We have a deep sense of entitlement: we want what we want, when and where we want it without regard to consequences. – Dwight Eisenhower
 
► Socialists don't lead by example, but by exhortation.
 
► Career socialist politicians have no private industry experience giving them a sense of the harm of the laws they impose.
 
► Permitting socialist politicians to make a career of it is like locking the fox in the henhouse.
 
► Lawyers are the biggest contributors to socialist politicians. It's a perfect marriage since lawyers are taught how to finagle rules, convict the innocent, and jail the guilty in order to advance their careers and wealth. It is no wonder socialist governments and courts are laden with them.
 
► Socialist politics is about charisma and the pretense of good intentions. The ultimate result is the third-world way of imperial leaders.
 
► The Constitution sets brushfires of freedom in the minds of men, socialism throws water on them.
 
► Meritocracy is America; dependency is socialism.
 
► Socialism knows that an ignorant electorate is most likely to keep voting for bread and circuses.
 
► Socialists try to vote themselves into prosperity.
 
► Hoked-up slurs is the currency of socialists pandered to portray themselves as political martyrs.

► Socialism turns the American dream into a pie in the sky.
 
► A socialist society is one of permanent adolescence.
 
► Government gifts create a phony standard of living.
 
► Socialism is the opposite of good ol' American can-doism.
 
► Socialism is only possible with a lazy public under the influence of cunning Orwellian power mongers.
 
► Loss of freedom only occurs by the consent of the governed.
 
► The only impediment to socialism is a citizenry that owns itself and exudes security, confidence, intelligence, and refuses to be a pawn of patriarchy.
 
► Once hated, as socialist/communist autocrats eventually are, they apply the Caligula Theory—let them hate us as long as they fear us.
 
► Socialists define freedom as a utopian heaven of no responsibility.
 
► Freedom means exploiting your own responsibility and creativity.
 
► Social fairness and virtue applied far and wide are at the expense of excellence and its rewards and leads to mediocrity.
 
► Excellence, the lifeblood of a vibrant society, is anathematized in favor of diversity and inclusion, the do-gooder ploy used by socialists to gain power.
 
► Socialism is not a solution, it is an alienation from the free-market principles that solves problems.

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Statistical changes lead to cuts in global poverty - Euractiv.com
 
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Properties of the Xi and general secretaries of China.

► Socialist institutions get no credit if the underclass lifts itself.
 
► Humans can't uplift without taking full responsibility for doing so.
 
► Socialists throw out lines of social aid for votes.
 
► Nature is not in our debt for the mere act of living.
 
► Liberalism attempts to sanitize all human interactions, lest someone's feelings be hurt.
 
► Socialists dream of a cornucopia of government to kiss things and make them better.
 
► Centralized governments are filled with corrupt people who, like shark’s teeth, just keep coming back until the shark is killed.
 
► Freedom requires knowledge and commitment to it, not taking an uninformed stand just to feel as though you are creating an impact.
 
► Mankind is more disposed to suffer from evils than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. It's like the old saw: Better the devil you know than the one you don't.

► Freedom and liberty provides the time to fight tyranny.
 
► When you make poverty (and comfort) easy, you make more of it. – Ben Franklin
 
► Socialism is bribing the present generation by looting the future one.
 
► Socialism is Ineptocracy: A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
 
► Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty because the hand entrusted with power becomes the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot.