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More and more liberal Americans are embracing socialism. Unfortunately, it seems many of them arent aware of the realities that citizens in countries like Venezuela face. Filmmaker Ami Horowitz spoke with Americans who call socialism great. Then, he traveled to Venezuela to speak with men and women actually living in the horrific environment that socialist policies have created.

In this video, we meet Venezuelan citizens who struggle to find enough food each day and live in the middle of spiking crime and violence. As one woman told him, Most of the time we are starvingwe cannot find food, we cannot find milkwe cannot find basic things like sugar.

Another woman, who was pregnant, described standing in line all night for food to come away with only a can of milk. Other people described the extreme dichotomy between rich and poor in the country, talking about those in government have all the power and money. The video also showcases an epidemic of violence. The country has less than one-tenth the population of the United States but three times the murder rate.

Near the end of the video, Horowitz asks the Venezuelans what they would say to Americans who want to bring socialism to the United States. The responses were telling, as they warned people not to invite chaos and hunger into their lives.

They would have to live what we are living so they can see for themselves that nothing is good, so they see this is a nightmare for us, a terror, said one woman.

See more here:
WATCH: Liberals Love Socialism But These Venezuelans Should ... - National Review

The Ontario government's plan to dramatically cut hydro rates did little to boost support for the Liberals ahead of next year's provincial election, a new poll suggests.

The Mainstreet research poll, commissioned by Postmediaand released Wednesday, suggeststhe Ontario Provincial Conservative party remain in the lead despite the announcement, though more respondents saythey are undecided about who they would vote for if an election were held today.

Earlier this month, Premier Kathleen Wynne unveiled a plan that would slash residential and small business hydro bills by an average of 17 per cent andsee billions in costs lifted off customers in the short term.It meant that some $28 billion in costs would be refinanced, with futureratepayersshouldering the interest.

The move came as the Liberalgovernment was found to be trailing the PCs by some 14 per cent in a range of polls, and nearly even with the NDP.

According to the poll, which captured the views of 2,531 Ontarians on March 11-12, the move was received by 41 per cent of respondents as a political one. Even so, 47 per cent of those polled approved of the hydro plan, with 35 per cent disapproving.

For comparison purposes only, a random sample of this size would yield a margin of error of plus or minus 1.95 per cent.The poll was conducted by interactive voice response and included landline and cell lineresponses.

"Right now, it looks like Wynne has succeeded in expanding the number of Ontarians who might vote for her," Mainstreet Research executive vice-president David Valentin said. "But that doesn't mean they will."

Demonstrators unhappy with the price of electricity protest at Queen's Park on Wednesday, November 23, 2016. (Mike Crawley/CBC)

"Everywhere I go I hear from people worried aboutthe price that they are asked to pay for hydro and the impact that it has on their household budgets," Wynne said, making the announcement at Queen's Park almost exactly two weeks ago.

The Liberals don't appear to have garnered any new support following Wynne's announcement, the poll shows. In fact, it notes they dropped two percentage points within the margin of error.

"Anger over hydro prices doesn't just work like a light switch. You can't just turn it on and off," said Valentin. "I think if people begin to see a real tangible change in their hydro bills come September, then maybe we'll start to see more traction."

But with the number of undecided voters up among every demographic in the province, the numbers do indicate they've managed to "knock voters away from the opposition parties for now."

The largest jump in undecided voters came from southwestern Ontario, while the GTA's undecided rate was largelyunchanged, it found. And among all those surveyed, the PCs posted a 10-point lead.

However, all bets were off on the issue of Ontario's hydro plan alone, the poll found, with PC leader Patrick Brown's lead disappearing altogether when respondents were asked who had the best plan for the province.

"When asked which provincial leader has the best Hydro plan, the results point to a three-way race," Valentin said.

"ButI think the question is not how many people are going to base their vote just on who has teh best hydro plan but has the premier been able to change the ballot question to not focus on hydro at all. If she can focus Ontarians on her plan for free tuition for low-income students in September or on upcoming job reform... she'll be doing a lot better."

The PCs have so far presented no plan for cutting hydro rates.

And earlier this month, Ontario's New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath released a plan to reduce rates by as much as 30 per cent for some households. The cornerstone of her plan was buying back shares of Hydro One sold by the government to private investors.

And earlier this month, Ontario's New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath released a plan to reduce rates by as much as 30 per cent for some households. The cornerstone of her plan was buying back shares of Hydro One sold by the government to private investors. (CBC)

That plan appears to have resonated with voters, the poll found.

Horwath's score on the question of hydro alone was four percentage points higher than her score overall on voting intentions.

On Wednesday, Horwath issued what she called a challenge to Wynne:To table the details of her plan at the legislature for debate Monday.

"Show the people of Ontario what your $40 billion dollar borrowing deal really means... People deserve to see it in black and white."

More:
Ontario Liberals' hydro rate cut plan did little to spark voter support, new poll suggests - CBC.ca

Donald Trump / Getty

BY: Alex Griswold March 15, 2017 12:49 pm

A group of anti-Trump liberals and Democratic operatives were tricked into paying thousands of dollars fordocuments that made explosive claims aboutPresident Donald Trump, butturned out to be forgeries.

Buzzfeed learned of the documents' existence when the operatives tried to sell them on the story. Supposedly, the documents showed$1.6 billion being transferred fromExxonMobil to a Chinese mining companyand then finally to the Trump Organization during the 2016 election. The purported transfers would have taken placeat the same time eventual Exxon Mobil CEO and Secretary of StateRex Tillerson was meeting with Vladimir Putin in Russia.

None of it was true.Anti-Trump activistBrett Kimberlin fronted the $9,000 for the documentswhich wereprovided by an alleged Italian scam artist,and passed them along to Democratic operatives. Kimberlin, now a liberal blogger, was convictedof a 1978 Indiana bombing spreethat eventually led a maimed victim to commit suicide.

But the documents were "rife with spelling and grammatical errors," Buzzfeed noted, at odd with what one would expect from a $340 billion multinational company like Exxon. Among the more blatant errors,the documents falsely identified the president of the Chinese company as its CEO and misspelled his name. The bank statements that came with the documents also contained clear errors, such as getting the fullname of ExxonMobil incorrect.

In addition to Buzzfeed, the groups of Democratic operatives shopped the documents toThe New York Times,The Washington Post, and Bloomberg, all of whom passed. The story was eventually picked up in February by theliberal blog Down With Tyranny,citing "pretty heavy duty, well-sourced rumors."

Original post:
Anti-Donald Trump Liberals Tricked Into Paying $9000 For Fake Documents - Washington Free Beacon

FiveThirtyEight

Liberals Would Be Foolish To Primary Joe Manchin FiveThirtyEight Some liberal activists want to challenge Sen. Joe Manchin in West Virginia's 2018 Democratic primary. They complain that he's too conservative and that he voted to confirm most of President Trump's Cabinet officials. Manchin is probably safe ... and more »

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Liberals Would Be Foolish To Primary Joe Manchin - FiveThirtyEight

A new study says the Liberal government should rethink federal parental benefits and overhaul a system that is leaving out too many families and women.

The study released Wednesday by the Institute for Research on Public Policy says the federal government should consider taking parental benefits out of the employment insurance system and give it a new federal program to ensure that more parents can qualify for benefits.

As is, the study says, there is a cohort of those new parents, particularly mothers, who dont qualify for benefits, or cant qualify because they are self-employed or freelancers a problem likely to increase with the widening of the gig economy.

Related: Many Canadians too cash-strapped to raise children

Self-employed parents can voluntarily opt-in to the employment insurance system in order to qualify for parental benefits, but the study notes take up is low.

The study also finds that parents from lower and modest income homes those the federal government would consider as hoping to join the middle class dont take benefits for an entire year.

The studys author says it all leads to questions of how inclusive the parental leave system really is, and whether a change in rules would mean parents arent forced back to work sooner than they are meant to in order to make ends meet.

Access to paid benefits, job protected leave, and then child care means that woman can move back into the workforce after having kids, says Jennifer Robson, an assistant professor of political management at Carleton University.

But I think theres also this issue of, is the system right now working in a way that gives equitable coverage both on getting into the system but also being able to actually maximize the use of the benefits?

New parents account for one out of every five EI claims filed, a statistic that wasnt foreseen when the system was set up in 1971 and designed as a niche add-on to employment insurance, Robson said.

The federal parental leave program pays out benefits for up to 15 weeks for new mothers and allows parents to split an additional 35 weeks.

The Liberals want to extend federal parental leave to 18 months, but not include a similar increase in benefits.

The paper suggests there is some merit to extending benefits to 18 months, including allowing two-parent families to split the leave, but pushes the federal government to ensure changes dont leave out low-income parents as critics have warned.

As it is, Canadians receiving parental benefit earn on average of $427 a week for a year. Spread over 18 months, that works out to $305 per week, or a little over $1,200 per month.

Robson says the Liberals could look at boosting the family supplement, an extra $41 a week paid to the bottom 4.5 per cent of income earners on EI. The government could also find a way to better align the Canada child benefit, which is calculated off a parents last income tax return that could be higher or lower than their current earnings.

The rest is here:
Study urges Liberals to overhaul parental leave benefits - The Globe and Mail