Free Republic

I’m deeply thankful that I live here in America rather than a country like North Korea, and I truly appreciate the freedom of the press that we enjoy. At the same time, when the mainstream media outlets can collude so powerfully in disseminating lies and withholding truths, are we that much better than countries with state-controlled media? Again, it’s absolutely true that, here in America, every narrative put forth by media outlet A can be challenged by media outlet B. At the same time, if the dominant media outlets only report one narrative, suppressing or censoring or dismissing out of...

“Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” That’s from President Donald Trump’s last State of the Union address. I’m sure many people found it as encouraging as I did, especially in light of surveys indicating that socialism is gaining popularity here in the United States. And not just at the fringes. One recent Gallup poll showed 4 out of 10 Americans have a favorable impression of socialism. Almost half—47%—said they would vote for a socialist candidate for president. But don’t despair just yet. The same poll also revealed that almost 2 out of every...

Unbelievable Orwellian technology being used against the Chinese, could spread worldwide. You just have to watch it. Video at link.

29:00 [click on picture then click on red dot to listen]

We still don’t have all the facts about happened in Ferguson, but we can already draw one big lesson Clearly, something tragic happened during the confrontation on the street that day that left a young man dead and a community in chaos. Certainly, our hearts go out to the family and we can all hope that the investigation into what happened will be swift, thorough and fair to all parties. Liberalism’s drive for state control Already, of course, the shooting of Michael Brown has sparked a much bigger debate on a range of topics, from the state of civil rights...

On a sunny weekday morning just east of downtown Los Angeles, a crowd of about 75 people rallied outside the LA County/USC Medical Center. They toted signs with slogans like “Healthcare is a Human Right” and “Salud Para Todos” (“Health for All”). “How can we say we live in a just and humane society,” said one speaker, “without providing for the sickest and most vulnerable among us?” Los Angeles, with its massive low-income population and largest concentration of immigrants anywhere in the country, may be the epicenter of the continuing uninsured crisis in America. Somewhere around one million county residents...

More than half of Germans want greater state control over websites, but about the same share are worried about surveillance of their own online activity, a survey on Tuesday revealed. Many users are concerned about the threats they face online, above all from computer viruses (72 percent), surveillance of their browsing activity (57 percent) and the misuse of personal data (50 percent), the survey conducted by the Allensbach Institute for the German Institute for Trust and Security in the Internet showed. But in a seeming contradiction, a considerable majority (61 percent) also believed there should be greater state controls on...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Americans may insist on the right to pursue happiness, but Venezuela now has a formal government agency in charge of enforcing it. President Nicolas Maduro says the new Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness will coordinate all the "mission" programs created by the late President Hugo Chavez to alleviate poverty. Wags had a field day Friday, waxing sarcastic on Twitter about how happy they felt less than 24 hours after the announcement.

“Liberal media bias is an old complaint,” the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto noted in his “Best of the Web Today” column this past Monday on responses to the Obama scandals, before warning: “The Obama presidency has given it a new and dangerous form. Never has the prevailing bias of the media been so closely aligned with the ideological aims and political interests of the party in power.”He recognized “the American media remain free and independent, or you would not be reading this column,” but zinged, “to a large extent they have functioned for the past few years as if...

NJ Transit sent four employees to the Super Bowl in New Orleans—including a key rail official who was in charge of the Hoboken terminal when dozens of rail cars and locomotives, left to sit in low-lying yards, were damaged during superstorm Sandy—at a taxpayer cost of $14,505, expense reports show. The bills, obtained by The Record through an Open Public Records Act request, include: $7,800 for lodging from Jan. 31 through Feb. 4, 2013;$5,241 for airfare;$423 in miscellaneous expenses.The intent of the visit was to ground NJ Transit officials in procedures used to handle transportation and security at the Super...

IPOJUCA, Brazil — More than 40,000 laborers swarm the port complex here in northeast Brazil, building a refinery for the state oil company. Five thousand others toil at a shipyard, another government-led project. Real estate prices are soaring and unemployment is falling in this region along the Atlantic coast, once known for its festering poverty. In a show of the extraordinary sway that Brazil’s government wields in nearly every important area of the economy, President Dilma Rousseff is accelerating an array of stimulus projects throughout the country aimed at blunting a slowdown that has reduced Brazil’s economic growth to a...

She states that it is the government that dictates to the populace what is moral and what is immoral. Therefore, grassroots must bow down to the governmental altar, giving honor to politicians who scribe the holy writ of society.

Cuban ruler Raul Castro had blasted bureaucrats for blocking some of his ambitious reforms, an admission that one dissident economist said clearly outlines the shortcomings of his campaign for change. The biggest obstacle to his reforms is “the psychological barrier formed by inertia, the defense of the status quo, the simulation … the indifference or insensibility” of Cuba’s bureaucracy,.... “I warn that all bureaucratic resistance … will be useless,” he declared. “We will be patient and at the same time persevere in the face of the resistance to change, be they conscious or unconscious.” Castro’s reform plans call for an...

..................One popular comment circulating around the Chinese internet said: "When a country is corrupt to the point that a single lightning strike can cause a train crash [...] none of us is exempt. China today is a train travelling through a lightning storm. We are not spectators; all of us are passengers." Chinese officials have instructed the media not to sensationalise the accident, and fresh instructions sent to reporters yesterday said: "Do not report the accident too frequently. Report moving stories about people donating blood or taxi drivers not taking fares from victims. Do not investigate the cause of the...

N.Korea Reverts to Hardline State Control The North Korean regime is enacting sweeping changes to the law to bolster state control. A source familiar with North Korean affairs on Tuesday said four North Korean laws covering economic planning were revised in April and laws governing management of Pyongyang were revised in March. The revised laws, which the source claims to have seen, "show the central regime's intention to control everything, from the economy to the daily lives of the people." North Korea has changed or enacted at least 17 different laws since November last year, just before a botched currency...

China: where’s the inflation? Jun 15th, 2010 by Michael Pettis /snip .. policymakers can still contain inflation by what economists call financial repression, made possible by their control over the banking system in countries where banks completely dominate the financial system. In the Chinese context, financial repression exists because the vast bulk of Chinese savings is in the form of bank deposits, and the deposit rate is set at extremely low levels. This has the effect of transferring large amounts of income away from net savers, which for the most part consists of Chinese households, and in favor of net...

North Korean prof says private markets must go ‘Markets will be removed. People are buying daily necessities in them.’ April 03, 2010 PYONGYANG - North Korea will phase out private markets and rely on state-controlled outlets, a senior economist said in a rare interview, amid speculation the country’s reclusive leader could soon visit China to secure much needed investment. Impoverished yet nuclear-armed North Korea has in recent years allowed some free markets for food and consumer items, while others not sanctioned by the state have sprung up as the public turned to private enterprise to cope with declining living standards...

Resistance against N. Korean regime taking root, survey suggests By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, March 24, 2010; A11 TOKYO -- There is mounting evidence that Kim Jong Il is losing the propaganda war inside North Korea, with more than half the population now listening to foreign news, grass-roots cynicism undercutting state myths and discontent rising even among elites. A survey of refugees has found that "everyday forms of resistance" in the North are taking root as large swaths of the population believe that pervasive corruption, rising inequity and chronic food shortages are the fault of the government...

/begin my excerpts N. Korea to Shut down Markets for Three Days Effective on Dec. 14: News Letter Market prices higher than state-mandated prices... (the state has) not yet set wage levels (Seoul=Yonhap News) Chang Yong-hoon = Despite currency reform and announcement of state-mandated prices, market price of many goods is not settling down, prompting N. Korean authorities to shut down markets for three days beginning on Dec. 14, according to N. Korea newsletter 'Good Friends' on Dec. 15. In the newsletter, the (aid) organization said, "Since the reform, market price is fluctuating badly, and rising fast. The authorities decided...

NKoreans burn bills in anger over currency reform By KWANG-TAE KIM (AP) – 1 hour ago SEOUL, South Korea — North Koreans set piles of old bills alight in anger over their government's surprise move to redenominate the national currency, a report said, a sign of growing frustration among citizens left with hoards of worthless bills. On Monday, the communist government informed citizens and foreign embassies that it would redenominate the national currency, the won. But it limited the maximum amount of old bills that could be converted into new ones, telling residents to deposit the rest in government-run banks,...