Category: Communisim

That Ugly Thing That Sticks Out Its Head in America Every Few Decades…

The central problem was never a shortage of educated planners. The problem is always concentrated power combined with human nature. –YNOT! I have been around long enough to notice that America develops a strange case of political amnesia every few decades. An old idea sticks its head out again. It has a new haircut, a younger audience and a fresh set of words. It insists that it is nothing like the version that came before. That was old communism. That was authoritarian socialism. That was done by the wrong people, in the wrong country, at the wrong time. This … Continue readingThat Ugly Thing That Sticks Out Its Head in America Every Few Decades…

Fidel Castro at 100: Ask Whether the Children Still Play

The Children have to dance — YNOT! Fidel Castro would have turned one hundred years old this week, and I see people here and there celebrating the occasion. Celebrate him if you wish. I prefer to remember what he cost everyone, especially the Children of Cuba. The Picture above is not Cuba. If you want to see Cuban Children go to the bottom of this post. History has a peculiar habit of admiring revolutionaries from a comfortable distance. A man gives a long speech, grows a beard, waves a flag, promises equality, and fifty years later somebody prints his … Continue readingFidel Castro at 100: Ask Whether the Children Still Play

Operation Menu and the Killing Fields

The U.S. vs. Marxism in 1970s Southeast Asia  History is rarely as simple as the slogans used to fight it. — YNOT! In the 1960s and 1970s, American foreign policy in Southeast Asia was built around one overriding fear: Communism was spreading. China had fallen to Mao in 1949. North Vietnam was communist. Communist insurgencies existed throughout Southeast Asia. The Soviet Union and Communist China were supplying revolutionary movements with weapons, money, training and political support. Washington feared that if South Vietnam fell, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and perhaps other countries would eventually follow. This became known as the Domino Theory. And for … Continue readingOperation Menu and the Killing Fields

THE GOLDEN GOOSE- Why Free Societies Keep Winning—and Why Closed Systems Eventually Lose

Free societies survive because they can admit they were wrong. Tyrannies collapse because they punish anyone who says so. –YNOT! Every civilization eventually confronts the same question: Why do some societies continually invent, build, grow, correct their mistakes, and improve the lives of ordinary people—while others remain poor, stagnant, and angry despite possessing intelligent citizens, fertile land, valuable resources, and leaders who promise paradise? People usually answer with one word. Capitalism. Democracy. Education. Technology. Natural resources. Geography. Culture. All of those things matter, but none of them fully explains the difference. The real dividing line is much simpler. Successful societies, … Continue readingTHE GOLDEN GOOSE- Why Free Societies Keep Winning—and Why Closed Systems Eventually Lose

Che Guevara: Revolutionary Soldier, Executioner, Architect of Violence and Death

Ernesto “Che” Guevara is often presented as a romantic rebel: the bearded doctor who abandoned comfort to fight injustice, became a commander in the Cuban Revolution, and died attempting to spread revolution abroad. That image leaves out the central fact of his adult life. Che Guevara was a professional revolutionary who believed political violence was not merely unavoidable but necessary. He fought as a guerrilla commander, imposed severe discipline on his own men, participated in executions during the insurgency, supervised revolutionary tribunals after victory, and spent his final years trying to create new wars in Africa and Latin America. … Continue readingChe Guevara: Revolutionary Soldier, Executioner, Architect of Violence and Death

Why Che and Cuba Still Matter to America 60 Years Later

The Guerrilla War Failed. The Ideological War Did Not. Che lovers still get together to celebrate his “triumphs” –YNOT! Most Americans think Che Guevara is ancient history. And after 60 years it should be. He is the face on an old T-shirt, a college dormitory poster, a coffee mug, or a faded symbol from another political era. Millions recognize the image, but comparatively few know much about the man, his failed military campaigns, or the international propaganda operation that transformed him from a defeated guerrilla into one of the most powerful political symbols in modern history. Che’s final revolutionary … Continue readingWhy Che and Cuba Still Matter to America 60 Years Later

How to turn a Nation Into a Mortuary and how to escape.

A regime can imprison the body, starve the home, and silence the street — but its final victory only comes when it captures the mind. Free the mind, and the chains have already begun to break. –YNOT! Cuba was not destroyed in one day. It was not one speech, one law, one prison, one firing squad, one ration card, one exile boat, or one family split across the ocean. It was a system. That is the part people need to understand. A bad government can rob your wallet. A totalitarian government tries to rob your memory, your language, your faith, … Continue readingHow to turn a Nation Into a Mortuary and how to escape.

The Story of Jimmy Jim Stidham

I came across this on Facebook from a gentleman named Jimmy, and it was so well written — such an important and meaningful story — that I’m excited to share it on my blog. Thank you,  — YNOT! Communism through (my) ages: 1) When I was 15, a teacher told me “It isn’t as bad as they say, and makes a lot of sense.” 2) At about 19, college friends, “Socialism isn’t communism.” 3) At 20, on meeting my grandfather-in-law, “They are evil. We escaped in 1949.” 4) At 30, “China is a wonderful developing Democracy” 5) At 35, I … Continue readingThe Story of Jimmy Jim Stidham

Why Communism Never Works

Communism does not work. It has never worked. And it will never work. Because Humans are the wrong species!  –YNOT! Why? Because human beings do not work that way. Communism begins with a fantasy: that everyone will work the same, sacrifice the same, share the same, produce the same, and never seek personal advantage. But that is not human nature. People compete. People want to improve. People want to protect what is theirs. People want to leave something behind for their children. And yes, there are also selfish people, corrupt people, envious people, and ambitious people. Communism could only work … Continue readingWhy Communism Never Works

Every Generation Discovers Coca-Cola

  Every Generation Discovers Coca-Cola.  Every generation believes it has discovered something brand new. The young discover Coca-Cola as if the secret formula was whispered to them personally by the gods. They discover alcohol, drugs, socialism, communism, libertarianism, rebellion, tattoos, and every other old temptation wearing a new hat. At eighteen, a man knows everything.  At twenty-five, he is still certain of it. By thirty, the bill starts arriving. By forty, if he has children, he begins warning them not to do the very things he once defended with great passion and terrible logic. “Don’t drink that stuff.” “Don’t smoke that.” “Don’t … Continue readingEvery Generation Discovers Coca-Cola

Cuban Economics 101: The Store Is Empty Because the System Is Full

Communism does not eliminate the rich. It simply replaces private wealth with political privilege. Cuba did not build an economy. It built a toll booth feeding one class and called it a country. –YNOT! In Cuba, the shelves are empty for the people, but full for the connected. That is not failure. That is the system working exactly as designed. And I understand why it is hard for people to grasp. Cuba is so foreign compared to almost every other economy on Earth that most people naturally assume it works like a normal country. It does not. In almost any … Continue readingCuban Economics 101: The Store Is Empty Because the System Is Full

A Conversation somewhere between Ronald Reagan, José Martí, and Fidel Castro

I cleaned only the duplicated and out-of-order sections from your pasted draft, keeping the same story, tone, and argument. Somewhere beyond time, in a quiet room with no guards, no microphones, and no revolutionary slogans painted on the walls, three men sat across from one another. Ronald Reagan sat upright, calm but firm, with that old actor’s stillness that made silence feel like a speech waiting to happen. José Martí sat beside him, thinner, sharper, his eyes full of both poetry and pain. He looked like a man who had carried a country inside his chest and never once … Continue readingA Conversation somewhere between Ronald Reagan, José Martí, and Fidel Castro

The People’s Waffle House

The planners had theories.  Joe had waffles.  — YNOT!   Every few years someone comes along and says, “Socialism will work this time.” Fine. Let’s run a little experiment. Take a Waffle House and turn it into a worker-owned collective in the glorious Socialist Communist City of Dreamlandia. At first everyone is excited. There are meetings about equality. Meetings about inclusion. Meetings about meetings. Then reality arrives. Someone eats half the waffles before they ever reach a customer. Someone else helps themselves to the cash register because, after all, private property is oppression. Nobody cleans the bathrooms because cleaning … Continue readingThe People’s Waffle House

How is Mamdami Going to Take Over the Real Estate Market in NYC — And Why Landlords Are Leaving One Way or Another

When government discovers it can buy votes by redistributing private property, landlords stop being business owners and start becoming temporary caretakers of assets waiting to be seized. — YNOT! There is an old saying that if you want to understand a politician, do not listen to the campaign song — listen to the mechanism. The mechanism tells you everything. New York City may be about to become the greatest real-world experiment in modern socialism that America has seen in decades, and many landlords are quietly looking at Florida, Texas, Tennessee, or anywhere else where the government is less interested … Continue readingHow is Mamdami Going to Take Over the Real Estate Market in NYC — And Why Landlords Are Leaving One Way or Another

Why Do “Progressives” Keep Calling Themselves Progressive?

Calling a failed economic theory ‘progressive’ is a little like repainting a sinking ship and calling it innovation. Sooner or later, reality still gets a vote. — YNOT! Funny thing about human beings: if you can’t improve the product, improve the label. Nobody opens a restaurant called Bob’s Slightly Disappointing Chili. Nobody starts a political movement called The League of Economic Experiments That Failed Repeatedly But We’re Sure This Time Is Different. No sir. You call it “progress.” That word sounds clean. Hopeful. Moral. Like the future already voted and you’re just catching up. And to be fair, the … Continue readingWhy Do “Progressives” Keep Calling Themselves Progressive?

Cuba — The Morning After — Where We Are Now, Where We Are Going

Revolutions make their finest speeches at night, but morning is when the people count the candles, the bread, and the dead. — YNOT! Every revolution sells itself like a wedding night. There is music in the street, fire in the speeches, and a promise that tomorrow will be cleaner, fairer, nobler, and brighter than yesterday. Then comes the morning after. The paint is peeling, the liquor is gone, the band has packed up, and somebody has to explain why paradise looks so much like a blackout. This version is built from the text you gave me and merged with … Continue readingCuba — The Morning After — Where We Are Now, Where We Are Going

Why does Communism keep arriving with the Four Horsemen?

“Communism set out to make everyone equal. It did—equal in hunger, equal in fear, and far too often, equal in the grave. Communism didn’t just fail—it buried over 100 million people beneath its promises. Roughly 45 million under Mao in China, around 20 million under Stalin in the Soviet Union, and millions more in North Korea and Cuba—proof that when power is absolute, the cost is always human.” — YNOT! Here’s the blunt version of the argument: when a communist regime takes full control of property, food, labor, speech, and political power, the same pattern shows up over and … Continue readingWhy does Communism keep arriving with the Four Horsemen?

Why Socialism Sounds So Attractive in America -— While People in Socialist Countries Dream of Freedom

“Most folks think the grass is greener on the Neighbor’s yard. Half the time, it’s just growing over the septic tank.” — YNOT! There is a strange little trick the human mind plays on itself. The people who live inside a hard system dream of escape. The people who live outside that system dream of the story. That is the riddle of socialism in the modern world. In America, where shelves are full, businesses open every day, and a man can still become rich selling dog food, software, roofing, sermons, or lies, there are millions who speak warmly of … Continue readingWhy Socialism Sounds So Attractive in America -— While People in Socialist Countries Dream of Freedom

Is Cuba on Its Final Heart Attack Again?

“Communism can survive a speech, a sanction, and a slogan. But when the lights go out, the oil runs dry, and the people get hungry, even the revolution starts looking like an like a hostage situation.” –YNOT! Is this finally the moment Cuba’s communist machine runs out of other people’s oil, other people’s money, and its own tired excuses? All my life, I have heard that Cuba was on the verge of collapse. The regime was always “about to fall,” always “one more crisis away,” always hanging by a thread that somehow turned out to be made of steel … Continue readingIs Cuba on Its Final Heart Attack Again?

Cuba Is Falling, and the Left Can Feel the Floor Moving

“Communism begins with speeches about dignity and ends with people standing in the dark surrounded by garbage wondering where the food went.” –YNOT! There are moments in history when a lie grows old all at once. For years, Cuba has been one of those grand political frauds the world was told to admire from a safe distance. Intellectuals toasted it. radicals romanticized it. professors explained it. journalists excused it. And the people trapped inside it paid the bill in hunger, darkness, fear, and silence. That is the way of bad ideas. The wealthy praise them. The powerful enforce them. … Continue readingCuba Is Falling, and the Left Can Feel the Floor Moving

Is Socialism Really a Cult in Disguise?

“If you want to measure how successful socialism has been in practice, don’t follow the slogans — follow the cemeteries.” — YNOT! There’s something peculiar that happens when a grand theory crashes into reality. Most ideas, when they fail, get revised. A bridge collapses? You don’t blame gravity — you fix the math. But some ideas don’t bend. They double down. And that’s where things get interesting. The Prediction That Didn’t Happen The Communist Manifesto wasn’t written as poetry. It was written as “science.” Karl Marx called it scientific socialism — history reduced to equations. Capitalists compete. Wages fall. … Continue readingIs Socialism Really a Cult in Disguise?

Are You Tired of Freedom, or Do You Just Not Know It?

Have You Considered New York City, or Are You Still Clinging to Comfort? Hello, friends — Zohran here — and let me personally invite you to New York City, where ambition ages poorly, rent ferments aggressively, and individuality is finally distilled down to its purest form: compliance. Come to NYC, where you won’t be burdened by excess square footage, unnecessary silence, or the dangerous illusion that your paycheck belongs to you. Here, we believe in community — especially when sharing walls, elevators, buses, and disappointment with millions of strangers who all voted for the same promises. New York is … Continue readingAre You Tired of Freedom, or Do You Just Not Know It?

Was Che Guevara a Hero of the Poor— or the Most Successful Revolutionary Brand Ever Sold?

Che Guevara was a rich kid turned executioner, rebranded as a hero by distance and time. Che was the original socialist influencer and 60 years later his T-shirts outsell the Nike Swoosh.” — YNOT! The face on the T-shirt is clean, defiant, and timeless. The man behind it was anything but. Ernesto “Che” Guevara has been frozen in pop culture as a rebel saint—doctor, poet, freedom fighter, martyr. The trouble is, that version of Che exists mostly in posters, dorm rooms, and marketing decks. The real Che lived in prisons, firing ranges, labor camps, and mass graves. And the … Continue readingWas Che Guevara a Hero of the Poor— or the Most Successful Revolutionary Brand Ever Sold?

CUBA – How did the most beautiful island on Earth become a case study in economic self-destruction?

On Cuba, “The most beautiful land that eyes have ever seen.” — Christopher Columbus When Christopher Columbus first laid eyes on Cuba, he called it “the most beautiful land that eyes have ever seen.” History would prove him right—just not in the way he imagined. Cuba wasn’t cursed by geography. It was blessed by it. Sugar-rich soil. Perfect ports. World-class beaches. And a front-row seat next to the richest consumer market in human history. If nations had lottery tickets, Cuba won twice. By the 1920s, sugar alone was pouring billions into the economy. During U.S. Prohibition, Americans discovered that … Continue readingCUBA – How did the most beautiful island on Earth become a case study in economic self-destruction?

CUBA – Havana Vice – A playground for the rich — and a preview of what happens when ideology meets reality?

Dialogue from The Godfather Part II (1974) in the Havana rooftop birthday scene involving Michael Corleone, Hyman Roth, and Johnny Ola MICHAEL: I came to Havana to see you, Mr. Roth. ROTH: I’m glad you did. I want you to feel you’re among friends here. MICHAEL: I saw something today… I saw a man die. ROTH: What happened? MICHAEL: He was being arrested by the soldiers. Rather than be taken, he exploded a grenade hidden in his coat. He took the captain of the command with him. ROTH: The rebels are crazy. They don’t care about anything. MICHAEL: Soldiers … Continue readingCUBA – Havana Vice – A playground for the rich — and a preview of what happens when ideology meets reality?

CUBA – A postcard in time —or a warning label we keep ignoring?

“The sad thing about Cuba: before the revolution, it had one of Latin America’s strongest economies — Racism ran deep like the US at the time. The revolution promised equality and prosperity, but left the island bled dry. And made everyone poor except the masters who were white after all.” — YNOT!   Cuba looks like a movie set that forgot to wrap. Bright paint peeling off tired buildings. Classic cars held together by prayer, wire, and mechanical creativity that would impress NASA. Music in the streets. Laughter in the bars. And behind all of it, a quiet tension—between … Continue readingCUBA – A postcard in time —or a warning label we keep ignoring?

When a country is held hostage by its rulers, do you feed the people—or starve the regime?

“The only way evil rulers leave is horizontally. Because they are evil, they don’t care about anyone else. So perhaps the solution is simple!.” –YNOT! This is the kind of question that doesn’t let you finish your coffee while it’s still hot. Because what Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, and Russia share isn’t ideology—it’s structure. One small group at the top lives comfortably. Everyone else pays for it in darkness, ration lines, and silence. That’s the moral dilemma nobody likes to say out loud: Do you help the people with food, oil, and aid—knowing it props up the same … Continue readingWhen a country is held hostage by its rulers, do you feed the people—or starve the regime?

What Happens When a Small Island Picks a Fight With a Superpower?

  What do you say when a man threatens to fight you “to the last drop of blood”—and you own the fuel, the money, and the exits? The Cuban dictator made his speech. Chest out. Fists clenched. We will fight America to the last drop of blood. And then Donald Trump answered with four words that matter more than any speech ever will: No oil. No money. Zero. That wasn’t rhetoric. That was a receipt. For thirty years, Cuba has survived the same way a dead phone survives—by staying plugged into someone else’s charger. First the Soviet Union. Then … Continue readingWhat Happens When a Small Island Picks a Fight With a Superpower?

Communism Is a Great Idea — For a different Species

Every few years a new crop of young people rediscovers communism like it’s a shiny toy someone left in the attic. They dust it off, hold it up to the light, and say, “Why don’t we try this again?” Well, kids… there’s a reason. Communism is a great idea. It’s just designed for the wrong species. Human beings aren’t ants, bees, or whatever polite collectivist creature people imagine when they’ve had too much YouTube and not enough life. We are—brace yourself—self-interested. Deeply. Persistently. Hilariously. And that’s the strange advantage of capitalism: It leans into what we already are. It … Continue readingCommunism Is a Great Idea — For a different Species

Communists Are Great for Real Estate Prices in Florida

You know who’s really driving up housing prices in South Florida? Communists. Not the ones waving red flags — the ones running from them. My parents left Europe because of communists. Ended up in Miami. The Cubans left communism — Miami. The Venezuelans left communism — Miami. The Chinese left communism — Miami. The Russians — Miami. Then came the Californians. And finally, the New Yorkers. At this point, Miami isn’t just a city — it’s an evacuation plan. Every wave of people escaping bad government lands here with the same look: relief mixed with disbelief. They can’t believe … Continue readingCommunists Are Great for Real Estate Prices in Florida