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Nikki Haley

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Capitalism is freedom, and Americans should celebrate it, instead of apologizing for it, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday.

Many American, even some conservatives, are ashamed of capitalism but, when they should be singing its praises because of the prosperity and progress it provides, Haley said in a speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.:

This country has lifted up more people, unlocked more progress and unleashed more prosperity than any other country in history. This is America. And, the American system is capitalism.

Many people avoid saying that word, including some conservatives and business leaders. Some think its a politically-incorrect word.

But, we shouldnt be ashamed of capitalism - its another word for freedom. And, it springs from Americas most cherished ideals.

What good are our rights, if our homes and savings can be taken? Are we really free if we own nothing and the government owns everything? Haley asked, noting that the nations founders understood that economic freedom, just like freedom of speech and freedom of religion, is an essential human right:

We all know the most famous phrases from the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. But, while we know these words, we often forget their meaning. Yes, they mean freedom of speech, freedom of religion and other fundamental rights - but, the Founders knew that economic freedom was also essential.

What good are our rights, if our homes and savings can be taken? Are we really free if we own nothing and the government owns everything? Of course, not.

So, while the Founders never used the word, they gave us capitalism in all, but the name.

Everywhere capitalism takes root, people do better. We should celebrate this, not apologize for it, Haley said, explaining how its adoption has lifted much of the world out of extreme poverty:

But, its not just us. Capitalism has transformed the world. Two hundred years ago, 94 percent of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, its ten percent. Much of this drop happened in the last 40 years. After Soviet communism collapsed in Russia and Eastern Europe, and after communist China adopted sweeping market reforms.

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Nikki Haley: We're Not Actually Free 'If Our Homes and Savings Can be Taken' - CNSNews.com

Upon winning the Nevada Caucuses on Saturday, Senator Bernie Sanders, a socialist from Vermont, declared on 60 Minutes his admiration for Cuba under the late dictator Fidel Castro.

This romanticizing of socialism by the current frontrunner of the Democratic presidential race is dangerous and delusional. I know, because I have experienced firsthand the human tragedy of socialism in China. Real socialism is cruel, dehumanizing and even deadly; there is absolutely nothing romantic about it.

I was born in 1963, under the reign of Mao Zedong. Sanders and his intellectual comrades, such as New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, like to invoke socialism as the cure to economic inequality in America. Under real socialism in China, however, I saw equality firsthand -- everybody lived equally in extreme poverty.

All economic activities were controlled by the government in Maoist China. Private enterprise and market transactions were banned. Profit incentives did not exist. As a result, technological progress stagnated and the economy collapsed.

This is because the state thought it knew how to allocate resources better than the market, but it did not. In Chinese cities, rice, meat, vegetable oil, and even clothing for citizens was rationed. Each urban citizen only had one or two pounds of meat to eat for an entire month. There were frequent supply shortages. On numerous occasions, I had to rise at 4 oclock in the morning to wait in line for hours to buy meat.

From 1958 to 1962, Maos Great Leap Forward, a gargantuan collectivization movement, led to mass famine and more than 20 million dead. Born in the aftermath of this disastrous social experiment, I escaped famine and death, but I could not escape another core element of socialism: political control and repression.

When I was three, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution. He mobilized tens of millions of naive college and high school students and called them Red Guards. They labeled Maos political adversaries as traitors to socialism and at times tortured them to death.

In order to suppress opposition, Mao intensified a nationwide class struggle by dividing Chinese people into two groups: the poor against the rich, revolutionaries against counter-revolutionaries. Classified as an counter-revolutionary, my father was persecuted for five years. He endured torture, public humiliation, and forced labor. He lost his personal freedom. My family could only see him a couple of times each year. Subsequently, my grandparents and I were forced to move out of our hometown -- a city with relatively fair living conditions -- to a poor remote village where there was no tap water, no electricity and no medical clinic nearby. A few months after moving to the village, my grandmother passed away from a heart attack.

During that time, China only allowed one type of ideology: socialism and the near-worship of Mao. People were not allowed to say anything politically incorrect, or they risked being arrested. Ancient wisdom was trashed, as most historical temples were destroyed, including those of Confucius, the greatest sage of Chinese history. Worse yet, the state put ideology above practical results and peoples concrete needs. One political slogan read: We prefer producing socialist weeds to capitalist rice.

In other words, there was no freedom to pursue a happy life, let alone think differently. Chinese citizens suffered immensely as a result. By 1978, even socialist China decided that it did not want the equality and tragedy delivered by socialism. Upon Mao's death, the country shifted, embarking upon a path toward market reforms, liberalization, and international trade. Over the last four decades, those policies propelled China from abject poverty and misery to become the second largest economy of the world.

Unlike Mao in China, Sen. Sanders and other socialist politicians of the Democratic Party believe in peaceful, democratic implementation of their policies, not state violence. Nevertheless, in their proposals of Medicare-for-All, free college for students and jobs for everyone, and in their rhetoric maligning the rich versus the poor, Americas socialists sound a lot like socialist dictators of the 20th century. They advocate for massive government control of resources and industries to solve economic inequality, all the while ignoring incentives for efficiency, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Meanwhile, radical progressives in America act very much like Maos Red Guards in one way: They use political correctness as a weapon, suppress different viewpoints and assault Americas founding principles. Those with whom they disagree are no longer fellow citizens with whom to have a civil discussion, but bad people who must be attacked, at times violently.

These developments are appalling and alarming. Sanders and his socialist colleagues in the U.S. Congress have never lived under real socialism; I have. My personal experience in China tells me that the social experiment advocated by Sanders will only lead to human disaster. That's why I was heartened when President Trump declared at last years State of the Union address, America will never be a socialist country.

My experience in America has convinced me that the key principles of democratic capitalism private ownership, free market competition, the rule of law, equal opportunities, and freedom of speech are essential for human beings to prosper and succeed.

Yukong Zhao is a Republican candidate for Florida's seventh congressional district.

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What Bernie Sanders doesn't tell you: The devastation of 'real socialism' - Washington Examiner

Still from Call of the Wild.

The problem with Jack London has always been that while he was a compelling storyteller with a vivid imagination, he was also a racist, or at least a writer who embraced racial ideas about the superiority of Anglo Saxons and the inferiority of African Americans, Asians and Latinos. Most of the racism thats embedded inThe Call of the Wild, Londons 1903 best selling novel, has been expunged from the latest cinematic version starring Harrison Ford as John Thornton, the prospector in the Yukon who cares more for the wilderness and dogs than he does for gold.

Indeed, the 2020 film, which has a computer-generated canine hero, is as politically correct in its own way, as Londons story is politically incorrect at least by todays standards. Still, no criticism of the movie will prevent London fans from watching it and raving about it, flaws and all. To the faithful, London can do no wrong. He might have clay feet, but hes still their god.

I saw the movie in Sonoma, California, where London is a local hero and can do no wrong. Not many members of the audience had readThe Call of the Wild. Also, they dont know much about London himself, but they think they know that he was a great writer.

This is not the first time thatThe Call of the Wildhas been transposed from the page to the big screen. The 1935 version stars Clark Gable, Loretta Young and Jack Oakie. The 1973 remark features Charlton Heston. The 1996 version has a voice over by Richard Dreyfus and stares Rutger Hauer. Each movie carves out a territory of its own, and reflects the era in which it was made. None are true to LondonsWeltanschauung,which he forged from his own rough-and-tumble life in Oakland and from his reading Nietzsche, Darwin and Marx.

The latest version offers a fairy-tale for our own era of global warming and environmental disaster. It describes a world with near pristine wilderness, the abundance of wild species, and little if any degradation of the natural world. Its unreal. In the Yukon in 1898, London witnessed the wanton destruction of the landscape by mining and miners digging, tearing and scouring the face of nature. At the same time, London argued that the Yukon offered unparalleled opportunities for capital and labor to work together to create wealth and jobs.

Screenwriter Michael Green and director Chris Sanders are two savvy moviemakers. While their version is a remake, its also a critique ofThe Call of the Wild.In the novel, Indians kill the prospector, John Thornton. In revenge, Buck kills some of Indianshes an Indian killerand enjoys the slaughter. Monsieur Perrault, the French Canadian mail courier, has been turned into a jolly African-American. His female companion on the trail looks like she might be a Native American, or at least a half-breed, as London would have called her. In 50 books, London never created an African-American character, though an African-American ex-slave raised him and he called himself a white pickaninny. He was cheeky.

On screen, Harrison Ford looks and acts like an old explorer. Hes no longer a youthful voyager in outer space, nor an intrepid archeologist. As John Thornton, he plays everyones favorite uncle who spouts words of wisdom. Youre not my pet, he tells Buck. Do what your want.

Teddy Roosevelt, who was no fan of Londons work, would probably be bored out of his mind with the latest movie. More than a century ago, he accused London of faking it as a nature writer. London took the bait, rose to the occasion and defended the veracity ofThe Call of the WildandWhite Fang.

I endeavored to make my stories in line with the facts of evolution, he insisted. I hewed them to the mark set by scientific research. While he staked his career to pseudo-science, he also touted empire and fumed about the savages of the colonial world. Mark Twain and William Dean Howells, formed The Anti-Imperialist League. London never joined. Others founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). London insisted that colored people had never advanced, that African Americans were closer to apes than humans. 1903, the year that saw the publication ofThe Call of the Wild, also saw the publication ofThe Souls of Black Folkin which the author, W. E. B. Du Bois, observed,The problem of the twentieth-century is the problem of thecolor-line.

Ironically, though London is best known for his embrace of the wild, he lived like a highly civilized country squire with servants and field workers on a vast estate he called Beauty Ranch where he ruled the roost paternalistically. In an essay titled The House Beautiful, he argued that he had to have servantsthey were a necessity but that their rooms would have light and fresh air and not be dens and holes. He added, It will be a happy houseor else Ill burn it down. It burned down, anyway, either by accident or arson. By the age of 40, London had burned himself up, but not before he made a fortune as a writer and became world famous on the back of the dog, Buck.

No twentieth-century American fiction writer poured out prose more beautiful than London, and no writer was more attached to the notion that someone had to be the top dog. No wonder that his own daughter, Joan, thought that if he had lived into the 1920s he would have become an admirer of Mussolini. The London faithful will have none of it.

ScreenwriterGreen and director Sanders have made a beautiful movie, and, though its not true to Londons political and social ideas, it does honor the spirit of adventure that pushed him to the Arctic and the South Seas.Moviegoers might enjoy the scenery and the special effects that make Buck look and sound like a real dog almost.

Jonah Raskin is the editor of The Radical Jack London: Writings on War and Revolution.

Link:
The Call of the Wild (2020): A Cinematic Fairy Tale for the Age of Environmental Disaster - CounterPunch

Hank Azaria, the prolific voice actor best known for his multiple roles in "The Simpsons," admitted that wants to "make up" for voicing the controversial character Apu and that he decided to stop doing so because "it just didn't feel right."

"What happened with this character is a window into an important issue," Azaria told "The New York Times" in an interview published on Tuesday. "It's a good way to start the conversation. I can be accountable and try to make up for it as best I can."

Azaria came to this realization after watching the 2017 documentary "The Problem with Apu," in which comedian Hari Kondabalu explores how "The Simpsons" character is used to perpetuate negative stereotypes aboutAmericans of South Asian descent.

"Once I realized that that was the way this character was thought of, I just didn't want to participate in it anymore," Azaria admitted. "It just didn't feel right."

In the interview Azaria discussed how he drew inspiration for the character from a Peter Sellers brownface performance in the 1968 Blake Edwards comedy "The Party." The Emmy Winning-actor admitted that basing his characterization off of Sellers was "a real blind spot," as he had not been aware that many Indian Americans were offended by Sellers' performance, and acknowledged that he was "joyfully basing a character on what was already considered quite upsetting."

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Although Azaria initially resisted hearing negative feedback about Apu, he drew from his own Jewish heritage to better understand why Kondabalu and others were upset by his performance.

"I started thinking, if that character were the only representation of Jewish people in American culture for 20 years, which was the case with Apu, I might not love that," Azaria explained.

Although the executive producers of "The Simpsons" have not announced what they plan on doing with the character, they supported Azaria's decision to stop voicing him, explaining in a statement that "we respect Hank's journey in regard to Apu. We have granted his wish to no longer voice the character." In 2018 "The Simpsons" announced that they were not writing any current scripts containing the character, and that same year released an episode titled, "No Good Read Goes Unpunished" in which, through the character of Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith), the writers argued that "something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?"

In "The Problem with Apu," Kondabolu described himself as a fan of "The Simpsons" who was disheartened by the show's problematic depiction of Indian Americans. He pointed out that, for many non-Indian Americans, Apu was the only representation of Indian Americans that they encountered in popular culture. As a result, his catchphrase "Thank you, come again," became a derogatory slur for Indian Americans, and allowed Americans to reduce the richness of Indian American culture to a single offensive stereotype.

In addition to exploring his own feelings and unsuccessfully attempting to interview Azaria, Kondabolu reached out to other Indian Americans including Aasif Mandvi, Aparna Nancherla, Aziz Ansari, Hasan Minhaj, Maulik Pancholy, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Kal Penn for the documentary.

"Whatever happens with the character, to me, is secondary," Kondabolu told "The New York Times" regarding Azaria's change of heart. "I'm happy that Hank did the work that a lot of people wouldn't have. I feel like he's a really thoughtful person and he got the bigger picture."

In addition to his work on "The Simpsons," Azaria is best known for his roles in the films "The Birdcage," "The Smurfs," "The Smurfs 2," "Anastasia," "Mystery, Alaska" and "Godzilla," as well as TV shows like "Friends" and "Free Agents."

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Hank Azaria wants to make up for his racist voicing of Apu on The Simpsons - Salon

The San Francisco Giants will be celebrating the 10-year anniversary of their winning the 2010 World Series with areunion this summer, but one of the key players from the championship team wont be there.

Former Giants first baseman Aubrey Huff was disinvited because of some tweets that the teams management decided were offensive and, he said, politically incorrect.

Three weeks ago, I had a call with Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants. He took me by surprise when he told me I was unanimously voted against attending the Giants World Series Championship reunion, HufftweetedTuesday. When I asked why I wasnt invited, he told [me] that the board didnt approve of my Twitter posts, and my political support of Donald Trump.

Huff, now 43, led the Giants in home runs with 26 and in runs batted with 86 during their 2010 championship season. He played two more years in San Francisco before retiring after the 2012 season, in which the Giants again won the World Series.

We reached out to Aubrey Huff to let him know that he will not be included in the upcoming 2010 World Series Championship reunion, the Giants said in astatement emailed to The Athletic, the sports websitethat first reported the snub on Monday. The reunion is scheduled for Aug. 16.

Aubrey has made multiple comments on social media that are unacceptable and run counter to the values of our organization. While we appreciate the many contributions that Aubrey made to the 2010 championship season, we stand by our decision, the team statement said.

In a January tweet about Iranian women that he said was a joke but that has since been deleted, Huff wrote, in part, Lets get a flight over and kidnap about 10 each. We can bring them back here as they fan us and feed us grapes . In a stick-figure drawing that followed, according to The Athletic, one of three women says, Oh, thank you Mr. Huff [for] saving us from the hell in Iran! We will be forever grateful!

Huff said that his support of President Donald Trump is what really angered the Giants board. He also defended his use of locker-room humor, writing that he uses it satirically on Twitter. He noted that it helped the team relax before the 2010 World Series games. The same humor, he wrote, is now the cause for him being excluded.

They loved it then, and it hasnt changed. Thats not the issue. Its politics, Huff said, contending that a politically correct society was threatening the First Amendment and free speech rights.

To the Giants board members who seem to think every Giants fan is a liberal, they arent, he added. I have had thousands of [die-hard] Giants fans reach out to me on my social media platforms to support me.

Andrew Baggarly, the Giants beat writer for The Athletic, disputed Huffs assertion that the teams boards snub was motivated by his politics. Baggarly tweeted Monday that they are not banning Aubrey Huff because they dislike or disagree with his political views. They believe he has crossed the line when it comes to misogyny, vulgarity, and common decency.

Huff told The Athletic he was shocked and disappointed by his exclusion from the August celebration.

If it wasnt for me, they wouldnt be having a reunion, he said. But if they want to stick with their politically correct, progressive bull-, thats fine.

Allison Schuster is part of the Young Leader's Program at the Heritage Foundation and interns at The Daily Signal.

This article first appeared at The Daily Signal.

Image: Reuters.

Excerpt from:
'Politically Correct, Progressive Bull': Aubrey Huff Says Giants Excluded Him Due to His Support of Trump - The National Interest Online

Click on the following to see more info on each film.

PrimaryPrimary follows John F. Kennedy, as he goes head-to-head with established Minnesota senator Hubert Humphrey to win the Wisconsin presidential primary in April 1960.

Saturday, Feb. 29 11 a.m.

Love ChildA refugee survival story of an Iranian couple who, outlawed for their love, flee the country with their four-year-old son, Mani.

Saturday, Feb. 29, 1 p.m.

Mucho Mucho AmorThe life of ender non-conforming, cape-wearing psychic Walter Mercadobefore he mysteriously disappeared.

Saturday, Feb. 29, 4 p.m.

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The BandA confessional, cautionary, and sometimes humorous tale of Robertsons young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music.

Saturday, Feb. 29, 7 p.m.

The Capote TapesInterviews with friends and enemies of Truman Capote; a fascinating documentary on the author (and socialite) behind Breakfast at Tiffanys and In Cold Blood

Sunday, March 1, 11 a.m.

Picture CharacterA documentary that explores the complex, conflict-prone, and often hilarious world of the creators, lovers, and arbiters of emoji

Sunday, March 1, 4 p.m.

CAMDENA small camp that started in the 1960s in the Catskills by families of children with cerebral palsy is generating the biggest buzz after the 107-minute documentary opened at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in January.

For some 40 years, Camp Jened has been a place of welcoming acceptance and fun for disabled teenagers and adults. Jim LeBrecht was one of its teenaged campers in the 1970s and the experience so transformed his life, he made a documentary about it with Emmy-winning documentary producer and co-director, Nicole Newnham in 2019 titledCrip Camp.

Just when everyone is feeling the confines of deep winter, the Camden International Film Festival is bringing the outdoors and sunshine to Camden Opera House withCrip Campas its opener for the three-day mini winter festival called Cabin Fever.

CIFF Founder Ben Fowlie wanted to get his hands on this film and in a local theater as soon as possible after it was scooped up by Barack and Michelle Obama for their Netflix-based production company Higher Ground.

As more films are being acquired by online platforms, their windows for public screenings are getting smaller. We saw the writing on the wall and our Cabin Fever Fest was a way for us to address that, said Fowlie. Our goal with Cabin Fever is to bring films that people are going to be talking about next January to this community, and give our audiences a sneak peek before they appear in any of the major cities like Boston or New York.

Crip Campwon the coveted audience award at Sundance and for good reason. Its just a really powerful film, he said. Its been described as the birth of a movement doc. The experiences camp attendees had -- experiences around becoming an adult, about finding love and experimenting is what draws you in. And watching them transform into the groundbreaking activists is astronomically moving."

A review inVariety Magazinesums up the overall feeling of the film touching on why the title might seem politically incorrect to outsiders, but is actually a code word for inclusivity. According to reviewer, Peter DeBruge, ...the movie succeeds in enlightening without ever coming across as an eat your spinach civics lesson, beginning inside a utopian bubble where people without disabilities are the minority, then broadening the scope to include the more closed-minded outside world to which the campers return an intimidating obstacle course they collectively helped to reinvent.

Fowlie said there are numerous Maine connections toCrip Camp.

The film was edited by Mary Lampson, who is an incredibly accomplished editor living in central Maine. Shane Hofeldt, the assistant editor, also lives in Camden and went to Maine Media Workshops. Ben Levine shot some of the original black and white footage in the film. He's now based in Rockland. [See related story:Creating Social Change From Maine To Mexico.] Theyll all be there for the Q & A afterward.

Beyond the three days of film screenings, Cabin Fever promises live music, special parties and its signature virtual reality exhibitions calledStoryforms, which will be held on the third floor of Camden Opera House, Saturday, Feb. 29 from 12 to 7 p.m.

With Storyforms, people can come in and have eight to 10 different individual experiences with VR headsets, said Fowlie. If you want to kayak around Greenland, this will be your chance to do it."

For us, it's all about bringing community together to experience the power of storytelling, he said.

To see the schedule and get tickets visit:Cabin Fever.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

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CIFF's mini fest opens with 'Crip Camp: a summer camp for the handicapped run by hippies' - PenBayPilot.com