Free Republic

President-elect Trump ran much of his campaign based on retribution and absolute loyalty. As he prepares for a second term in office, what might that mean for the future of U.S. democracy? Laura Barrón-López discussed more with Jason Stanley, a Yale philosophy professor and author of “Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.” William Brangham: President-elect Donald Trump ran a lot of his campaign promising retribution for his enemies and asking absolute loyalty from his supporters. Now, as he prepares for a second term in office, Laura Barron-Lopez has a look at what that might mean...

A Russian ballet dancer who was an outspoken critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine has mysteriously plunged to his death from the fifth floor of a building. Vladimir Shklyarov, a married father of two, plummeted around 60 feet to the ground from a building on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, where the 39-year-old was the highest-ranking dancer, told Fontanka. Russian authorities initially labeled the fall an accident, blaming the painkillers he was taking before a complex spinal surgery. However, he joins numerous other critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin who have met untimely ends —...

Dolton “Dictator” Mayor Tiffany Henyard called the Illinois village’s police after she spotted workers taking down welcome banners featuring her image — with her self-described “super mayor” title underneath — as the vendor claims it’s owed nearly $20,000, according to a new report. Footage obtained by NBC 5 Chicago showed the controversial leader asking for charges to be filed against the village administrator and possibly even the workers removing the signage at the behest of the village’s dissenting trustees. “Press charges on him, and they just in the middle of it but if I gotta press charges on them, too,...

Vice-presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) claimed that former President Donald Trump is a “dictator” trying to “overturn the Constitution” during his rally in Arizona on Saturday. “Momentum is on our side, but we take nothing for granted,” the Democrat said to a Tucson audience. “We know in Arizona a vote or two per precinct could be what it takes to win the whole damn race for the country.”

Dolton “Dictator” Mayor Tiffany Henyard inferred she would seek the arrests of her opponents in a rambling social media rant as her fed-up landlord described dealing with the under-fire pol who is facing eviction. Henyard, of the Illinois suburb, went on a nearly 90-minute tirade in a Facebook live video Tuesday after a meeting of the Thornton Township, which she also leads, was canceled because not enough board members showed up. In the endless address, the scandal-ridden mayor defended herself against non-stop criticism over her handling of municipal business and finances while calling dissenting officials corrupt. “I will be seeking...

The vice president then began singing the praises of Kaunda, a brutal socialist dictator allied with the Soviet Union, who had banned opposing political parties and ran as the only candidate for president until he was finally ousted, and praised Zambia’s “democracy”. Kaunda, whom Kamala fondly recalled meeting with JFK and MLK “to discuss peaceful forms of protest” had demanded nuclear weapons from LBJ. Hichilema, who had narrowly survived being arrested by a previous regime, had nothing to say about Kamala’s fond memories of Zambian democracy. Or the “peaceful forms of protest” carried on with nuclear missiles and terrorism. But...

The so-called Dolton “Dictator” wants to stay in power. Tiffany Henyard, the self-proclaimed “super mayor” of Dolton, Illinois announced her reelection bid Tuesday — despite facing countless controversies during her first term that have landed her under federal scrutiny. “Attention, Attention, Attention, Attention,” she said on Facebook. “I am running for Reelection for Mayor of Dolton.” But Henyard, who clinched her first term in office in 2021, hasn’t done much fundraising leading up to Tuesday’s announcement. Her campaign, Friends of Tiffany Henyard, didn’t record any contributions or expenses between July and September, according to the most recent campaign disclosure report.

With the end of the Biden Administration in sight, liberal pundits seem to be striving to prove that the only difference between a lawbreaker and a law-abiding citizen is the ability to get away with the crime. Popular figures on the left from Michael Moore to Keith Olbermann are calling on President Joe Biden to commit overtly unlawful acts in his final 100 days in office, including targeting his political opponents. In one of the few statements of Moore with which I agree, he stated that this is “no joke.” It certainly is not. It is the same logic used...

Filmmaker Michael Moore is urging President Joe Biden to use his final months in The White House to forcibly push through a far-left agenda that includes shifting all student loan debt to American taxpayers, ending the federal death penalty, and halting all military aid to Israel. Michael Moore enumerated the items on his “bucket list for Joe” in a blog post on Saturday. It represents a change of heart for Moore, who recenttly urged Biden to resign the presidency in order to make Kamala Harris commander in chief prior to the election in November. “Some people are now calling you...

Minnesota business owner Greg Urban on Fox News Wednesday criticized Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz for his allegedly tyrannical record during the COVID-19 pandemic as governor of Minnesota. Walz implemented harsh lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, establishing a hotline for Minnesotans to report people who violated stay-at-home policies and pushed residents of his state not to gather for Thanksgiving. Urban, on “America Reports,” characterized Walz as an “evil” tyrant for his policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, asserting the vice presidential candidate is farther left than Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom. “Walz was a complete dictator through that whole...

If you thought Joe Biden's electric vehicle mandates were unpopular (and they are) just wait until you see the even more aggressive plans that Kamala Harris has in store if she manages to be elected to the White House. Rather than giving in to a popular lack of demand, Harris intends to double down, accelerating the schedule for converting the American fleet of vehicles at an even more rapid pace wherever possible. The Democrats still aren't quite crazy enough to try to make possession of a gas-powered vehicle illegal, but they will bully the automakers to ensure that a full...

Jim Hoft reported yesterday that America First Legal (AFL) released documents demonstrating how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) put together a since-disbanded DHS intel group that included Deep State goons John Brennan and James Clapper to reclassify political dissent under the guise of “public health” so that ordinary Americans felt empowered to rat on their neighbors. Now, AFL has released an even more infuriating batch of documents that should send chills straight up your spine because Trump supporters are on the menu. These newly released internal files by AFL show the Biden regime classifies someone as a person likely...

Long-time political commentator Chris Matthews said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that it was “very reasonable to assume” former President Donald Trump will become a dictator if elected. After discussing former President Lyndon B. Johnson, Matthews added, “This is the opposite of Donald Trump, who wants to put them before firing squads basically. He wants put them all in jail. He’s unbelievable the way he talks about his opponents. This is exactly the choice we have a dictatorship, or a democracy. We have to choose. This election is about more than abortion, it is about the whole question of what...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of ABC’s “The View,” First Lady Jill Biden argued that companies like Target and Walmart are lowering prices because President Joe Biden told them to and he’ll continue to tell CEOs to lower their prices, but also stated that other companies like McDonald’s brought down their prices because “they’re responding to you” the customer, but “We can’t have this corporate greed.” Biden said, “[I]t’s what Joe is doing. So, you’re right, inflation is down. But recently, he’s been meeting with CEOs of the major companies like Target and Walmart and grocery stores to say, you have to...

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's approval rating soared to a high of 90% after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. As the war drags on, his popularity has waned.

Nicaragua’s communist dictator Daniel Ortega ordered the house arrest of his younger brother, Humberto Ortega, on Tuesday after the younger Ortega questioned how the Sandinista regime would survive without Daniel. Humberto Ortega, 77, is a retired military official who accompanied his brother during the Sandinista revolution and served as a crucial military figure, aiding Daniel Ortega in ruling Nicaragua during the 1980s. He issued his remarks on Sunday in an interview with the Argentine news outlet Infobae. Infobae published an interview with the younger Ortega in which he described his relationship with his brother as “complicated.” Daniel Ortega has accused...

The Biden administration ordered a ban on 2024 election betting markets, which often show former President Donald Trump winning in November and President Joe Biden remaining his party’s nominee. Betting markets often provide different insights than election polling that established media outlets perform and are often useful to academics and journalists. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed a rule on May 10 to permanently ban betting on election commercial prediction markets in the United States, the New York Times’ Jeff Sommer recently reported, even as sports gambling became largely deregulated, soaring in popularity: Rostin Behnam, the chairman of the C.F.T.C.,...

And so we’ve come to the point of the war in Ukraine in which the west’s ‘Knight in Shining armor’, the ‘defender of democracy’ Volodymyr Zelensky has outrun his Constitutional Presidential mandate, and is now in power only by virtue of the martial law he enacted. That is just the most dramatic of the absolutely disheartening (for Kiev) series of developments. To begin with, a series of videos have surfaced showing how the streets of Ukraine now are deserted, with men hiding from conscription into the army – and somehow, everyone else seemed to have stayed at home, too. Watch:...

Many Ukrainians see Volodymyr Zelensky as a dictator who has betrayed his own country for a handful of silver. From tomorrow, May 20th, Zelensky’s presidential term is formally at an end—but no new elections will be held as long as Ukraine is under martial law because he would be overwhelmingly voted out. He preaches that Ukraine is fighting for freedom and then denies them the right to vote on his policies – so much for freedom and democracy. Zelensky has no incentive for peace at this point in time. Zelensjy won the election, which some say was rigged, promising PEACE...

“He’s doomed to not be loved!” Never was there a more clear-cut case of “commentator’s curse” than when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was inaugurated on a sunny Kyiv day exactly five years ago. The TV narrator’s inference was that, after a landslide election victory with 73% of the vote, it could only go downhill for him. While his approval ratings have inevitably waned, Volodymyr Zelensky has been able to use his enduring appeal, along with a desire for stability, to extend his term in office. In peacetime it would have expired, and an election would have been called. But the...