Secy of State @John Kerry Praises Iran for Its Magnanimous Actions, Rejoining Civilized World Following Iran Deal and $150+ Billion Dollars Plus $1.7 Billion Ransom U.S. Paid Them to Return 5 American Hostages
Islamic Fascist Iran Pledged $600,000 Fatwa to Kill Salman Rushdie
H/T: Hillel Neuer
“Feel the Bern” — Cuban’s Have Been Dying Trying to Escape It
Image: Press For Truth
(Nasdaq) Million of pounds of provisions stuffed into three dozen 747 cargo jumbo jets arrived into oil rich Venezuela Caracus from countries around the world to service its starving economy but instead of food and medicine, the aircraft carried another resource that often runs scarce, bank notes of Venezuela currency, the Bolivar.
The shipments were part of the import of at least 5 Billion bank notes that Venezuelan President Nicola Maduro’s administration authorized over the latter part of 2015 as the government boosts the supply of the country’s increasingly worthless currency.
In January, Bloomberg reported that the Intl Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that Venezuela hyperinflation, already the worlds highest will more than double to 720% this year from 275% last year, according to a note published by the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Director Alejandro Werner — Spiking prices and widespread shortages for staples have driven discontent in Venezuela.
“A lack of hard currency has led to scarcity of intermediate goods and to widespread shortages of essential goods–including food,” Werner said. “Prices continue to spiral out of control.”
What economic genius is going to gut the bad parts of Socialism and usher into the United States a so called ‘Democratic Socialism’ utopia Bernie Sanders — The one time Vermont columnist who penned a disgusting article in 1972 fantasizing about masturbation and rape of Women?
Is this the best the Democrats have to offer America in 2016? The choice between one old Vermont Socialist who Honeymooned in the Soviet Union in 1988 writes George Will during the final years of the Cold War and a life long Democrat political opportunist Hillary Clinton Tweeting praises to her friend Burmese Democratic-Socialist Aung San Suu Kyi, whose political party won a super-majority in its legislature last year.
God help us.
“Bernie Sanders a Bum that Didn’t Earn his First Steady Paycheck Until 40 Yrs of Age Then Wormed his Way Into Politics”
Cartoon Image Courtesy: Global Cartoons
(IBD) Bernie Sanders said last month, his parents would have never thought their son would end up in the Senate and be running for president. No kidding…
“What a shock,” writes Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit — “Bernie Sanders was a bum who didn’t earn a steady paycheck until he was 40 yrs old, he was a slob who lived in a shack with a dirt floor. He later wrote about masturbation and rape for left-wing-rags for $50 a story. The Socialist then wormed his way into politics. Bernie had his electricity “cut off a lot” reports Politico.com so he’d run an extension cord down to the basement, he couldn’t pay his bills.”
Bernie Sanders Article ‘Vermont Freeman’
Courtesy: Mother Jones
Sanders told Vermont Public TV in 1985, “I never had any money my entire life,” after settling into his first real job as Mayor of Burlington, VT — Sanders spent most of his life as an angry radical and agitator who never accomplished much of anything and yet now he thinks he deserves the power to run your life and finances. “We will raise your taxes,’ he has repeatedly promised while chasing votes.
One of Sander’s first jobs was registering people for food stamps and it was all downhill from there.
Sanders took his first bride to live in a maple sugar shack with a dirt floor–she soon left him. Penniless, Sanders went on unemployment, then he had a child out of wedlock. Desperate, Sanders tried carpentry but could barely sink a nail. “He was a sh-ty carpenter,” a friend told Politico.com “his carpentry was not going to support him and didn’t.”
Subsequently Bernie Sanders tried to freelance stories for Leftist rags, writing about masturbation and rape for $50 a story–he’d drive around in a rusted out VW with no working windshield wipers. Friends said he was “always poor” and his “electricity was turned off a lot.” They described him as a slob who kept a messy apartment. — This is what Bernie Sanders ‘friends’ had to say about him.
The only thing he was good at was talking..non-stop–about Socialism and how the rich were ripping everybody off. “The whole quality of life in America is based on greed,” the bitter layabout said. “I believe in redistribution of wealth in this nation.”
So Bernie Sanders tried politics, starting his own Socialist Party–Four times he ran for Vermont public office, four times he lost–badly, he would never attract more than single digit support. In his 1971 Senate bid, the local press said the 30 yr old “Sanders describes himself as a carpenter who has worked with disturbed children,” what credentials to serve in the U.S. Senate let alone run for president.
Sanders finally wormed his way into the Senate in 2006 — he lists no assets to his name except of those of his second wife, he does have as much as $65,000 in credit card debt.
Sure Sanders may not be a hypocrite but this is nothing to brag about, his worthless background resume, contrasts sharply with the successful careers of other ‘outsiders’ in the race for the White House, including a Billionaire developer and a world renowned pediatric neurosurgeon.
The 2016 presidential race is shaping up to be a very clear one. It will likely boil down to a battle between those who create and produce wealth and those who would rather confiscate it and redistribute it.
“…It is free market capitalism that provides the innovation and opportunity that leads to the increase in choices we have today. Choices in where we work, how we live and yes, the products we buy. From new drugs that save lives, to labor saving devices that reduce the drudgery of household work. to the device that you are reading this essay on, capitalism drove these developments each step along the way.”
Related: Bernie Sanders: Democratic Socialism Means Coercion
@Bernie Sanders “The Problem with Socialism is That Eventually
You Run Out of Other Peoples Money.” -Margaret Thatcher
(Washington Times) Do you know what Socialism is? Hillary Clinton struggled to find an answer when recently asked. — Socialism is a system which the government owns or controls the means of production and allocates resources and rewards.
Sen. Bernie Sanders proudly proclaims himself a ‘democratic socialist’ and many in the Democratic Party seem to have no problem with it and in fact, are embracing him and his ideas. Listening to all of this, one gets the feeling that for a significant portion of the population, history began in the year 2000 — Where have been the great Socialist success stories? Much of the worlds population greatly suffered under various forms of socialism in the 20th century. Not one of the various socialist models proved to be a success.
There was the Communist variety of Socialism in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China and Cambodia, which resulted in tens of millions of deaths from starvation and the gulags. There was the Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) model in Germany and Italy, which like the Communist version, resulted in tens of millions of deaths. Somewhat more benign but still coercive versions of Socialism were prevalent in India, many places in Africa and South America, all resulted in economic stagnation–because productive effort was separated from reward. The two most Socialist countries today are North Korea and Cuba–both very poor and repressive. The average Cuban government worker has a monthly wage which is less than what the average American worker makes in an hour.
It is true that every country has some Socialist enterprises at the federal, state or local levels. For instance, the U.S. government owns Amtrak and the City of Flint, Michigan owns its water department. Arguably, both would do much better in private hands. France has many more government owned enterprises than neighboring Switzerland. Even France is still basically a capitalistic free-market economy but with far less freedom and prosperity than Switzerland.
Why does Socialism always fail and why will Bernie Sanders’ schemes and to a lesser extent Hillary’s ObamaCare version also fail? Under a capitalist free-market system, the business person seeks to produce goods and services that the consumer wants at the lowest possible cost-which includes having the smallest and most productive work force possible–in order to maximize profits. Under the Socialist model, the political leaders decide what the consumers should have (which is often very different from what they want or need) Productivity and innovation are given short shift, needless workers are hired and few are fired. In almost all cases, costs soon overrun revenues and the losses are made up by even higher taxes or more debt–eventually causing an economic collapse. As economic stagnation increases, the citizens become more restless and either throw off the yoke of government through ballot box, as was done in 1979 in the United Kingdom with the election of Margaret Thatcher, or the protesters are imprisoned until often a bloody revolt occurs.
Now back to Bernie Sanders who has proposed “Medicare for all” as one of his many schemes. Professor Gerald Friedman of the University of Massachusetts, Dept of Economics has examined the Sanders plan (and has no political ax to grind) he estimates it would cost $40.9 Trillion between 2017-2026 Hospitals and doctors would be forced to take huge cuts, driving many out of the medical profession, reducing innovation and standards in health care. Patients would be forced to wait in long queues. It would be like the present failed Veterans Administration health system for all.
Back in 2002 Joshua Muravchik wrote a classic book on the history of Socialism. Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism (available at Amazon.com) Perhaps it is time for the political class, including the commentators, to go back and read it and realize again that the next time the Socialists will not get it right because the model is fatally flawed.
What is most disturbing is the idea that America–and its unique success as a nation, was built around individual liberty and opportunity, not collective coercion. All too many no longer understand what the American Founders were trying to and largely did achieve.
The young people who support Bernie Sanders and even Hillary Clinton, seem to be generally ignorant of why America worked. Many do not want the government to restrict unfettered abortions or their right to smoke pot but seem to be oblivious that Socialism and big government makes everyone into an economic slave. Many workers in the Soviet Union as is true of North Korea and Cuba today, could not even choose their own profession, or what town or apartment block they lived in. Such restrictions are the logical and necessary outcomes of Socialism, unless it is thrown off before it reaches that stage.
Those in the news media who have an opportunity to quiz the presidential candidates, would do the citizens a great favor if they could discern what the candidates really know about the Constitution and the arguments made in the Federalist Papers.
Related: CATO Matthew Feeney–Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialism
Bernie Sanders Plan to Bankrupt the Country -Latinos Ready to Vote
H/T: CATO Institute
Hypocrite @BernieSanders Claims Not to Be Accepting Contributions from Political Action Committees
Liar Liar Pant’s on Fire — Bernie Sanders Has Received $1000s
from PAC’s —OpenSecrets.org
