Despite the encomia heaped upon the late Fidel Castro over the past few days, from both tyrannical regimes and morally inverted Western leaders, the man who turned Cuba into a tropical gulag had no redeeming features. He ruined his nation, turning a once a thriving-if troubled-island into a testament to the failure of socialism and hellishness of totalitarian rule. That’s why this weekend’s tribute to the scores of victims of Castro’s dystopian regime, which you can RSVP to here, is necessary. Those who do not learn from history-or refuse to acknowledge its truths-are condemned to endlessly repeat it. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation should be applauded for shining light upon the brutalities of one of the few remaining Communist dictatorships.

You can find the details of the event below. I urge everyone in the Washington D.C. Area to stand with the men and women whose voices Fidel and his machinery of coercion tried to extinguish.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation invites you to join us in commemorating the thousands of victims who suffered and died at the hands of the Castro regime in Cuba. A candlelight vigil will take place on December 4th, 2016 at 4:30 PM at the Victims of Communism Memorial on the corner of New Jersey and Massachusetts Avenues in Washington, DC. 

We ask that you join us in standing with the Cuban people, remembering their past suffering, and hoping that this event marks the beginning of a truly democratic future for the island.

Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016

Time: 4:30PM-6:00PM

Location: Corner of New Jersey and Massachusetts Avenues, Washington, DC 20001

Even as the collectivist enterprise in Venezuela implodes, spreading misery, resentment, and hopelessness among the 30 million people suffering under Chavismo-whose tales of woe are easily accessible-there are those who refuse to acknowledge the destruction their ideas have caused. The allure of Marxism, in spite of its astronomical body count, to public intellectuals and elite opinion-makers cannot be underestimated, in spite of its dismal track record.

That’s why organizations like the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation are absolutely necessary, even in our post-Cold War world. This week, the foundation will hold a commemoration of the dedication of its memorial to the millions of martyrs sacrificed on the alter of Communism over the past century. I would urge all of my readers who live in the Washington D.C. Area to attend. You can register for the event here. We must never forget the crimes of this heinous, inhuman ideology, both past and present.

With the world aflame, it’s only appropriate that our periodical digest of immigration and cultural news returns. Starting off in the States, we find that Michelle Root, after a heartfelt meeting with Donald Trump, has decided to throw her support behind his candidacy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the case, Michelle is the mother of Sarah Root, who was murdered by a criminal alien that is now at large because of our government’s brilliant oversight of this national disaster. For a good exposition of why Donald Trump is worth supporting, I recommend David Horowitz’s fantastic piece in Breitbart, which echoes many of my thoughts regarding the Dump Trump phenomenon. In my mind, it’s the best encapsulation of the pro-Trump argument published thus far. Jack Cashill also has a worthwhile column on this subject in WorldNetDaily. However, for those of you of a more intellectual bent, I recommend reading acclaimed historian Paul Johnson’s coruscating attack on the paragons of PC culture, and explanation of how Trump’s candidacy is a breath of fresh air in this stagnant ideological environment.

Moving north, we’re pleased to note that justice triumphs over sharia, at least in this instance. Accepting this idiotic leftist neologism into our lexicon is bad enough, but allowing the congenital neuroses of social justice warriors to determine the fate of jihadists is a bridge too far. Let’s hope that a certain judge in Minnesota is paying attention to these proceedings.

Rounding out our tour of North America, we land upon Mexico, where El Chapo, formerly the world’s most-wanted fugitive, is one step closer to extradition. Sean Penn could not be reached for comment. Someone who never declines to speak his mind is former Mexican president Vincente Fox, whose torpid retirement has been enlivened by the unexpected success of Donald Trump. What’s notable about his most recent outburst is its stunning lack of self-reflection. A man whose tenure witnessed continued mass emigration-both illegal and legal-virtually no progress by any significant cultural or economic metric, and who was widely considered a more doltish version of President Bush, somehow believes that Trump supporters are the ones operating from a place of ignorance. Go figure.

In Latin America, we find that Panama has closed its border with Colombia in order to prevent Cuban emigres from using their country as a transit point to the United States. However, not before agreeing to the transfer of 3,000 Cubans to American territory. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, scores of Cubans are now flocking to American shores in order to take advantage of our wet foot, dry foot policy-implemented under President Clinton-which they fear will be coming to an end now that Barack Obama and the Castro regime have reached an uneasy detente.

Hopping across the pond, we find Britain under siege from the usual assortment of anti-fascist fascists, primarily The Religion of Peace and its prog thought enablers. While expressing public discontent with your government’s decision to repopulate your town with Islamic colonists is now grounds for being thrown into a dungeon, it appears that you can still safely threaten to behead political candidates who are not so keen on being invaded by scores of unassimilable aliens. This practice seems to have become a habit among well-integrated British Muslims, BTW. But aren’t these folks just the modern-day Jews fleeing the equivalent of Nazi Europe? No, they’re not, as even the perennially obnoxious Jamie Kirchick readily concedes, although we understand why someone conditioned by decades of open borders propaganda by the likes of NPR would think that’s an apt analogy. The same way it’s understandable that some have convinced themselves that Brexit represents an existential threat to the United Kingdom, although not as great as that posed by Donald Trump, evidently. The truth is much less flattering to the ruling class, alas.

However, truth is worth embracing for its own sake, in addition to its subsidiary benefits. Islamic refugees do pose a threat to European identity-and to the national sovereignty of the countries they’re invading-regardless of how politically incorrect this thought might seem to the gatekeepers of acceptable opinion. Even as the flood of colonizers from the Islamic world seek new paths of ingress, the results of Europe’s dangerous experiment in openness continue to pour in, most recently with a mysterious outbreak of mental illness in Munich, where the Palestinian knife jihad seems to be one more glorious import Mama Merkel has blessed her countrymen with. Is it any wonder that “far-right” thought criminals are catapulting to power in Central Europe?

Speaking of electoral politics, it looks like The Philippines has a new President-elect. Although that country has had its fair share of colorful leaders, Rodrigo Duterte seems to be in a class by himself. In addition to promising cabinet positions to the New People’s Army-a Maoist terrorist group which has waged a nearly half-century battle against the Filipino state-he has also pledged to negotiate with Islamic insurgents in the south of the country. Whether or not this promise includes the creatures who ritualistically sacrificed Canadian citizen John Ridsdel remains to be seen.

Over on the dark continent, we learn that Kenya has finally decided to shut down the world’s largest refugee camp. Followers of this site, or world events in general, can probably recite the litany of atrocities committed by Muslims living in Kenya-particularly those who are Somali refugees-so the decision to potentially repatriate some of these foreign nationals will come as little surprise. Neither will the howls of outrage from human rights groups, which lodged similar protests-equally spurious, as Philip Gourevitch has pointed out-against Rwanda’s effective campaign to close down terrorist havens in the Congo many years ago. 

New York City can often feel like an alien environment for those who prize rationality and individualism over collectivist groupthink and social justice campaigns designed to distract you from the fact that public section unions and non-profits exercise a stranglehold over the decision-making process. Our mayor is a Cold War Era relic who fetishizes policies that  the Vietnamese and Chinese Communists abandoned decades ago, while there are members of the New York City Council who are not able to communicate in the English language.

That’s why the upcoming We Are Breitbart Meetup in midtown Manhattan is a cause for celebration. To converse with individuals who are not completely and utterly delusional, and who have an actual understanding of how the free market works-rather than a set of regurgitated Paul Krugman talking points-is a rare opportunity for most New Yorkers. I invite you all to come to this week’s event, the details of which can be found below.

Where: Emmett O’ Lunney’s, 210 West 50th St. 

When: Wednesday, April 13, 2016, 6-8 PM 

Limited to the first 200 people 

It would appear that the federal government is close to charging the senior Senator from the Soprano State with corruption charges stemming from his relationship to Democratic Party ATM Salomon Melgen. Unlike the arrest of a criminal alien sex offender which Mr. Menendez once employed, this decision doesn’t seem to be directly tied to the political calendar. Although at least one of his colleagues is suggesting that it might be politically inspired, considering the Senator’s vocal opposition to President Obama’s recent foreign policy choices.

Questionable optics aside, it’s worth noting that this will be the second major Democratic officeholder of national consequence within the past month to be brought low by his lax approach to ethics. If only the fourth estate spent as much time and effort chronicling the damage inflicted upon ordinary citizens by our government’s approach to immigration enforcement as it did reporting the pedestrian news of yet another corrupt public official.

The day after Christmas-Boxing Day, for those of you in the Commonwealth of Nations-seems like an appropriate time for two inspiring stories which exemplify what this country stands for. Namely, freedom and the opportunity to pursue your dreams, both for yourself and your loved ones. Yasiel Puig, the superstar outfielder currently playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers embodies these values and has lived them in his heroic quest to achieve the American dream. In addition to escaping-after several failed attempts-the tropical gulag that is Fidel and Raul Castro’s Cuba, he successfully stood up to Los Zetas, arguably the most potent and ruthless paramilitary narco-cartel in Mexico. You can read his captivating tale in Los Angeles Magazine, which explored Puig’s circuitous route to the United States earlier this year. 

Just as inspirational as Puig’s journey is the story of Hans Von Spakovsky’s family, which endured the unspeakable horrors which befell Eastern and Central Europe during the first half of the 20th century before eventually coming to the shores of America. The contrast between the values that sustained them and the values that are inexorably eroding the foundations of the country into which Mr. Spakovsky was born couldn’t be more stark.

Both men define, in different ways, the agency and ambition that is synonymous with the United States-and which beckons enterprising people from across the globe. They also provide hope that, despite the narrative of decline that so many are eager to embrace-and which can be very seductive at this moment in our nation’s history-there is the possibility of eventual renewal for the United States.

The President’s abrupt announcement of an imminent détente with the tropical gulag run by the Castro Bros. has sent reporters and pundits scurrying to analyze the broader political implications of this seeming diplomatic breakthrough. On the economic front, the observation by former Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castenda that the cutoff of Venezuela’s oil subsidies to the island nation has forced it to seek another benefactor is undoubtedly accurate. As is the conclusion drawn by the Washington Post’s editorial board that this new policy will in effect-if not in intent-serve as an American bailout of an economy entering the terminal stage of Marxist decline.

The reality of a first world, capitalist-for the time being-nation riding to the rescue of a regime which has turned what was once one of the most robust economies in the Western Hemisphere into a stagnant pool of human misery is something that El Jefe’s apologists are loathe to accept. A situation that Michael Moynihan deftly skewered in a Daily Beast post recounting some of the more imbecilic remarks tweeted by Castro sycophants, most of whom have probably never set foot inside a Cuban hospital. 

Steve Sailer, on the other hand, has mooted a fascinating and original point which I think most of our readers would be interested in contemplating. To wit, that the relaxation of diplomatic relations between our two nations could potentially lead to the export of scores of Cuban migrants who pose economic and political problems for a faltering Communist dictatorship. Although the analogy to the Marielitos is tempting for a number of reasons, it’s not necessary to consider a seaborne invasion in order to foresee how immigration could be dramatically impacted by this diplomatic thaw.

While drawing any firm conclusions as to what will happen in the future regarding Cuban-American relations is impossible at the moment, is it that outlandish to consider the possibility of thousands-or a possibly greater number-of Cuban refugees being admitted to the United States as a result of a bilateral agreement between this administration and the caudillo in Havana, with or without congressional input? Based upon recent history, I don’t believe it is. Only time will tell whether this démarche is the beginning of a new era in American foreign policy or something much more cynical and unromantic.

The past few weeks have been filled with news of dramatic happenings throughout the globe, not the least of which is the rapidly metastasizing ebola epidemic. In order to put things into proper perspective, it’s always useful to have an intelligent, rational guide who’s not captive to multiculturalist dogma and elitist groupthink. Thankfully, the latest edition of Radio Derb has just arrived! 

From the latest political turmoil engulfing Hong Kong-including the Chinese Communist Party’s ham-fisted attempts to crush the Occupy Central democracy movement-to the dubious hiring practices of this city’s Marxist mayor, John Derbyshire covers it all. Definitely worth checking out for those of you who have been enjoying a news sabbatical.

Not content with simply accepting the invasion of the United States as a fait accompli, the Obama administration is now actively seeking to facilitate the erasure of American sovereignty. To that end, it’s mooting a proposal to import hundreds-perhaps thousands-of Central Americans directly from their countries of origin under the ever-nebulous designation of refugee status. We can look forward, no doubt, to media portrayals of this newest misguided immigration policy as a modern-day version of Operation Pedro Pan and its opponents as heartless xenophobes. 

Of course, the Americans who live in the communities which will have to absorb these new refugees will have no say in the matter. The negative consequences of the newest refugee resettlement program will never be reported by the same media which contributed to it through their willfully misleading reporting, just as the economic costs of it will not be shared by the federal government which is responsible for its promulgation. 

For a view of where the unaccompanied minors have been placed thus far, we suggest looking at this useful map provided by the Wall Street Journal. Chances are that it will look very different by this time next year. 

Update: Here’s a link to a somewhat more concise review I did for Goodreads. 

One of the most common critiques of contemporary American society, and Western culture more broadly, is its purported enthrallment to the opiate of celebrity. The notion that ordinary Americans are so dumbfounded by popular entertainment that they can’t understand linear, logical thought, let alone come up with workable solutions to complex problems which require such understanding, is not new. The late Neil Postman wrote an entire book exploring the damage wrought by modern communication techniques-namely, television and advertising-to the process of information-gathering, and by extension, rational argument and inquiry. However, even Henry David Thoreau-who lived before radio had attenuated the attention spans of humans weaned on the printed word-lamented the prospect of instantaneous communication.

Even so, you can’t properly understand the term celebrity until you’ve looked at a totalitarian state which is dominated not so much by an ideological impulse or dogma as by a cult of personality. That’s why the book written by celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice-seen above in his dashing North Korean suit-about the late despot Kim Jong-il serves as an invaluable resource.  Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il-gives a western audience the rare opportunity to peer into the mind of someone who stood at the apex of a regime in which there was only one family and one person who was to be celebrated-upon pain of imprisonment, torture, and death. 

The unique nature of the North Korean state lies not so much in its depraved sadism-although it’s difficult to argue that it doesn’t equal or exceed even the most barbarous governments on the planet in this regard-but in the fact that it has managed to extirpate any public expression of individuality. Not only has the Kim dynasty suppressed any and all political dissent for the better part of seven decades, it has succeeded in effacing the personality of 24 million Koreans. In the tropical gulag that is Cuba you will find exuberantly defiant bloggers standing up to the Castro brothers tyranny. In the despotic theocracy that is the Islamic Republic of Iran, you will find courageous resistance to the Khomenist regime and first-hand accounts of what it’s like to be incarcerated in the notorious Evin Prison.

You won’t find internal dissidents in the DPRK, because to all intents and purposes, they do not exist. To dissent is to sign your own death warrant-not only for yourself, but for three generations of your family. You won’t hear the conditions inside of kwan-li-so described, because-with a few exceptions-no one leaves these concentration camps alive, and the only way outsiders are able to view them is through satellite photographs.

The brilliance of Dear Reader is its ability to convey these horrific truths in a way which compels the reader to look at North Korea in all its unvarnished brutality. At first glance, the concept of writing a book about an ongoing holocaust which relies upon humor to any extent is controversial, if not revolting. One of the reasons that a film like Goodbye Lenin can be enjoyed by ordinary people is because they recognize that it satirizes ugly crimes perpetrated by a regime which is safely immured in the past, and which will in all likelihood never be resurrected. The atrocities being committed in the DPRK, on the other hand, show no sign of abating.

The truth is that this book is suffused with humor, but not the type of humor that most people associate with Kim Jong-il or Kim Jong-un. It’s not designed to focus on the trivial manifestations of their well-cultivated international image of eccentricity, e.g. the goodwill tour by washed-up  NBA power forward/media spectacle Dennis Rodman. It’s used as a means of illustrating a lethally serious point. Namely, that this ruling clique has successfully employed an architecture of myth-based upon fear, ignorance, anger, and the desire for vengeance-in order to not only immiserate the Koreans under their rule materially, but to also impoverish their spirit and their souls.

One of the ways the author makes this viscerally disturbing narrative digestible is by contextualizing the Kim dynasty. People today can’t comprehend how a state created out of the spoils of World War II, a vestige of the Cold War conflict between the United States and USSR, became a singularly isolated and defiant  national socialist, i.e. fascist, regime predicated upon the worship of a single individual and intense, multigenerational racialism.

He does this in a number of ways, most interestingly perhaps by humanizing his subject, i.e. one of the most loathsome dictators of the past half-century. As off-putting as this might seem to the uninitiated, it’s a surprisingly effective means of explaining how and why the North Korean state exists, in spite of an increasingly porous web of information control. Taking traditional biographical tropes about family life and adolescent angst and transposing them into a story about Southeast Asia’s most iconic despot is an unconventional technique, but ultimately a successful one. A particularly affecting anecdote involves a young Kim Jong-il guarding the study of his father, Kim il-Sung, as he sleeps. Oddly moving, it serves as a metaphor for his guardianship of his dad’s legacy, even at the cost of the enforced starvation of over a million of his countrymen.

This highlights another aspect of North Korea’s unique regime, which is later revealed explicitly by Kim himself, when he admits that his advisors are not chosen because of any technical competence or foresight they may display, but because of their intense loyalty to Kim il-Sung, i.e. Kim Jong-il, thought. The consequent economic, social, and environmental disasters that resulted from this leadership method are, naturally, a necessary evil for preserving the sanctity of the true Korean state in the eyes of the Dear Leader.

Malice makes the sclerotic nature of this system comprehensible, which might come as a surprise to many of us who have been repeatedly told that there is no rhyme or reason to the actions taken by the DPRK’s leadership. In fact, there was a brutal internal logic and rationality to the actions of Kim Jong il, from extolling a juche philosophy that seemingly prized autarky-even while living parasitically off the extorted handouts from hostile neighbors and the United States-to an incomplete series of garish monuments exalting the only family to have ruled North Korea since its creation.

Therefore, the Agreed Framework between the United States and the DPRK was not a shameful capitulation, but a necessary expedient to preserve the Juche ideal, while also debasing both a former and current President of the United States. True to the promise on Dear Reader’s book jacket, this part is 100 percent “true,” as a perusal of Bill Clinton’s letter to Kim Jong-il at the time demonstrates. The bellicose rhetoric emanating from North Korea is not the rantings of a paranoid lunatic, but Songun diplomacy, which, regardless of its dubious morality, was extraordinarily efficacious. Kim’s explanation of an humanitarian aid package accepted five years later illustrates why:

After much grandstanding and hyperbole, the American and Korean negotiators reached a compromise. The Americans claimed that they were neither rewarding me nor condoning my violent rhetoric. That is absolutely true. They didn’t “reward” me or “condone” my rhetoric. On the other hand, they did financially compensate me because of my aggression. 

Accepting charity from the Yank devils was not a repudiation of the principles undergirding his very regime, but a brilliant strategic maneuver. And it wasn’t charity but reparations for the harm inflicted upon the DPRK for decades by the American imperialists.

This didn’t contradict the Juche principle of self-reliance one bit. I didn’t look at the package as aid so much as the repayment of a debt. The US imperialists had been threatening Korea for decades. It was entirely their fault that I’d had to expend such enormous sums on the military. 

Even actions that seem completely inscrutable to outside observers, e.g. the North Korean government’s evident pride in being lavished with praise by equally dysfunctional nation-states like the West African, Marxist backwater Burkina Faso or the South Asian dumpster fire that is Pakistan, become explicable once you understand them from the perspective of the man pulling the strings. As absurd as having Mali as one of your strategic partners might seem to us, it serves the interests of the Kim regime. Just like its arsenal of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, the International Friendship Museum is intended for domestic consumption, not for our benefit.

If there’s one thing to take away from Dear Reader, it’s that there is a calculated reason for every decision made at the upper echelons of power within North Korea. As Kim Jong-il avers himself, he was “no buffoon,” and his actions-however clownish they may have seemed to foreigners-had deadly consequences which were methodically plotted out beforehand. This is a book worth reading, if only because it illuminates the dark corners of a society whose people have suffered for too long in the shadows of their loving parents.