Monday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Well Deplorables, that weekend sure flew by didn’t it? It’s already freaking Monday again!

My Socialist Hell: 20 Years of Decay in Venezuela

Via Breitbart

CARACAS – Venezuela, my home country, has it all: beautiful and breathtaking landscapes, abundant resources, even unique wonders of nature like the Angel Falls or the Catatumbo Lightning.
Yet if you’ve heard our name in the news recently, it’s as the subject of tragedy: toilet paper shortages, desperate people scavenging through garbage to find food for their families, bread lines, a systemic failure of our public utilities, dogs flayed in broad daylight for meat, corruption, lack of proper medicine and health access, weighing stacks of cash, and so much more.

It saddens me to say that it’s true, all of it, a product of 20 years of socialism.

I was barely eleven years old when Hugo Chávez began his first term in 1999. When this “Bolivarian Revolution” started to change the constitution and morph our laws I was just an introverted child that had just moved to the capital of the country, fascinated by video games, cartoons, and Power Rangers and with an overactive imagination.

This perpetual revolution has laid down a status quo in the country that often forces you to lose your personal aspirations, to cast away your future, hopes, and dreams; it changes you in many ways until you’re no longer a citizen — you’re merely a survivor.

Today, here I stand, more or less that same introverted kid — but with 20 years of ever-increasing hardships upon my shoulders; a lesser version of what I could’ve been, clinging to those memories where everything was simpler and all of it made sense.

This is a personal account of what has my life become after twenty years of Bolivarian Revolution— 20 years that comprise two-thirds of my life.

I’ve done so many bread lines that I’ve lost count, I’ve engaged in bartering of food and medicine, I’m actively taking expired meds because it’s simply better than nothing, and I’ve adapted every aspect of my livelihood around the tribulations inherent to living in Socialist Venezuela while taking care of my younger brother who can’t fend for himself given his mental condition. It hasn’t been easy since we’re two socially inept siblings, but we keep going no matter what.

Socialism has slowly eroded the functional existence of every aspect of our lives, from our freedom of speech to our economic liberties, our access to healthcare and personal documents to our water supply. Each of these structural collapses – the absence of healthcare, the worthlessness of our currency, systemic corruption in the government and military, and widespread censorship – have affected me personally.

Socialism is a trendy topic in the United States at the moment, which means my story is relevant beyond Venezuela’s borders. Over the course of this series, I hope to inform American readers about the realities of existence – and survival – in a socialist country. And I hope that by reading my stories, Americans will be forewarned enough that they remain distant stories, rather than firsthand experiences.

Read the entire article HERE.

AOC’s new scheme would destroy US economy, create gigantic government and raise your taxes

Via Fox News

Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has moved from the loony left to “The Twilight Zone” with her latest nutty plan to achieve her impossible dream of turning America into a socialist utopia.

In reality, the congresswoman’s plan would bring about a national nightmare – not just for all of us alive today, but for future generations – because it would destroy the U.S. economy. Building it back up would take a very long time.

Ocasio-Cortez labels her absurd plan A Just Society. If you regret not being born early enough to enjoy the fun times of the Great Depression, or want to live in a “workers’ paradise” like North Korea, Venezuela or Cuba, you’ll love Comrade AOC’s plan.

Incredibly, this cockeyed plan has been praised by one of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination – Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

“It’s going to take big, structural change to tackle poverty and inequality in the U.S., and @AOC’s ‘A Just Society’ is just the type of bold, comprehensive thinking we’ll need to get it done,” Warren recently tweeted.

Like her Green New Deal and other wacko plans, Ocasio-Cortez’s latest attempt to fundamentally transform the United States into a bastion of Marxism would end up erasing the tremendous economic growth Americans have experienced not just under the Trump administration, but throughout American history.

Ocasio-Cortez says her legislation, which is composed of several different bills, would “combat one of the greatest threats to our country, our democracy, and our freedom: economic inequality.”

Read the entire article HERE.

6 Ways Salem Witch Trials Were Fairer Than Dems’ Impeachment Inquiry

Via The Federalist

Witches in 1692 knew exactly what law they stood accused of violating because New England witch hunters respected due process more than Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi do.

Attorney Greg Jarrett recently wrote, “It is Pelosi and Schiff who are abusing the power of impeachment in their latest ‘witch hunt.’” This is wildly historically inaccurate. Jarrett should immediately apologize to the memory of the prosecutors of the 17th-century Massachusetts witch trials.

This is because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff are currently running their Ukraine impeachment farce with far less due process than the superstitious and backwards legal system offered the “witches” of Salem.

Below are a few examples of how Jarrett has unfairly slandered the jurisprudence of 17th-century Massachusetts.

Read the entire article HERE.

“It’s Not A Game When It’s Real-Life” – China’s Social Credit System

Via Zero Hedge

n an attempt to imbue trust, China has announced a plan to implement a national ranking system for its citizens and companies. Currently in pilot mode, the new system will be rolled out in 2020, and go through numerous iterations before becoming official.

While the system may be a useful tool for China to manage its growing 1.4 billion population, Visual Capitalist’s Katie Jones notes that it has triggered global concerns around the ethics of big data, and whether the system is a breach of fundamental human rights.

Today’s infographic looks at how China’s proposed social credit system could work, and what the implications might be.

The Government is Always Watching

Currently, the pilot system varies from place to place, whereas the new system is envisioned as a unified system. Although the pilot program may be more of an experiment than a precursor, it gives a good indication of what to expect.

In the pilot system, each citizen is assigned 1,000 points and is consistently monitored and rated on how they behave. Points are earned through good deeds, and lost for bad behavior. Users increase points by donating blood or money, praising the government on social media, and helping the poor. Rewards for such behavior can range from getting a promotion at work fast-tracked, to receiving priority status for children’s school admissions.

In contrast, not visiting one’s aging parents regularly, spreading rumors on the internet, and cheating in online games are considered antisocial behaviors. Punishments include public shaming, exclusion from booking flights or train tickets, and restricted access to public services.

Read the entire article HERE.

Another Newsweek Conspiracy: ‘Greta Thunberg Snubbed for Nobel Peace Prize’ By Big Oil

Via Newsbusters

Newsweek reporter Rosie McCall offered a conspiracy theory as to how a 16-year-old environmental activist somehow failed to win the Nobel Peace Prize this year: “Greta Thunberg Snubbed for Nobel Peace Prize by Committee Run by Norway, One of the World’s Biggest Oil and Natural Gas Exporters.”

This new theory comes courtesy of a magazine fresh off breaking the news that opening tanning salons in urban neighborhoods were a plot to give gay men skin cancer, or something.

McCall wrote:

The Nobel Committee has surprised oddsmakers by not picking 16-year-old Greta Thunberg to win the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

The five-member Norwegian panel instead announced on Friday that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had won the award, “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and for in particular his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea,” a statement said.

Thunberg has become the figurehead of the youth climate movement after skipping school to protest outside the Swedish Parliament in August 2018, inspiring the waves of student strikes that followed.

Over the last year, she has (among other things) led a Global Climate Strike spanning 150 countries, graced the cover of Time Magazine as a ‘Next Generation Leader’ and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in a yacht to speak to lawmakers in Washington and New York.

….

One of those countries is the nation that effectively decides who wins the Nobel Peace Prize each year — Norway, where the five members selected to serve on the committee are chosen by the Norwegian parliament. The country has a complex relationship with greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels, which historically have been (and arguably continues to be) a major source of Norway’s wealth.

McCall gave Norway some credit for weaning itself off the fossil fuels poison and moving to reduce its emissions, but of course it wasn’t good enough:

Read the entire article HERE.

Prof: SpongeBob perpetuates ‘violent, racist’ acts against indigenous people

Via Campus Reform

A university professor deemed the beloved cartoon “SpongeBob Squarepants” “violent,” “racist,” and “insidious” in a scholarly article.

University of Washington professor Holly Barker published her musings on the yellow sponge cartoon character and his deep-sea pals in an academic journal called The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs, which features “readable” articles focused on “social, economic, political, ecological, and cultural topics.”

In her article titled “Unsettling SpongeBob and the Legacies of Violence on Bikini Bottom,” Barker’s chief complaint hinges on her perception that the show’s fictional setting of the town of Bikini Bottom is based on the nonfictional Bikini Atoll, a coral reef in the Marshall Islands used by the U.S. military for nuclear testing during the Cold War.

The indigenous people of the area were relocated during the testing, which eventually rendered the area uninhabitable due to residual radiation. Barker finds it unjust that SpongeBob and his pals be allowed to “occupy” the area when the nonfictional indigenous people of the area do not have the option to return to their homeland.

As an “American character,” SpongeBob supposedly has the “privilege” of “not caring about the detonation of nuclear bombs.” In order to demonstrate this, the professor quotes one of the show’s writers, who said that the main character is “a guy who could get super-excited about a napkin but wouldn’t care if there was an explosion outside.”

“The detonations do not cause concern for the characters, as they did for the Bikinians, nor do they compromise SpongeBob’s frequent activities, like visiting hamburger joints or the beach with friends,” writes Barker.

Read the entire article HERE.

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