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Yesterday — March 28th 2024Your RSS feeds

Argentina Intercepts Invading Illegal Chinese Fishing Vessel

The Argentine Navy intercepted and boarded an illegal Chinese fishing vessel caught 12 miles inside the nation's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), local media reported Wednesday.

The post Argentina Intercepts Invading Illegal Chinese Fishing Vessel appeared first on Breitbart.

Communist Nicaragua Sentences Christian Pastors to 12-15 Years in Prison on Holy Week

The communist regime in Nicaragua announced the conviction of 11 pastors associated with the Evangelical Mountain Gateway ministry and humanitarian organization, this week on dubious and unspecified charges of "money laundering," sentencing the accused to between 12 and 15 years in prison.

The post Communist Nicaragua Sentences Christian Pastors to 12-15 Years in Prison on Holy Week appeared first on Breitbart.

Before yesterdayYour RSS feeds

Hayward: ‘Three Body Problem’ Has Something to Annoy Everyone, From Communists to Climate Cultists

Chinese author Liu Cixin’s monumental science fiction book The Three Body Problem, which has now been adapted into a Netflix series under the punchier title "3 Body Problem," has a little something to annoy just about everyone - from climate change activists to skeptics, Chinese Communists to anti-communists, nationalists to open-borders fanatics. It is a big story with big ideas, and like most great works of fiction, not even the author can fully control how its events are interpreted. 

The post Hayward: ‘Three Body Problem’ Has Something to Annoy Everyone, From Communists to Climate Cultists appeared first on Breitbart.

'Political Correctness': Chinese Media Complain Netflix Cast Non-Chinese Actors in '3 Body Problem'

The Chinese state propaganda newspaper Global Times quoted film critics complaining that the Netflix adaptation of the Chinese science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem used "people of different skin colors."

The post ‘Political Correctness’: Chinese Media Complain Netflix Cast Non-Chinese Actors in ‘3 Body Problem’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Netflix's '3 Body Problem' Showrunner: China's Cultural Revolution's Similarities to Cancel Culture Are 'Hard to Ignore'

The new Netflix sci-fi series "3 Body Problem" is provoking intense online debate over its opening sequence depicting a struggle session during China's Cultural Revolution in which a physics professor is violently beaten by Mao's Red Guard.

The post Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ Showrunner: China’s Cultural Revolution’s Similarities to Cancel Culture Are ‘Hard to Ignore’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Socialist Policies: Steps Toward a System That Has Always Failed

Red Guards Cell, Austin, Texas. By Reddebrek, CC BY 3.0

A country’s slide into socialism/communism begins with socialist policies. And every one of these has been proposed in the United States: like an exorbitant minimum wage which is exorbitant and not tied to performance or return on labor, a universal basic income, charging for electricity usage based on income rather than quantity of electricity used, issuing carbon usage credits, allowing the state, not the consumer, to decide how much is enough, imposing a billionaire tax, taxing wealth transfers and inheritance to prevent parents from helping their children, and taxing unrealized capital gains to discourage saving and investing.

Beyond the purely economic, policies that mandate demographic quotas for promotions, hiring, firing, or school acceptance are examples of social engineering that removes the “profit motive,” the reward for hard work, disincentivizing hard work, and resulting in the promotion of those who cannot meet the quality standards.

Washington State has proposed eliminating the bar exam in order to increase diversity among lawyers. Oregon high school students will no longer need to be able to read, write, or do math in order to graduate, for the same reason.

United Airlines announced that it would prioritize diversity in its selection of trainee pilots. And in order to ensure that the younger generation understands only the state agenda, homeschooling will be banned.

Socialism/Communism has never worked, but somehow, people keep voting for it and believing that this time will be different. The truth is that it has caused tens of millions to starve to death while robbing hundreds of millions of their innovation, creativity, and motivation.

The entire society, working different jobs from research scientist to ticket puncher, for an equal number of turnip coupons, is so unnatural that it can only exist in a totalitarian system where people have no choice.

No capitalist nation ever forced people to earn a profit, but communist countries had to use their secret police and state surveillance to force people not to.

No one was ever shot trying to break into East Germany or swimming to Cuba.

Socialism cannot bring prosperity because it destroys the market functions of private property and eliminates the incentives for more productive people to work harder or more inventive people to innovate. Socialists are always worried about wealth inequality, and their solution always involves taking money from the harder-working, more efficient people and giving it to the less productive.

Socialists believe that if they were to forcibly redistribute the wealth, everyone would be better off. The first problem with this logic is that the people who have wealth now would be worse off if someone stole it.

The United States has the highest GDP per capita in the entire American continent, from Canada to Argentina, including the Caribbean. The US average income is about $76,000 per year.

In Haiti, it is $1,748. If the socialists had their way and redistributed the wealth evenly across the roughly 1 billion people in the Americas, the average would be $35,000 per year. So, US citizens would be giving up more than half their income but would still be working the same jobs, for the same number of hours.

If you received the same wage, no matter what, you would stop doing overtime, stop coming up with new ideas, and pretty much stop working at all. In the Soviet Union, there was a joke: “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”

Almost every communist country began by abolishing money and nationalizing production of everything, including food. Within a very short time, these countries faced famines.

With no profit incentive, there was no motivation for farmers to grow food. Additionally, with no money prices, there was no rational way to calculate the cost of planting versus the money earned from selling the produce or to calculate how many resources should be allocated to producing food versus producing some other product.

Nearly six million people in the USSR starved to death in the Soviet Famine (1931-1934). Roughly half of these were Ukrainians, living in the “breadbasket of Europe.”

During the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979) in Cambodia, between one half and a third of the population died of starvation and overwork, although nearly 100% of the population was sent out to the fields to farm. Venezuelans are facing hunger, while Cubans are facing shortages of everything.

The winner of the socialist starvation death toll competition is Mao Zedong, whose Great Famine (1958-1962) killed 30 million Chinese.

India was resource-rich and had the largest workforce, but socialist policies led to India becoming synonymous with extreme poverty. The USSR was the most resource-rich country on the planet and had one of the largest workforces, but had an economy about 5% the size of the U.S. China similarly had a huge workforce, and it was not until 2007 that the average Chinese citizen was earning more than the average American was earning in the year 1900.

Vietnam also experienced a mini-famine caused by communism, but they quickly realized that by privatizing farming, they were able to increase rice production.

It was privatization that also ended the Chinese famine, and Deng Xiaoping allowing private sector entrepreneurs to earn profits that lifted 800 million Chinese out of poverty.

No former communist country has ever reverted to communism. And China and Vietnam, the world’s largest remaining communist countries, dramatically increased the welfare of their people by allowing market economics, profit, and private ownership.

But both China and Vietnam remain dramatically poorer than the US because of their refusal to completely let go of communism/socialism.

Given all the evidence against it, how can American socialists believe that this time will be different?

The post Socialist Policies: Steps Toward a System That Has Always Failed appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Red_Guards_Austin

Red Guards Cell, Austin, Texas. By Reddebrek, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=104103414

Experts Tell Congress: China Building 'World's Largest DNA Database' Usable to Harvest Organs

Journalists, academics, and other experts told Congress during a hearing on Wednesday that evidence indicates China is killing thousands of people to sell their organs and building the "world's largest DNA database" that can be used to find a living "perfect match" for an organ buyer, arrest them for dubious reasons, and kill them to sell their organs.

China Says Middle East Wants It to Take 'Greater Role' After Hamas Meeting

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman claimed that Middle Eastern countries hope Beijing plays "a greater role in deescalating" the ongoing Israeli self-defense operation in Gaza against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.

China Tells Hamas Chief It Is 'Keen on Relations' in First Meeting Since October 7

China sent a delegation to Qatar to meet with the head of the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, the Foreign Ministry revealed on Tuesday, reportedly telling him that Beijing is "keen on relations" with the genocidal group.

China Says Collapsing Real Estate Giant Evergrande Overstated Revenue by $78 Billion

China's securities regulating agency announced on Monday that it had banned the founder of real estate giant Evergrande from the securities market and accused the company of $78 billion fraud.

Lyft/Uber Fire Workers; Socialists Clueless on Wages

Uber user – free use image

Lyft and Uber are pulling out of Minneapolis because the city council is demanding that they raise wages, making the business model untenable. The Socialists won! Now the workers are unemployed and drawing on social services. As an added bonus, the city lost tax revenue not only from the two companies but also from the workers.

Firms factor in various costs, including wages, rent, insurance, raw materials, utilities, and advertising when considering market prices. If selling at the market price covers all expenses and yields a reasonable profit, they proceed. However, if the costs go up, then the price has to go up. If the increased price is too much for consumers to bear, the company goes out of business.

In the case of Lyft, Uber, and other ride-hailing apps, customers are highly price sensitive. If they weren’t, they would opt for traditional taxis or private drivers. Increasing Lyft or Uber prices would reduce demand to a level where the company cannot sustain operations. Hence, Lyft and Uber’s departure from Minneapolis illustrates why similar services may exit Democrat-led cities with exorbitant minimum wage requirements.

If Lyft and Uber workers believed they could earn more elsewhere, they’d have already switched jobs, indicating that Lyft and Uber paid market wages. Now that Lyft has left the market, they are all unemployed. The City Council’s actions made the workers worse off.

In addition to determining the value of people’s labor, the government wants to dictate product prices. According to a White House Fact Sheet on the State of the Union Address, “President Biden believes housing costs are too high,” implying he knows the ideal selling price for your house.

Moreover, the president believes that cutting commissions will make houses more affordable. First, if house prices were too high, sellers would be unable to sell them and would naturally lower the price until buyers materialized. The fact that the houses are selling, and quickly, at current prices means that they are the right prices.

If you’re currently in the market to buy, it’s challenging, and homes may seem “too expensive.” However, if you’ve worked your entire life, paid off a mortgage, and are preparing to retire, high house prices are welcome news. Regardless of your position in the transaction, government price-setting is a disastrous idea. If the government capped house prices, sellers would withdraw homes from the market, and builders would halt new constructions, resulting in a shortage.

The Biden administration is targeting the National Association of Realtors for allegedly “artificially inflating real estate commissions.” However, in a free market, a private organization cannot “artificially inflate commissions.” They have the right to set whatever rate they want. Additionally, if buyers and sellers opt not to pay the commission, they are free to conduct the sale without an agent.

The Washington Post claimed the change could reduce house prices “by aligning fees closer to the true value of services from real estate agents.” However, the fees are already aligned with the service, hence why it’s called a fee for service. If you want the service, you pay the fee.

Some buyers and sellers may have misunderstood the fees, and the industry might have failed to properly disclose them. Agents were also motivated to prioritize houses with higher fees, raising concerns about disclosure. The government’s argument may have some validity; people paid fees without full awareness, and these fees need to be made clear to them. The new rules permit a private contract between the agent and the buyer, facilitating negotiation and disclosure of fees. So, the solution is still free-market, with buyer and seller negotiating the price.

However, the government’s claim to know “the right fee” is preposterous. When I get my hair cut at a barber, I pay $20, but at a salon, I pay $60. Though the two prices differ significantly, both are “right”. I wouldn’t want the government to mandate all haircuts cost $30. Haircutters and barbers wouldn’t want that either. Currently, we operate in a competitive market where barbers can compete on price, while salons compete on service or image, allowing consumers to decide.

Assuming the government knows the correct fee for real estate marks the beginning of a slippery slope, implying the government knows the right price for everything and the right wage for everyone, which suggests we should let the government decide for us.

Houses sell based on supply and demand. There is no shortage of houses at the current price, including commission. However, if commissions decrease and overall out-of-pocket expenses for houses decline, demand will rise, driving prices up, despite commissions being a lower percentage. Ultimately, Biden’s policies are unlikely to increase the percentage of homeowners or make homes more affordable for most people.

None of us enjoy paying fees, but if we allow the government to abolish free markets to “protect us from fees,” we may as well let the government provide free housing, clothing, and jobs. However, in doing so, the government, not the individual, would dictate the color, type, and quantity.

 

The post Lyft/Uber Fire Workers; Socialists Clueless on Wages appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

lyft uber

Uber user - free use image

Don’t RIP, Karl

(John Hinderaker)

Via InstaPundit, I learn that Karl Marx died on this day in 1883. I concur with Glenn Reynolds’ suggestion that March 14 should therefore be a holiday:

Marx performed the difficult feat of being wrong about everything. Most people are right about some things and wrong about others; the law of averages sets in. But if you are an ideologue, like Marx, and if your ideology is stupid, you can be wrong across the board. Marx’s historical analyses were either recycled conventional wisdom or wildly off the mark. He knew nothing about economics, which is why his labor theory of value–the lynchpin of his entire philosophy–is absurd. (Even Marx recognized that; he never finished the key section of Capital, leaving that inglorious task to Engels.) And he pontificated endlessly about workers and the means of production, without even once, as far as is known, setting foot in a factory.

Marx survives in historical memory for two reasons. First, hardly anyone has actually read Capital or his lesser works. Even a person of moderate intelligence could hardly do so without recognizing their foolishness. Second, Marx’s philosophy has served as a pretext for sadists to seize control of governments around the globe. Which is exactly what Marx intended.

Marx was a bad man, equally so in his private and public lives. He should be remembered only as an exemplar of how much damage a single-minded and hate-filled man can do.

North Korea Debuts 'Most Powerful Tanks in the World' with Kim Jong-un Maiden Drive

North Korean state media claimed on Thursday that dictator Kim Jong-un personally drove a new model tank to "stormy cheers of hurrah" during exercises to prepare for a land war, presumably with South Korea.

China: Biden, Trump Nominations Show American Democracy Has 'Failed'

China's state-run Global Times newspaper predictably observed the occasion of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump formally cementing the nominations to their respective parties on Wednesday by lamenting that both are "unpopular" candidates and proof that American democracy has "failed to express or address issues of public concern."

Uyghurs Welcome Ramadan Under Shadow of Chinese Genocide

Ramadan brings with it "extreme suffering" for the majority-Muslim population of occupied East Turkistan under China, Uyghurs told RFA.

Biden Wrong on Corporate Profits and Taxes

 

By Pieter Brueghel the Younger – Artdaily.org, Public Domain/Wikicommons

No, Mr. Biden, it is not true that some big corporations earned $40 billion in profits and paid no taxes.

President Biden’s State of the Union Address was just riddled with economic misinformation and misunderstandings. After nearly four years of failing Bidenomics, the country only averted a recession because the administration changed the definition. As the deficit, debt, under-employment, and inflation rise, scrambling for cash, the president is looking to raise taxes on mean old corporations.

Increasing taxes on greedy corporations may sound like a good idea, but unless you are on welfare, self-employed, or work for the government, your salary comes from a greedy corporation. And the greedier that corporation is, the more money it makes, the more jobs it creates, and the more salaries it pays. Increasing taxes on corporations increases costs, decreases corporate expansion, and encourages reducing the number of personnel. It also drives up the cost of products, resulting in fewer jobs and higher prices.

During the State of the Union address, Biden repeated his favorite statistic: “In 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes.” And, of course, this is complete nonsense. Companies are taxed on profits. Usually, when socialists make these types of claims, they are referring to gross revenue. In this case, Biden is misquoting a study done by a left-leaning think tank, ITEP, which looked at “pretax profits,” a questionable term. What they were probably examining was pretax income, not profits.

Pre-tax income refers to the total revenue a company earns before accounting for taxes, while profits typically refer to the income remaining after deducting all expenses, including taxes. If the study was indeed looking at pre-tax income rather than profits, it’s possible that these companies reported substantial revenues but utilized various legal deductions, credits, and other tax strategies to reduce their taxable income, resulting in a lower effective tax rate or no federal income tax liability for that specific year.

The irony of the tax credits companies use to avoid paying taxes is that many of them come from liberal Democrat policies. Companies get tax breaks for green initiatives, meeting diversity goals, employing the disabled, Research and Development Tax Credit, Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), Renewable Energy Tax Credits, Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit, New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC), Opportunity Zone Tax Incentives, Employee Retention Tax Credit, Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) Exclusion, Energy-Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction, and Health Coverage Tax Credits.

The White House complains about companies using their tax credits while simultaneously inventing new ones.

The average American is suffering under the weight of Bidenflation, coupled with a decline in full-time employment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “The number of people employed part-time for economic reasons, at 4.4 million, changed little in February. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part-time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.”

Knowing he has to do something to help people’s checkbooks, Biden has decided to go after nuisance charges. In the State of the Union, Biden said, “I’m also getting rid of junk fees—those hidden fees added at the end of your bills without your knowledge. My administration just announced we’re cutting credit card late fees from $32 to just $8.” And while I hate junk fees as much as anyone else, they are there to keep the price down. Take the fees away, and prices will go up to match the current price plus fees.

Thirty years ago, you did not see a line item on your plane ticket receipt showing that you had paid for checked baggage. But you did pay for it. The cost was just built into your ticket. Then oil became prohibitively expensive, and the price of plane tickets went up. So, to bring the price down slightly, the airlines charged a lower price to people without baggage. Today, if you pay $50 for your bag, that is the price of moving one bag from point A to point B. And you only pay for it if you have a bag. But under the old system, because airlines knew some people had bags and some didn’t, every ticket included an average of, say, $30, which everyone paid. If the government tells the airlines they cannot charge you $50 for luggage, they will just add it back into the ticket price, and everyone will pay it, whether they have a bag or not.

Corporations are already facing higher costs than they did under Trump, owing to gasoline being 50% more expensive and interest rates being about five times higher. In many Democrat states and municipalities, companies are being forced to pay above-market rates for low-skilled and unskilled work. The minimum wage in some places is now between $15 and $20 per hour. Companies are also facing higher theft and rising insurance costs. And most haven’t recovered the money they lost during two years of Biden-induced lockdowns and supply chain disruptions.

Eliminating fees (how that would even be legal or how it would be enforced is a frightening prospect) and slapping higher taxes on top of four years of economic destruction is just going to make it even harder for companies that are not Amazon and Walmart to remain in business.

The post Biden Wrong on Corporate Profits and Taxes appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Pieter_Brueghel_the_Younger,_’Paying_the_Tax_(The_Tax_Collector)’_oil_on_panel,_1620-1640._USC_Fisher_Museum_of_Art

By Pieter Brueghel the Younger - Artdaily.org, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10787890

Cuba’s New Cheering Section

(Lloyd Billingsley)

As John noted recently, members of “The Squad” recently snuck off to Cuba, a one-party Communist dictatorship and massive violator of human rights. The woke Democrats seem unaware of films and books that document the repressions of the Stalinist regime. Consider, for example, Improper Conduct, by Cuban cinematographer Nestor Almendros, who in 1979 won an Oscar for Days of Heaven.

Improper Conduct shows how Fidel Castro tossed homosexuals into forced labor camps, which were rather inclusive. As New York Times film critic Vincent Canby noted, “Playwrights, doctors, poets and painters as well as more ordinary folk such as tour guides and hairdressers, spent time in one or more of the country’s forced-labor camps.” Consider also 8-A, a documentary by Cuban exile Orlando Jimenez Leal.

When Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa returned from Africa, Castro spotted a potential rival and staged a show trial for Ochoa and fellow officers. 8-A showcases the actual trial, in which Castro appears, and adds a dramatization of the executions.

In Heroes are Grazing In My Garden, Cuban poet Heberto Padilla exposes the repression of writers and intellectuals, along with the general privations of the people. For example, diabetics sell samples of their urine, so others can get extra rations of milk and meat. In Against All Hope, Armando Valladares documents Castro’s torture of political prisoners. Consider also Paul Hollander’s Political Pilgrims, which recalls glowing accounts of the Cuban regime by foreigners.

“Fidel sits on the side of a tank rumbling into Havana on New Year’s day,” wrote New Left icon Abbie Hoffman (Steal this Book). “He laughs joyously and pinches a few rumps… Fidel lets the gun drop to the ground, slaps his thigh and stands erect. He is like a mighty penis coming to life, and when he is tall and straight, the crowd immediately is transformed.”

For novelist Norman Mailer, Castro was “the first and greatest hero to appear in the world since the Second World War.” For Angela Davis, Communist Party USA candidate for vice-president in 1980 and 1984, “Fidel was their leader, but most of all he was also their brother in the largest sense of the word.” In reality, the white Stalinist plunged the nation into sub-Haiti levels of poverty, and thousands fled on anything that would float.

As Saul Bellow explained, a great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep. The Squad is either ignorant of the record or, like Angela Davis, fully approves of the Cuba’s Stalinist regime. As Cubans might note, in 2021, Squad members Pramila Jayapal and Ilhan Omar were among 40 Democrats who voted against a resolution supporting peaceful demonstrators protesting against the Cuban government.

After Botching Coronavirus Response, China Claims It Is Ready for 'Disease X'

The head of the Chinese National Disease Control and Prevention Administration, Wang Hesheng, insisted during a press conference this weekend that the Chinese Communist Party would be prepared for any future pandemics caused by an unknown "Disease X."

No More Reading or Thinking: Where Will Information Come from in the Future?

Vladimir Lenin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There is a worrying trend of young people not reading anymore and not engaging in independent thinking when it comes to writing papers or formulating opinions. Only 17% of young people read for fun.

Two-thirds of young adults listen to podcasts, which in and of itself is not a problem. However, by listening to podcasts, they are getting their information and opinions fed to them in audio form from people they like, rather than reading reports from experts.

Statistics show that videos receive 1,200 times as many reshares as texts and pictures, suggesting that video is becoming the preferred way of obtaining information.

Videos, like podcasts, can be created by anyone, regardless of their expertise, and will be reshared for various reasons apart from their information content or quality. They also must exist on video and podcast platforms, which have strict censorship rules and will be pulled if they violate “community standards,” which tend to be very left-leaning.

For example, Twitter removed tweets that referred to Hamas as terrorists, although Hamas has officially been designated a terrorist organization.

Beyond censorship, another problem with videos is that people are not really watching them. The average time spent on a video before scrolling is about 2.5%. So, while young people may prefer to obtain information from videos, they are actually obtaining almost no information.

Only 7% of young people say they read a newspaper several times per week, while 45% said they never read a newspaper. In the past, students read and researched to obtain knowledge.

They then wrote papers where they synthesized this knowledge and formulated opinions and conclusions based on data and information. Now, no one is reading. No new information is coming in. Additionally, 56% of college students and 46% of high school students are using AI to write their papers.

When we transitioned from using books and periodicals to using search engines for research, there were some disadvantages and some advantages. When doing Google searches and finding sources, people tend to skim and scan, rather than sitting down and reading an entire book or source and taking notes as students did in the past.

Research shows that over 40% of people who open an article on the web will not read beyond the nut graph, the first paragraph, usually only one to two sentences that explain the context of the story.

On the other hand, no school ever had a library of books or access to periodicals on the scale that students do today, with the internet. So, for those who actually read, there is greater availability of information today. However, fewer and fewer people are using that information.

Even worse, although the information is available and free, people are less likely to find it, as we move to AI. When you use a traditional search engine, you type in a subject or keywords and see that lots of choices come up.

So, you read through them, albeit superficially, until you find the ones you want to use. Even the laziest of readers will be exposed to multiple sources and points of view. But now, already, 40% of millennials and nearly 30% of the population are switching from traditional search engines to AI-powered searches.

AI search engines and chatbots have safety protocols to protect people from harmful or misinformation, including hate speech. And, as we have seen in our society, hate speech is an ill-defined term that can apply to almost anything people do not like.

The protocols also protect us from misleading or biased information, which raises questions about who decides what is and is not misinformation. It also suggests that for certain questions, there is only one viewpoint.

Eventually, in the not-too-distant future, we will reach a point where there is one accepted viewpoint, and because all others are misinformation, they will be excluded from searches.

With young people growing up in a world where they do not read, do not actually watch a video, do not write their own papers, and are only exposed to a single “correct” opinion, how will they develop critical-thinking skills, and how will they analyze complex issues or formulate nuanced opinions?

Given that the entire generation is growing up without knowledge and critical thinking skills, you may wonder where the next generation of videos and articles will come from.

The answer is, they will be generated by AI, cutting out the human middleman. AI will create content, then direct humans to the content, and it will be the sole source of information and opinion.

The post No More Reading or Thinking: Where Will Information Come from in the Future? appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Vladimir_Lenin_giving_a_speech

Vladimir Lenin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Discovery Channel Laments Co-Producing Chinese Propaganda Covering Up Uyghur Genocide: We Wouldn't Do It Again

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., the parent company of the Discovery Channel, appeared to express remorse in a letter to members of Congress made public on Thursday about its decision to co-produce a travel program with Chinese state media focused on occupied East Turkistan, where the Communist Party has been engaging in genocidal activities since at least 2017.

Exclusive: Transnational Repression Reaches USA Under Biden as Cuban Dissidents Branded 'Terrorists'

Cuba's Communist Party has long disparaged legitimate political opponents as "terrorists," but giving the slur a "legal veneer" by formally accusing U.S.-based journalists, activists, and others of the crime elevates the threat to their persons, human rights activists told Breitbart News.

Xi Jinping Warns Against 'Abandoning Traditional Industries' at Crucial Time for Weakened Chinese Economy

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping demanded innovative solutions to China's growing economic woes in remarks on Tuesday and Wednesday, warning against "a headlong rush into projects and the formation of industry bubbles" that could result in "abandoning traditional industries."

Happy Death Day, You Miserable Son of a Bitch

(John Hinderaker)

Josef Stalin died on this day in 1953. In his sleep; so, like Lenin, Mao and Castro, and unlike Hitler, Mussolini and Ceausescu, he never paid a price for his crimes. The Victims of Communism remember:

Stalin died on this day in 1953.

He left behind a legacy of terror, famine, and mass murder.

Remember the victims. pic.twitter.com/HUBBYUZMwh

— Victims of Communism (@VoCommunism) March 5, 2024


Stalin ranks second only to Mao among history’s worst mass murderers. Those who knew him best understood how evil he was: his wife committed suicide and his daughter defected to America. Stalin’s malignant legacy lives on, as Russia has never fully emerged from his dark shadow. It is unfortunate that he wasn’t strung up like Mussolini or shot like Ceausescu. At this point, all we can do is revile him.

China's Rubber-Stamp Lawmakers to Tackle Birth Rate, Economic Woes at Annual 'Two Sessions'

China launched its "two sessions" — the annual meetings of its top lawmaking body, the National People's Congress (NPC), and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an "advisory" body with over 2,000 members — on Monday, seeking to devise ways to reverse its increasingly concerning economic decline.

Squad Sneaks Off to Cuba

(John Hinderaker)

There was a time when, if you said that liberals suffer from Communism envy, they would deny it. Is that still true? Perhaps not, as to the Squad, two members of which were among a delegation that made a more or less secret trip to Cuba:

A delegation of the U.S. Congressional Progressive Caucus traveled to Cuba last week in a trip that has not previously been disclosed by the legislators nor reported in Cuban state media.

The group of about a dozen people was led by Democratic U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal of the state of Washington and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. It included a congressional staffer from the office of California Rep. Barbara Lee’s office, sources with knowledge of the trip told the Miami Herald.

Jayapal and Omar, members of the informal left-wing group of lawmakers known as “the squad,” did not reply to emails and messages seeking comment. Lee’s office also did not reply to a request for comment.

After the Herald published this story, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, comprising more than 100 lawmakers and chaired by Jayapal, confirmed the trip.

Odd. No press releases, no Cuban state media trumpeting the support it is getting from American liberals. So what was up with the visit?

“Representatives Jayapal and Omar traveled to Cuba last week, where they met with people from across Cuban civil society and government officials to discuss human rights and the U.S.-Cuba bilateral relationship,” said a Caucus spokesperson.

Oh. Okay. But the Squad is not in favor of human rights, so it would be interesting to know what the discussion was about:

Jayapal and Omar have been vocal critics of the U.S. embargo against Cuba and have supported bills to normalize relations with the island’s communist government. They were among the 40 Democrats who voted against a symbolic resolution supporting peaceful demonstrators who protested against the Cuban government in July 2021 and “calling for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained Cuban citizens.”

Well, they don’t want arbitrarily detained American citizens released either, so I guess that is consistent. All in all, the story is a valuable reminder that, while the rest of the world has given up on Communism, it still has a certain cachet with American liberals.

Beijing Plans European Tour for Top Russia Diplomat to Share 'China's Wisdom' on Ukraine

The Chinese Communist Party announced on Wednesday that it would send its top diplomat on Russia, "Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui," on a tour of Russia, Ukraine, and relevant European actors to discuss Moscow's ongoing invasion.

Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal Make Secret Trip to Cuba

The Miami Herald revealed this week that Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) traveled to communist Cuba.

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From Policy to Pain: How the Fed Impacts Your Wallet

By Gryffindor (Wikimedia Commons)

Artificial interest rate controls cause inflationary booms, depressing busts, and result in taxpayers bailing out wealthy bankers every five to ten years.

While businesses struggle to obtain loans and consumers suffer under extremely high interest rates, the Federal Reserve cautioned this week “against cutting US interest rates too soon or too much.”

The implication is that the Federal Reserve knows what the correct interest rate should be and when and by how much it should be cut. But for every other product, apart from loans, the market determines the price. And the market is never wrong.

The Fed deciding that it knows the right interest rates and quantity of dollars that the economy should have is extremely presumptuous. Even more worrying, the acceptance by the general public that the Fed is correct is an example of central planning.

Entrusting the Fed with superior knowledge over the market, comprising 330 million consumers and sellers, represents a frightening leap toward central authority dictating everything from health and education to how you raise your child or what media you are allowed to read.

Also, if the Fed knows the right interest rate and quantity of money, why aren’t they able to prevent economic crises and bank failures?

When it comes to most other products in the economy—shoes, cars, clothing—the price is determined by the market, and the market never gets it wrong. If the market price goes too high, people stop buying; if it goes too low, companies lose money.

So, we wind up with a market price that consumers are willing to bear and that companies can live with.

Most importantly, in our capitalist/democratic system, the only people who pay for those shoes, cars, and clothing are the people who buy them. If you think the price is too high, you don’t have to buy, and the government doesn’t force you to pay for your neighbor’s shoes.

Or at least, that is how it is supposed to work. Some administrations are more socialist than others, and you do find yourself paying for your neighbor’s shoes through taxes, but that is the subject of another article.

Today, we are discussing how the Fed distorts the economy by artificially controlling interest rates, which leads to inflationary booms, depressing busts, and ultimately results in taxpayers bailing out wealthy bankers.

Until the self-imposed destruction of the COVID lockdowns, the most recent economic crisis was in 2008, which resulted in over 8 million Americans losing their jobs.

Additionally, the U.S. Treasury Department used nearly $1 trillion of taxpayer money to buy up banks’ toxic assets and to make emergency loans to banks teetering on the brink of collapse.

These were private, for-profit companies that received payouts from public funds. From a free-market standpoint, the reason why toxic assets plummeted in value was that the risk was too high and the public didn’t want to buy them.

So, the banks effectively made a terrible product that consumers didn’t want, but which the government purchased with taxpayer money.

Even worse, in order to stimulate a failing economy, the Fed artificially suppressed interest rates until two years ago. As of December 2021, the federal funds rate target range was 0.00% to 0.25%.

And that low rate, along with dramatic increases in government spending and borrowing and the creation of money, resulted in the 9% inflation during the Biden administration. To rein in the inflation, the Fed began raising the federal funds rate, which currently stands at 5.25% to 5.50%.

This figure is the federal funds rate, the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans. The rate you pay for mortgages, car loans, and credit cards will be much higher.

The Fed artificially keeps the interest rate low when politicians want to give the illusion of economic growth. In 2023, after the Fed began raising interest rates, the low Fed rates of the preceding 15 years resulted in banks like Silicon Valley Bank sitting on investments that paid 1.79%, while new treasuries were paying 3.79%.

This meant that the banks had to pay more to borrow money than they were earning on their portfolio of loans and investments. SVB and several other banks went bankrupt, resulting in a $25 billion bailout.

Meanwhile, the entire banking system is estimated to be sitting on $620 billion in similar, unrealized losses because of artificial interest rate manipulation by the Fed.

The COVID lockdown economic crisis caused 120,000 businesses to close and 30 million Americans to lose their jobs. To compensate, the Biden White House, working with Congress on fiscal policy, and the Federal Reserve, implementing monetary policy, the deficit skyrocketed, the debt hit record levels, and interest rates were kept low.

As a result, Biden claimed the largest growth and job creation in history, as well as the highest inflation in 40 years.

Now, in addition to enduring years of lost wages, depleted savings, and mounting personal debt, Americans are grappling with the combination of inflation and high interest rates. All of which was enabled by the Fed’s policies,

The post From Policy to Pain: How the Fed Impacts Your Wallet appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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By Gryffindor - File:33 Liberty Street IMG 9058.JPGThis is a retouched picture, which means that it has been digitally altered from its original version. Modifications: This panorama has been automatically stitched using commandline tools, and the end result hasn't been validated by any humans for any accuracy or beautifullness. The original can be viewed here: 33 Liberty Street IMG 9058.JPG: . Modifications made by AzaToth., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17173323
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