Obituaries of Kim Jong Il are being published across the nation's newspapers, and the hermit country's dictator is blamed for North Koreans' mass sufferings.

Kim Jong Il was certainly an evil monster, but what the media overlooks is that he was merely an effect of North Korea's failed system, not the cause of it.

The root cause of the backwards, oppressive state is its economic system--communism--not the personality of the brute that is in charge of the state. Dictators can't exist without centralized control, and centralized control is exactly what communism provides. Yet no mainstream commentary is focusing on that fact, including the Star's.

Stalinist dictator Kim Jong Il's death at age 69 or maybe 70 -- the official mythology varies -- offers the people of North Korea some small, faint hope that their lives may get better.

Il was not the communist dictator of North Korea, he was the Stalinist dictator. See the distinction? Mainstream commentary overlooks communism's role in North Korea's poverty, as if to say North Korea isn't an example of communism's failure, it's an example of Stalinism's failure. This distinction is popular so that the Left's agenda of a more socialist economic system is untied from real-world examples of socialism and communism. Let's not forget that National Socialism in Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics killed tens of millions of people in the 20^th century. Other euphemistic systems for socialist states like the People's Republic of China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea killed millions of more. If oppression pervades a country, chances are the word socialism or one of its euphemisms is nearby. Hugo Chavez is a member of the United Socialist Party, and Kim Jong Il was a member of the Workers' Party of North Korea.

The demonstrably failed economic system present in each of those repressive regimes is resurgent and becoming dominant in the United States, aided by our unwillingness to realize that history teaches us brutal dictators are at the end of socialism's path.

Not only do brutal dictatorships require a big, centralized government to exert control, such a government inevitably leads to dictatorships. The nature of government is to grow, and the nature of power is to centralize. If we also throw in that power corrupts, then those three dynamics eventually result in a huge government under the control of a few corrupt men. Naturally, in many places where socialism has taken hold, that's been the result, whether it's taken the form of Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Hugo Chavez, Robespierre, Pol Pot, or Kim Jong Il--all members of the economic left.

In fact, dictatorship from the economic right, which is comprised of laissez faire capitalists and small-government libertarianism--is impossible, since we eschew big government, the prerequisite of oppression.

Holding signs that read "Don't Starve Kids," 70 protesters from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights demonstrated outside of the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility in Camarillo Sunday. From the Star:

"We're not going to stop until every one of these facilities is shut down!" shouted Laura Brady, a member of the Ella Baker Center's campaign called "Families for Books not Bars."

Lead organizer Owen Li said the protesters were there for three reasons: To end solitary confinement, to stop the violence and to make sure the youths get adequate food.

What is the Ella Baker Center?

The center was formed in 1996 by far-left agitator-turned-presidential-advisor Van Jones. Jones, a self-proclaimed communist and 9-11 Truther,  ran the group from 1996 until joining the Obama Administration, and during that time it received several hundred thousand dollars in funding from George Soros.  

The rhetoric of the protestors might sound nice--who would want to "starve kids"--but adding context around who exactly is protesting should raise the question of just what are they up to? 

And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right.

And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, "Oh God, don't be attacking Obama." Well, this is Obama's deal, and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America.

The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution, and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest or holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. 

Everybody's afraid of the government, and there's no need to soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessmen and Republican businessmen, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. 

The far left-wing groups that organize illegal immigration protests don't go too far out of their way to hide their radicalism.

A group called Power to the People Collective marched in Oxnard (where else) for "solidarity" with other workers across the world on May Day.

According to the Ventura County Star, May Day was established by the International Socialist Congress in 1889. The Star noted that since then, "most of the world observed May 1 as Labor Day, and it was strongly identified with socialism, communism, anarchism and grim faced old duffers atop Lenin's Tomb reviewing endless columns of Soviet weaponry."

The meaning of the day did not seem to be lost on the protesters, who describe themselves as "members of the collective."

John and Mary Tolian of Oxnard were at the rally and march in support of workers. "I think it's important to come out on May Day," John said. "I wish they did more in the city of Oxnard."

The Power to the People Collective doesn't just have a name that seems sketchy, its mission statement sounds like it was copied and pasted from the New Black Panther Party or the KKK.  The group's mission statement calls for "organizing for the self-defense and empowerment of our community as a response toward the escalation of repressive measures aimed at migrants, families, and workers."

Organizing for self-defense?

There's more--the group's website states that "engagement and communication with those forces that oppress and attack our community are inevitable..."

 What are they going to do when they engage the "attackers?"

The website has a contact email address with the domain riseup.net. Riseup is a self-described revolutionary group that states that its purpose is to "aid the creation of a free society...where power is shared equally. We do this by providing communication and computer resources to allies engaged in struggles against capitalism and other forms of oppression."

Riseup also declares that a society's "means of productions should be placed in the hands of the people," the definition of communism.

The word "liberation" is sprinkled throughout Riseup's website, a theory that is central to the Party of Socialism and Liberation, another revolutionary group that organized on May Day for "workers' rights."

The PSL regularly holds workshops on Marxism and calls itself a "militant" group.

To the casual reader flipping through the newspaper, the Power to the People Collective is merely a coalition of concerned citizens. A few minutes of Googling, however, reveals the group is sympathetic to a revolutionary, militant, Marxist ideology. 

R. Lee Ermey doesn't pull any punches.

The most famous Marine in the country took on the Obama Administration at a recent charity event for toddlers--not exactly the venue one would expect for a rant on the perils of socialism, but you may have noticed he's rather outspoken.

Ermey carved out a nice little acting niche for himself as a tough military man after his masterful appearance as a colorful drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. He hosted the History Channel's Mail Call, a successful series on military equipment, provides the voice of the lead army man in Toy Story, and most recently is all over the TV in GEICO commercials as a verbally and physically abusive psychologist.

Apparently ,he doesn't think too highly of the Obama Administration.

"The economy really sucks," Ermey said from the stage of a Toys for Tots event, lamenting the decline in donations to the organization. Now I hate to point fingers at anybody but the present administration probably had a lot to do with that. The way I see it, they're not going to quit doing it until they bring this country to its knees, so I think we should all rise up and stop this administration from what they are doing because they are destroying this country. They are driving us into bankruptcy so they can impose socialism on us."

Ermey later apologized, saying he was just trying to be entertaining. After watching the video, for some reason I don't think his words were insincere.