Socialism

Opinion/Analysis: For Democrats, the Era of American Exceptionalism Is Over

Defunding city police departments. Exploding murder rates. Free health care for illegal aliens. Crushing debt. Obliterating American history. For Democrat politicians, the era of American Exceptionalism is over. Welcome to the land of “Shelter in place!” The fear-mongering and demagoguery are enough to choke a mule. At least it would choke the mule that symbolized the old Democrat Party. Even the Democrat Party of just a few elections ago. These people today? They have gone plumb mad. The patients have taken siege of the asylum. Sen. Mazie Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, stormed out of a committee hearing this week rather than denounce the fascist domestic terrorist group calling itself “Antifa.” The loose-knit, violent mob has been implicated in firebombing police stations and federal buildings, attacking peace officers — including blinding four cops with laser pointers — and violently assaulting innocent citizens. Yet, Democrats such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler dismiss the mayhem caused by these anti-American terrorists as “a myth.” Despite reels and reels of video evidence. In a public hearing, Mr. Nadler actually blamed the violence on President Trump and Attorney General William Barr. It is all manufactured footage for President Trump’s re-election campaign, he charged. It is literally impossible to take these people seriously. You would not trust them to change a flat tire on your bicycle, let alone run the government. Turns out that enforcing laws, to these people, is the equivalent of tearing down statues and bludgeoning innocent people. And to think: Mr. Nadler is the highest-ranking House Democrat on matters of the judiciary. Ms. Hirono is on the actual committee that chooses federal judges — the very black-robed men and women who mete out life and death decisions for regular, tax-paying citizens of this country. So much for equal justice under law. Or justice in any form other than mob justice. Terrifying. But this is what happens when an entire party is hijacked by fascist mobs that govern by Twitter. They blot out any dissent. First, on “social media.” Then in the streets, where their preferred weapons are brass knuckles, ropes and Molotov cocktails. The only response from Democrat pols in Washington is to condemn law enforcement and accuse police of being the “fascists.” Remember President Obama? Remember 2008? That was a different time. A different campaign. It was hopeful. He at least pretended to love America. He denounced divisions between “red” America and “blue” America. Not that he governed like that. But at least he was wise enough to know he could never get elected peddling any of the crazy nonsense these Democrats today are slopping out. That is why President Obama chose to be Joe Biden’s political protege in the 2008 campaign. But poor Joe Biden today. He is either too dumb or too out of it to realize what his party has become. Again, Barack Obama would NEVER have run on a platform like this. But, forever leading from behind, Mr. Obama endorsed his “first wave” of Democrats running in New York this year. Among those Mr. Obama hilariously “endorsed” is Jamaal Bowman, a socialist community organizer who already beat longtime sitting Democrat Congressman Eliot Engel for the Democrat nomination over three weeks ago. Talk about leading from behind! Among those Mr. Obama did not include in his list of endorsements was sitting Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the freshman member of Congress who is leading her party’s circus off the cliff into the arms of “Antifa.” Maybe Mr. Obama worries that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is too radical for his “brand” of politics. Or maybe he is just jealous.

Eh..  Who cares?  Nobody cares about Barack Obama anymore.  He’s old news and irrelevant.  What IS important is the direction the Democratic Party and its leadership are going down.  That IS important, and very relevant in this election year.  Even more critical are the people who are surrounding Joe Biden….especially if he should (God forbid) win in November.  Thanks to veteran D.C. columnist Charles Hurt for that spot-on analysis.  Charlie can be reached at churt@washingtontimes.com or @charleshurt on Twitter

9 Radical Ideas in the Biden-Sanders ‘Unity’ Platform

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) released the policy recommendations of their “unity task force” on Wednesday. The proposed platform marks Biden’s continued shift to the left, as the so-called “moderate” candidate — a label he has rejected — continues to be steered toward more radical positions to appeal to the party’s base, offering “revolutionary institutional changes.” Here are nine of the most radical proposals in the “unity” document: 1. “Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement … on Day One.” Even many on the left agree that the Paris Climate Agreement does little to slow climate change. It is a symbolic commitment by the rest of the world to reduce emissions, while most of the burden falls on the United States. Our economy has reduced emissions anyway on its own, thanks to the shift to natural gas and the advent of fracking technology, which the left hates and wants to phase out over time. 2. Shift the entire “fleet of 500,000 school buses to American-made, zero-emission alternatives” in five years. This is among the more wild-eyed proposals in the platform’s climate change section. It is not clear who will produce these buses (presumably to run on battery power), or what is to be done with half a million currently functional buses that run on ordinary fuel, and how local school districts are meant to afford the cost. The platform provides no further details. 3. “End cash bail.” The platform calls for eliminating cash bail across the country — a radical experiment in criminal justice reform that has only just begun in California and New York, with results that are deeply concerning. The idea is to reduce inequities, but in practice the end of cash bail means releasing violent criminals to commit more crimes. One suspect in antisemitic attacks in New York City late last year, for example, was repeatedly re-arrested after her releases. 4. “Stop the practice of arresting children for behavior that ought to be handled in the principal’s office.” The Democrats want to stop what they call the “school-to-prison pipeline,” arguing students of color suffer disproportionate suspensions and arrests (which would mean that liberal teachers are racist). But as Andrew Pollack points out, failing to arrest violent children could allow them to buy guns as adults, which is how the Parkland, Florida, shooting happened. 5. “We will repeal so-called ‘right to work’ laws.” It is not clear how Democrats will actually do this, since these laws are made at the state level. But “right to work” laws — freeing employees from being forced to join unions — have been a huge economic boost to states that have adopted them. Working-class Americans — especially minorities — have voted with their feet, moving from the highly unionized Rust Belt to the “right to work” South, where there are more jobs. 6. “Democrats will recognize unions with majority sign-up—via so-called ‘card check’ processes.” The “card check” violates the right to a secret ballot, and allows organizers to intimidate workers into voting to certify unions. The idea is so radical that even George McGovern, the left-wing Democratic presidential nominee in 1972 who lost to President Richard Nixon in a landslide, came out against it the last time Democrats tried to mandate it, in 2009. 7. “Oppose private school vouchers.” There is growing support for school vouchers that allow students to escape failing public schools in their local districts by choosing alternative schools — including private and religious schools. Vouchers are especially popular with minority families, who are desperate to escape the failing system in which the teachers’ unions have trapped their children. Democrats also want to restrict the expansion of charter schools, too. 8. Provide a “public option” toward universal health care. This idea was so radical ten years ago that Democrats left it out of Obamacare. But it is the beginning of “Medicare for All,” which Sanders wants to impose on everyone, and Biden wants to offer as a choice (for now). There is no thought of achieving universal health care outside government, building on the recent reforms under the Trump administration, such as tele-medicine — just more federal bureaucracy. 9. End the border wall and “provide a roadmap to citizenship for the millions of undocumented workers.” A Biden administration would stop the construction of the “unnecessary, wasteful, and ineffective wall on the southern border” — thus allowing an open border — while also giving voting citizenship to the eleven million-plus illegal aliens who are already here, permanently changing the American electorate and enshrining Democrats in power forever.

Be afraid…and, for the love of God, vote TRUMP in November so we’re not stuck with this nightmare!!  Thanks to Joel B. Pollak for breaking down that horrifying so-called “Unity” platform for us.  Joel’s new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Opinion: America’s scarily sharp COVID-19 turn toward socialism

As COVID-19 continues, as America’s free market languishes, as America’s entrepreneurial spirit withers away, as Americans’ private businesses fall into bankruptcy and outright close — the Democratic Socialists of America are, quietly, behind closed doors, cheering. They smell opportunity. Out of crisis, here they come. And there are scores of Democrats in Congress riding the same COVID-19 train as the socialists. This is red-flag-waving, alarm-call-clanging, sound-the-troops-and-play-the-trumpet warning time for freedom-loving Americans. The chance for socialism to spread its rot, using COVID-19 as cause, is real. “Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change,” the Democratic Socialists of America wrote in an early May dispatch posted on the organization’s website. “We knew well before COVID-19 that capitalism was killing us.” Sen. Bernie Sanders may have gone the way of failed presidential candidates — again. But the DSA hasn’t disappeared. They’re like vultures, scouring for death. They’re like buzzards, circling for easy prey. They see the desperate 35 million unemployed as opportunity. “Our job as socialists,” the DSA wrote, “[is] to build a new world on the ashes of the old. … We must organize ourselves and fight.” It’s interesting the DSA would outright label its members “socialists;” after all, many DSA members, most notably, Sanders, have gone out of their way to insist democratic-socialism is not socialism and democratic-socialists are not socialists. Apparently, the distinction — which never was a real distinction — is no longer necessary. The cloak’s off; secret’s out: DSA admits what most freedom-loving Americans already knew — democratic socialists are one and the same as socialists. Which is pretty much one and the same as communists. Potatoes, potahtoes — it’s all collectivism, and it’s all in stark defiance of America’s system of rugged individualism, as defined by the nation’s founders in the concept of God-given rights, not government-granted privileges. COVID-19’s dark economic times are giving these socialists an open door. Americans need to slam it shut before the damage done to freedom is irreversible. “In the wake of this devastation,” said socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in recent remarks reported by the Queens Eagle, “our goal should not be to make things as they were. Our goal should be to rebuild in a way that is just and makes things better for people.” In her mind, that means big government spending. Big government spending for Medicare for All, healthcare for all. “[A]usterity does not create prosperity. We cannot cut our way to growth,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Democrats in Congress agree. The HEROES Act, as Democrats have dubbed it, would take roughly $1 trillion of tax dollars and give them to state and local governments — ostensibly, so these state and local government officials wouldn’t have to make the hard decision of reopening for business, amid coronavirus. They could keep private businesses shut but still collect revenues to keep government in operation. Sayonara, free market. The Heroes Act also calls for an addition $200 billion for essential worker pay; $75 billion for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing; and enough stimulus funds to pay Americans $6,000 per household. In other words: Stay home. Stay away from work. Let the government provide. Let the government be the god. That’s socialism; that’s collectivism; that’s communism. It’s all one and the same, tightly wound, one leading to the other. Leftists will deny, and hope semantics will give them the tools they need to duck and dodge and confuse Americans as to their radical redesign plans for the country. But make no mistake about it: Socialists are using COVID-19 to reshape, reform and rebuild the country. That is, they’re trying to destroy America from within — and the only solution is for this country to get back on its free market path, and quick. If Americans aren’t allowed to take care of themselves, the socialists will quickly create a system where Americans have to rely on government for sustenance. And that will be a hard, if not impossible, system of dependency to break.

Indeed..  And well said, Cheryl.  Cheryl K. Chumley is responsible for that sobering piece.  It’s a clarion call for all of us to push back against this wave of socialism that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and others are trying to impose on us.  This latest $3 TRILLION bill that passed the House Friday night (the biggest spending bill ever passed in history by the House) is just the latest example of Cheryl is talking about here.  The bill actually has very little to do with addressing the Wuhan virus crisis here in America.  Its mostly stuff like giving paychecks to ILLEGAL ALIENS and stopping states that have common-sense voter ID laws to prevent voter fraud, and basically imposing mail-in balloting everywhere…which, of course, just increases voter fraud…which is what they’re hoping for.  It’s truly horrifying.  Oh, and did you catch the part about it being over $3 TRILLION dollars?!?!  At some point, that bill will come due.  Utter insanity…  The GOP-controlled Senate has said the bill is dead on arrival.  Let’s pray that’s the case.  Anyway, Cheryl can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.   Thanks Cheryl!

Socialist Venezuela, Where Everyone Is a Millionaire and No One Can Afford Eggs

What if I told you that in the socialist paradise of Venezuela, everyone’s a millionaire? The Bolivarian Revolution has raised the minimum wage over 50 times throughout the past 20 years. As of May 2020, it’s been set at 400,000 bolivars, plus a 400,000 socialist food ticket bonus, bringing it to an astounding total of 800,000 bolivars per month. Millions of people rely only on minimum wage incomes. The government keeps the number of people on minimum wage in the country largely under wraps, although everyone that works in the public sector is pretty much subject to minimum wage (salaries in the dwindling private sector are usually better-ish). The elderly under pension (4.5 million citizens as of a year ago) are also subject to it. Sounds great, doesn’t it? I mean, that’s a pretty looking number — then you realize that those amount to approximately $4-5 USD per month, and the reality kicks in. Hyperinflation, price controls, and barely symbolic minimum wage raises: these three elements have caused incalculable headaches to the citizens of Venezuela over the past decade, to the point that they’ve become borderline elements of our folklore amidst the ongoing collapse of socialist Venezuela. It’s a repeat of the never-ending cycle that we’ve been entrapped for so many years now, except now it comes with a twist: The ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has disrupted everyone’s lives and has greatly exacerbated those three heads of the socialist hydra. The added novelty, if it can be called that, is that the mandatory masks visually cover your astonishment (or lack thereof) when something you bought last week is suddenly twice as expensive. What can you buy with this brand new minimum wage of 800,000 bolivars per month? Not much, really. Even though the bolivar received a facelift and a new currency scale in August 2018, we’re already at a point where spending millions on the most basic things shouldn’t be cause for concern. I carried out my weekly supermarket grocery run on May 4 and I asked for 250 grams (a little more than half a pound) of the cheapest ham and cheese they had available, this is how much they went for: That’s 633,356 bolivars right there. The cheapest loaf of sandwich bread that I could find went for 259,700 bolivars, bringing these three items to a whopping 893,056 bolivars – roughly $5 depending on the day’s exchange rate. So, realistically, the minimum wage is so absurdly low that it’s not sufficient to make enough sandwiches for a month. Sure, you could find cheaper alternatives, but it’d still devour most of it. These minimum wage raises used to be a matter of praise and celebration for the Bolivarian Revolution and its grotesque media machine – the below poster, for example, from dictator Nicolás Maduro’s state television propaganda outlet boasts of 47 minimum wage increases in the history of the socialist regime in Venezuela that began in 1999, as of January 2019. Two years ago, it was very common to have them occur almost every two months, which was akin to putting out a fire by spraying gasoline at it. Now that the damage is done, they come at a more sparse rate and are announced as discreetly as possible without any of the fanfare — yet the regime retains the sheer audacity of claiming that Venezuela is “the only country that has raised wages amidst the pandemic,” heralding $4 per month was some utopian socialist achievement. While minimum wages have progressively grown, they never have amounted to much. It’s a cat (hyperinflation) and mouse (wages) game where the mouse is already dead from the get-go. Around mid-September 2019, I purchased the same type of bread as in the above photo, except that the price at the time was 38,800 bolivars, not 259,700 bolivars. If we go by an average exchange rate at the time it was produced, it gives you roughly $1.75. The minimum wage at the time was 40,000 — or $1.80. If we do the same conversion to the loaf of bread that I bought this week (259,700.00 with an exchange rate of 178,502.21) it gives you $1.45. It would seem like the bread itself has gotten cheaper. Then again, in October 2019, the minimum wage was increased from 40,000 to 300,000 bolivars (150,000 bolivars plus a 150,000 “socialist basket ticket” food bonus). Going by an average exchange rate at the time it was introduced, the minimum wage translated to $14 per month. All of these minimum wage increases have not only amounted to nothing, but whatever meager gains they have created are rapidly devoured by hyperinflation. Like I said, a game of cat and mouse where the mouse is already dead from the start.

THIS is the failures of socialism.  THIS is what Bernie, AOC, and the rest of their ilk want America to be like.  A big thanks to Christian K. Caruzo for that eye-opening account of life in Venezuela.  Christian is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter.  For more, click on the text above.

Opinion/Analysis: Biden’s radical climate plan would destroy US economy

Less than two months into the primaries, only two viable candidates remain for Democratic voters: Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist and admirer of Fidel Castro, and former Vice President Joe Biden, an entrenched Washington gaffe-machine whose biggest selling point is that he’s not quite as far left as most of his extremely far-left competitors. From the get-go, Biden has built his campaign on the idea that although he agrees with many of his radical friends about the problems facing America, he doesn’t believe that we should completely abandon the free market for a socialist hellscape like Cuba or Venezuela. Biden’s campaign slogan might as well be changed to: “Hey, at least I’m not a socialist!” While it’s true he isn’t the Castro-loving Marxist that Comrade Bernie is, the media’s portrayal of Biden as the quintessential “moderate” Democrat couldn’t be further from the truth. Biden’s policies are unquestionably progressive, and far from anything resembling a moderate approach to governance. Perhaps one of the best examples of Biden’s extremely liberal agenda is his climate plan. It isn’t on the same scale as the Green New Deal offered by Bernie Sanders and fellow socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., but it, too, would wreak economic destruction. Although Biden has been vague about the details, he wants the United States to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050, at the latest, by dramatically increasing regulations and taxpayer-funded renewable energy subsidies and by forcing people to buy “greener,” more expensive cars and homes. One of the most destructive ways Biden plans to reduce CO2 emissions is by forcing “polluters” to “bear the full cost of the carbon pollution they are emitting.” This is political-speak for creating huge new taxes on energy-intensive businesses like manufacturers, who often can’t afford to spend significantly more to power their operations and don’t want to depend on less-reliable “green” energies like wind and solar. According to Biden’s own estimates, his plan would cost a whopping $1.7 trillion in new federal spending over 10 years. But that’s only scratching the surface of the true costs of his radical proposal. Biden says he will pay for his costly plan by increasing tax rates on corporations — some of the nation’s largest employers — from 21 percent to 35 percent, a move that could on its own reverse the tremendous economic growth that has occurred since Republicans and President Trump passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. Additionally, because Biden’s plan — like all climate change proposals — would impose more expensive energy costs, economists have consistently found that productivity and total economic growth would be substantially reduced by even the most modest parts of his policy. For example, part of Biden’s strategy for reducing CO2 emissions is to force the United States to re-enter the Obama-era Paris Climate Agreement, which would have required America to reduce its emissions by 28 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030. (President Trump announced the removal of the U.S. from the Paris deal in June 2017.) The Heritage Foundation estimates that by 2035 the Paris Agreement would create a loss of nearly 400,000 jobs, an average income loss of $20,000 for a family of four, and a $2.5 trillion reduction in U.S. GDP. And what would Americans get in return for all of this economic chaos? Absolutely nothing. Even if you believe that human-caused global warming is an existential threat to the world — a delusional belief that simply isn’t supported by the available data — there’s nothing the United States can do to meaningfully affect global climate over the next century, a fact Biden’s own campaign admits. On Biden’s campaign website, he acknowledges, “The United States accounts for only 15 percent of global emissions, so we know we cannot solve this emergency on our own. Climate change is a global challenge that requires decisive action from every country around the world.” This presents a massive problem for Biden and Democrats, because many of the world’s largest economies are significantly increasing their CO2 emissions every year, and there’s no reason to believe that trend is going to stop. For example, since 1992, CO2 emissions in China have increased by 270 percent, and the country is increasing its reliance on coal by remarkable levels. The Guardian (U.K.) reported in November 2019 that China has a pipeline of “coal plants that are either under construction or suspension but are likely to be revived … This is more than all existing coal plants in the EU combined and almost 50 percent higher than the … capacity planned in the rest of the world.” Biden’s plan to deal with the rest of the world’s unwillingness to jump off the economic cliff by embracing expensive forms of energy is to spark a trade war with any nation that refuses to adopt his proposal. According to Biden’s website, “As the U.S. takes steps to make domestic polluters bear the full cost of their carbon pollution, the Biden administration will impose carbon adjustment fees or quotas on carbon-intensive goods from countries that are failing to meet their climate and environmental obligations.” These “fees” and “quotas” would raise the price of goods and services around the world, but especially here in the United States, crushing the economy and driving businesses overseas. Biden might sell himself as a “moderate” to win back disaffected Midwestern voters, but nothing could be further from the truth, as his climate policies clearly illustrate.

Indeed..   Thanks to Justin Haskins for that eye-opening, and sobering assessment of the Biden agenda.  Justin 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.

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.

Caravans of Cuban-Americans Protest Bernie Sanders and Rally for Donald Trump

Caravans of Cuban-Americans rallied in support of President Donald Trump on Saturday after Sen. Bernie Sanders defended Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s policies. Photos and videos emerged on social media in Miami featuring long lines of cars and trucks flying Cuban and American flags and honking their horns. Others wore MAGA hats and waved Trump 2020 flags to show their support of the president. In an interview with CBS last week, Sanders defended Fidel Castro’s “literacy programs” in Cuba despite his brutal socialist regime. The vehicles featured signs and painted slogans such as “Viva Trump,” “Free Cuba, “Cambio es ya” (Change is Now), and “Abajo La Dictadura” (Down with Dictatorships). “Wondering what that excessive honking was in Coral Gables, Miami and Brickell?” asked the Miami Herald. “It’s about Trump.” A group of over 150 Cuban Americans in Kentucky also held a similar protest, giving speeches before driving through the Cuban community blasting car horns and music, while some waved Trump flags and signs. The Courier-Journal reported that the caravan featured over 150 people protesting Cuba’s socialist government after Sanders defended Castro’s literacy programs. Signs on the cars read “No Socialism in America,” “Cuba Libra,“ and “Make Cuba Great Again.” Click here to watch videos.

Rush Limbaugh: Democrats and Bernie Sanders pose greater threat to U.S. than coronavirus

Rush Limbaugh claimed Wednesday the Democratic Party and its current front-runner for president, Sen. Bernard Sanders, are more dangerous to the U.S. than the deadly coronavirus. The conservative radio show host made the claim while defending a remark he made the previous day about Mr. Sanders, a Vermont independent and self-described democratic socialist. “I opened the program yesterday asking which is more dangerous for the country, Bernie Sanders or the coronavirus? And I said Bernie Sanders, of course. I’ve gotten some pushback on that,” he said on “The Rush Limbaugh Show.” “But think about it,” Mr. Limbaugh continued. “The coronavirus has a mortality rate of 2%. The mortality rate for countries with socialism is 100%. Socialism kills every country it comes in contact with, folks. Socialism destroys wealth — everybody’s wealth except the leaders. Socialism destroys liberty. It destroys freedom. It destroys prosperity. It destroys dreams. Socialism destroys 100%. every country it comes in contact with.” Mr. Limbaugh, a staunch supporter of President Trump, subsequently claimed there’s “no question” that both Mr. Sanders and the Democratic Party “poses a far greater threat” to the U.S. than the coronavirus, which has been connected to the deaths of more than 2,700 of the 80,000-plus people known to have contracted the disease since its discovery in December. “I mean to say that. The Democrat Party, as it’s currently constituted, poses a much greater threat to this country than the coronavirus does. And you can quote me on that,” Mr. Limbaugh said. Representatives for neither the Democratic National Committee nor the Sanders campaign immediately answered requests for comment. Mr. Limbaugh, who was recently awarded the President Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, has been highly critical of media coverage of the coronavirus as concerns swell of the outbreak reaching pandemic proportions. He claimed during Monday’s show that the coronavirus is being “weaponized” by the media to bring down Mr. Trump, and on Tuesday’s program he questioned the intentions of Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who recently warned Americans that the coronavirus is certain to spread. “This person running this agency, who does she donate to?” Mr. Limbaugh asked. “Most of that town is establishment-oriented or -rooted, which means they despise Trump.”

New study may shed light on why young voters are flocking to Bernie Sanders

Chris Burns, a financial planner with Dynamic Money, said Thursday a new report that showed a small percentage of millennials are financially literate may shed light on why young voters are flocking to self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. “Fox & Friends” host Pete Hegseth cited a report from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA) Institute about how millennials handle their finances. The TIAA Institute report noted that one of the key findings is that only “16 percent of millennials qualify as financially literate by correctly answering three basic questions assessing fundamental financial concepts.” Burns said the problem is a lack of education. Basic financial literacy might make young voters think twice before supporting Sanders. Burns expressed concern that without a basic understanding of finance and economics, young voters are drawn to socialism and other far-left ideas. “We discuss it somewhat in a historical sense with kids, but again we don’t get into the practical reality of what has made this the wealthiest country on earth, the best economy in the world, it’s certainly not socialism,” he said. Hegseth pointed out that Sanders, the Democratic presidential front-runner, has been reeling in support from young voters with the promise of free things, such as college tuition and Medicare-for-All. “When Bernie constantly says [former New York City Mayor Mike] Bloomberg is buying the election, and that might be fair whatever, but how much is Bernie buying an election when he tells this entire group of people everything is going to be free?” Burns asked, adding that everything Sanders is promising is “incredibly attractive.” It’s attractive, Burns argued, for millennials to hear that they won’t have to pay for any of the “free” things because “all the wealthy folks” are going to pay for it. Hegseth then added, “So Bloomberg is buying the election with his own money. Bernie wants to buy the election with all of our money.” “That’s exactly it and it’s a scary trend because honestly again there’s just this movement towards, well it’s just going to be the wealthy folks that pay for it,” Burns said. Burns also pointed out there are “very few states that require any sort of actual financial literacy or basic education.” “North Carolina just came out with one of the most sweeping bills on this saying, students have to take at least one class in this area,” he said. “But a lot of states don’t cover this at all. Or if they do, it’s only one or two weeks in the middle of a segment so kids aren’t really learning these things.” Burns was referencing the fact that starting next school year, high school students in North Carolina will be required to take a personal finance class before they can graduate. The state’s Board of Education, at the direction of state lawmakers, approved the change in January, WCNC-TV reported.

Well, good for North Carolina.  Hopefully other states will follow their lead.  This story/study basically confirms what we’ve been saying all along about the “low-information” voters who support Bernie and his crazy communist ideas.  In short, they’re ignorant of basic financial and economic principles.  They hear that they’re gonna get something for “free,”  and so they turn their brains off and follow Bernie like a bunch of zombies.  Nobody has explained to them that there is “no such thing as a free lunch.”