This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
***
Last month, two Americans were killed in a foreign state’s counterterrorism operation. If Lyle Prijoles, 40, and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem, 26, had been part of a group of jihadi terrorists in the Middle East, their deaths would likely have generated national headlines. But they were in the Philippines, fighting for the New People’s Army (NPA), a decades-old Maoist insurgent group that serves as the armed wing of the <a href="https://www.dni.gov/nctc/terrorist_groups/cpp.html">Communist Party of the Philippines</a> (CPP).
The two appear to have died fighting: many Western reports of the incident explicitly note that Prijoles’s and Sorem’s deaths occurred in a “<a href="https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/06/bay-area-activist-shot-death-philippines-family-wants-answers">firefight</a>,” implying an exchange of fire between both sides. Nor were they fighting on the side of good: both the CPP and NPA <a href="https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations">are designated</a> foreign terrorist organizations by the State Department.
How did two Americans die in a gun battle on behalf of Filipino Communist terrorists? The incident shows how Americans can become <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/calla-walsh-unity-of-fields-political-violence">mixed up</a> with terrorist organizations. Such entanglements begin not just overseas but also within political organizing environments in the United States, including college campuses and diaspora advocacy networks. Both the U.S. government and higher education institutions should scrutinize these networks more closely — before more American lives are lost.
Prijoles and Sorem’s radicalization began with two left-wing activist groups: Anakbayan-USA and Bayan-USA. Both operate within segments of the Filipino-American community in the U.S.
The Philippine government has <a href="https://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php/articles/1142763?">long argued</a> that such groups are fronts for the CPP. Through these groups, Filipino Communist influence has extended into segments of the American <a href="https://x.com/thestustustudio/status/1779631853688803684">anti-imperialist</a> and <a href="https://x.com/thestustustudio/status/1989851260229668955">abolitionist</a> organizing space. The party and its aligned networks have also been visible in the anti-Israel protest movement, according to a <a href="https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Kyle-Shideler-Filipino-Communists-V4.pdf">report</a> by the Center for Security Policy.
Prijoles appears to have been radicalized at San Francisco State University sometime around 2004, eventually <a href="https://reimaginerpe.org/node/2688?qt-join_give_subscribe=1">serving as</a> chair of SFSU’s chapter of the League of Filipino Students. After his death, his wife <a href="https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/san-francisco-community-honors-graduate-student-killed-in-the-philippines">told a local news outlet</a> that “his passion for the community grew while he was a student at SF State.” Prijoles <a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/hayward-human-rights-activist-among-19-shot-killed-philippines">made several trips</a> to the Philippines after 2006, and <a href="https://ichrpus.wordpress.com/2026/04/24/justice-for-the-negros-19-justice-for-lyle-prijoles">was a leader</a> in the U.S. chapter of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines.
This activity made him a natural fit for Anakbayan. In 2012, Anakbayan-USA held its Founding Congress; Prijoles <a href="https://anakbayannj.org/2012/05/30/filipino-youth-and-students-hold-founding-congress-of-anakbayan-usa-in-the-midst-of-anti-nato-protests-in-chicago">was elected</a> “<a href="https://anakbayannj.org/2012/05/30/filipino-youth-and-students-hold-founding-congress-of-anakbayan-usa-in-the-midst-of-anti-nato-protests-in-chicago">Solidarity Officer</a>.” After that, his organizing work took on an increasingly <a href="https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/06/bay-area-activist-shot-death-philippines-family-wants-answers">international character</a>, and he grew more and more active on the ground in the Philippines.
Sorem’s radicalization pathway appears to have been shaped by a broader search for political and personal identity, particularly through Filipino diaspora organizing. He served as a <a href="https://housedemocrats.wa.gov/representative-green-with-page-kai-sorem">legislative page</a> for the Democratic Party in Washington State. Like Prijoles, Sorem’s activism was motivated by his Filipino identity. His sibling, PJ Sorem, <a href="https://youtu.be/ni0CUiPq3_0?si=p-brR9ZExx-H5HXH&amp;t=1108">said</a> that this led him to become politically active and organize in the Philippines.
Sorem’s political involvement took a more radical turn in 2020, when he was a student at Central Washington University. According to an <a href="https://www.anakbayanusa.com/statements/hustisya-para-kay-kai-sorem">Anakbayan memorial</a>, Sorem “witnessed state violence and repression through the killing of George Floyd and saw parallels in [Philippines President Rodrigo] Duterte’s war on drugs and the poor.” This apparently inspired Sorem, who <a href="https://www.malayamovement.com/statements/justiceforkai">identified as a trans woman</a>, to see “a future for her people in the National Democratic movement.” Soon after, Sorem launched Anakbayan South Seattle.
Over time, Sorem delved into anti-imperialist politics, including attendance at “<a href="https://iexaminer.org/seattle-activist-kai-sorem-killed-by-philippine-military">international leftist summits</a>” and expanded organizing work. Sorem traveled to the Philippines in 2025 as part of a <a href="https://www.malayamovement.com/statements/justiceforkai">U.S. exposure trip</a> and, by 2026, was living in the Philippines and organizing full-time.
Sorem was a significant figure in the Seattle-Tacoma Filipino activist community. The <a href="https://www.malayamovement.com/statements/justiceforkai">Tacoma chapter of the Malaya Movement</a> praised Sorem’s community role and called for justice after his death. The Seattle chapter of <a href="https://www.gabrielausa.org/">GABRIELA USA</a>, an organization “fighting for the rights of Filipina women and LGBTQGNC [gender non-conforming] people,” also praised Sorem’s local involvement. Sorem’s sibling PJ is a <a href="https://youtu.be/qg6IUcnchVI?si=6DX5jJvmg5Za30ko&amp;t=866">member</a> of this organization’s Seattle branch.
Prijoles and Sorem were not outlier cases but part of a nation- and globe-spanning network of Filipino groups. While they present to the world as focused on mundane ethnic affinity, many of these groups encourage their members into radicalization.
A central ideological principle within these groups is advocacy of “National Democracy.” That refers to a <a href="https://www.marxists.org/history/philippines/index.htm">Marxist-Leninist conception</a> of a people’s democracy led by a Communist vanguard. Though these organizations primarily focus on issues in the Philippines, they also participate in broader international coordination through umbrella formations such as the <a href="https://peoplesstruggle.org/en">International League of Peoples’ Struggles</a>.
The ILPS was founded in 2001 by Jose Maria Sison, founder of the CPP, and several allied international activists. It is widely characterized as part of the broader Maoist-oriented National Democratic movement associated with the CPP. Despite the CPP’s and NPA’s designations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the ILPS umbrella group has continued to operate in the United States with little scrutiny. It has more than <a href="https://www.ilps.us/general">350 organizations worldwide</a> folded into its network, <a href="https://www.workers.org/2012/us/ilps_0531">including</a> Anakbayan and Bayan.
Before his death in 2022, Sison maintained regular virtual contact with groups like Anakbayan, Bayan, and ILPS. He frequently <a href="https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/854766/cpp-founding-chairman-joma-sison-passes-away/story">appeared</a> at conferences and delivered digital messages — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGKfWEbv1xg">including</a> to Anakbayan’s Founding Congress. In turn, these groups have continued to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DXHp0Tqk2ct">invoke</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C3N2C1wgrHu">commemorate</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DUg3mhxkve3">align themselves</a> with his legacy.
Many of these groups have deep tendrils in American universities; some college professors even display these affiliations on their official faculty pages. At San Francisco State University, where Prijoles was radicalized, Irene Faye Duller’s <a href="https://aas.sfsu.edu/duller-irene-faye">faculty profile</a> references her role as Bayan-USA’s Northern California Regional Coordinator and her work with ILPS. Joy Sales of California State University, Los Angeles describes her work as “<a href="https://alumni.grinnell.edu/awards/2023-alumni-award-profiles-joy-sales">community-engaged scholar</a>” and <a href="https://alumni.grinnell.edu/awards/2023-alumni-award-profiles-joy-sales">references</a> involvement with Anakbayan, among other groups. CVs for University of Washington faculty member <a href="https://aes.washington.edu/sites/aes/files/documents/cv/2024-01/BONUS%20R.%20C.V.%202024.pdf">Rick Bonus</a> and <a href="https://profiles.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs3881/files/2022-08/ASMW%20-%20Curriculum%20Vitae%202022.pdf">Alden Sajor Marte-Wood</a>, now at <a href="https://www.vassar.edu/faculty/amartewood">Vassar</a>, advertise roles as advisers or faculty sponsors for Anakbayan student chapters.
Nor is campus activism restricted to professors. The Georgia chapter of the <a href="https://revolutionarystudentsunion.wordpress.com/about-rsu">Revolutionary Student Union</a>, a “socialist mass organization of revolutionary students in the United States,” held a May Day rally in which participants waved an NPA flag and burned an American flag. Commenting on the incident, Center for Security Policy analyst Kyle Shideler <a href="https://x.com/ShidelerK/status/2051477091405770965">observed</a>, “Obviously if they were to display public support for ISIS or Al Qaeda the response would be swift.”
Prijoles and Sorem’s deaths were the tragic results of two Americans going down the radicalization rabbit hole. What started as innocent interest in their national origins ended in their deaths amid a hail of bullets.
Yet almost no one is taking the networks that radicalized them seriously, Shideler warns. Their deaths should be the trigger for U.S. intelligence, law enforcement, and higher education officials to investigate the influence of a designated foreign terror organization on America’s campuses and elsewhere — before more lives are lost.
***
This is republished with permission from the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. The original can be found <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/philippines-communist-party-lyle-prijoles-kai-dana-rene-sorem">here</a>.
<a href="https://www.city-journal.org/person/stu-smith">Stu Smith</a> is an investigative analyst with City Journal. Follow him on X <a href="https://x.com/thestustustudio">@TheStuStuStudio</a>.

PHILIPPINES-POLITICS-COMMUNIST-PEACETALKS

Inside The Filipino Communists Recruiting Americans For Death Missions

Communism

foreign affairs

MI x DW

Radicalization

Terrorism

Independent journalist Nick Shirley recently traveled to Cuba, where he looked into the ongoing food and energy crisis on the island and asked residents about living under a communist regime.
Shirley, who gained nationwide recognition for his reporting on suspected fraud schemes in Minneapolis, was in Cuba for 24 hours earlier this month as the country faces an oil shortage and mounting pressure from the Trump administration.
In one interview, Shirley asked a Cuban man to share his opinion on communism.
&#8220;The worst thing to exist in life!&#8221; he said. &#8220;The worst thing to exist in life is communism because, in reality, none of them are communist. They get rich and exploit the people.&#8221;
He argued that the equality promised under communism &#8220;doesn&#8217;t exist.&#8221;
&#8220;They are the ones with everything,&#8221; he added, referring to Cuba&#8217;s communist leaders. &#8220;They have electricity, they have the nicest cars, they have oil, they have gas, they have everything. And the people have nothing. And the majority of the companies are theirs.&#8221;
The oil shortage has forced Cuba into island-wide blackouts, disrupting essential services, including hospitals and public transportation. Many Cubans are also forced to wait in long lines for food handed out by the government, which is typically imported.
&#8220;How can you live off a ration book that gets you three pounds of sugar and one pound of salt?&#8221; the Cuban man told Shirley. &#8220;Each year, they give you a chicken and eggs. Eggs haven&#8217;t arrived in a year. It&#8217;s been a year since I had an egg.&#8221;
Asked why some people in Cuba continue to defend the country&#8217;s communist system and government, the man replied, &#8220;The only ones who defend communism are with the Castro family, or someone who&#8217;s afraid of them, or someone who lives off the government — who gets rich from the dictatorship.&#8221;
He then urged Americans to reject socialism and communism.
&#8220;The worst thing that can happen in life is socialism and communism because it&#8217;s the great lie,&#8221; the Cuban man said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t exist. It just leads you to misery, harassment, hunger, and anguish.&#8221;
&#8220;Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, I am waiting for you guys, please, to see if we can live like people, to live like a human being,&#8221; he added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is the truth about communism from someone living in communism: 
&#8211; Regime leaders get rich and exploit the people 
&#8211; No food (hasn&#8217;t had eggs in a year) 
&#8211; No freedom of speech 
&#8211; No equality
&#8220;It just leads you to misery, harassment, hunger and anguish&#8221; &#8211; Man living in communism <a href="https://t.co/qSa4ref68U">pic.twitter.com/qSa4ref68U</a>
— Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) <a href="https://twitter.com/nickshirleyy/status/2053995650518601906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Shirley later claimed he was tracked by undercover government agents and a Cuban general while in Havana and said he had to plan his own escape from the country &#8220;to avoid being taken hostage.&#8221;
Cuba&#8217;s already bleak energy crisis worsened following the January capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces. After the capture of Maduro, the United States took control of Venezuelan oil sales and imposed a blockade around Cuba. Previously, Venezuela was Cuba&#8217;s main oil supplier.
President Donald Trump has sought to force Cuba&#8217;s communist regime to the negotiating table as it tries to hold onto power. War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the Cuban regime poses a national security threat to the United States. Cuba has been accused by American officials of aiding adversarial governments and maintaining close ties with regimes in China and Venezuela.

Cuba

‘Worst Thing To Exist’: Cuban Man Blasts Communism On Streets Of Havana

U.S.

John Fetterman just said the quiet part out loud about where he thinks today’s Democratic Party is heading and he does not sound thrilled about it.
During an appearance on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, the Pennsylvania Democrat expressed alarm over the growing normalization of socialism inside parts of the Democratic Party, warning the trend should concern Americans.
“And people that are proud to be labeled as a socialist, that used to be a smear,” Fetterman said. “Now it’s becoming more normalized, and now I think that’s a very dangerous slippery slope for us to be.”
Fetterman went even further, saying immigrants and people who have actually lived under socialist or communist governments often understand the consequences better than American progressives romanticizing the idea online.
“I’ve spoke to people that had to live under socialism and or communism, and they are like they are morons if they think that socialism is the answer,” he said.
The exchange quickly turned into a broader conversation about how dramatically political language on the Left has shifted in recent years.
Maher argued that while America already has some government-run systems like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, modern progressive activists are pushing something far beyond that. He then pointed to growing acceptance of openly communist rhetoric among some younger activists and political figures.
“What really was a dirty word, which isn’t anymore, is communism,” Maher said.
The HBO host specifically referenced comments from people connected to New York City’s socialist movement and warned that ideas once considered politically toxic are suddenly becoming socially acceptable in parts of elite progressive circles.
“I think we need to pause here and say, OK, this is a watershed moment in American history where we should pay attention,” Maher added.
Fetterman responded bluntly: “Well, I sure hope not.”
The conversation is notable because Fetterman has increasingly become one of the few Democrats willing to publicly criticize parts of his own party’s activist wing, especially after the October 7 Hamas attacks and the internal Democratic civil war over Israel, policing, socialism, and progressive activism.
While many progressives initially embraced Fetterman during his Senate run because of his populist image and anti-establishment style, he has increasingly frustrated the Left by sounding far more moderate on issues involving Israel, law enforcement, and now socialism itself.
The interview also highlights a growing panic inside parts of the Democratic Party ahead of 2028 as leaders try to figure out whether the future of the party belongs to moderates trying to win back working-class voters or activists pushing the party further left.
For conservatives watching the conversation unfold, hearing a sitting Democratic senator openly warn about socialism and communism becoming normalized probably says a lot about just how far the debate has shifted in recent years.

Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing For DHS Secretary Nominee Markwayne Mullin

Fetterman Says Democrats Are Flirting With Something Americans Used To Fear

Bill Maher

Democratic Socialism

Democrats

fetterman

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), never a group to shy away from radical posturing, has officially <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2026/03/12/chicago-teachers-union-plans-to-join-may-1-no-school-no-work-day-of-action-wants-classes-canceled?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23559714611&amp;gbraid=0AAAAA9e-Tg6UY-KZu4aY-vqEU5Q5EQU0F&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwntHPBhAaEiwA_Xp6Rne5i-_eFc1MaVw8HXTBnMkL6ujFJ6xP1F5YdsN8qKwMcpc80urKABoCOCQQAvD_BwE">declared its intent</a> to abandon the classroom on May 1. In a move that effectively amounts to a one-day strike, the union’s 730-member House of Delegates approved a resolution joining a national movement calling for a day of “no school, no work, and no shopping.”
The CTU isn&#8217;t just asking its members to walk out; it’s demanding that Mayor Brandon Johnson and the school board use state law to excuse students so they can participate in what the union calls “civic action.”
The choice of May 1 is no coincidence. While the date’s origins trace back to the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, it was quickly co-opted by the global far-Left. In 1889, the Second International—a collection of socialist and labor parties—designated it as a day of demonstration. By 1917, it became the premier state holiday of the Soviet Union, complete with Red Square parades featuring tanks and missiles intended to signal the &#8220;proletariat&#8217;s&#8221; triumph over capitalism.
While the United States spent decades trying to distance itself from these connotations—establishing &#8220;Loyalty Day&#8221; and &#8220;Law Day&#8221; on May 1 to counter communist influence—the CTU appears eager to revive the day’s most radical sentiments.
The CTU&#8217;s resolution reads less like an educational mandate and more like a manifesto from a bygone era of class warfare. The union’s demands are explicitly political and heavily flavored with the &#8220;tax the rich&#8221; rhetoric synonymous with communist agitation.
According to the resolution, the CTU intends to:
<ul>
<li data-path-to-node="10,0,0">Target the Wealthy: The union is demanding that the government “tax the rich to support our schools,” echoing the classic Marxist refrain of wealth redistribution.</li>
<li data-path-to-node="10,1,0">Abolish Enforcement: In a direct challenge to federal law, the union is calling for “ICE out of our cities,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.</li>
<li data-path-to-node="10,2,0">Attack &#8220;Authoritarianism&#8221;: The resolution rails against &#8220;MAGA politicians,&#8221; &#8220;billionaire donors,&#8221; and &#8220;corporate interests,&#8221; claiming these groups are &#8220;attempting to cement authoritarian power.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
CTU Vice President Jackson Potter stated, &#8220;Teaching our students what civic action looks like requires more than textbooks when the President sends federal agents to occupy our cities &#8230;&#8221; Meanwhile, CTU member Kevin Moore justified the walkout by claiming &#8220;public education is under attack,&#8221; asserting that taking children out of school to participate in political rallies is a way of &#8220;teaching our students how to use their voice.&#8221;
Instead of math and literacy, the CTU wants students to engage in &#8220;age-appropriate&#8221; civic education, which apparently includes &#8220;mass resistance training&#8221; and &#8220;political education,&#8221; according to the union&#8217;s <a href="https://www.ctulocal1.org/posts/mayday-resolution/?link_id=2&amp;can_id=17ebc6e1a278c81ea80307c4c5703485&amp;source=email-ctu-members-vote-to-join-may-1st-no-school-no-work-no-shopping-day-of-civic-action&amp;email_referrer=email_3140500&amp;email_subject=ctu-members-vote-to-join-may-1st-no-school-no-work-no-shopping-day-of-civic-action">resolution</a>. The union is also using the platform to weigh in on foreign policy, writing, &#8220;Trump has illegally declared war on Iran built on lies and deception.&#8221;
Mayor Johnson, a former CTU organizer himself, signaled support for the &#8220;direct action,&#8221; though he vaguely promised to ensure &#8220;no loss of instruction time&#8221;—a difficult feat when the union is actively calling for &#8220;No School.&#8221;
As the CTU pivots from education to overt political activism, it remains to be seen how Chicago parents will react to their children being used as pawns in a movement that shares more DNA with the Soviet Union’s &#8220;Workers&#8217; Day&#8221; than with the American classroom.

OPED-CHICAGO-TEACHERS-WALKOUT-EDITORIAL-TB

‘No School, No Work’ Teacher Strike Takes A Page From Communist May Day

Chicago

Education

Teachers Unions

“Theft is virtue.” “Stealing is altruism.” “Murder might be excusable.” “Burn it all down.” 
These are the principles of the radical Left. And that radical Left is increasingly embraced by the mainstream Democratic Party. 
You may have heard of Hasan Piker. There have been a ton of New York Times profiles of him. He&#8217;s associated with most of the major left-wing Democrats. He&#8217;s a podcaster and a Twitch streamer. 
He is also monstrously evil. 
He publicly advocates for hatred of America. There&#8217;s not a terrorist group, an anti-American, anti-Israel terrorist group, that he doesn&#8217;t support. He has advocated for violence against those opposed to his views. 
And the mainstream Left loves him. I think that&#8217;s because they think that he is bro-coded, meaning that he works out a lot, and speaks the way that your friends from high school might after they read the Communist Manifesto and smoked some pot. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-ep-2412"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-981859 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
He also zaps his dog, and is a socialist who is quite rich, but hypocrisy does not matter to these folks. Not one iota. 
When you speak of limousine liberals, this dude is a mansion Marxist. He&#8217;s worth millions and millions of dollars and owns a huge mansion in Los Angeles. 
He&#8217;s also willing to travel to Cuba — a communist hellhole where the average annual income is something like $150 — and party it up while rationalizing why he should have air conditioning in his nice five-star hotel. His outfits apparently cost roughly four times the annual income of a normal Cuban. He wore a Cartier ring that apparently costs $1,400, and Cartier sunglasses that cost roughly $1,300. 
But remember folks, he is a good Marxist, and he represents certain principles on the extreme Left: that America is evil, private property is inherently bad, and violence is often justified.
No principles of morality must be adhered to as long as you&#8217;re “fighting the system.” The ends of Marxist anarchism justify the means. They justify any behavior, so long as you are aligned with the ends, so you can have a really nice mansion, a $1,400 Cartier ring, and $1,300 Cartier sunglasses in Cuba. 
What we are watching right now on the Left is radical and dangerous leftist garbage.
The legacy media and the New York Times are trying to turn Piker into a mainstream figure. Inside the Democratic Party, they are succeeding. 
What we&#8217;re watching right now with the Democratic Party is beyond the intersectional wokeism that previously was the way of the future for Democrats. 
We are well beyond that now.
When people on the Right say “woke is dead,” woke may have died, but it&#8217;s been replaced by something else, and that is something older: third worldism. 
Third worldism is the philosophy that essentially every country on Earth that is poor is poor because of the West. The solution is to tear down the West from the inside. Global redistributionism, destruction of private property, and violence are all justified by the supposed evils of the Western system.
That&#8217;s not something new. That&#8217;s something quite old. 
In the 1970s, there was the Baader-Meinhof gang, also called the Red Army Faction. They were communists whose entire goal was to tear down the world of capitalism on behalf of Marxism.
They called for revolution. Ulrike Meinhof, the left-wing radical journalist who founded the group, famously said, “Protest is when I say this does not please me. Resistance is when I ensure that what does not please me occurs no more. Protest is when I say I don’t like this. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don’t like.”
That manifested itself in terrorism by the Baader-Meinhof gang. Meinhof actually wrote an essay defending the Munich massacre of Israeli Olympians by Palestinian terrorists.
That sounds a lot like the people defending Hamas&#8217;s massacre of Jews on October 7 while defending Hezbollah.
Which, of course, Piker has done.
Stefan Aust, who wrote a book on the Baader-Meinhof gang, pointed out that a poll at the time they were active showed that a quarter of West Germans under 40 felt sympathy for the gang. One-tenth said they would hide a gang member from the police, and prominent intellectuals spoke up for the gang&#8217;s righteousness. When the gang started robbing banks, newscasts compared its members to Bonnie and Clyde. 
This is nothing new. There&#8217;s an impulse in human beings that when they do not like the system, they believe it justifies violence, theft of property, evil, and terrorism.
Hasan Piker is one of these types. We&#8217;ve played clips of him on the show, routinely talking about violence against his political opponents. Now he’s done an interview with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/opinion/shoplifting-political-protest-microlooting-whole-foods.html">The New York Times</a> in which he talked about stealing. He explained that he fully endorses crimes like robbing banks and stealing artifacts, saying, “I cheer on every news story of people that I see doing it.”
What a despicable human being. He also went on to suggest that you should steal from corporations. Of course, he also said he would not recommend stealing from taxpayer-funded grocery stores in New York City because the workers would be unionized. He also said you should be able to steal intellectual property.
The fact that this person is being mainstreamed by the Democratic Party shows you what the Democratic Party has become: a full-scale, destructive force in American life. 
This all culminates in Hassan Piker&#8217;s justification of murder. He&#8217;s not in favor of murder, you see. But he totally understands why United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered, saying, “That was a fascinating story for me, because Americans are very draconian about crime and punishment. They&#8217;re very black and white on this issue. And yet, because of the pervasive pain that the private health care system had created for the average American, I saw so many people immediately understand why this death had taken place.”
Permission structures for murder. “Of course, I understand why people were so okay with a man being murdered, because of course, it&#8217;s just social violence.&#8221;
Everything Hasan Piker doesn&#8217;t like is social violence. And social violence justifies and excuses actual violence. He can pretend he&#8217;s not excusing it as much as he wants. 
He has made statements such as, “I don&#8217;t have any sort of patriotism in my heart for America,” and “Liberals,  you need to be showing your opponent&#8217;s guts on there, okay? You need to be gutting them. You need to be shanking these and letting their intestines just ride on stage.”
This is who the Left is mainstreaming.
Zohran Mamdani is ideologically the same as Hasan Piker. They are exactly the same. Nothing Hasan Piker says is radically different from anything Mamdani says. 
A couple of days ago, Barack Obama was hanging out with Mamdani. Hasan Piker and Bernie Sanders have campaigned together.
This is now pervasive throughout the Democratic Party.
Where does all this end?
Communist centralization of power.

MamdaniPiker

The Democratic Party Has Been Eaten By The Radical Left

Hasan Piker

Marxism

Radical Left

Zohran Mamdani

Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, has now decided that the time has come: At long last, he&#8217;s going to put into action his Soviet plan for a government-run grocery store.
Are you excited about government-run grocery stores?
It&#8217;s going to be just great, because if there&#8217;s one thing that we have to fight off in America, it is starvation.
I know you&#8217;re thinking right now that we actually have a massive obesity problem in the United States. You&#8217;d be right.
But according to Mamdani, the biggest problem in America is that people cannot afford food, and the best way to make food affordable is for the government to open grocery stores.
This has never been tried anywhere.
Except for Cuba, the USSR, and most communist countries.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
That led, of course, to the very famous photos of Soviet leadership walking into American supermarkets and being astonished by the selection of products. Capitalism makes things better, cheaper, and more plentiful, which is how they become better and cheaper.
Mamdani explained: “This store will be open in 2029. The reason that we&#8217;re announcing it first is because unlike other stores, this will be built from the ground up. We are talking about a vacant lot that is about one or two blocks over there that is currently lying vacant. It is city-owned. We&#8217;re going to build it from the ground up.”
Just wow.
By the way, how much is it going to cost to build this grocery store from the ground up? According to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/nyregion/mamdani-city-owned-grocery-store-la-marqueta.html">New York Times</a>, $30 million.
$30 million.
I have a question. Do you think that when Publix builds a new store, it costs them $30 million?
Nope.
If the city subsidizes particular food products at a cheaper rate, either people will want to buy those food products or they will not. If they like eggs, for example, there will be a run on eggs, and then a shortage.
That&#8217;s what will happen, because when you subsidize the price of a product, it spurs more demand, and you will end up with a shortage — and longer lines.
Duh.
It is amazing how no one has ever read a book or even watched an old documentary.
Mamdani says he wants the new grocery store to offer discounts on basic groceries and to provide quality jobs. The city will waive rent and real estate taxes for the store.
If you really wanted to lower food prices, you could do that for all the grocery stores in New York. That would lower some prices.
But you know what else you could do? You could get rid of all of the regulations surrounding the grocery stores in New York, which make it very difficult to run and operate a business.
It&#8217;s hilarious that the minute the Democrats want to lower prices, they give a specific cut-out that gets rid of all of the government red tape, but just for their friends, like the government-run grocery store.
Meanwhile, Congressman Ro Khanna, the West Coast version of Zohran Mamdani, wants free everything. He called for free health care and free college.
There&#8217;s no such thing as free. There&#8217;s just stuff paid for by someone else.
“The moment has finally come for national health insurance,” Khanna declared. “Why? Because people now realize you cannot have health care linked to your job. Not at a time where your job may change or where you may lose your job. We need Medicare for all. That&#8217;s a better system with better outcomes, where health care is guaranteed to every single person from the day they are born. For our young people, where a short career opportunity is not limited by your family&#8217;s wealth, we need free college and free trade schools.” 
Free everything. How could that go wrong?
Maybe we can heavily subsidize everybody going to college. That won&#8217;t raise the price of — oh, it turns out that that radically raised the price of college.
Perhaps we could have more government subsidization of health care. That won&#8217;t raise the price of health care.
Whoops. That raises the price because it increases the base that people are willing to pay and are able to pay.
It doesn&#8217;t matter what the effect is.
The only thing that matters to the Democrats is that it feels good when they say the word “free” over and over and over again.

Mamdani Soviet

Mamdani’s Supermarket Sweep: Soviet Edition

Ben Shapiro

groceries

New York City

Opinion

Russia

Soviet Union

Eight million people just took to the streets to stop a king who does not exist.
They say they are protesting tyranny. But if you look at who&#8217;s actually holding the megaphone — and more importantly, who&#8217;s signing the checks — this grassroots movement starts looking a lot less grassroots and a lot more like a sophisticated and coordinated operation by Hollywood elites and radical activists having public meltdowns demanding labor militancy. 
The real story isn&#8217;t the useful idiots on the streets. It&#8217;s the apparent $3 billion web of funding tied to a tech tycoon living in Shanghai and a wedding-turned-mysterious summit in Jamaica. 
Who are these shadowy figures funding the chaos? Why are America&#8217;s enemies cheering from the sidelines?
These people are not turning out because they suddenly oppose centralized government. You think Democrats are anti-centralized government? Against a bigger federal government run by the executive branch?
No way.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2398-sub?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Presidents Obama and Biden radically expanded the power of the executive branch. Funny, there were no protests then.
They&#8217;re also not turning out in the streets because they oppose an intervention such as what&#8217;s going on in Iran or because they oppose tyrants. They were fine with Barack Obama&#8217;s interventions in Libya, Syria, and in the drone wars. They were totally fine with Joe Biden&#8217;s funding of the war in Ukraine.
They&#8217;re not anti-tyranny, the “No Kings” people; they&#8217;re perfectly pro-tyranny in foreign countries, and they tolerate their friends’ tyranny at home.
We all know the real reason: A lot of people hate President Trump, and they hate the American system.
How do they get this many people organized?
A lot of money. Where exactly is that money coming from?
Fox News <a href="https://www.wfmd.com/2026/03/28/500-groups-with-3b-in-revenues-are-behind-the-nokings-protests-and-communist-call-for-revolution/#:~:text=A%20network%20of%20about%20500,a%20Fox%20Digital%20News%20investigation.">reported</a>:
<blockquote>A network of about 500 groups with an estimated $3 billion in combined annual revenues is behind the coordinated nationwide “No Kings” protest Saturday, including communist groups who are using the day to call for a “revolution,” according to a Fox Digital News investigation. 
According to a copy of the permit for the “flagship” march in St. Paul, Minn., Indivisible, a national well-heeled Democratic political advocacy organization funded by billionaire George Soros, is the lead coordinator for the protest.
But Fox News Digital has also identified key participation by a network of radical socialist and communist organizations funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American tech tycoon and avowed communist living in China.
Over nearly a decade, Singham has financed a constellation of activist institutions that promote revolutionary socialist politics and frequently collaborate in protest campaigns, including the People’s Forum in New York, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ANSWER Coalition and CodePink, whose co-founder Jodie Evans is married to Singham. These groups work closely with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.</blockquote>
So there’s a communist living in China who is funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into various protest groups.
Fox News also <a href="https://www.wfmd.com/2026/03/23/power-couple-of-chaos-how-a-tycoon-and-activist-built-a-revolutionary-base-at-the-house-of-singham/#:~:text=A%20monthslong%20Fox%20News%20Digital,a%20superpower%20through%20economic%20programs">noted</a>:
<blockquote>As far-left American activists flood Cuba to support its flailing communist regime, U.S. officials have opened a sprawling investigation into an anti-America, pro-China nonprofit network forged during a wedding celebration in late February 2017, off Runaway Bay on Jamaica’s northern coast.
There, beneath a canopy of palm trees, an elite cadre of activists, intellectuals, celebrities, political organizers and comrades in a global Marxist-Leninist-Maoist movement assembled to celebrate the “Revolutionary Love” of two luminaries, both 62 at the time: Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai, and Jodie Evans, a red-haired veteran activist and co-founder of CodePink Women for Peace.
Like the opening scene of “The Godfather,” where powerful families consolidate power, the wedding celebration was about much more than the union of two people.
Over four days of dancing, lectures and late-night conversations in venues from the Flavor Beach Bar to Sharkey’s Seafood, celebrating the bond of “Roy and Jodie,” alliances were formed that would shape protests, unrest and political agitation over the next decade, from the fiery 2020 scenes in Minneapolis to demonstrations today supporting the regimes in Cuba and Iran.</blockquote>
Apparently, Singham has pushed some $278 million into organizations that sow discord in the United States.
None of these protests are innocent. They are not happening by accident. It takes an awful lot of money to make this magic happen.
Singham said in 2025: “If we want to therefore have a new world order that is based on multilateralism that President XI and CPC and China have proposed, we have to undo the ideological damage that has been done by the narrative of World War II. &#8230; China has a very important role, and we in this forum have a very important role, that to envision a new multi-polarity order requires that, quite frankly, this deconstruction or restoration, a history of what really happened.”
He said there should be a multipolar world order with China and Russia as leading forces and that we need to rewrite the history of World War II in order to achieve this new world order.
Outside forces are trying to destroy America — and President Trump.
And it’s our job to make sure that does not happen.

No Kings Protests Across The US Rally Against Donald Trump

‘No Kings’ Rallies — Paid For By A King

China

George Soros

Protests

Socialists

“You know what we call a gram of coke here in Cuba?”
In the humid outskirts of Havana, I felt like I’d drifted into a sepia-tinted parallel timeline.
“A ‘Fidel’.”
My laughter wasn’t forthcoming. Not that it wasn’t funny. I was paralyzed by the surrealism. It was the last week of six decades of Castro rule and the final week of Raúl Castro’s presidency, yet here I was with his granddaughter Gabriella. And her boyfriend was selling me drugs.
Hadn’t her grandparents put people to death for selling drugs? Yes. Four high-ranking officials were executed by firing squad in 1989 for drug-smuggling. Despite this, her presence gave me an odd sense of safety. Some farm animals are more equal than others. And these, surely, were the most equal of all.
“And half a gram?”
He eyed me.
“…a ‘Raul’.”
Try as they might, Marxists can’t escape hierarchies. I wondered if they’d caught the irony. At least this one had a sense of humor. I turned to see if Gabriella was amused. The Castro name is quite a burden to carry. New World nobility. Her face remained stoic as a Castilian queen. She was more interested in the music.
If this was their way of welcoming me to their country, they went overboard with the midnight Lada racing through the capital. Cuba’s cocaine communists really put North London’s champagne socialists to shame.
Speaking of which, in the latest season of Radical Chic, eight years on from the Castros, a flotilla of useful halfwits has arrived.
From England comes cardigan-commie Jeremy Corbyn, Labour backbencher Richard Burgon, and YouTuber Owen Jones. Influencer Hasan Piker swapped Hollywood for Havana, wearing glasses worth $1,380 and a $690 T-shirt. “We have just been living la vida loca … Just peppering people with wads of cash,” he humbly divulged to the press — oblivious to what this revealed about which society better delivers material prosperity.
He was joined by fellow Americans Christian Smalls, the former Amazon unionist, the women-led anti-war group CODEPINK, and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi. Isra proudly following in her mother’s footsteps by siding with the enemies of the nation that so warmly welcomed her family from Somalia.
They are all part of the Nuestra América Convoy, which arrived in Havana this week. The delegation brought together over 650 people from 33 countries and 120 organizations, delivering roughly 20 tons of humanitarian aid. What a hoot. I only hope their phones have enough battery to capture selfies when they hear ordinary Cubans chanting “Down with communism!” through the blackouts.
And that is exactly what Cubans have been chanting in Morón, outside the local headquarters of the Communist Party of Cuba. But the Nuestra América Convoy is not there to protest decades of brutal dictatorship, but rather the US “blockade,” recently reinforced by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
On 29 January, the United States issued Executive Order 14380, titled “Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba.” In it, President Trump declared that the situation with respect to Cuba “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat” and announced a national emergency.
The real question is how long it will take Corbyn &amp; Co to realise they are on the side of Cuba’s dictatorial regime. After all, none of them have uttered a word about the lack of democracy in a country where only Communist Party members may hold office.
Not a peep about the breadlines — which I have witnessed on every one of my trips to Cuba over the last twenty years, both during and since the Castro era. Breadlines in Santiago de Cuba. Breadlines in Trinidad. Breadlines in Havana.
While there have been <a href="https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2036521369492725871?s=20">interesting reports</a> about how the Radical Chic Flotilla was funded by the US-born self-described Marxist billionaire Neville Roy Singham, the root of this idiocy was perhaps best articulated by the Irish rap band Kneecap.
If the Black Panthers had Leonard Bernstein, what does it say about the Nuestra América Convoy that their house band are Kneecap? The Belfast hip-hop trio is most famous for its vocal support of Hamas and Hezbollah — and the resulting terrorism charges against one member. On a Havana boulevard, they dish out their Radical Chic <a href="https://x.com/ultras_antifaa/status/2035502703804080378?s=20">insights to the press</a>.
Móglaí Bap, Kneecap’s rapper, has things to get off his chest: “I can’t remember the last time Cuba invaded a country.” Bless his cotton socks. They have. Panama and the Dominican Republic (1959), Algeria (1963–64), Congo (1965–67), Guinea-Bissau (1966–74), Angola (1975–91), Ethiopia (1977–89), Syria (1973–83), Mozambique (1975–80s), South Yemen (1970s–80s), Nicaragua (1979–90s), and Grenada (1979–83).
But it’s not just stupidity that motivates Kneecap. “They wanna isolate all these countries and make them feel like they have no support … and then when that happens, that’s when imperialism takes over.” Here Bap gets to the heart of it.
Anti-imperialism. It is the same blind ideology that has these rappers supporting the forces of evil wherever they emerge: Gaza, Tehran, Caracas. But it could not be more fitting than here in communist Cuba, for it is the central pillar of Castroism.
“I propose the immediate launching of a nuclear strike on the United States. The Cuban people are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the cause of the destruction of imperialism and the victory of world revolution.”
So said Fidel Castro in a telegram to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on 26 October 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/23/opinion/castro-wanted-a-nuclear-strike.html">According to Fedor Burlatsky</a> — a member of Khrushchev’s inner circle — this was the real turning point. So shocked was Khrushchev by Castro’s brazen desire for national suicide that the Soviet leader immediately changed tack and sought a resolution with President Kennedy. Imagine an ideological derangement so potent it makes Soviets blush.
Today, despite the cries for “libertad!” from Cubans downtrodden by six decades of this anti-imperialist experiment, the ideology is thriving — not in Cuba, but in the coffee shops of Islington, the vegan restaurants of Beverly Hills, and the congressional district offices of Minnesota. Anti-imperialism is the ultimate luxury belief.
My last interaction with Gabriella Castro came as we stepped out of the car after racing around Havana. She’d made it clear she was staunchly anti-American, but I thought I’d poke a bit further.
“How does one say ‘friends’ in Spanish?” I asked, knowing the answer but pretending otherwise.
“Amigos.”
“But what if it’s male and female?”
“Amigos.”
“It’s still masculine?”
“Sí.”
“Isn’t that a little…”
“Sexist. Yes…”
She paused, looking seriously into the distance.
“…we should change it.”
***
This is republished with the author&#8217;s permission from Substack: <a href="https://www.winstonmarshall.co.uk/p/cocaine-with-the-castros">www.winstonmarshall.co.uk/p/cocaine-with-the-castros</a>.
Winston Marshall is a writer, musician, and host of &#8220;The Winston Marshall Show&#8221; podcast. His writing is available on his Substack, Winston Marshall:  <a href="https://www.winstonmarshall.co.uk/">https://www.winstonmarshall.co.uk/</a>.

Cuba – Cienfuegos: Old cyclist and revolutionary propaganda with picture of Fidel Castro on house wall.

Cocaine With The Castros

Global Politics

Havana

The communist dictatorship in Cuba has never been closer to collapse. Thankfully, the cadre of leftist American activists and influencers that descended on Havana this week will not be able to save it. While the island endured its second total electrical grid collapse in a matter of days, the regime welcomed a delegation of limousine socialists from the United States. They quickly pulled out their phones, merging grotesque voyeuristic <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/22/world-news/champagne-socialists-in-cuba-stage-concert-stay-in-5-star-hotel-as-country-plunges-into-nationwide-blackout/">slum tourism</a> with propagandistic livestreams from their five-star, regime-owned hotel. As their diesel generators hummed, the rest of the country starved in the dark.
The good news? This is late-stage communism. Cuba’s 67-year-old experiment with Marxist ideology could finally end if the Trump administration avoids the traps of negotiation and holds the line on its successful oil embargo. It would be a historic accomplishment for Trump 2.0, and petroleum is the key.
Margaret Thatcher famously observed that the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money. This is happening in real time in present-day Cuba: The government has run out of other people’s oil. It scraped by for decades on Venezuelan crude shipments, using Venezuela&#8217;s oil imports to generate electricity, which is the least efficient task imaginable. This imported crude is in addition to the 25,000 barrels of oil per day that the regime pumps for itself.
The ouster of Nicolás Maduro and President Trump’s total oil embargo have set a countdown clock for the regime. The punishment will continue; the power outages will get worse. What’s more, they presage a breakdown in the paltry benefits the regime still offers.
Decades ago, Bernie Sanders <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ad-v0qpB3A&amp;t=22s">infamously claimed</a> that bread lines were “a good thing” because they meant that the poor were not starving. Eventually, he argued, people received bread. The 2026 energy shortage in Cuba has given that interpretation a new, grim twist. Limited gasoline for transportation and power for baking means that there will be less bread for the bread lines.
As President Trump recently noted, “They have no energy. They have no money. They’re in deep trouble.” Trump is correct.
Deputy Cuban Foreign Minister Fernández de Cossío declared that the oil blockade “cannot be sustained forever.” The regime is obviously betting that the White House will eventually cave and let foreign tankers arrive in Cuban ports. This should not happen, since it will extend the lifespan of this regime once more.
Conditions on the ground are ripe for public unrest not seen since Cuba’s nationwide protests in July 2021. Unlike the previous unrest due to blackouts, however, the regime no longer has a Venezuelan patron to bail them out. Their current strategy is to play for time.
Here’s what we do next:
The administration must hold the line on the current oil embargo. The Cuban regime has learned how to manipulate public opinion by claiming that an end to the U.S. embargo will end the poverty of the Cuban people. In reality, it is the regime’s communist economic policies that have made them poor. It is why the <a href="https://x.com/TheCCShowcast/status/2035796964529365458?s=20">cavalcade of socialist influencers has backfired</a> on the government.
By showcasing the desperate poverty of the Cuban people and retreating to their hotel rooms to broadcast their support for the regime from a swanky 42-story high-rise, the woke circus of the “Stop the Siege” campaign inadvertently showed the disconnect between the luxury of communist elites and the people they imprison.
Next, the administration should not accept the “Venezuelan model” for Cuba. Simply replacing a few leaders at the top will not cure the island’s woes.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio seems to understand this, recently declaring that Cuba’s current leaders “can’t fix it,” namely, the economy. This is accurate. It is also why asking for a change in management at the top will not work.
Cuba needs a fundamental restructuring, similar to Central Europe after 1989.
As we learned from successful post-communist countries in Europe, gradual reforms lead to corruption and take too long to yield the desired results. Conversely, rapid changes shock the system into embracing free-market mechanisms that have not existed for decades. Poland and the Czech Republic are the shining examples of this rapid teardown and rebuilding.
Lastly, President Trump can and should do more to use the bully pulpit of his presidency to encourage the Cuban people. Ultimately, they cannot be “given” freedom; they must use the regime&#8217;s weakness to seize their own national destiny. Trump has the loudest megaphone in the world; he should use it to remind everyday Cubans that America is waiting to make the island rich through trade, investment, and most importantly, energy.
Because none of this can happen while the current regime remains in power, the White House should fully embrace a straightforward idea: “Viva Cuba libre.”
***
Peter Doran is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He previously served as a Foreign Affairs Fellow for Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and later served with the Cuba Development Initiative at the OAS.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

A protester holds a Cuban flag during the demonstration.

Trump Must Hold The Line On The Cuba Oil Embargo

Bernie Sanders

Crude Oil

Donald Trump

Anti-government protesters attacked a Communist Party office in northern Cuba early on Saturday, a state-run newspaper reported, in a rare outburst of public dissent triggered by worsening blackouts that have been exacerbated by a U.S. oil blockade.
A rally against power cuts and food shortages appeared to begin peacefully in the city of Moron late on Friday then turned violent in the early hours of Saturday morning, Invasor newspaper said.
Videos on social media showed a large fire and people throwing rocks through the windows of a building as voices shouted &#8220;liberty&#8221; in the background.
Reuters was unable to confirm the authenticity of videos that posters said showed the unrest in Moron, a city on Cuba&#8217;s northern coast about 250 miles (400 km) east of the capital Havana near the tourist resort of Cayo Coco.
US BLOCKADE TURNS THE SCREW
The ​United States has tightened the screws on Cuba this year since capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro &#8211; Cuba&#8217;s most important foreign benefactor &#8211; in January.
U.S. President Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened to slap tariffs on any country that sells oil to Cuba, piling pressure on the economy already struggling with shortages of food, fuel, electricity and medicine.
Trump has in recent weeks made a series of statements, saying Cuba was on the verge of collapse or eager to make a deal with the United States. Cuba&#8217;s government said on Friday it had begun talks with Washington to try to defuse the crisis.
Public protests, particularly violent ones, are exceedingly rare in Cuba. Cuba&#8217;s 2019 constitution grants citizens the right to demonstrate, but a law more specifically defining that right is stalled in the legislature, leaving those who take to the street in legal limbo.
&#8220;What initially began peacefully, and after an exchange with local authorities, turned into acts of vandalism against the headquarters of the Municipal Party Committee,&#8221; the Invasor newspaper said.
&#8220;A smaller group of people stoned the entrance of the building and started a fire in the street with furniture from the reception area,&#8221; it added.
Vandals targeted several other state-run establishments in the area, including a pharmacy and a government market, the report said.
In one unverified video on social media, a gunshot is heard, and the camera pans to a person lying on the ground. State media outlet Vanguardia de Cuba dismissed online reports that the person lying on the ground had been shot by police.
&#8220;The image circulating shows the scene of the protest, but it&#8217;s important for the public to know the truth: no one was injured by gunfire,&#8221; Vanguardia de Cuba said on X.
&#8220;Media manipulation seeks to sow fear and confusion among our people. Let&#8217;s not fall for provocations,&#8221; it added.
Police detained five people and one drunken participant fell over and was being treated for injuries in a local hospital.
Over the past week, several small groups of residents across Havana have banged pots in protest against extended blackouts.
Students on Monday staged a sit-in on the steps of the University of Havana after the government suspended in-person classes, blaming the U.S. oil blockade. Fuel shortages have vastly reduced public transportation, making it difficult, if not impossible, for teachers and students to get together for classes.
Moron was also the site of significant protests during anti-government riots on July 11, 2021, the largest since Fidel Castro&#8217;s 1959 revolution.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Anti-Government Riot Breaks Out In Cuba Over Blackouts

Venezuela

World

The following is an edited transcript excerpt of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1906-libs-in-minneapolis-create-their-own-border-patrol?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.
* * *
Liberals in Minnesota have had it with ICE raids and Border Patrol, so they’ve decided to take matters into their own hands with a novel plan to keep the people they don’t want out of their communities.
They are, quite literally, creating a system to control who comes and goes.
In the middle of the road at 32nd and Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis, activists erected a makeshift roadblock, turning the intersection into a roundabout. Cars slowed as drivers noticed. Some honked, others asked questions. One man even brought food for the people standing watch.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Minneapolis roadblock created as safety measure against ICE, residents say" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kpxvfub-gHA?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>
Credit: @WCCO &#8211; CBS Minnesota/YouTube.com
When asked how it felt to see a community checkpoint in his neighborhood, one local shrugged it off. It felt “fine,” he said. He didn’t have any trouble with people “helping out.”
<blockquote>Wade Haynes has been standing at that corner twice a day for one reason: to stand up against ICE activity and “keep his community safe.” He chose that corner. Others chose other intersections. He found it inspiring. “Wow,” he said. “We’ve got folks out there who are kind of taking care of us, looking out for us.”</blockquote>
Taking care of them? Looking out for them?
Some might say policing their communities.
And the way they’re doing it is by erecting structures in the street on the corners — stopping points. Some might even call them “borders,” staffed by people who check to make sure that only the right people get into the community, and that the people they don’t want stay out.
Many people, including some on the Right, have questioned President Trump’s tactics in Minneapolis. But you can’t argue with results — and the results of the Minneapolis raids are that Trump got anti-ICE liberals to invent Border Patrol.
That’s the beautiful part.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1906-libs-in-minneapolis-create-their-own-border-patrol?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
Trump actually trolled the Minneapolis Left into reinventing everything they claim to oppose: border patrol, wall checkpoints, cops, enforcement. “We need our own ICE to deport these ICE agents,” they cry, without a trace of irony.
This is what always seems to happen when utopians on the Left — of all stripes — dream up their perfect society.
They start by declaring that society as it exists is no good:
<blockquote>We’ve got markets. We’ve got people making money. We’ve got private property. We’ve got exploitation — we don’t want any of that, man! 
So what are we going to do? We’re going to move to a commune. A farm in the middle of nowhere. It’s going to be beautiful — not like this city, not like this town. We’re going to live together in harmony. Some people are going to grow the food. Some people are going to bake the bread. Some people are going to watch the kids. It’s going to be amazing. We’re going to have a diversity of labor.</blockquote>
Oh, you mean we’re going to have a market economy?
<blockquote>Well, yeah, but this time it will be perfect. And we’re all going to take care of each other, man.</blockquote>
Oh, you mean like police?
<blockquote>Yeah, man.</blockquote>
And so, without realizing it, they invent society as it has always existed — just with the assumption that this time, they’ll do it right.
<blockquote>That’s the problem with our society, they say. We just didn’t do it right.</blockquote>
And now, in Minneapolis, they’ve reinvented Border Patrol.
It’s so beautiful.
So I say: take them at their word.
Yes, we do need people to keep our communities safe. 
Yes, we do need checkpoints to keep the people we don’t want out. 
Yes, we do need a group of people to take care of the community.
If that’s what they believe, then flood Minneapolis with even more ICE agents, Mr. President.

Federal Agents Descend On Minneapolis For Immigration Enforcement Operations

Minneapolis Liberals Invent Their Own Border Patrol

Border Patrol

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Leftists

Michael Knowles

Minneapolis

Minnesota

Socialism is back. We see it with the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York. We also see it in polling from the <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/81-say-they-cant-afford-pay-higher-taxes-next-year">Cato Institute</a> that suggests many young Americans view socialism favorably: “Among Americans under 30, 62 percent feel favorable toward socialism…”
Beyond the obvious economic and political dangers of socialism, one component receives relatively little attention: the culture of work.
People who live and work in socialist societies often report being far less satisfied and motivated than those who work in relatively free markets. When a nation’s government controls businesses, they lose a competitive advantage. As a result, employees who derive dignity from achievement and contribution experience disappointment.
At the same time, people uninterested in hard work are more likely to be coddled and protected. This often perpetuates an environment of mediocrity.
Talk to any driven person who has ever worked in a socialist country, or in an industry controlled by government regulation, and you’ll hear this sentiment. Hard work is not rewarded. Mediocre employees can’t be let go. Innovation is harder to sustain. Work becomes a matter of showing up, biding your time, and accepting that upward mobility is not possible.
I work with a young man who took great risks to escape a socialist country, and I have other colleagues who have lived in socialist countries. Their experiences convey a muted sense of hope that most people have about their employment.
Anecdotes aren’t proof, but they often show you what certain systems tend to produce. A vivid lesson about the dangers of socialism on the culture of work comes from a surprising source: people who have worked in “socialist-like” industries that exist within free markets.
When traveling for business, I’ve spoken to many flight attendants about their work experiences. The vast majority work in heavily unionized environments, and many have told me there is little incentive to do their job well other than their intrinsic desire to make people happy. Their careers are determined by seniority, and chronically underperforming colleagues are tolerated, rarely addressed, and almost never dismissed.
The fantastic flight attendants I met can’t be recruited by competitors — or even move to airlines that pay more or treat employees better — because they’d have to start over at the back of the seniority line. So the next time you experience great service on a flight, show some respect knowing they are often doing what they do out of love for others, not because they are rewarded.
The purpose of work should be to give people the freedom to provide for their families, use the gifts that God has given them, and experience the dignity of serving others well. When leaders organize work with these purposes, they give individuals incentive to tap into their best potential.
However, when organizations tolerate poor performance and remove the extrinsic rewards of achievement, they do a terrible disservice to the dignity of customers and employees alike. It’s important to understand that even underperforming employees lose dignity in socialist societies and organizations as they are prevented from experiencing the tough love necessary to become the best versions of themselves.
This is the real tragedy of socialist workplaces: people rarely become the best versions of themselves. In other words, they settle.
Despite all of this being true, why do large numbers of Americans still say they have a positive view of socialism? I believe there are three reasons.
First, many have never really experienced the impact of socialism. To them, socialism is merely a theory that involves more sharing and kindness. For example, according to actress Amanda Seyfried, socialism means <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/actress-amanda-seyfried-calls-socialism-gorgeous-idea">“taking care of each other.”</a>
Second, many people who say they like socialism already work in socialist organizations and have settled. They are accustomed to roles where competition is muted, and pay and advancement are constrained by rules, not results.
Finally, too many Americans work in very large organizations that mimic some aspects of socialism via crony capitalism and corporate welfare. Their industries are protected by lobbyists and elected officials who thwart authentic capitalism.
When addressing the false hope of socialism, we must not attempt to split the difference. In fact, we must advocate for more competition in all industries, as well as for real consequences for people who consistently underperform. Additionally, we must push for the enforcement of antitrust laws that prevent dangerous monopolies and oligopolies.
Perhaps most important of all, America must support one of the best sources of employment, dignity, and innovation in our society: small businesses. These small companies, where most Americans work, still have great incentives to find new ways to please customers and to attract and retain great employees. But in socialist countries, there is less capital and fewer incentives for entrepreneurs to take risks and start small businesses.
If America truly wants to defend human dignity, we can’t romanticize systems that smother the very drive that makes people come alive. Socialism doesn’t just weaken economies; it weakens people. America doesn’t need more managed mediocrity. It needs the freedom that lets workers, and the work itself, succeed.
* * *
Pat Lencioni is one of the founders of The Table Group, a pioneer of the organizational health movement, and the creator of <a href="https://www.workinggenius.com/about?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=21520445429&amp;gbraid=0AAAAAD4dDHRyei0FFfuRCa63VdPO11RDk&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwlaTGBhANEiwAoRgXBSUpr89SSKKSTeoiFk-LdSAKpBsTFlfYYrEIm9MHWtUL1HjC7imP1RoC65MQAvD_BwE"> The Working Genius</a>, which helps leaders understand workplace efficiency. He is the bestselling author of “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” as well as 12 other books, which have sold over 10 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages.
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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