But all indications are that it's a good thing.
The Free Press profiles The Woman Who Took on a Dictator—and Won a Nobel Peace Prize. And you can believe I cheered up even more when I read María Corina Machado's [MCM] response to interviewer Jonathan Jakubowicz [JJ]:
JJ: You mention socialism. Believe it or not, there is a generation of Americans today who are flirting with socialism. And when Venezuela is raised as a warning, they say: That wasn’t real socialism. Are they wrong?
MCM: Twenty-six years ago, Venezuelan youth fell in love with a socialist in Hugo Chávez. When people pointed to Cuba as a warning, they said, “Venezuela is not Cuba. And Cuba is not real socialism.” But here we are—worse than Cuba.
Socialism always follows the same pattern. It elevates the state above the citizen, strips away your autonomy, your conscience, your dignity, your ability to choose. And it does so with a seductive lie. It whispers of equality, but the only equality it delivers is at the bottom—where everyone is dragged down together. That has been the case in every nation, on every continent, in every culture where it has been tried. The result is always the same: a gigantic state that crushes the people beneath it, and once it takes hold, is terribly hard to remove.
Only free societies—where the individual comes first—can nurture both liberty and the responsibility that sustains it. Because freedom without responsibility decays, and responsibility without freedom is tyranny. But when merit becomes the path to rise, when effort and creativity are rewarded, then every citizen is called to succeed—the whole nation rises together.
That is what we want for Venezuela. And it is why I say to the American people: Do not be seduced. Socialism is the sexiest path to losing your freedom. Guard your freedom jealously. Defend it fiercely. Because freedom is not just an American promise—it is the hope of the world.
I've boldfaced a particularly good bit.
The WSJ editorialists also hail A Nobel for Venezuela’s Iron Lady.
Allies of President Trump are grousing that he didn’t win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. But it’s hard to fault the admirable choice, announced Friday, of Venezuelan freedom fighter María Corina Machado.
The Nobel committee called her “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent time,” and we’d drop the geographic caveat. In the personal risks and sacrifices she has made for democracy, she sets an example for the world.
Ian Vásquez at Cato is also a fan: Maria Corina Machado, Venezuelan Champion of Freedom, Wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Nobel Committee made an excellent choice. Maria Corina Machado is one of the world’s most admirable leaders. After a quarter century of opposing Venezuela’s Chavista regime, she emerged in the past couple of years as the clear leader of an opposition that, until then, had been internally divisive and ineffective in challenging the regime.
Hope this eventually translates into regime change in Caracas.
Also of note:
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It looks like popcorn-passing will continue for the foreseeable future. No sane person wants this to continue, but nevertheless, Jonathan Turley notes, it probably will. Purge Politics: Jeffries Pledges Legal Retaliation When Democrats Take Power.
On MSNBC’s “All In,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) doubled down on his pledge of legal retaliation against Trump officials and associates if Democrats retake power. He noted that Trump “sycophants” in the Department of Justice do not have immunity and will be pursued. The statement comes after the indictment of Letitia James for mortgage fraud. The statement suggests that the country could be in store for waves of purge politics in which parties fire or prosecute officials from the prior administration.
The comments come after the charging of Letitia James for mortgage fraud, a move widely viewed as retaliation for her own lawfare record.
You know where they do this sort of thing? Venezuela, that's where.
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Better (very) late than never, I suppose. Bradley A. Smith and Eric Wang give one small cheer for the possibility of progress: IRS Scandal Makes It to Court. (WSJ gifted link)
Remember the Internal Revenue Service scandal of 2013, when it came out that the IRS under the Obama administration had targeted conservative nonprofits for harassment? In a little-noticed but immensely consequential First Amendment decision Sept. 30, a federal judge ruled that the IRS regulations on nonprofits’ political activity are unconstitutional.
It’s a major free-speech victory nearly 15 years in the making. In the case, Freedom Path v. IRS, Judge Jia M. Cobb, a Biden appointee, concluded what the nonprofit community has long known: The IRS rules concerning whether certain nonprofit organizations have engaged in too much political activity are unworkable and unconstitutionally vague.
And unworkable and vague rules are useful tools for abusive government.
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On the LFOD watch. Just a reminder that Constitutional protections aren't the current administration's strong suit either: AL.com reports Trump gets clowned for apparently thinking basic legal principle is a person: ‘Who?’.
But our state's junior senator also scores some points against an equally clueless apparatchik, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem:
Noem was asked about the legal principle when she testified before the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee in May.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., asked Noem, “what is habeas corpus?”
“Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right the president has to be able to remove people from this country,” Noem responded.
Hassan interrupted the secretary to give the correct definition.
“No, let me stop you ... habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people,” the senator said.
“If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason,” Hassan continued.
“Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea,” she said. “As a senator from the Live Free or Die State, this matters a lot to me and my constituents and to all Americans ...”
Well, congratulations for a particularly gratuitous quote of our state motto, Maggie.
Back in 2019, we pointed out that Maggie, like every other Senate Democrat, backed a constitutional amendment that would significantly curtail freedom of speech. Where's your LFOD spirit now, Maggie?
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