Free Republic

An Imperial Japanese diplomat in Nazi Germany before the war was supposed to have written back to Tokyo lamenting that Japan had nothing like the Jews. Totalitarian regimes are at their best when they have a readily identifiable minority to persecute and, most importantly, to scapegoat. "It's crazy," TwitterX user Justine wrote about the American Left, "how they went from 'punch a Nazi' to 'eradicate the Jews' in just 4 years." It isn't crazy at all once you realize that violence is the point. Justine was replying to this video, in which American college students can be heard chanting "Hamas...

Nothing shows the difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump more than their occasional riffs on the campaign trail. Trump’s recent riff about Biden issuing a proclamation declaring Easter Sunday as “Transgender Awareness Day” is classic Trump. When he suggested to the crowd that maybe we should have Christian Awareness Day and maybe it should be on election day, you could probably hear heads exploding in Washington. Compare and contrast this with a classic Joe Biden riff. Apropos of nothing, the commander-in-chief wandered into a story about cannibals eating his uncle. It has to be on the top all-time greatest...

Yes, you’re right, it’s a republic, not a democracy, but this is no time to quibble. Two high-profile Trump critics, one of whom was even touted as the presidential candidate who could topple Bad Orange in 2020, have just shown that they realize that the real threat to this tottering republic is coming not from the man they once happily joined in on hating, but from his enemies First it was the man whom Tucker Carlson indelibly dubbed the “Creepy Porn Lawyer.” Michael Avenatti, porn star Stormy Daniels’ former lawyer, is now doing time for a variety of crimes including...

PGA Tour star Scottie Scheffler, who won his second green jacket at the Masters last week, isn't the only world No. 1 golfer dominating a professional tour right now. Nelly Korda, No. 1 in the Rolex Women's World Golf Ranking, has won in four consecutive starts on the LPGA Tour, becoming the first golfer since Lorena Ochoa in 2008 to accomplish the feat. Korda is the first American golfer since Kathy Whitworth in 1969 to capture victories in four of her first five LPGA starts in a season.

On April 11 1966, Glen Campbell was drafted in as a last minute rhythm guitarist for a recording session with Frank Sinatra. Unable to believe that he was in the presence of his idol, he spent much of his time at the studio on Sunset Boulevard, in Los Angeles, gazing worshipfully at the man laying down the vocal for Strangers In The Night. The attention did not go unnoticed. “Who,” Sinatra hissed, “is that f______ guitar player?” By the time his anonymous sideman had become a superstar in his own right, just two years later, Old Blue Eyes might well...

To show that his side is the side of sanity, logic, and rationality, a local man has decided to set himself ablaze, incinerating his own body on live TV. Eyewitnesses report that the man, who was clearly in a healthy, stable state of mind, doused himself in gasoline before striking a match and igniting his own body, presumably for a very sane and noble reason. As flames engulfed him, onlookers were immediately convinced of the truth of his cause, ending all debate once and for all. "Well, I guess that settles that. He's right and I'm wrong," said local man...

Harper’s this week published a lengthy reported feature about the state of Hollywood, particularly the state of screenwriting and whether or not folks can credibly make a living while doing so. It’s kind of interesting in the sense that the author has an idea (deregulation is bad and greedy CEOs are ruining everything) and writes backward from there. I am … skeptical that Ronald Reagan is the proximate cause for the streaming bubble popping, but, you know, maybe. You should give it a read and decide for yourself. Ultimately, that’s what we’re dealing with: a bubble. An insane amount of...

Accommodating overseas elites by tolerating antisemitism on U.S. campuses is part of a scheme to turn loss-leader DEI categories into profit centersFive weeks after Rutgers University suspended the New Brunswick campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on Dec. 11 for violating several university policies, the school reversed its decision and reinstated the pro-Hamas group. In celebration, SJP members filmed a video in the classic Palestinian terrorist style: faces covered in kaffiyehs, reading a communique which, following a diatribe against the Zionists, made a list of demands that the school must meet if it wished to wipe the...

Ever since October 7, mobs of Muslims have taken over much of central London for kill-the-Jews rallies. The effect has been to make being Jewish in London increasingly dangerous. Things came to a head last Saturday when a group of Jews leaving a synagogue bumped into the Muslims’ weekly protest. One of that group, Gideon Falter, describes what happened: It was early afternoon, in central London, and I was with five others, some of us wearing a kippah, or skullcap.At Aldwych, we came across the pro-Palestine protest and we started to cross the road as the front of the march...

There is much to learn from Paul Johnson's history of the 20th century, not least the appalling truth about the "Republican" camp during the Spanish Civil War; some unpalatable facts about FDR and his "vanity … compounded by an astonishing naivety"; and, most importantly, the many ways in which the autocrats of the left (Lenin, Stalin, Mao, etc…) and of the right (Hitler, Mussolini, Pétain, etc…) inspired, complemented, and even conspired with, one another. Much of what we have learned turns out to be myths. What explains the rise of rightist fascism, and how does it differ from leftist communism?...

The eminent barrister (and later Lord Chancellor) F E Smith was famously asked by an irritated judge: "Are you trying to show contempt for this court, Mr Smith?" To which he replied: "No, my Lord, I am trying to conceal it." We have all been there. Well, I certainly have - rather recently, as it happens. There are times, however, when it is necessary not to conceal it. This week's Trump Trial of the Week is the bazillionth attempt by the ruling party to nail the leader of the opposition on ...something, anything, whatever's to hand. So naturally a certain...

While reading One Way Back, the new “memoir” by Christine Blasey Ford, the accuser of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during the 2018 confirmation hearings, I was reminded of a frequently reoccurring scene on the show Cops: A perpetrator has been caught red-handed doing something wrong—let us say he’s got drugs in his car. As the police question and arrest him, the suspect proceeds to talk about everything in the world except the drugs. He was at his brother’s house. His dog is missing. He works afternoons at his job. He talks, incessantly, about absolutely anything but the bag of...

I saw the new movie "Civil War" so you don’t have to. You’re welcome, and you owe me. Fifteen years ago this month, I started writing for the legendary Andrew Breitbart at Big Hollywood, where we drew attention to the increasing wokeness of Tinseltown. That’s why I saw this movie – to see if Hollywood had learned any lessons. I think it did, but it learned the wrong lessons. Spoiler alert—it’s a bad movie, and you don’t want to see it. I’m going to tell you some of what happens, but you shouldn’t care because, if you’re smart, you’re going...

The Constitution guarantees everyone the right to a fair trial. The presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial are cornerstones of American values. Yet Democrats, who claim to be the party of protecting "our democracy," have made it abundantly clear that they would not afford Trump the same fairness that they would demand for anyone else. During Tuesday's episode of ABC's "The View," Sunny Hostin expressed concern about the upcoming criminal trial involving former President Trump and his non-disclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels. Hostin expressed her concern that the presence of a Trump supporter might compromise the...

There has been quite the brouhaha these past few days since women's basketball phenom Caitlin Clark was picked first in the WNBA draft, and it was announced that her annual salary for her rookie season would be $76,535. The shrieking harridans of the "GENDER PAAAAAAAY GAP!!!!!!" squad were immediately deployed, and they haven't yet stopped shouting. As it is with all loud leftist outrages, facts, economics, and the general steely coldness of reality never enter into the conversation. Chief among those facts is that the $76,535 rookie salary is a set amount under the WNBA's salary structure and was known...

Sydney Sweeney, according to longtime Hollywood producer Carol Baum, "isn't pretty and can't act," and them's fightin' words. The fact is that Sweeney is drop-dead gorgeous. There's a reason that the entertainment industry and its assorted hangers-on plaster her image on every available screen, magazine cover, tweet, etc. In her public appearances — I'll get into her film and TV appearances momentarily — she embodies old-school Hollywood glamor, with her décolletage going all the way out to places where mere mortal women don't even have places. Sweeney's good looks aren't subject to debate. They simply are — and I say...

Republicans in the House sponsored another "message vote," trying to embarrass the Democrats and expose their hypocrisy. The vote this time was on condemning the Palestinian chant we hear at every demonstration against Israel: "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free." It couldn't be a controversial vote because who wants to vote for genocide? A quick glance at a map will tell you that the space between the (Jordan) "River" and the (Mediterranean) "Sea" is occupied by the state of Israel. It's shorthand for the genocide of the Jewish people. But no, says Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.),...

While Matt Drudge once again feeds his Never Trump readers the company line about the downfall of The Donald, the reality is George Soros and his Acme Inc. prosecutor are not off to a good start in their attempt to imprison President Trump for winning the 2016 election. Drudge previously pimped Russiagate, the Mueller Report, the Ukraine phone call, and J6 so hard that I swear he runs the site from the back of his 1973 Cadillac Coupe DeVille with gangster whitewalls. I wonder if he has his grandma’s chinchilla draped over his shoulders as he rides. The Drudge Report...

Sometimes, a person enters the public spotlight and is such an embodiment of an established stereotype that it seems impossible for him or her to be a real person. If Tom Wolfe wanted to capture the essence of arrogant, alienated progressivism, he would reject NPR’s new CEO, Katherine Maher, as too unbelievably on point. ... t would be impossible to create a resume of a person more disconnected from Americans and more intertwined with the wealthy, urban, globalist elite who run the largest banks, media companies, and nonprofit groups in the United States. In other words, Maher has the perfect...

Last month, police were deployed to form a ring of steel around the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London, to protect it from the hands of an irate pro-Palestinian “mob.”Needless to say, there is something of an irony here: although Churchill is being targeted on the hackneyed view that he was a leading member of the White Patriarchy (aka, the root of all evil) — BLM attacked this same statue for that very reason in 2020 — the British statesman did, in fact, have some insightful things to say about the religion of many of his would-be attackers....