Socialism Is Not Communism

Socialism is not communism (the far-right's boogeyman). It is not a dictatorship like the USSR, where everything is state-owned.

Democratic Socialism is capitalism with social programs where needed, such as Social Security, Universal Healthcare, public utilities, police, fire, highways, roads, the EPA, OSHA, the FAA, the SEC, and public education.

Today's Republicans want a profit-driven, unregulated, unfair, unjust, monopolistic, theocratic, oppressive, fascist corporatocracy where corporations and the wealthy gouge consumers and create an ever-widening income disparity.

Democratic Socialism is not Socialism. It's Capitalism with economic Socialism only where it makes sense. It's not nationalizing anything. Take health care as an example. No hospitals, clinics, medical device manufacturing, etc. are seized. If ownership changes, it's by purchase. Only the financing changes. Single-payer. Taxpayer-funded to spread costs. The US is the only Western industrialized nation without universal health care. Here, millions of people lack health insurance coverage. Health insurance is expensive and has deductibles, co-pays, coverage gaps, yearly or lifetime limits, and capricious coverage denials that call treatments experimental or unneeded, or cite missing preauthorization or undisclosed conditions such as teenage acne.

The SAVE Act currently being debated disenfranchises any woman whose name currently does not match their current name. Any changes, such as those related to marriage, must be documented at the voter's expense. Passports can only be used as proof of eligibility in five northern states. Instances of non-citizen voting are almost nonexistent. Want to cast a provisional vote (convicted felons can legally vote in some states, which can create uncertainty at the polls)? Be prepared to be convicted of voter fraud for casting a provisional vote.

Democratic Progressives are concerned with workers' rights, consumer protections, environmental safeguards, financial protections, an end to predatory loans, a stop to monopolies that eliminate competition, a fair (instead of an unregulated "free" cheaters-always-prosper) market, non-profit justice, and a halt to the gutting of public education.

LGBTQIA? There are many genetic exceptions to simplistic binary XX/XY. An XY individual can develop as female without ever being aware of their condition. There are females who grow a penis at age 12. There are people with both male and female genitalia, and people who have no attraction to either sex. It's a spectrum, not a dichotomy.

Gender-affirming medical surgeries on children are not performed without a critical underlying necessity, and usually involve correcting defects, not sex changes. Transsexuals undergo hormone treatments to make their bodies align more with their innate sense of gender.

Republicans are so concerned about freedom, yet they want to regulate bedroom privacy. 

Roe v. Wade was based on the Right to Privacy. The Ninth Amendment said that rights are not limited to those enumerated in the Constitution, and the 1965 case (Griswold v. Connecticut) specifically referred to the Right to Privacy. However, the Roe v. Wade decision based their ruling on the 14th Amendment. They ruled that abortions are restricted on the basis of which trimester fetal development occurred. Republicans claim that Democrats want unlimited abortions, an absurd belief, rather than a return to Roe v. Wade. Trump's nominees to SCOTUS claimed that Roe v. Wade was settled law, then ruled against it, with Clarence Thomas citing that the Right to Privacy was not a Constitutional right. Many other SCOTUS rulings are based on that Right to Privacy, including interracial marriages (sorry, Clarence).

Your comment says that Democrats:

 *Value all illegals over U.S. citizens.
 *Diversity over merit. 
 *Defend our far-left extreme partisan press.
 *Support putting W.O.K.E. values into the military.
 *Abuse anyone who believes differently.
 *Spend trillions on inefficient green energy science.
 *Apply overbearing regulations and flawed climate change.

I don't know where you get these delusions. Look at the Constitution. Due Process is not limited to citizens. Diversity does not supersede merit. Extreme partisan press? Like Fox News? Ever heard of the First Amendment?

Wokeness:

• Read books and don't burn them
• Embrace science
• Willing to change your mind when new information becomes available
• Understand that most issues are not black and white
• Believe in true equality for all people
• Have empathy
• Embrace cooperation
• Respect others' rights
• Believe culture and the arts have value
• Care for the planet

Equality is not about dumbing down or rewarding everyone. Equality is about fairness (recognizing hard work and not placing obstacles in people's paths), being non-racist, non-discriminatory, non-misogynistic, and non-greedy (workers should share in productivity gains and be paid living wages so they can actually afford consumer spending).

Being patriotic is about deeds, not empty words, slogans, or waving guns. It's about caring for our country and improving it. 

Abuse people whose beliefs differ? Don't like free speech? Have you actually listened to Trump?

Inefficient Green Science? Gee, sorry for wanting clean air, clean water, clean soil, and caring for our planet (there is no Planet B).

Overbearing regulation? As opposed to complete deregulation? Wanting a fair playing field instead of a free playing field?

Flawed climate change? I guess not wanting a massive increase in destructive storms, sea level rise, and mass extinctions is woke?

Remember CRT? Critical Race Theory? It's a law school subject, not a primary or college subject. It's critical in the sense of examination of important points or applications, not criticism. Trying to imply indoctrination of K-12 students is a complete fabrication. It's an attempt to redefine CRT as something evil.

The Democratic coalition is ascendant no more

Replying to the following comment:

username Voter ID

Key values of the Demo-Social-Commie Party:   *Yield to DSA, Socialism, and Communism *Raise taxes while providing less to taxpayers  *Support Gender-affirming care incl/surgery for children.  *Abortions from conception to infinity.  *Exclude equal rights in women's sports.  *Oppose voter ID to protect Demo-Social-Commie votes.  *Penalize 88% of U.S. citizenry w/Universal health care for all.  *Resume having no oversight to subsidized housing.  *Believe: We are a nation of immigrants not “citizens.” *Value all illegals over U.S. citizens.  *Diversity over merit.  *Defend our far-left extreme partisan press. *Support putting W.O.K.E. values into the military. *Abuse any who believe different. *Spend billions on inefficient green energy science. *Apply overbearing regulations and flawed climate change. *Be a hypocrite.

SCOTUS Impeachments and The Right To Privacy

To remove federal judges, including Supreme Court Justices, requires impeachment by the House followed by a Senate trial, with a removal from office requiring a 2/3s vote.

We've seen how Republicans view impeachments, so this doesn't look like it will happen.

US Constitution, Article III, Section 1:

"The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,…

It's not just the ethical violations and lies in their confirmation hearings of some of the Justices. It's also the dismantling of established laws.

The 9th Amendment ensures that there are more rights than those in the Bill of Rights. The 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Amendments all concerned the right to privacy from the government. All of those Amendments were also made applicable to States through the 14th Amendment.

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

The 9th Amendment:

  Stops assumptions: Prevents the government from claiming that unlisted rights do not exist just because they are not on paper.

  Protects hidden rights: Safeguards fundamental human rights like privacy, travel, or personal choices that are not directly written down.

  Limits power: Keeps the federal government from assuming it has total power over areas not mentioned in the first eight amendments.

Roe v Wade was based on a right to privacy from the government. In his concurring ruling overturning Roe v Wade, Justice Thomas said what the majority ruling danced around, that the Justices were overturning the guarantee of the Right to Privacy.

There are a handful of other laws which are based on the right to privacy which are now in danger.

The right to privacy is at the heart of

 1. The right to marry whomever you choose, be it interracial or same-sex.

 2. (1963) Married couples had a right to privacy when attempting to obtain birth control (a later ruling extended that right to individuals).

 3. Allowing you to homeschool your children or send them to a private or religious school.

 4. HIPPA laws regarding your medical records.

The fix for the Supreme Court may come down to expanding the number of Justices via a Democrat majority in Congress.

Social Security is Self-Funded

Social Security is supposed to be separate by law. Social Security isn't the government's biggest expense. It's not an expense in the federal budget (do people who say it is ever point out Social Security's revenues?). Social Security is self-funded.

Social Security is financed through taxes on workers and interest on the Treasury Bonds held in the Trust Fund.

For employees, half of their taxes are paid through the employer. Those taxes are based on gross income. Paying half via employers makes that part tax-exempt for employees. If companies did not handle half of the contributions, workers would have to pay the full 12.4% in the same way that self-employed people do.

The "employer" contribution is not a company's money; it's a cost of employing someone. If the business doesn't pay, that money rightfully belongs to employees so they can pay Social Security taxes.

The Treasury Bonds in the Trust Fund are not instruments of theft. The Trust Fund was built up to handle fewer workers contributing less during the Baby Boomer retirements.

If Social Security redeems a Bond, the Treasury simply sells a Bond to someone else. The National Debt is financed through the sale of Bonds. Who buys them does not matter.

Social Security was supposed to be kept 100% funded for 75 years. Today, it's only fully funded for 6 years. Blame Congress for failing to adjust tax rates and salary caps to keep it funded. Congress has been fully aware of this situation for decades.

The GOP is ideologically opposed to government programs that are non-profit. Wall Street wants a cut, so a "crisis" was manufactured to force privatization.

Stop treating Social Security as a budget expense, and stop trying to say Congress already stole the Trust Fund.

The wealthy pay a minuscule amount to Social Security because of Salary Caps on income subject to those taxes. Raise the caps high enough to address the crisis. Congress created the problem by failing to adjust caps as needed. Make the rich pay their fair share, and blame Congress, not Social Security.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8sn292b/

Autocracy Index - It's Worse Than You Think

Letters to my ND US Representative and Senators

If this is your idea of a functioning democracy with three separate but equal branches and more than one political party, I present to you this recent article. I’m hoping this has more of an impact on you than all the various, almost-continuous crises and horrors have. 

---

From the New York Times, May 14, 2026 (same information without graphics)

THE AUTOCRACY INDEX - 12 MARKERS OF DEMOCRATIC EROSION

0 is baseline Democracy for both parties before Trump (flaws included)

10 is a full Autocracy

5: Bypassing the legislature

4: Stifling speech and dissent

5: Persecuting political opponents

2: Defying the courts

5: Declaring false emergencies

2: Using the military at home

6: Vilifying marginalized groups

2:Controlling information

2:Trying to take over universities

6: Creating a cult of personality

7: Using power for personal profit

0: Manipulating the law to stay in power [only Trump?]

Background and methodology: The clearest sign that a democracy has died is that a leader and his party make it impossible for their opponents to win an election and hold power. Once that stage is reached, however, the change is extremely difficult to reverse.

The 12 benchmarks in this editorial offer a way to understand how much Mr. Trump is eroding American democracy. The categories are based on interviews with legal scholars, political scientists, historians, and other democracy experts. The ratings come from the New York Times editorial board. In our 0-to-10 scales, zero represents roughly where the United States, flawed though it was, had been under presidents of both parties prior to Mr. Trump. Ten represents the condition in a true authoritarian state.

Moving even one notch toward autocracy is a worrisome sign.

---

From:

Keith B Wilson, Age 69, on Social Security

Sent by Mail to:

Julie Fedorchak, R-ND, U.S. House

John Hoeven, R-ND, U.S. Senate

Kevin Cramer, R-ND, U.S. Senate

Letter to Trygve Hammer, ND Democrat candidate for U.S. House re Social Security

STOP Congress from adjusting Social Security benefits and retirement ages!!!

Social Security funding is a manufactured crisis. Instead of fixing the revenue problem, Republicans keep trying to adjust expenses. 40+ years of underfunding to force privatization was a deliberate choice. And Democrats let it happen.

Here's a thought. Congress broke it, so Congress must fix it. Not with a hairbrained, corrupt plan to lower or cap benefits or raise retirement ages. Try fixing the revenue side of the equation. Social Security is supposed to be fully funded for 75 years. What has Congress done? Allowed full funding to fall to only 6 years. Didn't our representatives swear an oath to the Constitution?

Stop punishing beneficiaries. Let's raise the caps on incomes subject to Social Security enough to fix THEIR mess. Not the payroll tax rates. The caps on income. Let the RICH pay 12.4% on a greater share of their gross income. Enough to expand the benefits that Republicans have purposely screwed with. Enough to change the retirement age back to 65. People in their 60s experience a second period of rapid aging (the first occurs in their 40s). Why should old people be forced to work sicker and weaker than they've ever been?

Quick notes:

Social Security is not the government’s biggest expense. SOCIAL SECURITY IS SELF-FUNDED and is supposed to be separate by law (but those surpluses made budgets look better). Surpluses have been deposited into the Trust Fund through the purchase of interest-bearing Treasury Bonds. Congress did not steal from Social Security. The Treasury sells bonds to finance the National Debt. If Social Security redeems bonds, the Treasury will simply sell bonds to someone else. Bonds are not instruments of theft.

Plus, the Trust Fund was built up to finance baby boomer retirements during the period when there would be fewer workers paying payroll taxes. The Trust Fund was expected to be drawn down. Fewer workers were planned for. Drawing from the Trust Fund does not mean Social Security is in the red.

As far as companies contributing 6.2% to Social Security, that is a cost of doing business. If companies didn’t pay, the money would rightfully go to workers directly so that they could pay the full 12.4% (same as self-employed). It’s not company money. It’s a way to make that 6.2% tax-free for workers (and less of a shock regarding payroll deductions).

I’ve been writing to my representatives about this mess since at least 2011. It would be nice if Democrats could get a greater understanding of the facts. Hopefully, you can do better!

Sincerely, 

Keith Bryan Wilson
wilsonkeith962@gmail.com

Social Security is in a Manufactured Crisis

A letter to my North Dakota US House and Senate representatives.

For the last 40 years, the GOP has underfunded Social Security, so now the 75-year full funding is down to 10 years! Payroll tax adjustments and taxable salary caps have not kept revenues in line with expenses. 

What have Republicans advocated and enacted? Benefit cuts and the raising of retirement ages! All part of the plan to eventually privatize Social Security (and a return to the time of poorhouses). 

Survivors' benefits and disability coverage? In the for-profit marketplace? 20% overhead instead of 2%. You continue sabotaging the most successful anti-poverty program ever. Because of GREED. Because you are ideologically opposed to programs that don't generate a profit.

Here's a thought. You broke it, so you fix it. Not with a hairbrained, corrupt plan to cap benefits (more on that below). Try fixing the revenue side of the equation. 

Let's raise the caps on incomes subject to Social Security enough to fix YOUR mess. Enough to expand benefits that you have purposely screwed with. Enough to change the retirement age back to 65, so old people aren't being forced to work sicker and weaker than they've ever been. People in their 60s go through a second period of rapid aging (the first occurs in their 40s).

Oh, and company execs who think their half of Social Security tax payments are theirs? That's BS! It's the cost of employing people. Eliminate that, and they damn well better be prepared to give that money to workers so they can pay the full 12.4% tax themselves, the same way self-employed people do. Out of their no longer tax-exempt 6.2% pay increase, of course.

I don't want to hear any more excuses and lies. Social Security is separate by law! You call Social Security the federal budget's biggest expense. It's SELF-FUNDED! It's not a budget expense at all! Social Security contributes not one dime to federal budget deficits or the National Debt. 

Those interest-bearing guaranteed Treasury Bonds in the Trust Fund were bought with surplus revenues. If Social Security didn't buy them, the Treasury would have had to sell them to someone else to cover its borrowing. Social Security, with its almost $3 trillion Trust Fund (to fund Baby Boomer retirements), is not broke. 

As your constituent, and someone whose only income is Social Security, I’m here to warn you of a new scheme hatched by millionaires and billionaires to trick you into further cutting Social Security. They call it a "Six Figure Limit" proposal that would cap Social Security benefits at $50,000 per person. This scheme, backed by Wall Street billionaires, would not keep pace with inflation—gradually transforming Social Security from an earned benefit into a poverty-level program that hurts younger generations most of all, while billionaire elites hoard even more wealth. That's assuming the program has not yet been privatized.

The real solution is not cutting middle-class benefits, but making billionaires pay their fair share. Social Security should be expanded to reflect the rising costs seniors face, not undermined to protect corporate profits and tax loopholes.

I demand that you reject any proposal to cap Social Security benefits and instead support legislation that expands Social Security by requiring the wealthy to pay in at the same rate as the rest of us, enough to fix your manufactured crisis. 

It's called Social Responsibility. There has to be a balance between Social Responsibility and Individual Responsibility. I know that's anathema to Republicans. Grow up.

To Kevin Cramer, ND Senator

 To Kevin Cramer, ND Senator

4/10/2026

The SAVE Act is a flawed solution to a non-existent problem. Why don't you look at the actual facts about the miniscule rate of non-citizen voting before enacting voter suppression legislation.

Disenfranchising up to 20 million women voters.

Your solution requires women to provide copies of birth certificates along with documentation of any name changes, including a change because of marriage. This is time and money designed to be required of likely Democrat voters.

May I ask why someone was convicted of voter fraud for casting a provisional ballot--a ballot explicitly designed to not count the ballot unless any issues (such as can a former felon in that state vote) are resolved?

Dead people voting? Because of outdated software, some missing birthdates in old data sets still had default data entered which then got translated to showing that people were 150 years old. This was cited as PROOF that dead people were voting.

Your party leader made up stories of bus-loads of illegal immigrants voting, some of whom would go out, put on a fake mustache, and go back in and cast another ballot. There are already procedures in place to prevent such nonsense.

And mail-in ballots? Trump's first-term Postmaster General sabotaged mail-sorting machines to delay mail-in ballots. And now Trump wants to eliminate mail-in voting. Some precincts have every ballot as mail-in. I used mail-in because of a disability in a district that eventually changed to all mail-in voting.

Limiting voting machines and locations to create lines that are so long that they prevent people voting in time. Purging voter rolls. Publishing materials with wrong voting dates. Fake ballot drop-off boxes. A demand that elections be run federally. All voter suppression ploys. 

Did you know that before the 2020 election, Trump said that after most voting machine ballots were counted, and before mail-in votes were tallied (taking longer because they don't get counted until election day), he would declare victory (the Red Mirage) and then cry fraud when the totals turned against him? This was before the election!

The SAVE Act is just another in a long line of cheating to win elections.

So, no, your response doesn't fit reality. Look at the data. Look at what you're demanding of voters. Look at the cheating you just voted for.

By the way, how's the National Debt reduction going? 

How's the demonizing of LGBT+ going? Passages in the Bible about pedophilia being mistranslated to be about homosexuality makes it easier, doesn't it? 

Your religion concerns your behavior. Pretending it extends to everyone else is delusional. Try using scientific findings. I bet you don't know that XY individuals can have female bodies because of known genetic defects? Sex and gender are spectrums. They are not limited by a single binary gene on one single chromosome. I'm pushing 70 and even I know better.

Letter to My Rep, Gays, Ideology, and HR 7661

 Letter to Julie Fedorchak, US House Representative for North Dakota, 3/23/2026

REJECT HR 7661: Stop the National Assault on Public Education, and Other Observations

Gay kids read hundreds of books about straight kids, and remain gay. But you're afraid if Daniel reads one book about gay kids, he's going to wake up tomorrow and ask Brad to the prom. 

Your religion governs your behavior. Not mine. If you think the Old Testament laws should apply, why don't you advocate white slavery and eschew the wearing of jewelry?

I thought Republicans were all about freedom. Right. The freedom to go without unpolluted food, air, water, and soil. The freedom to work two or three jobs to earn a living. The freedom to have someone else decide which books you can read. The freedom to go bankrupt because of medical bills. The freedom from scientific truths. The freedom to die when an abortion could have saved one's life. The freedom to not be able to marry the consenting adult that you love. The freedom to not be able to bargain collectively with fellow workers at one's job. The freedom to be deported without due process by people who write and execute their own "administrative" warrants. The freedom to helplessly witness the GOP enabling a racist, misogynistic, vitriolic dictator who wants to abolish the Constitution as he rewrites history.

The GOP advocates the abandonment of any Social Responsibility in favor of a cynical ideology of Personal Responsibility, instead of a balance between them.

If you like ruthless authoritarian governments with unaccountable, murderous secret police and loss of individual rights, why don't you move to Russia or North Korea?

Lastly, I am writing to demand that you vote NO on HR 7661. This legislation is a dangerous, nationalized vehicle for book banning that threatens the very existence of our public school system.

By weaponizing federal funding, HR 7661 attempts to blackmail schools into adopting the bigoted, reactionary dogma of groups like "Moms for Liberty." This bill effectively erases LGBTQ+ students and replaces professional educational standards with partisan indoctrination. It is a financial hit job designed to starve schools that refuse to comply with extremist censorship.

Do not allow federal policy to destroy the lives of American children. Support intellectual freedom and vote against this overreach.

Letter To My House Representative

Letter to Julie Fedorchak, North Dakota House Representative, 1/17/2025:

Trump said, “I may do that for Greenland too. I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that."

Tariffs are strictly a function of the House, as are appropriations. It is Congress' job to legislate.

The president's job is to execute the laws passed by Congress. Usurping Congress' role is unconstitutional. Trump had his chance to veto their legislation; he can't change his mind down the road.

Stephen Miller, the Deputy Chief of Staff and the architect of separation of families at the border (how many children were never returned?) is assisting Trump in following the Nazi playbook. Look it up.

When are you going to impeach this would-be dictator and saddle us with his VP?

Gestapo in our streets, retribution and the demonizing of anyone who opposes his views, attacks on Blue States, constant threats and insults, the sowing of chaos and terror and despair and misery, throwing out due process and the freedom of the press and religion, malicious prosecutions, acts of war, war crimes, imperial acts of aggression against other nations, blackmailing of Zelensky, whitewashing history, imposition of religious ideas of binary gender, halting cancer and other research, crippling of agencies that serve the public. That's just a small list of Trump's warped actions.

America has had progress set back decades and generations. Clinton was impeached because of a bj, and you don't think there are sufficient grounds to impeach Trump? Do your job!