Free Republic

The United States is in decline. While not all major shocks to the system will be devastating, when the right one comes along, the outcome may be dramatic. Not all explosives are the same. We all know you have to be careful with dynamite. Best to handle it gently and not smoke while you’re around it. Semtex is different. You can drop it. You can throw it. You can put it in the fire. Nothing will happen. Nothing until you put the right detonator in it, that is. To me, the US – and most of the supposedly free West...

On a mild evening in early August, John Pate and Sally Elizabeth Evans' Volkswagen Passat climbs the hills outside the lush Valle Arriba golf club in Caracas. The 70-year-old Pate, a tall, fair-skinned lawyer with red hair, glasses, and a soft face, had just finished his usual Sunday dinner at the club with his 67-year-old girlfriend, a blond with an infectious smile. The sun had already set behind the mountains that surround Venezuela's capital, leaving behind a black sky. In one of the most dangerous cities in the world, it was time to get inside to safety. From the club...

More Cubans are coming to Florida in their golden years to retire, able to tap U.S. government assistance even though they never lived or worked here. The number of Cubans arriving over the age of 60 grew fivefold since 2010, according to state refugee data. At least 185 made the crossing in their 80s or 90s. Unlike most other immigrants, Cubans qualify immediately for food stamps and Medicaid. If they are over 65 with little or no income, they also can collect a monthly check of up to $733 in Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Golden years: Cubans retire to Florida...

And as bad luck would have it, we have Francisco Rangel, governor of the state of Bolívar, to provided us with an ample example of such absurdity in a single phrase. In response to widespread food shortages across Venezuela–a product of inflationary policies and price controls–Rangel had this to say to the struggling Venezuelan people: “Let them take away whatever they want. We are capable of eating a stick, or instead of frying two eggs, fry two rocks, and we will eat fried rocks, ” he said, “but no one can beat us.” I wonder if Mr. Rangel has any intention of following his own...

Success or failure In 1960, Venezuela was one of the ten richest nations on earth with a GDP per capita of $6,000. The two economies I know best are Alaska and Venezuela. Both are oil states but one succeeded grandly while one failed miserably for obvious reasons. In 1960, Venezuela was one of the ten richest nations on earth with a GDP per capita of $6,000. But in 2015, Venezuela's per capita income is still $6,000 which puts it in the bottom third of the 200 nations on earth. In 55 years, Venezuela has no per capita GDP growth. Compare...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd9fcPeE3RU

When Venezuelan Oil Minister Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso resigned in 1963, he blasted the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, at the time torn by internal rivalries, for failing to produce any benefits for his country. Half a century later, OPEC is still split and Venezuela is again unhappy, this time at the unwillingness of the organization’s top producer, Saudi Arabia, to rescue oil prices from a six-year low that’s dragging the battered Venezuelan economy into an even deeper crisis. On Sept. 10, Venezuela’s oil minister, Eulogio del Pino, tweeted appeals for OPEC and non-OPEC countries “to have a discussion on...

Guyana's president said Saturday he's willing to meet with Venezuela's leader on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly — and the U.N. chief has arranged just that. Ban Ki-moon's Sunday schedule now shows a joint meeting with the two leaders embroiled in a border dispute. But in an interview with The Associated Press, Guyana's President David Granger also reiterated his belief that the International Court of Justice is the only answer to the countries' territorial squabble. Granger said the U.N. court in the Netherlands should mediate the matter. Any attempt by him and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to negotiate...

Cuba has got to be one of the most revolutionary places on the planet -- if you're naïve enough to believe the official slogans, street signs and the rest of the prolefeed on display in the Castros' crumbling little police state. The old Soviet Union used to be heavy on talk of revolution, too, though most Russians came to realize it was only talk. In the grim, gray reality, Russia was anything but revolutionary. When that evil empire collapsed, so did the empty slogans about revolution, the workers' state and all the rest. Official lies may hold up for a...

As Pope Francis embarks on his historic visit to the United States, His Holiness will spread his message of hope, faith and unity in the form of a prog-rock-infused album titled Wake Up! this November. The Vatican-approved LP, a collaboration with Believe Digital, features the Pontiff delivering sacred hymns and excerpts of his most moving speeches in multiple languages paired with uplifting musical accompaniment ranging from pop-rock to Gregorian chant. Wake Up! arrives November 27th, with the iTunes pre-order now available with an instant download of "Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!," which Rolling Stone is proud to premiere.

Cuban authorities prevented leading dissidents from meeting Pope Francis in Havana on Sunday, in a sign of the Communist regime’s rigid intolerance of political opposition. Two well-known dissidents, Marta Beatriz Roque and Miriam Leiva, had been invited by the Vatican to attend a vespers service led by the Pope’s in Havana’s historic baroque cathedral.

Live coverage of South American communists.

Venezuelan socialists will no longer be starved for sneaker options thanks to a new piece of footwear unveiled by the country's president, Nicolas Maduro. The video comes from Saturday's grand unveil of the shoes that happened on state television. In it, Maduro calls the shoes "the boots of Bolivarian youth socialism,” in reference to the Bolivarian Revolution socialist movement. The sneaker's introduction was part of a speech honoring the country's youth socialist movement. Maduro went so far as to make sure the colorway on these tells a story, as sneaker brands so often do these days. According to him,...

The United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom were asked today to take action at a UN session that opens on Monday to suspend Venezuela from its membership on the world body’s 47-nation Human Rights Council, in reaction to the controversial Caracas verdict of 13 years in jail issued yesterday against opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, and over other “gross and systematic violations of human rights.” The draft resolution was submitted today to the four influential UNHRC member states by the Geneva-based non-governmental organization UN Watch, which recently invited Mr. Lopez’s wife, Lilian Tintori, to address the council. The text...

A lot of people, including several OPEC members, thought the oil slump would be easing by now. Instead, as oil prices languish near multi-year lows and experience unprecedented volatility, it’s now unclear how long it will take oil prices to recover. Indeed, OPEC now appears poised to wait out the period of low prices even if that takes months or even a couple of years. The fact of the matter is that despite the calls of Venezuela and Algeria, Saudi Arabia and other major OPEC members don’t seem too concerned about the current low prices. Venezuela in particular has been...

Do you remember Lewis "Scooter" Libby? In 2003, the Department of Justice appointed a special counsel to investigate allegations that Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, unlawfully disclosed the covert status of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Yet Plame may not have been a covert undercover agent, based on the formal government definition of that role. And even if she were, it was widely known at the time that Secretary of State Colin Powell's subordinate, Richard Armitage, had most likely disclosed her status earlier. In other words, Libby was in an Orwellian position of being accused of a crime...

If a Republican wins the White House, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay will almost surely be kept open for the foreseeable future. That is, unless Rand Paul nabs the GOP nomination. Yet again, the senator from Kentucky has scouted out a position on a national-security issue that makes him an outlier, at least among senators running for president. That was clear Monday after Marco Rubio introduced two amendments that would extend the use of the prison: one to prohibit funding to programs that would help close the facility, and another that sets a series of tough ground rules before...

Been looking at some of the coverage today regarding the Obama Regime's efforts to enrich the communist dictators of Cuba. Among other elements happening is the new importation of cigars....and the press certainly seems quite enamored with Obamugabe for this action. Of course we have been subject for DECADES about the EEEVILS of tobacco... If the media were going to be consistent, we would see them ripping Obama for increasing Americans' exposure to such a DEADLY product. I guess ATTACKING AMERICAN TOBACCO companies is okay, while ENRICHING CUBAN DICTATORS who control Cuban tobacco is even better. American tobacco=bad. CUBAN tobacco=good.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., took a shot at Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., when asked about the possibility of running simultaneously for re-election to the Senate and for the presidency in 2016. "If someone decides to run for president of the United States, you run for president of the United States," Rubio said at the National Press Club. "I don't believe you can run effectively for an office of that magnitude while having some exit strategy in mind."

".............Paul has signaled that if he runs for president in 2016, he won’t do it the way his father did, by mostly shunning the GOP establishment. Instead, he is expected to cultivate relationships with Republicans like McConnell, whose help making inroads with establishment donors could be very, very useful. Rubio clearly isn’t shunning the establishment, either. He worked on crafting an immigration reform bill earlier this year, something the establishment wing of the party has been clamoring for in the wake of a disappointing election in which Republicans performed poorly among Hispanics. And he didn’t hesitate to back McConnell, even...