Free Republic

A new decree by Venezuela's government could make its citizens work on farms to tackle the country's severe food shortages. That "effectively amounts to forced labor," according to Amnesty International, which derided the decree as "unlawful." In a vaguely-worded decree, Venezuelan officials indicated that public and private sector employees could be forced to work in the country's fields for at least 60-day periods, which may be extended "if circumstances merit."

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has a plan to “guarantee food supply, social justice, and democracy.” As with most of Maduro’s plans, it will accomplish none of those things. Vice News reports: “A new decree establishing that any employee in Venezuela can be effectively made to work in the country’s fields as a way to fight the current food crisis is unlawful and effectively amounts to forced labor,” Amnesty International said in a statement released on Thursday. President Nicolás Maduro signed a decree at the end of last week that gives powers to the labor ministry to order “all workers from...

The Democratic Party has perhaps never been so radical or so conventional. The Democrats are now to the left of President Obama and desperately trying to placate the teary-eyed, obstreperous, wholly unrealistic shock troops of the Bernie Sanders Revolution, yet they’re also portraying themselves as the party of sobriety and traditional political norms. This year, Democrats want to fight the man and be the man, and running against Donald Trump, they might manage the feat. The Sanders delegates — by all appearances, the kind of people who typically work the giant puppets at street protests rather than serve as delegates...

International human rights activists are complaining that new laws have introduced forced labour in Venezuela. "A new decree establishing that any employee in Venezuela can be effectively made to work in the country's fields as a way to fight the current food crisis is unlawful and effectively amounts to forced labor," Amnesty International said in a statement released on Thursday. President Nicolás Maduro signed a decree at the end of last week that gives powers to the labor ministry to order "all workers from the public and private sector with enough physical capabilities and technical know-how" to join a government...

On Thursday, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) let slip what most Democrats have been thinking for decades: Constitutional rights are problematic. Manchin told Morning Joe, “The problem we have, and really the firewall we have right now is due process. It’s all due process. So we can all say we want the same thing, but how do we get there?” That dang due process. That silly Second Amendment. This Constitution thing keeps getting in the way of Democratic priorities. I’m old enough to remember when Democrats protested the PATRIOT Act by claiming that it violated citizens’ rights. Now they want to...

Turns out, Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters refer to communism more than a Fox News guest or conservative confab speaker. Or at least they do when you ask them if they identify as socialists. On Monday night and Tuesday, I chatted with around 10 Sanders supporters, both at the Wells Fargo Center, where all the prime-time speeches during the Democratic National Convention are taking place, and at a rally of Sanders supporters adjoining City Hall, where statements on signs included “End Capitalism Before It Ends Us (And the Planet),” “Peace, Love, Bernie,” and “Human Needs Over Corporate Greed.” Curious to learn...

Dear God, We pray you do not allow these godless Marxist/fascist monsters win this coming election where they WILL without a doubt kill off our remaining God-given, constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and will complete Obama's transformation of our divinely inspired free nation into a communist hellhole. We know from your teachings that there's no such thing as a free lunch or a socialist utopia and that able bodied men who refuse to work should not sponge off society. Give a man a fish he'll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he'll eat for the rest of his...

Micah Xavier Johnson, who killed five police officers in Dallas, was increasingly drawn to black nationalist ideology and attended several meetings of the People’s New Black Panther Party. Gavin Eugene Long, who killed three officers in Baton Rouge, said he belonged to the Washitaw Nation, an obscure black nationalist group that claims ownership to the huge swath of the United States obtained in the Louisiana Purchase on the belief that they are descended from a U.S. indigenous group. The People’s New Black Panther Party and the Washitaw Nation have vastly different ideologies and no direct ties to each other, but...

If Starbucks was as liberal as they think they are, they would give their coffee away for free. I'm mean free coffee ought to be a constitutional right, right? How many times have you heard people say they can't live without a cup of coffee in the morning? This is how socialists are. They see something someone has and believes everyone should have it for free. Like health care. So they demand that the coffee business make their coffee for free and I don't mean just the bland stale regular coffee. That's just not fair. Triple Cappuchino Frappachino extra latte...

Which is better: socialism or capitalism? Does one make people kinder and more caring, while the other makes people greedy and more selfish? In this video, Dennis Prager explains the moral differences between socialism and capitalism, and why anyone who wants a kind and generous society must support one and oppose the other.

Dennis Prager explains the moral differences between socialism and capitalism, and why anyone who wants a kind and generous society must support one and oppose the other.

Almost 100,000 Venezuelans, some of whom drove through the night in caravans, crossed into Colombia over the weekend to hunt for food and medicine that are in short supply at home. It was the second weekend in a row that Venezuela’s socialist government opened the long-closed border with Colombia, and by 6 a.m. Sunday, a line of would-be shoppers snaked through the entire town of San Antonio del Tachira. Some had traveled in chartered buses from cities 10 hours away. Venezuela’s government closed all crossings a year ago to crack down on smuggling along the 1,378-mile (2,219 kilometer) border. It...

Globalist elite cooperation can defeat the “chronic violence” that is caused by real jihadism in France and supposed racism in police forces, President Barack Obama told a roomful of foreign ambassadors July 15. “Overnight in Nice [France], we witnessed another tragic and appalling attack on the freedom and the peace that we cherish … [and] it’s been a difficult several weeks in the United States,” Obama told the ambassadors gathered in the White House. After mentioning the Nice attack and hinting at the police engagements, Obama sketched out his demand for globalist fix for the “chronic violence” that he says...

Marxists of the 21st century (not an oxymoron; they exist) have identified a new threat to the glorious proletariat revolution: PokemonGo. Of course, this is par for the course. The Soviet Union banned The Lord of the Rings. Leftist hero (and murderous thug) Che Guevara worked to suppress Jazz music in communist Cuba. The People's Republic of China censored Back to the Future because the regime thought that time travel undermined law and order. And on and on. Now Marxist sympathizers at the socialist magazine Jacobin think the new Pokemon-themed iPhone app—which is currently being enjoyed by millions of people...

One in three babies in Germany are born to parents who haven’t tied the knot, according to a new report. The report by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research this week showed that 35 percent of babies born in Germany in 2014 came into the world with unmarried parents. And the study also revealed that there was great contrast between former East and West Germany, according to broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. The more religious and wealthy West saw 29 percent of new little bundles of joy born to unwed parents, compared to nearly 60 percent in the former states of socialist East...

Simon Black July 14, 2016 Moscow, Russian Federation Two months ago I was with the former President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, at his home outside of Medellin. He was telling me some hilarious stories about his interactions in the early 2000s with Hugo Chavez, who had recently seized power in Venezuela. Chavez was a fanatic socialist. He believed so strongly in the idea of redistributing wealth from rich to poor. Yet even when it was clear his policies weren’t working and Venezuela was rapidly sliding into economic chaos, Chavez’s only solution was to double down and redistribute even MORE wealth....

The federal government collected approximately $2,468,827,000,000 in tax receipts in the first nine months of fiscal 2016 (October through June), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today. Unlike May, when the federal government set a record for inflation-adjusted tax revenues collected in the first eight months of a fiscal year, the federal taxes collected through June did not set a record for inflation-adjusted tax revenues in the first nine months of a fiscal year. While bringing in $2,468,827,000,000 in tax revenues during the first nine months of fiscal 2016, the federal government spent approximately $2,869,674,000,000—running a deficit of $400,847,000,000....

In a decree, President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the army to monitor food processing plants, and co-ordinate the production and distribution of items. Venezuela is going through a deep economic crisis despite having the world's largest oil reserves.

Wispy, thinning and suspiciously free of grey, François Hollande’s boring hairstyle has never been held to much scrutiny, unlike his wonky ties, which have their own website. But now the balding pate of the French president is at the centre of an embarrassing scandal dubbed coiffeurgate after the weekly paper Le Canard Enchaîné revealed that his personal hairdresser is on contract for almost €10,000 a month, paid from the public purse.The publication of the contract with the hairdresser, named as Olivier B, has sparked a row over extravagant spending by a Socialist president who once liked to see himself as...

President Obama joined the chorus of Democrats calling for the creation of a government run health insurance program as Obamacare is facing growing problems. In an article published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the president called for Congress to revisit the "public option" for Obamacare in areas where few insurers offer coverage. "Some parts of the country have struggled with limited insurance market competition for many years, which is one reason that, in the original debate over health reform, Congress considered and I supported including a Medicare-like public plan," Obama wrote in the piece. A public...