Podcasts about communism memorial foundation

The Heritage Foundation's B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies, National Review Institute, and Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation are pleased to announce that Dr. Elizabeth Edwards Spalding will deliver the second annual Lee Edwards Lecture in Conservative Leadership.In addition to being the daughter of Lee Edwards, Dr. Spalding is the Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and Founding Director of the Victims of Communism Museum. She is a Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy and a Visiting Fellow at the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College. Dr. Spalding is also the author of The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism and the co-author of A Brief History of the Cold War.The Heritage Foundation established the annual Lee Edwards Lecture in recognition of Dr. Edwards's long service as a Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at The Heritage Foundation, during which he wrote most of his 25 books about the leading individuals and institutions of the modern conservative movement. In addition to biographies of President Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley Jr. and Edwin Meese III, Dr. Edwards wrote histories of The Heritage Foundation, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and the conservative movement. His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, and Polish. He taught politics at the Catholic University of America for more than 30 years and was named a Distinguished Lecturer by the University. Dr. Edwards was also a co-founder of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.We are pleased that this year's lecture coincides with recognition of William F. Buckley Jr.'s Centennial and is part of a series of programs to honor his legacy hosted by National Review Institute.

Roger welcomes Ambassador Paula Dobriansky, the former Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs and editor of her father Lev Dobriansky's newly released book, “Unyielding Resolve: Captive Nations and the Path to Freedom.”Together, they discuss Lev Dobriansky's work advocating for the rights of captive nations, his role in establishing an annual Captive Nations Week proclamation signed by U.S. presidents, the historical significance of the captive nations concept and its continued relevance today - particularly in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Plus, reflections on the legacy of President Ronald Reagan and the importance of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.Paula is a foreign policy expert and holds degrees in Soviet political and military affairs from Harvard University and is the recipient of the Secretary of State's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal. She serves as the vice chair of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, as a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and as a member of the TFAS Board of TrusteesDuring TFAS D.C. Summer Programs, TFAS holds the annual “Dobriansky Lecture on Political Economy” in memory of her father Lev Dobriansky who was a longtime professor at Georgetown University and the U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas. Lev was also the founding director of the first TFAS program in 1970.The Liberty + Leadership Podcast is hosted by TFAS president Roger Ream and produced by Podville Media. If you have a comment or question for the show, please email us at podcast@TFAS.org. To support TFAS and its mission, please visit TFAS.org/support.Support the show

The Way Home Podcast returns from hiatus! Today, we have Eric Patterson on The Way Home Podcast! Dr. Eric Patterson is a former Deam at Regent University in Virginia and is the current President and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Today on The Way Home Podcast, Dan and Eric discuss the history […] The post The Way Home Podcast: Eric Patterson on the Foreign Policy and Just War appeared first on Daniel Darling.

Former congressional candidate Karina Lipsman joins hosts Dave Spencer and Carrie Sheffield to discuss the 2024 election results, her work at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and Trump's controversial cabinet nominees. Drawing from her personal experience growing up in Soviet Ukraine, Lipsman shares insights on the dangers of communist ideology and the foundation's efforts to educate younger generations. The hosts engage in a spirited debate about economic policy, Trump's legacy, and the qualifications of potential cabinet members, particularly focusing on Pete Hegseth's nomination for Secretary of Defense. Subscribe to Practically Political on YouTube

This episode is presented by Create A Video – Argentina's newly-elected President, Javier Milei, has reportedly led his nation out of a deep recession and hyperinflation by cutting government spending - exactly as he promised. We may never know how he did it! Plus, the US House passed a bill to make "educational materials available through the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation" to teach kids about the dangers of the murderous ideology. Subscribe to the podcast at: https://ThePeteKalinerShow.com/ All the links to Pete's Prep are free: https://patreon.com/petekalinershow Media Bias Check: If you choose to subscribe, get 15% off here! Advertising inquiries: Pete@ThePeteKalinerShow.com Get exclusive content here!: https://thepetekalinershow.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, we are discussing our country's 34th President, Dwight Eisenhower.  A Texan by birth but raised in Kansas, Eisenhower graduated from West Point and during World War II served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and was promoted to 5-star General of the US Army. Twice elected President, Eisenhower notably led our country as we entered the Cold War. In what ways did Eisenhower's military experience shape his views on domestic and foreign policy?  What civil rights advancements were made during his tenure?  What was his overall sense of duty?  To help us in this discussion, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Elizabeth Spalding, Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation for this informative chat.

Guests: Paul Moreno, Michael Walsh, &  Elizabeth Edwards Spalding Host Scot Bertram talks with Paul Moreno, the William and Berniece Grewcock Chair in Constitutional History, professor of history, and dean of social sciences at Hillsdale College, about Kamala Harris's proposed reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court. Michael Walsh, journalist and screenwriter, discusses the dangers of the evolving media landscape and his new book Against the Corporate Media: Forty-two Ways the Press Hates You. And Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, '88, chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and founding director of the Victims of Communism Museum, tells us about her work and accepting Hillsdale College's 2024 Elizebeth Smith Friedman Freedom Award.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Writer and activist Helen Raleigh has paired up with Professor and economist Paul Prentice to provide “three counterpunches” to socialism. The first counterpunch is about defining our terms. What is Democratic Socialism? According to Helen and Paul, it is a oxymoronic term we simply made up to “soften” socialism. However, when they ask others what it means the typical response is sharing and caring, versus capitalism that is equated with greed. Through political, economic and personal examples, they show how government sharing, much like Democratic Socialism, is just another oxymoron. Following along with these ideas, their second counterpunch looks at the popular fallacy that many Nordic countries are thriving Democratic Socialist regimes. They are market capitalist countries with a heavy welfare system. The Nordic countries themselves use the term Social Democrat, which is a nuanced, but widely divergent term from Democratic Socialism. In their third counterpunch, they try to change the messaging around capitalism to highlight its more compassionate attributes. Through both personal stories of Helen's life in China and Paul's incisive economic perspective, when put side-by-side, “compassion” is more the domain of capitalist systems. In order to see this more clearly we have to disassociate true capitalism from other forms of capitalism, e.g., “crony capitalism” (another oxymoron), which is really just fascism in disguise. In the end, they conclude that the most important question is not one of partisan politics (e.g., left vs right), but one of human nature and which system fosters the “better angels” of our humanity. Podcast Resources: Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation: https://victimsofcommunism.org/ Helen Raleigh: https://www.helenraleighspeaks.com/about Paul Prentice: https://i2i.org/about/our-people/paul-prentice/

Sponsor special: Up to $2,500 of FREE silver AND a FREE safe on qualifying orders - Call 855-862-3377 or text “AMERICAN” to 6-5-5-3-2“The promises of the American experiment and liberty are still what people want, and they are most in tune with what does it mean to be an authentic human being. Communism, on the other hand—it only works by force. It keeps its own people locked away in countries that are essentially gulags. It doesn't value the human person—the fundamental dignity of men and women as they are.”In this episode, I sit down with Eric Patterson, the president of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, to learn about their research on Venezuela and China.“You could go [to China] for such and such a price and get a new lung or a new liver or something on 24 hours notice. Now, what kind of organ industry can advertise that you can shop around, and on a very, very short notice to get a vitally needed organ?” asks Patterson.We also explore a key flaw in American foreign policy.“We misunderstood how to deal with the Taliban, we misunderstood how to deal with the Iraqis, and so many other places, when we didn't take seriously the religious milieu in which they live, in which they make decisions,” says Patterson. “And this is also true of secular states like China ... There is a ruling ideology that's been expressed by President Xi.”Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Join in as Chris and Joia speak with Ken Pope, the Vice President for Academic Operations and Strategic Partnerships at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Ken discusses the importance of free speech and the need for a robust understanding of ideologies like Marxism, socialism, and communism. He also emphasizes the role of education in promoting a complete understanding of these ideologies and the negative consequences of totalitarian systems. Ultimately, Ken encourages aspiring free speech leaders to become informed, stand up, and speak out: “If you would be the first man or woman to stand up, I guarantee you, you will not be alone."   See: https://victimsofcommunism.org/

The Heritage Foundation's B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies is pleased to announce that Peter Robinson, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow and former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, will deliver the inaugural Lee Edwards Lecture in Conservative Leadership. The title of his speech is “How Ronald Reagan Won the Cold War.”The Heritage Foundation established the annual Lee Edwards Lecture in recognition of Dr. Edwards's long service as a Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at Heritage, during which time he wrote most of his 25 books about the leading individuals and institutions of the modern conservative movement. Dr. Edwards authored biographies of President Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley Jr., and Edwin Meese III, as well as histories of The Heritage Foundation, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), and the conservative movement. His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, and Polish.In addition to the many books he wrote, Dr. Edwards taught politics at the Catholic University of America for more than 30 years and was named a Distinguished Lecturer by the university. Dr. Edwards was also a co-founder of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Today is May Day, but also the Victims of Communism Memorial Day, and as such today is the prefect days for this classic-hybrid format podcast, featuring Steve Hayward in a conversation with Elizabeth Spalding, chair of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. (Elizabeth is also Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy […]

Today is May Day, but also the Victims of Communism Memorial Day, and as such today is the prefect days for this classic-hybrid format podcast, featuring Steve Hayward in a conversation with Elizabeth Spalding, chair of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. (Elizabeth is also Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy and Visiting Fellow at the Van Andel Graduate... Source

Today is May Day, but also the Victims of Communism Memorial Day, and as such today is the prefect days for this classic-hybrid format podcast, featuring Steve Hayward in a conversation with Elizabeth Spalding, chair of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. (Elizabeth is also Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy and Visiting Fellow at the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College.)The Foundation has opened the Victims of Communism Museum in downtown Washington DC, and you should put it on your itinerary for your next visit to the nation's capital. We call this a "hybrid" format because it comes in two parts. Following the conversation with Elizabeth, this episode offers Steve's recent speech at the Victims of Communism Museum about Reagan and Churchill on the Cold War, a major part of Steve's book about the two great statesmen. 

In this episode, Winston Brady speaks with Ken Pope, Vice President for Academic Operations and Strategic Partnerships. In the episode, they discuss the history of Communist regimes and Mr. Pope's experience working in countries such as East Germany that suffered under Communist regimes. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is an educational, research, and human rights nonprofit organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to pursuing the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes.The Foundation was authorized in 1993 by a unanimous Act of Congress signed as Public Law 103-199 by President William J. Clinton on December 17, 1993. Find out more about their work at https://victimsofcommunism.org/about/

In this presentation, Ken Pope, Vice President for Academic Operations and Strategic Partnerships, addresses the deadly history of Communism. Mr. Pope begins with his own experience in the military serving in West Berlin, addresses the life and writing of Karl Marx, then examines the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century from the Soviet Union onwards.The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is an educational, research, and human rights nonprofit organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to pursuing the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes.The Foundation was authorized in 1993 by a unanimous Act of Congress signed as Public Law 103-199 by President William J. Clinton on December 17, 1993. Find out more about their work at https://victimsofcommunism.org/about/

Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd   FULL TRANSCRIPT Announcer (00:06): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Wilmer Leon (00:15): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I am Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historic context in which these events occur. This enables you to better understand and analyze these events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode. The issues before us are, what are the three steps leading to war, and what's the real story behind the so-called Uyghur genocide or oppression in China? My guest today is a peace activist, a writer, a teacher, a political analyst, KJ Noh. KJ, welcome to the show. Speaker 3 (01:22): Thank you. Pleasure to be with you. Wilmer Leon (01:24): So in talking with you yesterday, you had expressed this concept that there are three steps leading to war. You talked about an information war, you talked about shaping of the environment and provocation. As we look at what's transpiring between the United States and Russia, as we look at what's transpiring more specifically between the United States and China over Taiwan, walk us through these steps and how these steps apply to where we are today. Speaker 3 (02:03): Yes, this is exactly what is going on. So the first thing to understand is that before the US goes to war, there is an information campaign, which we can understand as both manufacturing consent and stirring up people's emotions to demonize and to other the opponent. And so we see that very, very clearly in China. That's been ongoing for many years now. But if you look at all the polls, everybody is convinced that China is a threat. So the first step is information warfare, which is the pre kinetic sube dimension of war. The second dimension is shaping the environment. The US never likes to go to war without shaping the environment first. So in order to do that, it wants to weaken the adversary and it wants to bring as much force to bear as possible against its opponents. So we see that right now with the United States. (03:08) It's created a vast set of alliances against China, Aus Jaas, JAAS, the Quad, NATO plus, and then you can see that there is the first island chain, which it has completely militarized, and it is prepositioning supplies, materials, troops, all along it, including troops, right on Gman Island of Taiwan, which is less than three miles from the mainland. So you see the constant shaping of the environment. Also, you will see preparations for war in terms of massive military exercises. You see this in Korea, which spent 200 days out of the past year in constant military exercises. You see the military exercises all over the Pacific, which are essentially nonstop. And then the last step is the provocation. That is you want to provoke the other side to fire the first shot. You want to wrong foot them so that then you can build on all the demonization and the ally building that you've created and then use that as a ally to start the war. (04:25) And we see these provocations happening more and more frequently. We see the provocations by the Philippines against the Chinese overtaking their boats, trying to cut them off and seeing if they'll get rammed. You see the provocations on the Korean peninsula where there's this constant in your face provocation against North Korea, threatening to decapitate, sending the message to Korean troops to shoot first and report later, shoot, first report later. And you see the provocation, as I just mentioned, in Jinman Island where you have US special forces troops parked permanently three miles away from the Chinese mainland. Imagine if the PLA stationed Chinese troops on Key West or Galveston Island or the Farone Island just right up against the nose of right up against the US coast. Would that be considered provocative? I would think so. And so essentially we see all these three steps happening, the information warfare, the hatemongering, the shaping of the environment, the very, very deliberate shaping of the environment for war, and then the constant provocation. So this is why I think that we have to be very, very careful that it will just take one small misstep in this minefield for something to go off, and that will create a chain reaction that will affect the entire Pacific. Wilmer Leon (06:06): So we saw in the seventies, we saw Nixon go to China. Henry Kissinger helped to orchestrate that entire process and a development of a reproach mon with China. And one of the objectives of that was to be sure that China stayed on our side of the equation as the United States was still involved in the Cold War against the Soviet Union. When we got to, I think it was the Obama administration, that's where this whole idea of the pivot towards China started to manifest itself. What, first of all, do I have my history? And then secondly, if so, what is it that or who was in the American foreign policy elite that decided that this pivot needed to take place? Speaker 3 (07:09): Yeah, that's a really, really good question. I have to go back to a little bit of the history. You absolutely are about Nixon. Nixon tried to peel China off away from the Soviet Union as part of their Cold War strategy, and then they engaged with China, and then they dumped Taiwan, which previous to that had been considered the legitimate China, but they were always hedging, so they always kind of had their foot partially on Taiwan because they didn't want to give it up completely. Wilmer Leon (07:43): They who Speaker 3 (07:44): The US establishment didn't want to give it up completely as a US outpost. And so they always kept a little foot in there. And so this is what they call strategic ambiguity. But the official line was the one China policy. The Shanghai communicates essentially there's only one China. The PRC is the legitimate government of China. Taiwan Island is a part of China, and any issues between Taiwan province and China are to be resolved amongst themselves. The US is going to withdraw troops, it's going to withdraw arms, and it's not going to be involved. That was the agreement, and that was the foundation of the relationship between the US and China. All of that is now completely dissolved. It's gone. There is no defacto one China policy anymore. But who started this war? That is the $64,000 question. In 1992, Paul Wolfowitz, the NeoCon Mino, Greece, he wrote a document called the Defense Planning Guidance Document, and essentially it was declaration that the United States would be the uni polo global hegemon, regardless, and at any measure, uni polo global hegemon simply means that it would be the boss of the world and it would take any measure, it would go to war, et cetera, as necessary. (09:12) This document, the defense planning guidance document, became the project for a new American century. The project for a new American century was unquote disavowed, but it's simply mutated, and then it was picked up again by a group of people at Center for a New American Security. And those two words, new American, they are not a coincidence. The CNA or Center for New American Security is a kind of a reestablishment of the neocons who started pen A. And so you see this entire chain of ideology continuing from Wolfowitz and the people around him, the neocons around him, the Cheney, Wilmer Leon (09:57): Dick Cheney, Speaker 3 (09:59): Yes, Wilmer Leon (10:00): Richard Pearl, Speaker 3 (10:01): Richard Pearl, all of these neocons, they simply bequeathed their legacy onto a younger group of neocons, the neocons who are associated with the Center for New American Security. Wilmer Leon (10:13): In fact, let me jump in. I'm sorry. Just really quickly on the pen side with Wolfowitz and Pearl, I think Scooter Libby, when George HW Bush was in the White House, that crew came to him and wanted to promote all of this rhetoric. He referred to them as the crazies and said, and this is from Ray McGovern who was in the White House at the time with the CIA said, get these crazies out of here and keep them away from me. And I think it was George HW that by pushing them out, that moved them to Form P NAC and all of that. Speaker 3 (11:02): Absolutely. And remember, these crazies also wanted to go to war against China in the early two thousands. So it was actually, and Wilmer Leon (11:12): They also wanted Bill Clinton to overthrow Saddam Hussein. They sent, and folks, you can go and look on the, you can Google this and you can pull up the letter and see all the signatories to the letter. They sent a letter to Bill Clinton when he was president, asking him to invade Iraq. And he said, no, Speaker 3 (11:35): Exactly. And then nine 11 happened, and the Pen Act document actually said, we need something like a Pearl Harbor in order to be able to trigger our plans. And so then conveniently, nine 11 happened, and then Iraq was invaded. But anyway, these crazies never went away. They went into various think tanks, but one of the key think tanks is CNAs, which is an outcome. It's a kind of an annex of CSIS itself, one of the deep state think tanks. And starting 2008, they drew up a plan for War against China specifically. There's an organization called CSBA, which is, it's a kind of a think tank. It's a procurement and strategy think tank associated with the Pentagon. And it was once again, related to another deep state think tank inside the Pentagon that does long-term strategic planning. And they came up with something called Air Sea Battle, which is the doctrine of war against China. (12:48) So since then with Air Sea Battle, air Sea Battle is actually, it's derived from Air land battle, which was the doctrine of war against the Soviet Union, which is why it has a similar resonance to it. And that itself was derived from the Israeli doctrine of war from the Yom Kippur war where they did massive aggressive strikes deep inside their opponents infrastructure. And that became Airland battle. Airland battle was never used against the Soviet Union, but it was used in Iraq, in Kosovo, et cetera. Colloquially, it's known as shock and awe. And they created a shock and awe version for China called Air Sea Battle. And that was developed in earnest starting around 2009. And then remember 2012, the US declared the pivot to Asia. So this is the Obama administration. They essentially declared in so many terms that we are going to make sure that China does not develop any further. (14:06) We're going to encircle China, we're going to station troops in Australia. It was declared in Adelaide. We're going to encircle the entire, essentially it was a plan to encircle China all along the first island chain from the corals to Japan, to Okinawa to Taiwan Island along the Philippine Archipelago, and then all the way to Indonesia. This very, very deliberate plan to encircle and to escalate to war against China. 2008 and 2009 was really the turning point, because it was the time of the change. It was the global financial crash, and the people who engaged with China, they engaged with China under the conceit that China would essentially be absorbed into the US capitalist system. That is, it would become a tenant farmer on the US capitalist plantation. Wilmer Leon (15:11): That's what they tried to do with the Soviet Union. Speaker 3 (15:13): Exactly, exactly. Wilmer Leon (15:15): Under Gorbachev, Speaker 3 (15:16): Exactly right. Yes. So we would become a tenant under the global US capitalist plantation, or it would collapse. That was what they believed. And then in 2008, the Western Catalyst financial system collapsed on itself, and it turned out that China was not going to collapse. It was actually incredibly strong, incredibly resilient, and they actually had to go hat in hand to China to beg for support, in order to prop up the system and then to do a controlled demolition on the backs of the working class here. And so when that became clear that China was not going to collapse and it was not going to be subordinated, then the DCAS came out and explicit doctrine of war started to be prepared. This is what I referred to as Air Sea baffle. So that doctrine of war was created inside various think tanks, CSBA, and then supported by css, CNAs, et cetera. (16:18) And then when the Obama administration transition, those plans were simply kept alive with CNAS, and some of it was incorporated into Trump's strategy, but Trump had neo mercantile tendencies, so he was not as aggressive as they would like him to be. And then when Biden came back, the pivot to Asia was rebranded as the Indo-Pacific Strategy, and it's gone full tilt since then. So we see this constant escalation, as I said, the information warfare, the shaping, the environment, the exercises, the alliances, the prepositioning, and then we see the constant provocation. So we are well on the way to war. Henry Kissinger said that we were in the foothills of a cold war. No, we are high up in high altitude and very, very close to kinetic war. Wilmer Leon (17:14): I think I said when I made the reference to Russia that that's what they try to do with Gorbachev, but I think it was Yeltsin to Gorbachev is where all of that financial intrigue was taking place. And I think it was Gorbachev who realized the danger on the horizon and shifted the game plan on the United States, which is why one of the reasons why Gorbachev Gorbachev had to go leading us into where we are now with President Putin. But that's another, I hope I have again, that history, right? Yes, (17:50) Absolutely. So with all that you've just laid out, and before we get into some of the specifics about the info war, as all of this is going on, what we also have is the de-industrialization of the United States and the offshoring or outsourcing of American manufacturing to China. So how do you, on the one hand, offshore or outsource your manufacturing, particularly as a capitalist economy, going to China in search of cheaper labor to make more profit, but then at the same time, you're planning to go to war with the people that are manufacturing a whole lot of the stuff that your country consumes? Is that a good question? Speaker 3 (18:53): Yeah, no, it's absolutely valid. I mean, it's a very, very good point. That's the core contradiction. The US has outsourced Wilmer Leon (19:00): Needs, and by the way, the country that you go to buy your bonds so that your economy can stay afloat. Speaker 3 (19:07): Absolutely. Absolutely. Right. So not only has China financed the United States and supported or propped up the US dollar as the global reserve currency, but also the US exported its industrial base to China because it thought that it could simply exploit the hell out of the Chinese worker at the cost of the US worker, Wilmer Leon (19:33): The sick man of Asia mentality, and we can just play these Chinese people for fools. Speaker 3 (19:38): Exactly. Exactly. So exploit the hell out of them, make a killing, and then eventually China would be completely absorbed into the US capitalist system, or it would collapse, right? It was either collapse or be absorbed. This is what Bill Clinton believed. So that was the plan, except that China developed on its own terms, and it showed that not only is it possible to develop that it doesn't have to become subjugated to the west, to the western institutions, that's when the daggers came out. But now there is the contradiction that on the one hand, the US wants to go to war against China. On the other hand, it's significantly, it's so deeply enmeshed with Chinese industry and the Chinese economy that it is not easy. And so it's trying this very delicate operation of what they refer to as de-risking, but it's really decoupling, and they're trying to separate themselves from China as you would try to separate conjoined twins. (20:43) Except the problem is that China has the beating heart, the beating heart of the industry. So if you separate that out, then you're going to give yourself a lot of problems. And so they have not thought this through, but these are people who are not known for their clear thinking. As I said, they're neocons, they're neo neocons, they're crazies. They are drunk with power. They do not want to give up their power and their dominance over the planet, certainly not to China, and they would rather end the planet than see the end of their hegemony, of their dominance. And that's the really dangerous moment that we're in. I've referred to it as a drunk who as the bar is closing and your credit cards are being rejected, you've struck out with everybody. You're just spoiling for a fight, a fight. You're not going to go home without a fight. And that's currently what it looks like right now. Wilmer Leon (21:44): So the first element of the three that you mentioned is the info war. So we're being told that President Xi is an authoritarian. We're being told that China has stolen American manufacturing secrets and has exploited American manufacturing processes. We're being told that China is trying to take over Africa. There are a number of stories that get repeated ATD nauseum, very little if any evidence to support them. But this is the info drumbeat that you keep hearing on M-S-N-B-C and CNN and Fox News. So let's start with the G is a authoritarian, and he's the dictator of China. China is a communist country, and therefore everything is evil that comes from China. Speaker 3 (22:48): Yeah, I mean, this is warmed over Cold War rhetoric. It's essentially a red scare plus yellow peril, right? I mean, we've heard this stuff before. I mean, if you go to China, you realize that there's nothing authoritarian about it. Actually. You feel much freer and much more at liberty to do what you want and to be who you are than you do here. It's not at all an authoritarian state. It's simply the US plasters, the label authoritarian against any country that it doesn't like and where it's usually planning to go to war against. So that is a very, very clear signal. I mean, just from a kind of statistical polling standpoint, the Chinese government is the most popular government on the planet. It ranks in the 90th percentile, and this is Wilmer Leon (23:42): High 90, I think 96 was the last number I saw, Speaker 3 (23:47): Something like that. Yes, certainly in above 90 percentile. And this is from Harvard University, correct? With longitudinal studies. So clearly they have the trust and the full faith of its people. Wilmer Leon (24:01): Repeat that, because most people, when they hear, I know this, when I say that to listeners or if I'm in conversation and I say, well, when you poll the Chinese people, they back their government at around 96%. And of course, the response I get is, well, of course they would, because that's Chinese polling, and that's Xi telling them what to think. And if they don't do what Xi tells them to do, then they wind up missing. Speaker 3 (24:30): No, no, no, that's sorry. Yeah, I mean, it's good. It's what people think, but first it is not Chinese polling. It is US polling, it's Harvard University doing this over a longitudinal study, I think over 10. It's over a decade, maybe 15 years long. And so it's us polling, not Chinese polling. The second thing is that over 150 million Chinese travel abroad every year, they travel all over the world. They go as tourists, they go as students, et cetera, and then almost every single one of them goes back home. You would not get that in an authoritarian state. You think that if you live in a prison or a concentration cab that you go free and then you come back of your own volition? No, that's not possible. It's absurd. So as I said, the Chinese travel all over the world, and then they simply come back because that's where they want to be. (25:34) So this notion that Chinese are authoritarian, that it's an authoritarian state, nobody's allowed to do anything that's completely fault. It does contrast, for example, with the east block where it was very, very difficult to travel abroad, and once when people did travel abroad, they did defect. That much is true. That is certainly not the case with China. As I said, 150 million people travel abroad and then go back home. So that is a lie from top to bottom. I mean, of course you have a few people who defect. I think the defection rate from China is about the same number of people who defect from the United States. So if you want to, oh, really? Wilmer Leon (26:16): Yes. Speaker 3 (26:16): Okay, Wilmer Leon (26:17): I didn't know that. Speaker 3 (26:17): Yes. So it's about the same. So it's a kind of a net zero. So anything that says otherwise is usually an exaggeration or a misconstrue of the actual numbers Wilmer Leon (26:30): To this idea of authoritarian, and I was just thinking about this as you were talking. I think one of the great misnomers is the conflation of a planned economy versus an authoritarian government. I don't think I'm off base to say that China is very, very focused on planning its economy, and that makes it very nimble. That makes it, in my opinion, easier for the government to shift as world economic dynamics shift. Also, because it doesn't have predatory capitalism in China, corporations in China and the Chinese government that owns corporations, they reinvest their money into their economy as opposed to into stock buyback programs and high executive compensation packages. Hence, we wind up with a lot of technological advancements coming out of China, which to a great degree is what is scaring the hell out of the United States government. Yeah, Speaker 3 (27:49): You're absolutely right. Yeah. So the Chinese system is planned, but it's planned in a very rational way. Most of the leaders are unlike the United States, most of the leaders in the US are lawyers or failed business people in China. Most of the leadership are scientists and engineers, and they go through an incredibly complex vetting process where they have to show their capacity and show their ability over and over again before they even reach to the level of becoming a city or a province governor. And then from there, it just gets harder and harder. So you really make sure that the top people are leading. And then there's a system where there's a constant process of feedback and consultation with the people. So the government makes sure that it's doing what the people wants. And so it's planned Wilmer Leon (28:42): In political science. That's the Easton model, I think James Easton model of the feedback loop, how effective governments are supposed to function. They implement policy, they get feedback from the populace on how that policy is being implemented. They then translate that into better policy. That's the eastern model of called the policy feedback loop. Speaker 3 (29:18): Yes, exactly. There's this policy feedback loop, and once again, as I said, the Chinese leadership are scientists, so they do this thing called a trial spot. What is when they have a policy, they try it out in one city or one area, and if it works, then they scale it up and they try it again in a larger province on a larger scale. And if it works, they scale it up even further, et cetera. So it's a very kind of scientific method that they use called trial spots where they're essentially using the scientific method and a vast system of feedback and consultation in order to see if something works or not. That's why they're, for example, creating sustainable cities, sustainable energy generation, mass transit, et cetera, all sorts of public goods. But the problem with this is that the Western concede is that if it's not liberal capitalists, that is if you don't let the capitalists do whatever they want to, this is an infringement on freedom, and that's the framing that they use. (30:23) If you don't let the predatory capitalists do anything and everything, they want to, you have infringed upon their freedom. And so that's where this authoritarian trope comes from. The thing to notice once again is as you do this extensive planning, what you get to do is you build out the foundations, and those foundations are in public health and in public housing and infrastructure and transportation and education. Once you build out all of those foundations, then you can build up real human capacity, and then you build up a real powerful economy. And so for example, if you look at the 20 largest corporations on the planet, the majority of them are Chinese. But the other thing about those large corporations is the majority of them are state owned corporations. That is to say they're owned by the people. For example, the largest banks in the world are Chinese banks. (31:25) How much do the leaders of these banks make? Well, they make probably they wouldn't make enough to rent an apartment in San Francisco, maybe two times, three times max, what their average income of their average worker is, as opposed to Jamie Diamond, who makes 18,000 times what his lowest workers make. And so it's a very, very different system where you bring up the highest most qualified people. At the same time, you do not reward them for greed. You do not reward them for, with exorbitant pay, essentially, you give them a decent salary, not an exorbitant salary, but a salary, which is good enough for a decent level of standard of living in China. You may give them an apartment and you may give them, there may be a canteen where they can get discount meals, but that's about it. But it's understood that you are going to really work to improve your country, serve the people, serve your countrymen, and then make a better society. (32:39) And you see this real kind of whole society effort to improve the country, which is why over the last 30, 40 years, wages have flatlined in the United States, but wages in China have gone up anywhere five to 10 to 15 times for your average worker, for your average blue collar worker. I mean, they see their lives improving, and also you see the bottom being lifted up where they essentially ended poverty. You go to China, you will not see any slums. I mean, it's kind of astonishing. You go to almost any city in the world, you will see homeless. Or if you don't see homeless, you will see slums in China, you will see neither. And in the past few decades, they brought 850 million people out of poverty. 850 million people were brought out of poverty. This is the world's greatest economic accomplishment in the history of the world. (33:43) And essentially, they show that poverty is a policy choice. You don't have to have poor people. The Bible says the poor will always be with us. No, it's not true. It's an ideological choice, and you can end poverty in a country, and for all of these reasons, by showing that a planned economy where there's reasonable and systematic feedback can have deliver better results. This is why this example is why the western liberal elite class feels the need to destroy China because it cannot have that example, cannot have an example, which puts the lie to the massive exploitation and mystification and deceit that this system is built on. The suffering that we undergo on a daily basis is not necessary. Wilmer Leon (34:45): I want to go back to the point. China has brought 800 million people out of abject poverty over about what? The last 10 to 15 years Speaker 3 (35:03): Over the last, I would say over the past 40 years. Okay, 40 years ago, China was poorer per capita than Haiti. Wilmer Leon (35:14): That's poor. Speaker 3 (35:15): And now there's no comparison, right? Wilmer Leon (35:17): The United States has on the upper end, in terms of what the government numbers are, not 800 million unhoused, 800,000, Speaker 3 (35:32): Yeah. Somewhere in that range. Wilmer Leon (35:34): And so me being from Sacramento, California, you go to north side of Sacramento near the American River near the Sacramento River, people living under bridges, you go to Oakland, people living under overpasses, you go to San Francisco, people living under overpasses, people can't even afford the middle class in San Francisco, can't even afford to rent an apartment that people that work in San Francisco can't afford to live in San Francisco. Okay, pick a city, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia. Pick one. You see people standing in the medians of intersections with signs and cups begging for money. 800,000 people homeless in the United States. We can't fix it, but China brings 800 million people out of poverty. Folks do the math. Speaker 3 (36:37): Yeah, I mean, it's pretty astounding. I mean, the 800,000 homeless is probably an under count because it's hard to count. Wilmer Leon (36:44): Sure. That's why I said it's a government number. Speaker 3 (36:47): Yes, it's a government number. But even without looking at the homeless, think about the fact that 60% of the people in the United States do not have $500 to their name. That means if they get a flat tire, if they need to change their tires, fix their car, or get a parking ticket, they are in real trouble, right? I mean, there's just no margins. And so the vast majority of working people in the United States are struggling, and they see no light at the end of the tunnel at the same time that they expect their children to have even worse conditions. No longer housing is no longer, nobody can think of housing anymore. Now its cars are no longer affordable. Right? When I taught in community college, I was told that 80% of the students were housing insecure. When I taught, most of the students would come to class and they couldn't focus because they were hungry. (37:52) I mean, you have adjunct professors living out of cars. So this is the level of ridiculous, absurd maldistribution of wealth that you can do everything right, work your rear off, and still end up with nothing, just barely be treading water if even that. And on the other hand, you have a country like China where if you work, you will see your life constantly improving from year to year. On average, your worker has been seeing their wages increase 8% every year for the past 20, 30, 40 years. I mean, that's astounding. Wilma, have you had an 8% increase in your salary for the past 30 years? Wilmer Leon (38:45): Can't say that I have. Speaker 3 (38:48): You must be doing something wrong then. Wilmer Leon (38:50): I can't say that I have. Let's move to element number two, shaping the environment. What are the techniques and what are some of the tangible elements that we can point to in terms of shaping the environment? Speaker 3 (39:05): Okay, the first thing about shaping the environment is creating alliances. So the US is creating multiple alliances. That's alliance between the United States, Korea, and Japan. I refer to it as jackass or jackass. You see the alliance between Australia, the United States, uk, to prepare for war, nuclear war against China, Aus. You see the Japan, Philippines, US Alliance, and the South China Sea jaas, which is once again unthinkable as it is with Korea, that the colonial dominator, Japan would be creating a military alliance with the colonized. But all of this is mediated and midwife by the United States. And then you see NATO coming into Asia. So already when the US does military exercise in the Pacific, you see the LFA flying over. You see NATO exercises. You see that Korea is linking up to the NATO intelligence system, B-I-C-E-S, bcs. And that Taiwan is getting the link 16 tactical data link, which allows the US to create a common tactical and operational picture of the Warfield in order to create what they refer to as a transnational kill chain. (40:29) That is, you're using all of these countries for combined joint all domain command and control. It's simply one large military machine, all of these different countries together. So that's one part of shaping the environment. Another part of shaping the environment is pre-positioning troops, pre-positioning material, and also doing these constant military exercises and escalating to industrial war footing, which is what they are talking about. They're saying the US has to shift immediately to an industrial war footing. Certainly South Korea and Japan are already expected to do this. The plans to use shipyards in Korea for to repair us battle damage, and then the constant escalation into what I refer to as the third offset. The third offset is that China has the capacity to respond. If the US and the US has over 300, probably close to 400 bases right around China, China has the capacity to fire missiles and keep the United States at bay. (41:50) It has the Don Feng missiles that are very, very precise. And the US offset to that has been to disperse its troops all around the first island chain, prepare for island hopping, prepare for Ace agile deployment, and essentially to attack China through diffused, distributed, dispersed warfare. All of this is preparation. And then the other way, which is traditionally the environment is shaped, is through information warfare and economic warfare, trade warfare, tech warfare. The idea is that you are going to try and try to create as much disruption inside China itself, create as much descent inside China itself, and also try and degrade its economy before you go into war. Ideally, you want to level sanctions on it before you go in, but in the case of Russia, for example, they will level sanctions after the war starts. But the idea is to degrade the economy and the will to fight, and the capacity to fight as much as possible so that you enter into the battle with an unfair advantage, an overmatch. (43:12) The analogy that I sometimes think of is that when a matador goes into the ring to fight a bull, what they've done is they've drug the bull, they've starved it, they've beaten it, they've dehydrated it, et cetera. And then you go to war, and then you have this theatrical presentation of how you've dominated the bull. In the bull fight, usually the US tries to do this kind of degrading before it enters into war. So for example, it sanctioned Iraq for a decade before it blew it up into smithereens, et cetera. So you see all of these things happening in terms of the hybrid war, the preparations, the alliances, the exercises, the prepositioning and the military preparation. Wilmer Leon (43:58): In fact, the sanctions regime that you've just talked about as it relates to Iraq is exactly what the United States has been trying to do with Russia, has been trying to do with Iran has tried to do with China. And what the reality that the United States now finds itself dealing with is that sanctions regime has forced those sanctioned countries to establish relationships amongst themselves and relationships amongst themselves. So they've entered into trade agreements. They've entered into the bricks, for example, the Chinese development Bank. There are a number of elements now where China and Russia have developed trade agreements, have developed defense cooperation agreements. So really what the United States has done through this sanctions regime is really shot itself in the foot because what it thought it could do with economic pressure and other types of sanctions has actually created a much bigger problem than the United States ever could have imagined. Speaker 3 (45:15): Well, I mean, the US has sanctioned what something close to one third of the countries on the planet or something approaching that. I mean, the idea is that it's simple. A sanction is like a siege. It's like you're building a wall around a country. The problem is if you build a wall around a country, you're also building a wall around yourself, and eventually you're walling yourself in, which is what the United States is doing here. And so with the financial sanctions, with the trade sanctions and economic sanctions, essentially it's strengthening China, Russia, Iran, and the countries of the global south, and it's weakening itself. And so that is the contradiction there. But they don't understand that, and they think that they're still capable of destroying, for example, Russia. I mean, they still believe that they almost brought Russia to its knees, and it's just a matter of applying a little bit more pressure. They're not reading the situation directly. But yes, this is what they want to do, and they consider this to be part of shaping the environment. Wilmer Leon (46:24): And one quick example of that is the whole chip sanction where the United States figured that it could cripple the Chinese economy from a technology side by prohibiting China's access to high processing chips. What did China do? They figured it out. They make their own and better than the ones that they were getting from Taiwan. And an example of that is the Huawei made 60 telephone. A lot of people in the West think that the iPhone is the greatest phone on the planet. No folks, it's a phone that we can't get in the United States. It's the Huawei mate, 60 plus, which not only is a cell phone, but is a satellite phone as well. Speaker 3 (47:15): Yes, it's an extraordinary piece of technology, incredible engineering, and it just goes to show that when the US tries to sanction China or even a single Chinese company by putting it in a choke hold, and its CFO, China just responds with even greater strength and better technology. So it's not happening. It's not happening to an individual corporation, and it's not going to happen to China in general, which is why the US wants to pull the trigger on war. I think there's a part of the NeoCon elite that are so desperate, they see that kinetic war is the only thing that it's the only Trump card that they have left. Wilmer Leon (48:00): And I've been saying for a while to Jake Sullivan and to the Secretary of State, to the President, be careful what you pray for because you might get it even with the hypersonic missile technology. I want to say that, what was it last year or about a year and a half ago, the United States War gamed against China 25 times and lost 25 times. Speaker 3 (48:38): Yes, each time it lost and it lost faster, and then eventually they had to deposit all kinds of hypotheticals that didn't exist in order to give themselves some kind of pretext of winning. Clearly, if they do the math and if they do the simulations, it's not going to work out for them. But the really dangerous thing here, and I'll be very, very honest here, the dangers is that because the US no longer has overmatch and none of these offsets work, it's going to go back to the final first offset, which is mass a bigger bomb, which is to say that they're going to go nuclear on this war and going nuclear against another nuclear power is a very, very bad idea. The US is doctrine of counterforce, which essentially argues that in order for us to prevail, we have to strike first with nuclear weapons. (49:30) That's the idea. It's not counter value. Counterforce. We strike with nuclear weapons first. We knock out as many nuclear targets as possible, and that way we come out ahead and we can shoot down anything that's left. This is the US nuclear position, the nuclear posture. And this is very, very dangerous because it's clearly an act of madness. But as I said before, the ruling, ruling elite, the imperial elite believes that they signal that they would rather see the end of the world than the less than the end of their power, than the end of their domination. Because for them, the end of their domination is the end of their world, not the end of their world, but the end of their world, and they're very happy to bring down the rest of the world with them. Wilmer Leon (50:21): Provocation is the third. We've talked about the info war. We've talked about shaping the environment. And now the third element is the provocation. And we are seeing this play itself out damn near daily, right before our very eyes. And thank God that President Rai in Iran, that President Xi, that Kim Jong-un in North Korea and President Putin, thank God that these are sensible, sensible people that are not reactionary and engage in knee jerk responses to provocation. Because if they weren't as thoughtful as they are, we'd be in a much, much different world circumstance than we are right now. Speaker 3 (51:12): I agree with you. I mean, I think it's the sober sanity of US opponents, which is keeping the world from exploding into war. Just as during the Cold War, it was Russian officers who understood US culture and for example, understood that when there were signals of a nuclear attack being launched, they also understood that the World Series was happening at the same time, and they thought it was unlikely the US would launch a nuclear attack during the World Series. But this is predicated on the idea that you have cultured intelligent, calm people who are able to make clear distinctions. And we see that in RACI and President Xi and President Putin, who are very, very measured in their responses. And they're not seeking war. They're seeking diplomacy and peace. And you can see that there is a constant attempt to provoke them and to demonize them and to trigger war, but they understand that time is on their side, and these are the mad thrashings of a dying empire, and their approach is not to engage. (52:34) The problem is that the provocations become even more extreme, more and more extreme as they become more and more desperate. And there's another piece of the information war that I didn't touch on, but I think it's worthwhile touching on, is one of the key tropes of information warfare is that the other country is a threat to the people of your country. Not simply a threat, but an existential threat, A WMD type of threat, a genocidal threat. We saw that WMD type of language when it was alleged that Covid was a Chinese bio weapon, which somehow was being paid for by the United States. So that doesn't make any sense that research was being funded by the United States. So how is the US funding that research for China to attack us? Nobody seems to be able to explain that piece, but so they're WMD type allegations, and then the China is genocidal in intent, and this is most commonly demonstrated by the allegations of a genocide happening in Xinjiang. Now, just to go over the facts, there Wilmer Leon (53:51): Is, wait, wait a minute. Before we get to that, I want to touch on one thing you mentioned not firing the missile. And I want to say that that was a Russian technician, Vasili arch, about what, 65 years ago, who was looking at his radar screen, saw what most would've perceived to be an incoming nuclear missile from the United States on his screen. And the protocol was you got to push the button. And he, to your point, said, wait a minute. This doesn't make sense right now. This might be a mistake, and thank God he was right. It was a mistake. I wanted to make that point because you kind of glossed over that point. But it's very important for people to understand how perilous the circumstances are that we're in today. Speaker 3 (54:55): Absolutely. I mean, there were so many close shaves during the Cold War, and they're even more now, and the world owes a debt of gratitude to vestly ov. I think he's one of the unsung heroes of world history, but we can't rely on the fact that there will always be a vasili arch of a patient measured, well-informed, educated person on the other side who exercises prudent caution. There's no guarantee of that. And everything that we are doing on our side is simply escalating the danger that that will not happen and that this could end in a nuclear conflagration. Wilmer Leon (55:41): Final point on that, then we'll go to the Uyghur issue. And that is, that's one of the points that President Putin was making about NATO and why his perception was a uk, a Ukraine in NATO means NATO missiles in Ukraine, which means his response time to a message of incoming would be cut more than in half. And he was saying, we can't do that. You can't put these missiles on my border and cut my response time from 16 or 17 minutes down to seven minutes. That means if my system say incoming, I got a button to push. I don't have a phone to pick up. I don't have questions to ask. I got a fire on receipt. Speaker 3 (56:37): Absolutely, yes. Launch on warning, Wilmer Leon (56:39): Launch on warning. Speaker 3 (56:41): Yes. And that's exactly the danger. And this is why this was so important that by bringing NATO right up into Ukraine, the Soviet Union, well, Russia lost all of its strategic debt that it had no cushion with which to make a rational decision. And that is a very, very dangerous thing to do against a nuclear superpower that you have designated as an official enemy. So yes, it's absolutely correct, and this is both the danger and what we are seeing replicated in against China. Once again, the US used to have nuclear weapons in Taiwan Island. Right now, they're probably preparing more nuclear weapons, certainly the tomahawks that are being prepared for Japan or nuclear capable, they can carry nuclear warheads. And if you take US troops and place them right three miles from China's mainland, I mean, you've essentially said that you either have to preempt the attack or you are going to be annihilated. So that is the danger here. Wilmer Leon (57:58): The other great myth, one of the other great myths is the genocide of the Uyghurs and the oppression of the Uyghurs who are a group of Chinese Muslims in a region of China. And also if they're not being genocided, then they're being put into reeducation and concentration camps. Where did this myth come from? Speaker 3 (58:28): It was started by a guy called Adrian Zant, working for the victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which is extreme far right organization, fascists, Nazis, anti-communist, who essentially have it on their banner head to destroy communism. Adrian ZZ himself believes that it is God's mission, his mission from God to destroy Chinese communism. And he essentially pulled those figures and those facts out of, pardon my French, his rear end. And so initially, so Wilmer Leon (59:07): Actually French kg would be ass, he pulled those data, excuse my French, out of his ass. Speaker 3 (59:14): I think the French word is true or football. Wilmer Leon (59:20): But Speaker 3 (59:21): Yes, the BBC asked him to do the research. He said, I can't do it. And then they offered him more money, and then suddenly all of a sudden he was pulling numbers out of his rear end. Apparently there were perhaps a few dozen people that were interviewed. A small percentage of them said that certain things happened to us, and then they extrapolated that, and all of a sudden we have 1 million, 2 million, 3 million, 5 million, 7 million uighurs either in concentration camps or being genocided. Okay, Wilmer Leon (01:00:00): So how does that jive with the population of Xinjiang, which I think is the western part of China, which is where these folks are supposed to be. Speaker 3 (01:00:09): There are about 12 million Uyghurs. And so if you had even a million that had been disappeared or in concentration camps, you wouldn't have a functioning society. You would have almost every adult male in prison. And that's certainly not the case. 200, 250 million people visited Xinjiang last year, and it was fine. The people in Xinjiang were doing fine. It's a vibrant, multicultural society that is thriving and happy, and anybody can go there. You and I could go there. Anybody listening to this podcast could go there tomorrow. You don't even have to. A visa. China allows Americans to go to China without a visa now for a short period of time, and you could go immediately to Xinjiang and see for yourself. But essentially the fact is there is no Chinese genocide happening in Xinjiang because there's not a single shred of credible evidence. Let me emphasize that. Not a single shred of credible evidence. This is the only genocide in history that one has no deaths. Nobody can point to a body, no refugees. Wilmer Leon (01:01:24): Well, that's, they've been disappeared. They've been taken up by the mothership, and I guess they're floating around in the nuclear. I mean the, what do you call this? The nebula Speaker 3 (01:01:38): In the fifth? Wilmer Leon (01:01:39): Yeah, they're in the nebula somewhere, Speaker 3 (01:01:41): Right? Right in the fifth space, time war somewhere. But look, there are five Muslim majority countries. China has borders with 14 countries, and Xinjiang itself has borders with five Muslim majority countries, very porous borders. If there were any credible oppression, you would see massive refugees going to all these countries right next to it. But it's not. Instead, what you see is preferential treatment of the Uyghurs. For example, they were exempt from the one child policy. They had two, three, sometimes more children. They received preferential treatment in school, admissions and employment. The population has increased sixfold since the start of the PRC, and the life expectancy has increased 150%, and you can look high and low and you will see no hate speech and no tolerance of hate speech against Muslims, and no messages or rhetoric targeting the group whatsoever. In fact, the organization of Islamic Corporation, which represents the rights of 2 billion Muslims in 56 countries, commended China for its exemplary treatment of Muslim minorities. (01:03:00) So this is completely and totally fraudulent. There are 24,000 mosques in the region. People live their own lives, they speak their own language. And then here's the contrast, or here's the test case, because when you want to make a proposition, you also want to make a test group against that. Okay? In Gaza, there is a real genocide happening, either sheer unspeakable, barity and atrocity, the daily massacre of men, women, children, infants, starved to death, unimaginable privation and starvation and suffering, and compare that. And nobody can get into Gaza, right? Nobody can get into Gaza. Anybody can get into Xinjiang any day of the day or night. So really this fraud about Xinjiang being some kind of genocide, this is as much a signal of the dying empire as the real genocide in Palestine, it's foundationally mating, and it's a foundationally violent lie, but it's the other side of the same coin that is you are enabling and covering up a real genocide while you were fraudulently concocting a non-existent one. But the thing we have to understand is the invention of a false genocide cannot cover up a real one. Those of us on the right side of history, we know what to believe and we know how to act, and we know who's responsible, who's covering up what and why they're doing it. Wilmer Leon (01:04:53): And the United States is also trying to foment another genocide in Haiti. So there's a false one in Xinjiang. There's a real one in Gaza, and there's another one on the horizon in Haiti, and thank you United States because it's our tax dollars that are fanning the flames and funding all three kj. No, my brother. Thank you, man. I really, really, really appreciate the time that you gave this evening and for you coming on connecting the dots, because as always, kj, you connected the dots, man. Thank you for joining me today. Speaker 3 (01:05:39): Thank you. Always a pleasure and an honor to be with you. Wilmer Leon (01:05:43): And folks, I want to thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wiler Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe, leave a review, share the show, follow us on social media. You can find all the links below. Go to Patreon. Please contribute. Please, please contribute because this is not an inexpensive venture to engage in. And remember, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge, talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Woman Leon. Have a great one, peace and blessings to y'all. Announcer (01:06:40): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

Join us as we take a look not so much at what Jew hatred is, but how it is manufactured for purpose. My guests include Dr. Naya Lecht and Oona Trien, two scholars of the subject who will bring their unique backgrounds and perspectives to this important discussion.There's a method to the madness, and once you see it, you cannot un-see it!Dr. Naya Lekht is a scholar on contemporary anti-Semitism and works with the Jewish community to enhance pride and education in the history of the Jewish people and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In addition to her interest in the history of anti-Semitism, Naya likewise writes and teaches about Soviet history. In 2022, Naya was a guest educator for the National Teachers' Seminar at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, where she taught a cohort of teachers on the topic of Soviet literature and film. She holds a Ph.D. from UCLA, where she wrote about Holocaust literature in the Soviet Union, where she was born.Find Naya on Instagram @naya_lecht Read her work at White Rose Magazine: https://whiterosemagazine.com/contrib...Ooana Trien, a graduate of Tish school of the arts with a concentration in experimental and classical theater. Daughter of a Hungarian mother, and survivor of both Hitler and Stalin, whose father--a former nobleman--who died in Stalin's Romanian Gulag, otherwise known as the Pitesti Prison experiment (an experiment to prove that human beings were nothing more than reactive MEAT).Find Ooana on YouTube at @ooana and on Twitter @oonaSUPPORT THIS CHANNELIf you appreciate this type of programming, please consider supporting my work: Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/trwlPayPal: paypal.me/deborahfillmanSubscribe to my Substack: https://thereasonwelearn.substack.comPurchase TRWL Merch: https://store.wokescreen.com/the-reas...Purchase books from Heroes of Liberty with my referral link and get 10% off!https://heroesofliberty.com/?ref=Zqpq...Contact me:X @deb_fillman and @ReasonWeLearnInstagram: @thereasonwelearn#antisemitism #socialism #totalitarianism #education #israel #hamas #oligarchy #gorky #sovietunion #communism #marxism #literature #art #history #parenting #jewish--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/debf/support Get full access to The Reason We Learn at thereasonwelearn.substack.com/subscribe

“Communism is clearly the most murderous and evil ideology we as human have ever dealt with, or imposed on one another,” says Andrew Bremberg, the President of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He joined AMAC CEO Rebecca Weber on the Better For America podcast to discuss the grave dangers of communism. Regarding young Americans openess to Socialism, Bremberg says that this is due in large part to a genuine misunderstanding of what Socialism means, making it easily misrepresented, or framed in a positive light. With communist nations around the world becoming more emboldened, this is a timely, must listen to episode so educate yourself on communism from a true expert."

Channy Chhi Laux joins us to discuss her perspectives on communism, free speech, individual rights and responsibilities, and contemporary challenges to liberal values. Channy was just 13 when the Khmer Rouge seized Cambodia in 1975. She endured 4 years of starvation, forced labor, and disease before arriving in Lincoln, Nebraska as a Cambodian refugee who spoke no English and who had been denied 4 years of education. Channy went on to earn an advanced degree in Applied Mathematics and spent 30 years working in Silicon Valley as an engineer. She is the founder of Angkor Cambodian Food, and works with schools and other organizations, like the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, to promote awareness of the Cambodian Genocide.    Institute for Liberal Values Podcast Notes: Channy's memoir: Short Hair Detention: Memoir of a Thirteen-Year-Old Girl Surviving the Cambodian Genocide(Bloomington, IN: Archway Publishing, 2017).  Learn about the California Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education: https://holocaustcenter.jfcs.org/california-collaborative/ Access a preview of Channy's Cambodian Genocide educational materials: https://cambodiangenocideresourcecenter.com/lesson-plan-download/ See Channy's Victims of Communism page here: https://victimsofcommunism.org/speaker/channy-chhi-laux/ Check out Angkor Cambodian Food:  https://www.angkorfood.com/

More than 100 million people. That's how many people “communism as an ideology has killed,” says Andrew Bremberg, president of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. “I just want that to sink in. That is an incredible number to try to fathom or … imagine,” Bremberg, a former ambassador, says, adding: And that includes not just [Josef] Stalin and the tens of millions killed under Stalin's brutal regime at the [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics], but also Mao Zedong, the … deadliest mass murderer ever, in terms of his leadership of the Chinese Communist Party that saw the murder of upward, conservatively upward of 60 million people.Bremberg joins today's episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which received The Heritage Foundation's Innovation Prize earlier this year; its China Studies Program; and whether it's possible for the U.S. to move away from or lessen its economic reliance on China. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Roger in this week's Liberty + Leadership Podcast as he speaks with Randal Teague, chairman of The Fund for American Studies. Roger and Randy talk about his career journey in law and politics, while covering history, economics, international trade, and civil society.  They discuss the need for a fresh approach to journalism and how America's polarization can be countered with courageous student leaders – both issues that TFAS strives to address. Randy and Roger also talk about the significance of teaching American history in high schools, his work with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation & Museum and his pride in his four children.  Randy Teague has been a member of TFAS's Board of Trustees since 1979 and was elected as chairman in 1998. Randy worked closely with one of TFAS's five founders, David R. Jones, at the time of the organization's incorporation. He served as editor of TFAS's publications in the 1970s; was a co-founder of TFAS Prague in 1993 and the founder of TFAS Greece in 1996. He also helped conceptualize the Capital Semester program in 2003.  Early in his career, Randy worked for former Rep. William C. Cramer of Florida, volunteered for the Goldwater presidential campaign, worked alongside Congressman Jack Kemp during the transformative tax reduction of the 1970s and practiced law in both Boston and Washington, D.C. Randy holds a bachelor's degree from American University, and J.D. and LL.M. with honors law degrees from George Washington University. He has also been conferred two honorary doctorates in law and humanities. The Liberty + Leadership Podcast is hosted by TFAS President Roger Ream and produced by kglobal. This episode was recorded at Reason Magazine's podcast studio. If you have a comment or question for the show, please drop us an email at podcast@TFAS.org. To support TFAS and its mission, please visit TFAS.org/support. To read a full transcript of the episode, click here.Support the show

In this week's episode, Mike and Elizabeth talk with Ken Pope, CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Ken had a 34 year career in the US Army, consulting and academia.  While in uniform, he served in a variety of Foreign Area Officer assignments in Russia, Europe, the Middle East, and Central America. He had over 12 years of operational fieldwork with a variety of assignments in Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kosovo. We discuss a broad range of topics relevant to communism and democracy in the world, including Russia, China, and the current state of US military recruitment and training.  We think listeners will agree that there is much more to learn from Ken, so we hope this is just the first in a series of appearances on The Dissidents Podcast! Podcast Notes: Link to Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation website:  https://victimsofcommunism.org/ Report of the National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness: https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/report-the-national-independent-panel-military-service-and-readiness

On this Independence Day week our guest is Ken Pope, CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. It's been nearly 35 years since the Berlin Wall has fallen, but communism continues to thrive in many areas around the world.  Ken discusses the continuing threat of communism, why it's important for our young people to know its history of devastation and suffering, and the work of the Foundation in educating all Americans on the importance of protecting our freedoms.

Far West Ltd., private military companies, PMCs, World Anti-Communist League, WACL, Ukraine, Orange Revolution, Viktor Yushchenko, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Captive Nations, Ukrainian Congressional Committee of America, UCCA, Atlantic Council, Heritage Foundation, World Economic Forum, Lev Dobriansky, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Trilateral Commission, decline of the TriLats, Paula Dobriansky, Project for a New American Century, "soft coup"/"velvet coup"/"color revolution," Gene Sharp, National Endowment for Democracy, Peter Ackerman, weaponization of democracy, velvet coups undermining democracy, velvet coups fueling totalitarianism/authoritarian governments, George Soros, velvet coups and low intensity conflict, velvet coups and the Republican Party, January 6th, Jan6th as velvet coup, Kateryna Yushchenko, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Banderites, OUN-B, Kateryna Yushchenko's family ties to the OUN-B and WACL, Far West's role in Yushchenko's administration, "Ritchie Boys"/Military Intelligence Service (MIS), MIS' links to counterinsurgency/Phoenix Program, MIS' links to Charles Manson, Russo-Georgian War, John McCain, Far West's role in Russo-Georgia War, Russo-Georgian War as false flag to get McCain elected, Robert Kagan, Victoria Nuland, Barrack Obama, Joe Biden, Far West courts Joe BidenMusic by Keith Allen Dennis:https://keithallendennis.bandcamp.com/ Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Far West Ltd., private military companies, PMCs, World Anti-Communist League, WACL, Ukraine, Russian Federation, shift of world trade from Atlantic to Eurasia, Russia as key to Eurasia, historic Silk Road, modern Silk Road, Belt and Road Initiative, Anglo-American Establishment, neo-liberalism, BRICS, energy/oil politics, pipelines, NATO, Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin's "Family," Putin's rise, Mikhail Kasyanov, Bush II Administration, Dick Cheney, Halliburton, Exxon, US-Afghan War, Bagram Airfield, drug trafficking, Aleksandr Voloshin, Alfa Bank, Russiagate, Gazprom, Yukos, Yukos scandal, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Victims for Communism Memorial Foundation, Captive Nations, Lev Dobriansky, OUN-B, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Banderites, OUN-M, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Melnyk, "velvet coup"/"soft coup"/"color revolution," Gene Sharp, Albert Einstein Institute, National Endowment for Democracy, Reaganism, Freedom House, George Soros, Open Society Foundation, Peter Ackerman, Drexel Burnham Lambert, Michael Milken, Leon Black, Donald Trump, Brexit, Otpor!, Serbia, Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies, Eurasian Economic Union, Belarus, Georgia, Rose Revolution, Mikhail Saakashvili, Leonid Kuchma, General Nicholas Krawciw, Krawciw's background, Krawciw's reformation of Ukraine's military, Viktor Yushchenko, Orange Revolution, Far West's role in Orange RevolutionMusic by Keith Allen Dennis:https://keithallendennis.bandcamp.com/ Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of "The Federalist Radio Hour," Elizabeth Spalding, chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and founding director of the Victims of Communism Museum, joins Federalist Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to share the importance of educating current and future generations on the pitfalls of communism and the evils plaguing regimes that adopt it.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5457726/advertisement

On this episode of “The Federalist Radio Hour,” Elizabeth Spalding, chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and founding director of the Victims of Communism Museum, joins Federalist Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to share the importance of educating current and future generations on the pitfalls of communism and the evils plaguing regimes that adopt […]

In this episode, Kenneth Pope, CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, shares his perspective on why parents should be concerned about communism and how it's a threat to liberty. Parents need to be aware of these dangers so that they can protect and properly educate their children.  ►Connect with Kenneth:  Website: https://victimsofcommunism.org/ ► Visit us online: https://www.momsforliberty.org/ ► Connect with Moms For Liberty on Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moms4Liberty/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moms4libert.. Twitter: https://twitter.com/Moms4Liberty ► Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcast:  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/23uQONh... Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... ► Moms For Liberty merchandise: https://www.momsforliberty.org/store/ #MomsForLiberty #politics #education #JoyfulWarriorsPodcast

Welcome back to another bonus episode of Heritage Explains. This is our last one on China, because next week, we are very excited to bring you a new season of Heritage Explains. And this one will be focused on the crisis at the Southern Border. ---Lily Tang Williams grew up in China and witnessed Mao Ze Dong's Cultural Revolution firsthand. A Chinese lawyer and law school professor, she was able to leave China and is now an American Citizen, where she speaks out on her experiences and the dangers of communism. What you're about to hear are Lily's remarks from a panel held at the Heritage Foundation in December of 2021. The event was called Communism's Dark Tyranny, the 30th Anniversary of the Collapse of the Soviet Union and was co-hosted by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. ---The Daily Signal Podcast: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/More China Research from the Heritage Foundation: www.heritage.org/chinaWinning the New Cold War: A Plan for Countering China: https://www.heritage.org/asia/report/winning-the-new-cold-war-plan-countering-chinaThe Kevin Roberts Show: https://www.heritage.org/the-kevin-roberts-show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

China's forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience has been going on for decades at this point. The US House of Representatives passed a bill in March that would sanction people involved in this filthy industry. But there's still a long way to go to get China to actually stop its murder for profit industry. And if it doesn't, Taiwan could be its next source of organs. In this episode of China Unscripted, we discuss the history of the legislation, China's evolution of using Falun Gong, Uyghurs, Tibetans and someday, Taiwanese, and why there are so few witnesses to China's forced organ harvesting atrocities. Joining us in this episode of China Unscripted is Ethan Gutmann, an investigative journalist, research fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and author of several books, including The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem.

Elizabeth Edwards Spalding is the founding director of the Victims of Communism Museum and chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Elizabeth is a visiting fellow at Hillsdale College's Van Andel Graduate School of Government and a senior fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. She has devoted her career to researching and educating generations about the history and horrors of communism. She is the author of "The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism" and "A Brief History of the Cold War," which she co-authored with her father, Lee Edwards. Elizabeth is an alumna of the 1986 TFAS Journalism and Communications program. She earned a bachelor's in politics from Hillsdale College, and both a Ph.D. and a master's in international politics and political theory from the University of Virginia.In this week's Liberty + Leadership Podcast, Roger and Elizabeth discuss her childhood growing up in Washington, D.C., how falling in love with learning turned her into a lifelong student, how studying Truman is critical to understanding the Cold War, her work at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and the personal power of the Witness Project at the Victims of Communism Museum.The Liberty + Leadership Podcast is hosted by TFAS President Roger Ream and produced by kglobal. If you have a comment or question for the show, please drop us an email at podcast@TFAS.org.Support the show

Hawk Jensen, a documentary filmmaker from Hollywood, has partnered with other artists to create a new documentary series called "Follow the Science: On Lockdowns and Liberty." He joins me to give an update on the project. The World Premiere in Orlando with Tom Woods will now be held on April 19th, and the online Sneak Peek Preview for our donors will now be held on March 9th.  Learn more at https://www.followthescienceseries.com/. Video - https://youtu.be/w1O43HphC-w The series, produced by SoundMind Creative Group, aims to provide cultural literacy and define terms related to the events of the COVID pandemic. The series will explore what society did right and what government did wrong during the pandemic, and why it's frowned upon to talk about it. The project is currently fundraising at www.followthesciencefilm.com and encourages listeners to consider donating to the project. In addition, Jensen is the producer of The Witness Project, a short documentary series sponsored by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which records the experiences of individuals persecuted by collectivist regimes in the 20th and 21st centuries. Join our Patreon now for commercial-free shows, bonus content and our complete archives - https://www.patreon.com/wearelibertarians ---- This episode is brought to you by Iconic Insurance. Fifteen percent of Americans are left to find health insurance on their own. You might feel overwhelmed, lost, or frustrated, and if that's you, feel in control of your health with Matt Allen's help. Visit www.iconic-insurance.com/libertarians to get started. ---- Thanks to our sponsor, Lions of Liberty. Unlock the power of freedom with Lions of Liberty - the premier libertarian/anarchist podcast network. Join John Odermatt on Mondays for a dose of inspiration, health, and faith with 'Finding Freedom.' Get a good laugh with Brian McWilliams on Wednesdays as he takes on the broken world with 'Mean Age Daydream.' And don't miss out on the infamous 'Libertarians in Living Rooms Drinking Liquor' episodes and 'Meme Wars' and 'Hatewatch' on Fridays. Take the first step towards true freedom and listen to the Lions of Liberty Network on all major podcast platforms today. Learn more at https://www.lionsofliberty.com. --- Q Sleep Spray assists in achieving a more restful sleep so you can wake up refreshed. Q SLEEP contains incredible ingredients, including melatonin, 5-HTP, and L-theanine, as well as a proprietary herbal extract, which synergistically promotes restful sleep and helps your mind and body rejuvenate. Buy Now - https://wearelibertarians.com/sleepspray/ --- Chris Spangle and Leaders and Legends, LLC edited and produced this podcast. If you're interested in starting a podcast or taking yours to the next level, please contact us at LeadersAndLegends.net. ---- Looking to start a podcast? Download my podcast Podcasting and Platforms now, and check out my recommendations for buying the right equipment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode I speak with Flagg Taylor about the life and writing of Vaclav Benda, and his idea of the parallel polis, decentralization, and creating space in society for culture, the family, charity, education, and human flourishing. Though he was writing under communist regimes, Benda's writings are very relevant today in light democratic pressures to conformity, de-platforming, and especially as a new ontology of the person is being written into law — and dignity is used as weapon against religious and cultural liberty. Benda's idea of the parallel polis was not a siege mentality, nor so much a reform existing structures that had ossified or were corrupted, but a call to build new, innovative, and better structures and social institutions that would activate people's participation in civil, cultural, and commercial life, and give people a sense of purpose and agency. Examples today include decentralized technologies or classical education - which is not running away, but creating better alternatives to mediocre state run schools. We discuss Benda's ideas in the context of Czech communism and also in contemporary America, especially the overlap with Alexis de Tocqueville's warnings about individualism, centralization, and soft-despotism. We examine his engagement with various thinkers including Roger Scruton and J.R.R. Tolkien, and talk about contemporary movements towards decentralization including The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan and its relation to the idea of a parallel polis. We discuss the need for social and commercial alternatives built on a rich understanding of the human person and the family including healthcare, mutual aid societies, banking, payment, insurance and more. Benda's idea of the parallel polis demonstrates that the solution to totalitarianism and centralization is not more centralization or another totalitarianism, but de-centralization and humanization. We discuss a number of Benda essays including: The Parallel Polis, The Meaning Context Legacy of the Parallel Polis, The Family and Totalitarianism, A Critique of the Idea of a Christian State, and his personal reflections that illustrate the constant social pressure of living under communist totalitarianism. Themes and Topics include Albert Hirshman: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty Peter Berger on Plausibility Structures Vaclav Havel: Power of the Powerless Greengrocers of the World Unite! Aristotle's Moral and Intellectual Virtues Vaclav Havel Living in Truth Benda focus on resisting the lies of totalitarianism by inhabiting a social spaces and plausibility structures that make living in truth possible. MMM Lecture How to Build a Moral Imagination — new and better ways of live are actually plausible Provide space for dissidents and their children who were excluded by the official social spaces Balaji - The Network State - Network Union - Network Archipelago — cloud first, then land Catholic Variation: Land - Cloud -Land New Ontology of the Person Totalitarian redefinition of biology and sociological reality Dignity as a weapon against religious liberty Testing the Limits in Communism vs Testing the Limits in Modern Democracy De-platforming Cancel Culture Underground Seminars led by Roger Scruton Roger Scruton and Jan Hus Foundation Ortega y Gassett: The Spoiled Child of History Second Culture Charter 77 Essay at Foreign Policy Magazine   VONS Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted Religious practice in Slovakia vs Czech Republic vs. Poland Church Persecution by Communists in the 40s - 70s Communist infiltration of Church and official Church collaboration with Communists 70s and 80s. Critique of the Christian idea of a state How politicalization of religion can lead to unbelief Benda compared to contemporary Catholic integralists / post liberal thinkers Pappin, Ahmari, Pecknold on Cultural Christianity and Politics MMM commentary to this essay: Political Catholicism, Liberalism and the Myth of Neutrality Secularism is not neutral J.R.R Tolkien —Benda on the Lord of the Rings as as an analysis of totalitarianism The Scouring of the Shire — See Jay Richards and Jonathan Witt The Hobbit Party link in Resources The family is always a thorn to totalitarian states Marriage and family as essential The Family as the source of 3 fundamental gifts that a person can receive Fruitful fellowship of love Freedom Dignity and unique role of the individual Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) and George Orwell on tenderness as a resistance to totalitarianism Family as a space for freedom, failures, learning How rebellion against parents is modern fashion that the totalitarian or centralizing state desires Authority and Hierarchy Hannah Arendt on Authority and Education (see link in resources) Biography Dr. F. Flagg Taylor IV is an Associate Professor of government at Skidmore College serves on the Academic Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in political science from Fordham University and a B.A. from Kenyon College. Taylor's specialty is in the history of political thought and American government, especially the question of executive power. He is the co-author of The Contested Removal Power, 1789-2010, author of numerous articles, and editor of The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism and The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977-1989. Resources Flagg Taylor Website Vaclav Benda Biography   The Enduring Interest Podcast on Apple Flagg Taylor Podcast at Podbean MMM talk at Catholic Crypto Conference: Building a Parallel Polis: Social and Technological Decentralization Peter Fiala Flagg Taylor podcast interview on Hannah Arendt Key Quotes From “The Meaning Context Legacy of the Parallel Polis” There is, however, a fundamental difference between the natural resistance of life to totalitarianism and the deliberate expansion of the space in which the parallel polis can exist.  The former is a cluster of flowers that has grown into place accidentally sheltered from the killing winds of totalitarianism and easily destroyed when those winds change direction. The latter is a trench whose elimination depends strictly on a calculated move by the state power to destroy it.  Given the time and means available only a certain number of trenches can be eliminated. If, at the same time, the parallel polis is able to produce more such trenches than it loses ,a situation arises that is morally dangerous for the regime; it is a blow at the very heart of its power — that is, the possibility of intervening anywhere without limitation.  The mission of the parallel polis is to constantly conquer new territory to make its parallelness constantly more substantial and more present. Benda p. 233 From “The Family and Totalitarianism” I consider marriage and the family to be so essential that I am unwilling to accept the regular clichés about liberation from these obligations. So, in the Christian version as we know it, which for centuries dominated the western world, the family was, as well as many other good things, a visible embodiment of the three most fundamental gifts or dignity is that a person could receive… Benda lists three gifts: “Fruitful fellowship of love in which we are bound together with our neighbor without pardon by virtue simply of our closeness; not on the basis of merit rights and entitlements, but by virtue of mutual need and its affectionate reciprocation” “Freedom and the ability to make permanent, eternal decisions … and acts of fidelity…that stand in radical defiance of our finitude” “Dignity and the unique role of the individual

This lecture is in partnership with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and was recorded live on September 29, 2022 at The Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.. About the Lecture Dr. Adrian Zenz will discuss how under Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party is resorting to Mao Zedong's playbook of using ideology to oppress and assimilate ethnic groups. He will describe the suppression of religious and other freedoms especially among Uyghurs and Tibetans, and describe what can be done today to promote human rights for those who suffer under this regime. About the Speaker Dr. Adrian Zenz is Senior Fellow and Director in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Washington, D.C. (non-resident). His research focus is on China's ethnic policy, Beijing's campaign of mass internment, securitization and forced labor in Xinjiang, public recruitment and coercive poverty alleviation in Tibet and Xinjiang, and China's domestic security budgets. Dr. Zenz is the author of Tibetanness under Threat and co-editor of Mapping Amdo: Dynamics of Change. He has played a leading role in the analysis of leaked Chinese government documents, including the “China Cables,” the “Karakax List,” and the “Xinjiang Papers.” Dr. Zenz is an advisor to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, and a frequent contributor to the international media. Dr. Zenz obtained his Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge. He conducted ethnographic fieldwork in western China in Chinese and regularly analyses original Chinese source material. Dr. Zenz has provided expert testimony to the governments of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. After the publication of his research on forced labor in cotton picking, the U.S. government banned the import of goods made with cotton from Xinjiang. Following his research on population optimization and birth prevention, an independent Tribunal in the United Kingdom determined that China's policies in the region constitute genocide. Dr. Zenz's work on parent-child separation in Xinjiang prompted The Economist to feature this atrocity on its cover page and to refer to it as “a crime against humanity” that represents “the gravest example of a worldwide attack on human rights.” Dr. Zenz has acted as an academic peer reviewer for a wide range of scholarly journals, including The China Journal, Asian Studies Review, International Security (Harvard University), China Perspectives, Central Asian Survey, the Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Asian Ethnicity, China: An International Journal, the Journal of Chinese Political Science, Issues and Studies, and Development and Change. Dr. Zenz is a member of the Association of Asian Studies. He has published opinion pieces with Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. IWP Admissions https://www.iwp.edu/admissions/ Support IWP https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E231090&id=3

"Communism is premised on the state. And the state is above all. The Party is above all. There's no transcendent truth. … Everything must serve or be made to serve the state. … So it means all life is cheap.” Elizabeth Spalding is the founding director of the new Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, D.C. It's the first museum in America honoring the over 100 million people killed by communism in the last century, as well as the millions more who continue to suffer under communist dictatorships to this day. What is it like to live in a communist country? And what lessons can we learn from those who chose to resist? Spalding is also the vice chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Follow EpochTV on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@EpochTV Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV

Amb. Andrew Bremberg joins David Webb to discuss the need to educate America's youth on the evils of communism.

The second public hearing of the House select committee investigating last year's Capitol breach drew around 10 million total viewers Monday, less than half the audience that watched the committee's primetime opening presentation last week. Today's Larry Elder Show guest is ambassador Andrew Bremberg, former representative to the United Nations and the president of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, to discuss why many young Americans have forgotten the evils of communist regimes. ⭕️Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

Photo:  The Peking Union Medical College was founded in 1906 by the American and British missionaries and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. It remains one of the finest medical schools in China today. Not clear if it participates at all in organ theft. 2/2:  #PRC: Data evidence of murder by organ harvesting. Matthew Robertson @WSJOpinion; research Fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-new-evidence-surgeon-doctor-execution-murder-prisoner-organ-harvesting-donor-uyghur-falun-gong-genocide-human-rights-world-health-organization-who-11654012796

Photo:  Edvard Munch - Vampire (1917), 1/2  #PRC: Data evidence of murder by organ harvesting. Matthew Robertson @WSJOpinion; research Fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-new-evidence-surgeon-doctor-execution-murder-prisoner-organ-harvesting-donor-uyghur-falun-gong-genocide-human-rights-world-health-organization-who-11654012796

The release of a new trove of hacked Chinese police records offers one of the most extensive accounts yet of the mass internment of the mostly Muslim minority Uighurs. Human rights groups have accused China's government of detaining more than a million Uighurs in Xinjiang. The files were leaked to Adrian Zenz, of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, who joins Nick Schifrin to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

The release of a new trove of hacked Chinese police records offers one of the most extensive accounts yet of the mass internment of the mostly Muslim minority Uighurs. Human rights groups have accused China's government of detaining more than a million Uighurs in Xinjiang. The files were leaked to Adrian Zenz, of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, who joins Nick Schifrin to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Andy Biggs, U.S. Representative for the 5th District of Arizona, sets the record straight on the Democrats' domestic terrorism bill and highlights his letter to President Biden asking for America's withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Adrian Zenz, Senior Fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, talks about the latest evidence confirming China's genocide against the Uyghurs. Mary Miller, U.S. Representative for the 15th District of Illinois, discusses the Left's attacks on gender and how her Women's Bill of Rights bill would push back. Gary Hamrick, Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Chapel, shares how Christians should respond to the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/loving-liberty/support

Speech First recently released a report looking at bias reporting on college campuses "Free Speech in the Crosshairs" where we found 56% of universities solicit anonymous reports from students on one another for incidents of "bias" or other forms of speech and expression. We found that many universities define "bias" as political affiliations, or simply expressing ideas or opinions that others may find offensive...These insidious policies are found at universities across the country and are laying the groundwork for a world of peer-enforced censorship similar to the likes of what we saw in East Germany. Join Speech First's Cherise Trump and Ken Pope from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation as they delve into the implications of a society that accepts and implements policies like "Bias Reporting."

Ambassador Andrew Bremberg is the President and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Previously Ambassador Bremberg served as the Representative of the United States to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is an educational, research, and human rights nonprofit organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to pursuing the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes. The Foundation was authorized in 1993 by a unanimous Act of Congress signed as Public Law by President Bill Clinton. In 2007, President George W. Bush dedicated the Victims of Communism Memorial statue in Washington, D.C. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/americas-talking/support

Join Speech First's Cherise Trump and Ken Pope from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation as they compare the eerie similarities of today's restrictions on speech to the way of life under totalitarian and communist regimes. It is important to not only remember these terrible times in human history, but to make sure we don't forget why they were so terrible. Surveillance states, neighbors informing on one another, censorship and manipulation of information, art, and science... We often bemoan about how we have entered the times of Orwell and Huxley but these are references to fictions based on very cruel realities. So join Ken and Cherise as they break it all down and explain why the censorship and cancel-culture of today could very well lead us down a dark path that humanity is no stranger to.

Hawk Jensen is a documentary filmmaker from Hollywood that has partnered with fellow artists to create a new documentary series called "Follow the Science: On Lockdowns and Liberty." The goal of the SoundMind Creative Group is to establish some cultural literacy and defined terms around the events of the COVID pandemic. What did our society get right these past 19 months and what did our government get wrong, and why is it frowned upon to talk about it? This is an excellent conversation that needs to be had, and memorializing the pandemic from a critical view will be a helpful tool for future generations. They're fundraising now at www.followthesciencefilm.com, so listen in and please consider helping donate towards the project. Jensen is also the producer of The Witness Project, a short documentary series sponsored by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation that records the experiences of a number of individuals who were - and in some cases still are - victims of persecution by collectivist regimes in the 20th and 21st centuries.  In full disclosure, they are a paying sponsor of the WAL Network, and that is because we believe their project is worth partnering with. -- Join WAL Plus now for commercial-free shows and our complete archives - JoinWALPlus.com ---- Rightly Podcast Network with Right Now with Stephen Kent Right Now is the first show from Rightly. Host Stephen Kent and a cast of co-hosts will guide listeners through the latest in political news and conservative thinking. Follow us for thoughtful discussion and join in! Listen to Stephen's podcast Rightly YouTube ---- Q Sleep Spray assists in achieving a more restful sleep so you can wake up refreshed. Q SLEEP contains incredible ingredients, including melatonin, 5-HTP, and L-theanine, as well as a proprietary herbal extract, which synergistically promotes restful sleep and helps your mind and body rejuvenate. Buy Now - https://wearelibertarians.com/sleepspray/ ---- "Follow the Science: On Lockdowns and Liberty" from The SoundMind Creative Group is a brand new docuseries highlighting the real science and data of the pandemic and the stories of those negatively impacted over the past year and a half by ineffective government policies enacted in the name of following the science. Fundraising efforts to help launch this series are underway. Can you join them now by donating to the cause at www.FollowTheScienceFilm.com? ---- Don't trust polls? Tired of social media Trolls? ThoughtWorld is changing the game. Go to ThoughtWorld.com today and vote on existing thoughts or leave your own thought anonymously and safely. Your ideas drive the polls directly on ThoughtWorld and policymakers and brands are listening. Join now at ThoughtWorld.com  ---- Pillowsonic with bedtime private listening in total comfort without earbuds or headsets. Buy Now - https://wearelibertarians.com/pillowsonic/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ambassador Andrew Bremberg of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation joins Governor Ricketts for episode 28 of the Nebraska Way to discuss his career in policy-making, representing the United States at the United Nations, and today's fight against communism and authoritarianism.   Thank you to Heidi Merrill for the use of "Cornhusker Strong" as the intro song for "The Nebraska Way.”

Sebastian talks about the latest updates on the situation in Hong Kong, with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation's Marion SmithSupport the show: https://www.sebgorka.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sebastian is joined in-studio by Marion Smith, president of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, to discuss Hong Kong and the rise of socialism in America, then talks to Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates about the Trump Administration's ongoing negotiation efforts in Syria and TurkeySupport the show: https://www.sebgorka.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.