Cuban authorities sentence young mother to 15 years in prison for live streaming protest
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article288144795.html
Cuban authorities sentence young mother to 15 years in prison for live streaming protest
By Nora Gámez Torres
April 30, 2024
A young mother has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for transmitting videos on Facebook of a protest in Cuba, the latest example of the communist government’s heavy-handed policies to crack down on growing dissent amid worsening economic conditions.
Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, 23, was charged with “sedition” and disseminating “enemy propaganda” for publishing videos of a protest in the city of Nuevitas, in the central province of Camaguey, in August 2022. Another 12 demonstrators received sentences between 4 and 14 years in prison under similar charges, according to court documents shared by the Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos, a human rights organization based in Madrid, over the weekend.
A year after anti-government protests spread throughout the island on July 11, 2021, the residents of Nuevitas took to the streets again during an electricity blackout, chanting, “Turn on the lights,” “Freedom,” and “The people are tired,” independent news outlet 14ymedio reported at the time.
Shortly after, Rodríguez Prado and other participants were arrested and detained for several months without charges. She is the mother of a toddler and was 21 at the time of her detention.
Most of the original videos posted by the Nuevitas demonstrators have been deleted.
“The harsh sentencing this week of up to 15 years in prison for Cubans who peacefully assembled in Nuevitas in 2022 is outrageous,” said Brian Nichols, assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs at the U.S. State Department. “The Cuban government’s continued repression of Cubans striving to fulfill their basic rights and needs is unconscionable.”
The Cuban government prosecuted hundreds of people, including several mothers, seniors and minors, who participated in the July 11 demonstrations, meting out sentences of up to 30 years in prison. Despite an international outcry and diplomatic efforts, Cuban authorities have declined to release them, claiming they are not political prisoners.
The harsh sentences for the Nuevitas demonstrators, coming after more recent protests in Santiago de Cuba over the worsening deteriorated, suggest Cuban authorities are steadfast in their determination to crack down on opposition and civil unrest despite the backlash, out of fears the protests might continue.
Cuban independent journalists have also been targeted.
José Luis Tan Estrada, an independent journalist from Camaguey province, who had covered the detention of the Nuevitas demonstrators and revealed the poor conditions of healthcare facilities in that province, has been detained in Villa Marista, the Cuban state security prison in Havana, since Friday. Tan Estrada, a former professor at the University of Camaguey who was expelled for criticizing the government, was warned in April that he would be arrested if he continued reporting. At the time, an Interior Ministry official showed him a file with his posts on social media.
In recent years, the Cuban government has approved legislation turning what has been for decades a zero-tolerance policy for dissent and criticism of the government into law. As the government was finally forced to expand internet access on the island in recent years, it also made sure it could spy on people’s phones with the help of Chinese technology and made criticizing the government on social media a crime.
Decree-law 370, passed in 2019, makes it a crime to publish “information contrary to the public interest, morality, good manners and the integrity of the people” on social media. Two decrees passed in 2021 by the Ministry of Communications treat using social media to criticize the government as cyberterrorism. The new penal code approved in 2022 calls for prison sentences for people using vulgar language against top officials or publishing “fake news” and “propaganda against the Constitutional order.”
In its 2023 annual report on human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department said Cuban law “criminalized freedom of expression online, allowed the government to flag for removal social media posts critical of the government or government officials, listed criminal incitement through social media as an ‘aggravating circumstance”’to allow for harsher sentences, and increased penalties for slander and the use of social networks to organize protests.”
In 1989, Russian president Boris Yeltsin’s wide-eyed trip to a Texas grocery store led to the downfall of communism
When Boris Yeltsin went grocery shopping in Clear Lake
By Craig Hlavaty, Houston Chronicle
September 13, 2017 – Updated January 31, 2018
In September 1989, Russian president Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall’s Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center.
09/16/1989 – Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall’s Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the frozen food selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement.
09/16/1989 – Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall’s Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the frozen food selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement.
09/16/1989 – Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall’s Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the frozen food selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement.
09/16/1989 – Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall’s Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the frozen food selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement.
09/16/1989 – Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall’s Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. At the check-out counter, an employee showed the Soviet politician how a computer scans each item and totals the bill automatically.
In 1989 Russian president Boris Yeltsin’s wide-eyed trip to a Clear Lake grocery store led to the downfall of communism.
It was Sept. 16, 1989, and Yeltsin, then newly-elected to the new Soviet parliament and the Supreme Soviet, had just visited Johnson Space Center.
At JSC, Yeltsin visited mission control and a mock-up of a space station. According to Houston Chronicle reporter Stefanie Asin, it wasn’t all the screens, dials, and wonder at NASA that blew up his skirt, it was the unscheduled trip inside a nearby Randall’s location.
Yeltsin, then 58, “roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement,” wrote Asin. He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, “there would be a revolution.”
Shoppers and employees stopped him to shake his hand and say hello. In 1989, not everyone was carrying a smart phone in their pocket so Yeltsin “selfies” weren’t a thing yet.
Yeltsin asked customers about what they were buying and how much it cost, later asking the store manager if one needed a special education to manage a store. In the Chronicle photos, you can see him marveling at the produce section, the fresh fish market, and the checkout counter. He looked especially excited about frozen pudding pops.
“Even the Politburo doesn’t have this choice. Not even Mr. Gorbachev,” he said. When he was told through his interpreter that there were thousands of items in the store for sale he didn’t believe it. He had even thought that the store was staged, a show for him. Little did he know there countless stores just like it all over the country, some with even more things than the Randall’s he visited.
The fact that stores like these were on nearly every street corner in America amazed him. They even offered him free cheese samples.
By contrast, this is what a Russian grocery store looked like at the same time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWTGsUyv8IE
According to Asin, Yeltsin didn’t leave empty-handed, as he was given a small bag of goodies to enjoy on the rest of his trip.
About a year after the Russian leader left office, a Yeltsin biographer later wrote that on the plane ride to Yeltsin’s next destination, Miami, he was despondent. He couldn’t stop thinking about the plentiful food at the grocery store and what his countrymen had to subsist on in Russia.
In Yeltsin’s own autobiography, he wrote about the experience at Randall’s, which shattered his view of communism, according to pundits. Two years later, he left the Communist Party and began making reforms to turn the economic tide in Russia.
Maybe you can blame those frozen Jell-O Pudding pops he’s seen marveling in those Chronicle photos.
“When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people,” Yeltsin wrote.
“That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! It is terrible to think of it.”
The leader himself stepped down on the last day of 1999 after years of trying to bring a new system to Russia. The cronyism in place only managed to stifle Yeltsin’s dream for his country. Corruption and perceived incompetence plague his final years in office. Leaving the Kremlin voluntarily is said to have kept him from criminal prosecution.
His successor was Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took over as acting president. Putin had been an aide to Yeltsin in the years previous.
Yeltsin died in 2007 at the age of 76.
The Randall’s he visited, just off El Dorado Boulevard and Highway 3, is now a Food Town location.
Why don’t the students and professors who praise Cuba at elite U.S. universities ever immigrate there? Why is all the immigration related to communist countries out of the communist country, and never into it?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nearly-425-000-cubans-migrated-192855374.html
Nearly 425,000 Cubans have migrated to the U.S. in the past two years, U.S. figures show
By Nora Gámez Torres and Syra Ortiz Blanes
October 24, 2023
Amid one of the worst economic and political crises since the late Fidel Castro turned Cuba into a communist country over sixty years ago, the island has lost almost 4 percent of its population in the past two years.
These Cubans are now in the United States.
Nearly 425,000 Cubans have come in the past two fiscal years, according to the latest U.S. border numbers, a migration crisis of historic proportions that underscores the challenges the Biden administration faces in trying to contain the displacement set in motion by authoritarian governments and political upheavals in the Western Hemisphere.
I support this proposal simply because I am curious to see how it turns out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aklobw34qCk
Why the Alliance between Stalin and Hitler Must Never Be Forgotten
Also see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarete_Buber-Neumann
https://fee.org/articles/why-the-alliance-between-stalin-and-hitler-must-never-be-forgotten/
Why the Alliance between Stalin and Hitler Must Never Be Forgotten
Stalin’s intentional silence and inaction during World War II allowed the Holocaust to unfold without any meaningful resistance or counteraction.
By Benjamin Williams
July 23, 2023
World War II was one of the most catastrophic periods in human history, marked by unprecedented violence, genocide, and destruction. Yet, while the war’s narrative is dominated by the Axis and western Allied powers, the role of the Soviet Union, particularly under Joseph Stalin, in indirectly supporting Nazi Germany’s campaign of terror and conquest, often goes underreported. Drawing on several historical excerpts, this article will unpack the Soviet Union’s involvement in Nazi war efforts and their failure to protect or inform their Jewish population of impending atrocities.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed in the early hours of August 24, 1939, in a surreal ceremony where swastikas fluttered alongside the hammer and sickle. The swastika flags purportedly came from a movie studio, where they had been used for anti-Nazi propaganda films. The ten-year non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany was accompanied by a secret protocol outlining the spheres of influence for each power in Eastern Europe, including the partition of Poland and the granting of the Baltic States and Bessarabia to the Soviets.
Stalin made a closing toast, stating, “I know how much the German nation loves its Führer; I should therefore like to drink to his health.” The toast was ironic considering the hostile stance the USSR had previously maintained towards Nazi Germany. Stalin’s first gift after the pact was awarding Germany around 600 German Communists, most of whom were Jews. He had them extradited to the Gestapo in Brest-Litovsk, a symbolic location steeped in historical implications. Among the extradited was Hans David, a gifted composer, who later perished in the gas chambers of Majdanek, a fate shared by many others. This process of handing over Jewish and/or communist prisoners to the Nazis persisted beyond 1939.
Margarete Buber-Neumann, a former communist turned staunch anti-communist, was one such individual transferred from Soviet imprisonment to the hands of the Gestapo in 1940. Surviving the brutal conditions of both a Soviet prison and a Nazi concentration camp, Buber-Neumann later penned the memoir “Under Two Dictators,” detailing the harsh realities of life under the totalitarian regimes of Stalin and Hitler.
In the initial stages of World War II, after signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany embarked on a diplomatic relationship that allowed for territorial expansion and political maneuvering. The two totalitarian socialist regimes formed an uneasy partnership characterized by economic cooperation, information withholding, and non-aggression. This alliance’s impact on the Jewish population, particularly in the Soviet-occupied zone of Poland, was severe and catastrophic.
The ideological calculus of Stalin’s foreign policy became apparent in his anticipation of the imminent German attack on Poland. Recognizing the inevitability of British and French intervention, Stalin saw a unique opportunity to advance the cause of communism. From his perspective, a protracted conflict between capitalist powers presented an ideal scenario, sowing discord and creating opportunities for the spread of Soviet influence.
Stalin was explicit in his machinations, expressing that the USSR, the Land of the Toilers, would stand to gain from a drawn-out war that would weaken both the Reich and the Anglo-French bloc. Fearing a swift conclusion to the war, Stalin stressed the importance of aiding Germany to ensure a long and costly conflict. Despite the ongoing tensions with Japan in the Far East, Stalin envisioned the USSR’s eventual entry into the European theater at a time most advantageous to Soviet interests. The Soviet leader’s strategic vision underlined a ruthless pragmatism and an uncompromising commitment to the communist cause.
The mass deportation of approximately one million Polish refugees initiated by Lavrentiy Beria’s NKVD in February 1940, half of whom were Jews, highlights the first disturbing aspect of the Soviet-Nazi collaboration. The deportees, categorized under various labels such as ‘The Jewish National Counterrevolution’ were sent to Siberia under horrendous conditions that led to many deaths en route. Notably, many Jewish leaders and activists were among the arrested, including Menachem Begin, a young Zionist leader, and Henryk Ehrlich and Viktor Alter, founders of the Polish Bund, Poland’s largest Jewish party. This mass deportation represented the “chief administrative method of Sovietization.”
At the same time, the Soviet authorities kept the Jewish population uninformed about the ongoing Nazi atrocities just across the border, maintaining a deliberate silence that enabled the Holocaust. As part of the non-aggression pact, Soviet organs did not report the genocidal massacres conducted by the Nazis between 1939 and 1941. Those aforementioned anti-Nazi films were no longer being produced. Soviet newspapers like Pravda scarcely even used the word “fascist” from 1939 to 1941. This silence continued even after the Nazis broke the pact and invaded the USSR, a move that precipitated the extermination of 1.5 million Jews in White Russia and Ukraine. In essence, Stalin’s silence and inaction allowed the Holocaust to unfold without any meaningful resistance or counteraction.
Moreover, Soviet complicity contributed to the normalization of Nazi violence. Jewish victims of mass executions were routinely referred to as “Poles” or “Ukrainians” in Soviet media, obscuring the specific anti-Semitic nature of the Nazi pogroms. The Soviet population, despite constant indoctrination, was not educated about Nazi anti-Semitism or their genocide plan, fostering ignorance that ultimately led to widespread collaboration against Jewish populations.
In tandem with these policies, the Soviet Union also provided economic support to Nazi Germany, which was instrumental in facilitating Hitler’s war of conquest. The importance of this assistance cannot be underestimated as the USSR supplied significant quantities of food and raw materials to the Nazis. For instance, during the invasion of France and the Low Countries, the USSR supplied the Reich with 163,000 tons of petroleum and 243,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat in May and June of 1940 alone. As German demand increased during critical battles, such as at Dunkirk, Soviet oil deliveries surged to meet the needs, effectively fueling Hitler’s conquest of Western Europe.
Publicly, the Soviet Union even supported the German invasion of France and the Low Countries. The French Communist Party was instructed not to resist the Germans, leading to a wave of defections and further weakening France’s ability to withstand the German onslaught. Despite internal dissension and resistance, the Soviets continued to propagate defeatist slogans, actively undermining the war effort against the Nazis.
In today’s discourse, there is a tendency among Soviet apologists to laud the USSR as the singular force that ultimately toppled the Nazi regime in 1945. This, of course, ignores the critical support that came from the US via Lend-Lease. Even Stalin admitted “Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war.” While the sacrifices made by millions of Soviet soldiers should not be forgotten or swept under the rug, it is vital for us to simultaneously illuminate the darker corners of this past.
We should resist the call to ignore the sobering reality of the Soviet Union’s complicity. One cannot forget that the initial alliance forged between Stalin and Hitler was rooted not in necessity but sprouted from the soil of Stalin’s socialist ideology. Such was the poison entwined within this political tapestry that, had Hitler not invaded the USSR in 1941, or had he chosen to altogether forgo this path, the Soviet Union might have continued to stand in silence and support. Their eyes turned away, they could have remained an observer and accomplice as the monstrous Nazi regime crept across Europe.
As we peer into the past, a shadow of sorrow is cast, an echo of lament for the once voiceless victims, resonating with a plea that history might not repeat its darkest hours. Our duty to memory requires us to hold these bitter truths close and learn from them if we are to honor the legacies of those who suffered and died under the shadow of totalitarian regimes.
Critics say US school debate in peril as ‘woke’ judges only approve Left-wing views
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/05/27/us-school-debate-peril-left-wing-arguments/
Critics say US school debate in peril as ‘woke’ judges only approve Left-wing views
Students and debating coaches say high schools are seeing ‘decline’ in debating after judges’ criteria have become riddled with ideology
By Rozina Sabur
27 May 2023
US high-school debating is under threat because judges who will only approve Left-wing arguments have “created a culture that stifles free speech”, insiders have claimed.
Students and debating coaches told The Telegraph that school communities were seeing a “decline” in youth debating because tournament judges’ criteria have “become riddled with political and ideological” statements.
James Fishback, a former high-school debater and coach, said there were around 250,000 students nationally who participate in high-school debate, with many going on to compete in national tournaments.
Many of them are overseen by the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA), which Mr Fishback claims has been “captured by the radical Left”.
Mr Fishback highlighted some judges’ records and “paradigms”, which outline what they look for during a debate, in a lengthy article for The Free Press.
‘Marxist-Leninist-Maoist’
One judge, who describes herself as a “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist”, has openly declared she “cannot check [her views] at the door when I’m judging” on the NSDA website.
The judge, Lila Lavender, a former debating champion herself, goes on to state: “I will no longer evaluate and thus ever vote for Rightist capitalist-imperialist positions/arguments.”
Mr Fishback said another judge, X Braithwaite, “gives people of colour priority” in debates.
He said that an accepted practice was for students from opposing teams to disclose their evidence before their round, “as both teams benefit from spending more time with the other team’s evidence”.
Judge Braithwaite’s paradigm says of disclosure policy: “Disclosure theory is fine EXCEPT when you are debating a black person or you are one.”
‘Judges are also coaches’
According to Mr Fishback, that particular judge has adjudicated 169 debate rounds with 340 students.
Meanwhile, he said Ms Lavender, in addition to judging tournaments, worked as a coach “at one of the most prestigious debate camps in the country”.
“So it’s so much bigger than just the [tournaments] because a lot of these judges are also coaches,” said Mr Fishback.
One former debater, who now coaches high-school and university debate teams, said that participation rates have “cratered” as a result.
“There’s fewer teams than ever,” he said. “Major tournaments like Harvard’s used to be prestigious. Now it’s regarded in the debating community as kind of just a tournament for mediocre teams.”
‘Racism’ accusations
The former debater, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had competed in one of the biggest high-school competitions, the Tournament of Champions.
But he had been turned off by accusations that he was “harbouring racism or homophobia” during rounds of debates.
He said in one debate, where he supported granting visas for overseas students to study in the US, he was told he was advocating “to essentially remove the indigenous population from America”.
Mr Fishback, who coached at a high school in a low-income, predominantly black community in Miami, said he had seen first-hand the impact this politically-charged environment was having on students.
He claimed one of his students, a young black man, had lost a debate because he “condemned” the Black Lives Matter organisation during an exchange.
‘That’s what lost you the round’
“The judge said afterwards: ‘That’s what lost you the round,’” Mr Fishback said.
He added that another student who lost his round was told by a judge on a feedback slip: “Better luck next time, Trumpy.”
“Students quickly realise if they say the wrong thing, they’ll lose. They’re coerced into conforming and you stifle free speech,” he said.
Steve DuBois, a debate coach at St Thomas Aquinas High School in Kansas City, said one of his students recently gave a speech arguing against impeaching the Republican governor of Kansas.
The student was assigned the lowest-possible score, Mr DuBois said, by a judge who “made clear in his ballot comments that the competitor was being punished not for any element of her delivery or argumentation, but for ‘defending a fascist’.”
However, Mr DuBois said he disagreed with any framing of the situation as a “free-speech” issue. “At the end of the day, every debate judge is a critic of arguments and will prefer some of them to others,” he said.
The NSDA has not yet responded to The Telegraph’s request for comment.
Christians caught with a Bible in North Korea have faced death and had their families, including children, thrown in prison for life, a new report says
Christians caught with a Bible in North Korea have faced death and had their families, including children, thrown in prison for life, a new report says
By Ryan Pickrell
May 26, 2023
North Korea offers freedom of religion to its citizens on paper but not in practice.
It has imprisoned tens of thousands of Christians, according to a State Department report, citing NGO research.
The recent report reveals executions and imprisonment for life for people caught with religious materials.
North Korea is notorious for the cruelty it inflicts on people deemed undesirable by the state. In the Hermit Kingdom that prizes weaponry over its own people, many of whom are starving and live in abject poverty, tens of thousands of Christians are said to be languishing in prisons.
A recently released Department of State report notes that while North Korea constitutionally allows for religious freedom, there is no such thing in practice.
The constitution vaguely states that religion must not harm the state or social order, giving authorities room to target those who seek to openly follow their faith.
The report from the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, citing research conducted by non-governmental organizations which have gathered testimony from defectors, says as many as 70,000 Christians have been imprisoned in camps along with those believers from other religions.
One NGO, Open Doors USA, has reported that for Christians in North Korea, life is a “constant cauldron of pressure” and “capture or death is only a mistake away.”
As State highlights in its report, North Korean government documents state that “freedom of religion is allowed and provided by the State law within the limit necessary for securing social order, health, social security, morality and other human rights.”
Anything beyond that can land citizens in deep trouble.
People who have been arrested for religious crimes have reportedly faced detention and forced labor, torture, sexual violence, and death.
Christians are considered a “hostile class” in the songbun system, in which people derive status from loyalty to the state and its leadership. Christians, ODUSA reported, are regarded as the lowest in society and are constantly “vulnerable and in danger.”
The Department of State, pulling from information collected by NGOs, noted that an entire family, including their two-year-old child, was imprisoned following the discovery of their religious practices and possession of a Bible.
The family, which was most likely targeted by the Ministry of State Security that handles roughly 90 percent of these cases, was sentenced to life in prison.
A report from the NGO Korea Future documented a shocking incident in which a man caught praying was nearly beaten to death by guards. Another incident involved a Korean Worker’s Party member who was found with a Bible, taken by authorities out to an airfield, and executed before a crowd of thousands.
North Korea celebrates the Kim family, specifically the current ruler, Kim Jong Un, and his late father and grandfather, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, above all, recognizing the Kim dynasty or Mount Paektu bloodline in ways reminiscent of deification.
The State Department report, pointing to Korea Future’s research, says that the state ideology “Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism” has “many hallmarks of religion.” It notes the state regards the two previous leaders as “extraordinary beings.”
ODUSA has reported that Christian materials, including Bibles, are leftovers from the early 20th century up to World War II and are passed among believers. Though there have been reports of underground churches, it is unclear if these are active given that, as one defector said, “meeting other Christians in order to worship is almost impossible.” Some even fear being reported by their own family members.
This situation has long been a problem in North Korea, and State noted that “multiple sources indicated the situation had not fundamentally changed since” the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry report on human rights in the in North Korea was published. That report found that North Korea “denied the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion” and engaged in “crimes against humanity.”
In her own words: A high school debate judge named Lila Lavender says that she will always vote against any debater who argues in favor of capitalism
A high school debate judge named Lila Lavender says that she will always vote against any debater who argues in favor of capitalism.
Sources:
https://www.thefp.com/p/judges-ruin-high-school-debate-tournaments
Here is Lila Lavender in her own words:
Original: https://www.tabroom.com/index/paradigm.mhtml?judge_person_id=114657
Lila Lavender
Paradigm
Record
Certifications
Paradigm Statement
Last changed 25 May 2023 6:44 PM PDT
She/Her
Hey yall!! I’m lila!!
Email Chain: For both LD and Policy I would like to be on an email chain, email is [ask me before the round starts]. If you have any questions or revolutionary criticisms of my paradigm, I would love for you to email me as well!! ^^ To keep my paradigm as short as possible, I have also omitted my thoughts on how I evaluate specific positions (i.e Ks, theory, ADV/DAs, etc). So if you have any questions about that, feel free to email me or find me before prep/the round/etc!!
Quick Pref Sheet:
1 – K
2/3 – LARP
3/4 – Theory (I am good at evaluating theory and went for it all the time when I was competing, vacuous debate just makes me mad).
4/5 – Phil
10 – Tricks (ill just never vote on this).
Paradigm – Short:
Tech > truth.
Go as fast as you want, i’ll be able to flow it.
I judge every debate format in the same way: on the flow and based on (in one way or another) which team or debater wins offense that outweighs their opponents.
I will never vote for rightest capitalist-imperialist positions/arguments. For example: capitalism good, neoliberalism good, imperialist war good, fascism good, bourgeois (like US) nationalism, normalizing Israel or Zionism, US white fascist policing good, etc.
Barring the above, read whatever you want and i’ll vote on it if you win it!!
Paradigm – Long:
Before anything else, including being a debate judge, I am a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist. I have realized as a result of this, I cannot check the revolutionary proletarian science at the door when i’m judging – as thats both impossible and opportunism. If you have had me as a judge before, this explicit decision of mine does not change how you understand I evaluate rounds, with one specific exception: I will no longer evaluate and thus ever vote for rightest capitalist-imperialist positions/arguments. Meaning, arguments/positions which defend the bourgeoisie’s class dictatorship (monopoly capitalism and thus imperialism), from a right-wing political form. I.e., the politics, ideology, and practice of the right-wing of the bourgeoisie.
Examples of arguments of this nature are as follows: fascism good, capitalism good, imperialist war good, neoliberalism good, defenses of US or otherwise bourgeois nationalism, Zionism or normalizing Israel, colonialism good, US white fascist policing good, etc. In the context of a debate round, by default this will function through ‘drop the argument.’ I.e., if you read an advantage or DA that represents the right-wing of the bourgeoisie, I won’t evaluate that advantage or DA. If your whole 1AC or 1NC strategy is rightest capitalist-imperialist in nature, I won’t evaluate your whole 1AC or 1NC. This only becomes ‘drop the debater’ if you violently and egregiously defend counterrevolution.
For example, if the arc of your argument is about how Afghanistan can never be self-reliant and is inherently ‘full of terrorists’ (thus requiring US imperialist rule), you will lose regardless of what happens on the flow. The brightline for what I described above is liberalism. Or in other words, I will still evaluate ‘soft left’ positions/arguments – those which represent the liberal wing of the bourgeoisie. To be clear, this is not because liberalism is any less counterrevolutionary or less of a weapon of monopoly capitalism than rightism is. Nor is this the modern revisionist nonsense which posits that there is a ‘peaceful’ wing of the bourgeoisie and thus imperialism.
Rather, it’s because it’s a practical necessity given debate’s class basis. In one way or another, given debate’s bourgeois class basis and function as imperialist propaganda, the vast majority of 1ACs/1NCs are liberal in some form; this includes the vast majority of Ks. Thus, if I were to extend this paradigm to correctly also cease evaluating liberal arguments/positions, it would mean either it would be impossible for me to evaluate 99% of rounds or there would be a even higher chance of me getting struck out of the pool. Which in the practical sense is not a decision I can make, because as a result of US monopoly capitalist exploitation, I rely in-part on judging to eat and survive bourgeois class warfare otherwise.
So within that context, as much as I can, I will use my power as a judge to propagate the Maoist line and remove as much of the most explicit reactionary arguments/positions as possible. As Aly put it, “some level of paternalism from those of us who are committed to ensuring the future survival of this activity is necessary.” I know that there are going to some individuals who are greatly upset by this paradigm. For the vast majority of you, thats fine, the class antagonism is clear. For the rest of you, whose concerns may be genuine, consider the following.
Every single judge exerts a paradigm that, to differing degrees, will not evaluate particular arguments/positions. Most judges do not explicitly state or justify what that entails, and many judges do explicitly as well – in both positive and negative ways. For example, many judges (correctly) will not vote for openly racist/cissexist/misogynistic/nationally oppressive arguments; it goes without saying, but I won’t ever vote for and will drop you for these arguments as well. Or in another way, (incorrectly) debate conservatives refuse to vote for Ks all the time.
The only reason this specific paradigm will seem especially concerning, is because of the bourgeois class nature of debate and thus its’ ideological function in service of imperialism. One which is inherently in contradiction to proletarian revolution and human emancipation, and thus antagonistic to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. This is demonstrated well by the contradiction that most judges correctly will vote down debaters for being openly racist, yet will vote for positions which endorse the butchering of colonized and nationally oppressed People by US imperialist wars; something ive been guilty of in the past. As always, if you have any questions or good-faith criticisms of anything I mentioned within my paradigm, please don’t hesitate to email me – I will always get back to you as soon as I can!! :))
Proletarians of all countries, unite!!
Misc Thoughts:
Non-Black debaters should not read afro-pess, I will drop you if you do. Read: https://thedrinkinggourd.home.blog/2019/12/29/on-non-black-afropessimism/ Note: don’t use this as an opportunistic excuse to not defend or have a line on New Afrikan national liberation, as thats gross and chauvinist.
I am a transgender woman who has a deeper voice, please take that into account. It’s exhausting to see judges and debaters who are unable to resolve this contradiction, either attribute my RFD to men on the panel, or treat me like a man as a result of my voice.
Cap debaters need to stop reading modern revisionism or ‘left’ opportunism guising itself as ‘Marxism,’ and truly grasp what Marxism is. This is a good place to start study wise: https://michaelharrison.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/The-Collected-Works-of-The-Communist-Party-of-Peru-Volume-2-1988-1990.pdf
It’s a real shame that as a result of bourgeois feminism, be that white feminism or cissexist feminism, debaters have abandoned advancing the necessity of women’s liberation. The proletarian line on feminism needs to be brought to debate, here is a good place to start study wise: https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/S02-Philosophical-Trends-in-the-Feminist-Movement-9th-Printing.pdf
For Parli Only – I will NEVER vote for an argument that says “reading Ks is only for rich schools and only rich debaters read Ks.” There is a reason why this argument is read 99% of the time by schools and debaters flush with capital, it’s because it’s a bourgeois lie and distortion of debate history. Particularly one which, among many things, enables and was enabled by white chauvinism in debate. There is a good chance I will drop you for making this argument as well, so either don’t read it in front of me or better yet strike me.
While their are certainly contexts in which trigger warnings are legitimately necessary, i.e in graphic descriptions or displays of counterrevolutionary violence (sexual or otherwise), there are also ways in which trigger warnings are weaponized by bourgeois politics for counterrevolution. I.e., how it’s used to obscure or mystify ongoing exploitation and thus oppression, or to protect bourgeois sensibilities. Merely discussing the existence of counterrevolutionary violence DOES NOT require a trigger warning, that is absurd and nothing but liberalism. If this occurs in a round that I am judging you in, I am very receptive to revolutionary criticisms of this liberalism. As Black Like Mao puts it “it is important to steel oneself because real life has no trigger warnings. This is not a call to willfully subject oneself to a constant barrage of horrors, because that is a recipe for depression and all kinds of other nasties, but a reminder that this stuff is happening and if you happen to be in the midst of one of these incidents there is no running away or covering one’s eyes.”
Given events that happened during the 2022 Stephen Stewart finals, I now have a very specific threshold for voting on Speed Bad theory. That threshold being that unless you have disclosed to your opponents that you have an audio-processing disability and/or show me your flows (your lack of ability to flow the arguments being spread), I will not vote on Speed Bad theory. The way this will function on the technical level is that if that threshold is not met, or another threshold which objectively not subjectively proves engagement was not possible (because of speed), I will grant the other team a we-meet on the interp – regardless of what happens on the flow. To be clear, this is not because I don’t think that there are legitimate justifications of Speed Bad theory or that teams don’t abuse speed in reactionary ways, there are and they do. But rather, it’s because this interp has and continues to be used in an actively counterrevolutionary way. I.e., to advance monopoly capitalist and thus imperialist propaganda, and justify blatant male chauvinist harassment. This does not apply to novices.
Former AOC aide Justine Medina now working as New York Communist Party boss
https://nypost.com/2023/05/13/ex-aoc-aide-justine-medina-now-new-york-communist-party-boss
Former AOC aide Justine Medina now working as New York Communist Party boss
By Jon Levine
May 13, 2023
A ex-aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now working as a senior official in the New York State Communist Party.
Justine Medina, 33, spent a year employed by “The Squad” leader as a political organizer in 2020 and was paid more than $35,000 between February and November of that year, Federal Election Commission records show.
Almost immediately after the election, Medina began working as a full-blown Marxist. In July 2021, she was identified as “co-chair of the New York Young Communist League” by the Communist Party newspaper People’s World. The same publication today identifies her as a member of the “Executive Committee of the New York State Communist Party.”
Social media records show Medina’s Marxist proclivities were in full bloom before and during her employment with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.
“Well, I am a Communist, but work for AOC,” she said proudly in a tweet from October 2020. “Communism is about equality, democracy, peace, the advancement of workers, the oppressed, and humanity in general,” she added a month later.
“It is true the path there will be unkind to those who block progress, but Communism is good and should not scare you,” she noted darkly in the same posting.
In AOC’s campaign, Medina was responsible for “organizing & writing policy language with Anti-War Veterans & the Peace Movement,” she noted in March.
AOC follows Medina on Twitter and the two have posed for a smiling photo in the past.
Medina was involved in successful efforts to unionize Amazon’s workforce, efforts she bragged about in an article for the Communist Party website, which identified her as a packer at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. AOC has long been an Amazon antagonist. She played an integral role in killing a plan by the company to open a headquarters in New York City and has been a vocal supporter of Amazon unionization efforts — though some on the frontline note she has often failed to show up.
Like any good organizer, Medina also has a long history of arrests. She was booked at least twice in June 2020 during Black Lives Matter riots which convulsed the city. In a tweet, she complained cops’ zip ties were too tight. She was also busted that year for attempting to deface a plaque honoring Fred Trump in Woodhaven, Queens, according to the New Yorker.
Like many socialists, Medina is a child of privilege.
She is the daughter of Cuban-American lawyer Omar Medina, a wealthy trial attorney out of Tampa with a checkered past. Omar Medina’s license was suspended for 30 days in 2013 after he made false statements on behalf of a client, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported. That same year he was sued for wage theft — the case was settled. He lives in a five bedroom, six-bathroom, 5,316-square foot manse in Tampa worth more than $3 million. He has donated thousands of dollars to President Biden and Hillary Clinton, records show.
“As for her allegiance to the Communist Party, I could not be further removed from that. It’s a big problem,” Omar Medina told The Post. “My family escaped communism, and my daughter is misguided as to the benefits that political system provides, it flat out doesn’t work.”
Justine Medina dismissed her father as a “rich anti-Castro … liberal,” who “just buy things.”
“It’s frightening. They’re coming out of the woodwork,” said Queens Councilman Bob Holden, a Democrat. “Communism has failed in so many places that it is mind-boggling that AOC’s constituents keep electing her. This is kind of like a smoking gun that these elected officials and congresspeople are out and out communist.”
Harlan Crow collects memorabilia from the Nazis and the communists. The mainstream media only criticized him for one, and gave him a pass on the other.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
April 11, 2023
When I heard about recent news reports that Harlan Crow (a friend of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas) collected Nazi memorabilia, I thought, “Maybe there’s a context to this collecting that isn’t being accurately reported – or maybe not.”
Well, as it turns out, the context is that the media has a double standard when it comes to Nazism and communism. They criticized Crow for collecting memorabilia for one, while giving him a pass on the other.
Wikipedia states:
“Crow’s backyard garden is home to at least 20 statues of authoritarian leaders and Communist icons, including Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong, Karl Marx, Hosni Mubarak, Josip Broz Tito, Nicolae Ceausescu, Walter Ulbricht, Gavrilo Princip, Bela Kun, and Che Guevara. Crow acquired these former public monuments after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. According to Crow, he collects such memorabilia because he ‘hates communism and fascism.’ Crow also owns original paintings by Adolf Hitler, Claude Monet, Rembrandt Peale, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Winston Churchill, and Dwight Eisenhower.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Crow
I hate the media’s double standard for Nazism vs communism.
On the other hand, I love the fact that Crow “hates communism and fascism.” As a libertarian, I view the two as being very similar to each other. I never understood how anyone could hate only one but not the other. If I go to a restaurant and the menu has a bowl of feces and a bowl of pus, I would walk out. And I would never understand any person who was only disgusted by one but not by the other.
I asked ChatGPT: Why do people wear Che Guevara t-shirts?
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
February 26, 2023
I recently had the following conversation with ChatGPT:
Me: Why do people wear Che Guevara t-shirts?
ChatGPT: People wear Che Guevara t-shirts for various reasons. Some wear them as a symbol of rebellion or as a way to express their political views. Che Guevara was an important figure in the Cuban Revolution and is viewed as a hero by many left-wing and anti-capitalist activists. The image of Guevara, often depicted wearing a beret and with a determined expression, has become a symbol of revolution and resistance for some people. However, it is worth noting that Che Guevara’s legacy is a controversial one, with some critics pointing to his violent methods and authoritarian tendencies.
Me: A hero? He personally executed many people without a trial. He was a serial killer.
ChatGPT: Che Guevara is a controversial figure and opinions about him vary widely. Some people view him as a revolutionary hero who fought for social justice and against imperialism, while others see him as a brutal oppressor who committed atrocities in the name of ideology.
It is true that Guevara played a role in executing individuals without trial during his time as a revolutionary in Cuba. These executions were part of a wider campaign to consolidate power and suppress opposition, and are often cited as evidence of Guevara’s brutal tactics.
Despite this, many people continue to wear Che Guevara t-shirts and other merchandise as a symbol of resistance against oppression and imperialism. To these individuals, Guevara represents a spirit of defiance and rebellion against unjust systems of power.
Me: What does killing innocent people have to do with “social justice”?
ChatGPT: Killing innocent people does not have anything to do with “social justice.” “Social justice” refers to the fair distribution of resources and opportunities in society, and the recognition and protection of the rights of all individuals, regardless of their background or social status. Engaging in acts of violence or terrorism, regardless of one’s ideology or beliefs, can never be justified as a means of achieving social justice. It is important to work towards social justice through peaceful and constructive means, such as advocacy, education, and community engagement.
Me: It was you, not me, who used that phrase. I was just quoting what you had already said.
ChatGPT: I apologize for any confusion. To clarify, my previous statement was in reference to the importance of treating all individuals with inherent worth and dignity, regardless of their actions or behavior. It was not meant to justify or condone the actions of individuals who engage in violence or harm others.
Chickens are self replicating. A hen lays approximately 5 eggs per week. Therefore, the communists who control Cuba would have to be especially incompetent to create a shortage of chickens.
This CNN video is from 2019. It was filmed in Cuba. It shows a large number of people waiting in line, for many hours, all based on the hope that there might, maybe, possibly be one chicken available for them when they finally get to the front of the line. Maybe they’ll get a chicken that day. Maybe not.
Even if they do manage to get a chicken after waiting in line for many hours, the opportunity cost of waiting in line for such a long amount of time is enormous. Imagine all of the things that all of those people could be doing with all of that time if they were living in a country that wasn’t Cuba.
Chickens are self replicating. A hen lays approximately 5 eggs per week.
Therefore, the communists who control Cuba would have to be especially incompetent to create a shortage of chickens.
Skip to 3:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1OETmSugh8
North Korean communists can’t figure out how to get elevators or water to the top floors of residential skyscrapers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-8glaZNXFk
https://www.yahoo.com/news/north-korean-penthouses-look-glamorous-233656358.html
Why only the poorest North Koreans live in the country’s high-rise penthouses
By Daniel Anderson
April 15, 2022
North Korea has finished construction of an 80-story residential skyscraper complete with penthouses in the capital of Pyongyang, but only some of the least fortunate in the country reportedly choose to live on the top floors of the country’s high-rise apartments.
Defectors have said that many North Koreans take issue with the higher floors of these apartments due to a lack of working elevators, electrical issues, minimal water supply and poor overall safety and quality, according to Reuters.
“In North Korea, the poor live in penthouses rather than the rich because lifts are often not working properly, and they cannot pump up water due to the low pressure,” Jung Si-woo, a 31-year-old North Korean defector, told Reuters.
Jung gave an example, adding, “A friend who lived on the 28th floor of a 40-story block had never used the elevator because it was not working. Most elevators worked just twice a day, during peak commuting hours from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., and the same timing in the evening.”
North Korean citizens are not given many options because housing is assigned, and the buying and selling of homes is illegal.
According to state media, housing development is an important goal for North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, and he has promised to build thousands of apartments. On Wednesday, the country completed construction on 10,000 new apartments, taking pride in their completion time and quality.
In Jung’s opinion, however, the efforts are theatrics. “It’s to show how much their construction skills have improved, rather than considering residents’ preferences.”
The editor-in-chief of Daily NK, Lee Sang-yong, a Seoul-based website that reports on North Korea, corroborates Jung’s claims, saying his sources reported that the “apartments for regular people were not ready to live in.”
“Windows had only frames, and water taps, though installed, were not working; but the recently completed luxury homes come complete with furniture and utensils,” Lee explains.
Kim Jong Un recently gifted a two-story luxury apartment to North Korean TV anchor Ri Chun-hee as thanks for her loyalty, saying, “There is nothing to spare for national treasures like Ri Chun-hee, who has led a virtuous life with the revolutionary microphone.”
Cuban Goes to Home Depot for FIRST TIME – DREAM CAME TRUE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLsscvpsH8E
Cuba lashes out after young baseball players defect in Mexico
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/03/americas/cuban-baseball-players-defect-intl/index.html
Cuba lashes out after young baseball players defect in Mexico
By Patrick Oppmann
October 3, 2021
Havana (CNN) Cuba’s state media on Sunday lashed out after nearly a dozen Cuban baseball players defected in Mexico — believed to be one of the country’s largest and most embarrassing known incidents of mass defection in years.
Eleven young baseball players defected from the national team during a tournament for players under the age of 23, which began last month. The remaining Cuban players on the team are due to return to the communist-run island on Monday.
A statement from Cuba’s National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) slammed the missing players for “weak morals and ethics.”
Cuban officials also blamed the US for restrictions that force Cuban players to defect in order to play in the Major Leagues.
Typically only the players who are seen as most loyal to the government are selected to play abroad and are accompanied by government chaperones to prevent them from defecting.
Cuba has been hard hit economically during the pandemic with few tourists visiting and restrictions on international flights which has prevented many Cubans from leaving the island.
I think it’s great the BLM founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors bought four homes with the money that she earned from her book sales and speaking fees. Although she called herself a “Marxist,” her actions prove that she is actually a capitalist. Actions speak louder than words.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors is one of the founders of Black Lives Matter. She recently bought four homes with the money that she earned from her book sales and speaking fees. Although she called herself a “Marxist,” her actions prove that she is actually a capitalist. Actions speak louder than words.
In this video, Khan-Cullors says:
“We are trained Marxists”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EvOyW5vIdg
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels says:
“In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
Source: http://activistmanifesto.org/assets/original-communist-manifesto.pdf
Actions speak louder than words. Khan-Cullors says that she is a Marxist. But her actions prove the exact opposite. Her actions prove that she is very much in favor of private property.
I’m glad Khan-Cullors bought those homes. As I’ve said many times before, communism is so horrible that even the people who claim to be in favor of it never actually move to communist countries. Khan-Cullors’s purchase of these four homes proves that she is very much against communism, no matter what words may come out of her mouth.
Villanova University sociology professor Glenn Bracey encourages adoption of Critical Race Theory due to its roots in Marxism
Thanks to Gateway Pundit for this article on it.
The video below shows Villanova University sociology professor Glenn Bracey saying the following:
“The Marxist foundation of Critical Race Theory is at base a spiritual concern. If you read Marx you know that he was concerned about alienation. Specifically, alienation of the species being. That element of humanity that provides creativity that is unique to the individual – that really gives us – it is what defines humans from animals in that case. Marx was concerned that our modern systems were flattening that humanity and alienating us from the creative endeavors that we were – Christians would say – we were designed to emulate and to practice. So the core question for Critical Race Theory is one of releasing people – especially people of color, especially Black people – from the oppressive systems that deny us access to our species being, including racism. It’s Marxism, my point being Critical Race Theory’s Marxism is fundamentally a spiritual concern.”
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1398644441129365504
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS5tLQcYRbU
https://www.bitchute.com/video/CuMe28VYzy93/
Voting With Their Feet Against Socialism
Voting With Their Feet Against Socialism
By Humberto Fontova
May 29, 2021
“2 Dead, 10 Missing after boat carrying Cuban migrants overturns near key West.” (CBS Miami, 5/27)
“Three Cubans survived for 33 days on deserted island eating coconuts and rats. … US Coast Guard officials said the trio from Cuba told them their boat had capsized in rough waters and they were able to swim to Anguilla Cay, where they spent 33 days before they were spotted and rescued.” (Daily Telegraph 2/21.)
“Cuban baseball star César Prieto defects to U.S.– Cuban baseball player César Prieto, a highly touted 22-year-old infielder, ditched the Cuban national team Wednesday and defected to the United States…The player hopped in a car outside the team hotel almost immediately after their bus arrived. (Yahoo Sports, 5/27.)
Any cursory review of recent news will turn up numerous headlines like the ones above. And yet:
“People enjoy life in Cuba like in few other places. They’re safe, literate and healthy!” (Time magazine in their World’s Greatest Places Issue, March, 2015.)
And back in 2011 Newsweek magazine hailed Cuba among “The Best Countries in the World,” in terms of quality of life. “Cuba outdoes its fellow middle-income countries in quality of life,” explained the 1993 “National Magazine Award for General Excellence” winner.
“Fidel Castro first and foremost is and always has been a committed egalitarian. He wanted a system that provided the basic needs to all Cuba has superb systems of health care and universal education…We greeted each other as old friends.” (Former President of the United States and official “Elder Statesman” of the Democrat Party.)
“A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in… And how many want out,” famously quipped Tony Blair. Well, prior to the Castro brothers’ and Che Guevara’s Stalinist coup in 1959, Cuba took in more immigrants (primarily from Europe) as a percentage of population than did the U.S., including the Ellis Island years. In the 1950s, when Cubans were perfectly free to emigrate with all their property and U.S. visas were issued to them for the asking, fewer Cubans lived in the U.S. than Americans lived in Cuba.
You’d never guess this from the Fake News media, Hollywood, or your professors, but in 1953 more Cubans vacationed in the U.S. (and voluntarily returned to Cuba) than Americans in Cuba. Yes, for pre-Castro Cubans the U.S. was a “tourist playground.”
“What?” you say. But you’ve always heard that it was the other way around? That Cuba was a tourist playground for Americans? Indeed it was—but the tourist traffic went both ways, as befit a nation described by a 1957 UNESCO report thusly: “One feature of the Cuban social structure is a large middle class. So check it out here–and please click links for thorough documentation.
Point is, during the 1950s and based in Florida, Sheriff Joe Arpaio would have been lonelier than the Maytag repairman.
Given their record, a few such statements are probably out there, but I never heard a liberal crowing about the superb quality of life in East Germany, with “its free healthcare, education…blah, blah.” And yet over ten times as many people (and counting) have died attempting to flee Communist Cuba (which liberals routinely praise) than died trying to flee Communist East Germany.
In fact, when liberals hail the Castros and Che Guevara’s communism as somehow “different” from typical Iron Curtain communism they have a point:
It’s WORSE!
Between two and three hundred people died trying to breach the Berlin Wall. Between twenty five and forty thousand people (men, women, and children, entire families at a time) have died trying to escape Castro and Che Guevara’s Cuba, a nation that prior to Castroism was inundated with more immigrants (mostly from Europe) per-capita than was the U.S., including the Ellis Island years.
In 1992 former East German dictator Erich Honecker was tried (to no avail) for the deaths of 192 Germans killed while attempting to cross the Berlin wall. Some human rights groups estimate that actually three hundred people (out of an average East German population over the decades of 18 million) died trying to breach the Berlin Wall or otherwise escape East Germany.
After the thousands of many machine-gun blasts from their Frontier “Guards,” (the Berlin Wall itself was officially titled the “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart”) kept disturbing Castro and Che’s coastal subjects, the Castro brothers hit upon the scheme of having the Soviet helicopters flown by their “Guards” hover over the escaping freedom-seekers, often consisting of entire families—but to hold-off on shooting.
Instead of machine-gunning the families to death as years of tradition called for, they switched to dropping sandbags onto the rickety rafts and tiny boats to demolish and sink them. Then the Tiger Sharks and Hammerheads could do the Castroites’ deputy-work. Screams, groans and gurgles, after all, don’t carry nearly as far as machine-gun blasts.
“The best revolutionary German man I’ve ever known was Erich Honecker,” tweeted Fidel Castro on June 1th 2012 commemorating the 18th anniversary of the East German Stalinist’s death. “I maintain feelings of profound solidarity with Honecker.”
“What a chump!” Castro was probably thinking. “A measly 192?”
“In one week during 1962 we counted over 400 firing squad blasts from the execution yard below our cells,” recalled former Cuban political prisoner and freedom-fighter Roberto Martin Perez to this writer.
“This is the most savage kind of behavior I’ve ever heard of,” said Robert Gelbard, deputy assistant secretary of state for Latin America during the Clinton administration. “This is even worse than what happened at the Berlin Wall!” Gelbard had watched desperate Cubans trying to swim to our Guantanamo Base when machine-guns opened up and the water around them frothed in white, then red.
The corpses were retrieved by gallant Cuban Frontier “Guards” in a boat using the same type of gaffing hooks the lucky contestants in the Castro-regime-sponsored “Hemingway Fishing Festival” were using in nearby waters to yank thrashing Tuna and Marlin aboard their Cuba-registered yachts.
In September 2011 Spanish medical examiners found that an airline stowaway from Cuba named Adonis G.B. had his throat crushed. He probably died upon takeoff, meaning he probably died more quickly and painlessly than the tens of thousands of others who perished escaping Cuba’s free and fabulous healthcare.
It was a different story for the tens of thousands of dead Cuban rafters. Most of these desperate rafters probably died like captives of the Apaches, staked in the sun and dying slowly of sunburn and thirst. Others perished gasping and choking after their arms and legs finally gave out and they gulped that last lungful of seawater, much like the crew in The Perfect Storm. Still others were eaten alive — drawn and quartered by the serrated teeth of Hammerheads and Tiger sharks much like Captain Quint in Jaws. Perhaps these last perished the most mercifully. As we’ve all seen on the Discovery Channel, sharks don’t dally at a meal.
“In space no one can hear you scream,” says the ad for the original Alien. Same for the middle of the Florida straits — except, of course, for your raft-mates. While clinging to the disintegrating raft, while watching the fins rushing in and water frothing in white — then red — they hear the screams all too clearly.
All during the decades coinciding with Castro’s rule, the Coast Guard has documented hundreds of such stories. Were the cause of these horrors more politically-correct we’d have no end of books, movies, documentaries, TV interviews, Survival-Story specials, etc.. We’d never hear the end of it. Alas, the agents of this Caribbean holocaust consist of the Left’s premier pin-up boys.
Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, added a communist hammer and sickle to her own Twitter bio
Credit to Fox News for pointing this out:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-daughter-isra-hirsi-hammer-sickle
Isra Hirsi tweeted:
“reminder: just because you are a leftist/communist/socialist doesn’t mean you are automatically a good person.“
https://twitter.com/israhirsi/status/1219378837429063682
https://web.archive.org/web/20210406004229/https://twitter.com/israhirsi/status/1219378837429063682
Isra Hirsi also tweeted:
“let’s make it happen. who’s ready for revolution? #RIPCapitalism”
https://twitter.com/israhirsi/status/1260691640857120769
https://web.archive.org/web/20200711034902/https://twitter.com/israhirsi/status/1260691640857120769
Bill Maher’s Audience Cheers As He Trashes Young People With Far-Left Views: ‘Your Ideas Are Stupid’
Skip to 5:12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPSK7inXesA
Bill Maher’s Audience Cheers As He Trashes Young People With Far-Left Views: ‘Your Ideas Are Stupid’
April 24, 2021
Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time,” blasted young people who have far-left views ranging from wanting to abolish the police to wanting to try communism, saying that their ideas are stupid.
Maher’s remarks came during a segment where he highlighted how other countries respect their elders, whereas some in America think that the elderly are in the way and are not with the times.
“You know the reason why advertisers in this country love the 18 to 34 demographic?” Maher said. “Because it’s the most gullible. Yeah. A third of people under 35 say they’re in favor of abolishing the police — not defunding, but doing away with a police force altogether, which is less of a policy position and more of a leg tattoo. Thirty-six percent of millennials think it might be a good idea to try communism, but much of the world did try it.”
“I know, millennials think that doesn’t count because they weren’t alive when it happened. But it did happen. And there are people around who remember it. Pining for communism?” he continued. “It’s like pining for Betamax or Myspace. So when you say you’re old, you don’t get it. Get what? Abolish the police and the Border Patrol and capitalism and cancel Lincoln? No, I get it. The problem isn’t that I don’t get what you’re saying or that I’m old. The problem is that your ideas are stupid.”
Maher also blasted people who sit around on Twitch watching other people play video games and who spend an excessive amount of time playing around on their smartphones.
“Twenty percent of Gen Z agree with the statement, ‘society would be better off if all property was owned by the public and managed by the government,’ and another 29% saying they don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Maher concluded. “Here’s who does know: anyone who wasn’t born yesterday.”
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:
BILL MAHER, HOST OF REAL TIME: You know the reason why advertisers in this country love the 18 to 34 demographic? Because it’s the most gullible. Yeah. A third of people under 35 say they’re in favor of abolishing the police — not defunding, but doing away with a police force altogether, which is less of a policy position and more of a leg tattoo. Thirty-six percent of millennials think it might be a good idea to try communism, but much of the world did try it. I know, millennials think that doesn’t count because they weren’t alive when it happened. But it did happen. And there are people around who remember it. Pining for communism? It’s like pining for Betamax or Myspace. So when you say you’re old, you don’t get it. Get what? Abolish the police and the Border Patrol and capitalism and cancel Lincoln? No, I get it. The problem isn’t that I don’t get what you’re saying or that I’m old. The problem is that your ideas are stupid.
If you say let’s eat in the bathroom and s**t in the kitchen, yeah, that’s a new idea. But I wouldn’t call it interior design. You think someone 80 is hopeless because they can’t use an iPhone? Maybe the one who’s hopeless is the one who can’t stop using it. You think I’m out of it because I’m not on Twitch? Well, maybe I get Twitch. But I just think people watching other people play video games is a waste of f***ing time.
Twenty percent of Gen Z agree with the statement, ‘society would be better off if all property was owned by the public and managed by the government,’ and another 29% saying they don’t know if that’s a good idea. Here’s who does know: anyone who wasn’t born yesterday.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the Black Lives Matter founder who said, “We are trained Marxists,” has just purchased a $1.4 million home in an area where only 1.6% of the population is black
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EvOyW5vIdg
Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Buys $1.4 Million Home in Area With Just 1.6% Black Population
She chose to live in one of the whitest areas possible.
By Paul Joseph Watson
April 9, 2021
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors has chosen to live in one of the whitest areas of California after purchasing a $1.4 million dollar home in an area that has a black population of just 1.6 per cent.
A report by real estate website Dirt reveals that Khan-Cullors, who started the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in 2013 in response to George Zimmerman’s acquittal, has purchased a “secluded mini-compound tucked into L.A.’s rustic and semi-remote Topanga Canyon.”
“A winding 15 minute drive from The Commons at Calabasas and a slightly longer and somewhat less serpentine drive from Malibu’s Getty Villa, the pint-sized compound spans about one-quarter of an acre. The property’s not-quite 2,400 square feet is divided between the a three-bedroom and two-bath main house and a separate one-bed/one-bath apartment capable of hosting guests long term with a private entry and a living room with kitchenette,” writes Mark David.
According to official data, non-hispanic white people make up 82.3% of the population in Topanga Canyon while African-Americans comprise a mere 1.64% of the population.
Other counties in California boast a substantially higher black population, including Alameda (12.5 per cent) and Sacramento (10.2 per cent).
According to an L.A. Times report, Topanga Canyon is noted for its population’s “privilege” and “geographic isolation from the mellow-harshing realities of modern American life.”
Although black lives may matter to Khan-Cullors, it appears as though she isn’t too keen on living amongst black people.
Social justice hypocrites who often spout anti-white rhetoric while choosing to live in gentrified white areas is nothing new, in fact it’s a common theme.
Celebrities and politicians who espouse pro-mass immigration sentiment routinely live in the least diverse areas possible.
Cuba opens up its economy to private businesses
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-latin-america-55967709
Cuba opens up its economy to private businesses
February 7, 2021
Cuba has announced it will allow private businesses to operate in most sectors, in what is a major reform to its state-controlled economy.
Labour Minister Marta Elena Feito said the list of authorised activities had expanded from 127 to more than 2,000.
Only a minority of sectors would be reserved for the state, she said.
The communist country’s economy has been hit hard by the pandemic and US sanctions introduced by the Trump administration.
Last year its economy shrank by 11% – its worst decline in almost three decades – and Cubans have been facing shortages of basic goods.
Ms Feito said just 124 economic activities would be exempt from private involvement although she did not mention which ones.
“That private work continues to develop, is the objective of this reform,” Ms Feito was quoted by AFP as saying. She said the move would “help free the productive forces” of the private sector.
Experts on Cuba’s tangled and complicated economy say the step essentially opens up almost all economic activity on the island to some form of private enterprise, the BBC’s Will Grant in Havana says.
This will be a significant shot in the arm for those families and individuals who harbour hopes of moving beyond just the very small businesses into medium-sized ventures, he notes.
Apart from hundreds of thousands of small farms, Cuba’s non-state sector is composed mainly of small private businesses run by artisans, taxi drivers and tradesmen. Around 600,000 people, around 13% of the workforce, joined the private sector when the opportunity arose.
However a large number of private businesses are involved in the island’s tourist industry, which has been hard hit by the pandemic and sanctions.
Given how slowly reforms tend to move in Cuba, it may still be some time before the change is noticeable in daily economic life, our correspondent says.
Some 60 years of hostility between the US and Cuba were eased in 2015 when then US President Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro agreed to normalise relations , allowing US citizens to visit the island and empowering local businesses.
But Obama’s efforts were rolled back by his successor, President Donald Trump , with the support of hawkish Cuban-Americans who saw Mr Obama’s historic opening as an appeasement of Castro’s communist regime.
New US President Joe Biden – who was Barack Obama’s vice-president – has previously signalled that he wants to improve US-Cuban relations but observers say it is not clear how high it might be on his priority list.
Sarah Iannarone is leading the mayoral polls in Portland, Oregon. She likes Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and Che Guevara. Her campaign director, Gregory McKelvey, said, “I am a communist.”
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
October 12, 2020
Sarah Iannarone is running for mayor in Portland, Oregon. One poll has her ahead by 11%.
This photograph shows Iannarone wearing a dress that glorifies communist dictators and mass murderers Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and Che Guevara.
Source of image: https://www.westernjournal.com/leftist-mayoral-candidate-spotted-wearing-skirt-featuring-sinister-dictators/
Iannarone’s campaign director, Gregory McKelvey, said:
“I am a communist.”
Source: http://archive.is/ZfErT
Communism is such a horrible system that even the people who claim to be in favor of it never actually immigrate to communist countries. On the contrary, all of the immigration regarding communist countries is away from the communist countries, not into them.
Even though it’s illegal for Cubans to move out of Cuba, thousands risk their own lives every year on homemade rafts trying to get to the U.S.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., none of the college professors, social justice warriors, celebrities, or other left wing progressives who claim to be in favor of communism ever actually move to a communist country.
When the Berlin Wall came down, the rush of people was from East Germany to West Germany, not the other way around.
I believe that black lives matter. But here are 50 reasons why I do not support the organization that calls itself “Black Lives Matter.”
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
September 12, 2020
I believe that black lives matter. But here are 50 reasons why I do not support the organization that calls itself “Black Lives Matter.”
1) In this video, Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors says, “We are trained Marxists”
Black Lives Matter was founded by three people: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.
In this video, Cullors says, “We are trained Marxists.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EvOyW5vIdg
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels says:
“In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
Marxism is such a horrible system that even the people who claim to be in favor of Marxism never actually move to Marxist countries.
On the contrary, all immigration related to Marxist countries is away from Marxist countries, and never into them.
Every year, thousands of Cubans risk their lives on homemade rafts to leave the country.
Meanwhile, none of the U.S. college professors, celebrities, or social justice warriors who praise Cuba ever actually moves there.
When the Berlin Wall came down, all of the immigration was from east to west, not the other way around.
In the U.S., none of the college professors, celebrities, social justice warriors, or other people who claim to be in favor of communism, ever actually moves to a communist country.
No one who was born in South Korea ever moves to North Korea. But people who were born in North Korea risk getting shot and killed by armed border guards while trying to escape to South Korea.
Marxists are so evil that they have actually murdered far, far more innocent civilians than the Nazis did.
Marxism is an absolutely despicable and evil ideology.
2) Here’s a video from Oakland, California, from August 2020, of Black Lives Matter protestors saying “Death To America”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ACQm06xlM
3) Here’s a video from Seattle, from August 2020, where Black Lives Matter protestors demand that homeowners give up ownership of their homes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFrZJyggwgE
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