Tag Archive for: Communism

U.S. State Department Paying For Play Where God Is Bisexual And Communists Are Good In Bid To Push LGBT Rights Abroad

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The Biden-Harris administration is paying to put on a play that portrays God as bisexual, sharply criticizes former President Ronald Reagan and paints communists in a positive light, all in an effort to push gay rights on Southeastern Europeans, federal grant records show.

Earlier in September, the State Department greenlit funding for a showing of Tony Kushner’s 1991 play “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” in North Macedonia, with the agency claiming the production will raise awareness about “LGBTQ+ issues” in the country, federal grant records reveal. The play follows multiple storylines, among them the ghost of convicted communist spy Ethel Rosenberg antagonizing dying conservative lawyer Roy Cohn and a gay man having sexually explicit visions of heaven as he struggles with AIDS.

Prior Walter, the man with AIDS, begins to have prophetic visions in his hospital room after his lover, Louis Ironson, abandons him, according to the play’s text.

In one such vision, he finds that angels have “eight vaginas” and are “equipped as well with a bouquet of phalli” and that the universe was created by God “copulat[ing] ceaselessly” with these hermaphroditic beings. Ejaculate from angels “fuels the Engine of Creation,” the play recounts.

Walter recounts these visions to a man named Belize, a former drag queen who is tending to him as a nurse.

The State Department has committed $20,000 to staging the play in Macedonia, according to grant records. An additional $10,500 in non-federal funding has also been allocated for the production.

“In the Manichaean world of Angels in America, everything Reagan stood for (capitalism, etc.) is evil,” a National Review critic wrote of the play’s HBO adaptation in 2003. “The most vocal Republican in the film is Roy Cohn — the unscrupulous gay lawyer who denied his sexuality and AIDS diagnosis to his death. In Cohn, a man ultimately undone by his own lies and hypocrisy, Kushner finds his embodiment of Reagan’s administration.”

Angels in America portrays Cohn, a real lawyer who was deeply involved in the conservative movement and helped Reagan get elected, as a bigoted hypocrite prone to outbursts of anger.

Cohn was instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted in 1951 of spying for the Soviet Union and executed in 1953. Activists long maintained that the Rosenbergs were innocent, however, documents released by the government in the 90s proved that the couple was involved in a Soviet espionage operation.

Rosenberg, portrayed positively in the play, antagonizes Cohn throughout the story, telling him on his deathbed that she “take[s] pleasure in [his] misery.” She later guides Ironson, who is a secular Jew, through a funeral prayer for Cohn, who also had Jewish ancestry, symbolically forgiving him.

“We have no system of universal health care, we don’t educate our children, we can’t pass sane gun control laws, we elect presidents like Reagan,” Kushner wrote in his play’s afterword, blaming those purported problems on “individualism.” A gay character, at one point in the play, asks “if [Reagan] didn’t have people like me to demonize where would he be?”

“Kushner strips Reagan of any merit, and reduces him fictionally to an anti-gay crusader,” the National Review critic wrote of the play.

The State Department’s production of an anti-Reagan, pro-LGBT play is not its first exercise in using theatrics for the purposes of social engineering as it spent $120,000 in 2023 to “improve communication at the level of the local community on the social issue of LGBTQ rights and domestic violence via participatory theater” in the African nation of Chad.

The new grant isn’t even the State Department’s first theatrical operation in North Macedonia, as it paid to teach the country’s residents about environmental issues through theater and dance in 2023, federal grant records show.

“Culture — from music to sports to theater — is a vital component of the United States’ people-to-people diplomacy efforts in Chad and around the world and supports broader U.S. foreign policy goals,” a spokesperson for the department told the Daily Caller News Foundation at the time.

The State Department did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

Robert Schmad

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden Admin Funding Theatrical Productions To Teach Africans About LGBTQ Rights

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U.S. Military ‘Openly Getting Lectures on Socialism’ and turning them into Communists!

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Unbelievable!

America desperately needs a new Commander-in-Chief.

Just when you thought that our military services were totally inept, now we learn that our soldiers, sailor, airmen and Marines are being lectured at the National Defense University on how our senior officers should become Communists!

Watch how Socialism is now taught to U.S. Military OPENLY as reported by Alex Newman from OAN

 In a February. 16, 2022 National Defense University article titled “Responding to China: The Case For Global Justice and Democratic Socialism” Thomas Piketty reported,

On February 16, 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) program hosted a speaker session with Professor Thomas Piketty (Professor of Economics, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences [EHESS]; Professor, Paris School of Economics; Co-director, World Inequality Lab/World Inequality Database) as part of its SMA INSS/PRISM Speaker Series.

Summary

Thomas Piketty argued that Western countries are struggling to collectively define their political attitude towards China, because of their obsession with capitalism. Instead of focusing on a conventional model of capitalism, he suggests that the US and Western countries pursue increasing the share of income and wealth over their socio-economic spectrums. This could be done by increasing taxes on the wealthiest individuals, increasing the inheritance tax, and always keeping workers’ rights as a priority over corporate profits. Piketty showed several graphs from the World Inequality Database that showed how economic growth and prosperity increased during the mid-1900s when taxes on the wealthy were higher. He commented that this ideological shift is one the US could make, because many European countries went through even more drastic shifts in their history and have subsequently built their social safety nets.

Piketty commented that several contributing factors to the complexity of countries’ political attitudes toward China are global warming and direct ideological and economic competition with Chinese state socialism. Piketty showed how the carbon footprint of nations isn’t only greatly varied from one country to another, but also greatly varied across those countries’ socioeconomic spectrums. It will be hard to encourage an overall decrease in carbon emissions if the wealthiest and highest contributors to countries’ carbon footprints are not willing to take part. Piketty also commented that the value of public debt is close to or greater than the total amount of earnings in the public sectors of some Western countries. He attributed this high level of debt to the privatization of corporations and industries. Ultimately, for the US and other Western countries to deal effectively with autocratic countries like Russia and China, they will need to collectively champion equality and global justice, which will include sanctions against oligarchs and the sharing of global tax revenues among other activities.

Speaker Bio

Thomas Piketty is a French economist who is Professor of Economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Associate Chair at the Paris School of Economics and Centennial Professor of Economics in the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics. Piketty is the author of “Capital in the 21st Century” (2013) and “Capital and Ideology” (2020).

The Bottom Line

America is in desperate need of a military focused on one thing and one thing only: fighting and winning wars.

Currently our military and their training institutions are focused on preferred pronouns rather than fighting and winning.

America desperately needs a new Secretary of Defence, Secretaries of the Army, Navy an Air Force, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who are here to protect and defend our Constitution from all enemies foreign and increasingly domestic.

Teaching our senior military leaders that capitalism is evil and communism is good is a travesty.

It bears repeating, we desperately need a new Commander-in-Chief.

©2024. . All rights reserved.

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What Is Social Justice?

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Globalism is a replacement ideology that seeks to reorder the world into one singular, planetary Unistate, ruled by the globalist elite. The globalist war on nation-states cannot succeed without collapsing the United States of America. The long-term strategic attack plan moves America incrementally from constitutional republic to socialism to globalism to feudalism. The tactical attack plan uses asymmetric psychological and informational warfare to destabilize Americans and drive society out of objective reality into the madness of subjective reality. America’s children are the primary target of the globalist predators.

The inherent child abuse in Drag Queen Story Hour described by Charlotte Cushman in Chapter 21 is part of the greater Marxist social justice campaign that is attacking America through politicized education in both public and private schools. Cushman defines social justice and explains its political objective in the social justice link[i] on her Authentic Montessori Education[ii] website:

What Is Social Justice?

Social justice is grounded in Marxism, the ideology of communism. Marxists seek to destabilize society so that they can take power. They want an unstable population so they create an educational system that keeps the population uneducated and weak. Then they create constant conflict which results in revolutions. The conflict created is over the issue of oppression. Marxists hold that society is divided into two classes, the oppressed and the oppressors, and seek to take from the oppressors to give to the oppressed. They attempt to make the “oppressors” feel riddled with guilt so that they will cooperate more easily when discriminated against.

Social justice claims that certain groups are inherently evil. For example, they claim that all people that are white are racist. It places groups higher than individuals, and holds that all groups should be equal. If there are any disparities in group outcomes, it is attributed to discrimination and group injustice rather than individual choices and actions, and therefore the more successful groups need to be punished. This results in groups constantly fighting with each other. Currently, social justice sees America as inherently racist and it therefore holds that our country must be dismantled (also known as the Great Reset).

The American ideal of individual justice is equality under the law regardless of group affiliation—such as race, sex, religion, etc.—whereas social justice seeks to reward or punish individuals based on their group affiliation. Actual justice means that every individual must be judged for who he/she is and treated accordingly. If individuals work to earn their living, they can keep the fruits of their labor. If individuals violate the rights of others (stealing, murder, etc.), it means the violators go to jail.

Justice applies to everyone. Therefore, to add the concept “social” is an attempt to change the meaning of justice from equality under the law to equity, equity meaning everyone has a right to something whether or not he has earned it. That requires the use of force to take from one person for the benefit of another. This is racist and the very antithesis of justice. The real purpose of social justice in education is to change innocent children into racists. This will assure class (group) struggles and conflict.

Sexualizing children is one of the best ways to destabilize society. This is done with gender fluidity, sex transitioning, inappropriate exposure to and/or participation in sex such as drag queen shows, books showing sex acts such as oral sex, instruction in how to masturbate, pornography, and so on.[1]

The next step is pedophilia, which was openly defended by Gayle Rubin, a neo-Marxist, in her paper “Thinking Sex,” a founding document for queer theory.[2] Queer theory includes, but is not limited to, the following:

  • Queer means an identity without an essence, or to be outside the norm.
  • Queer theory opposes normality and ethics with regards to sex—everything must be opened up or it is oppression.
  • In order for the child to develop outside of reality, the adult should eliminate all boundaries.
  • Children are oppressed by adults who think that “cross generational encounters” (in other words pedophilia) are horrors.
  • Exposure to sexual acts is fine for children (anyone under the legal age of consent).
  • Children need to be seen as equal to adults. Therefore, they can consent to sex.
  • Child pornography is fine and there should be no laws restricting it.
  • It is a “considerable burden” for sadomasochists and pedophiles to maintain absolute secrecy about their real sexual identities.
  • There should be no separation between “adult” sexuality and childhood “innocence.”
  • The child should not be kept racially or sexually innocent or they are privileged.
  • Every child should be treated as if they are queer and kept queer so they are an outcast and can be utilized for revolution.

The child finds inappropriate and shocking exposure to sex confusing and frightening. The pornography is so disturbing that there are teens who give up interest in sex permanently. This degrading introduction to sex makes a child feel insecure. It is massively damaging when a child is sexually abused, and it leads to serious psychological problems. But that is exactly the goal—for the child to feel insecure. If a child is insecure, he doesn’t know who he is, and is more easily manipulated, both morally and politically. Destroying a child’s innocence is a part of the plan.

Social justice prepares children for sexualization by teaching them that certain groups are fundamentally bad. It preaches that it is awful to be white because of the “systems” whites put in place to oppress people of color, and then enjoy unearned “privilege.” This is having devastating effects. There are white children who are so consumed with guilt for being white, that they claim to be transgender or homosexual. They would rather be accepted as members of a perceived oppressed group because more than anything they do not want to be thought of as vicious oppressors. Being diagnosed with a mental health problem, such as ADHD, multiple-personality disorder, depression, or anxiety, is another consequence of their undeserved oppressor status. Social justice is not only a lie, it creates psychological and emotional damage.

Transitioning to the opposite sex during childhood is messing with fire. There are unknown, long-term effects of puberty blockers and sex-change hormone therapy. There is evidence that transitioned children are at risk for health problems such as bone loss, diabetes, blood clots, stroke and heart disease. The impact that suppressing puberty will have on their brain development is unknown, an aspect that should be determined before treatment. The brain is crucial to human life—what if the growth of the brain is stunted? If these dangers pan out, it is undeniable that the lives of these children will have been permanently negatively impacted.

A person can’t change their sex. We are all born with male or female chromosomes that exist in every cell of our bodies, and that doesn’t change by taking hormones or by adding or subtracting body parts. It is psychologically damaging to spit at reality by pretending to be something you are not. Transitioning one’s body is not only gruesome and horrific, it is also irreversible. It is beyond tragic that children would want to change to the opposite sex in order to escape condemnation for being white (or in order to be accepted by others, or for gender dysphoria). Anyone promoting this mutilation procedure for children should be ashamed of themselves. A friend of mine, Linda Blood, observed:

It is WRONG and RACIST to claim that anyone is born an oppressor or a victim merely because of the color of their skin. There is no excuse for teaching such irrational rejections of reality to children when it should be obvious to anyone that this will result in unearned guilt, shame, and anxiety. The same goes for the rejection of objective reality that is the “transgender” craze. Those who continue to push these destructive ideologies bear most of the guilt for the damage they are causing and will continue to cause in the future.

Next on the chopping block is the family. Since most parents want to keep their children racially and sexually innocent, they are considered to be oppressors of children, and ultimately pose a threat to the destabilizing of society.[3] Therefore, the family unit must be destroyed by driving a wedge between children and parents. This is already in play. Marxist schools are hiding their criminal deeds from parents such as teaching social justice, teaching gender fluidity, reading pornographic books and administering sexual transitioning medical treatment to children, and so on. This is frequently done without parental knowledge or consent, and the children are even told not to tell their parents what is going on. When parents do find out about it and object, they are subjected to ad hominem attacks, and, in the state of California, they might get a visit from the government.

Marxist schools are also hiding the fact that they are teaching incorrect [revisionist] American history, changing it, or even eliminating it altogether. Many American cultural traditions such as Halloween and Christmas have been eliminated. It is very common for other cultures to be studied, but the American child is denied knowledge about his culture. Why? Because America, the nation founded on the principle of individual rights for everyone, is accused of being repressive. No matter where the child turns, he is given the message that he is either oppressed or the oppressor because of his race, sex, family, culture, country, and so on.

Within the Marxist philosophy, the populace must be loyal to the state and only to the state. Therefore, the child must be brainwashed to believe that he is determined by group status instead of his own individual thought process. He must be separated from reality. He must be separated from his mind so that he can’t think for himself, and only repeats what the state has told him—that he needs to judge others on the basis of skin color, race, genetics, or other irrelevant factors, rather than on the basis of their actions and character. Social justice is helping the government to achieve that goal.

“The Communists’ chief purpose is to destroy every form of independence—independent work, independent action, independent property, independent thought, an independent mind, or an independent man. Conformity, alikeness, servility, submission and obedience are necessary to establish a Communist slave-state.” (Ayn Rand)

Social justice in Montessori is an embarrassment and a betrayal to the Montessori principles of individualism and independence. If we want to keep our children, culture and country healthy and stable, we must crush Marxism and uphold authentic Montessori education.

[1] Sex transitioning is pushed because of gender dysphoria, a psychological disorder where a person feels he or she is of the opposite sex. There is no scientific proof that this disorder has a biological source.

[2] Parker, Richard, Culture Society and Sexuality, “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality” by Gayle Rubin, 2006, Chapter 9.

[3] There are other reasons for the destruction of the family, but for the purpose of this discussion, it is not necessary to name them here.

Cushman exposes the humanitarian hoax of social justice that presents itself as fairness but is actually a disruptive Marxist political strategy designed to destabilize and collapse society. She exposes the pervasive infiltration of Marxism throughout American education. Montessori schools are tuition-based private schools. As more Americans become aware of the Marxist indoctrination in public schools and turn to private schools for their children’s education, many do not realize that private schools have also been infiltrated by Marxist philosophy. Even homeschooling is affected because the curriculum materials purchased by unsuspecting parents are also affected.

Any school that accepts government funds is affected. Charlotte Cushman’s article is a warning to all parents whose children attend public schools, private schools, or are homeschooled that the American education industry can no longer be trusted to help children become the independent, autonomous, rational adults required to sustain life in our constitutional republic. What parents think schools are teaching their children is not what is actually being taught. Marxism is real, and it is being taught to America’s children as a superior ideology to Americanism, without parents’ knowledge or consent. Social justice is not American justice.

©2024. Linda Goudsmit. All rights reserved.

Please visit Linda’s Pundicity page: goudsmit.pundicity.com and her website: lindagoudsmit.com 

FLORIDA: Hispanic Republican Club Showing Film ‘Plantadas’ at ‘Stopping Marxism’ Event on May 18, 2024

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The new Hispanic Republican Club of Collier will be having its first event, the showing of the movie Plantadas, a film by revered Cuban filmmaker Lilo Vilaplana.  Lilo is known for several movies including Plantadas, a movie about the men who fought the Castro regime and lost their lives or spent many years in prison.

WATCH: “Plantadas” by Lilo Vilaplana official trailer.

But the new film, Plantadas, has only had limited releases in Miami.

People can see it May 18th, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. at our event in Naples, Florida. 

Also we will be having Lilo present in person, as well as some of the actors from the movie and some former political prisoners.  All speakers, etc. will be in both English and Spanish, so all will understand what is being said.

This new movie, Plantadas, is about the women who fought against Fidel Castro.  Many believed Fidel at first, but then he turned out to be a communist and imprisoned or executed any who disagreed.  Tickets to the event are $20 and proceeds go to the families of Cuban political prisoners.

Now the United States has its own political prisoners – the J6ers and pro-Lifers.  We can learn a lot from what happened in Cuba, and be warned.

This is a good event to bring teens and young adults to.

Most have never met someone who was imprisoned by the communists, but they need to know the truth.

For more information, contact the Vice President of the Hispanic Republican Club of Collier, Ana Perez, at her email perezpremiererealty@outlook.com or call 239-200-8862

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS FOR $20 EACH TO THE MAY 18 EVENT

CLICK HERE TO BECOME A SPONSOR

The Hispanic Republican Club of Collier is an officially chartered club of the Collier County Republican Executive Committee and the Republican Party of Florida.

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: My Visit to Cuba — An American in Havana

It’s Not Hypocrisy & It Isn’t Corruption

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At this point its past undeniable that a communist revolution has taken place in North America, and frankly over a great deal of what was Western Civilization overall.

It has become so obvious that the word communism as an adjective for various events and policies, which mere months to a few years ago caused grimacing and smirks in all listeners, has now become a common descriptor, even among the less aware commenters out there. (No offence meant to the linked hosts. They point out important aspects of the revolution and show clips of Trudeau that all need to see)

A large part of this revolution has been the imposition of pseudo-realities, and forcing people to play along with them. This strategy has been applied to everything from immigration to covid to the created Trans-issue and the created climate ‘crisis’.

Governments across the world are rapidly criminalizing expressing opposing views to government dialectics on things like Global Warming using the ‘hate-speech’ catch-all.

Opposing one of these efforts is what made Jordan Peterson famous and influential. He came on the scene because as a Prof. at U of T, he objected to being forced to use pronouns that people chose for themselves. He referred to this as compelled speech. A much more severe form of communist control than mere censorship. And of course he was entirely correct, even if he himself could not see through the same strategy as it applied to Covid and the Vaxx.

As a commenter said below this excellent example of the captured institution, Scientific American under its article on Gender:

“If a man wants to pretend he’s a woman, that’s up to him.

If that man wants me to pretend he’s a woman, that’s up to me.

No actually it isn’t. It is now up to the state. This is an excellent juxtaposition of Socratic thinking Vs. Hegelian. Anyone who likely reads this site would find what he said to be a pithy and accurate description of the nature of free thought. One actually worth fighting over. Which it certainly is. But in order to do that and win, we need to understand where we actually are now on a political map. And where we are on that map is well demonstrated on the Scientific American article to which the tweet above is a Response:

One of the complains quite often made on this site is when people confuse hypocrisy with dialectics. The difference is subtle, and yet it isn’t.

Here is a fumbly attempt to explain the difference:

Hypocrisy, like corruption, all exist within a single overarching system. Corruption is when a person or group takes advantage of a position, or weakness within the system to advantage themselves in some way.

Hypocrisy is similar. A person speaks or even leads people in a way that indicates self sacrifice, or claims to behave in a way that results in delayed gratification, or advocates for other morally superior behaviours, while in secret they behave in exactly the way they advise others not to do. In both examples, the hypocrites and the corrupt require our Western system to be intact, in order to take advantage of it.

But the system we all knew and grew up with has been replaced with another one.

Therefore, the advocates of that system are not corrupt. They are in fact ideologically pure, but of another system altogether.  They may, and usually do, speak in a way that lets their fellow travellers know what they really mean and intend, (with Trudeau being an excellent example), while knowing full well how the uninitiated will understand their words.

For example, when Trudeau says that those who will not take the mRNA gene therapy shots are racist, misogynists who take up space, he is really saying they are counter-revolutionaries and must be eliminated, or at least their views must be, with the people who refuse government directives being marginalized and disenfranchised. No travel, no leaving or entering Canada, no restaurant access etc.

As an example of what corruption actually is or better, corruption Vs. revolution, The MAFIA requires that the banks and other institutions work as they always have as they need a place to store their own wealth. They need to know that they can build their own homes with cement that will not fall apart after 6 months. They need to know that the cancer that they often are on civilization, does not fully metastasize. Because organized crime, even regular crime for that matter needs a healthy host.

I read a story recently about gangs of people in the US robbing stores, and opening their own sidewalk stores to sell the goods they just stole. I couldn’t help but wonder when gangs will rob those sidewalk shops and set up their own shops with that same merch another block away.

Now while that would make for a decent comedy sketch, we all know why it won’t happen.

The initial robbers who stole the merch from the legal owners, are unencumbered by the rules that stop actual legal merchants from using force against thieves.

In other words, you can rob from the stores with total impunity in many places in the US. Leftist places. Blue cities and states. But try and steal from the thieves and you will be hurt badly or killed.

The following Tweet by president Trump is a powerful indicator of how the courts and justice overall is now dialect as opposed to, well justice based.

The trial isn’t rigged. Trials no longer do what we all thought they did.

Courts, like the CPSO hearings, like the Helen Grus hearings, like many many processes in the Western World which have been captured have re-tuned their entire process to create a pre-determined political outcome, and no longer exist to determine what is true, or lawful or in the interests of society as a whole.

It is no longer using evidence and reason to a rational outcome, but a needed outcome that determines what reasoning and evidence will be allowed.

Looking at the take-over of the Columbia U campus, and other campuses by leftists and Muslims:

We all know that if anything even 10% as antisocial as this happened by Trump supporters what would happen. Or people opposed to Trudeau mandates in Ottawa. What is being permitted on campuses, like what was permitted in 2020 in Seattle and in many cities where the Marxist revolutionary group wearing a beard of Black victimhood called BLM is not hypocrisy.

It is the product of a fundamentally changed system. We need to understand this going forward.

This means there is no changing things back to individual rights and a truth based system by using the system, even if there are partial and occasional victories in the courts.

We need to see first how those victories translate into policy that actually is put into effect to know if our institutions still have any meaning as we thought, and many still think they do.

We, as freedom minded people, as classical liberals perhaps, as believers in the rights of the individual including the right to private property, and raise our children according to our own values, cannot develop effective tactics if we cannot understand the enemy strategy, and more importantly or at least more immediately, know where we are on the game board and what stage of the game is being played.

Senator Babet in Australia does a decent job of listing some of the dialectic attacks for which their system is being re-tuned. Censorship is the new normal now. It has been for decades really, but its enforcement is now overt and exponentially more common. The focus is the same though. Again, David Suzuki and Nuclear Winter as a stunning example of how dozens if not hundreds of hours of TV appearances by Canada’s Fruit Fly Scientist who was banging a drum daily about how Western industry would block out the sun and cause an ice age, are impossible to find. Al Jolson videos from the 1920s. But nothing from Suzuki’s Nuclear Winter narrative attacks from the 1970s. There was video tape by then. Two kinds.

Read the full text by clicking here.

Canada does an excellent job of demonstrating dialectical enforcement of protests for or against narrative positions:

Gender identity protestors face arrest in BC if law bans demonstrating at schools

British Columbia’s NDP government is considering new legislation that makes it illegal to demonstrate within 20 metres of school grounds to block gender identity curriculum protests.

Premier David Eby said that the Ministry of Education “has documented 18 major disruptions” of protests at schools in the province since the start of the 2023-24 school year, which he claims disrupt educational activities and intimidate students. 

“We’ve had people banging on school windows in British Columbia,” he said.

“It never crossed my mind to be worried that a grown adult would be waiting on the school perimeter to yell at my child about pornographic books or about puberty blockers,” added Eby.

In fact, the Government of BC is passing a law creating bubble zones around schools in the same way the Fed Guv did around abortion clinics.

Laws which are enforced strictly enough that a man who stood with a sign which merely read: “Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of our civilization” was arrested for holding it across the street and yards down the block from an abortion facility. And now, you won’t be able to protest the state sterilizing your own children near a school. Interestingly, both policies have the same outcome. No babies. Quell Coincidence non?

Meanwhile, at NYU:

Columbia U:

Not Hypocrisy.

Revolution.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

In Florida Public School Students Will Learn About the Dangers of Communism

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“Communist tyranny has already resulted in 100,000,000 victims.” — Governor Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, signed a law this week that will require Florida public schools to educate students about the history and dangers of communism, both in the U.S. and in other countries, and about the growing threat of communism in the U.S. now.

“We are going to tell the truth about the unprecedented death toll of the 20th century at the hands of communist tyranny – 100 million people killed by communist regimes, which spread to China, the Soviet Union, Cuba…” said Ron DeSantis.

VIDEO: Orthodox Christian Receives Two-tier Policing — An Orthodox Christian man in Great Britain wrote on his Facebook “Christians must stand up” after an Islamist stabbed a bishop during mass in Australia. The British authorities responded by sending the police and a psychologist to his home for a checkup. Two-tier policing!

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EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Venezuela: Amid socialist humanitarian crisis, no improvement in human rights

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The human rights situation in Venezuela has been dire for many years, with little indication of improvement. Since 2014, there have been 15,800 politically motivated arrests, and over 270 political prisoners continue to languish in Venezuelan jails.

The misguided economic policies implemented by successive socialist governments have led to 19 million people facing malnutrition and a severe lack of healthcare. Consequently, a staggering 7.7 million individuals, out of a population of just over 29 million, have fled the country since 2014.

The government has even taken the drastic step of closing the UN Human Rights Office, purportedly due to its alleged involvement in anti-government activities. Furthermore, new legislation threatens to criminalise and impede the work of civil society within the country.

Once considered one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America, Venezuela has descended into a socialist dystopia marred by authoritarianism, a dearth of human rights, insufficient government investment, hyperinflation, rampant corruption, economic mismanagement, the collapse of public services, economic hardship, shortages, and widespread hunger. Currently, fifty percent of the population lives in poverty.

Popular tyrant

Socialism was introduced in Venezuela by Hugo Chávez, a populist who held the presidency from 1999 until his death in 2013. Chávez implemented the nationalisation of industries and directed public funds towards social programs. As a result, schools saw improvement, the unemployment rate halved, and per capita incomes more than doubled. Moreover, both the poverty rate and infant mortality rates decreased by 50 percent.

Chávez was widely praised domestically for his stance against the United States, famously referring to President George W. Bush as “the devil”. Following Chávez’s death from cancer, Nicolás Maduro succeeded him as president.

While Chavez was a charismatic populist, one of the most notable distinctions lies in his ability to forge a coalition comprising leftists, military personnel, and the poor. Furthermore, Chavez was lucky. He capitalised on a surge in oil prices during his presidency. As a prime example of a petrostate, Venezuela’s fortunes are directly tied to the rise and fall of global oil prices. Chavez successfully directed a portion of the $1 trillion windfall in oil revenue towards appeasing the public and solidifying his grip on power.

Despite his widespread popularity, Chavez operated as a dictator and tyrant. He expanded state control over oil companies and suppressed journalists and critics, essentially outlawing government criticism. Consolidating nearly all power into his own hands, he eradicated checks and balances.

Nonetheless, he maintained the façade of democracy by holding elections. Winning 13 out of 14 elections lent an aura of legitimacy to his regime. He utilised state funds for his campaigns and exerted influence over journalists to portray him favourably, although he refrained from outright election fraud. Moreover, he survived a coup attempt, bolstering his image and authority.

Economic woes

Maduro lacks the charisma of Chavez. While Chavez had a military background, Maduro’s career path was rooted in communism. He pursued studies in Cuba, was affiliated with the Socialist League — an extreme left-wing organisation — and prior to entering government, he worked as a union negotiator.

He lost much of Chavez’s support base, securing election with a mere 50.6 percent of the vote. Consequently, he has governed the country as an autocrat. Besides lacking Chavez’s charisma and broad consensus, Maduro hasn’t enjoyed his predecessor’s luck: oil prices plummeted in 2014, leading to the complete collapse of the Venezuelan economy.

At times, annual inflation has soared to as high as 700 percent, reaching about 300 percent in 2022. Between 2015 and 2016, an estimated seventy-five percent of the country’s population experienced an average weight loss of 19 pounds. Diseases such as malaria have ravaged the nation due to the inability of people to afford imported medicines.

While Chavez allocated funds to improve citizens’ lives, he failed to diversify the economy away from oil dependency. Maduro has perpetuated this legacy by neglecting structural economic reforms and instead imposing stricter government controls. He restricted currency exchange systems, leaving ordinary citizens unable to afford medicine, basic household goods, and imported foods that must be purchased with dollars.

In the socialist utopia of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, everyone is purportedly equal, except for those with connections to the Maduro government. They have access to discounted dollars and can afford imported goods, which now encompass almost all but the most essential food items for survival. Necessities like toilet paper must be imported and purchased with dollars. Despite being a major oil producer, the country even grapples with fuel shortages.

Even individuals fortunate enough to possess dollars or receive remittances from friends and family abroad are not immune to the effects of inflation.

For instance, a woman who sells cigarettes and small items on the street disclosed that she earns approximately $20 a week. However, due to the relentless surge in prices, this income barely covers 15 eggs, 3 kilograms (6.6 lb) of corn flour, and a small portion of grain and cheese.

In Venezuela, the average monthly salary in the private sector stands at $139, while it’s a mere $14 in the public sector. Nevertheless, the grocery expenses for an average family amount to about $370 per month.

Deteriorating

Maduro has faced widespread protests and blocked a referendum because he understood that he wouldn’t secure victory, given his approval rating, which frequently dips to as low as 20 percent. Subsequently, he directed the Supreme Court to dissolve a portion of the legislature that opposed him. The state of democracy in Venezuela is deteriorating rapidly.

Recently, a new National Electoral Council (CNE) was formed, and several presidential candidates were disqualified. Additionally, opposition party members were detained prior to elections, indicating that the electoral process is likely to be more of a spectacle than a meaningful exercise in democracy.

Last year, a new National Electoral Council (CNE) was formed, and several presidential candidates were disqualified. Moreover, opposition party members were detained prior to elections, indicating that the electoral process is likely to be more of a spectacle than a substantive exercise in democracy.

Union workers, journalists, and human rights defenders have faced increasing restrictions on their access to civic spaces. Additionally, they’ve endured harassment and persecution orchestrated by the authorities. The rights of indigenous people, as well as those of LGBT individuals and women, have been egregiously disregarded. Notably, a YouTuber was recently charged with terrorism merely for challenging government policies.

The crackdown on dissenters has escalated, with critics subjected to surveillance, harassment, and criminalisation. In the most severe instances, they’ve become victims of torture and murder. In 2017, he secured victory in a rigged election. During this election cycle, he successfully postponed elections for an entire year, but they are anticipated to resume in October 2024. If these elections were fair and transparent, his defeat would be inevitable.

In what appears to be an effort to bolster the country’s revenues and alleviate the people’s suffering ahead of the next election, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro enacted a law annexing the oil-rich region of Essequibo in neighbouring Guyana. A consultative referendum was conducted on this decision last December, garnering a staggering 96 percent approval from the populace.

As per a statement from the presidential palace, Guayana Esequiba will now be recognised as the 24th federal state of Venezuela. Moreover, the inhabitants of the newly annexed territory will be represented in the upcoming parliamentary session in 2025. However, Guyana has sought a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), although Venezuelan law asserts that the ICJ holds no jurisdiction within the country.

Change in Venezuela appears elusive until Maduro is ousted from power. However, considering his influence over the upcoming elections, it seems unlikely that he will relinquish control voluntarily. The prospect of international military intervention in Venezuela is highly improbable, given the likelihood of opposition from Security Council members China and Russia. As for the alternatives of assassination or coup, history has demonstrated that such actions typically do not lead to positive outcomes, often resulting in the replacement of one authoritarian leader with another.

Can Venezuela’s parlous condition be reversed? Sound off in the comments section below.

AUTHOR

Antonio Graceffo, PhD, China-MBA MBA, is a China economic analyst teaching economics at the American University in Mongolia. He has spent 20 years in Asia and is the author of six books about China. His writing has appeared in The Diplomat, South China Morning Post, Jamestown Foundation China Brief, Penthouse, Shanghai Institute of American Studies, Epoch Times, War on the Rocks, Just the News, and Black Belt Magazine.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Mercator column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

California Restaurants Closing Fast — Communism Does Not Work!

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The Communist government operating out of Sacramento California is following the Hugo Chavez/Maduro playbook the former and current installed presidents of Communist controlled Venezuela.

My beautiful Venezuelan wife left Venezuela and was granted asylum in Colombia before relocating to the United States as a permanent legal resident.

She has watched her former country slowly succumb to the intentional collapse of its once thriving capitalist free market economy.

She commented to me that the Government of California and the current installed Marxist occupying the White House are no different in ideology than that of Maduro and Chavez.

She warns all freedom loving Americans to pay close attention to the unconstitutional Marxist actions of Governor Newson and his intentional destruction of free markets in California.

First the restaurants in Caracas Venezuela went out of business after government interference in the wages and Venezuelan labor market.

In Los Angeles and Beverly Hills like Caracas Venezuela restaurants are closing and laying off its workers. As 2023 ended and 2024 commenced the following restaurants went out of business.

West Third Street gastropub and wine bar 3rd Stop in Los Angeles closed its doors after 29 years in business.

The famous music venue Conga Room closed after 25 years in business in Los Angeles due to massive inflation and government interference in running its operation.

The famous restaurant El Torito’s in Santa Monica frequented by Hollywood movie stars closed permanently on March 9th 2024.

A popular daytime restaurant the Farm Of Beverly Hills closed on March 3 2024 after 26 years of business.

The Mezcal bar and taco cantina Mezcalero closed permanently on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles in early March 2024.

Nic’s on Beverly a plant based restaurant closed permanently on March 31st due to massive inflation on the rent and the mandatory $20 an hour minimum wage unconstitutional mandated by Governor Newsom’s Marxist government.

The Culver City bar closed permanently on March 16 2024 after 18 years of operation due to razor thin operating costs created by Governor Newsom’s anti capitalist idealism.

Ten Seven rolls a Vietnamese eatery in San Gabriel California that served delicious food like chả giò, bánh xèo, rice rolls, and smoked brisket pho went out of business on March 17th 2024.

Western City Bagel in Redondo Beach California closed permanently on March 31st 2024 in order to protect itself from the $20 an hour minimum wage debacle. It was in business for 30 years.

All of the following restaurants have also permanently closed in response to the Marxist ideology of Governor Newsom.

Josiah Citrin’s West Hollywood location of restaurant Charcoal permanently on February 17th 2024.

All the restaurants inside Downtown’s historic Hotel Figueroa closed permanently in February 2024 including Bar Magnolia, Cafe Fig, the Cafeteria, La Casita at Driftwood, and Sparrow Italia.

For 45 years, Caffe Roma has been a go to place for Italian food and coffee in the Golden Triangle of Beverly Hills.

It was frequently patronized by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The restaurant announced its closure on January 1, 2024.

My friend, an immigrant from Germany moved to Venice California 30 years ago and he made his fortune there.

He walked around Beverly Hills yesterday April 2nd 2024 and he commented to me the town is slowly becoming an empty “For lease” town going bankrupt.

Beverly Hills Stores are closing and some entrepreneurs posted notices on doors and windows stating they have relocated to Nevada and Texas or they have permanently closed.

LA Eater’s Matthew Kang, Mona Holmes, and Rebecca Roland reported, “Los Angeles’s restaurants continue to face difficult headwinds that picked up in the second half of 2023 and led to an industry-wide slowdown. From the lingering impacts of the Hollywood strikes to adverse weather and increased costs (labor, rent, ingredients, etc.), a plethora of variables continue to batter restaurant owners who operate on razor-thin margins.”

Here is LA Eater’s running list of restaurant closures beginning from the last days of 2023 to March 2024.

March

3rd Stop – Beverly Grove

West Third Street gastropub and wine bar 3rd Stop told its workers this past Monday that it would be closing at the end of the month. Originally opened in 2006, the all-day restaurant served an array of American food, like grilled chicken nachos, burgers, pizza, and sandwiches.

Conga Room – Downtown LA

Legendary music venue Conga Room, which was instrumental in bringing Latin music acts and other performers to L.A. Live, closed after 25 years. The venue was originally located in Mid-Wilshire but moved to Downtown in 2008. Founder Brad Gluckstein told Billboard that inflation, high interest rates, and a drop in Convention Center traffic led to a changing business model. March 27 was the club’s final night.

El Muelle 8 – Downey

Celebrated Sinaloan seafood spot El Muelle 8 opened last February with pristine shellfish, ceviches, and tacos in a small Downey strip mall. The restaurant quietly closed earlier this year, likely in late January, without much notice. However, its new owners have reached out to Eater and confirmed that El Muelle 8 is plotting a comeback.

El Torito – Santa Monica

El Torito’s expansive restaurant in Santa Monica, which was originally branded as Acapulco and operated by Xperience Restaurant Group, closed on March 9, reports the Santa Monica Sun. Santa Monica mayor Phil Brock said on social media that it had been operating month-to-month for a while and that the property had likely been leased to another operator.

The Farm of Beverly Hills

Daytime eatery the Farm of Beverly Hills closed on March 3 after 26 years of business. Founder and owner Kelli Cotton thanked customers and bid farewell in a note, recognizing past and present staff for their dedication and passion. The reliable breakfast and lunch spot was a reasonably-priced, family-friendly eatery in the heart of the Golden Triangle.

Mezcalero – Downtown

Mezcal bar and taco cantina Mezcalero closed on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles in early March, with a simple announcement that it would be closed for the weekend. However, Mezcalero never reopened and a note on its Instagram profile confirms it is closed. Originally opened in December 2016, the restaurant was opened by Jay Krymis, who also owned Padre in Long Beach and Fubar in West Hollywood, according to DTLA Weekly.

A lush outdoor patio at Nic’s on Beverly.

The patio of Nic’s on Beverly, a plant-based restaurant that closes March 31, 2024. Nic’s on Beverly

Nic’s – Beverly Grove

Plant-based restaurant Nic’s on Beverly opened five years ago in the former Terrine space from restaurateur Nic Adler, who also owns Monty’s Good Burger. Nic’s was going to close last June, blaming increased rent, but was able to make an arrangement with the landlord to stay open for another year. Its last day will be March 31 for Easter brunch.

Mandrake – Culver City

Culver City bar Mandrake closed on March 16 after 18 years of operation, according to the Los Angeles Times. Owners Flora Wiegmann, Drew Heitzler and Justin Beal cited life changes as the reason for closing, with Beal and Wiegman moving out of the state and Heitzler becoming a recent father. Mandrake represented the art scene in Culver City and greater Los Angeles, with a famous art curator coming up with the name for the bar.

Tenseven Rolls – San Gabriel

Tenseven Rolls, a bánh cuốn specialist inside Blossom Market Hall in San Gabriel, announced it would close on March 17. The Vietnamese snack spot also served chả giò, bánh xèo, rice rolls, and smoked brisket pho in the mostly Asian American vendor food hall in the heart of SGV. The stall originally opened in December 2022. The Klaude family said on Instagram that it hopes to appear at another venue in the future, with plans to serve at community events in the meantime.

Western City Bagel – Redondo Beach

Not to be confused with the much larger and still-in-operation Western Bagel, Western City Bagel in Redondo Beach announced that it will close on March 31 after 30 years. “While this chapter may be coming to a close, the memories we’ve shared and the connections we’ve made will forever remain close to our hearts,” the shop wrote on Instagram.

Bicyclette and Manzke – Pico Robertson

Manzke and its sister restaurant Bicyclette will close on March 1. Manzke opened in 2022 as a bastion for fine dining in the former Picca space serving a $225 10-course tasting menu and earning a Michelin star; Bicyclette transformed Sotto into a French bistro in 2021. With these latest closures, acclaimed chefs Walter and Margarita Manzke operate only one LA restaurant: the powerhouse République. Previously, the Manzkes closed Petty Cash Taquería after 10 years in October 2023, followed by the abrupt shutter of Sari Sari Store after seven years of business inside Grand Central Market in December 2023.

Banh Oui – Hollywood

Hollywood banh mi spot, Banh Oui, closed on February 13. The restaurant, which started as a pop-up, moved into the space in 2018. Over the years, it was known for its non-traditional takes on the Vietnamese sandwich, as well as its burger, fried chicken sandwich, and more.

Charcoal Sunset – West Hollywood

Josiah Citrin’s West Hollywood location of Charcoal suddenly closed on February 17 after less than a year in operation. Citrin attributed the closure to a rise in the costs of business in the neighborhood, and in a statement to Eater said that it was “a real bummer, to say the least.”

Flore – Silver Lake

Silver Lake’s 16-year-old plant-based restaurant Flore closed for good in late December and announced the closure via Instagram. Owner Miranda Megill opened the restaurant when Silver Lake’s was full of mostly independent businesses. After facing eviction from its original location in Sunset Junction in 2019, Megill moved the business into the shuttered Local space in 2020. Flore’s original location now houses mostly retail shops including clothing brand Maison Kitsune.

Hotel Figueroa (restaurants and bar) – Downtown

All the restaurants and bar inside Downtown’s historic Hotel Figueroa will close in February including Bar Magnolia, Cafe Fig, the Cafeteria, La Casita at Driftwood, and Sparrow Italia. The Los Angeles Times reported that Noble 33 (Casa Madera, Taco Madera), the third-party restaurant group that operates the hotel’s bar and restaurants, announced the closures in December, six days after its workers notified management that they intended to form a union.

Hyperion Public – Silver Lake

Silver Lake pub Hyperion Public closed on January 26. The owners shared via an Instagram post that the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control shut down the bar on January 16 and that they were unaware that the business was operating illegally.

Pearl River Deli – Chinatown

Chinatown’s modern Cantonese spot Pearl River Deli is no longer serving its beloved Hainan chicken rice, char siu pork belly, and Macau pork-chop bun. After opening in January 2020 in Far East Plaza and relocating to Chinatown Central Plaza, chef and owner Johnny Lee announced that Pearl River Deli will be on hiatus indefinitely and possibly forever.

Sakai Ramen Bar – Central LA

After nearly five years in business, Sakai Ramen closed on February 19. The restaurant announced the closure in an Instagram post and shared that the owners would be taking a break for the time being.

Shin – Hollywood

Hollywood’s decade-old Shin restaurant closed on February 4. Though best known for its ramen, the restaurant also prepared sushi and yakitori, including a $175 omakase option with cocktails.

Tokki – Koreatown

After 15 months inside Koreatown’s Chapman Plaza, Tokki closed on February 18. The modern Korean tapas restaurant opened in 2021 with chef Sunny Chang (Quince SF) at the helm, but she departed after just a few months. A part of the team then went on to open Liu’s café, which will remain open.

January

Atrium – Los Feliz

A dimly lit modern restaurant with pattered walls and dark green banquettes with some foliage.

Los Feliz restaurant Atrium, which opened in 2018 from Beau Laughlin and Jay Milliken, closed without warning on December 23, 2023. The stylish Los Feliz restaurant offered versatile dishes with international flavors in a high-ceiling space in a neighborhood that sorely lacks quality dining. Staff was notified of the closure just a few days before Christmas though outwardly Atrium hinted that it would reopen in the new year. Atrium has not reopened though its sister lounge space Pinky’s continues to operate.

Caffe Roma – Beverly Hills

For 45 years, Caffe Roma has been a streetside destination for Italian food and coffee in the Golden Triangle of Beverly Hills. The restaurant announced its closure on January 1, 2024, though its sister restaurant Café Amici will continue to operate, which means longtime fans will still have a place to get eggplant parmigiana and lasagna with beef ragu. Eater spoke with a representative from Caffe Roma who said the landlord had doubled the rent, which made it more challenging to operate despite nearly half a century of history in the neighborhood.

ETA – Highland Park

Jazz bar and cocktail lounge ETA, which is a sister restaurant to the Greyhound sports bar, closed on December 30, 2023 after initially opening in 2016. Owner Mateo Glassman said part of the reason for the closure was that his partners James and Ryan had moved farther away and that Glassman’s recent addition to the family had made it difficult to sustain operations. Glassman said the Highland Park and jazz community were a huge part of ETA’s success and was thankful for both.

Jeni’s Ice Cream – Venice

Rose Avenue ice cream parlor Jeni’s has closed since around the end of December, though word is that the artisan scoop shop has reopened as a stand on Windward Avenue closer to the Venice Boardwalk. Jeni’s still has locations in Larchmont, Beverly Hills, the Runway in Playa Vista, Calabasas, Los Feliz, and Highland Park within the LA area.

Skylight Gardens – Westwood

Westwood Italian restaurant Skylight Gardens had just celebrated its 12th anniversary when it quietly closed in recent weeks (it originally opened in 2012). A tipster says the signage was taken down and that multiple Yelpers have reported it closed, though the restaurant’s website — which announced the restaurant’s 10th anniversary — is still up at the time of publication.

Spartina LA – Melrose Avenue

A wood-burning grill at a LA restaurant. Spartina LA, which opened in 2015 by chef Stephen Kalt, announced on social media last week that it would close on January 28. Kalt has had a nearly four-decade-long career in restaurants spanning New York City, Atlantic City, and Las Vegas. Spartina was originally named for a restaurant he helped open in the early 1990s in Tribeca before that neighborhood had become one of the hottest in Manhattan.

Spartina in LA was his ode to California Italian food, preparing shareable pizzas, handmade pastas, and seasonal produce. Kalt told Eater that from Memorial Day onwards, sales had dropped off about 40 percent from expected, blaming the writer’s and actor’s strikes. “In 40 years in this business, I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Kalt. The last day of operations will be this coming Sunday.

Wine House Kitchen — West LA

Located on a West LA rooftop blocks away from the bustling Sawtelle Japantown, Wine House Kitchen closed late last year after more than a year in business. Maiki Le’s Vietnamese French and California menu was a favorite among Eater’s editors with dishes like bún bò Huế spiced elk strip loin, which combines different meat with a central Vietnamese beef noodle soup.

When Governor Newsom and his Marxist thugs finally bankrupt California and collapse its economy as they grasp the handle of socialism and poverty perhaps then the citizens will remove this cockroach parasite from the state government and hire free market capitalists to save what’s left of this crumbling dumpster fire.

©2024. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: California Ice Cream Parlor Forced to Close Over Minimum Wage Hike

Bribing Future Generations for Marx?

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Can anybody name one-square inch on the planet where Communism has done anyone any good? Anywhere? Not for the ruling elites, but for the people themselves?

It doesn’t exist. How, then, do they continue to manage to create new recruits? Well, a story out of California last week explains one strategy.

Writing for The Free Press for Free People, Francesca Block reports (3/7/24): “An activist group in California has paid nearly 100 public high schoolers $1,400 each to learn how to fight for racial and social justice.”

This is the brainchild of a group called Californians for Justice (CFJ), and they’re working in Long Beach to create a new breed of Communists, who are interested in learning “restorative justice practices.”

Here is an example of where CFJ stands on the issues. After the brutal October 7th Hamas attack against some 1200 Israeli men, women, and children in the Gaza area, Californians for Justice described Israel (the victim) as being guilty of “ethnic cleansing and apartheid orchestrated by white supremacist settler colonialism bent on the goal of wiping out the indigenous Palestinian population.”

Dividing the world into the supposed oppressors (Israelis) and the oppressed (Hamas) is Marxism at work.

The Free Press for Free People notes a recent social media video helping to recruit other students to join the movement for so-called “social justice.” One student was asked: “Why should students join CFJ?” The student replied, “You get paid good.”

But, all bad grammar aside, do these naïve students realize what they are defending?

Years ago, I read a fantastic book by a former socialist and idealist on the problem of socialism and Communism.

His name is Joshua Muravchik, and as a young man, he was the president of the Young Socialists. But as he matured intellectually, he came to be a major critic of that which he had earlier espoused.

He wrote the book called, Heaven on Earth. The basic thesis is that the Communists promised heaven on earth and instead delivered hell on earth.

And how could they not? It always begins with the premise that there is no God and that man is basically good. Thus, from the very outset, it is always doomed to fail.

As Muravchik noted in an interview I once did with him for Coral Ridge Ministries for our video expose on socialism: “In terms of the most terrible kinds of socialism, the kinds that engaged in mass killing, I think there’s, at the root of that, this idea that you can make a perfect society here in this world, that you can make a heaven on earth. And that’s just a false idea.”

Muravchik observed that when you start from that premise, and you refuse to learn from experience and reality, you’re in for trouble. And the Communist and socialist radicals didn’t learn. “They just kept insisting that their ideas were perfect, and it was only the human beings who were getting in the way of achieving it. Then it’s not such a big step to start killing these human beings until you get all the bad ones out of the way, to build your little utopia out of the ones who are left.”

And the result, per Muravchik? “The Communist countries did prove to be the greatest killers of all time.”

One of the remarkable books I have in my office was published by Harvard University Press in 1999. It’s The Black Book of Communism.

At the end of the 20th century, this bold book, written by many authors, dared to tell the truth that the vast killing fields of the 20th century were the fruit of communism in one form or another.

In a review of the book, Publishers Weekly notes: “Essentially a body count of communism’s victims in the 20th century, the book draws heavily from recently opened Soviet archives.”

America’s founders showed the world a better way to promote lasting good in the world. You begin with the foundational truth that our rights come from God, not the state. Our nation’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, indeed mentions God four times.

And then, building on that clear structure, because of man’s inherent sinful nature, you divide power so that no one man or small group can seize all the power for themselves. As James Madison, a key architect of the Constitution, summed up well: “All men having power ought to be distrusted.”

Communism works the opposite way. It says man is good, but the system is bad. Let’s tear down the system and implement “social justice,” and we’ll usher in the long-awaited millennium. But as Muravchik notes: They promised heaven, but only delivered hell. If only more young people could learn the lessons of history and resist the temptation of intellectual bribery, before it’s too late.

©2024. All rights reserved.

WATCH: Major George R. Jordan’s Diaries on Communist Subversion of the United States During WWII

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This is an astonishing document.

As far as I know, only two people were jailed and for a very, very long time for assisting the Soviets to get the nuclear bomb.

Yet listening to Major Jordan, it should have been a goodly part of Washington, D.C.

Having read part of the Whittaker Chambers book, Witness, this video makes an excellent companion to his document about the nature of communism in that era, and how penetrated the U.S., and clearly Canada was at the time.

WATCH: Major George R. Jordan’s Diaries on Communist Subversion of the United States During WWII

About Major George Racey Jordan

George Racey Jordan (January 4, 1898 – May 5, 1966) was an American military officer, businessman, lecturer, activist, and author. He first gained nationwide attention in December 1949 when he testified to the United States Congress about wartime Lend-Lease deliveries to the Soviet Union, in the process implicating Harry Hopkins and other high officials in the transfer of nuclear and other secrets to the USSR.

Jordan’s three ledgers were of importance to the FBI in mapping Soviet wartime activities in the United States. They are also often quoted by researchers investigating the loss of atomic secrets to the USSR. In particular, Richard Rhodes used Jordan’s book in his history of the H-bomb. Whatever Jordan’s later political activism, he gave a detailed and revealing personal account of how Soviet Lend-lease worked in practice during 1943–44. While the Hopkins notes are disputed in detail, Jordan’s account of Hopkins’s numerous direct interventions for the USSR match contemporary accounts.

In 1956, Jordan settled a libel suit against NBC for “a substantial amount” after the network falsely reported that Congressional investigators had “discredited Jordan’s charges.” Rather, Jordan’s testimony was dismissed out-of-hand by liberal voices at the time, and later discounted in part due to his association with right-wing causes, his unwelcome implication of high-ranking officials, and his own career of limited breadth and narrow distinction.

The New York Times, in reviewing Jordan’s first book, provided a snapshot of the author hereby: “What emerges in the way of self-portrait is an earnest, conscientious, deeply patriotic and limited man – a World War I “retread,” as he wryly calls himself – who has got mixed up in an argument whose end is not in sight.”

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EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 3: Birdman and the Reality Revolution—Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier—Reality Is

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Globalism is a replacement ideology that seeks to reorder the world into one singular, planetary Unistate, ruled by the globalist elite themselves. The globalist war on nation-states cannot succeed without collapsing the United States of America. The long-term strategic attack plan moves America incrementally from constitutional republic to socialism to globalism to feudalism. The tactical attack plan uses psychological, informational, asymmetric warfare to destabilize Americans and drive society out of objective reality into the madness of subjective reality. The primary target of the globalist predators is America’s children. 

The ability to distinguish between fact and fantasy is an essential survival skill. If a man believes he can fly and jumps off a twenty-story ledge, he falls to his death because gravity is a fact, an objective truth. Birdman’s fantasy, a subjective reality, cannot compete with the objective reality of gravity.

Let’s break down the process of thinking and doing. Thinking is a private matter and human beings are free to think their thoughts at any time in any place. Birdman is free to think he can fly, without consequence to himself or others. It is the moment he steps off the ledge that his subjective reality collides with objective reality.

Adults and children are evaluated differently in society. The fantasies of children are an accepted part of the growth process. In a sane society, adults who are out of touch with reality are deemed insane. In our example, Birdman would be considered insane.

Civil society and the laws that govern it are based on the acceptance of objective reality by its citizens. What would happen if there was a movement that deliberately rejected the teaching of objective reality and taught subjective reality instead? What would be the purpose of driving a society insane?

Remember, the ability to distinguish between fact and fantasy is a survival skill, because thought precedes action. Birdman thought he could fly and jumped to his death. Critical thinking is the objective analysis of facts in order to form a judgment, and is the foundation of rational thought.

Feelings, on the other hand, are the foundation of beliefs. Birdman’s feeling that he is a bird that can fly cannot compete with the fact that he is a human being who cannot. Critical thinking, based on facts, is necessary in an adult society.

An insistence upon objective reality is what made America great, powerful, and undefeatable in World War II. At the end of the war, America’s enemies did not go quietly into the night. They reconstituted themselves to fight another day, in another way.

America’s enemies simply put down their guns, picked up their books, and concentrated on the future. They studied the human mind and decided to exploit the existence of the unconscious to defeat America psychologically. The strategic goal was to infantilize Americans. Children’s psychological growth would be paralyzed with educational indoctrination that interrupts their developing critical-thinking skills. Adults would be pressured out of the adult world of objective reality and regressed back into the childish world of feelings.

Vladimir Lenin infamously said, “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”

The leftists have taken a page out of Lenin’s communist playbook and indoctrinated two generations of Americans toward collectivism using public/private education, along with mainstream media including television programming and movies. The radical leftist/Marxist War on America is a sinister effort to shatter objective reality and destroy critical-thinking skills. When critical thinking is destroyed and a society is reduced to childish emotional thinking, that society is easily exploited.

In order to stop the radical leftists/Marxists, we need a Reality Revolution. This Revolution would restore objective reality by dismantling the infrastructure of subjective reality that has been established since the end of World War II.

In objective reality, the striving to become an adult, with all its attendant responsibilities, is rewarded with the freedom of adulthood. Children are not free in any society—they are dependent upon their parents/caretakers or the government. The choice between the collectivism offered by socialism/communism, and the individualism offered by the constitutional republic envisioned by our Founding Fathers, is the choice between childhood dependence and adult independence. It is the difference between servitude and freedom.

What young people in America need to understand is that the promise of socialism is never the reality of socialism. Cradle-to-grave government care exacts an exorbitant price. When you accept the powerless position of childhood for the rest of your life, the government happily appropriates your freedom and liberty. In socialism/communism you become a permanent ward of the state.

Americans who proudly wear Che Guevara T-shirts display their ignorance. Real people living in actual communist countries risk their lives escaping TO the real freedom of America. No one is trying to escape FROM Miami to Havana. The romanticized version of socialism/communism propagandizing American students is subjective reality.

These young people need to consider the reality of collectivism, but they must be in objective reality in order to do so. Otherwise, like Birdman, they will think they can fly. The death of Birdman is the metaphorical death of freedom.

©2024. Linda Goudsmit. All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: Socialist Road to Hell

The Role of Faith in Cuba’s Fight for Freedom

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By the end of September 2021, the events of July 11 were a burning memory for Cubans. That July, which Cubans refer to as 11J, activists linked to a Facebook group called Archipiélago had requested authorization through letters to several provincial governments to hold a demonstration. They wanted to condemn violence and demand the release of political prisoners, respect for the rights of Cubans, and the resolution of political differences through democratic and peaceful means.

Archipiélago was led by a board of coordinators that presented itself as politically diverse. In reality, the majority of its members tended towards leftism, and the figure who enjoyed the greatest national and international media access was the playwright Yunior García.

Although García called for the first demonstration to be November 20, on October 7 the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces announced a series of military exercises from November 18 to 20, in what they called a National Defense Day. Archipiélago determined, then, to move the demonstration to the 15th, the day on which the island would open its borders to international tourism.

On November 15 (which became known as 15N), some 131 people were prevented from leaving their homes that day in Cuba, according to the complaints center of the Foundation for Pan American Democracy. Yunior García was one of them. He also experienced internet outages. In the next few hours, during and after the 15th, nothing was heard from him. The Archipiélago activists released a statement demanding information from the regime, and others blamed the state, thinking the worst.

The next day, García landed in Spain, and unraveled some mysteries during a large press conference. He said that days ago, unbeknownst to his colleagues and followers whom he had called to take to the streets, he had arranged a visa with the Spanish embassy, which was at that time controlled by a socialist PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, the socialist and ruling party in Spain) government. García said that Cuba was not governed by a socialist tyranny, but by a conservative one. And he said that the financial pressure against the dictatorship — which he called “blockade” — had to be eliminated.

The dissident Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas described García’s escape as cowardly and unethical; He acknowledged that although it is understandable to be afraid, “when he assumes leadership, one has to go ahead.” And he considered the call for 15N as a way to counteract the still vibrant spirit of 11J, “an operation of discouragement aimed at the effervescence that exists within the Cuban youth that was designed by people who want a soft landing, a guilty cohabitation with the military dictatorship in the exercise of power.”

Despite the failure of the 15N call and the disappointments derived from his leadership, several Cubans sincerely put their hopes and efforts in that demonstration as a way to channel their rejection of the Marxist regime. Several Christians were among them.

That day, in the peripheral Havana municipality of El Cotorro, Pastor Carlos Sebastián Hernández Armas, historian of the Western Baptist Convention, also expressed his desire for change in totalitarian Cuba, joining the call of 15N. That day he posted a selfie on his Facebook. He wore the characteristic elements of the call: a flower and a white sweater. A fingerprint was stamped on the sweater, with an empty space in the center in the shape of a cross.

The photo was accompanied by this verse in 2 Samuel 22:2-4: “The Lord is my rock and my strength, and my deliverer; My God, my strength, I will trust in him; my shield, and the stronghold of my salvation, my high refuge; my savior; You freed me from violence. I will call on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I will be saved from my enemies.” It is not just any verse, but one that speaks of resistance, confrontation, of at least two opposing visions that strain the social rope.

In the city of Cárdenas, Matanzas, Reniel Rodríguez or “Lunático,” the name with which he baptized his X profile and his YouTube channel (“Lunatico Debates”), was 15 years old on 15N. That day he called from a corner, through a live broadcast, for the city’s inhabitants to take to the streets. He was dressed in white, as the Archipiélago call had requested, and with a flower in his hand.

He walked around town for a while. While he was walking, he received a call. It was a local Communist Party official, who ordered him to delete the video of the call and return to his house. Frightened, Reniel obeyed. Forty-eight hours later, things got worse. Several police officers were stationed in front of the secondary school where Reniel studied. They asked about him. A teacher took him from school to the military, and he was taken to a Comprehensive Training School (EFI) of the Ministry of the Interior, a penitentiary center for minors.

In just 24 hours, the teenager’s case went viral on the social networks of Cubans inside and outside the island. Several Christians raised their voices about him.

On November 18, 2021 at 11 p.m., Iván Daniel Calás called through his social media account on X to pray for Reniel, a “15-year-old boy who is in prison.” Calás said that everyone was welcome, and along with the #FreeLunatico hashtag he referred to the biblical verse in Hebrews 13: 3: “Remember the prisoners, as if you were prisoners together with them.”

Reniel and Calás had met years before. On Twitter, they were public opponents on issues such as abortion, of which the former was a defender. Precisely that topic brought them together shortly before the arrest, when Reniel had accepted, after months of scientific and philosophical arguments, the continuity and value of human life from the moment of conception.

On 15N, in the center of the capital, a human rights activist and member of the apostolic movement was trying to attend the call. Near the Parque del Quijote, in the populous neighborhood of El Vedado, Yoantone Marrero, better known as Tony Máx, was able to shout “Long live freedom! Long live democracy! Long live free Cuba!” before agents of the National Revolutionary Police arrested him.

The overwhelming repression of the 15th did not go unnoticed in the eyes of Cuban evangelical leaders. Bárbaro Abel Marrero, an academic and Baptist pastor whose analyses of the introduction of gender ideology by totalitarianism have garnered repercussion in recent years, dedicated a text titled “The ignominy visited Santa Clara,” about the harassment of Cubans and relatives of prisoners who demonstrated for political changes, the infamous acts of repudiation.

Marrero, rector of the Baptist Theological Seminary of Havana, began his account by stating his connection with Santa Clara, his hometown, the city of the 19th century patriot Marta Abreu. “Perhaps that is why it affected me so much to be a virtual witness of the disgusting events that stained its streets this November 15,” he confessed.

“I intercede for the unfortunate people who have degraded themselves to such vileness (to repress pacific protesters), so that they can sincerely repent, for their own good,” he expressed. “Finally, I cry out for the families who have been lacerated by abject arrows of hatred, that their wounds be healed and that their cause be vindicated; that they may not be overcome by evil, as the apostle Paul teaches, but that they may overcome evil with good. Father, have mercy on Cuba.”

AUTHOR

Yoe Suarez

RELATED ARTICLE: Cuban Christians and the Fight for Freedom of Expression

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Fetterman: I Didn’t Leave the Left, It Left Me

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“I don’t feel like I’ve left the label; it’s just more that it’s left me.”

An interesting line with a lot of history to it from Sen. Jon Fetterman on dumping the “progressive” label he used to use.

“I don’t feel like I’ve left the label; it’s just more that it’s left me.”

President Reagan would often quip, “I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic Party left me.” Similar lines have been used by everyone from Bill Maher, “It’s not me who’s changed, it is the left” to Elon Musk.

It’s hard to say exactly what’s going on with Fetterman after his medical issues, but a dividing line seems to have been the Left’s support for Hamas, but he’s also embraced a species of economic populism, fighting against land sales to China, and Japan’s takeover of U.S. Steel.

While Fetterman had never been a foreign policy guy, he did explicitly break with the far left on Israel during his campaign.

“I would also respectfully say that I’m not really a progressive in that sense,” he added. “Our campaign is based on core Democratic values and principles, and always has been, and there is no daylight between myself and these kinds of unwavering commitments to Israel’s security.”

Still, Fetterman said he was “eager to affirm” his positions on the record, lest there be any uncertainty among supporters of Israel who have similar questions. “I want to go out of my way to make sure that it’s absolutely clear,” he told JI, “that the views that I hold in no way go along the lines of some of the more fringe or extreme wings of our party.”

The Left did not take that seriously and assumed he was just pandering. Now they’re finding out that he really meant it.

So this did not come out of nowhere. And it’s not just about Israel.

He has also publicly encouraged Democrats in recent days to engage in border negotiations with Republicans, talks that have outraged progressives who object to efforts to clamp down on migration through the United States border with Mexico.

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have a secured border,” Mr. Fetterman said in the interview, conducted over Zoom. “I would never put Dreamers in harm’s way, or support any kind of cruelty or mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people. But it’s a reasonable conversation to talk about the border.”

Now this may be a canny rebranding.

A moderate Democrat who emphasizes economic populism, border security and steers clear of crazier leftist stuff, has much better odds of holding on to a Pennsylvania Senate seat.

Fetterman would never have taken office if Republicans hadn’t run a Turkish Muslim leftist trainwreck like Mehmet Oz who appealed to no one except Oprah viewers (and they mostly vote Democrat anyway). Next time, Republicans may actually find a candidate that people might actually vote for. But next time around is a long time away and Fetterman doesn’t need to be picking fights with the Left.

The short version seems to be that he may be a leftist, but he’s an old-school leftist who actually doesn’t much like the Left.

The media castigates him for associating with Bernie Sanders, but Bernie was actually an old-school leftist who used to be against identity politics, culture wars and open borders. Under pressure, he jettisoned all of his views and became a generic woke. (At which point most people lost interest in him. Eventually so did the Left.)

Fetterman has pushed back against the pressure. Unlike Bernie, he refuses to be intimidated by people screaming at him.

Despite the headline, he hasn’t left the Left, but he’s not interested in the progressive label which tends to signify upper class wokeness.

The Pennsylvania senator said he still aligns with many progressive goals, including a $15 minimum wage, universal health care, legalizing marijuana and abolishing the Senate filibuster.

But he said he no longer relates to the overarching label of “progressive” — especially as the left has become more interested in demanding what he described as “purity tests.”

“It’s just a place where I’m not,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’ve left the label; it’s just more that it’s left me.

“I’m not critical if someone is a progressive,” he added. “I believe different things.”

Fetterman is currently for fracking, and also for lots of social welfare. That is old-school leftism. It’s also fairly popular.

There’s a whole lot more support for social welfare than there is for culture wars, drag queens and Islamic terrorism. Not to mention radical environmentalism.

The old progressives used to argue (not even all that long ago) that they should run on a straight class warfare platform while shedding all the other garbage. This used to be the main argument for a Bernie Sanders campaign. Except that garbage is hard to shed. Just ask Bernie.

Fetterman is shedding a lot of the garbage. This doesn’t make him an ex-leftist or a friend to conservatives, but it makes him something worse: a serious threat to the Left as it currently is.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

China on the Verge of Collapse?

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Marxism is a material philosophy that denies the existence of anything but the physically substantial. Thus, communism’s hatred of religion, which proposes that there is an unseen world and that life beyond the grave should concern mortal men and women.

Additionally, Marxism sees itself as a comprehensive, as an anti-theistic religion demanding not only entire allegiance but unquestioning acceptance of its dogmas.

So, it is natural that the world’s largest communist state, China, should oppress religious believers of all faiths and deny the Chinese people even a hint of self-government. In the absence of religion and civic self-determination, China’s leaders have promised their subjects (an appropriate characterization of those living under the Maoist thumb) growing economic prosperity in place of religious and political liberty.

Not only does Marxism reduce man to a strictly economic creature for whom beauty and creativity must comport with strict, state-approved standards.

In recent decades, China has become economically stronger and stronger. Its standing among the family of nations has grown exponentially as its business and military sectors, integrated closely with one another, have led to skyscraper-laden cities and potency in the world’s economic forums.

China is expanding its global influence through loaning money to developing nations for infrastructure (the “Belt and Road Initiative,” or BRI) and membership in the “BRICS” bloc. Composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (and, recently, six new smaller nations), BRICS members seek to thumb their nose at developed and republican-oriented nations. Aggravated by calls that they observe respect for human rights and, in some cases, stop their military adventurism, the BRICS countries see themselves as an alternative to the industrialized powers of Europe, North America, Japan and Australia.

But economies can change rapidly. No one anticipated the COVID down-turn of 2020 and its effects on a booming U.S. private sector. And it looks like the uber-Maoist Xi Jinping has been caught rather by surprise by the slump that is hitting Red China.

Characterized by financial journalist Milton Ezrati as “always something of a Mafia-like enterprise,” the BRI would invite poorer countries to borrow money from China in return for construction of dams, roads, rail lines, and so forth. The problem for China is that these poor countries remain poor — and cannot repay their loans. Ezrati notes that “economists at the World Bank estimate that now some 60 percent of all BRI loans involve countries in financial distress.”

Then there’s China’s relentless assault on U.S. firms. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, on her recent trip to Beijing, told her hosts that China’s “raids on (American) firms” with office in China and its vast intellectual property theft enterprise. Raimondo also noted that along with “unexplained fines and unpredictable official behavior,” China is on the verge of becoming anathema for U.S. companies. “U.S. business needs to see some action taken to address these issues,” Raimondo said. “Otherwise, they will deem it as just too risky and … uninvestable.”

The federal government is also taking action against China’s theft of critical American technologies and even such things as copyrighted agricultural products. The FBI “has designated Chinese espionage as its ‘top counterintelligence priority,’ considering it a substantial threat to the nation’s core economic assets and technological innovations.” China has “targeted a broad range of sectors, including government, businesses, academic institutions, researchers, and even the general public.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray reports that “China’s hacking program is more extensive than the combined efforts of all other nations, making it a significant challenge for U.S. cybersecurity.” The Biden White House restricting American investment in “Chinese military–connected firms operating within certain critical technology sectors — semiconductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.” But there’s much more to do.

The notorious and now thankfully defunct “one-child” policy also cost China tens of millions of men and women who would now be in the workforce. The grotesque immorality of this policy is now compounded by its economic impact: “With China’s population aging rapidly, there are fewer working-age people to support retirees,” writes my friend Jeanne Mancini. “The one-child policy, which lasted for more than three decades before ending in 2016, worsened the situation and threatens long-term economic prospects.”

Put altogether, China’s prospects for economic power are dimming significantly. “Consumer prices are falling, a real estate crisis is deepening ,and exports are in a slump. Unemployment among youth has gotten so bad the government has stopped publishing the data,” writes journalist Lauren He.

So, China’s promised prosperity is shriveling, and its oppression of Christians, Muslims, and others is increasing. Long a land of frequent revolutions, it’s not unrealistic to wonder what the next 10 years bode for the Middle Kingdom.

AUTHOR

Rob Schwarzwalder

Rob Schwarzwalder is Senior Lecturer in Regent University’s Honors College.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

America’s International Influence Wanes as Communist Nations Craft Partnerships

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Economic weakness and radical policies are pushing nations away from the U.S. and into the arms of China and Russia, a well-known business school head stated Friday.

“The U.S. is clearly losing our authority on the world stage,” former Congressman Dave Brat said on August 25’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” Brat is dean of the Liberty University School of Business.

He noted that BRICS, a bloc of nations that already included China, Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa, announced Thursday the group was adding Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates as members in a concerted effort to overturn what has been a world order dominated by U.S. interests since the mid-20th century.

Russia pushed for the bloc’s formation in 2009. More recently, China has been the prime driver behind the group and its growth.

“This membership expansion is historic,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a Reuters report. “It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and cooperation with the broader developing countries.”

This shift in alliances is a reaction against the overreach of the United States, Brat told FRC’s guest host Jody Hice. “We’ve gone too far,” Brat continued, “We’re $50 trillion in debt.” He noted that the rest of the world is well aware of the United States’ economic woes, including higher interest rates and the likelihood the nation will never be able to pay off its debt. Brat, who served as the U.S. representative for Virginia’s 7th congressional district from 2014 to 2019, said many nations are holding American dollars which are losing value.

Referencing the Bretton Woods Agreement, an economic and monetary order established in 1944 after the United States victory in World War II, Brat explained the U.S. looked to rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence in building a world order aimed at blunting the spread of communism.

“We protected the world as long as they would help us fight against the Soviet Union back then,” he continued. “The world has changed significantly now. China is our biggest threat, and we are just ill-equipped,” Brat added.

Adding insult to injury, Hice noted the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced an LGBTQ policy earlier this month. According to an agency press release, the first-ever policy “guides USAID’s commitment to advancing LGBTQI+ Inclusive Development and the human rights of LGBTQI+ people as part of a coordinated, whole-of-U.S. government effort with our partners on the ground.”

“So it’s not just the horrendous shape of our economy, but the United States keeps pushing this wokeness on other countries,” Hice continued. “These other countries don’t want our woke ideology, and we’re really pushing away countries that otherwise ought to be our allies.”

Citing “woke stuff” in the military, growing national debt, the nation’s “open” southern border, and the Federal Reserve’s ruinous policies, Brat said the U.S. is no longer in the world’s driver’s seat.

While BRICS members do not have much in common on the surface, Steve Tsang, director of London’s Soas China Institute, a center focused on research and teaching on China, said these nations share a common desire — they do not want to live in a “Western-dominated world.”

“What the Chinese are offering is an alternative world order for which autocrats can feel safe and secure in their own countries,” Tsang said in a BBC report.

Brat insisted the U.S. must take this expanding realignment seriously, suggesting the bloc of nations is planning to develop a common currency that will be backed by gold and that threatens to replace the U.S. dollar as the basis of international trade.

“The objective, irreversible process of de-dollarization of our economic ties, is gaining momentum,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told the BRICS summit Tuesday.

“It is a real threat,” Brat warned. “It’s a signal to the U.S. to get our act together.”

Yet the economist is not optimistic there will be any changes in the near future: “I don’t have much confidence that we are going to get our act together. This is the natural consequence of our [nation’s] dereliction of its fiscal duties over the decades.”

AUTHOR

K.D. Hastings

K.D. Hastings and his family live in the beautiful hills of Middle Tennessee. He has been engaged in the evangelical world as a communicator since 1994.

RELATED ARTICLE: BIDENOMICS: U.S. Federal Reserve Preparing ‘To Raise Rates Further’

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.