For what it's worth, during the Obama administration, I visited Cuba with a U.S. tour company. We were required to register with the State Dept. as a humanitarian mission. Each of us had to bring 15 lbs. of consumer goods, e.g., OTC medicines like aspirin and antibiotic cream, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, band aids, etc. The government had deputized the Catholic Church to receive and deliver these items to the locals.
We didn't see any Potemkin Villages and I returned home with no illusions. In Havana, we stayed at a nice hotel run by a Spanish hotel chain, but other than that we were free to wander the streets and talk to anybody we liked. My high school Spanish came in handy. There are two forms of money in Cuba, one for Cubans, and one for tourists. Our money was extremely valuable, theirs was practically worthless. The few stores where they were allowed to shop were almost devoid of goods. But at that time, people didn’t appear to be going hungry.
Our tour guide was surprisingly forthright in her disdain for how her country was being run. Yes, she made sure we received the mandatory speeches about "the Revolution.” And she didn't have to sugarcoat the fact that people get good medical care in Cuba, as long as you follow all the rules, because if you miss one of your mandatory pre-natal visits you risk losing custody of your infant. (Your baby belongs to the State, not to you.) She was also upfront about the hideous condition of housing in Havana, where you could wake up after a rainstorm with the ceiling on top of your face, because fixing a decrepit old roof was out of the question. She explained why the Cuban divorce rate is sky high: three unrelated couples with one child apiece cannot maintain intimacy while sharing a three-bedroom apartment with one kitchen and one bathroom. As our tour was ending, she asked if I could send her some books on astronomy for her son. He was very interested in that subject and NO BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE.
I also learned that Cubans cannot choose their professions. You work where they tell you to work. This explained the dead eyes of the hospitality staff at the hotel, who do their jobs flawlessly and without a glimmer of human feeling. Again, through our tour guide: every little girl took ballet lessons, every little boy played baseball, because these were the only two possible pathways to a prestigious career, that might also lead to the possibility to defect.
In Cuba, I met beautiful, industrious, kind, talented people, full of humor, frustration and rage, with nothing but good will for us Americans and tourists from all over the world. I could cry thinking about them now. These people were trapped, and they knew they are trapped. Back then, Castro was still alive, making his four-hour speeches. It was clear from their affect that they were waiting for him to die, in the hopes that things would improve. Things did not improve. I am so inspired and terrified for the Cuban people right now, taking to the streets. They literally have nothing to lose.
I went to Cuba as part of student performing arts program. I was there with classmates and teachers and we stayed for a week. The year was 1998 and I was a teenager. I was born in Mexico and so young at the time that there were no issues with immigration. It has been a while since then, but this is what I remember:
1. Beggars outside our hotel who begged for food/goods rather than money.
2. Having given the extra food I had packed to such beggars (not much foresight on my part).
3. Our hotel was not luxurious by any means. We barely had any furniture in our room (what it lacked on furniture it made up on cockroaches, though).
4. I don't consider myself a picky eater, but the hotel food was terrible (salad with just lettuce and no dressing, flat tasteless pancakes with no butter or syrup, milk with curd). Moros y cristianos was the only food that tasted OK.
5. Feeling hungry and being unable to find anything resembling a restaurant or store near the hotel.
6. We visited a pizzeria and an ice cream parlor (coppelia) in Habana 1 time each during our stay. In both venues, were the only costumers and we paid with dollars. These were the 2 filling “meals” I had in Cuba.
7. Fidel propaganda billboards and anachronistic cars.
8. Empty Habana streets.
9. My friend twisting her ankle and her being sent to a shaman/witch doctor, rather than to a proper clinic.
10. Beautiful beaches that’s were almost empty.
11. Few Europeans, many of them wearing Che t-shirts.
12. Lovely and warm Cuban people.
13. Interestingly, we could watch VH1 from the hotel TV along with the Cuban Channels (only that one random American channel though).
You were in Cuba in 1998, during the terrible Special Period (1991-2001) that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. What you’re describing is consistent with those years of extreme deprivation and poverty as the result of Cuba’s loss of its nanny state. By the time I visited in 2011, the country had recovered significantly due to foreign investments in tourism. I also had the impression that a small amount of private enterprise was allowed. We visited an outdoor market in Havana where all kinds of fruits and vegetables were available for sale, apparently by private citizens (although prices were fixed).
I’m not a Cuba expert, but it seems that COVID dried up the tourism industry and Cubans are again suffering from hunger and shortages of everything. Cuba is a small but very fertile island and it surprised me to see how much of it remains undeveloped (we saw the entire length of the island from the plane).
The totalitarian decadence of American leftists is never so apparent as when they reflexively defend the Cuban communist regime. Unless it's when they buy Che t-shirts on Amazon.
Exactly. As an immigrant, I'm often astounded by the naivete of Americans, and how much freedom is taken for granted here. Why are Americans so anxious to relinquish personal freedoms? Once it's gone, good luck getting it back!
My heart goes out to the Cuban people. I wish we could send all of our champagne socialists (Bernie, AOC, and their Che t-shirt wearing "unicorn and rainbows" socialist followers) to Cuba in exchange for Cuban people who would likely appreciate an opportunity to live freely in this country.
My family is from the Soviet Union. Even now, Russia’s democracy is, in large part, a joke. America was supposed to be a shining beacon of freedom. I can’t bring myself to imagine what it will be if it continues on its current path.
Sometimes in life its important to KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. Government Marxism has never worked. It never will.
Even voluntary communal living communities eventually fail, or become less "communal" - think the Kubutz in Israel. As a millennial I live in this reality where I'm shocked at how stupid my woke friends are (whom are all convinced they are super-geniuses). They all believe they really ARE superior simply because of their lighter skin. They embrace CRT whole-heartedly - it gives their egos a boost. I am also married to a man who still has an aunt and 1st cousins in Cuba, I've lived most of my life in heavily Jewish neighborhoods, and my father, who grew up in poor in an abusive home, is the most knowledgeable human about the last 500 years of human history I have ever met (inclusive of my university "history professors."
The number of people in my generation willing to destroy human freedom because they are too ignorant to really understand what they promote, too arrogant to believe their nonsense could ever impact them, and too lacking a moral compass to actually care what is right, is heartbreaking. Wokeness is for humans too lazy to wake up and actually try to make the world a better place, even in the tiniest of ways.
I live in a college town, so Che Guevara is still T-Shirt fashion. Never met Che. Just his T-Shirts which are way cool. For example, above the neck-line, you never see a chopped-off head. The most direct experience I've had with Communism was when I travelled through Montenegro. The people toasted me and marveled at me as I was the first American many had ever seen. It was like being Tom Cruise only not short. The hotel put me in a swell special room with cameras and microphones they had reserved for Americans to prepare us for future living with the NSA. I went to the hotel bar and not being served I used my teeny amount of Serbo Croatian to ask a local to buy a beer for me because I was an American and they wouldn't serve me. That was one great joke, and it went like this. On any given night, nobody was going to get a drink. Nobody. Or maybe one or two people should the whim come to the bartenders. The bartenders were Communists. They would be there tonight, tomorrow, next year whether they served anybody beer or not. I often wish the kids in the Che shirts could try for a semester to get served by a Communist bartender.
Our current elites are a evil group of corrupt incompetents. We must fight, and fight hard, to get back to the principles that made this country great. We must vilify those that despise and disparage our beautiful America. One nation under God with liberty and justice.
I think the most important concept is that our rights DO NOT come from the state but are natural God(whatever your concept of that is) given. We the people create and give VERY LIMITED powers to the state. The state is subservient to us.
Yes; thank you. And i not blind to the benefits of organized religion along with the pitfalls. Yes to your 'concept of whatever that is'. For me, I'd like to think it is innate & learned virtue(s), which are often taught in religion (as our host says). Yet also - that's what cultists / serial killers etc likewise say - 'my inner truth is how to live' - hence, taking on religion steps those cultists back / away. I see though, in the organized religious / political matrices - some real reactionary bullshitery - 'denying' Biden 'communion' / fundamentalist block voting / abortion as the only issue for evangelicals / etc etc. No virtue there, just power.
If people don't have faith in a higher power, then their moral compass will spin wildly with the whims of whatever human they have chosen to make their God. It's how evil dictators convince humans to destroy their parents, their countries, and their children's future. We must remain one nation under God, or we will fall for human imposters. God can mean anything you want it to, so long as it isn't a fallible human.
Good. You shouldn’t. No one should. Imagine living without liberty. What a miserable, pathetic existence that would be. The speech police and their quisling supporters can suck my balls.
Bari, I am surprised you didn’t mention that yesterday Biden’s DHS Secretary said the US would not accept any refuges from Cuba even if they are legitimately fleeing political persecution. How is this not HUGE news?
If we had an honest media, it most certainly would be huge news. However, the DNC state media is clearly trying to duck and spin what's happening in Cuba as anything but protesting the regime. I believe Jen Psaki claimed that Cubans are protesting for vaccines, not freedom (insert massive eye roll). Seriously! Cubans understand totalitarianism and would be highly unlikely to vote for it again down the line in the US (if permitted entry). Better to allow future Democratic voters (nudge, nudge, wink wink) to flood over the southern border (at massive cost to US taxpayers). Cubans legitimately fleeing political persecution don't really bolster the DNC narrative. Think about how insane that is - that's where we're at right now. Also note silence from Bernie, AOC, and that tribe on this issue.
Communist and Islamist govts are more fascistic and oppressive than your typical right wing Dictatorship so it is less likely that the Commies will be overthrown. I Haven't heard any "Free Cuba" from Cortes, Sanders, Omar and the Squad yet. I wonder why?
I cancelled my WSJ subscription over the comments being censored on the Cuba articles. Lots of "don't mistake Cuba for Marxist/ Communist" allowed to run wild. My comment got censored for responding "so we are supposed to ignore that the Castro's and Canel are very vocal that they are Revolutionaries for Marxism and the Communist regimes they run??" WSJ found my comment violated their terms. I can only imagine how much overtime their 25 year old censors making $45K a year were working to promote a narrative they blindly follow.
I'm embarrassed to be a millennial. Bubble test ruined my generation. Critical thinking, nuance, objective facts, scientific debates, learning the why and how of history - none was taught in school and only a few of us have developed those skills as adults. We bought the degrees we wanted - we were clear on this a decade ago. But as we approach 40, most of my "friends" haven't matured a bit - they still feel entitled to everything simply because of pieces of paper ("degrees") we all bought in our early 20's with minimal effort compared to those with an actual job learning a genuine trade. They embrace CRT because it boosts their egos, which their limited accomplishments in life have failed to do. Those of us with an appreciation for all we have, who volunteer our time and willingly give our treasure to actual charities improving lives, and who raise our children with a timeless western values based in faith, are seen as an outcast minority. We are a happy, successful and fulfilled minority, but we are still a minority.
My generation often supports Marxism because most my age don't actually know anything about it. They literally couldn't name 10 Marxist regimes or dictators. They don't know who the Bolsheviks were, much less what they believed. They haven't a clue how many people starved in China, or died in the gulags, much less anything about Castro and Cuba. They put BLM signs in their front yards because they think its trendy, not because they want equity (or even equality for that matter). None of this wokeness cost them any actual time or money. It's like they never matured beyond middle school. They certainly don't have an appreciation of long term consequences that exceeds that of the average 11-year old.
The irony is that these Marxists you speak of will be the first ones the Communists line up and shoot. Oh well. Some people have to learn the hard way.
Yes, and the ones in the US today buy the lie that the Bolsheviks who killed others in the name of their cause weren't really "loyal" when they died by the millions a couple decades later in the gulags they built. It's most often the true believers, or their family, who suffer the worst consequences of the insanity.
I was thinking France. The food is awesome; the language is pretty, and if you understand half of it, that's more than enough. Understanding 100% of what is being said these days is painful.
Not likely. At least, for now, France has a commonly shared cultural history. Our cultural history is based on freedom. Once that is gone, we have nothing. And those attempting to eliminate our freedoms know that.
Thank you for sharing this powerful essay. I will forward it to my teenagers who as American citizens need a constant reminder to cherish the freedoms they have.
Surely the author meant to say that countries can commit an assisted suicide. After all, Assadregime in Syria has been on the Soviet / Rusky books since the beginning. Take this for example: most of you have heard of the demise of former Yugoslavia in a bout of tribal frenzy. One could infer that the country decided to commit "suicide". As the recently completed trial of the former leader of the Serbian secret police had shown, the person who was in charge of the said demise turn out to be also working for certain organization from Langley Virginia. I guess the CIA slogan to small, strategically placed countries is the same as Home Depot's: "You can do it, we can help!" This of course does not relieve any country of its ultimate responsibility for its own destiny. After all, any country that allows itself to become a pawn in the latest chapter of the cowboys versus Cossaks b******* has dug its own grave.
Cuba is sadly part of the same tragic cycle.
I wish Cubans all the best. They would do themselves a favor should they decide that any future free Cuba would keep the bans on "social" networks and American tech companies. After all, they don't want to replace informers with Alexas, or get a freedom to moderate instead of freedom of speech
It is good to ask ourselves: what is the biggest threat to democracy in America today?
A functioning democracy means that ALL CITIZENS, whatever their financial means, have EQUAL ACCESS to the fundamental right to VOTE.
Which party or group is currently threatening that right? Which party or group is engaged in a massive effort to re-write laws to give their own partisans power to overrule elections? Which party or group is purging members who stand up for the rule of law and fair elections?
LOL. Have you read HR1? I seriously doubt it. It literally makes it illegal to prosecute people that do not have the right to vote, like foreigners, that vote illegally. That is just one of the insane parts of this bill. Judging from your hyperbole you may actually be for that though.
Do you know ANYTHING about the Abraham Accords? How many bombs did Hamas drop on Israel while Trump was in the Oval office? Ever notice WHO is actually committing anti-Sematic violence??? Typical illiberal leftist - objective facts never get in the way of beliefs.
Your characterization doesn't describe me, a lifelong liberal and a free speech absolutist. The right's efforts to suppress the vote are amoral, anti-American, and will be catastrophic for democracy if allowed to stand.
The way I see it, Republicans should "get in the game" and learn to cheat as well as the Dems. Then we wouldn't need voter integrity because the lack of it would cancel out.
That's good to know, but people like you and me (who oppose fascism from the left AND fascism from the right) are exceeedingly rare, as most comments here show. And Bari, with her "common sense" (has she ever heard of Thomas Payne, I wonder?) totally ignores fascism from the right.
I think the right is winning, because at the end of the day corporate DEI officers and left-wing twitter warriors have no real power.
Once elections are in the hands of right-wing secretaries of state in Texas and Florida and Georgi and Arizona and Ohio and North Carolina, who can and will simply declare that the rightist candidate (Trump 2.0?) has won the 2024 POTUS election, American democracy will have ended.
The principled Republicans like Liz Cheney and Brad Raffensperger will be long gone by then, replaced by trumpista minions, with the vast majority of Bari's subscribers cheering them on.
Bari: do you really think is going to work out just fine for you and your people?
Unfortunately it swings both ways. The news is so siloed now that my many liberal friends and family members think I've turned into a Republican because I oppose CRT and will turn to Fox News (horrors!) to watch Glenn Greenwald on Tucker Carlson. I assure them that I still believe in reproductive rights and universal health care, and no, I don't believe the election was stolen. This causes them some confusion; apparently our political views must be either red or blue. The color purple does not compute. In fact, they are so entrenched in leftist politics that they will rationalize the suppression of free speech if it means "making the world less racist." This is a shocking reversal of values they once held dear.
But the opposite is also true. I'm not sure the crowd here on Bari's site is as uniformly conservative and oblivious to the threat from the right as you believe. In any case, liberals need to reclaim the word "Freedom." It should not become a Q-Anon buzzword. And we should not be ashamed to be patriotic and defend what is best about this country.
I agree with you completely. Best way to combat radicalism is by supporting and promoting moderation and respectful dialogue on both sides. I am also liberal, but who is best to criticize radicalism on the left but ourselves? Also, as far as I am concerned, Bari is no fan of Trump.
I have no idea what you are talking about. The legislation in the states is merely protecting the integrity of elections. This madness that people cannot produce a valid ID is utter bs. If you want to see where the fascist are look for the group of people that want to make it easy for illegal votes to be cast. For non citizens to vote, as my goofy leftist home state of Vermont has done. Look for those who think violent physical intimidation is ok, such as BLM, ANTIFA, or those that are okay with censorship via social media and mainstream media. The right is all but powerless in this country. For every Texas or Florida there legions of California’s, Oregon, Illinois, New York, heck the whole northeast and mid Atlantic.
We’ll said Mark. And why I unsubscribed. I thought this sub stack would be objective and offer genuine discussion of important issues but fund instead another right-wing echo chamber.
I realize it's tough to buy ammunition these days so people feel the need to shoot each other on the Internet with high-minded rounds like - Oh yeah! and Who says. and What about. Aren't there lots of Comment sections in a lot of web sites that are target ranges which would welcome your thoughts. Would be wonderful to read thoughtful comments here, and there are many, without having to wade through this.
Why should it be a completion about which type of fascism /radicalism is winning? If either type wins, we all lose. Let’s start by refraining from making hasty generalizations about individuals’ moral character based on political party affiliation. I think it is pointless.
For what it's worth, during the Obama administration, I visited Cuba with a U.S. tour company. We were required to register with the State Dept. as a humanitarian mission. Each of us had to bring 15 lbs. of consumer goods, e.g., OTC medicines like aspirin and antibiotic cream, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, band aids, etc. The government had deputized the Catholic Church to receive and deliver these items to the locals.
We didn't see any Potemkin Villages and I returned home with no illusions. In Havana, we stayed at a nice hotel run by a Spanish hotel chain, but other than that we were free to wander the streets and talk to anybody we liked. My high school Spanish came in handy. There are two forms of money in Cuba, one for Cubans, and one for tourists. Our money was extremely valuable, theirs was practically worthless. The few stores where they were allowed to shop were almost devoid of goods. But at that time, people didn’t appear to be going hungry.
Our tour guide was surprisingly forthright in her disdain for how her country was being run. Yes, she made sure we received the mandatory speeches about "the Revolution.” And she didn't have to sugarcoat the fact that people get good medical care in Cuba, as long as you follow all the rules, because if you miss one of your mandatory pre-natal visits you risk losing custody of your infant. (Your baby belongs to the State, not to you.) She was also upfront about the hideous condition of housing in Havana, where you could wake up after a rainstorm with the ceiling on top of your face, because fixing a decrepit old roof was out of the question. She explained why the Cuban divorce rate is sky high: three unrelated couples with one child apiece cannot maintain intimacy while sharing a three-bedroom apartment with one kitchen and one bathroom. As our tour was ending, she asked if I could send her some books on astronomy for her son. He was very interested in that subject and NO BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE.
I also learned that Cubans cannot choose their professions. You work where they tell you to work. This explained the dead eyes of the hospitality staff at the hotel, who do their jobs flawlessly and without a glimmer of human feeling. Again, through our tour guide: every little girl took ballet lessons, every little boy played baseball, because these were the only two possible pathways to a prestigious career, that might also lead to the possibility to defect.
In Cuba, I met beautiful, industrious, kind, talented people, full of humor, frustration and rage, with nothing but good will for us Americans and tourists from all over the world. I could cry thinking about them now. These people were trapped, and they knew they are trapped. Back then, Castro was still alive, making his four-hour speeches. It was clear from their affect that they were waiting for him to die, in the hopes that things would improve. Things did not improve. I am so inspired and terrified for the Cuban people right now, taking to the streets. They literally have nothing to lose.
I went to Cuba as part of student performing arts program. I was there with classmates and teachers and we stayed for a week. The year was 1998 and I was a teenager. I was born in Mexico and so young at the time that there were no issues with immigration. It has been a while since then, but this is what I remember:
1. Beggars outside our hotel who begged for food/goods rather than money.
2. Having given the extra food I had packed to such beggars (not much foresight on my part).
3. Our hotel was not luxurious by any means. We barely had any furniture in our room (what it lacked on furniture it made up on cockroaches, though).
4. I don't consider myself a picky eater, but the hotel food was terrible (salad with just lettuce and no dressing, flat tasteless pancakes with no butter or syrup, milk with curd). Moros y cristianos was the only food that tasted OK.
5. Feeling hungry and being unable to find anything resembling a restaurant or store near the hotel.
6. We visited a pizzeria and an ice cream parlor (coppelia) in Habana 1 time each during our stay. In both venues, were the only costumers and we paid with dollars. These were the 2 filling “meals” I had in Cuba.
7. Fidel propaganda billboards and anachronistic cars.
8. Empty Habana streets.
9. My friend twisting her ankle and her being sent to a shaman/witch doctor, rather than to a proper clinic.
10. Beautiful beaches that’s were almost empty.
11. Few Europeans, many of them wearing Che t-shirts.
12. Lovely and warm Cuban people.
13. Interestingly, we could watch VH1 from the hotel TV along with the Cuban Channels (only that one random American channel though).
You were in Cuba in 1998, during the terrible Special Period (1991-2001) that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. What you’re describing is consistent with those years of extreme deprivation and poverty as the result of Cuba’s loss of its nanny state. By the time I visited in 2011, the country had recovered significantly due to foreign investments in tourism. I also had the impression that a small amount of private enterprise was allowed. We visited an outdoor market in Havana where all kinds of fruits and vegetables were available for sale, apparently by private citizens (although prices were fixed).
I’m not a Cuba expert, but it seems that COVID dried up the tourism industry and Cubans are again suffering from hunger and shortages of everything. Cuba is a small but very fertile island and it surprised me to see how much of it remains undeveloped (we saw the entire length of the island from the plane).
The totalitarian decadence of American leftists is never so apparent as when they reflexively defend the Cuban communist regime. Unless it's when they buy Che t-shirts on Amazon.
Word. Freedom is fragile, and those who have never had to fight to secure it easily take it for granted.
Exactly. As an immigrant, I'm often astounded by the naivete of Americans, and how much freedom is taken for granted here. Why are Americans so anxious to relinquish personal freedoms? Once it's gone, good luck getting it back!
My heart goes out to the Cuban people. I wish we could send all of our champagne socialists (Bernie, AOC, and their Che t-shirt wearing "unicorn and rainbows" socialist followers) to Cuba in exchange for Cuban people who would likely appreciate an opportunity to live freely in this country.
Great idea
Well said.
My family is from the Soviet Union. Even now, Russia’s democracy is, in large part, a joke. America was supposed to be a shining beacon of freedom. I can’t bring myself to imagine what it will be if it continues on its current path.
Sad but true. We must desperately work hard to correct our culture and country
But how I wonder. It seems so many have lost their way.
Understood. Trying to keep the faith
Sometimes in life its important to KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. Government Marxism has never worked. It never will.
Even voluntary communal living communities eventually fail, or become less "communal" - think the Kubutz in Israel. As a millennial I live in this reality where I'm shocked at how stupid my woke friends are (whom are all convinced they are super-geniuses). They all believe they really ARE superior simply because of their lighter skin. They embrace CRT whole-heartedly - it gives their egos a boost. I am also married to a man who still has an aunt and 1st cousins in Cuba, I've lived most of my life in heavily Jewish neighborhoods, and my father, who grew up in poor in an abusive home, is the most knowledgeable human about the last 500 years of human history I have ever met (inclusive of my university "history professors."
The number of people in my generation willing to destroy human freedom because they are too ignorant to really understand what they promote, too arrogant to believe their nonsense could ever impact them, and too lacking a moral compass to actually care what is right, is heartbreaking. Wokeness is for humans too lazy to wake up and actually try to make the world a better place, even in the tiniest of ways.
I live in a college town, so Che Guevara is still T-Shirt fashion. Never met Che. Just his T-Shirts which are way cool. For example, above the neck-line, you never see a chopped-off head. The most direct experience I've had with Communism was when I travelled through Montenegro. The people toasted me and marveled at me as I was the first American many had ever seen. It was like being Tom Cruise only not short. The hotel put me in a swell special room with cameras and microphones they had reserved for Americans to prepare us for future living with the NSA. I went to the hotel bar and not being served I used my teeny amount of Serbo Croatian to ask a local to buy a beer for me because I was an American and they wouldn't serve me. That was one great joke, and it went like this. On any given night, nobody was going to get a drink. Nobody. Or maybe one or two people should the whim come to the bartenders. The bartenders were Communists. They would be there tonight, tomorrow, next year whether they served anybody beer or not. I often wish the kids in the Che shirts could try for a semester to get served by a Communist bartender.
Short shaming Tom Cruise? How dare you(in my best Greta Thunberg voice)?
Invoice me for his therapy. My bad.
Our current elites are a evil group of corrupt incompetents. We must fight, and fight hard, to get back to the principles that made this country great. We must vilify those that despise and disparage our beautiful America. One nation under God with liberty and justice.
Can we take the god part as a placeholder for a virtuous idea, rather than the all-powerful vengeful / merciful deity?
I think the most important concept is that our rights DO NOT come from the state but are natural God(whatever your concept of that is) given. We the people create and give VERY LIMITED powers to the state. The state is subservient to us.
Yes; thank you. And i not blind to the benefits of organized religion along with the pitfalls. Yes to your 'concept of whatever that is'. For me, I'd like to think it is innate & learned virtue(s), which are often taught in religion (as our host says). Yet also - that's what cultists / serial killers etc likewise say - 'my inner truth is how to live' - hence, taking on religion steps those cultists back / away. I see though, in the organized religious / political matrices - some real reactionary bullshitery - 'denying' Biden 'communion' / fundamentalist block voting / abortion as the only issue for evangelicals / etc etc. No virtue there, just power.
If people don't have faith in a higher power, then their moral compass will spin wildly with the whims of whatever human they have chosen to make their God. It's how evil dictators convince humans to destroy their parents, their countries, and their children's future. We must remain one nation under God, or we will fall for human imposters. God can mean anything you want it to, so long as it isn't a fallible human.
Be careful of the words you use. Democrats impeached President Trump for using “fight” because that is violence or something.
That was a canard. They impeached him because they could - simple as that.
I will not bend the knee.
Good. You shouldn’t. No one should. Imagine living without liberty. What a miserable, pathetic existence that would be. The speech police and their quisling supporters can suck my balls.
Bari, I am surprised you didn’t mention that yesterday Biden’s DHS Secretary said the US would not accept any refuges from Cuba even if they are legitimately fleeing political persecution. How is this not HUGE news?
If we had an honest media, it most certainly would be huge news. However, the DNC state media is clearly trying to duck and spin what's happening in Cuba as anything but protesting the regime. I believe Jen Psaki claimed that Cubans are protesting for vaccines, not freedom (insert massive eye roll). Seriously! Cubans understand totalitarianism and would be highly unlikely to vote for it again down the line in the US (if permitted entry). Better to allow future Democratic voters (nudge, nudge, wink wink) to flood over the southern border (at massive cost to US taxpayers). Cubans legitimately fleeing political persecution don't really bolster the DNC narrative. Think about how insane that is - that's where we're at right now. Also note silence from Bernie, AOC, and that tribe on this issue.
That's easy. They would all eventually vote Republican.
Communist and Islamist govts are more fascistic and oppressive than your typical right wing Dictatorship so it is less likely that the Commies will be overthrown. I Haven't heard any "Free Cuba" from Cortes, Sanders, Omar and the Squad yet. I wonder why?
What is the over/under on the number of comments before we get the “Cuba is not real communism”?
I cancelled my WSJ subscription over the comments being censored on the Cuba articles. Lots of "don't mistake Cuba for Marxist/ Communist" allowed to run wild. My comment got censored for responding "so we are supposed to ignore that the Castro's and Canel are very vocal that they are Revolutionaries for Marxism and the Communist regimes they run??" WSJ found my comment violated their terms. I can only imagine how much overtime their 25 year old censors making $45K a year were working to promote a narrative they blindly follow.
I'm embarrassed to be a millennial. Bubble test ruined my generation. Critical thinking, nuance, objective facts, scientific debates, learning the why and how of history - none was taught in school and only a few of us have developed those skills as adults. We bought the degrees we wanted - we were clear on this a decade ago. But as we approach 40, most of my "friends" haven't matured a bit - they still feel entitled to everything simply because of pieces of paper ("degrees") we all bought in our early 20's with minimal effort compared to those with an actual job learning a genuine trade. They embrace CRT because it boosts their egos, which their limited accomplishments in life have failed to do. Those of us with an appreciation for all we have, who volunteer our time and willingly give our treasure to actual charities improving lives, and who raise our children with a timeless western values based in faith, are seen as an outcast minority. We are a happy, successful and fulfilled minority, but we are still a minority.
My generation often supports Marxism because most my age don't actually know anything about it. They literally couldn't name 10 Marxist regimes or dictators. They don't know who the Bolsheviks were, much less what they believed. They haven't a clue how many people starved in China, or died in the gulags, much less anything about Castro and Cuba. They put BLM signs in their front yards because they think its trendy, not because they want equity (or even equality for that matter). None of this wokeness cost them any actual time or money. It's like they never matured beyond middle school. They certainly don't have an appreciation of long term consequences that exceeds that of the average 11-year old.
The irony is that these Marxists you speak of will be the first ones the Communists line up and shoot. Oh well. Some people have to learn the hard way.
Yes, and the ones in the US today buy the lie that the Bolsheviks who killed others in the name of their cause weren't really "loyal" when they died by the millions a couple decades later in the gulags they built. It's most often the true believers, or their family, who suffer the worst consequences of the insanity.
Don’t forget Pol Pot’s killing fields where they murdered teachers and anyone with glasses because they were likely educated.
Its weird how so many people support this genocidal ideology. You will find a lot of them in this and other substack comments. Mind boggling.
The scariest part is that if America falls, where will WE go?
I was thinking France. The food is awesome; the language is pretty, and if you understand half of it, that's more than enough. Understanding 100% of what is being said these days is painful.
Not likely. At least, for now, France has a commonly shared cultural history. Our cultural history is based on freedom. Once that is gone, we have nothing. And those attempting to eliminate our freedoms know that.
Yeah, and the French seem to be more prepared to mount of defense against this stuff than the Anglophone world.
Thank you for sharing this powerful essay. I will forward it to my teenagers who as American citizens need a constant reminder to cherish the freedoms they have.
Surely the author meant to say that countries can commit an assisted suicide. After all, Assadregime in Syria has been on the Soviet / Rusky books since the beginning. Take this for example: most of you have heard of the demise of former Yugoslavia in a bout of tribal frenzy. One could infer that the country decided to commit "suicide". As the recently completed trial of the former leader of the Serbian secret police had shown, the person who was in charge of the said demise turn out to be also working for certain organization from Langley Virginia. I guess the CIA slogan to small, strategically placed countries is the same as Home Depot's: "You can do it, we can help!" This of course does not relieve any country of its ultimate responsibility for its own destiny. After all, any country that allows itself to become a pawn in the latest chapter of the cowboys versus Cossaks b******* has dug its own grave.
Cuba is sadly part of the same tragic cycle.
I wish Cubans all the best. They would do themselves a favor should they decide that any future free Cuba would keep the bans on "social" networks and American tech companies. After all, they don't want to replace informers with Alexas, or get a freedom to moderate instead of freedom of speech
Interesting. Biden and Harris really do work for the CCP I guess.
It is good to ask ourselves: what is the biggest threat to democracy in America today?
A functioning democracy means that ALL CITIZENS, whatever their financial means, have EQUAL ACCESS to the fundamental right to VOTE.
Which party or group is currently threatening that right? Which party or group is engaged in a massive effort to re-write laws to give their own partisans power to overrule elections? Which party or group is purging members who stand up for the rule of law and fair elections?
Good point. H.R.1 is a serious and fundamental threat to our rights.
And there we have it. The fascism from the right, to which Bari and most everyone else here are blind (if not active participants).
When they complete their takeover, I'm sure the right will be just as kind to the Jews as they always have been historically.
LOL. Have you read HR1? I seriously doubt it. It literally makes it illegal to prosecute people that do not have the right to vote, like foreigners, that vote illegally. That is just one of the insane parts of this bill. Judging from your hyperbole you may actually be for that though.
Fascism ALWAYS comes from the left. ALWAYS. You are willfully ignorant.
Do you know ANYTHING about the Abraham Accords? How many bombs did Hamas drop on Israel while Trump was in the Oval office? Ever notice WHO is actually committing anti-Sematic violence??? Typical illiberal leftist - objective facts never get in the way of beliefs.
Your characterization doesn't describe me, a lifelong liberal and a free speech absolutist. The right's efforts to suppress the vote are amoral, anti-American, and will be catastrophic for democracy if allowed to stand.
The way I see it, Republicans should "get in the game" and learn to cheat as well as the Dems. Then we wouldn't need voter integrity because the lack of it would cancel out.
That's good to know, but people like you and me (who oppose fascism from the left AND fascism from the right) are exceeedingly rare, as most comments here show. And Bari, with her "common sense" (has she ever heard of Thomas Payne, I wonder?) totally ignores fascism from the right.
I think the right is winning, because at the end of the day corporate DEI officers and left-wing twitter warriors have no real power.
Once elections are in the hands of right-wing secretaries of state in Texas and Florida and Georgi and Arizona and Ohio and North Carolina, who can and will simply declare that the rightist candidate (Trump 2.0?) has won the 2024 POTUS election, American democracy will have ended.
The principled Republicans like Liz Cheney and Brad Raffensperger will be long gone by then, replaced by trumpista minions, with the vast majority of Bari's subscribers cheering them on.
Bari: do you really think is going to work out just fine for you and your people?
Unfortunately it swings both ways. The news is so siloed now that my many liberal friends and family members think I've turned into a Republican because I oppose CRT and will turn to Fox News (horrors!) to watch Glenn Greenwald on Tucker Carlson. I assure them that I still believe in reproductive rights and universal health care, and no, I don't believe the election was stolen. This causes them some confusion; apparently our political views must be either red or blue. The color purple does not compute. In fact, they are so entrenched in leftist politics that they will rationalize the suppression of free speech if it means "making the world less racist." This is a shocking reversal of values they once held dear.
But the opposite is also true. I'm not sure the crowd here on Bari's site is as uniformly conservative and oblivious to the threat from the right as you believe. In any case, liberals need to reclaim the word "Freedom." It should not become a Q-Anon buzzword. And we should not be ashamed to be patriotic and defend what is best about this country.
I agree with you completely. Best way to combat radicalism is by supporting and promoting moderation and respectful dialogue on both sides. I am also liberal, but who is best to criticize radicalism on the left but ourselves? Also, as far as I am concerned, Bari is no fan of Trump.
I have no idea what you are talking about. The legislation in the states is merely protecting the integrity of elections. This madness that people cannot produce a valid ID is utter bs. If you want to see where the fascist are look for the group of people that want to make it easy for illegal votes to be cast. For non citizens to vote, as my goofy leftist home state of Vermont has done. Look for those who think violent physical intimidation is ok, such as BLM, ANTIFA, or those that are okay with censorship via social media and mainstream media. The right is all but powerless in this country. For every Texas or Florida there legions of California’s, Oregon, Illinois, New York, heck the whole northeast and mid Atlantic.
Deep breathing exercises seem to work for me.
After his comments today about Fulton County, you might be right about Raffensperger . He'd still be incompetent. Just principled. I guess
We’ll said Mark. And why I unsubscribed. I thought this sub stack would be objective and offer genuine discussion of important issues but fund instead another right-wing echo chamber.
The threat to all of us from both the left and the right is very real.
The House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader might be fascists at heart, but I doubt they're are anti-Semites.
They are. But they hate everyone, even themselves, so it's not like the are just singling out the Jews.
Made me chuckle. Thanks!
When someone’s right, they’re right.
Is requiring ID suppressing the vote?
Nope
I realize it's tough to buy ammunition these days so people feel the need to shoot each other on the Internet with high-minded rounds like - Oh yeah! and Who says. and What about. Aren't there lots of Comment sections in a lot of web sites that are target ranges which would welcome your thoughts. Would be wonderful to read thoughtful comments here, and there are many, without having to wade through this.
That would be the Democrats.
Two wrongs will never make a right, correct? We ought to fight this rampant polarization. Double standards just add fuel to the fire.
Correct. I have no double standard. I oppose the fascists from the left AND the fascists from the right. The problem is that there are so few who do.
As of now, I cannot place Bari among the people who oppose both.
You are a fool if you believe there is no fascism from the right.
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/humans-have-deep-seated-deranged
Why should it be a completion about which type of fascism /radicalism is winning? If either type wins, we all lose. Let’s start by refraining from making hasty generalizations about individuals’ moral character based on political party affiliation. I think it is pointless.
Precisely. Think Chile. When Allende's excesses were replaced by Pinochet's.
Sometimes, "ya just gotta throw down"...
MarkS. Say it quickly.
Bingo.
Compared to what Martinez witnesses, our problems truly are "1st World".
The Cuban people have suffered immensely and for generations all because of an upper-income, white progressive fantasy.
Found this article very interesting and informative. Appreciate the author's insights