Free Republic

An interesting phenomenon in politics is the flip flop. What would cause a politician who takes a stand on an issue to reverse himself and take precisely the opposite stand on the same issue? Even more interesting is the about face or volte face. The volte face goes beyond the flip flop because it represents a total and usually lasting shift of course, as when Reagan abandoned the Democratic Party and became a Republican. More interesting even than the volte face is when a whole group or party makes this shift. Perhaps the most dramatic example in our lifetime is...

The Supreme Court just quietly overturned a decision that upheld the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as part of a ruling upholding President Donald Trump's controversial travel ban that primarily targets majority-Muslim countries. During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led the US government to force more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent into detention camps. The decision overruled by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Korematsu v. United States, was centered around a man named Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American who refused to comply with the order. On December 18, 1944, the Supreme...

The Kremlin has in recent years advanced a narrative that Russia must not be ashamed of its Soviet past. President Vladimir Putin has used his nearly two decades in power to talk up achievements during World War II as a rallying cry to unite the nation. In recent years, there have been efforts in Russia to transform Stalin’s image from that of a bloody dictator to a ‘great personality.’ A poll by the independent Levada Center found only 9 percent of Russians blamed Stalin’s leadership for the war casualties, according to a survey published Wednesday. That is a a rapidly...

President Trump’s descriptions of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un included language that he usually reserves for himself. Kim is “very talented,” Trump said at a news conference. Kim’s people have a “great fervor” for him — not entirely voluntarily — and Trump trusts him. Kim is a “rough guy,” but he is also “smart” and “wants a lot of good things” because he “loves his people.” Trump said he had a “great chemistry” with Kim. He would “love to have him at the White House,” but meeting him in Singapore was a “great honor.” Such language is not unusual...

Saviors of the Jewish people appear from time to time. Purim is a holiday celebrating the saving of Jews from annihilation in the Persian Empire. The villain Haman, the royal vizier, wanted to destroy all the Jews in the empire but was foiled by Queen Esther, aided by her cousin Mordechai, who refused to bow or show reverence to Haman. The two persuaded King Ahasuerus to save their Jewish people from genocide. The king was a savior: he granted Esther's petition, the Jews were saved, and the evil Haman was hanged. Some 2,500 years later, another powerful leader of a...

New documents revealed by the FDR library shows the president's secret plans to resettle Jews out of Europe. NEW YORK - New evidence suggests that as the Jews of Europe were being slaughtered across continent during the Holocaust, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not want them seeking refuge on American shores. Tucked away in a secret vault inside the White House during his 12 year tenure as commander-in-chief, the newly revealed documents recently made public via the FDR Library paint a portrait of the President’s plan to ‘spread thin all over the world’ the remains of European Jewry.  Be the...

Rush Limbaugh says Obama's “Nudge Squad” is designed to promote certain behavior. I'm sure he just misspoke. The Nudgers themselves admit they are attempting to do much more than just promote. Government can and already does produce commercials that merely promote an agenda. No, the “Nudge Squad” is not a promotional group. These “behavioral scientists” are charged with steering us into making the “correct” decisions.And who gets to determine what’s the correct decision? Why, the administration. They are the arbiters of right and wrong, good and bad behavior.Do you recall the statement by Bill Clinton, circa 1999? Thanks to the...

In the first century or so of our national existence, one of the Constitution’s provisions that was most often at issue was the Contract Clause. But following New Deal era decisions that eviscerated it, hardly any cases have since centered on it. The clause has been so forgotten that few Americans even know it’s there, in Article I, Section 10, reading, “No state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts.” The Constitution’s drafters had good reason to include that language, meant to assure people that contracts would be inviolate. During the years under the Articles of Confederation, the...

On February 5, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt announces a controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court to as many as 15 judges, allegedly to make it more efficient. Critics immediately charged that Roosevelt was trying to “pack” the court and thus neutralize Supreme Court justices hostile to his New Deal. During the previous two years, the high court had struck down several key pieces of New Deal legislation on the grounds that the laws delegated an unconstitutional amount of authority to the executive branch and the federal government. Flushed with his landslide reelection in 1936, President Roosevelt issued a proposal...

My favorite quote is from legendary attorney Clarence Darrow. “History repeats itself. That’s one of the things that’s wrong with history.” Want proof? Consider the perpetual shouting match between President Trump and the news media where they scream “Fake news!” and “Collusion!” at each other. It’s unpleasant, undignified, and unseemly. It’s also unoriginal. Because their tiff is nothing compared to the rocky relationship shared by America’s longest-serving president and the reporters who covered him. Journalists of the 1930s and 40s willingly hid the extent of President Franklin Roosevelt’s physical disability. True, Americans knew he’d been paralyzed by polio. But news...

The 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, is ratified. Let the good times roll.

[I begin] with the story of a series of Socialist scholars conferences that Barack Obama attended when he lived in New York City between the years 1983 and 1985. And when I finally reconstructed what had gone on at these Socialist conferences that Barack Obama attended, I truly was amazed because what I saw was a kind of map of Barack Obama’s entire subsequent political career. It was at this Socialist conferences in New York in the mid-’80s that Barack Obama encountered the groups, the strategies, and the mentors who would guide him throughout his entire political career. [T]hese Socialist...

When I got up this morning and sat down at my computer, I started searching. I don't quite know why, but once I got started I had a feeling. This morning, I was going to find something special. And, I did. As someone who is still realizing just how powerful of a weapon against progressivism that the progressives' own history is against them, I have found many useful things. But nothing like this. Arguably the most ardent planner of the New Deal, Rexford Guy Tugwell, gave a speech in 1939 titled "The Fourth Power". This speech is amazing for its...

Constitution for the Newstates of America PREAMBLESo that we may join in common endeavors, welcome the future in good order, and create an adequate and self-repairing government - we, the people, do establish the Newstates of America, herein provided to be ours, and do ordain this Constitution whose supreme law it shall be until the time prescribed for it shall have run.ARTICLE I Rights and ResponsibilitiesA. Rights  SECTION 1. Freedom of expression, of communication, of movement, of assembly, or of petition shall not be abridged except in declared emergency.  SECTION 2. Access to information possessed by governmental agencies shall not...

It’s a progressive paradise.Public employees get 30 vacation days a year. Anyone who works over eight hours in a day gets paid time-and-a-half. Employees have strong rights.The minimum wage is high: 77 percent of the median wage.Environmental regulations are settled beyond the pressure of local economic interests. The forests and mountains are pristine destinations for ecotourism.Energy costs are kept high, pushing consumption down to a level deemed “socially beneficial”. Utilities have strong public backing and provide jobs to thousands.Union jobs in shipping are protected from outsourcing to cut-rate foreign competitors.The social safety net is buoyant and provides a solid working-class standard...

Roosevelt Island should be renamed because of FDR’s “racist” decision to send Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II, a new petition demands. Franklin Delano Roosevelt — who led the nation through the Great Depression and WWII and told Americans they had “nothing to fear but fear itself” — is nevertheless unworthy of having his name on the 147-acre island that is home to 9,700 New Yorkers, those behind the petition claim. “To add injury to insult, the name was taken away from the Native American people who were slaughtered by the American settlers,” said Margarita L., who started...

This first lady was known for Depression-era frugality, and her meals reflected that. While her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in office, she insisted on putrid White House dinners such as chicken liver, cold mutton, gelatin-heavy “salads” and something called Seafood Surprise.Many history buffs suspect the repulsive meals were less about scrimping and more about exacting revenge on FDR for having affairs. In any event, Mrs. Roosevelt refused to fire the chef who made them. The advice around Washington at the time: If you were invited to dine at the White House, eat before you went.After FDR died, Eleanor...

It seems Shareblue's Oliver Willis, formerly of Media Matters, missed a few days in U.S. History class. Here's his take on why President Trump waited "72 hours" to take on the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville with a shout-out to President Franklin D. Roosevelt:

Timing: When to Buy and Sell in Today’s Markets, by John Durand, Copyright 1938. Forward There are only two kinds of economic systems. In one, private initiative, however circumscribed, is the dominant force. In the other the State is master. In the year 1929 the American capitalist system seemed secure. Capping a long record of high achievement, it had produced our greatest era of prosperity. It appeared to be a “sound” prosperity—until the dream suddenly blew up before our startled eyes. Then came nearly three years of grinding deflation and rising unrest, out of which was born the political overturn...

<p>Barack Obama attempts to intimidate contributors to Mitt Romney’s campaign.</p> <p>Try this thought experiment: You decide to donate money to Mitt Romney.</p> <p>Several days later, President Barack Obama, the most powerful man on the planet, singles you out by name… shames you for “betting against America,” and accuses you of having a “less-than-reputable” record. The message from the man who controls the Justice Department (which can indict you), the SEC (which can fine you), and the IRS (which can audit you), is clear: You made a mistake donating that money.</p>