Free Republic

It would be easy to dismiss the Green New Deal as an impossible progressive dream, but that would be a mistake. The Green New Deal is not the bucket list of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow travelers, but a blueprint to turn America into a socialist state. It is the culmination of a 90-year campaign, begun with FDR and the first New Deal. “The first obligation of government is the protection of the welfare and well-being, indeed the very existence, of its citizens,” presidential nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt said at the 1932 Democratic National Convention. Roosevelt said that in...

When Democrats unveiled their “Green New Deal” to fight climate change, the Republican response was swift and strikingly uniform. “A socialist wish list,” said a spokesman for the national party. “The socialist Democrats are off to a great start!” exclaimed a spokesman for the GOP’s congressional campaign committee. “Socialism may begin with the best of intentions, but it always ends with the Gestapo,” chimed in Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, invoking Winston Churchill. The echo was no accident. Rather, it marked a purposeful shift in rhetoric and political strategy as President Trump and his party increasingly focus on his...

WASHINGTON — What is happening to the Democrats? Captivated by a handful of liberal superstars, they are venturing where the party has long feared to tread: Steep taxes on the rich. Abolishing an immigration enforcement agency. And proposing a sweeping Green New Deal that calls for an “economic transformation” to combat climate change. On Thursday, newly-elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez led a chorus of cheers as Amazon announced it was abandoning plans to build a sought-after headquarters in New York City. Activists berated the online giant for a $3 billion package of tax breaks she said the city could better invest...

Atheism is a natural and inseparable part of Marxism, of the theory and practice of scientific socialism. – Vladimir Lenin Religious, as indeed any other, ideas being born out of the soil of the material conditions of life and above all the soil of class contradictions, only gradually clear themselves away and then live on by the force of conservatism longer than the needs that gave birth to them and disappear completely only after the effects of serious social shocks and crises. – Leon Trotsky If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of...

I WAS TELLING MY FRENCH READERS ABOUT AOC’S CRAZY GREEN NEW DEAL ON A FRENCH-SPEAKING POLITICAL MEDIA. Even in Socialist France, where people suffer daily from “social justice”; where the government confiscates every month 50% of their pay check; where they pay 18% VAT and their tax return with what they have left; where 10% of the people, 25% of the youth is unemployed – and when they are lucky to find a job, it’s never in the field they studied for; where health care costs three times more than in the US – but they emphasize that it’s free...

The independent student newspaper at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, published an op-ed in which the student author slammed conservative ideas, saying they "are not equal to liberal and left ideas." The piece, titled "It's OK that conservatives don't feel welcome," appeared in the "Student Life" paper. The op-ed's author explained that conservative ideas don't "deserve equal consideration to that afforded liberal and left ideas." "There is no legitimate argument for supporting Donald Trump and his allies, at least not one that holds up in any academic community worth its salt," the author wrote. "But we shouldn’t create an...

Friends of Highgate Cemetery calls attack a ‘particularly inarticulate form of political comment’ The tomb of Karl Marx at London’s Highgate cemetery has been vandalised in a targeted attack that means the Grade I-listed monument will “never be the same again”. The suspected vandal damaged a marble plaque which was taken from Marx’s original 1881 gravestone and incorporated into the 1954 monument. Images of the defaced memorial, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year, show what appears to be damage done by a hammer to the lettering of Marx’s name and the marble on which it is mounted....

It’s been two years since the end of the Obama presidency and in that span, the mainstream Democratic Party has made an extreme shift to the far left. In 2019 the Democrats have put their weight behind increased taxes, universal health care, open borders, and third-trimester abortions. How do we account for this radical trend? A journalist friend of mine reports that his generally liberal college son was somewhat somnolent and indifferent during the Obama years, lulled into quiescence by liberal policies and moderate talk. Then came Trump. A huge splash of cold water hit his face and he and...

Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff Saikat Chakrabarti has praised his boss’s use of social media and communication, pointing out that she “changed the entire debate on tax in this country in a matter of days.” “She’s good at communicating and she’s good at taking a message and actually educating people and getting people to realize how these very complex policies work,” Saikat told CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday. The progressive 29-year-old representative from New York, who refers to herself as a Democratic Socialist, has pushed for a significant increase on income tax for the wealthiest Americans. Under her...

WASHINGTON - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez toppled a well-established Democratic leader in a stunning primary upset last year - now she's looking to spur others to do the same. In a promotional video for Justice Democrats, the grassroots group that backed Ocasio-Cortez's 2018 upstart run against Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent. Under the program, activists can nominate potential candidates for the group's backing. In the video, Ocasio-Cortez recounts how she was nominated by her brother and became interested in running while participating in environmental protests with Native Americans activists at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. "Everybody knows someone...

In a crowded field of Democrats vying for the presidency in 2020, one thing stands out. "Medicare-for-all" tops their campaign promises. On Sunday, the latest to announce, former Obama cabinet official Julian Castro, pledged to make Medicare-for-All a reality. But these candidates would rather walk on hot coals than tell you what "Medicare-for-all" costs: a whopping $32 trillion over 10 years. To raise that, all taxpayers, not just the rich, would have to hand a gut-wrenching share of their paycheck to Uncle Sam, based on Congressional Budget Office revenue tables. A single guy earning $82,500 a year, and currently paying...

What exactly is a socialist? You could spend all day studying encyclopedias and not settle anything. Using various definitions, you could probably prove that anybody is or isn't a socialist. So let's talk to a socialist. Ignore the verbiage and look inside his head. When someone announces to the world, "I'm a socialist," what is that person thinking? With this focus, everything becomes simpler. Socialists may not be able to claim experience, learning, smarts, or success. But they make up for all that by a boundless certitude about philosophical and political matters. It's as if they, albeit atheists, are guided...

It has long been noted that the leftist movement had transformed into a kind of religious cult – the Cult of victim seekers.Like any other cult, the leftists have their dogmas, their worldview, their taboos, and their idols. The list of “victims” of this cult is impressive. Well-known recent “victims” are nature (destroyed by evil capitalists), domestic animals (evil capitalists mock them), climate (the temperature of the air is warmed up by all the same evil capitalists), and sexual minorities. It is not surprising, therefore, that the numerous left-wing “green” parties in all countries are often compared to watermelons: they...

... The modern leftists are fighting so fiercely for “the rights of illegal immigrants” not because the fate of immigrants worries them in any way, but because Globalists see the illegal immigrants as the main “engine of the revolution,” which must bring about socialist transformations and catapult them to power. Therefore, the more “engines” there are in the country, the better for the Globalist party elite. Hence, their irrational and contrarian sense calls for opening the borders of the United States, the dissolution of the border patrol service, and the admission of non-citizens to participate in elections. The position of...

... • Stalinist-Leninists (“Bolsheviks”) argued that terror could hold socialist power in a single country for a period sufficient enough to build communism. History confirmed the fallacy of this approach. • The Trotskyists (“Bolsheviks”) argued that power in one socialist country in a capitalist encirclement would not be retained by any terror, and it would be necessary to simultaneously make socialist revolutions/coups in all countries without exception. History confirmed that Trotsky was right that the power cannot be held. • The Fascists (“Mensheviks”) argued that the bloody revolutionary redistribution of the wealth would only deter the people from socialist ideas....

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is ready to tax the rich to make her Green New Deal a reality. “People are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes,” the recently elected New York Democrat told TV show “60 Minutes” in an interview set to air Sunday. Speaking of prior decades’ taxation rates in the country, Ocasio-Cortez added, “Once you get to the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent.” It shouldn’t be a surprise that the avowed “democratic socialist” went with the predictable “tax the rich”...

Likely 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro agrees with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that tax rates on some of the wealthiest Americans should skyrocket. "Oh, I can support folks at the top paying their fair share," Castro told ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday when asked directly whether he could endorse the high-profile New York Democrat's idea. The Obama-era Housing and Urban Development secretary, who is expected to officially announce he's running for the White House this week, made the comments after Ocasio-Cortez caught flak for suggesting people earning more than $10 million could be taxed between "60 or 70 percent."...

Former NFL player Burgess Owens said socialism and Marxism are pushing an “anti-white” and “anti-American” agenda that’s hurting the black community. Burgess was discussing the NFL’s ratings boost as national anthem protests begin to fade and said America is fighting for its soul. ... “The biggest takeaway from the last two years — we are in the fight for the heart and soul of our nation,” Burgess said Friday on “Fox & Friends.” “We are fighting for our American, Judeo-Christian values and we’re fighting against a very evil force of socialism and Marxism that destroy everything they come close to....

Nicaraguan authorities have raided the offices of a critical television station and shut it down, a week after raiding the offices of non-governmental groups and a newspaper. Lucia Pineda, press director for the 100% Noticias station, sent WhatsApp messages to other journalists saying that station director Miguel Mora was detained during the Friday night raid. Backers of President Daniel Ortega had filed criminal complaints accusing Mora of generating hate and during a wave of anti-government protests that broke out in April. Pineda also said police were taking away control equipment from the station, which went off the air. Other journalists...

The Yellow Vests are planning protests with specific sites given in Paris as the Champs-Elysees at 930am tomorrow (330 am Eastern US). Protesters are set to be at the Palace de l'Opera between 1030am and 1230pm. Another gathering for protest set at the Port Maillot-Gare Saint Lazare at 10am. Protests are set in other cities like Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Nantes. A protest is set for the Mont-Blanc tunnel and there are other locations listed. BFM-TV in France reports that fewer buses have been chartered to bring protesters to Paris tomorrow. 24 journalists in France have filed complaints against police...