Wall Street Exec. Jamie Dimon Launches an Anti-Socialist Crusade as Students Increasingly Gravitate Toward It

Young Americans, including college students, are increasingly gravitating toward socialism, but one Wall Street executive is pushing back, warning of the system’s potentially irreversible effects. 

A recently published analysis by the top finance school in the United States, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Finance, has found that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan would shrink the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 24 percent by 2060. Meanwhile, the majority of Democrat and Democrat-leaning college students nationwide overwhelmingly favor Sanders as the Democrat presidential nominee over any of the other candidates.

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SWAIN: Socialist City Council Member Amelia Parker’s Refusal to Swear ‘So Help Me God’ Reveals Who She Really Is

Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy was joined in studio by all-star panelist Dr. Carol Swain to discuss a newly elected socialist to the city council in Knoxville, Tennessee last week.

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Commentary: How Socialism Causes Atheism

George Orwell’s 1984 defines the booming genre of dystopian literature, but Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World provided a more accurate prophecy of the future. In another of his works, Ends and Means, Huxley offered deep insights into why people choose to become atheists. In a time when 26 percent of Americans are unaffiliated with any religion, and the number of atheists and agnostics in the U.S. has doubled in the last 10 years, people of faith must pay heed to his observations. Huxley wrote that he and “most of [his] contemporaries” saw atheism’s moral vacuum as their “instrument of liberation,” because it allowed them to embrace sexual hedonism and socialism:

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Commentary: Witness to Public Schools Brainwashing

According to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s (VOC) fourth “Annual Report on US Attitudes Toward Socialism, Communism, and Collectivism,” today’s youth is quite fond of political-economic systems that have resulted in more than 100 million deaths over the past century. At the same time, these misguided youths are increasingly hostile toward the political-economic system that has lifted countles millions more out of abject poverty over the same period.

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Commentary: As Progressives Push Ever Leftward, an Orwellian ‘1984’ Election in 2020 Looms

For a variety of reasons, the 2020 election is going to be a referendum beyond Donald Trump’s record and his Democratic opposition.

The furor that Trump has incurred, and the radical antithesis to his agenda and first term, have redefined the looming election. It is becoming a stark choice between a revolutionary future versus American traditionalism.

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IMPEACHMENT: Alabama Congressman, Mo Brooks Joins Leahy to Discuss the Storming of the SCIF

  In a specific discussion Tuesday on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy was joined on the newsmakers line by Alabama congressman, Mo Brooks to talk about the organized effort of the Republicans to enter the ‘impeachment’ hearings and the Democrats strategy to win the 2020 elections. At the end of the third hour, Congressman Brooks described the Democrats’ mission as a repeat of Russian collusion 2.0 and described how their tactic worked in the 2018 election and hope it will do the same in the 20020 by continuing to sow seeds of misinformation by using the mainstream media. He described the Democrats by stating, ‘They understand it and they’re in favor of it. They believe that’s going to help motivate their voters to give the socialist Democrats the White House, the Senate, and the House all at once so that they can implement their dictatorial philosophy that is embedded in their socialist beliefs.’ Leahy: We are joined now by our good friend Congressman Mo Brooks from Alabama. Congressman Brooks, great to talk with you. Brooks: My pleasure! Good day to you…

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The Tennessee Star Report: Can America’s Schools Be Saved: How the Ideology of American Education is Destroying It

In a special interview, Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Michael Patrick Leahy spoke with Can America’s Schools Be Saved: How the Ideology of American Education is Destroying It author, Edwin Benson about the origins of American education and how it’s affecting the minds of young students and teachers alike today.

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Moderator of the Nashville Mayoral Debate Asks the Wrong Question About How to Improve Public Schools

On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy talked about the recent mayoral debate in Nashville and how moderator Rhori Johnson asked a completely irrelevant question to both candidates who responded with non-answers and dodged the real issues facing public education in Davidson County schools.

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Commentary: Cut Off Taxpayer Funding to the Soros-Supported ‘Tides Network’ Once and for All

The George Soros-funded Tides Network has received federal grants and contracts totaling at least $16.8 million since 2005, most of which came in 2016 and 2017 via USAID and the Department of Health and Human Services. The San Francisco-based Tides exists to advance a radical agenda on such issues as abortion, immigration, health care, guns, global warming, and Israel, among others. Tides certainly has the right to pursue its destructive agenda, but it has no right to taxpayer money; and Congress should bar the wealthy organization, and its affiliates, from receiving any additional federal funds.

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President Trump Trolls ‘Progressive Democrat Congresswomen’ on Failed Socialist-Inspired Policies, Democrats Cry ‘Racist!’ Again

by Kyle Hooten   President Donald Trump launched an attack at some Democratic congresswomen Sunday, suggesting they should fix their “corrupt and inept” homelands before legislating in the U.S. Trump’s tweets were likely directed at Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts. He also alluded to the tension between the freshman freshman representatives and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suggesting that Pelosi would be happy to cover travel costs if they decide to leave. Pelosi and all four congresswomen involved responded to the president via twitter. “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world … loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” wrote Trump. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it’s done.” So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete…

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The Hard Facts Behind Venezuela’s Oil Crisis

by Kaylee Greenlee   The citizens of Venezuela have gotten used to spending days parked in mile-long lines for state-owned gasoline as shortages worsened for the world’s largest oil producer. In the capital of Caracas, hundreds of motorists waited in lines last month while carrying rocks and pipes to defend themselves as Venezuela’s socialist regime clung to power, The Wall Street Journal and others reported. Violent crime became common at fueling stations, and Reuters reported one instance of a man being killed. A teenage boy lost his eyesight Monday after a policeman fired pellets at him during a protest of fuel shortages in Tariba in northwest Venezuela, The Sun newspaper in the United Kingdom reported. Why the fuel crisis? Sanctions implemented in January by the U.S. banned the sale of diluting agents used for transporting and processing crude oil to Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., the country’s state-run oil and natural gas company. Amid the sanctions, U.S. allies also were “prohibited from doing business” with the state-owned entity, according to a report by Ana Quintana, a senior policy analyst for Latin America and the Western Hemisphere in The Heritage Foundation’s Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy. The lack of…

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Sanders: Socialism Will Spike Taxes, But Americans Will Be ‘Delighted’ to Pay Extra

by Jake Dima   Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders acknowledged a tax increase from his policies and said Americans would be “delighted” to pay extra, in a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper Wednesday. “I suspect that a lot of people in this country would be delighted to pay more in taxes if they had comprehensive health care as a human right,” Sanders said. The Vermont senator also went on to tell Cooper that he bases his principles on his 50-mile proximity to the Canadian border, where universal health care is law. What Sanders did not include in his statement was the cost of his programs. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University released a study in 2018 saying Americans can estimate to foot a $32.6 trillion bill over a 10-year period for “Medicare for All,” Fox News reported. Sanders has also omitted cost information on his campaign website. The 10-year cost breaks down to $3.26 trillion per year, according to the report. The current U.S. federal budget stands around $4.7 trillion. Sanders also told Cooper Wednesday that housing, retirement, education and a clean environment are among his staples of “human rights.” President Donald Trump was a subject of discussion in…

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Commentary: That Poll on Socialism Is Not as Alarming as It Seems

by Jeffrey A. Tucker   Every poll needs a headline takeaway. This one was a heck of a thing to wake up to: “Four in 10 Americans Embrace Some Form of Socialism.” The poll comes from Gallup. It compares attitudes toward socialism today in the U.S. with a similar poll in 1942. Back 77 years ago, 25 percent of Americans believed that socialism would be a good thing for the country. Yes, that should have fallen to zero by now. And yet, this latest poll has 43 percent of Americans claiming that socialism would be good for the country, while 51 percent think it would be bad. That anti-socialist majority is alarmingly thin. When I saw this, my stomach sank. Seems like everything is getting worse! Then I saw a meme online that explained that many millennials think that socialism means the view that you like using social media. It’s a funny joke… maybe. Language is malleable and retaught in every generation. The word “liberal” keeps migrating to mean different things, so it is not entirely crazy that the word “socialism” too would take on a completely different meaning too. But we don’t have to speculate about this. Once you…

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Commentary: The Three Phases of Socialism

by John Phelan   Venezuela is in a state of turmoil. After 20 years of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, or PSUV), its economy is collapsing. As Venezuelans have tried to vote the PSUV out of office, its leader, Nicolás Maduro, has responded by creating a rival body to the National Assembly made up exclusively of government supporters and rigging the country’s May 2018 presidential election. Left with no alternative, members of the opposition have taken to the streets where they have been met with merciless brutality by the socialist government’s forces. The Three Stages of Socialism in Venezuela Venezuela is only the latest country to go through the cycle all socialist countries go through. In his excellent new book, Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies, Kristian Niemietz of the Institute of Economic Affairs describes the process: 1. The honeymoon period…during which the experiment has, or at least seems to have, some initial success in some areas…During the honeymoon period, very few dispute the experiment’s socialist character. 2. The excuses-and-whataboutery period. But the honeymoon period never lasts forever. The country’s luck either comes to an end, or its already existing failures become more…

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Commentary: The New Social Contract We Must Reject

By Bruce P. Frohnen and Ted V. McAllister   America’s public life is disordered; our discourse toxic. Competing lists of scandals and abuses (calls for impeachment, “nuclear options,” attacks on free speech, and so on) are long and shop-worn—and often miss the real issue that something profound, systemic, and dangerous has happened to our nation. A hostile ideology now permeates the institutions that inculcate our children’s values, that shape or manufacture public opinion, and that supply the public with our only menu of political options from which to choose. In effect, our ruling class has declared a new social contract, and they expect us to accept in silent acquiescence. A social contract reveals itself in action, not ideas, and the true nature of the new, progressive contract emerges in countless examples of applied tyranny rather than its rhetoric of liberation. If we allow this new social contract to become our national norm, we will no longer be Americans in any meaningful sense. We will descend from a self-governing people into the subjects of social democratic elites who will dictate what kinds of political, economic, and social relationships we have with one another and with our new rulers. American public life…

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Commentary: It’s Not ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ It’s a Fever-Fueled Effort to ‘Fundamentally Transform’ the United States of America

by Karin McQuillan   The Democrats’ behavior after 2016 is not mass delusion or mass hysteria or Trump Derangement Syndrome, or any of the other psychobabble explanations that dominate our political commentary. My first career was as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and I am not impressed with spraying around clinical terms as a substitute for looking at what is in front of us. Trump Derangement Syndrome is a colorful description for political behavior. It is not an analysis of what causes it. Under Barack Obama, ordinary Democrats became enamored of the narrative that they were the Good People, hence entitled to crush anyone in their way, because everything they do is in the service of social justice. The derangement we are facing is not Orange Man Bad; it is America Bad. The Democrats don’t believe in our two-party system anymore. They utterly reject American civic norms of treating the president with a modicum of respect and cooperation. They don’t want to alternate presidential power every four or eight years. They think theirs is the only party that deserves to be elected. Before Trump was a gleam in their eye, Democrats saw themselves as the only morally valid people in the country.…

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Commentary: The Lies, Clichés, and Hypocrisy of Bernie Sanders

by Conrad Black   There is something seriously disconcerting about the sight of the leading declared Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, embracing the most imperishable charlatan in American political history, the supposedly reverend Al Sharpton. This most improbable clergyman, although he is only 64, is so worn down by what Dr. Johnson called the “disingenuousness of years,” he now looks like an ambulatory waxwork dummy. He has been exposed countless times for scams, falsehoods, and incitements to violence. Of all prominent African-Americans, only Louis Farrakhan is more odious. Now that Sanders is the front-runner, with the possible exception of Joe (Hamlet) Biden, it is time to start taking a closer look at him. I’ve always been curious why he would have worked for a time on a Stalinist Kibbutz after the 20th Communist Party Congress where Stalin’s infamies and atrocities were publicly denounced by Nikita Khrushchev. Sanders apparently was a renegade Communist as a youth, regarding Khrushchev as a mealy-mouthed compromiser. It was eccentric that he spent his honeymoon in Moscow, but that, I suppose, is the business of no one but the then-newlyweds. Our country has seemed benignly incurious about a man running officially as a socialist with a…

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Ohio’s Tim Ryan Says He’s ‘Concerned’ With Rise of Socialism in His Party, But Calls Health Care a ‘Human Right’

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13), a 2020 presidential hopeful, said on CNN Wednesday that he’s “concerned” about the rise of socialism within the Democratic Party. “I’m concerned about it because if we are going to de-carbonize the American economy it’s not going to be some centralized bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. that’s going to make it happen. It’s going to be part targeted government investments that do need to be robust, but it’s going to be the free market that’s, at the end of the day, going to make that happen,” Ryan said on CNN’s New Day. Ryan said that only the “innovation” and “creativity” of the free market will allow for America’s economy to go carbon free. “You can be hostile to concentration of wealth. You can be hostile to income inequality. You can be hostile to greed. We can’t be hostile to the free-enterprise system. That’s how we get past China,” Ryan continued. 2020 hopeful @RepTimRyan says he’s “concerned” about socialism and the Democratic Party. “You can be hostile to concentration of wealth, you can be hostile to income inequality … We can't be hostile to the free-enterprise system. That’s how we get past China.” pic.twitter.com/ahlwI09rqb — New Day (@NewDay)…

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Jordan Peterson Unpacks What Drives the Left and How to Restore Meaning

by Jarret Stepman   President Donald Trump exclaimed in his State of the Union address that America would “never” be a socialist country. Yet multiple polls suggest that many Americans, especially younger ones, embrace left-wing ideology in increasing numbers, as more politicians have openly embraced the term. Despite ample evidence that socialism has failed to bring prosperity and has actually inflicted widespread misery, why does it resonate? And what can be done to stop its spread? Jordan Peterson took on those questions at a New York City event on Tuesday hosted by The Heritage Foundation. The Canadian clinical psychologist and author of “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” said the West is undergoing a crisis of spirit and meaning, not poverty. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] Peterson explained why he thinks socialism resonates with younger Americans in particular. “People are unbelievably ignorant of history,” he said, admitting that even he has gaps in knowledge about history before the 20th century. But young people are working with even less knowledge, Peterson said. “What young people know about 20th-century history is nonexistent, especially about…

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Charlie Kirk Commentary: Socialists Fantasize About Becoming Mainstream

by Charlie Kirk   Neo-socialist radicals have had so much success at bending the Democratic Party to their will that they’re starting to forget just how deeply unpopular their policy agenda is with the rest of the country. During a recent MSNBC profile of freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, her former senior campaign aide, Walid Shaheed, advanced the dubious theory that democratic socialism has become mainstream and that capitalism is now a “fringe” movement. “I think Bernie Sanders really opened the window for the debate on democratic socialism in this country,” Shaheed said during the special. “It’s not as fringe as you might think. In fact, what’s becoming fringe is if you call yourself a capitalist openly.” Clearly, Shaheed needs to get out of the office more often. His assessment might accurately reflect the majority sentiment inside AOC’s Capitol Hill echo chamber, but for the rest of America, capitalism retains its revered status as the most effective economic and political system humanity has ever devised for enhancing safety, affluence, and human happiness. Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders is laboring under the same delusion as Shaheed. “Those ideas that we talked about here in Iowa four years ago that seemed so radical at…

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Commentary: Socialists Don’t Really Believe in Socialism

by Rich Logis   Can we dispel, once and for all, the idea that socialists, “democratic” or otherwise, actually believe in the socialism they peddle? “Socialists” love money, guns, walls, fossil fuels, Amazon, meat, private jets and cars, luxury apartments, and paying low taxes just like everyone else. What sets “socialists” apart is a certain desire for control. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) owns multiple houses, has a seven-figure net worth, and collects a salary of $14,500 a month. Do you really think a guy like that truly believes the “free stuff” balderdash he’s regurgitated for decades? He admires Fidel Castro because he wants to be like him, and he’s enamored with bread lines because Sanders knows that government dependency is a helluva drug. I’m reminded of this every day when I look at the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics rationing ticket from my wife’s childhood in Poland. Newsflash: neither Lenin nor Stalin believed in socialism, either. They believed in power. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wasted no time getting a fancy pad in a tony Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Rumor has it the building’s energy sources are electricity and oil. Aaahhh, first-world living in Washington, D.C., where average monthly rents are higher only in 10 other cities across the globe.…

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Former California GOP Chairman Lists Nine Ways America Is Moving Towards Socialism

by Nick Givas   Former California GOP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro listed nine ways in which America is moving towards socialism during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” Monday. Del Beccaro said increased government spending and inflated tax codes are just the beginning and claimed they’ll have a domino effect on the rest of the country. “We do have massive [spending],” he said. “We are going to spend $7.6 trillion as a society in this upcoming year which is roughly four times what Reagan’s era spent when he said government was the problem.” “We have massive tax systems,” Del Beccaro continued. “And hallmarks of socialist societies are poor incentives where there is weak economic growth. And that comes from tax systems. Trump did a good job beginning with the business tax code. He’s got to do better with personal so we have better growth.” He then moved to reduced economic growth through government interference and cited the EU as a prime example. “[The EU] had zero economic growth over the last 20 years and government is about 60, 70 percent of their economies,” Del Beccaro said. “In the United States we’re about 36 [percent]. With regulations closer to 50. Our growth has slipped…

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US to Remove All Diplomatic Personnel from Venezuela

The United States says it is removing all remaining personnel from its embassy in Venezuela. In a statement issued late Monday night, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the personnel will be pulled out of Caracas this week. Secretary Pompeo said the decision to shut down the embassy “reflects the deteriorating situation in Venezuela” as well as the conclusion that the presence of the diplomatic staff “has become a constraint on U.S. policy.” The State Department ordered all non-emergency personnel to leave Venezuela back in January, days after President Nicolas Maduro ended diplomatic relations with Washington and ordered U.S. diplomats to leave after President Donald Trump officially recognized Juan Guaido as interim president. Guaido had declared himself president after claiming Maduro’s re-election was illegitimate. The U.S. announcement that it was closing its embassy comes as Venezuela enters the sixth day of a nationwide power outage Tuesday. Desperate residents are fetching water from a polluted river and drainage pipes, with schools and businesses closed and stores unable to keep cold and fresh whatever food is on hand. Some hospitals have generators and doctors are hoping to be able to transfer patients who need operations to save their lives to those…

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Commentary: The Myth of Millennial Socialism

by Christopher Gage   My old man tells me he left college in the 1970s and walked into a job for life. He tells me his first home cost twice the average salary. Then he tells me, without a soupçon of jest, “things were still pretty tough back then.” His brow—unapologetically smooth for its 65 years, cheeks plumped fat and youthfully blooded from unbroken stretches of Boomer ease—fails to crumple with measured faux sympathy. “They have it too easy,” he says, thumbing the newsprint importantly. “We didn’t have iPhones when I was 30.” Tough crowd. What kills me about my reluctant status of being a Millennial nestles between the thickets of Boomer philosophy. My old man, a cosmic improvement on the genetic one, tells me how easy everything was back in his day, and how, conversely, such ease built indomitable “character.” My old man is Schrödinger’s Boomer. Of course, there’s always a medicine cabinet teeming with nerve-smoothing cures for Millennial woes. We need to save more. We should stop buying avocado toast. We just need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. We need to carve our own slice of the world that Boomers built and broke and bestowed upon…

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Commentary: Politicized Schools Are Radically Transforming Our Nation

by Jay Schalin   If somebody wanted to fundamentally transform society to its roots, where would he or she start? The most logical starting point would be education. And if there were one part of the educational system that would produce this transformation most broadly, effectively, and efficiently, it would most likely be at our schools of education that train teachers for the K-12 classroom. That’s where ideas from the rest of academia are inserted into the curriculum for elementary and high school students, and where politically unsophisticated young people are turned into classroom teachers. Control the schools of education, and the education system will eventually be yours to forward your political agenda. Remarkably, that is just what has happened in this country. Over 100 years ago, when our education schools were just starting up or growing from two-year normal schools to university status, Progressive educators set out to transform the nation into one that was based on social science theories, collectivism, and central planning. How successful were they? Several years ago, I started an investigation into how politicized education schools have become. Today, the Martin Center is releasing the results of that investigation in a new report, titled “The…

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Trump Speech to Warn of ‘Dangers of Socialism’

by Katherine Gypson, Margaret Besheer, and Steve Herman   White House officials say U.S. President Donald Trump will warn of “the dangers of socialism” in a speech Monday in support of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the United States as the South American nation’s interim president. Trump will make remarks at Florida International University, as his administration continues to speak out against Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro.The school is in a Miami neighborhood that has the largest concentration of Venezuelans in the U.S. While Trump has refused to rule out a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, Congressman Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during a congressional hearing Wednesday that lawmakers would not support such a move. “I do worry about the president’s saber-rattling, his hints that U.S. military intervention remains an option,” Engel said. “I want to make it clear to our witnesses and to anyone else watching: U.S. military intervention is not an option.” Trump was among the first of 51 world leaders to recognize the head of the nation’s national assembly, Guaido, as the interim president. Guaido declared himself the country’s leader following mass protests against Maduro. Venezuela suffers…

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Commentary: Imagine America Without Freedom

by Rick Manning   Everyone is talking about the Green New Deal, and how it would end domestic airline travel, the internal combustion engine, fossil fuel usage, most electricity generation and even ban cow flatulence. You have groups guessing what the cost of the Green New Deal would be in terms of dollars on an annual basis coming up with figures in the trillions of dollars. To everyone seeking to normalize this Green New Deal, please just shut up. The Green New Deal is the baring of teeth by the new American communist. A new breed unleashed that we have seen to the streets attacking people attending Trump rallies, screaming at teenagers wearing Make America Great Again hats, shouting down and rioting against conservative speakers on college campuses. Here is the truth. Socialism and communism are evil. Putting a shroud of legitimacy and normalcy to the destruction of the American ideal is being a Menshevik in a Bolshevik Revolution, you cannot moderate the blood lust of those who seek to enslave you by trying to come up with common ground or discuss alternatives to meet their needs. The revolution demands immediate payment. So, let’s stop talking about the symptoms which…

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Commentary: It’s Time to Get Real About Our Enemies

by Karin McQuillan   Out here in Realville, to borrow from Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump’s supporters could be very happy. For ordinary Americans – from the top to the bottom of the economic spectrum, black, white and brown – President Trump has brought good times. Except for the screeching drama queens in the Democratic Party and among #TheResistance – and our serious mass immigration problems – life is good and the country is secure. In a sensible world, we would be basking in this period of unprecedented prosperity and peace. The country should be unified and full of bonhomie. The whole world has advanced to inconceivable levels of global peace and prosperity. Life is easier, healthier, and more comfortable for more people than ever before in history. Socialism and Communism – those tragic sisters from the 1800s that led to the greatest human suffering, poverty, and mass starvation in human history – should barely be remembered. Instead, they are ascendant in the Democrat Party. Cultural Marxism and socialism are the new Democrat chic. The entire country is in an uproar. Everyone feels a sense of doom and gloom. There is more to #TheResistance than the political panic inspired by the likes…

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Commentary: Today’s Venezuela Is Where Socialism Meets Authoritarianism

by Anthony B. Kim and Ana Quintana   Many on the left have for years cheered Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, as heroes of “21st-century socialism.” Ironically, however, the undeniable downward spiral of Venezuela’s economic freedom and the far-reaching suffering of its people have put the true meaning to those “hero” claims: Socialism and corruption have destroyed Venezuela. In a Jan. 22 Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Venezuela, America Stands With You,” Vice President Mike Pence noted: As I have heard many times from Venezuelans over the past [two] years, Mr. Maduro has exacerbated the country’s corruption and socialist policies, accelerating its descent from one of the richest countries in the Western Hemisphere to one of the poorest and most despotic,” Pence wrote. “He promised prosperity, but his actions have caused Venezuela’s economy to shrink by nearly 50 [percent]. The vice president added, “For the sake of our vital interests, and for the sake of the Venezuelan people, the U.S. will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles.” Indeed, Venezuela’s decline over the past 25 years, exacerbated by the combined ills of socialism and authoritarianism, is well-documented in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, a data-driven benchmark study…

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Commentary: Socialism and the Vicious Circle of Child Marriage

by Rev. Ben Johnson   She was the brightest girl in her class, and 13-year-old Maureen dreamed of an education that would get her out of the poverty that bogged down her hometown of Mudzi, Mashonaland, Zimbabwe. Her parents promised to pay her tuition – but her family hit hard times. Instead, her father married off the young adolescent to a middle-aged man. “When my parents told me about the marriage I couldn’t believe it, because they had always given me the impression that I was their most intelligent child and I would pursue my studies,” the child toldthe Guardian this month. “The man was abusive, he called me names and beat me several times, especially after I lost my baby.” She is far from alone. Approximately one-third of all girls in Zimbabwe end up as child brides, often traded for dowries so small the girls find them insulting. For instance, another Zimbabwean family gave their 14-year-old girl to an older man for less than 50 cents. But economically, families see more value in receiving even a pittance than from investing in their daughters’ human capital: educating them, teaching them skills, and preparing them to find employment … or even to finish raising…

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Commentary: Healthcare Will Follow the Dangerous Politicization of Big Tech

by Tho Bishop   As tech executives continue to be grilled in front of Congress, the growing Bernie Sanders-wing of the Democratic Party is preparing to push its misnamed “Medicare for All” into the political mainstream after its political gains in the midterms. While these two stories seem to have very little in common, it’s not difficult to imagine a not-so-distant future where the two are dangerously connected. After all, so long as the scope of government grows, the continued politicization of all aspect of life will follow – the inevitable consequences of which could be quite horrific. The State’s Shadow over Silicon Valley First let’s consider some of the overlooked causes behind the increased censorship from Silicon Valley. While Republican politicians relish in collecting cheap soundbites railing against the censorship practices of widely despised tech executives, few are willing to point out the obvious influence of government in Big Tech’s growing hostility to free speech. For example, just recently Facebook announced it was following the lead of Tumblr by cracking down on “sexualized content” on its platform. While both decisions were widely ridiculed by users and pundits alike, largely ignored was the role that recent Congressional laws aimed at…

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Commentary: Bernie Sanders Should Be Thrown Out of Politics for Supporting Venezuela’s Oppressors

by Barry Brownstein   Would you use a doctor or dentist who didn’t believe in germ theory and used the same instruments all day without sterilizing them? What would you say if, when their patients developed infections, the doctor or dentist insisted he meant well and argued that capitalism, not germs, causes infections? Allowing such a practitioner to keep their license would be madness. Yet we elect and support politicians who believe something other than socialism causes the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. In his Wall Street Journal report Venezuela is Starving, Juan Forero reports on the worsening tragedy: Jean Pierre Planchart, a year old, has the drawn face of an old man and a cry that is little more than a whimper. His ribs show through his skin. He weighs just 11 pounds. His mother, Maria Planchart, tried to feed him what she could find combing through the trash—scraps of chicken or potato. She finally took him to a hospital in Caracas, where she prays a rice-milk concoction keeps her son alive. “I watched him sleep and sleep, getting weaker, all the time losing weight,” said Ms. Planchart, 34 years old. “I never thought I’d see Venezuela like this.”…

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Walter Williams Commentary: Our Ignorance Of Socialism is Dangerous

by Walter E. Williams   A recent Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation survey found that 51 percent of American millennials would rather live in a socialist or communist country than in a capitalist country. Only 42 percent prefer the latter. Twenty-five percent of millennials who know who Vladimir Lenin was view him favorably. Lenin was the first premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Half of millennials have never heard of communist Mao Zedong, who ruled China from 1949 to 1959 and was responsible for the deaths of 45 million Chinese people. The number of people who died at the hands of Josef Stalin may be as high as 62 million. However, almost one-third of millennials think former President George W. Bush is responsible for more killings than Stalin. By the way, Adolf Hitler, head of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, was responsible for the deaths of about 20 million people. The Nazis come in as a poor third in terms of history’s most prolific mass murderers. According to professor Rudolph Rummel’s research, the 20th century, mankind’s most brutal century, saw 262 million people’s lives destroyed at the hands of their own governments. Young people who weren’t alive…

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Liz Cheney Urges Republicans to Fight Hard Against Democrats’ Socialist Ideas

by Molly Prince   Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming sounded the alarm for Republicans to fight hard against socialist issues when Democrats take control of the House of Representatives after the new year. Cheney dismissed the notion that elected representatives are not good people, while speaking Sunday to Fox News host Chris Wallace, but rather urged for a battle of ideas, especially in light of the recent election of socialists in the Democratic Party. “There isn’t venom all the time. I’ve found that you can go and sit down next to anybody from any party. They’ve got an interesting story and they’re good people there for the right reasons,” Cheney said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Now, it is the truth, however, that we have big issues. We have a lot of Democrats now coming in who are socialists — I’m not exaggerating, they’re socialists.” Cheney, who is the 3rd ranking Republican in the House, acknowledged when Democrats control the chamber during the next session, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is likely to win the speaker-ship, will be compelled to pivot further to the left as she pushes forward the Democratic policy agenda. “I think it’s very important that we…

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Ocasio-Cortez Likens Private Health Insurance to ‘Death Panels’

by Jason Hopkins   Democratic Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compared the private health insurance market to “death panels” during a back-and-forth exchange on Twitter Sunday. “Actually, we have for-profit ‘death panels’ now: they are companies + boards saying you’re on your own bc they won’t cover a critical procedure or medicine,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted to the president of a conservative think-tank. “Maybe if the GOP stopped hiding behind this ‘socialist’ rock they love to throw, they’d actually engage on-issue for once.” Actually, we have for-profit “death panels” now: they are companies + boards saying you’re on your own bc they won’t cover a critical procedure or medicine. Maybe if the GOP stopped hiding behind this “socialist” rock they love to throw, they’d actually engage on-issue for once. https://t.co/4P2TrflkFX — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 2, 2018 The tweet was in response to Jim Hanson, president of the Security Studies Group. The two had been exchanging barbs over government involvement in the U.S. health care system. The phrase “death panels” was coined by former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in 2009 to describe the rationing of government-run health care. The term was used to characterize former President Barack Obama’s health insurance reform plan. Ocasio-Cortez,…

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Commentary: Alexis de Tocqueville’s Rebuke of ‘Guaranteed Income’ Programs

by John Wilsey   Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) is perhaps best known among Americans as the author of the influential work, Democracy in America. He produced the book in two volumes — the first, which came out in 1835 and the second, which came out in 1840 — after taking a tour of the United States with his colleague and friend Gustave de Beaumont in 1831-32. His thesis in Democracy was simple. After careful observation of American customs, laws, institutions, and religion, he determined that the one defining factor in the United States was equality of conditions. By this, Tocqueville meant that since there was no feudal tradition with all its social hierarchies, Americans were a highly mobile people. They were mobile socially and economically — they could become entrepreneurs and build their own wealth without much to constrain them. They were politically mobile — an American could rise from obscurity to power in America without having to worry about his parentage. And they were geographically mobile, moving westward from place to place in search of their fortunes. Tocqueville noticed that Americans apparently had the singular ability to prevent equality of conditions from yielding democratic despotism. Through voluntary associations, vigorous…

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Commentary: Some People Need to See Socialism to Believe It Is Bad

by Natalia Castro   Seeing is believing. People around the country were baffled when exit polls showed Robert or Beto O’Rourke won more votes from native Texans than incumbent Senator Ted Cruz in the midterm elections. But this should not be a surprise, it should be a lesson — some people need to experience socialism to understand its disastrous effects. Exit polls found that 57 percent of people who moved to Texas (also known as transplants) voted for Cruz while 51 percent of those born in Texas voted for O’Rourke. While many Texas conservatives blamed the liberalization of the state on transplants from California and New York moving to the area for lower property values, it seems the opposite is taking place. These people are not bringing their liberal ideas, but running away from them. Chuck DeVore of the Washington Examiner explains: “The lack of economic freedom in California compared to Texas is likely why, according to census, from 2012 to 2016, a net of 521,052 Californians left the state. Texas was their most popular destination, with a net of 114,413 Californians moving 1,300 miles east to the Lone Star State.  In the five years through 2016, some 542,432 more…

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Analysis: White House Releases Report Outlining the Problems of Socialism

by Joe Carter   On Tuesday the White House released “The Opportunity Costs of Socialism,” a report outlining the “opportunity costs of socialism on the macro economy, including standards of living, and the impact on the Federal budget.” The following is a summary and anaysis of its findings. What is the purpose of the report? The purpose of 70-page report (the main text is 55 pages while the list of references is 15 pages), which was produced by the Council of Economic Advisers, is to “evaluate the claims of modern U.S. socialists from the perspective of economists who have extensively studied the costs and benefits of socialism. We examine socialism’s historical and modern vision and intent, its economic incentives, its impact around the world on economic performance, and its relationship with recent policy proposals in the U.S.” What is the Council of Economic Advisers? The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is an agency within the Executive Office of the President that is charged with offering the President objective economic advice on the formulation of both domestic and international economic policy. Congress established the three-member council in the Employment Act of 1946. The portion of the bill that authorizes the CEA…

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Commentary: Halloween and the Perils of Cultural Appropriation

by Thaddeaus G. McCotter   Cultural appropriation, the Cambridge Dictionary helpfully informs us, is “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture.” This, of course, should not be a problem in America, a constitutional republic imbued with the concept of pluralism—that is, the ability of numerous cultures to live peaceably while unified by an overarching set of core principles that form an American civic consensus. These include an allegiance to the Constitution and an adherence to a general principle of tolerance, among other essential, mutually shared civic virtues and responsibilities. For a succinct example, when someone describes himself as Irish-American, over time the emphasis is ultimately on the American. Until recently, pluralism has served the nation well, both in terms of assimilating individuals and their respective cultures. It has done so by allowing those subcultures to continue; and, in conjunction with the doctrine of subsidiarity , as a means of respecting a preserving the powers of voluntary, non-governmental organizations collectively operated by private citizens to address and solve problems, including families and civic groups. Unfortunately, the Left’s diversity dogma subverts pluralism by demanding…

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Commentary: The Eternal Return of a Malevolent Charade

by Roger Kimball   The eternal return – Friedrich Nietzsche thought the idea was horrifying. Life as an endless merry-go-round in which the same things keep recurring, forever. That prospect, Nietzsche thought, was the hardest, weightiest, most depressing idea mankind could ever confront. It was part of Nietzsche’s blustering nihilism that he should first conjure the most unpleasant idea he could think of and then announce that true heroism lay in embracing it. The rest of us may be less enthusiastic about the prospect of ceaseless repetition. After all, we’ve all had a foretaste of what it entails in the remarkable career of socialism. Like the fabled hydra, socialism is an evil that suffers decapitation after decapitation only to spring back to life, its blood—or, rather, the blood of its victims—somehow sprouting ever new heads of credulousness. The Soviet Union was “really existing communism,” under whose aegis millions were impoverished, tortured, and murdered (but, according to the New York Times, the sex was great). Western intellectuals, gullible creatures that they are, adulated that steaming tyranny. Eventually morons like Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II brought to an end that horrible “experiment in living.” Chairman Mao probably has the…

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Venezuela’s New Currency Does Little So Far To Stabilize Economy

Nicolas Maduro

by Hanna Bogorowski   Venezuela introduced a new currency on Aug. 20 as a hopeful solution to the country’s rapidly devaluing currency and skyrocketing inflation rates, but after just a few weeks, Venezuela is already seeing 100 percent inflation. The Venezuelan government issued the new currency, called the “sovereign” bolivar, to replace the “strong” bolivar, NPR reported on the day of the rollout. The new bolivar is worth about 100,000 of the old bolivars, and is pegged to the government’s cryptocurrency, the petro. The Bloomberg Cafe Con Leche Index revealed Thursday that the price of a cup of coffee has risen to 50 bolivars. For comparison, 50 of the new bolivars is 5 million of the old ones, after President Nicolas Maduro removed five zeros on July 25 in an effort to stabilize the economy and simplify transactions. The annual inflation rate is now hitting over 100,000 percent. Venezuela is currently suffering through a five-year crisis that is leaving it with a collapsed economy, hyperinflation and a complete breakdown of public goods and services, including deteriorating roads, food shortages, disturbing water cleanliness, failed electricity, high crime and a lack of adequate medicine for the sick. The conditions in Venezuela are causing mass migration flows out of the…

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Trump Tax Cuts At Risk: Democrats Conspire to Repeal While Record Low Unemployment Surges

Steve Gill

Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill discussed on Monday’s edition of The Gill Report – broadcast on Knoxville’s 92.3 FM WETR – how Democrats are conspiring to repeal the Trump tax cuts while record low unemployment among Hispanic and African-Americans surge and the federal government rakes in a record amount of individual tax revenue for 2018. “You know we’ve been hearing from the left ever since the Trump tax cuts were passed by the Republican House and Senate with no help at all from the Democrats,” Gill began.  “Democrats – including Democrats like Phil Bredesen who is running for the US Senate – declaring that they were mere crumbs; that they would only help the wealthy and that most Americans wouldn’t see the benefits.” He added: Now keep in mind that the tax cuts for most Americans haven’t gone into effect yet. They haven’t even gone into effect, because they will go fully into effect next year. The tax cuts have been cut for the income earned this year but the benefits the tax payers will see is when they file their tax returns next April 15th. And yet your already seeing companies give bigger bonuses your seeing pay raises you’re…

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Commentary: How One Deleted Scene Turns Star Wars into a Struggle Against Socialism

Star Wars

by Grayson Quay   In the era of Disney, many long-time Star Wars fans have bemoaned the supposed infiltration of their favorite franchise by leftist ideology. At first, I rolled my eyes at these objections, many of which remain patently absurd. But after Solo: A Star Wars Story gave us a shrill SJW droid hooking up with a pansexual Lando Calrissian, I had to admit that some critics might have a point. This wasn’t always the case, though. In fact, one of the deleted scenes included in the 2011 Star Wars Blu-Ray collection explicitly connects the evil Galactic Empire with the socialist economic policies of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In Episode IV: A New Hope, George Lucas originally wrote and shot several scenes that would introduce the viewer to Luke Skywalker long before R2-D2 and C-3PO arrived at his family’s moisture farm. The first features Luke using a pair of macrobinoculars to watch Leia’s ship, the Tantive IV, exchange fire with Darth Vader’s Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Excited by the prospect of adventure, Luke rushes to tell his friends at the Tosche Station, where he finds that his friend Biggs Darklighter has returned to Tatooine after graduating from the Imperial Academy. Luke’s friends quickly lose interest in his wild tales of space combat, and he and Biggs head off to grab a few malt brews and catch up. After a bit of…

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Campaign Platform Explains Her Primary Victory

Ocasio

by José Niño   After pulling off a major upset in the Democratic Primary for New York’s 14th congressional district, 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now being touted as the new face of the Democratic Party. Ocasio’s victory has rejuvenated the Democratic Party and liberals nationwide. For many on the Left, Ocasio’s recent victory is a breath of fresh air after putting up with Hilary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign in 2016. Beyond the typical R vs. D analysis that continues to grab headlines, what is most troubling about Ocasio’s meteoric rise to political fame is her complete disregard for basic economics. A brief look at her platform is enough to realize that the ideas of socialism are alive and well in American politics. Her platform is centered on the following policy planks:  – Medicare for all – Free public university – Universal jobs guarantee – Housing as a human right The common denominator of all her proposals is the amount of faith placed in the State to conduct private affairs. Channeling the spirit of failed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Ocasio describes her program as democraticsocialism. White-Washing Socialism Leftists have tried their best to re-brand and obfuscate socialism to make it palatable to the misinformed masses. No matter how…

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