Do 100 million lives Matter? De Santis announces a Victims of Communism Day

Ron DeSantis announces that November 7th will be a day to honor the Victims of Communism

A true leader:

“I notice, that people who escape communism for free societies never choose to go back…”

“There are probably more Marxists on college faculties in the United States than there are in all of Eastern Europe combined.”

“The body-count of Mao is something that everybody needs to understand.”

The key parts are from 2:30 – 5:00.

 

Students will learn what Marxism does:

Beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year, high school students enrolled in US government courses will get at least 45 minutes of instruction each November 7 describing how “victims suffered under these regimes through poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence, and suppression of speech.”  – New York Post:

The legislation means students will learn about Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot

We want to make sure that every year folks in Florida, but particularly our students, will learn about the evils of communism. The dictators that have led communist regimes and the hundreds of millions of individuals who suffered, and continue to suffer under the weight of this discredited ideology. Now, there are a lot of people out there who will promote things like socialism and communism, but I think one of the things we’ve seen is a lot of young people don’t really know that much about what communism meant in practice, and continues to mean in different parts of the world. You can see at a college campus, students flying the hammer and sickle from the old Soviet Union flag. You will see students that will have t-shirts with Che Guevara on the t-shirts. You will see students that will idolize people like Mao Zedong. That, to me, speaks of a tremendous ignorance about what those individuals represented in the evils that communism inflicted on people throughout the world.

So, this legislation will make sure that our students and people throughout the state of Florida are reminded about the atrocities committed by Mao Zedong when he led communist China. He had tens of millions of people die because of the communist ideology. Things like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. And of course, China continues to be the leading force of oppression around the world. But that body count of Mao, is something that everybody needs to understand because it is a direct result of this communist ideology. The legislation also ensures that students will learn about people like Lennin and Stalin, and the tyranny of the Soviet Union where they had millions and millions of people disappear into KGB prisons or Siberian Gulags. [We] want to make sure that people understand the atrocities of somebody like Pol Pot, the communist dictator of Cambodia who carried out a genocide of nearly 2 million in the killing fields.

The full transcript

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59 comments to Do 100 million lives Matter? De Santis announces a Victims of Communism Day

  • #
    Charles k May

    I lived through the Cuban missile crisis in St. Petersburg, Florida as a sophomore in high school. I can remember the principal announcing on the intercom that the Russian ships were turning around and going home.

    At that time Democrats were still patriotic. As a result of the missile crisis, I was required to complete a course in Americanism vs. Communism before I could graduate from high school.

    They must have dropped that requirement later.

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    • #
      max

      The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, which escalated into an international crisis when American deployments of missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of similar ballistic missiles in Cuba.

      In response to the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, and the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev agreed to Cuba’s request to place nuclear missiles on the island to deter a future invasion.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis

      socialism in America can be dated from “new deal” or even earlier from involvement in WW1, to fight war you need to centralise economy.

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  • #

    Much as I applaud the sentiment, that transcript could do with some spellchecking..

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    • #
      Mike Jonas

      How many million lives is one spelling error worth?

      Let’s concentrate on the issue.

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      • #
        J Burns

        Absolutely – I’m not a fan of pedantry, but think that when publishing on an issue which does affect millions of lives, a bit of copy checking is less costly than accusations of sloppiness.

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    • #
      Robert Swan

      Yes, I didn’t think the African warrior “Chaka Vara” was available on T-shirts. Neither did I think John Lennon was all that bad. Just a bit misguided.

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    • #
      R.B

      You got a tick from me. Even though I’m guilty of not checking my comments here when in a rush, you shouldn’t stuff up when it’s your job to sit behind a big screen and a proper keyboard checking any auto translator.

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    • #
      Peter

      Chaka Vara on the t-shirts

      Pretty sure it’s Che Guevara.

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    • #

      The transcriber didn’t ask for it to be posted here even forgetting the content being totally misunderstanding both Marx and being full of false assumptions.

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      • #
        b.nice

        “being full of false assumptions”

        None of which you have even bothered to counter or even point out.

        Gee… Just another baseless comment.

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  • #
    Simon

    Why not discuss fascism as well? Communism has demonstrably failed as an economic system. Despite being run by a Communist Party, China is a market-led economy. The big problem is autocratic leaders who try to subvert democracy.

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    • #
      b.nice

      “Why not discuss fascism as well?”

      They are both far-left “control-of-the-people” ideologies.

      WEF is of a similar type, as it seems is the WHO.

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    • #
      Pauly

      The CCP does not like to advertise how wealthy the senior members of the CCP have become. The top echelons of the CCP have reverted to dynastic control of different sectors of its economy.

      This apparently also includes the creation of private “armies” to protect senior members of the CCP and their families. Economic competition becomes dynastic “warfare”. The system ossifies, with upward mobility tied to political power and wealth. Perhaps it works well when double digit economic growth is happening. It will be interesting to see what happens as that growth slows down in the future. But “market-led”? Hardly!

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    • #
      Dave in the States

      That’s why I use the term National Socialists instead of its more common acronym. And I often point out that Musso-lini started out as a socialist. Or I may point out the fact that The Imperial Way Faction of the 1930’s era Japanese Deep State, and the Cherry Blossom secret society within the IJA, who perputrated the Manchurian Incident in 1931, followed the teachings of Kita Iki who wrote the book: The Kokutai and Pure Socialsim.

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      • #
        Dave in the States

        Occasionally I may point out the arcane fact that Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 7th 1937, was a false flag operation by communist troops emedded among KMT ranks. This false flag operation followed a secret agreement between Mao and Chiang Kai Chek to form a united front in a war against the Japanese. The communists/socialists have a lot blood on their hands.

        Or how about the fact that the Taiping Rebellion in 19th century China, which was caused by a collectivist movement, consumed 30 million lives? That was more lives than the 1914-1918 conflict in Europe. The Great Leap Forward eclipsed that death toll, nonetheless.

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        • #
          nb

          ‘The communists/socialists have a lot blood on their hands.’
          Totaitarianism, and, in particular ‘blood on hands’, is the point for communists/socialists. Sanctimony masks cruelty.

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      • #
        max

        The Dominant Political Philosophy in the West
        Gary North
        In the 1930’s, economic fascism was universally popular in the West. Fascism was in the West; Communism was in the East.
        The United States economy had been moving away from the free market ideal ever since 1913. The creation of the Federal Reserve System was a mark of the transition. So was the rise of the graduated income tax in 1913. All that was needed to escalate these two institutional changes was a war, and that was made available to us in April 1917.
        The same transformation had taken place in Great Britain in 1911. Within three years, World War I escalated on such a scale that the new fascist military state became dominant throughout Western Europe.
        The essence of fascism is the doctrine of the government/business alliance. Private property is maintained on paper, but control is transferred to the state, especially the centralized national state. The state sets the guidelines. The state establishes the economic sanctions. The state prohibits those activities that would seek to be independent of state control and direction. The black market is actively suppressed. Central planning is introduced at the level of the central bank. Once there is a war, central planning becomes dominant throughout the economy. The public is willing to submit to the controls, all in the name of winning the war.

        [Got a Link for the claims? – LVA]

        [EG Gary North here: The Day of Reckoning for the West”. His ideas are worth discussing. (and links). – Jo]

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    • #
      Tel

      Every school has been teaching about National Socialism and the Holocaust ever since it happened, and they spend a lot more than 45 minutes covering the material … dunno where you went to school but I certainly learned about it.

      I will say, they gave a somewhat cartoonish summary … rather than getting into exactly what that ideology stands for and why. That’s probably the best you can expect in a typical school setting.

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      • #
        Eng_Ian

        Tel,
        I finished high school in 1984, I cannot remember a single lesson on the holocaust. However, we had several weeks describing Mao’s struggles and his eventual ‘success’ with the long march. On review, with more facts under my belt, this was clearly taught from the wrong viewpoint.

        If education was like that back then, what is happening now? I can’t infer your education level, nor when it occurred but It would help the narrative if you filled in those details, describing how you recall the lesson(s).

        In my opinion, even a 45 minute lesson on the holocaust, with truthful and graphic accounts, should float around in your mind for a lifetime and that should be enough to prevent a repeat. A lesson well learnt by all I’d have thought.

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      • #
        Lawrie

        Tel. I went to one of the GPS colleges in the late fifties. I was in the A class where we did English, French and Latin, Maths 1 and 2, Physics, Chemistry and Religion. My love of history came when I joined the Army. The B class did History and Geography so they knew far more about how we came to be where we are than I did.

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    • #
      el+gordo

      China and Russia are Fascist, while Cuba and North Korea are Communist.

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      • #
        max

        The Dominant Political Philosophy in the West
        Fascism.

        The essence of fascism is the doctrine of the government/business alliance. Private property is maintained on paper, but control is transferred to the state, especially the centralized national state. The state sets the guidelines. The state establishes the economic sanctions. The state prohibits those activities that would seek to be independent of state control and direction.

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        • #
          el+gordo

          The backbone of the West is a mixed economy, but it hasn’t always been that way.

          ‘Laissez-faire is an economic philosophy of free-market capitalism that opposes government intervention. The theory of laissez-faire was developed by the French Physiocrats during the 18th century and believes that economic success is more likely the less governments are involved in business.’

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    • #
      R.B

      Pretty sure that China is a much better country now then when it was proper communist.

      Is Simon insisting that its one version of socialism or the other? And a rabid alarmist, to boot. What a coincidence.

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      • #
        Sambar

        Like the old joke about
        Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev dies and goes to heaven where he is greated by his mother.
        Oh Leonid look at your fine Itailan suit says his mother with great admiration,
        Yes mother,
        On Leonid look at your beautiful hand made shoes she continues with pride
        Yes mother
        Oh Leonid look at at your expensive Swiss watch, it must have cost a fortune
        Yes mother
        Lucky the communists aren’t still in charge hey Leonid

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      • #
        el+gordo

        ‘ … one version of socialism or the other?’

        I’m a utopian socialist and I’m voting for the agrarian socialists. If you are looking for a fight, I’m your man.

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        • #
          R.B

          Christianity is a form of socialism, and like all other forms of socialism, it had selfish leaders. But it’s redeeming feature was it wasn’t a form of government.

          There is nothing wrong with a fairer sharing of resources but it always seems to be ignoring the blood, sweat and tears that it took to develop a resource. Let those master chefs of word salads gain control, and you just get a worse sort of feudalism. Animal Farm 101.

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    • #
      Broadie

      The big problem is autocratic leaders who try to subvert democracy.

      If I may suggest something simple Simon and that is to be brought up to speed on your knowledge base at least to the year 522 BC.

      Why not discuss fascism as well?

      The discussion is done and dusted with the explanation of Darius

      Again, in a democracy, it is impossible but that there will be malpractices: these malpractices, however, do not lead to enmities, but to close friendships, which are formed among those engaged in them, who must hold well together to carry on their villainies.

      The simple message is that if the elites are able to grab too much power, whether that is to ensure a good harvest like the Aztecs, a free health system like the Fabians sold us, to save the Poley Bears and create a net zero carbon economy as enforced by Sea Shepherd and Extinction Rebellion (the current version of the fascist mob), to protect us from the common cold like the Davos crowd, to disarm your honest citizens like John Howard, sell the family silver and stick it in the Fascists Future Fund like Costello, etc, we will eventually end up with a Monarchy. All we can hope for is that the US Constitution can resist the powers grabbed by the Political Industrial Complex or if they fail a benevolent dictator is successful in attaining those powers.
      As Jonathon Ralston Saul said in his Book ‘Voltaire’s Bastard’ to the effect that ‘may the tribe that takes over be kind to us’.

      40

    • #
      GlenM

      If Team Labor wins the upcoming election you’re going to wish for an autocrat. We need a strong leader not a bunch of useless posers.

      40

    • #

      Simon
      How about we look at the body count and use that as our guide for priority here?

      The Left win hands down on that score.

      We need to look at all extremism but lets start with the Left as conveniently people have forgotten or been denied the relevant information here for years. Time to make up for lost time here.

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    • #
      Plain Jane

      Sometimes I wish there was a laugh button here, like there is on facebook.

      20

      • #
        max

        Ludwig von Mises:
        The Italian Fascists badly needed an economic program of their own. After having seceded from the international parties of Marxian socialism, they could no longer pose as socialists. Neither were they, the proud scions of the invincible Roman legionaries, prepared to make concessions to Western capitalism or to Prussian interventionism, the counterfeit ideologies of the barbarians who had destroyed their glorious empire. They were in search of a social philosophy, purely and exclusively Italian. Whether or not they knew that their gospel was merely a replica of British guild socialism is immaterial. At any rate, the stato corporativo was nothing but a rebaptized edition of guild socialism. The differences concerned only unimportant details.

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  • #
    Dave of Gold Coast, Qld.

    Bravo! At least someone is awake to the reality of socialism and communism. It would be easy to think that everyone has decided to ignore the horrors of the history of this murderous reality. Last century was a bloodbath of power mad tyrants to whom life meant nothing. Think Russian Revolution where the communist leaders were far, far worse than the Tsars. Think Stalin or his minions throughout eastern Europe for decades or Mao who is listed as the most bloodthirsty person in history and responsible for the most deaths. Then we have the island ‘paradise’ of Cuba and the once rich and prosperous Venezuela. People are treated worse than animal but the few rich and powerful enjoy the grandeur of kings with the peasants have to eat grass. The west seems hell bent on following this nightmare as well.

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    • #
      b.nice

      “power mad tyrants to whom life means nothing.”

      Think WEF and WHO !

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    • #

      even Putin in a speech either last year or the year before said that the western world were committing suicide as communism does not work and that they had tried all types of it as well as writing the book
      the WHO is just a part of the WEF IMHO
      they have said the reasons that communism/nationalism/fascism did not work is because the whole world was not involved, it makes me think about why Nato is so against Russia who has done the WEF school but told Klaus to go shove it

      it looks like play my way or you are gone

      20

  • #
    Tel

    Let’s hope they teach about how Walter Duranty, and a bunch of other Moscow based pet journalists covered up the Soviet Famine of 1932 to 1933. Duranty wrote, “any report of a famine in Russia today is an exaggeration or malignant propaganda, since the projected harvest was even better than the previous year” … he was telling lies of course.

    Gareth Jones had reported accurately at the time but was buried by the coordinated efforts of major newspapers, most importantly the New York Times. Eugene Lyons (of United Press International) was another journalist who collaborated with Duranty, but years later Lyons relented and admitted what had happened … he eventually became disillusioned with Communism.

    https://www.thegrayladywinked.com/the-true-story-walter-duranty/

    This famine was no accident … food was stolen right out of the hands of the peasant farmers, and a lot of people think it was only in the Ukraine … no, there was famine in many places across the USSR, it was used as a means of political repression to establish Bolshevik power and silence all resistance.

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    • #
      Neville

      You’re correct Tel and the young communist Malcolm
      Muggeridge traveled to Russia and lived there for a few years with his wife but gradually saw the error of their mission and eventually returned home and exposed the hideous, deadly system that was as vile as anything we’ve seen in history.
      He had an impeccable left wing background through his own family and his wife’s family as well.
      In the late 1920s he was a Labour member of parliament before he left for Russia and their so called “worker’s paradise”.
      But they eventually realised their mistake and returned home and gradually he became a conservative Christian for the rest of his life and a fierce critic of all totalitarian regimes.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Muggeridge

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      • #
        max

        he wrote about experience in:
        Chronicles of Wasted Time Part 1 The Green Stick
        Chronicles of Wasted Time Part 2 The Infernal Grove

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    • #
      Broadie

      Dear Tel,

      Maybe Duranty was correct?

      since the projected harvest was even better than the previous year”

      The US Mothers are currently chasing baby formula. Is there a failed harvest / collapse of the Dairy Industry?

      I wonder who will be the Great Leader who saves us from our First World consumer famine, not being able to replace a circuit board in our air-conditioner with supply restricted by the covid lockdown of manufacture in Shanghai, closure of container ports and ships stuck off California Ports awaiting a truck less than 3 years old to clear the ports?

      20

  • #
    Neville

    I presume the Lennon mentioned in the transcript was really Vladimir Lenin who was the leader of the Bolshevics until Stalin moved in and gradually replaced him.
    Lenin survived an assassination attempt by Fanny Kaplan in 1918 outside a factory where he’d just addressed the workers.
    His two wounds gradually reduced his ability to carry on his leadership and after he suffered a number of strokes he died in 1924.
    Lenin didn’t like Stalin at all and didn’t trust him and he certainly wasn’t his choice to take over the party leadership from him.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin

    .

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  • #
    Serge Wright

    DeSantis is a very smart polly. He’s worked out the Dems pain points very quickly and applies the pain perfectly. In the culture wars you need to fight back, rather than roll over like we see with Morrison and co, but you need to be clever and engage the people in this battle. Whether it’s standing alongside concerned parents, worried about disturbing gender indoctrination at schools, or in this case where he’s positioning himself with refugees from Marxism, the scenes are always paining himself as saviour of the people from the evil forces of wokism, where the Democrat’s are on the side of the evil force. Of course that’s the truth of the matter, and wokeism is indeed a very evil force that’s captured left wing political parties and is now infiltrating conservative ones. In my opinion DeSantis is the guy to lead them in the next election and beyond and his influence will extend well beyond the borders of the USA.

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  • #

    I hope we’ve now reached peak paranoia.

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    • #
      b.nice

      Nope, the far-left will always have more paranoia for their useful idiots, like you, to lap up.

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    • #
      R.B

      how dare you!

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    • #
      max

      paranoia, you mean like Senator McCarthy — He Was Right After All

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    • #
      Serge Wright

      Your paranoia is only just beginning. Once DeSantis is running the show the hysteria from your mob will be beyond the extreme, but it will be the best show on earth for everyone else 🙂

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    • #
      Ross

      I thought we had hit peak stupidity when lockdowns and masks were implemented for COVID. Little did I know that that there were further peaks shrouded in mist- behind the then “peak stupidity”. In fact there was a whole bloody mountain range!!!

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    • #
      el+gordo

      Australia and the US didn’t have real democracies until the 1960s, it took awhile to get there. Once Putin has left the world stage I predict Russia will also embrace free and fair elections.

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    • #

      “I hope we’ve now reached peak paranoia.”

      l am starting to like you Gee Aye, l am seeing you in a funny light now
      very funny in fact,
      Cheers

      40

  • #
    Ross

    DeSantis keeps ticking the right boxes. Also, he must have a top rate team behind him with very switched on advisors. A lot of people keep talking about his US President potential. But that would mean ( if he was successful) moving to the White House in the middle of the swamp. The swamp would drown him like they did Trump. I personally think he should stay in Florida and keep leading by example. These days that influence travels worldwide.

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  • #
    Old Goat

    Once again we are heading down that road . Different groups are being set against each other and everyone is a victim of someone else . We cannot change the past and nothing will change that .The future is being shaped by psychopaths bent on total control . Sound familiar ?

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    • #
      NuThink

      Old Goat,

      We cannot change the past and nothing will change that

      I heard that there is a Polish saying “the future is certain, it is just the past that keeps changing.”

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  • #
    Betty Luks

    It was William Blake who wrote: “One Law for the Lion and the Lamb is a tyranny”.

    And I can’t think of a better way to demonstrate this truth than write of what recently took place in Adelaide, South Australia.

    A 92-year-old – yes, 92-year old – grandmother, taken to a local hospital for treatment spent two hours OUTSIDE the hospital awaiting a Covid test AND THE TEMPERATURE HAD REACHED A WHOLE 12 DEGREES!

    It was front-page news – complete with photo of the lady seated in a wheel chair – in Adelaide’s Advertiser. The dear lady, dressed in a dressing gown, with scarf around her neck to keep her warm, was shod with OPEN SANDALS!
    Of course those ultimately responsible for the HOSPITAL POLICY figuratively threw up their hands in horror, not because they see the 92-year-old as a fellow human being who has PERSONAL NEEDS AND ATTENTION but because their TYRANNICAL policy has been shown up for what it is. Whether Left or Right we have all become to be seen as a mere number in a system.

    I’m sorry folks but I am not that inspired by the Governor’s video. What he should have added was the truth that the Russian Revolution was financed by Capitalists from the West – including America, and America claims to be ‘capitalist’ not ‘socialist’.

    As ‘Old Goat’ writes (above): “Different groups are being set against each other …” Yes, it is the same old ‘divide and rule’ tactics.

    In this age of the Industrial/Technological Revolution, it is not enough to put forward the same tired policies of the early 20th century, we must resolve the Labour/Capitalist FINANCIAL conundrum – or we just might perish!

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  • #
    Mark+Smith

    I notice that the people that escaped communism for free societies never choose to go back

    Not quite correct- a small minority did choose to go to back for family, because the state incentised them and because the certainty of a Communist life that you have been raised in (no matter how bad) may be seem OK compared to no social security, poverty and capitalist and freedom chaos such as advertisement of goods and services that you can’t buy and freedom to do an “immoral” life.

    10

  • #
    Dave in the States

    I heard on the radio news several weeks ago about a school kid who was sent home for wearing a MAGA ball cap. At the time my first thought was this has never happened to school kids wearing Che Guevara T-shirts, and some social studies teachers proudly displayed Che Guevara posters in their class rooms. Since free speech cuts both ways I don’t think that either should be sent home, but this is the amount of bias which exists in modern education. De Santis knows that left biased history is being taught.

    I know an (legal) immigrant science professional who confided that she was afraid her jr. high aged son was going to get her in trouble, because he wrote in a science essay at school that AGW was not based on sound science and was certainly not settled science. She was called in by the teachers. I started talking about how since they are in America now they have free speech and she should not be afraid. She was not so sure.

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