***WARNING: Although the historical events that took place throughout President Ronald Reagan&#8217;s life are well-documented, this article may contain spoilers with regard to the framing and overall presentation of the film.***
The political Left does not appear to want the American people to see &#8220;Reagan&#8221; — at least, not until after the 2024 presidential election is settled.
Actor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dennis-quaid-says-facebook-is-censoring-the-free-flow-of-ideas-throttling-reagan-movie-promos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dennis Quaid</a>, who portrays the titular president, said weeks ago that Facebook was &#8220;throttling advertising and promotion&#8221; for the film, &#8220;once again censoring the free flow of ideas, deciding what’s best for us to see and hear.&#8221;
It&#8217;s true that the American Left never liked Reagan, which could be reason enough for some to think it worth scuttling a movie about him. But after seeing the film myself — and some of the reactions to it — I realized that it goes much deeper than that. They don&#8217;t just hate Reagan the president: they hate Reagan the man. What&#8217;s more, they hate everyone who values the things Reagan stood for, the things that drove him.
Full disclosure: I was a child of the Reagan years. Born in 1979, I never really saw the havoc wrought by President Jimmy Carter&#8217;s administration. The first political speech I remember was Reagan&#8217;s address to the nation in the wake of the Challenger disaster in 1986. I watched the explosion live from my first-grade classroom and saw my teacher quietly crying at her desk — and later, at home, I watched as the president paid solemn tribute to the lives lost in that tragedy. I was eight years old when, just over a year later, I watched Reagan stand in front of the Brandenburg Gate and forcefully urge Mr. Gorbachev to &#8220;tear down this wall!&#8221;
That was all I knew of American presidents, and so that became what I expected of American presidents: someone who could speak with sincerity and solemnity to a nation in pain, but also someone who showed no fear in the face of adversaries on the world stage. I saw flickers of those same things from President George W. Bush in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
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Now, the Left is terrified that people will notice those things are not to be found in Vice President Kamala Harris — and even more terrified that they just might see them in former President Donald Trump. That&#8217;s where the &#8220;Reagan&#8221; movie fits in: whether intentionally or not, it draws parallels that are difficult to ignore and even more difficult to explain away.
<h4>They don&#8217;t want a president staying strong in the face of an assassination attempt top of mind.</h4>
The movie begins with a literal &#8220;bang,&#8221; the March 30, 1981 attempt on Reagan&#8217;s life. We get Reagan&#8217;s quip to his wife, Nancy — &#8220;Honey, I forgot to duck&#8221; — and to his surgeons — &#8220;I hope you&#8217;re all Republicans.&#8221;
&#8220;Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans,&#8221; was the reply from Dr. Joseph Giordano, a liberal Democrat.
Trump may not have lost half of his blood volume when he was shot in the head on July 13th, as Reagan did in 1981. But Trump&#8217;s immediate response to the shooting, despite Secret Service attempts to keep him under cover, was to stand and show his supporters that he was okay. He raised his fist, shouting, &#8220;Fight! Fight! Fight!&#8221; before agents were able to usher him off the stage.
He later described the moment he knew he&#8217;d been hit, saying that at first, it felt like &#8220;a really big <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-bullet-felt-like-mosquito-bite-turning-his-head-saved-his-life-bret-baier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mosquito</a>.&#8221;
<h4>They don&#8217;t want you seeing value in an unorthodox leader who sometimes ignores his closest advisors.</h4>
Whatever else could be said about Reagan, he had his own negotiating style — whether with foreign leaders, an adversarial Congress, or his own advisors. One of the great examples of this is his Brandenburg Gate speech. His advisors warned him not to unnecessarily provoke Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom he had been discussing nuclear disarmament, by demanding the destruction of the Berlin Wall.
But Reagan, with just a year left in his second term, did so anyway. Two years later, the wall came down. Two years after that, the Soviet Union was no more.
The comparison here is obvious. Trump is nothing if not unorthodox, and he often does or says things against the wishes of his advisors — sometimes with more success than others. A reminder that unorthodoxy can be both necessary and effective is not something the Left wants voters thinking about when they head to the polls.
<h4>They really don&#8217;t want you to remember what it was like to have a man of faith in the Oval Office.</h4>
In American politics, we are accustomed to politicians who go to church for the optics. The current president, for example, often talks about his deep and abiding Catholic faith — and although we do see him attending Mass, we also see him making the Sign of the Cross at an abortion rally. We see him embracing the Pope, but inviting trans-identifying influencers to attend White House events with children present.
Reagan was different, on a number of levels. He rarely attended church while he was president — not because he didn&#8217;t want to, but because he worried that attending the service would disrupt the service at best, and endanger his fellow worshipers at worst.
Still, Reagan&#8217;s faith was what planted the seed that blossomed into the president&#8217;s lifelong crusade against communism — a crusade that began when in Hollywood and came to fruition in the White House. As a young man, Reagan sat in the congregation and listened intently as a Soviet dissident explained that the first thing the communists took was their churches. For Reagan, who had always seen church as a refuge from a tumultuous home life, that was a bridge too far.
<h4>They really, REALLY don&#8217;t want you thinking about the enduring threat of socialism.</h4>
In the movie, Reagan mentions the summer he spent as a lifeguard on a river, and explains how he learned to &#8220;read the currents,&#8221; both on the surface and beneath it. Sometimes, he said of the people he rescued on that river, &#8220;I knew they were in trouble before they did.&#8221;
That ability translated to politics, giving Reagan an ability to read the currents driving both global politics and culture — and to predict how they might interact.
Trump has been less effective at this so far, but he has made it clear that he sees the threat of socialism — and that he knows it is coming, at least in part, from within the United States. In his 2019 State of the Union, Trump vowed that America would never be socialist.
&#8220;Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free,&#8221; he said.
In addition, Trump&#8217;s recent efforts to build a coalition — including former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii — may not have brought in a tidal wave of &#8220;Trump Democrats,&#8221; but they have given him a populist boost that Vice President Harris failed to match with a &#8220;bounce&#8221; from the Democratic National Convention.
For these reasons and more, the political Left clearly does not want you to see the parallels. Rolling Stone <a href="https://x.com/RollingStone/status/1832796110198280409" target="_blank" rel="noopener">panned the film</a>, calling it a &#8220;tedious biopic that shows the American political right will always value propaganda over compelling human drama.&#8221; On <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dennis-quaid-biopic-reagan-outperforms-expectations-earns-high-audience-rating" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rotten Tomatoes,</a> the movie scored a dismal 20% from critics who tend to lean all the way to the Left.
The audience told a different tale, however, giving the film a positive 98%. I&#8217;m with them.

Ronald Reagan At Rancho del Cielo

Here’s Why The Left Hopes You Won’t See ‘Reagan’ — Before The Election, Anyway

Here's Why The Left Hopes You Won't See 'Reagan' — Before The Election, Anyway

Communism

Hollywood

Movies

Nancy Reagan

Politics

Readers Pass

Ronald Reagan

Rotten Tomatoes

Socialism

Soviet Union

Republican presidential nominee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> said this week that he believes it is necessary to &#8220;fight fire with fire&#8221; against the Democratic Party as he warned that the party was &#8220;very evil.&#8221;
Trump made the remarks in an interview that aired Tuesday with podcast host Lex Fridman while discussing how Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is &#8220;a Marxist.&#8221;
Fridman sought to defend Harris, claiming that &#8220;a lot of people&#8221; don&#8217;t think that she is a communist, to which Trump said that she was &#8220;a Marxist&#8221; and so was her father.
&#8220;There’s a lot of people that know the way government works and they say, well, none of those policies are going to actually come to reality,&#8221; Fridman claimed. &#8220;It’s just being used during the campaign to … Groceries are too expensive. We need them cheaper, so let’s talk about price controls. And that’s never going to come to reality.&#8221;
Trump warned that price controls could absolutely &#8220;come to reality&#8221; as they have been used in the U.S. before.
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&#8220;Look, she came out with price control,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://lexfridman.com/donald-trump-transcript" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;It’s been tried like 121 different times at different places over the years, and it’s never worked once. It leads to communism, it leads to socialism, it leads to having no food on the shelves, and it leads to tremendous inflation.&#8221;
Trump said that he had no problem calling her a &#8220;communist&#8221; given all of the terms that Democrats label him with, saying that they call him &#8220;a lot worse&#8221; names.
&#8220;It’s interesting though, they’ll call me something that’s terrible and then I’ll hit them back and they’ll say, &#8216;Isn’t it terrible what Trump said?'&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;I believe you have to fight fire with fire. I believe they’re very evil people. These are evil people. We have an enemy from the outside and we have an enemy from within. And in my opinion, the enemy from within are radical Left lunatics. And I think you have to fight back.&#8221;

Donald Trump Speaks At Moms For Liberty National Summit

Trump: You Must ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ Against ‘Very Evil’ Democrats

Donald Trump

Kamala Harris

Media

The entire Kamala Harris campaign relies on you knowing nothing about Kamala Harris.
First rule of Kamala Harris Fight Club: Nobody talks about Kamala Harris. You must never mention her positions. You must never mention what her crap administration has done. You must never mention anything of the sort. And you must certainly never attempt to get to the underlying philosophy that motivates her politics. You must never ever attempt to do that.
That’s because if you dig just a tiny bit, you find that the Democratic Party has gone so radically far to the Left that they are now indistinguishable from the Democratic Socialists of America. That is the reality.
Look at the great “intellectual luminaries” of the Democratic Party. I&#8217;m not talking about the politicians; I&#8217;m talking about the thought leaders.
Among those <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-usual-suspects-claim-gays-ouster-was-coordinated-racist-attack-it-doesnt-go-well">thought leaders</a> is Nikole Hannah-Jones. You may not have heard about Hannah-Jones recently because, after all, she hasn&#8217;t done any actual work for the last five years. She wrote the absolutely fictitious “The 1619 Project” and in 2020 was given a Pulitzer for it. It is trash. The entire 1619 Project is rooted in the idea that every element of American life is built on the foundation of slavery, and thus morally corrupt and evil and must be wiped away.
The 1619 Project falsifies history, as professional historians have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/1619-project-book-panned-by-historians-hits-amazons-bestseller-list" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed out.</a> But this supposed genius was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2017. She is the apotheosis of a “Democratic intellectual.” She gave a <a href="https://www.bmc.org/eqty2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech recently</a> in which <a href="https://x.com/6gems/status/1828522478852771875" target="_blank" rel="noopener">she said</a>, “You know what COVID taught me? That we have enough for everybody. Overnight, we printed $6 trillion. We had universal health care. We had universal basic income. COVID proved it&#8217;s possible.”
If that sounds like communism to you, that&#8217;s because it is communism. You may recall that COVID ended with a 40-year high in inflation, a massively spiraling debt problem, and the complete shutdown of the American economy.
You might remember because you were there. But according to Hannah-Jones, that was amazing. That is what America ought to look like. It ought to look like the government paying you to stay home, shutting down your business, and then compensating you for shutting down your business. The government ought to provide everything for free, and it will have no impact.
In June, Hannah-Jones <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dVGFzvOKdQ">said</a>:
<blockquote>Y’all remember this thing called a pandemic? Y&#8217;all remember that? Do you remember how when all of a sudden all of America was experiencing what black people experience regularly, high unemployment rates, housing instability, inability to access health care, we printed 3 to $6 trillion overnight, overnight. And all of a sudden you couldn&#8217;t evict people. We had universal housing. Anybody who wanted to go get their shot didn&#8217;t have to show a lick of paper or a dollar. Nothing. You showed up, You got the shot.
We paid people income, universal income. My cousin Shamir, who&#8217;s in the 1619 documentary in the capitalism episode, started working at 15 years old. The most she ever made was when she got laid off for COVID and got a check from the government to stay at home. The most she ever made. And she cried about it because she was like, “I have been able to save $1,000 for the first time in my life only because all these people are dying out here. That&#8217;s the first time America cared about me.” </blockquote>
The proposal is free money.
The reason the government compensated people during COVID is because the government told them they could not work. The government said you cannot go to school. You cannot go into your place of work. You have to shut down your business. They shut down the entire country, and then they had to do something so people could remain living.
They took away your livelihood, which is not the same thing as a high unemployment rate that results from high levels of high school dropouts, single motherhood, or dysfunction in the home, community, or schools.
It’s not the same, but this is the actual ideal Democrats are shooting for. They won&#8217;t say it out loud because if they ever did, people would recognize how ugly it is. The big problem for the Democrats with Hannah-Jones is that she&#8217;s constantly saying the Democratic ideal out loud.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2037-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
The reality is that the Biden-Harris administration has tried a lot of this.
Blowing money into the economy, the modern monetary theory that debt doesn&#8217;t matter, that doing so creates a rising tide lifting all boats doesn’t work.
It&#8217;s amoral. Money doesn&#8217;t grow on trees. It&#8217;s not magically popping out of the ground because the Federal Reserve says it is. Money is merely a mechanism of exchange. Money does not have its own inherent value any more than inches have their own inherent value on a ruler. It is a measure and a way of quantifying exchange. That is all money is. That&#8217;s all it’s ever been.
But for the Democrats, the Democratic Party, and Harris, the basic idea is the government can magically make money and then just give it out, and that&#8217;s what makes the economy go. That is the basic theory of leftism when it comes to economics. It&#8217;s the basic Keynesian theory as to how economics should work.
But the actual result is people feel left behind — because it doesn&#8217;t actually work that way.
We are now spending more money year on year than any country in the history of the planet. Yet fewer Americans feel they can achieve what the government has been promising them: the home, the family, the retirement.
That&#8217;s not a spending problem. That is something else. It is a perversion of all the incentives leading people to make the right decisions that allow them to build a home and a family and a retirement. Only <a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/american-dream-poll-us-economy-e5ddf640?mod=hp_lead_pos7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10% of Americans</a> believe home ownership is easy or somewhat easy to achieve.
Guess whose fault that might be.
How about the Biden-Harris administration, which has created the most unaffordable housing market in history? Look at all the restrictions the Democrats have put on building all across the country. Look at how they have inflated the currency, which means an increase in the interest rates, which means higher mortgage rates. Then, nobody wants to sell their homes to end up with a higher mortgage.
<h4><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a></h4>
In 2005, George W. Bush suggested privatizing Social Security and Democrats went nuts. In January 2005, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 10,603. Bush was pointing out Social Security is a pyramid scheme. If we had taken the money, put it in an index fund, and left it there until now, trillions of dollars would have flowed into Social Security because today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is 41,000.
Instead, the federal government was left in charge of the program, so they could raid it whenever necessary.
That is Democratic policy making: You cannot bring the private markets to bear on anything.
Democrats have said everyone needs to go to college, and we need to pour money into student loans. And the cost of college has shot up and the worth of a degree has dropped precipitously.
Harris is proposing $5 trillion in tax increases, including a 28% federal corporate tax rate and a 44.6% top capital gains and dividend tax rate, which would give America the highest total tax rate on corporate income in the developed world.
Democrat policies fail.
And Harris, the most leftist major party presidential candidate in American history, has not been forced to answer for any of them.
* * *
<h4><a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a></h4>

Kamala Harris Campaigns For President In Savannah, Georgia

Defending Kam-unism

2024 Election

Ben Shapiro

Democratic Party

Democrats

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Economics

Federal Reserve

Leftists

Nikole Hannah-Jones

Opinion

CHICAGO—A ragtag coalition of communists, anti-Israel demonstrators, revolutionary feminists, and more have descended on the Windy City to attack the Democratic Party and Vice President Kamala Harris from the Left.
The <a href="https://www.marchondnc2024.org/">March on the DNC</a> is comprised of more than 150 extremist groups that “support terrorism and/or identify as Marxist, communist, or anarchist,” <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/protests-and-chaos-at-the-democratic-national-convention-part-1/">according</a> to the Capital Research Center. Members of the coalition have praised Hamas, pushed for a communist revolution, and called for political violence. On Monday, members of the group toppled a <a href="https://x.com/FrontlinesTPUSA/status/1825655701370540310">barricade</a> outside the convention.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/SpencerLndqst?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpencerLndqst</a> is just outside the DNC in Chicago where thousands of leftist demonstrators have gathered to protest the Democratic Party. <a href="https://t.co/tSJ7j8vWPm">pic.twitter.com/tSJ7j8vWPm</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1825661012508553596?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 
On Sunday, a group called “Behind Enemy Lines,” <a href="https://x.com/TheTonus/status/1825327471153344695">handed flyers out</a> at a smaller protest before the start of the convention. The extremist organization isn’t shy about its willingness to use violence to achieve its political goals.
“In Behind Enemy Lines, we strive to approach all of our political work with the discipline and seriousness required in the struggle against imperialism,” <a href="https://behind-enemy-lines.org/who-says-protesting-should-be-safe/">reads an article</a> on the group’s site. It goes on to praise the use of violence by Leftists during the Black Lives Matter riots.
“To borrow an example from some comrades: hundreds, if not thousands of protests against police killings took place in the summer of 2020,” the group says. “None of them were as effective in delivering a message than the burning of the 3rd Police Precinct in Minneapolis in a spontaneous outpouring of the rage of the masses, all done without group chats or the leadership of ‘experienced activists.’”
The protest attracted a wide range of different extreme Leftists, including one protester who openly sided with the terrorist organization Hamas, holding a sign that read “Armed resistance is the only answer. End Israel, stand with Hamas.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
A protester outside the DNC holds a sign reading &#8220;End Israel, stand with Hamas&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/l82C6xaLnZ">pic.twitter.com/l82C6xaLnZ</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1825621756796629030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
The Capital Research Center’s investigation indicates that this protester’s opinion may be commonplace among the other demonstrators. The group found that “the extremist groups have ties to or have expressed support for 19 foreign terrorist organizations,” including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the Taliban, among others.
Monday’s protest, which began at Chicago’s Union Park, was primarily focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict, with the far-Left demonstrators accusing the Democratic Party, “genocide Joe,” and “killer Kamala,” of being complicit in genocide. Attendees heard from Dr. Cornel West, a leftwing activist and political candidate, who slammed the Democrats while speaking to The Daily Wire.
“Shame on the Democratic Party who can’t meet a low moral litmus test of calling genocide into question, you can’t deny it. Quit enabling it,” West said after giving a speech.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Cornel West&#8217;s message for Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party: <a href="https://t.co/mMNMvEbxbu">pic.twitter.com/mMNMvEbxbu</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1825627085219549240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
Other radical elements in attendance included the Revolutionary Communist Party, which distributed flyers blasting Harris as a “mass murderer and mass incarcerator” before calling on people to “seize on this rare opportunity to build up the basis for revolution.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-783851 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/RevCom-1-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="487" height="650" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/RevCom-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/RevCom-1-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/RevCom-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/RevCom-1-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/RevCom-1-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/RevCom-1-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 487px) 100vw, 487px" /></div>
The protests are expected to continue on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Daily Wire

Everything You Need To Know About The Radical Leftists Trying To Shut Down The DNC

Democratic National Convention

Hamas

Protesters

Mainstream publications urged Democrat presidential nominee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kamala-harris" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kamala Harris</a> to reverse course after her economic policy agenda contained extreme measures that were akin to policies found in the failed Soviet Union or modern day Venezuela.
The Washington Post Editorial Board <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/16/harris-economy-plan-gimmicks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> an op-ed on Friday titled: &#8220;The times demand serious economic ideas. Harris supplies gimmicks.&#8221;
In it, the Post complained that Harris &#8220;squandered the moment&#8221; on promoting &#8220;gimmicks&#8221; that do not work, like price controls.
In blaming big business for the inflation crisis that the Biden-Harris administration has caused, Harris vowed to &#8220;target companies that make &#8216;excessive&#8217; profits, whatever that means,&#8221; the Post wrote. &#8220;(It’s hard to see how groceries, a notoriously low-margin business, would qualify.) Thankfully, this gambit by Ms. Harris has been met with almost instant skepticism, with many critics citing President Richard M. Nixon’s failed price controls from the 1970s. Whether the Harris proposal wins over voters remains to be seen, but if sound economic analysis still matters, it won’t.&#8221;
The Post warned that Harris&#8217; plan of giving $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-time home buyers &#8220;stimulates the demand side, which risks putting upward pressure on prices.&#8221;
Her plan would add trillions of dollars to the national deficit over a decade, the Post added, according to a nonpartisan budget watchdog.
The op-ed concluded by saying that even by &#8220;the pandering standards of campaign economics,&#8221; Harris&#8217; policy ideas were &#8220;a disappointment.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1723831707612000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0pyrv88A5nsmWM2F2Wr9As">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a>
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/16/business/harris-price-gouging-ban-inflation/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> a news article written by an economic reporter titled: &#8220;Harris’ plan to stop price gouging could create more problems than it solves&#8221;.
Gavin Roberts, the chair of Weber State University’s economics department, told the left-wing news network the price controls that Harris is pursuing lead consumers to &#8220;buy goods more than they would if prices had risen&#8221; and that the best course of action for the government would be to do nothing at all.
Her policies are &#8220;more likely to maintain that status quo,” he said, because it would eliminate the competition needed to keep prices lower.
Obama economist Jason Furman agreed, saying that Harris&#8217; policies were &#8220;not sensible&#8221; and that he hopes &#8220;that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality.&#8221;
He said that there was &#8220;no upside&#8221; to the policies that Harris was proposing.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ted-cruz-blasts-kamala-harris-soviet-style-economic-agenda-an-absolute-train-wreck" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ted Cruz Blasts Kamala Harris’ ‘Soviet-Style’ Economic Agenda: ‘An Absolute Train Wreck’</a>

Vice President and assumptive presidential candidate Kamala Harris in North Karolina

Media Rushes To Help Harris Rewrite Her Disastrous ‘Pandering’ Economic Rollout

There’s a problem for Kamala Harris: Most people don&#8217;t actually like her economic policies. Recent polls showed 52% of Americans do not think America should move in the direction of California, and yet the same polls are showing that 52% of Americans are going to vote for Kamala Harris. 
What&#8217;s the disconnect? She&#8217;s hiding her policies. She&#8217;s hiding herself and smearing it over with a pastiche of “joy.”
The reality is that she’s attempting to distance herself from Joe Biden while embracing even stronger communist and socialist policies.
At a rally on Thursday, she bragged about her tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act. She doesn&#8217;t want to own the inflationary record of the Biden administration, but she brags about being one of the people who was the deciding factor in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which was one factor in the 40-year high in inflation.
As of Friday, she&#8217;s going to call on Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging as part of her economic platform, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/14/harris-food-prices-economy-speech-00174112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Politico</a>. 
This is a policy for idiots. The reality is that in the grocery industry, profit margins are well under 2%. There is very, very little profit margin in the grocery industry because it&#8217;s really competitive. There are tons of groceries and supply. There is no shortage of food in the United States.
The idea that monopolistic companies are price gouging people and that&#8217;s why the prices have gone up is insane.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2028-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
First of all, the idea of price gouging in general is almost always garbage because the reality is that prices are determined by supply and demand. You can’t be gouged on prices unless there is only one supplier available in a really wide radius and no competition is available — and you are willing to buy at the price the one supplier sets. That is the only way one can “price gouge” you.
But there is no actual definition for price gouging because it turns out that, according to Democrats, price gouging is simply prices they don&#8217;t like because it makes them look bad politically.
If Harris believes she&#8217;s going to bring down prices through price controls, this has been tried. It is Soviet-style policy. It is Cuban-style policy. It is Venezuelan-style policy.
Simply declaring that the price of a product shall be X does not guarantee the widespread availability of that product. In fact, what it leads to is a spur in demand and a reduction in supply. That is what price controls do.
Price controls mean more people want the thing because now it&#8217;s cheaper and fewer people are willing to produce the thing because now there is no profit in producing the thing. Very often there&#8217;s actual loss in producing the thing — and people do not produce things at a loss. This is why price controls lead to bread lines.
Every economist — every economist — understands that price controls are some of the worst policies you could possibly have.
But Harris is pushing it because she thinks Americans are too stupid to understand what price controls are and so dumb that they think that the federal government can, by passing a law, simply make prices go down.
Kamala Harris is not that stupid.
It&#8217;s a political move. Elevated everyday costs have plagued the Biden-Harris administration since Americans grocery bills spiked during the pandemic. Even with some promising recent polling, most major voter surveys show President Biden and Harris well behind former President Donald Trump on the economy.
Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/14/harris-food-prices-economy-speech-00174112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported:</a>
<blockquote>Harris’ proposals show how she would expand Biden’s focus on price gouging and food costs, according to the plans detailed by her campaign. In addition to her push for the first-ever federal ban on price gouging by food corporations, she would also direct the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to investigate and levy penalties on food companies that violate the federal ban.</blockquote>
This is insane. 
Food is not more expensive because the bread companies decided randomly to raise the prices in collusion with one another. Food is more expensive because the Federal Reserve pumped money into the economy at a rate unprecedented in human history, and then the Biden-Harris administration decided to jack more money into the system. They thought it was good.
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When you helicopter money on people, it doesn&#8217;t make things worth more inherently. It just means the price of everything goes up. If I give everybody in the United States ten extra dollars, no one is any richer. It just means the prices go up by $10.
They know exactly what they&#8217;re doing.
And then, in the middle of an inflationary spiral, she has another proposal. This one is on housing. Guess what it is?
Wait for it. Wait for it.
It&#8217;s free money.
I know you weren&#8217;t expecting it. Free money from Democrats in the middle of a $30 trillion national debt? They would never do such a thing. 
 
Our national debt currently runs at roughly $35 trillion. The actual truth in terms of unfunded liabilities like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is more like $156 trillion.
Yet Harris and company are ready to dump more money into the system. She proposes to provide up to $25,000 in down-payment support for first-time homebuyers, helicoptering $25,000 of cash to people who want to buy a first home.
I have no idea what the provisions on credit worthiness are here because it turns out they&#8217;re going to flush a bunch of that money down the toilet. If you are simply giving people money who cannot afford to actually pay for the mortgage, the down payment is only part of what you pay. When you pay for a house, there&#8217;s upkeep; there&#8217;s a mortgage. Owning a home is expensive, which is why a lot of people rent right now.
But according Harris, it is time for the federal government to simply helicopter cash over people. She is supposedly pairing this with tax credits to entice people to build three million new units.
The problem, of course, is that she will presumably attempt to impose rent control on all of those units.
Interventionism is simply a sop to people who want freebies from the federal government.
And by the way, it is not free. We all get to pay for it. Or rather, all our children get to pay for it.
All of this is simply giving people cash. Not her cash. She&#8217;s never earned a dime. She&#8217;s been a completely useless person on the taxpayer dime for virtually her entire career.
What this is about is using your money to pay off her political constituents. That&#8217;s what this is about. Always and forever.
It’s terrible economic policy. This sort of stuff is for stupid people.
It is economic policy that was dropped on its head as a baby.
Harris has a plan. You&#8217;re not going to hear any answers about this. You&#8217;re going to know nothing about this because she&#8217;s got one thing: “Joy.”
I know that when you think of Kamala Harris and that rictus smile that she likes to lay on the American people, you don&#8217;t think “joy.” You think more of Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker with a pathological, bizarre laugh that breaks out at all the wrong times.
But the media have recast her campaign as a campaign of “joy.”
It’s all stupidity and it&#8217;s all meant for the consumption of morons. H.L. Mencken suggested, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
If this is what people want, that&#8217;s what they are going to get.
But we should mention something about this whole “joy” routine: You should not find joy in your politicians. You should not.
That is not where joy comes from. Joy comes from your family. Joy comes from your community, from your religious commitment. Joy comes from your virtuous action in the world with meaning and purpose. That&#8217;s where joy comes from.
Movements that seek joy via politicians are really, really ugly. The joy is a cover for control. In fact, they mandate joy. It&#8217;s mandatory fun.
That&#8217;s how it feels with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. It&#8217;s mandatory fun. You must smile. It&#8217;s like the Simpsons; they have the wires that connect to the corners of your mouth and pull them upward.
The “joy” will be required. And if you are not joyous enough, if you don&#8217;t feel the “joy,” you&#8217;re not doing it right. If you ask questions, you&#8217;re violating the “joy.” If you want to know about the economic policies, you&#8217;re violating the “joy.” This is not a campaign about policy. It&#8217;s about vibes and “joy.”
It is a long-time mainstay of totalitarian movements to paint over their evil and horrifying policies with a mask of joy. It is a main propaganda point for every fascist and Stalinist regime, every single one.
There’s a poster of Joseph Stalin from the Soviet Union, who killed 20 million people, showing him with numerous smiling children. 
The caption on the photo reads, “We are warmed by Stalin&#8217;s affection.” The way that he was promoted in the Soviet Union was with “joy.”
Do you feel the joy? Don&#8217;t you feel the joy?
<div id="attachment_782261" style="width: 738px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-782261" class="wp-image-782261 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image-728x576.png" alt="Unidentified artist, We are warmed by Stalin’s affection … (мы сталинской лаской согреты,…) 1949" width="728" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image-728x576.png 728w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image-300x237.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image-768x607.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/image.png 813w" sizes="(max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px" />Unidentified artist, We are warmed by Stalin’s affection … (мы сталинской лаской согреты,…) 1949</div>
* * *
<h4><a href="http://www.amiracist.com/">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a></h4>

Biden Returns To Campaign Trail, Navigating New Harris Dynamic

Commie-la Harris’ Soviet-Style JOY!

Economy

Inflation Reduction Act

Price Gouging

Tim Walz

Polish journalist and sports commentator Przemyslaw Babiarz has been suspended from the Paris Olympics after labeling John Lennon’s “Imagine” a “vision of communism.”
During the 2024 Olympics, the famed song — written by the late Beatle — was sung by French singer <a href="https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Juliette%20Armanet">Juliette Armanet</a> at the opening ceremony that took place on the Seine River in Paris on Friday.
While it was playing, the Polish state broadcaster said on air, “This is a vision of communism, unfortunately,” 
The comments immediately triggered a reaction for those watching in Poland, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/polish-journalist-suspended-calling-imagine-vision-communism-olympic-112335862">ABC News</a> reported.
The public broadcaster Babiarz works for in Warsaw, TVP, later issued a statement that made it clear the well known commentator would not be commenting on air from Paris about any more from the summer Olympic games.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Polish state TV has suspended its main commentator for the Olympics after he said on air that the song &#8220;Imagine&#8221;, which was played at the opening ceremony, presents a “communist vision”.
The decision has been widely criticised, including by President Duda <a href="https://t.co/Yu2kIBNJ2T">https://t.co/Yu2kIBNJ2T</a>
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) <a href="https://twitter.com/notesfrompoland/status/1817292152734413213?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2024</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Mutual understanding, tolerance, reconciliation — these are not only the basic Olympic ideas, they are also the basis for the standards that guide the new Telewizja Polska (Polish Television),’” the statement read, per ABC News.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk removed the former TVP management after he <a href="https://apnews.com/article/poland-prime-minister-tusk-government-warsaw-8fd0ac25be8fee9f51ece920f493dc1f">took power</a> in December, and replaced it, Yahoo.com noted. Prior to Tusk’ the TVP was criticized as the mouthpiece of the national-conservative PiS government, 
Conservative President Andrzej Duda and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki blasted the move by TVP, the outlet noted.
“The truth will defend itself! Your actions will be remembered and censorship will fail,&#8221; Morawiecki wrote on X.
Some of the commentators on the left agreed that that punishment was too harsh for Babiarz, ABC News noted.
Poland’s Conservative leaders also criticized the involvement of drag queens during the opening ceremony at the Olympics and slammed what’s being seen as a parody of The Last Supper.
The Last Supper scene opened with an obese woman wearing an aureole as Jesus surrounded by drag queens as the Apostles, a decapitated head representing Marie Antoinette of the French Revolution, and drag queens dancing around children.
Following the backlash against the Olympics over the anti-Christian scene, Anne Descamps, a spokesperson for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games said at a press conference, “If people have taken any offense we are really sorry.” 
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. (The opening ceremony) tried to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps told reporters, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/paris-2024-apologises-any-offence-caused-by-last-supper-sketch-2024-07-28/">via Reuters</a>. “We believe this ambition was achieved.”
Related: <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/polish-journalist-suspended-calling-imagine-vision-communism-olympic-112335862" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony Features Drag Parody Of Last Supper</a>

Paris Olympics

Journalist At Olympics Suspended For Saying John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ Is A ‘Vision Of Communism’

Journalist At Olympics Suspended For Saying John Lennon's 'Imagine' Is A 'Vision Of Communism'

France

John Lennon

journalist

Olympics

Paris

Poland

A young man who openly boasted that he turned in his own father to the FBI for attending the January 6, 2021 Capitol protest was rewarded by liberals with nearly $200,000, which he raised on GoFundMe, saying he would “save[] it for years to come.”
After Jackson Reffitt, a long-haired, far-left Texan who is now 21, turned in his father to the FBI and then testified against him at trial, his father, Guy Reffitt, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
Jackson first ratted on his father even before January 6, with the then-18 year old filing an online tip on Christmas Eve, 2020 that his dad “was going to do something big.”
After his father returned, Jackson secretly recorded him discussing his actions, then gave the recordings to the FBI.  On January 16, 2021, the FBI raided the family home and arrested Guy. On January 22, Jackson went on CNN to take credit, saying his dad is “an adult and made his own decisions.” Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo praised him.
Then he created a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/jackson-reffitt-college-fund" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GoFundMe</a> to cash in, saying he “was interviewed on CNN and got so much support from thousands of people.&#8221;
&#8220;So many asked for a Go Fund Me so here it is. Every penny is another course in college or me saving it for years to come. I might be kicked out of my house due to my involvement in my dad&#8217;s case, so every cent might help me survive,” the page read. It raised $195,000 from 5,500 people.
According to public records, Jackson attended Collin County Community College, and the median home value in his area is $187,000. Jackson&#8217;s own <a href="https://x.com/jackson_reffitt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media feed</a> is full of posts praising left-wingers who occupy universities and clash with police in ways similar to January 6.
In court, Guy cried as his son testified against him for three hours, with the son saying he didn’t regret turning him in. The judge <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/50260121/175/united-states-v-reffitt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in imposing a sentence that, “He bragged to his family about what he did at the Capitol. Those comments were taped by his son Jackson.”
On Tuesday, in an interview with <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-turned-in-my-insurrectionist-dadhow-can-trump-be-immune" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Beast</a>, he said, “My dad ran up the Capitol steps under Trump flags.”  Guy did not enter the Capitol or engage in any violence, though he brought a gun with him to D.C. and spent 44 minutes on an outside staircase, records show.
Jackson now blames Trump for his father’s incarceration, saying, “Trump destroyed my whole family&#8230; Without Trump, my family would still be together. I 100 percent guarantee you. It was a perfect family.”
<a href="https://x.com/XVanFleet/status/1808200048599056711" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Xi Van Fleet</a>, who escaped Communist China, said this is reminiscent of China under Mao.
“Family members turning against each other was the hallmark of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Now it is in America,” Van Fleet said.
James Lindsay, a scholar of Marxism, said it was “classic Communist behavior. Brainwashed against his family then externalizes and misdirects the blame against the object of political hatred.”
Soviet propaganda lauded Pavlik Morozov, a 13-year old boy who was praised by the authorities as a martyr after turning in his father for consorting with “enemies of the Soviet state.” His father was given the death penalty, and other family members were said to have killed the boy in retribution.
In 2023, the Washington Post painted a portrait of a family that was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/jan-6-reffitt-family-repair-relationships/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seeking reconciliation</a>. The mother supports her husband, and Jackson’s sisters are no fans of Trump, but think it doesn’t excuse turning on their father, it said. One of the sisters began having panic attacks, while another moved to D.C. and held vigils outside the jail in support of her father. Guy took responsibility for his actions and forgave his son, the Post said. 
But Jackson was more stubborn. When his mother broke down, saying “I don’t know what to do anymore,” he began lecturing her about politics.
When they came together again to forgive and move on, Jackson trotted out a list he had compiled of the family betraying him by commenting on his betrayal, dredging up that his sister once said he was “making the family a political statement and sold ya’ll out.”

Jackson Reffitt / GoFundMe

Anti-Trump 21-Year-Old Was Paid $200,000 By Liberals After Turning In His Own Father For Attending Jan 6 Rally

Department of Justice

January 6

Texas

The following is an edited transcript of a Daily Wire interview with Bill Whittle on his new, in-depth docuseries on the rise of the Soviet Union: &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/apollo-11-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What We Saw: An Empire of Terror</a>.&#8221; 
Daily Wire: Bill, you’ve now produced multiple “What We Saw” documentaries for The Daily Wire: “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/apollo-11-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apollo 11</a>” and “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/apollo-11-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Cold War</a>.” Why did you choose the rise of the Soviet Union as your next project?
Bill: Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine I received a call from Jeremy Boreing at The Daily Wire. I just finished covering a fair amount of Russia with &#8220;The Cold War&#8221; series. Given the research for &#8220;The Cold War,&#8221; and my previous readings, I&#8217;ve always been kind of morbidly fascinated with the mechanisms of the Soviet Union — fascinated and disgusted and appalled and intrigued by governments that have to terrorize their people in order to remain in power, antithetical to the American system. And no matter how bad we think things get here, there&#8217;s nothing that&#8217;s happened or is happening now in this country that even approaches this scale.
DW: Why is it important to remember Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution?
Bill: Several years after World War I, Winston Churchill said that the Germans had transmitted a “Bacillus” into Russia in the form of Lenin. I think he got that exactly right. It (Lenin) was a biological weapon. And it was designed to destroy Russia as a great power in World War I. That&#8217;s why the Germans not only allowed Lenin to travel through Germany during the height of the war, but in fact paid his expenses for many, many years afterwards.
This regime is interesting to me for two reasons: the main reason is how intellectual it was — and I have a very low opinion of intellectuals. Intellectualism is for people who think they are intelligent and are so certain of themselves and so certain of what they believe that they feel the right to enforce their theories on other people.
What fascinated me about this horrific system was the theoretical aspect of everything. There was nothing about the system that was practical. There was nothing based on common sense, experience, reason, kindness, decency — nothing. It was all based on the theory of a German philosopher named Karl Marx. His writings appealed to people looking for some sort of justice, but they also appealed to people who had any sort of envy for the people in power but didn&#8217;t want to do any work in order to achieve it.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/apollo-11-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: &#8220;An Empire of Terror&#8221; on DailyWire+</a></h4>
The other remarkable quality about all of the Soviet leaders is just how useless they were. Prior to finding themselves in the middle of the system, none of them had jobs. Lenin’s only job was as a failed attorney, very briefly. As a lawyer he lost, I think, 13 out of 14 cases and never really worked a day in his life. Prior to the revolution, he sat around for 16 years, sitting in cafes in safe places like Berlin and Munich and London and Zurich, sipping tea and discussing theory. 
He developed in his massive forehead this idea of how a society should work and there was no real world evidence that would change his mind. If it turned out that there was a difference between the map he had in his head and reality, then the reality had to be well, he would then go about doing whatever he had to do with the lovers of state power to beat reality into line with the theory. And this is why the Soviet state was a terror state. They never had legitimacy. 
The Bolsheviks were a minority every single time they held a so-called “election;” they were a tremendous minority. And you can’t even accuse the Nazis of that.
<div id="attachment_714981" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-714981" class="size-large wp-image-714981" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-2-Thumbnail-1024x576.png" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-2-Thumbnail-1024x576.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-2-Thumbnail-300x169.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-2-Thumbnail-768x432.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-2-Thumbnail-1536x864.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-2-Thumbnail.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />DailyWire+</div>
DW: In &#8220;An Empire of Terror&#8221; you mention the leader of Russia’s provisional government, Alexander Kerensky. Why wasn’t he able to mount a good defense against the growing Bolshevik threat?
Bill: Someone once wrote that Lenin was “lucky with his enemies.” And that was exactly the case. I have very high regard for Alexander Kerensky’s principles and for what he wanted for the Russian people. But as an actor, Kerensky had two qualities that actors often bring to the world: First, he was spectacularly naive when it came to the real world. And second, he was tremendously vain. These two blind spots led him to believe he was in control when in fact, Lenin was ready to do everything up to and including murder when Kerensky was simply looking out the window at the daisies. He was a good man and history was kind to him but he was no match for Lenin’s ruthlessness. This is the thing about the Soviet state — it&#8217;s designed in such a way that you have to keep the population under control through terror. The people that end up running the machine, by definition, become the most ruthless and terroristic of the bunch.
<div id="attachment_714985" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-714985" class="size-large wp-image-714985" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-4-Thumbnail-1024x576.png" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-4-Thumbnail-1024x576.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-4-Thumbnail-300x169.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-4-Thumbnail-768x432.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-4-Thumbnail-1536x864.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/EOT-EP-4-Thumbnail.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />DailyWire+</div>
DW: What were some of the challenges you faced making this new series?
Bill: All roads lead back to Lenin. When I began to realize the magnitude of the crimes that these people committed, I began to feel a tremendous sense of historical responsibility to the people who disappeared without photographs.
800,000 people were killed in one of the gulags called Kolyma. 800,000 people. That makes it second on the leaderboard from hell: Auschwitz is first, Kolyma is second, and Treblinka is third. So, more than anything, I wanted every single episode to have as many photographs of the faces of individual people. And most importantly, we can never use the same face twice. I just wanted faces because, as Stalin said, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.”
So my biggest challenge was to find a way to try and personalize this. Make people understand that this could just as easily be you or your family, and then try to give them some idea of what the size of 20 million people looks like.
For example, about 100,000 people attend the Super Bowl every year. Imagine that everybody had to exit the stadium, single file, through one gate and you had to stand there and look at every single face as they left the stadium. When you were finished, hours and hours and hours later, you would have only 199 more Super Bowls to look at before you reached 20 million and saw the face of every person killed by this “idea.” And if it&#8217;s killed that many people, maybe it&#8217;s not such a good idea.
DW: Did you come across any surprises in your research?
Bill: The most astonishing story in &#8220;An Empire of Terror&#8221; is a true story. I&#8217;ve worked exceedingly hard and long to make sure that not only everything I wrote was true, but that I also had the receipts for everything.
But the most astonishing coincidence in the entire series is this: Lenin and Stalin were both known to be extremely paranoid, and very, very private people. They kept a very tight circle and they were constantly on the lookout for assassination and betrayal. So when Lenin finally arrives in Moscow from St. Petersburg, and eventually gets himself a little mansion, he is living with his sisters, his wife, and two secretaries. He also has four bodyguards and a private cook named Comrade Spiridon.
Comrade Spiridon went from being the only person that lived with Lenin, who was not related to him, to becoming the only person who lived with Stalin. And he lived with Stalin for the duration of Stalin&#8217;s reign in the Soviet Union. The only person who shared the insight into the entire thing — from the rise from agrarian peasantry to nuclear superpower. Comrade Spiridon was the only man who was on the inside. He would serve dinner to people who were the heads of the secret police one night and then the next night they were gone. They&#8217;d been killed and replaced. The genuinely remarkable part of this story is that Comrade Spiridon’s last name was Putin. This was Vladimir Putin&#8217;s grandfather.
Vladimir Putin learned about the Soviet Union on his grandfather&#8217;s knee. And so the perspective Vladimir Putin received of the Soviet Union was the most elevated inside perspective that was possible to obtain. No one else in the entire history of the Soviet Union, ever, got that close to both of those men. And to think that it was possible for Vladimir Putin to turn out any other way is insane.
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DW: In light of the upcoming presidential election, do you see elements of communism at play in our politics?
Bill: Well, the first thing I think that stands out about the upcoming election is the lawfare that&#8217;s being conducted against Donald Trump. If these people who are committing these atrocities against him genuinely believed in democracy, if they genuinely believed that their democratic values were better than Republican values, they wouldn&#8217;t be trying to lock up Trump. They&#8217;d be doing everything they could to get him to keep talking. If you feel like your only way to win an election is by having your opponent put in jail, you are well on your way to this kind of totalitarian empire of terror. That&#8217;s number one.
Number two is cancel culture. The Left is using cancel culture as a strong-arm tactic to get people to shut up. And we all know the way it works: “You&#8217;re racist” or “we&#8217;re going to call your boss” or “we&#8217;re going to boycott your product” or whatever. But the point is that the only people who feel they need to shut up the opposition are people who know that their opposition has a better argument. And if they don&#8217;t shut them up, they&#8217;re going to win. One of my favorite sayings is that liberals want conservatives to shut up and conservatives want liberals to keep talking. And that&#8217;s the essence of the difference between these two parties.
I have seen a concerted effort in America over the last several years to silence people. This whole idea of cancel culture is as close as we&#8217;ve come so far to taking people out to the Gulag and shooting them in the back of the head. But there are people who do want other people silenced. And the one thing I did realize is that there comes a tipping point when too many people are too quiet for too long. The social proof is to be quiet. The longer everybody is quiet, the harder it is to speak up. Eventually, it will lead to a situation like the Soviet Union, or the Nazi state. With &#8220;An Empire of Terror,&#8221; I was determined to do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

EOT – Key Art – 16×9 (1)

‘An Empire Of Terror’: Bill Whittle On The Rise Of The Soviet Union

Bill Whittle

Documentaries

Josef Stalin

Russia

Vladimir Lenin

Here’s how World War III could happen.
To understand how, we should look historically at the closest that the world has gotten to World War III since the end of World War II.
The world came closest to World War III during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the Soviet Union attempted to ship nuclear-tipped missiles into Cuba and the United States put a blockade around Cuba to prevent that from happening.
The United States and the USSR stood eyeball-to-eyeball and eventually the USSR backed down. But — that was very, very close.
To understand why we came so close to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, you actually have to reverse field for a few years.
The reality is that the USSR started to challenge the United States so strenuously around the world because of roughly a decade of weakness in American foreign policy.
This is how world wars break out — miscalculation. They break out because one side believes that the other side is likely to cave in the face of its aggression.
It&#8217;s particularly true when the United States shows its neck to its enemies. So to really understand what was happening in the lead-up to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, you have to return to 1956, when Dwight Eisenhower was president and there was a crisis that emerged in the Middle East.
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That crisis involved the Suez Canal. Nasser, the nationalist, pan-Arab nationalist leader of Egypt, decided that he was going to unite all the Arab countries by flexing muscle in the face of the West. And so he decided that despite the fact that he had nothing to do with the building of the Suez Canal, he would nationalize the Suez Canal.
The French and the British both had an interest in the Suez Canal. And they said to Nasser, you can&#8217;t do that. The United States stood on the sidelines and vacillated for a couple of reasons: They believed that if they were kind enough to Nasser, then Nasser would not align himself with the Soviet Union and that Nasser might, in fact, become the tip of the spear in some sort of American overture to the Arab world; if they were just kind and nice to Nasser, then everything would work out just fine. They were supposedly afraid that the USSR was going to get directly involved in the Suez Canal crisis.
Meanwhile, the British were no longer an international power of the sort of vintage they had been historically. The British and the French, who had historically not worked particularly well together, decided to work with the Israelis in order to liberate the Suez Canal, which the British had built.
They went to the Israelis, who were worried about the Egyptian militarization of the Sinai Desert, and Israel decided that it would work with the British and the French in order to free the Suez Canal and possibly overthrow Nasser and put in place somebody who was not going to be an enemy of the West.
The Israelis ended up moving into the Sinai desert, which they quickly overran, and then they were on the march to Cairo.
The plan was for the British and the French to intervene, tell the Israelis to stop, and take over the Suez Canal.
And then — Eisenhower stepped in and rapped everyone on the knuckles. The United States actually stepped in on Egypt’s side and said to the British and the French that this was a violation of international law, hoping Nasser would then align himself with the West. The United States was basically saying to the British and the French that they were no longer world powers.
Again, the Egyptian government didn&#8217;t build the Suez Canal. The British government did it. None of that mattered; the bottom line was that the United States decided to play non-aligned. And in playing non-aligned, Nikita Khrushchev, the new premier of the Soviet Union, decided now was the time to move.
The next thing that happened, just a few months later, was that there was an uprising in Hungary, a state in the Soviet sphere of influence. Suddenly there was a Hungarian revolution, an attempt to actually substitute the puppet government that had been installed by the Soviets with a new government, a better government that was going to essentially remain non-aligned.
The Soviets immediately invaded Hungary and crushed everything and killed everyone involved in the Hungarian revolution of 1956. By 1957, Sputnik was launched and the space race was on. By 1958, Nikita Khrushchev, believing that he had the impetus, felt he had the power to challenge the United States globally.
In 1958, he demanded the withdrawal of American troops and Western troops from Berlin, beginning what was known as the Berlin crisis. For three long years, the Soviet Union and the United States stood toe-to-toe over Berlin.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union facilitated a Cuban revolution that ended with Fidel Castro in charge of Cuba. In 1961, Khrushchev stepped in and solved the Berlin crisis by building the Berlin Wall, which lasted until 1989.
All of this led to the Cuban Missile crisis.
There is one rule when it comes to World War: Lack of clarity in your intention, vacillation, failure to make clear to your enemies what exactly your lines are.
Fake bluffs, empty threats. These things lead to war. Very often the open threat of war actually deters war. Very often, the willingness to actually flex muscle leads the other side to believe, “Hey, maybe I shouldn’t actually go and have this firefight with somebody. They&#8217;re ready to have the firefight.”
Miscalculation is the most likely way the great powers end up in war. That&#8217;s precisely what happened during World War I and happened during World War II. The Germans miscalculated because they thought that since the West had caved at Munich and because they&#8217;d been able to occupy the Sudetenland, they would then be able to then occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia. The aftermath of that was that they thought they could then occupy the Danzig corridor.
Failure of willingness to convey your intention, failure to act as an iron wall against the aggression of your enemies, leads to escalation. And then you actually do get dragged into hot wars that involve extraordinary numbers of casualties.
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Today there is a story out of the <a href="https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/131715/taiwan-usa-troops-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Express</a> that American troops are to be permanently stationed in Taiwan, according to Taipei.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are buzzing the borders of the Taiwan Strait, which is divided between Taiwan and China in terms of offshore control. Chinese jets have been busing the Taiwan Straits. The Chinese are again pursuing hypersonic missile tests.
Now, why would they be doing all of this? The reason they are doing that is because Joe Biden has demonstrated he&#8217;s showing his neck while China has been busily facilitating the creation of an anti-American, anti-Western alliance predominantly staffed by China, Russia and Iran.
Those are countries that are very obviously working together, so much so that the Houthis, an Iranian-backed terror group that is currently attacking shipping in the Red Sea, announced that they would not attack any Chinese or Russian shipping in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.
What the Biden administration should be doing is taking the position that it is going to destroy any Houthi attempts to harass shipping in the Red Sea. What the United States should be doing in Ukraine is holding the line; the United States does have an interest in holding the line against Russia. The United States, when it comes to Israel, should be saying that Israel has the full capacity to go in to strike Hamas, which is an Iranian proxy group.
The reason that China is getting aggressive with Taiwan, the reason that a war could possibly break out is because China is thinking, “We just don&#8217;t believe that Joe Biden is going to do anything about that. Not only that, you guys look so divided internally in the United States on foreign policy that if we make a move, we think that probably you will just let it go.&#8221;
The single most effective method of upgrading Chinese military capacity is to take or blockade Taiwan. It&#8217;s not about the money for the Chinese military; it is about the microchips. Taiwan is the largest manufacturer of microchips, sophisticated microchips on the planet.
Those microchips are the single greatest advantage the United States has in terms of military tech, because we design all the software here and then the hardware is then printed off and created in Taiwan, but we&#8217;re not even able to ramp up our microchip facilities in the United States fast enough to make up for Taiwan being lost.
But mostly, this is about will.
After the abandonment of Hong Kong, after the abandonment of Afghanistan, after the internal pressures in the United States over Ukraine and Israel, the Chinese are hoping that Taiwan is going to get the message and elect a government that is friendlier to China and then just give them the microchips. Suddenly their military would go from a very large but second-rate military to a first-class military.
It is a game of perception. How does the world perceive Joe Biden right now? They perceive him as weak. How does the world perceive the United States? They perceive the United States as divided. When you have a weak president and a divided United States, that seems like a really good time to march.
And that&#8217;s precisely why it matters.

Russia Holds 75th Anniversary Victory Parade Over The Nazis In WWII

Here’s How World War III Could Happen

Biden Administration

China

Cuba

Egypt

Joe Biden

Taiwan

As Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine continue to dominate political discourse and presidential agendas this election year, DailyWire+ announced on Wednesday the launch of “What We Saw: An Empire of Terror,” the latest iteration of its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/apollo-11-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">popular anthology docuseries</a> hosted by renowned storyteller Bill Whittle.
Now in its third season, the show’s newest episodes investigate the class-based genocide perpetrated by communist Soviets in the early 20th century under the reigns of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, unveiling a chilly reality of fear and violence.
The first episode of “What We Saw: An Empire of Terror” is now streaming on DailyWire+, with new episodes dropping weekly on Wednesdays.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/innocent-people" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH ‘WHAT WE SAW: AN EMPIRE OF TERROR’ ON DAILYWIRE+</a>
Russia’s relationship with the United States has long been a complicated one, and though the countries have been allies at times, relations are again strained following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. To comprehend Putin’s motivations in the modern global landscape, Whittle guides viewers through Lenin and Stalin’s regimes, exploring the historical context that shaped the current Russian president’s behaviors.
“Putin wanted to join the KGB from the time he was a small child, but why? I can’t tell you what goes on in Putin’s head, no one can. I thought the next best thing was to show you the horror of what was in front of his eyes growing up,” Whittle says in episode 8.
Whittle&#8217;s core message of common sense and decency has earned him a devoted following among those who value reasoned thought, civil dialogue, and vigorous laughter. His powers of vivid storytelling, relentless logic, and self-deprecating humor join forces to apply time-tested principles in memorable ways.
“What We Saw” is an exclusive <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=paid&amp;utm_source=googlesearch&amp;utm_content=na_subscriptions&amp;mid=g&amp;cid=dailywire&amp;xid=0&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiAopuvBhBCEiwAm8jaMe6RmlPijLsp3ZTnuxrm6cvHV_fqd9ibYczyBD8MSDUCoQBzpdNGkhoC7QgQAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire+</a> anthology series that presents pivotal historical events as a creative cinematic adventure. Subscribe now to watch the full Apollo 11 and Cold War seasons and catch new episodes of An Empire of Terror weekly on dailywireplus.com.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="What We Saw: ‘An Empire Of Terror’" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CM4FoHmSArs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Empire of Terror

DailyWire+ Launches ‘An Empire Of Terror,’ Third Installment Of Hit Docuseries ‘What We Saw’ Hosted By Bill Whittle

DailyWire+

Vladimir Putin

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” – Winston Churchill
Socialism is a terrific idea in theory. Who would not want everyone in society to have a house with a white picket fence, the job of their dreams, 2.5 kids and a dog? But plain vanilla socialism has failed every single time it has been implemented — the Soviet Union, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Venezuela — and it turned each of those countries (and others) into a totalitarian state.
In a socialist state, success is pushed down, and failure is elevated. This is how equality of outcome is created. In the Soviet Union’s version of plain vanilla socialism, we were taught to hate the wealthy and empathize with the poor. This empathy was easy for us because everyone (with the exception of the tiny ruling-class bureaucrats) was poor.
Capitalism does not offer the sexy, utopian promise of socialism, but it works in practice. Capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty; but it is now under threat, ironically, from those who have benefited the most from it — academics. Universities  have been among the biggest beneficiaries of the wealth created by capitalism. 
As Margaret Thatcher once said, “Socialism is a great idea until you run out of other people’s money.”
Universities used to be spartan gyms for our minds, places where opposing ideas collided and gave birth to new ones and where our thinking got challenged through healthy debate. This growth came with healthy pain, the type that accompanies and stimulates intellectual growth.
Today, many universities have been turned into day spas, where, for <a href="https://www.collegeessayadvisors.com/ivy-league-tuition-and-fees-2022-23/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$300,000</a>, a student’s mind will be pampered and coddled. Now they are “safe places” from opposing ideas, which are <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/absurd-uva-microaggressions-case-shows-just-how-badly-schools-can-abuse-professionalism-codes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">considered</a> as microaggressions. This is where free speech goes to die, unless it calls for the genocidal extermination of Jews; then you can speak your mind.
It seems today’s college administrations are afraid to upset their spa customers (I mean students). They do not seem to be focused on challenging their thinking and producing the brightest but are instead fixated on making students feel better about themselves.
I was not surprised to learn that socialism is slowly poisoning our universities, but I was surprised by its new avenue — the socialization of grades. Professors at a local law school are required to grade to a B+. When professors submit their grades, if the average is below a B+, the system will reject it. The university is afraid of making students feel bad about a low, albeit deserved grade and wants every student to have a high grade-point average upon graduation.
However, what is inflation for one group is deflation for another. This practice punishes hard working students, as their work may result in a lower grade than they deserve, compared to classmates who are preoccupied with attending “TikTok University” during lectures.
Universities are on a quixotic mission to right a wrong — they are fighting against grade inequality. This is what socializing (equalizing) outcomes looks like. In fact, this seemingly innocent practice of equally high grades has the familiar ring of a Karl Marx slogan that I heard endlessly in the Soviet Union: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Law students need a B+, so they get a B+. 
With each graduating class, our capitalistic (equal-opportunity) society is being slowly diluted by equal-outcome dogma (socialism).
Grade inflation appears to be happening in virtually <a href="https://www.gradeinflation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">every college</a> across the country. Colleges should not receive all the blame for this, however. Unfortunately, it starts in high schools, where super grade inflation is on the rise — grades have gone up while reading and math skills have fallen, with <a href="https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/Evidence-of-Grade-Inflation-in-English-Math-Social-Studies-and-Science.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">minorities experiencing</a> the largest grade inflation. 
Bad grades are a necessary part of education. How else would you know you had not learned something as well as you thought you had? I failed English as a freshman in college. I had been in the US for two years. My English was objectively horrible. I’m glad I didn’t receive special (woke) treatment for being “fresh off the boat.” I studied a lot harder, retook the class and passed it my senior year. If I had not, my English would not have improved and I would not have written several books or received national awards for writing.
The beauty of the Declaration of Independence is that you are guaranteed the “pursuit of happiness” — you are given an equal chance to pursue it. You are not guaranteed the outcome, just the opportunity. There is enormous value, and yes even happiness and meaning in the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit will often take you down a harder road, but it will result in the best version of you and bring a sense of pride and accomplishment.
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<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-semitism-wokeness-and-why-a-strong-america-is-essential-to-israels-survival-part-1-a-small-country-with-a-big-story">READ: Anti-Semitism, Wokeness, And Why A Strong America Is Essential To Israel’s Survival, Part 1: A Small Country With A Big Story</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-semitism-wokeness-and-why-a-strong-america-is-essential-to-israels-survival-part-2-wokeness-is-destroying-america-one-student-at-a-time">READ: Anti-Semitism, Wokeness, And Why A Strong America Is Essential To Israel’s Survival, Part 2: Wokeness Is Destroying America — One Student at a Time</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-semitism-wokeness-and-why-a-strong-america-is-essential-to-israels-survival-part-4-one-way-to-save-america-and-israel">READ: Anti-Semitism, Wokeness, And Why A Strong America Is Essential To Israel’s Survival, Part 4: One Way To Save America And Israel</a>
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Vitaliy Katsenelson is CEO of <a href="https://imausa.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://imausa.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1647635730858000&amp;usg=AOvVaw30zrUEAHOucJkCFFh3YMfC">IMA</a> – a value investing firm in Denver. You can read his articles on  <a href="http://contrarianedge.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ContrarianEdge.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1647635730858000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0Ak6ognAG7cu6Z8Bx_j7L8">ContrarianEdge.com</a>. He is the author of <a href="https://soulinthegame.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://soulinthegame.net/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1647635730858000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0w8zHUpuqxRre_0scGo3hI">Soul in the Game</a> – The Art of a Meaningful Life (Harriman House, 2022).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Anti-Semitism, Wokeness, And Why A Strong America Is Essential To Israel’s Survival, Part 3: The Socialism Of Grades

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