Free Republic

So the people of all classes now find themselves in a situation in which electric power is no longer reliable, blackouts are common, and diseases that were eliminated are returning. Inflation can run up to 50% per month, rendering the Bolivar fiat currency nearly worthless. Since the government had forcefully expropriated (through the Venezuelan socialist version of eminent domain) huge tracts of productive domestic livestock and then given it "to the poor" who didn't know how to farm it, domestic food production crashed. Food was then imported, using dollars. Once inflation soared, the government clamped down on the ability to...

O love the Lord all ye hes saints: preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Psalms 31:23 We are soon going to see the second big hit on the economy in the next two years as we will have another manmade spike in our energy costs. These will be directly caused by ignorance and hatred towards the American way of life. The Marxists know the best way to short circuit an economy is to take out the foundation which is low cost energy. The Obama regime and the Three Pillars have found a way to destroy the low...

De Blasio’s charter war hurting the kids he claims to help By Michael GoodwinFebruary 28, 2014 | 1:43am Either City Hall has a sick sense of humor, or Mayor de Blasio is as arrogant and tone deaf as he appears. Just as news was breaking that he had declared war on poor black children, his schedule had him attending a Black History Month celebration at Gracie Mansion. Maybe he thinks the contrast was clever. What, you hadn’t heard about the mayor’s jihad on black children? Then you missed the meaning of his attack on the charter schools that serve them so...

A new low in the disgrace of the American political class was reached when Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) took the floor this week to extol the virtues of Cuban communism. A new high immediately followed, as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) rose to annihilate Harkin, and all the other miserable apologists for left-wing tyranny. The civilized world continues to pay an appalling price for failing to cast out communism with the same vehement disgust we showed towards fascism. Among other things, the difference in our attitude toward these monstrous evils blinds us to their similarities. Too many Western politicians and academics...

The founder of liberation theology, the Latin American-inspired Catholic theology advocating for the poor, received a hero’s welcome Tuesday at the Vatican as the once-criticized movement continues its rehabilitation under Pope Francis. The Rev. Gustavo Gutierrez of Peru was the surprise speaker Tuesday at a book launch featuring the head of the Vatican’s orthodoxy office, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller; one of Francis’ top advisers, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga; and the Vatican spokesman.

I have been quite appalled at how so very lost the supposed leaders of most of the churches of today are. They purport to represent Jesus' teachings, yet their is outright denial of the very powerful message that satan's grip on us to cause us to sin, is indeed broken. No, rather the ministers of today all over teach a watered down and lying ministry that Jesus merely has saved us from the aweful results of going to hell. Yet, in one simple sentence and act with Mary, when he told her to go and sin no more, he proved...

WHAT IS MEMORABLE FROM YOUR 9TH GRADE CLASS? Modern American Marxism insists that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No beauty can be more beautiful than another. All art is equally beautiful……..which logically means ‘that which is equally beautiful is equally ugly’…..Equality is the goal of Marxist achievement. I disagree with these academic Marxist goals in any of the social sciences. It is because I am old and have been taught otherwise when Marxism was an anathema to our American way of life.. Is it possible that the utterings of a well-heeled, but cold-blooded murderer faced with his...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Hugo Chavez was an incompetent, communist dictator, who wreaked havoc on Venezuela’s ability to produce goods and services Last year, Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, died.How do I know that Chavez was a dictator?Because only a dictator would use the military to seize food from private owners.How do I know that Chavez was incompetent?Because only a complete incompetent could create a shortage of gasoline in a country that has some of the world’s biggest oil reserves.How do I know that Chavez was a communist?Because only a communist would label toilet paper as a “luxury.�Hugo Chavez...

Author’s Note: This is a column I wrote back a few years ago but never published. Instead, it appeared in abbreviated form in my latest book, Letters to a Young Progressive. Given recent political trends, I thought it would be good to publish it in its original extended form. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the books of Ayn Rand. After escaping from the Soviet Union in the 1920s, Rand became a famous American playwright, philosopher, and novelist. She has written many books – three of which I would urge everyone to read. The first,...

President Obama is stepping up his efforts to coalesce and energize the Democratic base for the 2014 elections, backing off on issues where his positions might alienate the left, and more aggressively singling out Republicans as being responsible for the country’s problems. --SNIP-- Polls show most Americans share the Democrats’ views. “The position that is popular with the progressive base is the mainstream position,” Pfeiffer said.

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has invited US President Barack Obama to join him in talks aimed at resolving the problems between the two countries. Mr Maduro said the meeting would help "put the truth out on the table". He has accused US conservatives and media organisations of plotting to overthrow his government.

This just struck me like a bolt of lightning--if Oswald had more patience and was willing to wait about ten years he would have seen his dream come true of a Marxists state in the United States. The assasination was not even necessary to bring about the Marxist government that Oswald wanted. If Oswald were living today he would be holding pro-Obama signs and quite pleased with the direction this country is going in. The Marxists took over the Democrat Party in the seventies and today most Democrat voters don't even seem to be the wiser. They wept at Kennedy's...

Union Suffers Big Loss at Tennessee VW Plant Volkswagen workers rejected the UAW by a vote of 712 to 626. Neal E. Boudette Updated Feb. 14, 2014 11:44 p.m. ET The United Auto Workers union suffered a crushing defeat Friday, falling short in an election in which it seemed to have a clear path to organizing workers at Volkswagen AG VOW3.XE +1.10% 's plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. The setback is a bitter defeat because the union had the cooperation of Volkswagen management and the aid of Germany's powerful IG Metall union, yet it failed to win a majority among the...

And What if Obama is a Marxist? WHAT IF HE IS MARXIST? Ken Blackwell 2/14/2014 Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. http://townhall.com/columnists/kenblackwell/2014/02/14/and-what-if-he-is-a-marxist-n1795046/print Well, what if the President is a Marxist? Stanley Kurtz was one of those cooler heads in 2008 who rejected the claim that Barack Obama was a Marxist, a socialist. Then, he researched the record and wrote Radical-in-Chief. Kurtz’s book is a long, detailed, and very carefully researched analysis of the Obama record. Kurtz finds Obama acknowledging in his own words, in Dreams from my Father, that he was mentored as a teen growing up...

Red herrings - A review of American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation's Character by Diana West Stumbling into a barroom brawl was the last thing I’d intended. Lined up on one side: sculptors of a hagiography that is now conventional wisdom crow about a noble conquest over totalitarian dictators. The other side bellows: “Nonsense! In defeating one monster, your heroes merely helped create another, sullying us with their atrocities and burdening us for decades with a global security nightmare.” The first side spews that its critics are deranged, defamatory conspiracy-mongers. The critics fire back that these “court historians”...

It’s still relatively early in the Sochi Olympics, but the star so far has been Julia Lipnitskaya a diminutive fifteen year old figure skater from the Urals. While the adoration hasn’t been unanimous, most people have, understandably, been awed by her performances. Lipnitskaya combines technical proficiency in skating with the sort of mind-warping flexibility one usually associates with elite gymnasts. She performed on an entirely different level from her competitors, and while the individual competition hasn’t yet started in earnest, Lipnitskaya now appears to be the odds-on favorite to win an individual gold medal. To sum things up, an awful...

An unfortunate legacy of the Cold War is the negative attitude some American conservatives yet harbor toward Russia. Conditioned for decades to see Russia and the Soviet Union as synonymous, they still view post-communist Russia as a threat. They forget that Tsarist Russia was the most conservative great power, a bastion of Christian monarchy loathed by revolutionaries, Jacobins, and democrats. Joseph de Maistre was not alone among 19th-century conservatives in finding refuge and hope in Russia. Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia is emerging once more as the leading conservative power. As we witnessed in Russia’s rescue of President Obama from...

Yesterday “TheBlaze” published an interview with Romanian Lt. Gen Ion Pacepa, a discussion which arose around the publishing of his work, “Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism.” Pacepa is a defector to the United States, but not just any run-of-the-mill defector. He is the highest-ranking Soviet intelligence officer to ever defect. He crossed over back in 1978 and was given political asylum by then President Jimmy Carter. He has made a practice since that time to write in defense of freedom while living his life under threat of assassination, hiding out...

At a public hearing on proposed gun control legislation, Manuel Martinez, a man who escaped Cuba in 1962 after opposing Fidel Castro and being imprisoned for it, blasts Oregon gun control lawmakers in an impassioned speech that only someone that has lived through communism and Marxism, only someone that watched innocent men, women and children murdered by their own government, only someone that fought against his whole country being enslaved by a dictator, can give. “They come here in those dog and pony show and cry that their going to protect people. You’re going to protect nobody! I want to...

Time and time again I have been accused of being on the "wrong side of history" when it comes to the arguments over abortion and, especially, to so-called gay marriage. This linguistic fad has exploded in use lately as if history itself is the sole arbitrator of what is right and true. It is the weapon of utter dismissiveness that is boldly and routinely wielded by the Left. One should, in reality, not be interested in being on the "right side of history," but on the right side of right and wrong. The most recent and sudden burst of Leftist...

As his catalog of historic failures and serial abuses grow exponentially, there is little doubt the ultimate goal of Barack Obama and his Marxist minions is to dismantle America brick by brick: her institutions, philosophical beliefs, our markets. The two most indelible pillars that illustrate this subversive ambition is the passage of Obamacare, nationalized healthcare, and the unprecedented rise of our national debt. As laid out by Sal Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”, once you control people’s healthcare, their very lifeblood, they are forever at the government’s mercy. Obamacare wasn’t designed to coexist with other insurance options; it was designed to...

That's why it's pretty chilling to hear Vladimir Putin hurling accusations at the West and pointing out that what's going on is identical to what went on when communism was established and religion was completely expunged from the Soviet Union. Between 1917 and 1937, almost a quarter of a million Christians were executed, and churches that survived destruction were converted into things like museums of atheism. Russian President Putin, who hasn't been shy about expressing his disapproval of homosexuality and has banned what he defined as "homosexual propaganda," had this to say: Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their...

First, the Obama administration showed during the course of the GM and Chrysler bankruptcy proceedings, that when it comes to Most Preferred Voter classes, some unsecured creditors - namely labor unions, and the millions of votes they bring - are more equal than other unsecured creditors - namely bondholders, and the zero votes they bring. Five years later we are about to get a stark reminder that under the superpriority rule of a community organizer for whom "fairness" trumps contract law any day, it is now Detroit's turn to make a mockery of the recovery waterfall. As it turns out,...

Only at the Modern Language Association (MLA) can you find an English professor who will boldly go where no Marxist has ever gone before. It is one thing to think Marx was a brilliant economist, despite more than a century’s worth of evidence to the contrary. It is quite another to think he was a talented poet. To Crystal Lynn Bartolovich of Syracuse University, Marx was the master of “critical irony.”

Another insane cold wave — not the infamous “polar vortex ” but its evil twin — is bringing sub-zero and single-digit temperatures to much of the nation. And global warming may be even more extreme, and potentially more catastrophic, than climate scientists had feared. This is, of course, no contradiction. The rallying cry of the denialists — “It’s really cold outside, so global warming must be a crock!” — can be taken seriously only by those with a toddler’s limited conception of time and space. They forget that it’s winter, and apparently they don’t quite grasp that even when it’s...

Struggling to generate second-term momentum, President Obama will use Tuesday’s State of the Union address to announce new executive actions on job training and retirement security, while prodding a divided Congress to work harder on expanding economic mobility for middle class Americans

Marxist leftists have prepared a nightmarish blueprint for American socialism in a new revolutionary "book of imagination." The new book, "Imagine Living in a Socialist USA," was edited by Frances Goldin who praises "life-enhancing socialism" in the preface. The 281 page manifesto showcasea 31 utopian essays written by dangerous criminals, prominent liberals, and self-described communists - all for just $10.11.

The combined wealth of the world’s richest 85 people is now equivalent to that owned by half of the world’s population—or 3.5 billion of the poorest people—according to a new report from Oxfam. In a report titled “Working for the Few” released Monday, the global aid and development organization detailed the extent of global economic inequality created by the rapidly increasing wealth of the richest, warning of the major risks it poses to “human progress.” […] Oxfam said that based on its polls conducted across the world, it is believed that there are many laws and regulations designed to benefit...

Just imagine! Imagine a world without Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Salon.com released an excerpt from the upcoming book "Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA" that asks its readers to do just that. The writers of the book want a socialist America, one that would have "a democratic, accessible-to-all media" controlled by "working people [who will] collectively and individually…influence mass culture." The book abhors capitalist societies' news, which it says is "selected, organized, and presented by an army of self-important publishers, editors, and writers who…follow their corporate employers' political line." In this new socialist society that has "erased corporate control,"...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Newport Beach in California. Steve, I'm glad you called, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Rush, good to be here, love listening to your show, and again your comments this morning regarding the unions and the -- RUSH: Money laundering. CALLER: Exactly. That's the term I was looking for, the money laundering. It's exactly what's going on out here in California with the bullet train. The politicians in California, all the Democrats have given all of the public employee unions their payback, but they've got a problem. All of the private sector...

~SNIP~...It seems this man, Richard Lindzen, actually lives in Massachusetts. Apparently, he’s a professor at MIT, which has the best Earth Sciences program in the United States. And he is a leading international climate change expert. That’s something to think about, liberals, as you’re stuck in the ice on your climate change crusade!

Kerry: 'Root Cause of Terrorism' Is Poverty 'In many cases...' Jeryl Bier January 15, 2014 7:12 AM Secretary of State John Kerry covered a broad range of topics with his counterpart Pietro Parolin at the Vatican in Rome on Monday. Besides Syria, the Middle East peace process, Sudan, and Cuba, the subject of poverty came up during their discussions. In remarks following the meeting, Kerry linked poverty not only to terrorism, but to the "disenfranchisement of millions" [emphasis added]: We talked about the common interest of Pope Francis and President Obama in addressing poverty and extreme poverty on a global...

Governor Deval Patrick will commit more than $50 million on Tuesday to help Massachusetts communities and utilities prepare for and protect themselves from the increasing number of destructive storms and rising sea levels blamed on climate change. This is the first time the state has awarded these funds, which are partially financed by payments that retail electricity suppliers must make if they fail to procure enough power from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Power plants that burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas are considered among the major producers of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases...

Leading Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm left more than £1.8million in his will, it has been revealed. Hobsbawm, who died aged 95 in October 2012, was one of Britain’s most eminent historians, but he was widely criticised for his defence of communist regimes. He was accused of being an apologist for the totalitarian evils of Soviet communism and labelled a ‘useful idiot’. According to records held at the Brighton probate office, Hobsbawm – who joined the Communist Party at 14 and once described himself as an ‘unrepentant communist’ – left an estate with assets totalling £1,835,341. The bulk is to be...

The Nordic Council has received recommendations from the expert panel to forbid antifeminist speech in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway). The “Expert panel” was full of radical feminists and profeminist men. In the report antifeminist speech and right-wing extremist hate speech towards immigrants are treated as a part of the same movement. Antifeminist Threats and Harassment must be made Illegal (We recommend that the Nordic governments ensure that threats and harassment on the basis of gender are made illegal. Hate speech online must be prosecuted similarly to hate speech in other public spheres.) Low threshold services...

It took capitalism half a century to come back from the Great Depression. It’s taken socialism half that time to come back from the collapse of the Soviet Union. In New York City, avowed socialist Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared that his goal is to take “dead aim at the Tale of Two Cities” — the gap between rich and poor. In Seattle, newly elected socialist city Councilmember Kshama Sawant addressed supporters, explaining, “I wear the badge of socialist with honor.” To great acclaim from the left, columnist Jesse Myerson of Rolling Stone put out a column telling millennials...

No word on how much money was spent helping the Third World fight ghosts, a problem that like Global Warming doesn’t exist, but is much more entertaining. Just compare The Day After Tomorrow to Paranormal Activity. American taxpayers spent $7.45 billion to help developing countries cope with climate change in fiscal years 2010 through 2012, according to a federal government report submitted to the United Nations on a subject that Secretary of State John Kerry described as “a truly life-and-death challenge.”That sum of $7.45 billion, which reached more than 120 countries through bilateral and multilateral channels, met President Obama’s...

Much of the political history of the extended twentieth century is that of massive extinctions of citizenries by their dictatorial governments.  Take the engineered mass starvations, torture chambers, firing squads, and gulags of Lenin and Stalin; Nazi gas chambers; Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge killing fields; the genocides of Mao's "Great Leap Forward"; and the tyrannical North Korean Sung dynasty, and one will find that over one hundred million people have been slaughtered.       Systematically murdering millions to create an imagined earthly Eden is clearly irrational.  In this sense, leftist ideology has the look of a religious inquisition.In his introduction to Eric Voegelin's The New...

4. Make Everything Owned by EverybodyHoarders blow. Take, for instance, the infamous one percent, whose ownership of the capital stock of this country leads to such horrific inequality. "Capital stock" refers to two things here: the buildings and equipment that workers use to produce goods and services, and the stocks and bonds that represent ownership over the former. The top 10 percent's ownership of the means of production is represented by the fact that they control 80 percent of all financial assets. This detachment means that there's a way easier way to collectivize wealth ownership than having to stage uprisings...

First, read the post at Twitchy and then decide if you want to give the unintentional Marxist satire at Rolling Stone a click. I’m not going to link to Rolling Stone’s capitalist website out of solidarity with the communist author.Here’s a very brief sampling of the highlights in “Five Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For”: 1. Guaranteed Work for EverybodyUnemployment blows. The easiest and most direct solution is for the government to guarantee that everyone who wants to contribute productively to society is able to earn a decent living in the public sector. [...] 2. Social Security for AllBut...

(CNSNews.com) – American taxpayers spent $7.45 billion to help developing countries cope with climate change in fiscal years 2010 through 2012, according to a federal government report submitted to the United Nations on a subject that Secretary of State John Kerry described as “a truly life-and-death challenge.”That sum of $7.45 billion, which reached more than 120 countries through bilateral and multilateral channels, met President Obama’s “commitment to provide our fair share” of a collective pledge by developed nations to provide a total of nearly $30 billion in “fast start finance” (FSF), the report stated.

The fact that a state legislature would decree population density mandates to cities in the state is an intolerable tyranny. Naturally, the California legislature is doing it. But it has officially decided to worry about the environment of a fantasy world, not the real one.

Anyone who thinks it is a fantasy that government will simply just confiscate 10% of everyone’s accounts in Europe better have another look at the fool they see in the mirror staring back at them. This IMF solution is traditionally French and is really coming because the people in charge are effectively Marxists and this idea came from the IMF under the control of French ideology. They will expropriate these funds to save a banking system that they screwed up and will never reform anything because they are incapable of admitting any mistake. These European government officials really are playing...

Back in the seventies when I was a lefty and under the sway, like the new mayor of the city of New York, of various Central and South American marxists, we used to speak of “el enemigo principal,” the principal enemy. In fact, there was a rather graphic (and well made) Bolivian movie of that name by leftwing director Jorge Sanjines. (Clip here.) Not surprisingly in those days the principal enemies of Sanjines’ film were los yanquis and their dreaded CIA — a bit of a cliché, one must admit, but the idea of having a principal enemy in itself...

Friend -- On January 1st, our nation turns a corner on health care -- and we're never going back. From here on, no American should have to go broke just because they get sick. You can't be dropped from your plan when you need it most. Pre-existing conditions will never prevent someone from getting coverage, and women can't be charged more than men for their plans. And for millions of Americans, affordable, quality coverage is finally within reach. I am so proud of that. And I have people like you to thank, truly. Fundamental change like this doesn't happen just...

Poll: Americans rank Obama, Hillary Clinton most admired Reuters 8:41 a.m. CST, December 30, 2013 (Reuters) - Americans named President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the world's most admired living man and woman in 2013, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday. Obama topped the annual list for the sixth consecutive year, a typical ranking for a sitting U.S. president, the polling organization said. But the percentage of those surveyed who choose him as the most admired man fell to 16 percent this year, down from 30 percent in 2012. The president's job approval...

Would you enjoy the cosiness and warmth of Christmas with your children or grandchildren just that little bit less if you knew that other people's children were dying because of it? More than four million children under five years old are now at risk of acute malnutrition in the Sahel, an area of the world that is one of the clearest victims of the rich world's addiction to fossil fuels. About 18 million people in the Sahel – the vulnerable pan-African strip of land that runs from Senegal to Sudan along the southern edge of the Sahara – faced famine...

SEATTLE — People are used to liberals running things around here. But nobody reckoned with Kshama Sawant. Ms. Sawant, a 41-year-old economics teacher and immigrant from India, took a left at liberal and then kept on going — all the way to socialism. **SNIP** But Kshama Sawant (pronounced SHAH-mah sah-WANT) heartily embraces the label. Ask her about almost any problem facing America today, and her answer will probably include the “S” word as the best and most reasonable response. Socialism is the path to real democracy, she says. Socialism protects the environment. Socialism is the best hope for young people...

What started out as a convenient collaboration between Dr. Richard Terry, professor of soil science at BYU, and a group of BYU archaeologists, soon became a groundbreaking discovery. Trough the combined efforts of Dr. Terry, Dr. Bruce Dahlin from Howard University, their students, and archaeologists from around the world, they were able to disprove the long-held belief that the Maya depended on the elite class to tax and redistribute their food and other goods. After receiving a collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation, Terry and his students met up with Bruce Dahlin and his students at the huge...

Yes, the Republican National Committee WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus and RNC Co-Chairman Sharon Day released the following statement commemorating Kwanzaa: “I want to extend my best wishes to all who are celebrating Kwanzaa,” said Chairman Priebus. “For families coming together to mark the occasion, I hope it is a joyous time of celebration with loved ones–and a time of meaningful reflection ahead of the New Year.” “From December 26 through January 1, many families will take time to celebrate African culture and history. Kwanzaa is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to honor the...