Free Republic

The group that prepared ISIS presentation on the public square in Brussels is not an amateur. It employs propaganda techniques such as a board filled with pictures of alleged victims of war in the Middle East as the background for the staged interview of their leader, changes scenes to communicate the messages and uses audio and video effects that influence emotion and imagination of viewers.

Two US senators are proposing legislation to counter, what they consider to be “disinformation” spread by certain foreign media. What better way to kick-start their campaign than by basing their bill on spurious nonsense? Republican Senator Rob Portman and his Democratic colleague Chris Murphy are deeply concerned about foreign “propaganda.” They demand that Uncle Sam throws even more money at the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which is already given around $768 million annually. Not content with the EU’s Stratcom East and NATO’s Riga-based communications centre, Portman and Murphy want a new center for Information Analysis and Response to analyze...

Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, sports a series of murals painted in its main entrance that feature communist and La Raza/Aztlan propaganda. Take a gander at these! Note the American flag with the hammer and sickle in place of the stars, the white arms in shackles with what appears to be Fidel Castro with the Cuban flag behind him, men with guns, an image of Che Guevara, dollar bills, and what appears to be missiles popping up from silos. Perhaps this is some kind of imagery of strong border control?

Democrats are imitating Jihad in the art of double-speak. Hillary and a Muslim propagandist presented a five-minute pack of lies in defense of Jihad, with Hillary only nodding, nodding, and nodding, and never saying a word — like a properly submissive woman under Shari’a law. The purpose of imam-approved wife-beating in Islam is to turn women into nodding slave dolls. Hillary is signing over and over again that she has been properly beaten by her man...... This is like Bernie Sanders giving the clenched fist salute of Stalinism, which he has never disavowed, and Liz the fake Cherokee bending over...

The Republican field has narrowed and so has the race for the party’s nomination: front-runner Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are within the margin of error in a new Fox News national poll on the 2016 election.

On the 16 March 2016 edition of CNN's New Day, Chris Cuomo revealed that he was wearing his father's guayabera shirt, which was "given to him by Fidel Castro as a gift." Cuomo, who was covering President Obama's visit to Cuba, underlined that "it didn't mean something to him because it came from Fidel Castro necessarily, but because it marked conversations going on decades ago that were the same as those today." The anchor summarized that for his father, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, "the concern was the freedom of the people. What is the point of this communist...

During NBC’s breaking news coverage of the terrorist attacks in Belgium Tuesday morning, correspondents Andrea Mitchell and Richard Engel wasted no time warning of the “rise of the right wing” throughout Europe in response to such attacks. In a special report just before 7 a.m. ET, Mitchell worried: “This is going to have big implications for the migration crisis in Germany and elsewhere because there is a popular notion that migrants are somehow connected with the terror threat. Whether or not that's true, that is the reality.” She added: “And there has been most recently last week in Germany, a...

Central Park School for Children in Durham, North Carolina has enrolled grade-school students in a “Black Lives March and Rally” scheduled for March 17, 2016. The teachers can opt-in or opt-out their classes, but parents have not been given a choice.Stef Bernal-Martinez, a teacher of 6-year-old children, signed up all the children in her class for a “Black Lives March and Rally” to take place during the school day, at the city’s downtown Central Park and Farmer’s Market. Ms. Bernal-Martinez describes herself as a “Radical Queer Progressive Educator” and “white-passing Xicana.” The event, like the Black Lives Matter movement itself,...

With little fanfare and almost no news media attention, some of the same radical groups involved in shutting down Donald Trump’s Chicago rally last week are plotting a mass civil disobedience movement to begin next month. They intend to march across the East Coast in order to spark a “fire that transforms the political climate in America.” The operation, calling itself Democracy Spring, is threatening “drama in Washington” with the “largest civil disobedience action of the century.” The radicals believe this will result in the arrest of thousands of their own activists. “We will demand that Congress listen to the...

President Obama gave what could easily be considered a stand-up comedy routine at a Democratic fundraiser in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday. The president hasn't endorsed a candidate yet, but he made an appearance at the fundraiser to try and ensure whoever gets the nomination is financially set to beat the Republicans. During the talk, given a day after he gave the keynote speech at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, Obama rubbed elbows with Texas Democrats and even tried on a cowboy hat. But it was when he took the stage at Gilley's Club, where the Democratic National Committee...

Last night the Trump campaign called off their Chicago rally due to security threats.] Leftist protesters cheered, beat Trump supporters, block an ambulance to the local hospital and screamed profanities at families staying at the Trump Hotel. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich sided with the violent protesters. Republican endorsements. American game show host Chuck Woolery lashed out at Senator Ted Cruz after he sided with the violent leftists. And Second Amendment speaker Jan Morgan withdrew her support from Ted Cruz.

NPR touts Muhammad’s example as means to counter “extremism” This article is more ridiculous than most. Muhammad loved dates, melons and cucumbers and that’s supposed to make Muslims less susceptible to “extremist propaganda”? His non-snoring blowing sound while sleeping is supposed to make Muslims “emphasize charity and respect for other faiths”? “Hassan argues that if Muslims had more knowledge of how the Prophet Muhammad actually lived and what he taught, they would be less vulnerable to extremist propaganda. Counterterrorism officials — who’ve focused largely on surveillance, sting operations and community policing — would have more success countering extremism, he says,...

The latest media narrative “Donald Trump Cannot Beat Hillary Clinton” and “Donald Trump support Dropping”, is being spurred by another NBC/Wall Street Journal poll being pushed – yet again – by NBC political director Mark Murray.On February 17th we completely deconstructed the ridiculous methodology being deployed in the agenda polls –SEE HERE– What the general audience continually seems to overlook is the source of the information.Here’s another screengrab of the latest “poll” being pushed by NBC/WSJ (the full pdf is here). Look closely at the origin of the information.What you’ll see is: “Hart Research Associates / Public Opinion Strategies”...

We have a very serious political problem in this country. Our system of government works best when it is balanced between roughly equal political parties, one on the center-right and the other on the center-left. Unfortunately, what we have is a centrist Democratic Party and a far-right Republican Party. Therefore, the system is out of balance, creating gridlock even as the public cries out for action on serious problems such as our deteriorating public infrastructure, epitomized by that in Flint, Michigan. I believe that Republicans made a deal with the devil in 2009 when they embraced the Tea Party, a...

Donald Trump's Failed Business Ventures Are Back in the Spotlight BY CORKY SIEMASZKO (snip) Trump has had numerous business successes, like Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street and "The Apprentice." But not every Trump venture turned to gold — and the businesses Romney cited were notorious misfires. Trump University was an online college launched in 2005 that offered to teach the mogul's real estate and entrepreneurship strategies, and charged fees ranging from $1,500 to $35,000. But it was never accredited. In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued, claiming the university was a scam operation that defrauded around 600 students...

[...] Matchup Republican wins Democratic wins Margin of error Cruz vs. Clinton 50.6 49.4 1.4 [...] Trump vs. Clinton 46.9 53.1 1.1 [...] According to our multilevel model, the expected number of electoral votes won by Cruz against Clinton is only 256. [...] According to the model, the expected number of electoral votes won by Trump against Clinton is 236, which is 34 fewer than the 270 needed to win the election. [...]

A Chinese official referred to a statement last week from China's foreign ministry spokeswoman. Asked whether China was concerned about Trump's proposal to place high tariffs on Chinese goods, Hua Chunyin declined to comment on specific candidates. But she said "I want to stress" that China and the United States have "major responsibilities" in maintaining international political and economic stability. Representatives of other countries publicly attacked by Trump, including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam either had no comment or did not respond to requests for comments. Several American foreign policy experts said foreign diplomats have complained to...

The New York Times is sitting on an audio recording that some of its staff believes could deal a serious blow to Donald Trump who, in an off-the-record meeting with the newspaper, called into question whether he would stand by his own immigration views. Trump visited the paper’s Manhattan headquarters on Tuesday, Jan. 5, part of a round of editorial board meetings that — as is traditional — the Democratic candidates for president and some of the Republicans attended. The meetings, conducted partly on the record and partly off the record in a 13th floor conference room, give candidates a...

Paul (Mirengoff) has already noted one of the strangest incidents in last night’s debate, when Donald Trump repeatedly talked about judges signing “bills.” Before the debate fades into history, let’s go to the tape. It’s short: (the tape will not play) Three times, Trump says his sister and Sam Alito signed the same bill. As Paul politely put it, judges don’t sign bills. I would say, how did this knucklehead get through the eighth grade? We are faced with a likely presidential nominee who has no idea what a bill is, as opposed to a judicial opinion. I never imagined...

Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood is out today with new details on the National Endowment for the Arts scandal, including a full transcript and audio recording, as well as a CliffsNotes summary by John Nolte, of the notorious Aug. 10 conference call in which administration officials urged artists to help promote President Obama's legislative agenda. Formally, the call was led by Michael Skolnik, who is not a government employee. But Skolnik declares at the start of the call that he is acting on behalf of the administration:I have been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA about...