Communism

North Korean defector ‘shocked’ by kindness, racial diversity of US

A North Korean defector, who calls himself a “victim of brainwash education,” explained what “shocked” him most when he first stepped on American soil. Kim Geum-Hyuk spoke to the YouTube channel, “DIMPLE,” which shares stories and videos involving North Koreans, earlier this month. He grew up in the Hermit Kingdom and went to college in Pyongyang before defecting. “They taught us to fight [Americans] til the end,” Kim, who now lives in Seoul, South Korea, said, adding that Americans are considered “street dogs” or “wolves” depicted as “people who torture and kill” in North Korean education, which he found to be “totally wrong.” “[Americans are] so nice, funny, and open to anything,” Kim shared. “I was so surprised when I first went to California. What I was taught in North Korea was an image of the coldness and wickedness of Americans.” He said he was walking in the morning and a man jogging by said “hi” and he started realizing that “everyone actually said ‘hi’ on the street” and that it was part of American culture. “So there are Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans … So many people made up one community,” he said. “I was just so surprised by the diversity.” And the landscape of America was stunning to Kim as well, who said visiting the Grand Canyon felt like going to Mars and he was amazed at how big Texas was. He added that he was surprised there wasn’t any public transportation in California and he noted the “subways in New York City are really bad and stink.” Because of what North Korean media presented, he said he was led to believe that Iraq was going to win the Iraq War in 2003. “I was like, ‘Iraq is amazing, they’re gonna win,’” he said. “And I found out America wiped them all out in 57 days. So I fixed my thoughts.” On a lighter note, he said the U.S. is a place where you “can gain weight,” noting he put on almost 10 pounds during his visit. Kim is working to bring freedom to his home country as a peace ambassador for One Young World. He’s studying political science and diplomacy at Korea University.

This is what happens in the DPRK (North Korea); just lies and brainwashing.  That’s all that happens in communist countries like North Korea, Cuba, etc.  To see this YouTube interview, click on the text above.

Teen Vogue Tweets ‘Welcome to Marx!’

In a bizarre move, a major magazine designed to influence an entire generation of teenagers — Teen Vogue — tweeted “Welcome to Marx!,” promoting a 2018 article hailing Karl Marx as a “legend” and adding that the communist philosopher’s ideas “are more prevalent than you might realize.” “You may have come across communist memes on social media,” begins the 2018 Teen Vogue piece. “The man, the meme, the legend behind this trend is Karl Marx, who developed the theory of communism, which advocates for workers’ control over their labor (instead of their bosses).” But of course, anyone who has studied communism understands that the results of the ideology being put into practice isn’t what anyone in good conscience would refer to as “workers’ control over their labor,” but rather, a worldwide death toll of roughly 100 million. The Teen Vogue piece says the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx is taught in schools, and that Marx is one of the most assigned “economists” in U.S. college courses. So Teen Vogue sat down with two educators and interviewed them regarding how they teach their students about “the legacy of Marx’s ideas and how they’re relevant to the current political climate.” One of the educators the magazine interviewed was former Drexel University professor George Ciccariello-Maher, who “challenges his students to envision a society without capitalism,” and who also said in 2016 that all he wants for Christmas is “white genocide” — which is actually fitting for someone who flirts with Marxism, as “everyone who advocated genocide called himself a socialist,” according to George Watson’s 1998 book, The Lost Literature of Socialism. “Marx says we live under capitalism [but] capitalism has not always existed,” said Ciccariello-Maher to Teen Vogue. “It’s something that came into being and something that, as a result, just on a logical level, could disappear, could be overthrown, could be abolished, could be irrelevant.” “There’s this myth of the free market, but Marx shows very clearly that capitalism emerged through a state of violence,” added Ciccariello-Maher, ironically. Teen Vogue ominously went on to say that “many Marxists” believe “the current socioeconomic system is precarious and can be overthrown at any time.” The magazine also interviewed public high school teacher Mark Brunt, who said that he likes to do “a little role-playing” with his students, where he plays the bourgeoisie, and his students play the proletariat. “I do a little role-playing with [my class],” Brunt told Teen Vogue. “[I tell them,] I’m the boss, you’re my workers, and you want to try to take me down. I have the money. I own the factory. I control the police. I control the military. I control the government. What do you guys have?” Brunt goes on to explain that his students usually react by blinking at him and appearing clueless, until he hints that they have one thing that he, as “the boss,” doesn’t have. “It’s always just one student, whose hand shoots up and goes, ‘We outnumber you!’” added Brunt. Brunt said he goes on to introduce his students to Marx’s definition of the “proletariat” and the “bourgeoisie,” adding that the tension between the two groups make up the class conflict, or class struggle. Why Teen Vogue decided to dredge up this piece now remains unclear. But one can only assume what the magazine — which claims that “the proletariat will come together to overthrow the bourgeoisie and ultimately, win” — is suggesting.

Indeed!  Holy crap!!  If you, or your teen, subscribes to this rag, cancel it!  Communism is responsible for the slaughter of MILLIONS of people in (the now former) Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba and elsewhere.  And, wherever it has been tried, it has FAILED economically.  Heck, Stalin murdered over 10 MILLION of his own people alone.  Why academia still looks up to that failed ideology, is beyond me.  Its really a failure of education.  These uber-liberal professors with their PhDs, who couldn’t begin to get a job out in the real world, use their positions in academia to brainwash “young skulls full of mush”…and that’s how this stuff is still perpetrated.  This article terrifying, and is a HUGE wakeup call to all parents.  Thanks to Alana Mastrangelo for bringing this to our attention!  You can follow Alana on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

Pompeo takes aim at ‘obscene’ Chinese propaganda meant to exploit civil strife in U.S

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday denounced Chinese Communist Party propaganda aimed at fueling U.S. civil unrest and seeking to further divide Americans. “The Chinese Communist Party’s callous exploitation of the tragic death of George Floyd to justify its authoritarian denial of basic human dignity exposes its true colors yet again,” Mr. Pompeo said in a statement. “As with dictatorships throughout history, no lie is too obscene, so long as it serves the party’s lust for power. This laughable propaganda should not fool anyone.” Chinese diplomats and state-run media outlets in recent weeks have disseminated a steady stream of reports criticizing the U.S. government and Trump administration. Officials said the Chinese propaganda attacks are aimed at fueling racial and political tensions. The official Xinhua news agency and Global Times, the state-run hardline Communist Party newspaper, sent out numerous stories criticizing the Trump administration for its policies toward minorities. The propaganda is coming from the Chinese government that itself is under fire for imprisoning more than 1 million Uighurs in western China, along with other human rights abuses. Mr. Pompeo said in recent days Beijing “showcased its continuing contempt for the truth and scorn for law.” “The CCP’s propaganda efforts – seeking to conflate the United States’ actions in the wake of the death of George Floyd with the CCP’s continued denial of basic human rights and freedom – should be seen for the fraud that they are,” he said. “During the best of times, the PRC ruthlessly imposes communism,” he said. “Amid the most difficult challenges, the United States secures freedom.” Mr. Pompeo noted the stark contrast between the United States and communist-ruled China. “In China, when a church burns, the attack was almost certainly directed by the CCP,” he said, using the acronym for Chinese Communist Party. “In America, when a church burns, the arsonists are punished by the government, and it is the government that brings fire trucks, water, aid, and comfort to the faithful.” Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the officially-atheist government has cracked down on unofficial house churches that are frequently bulldozed to prevent gatherings of worshipers. Mr. Pompeo also said that peaceful protesters in China’s Tiananmen Square or in Hong Kong get clubbed by armed militiamen for simply speaking out, and reporters who cover the dissent are sentenced to long prison terms. In the United States, American law enforcement authorities bring rogue officer to justice. Peaceful protests are welcomed while looting and violence are shut down. “Our free press covers events wall to wall, for all the world to see,” he said. Also, doctors and journalists in China who warned of the dangers of the new coronavirus outbreak were silenced and imprisoned. The Beijing government also lied about death totals and the extent of the disease outbreak, Mr. Pompeo said. “In the United States, we value life and build transparent systems to treat, cure, and underwrite – more than any other nation – pandemic solutions for the globe,” he added. Chinese authorities imprison people who diverge from CCP ideology or place them in re-education camps, the secretary said. The secretary of state’s comment provide the first U.S. government acknowledgement that China is among the foreign actors seeking to further inflame racial tensions in the United States. Attorney General Bill Barr said earlier this week that he had evidence that among the protesters around the country there are “”foreign actors playing all sides to exacerbate the violence.” FBI Director Christopher Wray also said foreign elements had “set out to sow discord and upheaval.” A U.S. official said videos posted online recently showed what appeared to be Chinese embassy and consulates personnel taking a direct role in riots in Washington and California.

Our thanks to veteran D.C. columnist, and best-selling author, Bill Gertz for that excellent piece!     🙂

Opinion/Analysis: Socialist Sanders is most dangerous major party presidential contender in US history

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the improbable current front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is lying to the American people when he tell us that “democratic socialism” simply means he wants to give the vast majority of Americans new opportunities to succeed and wants millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes. In fact, my extensive research on comments Sanders has made going back decades shows he has warmly embraced not just socialism but communism, and praised tyrannical dictatorships that have trashed the freedoms Americans enjoy under the Bill of Rights that are part of our Constitution. Sanders is not just another liberal Democrat who wants to expand social programs, in the tradition of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. He is the most radical candidate in American history with a real shot at winning the presidential nomination of one of our two major political parties. While candidates have run for president in the past on radical platforms under the banners of socialist, communist and other fringe political parties, they have drawn only tiny percentages of the vote. Sanders, elected in Vermont as an independent and not as a Democrat, is trying to convince the American people that policies implemented around the world by socialist and communist regimes that have resulted in death, destruction and economic mayhem are in our best interest. But like the wolf in the children’s tale of Little Red Riding Hood who donned a nightgown and covered his face to pose as the young girl’s grandmother, Sanders tries to disguise socialism. The socialist senator wants us to believe socialism is a kind and caring philosophy that is the embodiment of justice and equality for all. Sanders thinks that by sticking the word “democratic” in front of the word “socialism” he can trick millions of Americans into supporting the horrific philosophy he espouses. As the old saying goes, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Communism and socialism give government far more power than our capitalist system does, enabling leaders to become tyrants. This has been proven the case again and again in dozens of nations that have abandoned capitalism for communism and socialism. The truth is that more than 167 million people were exiled, imprisoned, or killed by socialist and communist parties in the 20th century. And, contrary to claims made by Sanders, his talking points about socialism’s successes in countries such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark are completely false. Those countries are not socialist nations and their citizens are, in many ways, not better off than most Americans. Yet despite these well-documented facts, Sanders has managed to sell his socialist snake oil to many well-meaning, kind-hearted Americans who think that the only way to solve the world’s problems is to give government far more power over their lives. The following quotes from Sanders illustrate just how truly radical and disturbing his ideology is. In a “special interview” in 1981 with a communist newspaper called The Militant, Sanders, who had just become mayor of Burlington, Vt., claimed there are American police departments “dominated by fascists and Nazis.” “We’ve got cops here who are good trade unionists on all the regular trade union issues, and who also have a concern for young people,” Sanders told The Militant, in reaction to some concerns voiced by socialists who were worried that he received too much support from local police during his 1980 mayoral campaign. In other words, Burlington had good cops – but bad cops dominated many other police departments. The attack Sanders made on police is not only outrageous, it’s also incredibly ironic. The Nazis were, in fact, socialists who believed in collectively managing property and most of the German economy. Further, some of the most ruthless, murderous regimes to exist during the past 100 years were led by committed Marxists – not free-market capitalists devoted to defending individual rights. Sanders has a long track record of supporting communist and socialist organizations. For example, in 1980 and 1984, he endorsed Socialist Workers Party presidential candidates, and he even agreed to be an elector for the party. This shows clearly that Sanders is no Democrat. He’s an opportunistic radical trying to hijack the Democratic Party and turn it into a socialist party. In the 1980s, the Socialist Workers Party was mostly devoted to espousing radical Marxist and communist ideas, and it was widely known as being largely Trotskyite – an ideology made famous by Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, who promoted the necessity of global communism. According to an article in The Militant, Sanders issued a press release in 1980 in which he said he supported the Socialist Workers Party in part because of its “continued defense of the Cuban revolution.” At the time Sanders lauded the “Cuban revolution,” the ruthless dictator Fidel Castro had been in power for two decades. During that period Castro stripped Cubans of their basic political and individual rights, murdered and imprisoned dissenters and welcomed Soviet missiles to his island nation. That action led to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which brought the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war. Sanders has a long track record of framing his ideology as one that is completely contrary to capitalism. This precludes any possibility that he wants to merely reform America’s current market-based system. For example, in a speech Sanders delivered in May 1981 while introducing the head of the Socialist Workers Party, he explained that the “real debate of our time” and the “debate of our century” is “socialism versus capitalism.” Further, throughout the 1980s Sanders said the Democratic Party was not radical enough to accomplish his goal to usher in his Marxist utopia and win the “socialism versus capitalism” debate. For instance, according to reports by the Burlington Free Press, in a speech Sanders delivered in the early 1980s before students at the Vermont Law School he said Vermont needed a new and radical party that “must develop a membership base of workers and farmers” and called for “the rejection of the Democratic and Republican parties.” Based on his own words, it is clear that the “revolution” Sanders is always talking about staging would spell the end of capitalism and economic freedom in the United States that made us the richest, most prosperous and most powerful nation on Earth. And once economic freedom goes, history has shown that political freedom and many of our human rights go as well. My question to each of you reading these words is simple: Do you really want to see America turned into a “workers’ paradise” like China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and so many other failed communist and socialist nations? Sanders doesn’t frame his campaign that way, of course. But that is the choice facing voters.

Indeed..  Thanks to Justin Haskins for that well-researched assessment of Bernie’s history, and his actual philosophical and political beliefs, which he’s espoused for decades.  Justin Haskins is the executive editor and a research fellow at The Heartland Institute and the editor-in-chief of StoppingSocialism.com. He’s the author of “Socialism Is Evil: The Moral Case Against Marx’s Radical Dream.” Follow him on Twitter @JustinTHaskins.

Rep Diaz-Balart: My family fled Cuba, and I’m setting the record straight for Sanders and Castro apologists

Following praise of Castro’s Cuba by Democratic presidential candidate for president Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., I must take the opportunity to correct the misinformation and false claims so frequently touted by Castro’s apologists. First of all, it is appalling to those personally affected by the Castro regime legacy of firing squads, torture, imprisonment, brutal oppression and terrorism to witness a U.S. presidential candidate seek to decipher some nominal good from the abject and all-pervasive evil of totalitarianism. Many of those who support Sanders today may not have been around to witness the evils of communism over the past few decades. Sanders has no such excuse. At the height of the Cold War, he hobnobbed with the Soviets and established a partnership with the Sandinistas in a Nicaraguan region at war with the indigenous Miskito people. He should remember that when nuclear missiles in Cuba were pointed at the United States, Fidel Castro pleaded that Khrushchev launch a first strike. He should remember that the Castro dictatorship ordered the shootdown of two unarmed civilian aircraft in international waters, resulting in the murder of three innocent Americans and a permanent resident for which the general and two pilots were indicted in U.S. federal court. He should demand the return of fugitives from U.S. justice such as Joanne Chesimard, an FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist, and terrorist bomb maker William Morales. He should remember the “13 de Marzo” Tugboat Massacre of 1994 when the Castro regime rammed, sprayed and ultimately sunk a tugboat of 72 men, women and children who were attempting to escape Cuba in search of freedom. 41 perished, including 10 children. They were among the over a million Cubans who, like my family, fled totalitarianism. He should also remember the lives of those who died at the hands of the Castro regime in the past ten years, such as Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto, Laura Pollan, Oswaldo Paya, Harold Cepero and Armando Sosa Fortuny. He should call for the immediate release of political prisoners Jose Daniel Ferrer, Mitzael Diaz Paseiro, Yanet Perez Quevedo and Miguel Diaz Bouza so that they do not suffer the same fate. Collectivist systems of socialism and communism have brought devastation and tyranny wherever they have been tried. The regimes of communist China, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela have used socialist/communist policies to justify the most egregious human rights abuses and their iron grip on power. In less than two decades, socialism has managed to plunge Venezuela, a country with the world’s largest known oil reserves, into blackouts, starvation, medical shortages and utter destitution. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation reveals that more than 100 million people have perished as a result of communism, from the purge policies of Mao and Stalin, including forced starvation, through the dictatorships in North Korea, Eastern Europe and Cuba. Sanders should be asked about Communist China’s forced reeducation and labor camps, including the current oppression of Uyghurs who have been forced to abandon their language and culture and improve their “literacy” of the state-mandated Mandarin language. With collectivist systems where individual rights are subsumed by the so-called “greater good” of the many, once unthinkable horrors become reality. Sanders’ comments in regard to Cuba are particularly shocking given the Castro regime’s long and sordid history of threatening U.S. interests. The regime in Cuba partners with rogue regimes, terrorists and Anti-American interests such as the terrorist state of Iran, Russia, communist China, the Maduro regime in Venezuela, the FARC and Hezbollah. In 2013, the Cuban regime was caught smuggling weapons to North Korea in the largest violation of international sanctions against that country to date. It has welcomed Russian espionage ships to Cuban waters to spy on the United States. Sonic health attacks against U.S. personnel in Havana caused traumatic brain injury to Americans and their families. For years, Cuba has maintained thousands of Cuban intelligence operatives in Venezuela in what the Organization of American States’ Secretary General called an “occupation army” to oppress the Venezuelan people and sustain the illegitimate Maduro regime. The Obama Administration chartered a course to legitimize the Castro tyranny. Thankfully, President Trump understands the danger of the Cuban dictatorship and has corrected this course. I was disappointed that the Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives chose not to consider such an important resolution condemning Sanders’ admiration of a murderous dictator, a resolution that should have enjoyed bipartisan support. It’s very alarming that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is willing to turn a blind eye to this evil. “The truth is the truth.”

Thanks to Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) who represents the 21st congressional district in South Florida for that compelling, powerful op/ed.  Please forward that on to anyone you know who liked Bernie’s recent comments about Cuba.

Opinion/Analysis: Why Bernie Sanders’s Praise of Fidel Castro Matters

Did you know that infamous Nazi Hermann Göring was a great lover of animals, a protector of birds, and head of the forestry service in Germany? Unless you’re a history buff, probably not. After all, almost no one feels the need to preface their comments about the Third Reich with “Sure, the authoritarianism was pretty bad, but, boy, that Göring was one hell of an environmentalist!” Western elites, however, like to use this kind of absurd criterion whenever they talk about socialism, ignoring its vast failures and praising its piddling and alleged successes — you know, “Denmark,” but not Algeria, Albania, Angola, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Burma, Cambodia, China, Congo, East Germany, Ethiopia, Hungary, Latvia, Mongolia, Romania, Somalia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Yugoslavia, and so on and on. And unlike many modern progressives, Bernie Sanders is old-school, still in the habit of praising old comrades. “When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing?” Bernie told 60 Minutes this past weekend, reacting to criticism of his near-complete praise of the dictator back in the 1980s. The answer is: Yes, massive literacy programs instituted using the machinery of a tyranny are, indeed, a bad thing. For one thing, you can institute massive literacy programs without authoritarianism, just as you can build impressive highways without fascism or alleviate most poverty without collectivism. Just ask the United States, or any other capitalistic nation with wealth and high literacy rates. Even then, Sanders is regurgitating Communist propaganda. Cuba already had the highest literacy rate in Latin America before the revolution, and it basically kept trending in the same direction as every other nation in the region. When Castro triumphantly entered Havana in 1958, he didn’t bring truckloads of books; he ordered thousands of arrests and summary executions. When Castro “came into office,” he canceled elections, terminated the free press, and turned Cuba into the island prison that still exists today. Cubans haven’t been able to freely read about their own oppression since Castro took power. (Cuba, though, has nearly eradicated the scourge of “inequality,” with most people making around 20 bucks a month.) And the only possible reason any American would feel the need to defend that dictator’s programs — Sanders once said Castro “educated the children, gave them health care” — is because they’re sympathetic to the cause. What might be “helpful” in explaining “the nuances of [Sanders’s] views on the Soviet Union & the international left would be a degree of literacy about them from commentators,” CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski recently noted. Bernie, after all, “was always critical of authoritarianism in the Soviet Union.” Can you imagine this kind of goodwill being extended to someone who had spent 50 years praising fascist regimes? It’s truly unfathomable. The Soviet Union was authoritarianism — it had no other way to exist. When Sanders was honeymooning in Moscow, refuseniks — fellow Jews he didn’t think enough about to mention once between the singing and drinking — were still begging to leave the place. But okay, let’s concede for the sake of argument that Bernie was genuinely impressed by some of the commissars’ more liberal reform ideas. Sanders claimed that Americans could learn a lot from the Soviet Union. So which of these nuanced ideas did Bernie admire? Does he still admire them? It’s a shame there’s no one at CNN who has access to the candidate and can ask these questions. When Vox’s Ezra Klein, joining the effort to reimagine Sanders as some innocuous idealist, argued that the now–Democratic Party favorite isn’t really running on socialist economic ideas (highly debatable) but rather on a “socialist ethic,” “a deep, animating belief that our political and economic system is unjust,” he inadvertently hit on an ugly truth. There’s little doubt that Bernie believes collectivism — the discarding of property rights, for starters — offers a more equitable and decent option than capitalism. Bernie’s career has never been propelled by policy, most of them untenable here, but rather by class warfare. And younger voters are, and often have been, more susceptible to the “ethics” of socialism. At this point in history, they’ve not seen the economic infeasibility of those ideas, many of the massive disasters spawned by them, or the coercion that’s inevitably required to make them “work.” Or, maybe they don’t care. A number of people – some on the right, who are increasingly comfortable with statist economic ideas — have told me that no one wants to relitigate the 1960s or Bernie’s old opinions. “Socialism” is not the pejorative it once was. Voters, they say, are uninterested in a candidate’s decades-old actions or positions. I suspect there are a few thousand people in Florida who still care very much about Cuban totalitarianism and who might disagree. It’s also worth remembering that Bernie defended a Communist dictator this weekend — a dictator whose brother still holds millions of people hostage. Bernie has never walked back his positions. No, Bernie isn’t Stalin, but he also isn’t some naïve college freshman high off of reading his first Chomsky screed. Bernie is a socialist. He’s been a lifelong defender of authoritarians. We’re debating his positions. If it were really about “Denmark,” Bernie wouldn’t have defended virtually every Communist tyrant he’s ever been asked about over the past 50 years. This is who he was, and more importantly, this is who he is right now.

Exactly.  Bernie is a communist, plain and simple.  He hides behind the term “democratic socialist.”  But, the man who spent his honeymoon in Moscow back in the 1980s when it was the Soviet Union, and who leaps to the defense of brutal communist dictators past and present, is a communist.  Don’t let anyone tell you differently.  What’s worse, he’s a spectacular hypocrite.  He regularly rails against the wealthy; the “1%.”  And yet, as “mini” Mike Bloomberg recently noted in a debate, Bernie is a millionaire many times over and has three mansions…and doesn’t feel bad about that fact.  And, when he’s challenged about such brazen hypocrisy, he gets all indignant and defensive.  What a tool…   Thanks to David Harsanyi over at National Review for that excellent piece.  David is the author of First Freedom: A Ride through America’s Enduring History with the Gun. @davidharsanyi

Bernie Sanders defends Fidel Castro’s socialist Cuba: ‘Unfair to simply say everything is bad’

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner for the Democrats’ presidential nomination, doubled down on his support for some of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s policies, saying in an interview that aired Sunday, “it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad.” Speaking to CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, pointed to social welfare programs introduced under Castro’s regime that he described as redeeming, despite the communist dictator’s often repressive human-rights violations against Cubans. “We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know? When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?” Sanders told Anderson Cooper. Fidel Castro relinquished power to his brother, Raúl, in 2011 after nearly half a century in charge of the island nation; Fidel died in 2016. Some Republicans jumped on Sanders’ comments. “It really makes a difference when those you murder at the firing squad can read & write,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted. In a resurfaced speech given at the University of Vermont in 1986, Sanders praised the socialist policies implemented in Cuba by the Castro regime and criticized bipartisan efforts in the U.S. to tamp down on Castro’s spread of communism. While Sanders said in the new interview he “condemns” any human rights violations Castro committed, he also took aim at President Trump for his unlikely friendships with some dictators or strongman leaders, including North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. “I do not think that Kim Jong Un is a good friend,” Sanders said. “I don’t trade love letters with a murdering dictator. Vladimir Putin, not a great friend of mine.” Despite victories in all three of the earliest state contests, the Vermont senator has faced criticism from other party contenders, including billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who lambasted his socialist policies declaring they would never fare in a November matchup with Trump. Sanders went on to define his brand of democratic socialism, which has tapped into a more progressive ideology that has been gaining traction with young voters across the country. “When Donald Trump was a private businessman in New York, he got $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury housing. That’s called corporate socialism. What democratic socialism is about is saying, ‘Let’s use the federal government to protect the interests of working families,'” he explained. Trump has used Sanders’ policy initiatives, including “Medicare-for-all” and free college tuition and elimination of student loan debt, to take aim at the senator, even going so far as to label him a communist. “You know what? We will fight back,” Sanders said of these attacks. “This is what we will bring up… that the president of the United States is a pathological liar, and it is increasingly clear that many people just don’t believe anything that he says. He is a fraud. I look forward to taking him on.”

Of COURSE Bernie is a communist!  The man and his wife spent their honeymoon in Moscow back when it was the SOVIET UNION, for crying out loud!  But, admitting to that would probably be a bridge too far for his base.  Soo..  he settles for “democratic socialist.”  Heck, he’s not even a registered Democrat.  At any rate, the fact that he’s currently defending a brutal communist dictator like Fidel should surprise nobody.  He recently defended China in a similar way.  Bernie is a nauseating, self-righteous, and brazenly hypocritical communist.  “Mini” Mike Bloomberg even recently call him out for his millions and his three mansions.  For Bernie it’s “do as I say; not as I do.”  He’s such a hypocrite.  Anyway, for more on this story, click on the text above.

Dem Congressman: ‘We’ve Proved That Communism Works’

Dem Congressman: ‘We’ve Proved That Communism Works’

Rep. Joe Garcia (D-FL) is awful.  I saw that video of him eating his own earwax..  And then this..  Wow..   I hope the good people of Florida that live in Joe’s district bounce his disgusting bum out of office in November.  Not only is he disgusting, but he’s factually challenged, and intellectually dishonest.  I’ve been stationed in El Paso, TX.  It is NOT as safe as he is claiming.  I’ve seen the bullet holes on the sides of American schools in El Paso from the narco violence on the OTHER side of the border that has spilled over to the U.S. side because there isn’t an impenetrable wall.   So, don’t know what report he’s referring to.  But, its bs.  And he’s trying to spin the whole limited government position espoused by conservatives.  Of COURSE conservatives are for a strong military, and strong military budget for the DoD (Dept of Defense) as well as increased funds for securing our borders.  That’s one of the primary roles of our federal government; to protect us from threats to our national security, and our sovereignty as a country.   But, compared to the rest of the federal budget, its a VERY small percentage.  Also, such budgetary items in the federal budget fall into what is called discretionary funding; things that are easily cut.  That’s why Obama has proposed cutting the Army down to levels not seen since before WWII.  Its an easy cut, and Dems tend to like cutting the military.  Beyond that, most things the federal government does, it shouldn’t.  Per the 10th Amendment, they should be left for the states to address how they see fit.  And, most of those things are domestic entitlements (i.e. social security, Medicare, etc.); “non-discretionary” spending.  In other words, they are things that can’t be cut no matter what. And that’s why we’re in the $17.5 TRILLION dollar debt we’re in.  Its not because of the military.  But, nice try, Joe.  Have another mouthful of your earwax..